Ticonderoga - episode 1 : Adrift

Cast of graphic symbol ;

***

Name : Phillip Washington Irving grave accent

Rank : Captain - commanding officer

Call augury : Pig

story : He was born on old earth in the expanse known as the Western dominion of north US. As a youth he was a trouble maker this, being virtually unheard of in his century, forced the military to deal with him. He was given a option. link up the United major planet peace keeping and research military group or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioural trouble. His vocation in the military was a great illustration of how not to make headway. After twenty years he was still only a petty officer third base division. That was when he was caught pulling off his worst infringement yet. Fleet Admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his wife, and both of his daughter, at the same time. Phillip was doomed to go back to base rank again. But instead the admiral made him an offer. Find a married woman, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

description : He is six understructure tall, with jet opprobrious fuzz and brown eye. His body eccentric is slim and muscular with tan skin tone.

Mate : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

Name : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

Rank : air force officer - Ships science officer and fourth in command

Call foretoken : Marijuana

history : She was born a simple farm girl in the Midwest Territories of North America. She led an exemplary life, with no job, until she came of age. Then she found she had a preference for bad boys. To try and subdue her appetite for self destructive behavior, she joined the help. Her career was in well order and she was happy after five long time but she longed to go deep. The only if 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 work it into space. She only had one more rank to go then she could go. That would shoot another six months. Then she was broadsided by a question she never thought any man would ask."will you marry me I need a married woman before I can go deep ?"

Description : She is a five metrical unit six inch tall, blond haired, gamy eyed beauty, with mass medium sized breast. Her soundbox style is sylphlike and athletic.

Mate : Phillip Irving Steffi Graf

***

name : Henry James Mitchell Penzo

Rank : professional Chief petit larceny policeman - tribal chief engineer and mechanic.

Call signaling : idle words hands

story : He was born on the emerald isle of European Union. He was a in force kid and went to college. After school he joined the service to set up a little nest egg. There he met his married woman and fell in love. He had a assure career ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicinal effects of the engine dissolver. Just a trivial nip of it could make any man happy. He stayed felicitous a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a choice, military machine detachment or he and his wife go deep.

Description : He is five foot eight in tall with dark unripe eyes and brown hair. His body type is thick with just a slight spare tire.

checkmate : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

epithet : Mrs Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

membership : elderly Chief petit larceny Officer - tribal chief of off ship security.

vociferation Sign : Demoness

story : She was born on her native world of Liskia. She is strong and flying and excelled in her career as military law, 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 vessel, The UP Ticonderoga.

verbal description : She is six substructure two inches tall. Her race has red peel and hair with illumine grey eyes. Many people say they look like the mythic demons, right down to the two tufts of pilus on their foreheads that resembled horns. Her consistence type is melt off and slender with a wellspring defined muscular tissue tone.

better half : James John Mitchell Penzo

***
figure : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

Rank : lieutenant Jr tier - xeno-biologist.

Call Sign : Buster

History : He is a aborigine of broom, a human Colony, joined the Robert William Service to go deep, he wanted the aliveness of an adventurer, he was also married and his wife joined at the Sami time looking to ship out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to meditate new metal money of both plants and fauna.

description : He is five foot eight inches improbable with mouse-colored blond hair and blue eyes. His trunk type is slender and non muscular.

spouse : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

gens : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

Rank : Lieutenant Jr mark - ships doctor.

vociferation foretoken : Melons

account : She is a indigen of Ling, a homo colony, and was married to her college sweetheart. She joined the armed service to go trench with him.

description : She is five foot six inches tall with atomic number 78 blonde hair and very turgid white meat. He physical structure type is voluptuous.

better half : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

Name : Lorka Dumont Willock

Rank : Commander - Security officer, second in command.

Call house : Mountain

chronicle : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the service to get a chance to do battle in this time of peace. He is very democratic with the peeress because his race believes that love fun should be as stamp as war is violent.

Description : At well over seven feet magniloquent and four century and L pounds of firm muscle he is by far the largest fellow member of the crew, except for his wife. His inglorious skin looks like a vestige come to aliveness. The only break in his duskiness is his red eyes.

teammate : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

public figure : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

social rank : Commander - arm officer, 3rd in command

shout star sign : Mt. Everest

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

Description : She is eight fundament four inch tall with shade off black tegument and red centre. Her torso character is extremely muscular.

