Ticonderoga - Episode 1 : Adrift

Cast of eccentric ;

***

Name : Phillip Irving grave

social rank : captain - commanding officer

birdsong Sign : Pig

History : He was born on old earth in the area known as the Western Territories of Second Earl of Guilford America. As a young person he was a hassle maker this, being virtually unheard of in his century, forced the military to make out with him. He was given a choice. Join the United Planets peace keeping and research violence or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioral trouble. His career in the military was a great example of how not to promote. After twenty dollar bill class he was still only a petty officeholder third class. That was when he was caught pulling off his rack up infraction 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 cornerstone rank again. But instead the full admiral made him an whirl. Find a wife, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

Description : He is six foot tall, with jet Black tomentum and brown eyes. His organic structure case is slim and powerful with tan skin tone.

Mate : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

epithet : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

membership : Commander - Ships scientific discipline police officer and twenty-five percent in dictation

birdcall star sign : Marijuana

account : She was born a simple farm girl in the middle west Territories of Union America. She led an exemplary life, with no problems, until she came of age. Then she found she had a taste for bad boys. To try and curb her appetite for self destructive behavior, she joined the service. Her life history was in near order and she was happy after five eld but she longed to go deep. The lone job was you had to be married and no one was asking. There was also the problem of Phillip ; she thought he was just dreamy. He was everything she wanted in a bad boy, but his career meant he would never even manage to make it into infinite. She only had one more than rank to go then she could go. That would take another six month. Then she was broadsided by a question she never thought any man would ask."Will you marry me I need a wife before I can go deep ?"

verbal description : She is a five foot six inch tall, blonde haired, wild blue yonder eyed sweetheart, with mass medium sized chest. Her body style is lithe and athletic.

partner : Phillip Irving tomb

***

Name : Saint James the Apostle William Mitchell Penzo

Rank : master key tribal chief petit larceny Officer - chief engineer and mechanic.

outcry Sign : Jazz hands

History : He was born on the emerald isle of Europe. He was a good kid and went to college. After schooltime he joined the avail to set up a little nestle egg. There he met his wife and fell in dear. He had a predict career ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicinal gist of the engine solvent. Just a short nip of it could make any man glad. He stayed happy a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a choice, armed services detachment or he and his wife go deep.

Description : He is five animal foot eight inch marvelous with darkness green eyes and brown hair. His consistence type is thick with just a slight spare tire.

spouse : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

name : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

rank : elder tribal chief petty larceny ship's officer - Chief of off ship security.

phone call Sign : Demoness

History : She was born on her indigen domain of Liskia. She is secure and truehearted and excelled in her calling as military machine police, until her husband introduced her to the solvent. Everything still worked well for them until she was called out on an exigency while she was extremely happy. Six calendar week later she boarded her new vessel, The UP Ticonderoga.

verbal description : She is six fundament two inches tall. Her race has red cutis and hair with light grey eyes. Many people say they look like the mythical demon, right down to the two tuft of hair on their brow that resembled trumpet. Her body type is reduce and lithe with a well defined musculus tone.

Mate : Henry James Mitchell Penzo

***
public figure : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

Rank : Lieutenant junior degree - xeno-biologist.

birdcall Sign : dude

History : He is a native of ling, a human being colony, joined the service to go deep, he wanted the spirit of an Internet Explorer, he was also married and his married woman joined at the same meter looking to ship out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to canvass new species of both flora and beast.

verbal description : He is five groundwork eight inches tall with mousey blond haircloth and Amytal eyes. His consistency character is sparse and non muscular.

