Ticonderoga - episode 1 : Adrift

Cast of Characters ;

***

public figure : Phillip Irving Graves

Rank : captain - commanding officer

Call Sign : Pig

chronicle : He was born on old worldly concern in the domain known as the Western Territories of North U.S.A.. As a youth he was a trouble maker this, being virtually unheard of in his 100, forced the military machine to deal with him. He was given a alternative. Join the United Planets repose keeping and research force or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioural problem. His career in the armed services was a with child illustration of how not to advance. After twenty years he was still only a piffling ship's officer third class. That was when he was caught pulling off his risky infraction yet. Fleet full admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his wife, and both of his daughters, at the Saame time. Phillip was doomed to go back to theme 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 fuzz and browned eyes. His body eccentric is fragile and muscular with tan skin tone.

first mate : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

Name : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

Rank : commanding officer - Ships scientific discipline officer and fourth part in bidding

Call Sign : marijuana

History : She was born a simple farm young lady in the Midwest dominion of compass north United States. She led an exemplary lifetime, with no problem, until she came of age. Then she found she had a discernment for bad boy. To try and moderate her appetence for self destructive demeanour, she joined the Service. Her career was in good order and she was felicitous after five years but she longed to go deep. The only problem 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 space. She only had one more rank to go then she could go. That would take another six calendar month. Then she was broadsided by a motion 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 fundament six in tall, blond haired, blue eyed peach, with mass medium sized breasts. Her consistence style is lithe and athletic.

match : Phillip Irving Robert Ranke Graves

***

gens : James Reginald Joseph Mitchell Penzo

Rank : Master Chief petty Officer - foreman engine driver and mechanic.

Call Sign : Jazz hands

History : He was born on the emerald isle of European Community. He was a good kid and went to college. After school he joined the overhaul to set up a little draw close egg. There he met his married woman and fell in dear. He had a promising vocation ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicative gist of the engine dissolver. Just a petty nip of it could make any man felicitous. He stayed happy a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a choice, armed services separation or he and his wife go deep.

verbal description : He is five foot eight column inch grandiloquent with sorry K centre and brown hair. His body type is thick with just a slight fifth wheel tire.

mate : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

Name : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

social station : Senior Chief petty larceny officer - Chief of off ship security.

birdcall signal : Demoness

history : She was born on her indigen world of Liskia. She is strong and truehearted and excelled in her life history as military police, until her husband introduced her to the solvent. 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 vas, The UP Ticonderoga.

verbal description : She is six human foot two column inch marvellous. Her raceway has red skin and hair with lightheaded grey eyes. Many hoi polloi say they look like the mythical demons, right down to the two tufts of hair on their foreheads that resembled French horn. Her consistence type is tenuous and lithe with a well defined heftiness tone.

Mate : James Mitchell Penzo

***
epithet : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

Rank : lieutenant Jr level - xeno-biologist.

call Sign : buster

History : He is a native of burbot, a human dependency, joined the servicing to go deep, he wanted the animation of an explorer, he was also married and his married woman joined at the like time looking to embark out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to study new specie of both plants and animate being.

verbal description : He is five foundation eight inches tall with mousy blonde hair and blue eyes. His body character is thin and non muscular.

Mate : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

Name : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

Rank : Lieutenant Junior Grade - ships doctor.

birdsong Sign : Melons

History : She is a native of Trapa bicornis, a man colony, and was married to her college looker. She joined the service to go bass with him.

Description : She is five infantry six inch grandiloquent with platinum blonde hair and very large breast. He body case is voluptuous.

Mate : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

Name : Lorka Dumont Willock

Rank : Commander - security department police officer, secondly in command.

margin call star sign : Mountain

story : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the Service to get a chance to do engagement in this clock time of peacefulness. He is very popular with the dame because his race believes that love maneuver should be as tender as war is violent.

description : At well over seven feet improbable and four century and fifty dog pound of solid muscularity he is by far the largest member of the crew, except for his wife. His black tegument looks like a darkness cum to biography. The only break in his duskiness is his red eyes.

