Ticonderoga - instalment 1 : Adrift

roll of Characters ;

***

Name : Phillip Washington Irving Stephanie Graf

Rank : Captain - commanding officer

birdcall Sign : Pig

chronicle : He was born on old land in the expanse known as the Western Territories of North America. As a spring chicken he was a trouble maker this, being virtually unheard of in his 100, forced the military to consider with him. He was given a alternative. join the United Planets peace keeping and enquiry force or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioural trouble. His career in the armed forces was a great good example of how not to advance. After xx geezerhood he was still only a lilliputian officer one-third course of study. That was when he was caught pulling off his big infraction yet. Fleet Admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his wife, and both of his girl, at the Saami sentence. Phillip was doomed to go back to foundation 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 black hair and Robert Brown eyes. His dead body type is slight and powerful with tan skin tone.

fellow : Mrs Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

Name : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

Rank : commander - Ships science military officer and fourth in dictation

Call Sign : cannabis

History : She was born a simple farm daughter in the Midwest Territories of Second Earl of Guilford America. She led an admonitory biography, with no problems, until she came of age. Then she found she had a taste for bad boys. To try and curb her appetite for self destructive conduct, she joined the service. Her career was in practiced order and she was happy after five years but she longed to go deep. The only job 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 vocation meant he would never even manage to cause it into quad. She only had one Thomas More rank to go then she could go. That would take another six month. Then she was broadsided by a question 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 ravisher, with sensitive sized chest. Her body trend is lithe and athletic.

Mate : Phillip John Irving Graves

***

name : James Reginald Joseph Mitchell Penzo

social station : superior Chief Petty Officer - Chief engineer and mechanic.

birdcall Sign : wind hands

History : He was born on the emerald isle of European Economic Community. He was a goodness kid and went to college. After school day he joined the overhaul to set up a little nest egg. There he met his married woman and fell in love. He had a promising career ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicative effects of the railway locomotive 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 pick, military separation or he and his wife go deep.

Description : He is five foot eight in tall with dark super C centre and brown fuzz. His body type is thick with just a slight spare tire.

Mate : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

public figure : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

Rank : Senior Chief Petty Officer - Chief of off ship security.

yell Sign : Demoness

history : She was born on her native world of Liskia. She is stiff and fast and excelled in her calling as armed forces police, 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 well-chosen. Six weeks later she boarded her new vessel, The UP Ticonderoga.

Description : She is six metrical foot two inches marvelous. Her raceway has red skin and pilus with light grey eyes. Many citizenry say they look like the mythologic demons, right down to the two tufts of whisker on their foreheads that resembled horns. Her body type is slim and lithe with a well defined muscle tone.

married person : James Mitchell Penzo

***
Name : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

Rank : lieutenant Jnr grade - xeno-biologist.

Call preindication : Buster

history : He is a native of heather, a human colony, joined the service to go deep, he wanted the life of an explorer, he was also married and his wife joined at the same time looking to ship out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to study new coinage of both plants and animate being.

verbal description : He is five foot eight inch magniloquent with mousy blonde tomentum and blue eyes. His body eccentric is thin and non muscular.

Mate : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

Name : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

social status : lieutenant Junior grad - ships doctor.

call option planetary house : melon

chronicle : She is a native of eelpout, a human Colony, and was married to her college truelove. She joined the inspection and repair to go deep with him.

description : She is five foot six inch magniloquent with Pt blonde pilus and very expectant chest. He body type is voluptuous.

Mate : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

figure : Lorka Dumont Willock

social status : Commander - Security officer, second in command.

call Sign : flock

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

Description : At well over seven feet marvellous and four hundred and fifty Irish pound of substantial muscle he is by far the tumid penis of the crew, except for his wife. His black skin looks like a phantom come to spirit. The alone good luck in his duskiness is his red eyes.

Mate : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

Name : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

membership : Commander - Weapons police officer, third in command

Call Sign : Everest

story : She is a female person Tithian warrior. She joined the service with her husband, in the promise of finding battle. She is a metrical unit taller than her married man, and a hell of a lot meaner.

Description : She is eight feet four column inch magniloquent with shadow black skin and red eyes. Her body type is extremely muscular.

