Contingency Page 6

  Chapter 5

  The ship seemed to glisten from the inside. Every corner, every display on its walls was brand new and seemed to shine with pride and vitality. Darius stood amazed for a moment before setting foot inside. His first footfall made a pronounced tap against the ship’s hard floor. He thought a moment about the irony of a momentous footfall, when in reality it was entirely produced by the artificial gravity aboard the Galar station.

  He then proceeded to enter the ship and run his hand slowly against one of the cool, metallic alloy walls. The wall’s composition seemed hard yet somehow elastic, as if it swayed under his hand. Yet when he pressed harder onto the wall, he was met only with cold resistance. After being caught a few moments longer in admiration, he proceeded to walk down the hallway and make his way toward the ship’s bridge. The ship was an Imperial frigate and so not too large, yet it took him a bit over a minute to reach his destination. He turned a few corners and took a lift to the bridge level. The size of the vessel was still astounding. It would require fifty people to effectively run the ship, and a fifth of a crew was always brought along in case of replacement, and to facilitate shifts. Alongside him, sixty members of the EIF would now forge their marks in space. A sense of majesty dawned on Darius as the doors to the bridge opened.

  He entered the bridge and gazed upon all its components. They were all gleaming and immaculate. He moved to the main computer console and activated it for the first time. It slowly came to life, with power running through its circuits. The main screen turned on, and a pleasant glow filled its face. Soon the details of the ship materialized on the screen. Boxes listed its specifications, and reports filled in one after the other about the primary status of the ship. The communications array picked up Galar’s chatter, and soon the entire right side of the screen began flashing with messages being intercepted from the station.

  Before long, the entire screen heralded the living, breathing, existence of the ship. It was as if it had a life of its own. It functioned independently and completely, ready to carry out any task. Its smooth, white surfaces shone in the light from above. Darius readied the ship and awaited the rest of his crew.

  "I'm glad to be able to meet with you all here today; I'm the captain of this new ship, the EFS Vigilante. As you are all well aware, due to the new explosion of fleet production and personnel recruitment we are all relatively new. I hope we may make our christening voyage a successful one to serve as a harbinger of many enterprises to come.” Darius spoke from the top level of the assembly hall to all the senior and junior crew assembled there. The room was named a hall, but was barely a crammed room that served the purpose of a mess hall, a briefing room, and a multipurpose room.

  The tables were crumpled to their storage sizes, and all the people aboard the frigate were huddled up in the room to hear the opening formalities. Many of the men and women were fresh from whatever training facilities they had come from and felt itchy to be in full uniform and finally aboard a fully functional starship. Many were facing the reality of collaboratively operating a starship. They stood awkwardly and looked on with undivided attention.

  "I have faith that every single one of you knows their job onboard, and that you can work as a collective to complete all the required tasks with maximum efficiency. This ship will have a policy of transparency. Our tasks are no secret. In order to work well, to the limit of my authority, I will share in full the objectives of our missions at hand. Due to the nature of our first undertaking, it will be required that all crew work to their full capacities, that the security personnel are at full alert, and that field engineers can work on any, heaven forbid, critical hull damage we receive."

  At this, some gasps came from the crowd. "Space-faring never was and never will be a promenade. The final expanse can never be conquered; there are always conflicts, enemies, and obstacles. From the first brave men who set forth on small spacecraft, injury and death were not to be feared, but to be prudently avoided.”

  He took a slight pause then continued, “We have been sent to the Tyrll Colony to take part in a decisive offensive against a wing of Ameerian raiders. The band has been harassing freighters and stray ships for months now. It seems they are not just nomadic pirates but a tangible disturbance. The young colony has been suffering raids on its incoming and outgoing cargo vessels. It is not my job to tell you how a strong and early industrial growth is essential to the creation of a well founded outpost of humanity. Our orders are to destroy all of the Ameerian attackers we can find and bring some of the crew in for questioning."

  Darius addressed his crew firmly. "I will now present the senior crew and officers of this ship. If you have a specific question regarding the functioning of your field of duty, please ask it during the hours on board, before departure. To my right here, is Dwight Verne, First Officer and Commander of this ship. Winter Gussol is our systems and weapons officer. Dejar Coban is our helmsman, and Klaise Xeran is our communications and operations officer. And finally, Emily Serin is our head of engineering.”