Mate : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

name : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

Rank : Commander - arm military officer, third in command

cry Sign : Everest

chronicle : She is a Female Tithian warrior. She joined the service with her husband, in the hopes of finding battle. She is a foot taller than her husband, and a hell of a lot meaner.

verbal description : She is eight fundament four inch marvelous with darkness black pelt and red eyes. Her body case is extremely muscular.

Ilex paraguariensis : Lorka Dumont Willock


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

I stared at the blank shell view cover in front of me. My ship had been adrift for three days. There was only one job when you were deep ; there was no one to avail when you hit trouble. The nearest ship to us was two months travel away. It had taken us two years to get this far out.

"Going oceanic abyss"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find inhabitable planets that we could colonize or resourcefulness we could mine for. The fun theatrical role, the rules say the starting time crewman to set foot on a planet gets to name the major planet.

The united race had managed to colonise or excavation camp every sway for sixty dismount twelvemonth around world. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a yr to travel sixty light years with the hiss drive as it was called. It got its name because the matter and antimatter explosion inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying sound to move around at sixty times the speed of Inner Light. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communications panel on my chair to living."Jazz manpower, What the perdition is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the result again I'm going to take you off of relief rotation for two weeks."

"Not a chance, Pig, I am trying to repair the damn hurt those cockbiter stinker did to the railway locomotive wiring. The fucking fiddling beasties chewed through every brightness level wire in the main flack control cabinet."

"How long before we have engine power again ?"

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

"That is what you said yesterday, the day before, and the day before that, maledict 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 propel. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the lilliputian bastards. Go take a relief break and let me do my damn job."

I stalked off of the bridge circuit. The damn face lifting were down so I had to climb down the access ladders to get to the crew decks. I guess we could cry ourselves lucky ; those minuscule varmint had not reached the aliveness supporting equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter rats had managed to chew through our principal power dominance, raise controller systems, helm control interlink, pilotage, and engine attack dominance in less than twenty four 60 minutes. Twenty rats had crippled a ship, with gang of one hundred people on board. Only fate knows what else was damaged. jazz Hands was right on I needed focus stand-in ; it was time to point to the crew lounge.

There is a Major set of rules about going deep. The first one is all crew members must be mated yoke. The second normal is all relationship are open on the ship. When off duty force need stress relief any off duty person of the opposite gender is available to them, unless they are in their sleep cps. Any same sex liaison are not forbidden but are open to be refused. Your living quarters were kept monogamous, only you and your spouse enjoyed that location. The waiting area is where you go to arrange liaisons with other crew extremity. That is also where the"training"rooms are. There is one for just about every taste, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

Rank has its privilege as well. statement officer are allowed to charter stress falling out during responsibility if there is no pressing need for their attentions. As of right now, there was no pressing need for me. I could not dominate this ship to impress if I were a god.

I no Sooner 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, headwaiter ?"

"At to the lowest degree a workweek's worth, Melons."I said as I took her by the arm and guided her towards the bar."I believe the peeress is drinking a Co breakers, and I would enjoy a calum tea."I told the bartender as I caressed melons stomach. I always enjoyed her very heavy 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 tremendous idea,"I nodded towards the one of the zero-G rooms. When we entered the room I adjusted the ascendance on the holographic showing to make it look like we were in the cloud. I had seen adequate stars already today. All of them asterisk I couldn't reach. We attached the lids to our glasses so our drinks would not float out and then I touched the activate push. Watching her titty suddenly float upward as the gravity stopped was an amazing treat. We floated in the air together as I started to strip her. As was touchstone when in the couch, her clothing was simple and easy to dispatch. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no scanty on underneath. Her skid were simple slippers very comfortable and quite attractive. The tenuous static cathexis caused by pulling her shirt over her head caused her haircloth to stand out like a hallo of Pt blond silk. By a lot of standard this woman would be considered overweight. She weighed about twenty pounding over ideal weight for her five foot six in frame. To me the surplus softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her clothes were floating around the room like cast off plume, she started to disrobe me. My uniform was a little more rarify to remove. It was a ruffianly push up pants and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in nigrify. The shoes were polished flawlessness in sinister natural leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also black. Add the sullen greyness belt and chest bandoleer as well as my captain's hat to the solid affair and I looked like a take scalawag. Soon all of these clothes were floating around the room as well.

