Fort Ticonderoga - instalment 1 : Adrift

cast of Characters ;

***

name : Phillip Irving Robert Graves

rank : police captain - commanding officer

Call signal : Pig

history : He was born on old globe in the area known as the Western soil of North America. As a youth he was a trouble maker this, being virtually unheard of in his C, forced the armed services to make do with him. He was given a choice. Join the United major planet peace keeping and research force or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioral problems. His career in the military machine was a corking representative of how not to upgrade. After twenty long time he was still only a little officer third category. That was when he was caught pulling off his worst infraction yet. Fleet Admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his wife, and both of his daughters, at the same prison term. Phillip was doomed to go back to al-Qaida rank again. But instead the admiral made him an offer. receive a wife, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

Description : He is six ft tall, with jet contraband whisker and brownish middle. His body type is thin and muscular with tan tegument tone.

Mate : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

Name : Mrs Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

social rank : commander - Ships science officeholder and fourth in bid

Call Sign : Cannabis sativa

History : She was born a childlike farm girl in the Midwest district of N America. She led an model life, with no problem, until she came of age. Then she found she had a taste for bad boys. To try and curb her appetence for self destructive behavior, she joined the service. Her career was in dependable order and she was happy after five age but she longed to go deep. The alone problem was you had to be married and no one was asking. There was also the trouble of Phillip ; she thought he was just dreamy. He was everything she wanted in a bad boy, but his calling meant he would never even manage to realize it into space. She only had one More social station to go then she could go. That would take on another six calendar month. Then she was broadsided by a query 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 column inch tall, blonde haired, aristocratical eyed beauty, with medium sized breasts. Her body style is supple and athletic.

Mate : Phillip Irving Graf

***

name : James Billy Mitchell Penzo

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

yell planetary house : jazz hands

chronicle : He was born on the emerald isle of Europe. He was a in effect kid and went to college. After school he joined the avail to set up a little nuzzle egg. There he met his wife and fell in love. He had a promising career ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicinal effects of the locomotive engine dissolving agent. Just a little nip of it could build any man felicitous. He stayed happy a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a selection, military legal separation or he and his wife go deep.

description : He is five foot eight in tall with sinister cat valium middle and brown pilus. His body type is thick with just a slight fifth wheel tire.

mate : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

Name : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

Rank : fourth-year Chief petit larceny ship's officer - Chief of off ship security.

Call signboard : Demoness

History : She was born on her native Earth of Liskia. She is strong and degraded and excelled in her career as armed forces police, until her husband introduced her to the solution. Everything still worked well for them until she was called out on an emergency brake while she was extremely felicitous. Six calendar week later she boarded her new vessel, The UP Ticonderoga.

Description : She is six foot two inch tall. Her race has red skin and tomentum with loose grey eyes. Many people say they look like the mythical daimon, right down to the two tussock of hair's-breadth on their foreheads that resembled horns. Her body character is thinly and lissome with a well defined heftiness tone.

teammate : James Billy Mitchell Penzo

***
Name : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

rank : Lieutenant Jnr Grade - xeno-biologist.

Call Sign : Buster

History : He is a native of Ling, a human Colony, joined the service to go deep, he wanted the life story of an explorer, he was also married and his wife joined at the Lapp time looking to ship out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to hit the books new species of both plants and brute.

Description : He is five fundament eight inches tall with mousy blonde hair and blue eyes. His dead body type is thin and non muscular.

Paraguay tea : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

epithet : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

membership : Lieutenant Junior grad - ships doctor.

claim Sign : Melons

History : She is a native of Ling, a human settlement, and was married to her college mantrap. She joined the service to go late with him.

Description : She is five invertebrate foot six inches marvellous with platinum blonde pilus and very heavy breasts. He body type is voluptuous.

Mate : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

Name : Lorka Dumont Willock

social station : Commander - Security ship's officer, second in command.

call option Sign : Mountain

story : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the service to get a chance to do fight in this time of peace. He is very pop with the ladies because his raceway believes that love shimmer should be as pinnace as war is violent.

Description : At well over seven feet magniloquent and four hundred and fifty pounds of solid musculus he is by far the largest member of the gang, except for his married woman. His shameful skin looks like a phantasma come to liveliness. The lonesome break in his dark is his red eyes.

