Ticonderoga - Episode 1 : Adrift

Cast of reference ;

***

Name : Phillip John Irving Graves

social station : Captain - commanding officer

Call Sign : Pig

story : He was born on old earth in the area known as the Western district of North America. As a youth he was a trouble maker this, being virtually unheard of in his century, forced the military to dispense with him. He was given a choice. Join the United Planets peace keeping and inquiry power or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioural problem. His career in the military was a swell representative of how not to come on. After twenty dollar bill years he was still only a niggling officer third class. That was when he was caught pulling off his worst infraction yet. Fleet admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his married woman, and both of his daughter, at the same meter. Phillip was doomed to go back to nucleotide 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 groundwork tall, with jet black fuzz and John Brown heart. His body type is thin and mesomorphic with tan skin tone.

Mate : Mrs Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

Name : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

rank : commanding officer - Ships science ship's officer and fourth in command

Call Sign : cannabis

History : She was born a unsubdivided farm fille in the midwestern United States district of North U.S.A.. She led an monitory lifetime, with no trouble, until she came of age. Then she found she had a gustatory sensation for bad boys. To try and curb her appetite for ego destructive behavior, she joined the service. Her career was in good parliamentary law and she was happy after five twelvemonth but she longed to go deep. The only problem was you had to be married and no one was asking. There was also the job 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 take a crap it into distance. She only had one More rank to go then she could go. That would direct another six months. Then she was broadsided by a question she never thought any man would ask."testament you marry me I need a wife before I can go deep ?"

Description : She is a five foot six inch tall, blond haired, blasphemous eyed beauty, with medium sized breasts. Her body fashion is lithe and athletic.

spouse : Phillip Irving Graves

***

name : James William Mitchell Penzo

Rank : original chief petty Officer - Chief engineer and mechanic.

Call sign : jazz hands

chronicle : He was born on the emerald isle of Common Market. He was a salutary kid and went to college. After school he joined the Service to set up a little nest egg. There he met his wife and fell in love life. He had a promising career ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicinal burden of the engine solvent. Just a little nip of it could make any man happy. He stayed happy a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a choice, military separation or he and his wife go deep.

Description : He is five human foot eight inches tall with sullen unripe middle and brown hair. His body type is compact with just a slight spare tire.

mate : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

gens : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

Rank : Senior Chief petty larceny Officer - tribal chief of off ship security.

claim Sign : Demoness

history : She was born on her indigene world of Liskia. She is strong and loyal and excelled in her career as military constabulary, until her husband introduced her to the solvent. Everything still worked well for them until she was called out on an hand brake while she was extremely happy. Six hebdomad later she boarded her new watercraft, The UP Ticonderoga.

description : She is six foot two inches marvellous. Her raceway has red hide and hairsbreadth with Christ Within grey eyes. Many people say they look like the mythical devil, right down to the two tufts of hair on their frontal bone that resembled trumpet. Her body type is cut and lithe with a well defined muscle tone.

teammate : Henry James Mitchell Penzo

***
gens : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

social station : lieutenant Junior Grade - xeno-biologist.

yell Sign : Buster

History : He is a native of Ling, a human colony, joined the help to go deep, he wanted the life of an Explorer, he was also married and his wife joined at the same metre looking to ship out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to canvass new species of both plant life and animals.

Description : He is five foundation eight inches improbable with mousey blonde hairsbreadth and blue heart. His body eccentric is thin and non muscular.

mate : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

Name : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

Rank : Lieutenant Junior Grade - ships doctor.

call option Sign : Melons

History : She is a indigen of Ling, a human being colony, and was married to her college sweetheart. She joined the Service to go deep with him.

Description : She is five understructure six inch marvelous with Pt blond hair and very heavy breast. He body type is voluptuous.

Mate : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

public figure : Lorka Dumont Willock

Rank : commander - Security officer, endorse in command.

Call preindication : Mountain

History : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the service to get a chance to do battle in this time of heartsease. He is very popular with the ladies because his race believes that love gambol should be as cutter as war is violent.

Description : At well over seven feet improbable and four century and fifty pounds of solid muscle he is by far the largest penis of the crew, except for his wife. His shameful peel looks like a phantom seminal fluid to life sentence. The only break in his darkness is his red eyes.

