them, not operating them.
“You’ve made remarkable progress, Bill,” the admiral praised, as they strolled the corridors of the engineering section. “Especially considering how under staffed you’ve been.”
“Thank you, Sir,” the captain responded. “We’ve been working around the clock to try and get her ready. But a lot of the credit goes to the station crews, Sir. They’ve been working their tails off, every minute of every day. We couldn’t have gotten this far without them.”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“It also was a big help to have most of the components available in our hangar bay, Sir,” Commander Montero added. “We never had to wait for anything to be shuttled up to us.”
The admiral had started his tour at the bridge, worked his way aft, and had just finished up in engineering when they met up with doctors Karlsen and Sorenson in the corridor.
“Ah, Doctor Karlsen,” the admiral greeted. “And Doctor Sorenson. A pleasure to see you, as always. I hope everything is going well for you?”
“If you’d like to take a look for yourself, Admiral, we are ready.”
“Excellent.” The admiral turned to the captain and the XO. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen. I’ll meet up with you later on the bridge.”
“Yes Sir,” the captain agreed. The captain and the commander, snapped to attention, saluting the admiral as he departed.
The admiral followed the two doctors past the armed guards that had been at the entrances to both the port and starboard shield generator bays since the special projects team had come aboard.
“I’d love to be a fly on that wall right about now,” the XO commented as they headed for the bridge.
“I have a feeling we’re going to know all about it soon enough,” the captain assured him.
CHAPTER 4
The day had started off like any other, up at six in the morning and breakfast at seven. Only today Nathan felt far more optimistic than he could remember since coming aboard. It might have been the time spent on the bridge the day before, where the simulations that he and Cameron had run seemed to have gone more smoothly than usual. He didn’t know if they were finally developing a working rapport, or if it was just that on the bridge, there were far more eyes on them.
But his good mood could also have been the result of a shorter than usual work day. Because of the inspection, the captain had given the entire crew the evening off, with none of the usual after dinner training or work teams that usually lasted right up until bedtime.
But most likely, Nathan’s, as well as everyone else’s better than usual moods were probably due to the knowledge that not only was today a ‘training free’ day, scuttlebutt had it that they were going to take the ship out for quick ‘lap around the block’, as the XO had referred to it. After weeks of intense training and late night work parties, the crew was itching to show what they could do.
Of course, every section chief had objected to the idea of starting the Aurora’s trials earlier than originally scheduled. There were still dozens of systems that were not completely installed. The galley, for example, still did not have functioning cold storage and the crew was still being fed by the mess halls down on Earth. More than half of the ships weaponry was still incomplete, her FTL fields were inoperative, as were the shields. But until the special projects team concluded their experiments and returned the emitters and the last two reactors to them, there was nothing that could be done about those systems.
But with the focus of the cruise being a test of the main propulsion system’s sub-light capabilities, the captain, as well as Admiral Yamori, were convinced that an eight hour trip around the system would be safe enough. And the Reliant, which was currently conducting training exercises within the inner system, could provide assistance if something were to go wrong.
So with the rumor being that they would depart just after lunch, Nathan had taken a chance and was sitting down to a larger than normal breakfast with Vladimir. They had been a little late in arriving, thanks to his roommate’s inability to get from quarters to the galley without stopping to strike up a conversation with at least one member of the opposite sex.
“I am so excited,” Vladimir exclaimed as he sat down to eat. “I will finally get to see the engines in action. No more simulations.”
“I second that last part,” Nathan agreed as he started eating.
“And the best part is, while we are underway, that woman will not be bothering me.”
“I hear ya.” It suddenly occurred to Nathan that the reason he was in such good spirits this morning was simply because he knew that today he would be free of the usual tension between himself and Cameron, which in itself had turned out to be mentally exhausting. While actually underway, the captain or XO would be giving the orders. And although Cameron still had no problem ‘offering alternatives’ to Nathan, he had no doubt that she would not be offering them in the presence of command staff.
“I really hope that we get the chance to bring the engines to full power today. I believe we can get to at least eighty percent light, maybe eighty-five.”
He watched in amazement as Vladimir shoveled food into his mouth. Nathan had been raised in a very proper family, where they had been taught to put down their eating utensils in between bites in order to ensure the slow, methodical chewing and swallowing of their food. Not that Nathan ate abnormally slow. He had abandoned such rituals out of necessity over the years. But Vladimir was shoveling the food in before he had swallowed the previous bite. And he was still able to talk relatively clearly while he was eating. Nathan had dined with Vladimir nearly every day for the last two weeks, and had yet to get used to his style of inhaling his meals.
“Are you in a hurry or something,” Nathan chuckled. “Why do you eat so fast? Slow down and enjoy your food.”
“I know, I know-is bad habit. I get this from old job. I worked my way through school on rescue squad. It was very busy station. When you got chance to eat, you ate quickly or not at all.”
“Now hear this!” the comm-system blared through the loudspeakers. “All hands report to stations and prepare to get underway. Repeat, all hands report to stations and prepare to get underway. Departure in 5 minutes. That is all.”
“You see,” Vladimir said, as he stuffed the last sausage into his mouth and then displayed his empty plate, comparing it to Nathan’s barely touched plate full of food. “Just like on the rescue squad!”
Nathan began shoveling food into his mouth as Vladimir left the table, his engorged mouth still chewing away. After shoveling in several heaping spoonfuls, Nathan doubted he could fit much more into his mouth, so he grabbed the four sausages from his plate and headed out of the galley in a hurry.
The bridge was bustling with activity as the crew prepared to get underway. Technicians were performing last minute checks on critical systems, and the communications officer was busily confirming the readiness of each department to get underway.
Captain Roberts sat in his command chair in the middle of the bridge, pretending to review some notes on the data pad that he carried with him everywhere. He very much liked having information at his fingertips, and as far as he was concerned it was the best piece of lost technology yet recovered from the Data Ark.
The captain was listening intently to the sounds of his bridge staff as they prepared for their first real voyage. It would be a brief journey, only about six hours round-trip, but for his crew of fresh graduates, or ‘kids’ as his XO liked to call them, it would be their first voyage and therefore always one to remember.
He could’ve waited until later in the day before setting out, giving them all a chance to mentally prepare before getting under way, but that would’ve been too easy. When faced with a short amount of time to train a new crew, it made sense to use every opportunity to test them. And this sudden call to set sail was the perfect chance to do just that. For how quickly one could drop what they were doing and jump into action was a good indicator of how they would perform under pressure. It was something that he had learned from his first captain more than twenty years ago.
In a way, he felt a little guilty, like he had cheated. Unlike the rest of the crew, he did have a chance to mentally prepare. Not that he needed it, but he did take the time to visit with his family by vid-comm this morning.
