Enlightenment
#2 of Jupiter (Every Dog has his Day)
Chapter two of Jupiter (Every Dog has his Day)
Didn't change as much as I did in Chapter one
Enlightenment
He awoke two hours later disoriented as he stirred from his bed. He checked the time readout and started to question why his alarm hadn't gone off. He would have to get a technician to take a look at it. He rose up and put his jacket and shoes back on. He left and headed straight for the bridge and his ready room. He had a lot of crew evaluations and reports that had to be done. He of course had to check in with Commander Armstrong but after two hours he really did have everything taken care of. So he sat down and went straight to work on the reports.
After about five hours of that he couldn't take anymore and headed down to eat at the mess hall. There he could converse with some of the men and get their opinion on things and what their needs were. Usually you would get those through department heads but he decided it was best to go the direct root in his case so that the men (and women) could get a better picture of who he was.
He was disappointed in finding that he was in the mess hall at one of the few off hours and that there was little to no one in there. He still took his time eating his food but faster than normal as being there practically alone drove him nuts. Even though he had been slightly ostracized for who he was he was still a Francian and meal time was a social occasion. That's when he finally gave in and went to the councilor's office located on the same deck.
"Hello commander, err captain, Doctor Taurus informed me that you would be coming though I didn't expect so soon" said the female sitting down behind a desk. The councilor's office was connected to her quarters and consisted of several small but comfy chairs and a small desk. The councilor herself was young with brown hair and dark eye with skin that was of fair complexion.
"Hello Lieutenant, it's ok, I haven't gotten use to the name change either. I hope I can make this brief, I wouldn't want to take up your time."
"Oh nonsense captain, we have all the time in the galaxy. By your records I can see you haven't had an evaluation since your transfer to the second armada. That's odd because I believe I left you a message when you arrived here that I had to see you."
"I've, well I've been busy with everything that's happened."
"Which is why it's perfect timing, we need to talk about how you are doing."
"I know what you are trying to do lieutenant but..."
"You're not comfortable talking to a shrink, I get it captain, I really do. I just want you to know that I'm here so that you can just say what's on your mind and I'm bound not just by my Psychiatric Oath but also by Navy regulation to keep everything confidential. Let's just get to know each other first, to break to ice. Since you know nothing about me and I have access to all your records, why don't you go first" she said with a smirk.
"That sounds nice to me. Let me guess, you're a freeborn."
"How did you guess?"
"Well you're a human and this isn't an Alliance ship."
"I guess it isn't that hard to figure out. Yes, my parents were spacers and since they had no real Alliance ties the Federation was my best bet at becoming a psychologist. Now tell me about your mother."
"What?"
"Well I need to compile a psychological profile to find the cause of your recurring dream. It sounds cliché but you would be surprised how many times you find out its parenting issues that are the cause of problems. I see that you only had your mother when you grew up, so tell me about her."
"Fine, she was a woman who made a mistake. Because of it she was forced to leave her home and work her ass off to provide for me."
"So you feel that she regretted having you?"
"No, but she was never around so I never really got to know that much about her."
"Tell me about the destruction of Hector." A flash of memory came back. He paused as the sounds of screaming, bright lights, and confusion flooded his senses. There was so much confusion. Whose blood was that, his or somebody else's? There was so much pain and suffering. Why was this happening to them and where was the government in their time of need.
"Captain, are you ok?"
"You really get to the point don't you lieutenant" he said snapping back trying to regain his composure.
"I find that keeping people on their toes tends to help them tell the truth."
"I believe it was my turn to ask a question."
"I guess it was. Then ask away captain."
"Why did you choose psychology lieutenant?"
"I have always been fascinated by what motivates people to do the things they do. I might as well also say that with no ties to the Alliance I wasn't really entitled to an education within the Alliance worlds. The Federation Military offered me education and I get to go around the Federation doing my work. I guess you could say it's a win-win scenario."
"You could say you have spacer blood." She nodded as if to validate his argument as her own because it was what she believed in. It was what she had told her instructors at the Navy Academy of Psychological Science when they asked her why she wanted to be aboard war vessels.
"If you can't handle combat simulation, then why did you choose the navy cadet?"
"I have spacer blood sir and the Army wouldn't send me through space." They would laugh and agree with her. It was true that scientist were safer with the Army (specially the female ones because females can't serve on the front of Army engagements like they can in the Navy) and they always found humor in the rivalry between the two armed forces.
"Tell me about your childhood" she continued.