Mate : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

Name : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

rank : Commander - weapon system officer, third in mastery

margin call Sign : Everest

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

Description : She is eight foundation four column inch marvelous with darkness black skin and red eyes. Her body type is extremely muscular.

fellow : Lorka Dumont Willock


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

I stared at the blank view screen in forepart of me. My ship had been adrift for three days. There was only one problem when you were deep ; there was no one to help when you hit fuss. The nearest ship to us was two calendar month travel away. It had taken us two years to get this far out.

"release bass"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find inhabitable planet that we could colonize or resourcefulness we could mine for. The fun part, the rules say the first off crew member to set foot on a planet gets to name the planet.

The join races had managed to colonize or mining camp every rock-and-roll for sixty visible light years around solid ground. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to trip sixty light old age with the razz private road as it was called. It got its name because the matter and antimatter blowup inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying sound to journey at lx prison term the speed of light. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communicating panel on my chair to sprightliness."wind hands, What the netherworld is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the resolution again I'm going to occupy you off of relief rotation for two weeks."

"Not a chance, Pig, I am trying to repair the damn wrong those cockbiter rats did to the locomotive wiring. The fucking piddling beasties chewed through every light telegram in the chief fire control cabinet."

"How long before we have engine 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, bedamn it, I want this ship moving by the end of this rotation !"

"Captain, even if I get this repaired that is no warranty we will be able to move. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the piffling bastards. Go take a ministration falling out and let me do my damn job."

I stalked off of the bridge. The damn lifts were down so I had to climb down the access ladders to get to the crew decks. I guess we could visit ourselves lucky ; those petty varmints had not reached the liveliness support equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter scum bag had managed to jaw through our main office control, raise mastery systems, helm control interlink, seafaring, and locomotive engine fervor ascendence in less than twenty four hr. 20 rats had crippled a ship, with crew of one hundred citizenry on board. Only fate knows what else was damaged. idle words manus was right I needed emphasis relief ; it was clock time to head to the bunch lounge.

There is a John Major set of rules about going oceanic abyss. The first of all one is all crew penis must be mated couples. The second rule is all relationships are unfold on the ship. When off duty personnel need stress assuagement any off responsibility person of the diametrical grammatical gender is available to them, unless they are in their slumber cycle. Any same sex liaisons are not proscribed but are open to be refused. Your quarters were kept monogamous, only you and your spouse enjoyed that location. The waiting room is where you go to order amour with former crew members. That is also where the"education"elbow room are. There is one for just about every preference, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

rank has its prerogative as well. command police officer are allowed to take stress breaks during obligation if there is no pressing need for their attention. As of right now, there was no pressing need for me. I could not command this ship to impress if I were a god.

I no sooner walked into the lounge when Melonie saw me and came over. I knew what she was after, she loved my oral techniques."motive some stress relief, captain ?"

"At least a workweek's worth, Melons."I said as I took her by the arm and guided her towards the bar."I believe the ma'am is drinking a cobalt breaker, and I would enjoy a calum tea."I told the barman as I caressed melons tummy. I always enjoyed her very bombastic bosom and today would be no exception.

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

"That sounds like a grand thought,"I nodded towards the one of the zero-G rooms. When we entered the way I adjusted the controls on the holographic display to take a shit it front like we were in the swarm. I had seen plenty stars already today. All of them stars I couldn't reach. We attached the palpebra to our glasses so our drinks would not float out and then I touched the touch off push button. Watching her breasts suddenly float upward as the gravitational force stopped was an mystify delicacy. We floated in the air together as I started to undress her. As was standard when in the lounge, her clothing was round-eyed and wanton to move out. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no panties on underneath. Her place were round-eyed carpet slipper very comfortable and quite attractive. The flimsy still billing caused by pulling her shirt over her head caused her hair to stand out like a hallo of platinum blond silk. By a lot of criterion this womanhood would be considered overweight. She weighed about twenty dollar bill pounds over ideal weight unit for her five foot six inch material body. To me the extra softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her clothes were floating around the room like cast off feather, she started to disrobe me. My uniform was a little more complicated to slay. It was a yobbo button up trouser and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in black. The shoes were smoothen idol in smuggled natural leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also black. Add the non-white gray whack and chest bandolier as well as my maitre d''s hat to the wholly thing and I looked like a trail monkey. Soon all of these clothes were floating around the way as well.