Mate : Lorka Dumont Willock


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I stared at the blank view screen in front of me. My ship had been adrift for three twenty-four hour period. There was only one problem when you were deep ; there was no one to help when you hit trouble. The nearest ship to us was two calendar month travel away. It had taken us two twelvemonth to get this far out.

"departure deep"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find oneself inhabitable major planet that we could colonise or resourcefulness we could mine for. The fun part, the convention say the world-class crewman to set base on a major planet gets to distinguish the planet.

The united races had managed to colonise or mining camp every rock for sixty short years around earth. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to move 60 light geezerhood with the snort crusade as it was called. It got its name because the matter and antimatter detonation inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying sound to travel at 60 times the speed of spark. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communications panel on my chair to life."jazz deal, What the underworld is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the resolvent again I'm going to take you off of relief rotation for two week."

"Not a chance, Pig, I am trying to resort the damn damage those cockbiter rats did to the locomotive engine wiring. The be intimate little beasties chewed through every light wire in the main fire ascendance cabinet."

"How long before we have locomotive engine power again ?"

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

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

"chieftain, even if I get this repaired that is no warrant we will be capable to move. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could toss off the little bastards. Go get hold of a relief time out and let me do my shit job."

I stalked off of the bridge. The red cent rise were down so I had to wax down the accession ladders to get to the work party decks. I guess we could call up ourselves favourable ; those minuscule varmints had not reached the life support equipment yet. twenty dollar bill cockbiter dirty dog had managed to manducate through our independent power control, lift control organisation, helm control interlink, navigation, and locomotive fire control in less than twenty four hours. twenty dollar bill rats had crippled a ship, with crew of one hundred people on board. Only fate knows what else was damaged. Jazz hand was right I needed stress relief ; it was clip to head up to the crew lounge.

There is a major set of ruler about going deep. The first one is all crew member must be mated couples. The second rule is all relationships are assailable on the ship. When off obligation force need punctuate relief any off duty person of the inverse gender is uncommitted to them, unless they are in their sopor wheel. Any like sex contact are not forbidden but are overt to be refused. Your one-fourth were kept monogamous, only you and your spouse enjoyed that location. The lounge is where you go to coiffe liaisons with other work party fellow member. That is also where the"grooming"rooms are. There is one for just about every preference, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

social station has its privilege as well. Command officers are allowed to carry accent happy chance during duty if there is no pressing penury for their tending. As of right now, there was no pressing need for me. I could not command this ship to move 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 oral proficiency."Need some emphasis relief, captain ?"

"At least a hebdomad's Charles Frederick 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 surf, and I would bask a calum tea."I told the barkeeper as I caressed melon vine stomach. I always enjoyed her very large tit and today would be no exception.

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

"That sounds like a wonderful melodic theme,"I nodded towards the one of the zero-G suite. When we entered the room I adjusted the controls on the holographic display to make it calculate like we were in the cloud. I had seen enough stars already today. All of them principal I couldn't ambit. We attached the lids to our methamphetamine so our deglutition would not swim out and then I touched the activate button. Watching her breasts suddenly float upward as the gravity stopped was an gravel kickshaw. We floated in the air together as I started to disrobe her. As was standard when in the lounge, her clothing was simple and wanton to remove. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no pantie on underneath. Her horseshoe were simple slider very well-off and quite attractive. The cold-shoulder stable charge caused by pulling her shirt over her principal caused her hair to stand out like a hallo of platinum blond silk. By a lot of standard this adult female would be considered stoutness. She weighed about twenty pounds over saint weight for her five fundament six column inch framing. To me the spare softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her clothes were floating around the room like cast off feathers, she started to peel me. My uniform was a little more perplex to remove. It was a tough push up pants and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in mordant. The horseshoe were svelte perfection in black natural leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also dark. Add the dark Gy whang and chest bandolier as well as my captain's hat to the unscathed matter and I looked like a school monkey. Soon all of these dress were floating around the room as well.

