He gathered together his things; including his own data navigator, and bidded Lieutenant Curtis good day, before heading toward the elevator.
Then he remembered about the meeting, damn, he thought, as he headed toward the meeting room located on deck 4. A few minutes later he had arrived, luckily he was early, and most of the other deck officers had filed in, however not all.
Michael sat down; they were all waiting for Lieutenant Commander Rennick, the chief operations officer on board, and third in command, after Commander Angel.
The meeting room was a long rectangular shaped room, dominated by a long boardroom table located in the centre. There was a small table bearing a coffee dispenser in one corner, and there were large view ports at one end of the room.
The remainder of the other deck officers filed in, soon followed by Rennick, who sat down immediately. Together there were a total of 32 deck officers, one for each deck of the ship.
“I will now call this meeting to order,” Rennick began.
Michael thumbed through his data navigator at the events that took place during the day.
Rennick then proceeded to ask each officer in turn if there were any problems during the shift. Many of the officers simply didn’t have any. One had a power cut to the forward section of deck 8; another had a coolant leak in the engineering section of deck 16. The toilets weren’t working properly on deck 19, minor things really.
Finally Rennick came to Michael, “Lieutenant Alexander, what about your deck?”
“We had a minor short in one of the power couplings in the docking arm, I had some engineers take a look at it, and it was fixed within half an hour. It probably happened after we left Delta base.”
“Good,” Rennick replied. “And what about the tests on the targeting arrays on the port rail-cannons?”
Michael picked up his data navigator. “They show a 98 % efficiency rating; and a point 27 second lock on time sir, I have the results here.” He passed his navigator over to Rennick.
“Good, no excellent Lieutenant, we haven’t had the rail-cannons that precise for a long time, see that they stay that way Lieutenant.”
“Judging by the nature of our enemy sir, I made it a priority,” Michael replied.
“Good thinking Lieutenant, when we do finally find those bastards, we don’t want to miss,” he said laughing.
The rest of the room laughed with him; however Michael felt that they were being a little overconfident, given what happened to the Montfort.
Soon after that they were all dismissed. As the officers left the room; Lieutenant Young, the deck officer for deck 12 approached Michael. “Hey you got Rennick laughing; he’s a tough nut to crack.”
“Must be my style,” Michael said with a smile as he left for the bar to join up with Dylan.
Soon enough he arrived at the Eagle bar, the meeting place, and general rest area onboard the Ulysses. Several tables were laid out, some were already occupied. A soft Jazz music played in the background.
There was a snooker table where a couple of officers were playing, as well as a large screen viewer mounted on a wall, and a row of large view ports directly ahead that looked out to the mass of colours that was plasma drive.
Dylan was sat at the large bar area with a beer, watching the viewer, Michael pulled up a chair next to him.
The bartender came over to him and asked “What are you having son?” George was the cheerful civilian bartender onboard. Although not strictly part of the E.D. F Navy, he was paid by the E.D. F like everyone else. Most people affectionately called him Georgie.
“I’ll have a beer, and some roasted peanuts please Georgie,” Michael replied.
Georgie proceeded to pull the pint with typical practised skill. Dylan was sat quiet.
“Hard day?” Michael asked, trying to read him.
“First one on a new mission always is, especially when you’re going to use live ammo,” Dylan replied.
Suddenly, the news flashed up on the viewer. “Hello, my name is Annika Raumov, this is the outer colony news service. The top stories tonight; the entire E.O.C. A is in mourning after the carrier E.D.F. S Montfort was destroyed this morning. It is the biggest disaster to hit E.D. F forces since the pirate attacks some fifteen years ago, no survivors are known to have escaped. Also in the Agemman system, mass panic has begun to take hold as the people are increasingly worried of an attack on the colony itself.”
Georgie passed Michael his beer and peanuts, “four credits please.”
Michael passed him his payment card.
Shortly after Georgie gave Michael his card back, “damn thing’s been on all day,” the barman said looking at the viewer.
Michael and Dylan both shushed him; Georgie silently put his hands up in mock surrender, and busied himself cleaning some glasses.
They both turned back to watching the news.
“Several civilian transports have been spotted leaving the colony, reputedly carrying refugees, while trade to the colony has all but ceased. E.D. F troops from the 22 ^ nd ‘Black Panthers’ company have been drafted in to help the local police force quell several riots that have broken out in areas of the colony. And in some areas looting has already begun.”
Footage of troops and police in full riot gear could be seen trying to contain the hundreds of rioters, as various pieces of detritus was hurled at them by the desperate populace.
“Breaking news has just come in, we have lost contact with the Agemman system, and I repeat all contact has been severed with the colony.”
The entire bar area became deathly quiet, as everyone’s eyes were fixed on the viewer.
“You know what this means,” Dylan whispered. “Alert level one.”
“All out war,” Michael finished for him; “the first alert level one, in our history.”
Later that evening, the green warning lights flashed on again, and the warning klaxon sounded.
“We are dropping out of plasma drive,” Michael said, stating the obvious.
In front of the Ulysses fringed in bright white light, was an opening into ‘normal space’, the ship headed toward it, and in a blinding flash the huge battleship returned to ‘normal space’ once again.
Ahead of it could just be seen the forms of the E.D. F task force, which the Ulysses was to rendezvous with.
Michael could feel the ship slowing, we must be at the rendezvous point, he thought.
He had arrived back in his quarters now, after having the single pint with Dylan, he didn’t want to drink too much in these uncertain times. He needed to keep his head clear and focused.
Looking over to the small viewport built into the wall of his cramped quarters. He could see the shapes of two other vessels floating past, one was a small sturdy looking Gandhi class destroyer, distinguished by its sloping forward section, and its raised rear crew quarters.
The second was a larger, sleeker, Alexander class medium cruiser, sporting a wider hull which tapers into a thinner forward section and then tapers again, where the forward docking arm is located. He could see the running lights of both ships blinking, their forms slightly silhouetted by the light of a far away star.
He noticed the Ulysses was moving slightly faster than the other ships in the task force, so it could manoeuvre into its lead position within the fleet.
Michael retired to his bunk for the night, it had been a long day, and no doubt it would be the same tomorrow he thought.
He peered out the viewport for the last time, and felt somewhat re-assured by the shapes of the other vessels gliding alongside. Slowly tiredness overcame him and he relaxed into a fitful sleep.
He awoke next morning to find his comm. Chip chirping incessantly again, he groggily pressed the acknowledge button on it; it was Rennick.
“Lieutenant, there is a ship wide briefing at 08.30 hours, in the cargo hold. Make sure your there.”
“Yes sir,” Michael replied.
He ended the communication, got up, washed, and got dressed. Soon after he headed down to the galley and grabbed a quick breakfast, before hurrying to the cargo hold.
Dylan was already there, and Michael walked over and sat next to him. “Three guesses what this is about,” he whispered.
