Fort Ticonderoga - installment 1 : Adrift

plaster bandage of Characters ;

***

name : Phillip Irving grave accent

social status : Captain - commanding policeman

shout augury : Pig

story : He was born on old earth in the expanse known as the Western Territories of N America. As a young he was a trouble God Almighty this, being virtually unheard of in his century, forced the military machine to handle with him. He was given a choice. link up the United major planet peacefulness keeping and research effect or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioral problems. His career in the military was a great exemplar of how not to advance. After twenty age he was still only a petty policeman third class. That was when he was caught pulling off his risky infraction yet. Fleet Admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his married woman, and both of his daughters, at the same fourth dimension. Phillip was doomed to go back to bag social status again. But instead the admiral made him an offer. encounter a wife, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

description : He is six invertebrate foot tall, with jet black tomentum and brown eyes. His organic structure eccentric is thin and sinewy with tan skin tone.

teammate : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

Name : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

membership : Commander - Ships scientific discipline officer and fourth in command

Call Sign : Marijuana

History : She was born a simple-minded farm girl in the Midwest district of North America. She led an exemplary life history, with no problems, until she came of age. Then she found she had a taste for bad male child. To try and suppress her appetite for self destructive behavior, she joined the service. Her career was in near order and she was well-chosen after five years but she longed to go deep. The lonesome 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 throw it into space. She only had one to a greater extent social status to go then she could go. That would submit another six calendar month. Then she was broadsided by a interrogative sentence 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 foot six inch tall, blond haired, blue eyed beauty, with medium sized knocker. Her body style is lithe and athletic.

better half : Phillip Irving Graves

***

Name : James Mitchell Penzo

social rank : captain Chief petty larceny Officer - Chief engineer and mechanic.

Call Sign : malarkey hands

story : He was born on the emerald isle of EU. He was a good kid and went to college. After school he joined the service to set up a little draw close 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 medicative effects of the engine answer. Just a little nip of it could make any man well-chosen. He stayed happy a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a selection, armed services separation or he and his wife go deep.

Description : He is five metrical foot eight inches tall with dark cat valium eyes and dark-brown hair. His body type is duncical with just a little spare part tire.

Mate : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

name : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

Rank : aged top dog Petty officeholder - top dog of off ship security.

Call Sign : Demoness

History : She was born on her aborigine world of Liskia. She is substantial and fast and excelled in her career as military machine police, until her husband introduced her to the dissolving agent. 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 substructure two inches improbable. Her race has red skin and hair with light grey eye. Many citizenry say they look like the mythical demons, right down to the two tufts of hair on their os frontale that resembled automobile horn. Her organic structure type is thin and svelte with a well defined muscle tone.

Mate : James Mitchell Penzo

***
Name : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

Rank : lieutenant junior gradation - xeno-biologist.

margin call preindication : broncobuster

story : He is a native of Ling, a homo colony, joined the servicing to go deep, he wanted the life of an IE, he was also married and his wife joined at the Lapplander time looking to embark out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to study new species of both flora and animals.

verbal description : He is five foot eight inch tall with mousey blonde hair and blue eyes. His body type is reduce and non muscular.

teammate : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

Name : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

Rank : Lieutenant Junior Grade - ships doctor.

Call Sign : melon vine

History : She is a indigen of Trapa bicornis, a homo colony, and was married to her college steady. She joined the service to go trench with him.

Description : She is five foot six inches improbable with platinum blonde hair and very large knocker. He body type is voluptuous.

Mate : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

name : Lorka Dumont Willock

Rank : Commander - security police officer, second in command.

Call sign of the zodiac : mickle

history : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the table service to get a chance to do battle in this meter of peace. He is very democratic with the ladies because his raceway believes that love maneuver should be as tender as war is violent.

Description : At well over seven foundation tall and four century and fifty punt of solid muscle he is by far the declamatory member of the work party, except for his wife. His black skin looks like a shadow seminal fluid to life. The alone prison-breaking in his duskiness is his red eyes.

match : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

Name : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

membership : commander - weapon system military officer, 3rd in command

claim signboard : Mt. Everest

chronicle : She is a female Tithian warrior. She joined the armed service with her married man, in the hopes of finding conflict. She is a foot taller than her husband, and a hell of a lot meaner.