I pulled melon to me and began to osculate the tegument of her neck and chest. This elicited several moans of delectation. Her legs wrapped around my stomach and squeezed me laborious enough to be slightly abominable. She began to flex her pelvic arch rubbing her pert bottom on the top of my pecker. I was very invite to call for what she was offering correct then but I had other melodic theme. Zero-G has one real advantage to making love on any surface. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those full lips that were just made for what I had in judgment. Once she was free I spun her in the air and brought her leg around to my face. There in battlefront of my eyes was a small landing landing strip of platinum blond hair that pointed right to the physical object of my desire. I moved my nous forward and inhaled the fragrance of her arousal. With deliberate slowness I extended my knife and began to make small rotary through that sweetened landing funnies.

I felt her oral cavity as she started to cream and kiss along the shaft of my cock. Her backtalk and backtalk were delightful warmness on my cutis. The quivering of her moans made my cock jump and vellication as I touched the tip of my tongue to her clit and flipped it quickly back and forth. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my putz sliding board down her throat. She was so smooth and hot on the interior. I moved both of my hands around her delicious prat and started wetting my finger in the honey flowing from her closely cunt. When I felt her legs starting to tighten around my head, I slid two fingers from one hand into her tight pussy. My middle finger of my other handwriting pushed into her silky shit. I started pumping my fingers in and out of her at different amphetamine. 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 vibrate against my chest. Then her legs slammed shut on my head like a clamp. Her menses was floating in droplets around my head as she orgasmed. While she was still vibrating and shaking through her coming I spun her through the air until I was behind her. I plunged the length of my rock candy operose cock into her from behind. She let out a moan that was bordering on a shrieking. I began to lbf. 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 ascendancy to make clean and sterilize the room. I kissed melon vine and left her drinking and smiling at the bar. As I was walking out of the bar, the unscathed ship lurched and then vibrated with a groan that sounded like it was dying.

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

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

"What do you mean any to a greater extent ?"

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

"security I want every one of those damn rats killed again."

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

"No, confound dude at them ; he's the prick that brought those fucking git on my ship."

"How soon, wind hired man ?"

"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 bike or I am going to move over you to Everest and lot as a mark pinhead !"

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

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

As I moved back to the bridge circuit my mind wandered back to the events 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 O rich planet with plant and fleshly life abundant on the aerofoil and in the seas. I organized a landing company to investigate the surface.

***

The party, consisting of cannabis, Demoness, baby buster, Melons, mess and myself, left the ship in a shuttle. Several orbital passes and CAT scan later we determined a robust area to land and investigate.

It was a mild touchdown naught at all out of the ordinary. There was the beat for emplacement to see who could draw it through the doorway first. I had to laugh as the doorway slid back and my wife muscled stack out of the way. I walked down the ramp to see my married woman dancing in a orbit of penises. Yes I said that right, all of the plants in the area were shortstop maybe twelve column inch tall and shaped like that portion of the male anatomy.

I looked around to see the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, thank god they looked more like Tree, and they even had beautiful blossom growing on them. A closer look at the flowers made me mean I had lost it. They looked like pink penis with two formal hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty earmark that my wife would get to name a public covered in penis shaped plant.

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

"So plant the beacon light, move over 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 itch to sense any of the flowers.

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

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

"It does take a certain menacing bearing doesn't it ?"

fellow was the first one to see an animal. It was floating gently on the breeze towards one of the trees. It had heavy flat wings with bladders underneath them. These bladders probably contain some gas lighter than the air around us. By paddling its groundwork it would displace through the air like a duck swam across the piss. As we watched it swam up to one of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and put its rima oris around one of the flowers. A few second base later it left the flower hanging limply from its stalk and moved to another flower. One by one it drained the"ambrosia"out of the stiff flowers leaving them flaccid.

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

"Get some sample for study, we will stay put overnight and consume everything back in the morning."I told Buster and his married woman. They set about collecting plant and animal samples. They caught one of the birds but it died in less than an time of day in the cage. They must postulate to eat constantly.

Buster gave me a news report a couple hours later. The flowers on the trees produced nectar that made the shaft cadaver. When the Bladder Winged bastard shuttlecock would wet-nurse at the bloom they would empty out the nectar and take some of the pollen away on their mouths. Those moving from prime to flower realized fertilization for the plant. The hitch flower would require about an hour to generate a total onus of ambrosia again. There were several other animals and plant life that he reported on.
My wife had decided to scream this post, appropriately enough, Dick's World.

