Ticonderoga - sequence 1 : Adrift

Cast of Characters ;

***

Name : Phillip Irving Graves

Rank : senior pilot - commanding officer

Call Sign : Pig

History : He was born on old ground in the area known as the Western territory of magnetic north America. As a youth he was a trouble manufacturer this, being virtually unheard of in his C, forced the military to administer with him. He was given a pick. Join the United Planets ataraxis keeping and research effect or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioural job. His life history in the military machine was a with child deterrent example of how not to advance. After xx twelvemonth he was still only a petty officer third class. That was when he was caught pulling off his worst infringement yet. Fleet admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his wife, and both of his girl, at the same time. Phillip was doomed to go back to base social rank again. But instead the admiral made him an offer. Find a wife, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

verbal description : He is six foot tall, with jet black whisker and brownness eyes. His body type is thin and sinewy with tan skin tone.

Ilex paraguariensis : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

figure : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

social station : commanding officer - Ships science officer and fourth in command

shout Sign : cannabis

history : She was born a dewy-eyed farm daughter in the Midwest Territories of North America. She led an monitory sprightliness, with no problems, until she came of age. Then she found she had a preference for bad boys. To try and curb her appetite for self destructive behavior, she joined the table service. Her career was in good order and she was glad after five years but she longed to go deep. The only trouble was you had to be married and no one was asking. There was also the job of Phillip ; she thought he was just dreamy. He was everything she wanted in a bad boy, but his vocation meant he would never even manage to make it into distance. She only had one to a greater extent rank to go then she could go. That would take another six months. Then she was broadsided by a inquiry she never thought any man would ask."Will you marry me I need a wife before I can go deep ?"

description : She is a five metrical foot six in tall, blonde haired, racy eyed beauty, with metier sized knocker. Her body fashion is lithe and athletic.

Paraguay tea : Phillip Irving Graves

***

Name : James Mitchell Penzo

Rank : Master Chief petit larceny Officer - gaffer engineer and mechanic.

Call mark : jazz hands

chronicle : He was born on the emerald isle of Europe. He was a good kid and went to college. After school he joined the service to set up a little nest egg. There he met his wife and fell in love. He had a promising career ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicinal gist of the engine answer. Just a little nip of it could take in any man happy. He stayed happy a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a option, military separation or he and his wife go deep.

Description : He is five foot eight inches tall with drear honey oil middle and brown pilus. His organic structure character is heavyset with just a slender fifth wheel tire.

Mate : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

epithet : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

Rank : Senior chief Petty police officer - foreman of off ship security.

yell Sign : Demoness

story : She was born on her aboriginal earth of Liskia. She is strong and truehearted and excelled in her career as armed services police, until her hubby introduced her to the dissolver. Everything still worked well for them until she was called out on an emergency while she was extremely happy. Six hebdomad later she boarded her new vessel, The UP Ticonderoga.

verbal description : She is six pes two column inch marvellous. Her raceway has red pelt and hair with lite grey heart. Many people say they look like the mythical fiend, right down to the two tufts of hair on their os frontale that resembled horns. Her consistence type is thin and lithe with a well defined muscle tone.

spouse : James Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell Penzo

***
gens : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

social station : Lieutenant junior degree - xeno-biologist.

call signaling : Buster

History : He is a native of Ling, a human being colony, joined the help to go deep, he wanted the biography of an Internet Explorer, he was also married and his wife joined at the same sentence looking to ship out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to examine new species of both plants and creature.

Description : He is five foot eight inch tall with mouse-colored blonde haircloth and blue eyes. His consistence type is thin and non muscular.

match : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

gens : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

social station : police lieutenant Junior Grade - ships doctor.

Call Sign : Melons

account : She is a native of Ling, a man settlement, and was married to her college mantrap. She joined the service to go rich with him.

Description : She is five base six inches magniloquent with Pt blonde hair and very big bosom. He physical structure character is voluptuous.

fellow : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

Name : Lorka Dumont Willock

rank : commanding officer - Security military officer, second in command.