Description : She is eight feet four inches grandiloquent with shadower pitch-dark hide and red middle. Her body eccentric is extremely muscular.

Mate : Lorka Dumont Willock


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

I stared at the blank sight screen in front of me. My ship had been adrift for three sidereal day. There was only one trouble when you were deep ; there was no one to avail when you hit bother. The dear ship to us was two calendar month travel away. It had taken us two years to get this far out.

"sledding deep"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to encounter inhabitable major planet that we could colonise or resources we could mine for. The fun character, the formula say the first crew member to set foot on a planet gets to name the planet.

The combine races had managed to colonize or minelaying cantonment every rock for sixty light years around solid ground. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to travel sixty light-headed old age with the snort campaign 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 audio to move at threescore times the pep pill of Inner Light. The trouble right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communications venire on my chair to lifespan."Jazz hands, What the sin is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the dissolvent again I'm going to take you off of relief rotation for two weeks."

"Not a hazard, Pig, I am trying to revivify the damn terms those cockbiter strikebreaker did to the engine wiring. The fucking little beasties chewed through every light wire in the main fire ascendency cabinet."

"How long before we have locomotive power again ?"

"Another day at least, we have over a thousand wires to supervene upon 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 revolution !"

"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 minuscule whoreson. Go take a backup good luck and let me do my damn job."

I stalked off of the bridge. The damn cosmetic surgery were down so I had to climb down the access code ladders to get to the crew decks. I guess we could shout out ourselves lucky ; those little varmints had not reached the life bread and butter equipment yet. twenty dollar bill cockbiter scum bag had managed to chew through our main business leader control, lift control condition systems, helm control interlink, navigation, and engine flack control in lupus erythematosus than twenty four time of day. 20 rats had crippled a ship, with crew of one hundred hoi polloi on control board. Only fortune knows what else was damaged. malarkey helping hand was correct I needed tenseness ministration ; it was meter to head to the crowd lounge.

There is a major set of rules about going trench. The first one is all crew members must be mated couples. The second rule is all relationships are opened on the ship. When off obligation personnel office need stress relief any off responsibility person of the diametric gender is uncommitted to them, unless they are in their sleep cycle. Any Lapp sex inter-group communication are not forbidden but are overt to be refused. Your fourth were kept monogamous, only you and your better half enjoyed that emplacement. The waiting room is where you go to dress liaisons with other gang member. That is also where the"training"room are. There is one for just about every predilection, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

Rank has its privilege as well. bid officer are allowed to look at emphasis prison-breaking during duty if there is no pressing demand for their attending. As of right hand now, there was no pressing need for me. I could not overtop this ship to strike if I were a god.

I no Oklahoman walked into the lounge when Melonie saw me and came over. I knew what she was after, she loved my oral examination techniques."motivation some tension backup man, captain ?"

"At least a week'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 enjoy a calum tea."I told the bartender as I caressed melon vine belly. I always enjoyed her very large 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 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 make it look like we were in the cloud. I had seen sufficiency stars already today. All of them sensation I couldn't range. We attached the palpebra to our glasses so our drinks would not float out and then I touched the activate release. Watching her breasts suddenly float upward as the gravity stopped was an vex dainty. We floated in the air together as I started to undress her. As was standard when in the lounge, her article of clothing was uncomplicated and easy to move out. She wore a pullover shirt and mini with no panties on underneath. Her shoes were bare slipper very well-situated and quite attractive. The little electrostatic explosive charge caused by pulling her shirt over her head caused her hairsbreadth to stand out like a hallo of platinum blonde silk. By a lot of measure this woman would be considered overweight. She weighed about twenty pounds over ideal weight for her five substructure six in physical body. To me the extra fuzziness just made her voluptuous.

Once her clothes were floating around the way like cast off feather, she started to undress me. My uniform was a little more complicated to hit. It was a tough button up pants and shirt, with a crown over it, all in black. The shoe were dressed perfection in black innate leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also nigrify. Add the dark gray whang and thorax bandolier as well as my maitre d''s hat to the whole affair and I looked like a civilize 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 respective moans of delight. Her legs wrapped around my stomach and squeezed me knockout enough to be slightly sore. She began to flex her pelvic arch rubbing her pert stern on the top of my cock. I was very tempted to take what she was offering right then but I had other musical theme. Zero-G has one real advantage to making be intimate on any open. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those total lips that were just made for what I had in mind. Once she was free I spun her in the air and brought her wooden leg around to my face. There in front of my eyes was a low landing strip of platinum blonde hairsbreadth that pointed right to the target of my desire. I moved my nous forward and inhaled the fragrance of her arousal. With deliberate slowness I extended my tongue and began to pass water small circles through that perfumed landing strip.

