3

“Todd Klassen, Natasha Volsonov, Luana Marshal, Vernon Blake, Dylan Barnhart, Jeremiah Baker, Richard Noce, David Heusser, Roberto Balboa, Katherine Young,

Klarisa Moir, and Guy Conroy. This crew is a joke, the best we have is Klarisa and Luana, and even Luana she keeps messing things up. The crew as a whole is unfit to-”

“Is your incompetence as a captain increasing Linnea?” Keene interrupted.

“No sir, that’s not what I-” She was interrupted again.

“The crew is only as good as the captain that commands them. So what you are saying, is that your command is failing?” Linnea clenched her fist behind her back and paused momentarily before replying. “Well Captain?”

“No sir.” She said with tension in her voice. She looked back up at Keene.

“So it appears you at least got the ship operational. I can say I’m impressed, but it will take a lot more then just fixing a ship to show your skills, unless those are all the skills you have. We are here to annihilate the Cartacus and to serve the UNEA. While I feel you are not fit to serve as captain, I have my orders.” He went through some papers on his desk and pulled out a manila folder. He opened the folder up and handed her a few sheets of paper with a picture of a science station attached on the top right corner with a paperclip. “You are to report immediately to Research Station RS-07. You are to deliver a specimen from said station and bring it back here for inspection.”

“With all do respect sir; we are not a delivery or zoo service.”

“You are whatever service you are ordered to Captain. You’re orders are just as iron clad as mine.”

“Yes sir, I understand.”

“You have your orders, dismissed. Let’s see how you can handle this mission.” He said snidely. Luana walked out of the room and about twenty meters down the hall she relaxed a little and let out of heavy sigh. First the ship, then the crew, and now this? Why can’t I just get the chance I need to show I can command a ship with a manage a good crew. She paused and thought about what she had just said. “A good crew… I’m being too hard on them; I’m starting to feel like Keene.” She said out loud.

“Yes, you are being a bit hard on them.” She heard someone say behind her. Linnea turned around and saw Klarisa behind her leaning against the wall. “They may not be the best there is, but they do have much potential. They are indeed unique, as from what I have heard, so are you.”

“You heard that eh?”

“They aren’t much different from you, and I sense a lot of greatness from you as well. We never got a chance to fully talk to each other. I’m your advisor and in charge of any negotiations we may need.”

“I’m surprised to have someone with your skills here.”

“Don’t be.” She let out a little chuckle. “I’m not quite what you call a normal advisor. My methods have been shot down at the academy, and was personally placed here by Keene, thought I’d be able to do more harm than good with you.”

“That’s comforting.” Linnea said sarcastically.

“While his intentions aren’t of the most gracious, I will do my best with you, and hope that my skills will come in handy to you.”

“So you’re not one of his own?”

“Oh no, I have about as much respect for him as you do. If anything I’m a bit grateful to serve under you. From what I have heard and seen, you’d be one of the only captains that would be more open to new ideas.”

“Like I was open with Volsonov.” She mumbled quietly to herself, thinking about how she had snapped at her the previous day for doing the repairs in her own manner.

“It won’t be easy for you, but if you want the crew to listen, you have to be less a tyrant. All of us are the “underdogs” of the academy. The only way we will be able to make it through this is by going outside the line, especially with that ship of ours.” Luana gave a faint laugh and replied back.

“That ship is something else, isn’t it? So what would you suggest I do with the crew?”

“Be more personal with them. This isn’t a simulator; you can’t just shut them off whenever you get too stressed. These are people you will be with for a while; you may as well do what you can to make them as at least tolerable as you can.”

“How much have the others spoken to you about this?”

“None actually. But even from a single day, I sensed a lot of hostility from the crew, even some from your friend Luana.”

“I hated to do that with her, but without order and discipline, this whole ship and crew will fall apart.”

“Not all discipline needs harsh words or stern faces. Remember that.”

“I’ll work on that. Thank you.”

“No need for thanks. I’m just here to make sure things go well.”

“You have my thanks anyway.” Linnea bowed her head to Klarisa. “Oh, we have our first mission. Could you gather the crew and meet at the ship?”

“Yes captain.” Klarisa saluted to her with a smile and walked off down the hall. Linnea looked back at Klarisa until she disappeared around a corner, and then continued to walk towards the space docks.

Linnea got to the docks to see the UNS Promenade enter the hypergate. Her eyes went cold at the thought of Sanchez getting the best of the fleet. I don’t care what her transcript says; she has no right to command that ship. Her arrogance is going to get her crew killed. I just hope I’m there to see her screw up. She continued down on the lift to where the USN Stingray was and her crew was already there. The ship was repainted, and almost looked new. She walked over to them wide-eyed, with a completely shocked expression.

“Surprised Captain?” Luana said with a smile.

“How did you finish it so fast?” Linnea asked surprisingly.

“I convinced everyone to work harder and longer on it, hoping it would help you relax a bit.”

“Was I really that bad yesterday?”

“A bit.” David said sarcastically.

