Fleet Academy

by M. Scott Cottrell

  “Hey this is pretty cool” Lieutenant Brody said. “This makes it fit almost as good as regular clothes, just a bit thicker.”

  “Yeah. Check out Commander Emerson.”

  “Wow.” Was all Chief Hillard said when he turned to look at the material forming to the Commander’s full figure.

  “One thing to be concerned with here, if you crank the controls up too high you can actually hurt yourself. You want the suit to be able to move with you, without being bulky.”

  “Aye sir.” Matt heard three of them say.

  They continued to play with the suit control for a few minutes before Matt restored the pressure. Each suit sensed the differential pressure across the suit interface and lowered the field intensity to attempt to maintain the same static support. “Also note that we have not played with the thruster packs. According to the fleet tests, the thruster packs on these don’t last near as long as the ones in a hard suit, but then they are not intended for heavy work. These are fire and coast packs. They expect you to not be in a hurry. Use them sparingly or you may run out of juice. Also note that there is a reserve setting. You will get an alarm when you are seventy percent down. To use the last ten percent you have to hit the override on your control as well as the firing control. This is your emergency reserve. If you have to break into that you better be calling for help. Any questions?”

  “No sir.” Matt heard all four of them reply.

  “Very well, let’s go get out of them and let the suit techs service them up so they’re ready to go. We have about three hours to be ready for EVA.”

  “Aye sir.” They all responded again as Matt led them out of the air lock and headed back toward the suit room.

  “Matt?” He heard the radio ask, Lieutenant Brody’s private frequency indicator lighting up.

  “Yes Lieutenant?”

  “Did you hear what Kim and I were saying before?”

  “Yes ma’am, I did.”

  “Oh God. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for anyone to hear that. I mean it was just girl talk and all.”

  “Do you talk like that about me all the time?”

  “Well, you know women. We talk…and to be honest, you are a pretty hot topic lately, at least for some of us.”

  “I’m not sure if I should be concerned or flattered.”

  “Either way, I’m still sorry you heard us. It wasn’t very professional.”

  “No it wasn’t. And you remember what happened to Denner.”

  “OH GOD! That would be soooo embarrassing.”

  “Which part, getting caught talking about me on open comm., or having to go eat naked?”

  “Both.”

  “Well, for now this is just between us.”

  “Thanks. I guess I owe you for that.”

  “OK. Well for now let’s get out of these suits.”

  “Affirm.” Matt heard her say before her frequency dropped from the active list in the monitor. As they each stepped to their tables, they started stripping off the suits. Master Chief Wallace was there with a number of suit techs to help them get the suits off and service them immediately.

  “Well what do you think of them, sir?” The Master Chief asked.

  “Well, they are a hell of a lot more comfortable than anything else I’ve used.” Matt said. “Did you have any luck with the life support module expansion?”

  “Yes sir. In fact, we intentionally left your main Bio dead to test the expansion. You were working off the new module that we ginned up.”

  “Well, Master Chief. It worked good enough I couldn’t tell the difference. My suit monitor said it was half full. I just thought it hadn’t been fully serviced yet.”

  “No sir. We swapped in a dead power pack and an empty oh two, and then connected up the expansion unit. It looked like it worked the way it should have. They also sent these with the telemetry units installed from the test depot, so we can monitor your suit functions while you’re out.”

  “That sounds like a good idea; I wish I’d thought of it.”

  “Me too, sir. Some desk jockey at the depot did though.”

  “Well, go ahead and get them all serviced up.” Matt said as he pulled the last of the suit off, leaving him in just the cool suit.

  “Aye sir. We’ll have them all ready for you in an hour.”

  “Thanks Master Chief.” Matt said as he stripped off the cool suit. Laying it on the table, he headed toward the showers, following the rest of the team, who were already headed that direction.

  As Matt walked across the suit locker room toward the shower room, he heard his name called. “Lieutenant!”

  “Yes ma’am?” Matt asked turning to see Commander Emerson sitting on one of the benches.

  “You promised me something before.”

  “Um, here ma’am?”

  “It’s Lynn, remember? Come with me.” She said sliding off the table and heading toward the small changing room in the back of the repair bay. Matt followed her into the changing room to find her sitting on a bench with her legs straddling one of the benches. “Now let’s have a little gratuitous sex.”

  It was nearly half an hour later when Matt was finally showered and dressed, headed for the bridge with Commander Emerson. “Well, Commander, Lieutenant. Nice of you to join us.” The Captain said as they stepped onto the bridge.

  “Sorry ma’am. We were just going over the last of the suit details.” The commander responded.

  “I bet you were Commander.” She said frowning. “Is everything ready Lieutenant?”

