Ticonderoga - Episode 1 : Adrift

mould of eccentric ;

***

epithet : Phillip Irving grave accent

Rank : master - commanding officer

shout preindication : Pig

History : He was born on old earth in the area known as the Western dominion of North United States. As a juvenility he was a trouble maker this, being virtually unheard of in his century, forced the military to take with him. He was given a alternative. Join the United Planets peace keeping and research violence or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioral trouble. His career in the war machine was a cracking example of how not to advance. After twenty years he was still only a petty military officer tertiary class. That was when he was caught pulling off his bad misdemeanour yet. Fleet Admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his wife, and both of his daughters, at the Same clip. Phillip was doomed to go back to stand rank again. But instead the admiral made him an offer. Find a wife, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

Description : He is six ft tall, with jet Shirley Temple Black fuzz and brownness centre. His soundbox type is tenuous and muscular with tan cutis tone.

teammate : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

name : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

Rank : commandant - Ships science officeholder and twenty-five percent in command

Call signaling : ganja

story : She was born a mere farm girl in the middle west soil of magnetic north US. She led an cautionary lifetime, with no problem, until she came of age. Then she found she had a taste perception for bad male child. To try and inhibit her appetency for self destructive demeanour, she joined the service. Her vocation was in salutary order and she was felicitous after five years but she longed to go deep. The simply trouble 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 life history meant he would never even manage to pretend it into space. She only had one to a greater extent social station to go then she could go. That would take another six month. Then she was broadsided by a dubiousness she never thought any man would ask."Will you marry me I need a wife before I can go deep ?"

description : She is a five foot six inch tall, blond haired, blue eyed sweetheart, with medium sized tit. Her body style is lithe and athletic.

Paraguay tea : Phillip Irving Graf

***

epithet : James Billy Mitchell Penzo

Rank : Master Chief petit larceny officeholder - Chief engineer and mechanic.

birdcall sign : Jazz hands

story : He was born on the emerald isle of EEC. He was a just kid and went to college. After school he joined the service to set up a picayune nest egg. There he met his wife and fell in love. He had a anticipate vocation ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicinal effects of the railway locomotive resolvent. Just a piddling nip of it could make any man happy. He stayed happy a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a selection, armed forces separation or he and his wife go deep.

description : He is five substructure eight inch tall with dark putting surface eyes and embrown tomentum. His organic structure type is thick with just a slight spare tire.

better half : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

figure : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

membership : Senior head petty larceny policeman - Chief of off ship security.

phone call preindication : Demoness

History : She was born on her native world of Liskia. She is solid and dissipated and excelled in her career as military machine law, until her husband introduced her to the answer. 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.

Description : She is six pes two inches tall. Her backwash has red skin and hair with light grey eyes. Many hoi polloi say they look like the fabulous demons, right down to the two tussock of hair on their frontal bone that resembled horns. Her body type is thinly and lithe with a well defined muscle tone.

married person : James Mitchell Penzo

***
gens : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

Rank : Lieutenant Junior Grade - xeno-biologist.

call augury : dude

History : He is a native of burbot, a homo Colony, joined the overhaul to go deep, he wanted the liveliness of an explorer, he was also married and his wife joined at the same meter looking to embark out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to study new species of both industrial plant and animal.

description : He is five foot eight inch tall with mouse-colored blonde hair and naughty eyes. His body type is flimsy and non muscular.

Mate : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

Name : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

rank : police lieutenant Junior Grade - ships doctor.

Call Sign : melon vine

story : She is a native of burbot, a human being settlement, and was married to her college stunner. She joined the service to go deep with him.

verbal description : She is five metrical foot six column inch tall with platinum blonde fuzz and very large breasts. He consistence type is voluptuous.

checkmate : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

Name : Lorka Dumont Willock

social station : commander - security officer, moment in command.

Call Sign : Mountain

account : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the service to get a luck to do struggle in this time of peace. He is very popular with the dame because his airstream believes that love maneuver should be as pinnace as war is violent.

Description : At well over seven base tall and four 100 and fifty Ezra Loomis Pound of solid muscle he is by far the declamatory appendage of the crew, except for his wife. His dark skin looks like a shadow come to life. The only disruption in his iniquity is his red eyes.

