by Sid Kar
“VC is on its way on the rocketship,” Col. Tollvyk informed him.
“Great,” Raptor said, “I want to say a few words after he arrives to the command room officers.”
“Have you checked the entire officer list, sir?” Tollvyk asked.
“Hundreds of names,” Raptor asked, “Why? Come up here.”
The Commodore had an elevated throne like circular personal section on a stage that was the highest in the command room and was smack dab in the center of it all. There were two more circular stages below with panels and instruments where officers who personally aided the Commodore would take seats. Rest of the computers and controls were arranged in two circles around the central section with walking space in between. The Vice-Commodore’s section was in the inner circle and directly beneath and front of Commodore’s. There was one set of stairs to reach the Commodore’s throne and Tollvyk walked up to Raptor, handed him a list and pointed to a name.
Laser Fire Officer: Capitan Alvina Lytar. Raptor read the name and his breath stopped for a few seconds.
“I…I don’t know what to say,” Raptor whispered.
“We will talk more about it in private,” Tollvyk whispered back, “Don’t say anything now and give that speech.”
“Right…” Raptor said and Tollvyk walked back down. The officers were slowly strolling in the command room and Raptor looked around but didn’t see Alvina yet. He could not let his heart get the better of him now and took deep breaths to calm himself and drank couple glasses of water.
Fifteen minutes later an older man who was in his fifties but still had a head full of lush hair and a thick, walrus mustaches and slightly wrinkled yet still hard face walked in and stood before Raptor and saluted him sharply, “Vice-Commodore Barryett Wuft reporting for duty, sir.”
Raptor saluted him back and said, “My pleasure to have such an experienced officer as my Vice-Commodore. Please step up.”
Raptor maintained a smile on his face while VC Barryett walked up the stairs but he was not happy. He had been shocked when he had first noticed his name. Barryett Wuft was the only officer still present in the sixth frontier fleet who had actually been demoted. He used to be a commodore himself more than a decade ago but had made some mistakes in battle maneuvers whose exact nature was still a state secret. Indeed, a large part of his officer and crew list was like this. He had spent an entire day sampling some records and had found that most were mediocre and a few were downright failures. Of course it was impossible to know the backgrounds and records of most of the personnel as there were over fifty thousand present on this ship.
“Take a seat VC Barryett,” Raptor said and pointed to the smaller, cushioned seat in front of the control panels table of the Commodore.
“Thank you, sir,” Barryett replied.
“I don’t want to bring back any bad memories for you but you were the Commodore of Starship Falcon for a decade,” Raptor said, “I will need your advice.”
“You can always count on my advice, but do you want me to give you the best advice I can?” Barryett asked.
“What is it?” Raptor said.
“Always keep your own counsel,” Barryett said, “You have been trained by the best officers in Starfire Empire at the academy and you were chosen for some reason. Trust yourself and the crew will fight with you all the way from deep space to black hole.”
Raptor thought for a few seconds and then said, “please assemble all the command room officers.”
“Yes sir,” VC Barryett walked back down and then made an announcement for all the officers assigned to the command room to present themselves promptly. Within five minutes all had arrived and taken their seats at their stations. Raptor got up from his seat and spoke to the communications officer, “Capitan Dorrvyk, please turn on the intercom for full ship transmission and bring all crew to attention.”
Capitan Dorrvyk flipped on a switch and entered a code. He picked a transmitter and spoke and the voice went out in every nook and cranny of the starship, “Attention! Attention for Commodore’s announcement.”
Then he put down his transmitter and turned to Raptor, “Sir, intercom is ready.”
“Attention officers and crew, this is your commanding officer Commodore Raptor Warwyk speaking. I welcome you to your new assignment, our new assignment together. Starship Conquistador, which will be your home for months and for some years to come was newly built and shipped out to the frontiers. You are the first batch to operate it, take good care of her and she will take good care of you. It is the largest and most powerful starship of the Sixth Frontier Fleet and you should feel honored to be chosen for this ship and its first mission.”
“The details of the mission will be provided to you as per your rank and as required to carry out your duties. Your duties and responsibilities have been uploaded to your personal StarCards. Familiarize yourself with them.”
Raptor paused for a few seconds and turned his head to scan the command room. His eye caught capitan Alvina who was standing in the crowd watching him intently but he quickly moved past her. He was trying to choose his next words and was unsure if he should utter them. He decided to go ahead, “Not all of us are the best. Not all of us have perfect records. If you are one of them, consider this a second chance.” He knew that meant quite a substantial fraction of them but they would not know it about others as background records could only be accessed by select officers.
“Regardless of your past, I want you to do your best. Fight your hearts out,” Raptor said, “I will not allow the memories of our great warriors and heroes of old to be sullied by surrender or defeat. I will fight for victory or I will fight till death.”
Victory or Death! The officers and crew across the ship shouted.
Raptor waited for a few moments for chants to die down and then said, “Prepare for departure. Commodore over.”
The flight and navigation officers in the command room started working to prepare the Starship for departure from their orbit around Planet Bravo.
“Starship ready for departure, Commodore,” senior flight officer Flyptar said.