I pulled Melons to me and began to snog the hide of her neck and chest. This elicited various moan of delight. Her ramification wrapped around my stomach and squeezed me hard enough to be slightly awful. She began to turn her coxa rubbing her pert bottom on the top of my shaft. I was very tempted to take what she was offering right then but I had other musical theme. Zero-G has one real number vantage to making love on any surface. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those entire lips that were just made for what I had in mind. Once she was free I spun her in the air and brought her legs around to my side. There in front man of my heart was a small landing strip of atomic number 78 blonde hair that pointed right to the object of my desire. I moved my head teacher forward and inhaled the fragrancy of her arousal. With turn over retardation I extended my tongue and began to arrive at small circles through that mellisonant bring down flight strip.

I felt her mouth as she started to work and kiss along the tool of my stopcock. Her mouth and lips were delicious warmth on my peel. The vibrations of her moans made my peter startle and twitch as I touched the tip of my lingua to her clit and flipped it quickly back and Forth River. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my shaft slide down her throat. She was so smooth and hot on the inside. I moved both of my handwriting around her delightful rear end and started wetting my fingerbreadth in the honey flowing from her miserly twat. When I felt her legs starting to stiffen around my head, I slid two fingers from one hand into her tight slit. My midsection finger's breadth of my other hand pushed into her silky bastard. I started pumping my fingers in and out of her at different speeds. Sometimes they would be moving in and out together, others they would be in a counterpoint rhythm.

I felt her stomach Menachem Begin to constrain and vibrate against my chest. Then her leg slammed shut on my head like a clinch. Her flow was floating in droplets around my head as she orgasmed. While she was still vibrating and shaking through her orgasm I spun her through the air until I was behind her. I plunged the length of my rock hard cock into her from behind. She let out a moan that was bordering on a scream. I began to pound with all my might as we floated in the air. Then we both arched our binding as we thundered into our orgasms together.

Ten bit later we left the floaty elbow room freshly showered. As we exited the room, I set the controls to scavenge and unsex the elbow room. I kissed Melons and left her drinking 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 communicating panel at the doorway."Jazz Hands, are we moving ?"

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

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

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

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

"Sir, we have no weapon control, would you like my wife and I to throw away rocks at their floating stiff ?"mount said back facetiously.

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

"How soon, Jazz paw ?"

"We are looking at the terms now but I say at to the lowest degree a day."

"You always say a day. I want this damn ship moving under its own mogul by end of round or I am going to give you to Everest and Mountain as a target dumbbell !"

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

"No, and I am looking for your wife right now, so affect 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 planet with no beacon on it. It was unexplored. scan showed it to be a lush oxygen productive planet with industrial plant and fleshly lifespan abundant on the surface and in the sea. I organized a landing party to investigate the surface.

***

The party, consisting of marihuana, Demoness, buster, Melons, pile and myself, left the ship in a shuttle. several orbital notch and CAT scan later we determined a productive domain to Edwin Herbert Land and investigate.

It was a soft touchdown nix at all out of the ordinary. There was the throw together for military position to see who could clear it through the doorway 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 wife dancing in a playing area of penises. Yes I said that rightfield, all of the industrial plant in the area were short maybe twelve inch magniloquent and shaped like that luck of the male anatomy.

I looked around to see the trees, thank god they looked more like tree, and they even had beautiful blossom growing on them. A tight look at the heyday made me think I had lost it. They looked like pink phallus with two testis hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty appropriate that my wife would get to describe a humanity covered in member shaped plants.

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

"So plant life the beacon, leave 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 rest of us looked around.

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

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

Buster was the first one to see an animal. It was floating gently on the piece of cake towards one of the tree diagram. It had great flat wing with bladders underneath them. These bladders probably contain some gas light-colored than the air around us. By paddling its human foot it would run through the air like a duck swam across the water system. As we watched it swam up to one of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and put its mouth around one of the flush. A few seconds later it left the prime hanging limply from its stalk and moved to another flower. One by one it drained the"nectar"out of the stiff efflorescence leaving them flaccid.

"We need a span of those wench on the ship,"buster said as we watched."I bet we could rent them back to UP place and trade them for a fortune."

"Get some sample for survey, we will stay overnight and postulate everything back in the morning."I told Buster and his wife. They set about collecting plant life and animal sample. They caught one of the hoot but it died in less than an time of day in the John Milton Cage Jr.. They must require to eat constantly.

broncobuster gave me a report a couple hr later. The flowers on the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree produced ambrosia that made the shaft stiff. When the vesica Winged Cocksucker Birds would suck at the heyday they would empty out the nectar and require some of the pollen away on their rima oris. Those moving from flower to flower accomplished fecundation for the industrial plant. The limp blossom would take about an hr to engender a full load of nectar again. There were respective other animals and plants that he reported on.
My wife had decided to call this billet, appropriately enough, Dick's World.

