Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins

by Randolph Lalonde

  “Guess that's how she deals, one face for friends, another for command.”

  “That's what they teach us in officers training, and she's right about the situation with Minh. I should have had that figured out as soon as I saw the roster. I'm getting distracted by worrying when I should be thinking my way through these problems.”

  “Sometimes it takes a few heads to come up with the best solutions. You're also taking on a lot more without as much experience. I trust you as our captain. I've seen you work in a lot of scenes, but there's a hell of a lot here you're not used to dealing with, like keeping a ship together when it's not in combat, managing a crew, setting up training, and dealing with shortfalls. Without a first officer to share some of that, it's twice as bad. But there's hope. You've got me here, skipper,” Oz grinned, gripping my shoulder. “I'll keep the crew in line, make sure people are where they are supposed to be, and you have a Chief Engineer with years served on this ship. Not just any ship, but the one we're on right now. Oh, and you just handed the wing command position over to a hyperactive pilot with something to prove, so I'd say let him take charge and watch him go.”

  “You're right Oz, that's a lot off my shoulders. Consider it done, you're in charge of crew and all that comes with it, and I'll hand Minh-Chu his orders after the briefing.”

  The rest of the briefing went well, Ayan's part was quick and professional. She marked the areas of the ship that would be off limits in our drill simulations and the final scenario, went through emergency procedures and our virtual weaponry inventory. The Sunspire was equipped with eight rail cannon turrets firing any of six different kinds of ammunition, one heavy beam emplacement, two multi purpose torpedo launchers and one fighter bay that could launch seven fighters from small chambers located lengthwise along the underside of the hull. All the weapons could be secured and hidden away while not in combat.

  The final refit of the Sunspire would include low energy shielding, multi-purpose materializers distributed evenly across the hull, multi layered refractive energy shields for redirecting incoming beam weapon fire away from the ship, and a regenerative reflective hull. Using the emitters, the Sunspire would be able to create its own wormholes. It also had hyperspace systems for travelling to other destinations at a much slower rate.

  She assigned everyone to review some of the schematics so they would know more about the areas of the ship they would be working in, and referred the crew to some short documents that would help them understand some of the technology the ship depended on before ending her part of the briefing.

  After she was finished Oz gave his part of the briefing and informed everyone that there would be weapons training, that anyone with some proficiency would have to carry a sidearm during any and all drills and simulations, and introduced the four members of his security team. The crew seemed comfortable with him and his team being in charge of keeping order on this ship. He was personable and as I watched him give his briefing at the head of the room, I realized that he looked the part as well.

  After the briefing was concluded I announced that the first drill would be in fifteen minutes. I hadn't warned anyone our first drill would be so soon but Ayan, Oz and even Minh-Chu had the crew organized and on their way to their stations in no time. As he rushed by, I caught Minh's arm and activated his trainee wing commander rank. Seven gold wings appeared on his collar and shoulder. “It's official, you're my wing commander, congratulations Commander Buu. I'll get you a real rank pin when this is all over,” I said quietly.

  He grinned broadly and pinned the wings to his collar. “Your best decision yet Captain!” he said, before snapping me a salute and rushing his two pilots down the hall towards their simulation pods.

  It was time to find out how much work we had ahead of us as a crew. The scenario hadn't been running more than two minutes before it became obvious that we had a long way to go. The new conditions had shaken us up, broken us out of our familiar routines and we were missing so many people, filling so many gaps. Once again we were talented individuals. The challenge we faced was becoming a team all over again.

  The next day my requests for personnel were sent and Fleet Command had new crew members on their way by early afternoon. They were all young men and women with spotless records. Several pilots came with more than a year's experience and a mission success rate higher than our simulation win rate. There were deck crewmen who were just coming off leave, and a few computer systems and general systems maintenance personnel with medical and basic combat training. I couldn't have been more pleased, especially since they all seemed very happy to come aboard, had their gear stowed and were at work within twenty minutes. They were in the next drill and boosted morale by helping us meet all the win conditions.

  Over the next three days anyone was lucky to get eight hours of rest and relaxation time, officers were fortunate if they got six. Drills, system reconfigurations, customizations, combat, flight systems and general training filled every hour of our waking days. By the last day only two of us were unarmed in the drills, we were getting comfortable with the new systems and the response time of the entire crew was better than I had ever seen when we were running in scenes in our spare time.

  It took over a dozen drills and hours of training over the course of three and a half days, but as I sat on the makeshift bridge in the middle of a semi transparent command hologram I realized how far we had come using only a fifth of our original team. I listened to the chatter and watched the tight precision with which everyone preformed. The small squad of seven fighters, six two man gunnery crews, engine efficiency and bridge crew all worked the plan moment by moment as one unit. The scenario that I was putting them through was famous for being difficult to coordinate and harder to win. It was called Three Stations and the objective was to wipe out three enemy fighter squadrons and deploy a worm hole point generator so boarding parties could come in shuttles and begin boarding operations.