"My childhood was fine. I had lots of friends, I was very popular pup."
"Even with all those non-anthro colonists running around?"
"It was a colony, everyone is friends with everybody. People tend to not carry their prejudice with them when they go. That's the kind of stuff people leave and go to colonies to get away from."
"You still must have felt so alone."
"I don't see what this has to do with anything. You should already have the answers to these questions; they're almost identical to ones they asked at the academy."
"You have to re-evaluate every so often captain. Things change and how we view our past changes as well. These things may affect you differently now than they did then. That is why you should have met with me when you first came aboard. This has to be done for your command review." That's when the com buzzer went off.
"This is the captain, what do you need."
"We are twenty minutes out sir; we are making final preparations to come out in system."
"Good, I'm on my way up. Looks like we have to cut this short Lieutenant" he said getting up quickly to leave.
"Captain we aren't through here, we need to continue this later" she shouted after him. He was already halfway to the lift.
"Update me please XO" requested Rorshawk as he stepped back out onto the bridge.
"We've come out of hyperspace on the edge of the system. Long range scans are negative for any contacts. We are prepping for the micro-jump in system."
"Go to Red-Alert and sound battle stations." The XO nodded in acknowledgement and hit a button on the command consol. The lights dimmed and the running lights turned red. The Alert siren sounded for General Quarters and the intercom called out for crews to man their stations. "Tactical, give me a status update."
"Shields up and all stations report ready."
"Engineering, what's our status chief?"
"The board shows all green, captain, she's ready for anything."
"Good, helm, take us in to the standard distance. Give us a little room to wiggle should we be flying into a trap."
"Aye aye captain, micro-jump calculations complete. Taking us into forty 'Kay' klicks from target surface and establishing High Altitude Orbit. Stand-by for micro-jump in: five, four, three, two," the warrant officer at the helm controls flipped some switches and hit the red button that accelerated the ship to faster than light speed and within seconds they were forty thousand kilometers above the surface of the unnamed planet.
"Scans show no targets in orbit around the planet or its three moons captain."
"OK, take us to synchronized orbit depth over the facility and prepare to launch the transports."
"Aye aye sir, taking us to Two-Zero-Kay klicks and establishing orbit over the facility" responded the helm officer and Rorshawk tapped the com button on the command station.
"Major, are your men ready?"
"Yes sir, I have Lieutenant Anderson and his platoon suited up and in transport Three."
"Good, prepare for drop Major."
"Ready and willing sir" he tapped the com channel off and waited for the ship to get into position. It didn't take long.
"Captain, we have taken orbital position over the facility. Our current altitude is twenty thousand kilometers and holding sir."
"Good," flipping to a different channel, "hangar control you are clear to commence drop."
"Acknowledged sir, transport three is away." Rorshawk watched the monitors as the transport or rather the blip that represented the transport, sped away from the Valeria and down to planet surface. With the no interference that space brought the transport was traveling at several hundred kilometers per second. It would go even faster as it neared the upper atmosphere and the planet's gravity aided its entry. He knew how it worked. Once it entered the lower atmosphere it would quickly level off and then glide in to burn off the extra speed which is nice to have if you come in under heavy fire.
"CV112-T3 to CV112, we are in standard combat approach, ready to make our pass over of the target."
"This is CV112 to CV112-T3, we confirm, you are clear for pass over" replied to control officer who was behind and to the left of the command post.
"Transfer their data input to the main viewer" commanded Rorshawk.
"Yes captain, transferring now." The main viewer lit up with the data flowing in from the camera that was mounted on the transport. They sped over mountains but there was a dark cloud ahead. Then the research facility came into view, surrounded by a standard star shaped prefab garrison. Scattered around the facility were fires and the obvious signs of a fierce battle.
"Make sure this all gets down to the intelligence office" ordered the captain to his officers.
"This is T3 to control, are we clear for landing?"
"This is the captain, you are clear for combat deployment. Lieutenant your objective is search and rescue. Find any survivors and get to the bottom of what happened here. Secondary objectives are the retrieval of any salvageable data or tech."
"Understood sir" said the voice of Lieutenant Anderson. They watched as the transport swooped in guns deployed and switched over into a hovering mode. The three exterior hatches opened and the lieutenant's platoon deployed in a tactical fashion. They spread out and took cover behind scattered debris while their transport flew off into the sky to provide support.
"Switch over to tactical display."