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

Our detector could not detect any animal declamatory than the birds within five c mouse click of us so we bedded down in the birdie for the night.

I awoke the following daybreak and shook Demoness awake next to me. She smiled as I retrieved two cup of coffee bean from the vim solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. Buster must throw awoken my wife when he got up to check his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. Buster was studying a cage of 20 of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the night. They seemed a bit dauntless than the hoot. I oversaw the sample being packed in over crates to be taken back to the science lab on the ship. Then we did a low level fly over of the planet to take up scans and images of the plant and animal life history. In twelve hours we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The escape back to the ship was uneventful and smooth. We were in the shuttle bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the samples. I tried to tell Buster to make surely the crates were in the lab containment area before he opened them, but I was too late. He popped the latch on the rat crate and rat exploded out and ran all over the deck. It took to a lesser extent than a minute for them all to disappear down an open access hatch. They had chewed through the plasteel of the John Milton Cage Jr., this should hold warned me of what was about to happen.

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

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my condition report. That overzealous scientific discipline geek had let strikebreaker free on my ship. I was on the bridgework receiving my report when the first sign of bother happen. The pilotage screen door went blank. We were suddenly flying screen."pilotage, 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 to the full stop, now !"I shouted as I stood from my chair. Suddenly my ship lurched and I fell on my face."Damn it, helm, you can't just cut the engines, how long have you been flying this crate ?"

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

I stood and slapped the communications jury on my hot seat."engineering ! Report ! What the hell are you doing down there ? You can't cut links while we are in flight !"

Jazz work force came on the intercom,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation bank went power night, we opened the panel and rats came running out. How the snake pit did we get rats on the ship ?"

We all heard the throb of the engines wind down as they shut themselves down."All hands find those mother fucking rats and kill them ! Now ! Security, number inducer to everyone with fingers. shut up them all on stun, we don't want any accidents. I will give everyone that stuns a rat an spear carrier easiness cycle."

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

The sensationalistic warning lights on the ship came to lifespan. The computer voice could be heard all over the ship as she said,"alarum, all personnel are to maintain warning signal Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the warning lights went out and the bridge deck went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my castle in Spain as I entered the span. The inaugural matter I noticed was the horizon screen was no longer blank. It now showed a tumid, dull asteroid field of honor, and we were moving towards it slowly."Everest, yield me a situation report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid field at approximately xv hundred kilometers per sec. Estimated time to entrance into the playing area is six hours."

"Bring our shell and targeting online. Get the cannoneer in their Stations and enjoin them we may call for to have a little target practice."

"The cannoneer are reporting to stations, but the weapon links are all still down, we have no accelerator. The shell are on but we can not detect if they are working."

"So my day just got worse. We may or may not feature cuticle, 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 crowd in the two shuttlecock and see if we can tow the ship into a new course."

Activating the communications in my hot seat I called down to engineering."jazz manpower yield me some good news. Please."

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

"That is salutary news, now I have some corking news for you. In six time of day you will no longer have to worry about repairing the ship. Those big rocks out there are going to polish off the job those skunk started. At the fastness we are traveling one of those John Rock is going to twist this ship into slag."

"Do you have it away a thoroughly wrecker service that may be in the area ?"

"We are sending the shuttles out."

I thumbed off the com instrument panel."infant, give me some skillful news."

Marijuana spoke without looking away from her console."We have an estimated impact time of seven 60 minutes and four minutes. Then we are going to be landing on a boastfully asteroid dead ahead. We are caught in the gravity fountainhead of that vauntingly gas colossus on the former side of the force field. I am running the calculations on the shuttles now."

"I asked for dependable news show, you could have told me you smuggled a bottleful of whisky on board or something."

I stared at the aspect screen that I now wished was blank again. My brain started to drift back to the rats again.

***

We were hunting rats ; they seemed to locomote about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The promiscuous wires were natural targets."We need one of them alive so dude can tell us why they are after the easy wires."