Mate : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

Name : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

Rank : air force officer - artillery ship's officer, third in mastery

vociferation planetary house : Everest

story : She is a Female Tithian warrior. She joined the armed service with her husband, in the hopes of finding fight. She is a animal foot taller than her husband, and a nether region of a lot meaner.

verbal description : She is eight groundwork four inches tall with shadow black cutis and red eyes. Her body type is extremely muscular.

spouse : Lorka Dumont Willock


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

I stared at the blank aspect cover in nominal head of me. My ship had been adrift for three 24-hour interval. There was only one job when you were deep ; there was no one to facilitate when you hit problem. The nearest ship to us was two month travel away. It had taken us two years to get this far out.

"exit deep"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find inhabitable planets that we could colonize or resource we could mine for. The fun portion, the convention say the 1st crew member to set foot on a planet gets to name the planet.

The joined slipstream had managed to colonize or mining camp every rock candy for sixty light age around earth. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to journey sixty light years with the snort driving 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 audio to travel at LX times the speed of twinkle. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communication instrument panel on my chairperson to life story."malarkey hands, What the hell is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the solution again I'm going to take you off of assuagement rotation for two weeks."

"Not a probability, Pig, I am trying to resort the shucks harm those cockbiter stinker did to the engine wiring. The fucking little beasties chewed through every light wire in the main fire control cabinet."

"How long before we have engine tycoon again ?"

"Another day at least, we have over a chiliad 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 !"

"Captain, even if I get this repaired that is no guarantee we will be able to move. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the petty shit. Go take a relief fracture and let me do my damn job."

I stalked off of the bridge deck. The hoot cosmetic surgery were down so I had to wax down the admittance ladders to get to the crew decks. I guess we could predict ourselves lucky ; those little varmints had not reached the liveliness reenforcement equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter rats had managed to chew through our main power control, cabbage mastery arrangement, helm control interlink, navigation, and engine fire control in less than twenty four hours. twenty rats had crippled a ship, with crew of one hundred people on board. Only fate knows what else was damaged. nothingness Hands was correct I needed stress substitute ; it was time to manoeuvre to the crew lounge.

There is a major set of linguistic rule about going deep. The offset one is all crew appendage must be mated duad. The second dominion is all relationship are open on the ship. When off obligation personnel need stress embossment any off tariff individual of the diametric gender is available to them, unless they are in their sleep cps. Any like sex liaisons are not proscribe but are open to be refused. Your quarters were kept monogamous, only you and your partner enjoyed that location. The lounge is where you go to arrange liaisons with early gang appendage. That is also where the"preparation"room are. There is one for just about every taste, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

rank and file has its privilege as well. Command military officer are allowed to aim tension break of serve during duty if there is no pressing need for their care. As of right now, there was no pressing want for me. I could not overtop 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."penury some stress sculptural relief, captain ?"

"At to the lowest degree 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 enjoy a calum tea."I told the mixologist as I caressed melons stomach. I always enjoyed her very declamatory breast and today would be no exception.

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

"That sounds like a marvellous idea,"I nodded towards the one of the zero-G rooms. When we entered the elbow room I adjusted the controls on the holographic display to make it look like we were in the clouds. I had seen sufficiency star already today. All of them headliner I couldn't reach. We attached the lids to our methamphetamine hydrochloride so our boozing would not float out and then I touched the activate button. Watching her breasts suddenly float upward as the graveness stopped was an amazing kickshaw. We floated in the air together as I started to peel her. As was banner when in the lounge, her clothing was simple and well-heeled to remove. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no panties on underneath. Her shoe were simple slipper very comfortable and quite attractive. The little static charge caused by pulling her shirt over her head caused her hair to stand out like a hallo of Pt blond silk. By a lot of standard this woman would be considered overweight. She weighed about twenty Syrian pound over ideal weight for her five foot six column inch frame. To me the extra softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her clothes were floating around the room like cast off feathers, she started to undress me. My uniform was a little more complicate to absent. It was a toughie push up trouser and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in black. The skid were shine beau ideal in black natural leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also black. Add the dismal gray bash and chest bandoleer as well as my captain's hat to the whole thing and I looked like a coach scalawag. Soon all of these clothes were floating around the elbow room as well.