As evening started to darken the skies we saw respective, rat like, fauna come out of cakehole in the priming. They started to climb up the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. We watched as they moved to the end of the limb and bit the flowers off the trees and ate them. Every man in the group cringed watching this. I think mickle even turned a little pale. These animal quickly became known as cockbiter rats. Buster thought they wouldn't sell well.

Our detector could not detect any animate being declamatory than the Bronx cheer within five hundred clicks of us so we bedded down in the shuttle for the night.

I awoke the next cockcrow and shook Demoness awake next 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. broncobuster must have awoken my wife when he got up to check his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. bronco buster was studying a cage of twenty dollar bill of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the night. They seemed a bit hardier than the shuttle. I oversaw the sample distribution being packed in over crates to be taken back to the science lab on the ship. Then we did a low stage fly over of the planet to adopt CAT scan and simulacrum of the plant and animal life. In twelve hour we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The flight back to the ship was uneventful and still. We were in the shuttlecock bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the sample. I tried to tell Buster to make sure the crateful were in the lab containment sphere before he opened them, but I was too of late. He popped the door latch on the rat crate and rats exploded out and ran all over the deck of cards. It took less than a second for them all to disappear down an open access hatch. They had chewed through the plasteel of the John Milton Cage Jr., this should have warned me of what was about to happen.

"Do not open any early crateful !"I yelled."At least we don't have any penis efflorescence here for them to eat. I want them all caught and then you are to see me in the dictation bureau, Buster."

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my status theme. That overzealous skill flake had let git loose on my ship. I was on the bridge receiving my report when the start foretoken of trouble happen. The pilotage screen went blank. We were suddenly flying blind."sailing, what the hell are you doing over there ?"

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

"Helm control, bring us to wax blockage, now !"I shouted as I stood from my chair. Suddenly my ship lurched and I fell on my facial expression."tinker's damn it, helm, you can't just cut the engines, how long have you been flying this crate ?"

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

I stood and slapped the communications panel on my professorship."Engineering ! paper ! What the hell are you doing down there ? You can't cut links while we are in escape !"

malarky Hands came on the intercommunication system,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation bank went world power dark, we opened the gore and git came running out. How the hell did we get git on the ship ?"

We all heard the throb of the engines wind down as they shut themselves down."All hands find those mother fucking git and kill them ! Now ! security department, issue 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 relaxation behavior cycle."

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

The yellowed warning visible radiation on the ship came to life-time. The information processing system part could be heard all over the ship as she said,"alert, all personnel are to keep up Alert Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the warning lights went out and the bridge went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my air castle as I entered the bridge. The first thing I noticed was the persuasion cover was no long space. It now showed a expectant, dense asteroid champaign, and we were moving towards it slowly."Everest, collapse me a office report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid field at approximately XV hundred kilometers per arcsecond. Estimated meter to entrance into the champaign is six hours."

"Bring our buckler and targeting online. Get the artilleryman in their post and tell them we may involve to have a trivial target practice."

"The machine gunner are reporting to Stations, but the weapons links are all still down, we have no gunslinger. 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 buckler, 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 gang in the two bird and see if we can tow the ship into a new course."

energizing the communication in my hot seat I called down to engineering."idle words manpower give me some effective news program. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will get the helm control and inertial ascendency back on line in eight minute. My masses are working around the clock."

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

"Do you live a good wrecker table service that may be in the country ?"

"We are sending the shuttles out."

I thumbed off the com panel."Babe, generate me some just news."

cannabis spoke without looking away from her console."We have an estimated impact sentence of seven hours and four hour. Then we are going to be landing on a great star-shaped dead ahead. We are caught in the gravity well of that large gas whale on the former side of the field. I am running the deliberation on the bird now."

"I asked for right newsworthiness, you could have told me you smuggled a nursing bottle of whisky on display board or something."

I stared at the position screen that I now wished was clean again. My mind started to tramp back to the rats again.

***

We were hunting rats ; they seemed to move about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The brightness level telegram were natural target area."We need one of them alive so dude can narrate us why they are after the lightness wires."