I pulled melon to me and began to kiss the cutis of her neck opening and breast. This elicited several moan of joy. Her pegleg wrapped around my stomach and squeezed me hard enough to be slightly painful. She began to turn her rosehip rubbing her pert bottom on the top of my peter. I was very influence to choose what she was offering right then but I had former estimation. Zero-G has one real advantage to making roll in the hay on any surface. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those entire lips that were just made for what I had in judgement. Once she was unblock I spun her in the air and brought her wooden leg around to my font. There in straw man of my eyes was a small landing place strip of platinum blonde hair that pointed right to the object of my desire. I moved my capitulum forward and inhaled the redolence of her arousal. With deliberate unhurriedness I extended my natural language and began to make believe small roofy through that confection landing strip.

I felt her sass as she started to lick and kiss along the lance of my cock. Her mouth and lips were delicious warmth on my skin. The vibrations of her moans made my rooster jump and twitching as I touched the tip of my knife to her clit and flipped it quickly back and forth. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my cock slideway down her throat. She was so suave and hot on the inside. I moved both of my hands around her delicious bottom and started wetting my fingers in the honey flowing from her tight cunt. When I felt her legs starting to tighten up around my headland, I slid two finger from one hired hand into her tight twat. My middle digit of my other hand pushed into her silklike arse. I started pumping my finger's breadth in and out of her at dissimilar upper. Sometimes they would be moving in and out together, others they would be in a counterpoint rhythm.

I felt her abdomen Begin to tighten and vibrate against my thorax. Then her legs slammed shut on my head like a clamp. Her flow was floating in droplets around my promontory as she orgasmed. While she was still vibrating and shaking through her orgasm I spun her through the air until I was behind her. I plunged the length of my rock hard cock into her from behind. She let out a moan that was bordering on a riot. 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 orgasm together.

Ten minutes later we left the floaty way freshly showered. As we exited the room, I set the controls to clean house and sterilize the room. I kissed Melons and left her drinking 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 control panel at the doorway."Jazz Hands, are we moving ?"

"Yes sir, but not under our own superpower any more."Henry James answered.

"What do you mean any more ?"

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

"security department I want every one of those hoot puke killed again."

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

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

"How soon, malarkey Hands ?"

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

"You always say a day. I want this damn ship moving under its own magnate by end of wheel or I am going to pass you to Everest and mint as a butt dummy !"

"Yes sir. Have you gotten that stress backup man yet ?"

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

As I moved back to the bridge my nous wandered back to the event that led up to this situation. We had found a planet with no beacon on it. It was unexplored. Scans showed it to be a lush oxygen ample major planet with plant and animal life abundant on the open and in the sea. I organized a landing party to investigate the surface.

***

The political party, consisting of ganja, Demoness, Buster, Melons, Mountain and myself, left the ship in a shuttle. Several orbital passport and CAT scan later we determined a racy area to demesne and investigate.

It was a soft touchdown cipher at all out of the ordinary. There was the sputter for positions to see who could make water it through the doorway first. I had to laugh as the door slid back and my married woman muscled spate out of the way. I walked down the ramp to see my married woman dancing in a field of penises. Yes I said that rightfulness, all of the industrial plant in the expanse were short maybe twelve inches tall and shaped like that parcel of the male physique.

I looked around to see the trees, thank god they looked more like Tree, and they even had beautiful flowers growing on them. A closer face at the flowers made me think I had lost it. They looked like pink penis with two ball hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty appropriate that my married woman would get to name a world covered in member shaped plant.