  “Just about ma’am. All I need to do is get the equipment loadout from the armory and we’re ready to suit.”

  “Very good. As you can see, were about to make contact.”

  “Yes ma’am.” Matt said looking at the growing speck on the large forward viewscreen.

  “Time to intercept nav?” The Captain asked.

  “Seven minutes to firing sequence, eighty minutes to parallel holding position.”

  “Very well. Weaps, are you ready?”

  “Yes ma’am.” Ensign Light said from the weapons console. “All rail guns are deployed and charged. Targeting scanners are online but the target is currently out of range.”

  “Ok pilot, you are cleared to make the course change as plotted.”

  “Yes ma’am.” Lieutenant Kispan said from the pilot’s chair.

  “Comm. Send to Fleet. ‘ Have visual contact and beginning maneuvers to match speed and course’.”

  “Aye ma’am. Message sent.”

  “Beginning roll maneuver in five…four…three…two…one.” The pilot said as the view in the forward screen began to shift and change, the small dot quickly sliding off the bottom of the screen. “Roll complete. Awaiting firing sequence by computer.”

  “Thank you pilot. Nav, please bring the artifact back up on the stern camera please.”

  “Aye ma’am.” He said, flicking a few switches on his board, making the display flash momentarily before it settled back onto the object, already appearing larger in the viewscreen. He watched it for several minutes, growing larger and more distinct. Without any visual clues it was hard to determine size, but the object appeared to be practically tank shaped, cylindrical with a rounded nose. The coloring was a flat black, making it difficult to see against the dark of space. As the object and the Saint Claire drew closer, detail started to show on its surface. A number of small protrusions and depressions seemed to exist, but blended in so fully that at times it was hard to tell if they existed at all.

  “Tracking radar has a lock.” Ensign Light said from the weapons station. “Object is three hundred meters in diameter and twenty eight hundred meters in length.”

  “Thank you weps.” The Captain said, getting out of her chair to stand and stare at the object. “That’s way too big to be any kind of a probe. It’s more than twice our size. It’s clear the radar returns were not accurate either.”

  Matt watched as the image continued to grow in the viewscreen.

  “Ten sec
onds to maneuvering burn.” The pilot said. “Five…four…three…two…one. Burn commencing.”

  “Thank you pilot.” The captain said as the screen blanked out white from the ionization discharge of the burn. “Well Lieutenant, You better go get your team ready. You have about thirty minutes.”

  “Aye ma’am.” Matt said, turning on his heel and heading off the bridge, Commander Emerson following behind him. “Damn, that thing is huge!” Matt said to the commander as they walked down the corridors and ladders to the suit room.

  “I know. But radar doesn’t say it’s that big.”

  “I know, but it sure is.”

  “Well, let’s just hope that it’s friendly, because it’s big enough to do some real damage to us.”

  “Yes ma’am, it sure is.” Matt said as they walked onto the suit repair room. Everyone else was already there, milling around. Lieutenant Yang looked positively stunning in the shimmery material of the cool suit, which she had already donned. Matt stepped over to the intercom. “Molter to Armory.”

  “Armory here.”

  “Trina, you want to bring the loadout down to the suit room?”

  “Aye sir. Be there in a couple minutes.”

  “Thank you. Molter out.” Matt said as he clicked the intercom off. He made his way to the table containing his space suit and quickly began to strip. The team was pretty much done donning the suits when Ensign Forester arrived with the crate loaded with the equipment packs.

  “Here you go sir.”

  “Thanks. You want to pass them out the way we talked about it?”

  “Yes sir.” She said, going to each table and unloading an energy pulse pistol, a pusher projectile pistol, a leg pack with extra energy and projectile packs and a second leg pack that had medical supplies and tools. The total load weighed nearly fifteen kilograms per person. The new suits fortunately used the same standard mounting clips that all the other fleet suits used, so it only took a few minutes for each member of the team to clip their weapons and cargo packs to their suits.

  “This isn’t nearly as comfortable with all this extra gear on.” Lieutenant Yang said.

  “Try turning up your field strength a little bit.” Chief Hillard said. “It helped settle things on mine a lot.”

  “Yeah, that is a little better. It still makes me feel clumsy.”

  “You can say that again.” Lieutenant Brody said, as she moved experimentally around with the new load.

  “Lieutenant Molter to bridge.” Matt said over the command channel.

  “Bridge.”

  “EVA team is suited and ready. How long before we can enter the cage room?”

  “We are low enough differential velocity that the Captain has cleared you as far as the main locks.”

  “Thank you.” Matt said. “Ok troops, let’s go.” Matt said through his still open face plate as he headed toward the door. Matt and his team met the Master Chief at the cage room lock door, Jenkins, Tempe and Endez also dressed in the standard two piece cool suits. “You good to go Master Chief?”

