Category Archives: Short Story

The overhaul finished sixteen hours early, which was good, because the bad news was getting worse. The fleet had begun to regroup and prepare a new defensive perimeter, but only three quarters of the expected ships had made it back to friendly lines. Given how long it had been since the initial retreat, it was unlikely that any of those missing ships were going to make it home again.

Though it was only thirty hours away by hyperspace, the trip behind enemy lines took nearly six days in order to avoid enemy patrols. While the extra maneuvering felt like a waste of time, it allowed the crew some much needed time to find and eliminate any final bugs in their new systems. It also didn’t help matters that in order to avoid detection, they were forced to run at a third of full power to minimize their energy signature on enemy sensors. Despite the crew’s impatience, Absolution finally made it to their designated hunting ground and began looking for targets. Continue reading →

The next thirty-six hours were a complete blur to the entire crew. Shortly after their meeting broke up, Absolution was pulled into Actium’s launch bay where hundreds of tech crews descended on her from all around. Each team had a particular mission to accomplish before they could return to their other, already overwhelming duties, and they worked at break neck speed. Within the first twelve hours, Cargo Bay One had been almost completely transformed into a living space and armory for the ship’s new marine compliment.

In the subsequent twenty-four hours, nearly every other ship’s system had received a major overhaul, catching up on months of back maintenance that hadn’t been performed due to lack of time, money, or both. In addition, the new docking collar installation was nearly finished and the tech crews and marines would be testing it under simulated combat conditions within the next few hours.

Throughout all of this, Michaels had been the center of attention. As the ships engineer, as well as the person who had personally modified most of the systems well beyond design specs, his knowledge was invaluable. DSF personnel were coming to him for permission so often that he’d completely lost track of what they had removed or installed. He kept wondering how long it would take to figure out exactly what was in his engines now. Somewhere in the middle of this confusion, two DSF tech introduced themselves. They would be accompanying the ship out into the field.

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It took about fifteen minutes for everyone to gather in crew’s mess. A very brief announcement was made ship-wide that DSF personnel would be boarding the ship, that they were not to be interfered with in any way, and that the crew was required to assemble on the mess deck immediately. No one seemed quite sure what was going on.

Michaels was the last to enter, covered head to toe in a blue-green powder except around his face where he had been wearing goggles and a respirator. “Did I miss anything?” he asked while trying to catch his breath.

“Have a seat, Michaels. We’re just getting started,” Captain Lawrence replied. Michaels found an open seat and plopped down, generating a small dust cloud as he did. It was rare to have the whole crew assembled in one place, even for meals. Typically those not on watch or working would eat as a group, and the rest would grab a meal when they had free time. Not only was the whole crew together now, but they had been joined by a squad of DSF marines, as well as what appeared to be some fleet support personnel. Continue reading →

As the airlock cycled through its pressurization, Captain Lawrence attempted to make sense of the last ten minutes. Almost out of nowhere a DSF dreadnaught had blocked their path and demanded that they dock with them. While it was not unheard of for a frigate or even a destroyer to board ships for anti-smuggling operations, a Trafalgar-class dreadnaught was far too valuable a resource to waste on something as trivial as hunting down a few containers of contraband.

Once they had gotten over the initial shock of being confronted by the massive battleship, Hunter and Lawrence quickly realized they were being hailed by the vessel. An arrogant young lieutenant announced that they were in the presence of DFS Actium, flagship of the Seventh Fleet under the command of Admiral Pierce. The brash, little officer then demanded that they prepare to dock and that the captain come aboard the Actium immediately. Faced with such overwhelming firepower, Lawrence had very few options, aside from acquiescence. Continue reading →