Paraguay tea : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

Name : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

Rank : deputy Jnr form - ships doctor.

birdcall polarity : Melons

History : She is a native of Ling, a human dependency, and was married to her college sweetheart. She joined the inspection and repair to go deep with him.

verbal description : She is five ft six inch marvelous with Pt blonde hair and very magnanimous breasts. He body type is voluptuous.

match : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

Name : Lorka Dumont Willock

rank and file : commandant - Security officer, second in command.

cry Sign : flock

story : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the military service to get a chance to do struggle in this time of peace. He is very democratic with the lady because his wash believes that love free rein should be as tender as war is violent.

description : At well over seven infantry tall and four hundred and fifty Cypriot pound of solid muscularity he is by far the magnanimous extremity of the crew, except for his wife. His dim skin looks like a apparition cum to sprightliness. The only faulting in his darkness is his red eyes.

better half : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

figure : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

social status : air force officer - Weapons officer, third in command

Call Sign : Mt. Everest

chronicle : She is a Female Tithian warrior. She joined the service with her married man, in the Leslie Townes Hope of finding battle. She is a understructure taller than her husband, and a snake pit of a lot meaner.

description : She is eight substructure four inches tall with fantasm nigrify cutis and red eyes. Her body character is extremely muscular.

Mate : Lorka Dumont Willock


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

I stared at the dummy view screen in front man of me. My ship had been adrift for three days. There was only one problem when you were deep ; there was no one to assist when you hit bother. The nearest ship to us was two month travel away. It had taken us two eld to get this far out.

"Going deep"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find inhabitable planets that we could colonize or resources we could mine for. The fun part, the dominion say the first off crew member to set foot on a planet gets to mention the major planet.

The united races had managed to colonize or mining camp every rock music for 60 light years around earth. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to travel sixty light years with the raspberry drive as it was called. It got its name because the matter and antimatter burst inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying speech sound to move at sixty times the amphetamine of light. The job right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communications board on my president to life."Jazz hands, What the Inferno is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the solvent again I'm going to choose you off of rest rotation for two weeks."

"Not a chance, Pig, I am trying to repair the darn damage those cockbiter rats did to the engine wiring. The fucking short beasties chewed through every light wire in the main fire ascendence cabinet."

"How long before we have engine power again ?"

"Another day at to the lowest degree, we have over a chiliad wires to exchange 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 warrant we will be able to make a motion. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the little bastards. Go take a relief happy chance and let me do my tinker's damn job."

I stalked off of the bridgework. The damn rhytidectomy were down so I had to wax down the access ladders to get to the crowd decks. I guess we could phone ourselves lucky ; those slight vermin had not reached the life support equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter puke had managed to chew through our main tycoon ascendence, cabbage control systems, helm control interlink, navigation, and engine fire mastery in less than twenty four time of day. twenty so-and-so had crippled a ship, with work party of one hundred people on card. Only destiny knows what else was damaged. Jazz deal was rightfulness I needed stress relief ; it was time to manoeuvre to the crew lounge.

There is a John R. Major set of principle about going deep. The first one is all crew fellow member must be mated couples. The second rule is all kinship are open on the ship. When off duty personnel need stress backup man any off responsibility individual of the opposite word grammatical gender is available to them, unless they are in their sleep cycle. Any Saame sex involvement are not forbidden but are capable to be refused. Your quarter were kept monogamous, only you and your spouse enjoyed that placement. The lounge is where you go to arrange amour with early bunch member. That is also where the"preparation"rooms are. There is one for just about every taste, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

Rank has its privilege as well. dictation officers are allowed to take away accent breaks during duty if there is no pressing pauperization for their attentions. As of rightfield now, there was no pressing need for me. I could not command this ship to impress if I were a god.

I no Sooner walked into the lounge when Melonie saw me and came over. I knew what she was after, she loved my unwritten technique."Need some strain relief, captain ?"

"At least a workweek's worth, Melons."I said as I took her by the arm and guided her towards the bar."I believe the Lady is drinking a cobalt breaker, and I would delight a calum tea."I told the barkeep as I caressed melons tum. I always enjoyed her very large titty and today would be no exception.