Mate : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

Name : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

Rank : Commander - Weapons officer, third gear in command

Call Sign : Mt. Everest

History : She is a Female Tithian warrior. She joined the armed service with her husband, in the hopes of finding fight. She is a metrical unit taller than her married man, and a perdition of a lot meaner.

Description : She is eight feet four inches marvelous with apparition Black pelt and red oculus. Her body character is extremely muscular.

Mate : Lorka Dumont Willock


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

I stared at the blank view silver screen in front of me. My ship had been adrift for three twenty-four hours. 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 month travel away. It had taken us two years to get this far out.

"Going rich"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find inhabitable planet that we could colonise or resources we could mine for. The fun office, the formula say the number 1 sailor to set fundament on a satellite gets to name the planet.

The united races had managed to colonize or mining encampment every rock for sixty light years around solid ground. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a class to travel sixty light years with the snort drive as it was called. It got its name because the issue and antimatter explosions inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying phone to travel at sixty fourth dimension the speed of light. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communication theory control panel on my chair to life."nothingness hands, What the Inferno is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the result again I'm going to take you off of relievo rotation for two workweek."

"Not a chance, Pig, I am trying to renovate the red cent damage those cockbiter blackleg did to the railway locomotive wiring. The blinking little beasties chewed through every igniter wire in the main fire control cabinet."

"How long before we have engine power again ?"

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

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

"police captain, even if I get this repaired that is no guarantee we will be capable to move. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the piddling mother fucker. Go take a relief shift and let me do my damn job."

I stalked off of the bridge. The damn facelift were down so I had to climb down the access ladder to get to the gang decks. I guess we could promise ourselves favorable ; those little varmints had not reached the lifespan backing equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter stinker had managed to jaw through our main big businessman control, lift control system of rules, helm control interlink, navigation, and railway locomotive flaming controller in to a lesser extent than twenty four hours. Twenty rats had crippled a ship, with work party of one hundred mass on control panel. Only lot knows what else was damaged. Jazz handwriting was correctly I needed stress rest period ; it was time to head to the bunch lounge.

There is a John Roy Major set of prescript about going deep. The first one is all crew members must be mated couples. The second rule is all family relationship are open on the ship. When off duty personnel need stress relief any off duty person of the opposite gender is available to them, unless they are in their log Z's cycle. Any Lapplander sex link are not forbidden but are open to be refused. Your after part were kept monogamous, only you and your mate enjoyed that locating. The lounge is where you go to arrange amour with other crew appendage. That is also where the"breeding"rooms are. There is one for just about every tasting, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

Rank has its privilege as well. Command officers are allowed to take tenseness falling out during duty if there is no pressing need for their care. As of rightfulness now, there was no pressing pauperization for me. I could not command this ship to propel 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 proficiency."pauperism some emphasis relief, captain ?"

"At least a hebdomad's worth, Melons."I said as I took her by the arm and guided her towards the bar."I believe the Lady is drinking a cobalt breaker, and I would delight a calum tea."I told the barkeep as I caressed melon stomach. 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 controls on the holographic display to make it face like we were in the swarm. I had seen plenty stars already today. All of them stars I couldn't reach. We attached the lids to our drinking glass so our drinks would not swim out and then I touched the activate clitoris. Watching her titty suddenly float upward as the gravity stopped was an stupefy treat. We floated in the air together as I started to undress her. As was banner when in the sofa, her clothing was childlike and easy to remove. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no pantie on underneath. Her shoes were dim-witted skidder very prosperous and quite attractive. The tenuous stable complaint caused by pulling her shirt over her head caused her whisker to stand out like a hallo of platinum blond silk. By a lot of standard this woman would be considered fleshy. She weighed about XX pounds over nonpareil weight for her five foot six column inch frame. To me the special softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her apparel were floating around the room like cast off feathers, she started to undress me. My uniform was a little more perplex to remove. It was a hooligan button up pants and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in disastrous. The shoes were smooth perfection in lightlessness natural leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also black. Add the iniquity gray rap and chest bandolier as well as my maitre d'hotel's hat to the whole thing and I looked like a coach monkey. Soon all of these clothes were floating around the room as well.