  Darius drew in breath before concluding, "Thanks for the time. Engineering and reaction chamber specialists please perform the final checks on all vital components; we want a smooth christening voyage." Darius turned his head as he spoke the final words. He thought of what might happen if there were an antimatter leak. The small, escaped particles would surely create an enormous explosion large enough to rip apart the ship and a portion of the space station if they were to fire the antimatter engines inside of it. He had decided not to paint out this unfortunate possibility to the crew.

  A chorus of applause erupted from the crew, who had been comforted by the welcome yet sharpened by the captain’s multiple warnings. The engineering section crews made their way out the door. The people with a thick white bar covering the tops of the blue stripes of their uniforms set themselves out as antimatter specialists. They made their ways to the reaction chamber. The double red lines military corps walked out following a few officers. A second group of engineers said goodbye to the group and headed out with their supervisors for briefing.

  When almost all had departed, Winter Gussol stepped up to the captain to talk with him. She had an even voice that carried weight in its words and had long black hair drawn back over her shoulders. It was an odd sight where long hair was so hard to manage. With the limited grooming facilities and lack of interest, most women kept their hair short. She had well-built shoulders and an air of stolidity and of almost intrusiveness. "Captain, am I to understand this is a military offensive mission?"

  "Yes, Gussol, I want a full diagnostic of this frigate’s offensive and defensive capabilities before 02.00 tomorrow, when we leave."

  She answered, "Yes... Sir, what do we know about the Ameerians?"

  Darius stepped back and quickly reviewed the details he had received but an hour ago. "There is a group of raiders in the vicinity of the Tyrll colony system. They have relied mainly on small fighter ships. They most likely have some sort of flagship with them and are supporting themselves from the plundering of our cargo ships. They will thus probably have antimatter capabilities; it would be prudent of us to make sure they do not get the chance to escape when they know they are uncovered. We suspect they are using a nearby nebula to cover their base of operation.”

  Winter nodded briefly and entered a commentary into the notepad on her wrist attachment. Darius continued, “Although the Ameerians are ruthless, and they don't really like us at all, they wouldn’t support renegade war bands. On the other hand, I don’t think they would interfere with them either. These guys won't go away unless we kick them out, and they don't understand diplomacy. No pirate does."

  "Understood, you will have the report. This initial bustle will subside after a few hours; I think that's why they give us a ten hour time period between personnel and cargo doors shut, and the actual departure."

  "Alright, get to it," Darius answered quickly to hint that he was still the superior officer and she shouldn't be telling hi
m how things were. He talked to the other officers briefly to give them their basic pre-launch duties and to personally greet them. He then walked off to his personal quarters.

  "Attention, all crew," the stern and artificially monotonous voice of Dwight Verne boomed over the ships communicator system many hours later. People all over the ship looked up from their various occupations and listened to his address. Darius looked up, annoyed, from some old logs on Ameerian ship configuration written by captains in previous conflicts.

  He was slightly annoyed at his commander’s voice. The official pre-launch address had to be given, but somehow it made him feel as if he were listening to redundancy. The spiel was always the same, and it always seemed to crash upon him at the wrong time. He himself had given the pre-flight speech several times, informing the crew of the job ahead, the status of the ship, launch times, and everything else that had to be said. Only now did he realize actually how annoying it was to listen to someone give orders when you were exempt from them. Verne’s voice spoke clearly and distinctly as he outlined every detail. Darius was still glancing over the designs in from of him and thinking of how un-aerodynamic the Ameerian ships would be if they were flying in atmosphere.

  As his mind jumped to the report he expected from Gussol, he realized he had just missed more than half of the announcement. He'd heard hundreds before, and so wasn’t overly concerned. "... all cargo again to make sure it is in its right place. Reaction chamber engineers should now report to their station for initialization. Chief Engineer Emily Serin is presiding. All crew on active duty must now report to respective stations. Final reminder, departure is in thirty minutes. Let us make the Vigilante's maiden voyage a success. Thank you, and good luck."

  Applause could be heard in main engineering, cargo, processing, the crew decks, the security hub, and even the bridge. The crew was excited and anxious to set out for the first time on a real ship. Darius had to admit that the speech, in Verne's voice, had quite a ring to it.