“I still will expect you to be a bit less sarcastic Heusser.” She gave a stern glare with a hint of a smile. “As you all may have heard, we have our first mission. Unfortunately it’s just a delivery mission to P4-82, but it will give a good test of the ships systems and show the competence of this crew.” She looked over them and saw some disappointment on their faces. “Think of this as an initial test. Alright everyone, to your stations, we are set to launch immediately!” She yelled, and everyone rushed to their stations.

She went in to the command bridge and looked around, seeing the consoles cleaned, and while there was apparent wear around, the crew had done a wonderful job in bringing the ship as good as it could get. She sat in the captains char and pressed some buttons on the console on the right arm of the chair, bringing up a holographic display showing the full layout of the ship, top, bottom, and both sides were on the screen. With a touch of the screen on the outside of the ship, a holographic display of the surrounding areas, including other docked ships and the station, appeared. She touched the screen off to the left with an icon of a humanoid and dots appeared all over the interface where life signs were present. She pressed the UNS Stingray and went back to the diagram of the ship itself. She pressed onto the engineering area and connected to the intercom.

“Luana, is everything in there go?” Linnea asked.

“Hold on, we are doing one more test. I don’t want this thing falling apart on us.” Luana replied.

“Likewise.” Linnea let out a small chuckle, and went back to the intercom. “How long until we are ready for launch?”

“Just give me another minute, I’m showing a little instability in the shields.” Some keyboard noises were heard over the intercom. “Alright, I’m getting above eighty percent efficiency, I think that’s the best I can do with this ship. We are good to go Captain.”

“Alright Miss Young, take us out, heading to P4-82.”

“Right captain.” Katherine replied, and pressed some icons on the control console, and the ship slowly launched. As it started to clear the dock, there was some rumbling inside the ship. Linnea connected back with engineering.

“Luana, what the hell is going on?”

“It’s fine Captain, just the engines are a little on the old side, they will hold though.”

“Keep an eye on them, my readings show a little bit of thermal variation.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep things fine here.”

“It’s my job to worry, but I’ll try to ease back and let you do your job.”

“Thanks Captain, we will keep you informed on any changes.” Linnea turned off the intercom and tried to relax.

“How are the controls holding up?”

“Fine captain.” Young said.

“Baker, how’s the radio holding?”

“A little static, but I think it’s just from age.”

“And Volsonov, are weapons online?”

“Yes Captain, all green.”

“Alright crew, let’s hope this tin can will make it through the gate. Coordinates set Young?”

“Yes, the gate is being redirected now. We will be ready to go through in sixty seconds.”

“The controls are all yours.”

“Thank you Captain.”

Young did a countdown and upon reaching “zero” piloted the ship into the gate, sending the ship almost instantly across the galaxy to the closest gate to P4-82.

“Gate travel a success Captain!” Young yelled out. And only about four hours from target at current maximum speed.”

“Good, we seem to have minimal hull damage from the hyperspace, only minor dings, won’t be noticeable.” She turns on communication to the whole ship. “Congratulations everyone, we have made our first hyperspace gate jump. According to Young, we should be at the target station in about four hours. We al-”

“Captain, we have a priority one communiqué from headquarters.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Opening a channel now.”

“C-pta-n V-n Bark-s, ther- has been re-orts of Cart-cus scou- sh-ps. You mus-“ The radio went dead.

“Baker, get a signal back up now!” Linnea yelled at him. He frantically tries to get the radio back up, with no luck.

“I’m sorry captain, the whole radio is dead; the travel through hyperspace must have damaged the transceiver. We just can’t get any signal, inbound or out.”

“Dammit! Volsonov, make sure those weapons are fully armed and ready for combat.”

“Yes Captain.”

Linnea put on the ship’s intercoms. “Attention all crew, we have received a communiqué from HQ of a Cartacus threat in our area. Prepare for combat!” She then switched over to just engineering. “Luana, we are going to need full shields, how fast can you get them to full?”

“I’m sorry Captain; they won’t get past eighty-one percent.”

“We are going into a combat situation, make it work!”

“I’ll see what I can do, but no-” She gets interrupted by Linnea.

“I don’t want to hear any “buts” right now, just do what you can and keep them up!” She shut off the intercom, and went to the main console. She activated the outer ship sensor array, and small ships appeared on the sensors. Oh no… She opened up the intercom for the entire ship. “There are six Cartacus scout ships heading on an intercept course with us. We need to be ready for battle NOW!” She yelled over the intercom, and turned to Young. “Young! Get us as close as you can to the planet, but keep out of its magnetosphere.”

“On it Captain!” She yelled back, and started to steer the ship towards the planet. As the ship turned, you could see the Cartacus scout ships in the distance.

“Captain-!” baker started to yell out, but an impact startled him.

“Captain, that wasn’t weapons fire.” Volsonov said, looking at the weapon grid for the scout ships.

“Then what the hell was it?” Linnea replied.

“Captain, I recommend looking at visuals to our port side, there is something out there, perhaps asteroids, but are not appearing on any sensors.”

“How could they not be in sensors..?” She pulled up her terminal and brought up a visual of the port side of the ship. There was a meteor shower on course with the planet.