Call Sign : Mountain

story : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the serving to get a chance to do battle in this meter of peace. He is very popular with the noblewoman because his race believes that love romp should be as tender as war is violent.

verbal description : At well over seven feet improbable and four hundred and fifty Sudanese pound of solid muscle he is by far the largest member of the bunch, except for his wife. His Shirley Temple Black skin looks like a phantom come to life. The solitary break in his iniquity is his red eyes.

Mate : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

Name : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

social status : Commander - arm military officer, third in mastery

call option Sign : Everest

story : She is a Female Tithian warrior. She joined the service with her married man, in the hopes of finding battle. She is a foot taller than her hubby, and a netherworld of a lot meaner.

Description : She is eight feet four in tall with trace black tegument and red eyes. Her body type is extremely muscular.

Mate : Lorka Dumont Willock


-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

I stared at the clean vista screen in front of me. My ship had been adrift for three days. There was only one problem when you were deep ; there was no one to help oneself when you hit bother. The dear ship to us was two month travel away. It had taken us two years to get this far out.

"Going deep"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find oneself habitable planets that we could colonize or resources we could mine for. The fun part, the linguistic rule say the first crewman to set metrical foot on a planet gets to list the major planet.

The united wash had managed to colonise or excavation bivouac every rock music for sixty light years around earth. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to jaunt lx luminance eld with the snort effort as it was called. It got its name because the matter and antimatter explosions inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying sound to travel at sixty metre the pep pill of light. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communications panel on my chair to life sentence."jazz workforce, What the perdition is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the solvent again I'm going to take you off of stand-in rotary motion for two weeks."

"Not a prospect, Pig, I am trying to repair the red cent damage those cockbiter so-and-so did to the engine wiring. The know little beasties chewed through every light wire in the main fire control cabinet."

"How long before we have engine top executive again ?"

"Another day at least, we have over a thousand wires to replace in this cabinet."

"That is what you said yesterday, the day before, and the day before that, damn it, I want this ship moving by the end of this rotation !"

"captain, even if I get this repaired that is no guarantee we will be able to move. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the niggling bastards. Go engage a relief breaking and let me do my red cent job."

I stalked off of the bridge deck. The damn lifts were down so I had to climb up down the access code ravel to get to the crowd decks. I guess we could foretell ourselves lucky ; those little varmints had not reached the life story financial backing equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter rats had managed to chew through our principal tycoon control, go up ascendancy system, helm control interlink, navigation, and engine fire command in less than twenty four hours. twenty dollar bill rats had crippled a ship, with crew of one hundred mass on board. Only fate knows what else was damaged. Jazz Hands was right hand I needed emphasis backup ; it was time to head up to the work party lounge.

There is a major set of rules about going deep. The firstly one is all bunch penis must be mated couples. The second principle is all relationships are open on the ship. When off duty personnel need tenseness relief any off responsibility mortal of the polar gender is usable to them, unless they are in their rest cycle. Any same sex liaisons are not forbidden but are clear to be refused. Your tail were kept monogamous, only you and your spouse enjoyed that emplacement. The sofa is where you go to arrange liaisons with other crew phallus. That is also where the"training"rooms are. There is one for just about every taste, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

social status has its privilege as well. dictation officers are allowed to claim stress breaks during responsibility if there is no pressing demand for their attentions. As of right now, there was no pressing need for me. I could not control this ship to move if I were a god.

I no Oklahoman walked into the waiting area when Melonie saw me and came over. I knew what she was after, she loved my oral techniques."Need some stress relief, captain ?"

"At least a week's Charles Frederick Worth, Melons."I said as I took her by the arm and guided her towards the bar."I believe the dame is drinking a atomic number 27 breaker, and I would enjoy a calum tea."I told the bartender as I caressed melon stomach. I always enjoyed her very big breast and today would be no exception.

When we received our drinks, she took a sip from hers then asked,"Floaty ?"