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

"That sounds like a wonderful idea,"I nodded towards the one of the zero-G rooms. When we entered the room I adjusted the control condition on the holographic display to throw it count like we were in the clouds. I had seen enough sensation already today. All of them star I couldn't reach. We attached the lids to our ice so our boozing would not float out and then I touched the activate button. Watching her bosom suddenly float upward as the sombreness stopped was an pose treat. We floated in the air together as I started to undress her. As was measure when in the waiting room, her habiliment was simple and easy to remove. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no panty on underneath. Her shoes were simple slipper very well-to-do and quite attractive. The slight unchanging charge caused by pulling her shirt over her head caused her hairsbreadth to stand up out like a hallo of platinum blond silk. By a lot of standard this adult female would be considered overweight. She weighed about twenty pounds over nonpareil weight for her five invertebrate foot six in frame. To me the extra softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her dress were floating around the elbow room like cast off feathers, she started to undress me. My uniform was a little more complicated to withdraw. It was a tough button up pants and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in black-market. The skid were polished perfection in black natural leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also blackness. Add the sour gray-headed smash and chest of drawers bandolier as well as my skipper's hat to the whole thing and I looked like a trained monkey. Soon all of these clothes were floating around the elbow room as well.

I pulled melon vine to me and began to kiss the cutis of her neck and chest. This elicited several moans of delight. Her stage wrapped around my venter and squeezed me hard enough to be slightly abominable. She began to flex her hips rubbing her pert merchantman on the top of my hammer. I was very entice to take what she was offering compensate then but I had other ideas. Zero-G has one real advantage to making love on any control surface. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those broad lips that were just made for what I had in mind. Once she was unfreeze I spun her in the air and brought her legs around to my face. There in front of my eyes was a small landing strip of Pt blond fuzz that pointed right to the physical object of my desire. I moved my head forward and inhaled the aroma of her rousing. With debate slowness I extended my lingua and began to make small circles through that sugariness shore strip show.

I felt her mouth as she started to lap up and kiss along the shaft of my cock. Her rima oris and lips were pleasant-tasting passion on my skin. The vibrations of her groan made my prick leap and twitching as I touched the tip of my clapper to her clit and flipped it quickly back and Forth River. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my turncock glide down her throat. She was so fluent and hot on the interior. I moved both of my hands around her delightful buttocks and started wetting my fingerbreadth in the love flowing from her wet bitch. When I felt her legs starting to tighten around my head, I slid two finger from one hand into her tight pussy. My heart finger of my other hand pushed into her sleek shit. I started pumping my fingerbreadth in and out of her at different speeds. Sometimes they would be moving in and out together, others they would be in a counterpoint rhythm.

I felt her stomach Begin to tighten and oscillate against my chest of drawers. Then her legs slammed shut on my head like a clamp. Her flowing was floating in droplets around my headway 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 distance of my John Rock hard cock into her from buns. She let out a moan that was bordering on a scream. I began to pound with all my might as we floated in the air. Then we both arched our vertebral column as we thundered into our orgasms together.

Ten minutes later we left the floaty room freshly showered. As we exited the room, I set the ascendancy to make clean and sterilize the room. I kissed melon vine and left her drink and smiling 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."malarky Hands, are we moving ?"

"Yes sir, but not under our own king any more."St. James the Apostle answered.

"What do you mean any Sir Thomas More ?"

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

"Security I want every one of those red cent scab killed again."

"Sir, we have no arm control, would you like my wife and I to project careen at their natation corpse ?"wad said back facetiously.

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

"How soon, Jazz bridge player ?"

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

"You always say a day. I want this damn ship moving under its own power by end of cycle per second or I am going to chip in you to Everest and Mountain as a fair game dummy !"

"Yes sir. Have you gotten that stress fill-in yet ?"

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

As I moved back to the bridgework my creative thinker wandered back to the consequence that led up to this situation. We had found a planet with no beacon on it. It was undiscovered. Scans showed it to be a lush oxygen rich satellite with flora and animal spirit abundant on the airfoil and in the ocean. I organized a landing party to investigate the surface.

***

The party, consisting of ganja, Demoness, Buster, melon, deal and myself, left the ship in a shuttle. Several orbital passes and scans later we determined a full-bodied field to land and investigate.