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

"So plant life the beacon, give way it a name and register it. The lighthouse will send back the info via short space."I said as I walked down and resisted the impulse to sense any of the flowers.

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

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

"It does own a sealed menacing presence doesn't it ?"

Buster was the first one to see an fauna. It was floating gently on the breeze towards one of the trees. It had great flatcar offstage with bladders underneath them. These bladders probably contain some gas hoy than the air around us. By paddling its groundwork it would move through the air like a duck swam across the water. As we watched it swam up to one of the Tree and put its backtalk around one of the efflorescence. A few seconds later it left the efflorescence hanging limply from its fore and moved to another peak. One by one it drained the"nectar"out of the stiff flowers leaving them flaccid.

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

"Get some sampling for bailiwick, we will appease overnight and take everything back in the morning."I told Buster and his wife. They set about collecting plant and animal sample distribution. They caught one of the birds but it died in lupus erythematosus than an hour in the cage. They must want to eat constantly.

Buster gave me a report a distich time of day later. The peak on the Tree produced nectar that made the gibe stiff. When the Bladder Winged Cocksucker Birds would lactate at the efflorescence they would empty out the nectar and carry some of the pollen away on their mouths. Those moving from flower to flower accomplished fertilization for the plant life. The limp flush would get about an hr to generate a broad burden of nectar again. There were several former brute and flora that he reported on.
My wife had decided to holler this place, appropriately enough, Dick's World.

As evening started to darken the skies we saw respective, rat like, brute come out of holes in the solid ground. They started to mount up the trees. We watched as they moved to the ends of the limbs and bit the flowers off the trees and ate them. Every man in the group cringed watching this. I think Mountain even turned a little pale. These animals quickly became known as cockbiter rats. Buster thought they wouldn't sell well.

Our sensor could not detect any animate being larger than the birds within five century click of us so we bedded down in the shuttlecock for the night.

I awoke the next dawning and shook Demoness awake next to me. She smiled as I retrieved two cups of java from the muscularity solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. baby buster must have awoken my wife when he got up to look into his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. baby buster was studying a cage of twenty of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the Nox. They seemed a bit intrepid than the shuttle. 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 planet to take scan and look-alike of the industrial plant and animal sprightliness. In twelve hours we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The trajectory back to the ship was uneventful and unruffled. We were in the shuttle bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the samples. I tried to tell Buster to make sure enough the crates were in the lab containment area before he opened them, but I was too former. 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 undefendable access hatching. They had chewed through the plasteel of the batting cage, 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 phallus blossom here for them to eat. I want them all caught and then you are to see me in the command government agency, Buster."

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my condition paper. That overzealous scientific discipline geek had let squealer loose on my ship. I was on the bridge receiving my write up when the first sign of trouble happen. The seafaring covert went clean. We were suddenly flying blind."Navigation, what the hell are you doing over there ?"

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

"Helm control, bring us to full plosive, now !"I shouted as I stood from my hot seat. Suddenly my ship lurched and I fell on my font."shucks it, helm, you can't just cut the engines, how long have you been flying this crate ?"

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

I stood and slapped the communication theory dialog box on my chair."engineering science ! Report ! What the nether region are you doing down there ? You can't cut links while we are in flight !"

idle words Hands came on the intercom,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the piloting bank went index nighttime, we opened the panel and blackleg came running out. How the netherworld did we get informer on the ship ?"

We all heard the throb of the engines wind down as they shut themselves down."All hired hand find those mother fucking rats and toss off them ! Now ! Security, issue persuader to everyone with fingers. Lock 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,"Everest, take us to alert status."She thumbed the dismay system on her console to on.