  The Sunspire and its seven fighters had little if any chance of even finishing this scenario, let alone surviving for more than twenty minutes. But with everyone doing their best, working a good plan that changed as needed and reacting faster than I'd ever seen, we were over forty minutes in, had three fighters left and had collectively killed or disabled more than half of the forty eight enemy fighters.

  Just as we lost one rail cannon turret and the crew -- who had abandoned just in time -- were running to another, Oz tapped me on the shoulder.

  “There's a command level communication coming in sir, your eyes only.” He whispered.

  “All right, scrub this drill in five minutes. We've already gone much further than expected with the people we have. I'll take the communiqué in one of the storage rooms.”

  “Yes sir.”

  I turned the command hologram off and got my bearings for a moment. After staring at a hologram that surrounded my command chair for so long it took a moment to regain my balance.

  The temporary bridge, which was set up just for simulations was in the forward section of the main engineering level, everything behind was still open to vacuum since they were just about to bring in the four new power plants. There was a storage room just a few meters down the hall and after I stepped in and the door was closed I called up a screen on the command and control unit on my left forearm. “You were doing very well in that last scenario Jonas, it is too bad you could not complete it, your chance of success was up to twelve point nineteen percent, rounding up of course.”

  “Of course. Thank you Alice, I don't think we would have made it, but the crew is getting used to the odds. Do you think you could bring up that Command level transmission? I don't want to keep them waiting.”

  “I'll put Admiral Rice on right away.”

  With less than a second delay, the admiral's holographic visage was in front of me smiling. “Hello Captain, how are things going in dry dock?”

  “Good afternoon Admiral, better than I expected. Those crew members you sent us fit right in.”


  “I'm glad to hear it, but not surprised. When we put your ship on the internal board as a volunteer posting we had over two hundred applicants, we let our psychologists pick for you. However, that's not why I'm on the line with you, Trainee Captain. I've been watching your drills, and quite frankly I'm impressed. Everyone is holding together well and even the crew members that didn't start out as military are holding up to our standards.”

  “Thank you Admiral, I'll pass that on to the crew when it's appropriate.”

  Admiral Rice smiled, an expression I hadn't seen from her before. It was unnerving. “That doesn't sound like the young man who stood in my office a week ago, I hope there's some of him left under that uniform. You've come a long way, you deserve some credit.”

  “Thank you Admiral, I have a good crew.”

  “I'm aware of that. Now let's get to the root of the matter. I'm making your rank official and drafting everyone on the Sunspire. Her refit is getting a rush and she's to be ready in four days. Congratulations Captain.”

  I was startled but managed to lamely blurt out, "thank you Admiral,” and she went on.

  “The Paladin is on her way back with a Triad Consortium fleet on its heels.”

  “Isn't the Paladin a twelve kilometre long super-carrier?”

  “It is, but she's no match for what's behind her. The transmission they were able to relay to us indicated that they were searching for activity at the edge of our coreward territory when they intercepted a burst transmission. The decoded message detailed a Triad invasion headed our way. I can only assume that The Paladin was discovered and had to make a break for it. With two of our battle groups too far out to be of assistance, they have no choice but to regroup in another sector and see what happens here. Meanwhile, our third battle group will arrive ahead of the enemy. The fourth battle group will be on station at approximately the same time as The Paladin and her pursuers. We need every ship and since your crew is looking better than any of our fresh graduates and they already know the Sunspire, we're activating you, promoting one of your officers and filling the empty spots on your roster. Your new crew should begin arriving in one hour. Until combat orders are issued, any qualified personnel should assist with the refit while others should continue your training regimen. After all, your training is harder than the simulation testing we're putting our cadets through. Do you understand our situation and your orders Captain Valent?”

  “Yes Admiral, I understand and will carry them out,” I said officially.

  “Good luck. Admiral Rice out.”

  I took a moment to look at our orders and the conditions of our commission and I was surprised. The Sunspire was to be renamed at my leisure and assigned to a blind battle group that would only be aware of the other ships in the group if necessary. There was another detail that made me grin and chuckle to myself.

  I turned off the screen and projector on the arm of my uniform and heard Alice whisper in my ear. “So, since you're a real Captain, do I get to live in one of those big, powerful, and oh so pretty officer class forearm command consoles? I've always wanted to see what it was like to operate on eight trillion nano processors,” my AI cooed.

  “I suppose you will, as soon as I figure out where I pick it up.”

  “I believe it should be brought aboard by one of the new maintenance staff. It's in the roster you didn't have time to look through.”

  “Right, no time. Broadcast a shipwide message, all Sunspire crew must report to the common room immediately.”

  “Transmitting shipwide, Jonas.”

  “Can you do me a favour Alice?” I asked as I walked out into the hall.

  “That depends on the favour.”

  “Call me Captain,” I grinned.

  I was one of the last to enter the common room. “Captain on deck!” Oz called out in a thunderous voice. Everyone lined up according to rank and I waited quietly as the last of the crew filed in. Their expressions ranged from the passive readiness that came with training all the way to outright nervous.