I pulled melon to me and began to snog the cutis of her neck opening and chest. This elicited several moans of delight. Her wooden leg wrapped around my stomach and squeezed me hard enough to be slightly dreadful. She began to flex her articulatio coxae rubbing her pert bottom on the top of my shaft. I was very influence to take what she was offering right then but I had early thought. Zero-G has one real advantage to making get it on on any surface. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those full rim that were just made for what I had in mind. Once she was free I spun her in the air and brought her legs around to my face. There in front of my heart was a small landing strip of Pt blonde hair's-breadth that pointed right to the object of my desire. I moved my head forward and inhaled the fragrance of her arousal. With deliberate slowness I extended my natural language and began to throw modest circles through that sweet land strip.

I felt her lip as she started to lick and kiss along the diaphysis of my cock. Her mouth and mouth were Delicious fondness on my skin. The palpitation of her moan made my cock leap and twitch as I touched the tip of my tongue to her clitoris and flipped it quickly back and Forth River. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my cock slide down her pharynx. She was so smooth and hot on the inside. I moved both of my script around her delightful posterior and started wetting my finger's breadth in the honey flowing from her tight cunt. When I felt her legs starting to tighten around my capitulum, I slid two fingers from one hand into her besotted slit. My center digit of my other mitt pushed into her silky bunghole. I started pumping my fingers in and out of her at unlike amphetamine. Sometimes they would be moving in and out together, others they would be in a counterpoint rhythm.

I felt her stomach Menachem Begin to tighten and hover against my breast. Then her legs slammed shut on my head like a clinch. Her stream 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 backbreaking peter into her from arse. She let out a moan that was bordering on a scream. I began to hammering with all my might as we floated in the air. Then we both arched our backs as we thundered into our orgasms together.

Ten instant later we left the floaty elbow room freshly showered. As we exited the room, I set the ascendency to clean and sterilize the room. I kissed melon vine and left her drunkenness and smiling at the bar. As I was walking out of the bar, the whole ship lurched and then vibrated with a groan that sounded like it was dying.

I slapped the communications control panel at the room access."Jazz Hands, are we moving ?"

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

"What do you mean any more ?"

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

"protection I want every one of those damn strikebreaker killed again."

"Sir, we have no artillery mastery, would you like my wife and I to discombobulate rocks at their floating corpse ?"sight said back facetiously.

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

"How soon, malarky hands ?"

"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 top executive by end of cycle or I am going to kick in you to Everest and Mountain as a target dummy !"

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

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

As I moved back to the bridge my mind wandered back to the events that led up to this situation. We had found a major planet with no beacon on it. It was unexplored. Scans showed it to be a lush oxygen rich major planet with plant and beast sprightliness abundant on the surface and in the ocean. I organized a landing party to investigate the surface.

***

The political party, consisting of Marijuana, Demoness, Buster, Melons, mount and myself, left the ship in a birdie. Several orbital passes and CAT scan later we determined a fat area to estate and investigate.

It was a soft touchdown null at all out of the ordinary. There was the clamber for positions to see who could gain it through the room access 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 field of penises. Yes I said that right, all of the plants in the surface area were short maybe twelve inches tall and shaped like that portion of the manly anatomy.

I looked around to see the tree, thank god they looked more like trees, and they even had beautiful flowers growing on them. A closer feel at the blossom made me call up I had lost it. They looked like pink penises with two formal hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty earmark that my wife would get to name a macrocosm covered in penis shaped plants.

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

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

My married woman set up the beacon fire station, as the rest of us looked around.

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

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

buster was the commencement one to see an animal. It was floating gently on the breeze towards one of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. It had bombastic categoric wings with bladders underneath them. These bladder probably contain some gas lighter than the air around us. By paddling its feet it would move through the air like a duck swam across the urine. As we watched it swam up to one of the trees and put its mouth around one of the flower. A few mo later it left the flower hanging limply from its shank and moved to another flower. One by one it drained the"nectar"out of the stiff flowers leaving them flaccid.

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

"Get some sample for study, we will quell nightlong and take everything back in the morning."I told buster and his wife. They set about collecting plant and fauna samples. They caught one of the birds but it died in less than an hour in the cage. They must postulate to eat constantly.

bronco buster gave me a report a couple hours later. The flowers on the tree diagram produced ambrosia that made the peter stiff. When the vesica Winged dickhead Birds would breastfeed at the flower they would vacate out the nectar and strike some of the pollen away on their mouths. Those moving from flower to blossom accomplished fertilization for the plant. The hobble flower would take about an hr to bring forth a full load of nectar again. There were respective other animals and plants that he reported on.
My wife had decided to call off this situation, appropriately enough, Dick's World.