The lily-livered warning Christ Within on the ship came to life. The computers voice could be heard all over the ship as she said,"Alert, all personnel are to keep up Alert Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the monition Light went out and the bridge went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my reverie as I entered the nosepiece. The get-go affair I noticed was the view screen was no longer blank. It now showed a declamatory, dim asteroid field, and we were moving towards it slowly."Mt. Everest, dedicate me a situation report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid theater at approximately fifteen C klick per endorsement. Estimated time to trance into the force field is six hours."

"Bring our shield and targeting online. Get the cannoneer in their Stations of the Cross and recount them we may need to have a little target practice."

"The cannoneer are reporting to stations, but the weapon contact are all still down, we have no guns. The buckler are on but we can not find if they are working."

"So my day just got worse. We may or may not take in shields, 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 work party in the two shuttles and see if we can tow the ship into a new course."

energizing the communications in my chair I called down to engineering."jazz handwriting give me some good newsworthiness. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will have the helm control and inertial controls back on agate line in eight minute. My hoi polloi are working around the clock."

"That is near intelligence, now I have some outstanding newsworthiness for you. In six hours you will no longer have to interest about repairing the ship. Those big rock music out there are going to stop the job those blackleg started. At the fastness we are traveling one of those rocks is going to turn this ship into slag."

"Do you know a good wrecker overhaul that may be in the field ?"

"We are sending the shuttles out."

I thumbed off the com panel."baby, pass on me some adept news."

Marijuana spoke without looking away from her console table."We have an estimated impact time of seven hr and four minutes. Then we are going to be landing on a large asteroid dead ahead. We are caught in the gravity well of that large gas goliath on the other position of the field. I am running the computation on the shuttles now."

"I asked for practiced word, you could own told me you smuggled a bottle of whisky on display board or something."

I stared at the eyeshot screen that I now wished was vacuous again. My mind started to tramp back to the stinkpot again.

***

We were hunting rats ; they seemed to move about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The light telegram were natural targets."We need one of them alive so broncobuster can recount us why they are after the twinkle wires."

Our grouping split up into twosome. I was teamed with Demoness, our programme was simple ; move about the ship opening access panels. If anything ran out pull the trigger and sandbag it. I noticed mountain had put on his ceremonial occasion armor for the hunt. It had a thick codpiece for auspices down there.

yak over our helmet com was kept to a minimum. Demoness opened the first panel, it was to sprightliness musical accompaniment. There was nothing. We moved to the lift ascendancy panel. When I opened it there was an explosion of fur and teeth. Then there was incredible pain in the ass as I was hit by the blast from the inducer. Damn I am gladiola it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a vast yoke of titty hovering over my aspect."Hi, Melons,"I mumbled as I shook my head to gain it."Did we at least manage to get one of the bum ?"

"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.

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

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

"melon vine's dear, would you please hand me my inducer ; I want to show Demoness just how slight they hurt."As melon vine's looked at me with big eyes, Demoness quietly slipped out of the room. I reached over for the com panel next to the bed."baby buster, tell me some proficient news."

"My retirement account is up fifty thousand."

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

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

"In two hours they are going to eat every brightness wire in the ship. How do we block off them ?"

"The merely thing I know is they are attracted to the light telegram because they glow on the Lapp wavelength in ultra violet as the peak do. As to why they are attracted to them."

I jumped out of the bed and headed for engineering. stack was in the hall."Get every sharpshooter armed with rifles and match me in engineering science. We are going to get an old fashioned Meleagris gallopavo shoot."

Mountain headed off to gather men and women. I went to engineering."Jazz Hands, get over here, I have an idea."

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

"No. How long would it take to get a pile of supererogatory light wire in the center of engineering and attach it to the principal generator ?"

"About XX minutes."

"You have ten, I also want the main connectedness from the generator to the remainder of the ship ready to disconnect on my command."

"You want us to switch to the backup ?"

"No I want powerfulness cut completely. We need to get all the outer doors closed and all of the lift putz shut down."

"The raise are no problem the rats chewed them up about fifteen mo ago. The outer door may be a problem. The principal shuttle bay doors are stuck open and the observation window in the forward mapmaking lab is non-operational."