"That sounds like a rattling idea,"I nodded towards the one of the zero-G rooms. When we entered the room I adjusted the controls on the holographic show to make it bet like we were in the cloud. I had seen decent stars already today. All of them headliner I couldn't reach. We attached the palpebra to our glasses so our potable would not float out and then I touched the activate button. Watching her breasts suddenly float upward as the gravitational force stopped was an puzzle treat. We floated in the air together as I started to undress her. As was standard when in the couch, her clothing was mere and promiscuous to remove. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no panties on underneath. Her shoes were unsubdivided slippers very comfortable and quite attractive. The svelte atmospheric static electric charge caused by pulling her shirt over her promontory caused her fuzz to stick out out like a hallo of platinum blond silk. By a lot of measure this woman would be considered overweight. She weighed about twenty pounds over saint system of weights for her five base six inch frame. To me the extra softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her apparel were floating around the elbow room like cast off feathers, she started to uncase me. My uniform was a little more complicated to polish off. It was a yob button up pants and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in black. The shoes were polished perfection in black natural leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also blackened. Add the sinister gray belt and chest bandolier as well as my captain's hat to the all affair and I looked like a take monkey. Soon all of these clothes were floating around the room as well.

I pulled Melons to me and began to kiss the hide of her neck and chest. This elicited various groan of delight. Her legs wrapped around my belly and squeezed me intemperately enough to be slightly awful. She began to flex her hips rubbing her pert can on the top of my cock. I was very influence to take up what she was offering powerful then but I had other ideas. Zero-G has one real number advantage to making lie with on any control surface. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those full sass that were just made for what I had in mind. Once she was free I spun her in the air and brought her legs around to my boldness. There in movement of my eyes was a small landing place strip of platinum blond hair that pointed right to the aim of my desire. I moved my head forward and inhaled the fragrance of her arousal. With deliberate subnormality I extended my tongue and began to make small circles through that sweet landing strip.

I felt her mouth as she started to lick and kiss along the shot of my rooster. Her mouthpiece and lips were toothsome warmth on my pelt. The oscillation of her moans made my cock jump and twitch as I touched the tip of my tongue to her clitoris and flipped it quickly back and forth. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my peter slide down her throat. She was so smooth and hot on the interior. I moved both of my hands around her delicious nates and started wetting my digit in the love flowing from her plastered twat. When I felt her legs starting to tighten around my head, I slid two digit from one hand into her tight pussy. My center finger of my early manus pushed into her silklike asshole. I started pumping my fingers in and out of her at unlike upper. Sometimes they would be moving in and out together, others they would be in a counterpoint rhythm.

I felt her stomach Menachem Begin to tighten and vibrate against my chest. Then her legs slammed shut on my head like a clinch. Her flow was floating in droplets around my headland as she orgasmed. While she was still vibrating and shaking through her sexual climax I spun her through the air until I was behind her. I plunged the length of my Rock hard cock into her from hindquarters. She let out a moan that was bordering on a screech. I began to pound with all my might as we floated in the air. Then we both arched our backs as we thundered into our sexual climax together.

Ten min later we left the floaty room freshly showered. As we exited the room, I set the ascendence to clean and desexualise the room. I kissed melon vine and left her drinking and grinning at the bar. As I was walking out of the bar, the whole ship lurched and then vibrated with a moan that sounded like it was dying.

I slapped the communications panel at the doorway."malarkey Hands, are we moving ?"

"Yes sir, but not under our own big businessman any more."Jesse James answered.

"What do you mean any more ?"

"We got the scheme online, and fired the engines up. They immediately shut down. It seems our inactivity control organization is down as well."

"Security I want every one of those damn bum killed again."

"Sir, we have no weapons control condition, would you like my wife and I to flip rocks at their floating corpses ?"Mountain said back facetiously.

"No, throw Buster at them ; he's the asshole that brought those fucking rats on my ship."

"How soon, wind Hands ?"

"We are looking at the equipment casualty now but I say at least a day."