As evening started to darken the skies we saw several, rat like, animal come out of maw in the reason. They started to climb up the trees. We watched as they moved to the destruction of the limbs and bit the efflorescence off the tree and ate them. Every man in the group cringed watching this. I think Mountain even turned a lilliputian picket. These animals quickly became known as cockbiter rats. Buster thought they wouldn't sell well.

Our sensors could not detect any animal larger than the birds within five hundred clicks of us so we bedded down in the shuttle for the night.

I awoke the next sunrise and shook Demoness awake next to me. She smiled as I retrieved two cupful of coffee bean from the Energy solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. Buster must have awoken my married woman when he got up to check his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. fellow was studying a John Milton Cage Jr. of twenty of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the night. They seemed a bit hardier than the snort. I oversaw the sample distribution 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 consume scans and double of the industrial plant and carnal life. In dozen hours we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The flying back to the ship was uneventful and fluid. We were in the shuttlecock bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the samples. I tried to tell broncobuster to make water sure the crates were in the lab containment surface area before he opened them, but I was too late. He popped the door latch on the rat crate and squealer exploded out and ran all over the pack of cards. It took less than a minute for them all to disappear down an open access code hatch. They had chewed through the plasteel of the John Cage, this should bear warned me of what was about to happen.

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

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my position story. That rabid scientific discipline geek had let rats loose on my ship. I was on the bridge receiving my report card when the low gear foretoken of trouble happen. The navigation filmdom 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 linkup with engineering."

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

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

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

jazz Hands came on the intercom,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation cant went power wickedness, we opened the panel and rat came running out. How the hell did we get rats on the ship ?"

We all heard the throb of the engine wind down as they shut themselves down."All hands find those female parent fucking rats and kill them ! Now ! security measure, upshot inducer to everyone with fingers. lock in them all on stun, we don't want any chance event. I will give everyone that stuns a rat an redundant relaxation behavior cycle."

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

The yellow monition lights on the ship came to life-time. The reckoner vocalisation could be heard all over the ship as she said,"Alert, all personnel are to exert warning signal Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the warning lights went out and the bridge went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my castle in the air as I entered the bridge. The starting time thing I noticed was the view covert was no longsighted space. It now showed a big, dense star-shaped field, and we were moving towards it slowly."Mt. Everest, reach me a state of affairs report."

"We are drifting towards the star-shaped force field at approximately fifteen hundred kilometers per bit. Estimated metre to bewitch into the field is six hours."

"Bring our shields and targeting online. Get the gunners in their post and enjoin them we may need to have a slight aim practice."

"The gunners are reporting to stations, but the weapons data link 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 have shell, 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 bunch in the two shuttlecock and see if we can tow the ship into a new course."

Activating the communications in my chairman I called down to applied science."malarkey men give me some unspoilt intelligence. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will stimulate the helm control and inertial controller back on line in eight hours. My people are working around the clock."

"That is good news, now I have some great news show for you. In six 60 minutes you will no longer have to concern about repairing the ship. Those big rock and roll out there are going to finish the job those rats started. At the speed we are traveling one of those rocks is going to turn over this ship into slag."

"Do you have intercourse a proficient wrecker serving that may be in the area ?"

"We are sending the shuttles out."

I thumbed off the com dialog box."Babe, give me some honorable news."

marijuana spoke without looking away from her console."We have an estimated impingement time of seven minute and four bit. Then we are going to be landing on a large star-shaped dead ahead. We are caught in the gravity well of that large gas giant on the other side of the subject area. I am running the calculations on the shuttles now."

"I asked for skillful news, you could have told me you smuggled a bottleful of whiskey on instrument panel or something."

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

***

We were hunting scum bag ; they seemed to proceed about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The Christ Within telegram were born butt."We need one of them alive so dude can tell us why they are after the light up wires."

Our grouping split up into pairs. I was teamed with Demoness, our plan was simple ; move about the ship opening admittance instrument panel. If anything ran out pull the trigger and stun it. I noticed mass had put on his ceremonial armor for the hunt. It had a dense codpiece for protection down there.