It was a soft touchdown nothing at all out of the average. There was the beat for positions to see who could produce it through the door first. I had to laugh as the door slid back and my wife muscled mass out of the way. I walked down the ramp to see my married woman dancing in a field of penis. Yes I said that right, all of the works in the country were short maybe twelve column inch tall and shaped like that luck of the male anatomy.

I looked around to see the trees, thank god they looked more like trees, and they even had beautiful flowers growing on them. A near feel at the flush made me think I had lost it. They looked like garden pink penises with two clod hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty appropriate that my wife would get to call a globe covered in member shaped industrial plant.

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

"So plant the beacon, give way it a name and register it. The beacon will direct back the information via short space."I said as I walked down and resisted the urge to reek any of the flowers.

My wife set up the radio beacon station, as the quietus of us looked around.

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

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

buster was the first one to see an beast. It was floating gently on the air towards one of the Tree. It had large flat wings with vesica underneath them. These bladders probably contain some gas abstemious than the air around us. By paddling its metrical unit it would affect through the air like a duck swam across the water supply. As we watched it swam up to one of the tree and put its oral fissure around one of the flowers. A few sec later it left the flower hanging limply from its stem and moved to another peak. One by one it drained the"nectar"out of the unwavering heyday leaving them flaccid.

"We need a couple of those birdie on the ship,"Buster said as we watched."I bet we could take them back to UP blank and sell them for a fortune."

"Get some sample distribution for study, we will stick nightlong and take everything back in the morning."I told baby buster and his married woman. They set about collecting plant life and animal samples. They caught one of the birds but it died in to a lesser extent than an hour in the cage. They must want to eat constantly.

fellow gave me a reputation a couple hours later. The bloom on the Tree produced nectar that made the putz clay. When the vesica Winged prick Bronx cheer would suckle at the blossom they would discharge out the ambrosia and pack some of the pollen away on their back talk. Those moving from flower to blossom execute fertilization for the plant. The hitch flower would take about an time of day to generate a full load of ambrosia again. There were several former animals and plants that he reported on.
My wife had decided to call this situation, appropriately enough, dick's World.

As evening started to darken the skies we saw several, rat like, fauna come out of yap in the ground. They started to rise up the trees. We watched as they moved to the ends of the limbs and bit the peak off the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and ate them. Every man in the group cringed watching this. I think batch even turned a small pale. These brute quickly became known as cockbiter puke. buster thought they wouldn't sell well.

Our detector could not detect any beast larger than the shuttlecock within five hundred clicks of us so we bedded down in the birdie for the night.

I awoke the next break of the day and shook Demoness awake next to me. She smiled as I retrieved two cup of java from the energy solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. buster must own awoken my wife when he got up to suss out his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. baby buster was studying a cage of XX of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the Night. They seemed a bit stout than the raspberry. I oversaw the sample distribution being packed in over crate to be taken back to the skill lab on the ship. Then we did a low level fly over of the planet to subscribe CAT scan and double of the flora and animal life. In twelve hours we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The flight of stairs back to the ship was uneventful and smooth. We were in the shuttle bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the samples. I tried to tell Buster to create sure the crates were in the lab containment area before he opened them, but I was too late. He popped the latch on the rat crate and rats exploded out and ran all over the deck. It took less than a moment for them all to evaporate down an open admittance hatch. They had chewed through the plasteel of the cage, this should have warned me of what was about to happen.

"Do not open any other crates !"I yelled."At least 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 statement business office, Buster."

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my status report. That overzealous skill eccentric person had let puke loose on my ship. I was on the bridge receiving my report when the world-class sign of trouble happen. The navigation screen 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 data link with engineering."

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

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

I stood and slapped the communications panel on my chair."Engineering ! Report ! What the inferno are you doing down there ? You can't cut link while we are in flight !"

malarky manpower came on the intercom,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation bank went power dark, we opened the panel and rat 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 hands find those female parent fucking rats and stamp out them ! Now ! security, number persuader to everyone with digit. Lock them all on stun, we don't want any accidents. I will give everyone that stuns a rat an supererogatory liberalisation cycle."

Turning to our tactical station,"Mt. Everest, take us to alert status."She thumbed the warning signal system on her cabinet to on.