I felt her mouth as she started to work out and osculate along the shaft of my cock. Her mouthpiece and lips were delectable affectionateness on my skin. The vibrations of her groan made my cock saltation and twitch as I touched the tip of my clapper to her clit and flipped it quickly back and forth. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my turncock slide down her throat. She was so smooth and hot on the inside. I moved both of my handwriting around her delightful bottom and started wetting my fingers in the honey flowing from her rigorous twat. When I felt her legs starting to tighten around my promontory, I slid two digit from one paw into her plastered pussy. My center finger's breadth of my other hand pushed into her silky cocksucker. I started pumping my finger's breadth 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 belly begin to stiffen and vibrate against my chest. Then her legs slammed shut on my head like a clamp. Her flow was floating in droplets around my drumhead 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 duration of my rock unvoiced prick 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 backs as we thundered into our orgasm together.

Ten hour later we left the floaty way freshly showered. As we exited the way, I set the controls to clean house and unsex the room. I kissed melon vine and left her imbibing and grin 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 venire at the doorway."nothingness Hands, are we moving ?"

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

"What do you entail any 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 damn rats killed again."

"Sir, we have no weapon system control, would you like my wife and I to discombobulate rock music at their floating corpses ?"Mountain said back facetiously.

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

"How soon, Jazz Hands ?"

"We are looking at the hurt 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 hertz or I am going to give you to Mt. Everest and mount as a target dope !"

"Yes sir. Have you gotten that accent relief yet ?"

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

As I moved back to the span my mind wandered back to the result that led up to this situation. We had found a major planet with no beacon on it. It was undiscovered. Scans showed it to be a dipsomaniac O rich planet with plant and animal life abundant on the airfoil and in the sea. I organized a landing party to investigate the surface.

***

The party, consisting of Marijuana, Demoness, Buster, melon, mess and myself, left the ship in a shuttle. Several orbital passes and scans later we determined a racy area to country and investigate.

It was a soft touchdown nothing at all out of the ordinary. There was the shinny for office to see who could attain 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 ramp to see my married woman dancing in a athletic field of phallus. Yes I said that right, all of the industrial plant in the area were myopic maybe twelve column inch tall and shaped like that fortune of the virile anatomy.

I looked around to see the Tree, thank god they looked more like trees, and they even had beautiful flower growing on them. A nearer look at the bloom made me think I had lost it. They looked like pinko penis with two balls hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty appropriate that my wife would get to constitute a macrocosm covered in penis shaped plants.

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

"So plant the radio beacon, give it a name and register it. The beacon will send back the info via short space."I said as I walked down and resisted the urge to smell any of the flowers.

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

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

"It does ingest a sure menacing presence doesn't it ?"

Buster was the foremost one to see an animal. It was floating gently on the breeze towards one of the trees. It had declamatory bland wings with vesica underneath them. These bladders probably contain some gas lightsome than the air around us. By paddling its metrical unit 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 rima oris around one of the flowers. A few seconds later it left the flower hanging limply from its radical and moved to another flower. One by one it drained the"nectar"out of the stiff flowers leaving them flaccid.

"We need a twain of those birds on the ship,"Buster said as we watched."I bet we could study them back to UP outer space and sell them for a fortune."

"Get some samples for study, we will stay nightlong and ask everything back in the morning."I told Buster and his married woman. They set about collecting industrial plant and animal samples. They caught one of the wench but it died in LE than an hr in the Cage. They must require to eat constantly.

Buster gave me a report a couple hours later. The flowers on the Tree produced nectar that made the scape corpse. When the Bladder Winged cocksucker doll would give suck at the flower they would evacuate out the nectar and take some of the pollen away on their mouths. Those moving from flower to blossom accomplished fertilization for the industrial plant. The hobble flower would withdraw about an 60 minutes to generate a full-of-the-moon load of ambrosia again. There were respective former brute and plant life that he reported on.
My wife had decided to holler this place, appropriately enough, prick's World.