Chatter over our helmet com was kept to a lower limit. Demoness opened the number one venire, it was to life support. There was nothing. We moved to the lift ascendance instrument panel. When I opened it there was an explosion of fur and dentition. Then there was unbelievable nuisance as I was hit by the fire from the inducer. hoot I am gladiolus it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a Brobdingnagian pair of white meat hovering over my face."Hi, melon vine,"I mumbled as I shook my head to assoil it."Did we at to the lowest degree manage to get one of the rats ?"

"Demoness caught four of them, and bagged a skipper with only four shots."melon vine said as she leaned to look past her breast and into my face.

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

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

"melon vine's high-priced, would you please script me my persuader ; I want to register Demoness just how little they hurt."As melon vine'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, tell me some right news."

"My retirement story is up fifty thousand."

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

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

"In two time of day they are going to eat every light telegram in the ship. How do we stop them ?"

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

I jumped out of the bed and headed for technology. mint was in the hall."Get every marksman armed with rifles and meet me in engineering. We are going to induce an old forge turkey shoot."

Mountain headed off to gather men and womanhood. 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 interfering trying to repair the harm. Can this wait ?"

"No. How long would it direct to get a deal of unembellished short wire in the center of engineering and attach it to the main generator ?"

"About twenty dollar bill minutes."

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

"You want us to swop to the stand-in ?"

"No I want world power cut completely. We need to get all the outer doors closed and all of the lift beam of light shut down."

"The raising are no job the rats chewed them up about fifteen minutes ago. The prohibited threshold may be a trouble. The principal shuttle bay doors are stuck unfastened and the observation windowpane in the forward cartography lab is non-operational."

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

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

"We are facing a superior enemy, in an unknown tactical position. We are completely defenseless now. If the rats continue at this rate we will deliver no ship in twelve hours. It is time to make a lastly rack. The stinker are attracted to the calorie-free wires so we will give them the sole muckle of glowing wire on the ship to come for. Now get them set up or I am going to cling you from the fore of the ship like a figurehead."

"Yes sir."

I moved to the speed balcony, as the others started to accumulate. I set people up in status so we had to the full reporting of the engineering deck below. The piling of telegram was a center of fervor anything that moved was a objective."All right the great unwashed there are sixteen of these dirty dog to wipe out. I want everyone's weapon set to overkill. We can not open for a single rat to head for the hills this trap."

As I took my situation as the last of the personnel left the lower level. Then the visible light went out. It was such a yearn hold. But after almost an hour the first rat came out of an entree hatch and started moving toward the wires. He was hit by the light beam of over twoscore weapons. The niggling by-blow was nothing but a gawk of charcoal.

It took about an hour for the rats to startle showing up. It took twenty minutes for the last one to fall. I stood and hit the com gore. It was dead like everything else."nothingness mitt, lets get the organisation rebooted and repairs started."

***

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

"We are five point six seven million klick from the asteroid. Estimated impingement time is one minute and three minutes."Everest answered.

"Reduce the magnification to ten times."

"It is already at ten sentence, sir."

"Shit ! How big is that matter ?"

"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 endeavour to change our course with the shuttle going ?"

"Not honest, sir, the attitude fudge factor jets are firing and locking us on course."

"Bring them back in. We are going to need the shuttles along with the lifetime boats to evacuate."I looked at the screen. My heart sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my command. If we made it back awake we would get replete honors and retirement benefit as full admiral. My thinker drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"Petty officer one-third family Phillip Washington Irving grave, reporting as regularise sir."I said as I walked into admiral Tigrat's office. He looked up at me with a shit eating grin on his look. 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 thrill then everyone in the fleet is going to have intercourse what you did. If I don't press charges then you get off Scott free and I can not let that befall either."He looked at me with open hatred in his eyes.

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

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

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the phonograph recording, not s single ship had ever come back from going mysterious. Most disappeared without a trace. He was consigning me to a death sentence. My own command weighed heavy on my psyche. I had always thought I could do it better than any of these bragger. Out there I would be the voice of authority. I would be the merely command chain. The vaulting horse would break off with me.

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

The smile he gave me had me thinking through the women I knew. I sure as hell would not let him decide. Then Millishia came to mind, she was one blaze of a science officer. Her calling was halcyon. 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 deep service. You may opt thirty brace from it. The other nineteen couples I will choose. I already have one of your applied scientist and doctors picked out. Plus a couple of security people you will just love."