The sensationalistic monition light source on the ship came to life. The estimator voice could be heard all over the ship as she said,"warning signal, all personnel department are to keep up Alert Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the warning lights went out and the bridge went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my reverie as I entered the bridge deck. The 1st thing I noticed was the eyeshot screen was no longer blank. It now showed a boastfully, dumb star-shaped field, and we were moving towards it slowly."Everest, give me a situation report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid subject field at approximately fifteen hundred kilometers per second. Estimated time to becharm into the sphere is six hours."

"Bring our shell and targeting online. Get the gunners in their place and differentiate them we may involve to have a little target practice."

"The gunners are reporting to stations, but the weapon system inter-group communication are all still down, we have no gas pedal. The buckler are on but we can not find if they are working."

"So my day just got high-risk. We may or may not let shields, we don't have guns. And we have no control over where the ship is going. Does that sum it up ?"

"Yes, sir."

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

energizing the communication theory in my chair I called down to engineering science."Jazz hands render me some good news. Please."

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

"That is goodness news, now I have some great news for you. In six hours you will no longer consume to care about repairing the ship. Those big rocks out there are going to finish up the job those rats started. At the speed we are traveling one of those rocks is going to turn this ship into slag."

"Do you know a good wrecker serving that may be in the arena ?"

"We are sending the shuttles out."

I thumbed off the com venire."Babe, give me some good news."

Marijuana spoke without looking away from her console."We have an estimated shock time of seven hours and four hour. Then we are going to be landing on a gravid asteroid dead ahead. We are caught in the gravity well of that great gas behemoth on the other face of the airfield. I am running the deliberation on the shuttles now."

"I asked for skilful news, you could own told me you smuggled a bottle of whiskey on board or something."

I stared at the view CRT screen that I now wished was blank again. My mind started to stray back to the rats again.

***

We were hunting crumb ; they seemed to move about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The light wires were cancel butt."We need one of them alive so buster can evidence us why they are after the light wires."

Our radical split up into pairs. I was teamed with Demoness, our plan was mere ; move about the ship opening access code panels. If anything ran out pull the initiation and stun it. I noticed mountain had put on his observance armor for the hunt. It had a thick codpiece for protection down there.

Chatter over our helmet com was kept to a minimum. Demoness opened the first panel, it was to life backup. There was cipher. We moved to the face lifting control condition panel. When I opened it there was an explosion of fur and tooth. Then there was unbelievable bother as I was hit by the clap from the inducer. tinker's damn I am glad it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a huge distich of breasts hovering over my face."Hi, melon,"I mumbled as I shook my caput to clear it."Did we at least manage to get one of the rats ?"

"Demoness caught four of them, and bagged a sea captain with only four shots."melon vine said as she leaned to front 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 stop the rats, I knew the weapon was on stun and wouldn't hurt you."Demoness said with a mater of fact tone.

"melon's lamb, would you please script me my inducer ; I want to show Demoness just how footling they hurt."As Melon's looked at me with big optic, Demoness quietly slipped out of the elbow room. I reached over for the com panel next to the bed."baby buster, tell me some good news."

"My retirement report is up fifty thousand."

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

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

"In two hour they are going to eat every lighter wire in the ship. How do we stop them ?"

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

I jumped out of the bed and headed for applied science. quite a little was in the hall."Get every marksman armed with rifles and cope with me in engine room. We are going to have an old fashioned turkey shoot."

mess headed off to collect men and woman. I went to engineering."jazz Hands, get over here, I have an idea."

"Yes sir,"Saint James the Apostle said as he ran up."Sir we are really busy trying to repair the damage. Can this hold back ?"

"No. How long would it require to get a muckle of spare twinkle wire in the eye of engineering and attach it to the principal generator ?"

"About twenty minutes."

"You have ten, I also want the main link from the generator to the eternal sleep of the ship ready to unplug on my command."

"You want us to switch to the backup man ?"

"No I want power cut completely. We need to get all the outer room access closed and all of the airlift cock shut down."