“Captain, this ship isn’t meant to be able to maneuver through both enemy ships and a meteor shower.” Young said in a worried tone.

“No it wasn’t, but maybe we can use them to our advantage.”

“Captain?” Young asked.

“We can’t win fighting those ships without help, I guarantee you that. This ship doesn’t have full shields, weapons are only sub par, and the hull has been through space decomposition from lack of maintenance. But if we can lure those scouts close enough to us, we should be able to have them either get hit by the shower by avoiding our fire or vice versa. The scouts don’t have shields, but are extremely agile, so we can’t rely on the systems on the ship.”

“Captain, I suggest we put two medical officers in engineering and one on the bridge.” Moir suggested, staring off into space. “They will be needed very soon.” Linnea paused for a second and opened up a com with sick bay.

“Noce, Klassen, head to engineering, bring as many medical supplies you can for emergency. Conroy, Meet me in the command bridge, bring enough supplies for emergency as well. To all three of you, you will not have time to run back to sick bay to gather supplies, so bring everything you think you will need!”

Another asteroid hit the ship, right in front of the bridge. The sight of seeing a large rock being repelled right in front of you by your shields is a sight few ever forget. The paralyzing fear knowing that you could have just been sucked into the sub zero vacuum of space to suffocate for what would seem to be an eternity, as you suffer your last moments of life. The entire crew on the bridge were numb struck, and for a moment, amongst the chaos of the battle at hand, a complete silence went through the ship. Linnea was the first to snap out of the fear, and yelled out at the others to get their attention back.

“Soldiers!” She yelled out, over both the intercom and the strait to the crew on the bridge. “Time is short, the scout ships are here now! Volsonov, fire as soon as you can get locks. Young, keep us from getting killed out here! Marshal! You and your team are to keep those shields up!”

The scout ships broke out of their formation and started to circle the ship, like buzzards waiting for the feed. They started to let out alternating fire, which was being absorbed by the ship.

“Young, take us into that shower!”

“Yes Captain!”

Young started to steer the ship into he shower, and four of the scout ships followed them in. They closed into each other and two of the ships lucked into each other, and started to charge a beam.

“Captain, I’ve never read anything about this before. They seem to be fusing…”

“What the hell?” Linnea’s expression was just as puzzling as Blake’s. The combined scout ship let out a single concentrated blast that penetrated the shields and shot through one of the engines, causing a massive explosion on the side of the ship.

“Captain, we have lost power in half the ship! Shields have been almost completely drained from that blast!” Luana yelled over the intercom.

“Any personnel lost?”

“None, but we are leaking a little atmosphere, and we are losing power fast!”

“Dammit… Young, I want you to break off that damaged engine!”

“You want what?”

“You heard me, I want you to hit it off with one of the asteroids!” She put the com back to engineering. “Luana, I need to you make sure that all access to the engines have been completely sealed. We are going to try to break it off.”

“Your going to what?” Luana asked.

“Does everyone on this ship have hearing problems? Just get it done!”

“Right away!”

“Now Young, we need you to get closer to those asteroids.”

“Captain, I don-”

“Just do it! We are running out of time!”

“Yes Captain!” Young piloted the ship closer to one of the medium sized asteroids and increased speed to make sure the engine got torn off. “I hope this works…” She quietly said, and hit he controls down and the ship bumped against the asteroid, almost breaking off the engine.

“Do it again!” Linnea yelled, and Young went towards another asteroid.

“The combined ship is charging its weapon again captain!” Volsonov yelled.

“Young, we have no time left, do it now!”

Young went to the closest asteroid and rammed the bottom of the ship against it, and the engine broke off flying behind them. The combined scouts were flying so close behind the Stingray that the engine collided with their ship, causing an explosion that caught one of the other scouts, leaving only one perusing scout ship.

“Good job Young! Now get us clear of this, maybe we can take out that other scout!”

“Yes captain!” Young replied, still shocked that she was able to break off the engine without destroying the ship. The intercom beep sounded, and Luana started screaming.

“Captain, we are still leaking atmosphere, and we have no shields left! We have to get out of here, the ship cant handle anythin-” There was an explosion and the com was lost.

“Luana!” Linnea yelled, and as she was about to stand, the remaining perusing scout ship flew right in front of their ship, and fired several shots taking out the other engine and cut the ship’s power. Without it’s power, the planet’s gravitational pull started to bring them down, with the bridge in a panic.

“Captain! I can’t keep control on this, we lost all power, and the manual controls aren’t responding, we are a brick here! We are going to crash on the planet!”

“Pull the bow up, try to use the ships shape to slow down our decent, and keep it up! It’s going to get hot in here! Everyone, grab a hold of something, this is going to be rough!”

The ship started to enter the atmosphere, and the heat plates on the bottom of the ship started to peel off, setting parts of the hull on fire. It began doing a spiral due to the wind, and it tumbled down to the surface, and crashed with explosive force into a large jungle beneath them. Flaming parts of the Stingray flew about as a cloud of smoke and debris filled the area. As wind blew, the smoke cleared to reveal the ship’s smoldering ruins inside the crater the derelict ship left behind.