“Start the twin fusion engines,” Raptor said.
“Twin fusion engines started,” Flyptar and his assistant punched a code and turned a key each.
“Accelerate to light speed,” Raptor said.
“Accelerating to light speed,” Flyptar said, “departing the gravity field of planet Bravo.” Flyptar made the adjustments on the speed control and the velocity control officer monitored the readings.
“Passed the gravity field of planet Bravo,” Navigation officer Overyk said.
“Accelerate at standard rate to 100 light speed,” Raptor said, “hold till the outer boundary of present star system Halcyon. Thereafter, accelerate to and hold steady at starship cruise standard of 2,500 light speed.”
“Yes commodore,” Flyptar replied.
“Nav. Officer, set our destination as Planet Nestor, Capital of Nestorian Republic.” Raptor said.
“Destination set as Planet Nestor,” Overyk said after his assistant officer had punched in the coordinates into the navigation computer.
Raptor sat back down on his chair and did a computer check of all the systems and equipment on board the Starship and everything was performing at full capability and without any errors or issues. There was not much for him to do further. Space travel including faster than light travel had been mastered by Starfirians for thousands of years now and it had become routine and standardized. The Starship could even take control of itself and carry out all the regular steps but that was against the army regulations in normal conditions and only to be used as a last option.
Raptor stayed in the command room till the hour of the lunch break. It had irked him to hear from Commander Carvyk that he had been too lenient in the past and allowed lapses in the discipline of his subordinates. He knew that was true to some extent but he was an understanding person who believed in taking it easy and cutting some slack to the people who wor
ked to the tune of unquestioned obedience to each and every order.
But this time around he intended to set the right example from the beginning. That was a peacetime fleet orbiting and patrolling a secure region but this was a potential war mission alone out in the hostile territory. He would be hard on everyone and hardest on himself.
When the lunch hour came, he waited for VC Barryett to leave for the cafeteria then looked for Tollvyk amongst the crowd below and called out to him.
“Col. Tollvyk, I was just checking our weapons list and I do believe we have some rockets that are top secret?” Raptor said.
“I believe so too, Commodore,” Tollvyk pretended to look through his rocket computer database.
“I am heading to lunch now,” Raptor said, “Meet me in my personal quarters after half an hour to discuss the secret rockets.”
“Yes sir,” Tollvyk replied.
Raptor got down from his section and headed out for lunch. Outside of the command room was a rack of small hovercrafts and he sat down in one of them and punched the option for one of the restaurants onboard. He really wanted to talk to Tollvyk about Capitan Alvina and had been sneaking a glance or two her way every now and then. But some officers abroad knew of their friendship and he did not want to give an impression of favoritism, that too on the first day. He hadn’t checked yet if the Starship had any secret rockets, but that was not the type of information anyone except Commodore, VC and rocket officers and technicians would be privy to.
When he reached the restaurant, he picked up some premade food, heated it up and ate hurriedly, finishing in ten minutes. Then he had the hovercraft take him to his personal quarters where he eagerly awaited Tollvyk.
Chapter 11: Visitor
Commodore Raptor was just taking off his gloves in his personal room when the door he had left unlocked slid open and Colonel Tollvyk walked in and greeted him, “Commodore Raptor, you wanted to see me.”
“No formalities are needed in private Toll,” Raptor said, “lock the door behind you.”
Tollvyk pressed a switch near the door and it was now sealed.
“This room is completely soundproof, isn’t it?” Tollvyk asked.
“Commanding officer’s room on a Starship always is,” Raptor said, “take a seat. There is some fine whiskey for us abroad.”
Tollvyk sat down on a chair in front of a small round table and Raptor took out a whiskey bottle from a cabinet and poured both of them a glass and then added some soda and some juice.
“Capitan Alvina…” Tollvyk said.
“Yeah…” Raptor said taking a sip of his whiskey, “This could either be the best of the luck or the worst of the luck.”
“Why worst?”
“This is the first time that me and you have been given a chance we never had before in our life. Starship Victory was an old ship that had seen better days,” Raptor said, “It was essentially parked in the orbit of this or that planet. Rarely sent into the deep space after pirates or smugglers. I don’t want to end up with some blemishes on my record due to some misunderstanding on my first mission as a Commodore.”
“Take a hands-off approach then,” Tollvyk said, “Let her be drawn to you, after all you are her commanding officer.”
“That is the problem,” Raptor said, “I have stricter standards to adhere to than if I was just her fellow officer.”
“I see what you are saying,” Tollvyk said, “And the Star Commander would love nothing more than to have a female subordinate’s complaint on your record.”
“I don’t know…”
“Trust me, I thank him for giving us a big, new, shiny ship,” Tollvyk said, “but he has no love for us.”
“Ok.”
“I am going to give you an advice that is the opposite of what I had been telling you for these ten years that we have been friends,” Tollvyk said.
“Shoot.”
“Ignore her.”
“Ignore?” Raptor said, “She is the only woman I ever fell in love with.”
“Exactly”
“Huh?”