"You always say a day. I want this hoot ship moving under its own mightiness by end of cycle or I am going to give you to Mt. Everest and Mountain as a target dope !"

"Yes sir. Have you gotten that stress reliever yet ?"

"No, and I am looking for your wife right now, so move it."

As I moved back to the bridgework my idea wandered back to the result that led up to this post. We had found a planet with no radio beacon on it. It was undiscovered. scan showed it to be a lush atomic number 8 rich major planet with plant and animal life-time abundant on the surface and in the seas. I organized a landing political party to investigate the surface.

***

The political party, consisting of ganja, Demoness, dude, Melons, Mountain and myself, left the ship in a shuttle. Several orbital head and scans later we determined a rich expanse to land and investigate.

It was a diffused touchdown nothing at all out of the ordinary. There was the skin for emplacement to see who could make it through the door first. I had to laugh as the door slid back and my wife muscled Mountain out of the way. I walked down the Allium tricoccum to see my wife dancing in a field of penises. Yes I said that right field, all of the plants in the field were dead maybe twelve inches tall and shaped like that lot of the virile anatomy.

I looked around to see the tree, thank god they looked more like trees, and they even had beautiful heyday growing on them. A finisher look at the flowers made me think I had lost it. They looked like pink penises with two balls hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty appropriate that my wife would get to name a creation covered in penis shaped plants.

"My god it is a universe of putz !"my wife exclaimed as she looked around.

"So plant the beacon, sacrifice it a gens and register it. The beacon will ship back the info via short space."I said as I walked down and resisted the urge to reek any of the flowers.

My wife set up the beacon station, as the rest period of us looked around.

"I don't want to deflect over on this planet."muckle said quietly beside me, making me laugh.

"It does have a certain menacing presence doesn't it ?"

bronco buster was the first one to see an animal. It was floating gently on the picnic towards one of the trees. It had large monotonic wings with bladders underneath them. These vesica probably contain some gas lighter than the air around us. By paddling its feet it would go through the air like a duck swam across the water. As we watched it swam up to one of the trees and put its oral cavity around one of the flowers. A few seconds later it left the flower hanging limply from its theme and moved to another flower. One by one it drained the"nectar"out of the stiff heyday leaving them flaccid.

"We need a couple of those birds on the ship,"dude said as we watched."I bet we could claim them back to UP space and deal them for a fortune."

"Get some samples for study, we will abide overnight and contain everything back in the morning."I told Buster and his wife. They set about collecting plant and beast sample distribution. They caught one of the birdie but it died in less than an hr in the cage. They must need to eat constantly.

Buster gave me a report a pair hours later. The flowers on the tree diagram produced nectar that made the shaft remains. When the vesica Winged motherfucker boo would give suck at the blossom they would evacuate out the ambrosia and lease some of the pollen away on their mouths. Those moving from blossom to bloom accomplished fertilization for the plant. The limp bloom would take about an hour to generate a full load of ambrosia again. There were several other animals and plant life that he reported on.
My wife had decided to anticipate this place, appropriately enough, Dick's World.

As evening started to darken the skies we saw several, rat like, creature come out of golf hole in the primer coat. They started to mount up the trees. We watched as they moved to the ends of the limbs and bit the heyday off the tree diagram and ate them. Every man in the mathematical group cringed watching this. I think quite a little even turned a niggling pale. These animals quickly became known as cockbiter rats. Buster thought they wouldn't sell well.

Our sensor could not detect any animal gravid than the doll within five hundred dog of us so we bedded down in the bird for the night.

I awoke the succeeding morning time and shook Demoness awake next to me. She smiled as I retrieved two cup of umber from the muscularity solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. fellow must possess awoken my wife when he got up to check his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. Buster was studying a cage of twenty of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the night. They seemed a bit brave than the birds. I oversaw the samples being packed in over crates to be taken back to the science lab on the ship. Then we did a low level fly over of the major planet to require CAT scan and paradigm of the plant and animal life. In dozen hours we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The flight back to the ship was uneventful and smooth. We were in the shuttlecock bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the samples. I tried to distinguish baby buster to make sure the crate were in the lab containment sphere before he opened them, but I was too late. He popped the latch on the rat crate and squealer exploded out and ran all over the deck. It took to a lesser extent than a minute for them all to vanish down an assailable access crosshatch. They had chewed through the plasteel of the coop, this should have warned me of what was about to happen.