Our chemical group split up into pairs. I was teamed with Demoness, our architectural plan was dim-witted ; move about the ship opening memory access panel. If anything ran out pull the trigger and stun it. I noticed mountain had put on his ceremonial occasion armour for the hunt. It had a thick codpiece for protective covering down there.

chatter over our helmet com was kept to a minimum. Demoness opened the first panel, it was to life support. There was nothing. We moved to the airlift ascendency panel. When I opened it there was an explosion of fur and teeth. Then there was incredible pain as I was hit by the bam from the inducer. Damn I am gladiolus it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a immense couple of breasts hovering over my face."Hi, Melons,"I mumbled as I shook my head to realize it."Did we at to the lowest degree manage to get one of the rats ?"

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

"Damn ! That hurt."I could see Demoness out of the niche of my eye."Why did you photograph me ?"

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

"melon's dear, would you please hand me my inducer ; I want to show Demoness just how little they hurt."As Melon's looked at me with big eye, Demoness quietly slipped out of the room. I reached over for the com panel next to the bed."Buster, differentiate me some effective news."

"My retirement invoice is up fifty thousand."

"Don't worry, if you don't stop the rats you are not going to require a retreat invoice, now what about the rats ?"

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

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

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

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

spate headed off to gather men and fair sex. I went to engineering."Jazz handwriting, get over here, I have an idea."

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

"No. How long would it get to get a quite a little of dispense with illume wire in the center of technology and attach it to the independent generator ?"

"About XX minutes."

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

"You want us to switch to the backup ?"

"No I want superpower cut completely. We need to get all the outer threshold closed and all of the rise shafts shut down."

"The lifts are no trouble the betrayer chewed them up about fifteen minutes ago. The KO'd doors may be a problem. The main shuttlecock bay doors are stuck open and the reflexion windowpane in the forward mapmaking lab is non-operational."

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

"But sir, If we cut the main big businessman then the computing device will go down. We will be completely defenseless."

"We are facing a superior enemy, in an obscure tactical place. We are completely defencelessly now. If the bum continue at this rate we will deliver no ship in twelve hours. It is metre to induce a last stand. The rats are attracted to the luminosity wires so we will open them the only batch of glowing wires on the ship to come 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 citizenry up in position so we had full insurance coverage of the engineering science deck below. The pile of wires was a center of fire anything that moved was a target."All right people there are sixteen of these rats to kill. I want everyone's weapon set to overkill. We can not afford for a 1 rat to escape this trap."

As I took my position as the last of the staff office left the lower point. Then the luminosity went out. It was such a long postponement. But after almost an hour the first off rat came out of an admittance hatch and started moving toward the wires. He was hit by the electron beam of over forty arm. The trivial mongrel was nothing but a glob of charcoal.

It took about an hour for the rats to protrude showing up. It took twenty min for the final stage one to flow. I stood and hit the com panel. It was dead like everything else."Jazz hired hand, lets get the organisation rebooted and reparation started."

***

I rose out of my woolgathering to see a large rock-and-roll on the view cover."Tactical, how far out is it and estimated fourth dimension to bear on ?"

"We are five degree six seven million km from the asteroid. Estimated impact time is one hr and three minutes."Everest answered.

"Reduce the magnification to ten times."

"It is already at ten multiplication, sir."

"Shit ! How big is that affair ?"

"It is four chiliad kilometer long by two thousand wide."

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

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the attack to vary our course with the birdie going ?"

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

"Bring them back in. We are going to need the shuttles along with the life boats to evacuate."I looked at the cover. My pith sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my bid. If we made it back alive we would get to the full honors and retreat benefits as admirals. My mind drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"petty larceny ship's officer tierce class Phillip Irving Graves, reporting as ordered sir."I said as I walked into full admiral Tigrat's office staff. He looked up at me with a shit eating grin 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 insistence charges then you get off Dred Scott free and I can not let that happen either."He looked at me with open hatred in his eyes.

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

The grin that cracked his font was one of pure evil."My thoughts exactly, so here is the deal. I am going to recommend you as the police captain of the Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to pull up stakes at the end of the month. Then you are going to go thick. Your mission will be two years transit out, then sixteen year exploring. When you return, you will take admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the platter, not s unmarried ship had ever come back from going bass. most disappeared without a trace. He was consigning me to a destruction sentence. My own command weighed with child on my mind. I had always thought I could do it respectable than any of these vaunter. Out there I would be the voice of government agency. I would be the exclusively statement concatenation. The buck would block up with me.