As eventide started to darken the skies we saw various, rat like, creatures come out of kettle of fish in the ground. They started to rise up the tree. We watched as they moved to the ends of the arm and bit the flowers off the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and ate them. Every man in the group cringed watching this. I think batch even turned a small picket. These animals quickly became known as cockbiter rats. fellow thought they wouldn't sell well.

Our sensors could not find any animal big than the razz within five c pawl of us so we bedded down in the shuttle for the night.

I awoke the next morning and shook Demoness awake succeeding to me. She smiled as I retrieved two cups of coffee from the energy solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. Buster must experience awoken my married woman 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 hardier than the dame. I oversaw the samples being packed in over crateful to be taken back to the science lab on the ship. Then we did a low level fly over of the planet to learn scan and effigy of the plant and beast living. In twelve 60 minutes we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The flight 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 fellow to crap sure the crates were in the lab containment sphere before he opened them, but I was too tardily. He popped the latch on the rat crate and rats exploded out and ran all over the deck. It took less than a minute for them all to disappear down an spread access 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 former crateful !"I yelled."At least we don't have any penis prime here for them to eat. I want them all caught and then you are to see me in the bidding office, Buster."

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the nosepiece to get my condition report. That overzealous science flake had let blackleg unleash on my ship. I was on the bridge receiving my news report when the firstly preindication of trouble happen. The pilotage silver screen went blank. We were suddenly flying screen."seafaring, what the hell are you doing over there ?"

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

"Helm mastery, bring us to full phase of the moon stop consonant, now !"I shouted as I stood from my professorship. Suddenly my ship lurched and I fell on my face."shit it, helm, you can't just cut the railway locomotive, 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 communicating panel on my chairman."Engineering ! study ! What the hell are you doing down there ? You can't cut nexus while we are in flight of steps !"

malarkey Hands came on the intercommunication system,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the pilotage bank went major power night, we opened the panel and squealer came running out. How the hell did we get rats on the ship ?"

We all heard the throb of the locomotive engine wind down as they shut themselves down."All hands find those mother fucking skunk and kill them ! Now ! Security, consequence inducers 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 place,"Everest, take us to alert status."She thumbed the consternation system of rules on her console to on.

The xanthous warning lights on the ship came to life sentence. The computers voice could be heard all over the ship as she said,"alert, all personnel are to maintain alarum Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the monition visible radiation went out and the bridge circuit went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my daydream as I entered the nosepiece. The first thing I noticed was the view blind was no thirster blank. It now showed a large, dense asteroid field, and we were moving towards it slowly."Mt. Everest, give me a situation report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid field at approximately fifteen hundred kilometer per second. Estimated time to beguile into the champaign is six hours."

"Bring our cuticle and targeting online. Get the cannoneer in their stations and tell them we may need to cause a footling target practice."

"The gunner are reporting to post, but the artillery links are all still down, we have no accelerator. The shields are on but we can not detect if they are working."

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

"Yes, sir."

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

Activating the communication theory in my president I called down to engineering."malarky Hands give me some adept news. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will have the helm ascendancy and inertial dominance back on line of products in eight 60 minutes. My people are working around the clock."

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

"Do you get it on a good tow truck service that may be in the area ?"

"We are sending the shuttlecock out."

I thumbed off the com venire."babe, generate me some good news."

Marijuana spoke without looking away from her console."We have an estimated impact clip of seven hours 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 giant on the early face of the field. I am running the calculations on the shuttles now."

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

I stared at the thought screen that I now wished was blank again. My mind started to drift back to the puke again.

***

We were hunting rats ; they seemed to move about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The Light Within wires were cancel targets."We need one of them alive so Buster can order us why they are after the light wires."

Our group split up into pairs. I was teamed with Demoness, our programme was simple ; strike about the ship opening access panels. If anything ran out pull the gun trigger and stun it. I noticed heap had put on his ceremonial armor for the hunt. It had a midst codpiece for protection down there.

yakety-yak over our helmet com was kept to a minimum. Demoness opened the first panel, it was to life keep. There was nil. We moved to the lift control panel. When I opened it there was an detonation of fur and dentition. Then there was unbelievable annoyance as I was hit by the gust from the persuader. darn I am beaming it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a immense pair of breasts hovering over my typeface."Hi, Melons,"I mumbled as I shook my heading to take in it."Did we at least manage to get one of the rat ?"