Our radical split up into pair. I was teamed with Demoness, our plan was simple-minded ; affect about the ship opening entree gore. If anything ran out pull the gun trigger and stupefy it. I noticed batch had put on his ceremonial armour for the hunt. It had a thickset codpiece for shelter down there.

yack over our helmet com was kept to a minimum. Demoness opened the start panel, it was to life story financial backing. There was cypher. We moved to the facelift control condition panel. When I opened it there was an explosion of fur and teeth. Then there was incredible pain in the neck as I was hit by the blast from the inducer. darn I am glad it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a huge pair of white meat hovering over my face."Hi, Melons,"I mumbled as I shook my question to clear it."Did we at least manage to get one of the rats ?"

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

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

"We had to stop the rats, I knew the arm 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 show Demoness just how little they hurt."As Melon's looked at me with big eyes, Demoness quietly slipped out of the room. I reached over for the com panel next to the bed."fellow, tell me some good news."

"My retirement history is up 50 thousand."

"Don't worry, if you don't halt the rats you are not going to involve a retirement explanation, now what about the lowlife ?"

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

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

"The only thing I know is they are attracted to the alight telegram because they glow on the like wavelength in ultra violet as the blossom do. As to why they are attracted to them."

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

wad headed off to gather men and womanhood. I went to engineering."nothingness Hands, get over here, I have an idea."

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

"No. How long would it rent to get a pile of give up wanton telegram in the center of applied science and bind it to the master generator ?"

"About XX minutes."

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

"You want us to exchange to the relief ?"

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

"The elevation are no problem the strikebreaker chewed them up about fifteen minutes ago. The forbidden door may be a problem. The main bird bay room access are stuck open and the observance window in the forward cartography lab is non-operational."

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

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

"We are facing a victor enemy, in an unknown tactical berth. We are completely defenseless now. If the stinker continue at this rate we will have no ship in twelve hours. It is clock time to puddle a last outdoor stage. The rats are attracted to the luminance conducting wire so we will have them the exclusively batch of glowing conducting wire on the ship to follow for. Now get them set up or I am going to hang you from the prow of the ship like a figurehead."

"Yes sir."

I moved to the upper balcony, as the others started to gather. I set people up in positions so we had full coverage of the engineering deck below. The pile of wires was a pith of flack anything that moved was a target."All aright people there are sixteen of these rats to kill. I want everyone's weapon set to overkill. We can not yield for a single rat to elude this trap."

As I took my position as the last of the staff office left the turn down level. Then the lighter went out. It was such a long wait. But after almost an time of day the first rat came out of an access hatch and started moving toward the wires. He was hit by the electron beam of over forty weapon. The petty bastard was goose egg but a lummox of charcoal.

It took about an hour for the rats to start showing up. It took twenty minutes for the cobbler's last one to fall. I stood and hit the com gore. It was dead like everything else."wind work force, lets get the system rebooted and hangout started."

***

I rose out of my woolgathering to see a large John Rock on the scene covert."Tactical, how far out is it and estimated meter to affect ?"

"We are five point six seven million kilometers from the asteroid. Estimated impact sentence is one 60 minutes and three minutes."Everest answered.

"Reduce the enlargement to ten times."

"It is already at ten times, sir."

"Shit ! How big is that thing ?"

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

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

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the attempt to switch our course of instruction with the shuttles going ?"

"Not goodness, sir, the attitude fudge factor spirt 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 blind. My bosom sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my command. If we made it back active we would get wide laurels and retirement benefit as admirals. My mind drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"Petty officer tierce class Phillip John Irving Stephanie Graf, reporting as consecrate sir."I said as I walked into full admiral Tigrat's office. He looked up at me with a whoreson eating grin on his look. He motioned with his hand for me to sit and be at ease.

"Phillip, I am at a expiration for what to do with you. If I press charges then everyone in the fleet is going to love what you did. If I don't pressing charges then you get off George C. Scott disengage and I can not let that happen either."He looked at me with open up hatred in his eyes.

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

The smile that cracked his face was one of pure evil."My idea exactly, so here is the deal. I am going to urge you as the captain of the Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to depart at the end of the month. Then you are going to go deep. Your missionary work will be two year transit out, then sixteen years exploring. When you return, you will receive admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the disc, not s I ship had ever come back from going deep. Most disappeared without a trace. He was consigning me to a decease sentence. My own bidding weighed large on my mind. I had always thought I could do it considerably than any of these bragger. Out there I would be the vox of authority. I would be the only command range of mountains. The buck would terminate with me.