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

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

"We are facing a superior enemy, in an unknown quantity tactical situation. We are completely defenselessly now. If the rats continue at this rate we will induce no ship in twelve hours. It is time to make a in conclusion rack. The rats are attracted to the get down wire so we will give them the solitary hatful of glowing wires on the ship to come 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 people up in position so we had good reportage of the technology deck below. The pile of wires was a centre of attention of fire anything that moved was a target."All right people there are sixteen of these rats to shoot down. I want everyone's weapon set to overkill. We can not open for a I rat to escape this trap."

As I took my position as the net of the personnel left the dispirited level. Then the lights went out. It was such a foresighted wait. But after almost an hr the first rat came out of an admission crosshatch and started moving toward the conducting wire. He was hit by the beams of over forty weapon system. The little illegitimate was nothing but a lout of charcoal.

It took about an hour for the rotter to pop showing up. It took twenty minutes for the last one to fall. I stood and hit the com panel. It was all in like everything else."malarkey hands, lets get the arrangement rebooted and haunt started."

***

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

"We are five period six seven million kilometers from the asteroid. Estimated impact time is one hour and three minutes."Everest answered.

"Reduce the enlargement to ten times."

"It is already at ten times, sir."

"crap ! How big is that thing ?"

"It is four yard kilometers long by two thousand wide."

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

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the attack to change our track with the shuttles going ?"

"Not good, sir, the mental attitude chastening jets are firing and locking us on course."

"Bring them back in. We are going to need the shuttles along with the life sauceboat to evacuate."I looked at the filmdom. My marrow sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my command. If we made it back live we would get full-of-the-moon honors and retirement benefit as admiral. My mind drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"petty officer third course of study Phillip Irving Graves, reporting as ordered sir."I said as I walked into full admiral Tigrat's billet. He looked up at me with a shit eating grin on his face. He motioned with his hired hand for me to sit and be at ease.

"Phillip, I am at a loss for what to do with you. If I press boot then everyone in the fleet is going to know what you did. If I don't imperativeness charges then you get off Scott relieve and I can not let that pass either."He looked at me with receptive hatred in his eyes.

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

The smile that cracked his typeface was one of pure evil."My persuasion exactly, so here is the deal. I am going to recommend you as the captain of the Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to depart at the end of the month. Then you are going to go deep. Your mission will be two years transit out, then sixteen old age exploring. When you return, you will have admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the book, not s I ship had ever come back from going deep. Most disappeared without a touch. He was consigning me to a death sentence. My own mastery weighed heavy on my mind. I had always thought I could do it unspoilt than any of these blowhards. Out there I would be the voice of authority. I would be the only command Chain. The buck would lay off with me.

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

The smile he gave me had me thinking through the char I knew. I sure as hell would not let him decide. Then Millishia came to mind, she was one hell of a science police officer. Her career was gold. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in front man of me yet."Do I get to choose my work party ?"

"You will be given a list of unpaid worker for deep table service. You may select thirty couples from it. The other nineteen couples I will choose. I already have one of your engineers and MD picked out. Plus a couple of security people you will just love."

"Do normal trench rules apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

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

The Ticonderoga was a thing of sweetheart, long and flowing with four railway locomotive nacelles under her organic structure go-cart. She hung in infinite like a apparition, the costa of the shipyard frame surrounding her. The long specialise body looked like an pointer with atmospheric stabilizers on the rear half. The liberal nous of the pointer was where the bidding decks sat. The slightly wider physical structure was the crew arena. Under the principal body hung engineering and medical. She was designed to cut through outer space like a weapon. She was one of the aphrodisiacal things I had ever seen. I was supposed to report aboard and take my crowd via interviews.

A few of my crew was already onboard, my locomotive engineer, James II John Mitchell Penzo, and his married woman, Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo were two of them. I had read their file, they were solvent addict. She was also a Liskian, they were reputed to be a tough lot.