"Do not open any other crates !"I yelled."At to the lowest degree we don't have any penis flowers here for them to eat. I want them all caught and then you are to see me in the command berth, Buster."

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my position report. That fanatical science geek had let blackleg loose on my ship. I was on the bridge deck receiving my report when the first sign of trouble happen. The seafaring concealment went blank. We were suddenly flying blind."navigation, what the hell are you doing over there ?"

"I didn't do anything, sir, my console just lost nexus with engineering."

"Helm control, bring us to full closure, now !"I shouted as I stood from my chair. Suddenly my ship lurched and I fell on my aspect."Damn it, helm, you can't just cut the engine, how long have you been flying this crate ?"

"I didn't even touch the ascendancy, sir, the consol has lost link."

I stood and slapped the communications board on my chair."engineering science ! Report ! What the hell are you doing down there ? You can't cut links while we are in flight !"

Jazz Hands came on the intercom,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation banking company went great power dark, we opened the panel and rats came running out. How the hell did we get so-and-so on the ship ?"

We all heard the throb of the locomotive wind down as they shut themselves down."All manus find those mother fucking dirty dog and kill them ! Now ! protection, payoff inducers to everyone with finger. mesh them all on stun, we don't want any accidents. I will give everyone that stuns a rat an extra easiness cycle."

Turning to our tactical station,"Mount Everest, take us to alert status."She thumbed the warning device organisation on her console to on.

The yellow word of advice lights on the ship came to life. The computing device voice could be heard all over the ship as she said,"warning signal, all personnel are to maintain qui vive Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the monition Light Within went out and the span went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my reverie as I entered the bridge circuit. The initiatory thing I noticed was the sentiment screen was no thirster blank. It now showed a great, dense asteroid line of business, and we were moving towards it slowly."Everest, give me a state of affairs report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid battleground at approximately fifteen century kilometers per bit. Estimated time to charm into the field is six hours."

"Bring our shields and targeting online. Get the artilleryman in their station and tell them we may want to induce a little target practice."

"The machine gunner are reporting to stations, but the weapon linkup are all still down, we have no accelerator pedal. The shields are on but we can not detect if they are working."

"So my day just got tough. We may or may not own shell, we don't have guns. And we have no control condition over where the ship is going. Does that sum it up ?"

"Yes, sir."

"Let's get crews in the two shuttles and see if we can tow the ship into a new course."

Activating the communications in my hot seat I called down to applied science."malarky Hands ease up me some good intelligence. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will have the helm control and inertial mastery back on transmission line in eight hours. My masses are working around the clock."

"That is good news, now I have some capital news for you. In six hours you will no longer experience to worry about repairing the ship. Those big rocks out there are going to terminate the job those scum bag started. At the amphetamine we are traveling one of those rock music is going to turn this ship into slag."

"Do you get it on a in force wrecker Robert William Service that may be in the field ?"

"We are sending the shuttles out."

I thumbed off the com panel."baby, apply me some good news."

marijuana spoke without looking away from her console table."We have an estimated impact metre of seven hour and four arcminute. Then we are going to be landing on a boastfully star-shaped numb ahead. We are caught in the gravity fountainhead of that gravid gas giant star on the other side of the field. I am running the calculations on the bird now."

"I asked for safe intelligence, you could have told me you smuggled a bottle of whisky on board or something."

I stared at the horizon screen that I now wished was white again. My creative thinker started to swan back to the blackleg again.

***

We were hunting rats ; they seemed to motivate about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The brightness conducting wire were natural targets."We need one of them alive so Buster can severalize us why they are after the unhorse wires."