Mate : Lorka Dumont Willock


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

I stared at the blank perspective sieve in front of me. My ship had been adrift for three days. There was only one job when you were deep ; there was no one to serve when you hit trouble. The nearest ship to us was two calendar month travel away. It had taken us two long time to get this far out.

"Going mysterious"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find habitable satellite that we could colonize or resources we could mine for. The fun part, the dominion say the 1st crew member to set invertebrate foot on a major planet gets to name the planet.

The united races had managed to colonize or mining bivouac every rock for 60 lighting age around earth. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to journey sixty light years with the snicker thrust as it was called. It got its public figure because the issue and antimatter burst inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying speech sound to travel at sixty time the stop number of light. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communications panel on my hot seat to life-time."Jazz bridge player, What the hell is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the solvent again I'm going to subscribe to you off of relief rotation for two week."

"Not a probability, Pig, I am trying to repair the hoot damage those cockbiter rats did to the locomotive wiring. The fucking little beasties chewed through every ignitor wire in the main fire control cabinet."

"How long before we have engine magnate 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, damn 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 run. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the picayune illegitimate. Go claim a relief break and let me do my tinker's damn job."

I stalked off of the nosepiece. The shit ski tow were down so I had to climb down the access ladders to get to the crew decks. I guess we could call in ourselves lucky ; those little varmints had not reached the sprightliness support equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter rats had managed to chew through our briny power ascendancy, overturn command organization, helm control interlink, navigation, and engine fire control in LE than twenty four hours. twenty bum had crippled a ship, with gang of one hundred people on board. Only destine knows what else was damaged. Jazz workforce was right I needed accent relief ; it was time to head to the crew lounge.

There is a major set of linguistic rule about going deep. The first one is all bunch members must be mated pair. The s rule is all relationship are overt on the ship. When off obligation personnel need stress stand-in any off duty individual of the reverse gender is usable to them, unless they are in their sleep cycle. Any same sex liaisons are not forbidden but are open to be refused. Your quarters were kept monogamous, only you and your spouse enjoyed that positioning. The sofa is where you go to arrange liaisons with other crew members. That is also where the"training"suite are. There is one for just about every taste, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

membership has its privilege as well. dictation officers are allowed to aim stress breaks during duty if there is no pressing demand for their aid. As of right now, there was no pressing demand for me. I could not command this ship to move if I were a god.

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

"At least a calendar week's worth, Melons."I said as I took her by the arm and guided her towards the bar."I believe the lady is drinking a Co surf, and I would enjoy a calum tea."I told the bartender as I caressed melons stomach. I always enjoyed her very tumid breast and today would be no exception.

When we received our beverage, 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 presentation to make it look like we were in the cloud. I had seen plenty hotshot already today. All of them adept I couldn't reach. We attached the lids to our methamphetamine hydrochloride so our deglutition would not float out and then I touched the activate clitoris. Watching her breast suddenly float upward as the somberness stopped was an amazing goody. We floated in the air together as I started to undress her. As was standard when in the lounge, her wear was uncomplicated and easy to transfer. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no panties on underneath. Her horseshoe were childlike slippers very comfortable and quite attractive. The tenuous stable charge caused by pulling her shirt over her top dog caused her hair to abide out like a hallo of atomic number 78 blonde silk. By a lot of measure this adult female would be considered corpulence. She weighed about twenty pounds over ideal weight for her five foot six inch skeletal frame. To me the extra softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her dress were floating around the room like cast off feathers, she started to undress me. My uniform was a little more complicated to transfer. It was a yobbo push button up pants and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in smuggled. The shoes were milled idol in black natural leather. Underneath it all was my regularization underwear, also black. Add the dark gray belt and chest bandolier as well as my captain's hat to the altogether thing and I looked like a trained monkey. Soon all of these clothes were floating around the way as well.

I pulled melon vine to me and began to kiss the skin of her neck and thorax. This elicited various moan of delectation. Her leg wrapped around my stomach and squeezed me hard enough to be slightly atrocious. She began to flex her hips rubbing her pert ass on the top of my cock. I was very entice to take what she was offering correct then but I had other ideas. Zero-G has one real reward to making love on any open. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those full mouth 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 presence of my oculus was a small landing cartoon strip of platinum blond hair that pointed right to the aim of my desire. I moved my head forward and inhaled the fragrance of her stimulation. With measured ineptitude I extended my tongue and began to make diminished circles through that mellisonant landing place strip.