“In military terms, a temporary strategic retreat,” Tollvyk poured himself another glass of whiskey, “Focus on the mission. I can see too that she is pretty but don’t look at her often. Treat her as another officer. Get this peace brokered, between these Nestorians and whoever the hell the mysterious aliens are. It’s not the same as returning home as a war hero, but then again our Imperial Treasury isn’t exactly overflowing to afford conflicts in the far-flung corners of the galaxy. As a peace broker you will earn great respect and attention of our state leaders and the army high command. We will leave this pesky frontier commander Carvyk behind in our past. You will get to visit House of War. They won’t deny you your choice of future assignments and officers and staff.
“We could request to be attached to one of Interior or Core Fleets,” Raptor smiled.
“Or even the Central Fleet itself,” Tollvyk said, “then try to court her.”
“Hmmm…”
“You think too much, you are a commodore now,” Tollvyk said.
“That’s what VC said.”
“Rumor has it that he knows his stuff,” Tollvyk said.
“Alright, that is exactly what I will do. Let’s get this mission done,” Raptor said and raised his whiskey glass and they toasted, “But there’s another problem.”
“What is it?” Tollvyk asked.
“Have you seen the officers list?” Raptor asked.
“He told us didn’t he, he needed mediocre officers for a mission,” Tollvyk said, “I am not surprised by the records of our staff.”
“I intend to prove him wrong,” Raptor said, “I will need your help in that.”
“I am always with you,” Tollvyk said, “But aren’t you a bit suspicious.”
“Of?”
“Our Star Commander,” Tollvyk said.
“In what way?”
“I suspect he may have put his spies abroad?”
“Why do you say that?”
“I have always been the suspicious type, but all the more so due to the whole unorthodox staffing of this already strange mission,” Tollvyk said, “But we have an advantage here.”
“In what way?”
“You should be thinking this, you are the leader now,” Tollvyk said.
“I draw a blank,” Raptor replied.
“Do you remember the Army Regulations taught to us in the Academy?” Tollvyk said, “On a Starship and especially on a mission, the Commodore has almost unmatched powers. If we could get our hands on one spy, we could put him through the full interrogation course.”
“Star Commander won’t be happy, it’s risky,” Raptor said.
“You are going to have to take a lot of risks from now on, my friend,” Tollvyk said, “Excellence must start at the top.”
Raptor twirled his whiskey glass in his hand for a few seconds and then said, “Alright. How do we find a spy?”
“A bit of good luck our way has come,” Tollvyk smiled, “the Army Detective on board is a friend of mine from the Academy. I will enlist his help.”
“You do that and keep my updated, now return to the command room and send flight officer Flyptar to my room,” Raptor said, “I don’t want other officers to think that I am giving you special treatment.”
“Will do,” Tollvyk put down his glass, saluted him and walked out.
Three days later their spaceship had crossed the boundaries of the Starfire Space and were entering the first solar system that was in the Frontier Space. Raptor was in the Commodore’s section in the command room reviewing comprehensive data on staff background. He had asked the statistics officers to analyze the entire volume of records of every person on the ship and to find common patterns as well as outliers. He had only a rudimentary knowledge of statistics and intended to have his officers explain it to him later. Right now the statistics officers had a more important task: to gather and analyze the data generated by the spaceship and tens of thousands of m
achines it was made up of to identify patterns as well as outliers that might indicate errors.
“Commodore, we are receiving a distress signal from the third outermost planet of the present star system,” Capitan Dorrvyk said.
“Analyze the signal,” VC Barryett ordered as he was walking the floor of the command room.
“It’s a Starfire civilian spaceship and the signal is from a Starfire national,” Dorrvyk said, “requesting permission to board.”
“Then we will definitely help out but make sure the spaceship stays in the containment chamber till it is fully evaluated for any possible dangers,” Raptor said.
“Should I order the civilian to rendezvous with us in space?” Dorrvyk asked.
“No,” Raptor said, “the Army and the Academy highly recommend a crew to break into a new Starship as early as possible by performing multiple drills. This is a good opportunity to practice parking it in an orbit without space traffic control to help or guide.”
“Good idea,” VC Barryett said.
“Flight Officer Capitan Flyptar, begin preparations for orbital parking on the third outermost planet,” Raptor said.
“Yes sir,” Flyptar replied.
“Dorrvyk, order the civilian to keep his spaceship stationary and send us coordinates based on Starfire Geolocation Navigation framework,” Raptor said, “We will suction it with our magnetic beam.”
“Alright,” Dorrvyk said and started giving directions to his two assistant officers.
Raptor typed in a name in the ship’s Master Computer in front of him and the person’s face popped up on the second screen.
“Capitan Styx, we are picking up a civilian and I want you to meet and escort him with a team of ten armed guards,” Raptor said, “Containment crew will thoroughly vet the ship, do likewise to the person but don’t rough him up.”
“Don’t worry Commodore, done this many times,” Capitan Styx saluted him and Raptor switched away the screen.
He turned around and looked at Tollvyk who was giving him a concerned look. Raptor remembered his conversation with him three days ago and their suspicion of a spy. This could be a way for Regional Star Commander to get his man abroad.