  “Aye sir. We’ll be there if you need us.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it.” Matt replied as the group moved into the lock.

  Chapter 12 - Contact

  “EVA one to Command.” Matt radioed to the communications officer.

  “Command.”

  “EVA team of five, standing by.”

  “Roger. Stand by. Final maneuvers being completed now.”

  “Affirmative.” Matt replied before switching to the intersuit frequencies. “Everyone in good shape?”

  “Yes sir.” Came four replies.

  “How about your team Master Chief?”

  “Were ready and standing by if you need us.” Matt heard on the additional frequency that he had setup for the backup team.

  “Ok. Thanks Master Chief.”

  “Jenkins says to tell you next time you want to shower with her you don’t have to go to so much trouble, just ask.”

  Matt chuckled. “Thanks Master Chief. Tell her that if she has to pull my fat out of the fire she can have all the showers she wants.”

  “Aye sir.” The Master Chief answered with a chuckle of his own.

  “Command to EVA one.”

  “Go ahead Command.” Matt responded, switching back to the command frequency.

  “You are cleared for EVA. The Captain said good luck and be careful.”

  “Thank you Command. We are cleared for EVA and proceeding with caution.” Matt replied before switching to the intersuit frequency, but leaving the command frequency open so that the captain and bridge crew could hear their conversation. “Ok team, let’s go.” He said as he hit the control to release the last of the gravity and slide the outer door of the air lock open. Allowing himself to float free of the deck, he touched his thruster controls and nudged himself out into the darkness. As soon as he had cleared the lock he did a slow roll to do his safety check and locate the artifact. Matt paused as he rolled to look above the Saint Claire, the darkness caused by the shadow of the huge ship floating a mere few hundred meters from the Saint Claire. “Command, what is the range to the artifact?”

  “Targeting puts it at six hundred meters.”

  “Thank you Command. EVA team, you are clear to follow. You’re not going to believe this thing.”

  “Holy shit.” Matt heard Lieutenant Brody say.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Lieutenant Yang asked.

  “Probably not, but I think we’re going to do it anyway.” Chief Hillard responded to her.

  “Ok. Less chatter. Let’s go ahead and jet over there, and then spread out and take a look at this thing. Command, what’s our time?”

  “EVA you have just over two hours before we have to start maneuvering.”

  “Roger, thank you command.” Matt said before hitting his thrusters, sending him off into space toward the artifact. It took several minutes of coasting to reach the dark black vessel. Using his breaking thrusters, he slowed until he was barely moving, finally slowing to a stop touching distance from the craft. “Would you look at this thing?” He said to no one in particular. He reached out and touched the craft, quickly recoiling his hand from the surprisingly spongy surface. “Um Command. It’s not solid. I mean the surface has a spongy feel to it. It easily deforms to even a slight touch and recovers its shape.”

  “Roger EVA”

  Matt jetted upward, inspecting the surface as he moved. “Command are you getting my video feed?”

  “Affirmative EVA.”

  “Ok.” Matt said quietly as he examined what looked like hundreds of small indentations in the surface. The whole outside of the surface seemed to be pockmarked with them, but at the same time, the spacing seemed almost regular. “Kim, Tina, what do you make of this?”

  “I’m not sure.” Kim answered. “It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before.”

  “I know. I don’t know what kind of material it is, but it’s very spongy.” Tina chimed in.

  “Ok. Let’s spread out a bit and see if the whole thing looks like this. Also keep your eyes peeled for any entry points.”

  “Aye sir.” Each of the team replied as they jetted off different directions. Matt continued on up and around the rounded surface of the craft. The whole surface seemed to be speckled with little indentations that looked like dents, but couldn’t be, given the sponginess of the surface. “EVA to command.”

  “Go ahead EVA.”

  “We’re inspecting the surface, but so far what I can tell you is that it’s spongy. If you press on it you can definitely feel your hand deform the material before you rebound out. Also it appears to be covered with small indentations fairly uniformly around its surface.”

  “Roger.”

  “Hey Lieutenant. I think you better come see this. Toward the front.” Chief Hillard radioed.

  “On my way Chief.” Matt replied as he rolled himself into the proper direction and thrusted his pack toward where the Chief was floating. “What do you h
ave Chief?” Matt asked as he hit his breaking thrusters to slide to a stop near the Chief Hillard.

  “This looks like some kind of antenna.” He said pointing to a long slender rod that appeared to be laying in a depression along the side of the craft. Matt moved down until he could touch it and slid his gloved hand along the rod. The rod was only about five centimeters in diameter at the tip and appeared to be tapered, growing larger in diameter as it extended toward the front of the ship. “It looks like it goes quite a ways.”