Our group split up into pairs. I was teamed with Demoness, our program was simple ; move about the ship opening admittance panels. If anything ran out pull the trigger and stun it. I noticed passel had put on his ceremonial armour for the hunt. It had a boneheaded codpiece for protection down there.

Chatter over our helmet com was kept to a lower limit. Demoness opened the first control board, it was to life reenforcement. There was nothing. We moved to the elevation control panel. When I opened it there was an plosion of fur and tooth. Then there was incredible pain sensation as I was hit by the eruption from the inducer. shit I am glad it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a huge pair of white meat hovering over my facial expression."Hi, Melons,"I mumbled as I shook my head to clear it."Did we at to the lowest degree manage to get one of the blabber ?"

"Demoness caught four of them, and bagged a captain with only four shots."Melons said as she leaned to look past her breasts and into my face.

"hoot ! That hurt."I could see Demoness out of the corner of my eye."Why did you shoot me ?"

"We had to hold on the rotter, I knew the weapon was on stun and wouldn't hurt you."Demoness said with a mater of fact tone.

"Melon's dear, would you delight script me my inducer ; I want to show Demoness just how minuscule they hurt."As melon vine's looked at me with big eyes, Demoness quietly slipped out of the way. I reached over for the com panel next to the bed."broncobuster, secern me some dear news."

"My retirement account is up fifty thousand."

"Don't worry, if you don't stop the rats you are not going to need a retirement account, now what about the rats ?"

"I am studying them now ; I should give a news report in two hours."

"In two hours they are going to eat every visible light conducting wire in the ship. How do we lay off them ?"

"The only thing I know is they are attracted to the lighting telegram because they glow on the same wavelength in ultra violet as the flush do. As to why they are attracted to them."

I jumped out of the bed and headed for engineering. Mountain was in the manor hall."Get every marksman armed with rifles and meet me in applied science. We are going to make an old fashioned turkey shoot."

mass headed off to get together men and women. I went to applied science."malarky workforce, get over here, I have an idea."

"Yes sir,"King James I said as he ran up."Sir we are really busy trying to remedy the harm. Can this await ?"

"No. How long would it hold to get a pile of spare Light telegram in the nerve centre of engineering and bind it to the main generator ?"

"About twenty minutes."

"You have ten, I also want the main radio link from the generator to the relaxation of the ship prepare to unplug on my command."

"You want us to switch to the backup ?"

"No I want business leader cut completely. We need to get all the outer doors closed and all of the ski tow shafts shut down."

"The rise are no problem the rats chewed them up about fifteen minutes ago. The outer doors may be a problem. The main shuttlecock bay door are stuck open and the observation window in the forward cartography lab is non-operational."

"Evacuate those areas, tell everyone they have twenty instant to secure everything and get out. We are going to razz a hole for the rats."

"But sir, If we cut the briny power then the computer will go down. We will be completely defenseless."

"We are facing a superior enemy, in an alien tactical situation. We are completely defenseless now. If the rats continue at this charge per unit we will have no ship in twelve hours. It is time to make a last outdoor stage. The informer are attracted to the light wires so we will give them the only raft of glowing conducting wire on the ship to fall for. Now get them set up or I am going to hang you from the prow of the ship like a figurehead."

"Yes sir."

I moved to the upper balcony, as the others started to gather. I set masses up in placement so we had full insurance coverage of the applied science deck below. The mound of wire was a nerve center of fire anything that moved was a target."All powerful people there are sixteen of these betrayer to kill. I want everyone's weapon set to overkill. We can not afford for a undivided rat to escape this trap."

As I took my positioning as the last of the personnel office left the humbled layer. Then the sparkle went out. It was such a farsighted waiting. But after almost an hour the first rat came out of an access hatch and started moving toward the wires. He was hit by the beams of over xl weapons. The little illegitimate was zilch but a hunk of charcoal.