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

The smile he gave me had me thinking through the women I knew. I sure as hell would not let him determine. Then Millishia came to beware, she was one hell of a science officer. Her career was favorable. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in front of me yet."Do I get to pick out my crew ?"

"You will be given a tilt of military volunteer for deep service. You may opt thirty couples from it. The early xix match I will choose. I already have one of your engineers and doctors picked out. Plus a duet of security hoi polloi you will just love."

"Do rule deep rules apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

Millishia and I were married a week later, we saw the ship for the start time a seven mean solar day after that.

The Fort Ticonderoga was a thing of beauty, long and sleek with four engine nacelles under her physical structure carriage. She hung in space like a phantasma, the ribs of the shipyard chassis surrounding her. The longsighted narrow torso looked like an arrow with atmospheric stabiliser on the rear half. The broad headway of the arrow was where the command decks sat. The slightly wider consistence was the work party arena. Under the main body hung engine room and checkup. 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 report aboard and take my crew via interviews.

A few of my bunch was already onboard, my railroad engineer, King James Mitchell Penzo, and his wife, Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo were two of them. I had read their files, they were solvent addicts. She was also a Liskian, they were reputed to be a tough lot.

I had looked at the files of over a m volunteer match, I had to pick thirty. I had discovered something profound. almost hoi polloi that wanted to go deep were nut cases. These were no exceptions. The volunteers ran the ploy from mad scientist to psycho cause of death. I was at a loss for anyone I trusted on a retentive 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 admiral to court marshal me. The next three days were dog-tired choosing my crew and filing their new social station. One affair nice about being a captain of a deep ship, order onboard your ship was your choice. You set the chain of command and the duty roll. The chieftain was the commencement last and solely crease of instruction once you left the space port.

Four 24-hour interval later the mooring line lines fell away from the ship. My new steerer only managed to hit the dry docking facility once on the way out. I now had an untested crew, a new ship with all the glitch inherent and two age to flex them into a functioning crew before we made our first planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my memories, that rock and roll was very much adult. The countdown on the screen said thirty-one minutes. My intellect started flying through the possibility. I had to come up with an result. I would not misplace my ship and command after our maiden satellite fall.

A design came to me. It would adopt some fancy flying. I hit the com unit in my chair."Jazz Hands, Prepare to disconnect all top executive on my program line. 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,"captain we have to have power to do repair, if you make me cut it off again it will use up an hour to completely restart the system."

"I know, James, if what I have planned full treatment 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 irregular planet fall. Do me a favour, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"proceeds attention of my wife."I thumbed off the cabinet and left the bridge before anyone could ask any head. 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 shuttle. I could listen the com traffic as Demoness launched. I thumbed the com unit between the two bird to biography."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into manoeuvre contact with the body of the Ticonderoga. Then I am going to have Jazz bridge player cut all power. That should lay off the thrusters from firing. Once that is set I am going to force out up the locomotive in the bird and give her the gas. If this works I will bend the ship by plenty to escape the asteroid field."

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

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

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

"I don't have fourth dimension to put a courtship on ; if this is going to work I have to do it now."I shut off the com duct. It took me less than a minute to position my shuttle. I contacted Jazz custody,"Cut the power now !"Then I put the engine powerfulness to to the full and locked the throttle. The on control board computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent railway locomotive overload in twenty bit. Imminent engine overload in XIX seconds. Imminent engine overload in eighteen seconds."I dove for the controls for the riddance system. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the handle."System detects non suited personnel, ejection organisation disabled."

Fuck ! I pulled my slope arm and shot the console. Then I yanked the handgrip again, there was a mind numbing roar as the air exploded out of the ship. My mind hit something solid a few seconds later and the existence went iniquity. My finis persuasion was,"shtup, that hurts."

***

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

"Respectfully sir, my integral crew will be at your one hundredth birthday party. There I will break your wife and girl a kiss right in figurehead of you. How did you ever wangle to get a ring on the digit of that woman ? She has to be at least forty yr younger than you."

***

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

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

"How ?"

"Liskians are tougher than humankind, she had the birdie decompressed and waiting on your ejection. Once you flew onboard she put up the emergency brake fields and re-pressurized. You may have a few aching and pains plus blurred vision for a few days, but you will be hunky-dory soon."

"Melon's, what about the ship ?"

"The ship is out of peril 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 sentence I let you out of here we will be fully running again."

"Tell malarky script and Demoness to take in an additional relaxation method cycle, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

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