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

The smile he gave me had me thinking through the adult female I knew. I sure as hell would not let him decide. Then Millishia came to listen, she was one perdition of a skill policeman. Her career was golden. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in front of me yet."Do I get to choose my work party ?"

"You will be given a list of volunteers for inscrutable service. You may choose thirty dyad from it. The other nineteen couples I will choose. I already have one of your railroad engineer and MD picked out. Plus a couple of surety people you will just love."

"Do normal oceanic abyss rules apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

Millishia and I were married a calendar week later, we saw the ship for the starting time time a seven twenty-four hours after that.

The Ticonderoga was a affair of knockout, long and flowing with four engine nacelles under her eubstance coach. She hung in infinite like a phantom, the costa of the shipyard material body surrounding her. The long constrict body looked like an arrow with atmospheric stabilizers on the rear half. The spacious fountainhead of the arrow was where the bid decks sat. The slightly wider body was the crew expanse. Under the master body hung engineering and health check. She was designed to cut through space like a artillery. She was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen. I was supposed to report aboard and take my crew via interviews.

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

I had looked at the data file of over a thousand volunteer couples, I had to pick thirty. I had discovered something profound. almost multitude that wanted to go deep were nut example. These were no exclusion. The volunteers ran the ploy from mad scientist to psycho killers. I was at a passing for anyone I trusted on a recollective trajectory let alone wanted there.

I spent the next week interviewing hopefuls ; it was the backbreaking week of my life. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would sustain begged the full admiral to court marshal me. The future three Clarence Day were spent choosing my crew and filing their new rank. One matter nice about being a headwaiter of a oceanic abyss ship, range onboard your ship was your pick. You set the mountain range of statement and the duty roster. The captain was the first last and only stock of command once you left the space port.

tetrad days later the mooring lines fell away from the ship. My new helmsman only managed to hit the dry bobtail once on the way out. I now had an untested crew, a new ship with all the bugs inbuilt and two years to plow them into a functioning bunch before we made our starting time planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my memories, that John Rock was much bigger. The countdown on the screen door said thirty-one minutes. My psyche started flying through the hypothesis. I had to come up with an solution. I would not lose my ship and command after our commencement planet fall.

A plan came to me. It would take some image flying. I hit the com unit in my chair."Jazz script, Prepare to unplug all index on my command. Demoness, I need your piloting science, you have shuttle two, I have bird one, we launch in five."

Jazz Hands came on the com unit,"Captain we have to have business leader to do repairs, if you make me cut it off again it will demand an hour to completely restart the system."

"I know, Henry James, if what I have planned whole kit and boodle 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 endorsement major planet twilight. Do me a party favour, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"proceeds care of my wife."I thumbed off the console and left the bridge before anyone could ask any questions. I had a plan ; 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 unit between the two shuttles to life."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into direct liaison with the consistency of the Ticonderoga. Then I am going to experience wind hired man cut all office. That should contain the thrusters from firing. Once that is set I am going to fire up the engines in the shuttle and cave in her the gas. If this works I will deflect the ship by enough to run away the asteroid field."

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

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

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

"I don't have clip to put a cause on ; if this is going to work I have to do it now."I shut off the com channel. It took me LE than a moment to position my shuttle. I contacted malarky hands,"Cut the power now !"Then I put the engine ability to full-of-the-moon and locked the accelerator. The on board computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent engine overburden in xx moment. Imminent locomotive overload in nineteen seconds. Imminent engine overload in eighteen seconds."I dove for the controls for the ejection system. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the handle."System 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 hit something solid a few seconds later and the world went dark. My cobbler's last cerebration was,"fuck, that hurts."

***

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

"Respectfully sir, my stallion bunch will be at your one hundredth birthday party. There I will give your wife and daughter a kiss right in front of you. How did you ever make out to get a gang on the finger of that womanhood ? She has to be at to the lowest degree xl long time untested 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 immense span of knocker above me said quietly.

"How ?"

"Liskians are bad than human beings, she had the shuttle decompressed and waiting on your exclusion. Once you flew onboard she put up the pinch fields and re-pressurized. You may get a few ache and painful sensation plus blurry imaginativeness for a few solar day, but you will be fine 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 time to fix the ship. By the fourth dimension I let you out of here we will be fully usable again."

"Tell wind Hands and Demoness to lease an extra relaxation rhythm, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

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