I pulled melon to me and began to kiss the skin of her neck and chest. This elicited respective moan of delectation. Her pegleg wrapped around my stomach and squeezed me surd enough to be slightly painful. She began to flex her hips rubbing her pert tooshie on the top of my rooster. I was very influence to take what she was offering right then but I had early ideas. 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 broad 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 face. There in front line of my eyes was a small landing flight strip of platinum blond tomentum that pointed right to the object of my desire. I moved my nous forward and inhaled the bouquet of her arousal. With calculated awkwardness I extended my lingua and began to form small round through that sweet landing strip.

I felt her mouth as she started to lick and kiss along the shaft of my cock. Her mouth and lips were delicious warmheartedness on my skin. The vibrations of her groan made my cock jump and twitch as I touched the tip of my tongue to her clitoris and flipped it quickly back and forth. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my prick swoop down her pharynx. She was so fluid and hot on the interior. I moved both of my hands around her delicious bottom and started wetting my fingers in the dear flowing from her closely cunt. When I felt her legs starting to reduce around my head, I slid two finger's breadth from one helping hand into her tight pussy. My middle fingerbreadth of my early hand pushed into her sleek prick. I started pumping my fingers in and out of her at different f number. 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 hover against my thorax. Then her legs slammed shut on my head like a clinch. Her flow was floating in droplets around my brain 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 tail end. She let out a moan that was bordering on a shrieking. I began to pound with all my might as we floated in the air. Then we both arched our backs as we thundered into our orgasms together.

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

I slapped the communications dialog box at the doorway."jazz Hands, are we moving ?"

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

"What do you mean any more ?"

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

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

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

"No, drop fellow at them ; he's the prick that brought those fucking rats on my ship."

"How soon, wind script ?"

"We are looking at the equipment casualty now but I say at least a day."

"You always say a day. I want this shit ship moving under its own great power by end of wheel or I am going to hand you to Everest and Mountain as a objective blank !"

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

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

As I moved back to the bridge my idea wandered back to the effect that led up to this situation. We had found a planet with no beacon on it. It was undiscovered. Scans showed it to be a lucullan oxygen rich planet with plant and carnal life abundant on the airfoil and in the sea. I organized a landing party to enquire the surface.

***

The company, consisting of Marijuana, Demoness, bronco buster, Melons, Mountain and myself, left the ship in a shuttlecock. several orbital passes and scans later we determined a rich people area to state and investigate.

It was a mild touchdown zippo at all out of the ordinary. There was the jumble for positions to see who could constitute it through the door first. I had to laugh as the door slid back and my wife muscled stack out of the way. I walked down the ramp to see my wife dancing in a field of penises. Yes I said that rightfield, all of the plants in the area were short maybe twelve inches tall and shaped like that constituent of the manful anatomy.

I looked around to see the trees, thank god they looked more like Tree, and they even had beautiful flowers growing on them. A nigher look at the blossom made me think I had lost it. They looked like garden pink penises with two balls hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty appropriate that my wife would get to describe a humans covered in phallus shaped industrial plant.

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

"So plant the beacon, break 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 smell any of the flowers.

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

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

"It does have a sure menacing front doesn't it ?"

Buster was the world-class one to see an creature. It was floating gently on the breeze towards one of the trees. It had gravid flat wings with bladders underneath them. These vesica probably contain some gas lighter than the air around us. By paddling its metrical unit it would move through the air like a duck's egg swam across the urine. As we watched it swam up to one of the trees and put its mouth around one of the flowers. A few seconds later it left the flower hanging limply from its stem 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,"Buster said as we watched."I bet we could take them back to UP space and sell them for a fortune."

"Get some samples for study, we will stay overnight and occupy everything back in the morning."I told broncobuster and his married woman. They set about collecting plant and animal sample. They caught one of the razz but it died in to a lesser extent than an hour in the batting cage. They must need to eat constantly.

Buster gave me a write up a couplet time of day later. The blossom on the trees produced nectar that made the shaft stiff. When the Bladder Winged cocksucker raspberry would suckle at the flower they would empty out the ambrosia and take some of the pollen away on their mouthpiece. Those moving from bloom to flower established fertilization for the plant. The hitch flower would take up about an hour to generate a to the full encumbrance of nectar again. There were several early animals and plants that he reported on.
My married woman had decided to call this space, appropriately enough, shaft's World.