  “Sunspire computer. Change all crew uniforms from trainee to current profile rank and colour.” I called out. A moment later everyone's uniform turned from green and blue to blue and black and the rank insignias on everyone's collar changed. The circular pips of the trainee reformed into slashes on their collars. A silent notification appeared on small screens on everyone's wrists, informing them of their new rank and that they had new orders to review.

  The members of the crew that had military training stood still and at attention, trying to suppress whatever reaction they would normally have but with varied success. Everyone else celebrated. Oz looked to me and raised an eyebrow as I nodded in response. “Settle people!” He called out.

  Everyone was back in a quiet line within seconds. “The Admiral and her staff have been watching us. Our progress was so impressive that she didn't see fit to enter us into an official test. Our progress and current Fleet conditions made an early decision necessary, and we're all being pressed into service. As soon as the refit is complete we will join a blind battle group.” I could see Ayan trying to suppress a big smile and until that moment I hadn't realized how low my spirits had fallen. Seeing her so happy was all I needed.

  I went on. “The bad news in all this is that we are about to go to war. The Triad Consortium is on their way, right on the heels of the Paladin and we have to be ready. We'll be receiving new crew members over the next five hours, so make them feel welcome. All qualified personnel are to aid in the final refit as directed by our Chief Engineer, and we are all on orders of silence with concern to the details of our ship's role. I can give you all two hours before we get to work, so get something to eat and relax. Oh, and one more thing; welcome to the Freeground Fleet.”

  I couldn't help but notice Oz look down at his wrist for the first time since the uniform shift. A big grin spread across his face before he looked up at me. “Commander?” he mouthed silently.

  I nodded and made the hand signal for first officer and his grin got a little toothier. I was so distracted I didn't see Ayan, who came to stand right beside me.

  “Congratulations, Captain,” She smiled.

  “Thank you, congratulations on your reactivation as Commander. Are you staying with us?”

  “Those are my orders.”

  The joviality drained from me and was replaced with concern. “Do you want to stay with us?” I asked in a whisper.

  “Nowhere I'd rather be,” she said with a tired looking smile. She took my hand and shook it as one officer to another. “Congratulations again. I'll be in engineering.”

  She was out the door before I could think of anything to do or say that wouldn't draw attention. One of her engineering staff did notice what went on, and was looking towards me. I called her over. She was one of the original simulation team members. Mira was her name in the simulations, but her real name was Laura. From what I could remember she held two Masters Degrees; one in advanced field mechanics and the other in hyperspace theory which earned her a higher entry rank than most of the team. “Can you do me a favour, Sergeant?” I asked.

  “Yes sir.” She smiled as soon as she heard her rank aloud for the first time.

  “Take a few minutes to say congratulations to any friends you have here, then get a few sandwiches for yourself and Commander Rice and join her in engineering. Learn as much as you can about the systems down there while you have the chance, but refit or not, everyone has to eat sometime. Make sure you eat together.”

  “I'll bring her favourite tea while I'm at it sir.” She said with a salute and a smile. "You're good at this, you know,” she whispered.

  I really didn't know what to say, and it must have shown.

  "Taking care of us, I mean. I can't see anyone else with these slashes, not on this ship, anyway.” She said, pulling at the rank insignia on my collar and for the first time I think it finally sunk in. I was really a Captain, with all the responsibilities and respect that came with it.

  "Thank yo
u.” I managed to say before she ran off to talk to a few friends.

  I was just thinking how hard it would be to get used to being saluted when Oz tapped me on the shoulder. Minh-Chu was standing beside him, polishing his new rank insignia of lieutenant. “So, I'll be your first officer for this trip.” Oz said.

  “Better you than me. He's a handful. You should have seen him as a civilian, always coming around my restaurant, drowning his sorrows with lo mein and sweet and sour pork,” Minh said.

  “I never heard you complaining, and come to think of it I didn't see many other customers either.”

  Oz put one hand on each of our shoulders and shook his head. “You two are going to have to cease fire otherwise I'll just have to take charge. Captain Terry Ozark McPatrick. Has a pretty good ring to it if I say so myself. Maybe I'll have the crew call me Skipper.”

  The next day seemed to go by in a flash of minutes. Single tasks seemed to take too long and there was never enough time for me to get other things completed as well as I liked.

  I was finally starting to get used to delegating but people still had to remind me that there was always someone else who would be happy to finish most jobs I started. The second day went much more smoothly. My officer training had never been fully put to use before then and I found that as time went on it was all coming back to me. My own duties started falling into a specific order, and with no time to spare.

  My job was to ensure the well-being and success of the crew and ship. To make sure that all the different sections were doing what I needed them to was my central task when I wasn't making general decisions. Micromanagement was left to all the Officers below me and there were long moments of quiet between the busy times where I could watch them sealing up the lower hull after finishing the implementation of our new power plants, or load our twenty one fighters and two combat shuttles. These were the times where my officers had everything well in hand and it was up to me to consider the big picture, tactics, strategy, and the strengths and weaknesses of the ship and crew.