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

"Damn ! That hurt."I could see Demoness out of the turning point of my eye."Why did you burgeon forth me ?"

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

"Melon's costly, would you please hand me my inducer ; I want to usher Demoness just how piddling they hurt."As melon's looked at me with big eyes, Demoness quietly slipped out of the room. I reached over for the com venire next to the bed."Buster, assure me some dependable news."

"My retirement report is up fifty thousand."

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

"I am studying them now ; I should consume a theme in two hours."

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

"The only thing I know is they are attracted to the light wire because they glow on the same wavelength in extremist violet as the flowers do. As to why they are attracted to them."

I jumped out of the bed and headed for engineering. Mountain was in the Marguerite Radclyffe Hall."Get every marksman armed with rifles and suffer me in engineering. We are going to have an old fashioned turkey 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 said as he ran up."Sir we are really engaged trying to repair the harm. Can this look ?"

"No. How long would it remove to get a batch of spare brightness telegram in the center of applied science and attach it to the principal generator ?"

"About twenty minutes."

"You have ten, I also want the briny link from the generator to the rest of the ship set to disconnect on my command."

"You want us to switch to the backup ?"

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

"The aerodynamic lift are no problem the rats chewed them up about fifteen instant ago. The taboo doors may be a problem. The main shuttle bay doors are stuck open and the notice window in the forward mapmaking lab is non-operational."

"Evacuate those surface area, tell everyone they have twenty minutes to batten everything and get out. We are going to tease a trap for the rats."

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

"We are facing a higher-ranking foeman, in an strange tactical billet. We are completely defenseless now. If the rats continue at this rate we will take no ship in dozen hours. It is time to take a final stand. The rats are attracted to the fall wires so we will cave in them the sole passel of glowing conducting wire 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 berth balcony, as the others started to gather. I set multitude up in positions so we had full coverage of the technology deck below. The bundle of telegram was a center of fervidness anything that moved was a butt."All correctly people there are sixteen of these rats to kill. I want everyone's weapon set to overkill. We can not yield for a 1 rat to turn tail this trap."

As I took my position as the last of the personnel left the crushed stratum. Then the lights went out. It was such a long wait. But after almost an hour the low gear rat came out of an access hatching and started moving toward the conducting wire. He was hit by the beams of over forty weapons. The minuscule SOB was zip but a puffiness of charcoal.

It took about an 60 minutes for the rats to start showing up. It took twenty mo for the last one to pass. I stood and hit the com panel. It was dead like everything else."jazz handwriting, lets get the system rebooted and repairs started."

***

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

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

"Reduce the magnification to ten times."

"It is already at ten times, sir."

"Shit ! How big is that thing ?"

"It is four K kilometre long by two thousand wide."

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

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the attempt to commute our course with the shuttlecock going ?"

"Not right, sir, the attitude correction green are firing and locking us on course."

"Bring them back in. We are going to need the shuttles along with the life history sauceboat to evacuate."I looked at the screen door. My meat sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my command. If we made it back alive we would get fully honor and retreat benefits as admirals. My mind drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"petit larceny police officer tierce class Phillip Irving Robert Ranke Graves, reporting as ordered sir."I said as I walked into admiral Tigrat's position. He looked up at me with a diddly-shit eating smile on his face. He motioned with his hand for me to sit and be at ease.

"Phillip, I am at a loss 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 press boot then you get off Scott innocent and I can not let that pass 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 cheek was one of pure evil."My sentiment exactly, so here is the raft. I am going to recommend you as the police captain of the Fort Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to set out at the end of the month. Then you are going to go late. Your mission will be two long time transit out, then sixteen years exploring. When you return, you will have admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the record, not s single ship had ever come back from going bass. almost disappeared without a trace. He was consigning me to a expiry prison term. My own instruction weighed heavy on my mind. I had always thought I could do it practiced than any of these bragger. Out there I would be the vocalization of dominance. I would be the only command chain. The buck would lay off with me.

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

The grin he gave me had me thinking through the womanhood I knew. I sure as inferno would not let him decide. Then Millishia came to bear in mind, she was one Inferno of a skill officer. Her career was golden. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in battlefront of me yet."Do I get to choose my gang ?"

"You will be given a list of Tennessean for deep serve. You may choose 30 twosome from it. The other nineteen brace I will opt. I already have one of your engineers and doctors picked out. Plus a couple of security citizenry you will just love."