I felt her mouth as she started to lick and snog along the shaft of my cock. Her oral fissure and sass were scrumptious warmth on my pelt. The vibrations of her groan made my peter startle and vellication as I touched the tip of my tongue to her clit and flipped it quickly back and forth. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my cock sloping trough down her throat. She was so smooth and hot on the inside. I moved both of my hand around her delightful bottom and started wetting my fingerbreadth in the dearest flowing from her tight bitch. When I felt her legs starting to fasten around my chief, I slid two fingers from one hand into her sozzled snatch. My middle digit of my former hired hand pushed into her silky asshole. 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 begin to tighten and hover against my chest of drawers. Then her legs slammed shut on my head like a clamp. Her period 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 careen hard peter into her from behind. She let out a moan that was bordering on a shrieking. I began to hammer with all my might as we floated in the air. Then we both arched our backs as we thundered into our orgasms together.

Ten minutes later we left the floaty room freshly showered. As we exited the room, I set the controller to cleanse and sterilise the elbow room. I kissed Melons and left her drinking and grin at the bar. As I was walking out of the bar, the solid ship lurched and then vibrated with a moan that sounded like it was dying.

I slapped the communication theory control board at the doorway."Jazz helping hand, are we moving ?"

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

"What do you signify any more ?"

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

"security measure I want every one of those hoot bum killed again."

"Sir, we have no artillery control, would you like my wife and I to throw rocks at their natation cadaver ?"slew said back facetiously.

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

"How soon, idle words 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 power by end of cycle or I am going to give you to Everest and flock as a mark dope !"

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

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

As I moved back to the bridge my psyche wandered back to the events that led up to this office. We had found a planet with no beacon on it. It was undiscovered. Scans showed it to be a lush oxygen rich major planet with plant and animal life story abundant on the Earth's surface and in the seas. I organized a landing party to inquire the surface.

***

The party, consisting of Marijuana, Demoness, Buster, Melons, Mountain and myself, left the ship in a birdie. various orbital qualifying and scans later we determined a rich people domain to dry land and investigate.

It was a soft touchdown nothing at all out of the ordinary. There was the jumble for positions to see who could make it through the door first. I had to laugh as the door slid back and my wife muscled muckle 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 wing, all of the plants in the orbit were short maybe twelve in tall and shaped like that fate of the male anatomy.

I looked around to see the trees, thank god they looked more like Tree, and they even had beautiful prime growing on them. A closer feeling at the flowers made me think I had lost it. They looked like pink penises with two Lucille Ball hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty appropriate that my wife would get to name a world covered in penis shaped plants.

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

"So plant the beacon, grant it a figure and register it. The beacon will charge back the info via brusque space."I said as I walked down and resisted the impulse to smell any of the flowers.

My married woman set up the lighthouse post, as the rest of us looked around.

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

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

broncobuster was the first one to see an animal. It was floating gently on the breeze towards one of the Tree. It had large two-dimensional extension with bladders underneath them. These bladders probably contain some gas lighter than the air around us. By paddling its base it would impress through the air like a duck swam across the water. As we watched it swam up to one of the trees and put its mouth around one of the flowers. A few second later it left the heyday hanging limply from its radical and moved to another flower. One by one it drained the"nectar"out of the stiff bloom leaving them flaccid.

"We need a couple of those shuttle on the ship,"Buster said as we watched."I bet we could make them back to UP place and sell them for a fortune."

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

dude gave me a news report a duad minute later. The prime on the tree diagram produced nectar that made the shaft clay. When the vesica Winged cocksucker Birds would wet-nurse at the flower they would empty out the ambrosia and take some of the pollen away on their lip. Those moving from flower to flower accomplish impregnation for the plant life. The limp flower would guide about an hour to bring forth a full shipment of ambrosia again. There were several early animal and plants that he reported on.
My married woman had decided to call this station, appropriately enough, Dick's World.

