The Olympus, Part Two

    Our arrival at Vesta was late due to the incidents on our out-trip, but we arrived to a warm welcome from the scientists, and mostly Commander Cooke’s wife. The CO’s idea was to keep the crew on sleep-rotation with the exception of the most senior crew. So him, a few senior lieutenants, and me got to board Vesta for a nice dinner and welcome over their replacements from the Callisto. It was a nice dinner, but to be held up on that station was my version of hell. No Sun, no light, no life other than a hydro-bay. No thank you. Seventeen months alone on the fringes of the solar system is no way to live in my opinion.
    As we boarded the Olympus for the trip home Jenna met us on the flight deck. While we were on route back to the Olympus, Fleet HQ’s wave had reached us. It was marked “Priority 1-Alpha” – eyes-only for the CO. Something had come up in the short time I was getting a good meal.
    I escorted Commander Cooke’s wife to his quarters while he made his way to his office. Some people never have any luck it would seem. He spent a year and a half away from her and now he had to wait even longer. I felt bad for them both. Still do.
    She was a nice lady, Amanda Cooke. I liked her immediately… and not just because we were both NEBs. That helped, I guess, but she was genuinely a good woman. And that made me hate myself even more for being the bitch I had become to my crew.

    “Joe speaks of you often.” She told me. “Tells me of his new, NEB XO who can outrun any man on his ship, run the deck with no sleep and still manage to have coffee with him in the morning. He thinks the world of you.”
    I looked at her in shock. But I’ve learned, over time, to always trust your CO’s wife. She’ll be the only one he is 100% honest with.
    “No, I mean it. Every wave he sends me has some bit about you in it. I was beginning to feel threatened by the young NEB spending time with him every day.” I laughed.  

    After I had shown her the CO’s room I made my way to the bridge. That’s where I found the CO on the horn with the Callisto’s Captain.

    “No, Captain, you and the Callisto will remain at Vesta until the Libitina can get here and escort…” He didn’t seem happy. “Because your ship’s T-Drive won’t match the speed of the Olympus.” I watched him slam the phone and look at me. “How do you feel about zero-g, Tasha?”
    “You know me, sir.” I smiled at his question.

    He knew I hated zero-g travel. Fucking boots to keep you on the ground. At least at low-grav you could still walk on your own power. In zero-g I had to strap myself into my chair and my bed to keep from floating away. It was bullshit. But regardless of the bullshit factor, I offered to take not only the first watch, but the entire twelve-day trip at the helm. This way he could spend some time with his wife… stasis or not. He agreed.
To my surprise, Jenna volunteered for the twelve-day shift as well. Turns out she liked spending time with me as well. It was good having a friend.

    “Make ready for stupidity, Lieutenant!” I shouted to them on the bridge.

    That’s how I felt about zero-g travel. The Fleet wanted the Hanzo’s core drive so bad we were to drop the Callisto and make for Earth at speeds the Callisto couldn’t match. So she was fated to sit there and wait while the Libitina made her way to Vesta for an escort home. The escorts were for show. No so-called pirate has attacked a Fleet ship in almost six years.
    We made our way to Earth at max-speed. Up to that point, I’d never seen it. I’d never seen our so-called “home.” Blue skies and rolling fields of green were no match, in my mind, to the purple horizons of Mars on a summer night. But my desire to see Earth would be postponed yet again. As we dropped from zero-g speeds near Janus I was happy to see Mars again. It was meant to be a general stop, six hours max. But as we brought the crew to 100% waking status we were met with an emergency wave from the Libitina. On route from Vesta to home she was taking fire.

    “All hands, stand-to and make for condition one.” I remember his voice so clearly at that moment. He was calm, steady and determined. I was freaking out. My hands shook and I had taken one too many stim-pills to keep me awake.

    As we started the prep to head-out to the Libitina, against standing orders, the CO came to me with an unusual order.

    “Tasha,” he started as if he were asking me to coffee. “I need you to take the drive from the Hanzo to Earth.” – I was in shock.
    “It’s like nine days in a shuttle!” I told him.
    “You’re not getting a shuttle, you’re taking the Apollo.”

    Needless to say, I was floored. The Apollo was the Fleet’s newest ship… still in dry-dock on Mars. There was no way I was going to do that. But I watched him as he called up the roster on his consol. He entered a code and told the Fleet-Com that the new CO of the Apollo was one Sinclair, Natasha L. I felt like throwing up.

