Title: The Mystique, Chapter: Locked
Word count: 2962
Authors Note: I left the ending a little open, I like the whole not knowing factor. Who knows, maybe I'll turn it into a longer series some day. But I enjoyed writing this one.
Story:
Chapter 1 submitted by Lil miss Carraige:
Admiral Williams was quite fond of many things, and for good reason, fore his pride stretched throughout the vastness of space. It had only been 3 years since his appointment to the rank of Fleet Admiral, and his Naval Star Fleet had already realized so many recordable feats. For the last 8 months his fleet (consisting of 1 heavy artillery battle ship, 1 Armor-hide dreadnaught, 2 frigates, a supply ship, and his flag ship, the carrier known as Epilogue) had been patrolling a peaceful system some 400 light years from earth. The actions of his fleet established strong diplomatic relations with the Duvarie system, earning earth a very valued ally. Admiral Williams’ superiors were very pleased by this.
Admiral Williams was on cloud nine, and the crew of the Epilogue, along with the rest of the fleet, felt the same as the Admiral did. Not only was there a significant sense of accomplishment, but Admiral Williams announced that today would be the day his fleet returned home. The ships crew soon found it self gainfully employed in the inspection of all ship board systems. All ships had to be fully prepped and secure in order for the entire fleet to disembark, and all Admiral Williams could do was gloat in his pride. He had never seen a more dedicated crew.
Amongst the hustle and bustle aboard the bridge, emerged from an automatic sliding door, none other then the Admiral’s 18 year old daughter… Naomi. Naomi had expressed great interest in becoming a Naval Star Fleet Officer, like her father. Taking into account that the deployment in the Duvarie system was purely diplomatic, the Admiral got the approval to bring Naomi on the expedition. The petite girl made her way across the bridge; careful not to disturb the efforts of the crew that was hard at work. The sight of his daughter clad in a naval star fleet uniform, inter-mingled with the rest of his crew, only boosted his proud disposition.
The tight, jump suit style, uniform, clung perfectly to Naomi’s figure, not as though the uniform were perfectly tailored to her. Instead it seemed as though she were perfectly tailored for the uniform. She was still a civilian, and so she didn’t have to abide by certain codes of uniform conduct, like keeping the hair above the collar. Her sultry locks of brunette silk flowed down her shoulders, and bounced lightly with her every foot step. Any flick of her neck not only sent her hair cascading through the air, but it sent the hearts of the male sailors pouring into their loins. Her beauty was immeasurable; witch would only be yet another factor to be proud, if the Admiral wasn’t aware of the particular mind frame of a male sailor having been confined to ship life for 8 months.
Though her father managed to prevent her from mingling with most of the male crewmen, she enjoyed the cruise none the less, and had learned so much. As she made her way onto the bridge, toward her father at the command podium, she knew that this trip had sealed her fate. She would not rest until she stood in her fathers place.
His uniform, the uniform of an Admiral, was considerably more debonair and prestigious. He stood, on a platform towering above his subordinates, gazing thoughtfully out of the reinforced tactical windshield into the vastness of space, confident in his knowledge of that particular region. He had conquered this section of ‘the unknown’ and she would always peer up at her father in this manner. But now she vowed, to herself, to some day take his place… minus the full head of white hair, and the grey handle bar mustache.
“Daddy” she called up to her father from the tactical terminals.
“Hey, come up and say hi” He responded to her joyfully. With a spring in her step, Naomi made her way up the platform, and stood at her father’s side at the command podium. From here she could look down at the busy bridge crew, if she raised her head ever so slightly and peered out the bridges giant doom shaped windshield, she could see the long flight deck of the Epilogue. It stretched from bow to stern, and housed nearly 6 star fleet fighter squadrons. Beyond the flight deck she could make out the glow of the plasma anchors that helped to keep the massive ship still.
But beyond the anchors, Niomi took in her favorite sight, a view of her father’s fleet in its entirety. Sure the fleet was manly comprised of the 5 support ships, and the Epilogue served as their Sheppard. But when not in transit, as they were now, each ship had its own repair drones and resource collectors employed. Plus the Admiral had dispatched one of the fighter squadrons to make sweeping inspections of all nearby ships, and air space. With the space surrounding the ships just as active as the ships interior, Naomi found herself in awe at the splendor of this perfect fleet.
Though it was her first time at the command podium, she couldn’t stay long; her father had much to do. After giving her a moment to bask in the glory of the podium, he sent her on her way. She made her way off the platform, and off the bridge. Every single work space was under going inspection, all the berthing areas were being secured for movement, and the P-Ways were full of people scurrying from one place to the other. She did not want to get in the way. So she decided to go to her favorite place aboard the ship, her own personal observation deck.