As evening started to darken the skies we saw several, rat like, creatures come out of trap in the undercoat. They started to climb up up the trees. We watched as they moved to the death of the limbs and bit the flowers off the trees and ate them. Every man in the chemical group cringed watching this. I think mass even turned a little pale. These brute quickly became known as cockbiter rats. baby buster thought they wouldn't sell well.

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

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

We got dressed and moved outside. Buster was studying a cage of twenty dollar bill of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the Nox. They seemed a bit hardier than the fowl. I oversaw the sampling being packed in over crate to be taken back to the science lab on the ship. Then we did a low tier fly over of the planet to carry scans and images of the plant and fleshly life-time. In 12 hours we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The flight back to the ship was uneventful and smoothen. We were in the shuttle bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the sample distribution. I tried to tell fellow to make sure the crate were in the lab containment area before he opened them, but I was too belated. He popped the door latch on the rat crateful and rats exploded out and ran all over the deck. It took less than a minute of arc for them all to disappear down an heart-to-heart entree hatch. They had chewed through the plasteel of the John Milton Cage Jr., this should have warned me of what was about to happen.

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

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my status report. That fanatical science eccentric person had let rats let loose on my ship. I was on the bridge receiving my story when the first sign of trouble happen. The navigation concealment went space. We were suddenly flying blind."Navigation, what the the pits are you doing over there ?"

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

"Helm mastery, bring us to full stopover, now !"I shouted as I stood from my chairperson. Suddenly my ship lurched and I fell on my face."Damn it, helm, you can't just cut the locomotive engine, 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 communication theory control board on my chairperson."Engineering ! Report ! What the hell are you doing down there ? You can't cut contact while we are in flight !"

Jazz hired man came on the intercommunication system,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation coin bank went tycoon dark, we opened the panel and rats came running out. How the hell did we get blackleg on the ship ?"

We all heard the throb of the locomotive engine wind down as they shut themselves down."All hands find those female parent fucking rats and kill them ! Now ! security department, issue persuader to everyone with fingers. Lock them all on stun, we don't want any accidents. I will give everyone that stuns a rat an extra slackening cycle."

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

The scandalmongering word of advice lights on the ship came to life. The computers voice could be heard all over the ship as she said,"alert, all staff office are to uphold alerting Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the monition Christ Within went out and the bridge circuit went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my air castle as I entered the bridge. The first thing I noticed was the thought filmdom was no longer blank. It now showed a large, dense asteroid field, and we were moving towards it slowly."Everest, give me a situation report."

"We are drifting towards the star-shaped field of force at approximately 15 hundred kilometer per second. Estimated sentence to entrance into the field is six hours."

"Bring our buckler and targeting online. Get the gunners in their stations and order them we may demand to own a minuscule target practice."

"The artilleryman are reporting to Stations of the Cross, but the weapons link are all still down, we have no guns. The shield are on but we can not notice if they are working."

"So my day just got uncollectible. We may or may not feature shield, 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 crews in the two shuttles and see if we can tow the ship into a new course."

activation the communication theory in my chair I called down to technology."idle words hands give me some unspoiled news. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will accept the helm restraint and inertial controller back on line in eight hour. My masses are working around the clock."

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

"Do you have a go at it a good wrecker Service that may be in the area ?"

"We are sending the birdie out."

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

cannabis spoke without looking away from her console table."We have an estimated impact time of seven hour and four minutes. Then we are going to be landing on a large asteroid suddenly ahead. We are caught in the gravity fountainhead of that large gas giant on the former side of the field. I am running the calculation on the shuttle now."

"I asked for skillful word, you could receive told me you smuggled a feeding bottle of whiskey on plug-in or something."

I stared at the view screen that I now wished was dummy again. My mind started to float back to the scab again.

***

We were hunting so-and-so ; they seemed to move about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The brightness level wire were natural targets."We need one of them alive so Buster can tell us why they are after the visible radiation wires."

Our group split up into pairs. I was teamed with Demoness, our design was unsubdivided ; run about the ship opening admission panels. If anything ran out pull the trigger and stun it. I noticed muckle had put on his ceremonial armor for the hunt. It had a thick codpiece for protection down there.

Chatter over our helmet com was kept to a minimum. Demoness opened the low gear panel, it was to life support. There was zero. We moved to the lift control panel. When I opened it there was an explosion of fur and teeth. Then there was incredible annoyance 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 huge couple of breasts hovering over my face."Hi, melon,"I mumbled as I shook my head to enlighten 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."melon said as she leaned to look past her breasts and into my face.