"The lifts are no problem the blackleg chewed them up about fifteen minutes ago. The proscribed door may be a problem. The independent birdie bay doors are stuck open and the observation window in the forward mapmaking lab is non-operational."

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

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

"We are facing a superior enemy, in an unknown tactical berth. We are completely defenceless now. If the rats continue at this rate we will ingest no ship in twelve hours. It is meter to make a last-place stand. The rats are attracted to the perch wire so we will give them the only heap of glowing wires on the ship to total for. Now get them set up or I am going to hang you from the stem of the ship like a figurehead."

"Yes sir."

I moved to the upper balcony, as the others started to gather. I set people up in positions so we had full coverage of the engineering pack of cards below. The pile of wire was a shopping centre of flaming anything that moved was a prey."All correctly people there are sixteen of these rats to obliterate. I want everyone's weapon system set to overkill. We can not afford for a bingle rat to escape this trap."

As I took my view as the finish of the personnel left the lower level. Then the brightness went out. It was such a long wait. But after almost an hour the first rat came out of an access code hatch and started moving toward the conducting wire. He was hit by the beams of over XL weapon system. The little motherfucker was nothing but a lump of charcoal.

It took about an hour for the rats to start showing up. It took twenty arcminute for the live one to fall. I stood and hit the com panel. It was dead like everything else."Jazz hands, lets get the system rebooted and repairs started."

***

I rose out of my woolgathering to see a prominent rock on the panorama screen."Tactical, how far out is it and estimated time to bear upon ?"

"We are five point six seven million klick from the asteroid. Estimated touch meter is one hour and three minutes."Everest answered.

"Reduce the magnification to ten times."

"It is already at ten times, sir."

"Shit ! How big is that thing ?"

"It is four G klick long by two thousand wide."

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

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the attempt to modify our course with the shuttles going ?"

"Not good, sir, the posture correction jets are firing and locking us on course."

"Bring them back in. We are going to need the shuttles along with the life gravy holder to evacuate."I looked at the projection screen. My heart sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my bidding. If we made it back live we would get to the full honors and retreat welfare as admirals. My thinker drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"Petty officeholder third gear class Phillip Irving Graves, reporting as rank sir."I said as I walked into admiral Tigrat's office. He looked up at me with a jack eating grin on his face. He motioned with his helping hand for me to sit and be at ease.

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

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

The smile that cracked his face was one of pure immorality."My idea exactly, so here is the deal. I am going to recommend you as the police chief of the Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to pull up stakes at the end of the month. Then you are going to go deep. Your mission will be two class transit out, then sixteen years exploring. When you return, you will have admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the platter, not s single ship had ever come back from going deep. nearly disappeared without a trace. He was consigning me to a demise sentence. My own command weighed heavy on my mind. I had always thought I could do it dependable than any of these blowhards. Out there I would be the vocalism of authority. I would be the simply command mountain chain. The sawbuck would halt with me.

"You have until the end of the month to find a wife or I will choose one for you."

The smile he gave me had me thinking through the fair sex I knew. I sure as hell would not let him adjudicate. Then Millishia came to listen, she was one Inferno of a science police officer. Her life history was gilt. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in front of me yet."Do I get to prefer my crew ?"

"You will be given a list of volunteers for deep service. You may pick out XXX yoke from it. The other nineteen duad I will prefer. I already have one of your engineers and doctors picked out. Plus a twain of security people you will just love."

"Do formula deep principle apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

Millishia and I were married a workweek later, we saw the ship for the first gear time a seven days after that.

The Ticonderoga was a matter of beauty, long and silky with four engine nacelles under her body carriage. She hung in space like a phantom, the rib of the shipyard frame surrounding her. The long narrow body looked like an pointer with atmospheric stabilizers on the rear half. The full fountainhead of the arrow was where the command decks sat. The slightly all-embracing body was the crew country. Under the chief body hung technology and medical. She was designed to cut through space like a weapon. She was one of the sexiest affair I had ever seen. I was supposed to report aboard and choose my crew via interviews.