As eve started to darken the skies we saw several, rat like, creatures come out of golf hole in the ground. They started to wax up the Tree. We watched as they moved to the ends of the tree branch and bit the bloom off the trees and ate them. Every man in the chemical group cringed watching this. I think Mountain even turned a little picket. These animals quickly became known as cockbiter rats. buster thought they wouldn't sell well.

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

I awoke the adjacent morning and shook Demoness awake adjacent to me. She smiled as I retrieved two cupful of coffee from the energy solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. broncobuster must make awoken my wife when he got up to hold his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. Buster was studying a cage of twenty of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the night. They seemed a bit hardier than the hoot. I oversaw the samples being packed in over crateful to be taken back to the science lab on the ship. Then we did a low level fly over of the major planet to take CAT scan and trope of the plant life and animal life. In xii hours we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The flight back to the ship was uneventful and smooth. We were in the shuttle bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the sample. I tried to tell Buster to make indisputable the crate were in the lab containment area before he opened them, but I was too late. He popped the latch on the rat crate and stinkpot exploded out and ran all over the deck. It took less than a minute for them all to melt down an open access hatching. They had chewed through the plasteel of the cage, this should induce warned me of what was about to happen.

"Do not open any other crateful !"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 command government agency, Buster."

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the nosepiece to get my condition report card. That overzealous skill oddball had let rats loose on my ship. I was on the bridge circuit receiving my report when the first augury of problem happen. The pilotage screen went blank. We were suddenly flying subterfuge."Navigation, what the inferno are you doing over there ?"

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

"Helm control, bring us to wax check, now !"I shouted as I stood from my hot seat. Suddenly my ship lurched and I fell on my typeface."Damn it, helm, you can't just cut the railway locomotive, how long have you been flying this crate ?"

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

I stood and slapped the communications panel on my professorship."engineering science ! report card ! What the hell are you doing down there ? You can't cut linkup while we are in flight !"

jazz Hands came on the intercommunication system,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation coin bank went index iniquity, we opened the panel and rats came running out. How the netherworld did we get rats on the ship ?"

We all heard the pounding of the locomotive wind down as they shut themselves down."All hands find those mother fucking rats and vote out them ! Now ! certificate, issue inducers to everyone with fingerbreadth. Lock them all on stun, we don't want any accidents. I will consecrate everyone that stuns a rat an extra relaxation cycle."

Turning to our tactical post,"Everest, take us to alert status."She thumbed the alarm organisation on her console to on.

The yellow warning lights on the ship came to animation. The computing machine voice could be heard all over the ship as she said,"alert, all personnel are to observe alarm Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the warning brightness level went out and the bridge went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my reverie as I entered the bridge deck. The first thing I noticed was the view blind was no recollective blank. It now showed a turgid, dumb asteroid domain, and we were moving towards it slowly."Everest, give me a situation report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid discipline at approximately 15 hundred kilometers per second. Estimated time to entrance into the sphere is six hours."

"Bring our shell and targeting online. Get the artilleryman in their stations and recite them we may require to have a little target practice."

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

"So my day just got regretful. We may or may not experience 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 work party in the two shuttlecock and see if we can tow the ship into a new course."

activation the communicating in my chairman I called down to engineering."jazz Hands give me some good news show. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will make the helm mastery and inertial controls back on agate line in eight hours. My masses are working around the clock."

"That is honest news program, now I have some expectant news for you. In six hr you will no longer have to vex about repairing the ship. Those big rock'n'roll out there are going to finish the job those git started. At the stop number we are traveling one of those sway is going to call on this ship into slag."

"Do you cognise a thoroughly saboteur service that may be in the arena ?"

"We are sending the shuttles out."

I thumbed off the com control panel."Babe, give me some good news."

Marijuana spoke without looking away from her cabinet."We have an estimated impact meter of seven hr and four minute. Then we are going to be landing on a with child asteroid dead ahead. We are caught in the gravity well of that large gas whale on the other side of the study. I am running the deliberation on the shuttlecock now."

"I asked for commodity news, you could take in told me you smuggled a bottle of whiskey on board or something."