"Do normal trench convention apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

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

The Fort Ticonderoga was a thing of smasher, long and sleek with four locomotive engine nacelles under her body passenger car. She hung in space like a phantom, the costa of the shipyard frame surrounding her. The long pin down body looked like an arrow with atmospherical stabilizers on the rear one-half. The liberal head of the pointer was where the command decks sat. The slightly all-encompassing physical structure was the crowd domain. Under the main body hung technology and medical. She was designed to cut through blank space like a artillery. She was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen. I was supposed to report aboard and select my crew via interviews.

A few of my bunch was already onboard, my engineer, Saint James the Apostle Mitchell Penzo, and his married woman, Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo were two of them. I had read their files, they were solvent nut. She was also a Liskian, they were reputed to be a tough lot.

I had looked at the files of over a yard voluntary duo, I had to pick thirty. I had discovered something profound. Most people that wanted to go deep were nut sheath. These were no exclusion. The volunteers ran the gambit from mad scientist to psycho killers. I was at a loss for anyone I trusted on a recollective flight let alone wanted there.

I spent the next week interviewing hopefuls ; it was the hardest week of my life. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would have begged the full admiral to royal court mobilize me. The future three days were spent choosing my gang and filing their new ranks. One affair nice about being a maitre d' of a deep ship, rank onboard your ship was your selection. You set the chain of command and the duty roster. The police captain was the first lastly and sole line of command once you left the space port.

Four days later the mooring telephone circuit fell away from the ship. My new steersman only managed to hit the dry sorrel once on the way out. I now had an untested crew, a new ship with all the bugs inherent and two years to change by reversal them into a functioning crew before we made our starting time planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my memories, that rock was much bigger. The countdown on the concealment said thirty-one transactions. My mind started flying through the possibilities. I had to come up with an solvent. I would not lose my ship and mastery after our first planet fall.

A architectural plan came to me. It would take some phantasy flying. I hit the com unit in my chair."Jazz hands, Prepare to unplug all power on my command. Demoness, I need your piloting skill, you have shuttle two, I have shuttle one, we launch in five."

jazz Hands came on the com unit of measurement,"senior pilot we have to have power to do hangout, if you make me cut it off again it will take an hour to completely restart the system."

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

"And if it doesn't ?"

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

"What, sir ?"

"Take caution of my wife."I thumbed off the console and left the bridgework before anyone could ask any interrogative sentence. I had a programme ; if it worked I would lay aside 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 shuttles to lifetime."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into maneuver touch with the physical structure of the Ticonderoga. Then I am going to have malarkey men cut all power. That should barricade the pusher from firing. Once that is set I am going to sack up the engines in the birdie and give her the gas. If this works I will deflect the ship by sufficiency to miss the asteroid field."

"Sir, if you do that your locomotive engine will overheat and flame out in second gear. The inside of the bird will be a half million arcdegree fireball."

"That is where you come in. I am going to eject, I need you to scoop up me up fast and get me clear. Get my organic structure back for a comely funeral."

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

"I don't have time to put a cause on ; if this is going to work I have to do it now."I shut off the com line. It took me less than a minute to view my birdie. I contacted wind hired hand,"Cut the power now !"Then I put the engine power to full and locked the throttle. The on board computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent engine overburden in twenty arcsecond. Imminent engine overburden 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 handgrip."scheme detects non suited personnel office, ejection system disabled."

nookie ! I pulled my side arm and shot the console. Then I yanked the handle again, there was a nous numbing roar as the air exploded out of the ship. My caput hit something solid a few second later and the earthly concern went dark. My endure thought was,"ass, that hurts."

***

"police captain Graves, I do not anticipate you to occur back from this. I expect you to die a bloody and horrible death."Admiral Tigrat said as I was in my endure interview before launching."Do not let down me."

"Respectfully sir, my full crew will be at your one one percent birthday party. There I will pass your wife and daughter a kiss right in front man of you. How did you ever negociate to get a closed chain on the finger's breadth of that woman ? She has to be at least 40 twelvemonth younger than you."

***

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

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

"How ?"

"Liskians are elusive than human, she had the shuttle decompressed and waiting on your ejection. Once you flew onboard she put up the emergency subject area and re-pressurized. You may give birth a few aches and pains plus glaze over sight for a few days, but you will be fine soon."

"Melon's, what about the ship ?"

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

"Tell Jazz workforce and Demoness to take an special relaxation hertz, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

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