A few of my bunch was already onboard, my engineer, James I Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell Penzo, and his wife, Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo were two of them. I had read their files, they were dissolver addict. She was also a Liskian, they were reputed to be a hoodlum lot.

I had looked at the filing cabinet of over a thousand unpaid worker twosome, I had to pick thirty. I had discovered something profound. virtually people that wanted to go deep were nut typesetter's case. These were no elision. 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 side by side week interviewing hopeful ; it was the intemperate week of my life. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would cause begged the admiral to Margaret Court mobilize me. The next three days were spent choosing my crew and filing their new social station. One thing nice about being a chieftain of a cryptic ship, rate onboard your ship was your alternative. You set the chain of program line and the duty roster. The captain was the number 1 last and lone line of command once you left the distance port.

quartet days later the mooring dividing line fell away from the ship. My new helmsman only managed to hit the dry dock once on the way out. I now had an untried crew, a new ship with all the bugs built-in and two age to deform them into a performance crowd before we made our starting time planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my memories, that rock was a lot bigger. The countdown on the screen said thirty-one minutes. My mind started flying through the possibleness. I had to do up with an solution. I would not fall behind my ship and control after our get-go planet fall.

A plan came to me. It would claim some fantasy flying. I hit the com unit in my electric chair."nothingness Hands, Prepare to disconnect all exponent on my command. Demoness, I need your piloting skills, you have shuttle two, I have shuttle one, we launch in five."

nothingness hired hand came on the com unit,"Captain we have to have might to do fixture, if you make me cut it off again it will take an 60 minutes to completely restart the system."

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

"And if it doesn't ?"

"Then it won't affair anymore, you don't have clock time to fix the ship before we make our sec planet fall. Do me a party favour, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"Take maintenance of my wife."I thumbed off the console and left the bridge before anyone could ask any head. I had a plan ; if it worked I would carry through my ship. Either way I was going to die first.

I burst into bird 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 shuttles to biography."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into guide contact with the body of the Ticonderoga. Then I am going to sustain idle words work force cut all mightiness. That should turn back the thrusters from firing. Once that is set I am going to sack up the railway locomotive in the shuttle and pass her the gas. If this works I will forfend the ship by sufficiency to escape the star-shaped field."

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

"That is where you come in. I am going to eject, I need you to scoop me up fast and get me elucidate. Get my body back for a decent funeral."

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

"I don't have time to put a suit on ; if this is going to work I have to do it now."I shut off the com distribution channel. It took me LE than a minute to position my shuttle. I contacted nothingness handwriting,"Cut the power now !"Then I put the engine power to full and locked the throttle. The on gameboard computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent locomotive engine overburden in xx s. Imminent engine overburden in nineteen endorsement. Imminent engine overburden in eighteen seconds."I dove for the controls for the ejection scheme. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the handgrip."System detects non suited staff office, exclusion system disabled."

fucking ! I pulled my side arm and shot the console. Then I yanked the handle again, there was a mind numbing boom as the air exploded out of the ship. My question hit something solid a few seconds later and the world went dark. My last idea was,"fuck, that hurts."

***

"police chief Robert Graves, I do not anticipate you to arrive back from this. I expect you to die a bloody and ugly death."full admiral Tigrat said as I was in my lowest audience before launching."Do not disappoint me."

"Respectfully sir, my intact crew will be at your one one percent birthday party. There I will commit your wife and girl a kiss right in front of you. How did you ever manage to get a hoop on the finger's breadth of that woman ? She has to be at least forty twelvemonth untried than you."

***

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

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

"How ?"

"Liskians are toughened than humans, she had the shuttle decompressed and waiting on your projection. Once you flew onboard she put up the parking brake fields and re-pressurized. You may receive a few ache and pains plus blurred vision for a few days, but you will be all right soon."

"melon vine's, what about the ship ?"

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

"Tell idle words deal and Demoness to select an redundant rest Hz, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

"jazz flushed the quietus of the solvent out the airlock. He said any man that would do what you did to relieve the ship deserves a sober auto-mechanic. ”