I stared at the view CRT screen that I now wished was clean again. My mind started to tramp back to the scab again.

***

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

Our group split up into distich. I was teamed with Demoness, our design was simple ; strike about the ship opening access gore. If anything ran out pull the trigger and stun it. I noticed mountain had put on his ceremonial armour for the hunt club. It had a thick codpiece for protection down there.

Chatter over our helmet com was kept to a lower limit. Demoness opened the first panel, it was to life accompaniment. There was nothing. We moved to the lift control panel. When I opened it there was an explosion of fur and teeth. Then there was unbelievable painful sensation as I was hit by the blast from the inducer. Damn I am glad it was set to stun.

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

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

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

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

"Melon's good, would you please mitt 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 news report is up fifty thousand."

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

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

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

"The only affair I know is they are attracted to the light telegram because they glow on the same wavelength in radical reddish blue as the bloom do. As to why they are attracted to them."

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

Mountain headed off to gather men and char. I went to engine room."jazz manus, get over here, I have an idea."

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

"No. How long would it take to get a pile of excess Christ Within telegram in the heart and soul of engineering science and attach it to the main source ?"

"About twenty minutes."

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

"You want us to trade to the backup ?"

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

"The face lift are no problem the crumb chewed them up about fifteen minutes ago. The outer threshold may be a job. The main shuttle bay doors are stuck surface and the observation 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 bait a trap for the rats."

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

"We are facing a superior enemy, in an alien tactical berth. We are completely defenseless now. If the rats continue at this pace we will have no ship in twelve 60 minutes. It is sentence to get a survive tie-up. The rats are attracted to the light wires so we will pay them the just batch of glowing wires on the ship to derive 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 assemble. I set multitude up in positions so we had full coverage of the engine room deck below. The pile of conducting wire was a nerve centre of fire anything that moved was a target."All right mass there are XVI of these so-and-so to wipe out. I want everyone's weapon system set to overkill. We can not afford for a undivided rat to escape this trap."

As I took my position as the hold up of the personnel left the lower level. Then the lights went out. It was such a foresightful delay. But after almost an time of day the commencement rat came out of an admittance hachure and started moving toward the wires. He was hit by the irradiation of over 40 weapons. The picayune SOB was nothing but a lump of charcoal.

It took about an minute for the skunk to start showing up. It took twenty arcminute for the last one to flow. I stood and hit the com gore. It was perfectly like everything else."malarky hands, lets get the system rebooted and mending started."

***

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

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

"Reduce the magnification to ten times."

"It is already at ten meter, sir."

"bull ! How big is that thing ?"

"It is four yard kilometer long by two one thousand wide."

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

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the endeavour to deepen our class with the shuttle going ?"

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

"Bring them back in. We are going to take the shuttles along with the life gravy holder to evacuate."I looked at the screen. My pump sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my command. If we made it back animated we would get full honors and retirement benefits as admiral. My head drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"Petty policeman 3rd year Phillip Washington Irving Graves, reporting as regularize sir."I said as I walked into admiral Tigrat's office. He looked up at me with a hoot eating smile on his cheek. He motioned with his hand for me to sit and be at ease.

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

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

The grinning that cracked his font was one of pure immorality."My thoughts exactly, so here is the mickle. I am going to advocate you as the captain of the Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to depart at the end of the calendar month. Then you are going to go deeply. Your missionary post will be two years transit out, then XVI twelvemonth exploring. When you return, you will possess admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the record, not s single ship had ever come back from going deep. nearly disappeared without a trace. He was consigning me to a death sentence. My own command weighed gravid on my mind. I had always thought I could do it better than any of these braggart. Out there I would be the representative of assurance. I would be the solitary command chain. The buck would check with me.

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

The grin he gave me had me thinking through the cleaning lady I knew. I sure as infernal region would not let him decide. Then Millishia came to mind, she was one hell of a science police officer. Her career was prosperous. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in front of me yet."Do I get to choose my crew ?"

"You will be given a list of volunteer for recondite service of process. You may opt thirty pair from it. The other nineteen duo I will choose. I already have one of your engineers and Doctor picked out. Plus a yoke of security mass you will just love."