Naomi’s observation deck was in all actuality, a decommissioned air lock. Though the lock itself was now off limits, the interior door was left partially open at all times, to avoid an actual lock down. Naomi stopped just short of the air lock, then, with a sly eye, scanned the hall to ensure no one would witness her trespass. When she determined the coast was clear, she quickly slipped through the doors, and posted up in front of the porthole. Outside, she could watch more of the ships in the prepping for departure.
As she watched through the porthole, in the confines of her private quarters of solitude, she fell into a dreamy eyed state of euphoria. I should bring a lounge chair in here, she thought to herself, as she watched a pair of fighter craft making visual sweeps of the ships exterior. She had watched them do this a number of times, and she was glad to have caught them now, before they had passed her little porthole. But, when she expected the pair of ships to do their inspection of her tiny section of hull, they seemed to pass it by. Wait a minute; I know that’s not how the procedure works. What if something is wrong here and they just skipped it.
“Miss Williams.” A deep voice sharply pierced the air, sending a shutter up Naomi’s spine. She knew the voice all too well and slowly turned to find a Fleet Officer, standing at the partial entrance to the air lock. “Captain Domingo…” she stuttered.
“Miss Williams, I understand that you are the admiral’s daughter but I am still the captain of this vessel, and I will not settle for anything less then full compliance of all rules and regulations by all personnel on board, military or civilian. This includes you Miss Williams.” He said to her sternly.
“…I’m sorry Captain, I just wanted to see the…”
“Come along Miss Williams, I will escort you to the appropriate observation decks.” He said as he took her hand like a gentle men, and led her out of the air lock. Naomi had always thought the 30 something, clean cut, Latin American, was a handsome man, and his devotion to gentlemen’s quarter was incredibly rare and that much more attractive a quality. “For heavens sake, haven’t you the slightest idea into how dangerous an air lock can be?” That is until he opened his pompous mouth…
When they got to the officers mess, which also had one of the best observation bays on the ship, Captain Domingo bid his snooty adzes, and left the girl. Oh well, might as well relax and stay out of the way. She thought to herself as she retrieved a light snack from the fruit bar, and posted up at a tiny table near the bay window. As she picked at her strawberries, and gazed into the wonder of space, she had no idea that the fleet was in its final prep stage and would begin it’s enterprise in a matter of minutes.
Back on the bridge, the crew had finished running amuck, and now manned their individual tactical terminals. “Have we got all the kinks out of the secondary fusion generator?” The admiral asked aloud from the command podium.
“Yes Admiral, all levels nominal.”
“Excellent. Has anyone seen my daughter?” He then asked thoughtfully.
“Yes Admiral, I personally escorted her to the Officers mess.” Captain Domingo responded as he approached the platform, and took a seat in his chair behind the podium.
“Good, get us underway Mr. Domingo.” Admiral Williams ordered as he too took a seat.
“Yes Sir. Up Anchor.” On the captain’s command, a tactical officer flipped a few switches and the carriers plasma anchors disengaged there outward thrust and began retracting.
When the anchors were reeled in, the captain issued another order “Check all flight surfaces.” With that command, the entire vessel began to flex its muscle, all exterior surfaces that were designed to move and support the ships movement, began to flap. Naomi was fixed in her usual dreamy eyed trance as she stared out the bay window, until the testing of the carriers surfaces pulled her back to reality. She knew that this meant they were going to disembark. It would take the ship years to get home at regular thrust speed, but the ships had what was called the ‘Lead Crew’. It was a high tech capsule, that when introduced to the ships fusion generator, sent the vessel into hyper drive. And that was a view she had to take in the privacy of her air lock.
She sprang from her table, chucked her half eaten strawberries in the recycler, and sprinted smartly through the P-Way’s. Once all surfaces were checked, the captain addressed his crew yet again: “Green lights from the fleet?” he asked.
“All ships ready and standing by”
“Good. Relay following orders to the fleet: Enter Yellow Alert.”
On his command, the Epilogue went into yellow alert. The interior lighting of the ship changed into a flashing yellow light joined instantaneously with an alarm. This was an indication for all personnel to cease what they were doing, and to prepare for the Lead Crew shot, which always gave the ship a good rattle.
Now Naomi wasn’t the only one rushing through the P-Ways now, everyone was retreating to various secure locations, Naomi’s air lock was not one of them, but in all the commotion, it was easy for her to slip into it unnoticed. “Helm to 5th degree.” The Captain called out back on the bridge.
“Helm 5th degree, Aye.” The Helmsmen repeated as he positioned the ship. Once it was in its appropriate position, and the other ships had followed the carriers lead. The Captain gave the word, and the fleet began its movement.