"Yes sir, switching over to tactical display." The main viewer switched to a tactical overlay of the facility with small green icons representing the marines on the ground. They watched as they slowly made their way over to the facility's main gate and tactically entered. Everyone continued watching as they made their way through the corridors towards some of the central chambers. "What do you see lieutenant?"
"Nothing so far captain and I mean nothing. No bodies, just emptiness."
"Proceed as planned, they maybe hold up somewhere deeper in the facility. You are nearing the main computer data servers. Secure them and prepare for upload, there may be something we could use."
"Understood sir. Squad one, you come with me to secure the data servers, squad two continue to the power generators and three secure the com."
"Uh captain", called the sensor officer, "I got contacts coming from behind the third moon. Three of them sir! Sensor pings mark their silhouettes as corvettes, heavily modified."
"Pirates" acknowledged the captain. "Helm move up to a more favorable position, tactical I want firing solutions, and Lieutenant, you and your men hunker down."
"Sir, we got another contact coming in fast from outside the system!"
"We do not need this" exclaimed the XO.
"Sir, ID tags marks it as Federation! FSC-1803 the HMS... FSC-1803?"
"Sir" said his XO, "that's one of those brand new cruisers. 20% more firepower, 30% more shields, 12% faster sub light speed, and 8% faster lightspeed."
"I know commander, that's the ship that's mark to replace ours."
"You don't mean?"
"I do commander. Command is retiring the Argent class cruiser and that is the brand new cruiser that will be filling our shoes."
"Well then this war on the other side of the galaxy must be getting bad if they pushing new ships into service. They could use a few more months of shakedown! With our crew the Valeria could run circles around them!"
"I know commander, but this isn't the time or the place."
"Enemy targets are withdrawing captain. They must be smarter than they looked now that there are two of us!"
"Sir, the captain of the other ship wishes a private word. Also the Lieutenant reports he has the data servers secure."
"Good, tell him to transfer the data to both ships and then make ready. It's their problem now. I'll take the message in my ready room."
"Aye aye captain" they acknowledged as their lupine captain moved to the left and trough the door that led to small office that served as the captain's ready room. He sat down behind the small desk in a small chair that was slightly more comfortable than sitting on a jagged rock. "Damn military budgets" he often said to himself when he had to use the chair for long periods of time. He flipped on the computer consol and keyed up the communication lines. He was surprised and displeased by what he found.
"Rorshawk you fleabag, how the hell are you" yelled the man who was on the bridge of the friendly ship.
"Laban Jorius, it's been too long." As far as Rorshawk was concerned it hadn't been long enough.
"That's Captain Laban Jorius now! Command set me here to relieve you and to transfer your new orders to you. I'll have them beamed over."
"Command needed you to transfer orders directly? Why couldn't they just send it threw normal com channels?"
"With the growing war outside our borders command has shifted it resources to deterring any hostilities. This sucks up valuable bandwidth and they just don't want to pay to send stuff out here."
"It figures that much. Well I'm ready on my end, you can start beaming." An alert beep sounds as the encoded dispatch printer built into the room's wall sprung to life to do its job. He knew it would take a minute or two for it to print off as the signal transferred to it was decoded by its internal workings printing off the message. If anyone were to look at the raw data they would only see a block of random letters and numbers that only the this machine could make sense of. "We're sending up data from the planet surface. Seeing as you're my replacement I guess this is your job now. I'll type up my preliminary report and submit it to command." There was a ding that signaled completion and he reached up and grabbed his new orders and he wasn't surprised because what other choice was there.
"Then I guess I should wish you a safe journey."
"And I should wish you happy hunting."
"Jorius out." He was starting to really hate that guy. He stood and headed back to the bridge where he was greeted by his XO.
"Well captain, do we have any new orders."
"You're going to like this Armstrong. Recall our shore party commander. Helm, make preparations for a Hyperspace jump."
"Any particular destination captain" was the response he got.
"Set heading to Second Armada Command Headquarters."
"We're going home?"
"Yes, I want to leave as soon as the party is aboard."
"Aye Aye captain!"
"Engineering; Chief tell me that you got the hyperdrive fixed."
"While we were in transverse I ran an active diagnostic and found that it had nothing to do with drive or the reactor just some fused wires."
"So what does that mean?"
"It means you got full power captain."
"Helm what is our new ETA to command?"
"ETA is thirty-six hours."
"That's up from?"
"One hundred twenty-seven hours, sir."
"That is amazing, ok; I'll leave this to you commander, for I have lots of paperwork to do."
"Oh the joys of command, how sweet they are."