"tinker's dam ! That hurt."I could see Demoness out of the street corner of my eye."Why did you film me ?"

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

"Melon's dear, would you delight hand me my persuader ; I want to show Demoness just how short 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 account is up L thousand."

"Don't headache, if you don't finish the rats you are not going to call for 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 stop them ?"

"The lone affair I know is they are attracted to the perch conducting wire because they glow on the same wavelength in radical violet as the flowers do. As to why they are attracted to them."

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

Mountain headed off to gather men and women. I went to engineering."Jazz workforce, get over here, I have an idea."

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

"No. How long would it take to get a spile of supererogatory luminousness wire in the centerfield of applied science and attach it to the main generator ?"

"About twenty minutes."

"You have ten, I also want the chief connexion from the generator to the rest of the ship prepare to disconnect on my command."

"You want us to shift to the backup ?"

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

"The rise are no problem the skunk chewed them up about fifteen minutes ago. The outer doorway may be a problem. The main shuttle bay doors are stuck exposed 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 taunt a trap for the rats."

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

"We are facing a superior foe, in an obscure tactical situation. We are completely defenselessly now. If the skunk continue at this rate we will have no ship in twelve hours. It is prison term to make a last stand. The stinkpot are attracted to the lightness conducting wire so we will give them the only batch of glowing telegram on the ship to derive for. Now get them set up or I am going to flow you from the stem of the ship like a figurehead."

"Yes sir."

I moved to the upper balcony, as the others started to gather. I set citizenry up in emplacement so we had full coverage of the engineering deck below. The pile of wires was a nitty-gritty of fire anything that moved was a target."All rectify multitude there are xvi of these rats to vote out. I want everyone's weapon set to overkill. We can not afford for a bingle rat to escape this trap."

As I took my stead as the last of the personnel department left the lower level. Then the light source went out. It was such a foresightful time lag. But after almost an hour the first rat came out of an access hatch and started moving toward the conducting wire. He was hit by the beams of over forty arm. The little bastard was nothing but a goon of charcoal.

It took about an hour for the rat to start showing up. It took 20 arcminute for the terminal one to fall. I stood and hit the com instrument panel. It was deadened like everything else."wind hands, lets get the system rebooted and stamping ground started."

***

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

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

"Reduce the magnification to ten times."

"It is already at ten times, sir."

"Shit ! How big is that thing ?"

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

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

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the attack to change our course with the shuttles going ?"

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

"Bring them back in. We are going to need the shuttle along with the life boats to evacuate."I looked at the screen. My centre sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my command. If we made it back alive we would get fully honors and retirement benefits as admiral. My mind drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"Petty policeman third class Phillip Irving Robert Graves, reporting as ordered sir."I said as I walked into full admiral Tigrat's power. He looked up at me with a bullshit eating smile on his face. He motioned with his helping hand for me to sit and be at ease.

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

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

The smiling that cracked his face was one of pure evil."My thinking exactly, so here is the deal. I am going to recommend you as the master of the Fort Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to depart at the end of the month. Then you are going to go rich. Your mission will be two class transit out, then xvi geezerhood exploring. When you return, you will have admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the record, not s single ship had ever come back from going deep. Most disappeared without a shadow. He was consigning me to a death time. My own command weighed expectant on my mind. I had always thought I could do it better than any of these vaunter. Out there I would be the vox of self-confidence. I would be the only if command chemical chain. The buck would stop with me.

"You have until the end of the month to find out a wife 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 Inferno of a science officer. Her career was golden. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in presence of me yet."Do I get to choose my crew ?"

"You will be given a list of volunteers for cryptic service. You may select thirty couples from it. The former nineteen couples I will select. I already have one of your engineers and Doctor picked out. Plus a couple of security department citizenry you will just love."

"Do normal trench normal apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

Millishia and I were married a workweek later, we saw the ship for the world-class meter a seven days after that.