Naomi was excited, she knew the ride was going to be intense, but viewing into hyperspace was well worth it. After the fleet moved into an empty portion of Duvarie space, the bridge called down to the engine room and ordered the load of a Lead Crew capsule. The engineers down below muscled the barrel sized capsule into its special slide, and cocked it into place, like a giant bullet readied to be fired from a gun. “Capsule loaded captain.” Crewmen reported.
“Fire.” He ordered. The Crewmen pushed a button, and the giant capsule fired into the fusion generator, the contained explosion sent a massive boost of power into the engine, and in the blink of an eye, the Epilogue disappeared into hyperspace, followed closely by the other ships.
The crew was all fastened into special chairs and harnesses scattered throughout the ship, designed to keep everyone comfortable and safe during the first moments of the ships introduction into hyperspace. The first few moments in hyperspace were the worse, it always took the ship a few minutes to acclimate to the turbulence, and Naomi was experiencing it all from the raw interior of the air lock without any safety restraints. She was able to hold on for a short while, but then she lost her footing, and stumbled back, hitting the rear wall roughly with her shoulder. The blunt force of her body meeting the air locks terminal triggered a surge of power that caused the interior door to shut.
Naomi was now sealed into the air lock, but she was tossed and thrown around to much to try to re-open it. Unbeknownst to Naomi and the rest of the crew, the pilots that had conducted the visual sweep of the Epilogue’s exterior had indeed missed the hull section near Naomi’s air lock. Had the sweep been made, they would have discovered a damaged panel, which was steadily ripping loose from the ship as the carrier cut through hyperspace. Naomi had gotten into a world of trouble in a short period of time. The pain shearing through her shoulder was a good indication that it was dislocated, being roughly thrashed around the lock, was only causing further injury to her petite frame.
Then there was the loud screech of metal straining under pressure, accompanying this sound was a still calmness. Naomi lay in shock on the floor of the air lock. Had the bare skin of her shoulder been exposed, she would have discovered her dislocated shoulder already starting to bruise. Having been thrashed around the cabin so roughly, she now wore a few scrapes and welts on her face, her hair: tossed into a frizzy mess. She took in a pained breathe, and then arduously picked herself off the floor. She made her way to the air lock terminal, but the controls were unresponsive. The door was sealed shut, and she couldn’t get out. Though she was fortunate that the exterior door hadn’t opened, she still didn’t want to be trapped in what was once her secluded hideout.
She used her good arm to bang on the thick door, and screamed and hollered, hoping someone would hear her and come to her rescue, but alas, the door was too thick. Her energy was all but depleted; all she could do was turn and peer out of the porthole, at the magnificent brilliance of the hyperspace stream. Then with yet another loud screech, the damaged bulk head finally came loose, the giant piece of metal, spliced through the ship, skipping across it’s surface like a rock skipping across a pond. Due to the extraordinary speed of the carrier, the scrap metal veered toward the air lock, and literally cut through the ship like butter, separating the lock (with Naomi in it) from the ship it self.
As the air lock was torn for the ship, a large hole was ripped open in her side. The immediate department depressurized, and the entire Carrier began to shutter violently. “What’s going on?” The captain screamed at his crew, he braced himself against the harsh vibrations.
“Massive hull breach, sir” A crewmen responded.
As the Epilogue continued to soar through the hyper stream, the speed and pressure began to tear the hole in the ship open further. Another large chunk of bulk head ripped free of the ship, and flew head on into one of the following fleet ships.
“Take us out of hyper space!” the captain ordered. In a radiant explosion, the Epilogue followed by her fleet, dropped out of hyperspace, before it went dead in the water. The carrier relied on its plasma anchors to keep from rolling when not in movement, but the ship lost power, and the large star ship began to capsize. Naomi was completely unharmed and safely contained in the air lock, as it too dropped out of the Epilogue’s hyperspace stream. It was an air lock, so she had enough air to last her for a short while, but tears began to levitate from her eyes. She was absolutely amazed that she was still alive, but she knew she wouldn’t be much longer. When the cabin of her air lock was separated from the carrier it lost its artificial gravity, and due to the momentum it had obtained in the hyperspace stream, it was steadily beginning to drift away from the fleet.
The water works didn’t beginning to flow until the air lock spun around, revealing to Naomi, her collision coarse with a large planet off in the distance. If she didn’t run out of oxygen before entering the planets gravitational pull, she surely wouldn’t survive entry into its atmosphere, or the cataclysmic landing that would follow. For a young girl to possess such talent, intelligence, and ambition, it was ironic that it would be her negligence that would now cut her young life short. Weather it was the fault of the inspection team, or hers for not following the rules was completely beside the point now. All she could do in her final moments, was find peace in doing what she had grown most fond of… staring into the vastness of space, as her cabin spiraled toward it’s imminent destruction.
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