It took about an 60 minutes for the rats to commence showing up. It took twenty arcminute for the live one to fall. I stood and hit the com panel. It was idle like everything else."Jazz manpower, lets get the system rebooted and repairs started."

***

I rose out of my woolgathering to see a large rock on the view screen."Tactical, how far out is it and estimated time to impact ?"

"We are five point six seven million kilometer from the asteroid. Estimated impact sentence is one hr and three minutes."Mount Everest answered.

"Reduce the magnification to ten times."

"It is already at ten times, sir."

"Shit ! How big is that thing ?"

"It is four 1000 kilometer long by two grand wide."

"So if we hit it, it will indent my ship ?"

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the attempt to exchange our row with the shuttles going ?"

"Not soundly, sir, the attitude correction jets are firing and locking us on course."

"Bring them back in. We are going to need the shuttle along with the life gravy holder to evacuate."I looked at the screen. My ticker sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my command. If we made it back alive we would get full purity and retirement benefits as admiral. My mind drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"Petty officer thirdly class Phillip Irving Graves, reporting as ordered sir."I said as I walked into admiral Tigrat's office. He looked up at me with a dump eating grin on his face. He motioned with his script for me to sit and be at ease.

"Phillip, I am at a going for what to do with you. If I press direction then everyone in the fleet is going to get laid what you did. If I don't insistence charges then you get off Scott gratuitous and I can not let that happen either."He looked at me with open hatred in his eyes.

"Sir, we could just let this go with a private punishment."

The smile that cracked his face was one of pure evil."My thoughts exactly, so here is the mountain. I am going to recommend you as the headwaiter of the Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to depart at the end of the calendar month. Then you are going to go deep. Your mission will be two years transit out, then sixteen days exploring. When you return, you will let admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the criminal record, not s single ship had ever come back from going rich. Most disappeared without a touch. He was consigning me to a death time. My own command weighed heavy on my mind. I had always thought I could do it wagerer than any of these vaunter. Out there I would be the vocalization of confidence. I would be the lone instruction chain. The buck would break off with me.

"You have until the end of the month to line up a wife or I will prefer one for you."

The smile he gave me had me thinking through the women I knew. I sure as hell would not let him decide. Then Millishia came to bear in mind, she was one hell of a skill military officer. Her calling was favorable. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in front end of me yet."Do I get to choose my crew ?"

"You will be given a lean of volunteer for deep divine service. You may prefer thirty mates from it. The other XIX yoke I will take. I already have one of your engine driver and doctors picked out. Plus a couple of protection hoi polloi you will just love."

"Do normal deep rule apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

Millishia and I were married a workweek later, we saw the ship for the first-class honours degree sentence a seven Day after that.

The Ticonderoga was a thing of beauty, long and aerodynamic with four engine nacelles under her body baby carriage. She hung in space like a phantom, the rib of the shipyard skeletal system surrounding her. The retentive narrow-minded trunk looked like an pointer with atmospherical stabilizers on the rear half. The broad oral sex of the arrow was where the command decks sat. The slightly wider body was the work party area. Under the main body hung technology and medical. She was designed to cut through place like a arm. She was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen. I was supposed to describe aboard and pick out my crowd via interviews.

A few of my crew was already onboard, my engineer, James Mitchell Penzo, and his wife, Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo were two of them. I had read their files, they were resolvent addicts. She was also a Liskian, they were reputed to be a tough lot.

I had looked at the Indian file of over a M Tennessean dyad, I had to pick thirty. I had discovered something profound. Most people that wanted to go abstruse were nut cases. These were no exceptions. The volunteers ran the ploy from mad scientist to psycho killers. I was at a passing for anyone I trusted on a long flight let alone wanted there.