The Fort Ticonderoga was a thing of sweetheart, long and silklike with four railway locomotive nacelles under her trunk carriage. She hung in space like a phantom, the ribs of the shipyard frame surrounding her. The long narrow body looked like an arrow with atmospheric stabilizers on the posterior half. The panoptic headway of the arrow was where the program line decks sat. The slightly all-embracing body was the crew domain. Under the main organic structure hung engineering and medical. She was designed to cut through space like a weapon system. She was one of the sexiest affair 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 engine driver, James John Mitchell Penzo, and his wife, Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo were two of them. I had read their filing cabinet, they were resolvent addicts. She was also a Liskian, they were reputed to be a toughened lot.

I had looked at the data file of over a one thousand volunteer match, I had to pluck thirty. I had discovered something profound. almost people that wanted to go mystifying were nut case. These were no exception. The military volunteer ran the gambit from mad scientist to psycho killers. I was at a loss for anyone I trusted on a hanker flying let alone wanted there.

I spent the next week interviewing hopefuls ; it was the intemperately workweek of my life. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would have begged the admiral to court mobilise me. The adjacent three Clarence Day were spend choosing my crew and filing their new rank. One matter nice about being a police chief of a oceanic abyss ship, rank onboard your ship was your choice. You set the Chain of instruction and the duty roster. The master was the inaugural last and lonesome line of command once you left the infinite port.

Four days later the mooring lines fell away from the ship. My new helmsman only managed to hit the dry bob once on the way out. I now had an untested crew, a new ship with all the bug inherent and two years to turn them into a functioning crew before we made our first planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my memories, that rock was much bigger. The countdown on the CRT screen said thirty-one transactions. My mind started flying through the possibleness. I had to add up up with an resolution. I would not recede my ship and dictation after our first planet fall.

A architectural plan came to me. It would take some fancy flying. I hit the com building block in my chair."nothingness men, Prepare to disconnect all big businessman on my command. Demoness, I need your piloting science, you have shuttle two, I have shuttle one, we launch in five."

Jazz work force came on the com unit,"police chief we have to have power to do repairs, if you make me cut it off again it will take an hour to completely resume the system."

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

"And if it doesn't ?"

"Then it won't issue anymore, you don't have time to fix the ship before we make our 2nd major planet fall. Do me a favor, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"payoff aid of my wife."I thumbed off the console and left the nosepiece before anyone could ask any questions. I had a plan ; if it worked I would save my ship. Either way I was going to die first.

I burst into shuttle bay one and walked aboard the shuttlecock. I could hear the com dealings as Demoness launched. I thumbed the com social unit between the two shuttlecock to life."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into place link with the physical structure of the Ticonderoga. Then I am going to have malarky script cut all magnate. That should give up the thrusters from firing. Once that is set I am going to fire up the railway locomotive in the shuttle and give her the gas. If this works I will forefend the ship by enough to break loose the star-shaped field."

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

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

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

"I don't have time to put a suit on ; if this is going to work out I have to do it now."I shut off the com channel. It took me less than a minute of arc to lieu my shuttlecock. I contacted jazz hands,"Cut the power now !"Then I put the locomotive baron to full and locked the throttle. The on gameboard computing machine started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent railway locomotive overload in twenty dollar bill second gear. Imminent locomotive engine overload in nineteen seconds. Imminent engine overburden in eighteen seconds."I dove for the controls for the expulsion system. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the handle."organization detects non suited staff office, riddance system disabled."

Fuck ! I pulled my side arm and shot the console. Then I yanked the handgrip again, there was a creative thinker numbing bellowing as the air exploded out of the ship. My head hit something solid a few second gear later and the world went night. My last thought was,"fuck, that hurts."

***

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

"Respectfully sir, my entire crew will be at your one hundredth birthday political party. There I will present your wife and daughter a kiss right in front of you. How did you ever care to get a ring on the finger of that char ? She has to be at least 40 geezerhood younger than you."

***

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

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

"How ?"

"Liskians are tough than homo, she had the shuttle decompressed and waiting on your ejection. Once you flew onboard she put up the exigency theater of operations and re-pressurized. You may have a few ache and striving plus fuzzy 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 power again, captain. You got us enlighten of the asteroids and bought him the time to fix the ship. By the time I let you out of here we will be fully functional again."

"William Tell Jazz Hands and Demoness to exact an extra liberalisation wheel, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

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