    “Captain, you are hereby relieved from your duties aboard the Olympus.” He was so smug about it as he saluted me. “The Apollo is yours, Tasha, on authority granted to me by the Secretary of the Fleet, Admiral Chamberlain.” His eyes were very serious. “Take a shuttle to the surface. Her crew is onboard already. She’s set for spaceflight in three days… you’re just going to shake the cobwebs out of her.” He smiled. “And you’ll be taking my wife.”

    The entire situation still seems surreal to me. But thirty minutes after that, I was on the flight deck with Amanda Cooke, Jenna and Lts Chen and Delgado. The CO didn’t want to break up a crew that worked well together. And I was happy for that. As we boarded the shuttle for planet-side, the intercom sounded, “All hands, make for action stations!”

    The Libitina’s wave had cut off in mid-sentence. Commander Cooke was going to rush to her aid. But as the Olympus pulled away from us, the Callisto appeared on the screen. She was limping and in a world of serious hurt. She had burnt out her engines running. She took a big risk. Her engines were not meant for those speeds, and surely not for that amount of time.

    “They’re coming! They’re coming!” Every frequency on the net was flooded by the Callisto’s call. Fear in her CO’s voice echoed through my headset. I ordered Lieutenant Chen to get me to the Apollo on the quick. He was a good pilot and we bypassed some of the normal flight procedures.

    I remember my excitement and my nerves fighting for control as we entered low orbit. I could see the Apollo. She was a massive ship – bigger than the Olympus by at least 200 meters. But I didn’t have time to admire her. The Callisto was filling the net with fearful shouting about some unknown bogey on her tail. Jenna’s face turned as white as my hair at the noises over the headset. I tried to reassure her, and the rest of the shuttle that it would all be okay. Shows you how little I know.
    We made our way to the port dock on the Apollo. I remember those next few minutes so vividly… When the door opened a runt of a man who was apparently the ship’s steward met me.

    “What is the meaning of this?” He shouted at me. I ignored him and just walked to the console on the flight deck. I turned and smiled to my little entourage as I placed my hand on the pad.
    “Key-in, Sinclair, Natasha L. Captian, UEF designate four, four, one dash three.” The little man just stood, staring at me as the ship’s computer spoke on the ship’s loudspeaker.
    “Sinclair, Natasha L. Captain, UEF Apollo. Welcome aboard.”

    The entirety of the flight deck looked on in shock. I, a very young Fleet officer, a NEB, had just taken command of the newest, biggest and most powerfully armed ship in the Fleet. I pressed the button on the consol and spoke in as calm a voice as I could muster.

    “All hands, this is your Captain. Stand-to and set ship for condition-one. Make ready for immediate dust-off. This ship is coming out of the gates swinging. That is all.”

    I ordered the Steward to escort us to the bridge. Once there, my crew and I took our places. I had no XO so I used my newly appointed position to make Lt. Delgado my temporary XO. She was a good officer and, for now, she would have to do.
    For the next forty minutes we waited as the ship’s standing crew made ready. They were new, not ready for what was to come… hell, neither was I. And as we waited, Jenna monitored the net. The Olympus was still in orbit. She was tending to the Callisto and, I later found out, monitoring an incoming bogey. The Callisto and Libitina had apparently made contact on their return run from Vesta and the Libitina held them off for the Callisto to escape. She never caught up to the Callisto. Turns out, the unidentified bogey had destroyed the Libitina.

    “This is the Olympus,” Cooke’s voice cut through the chatter on the net. “The bogey is on screen and coming in fast. E.T.A. is thirty-six minutes. I’m going to put myself between it and Janus and give it a proper welcome. Good luck, Tasha.”

    Aboard the Apollo, we were nearing takeoff. And I was nearing a nervous breakdown. I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Cooke’s wife. She was nervous. “It’ll be alright. Joe knows what he’s doing.” I reassured her. “It’s me I’m worried about.” Never underestimate the power of self-deprecating humor in a time of crisis.
    “Sir!” Jenna shouted. “We’re good to go across the board.”

    Before I knew it the engines were humming like they should and the tugs were lifting us out of dry-dock. We were on our way.