I had looked at the file cabinet of over a thousand volunteer duad, I had to pick thirty. I had discovered something profound. almost hoi polloi that wanted to go trench were nut cases. These were no exception. The volunteers ran the gambit from mad scientist to psycho cause of death. I was at a red ink for anyone I trusted on a yearn escape let alone wanted there.

I spent the side by side week interviewing wannabee ; it was the firmly calendar week of my life. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would bear begged the admiral to tourist court marshal me. The next three mean solar day were expend choosing my gang and filing their new ranks. One thing nice about being a sea captain of a thick ship, rank onboard your ship was your choice. You set the Chain of command and the duty roll. The senior pilot was the get-go live on and alone line of statement once you left the space port.

quartet days later the mooring lines fell away from the ship. My new helmsman only managed to hit the dry sour grass once on the way out. I now had an untested crew, a new ship with all the glitch inherent and two old age to turn them into a functioning crew before we made our low planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my retention, that rock'n'roll was much full-grown. The countdown on the screenland said thirty-one minutes. My mind started flying through the possibilities. I had to get along up with an response. I would not lose my ship and command after our first planet fall.

A programme came to me. It would carry some fancy flying. I hit the com unit in my chair."nothingness script, Prepare to disconnect all power on my command. Demoness, I need your navigation skills, you have shuttle two, I have shuttlecock one, we launch in five."

Jazz Hands came on the com social unit,"Captain we have to have power to do repairs, if you make me cut it off again it will occupy an 60 minutes to completely restart the system."

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

"And if it doesn't ?"

"Then it won't matter anymore, you don't have meter to fix the ship before we make our secondly planet fall. Do me a party favor, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"payoff care of my wife."I thumbed off the cabinet and left the bridge circuit before anyone could ask any questions. I had a programme ; if it worked I would redeem my ship. Either way I was going to die first.

I burst into bird bay one and walked aboard the shuttle. I could try the com dealings as Demoness launched. I thumbed the com social unit between the two shuttlecock to liveliness."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into direct contact with the body of the Ticonderoga. Then I am going to cause wind hired hand cut all business leader. That should stop the thrusters from firing. Once that is set I am going to fire up the engine in the shuttle and sacrifice her the gas. If this works I will avert the ship by adequate to fly the coop the asteroid field."

"Sir, if you do that your engines will overheat and flame out in secondment. The interior of the birdie will be a half million degree fireball."

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

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

"I don't have meter to put a suit on ; if this is going to work I have to do it now."I shut off the com epithelial duct. It took me less than a instant to position my shuttlecock. I contacted malarky manpower,"Cut the power now !"Then I put the engine superpower to broad and locked the throttle. The on circuit board computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent engine overload in 20 s. Imminent engine overload in nineteen secondment. Imminent engine overload in xviii seconds."I dove for the dominance for the ejection organization. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the handle."arrangement detects non suited personnel, ejection system disabled."

fuck ! I pulled my side arm and shot the console. Then I yanked the handle again, there was a mind numbing roar as the air exploded out of the ship. My head word hit something solid a few s later and the humankind went wickedness. My utmost thought was,"fuck, that hurts."

***

"Captain Graves, I do not expect you to come back from this. I expect you to die a bloody and horrible death."Admiral Tigrat said as I was in my last interview before launch."Do not disappoint me."

"Respectfully sir, my entire bunch will be at your one one percent natal day company. There I will reach your wife and girl a kiss right in front end of you. How did you ever manage to get a pack on the finger of that woman ? She has to be at least forty days younger than you."

***

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

"Med lab,"the huge brace 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 daytime, but you will be hunky-dory soon."

"melon's, what about the ship ?"

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

"Tell malarky handwriting and Demoness to take an extra repose rhythm, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

"Jazz flushed the repose of the resolvent out the airlock. He said any man that would do what you did to carry through the ship deserves a sober mechanic. ”