I spent the next week interviewing wannabee ; it was the hardest week of my animation. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would have begged the admiral to motor lodge marshal me. The following three days were fatigued choosing my bunch and filing their new ranks. One affair nice about being a captain of a trench ship, outrank onboard your ship was your selection. You set the chain of control and the duty roster. The captain was the first base concluding and only melody of control once you left the quad port.

four-spot days later the mooring line pipeline fell away from the ship. My new helmsman only managed to hit the dry dock once on the way out. I now had an untested crowd, a new ship with all the microbe inherent and two twelvemonth to change by reversal them into a functioning gang before we made our first major planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my memory board, that rock was practically expectant. The countdown on the filmdom said thirty-one minutes. My mind started flying through the possibilities. I had to come up with an answer. I would not lose my ship and mastery after our commencement satellite fall.

A plan came to me. It would take some fantasy flying. I hit the com building block in my chairperson."Jazz Hands, Prepare to unplug all ability on my control. Demoness, I need your piloting skills, you have shuttle two, I have shuttlecock one, we launch in five."

Jazz paw came on the com unit,"skipper we have to have power to do stamping ground, if you make me cut it off again it will take an hour to completely restart the system."

"I know, Epistle of James, if what I have planned works I will buy you the meter you need."

"And if it doesn't ?"

"Then it won't thing anymore, you don't have time to fix the ship before we make our bit satellite fall. Do me a favor, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"issue maintenance of my wife."I thumbed off the console and left the bridge before anyone could ask any motion. I had a design ; if it worked I would save my ship. Either way I was going to die first.

I burst into shuttle bay one and walked aboard the shuttle. I could take heed the com traffic as Demoness launched. I thumbed the com unit between the two bird to spirit."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into maneuver impinging with the body of the Fort Ticonderoga. Then I am going to stimulate Jazz men cut all office. That should end the thruster from firing. Once that is set I am going to give the sack up the railway locomotive in the shuttle and founder her the gas. If this works I will bend the ship by enough to fly the coop the asteroid field."

"Sir, if you do that your locomotive engine will overheat and flame out in s. The interior of the shuttle will be a half million degree fireball."

"That is where you come in. I am going to turf out, I need you to scoop me up fast and get me light up. Get my body back for a decorous funeral."

"You don't have a spacesuit, Pig, have you lost your thinker ?"

"I don't have time to put a suit on ; if this is going to work out I have to do it now."I shut off the com transmission channel. It took me LE than a bit to stead my shuttle. I contacted Jazz hands,"Cut the king now !"Then I put the locomotive engine magnate to full and locked the throttle. The on add-in computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent engine overload in 20 mo. Imminent engine overload in nineteen indorsement. Imminent engine overload in eighteen seconds."I dove for the restraint for the ejection system. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the handle."scheme detects non suited force, projection scheme disabled."

shag ! I pulled my side arm and shot the console. Then I yanked the handgrip again, there was a nous numbing holloa as the air exploded out of the ship. My head hit something solid a few s later and the world went dark. My finally thought was,"fuck, that hurts."

***

"master Graves, I do not gestate you to fall back from this. I expect you to die a bloody and horrible death."admiral Tigrat said as I was in my last interview before launching."Do not let down me."

"Respectfully sir, my entire crowd will be at your one one-hundredth natal day company. There I will collapse your married woman and daughter a snog right field in front end of you. How did you ever wield to get a gang on the finger's breadth of that cleaning lady ? She has to be at least forty yr younger than you."

***

My straits was pounding out a rhythm that sounded like a hangover."Where ?"I managed to ask around the pain in the neck in my head.

"Med lab,"the huge pair of breasts above me said quietly.

"How ?"

"Liskians are tougher than humans, she had the shuttlecock decompressed and waiting on your exclusion. Once you flew onboard she put up the emergency fields and re-pressurized. You may have a few aches and pains plus blurred vision for a few days, but you will be fine soon."

"Melon's, what about the ship ?"

"The ship is out of danger and flying under its own power again, master. You got us clear of the asteroids and bought him the time to fix the ship. By the clip I let you out of here we will be fully functional again."

"Tell idle words paw and Demoness to take an excess repose cycle, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

"Jazz flushed the residual of the dissolver out the airlock. He said any man that would do what you did to keep the ship deserves a sober mechanic. ”