"Do normal deep pattern apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

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

The Ticonderoga was a matter of smasher, long and sleek with four railway locomotive nacelles under her torso carriage. She hung in outer space like a phantom, the rib of the shipyard frame surrounding her. The farseeing minute consistency looked like an pointer with atmospheric stabilizers on the rear one-half. The tolerant point of the arrow was where the command decks sat. The slightly wide eubstance was the crew area. Under the main body hung engineering and medical. She was designed to cut through infinite like a weapon. 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 crew was already onboard, my engineer, Saint 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 single file of over a M Tennessean couples, I had to find fault thirty. I had discovered something profound. well-nigh masses that wanted to go deep were nut cases. These were no exceptions. The volunteers ran the gambit from mad scientist to psycho Orcinus orca. I was at a loss for anyone I trusted on a foresightful flight let alone wanted there.

I spent the side by side 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 Court marshal me. The next three days were spent choosing my crew and filing their new ranks. One affair nice about being a headwaiter of a recondite ship, order onboard your ship was your alternative. You set the range of mountains of bidding and the duty roster. The captain was the maiden last and only if ancestry of program line once you left the space port.

Four days later the mooring lines fell away from the ship. My new steerer only managed to hit the dry sour grass once on the way out. I now had an unseasoned crew, a new ship with all the bugs implicit in and two years to turn over them into a functioning crowd before we made our first planet fall.

***

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

A architectural plan came to me. It would consider some fancy flying. I hit the com building block in my chair."malarky mitt, Prepare to disconnect all ability on my command. Demoness, I need your pilotage skills, you have shuttle two, I have bird one, we launch in five."

malarkey Hands came on the com unit,"captain we have to give mogul to do repairs, if you make me cut it off again it will get an time of day to completely restart the system."

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

"And if it doesn't ?"

"Then it won't matter anymore, you don't have fourth dimension to fix the ship before we make our second planet drop. Do me a favor, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"Take forethought of my wife."I thumbed off the cabinet and left the bridge circuit before anyone could ask any questions. I had a program ; if it worked I would carry through my ship. Either way I was going to die first.

I burst into shuttle bay one and walked aboard the shuttle. I could see the com traffic as Demoness launched. I thumbed the com social unit between the two shuttlecock to life."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into directly touch with the body of the Ticonderoga. Then I am going to take Jazz Hands cut all power. That should stop over the thruster from firing. Once that is set I am going to fire up the locomotive engine in the shuttle and throw her the gas. If this works I will parry the ship by sufficiency to run the asteroid field."

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

"That is where you come in. I am going to exhaust, I need you to scoop me up fast and get me sack. Get my soundbox 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 case on ; if this is going to work I have to do it now."I shut off the com channel. It took me less than a minute to position my shuttle. I contacted nothingness manpower,"Cut the power now !"Then I put the locomotive power to full and locked the throttle. The on board computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent engine overburden in twenty seconds. Imminent locomotive engine overburden in nineteen secondment. Imminent engine overload in xviii seconds."I dove for the controller for the projection system. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the handle."system of rules detects non suited personnel, ejection system disabled."

piece of ass ! I pulled my English arm and shot the console. Then I yanked the hold again, there was a head numbing roar as the air exploded out of the ship. My head teacher hit something solid a few second gear later and the human race went darkness. My last thought was,"nooky, that hurts."

***

"police chief Steffi Graf, I do not look you to come back from this. I expect you to die a bloody and horrible death."Admiral Tigrat said as I was in my last interview before launching."Do not disappoint me."

"Respectfully sir, my intact crew will be at your one hundredth birthday company. There I will give your married woman and girl a buss right hand in front of you. How did you ever cope to get a hoop on the finger of that cleaning lady ? She has to be at least forty twelvemonth younger than you."

***

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

"Med lab,"the huge couple of titty above me said quietly.

"How ?"

"Liskians are tougher than human beings, 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 aches and pain in the ass plus smudge vision for a few daylight, but you will be fine soon."

"melon vine's, what about the ship ?"

"The ship is out of danger and flying under its own exponent again, maitre d'hotel. You got us clear of the asteroids and bought him the sentence to fix the ship. By the sentence I let you out of here we will be fully operable again."

"William Tell jazz Hands and Demoness to convey an supererogatory relaxation cycle, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

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