"Do rule deep normal 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 beauty, long and sleek with four engine nacelles under her body bearing. She hung in distance like a shadow, the rib of the shipyard flesh surrounding her. The long narrow body looked like an arrow with atmospheric stabiliser on the parent half. The broad header of the arrow was where the mastery decks sat. The slightly wider body was the crew area. Under the main body hung applied science and medical. She was designed to cut through space like a weapon. She was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen. I was supposed to cover aboard and select my crew via interviews.

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

I had looked at the files of over a K volunteer couples, I had to nibble thirty. I had discovered something profound. to the highest degree multitude that wanted to go oceanic abyss were nut cases. These were no exceptions. The volunteers ran the gambit from mad scientist to psycho killer whale. I was at a red for anyone I trusted on a long escape let alone wanted there.

I spent the side by side week interviewing aspirer ; it was the operose workweek of my life history. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would let begged the admiral to Margaret Court summon me. The adjacent three daytime were worn-out choosing my crew and filing their new social rank. One thing nice about being a maitre d'hotel of a oceanic abyss ship, rank onboard your ship was your pick. You set the range of mountains of control and the obligation roster. The captain was the first last and sole line of instruction once you left the space port.

quadruplet day later the moorage lines fell away from the ship. My new helmsman only managed to hit the dry wharfage once on the way out. I now had an untested crowd, a new ship with all the hemipteron underlying and two class to sour them into a functioning work party before we made our firstly planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my retentivity, that Rock was a lot bountiful. The countdown on the cover said thirty-one bit. My psyche started flying through the possibilities. I had to come up with an answer. I would not lose my ship and command after our first major planet fall.

A plan came to me. It would take some fancy flying. I hit the com unit in my death chair."Jazz Hands, Prepare to disconnect all business leader on my command. Demoness, I need your pilotage skills, you have shuttle two, I have shuttle one, we launch in five."

Jazz Hands came on the com unit of measurement,"Captain we have to have mogul to do repair, if you make me cut it off again it will take an minute 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 matter anymore, you don't have time to fix the ship before we make our mo satellite fall. Do me a favor, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"Take forethought of my wife."I thumbed off the console and left the bridge before anyone could ask any questions. 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 bird. I could hear the com traffic as Demoness launched. I thumbed the com whole between the two shuttlecock to lifespan."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into direct inter-group communication with the consistence of the Ticonderoga. Then I am going to make jazz hand cut all power. That should stop the thrusters from firing. Once that is set I am going to arouse up the engines in the shuttle and give her the gas. If this works I will debar the ship by sufficiency to escape the asteroid field."

"Sir, if you do that your engine will overheat and flare out in seconds. The interior of the shuttle will be a one-half million level fireball."

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

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

"I don't have sentence to put a suit on ; if this is going to sour I have to do it now."I shut off the com groove. It took me LE than a min to stead my shuttle. I contacted wind manpower,"Cut the magnate now !"Then I put the engine power to full and locked the throttle. The on display board computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent locomotive overload in twenty seconds. Imminent railway locomotive overload in 19 bit. Imminent locomotive engine overburden in xviii seconds."I dove for the controls for the ejection system. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the handle."organization detects non suited personnel, ejection system disabled."

Fuck ! I pulled my side arm and shot the console table. Then I yanked the hold again, there was a mind numbing roar as the air exploded out of the ship. My headland hit something solid a few moment later and the world went darkness. My last idea 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."full admiral Tigrat said as I was in my last interview before launching."Do not let down me."

"Respectfully sir, my entire crew will be at your one hundredth birthday company. There I will give your wife and daughters a buss right in presence of you. How did you ever manage to get a ringing on the finger of that cleaning woman ? She has to be at least XL age younger than you."

***

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

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

"How ?"

"Liskians are hard than humans, she had the shuttle decompressed and waiting on your riddance. Once you flew onboard she put up the hand brake fields and re-pressurized. You may make a few ache and pains plus blurred vision for a few Clarence Day, but you will be mulct soon."

"melon's, what about the ship ?"

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

"Tell Jazz work force and Demoness to take an extra relaxation method cycle, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

"malarky flushed the rest of the dissolvent out the air lock. He said any man that would do what you did to save the ship deserves a sober mechanic. ”