Hi,
I am posting this wip story here since some names in the story will seem familiar....
[align=center]Ghostship[/align]A light hush caused the candlelight to cause swirling patterns on the brick walls. The dim light revealing a small, yet, cosy living room with many wooden details. Around the candlelight, which stood on a dark brown round table, centred between two cups of warm coffee, two people sat peacefully in their comfortable chairs.
"Grandpa, could you please tell me another story?" a young voice asked.
The grey haired man opposing him took a nip of coffee before he spoke: "Well, son, what do you want to hear?" A warm smile followed the question across the table.
The young kid moved his hand through his brown hair. "Spaceships! I love stories about Spaceships!"
"Heh heh,..." the old man laughed with a scarred throat. "I can imagine that," he said as he glanced at the data slates on the floor, all of them showing various profiles of space faring vessels. "Lets see... do you want it to be a scary story as well?" As he asked the question he leant a bit forward, fixing his gaze upon his grandson.
The kid looked pleasantly into the eyes of his grandfather, he knew that twinkle in his good right eye revealed a great story. The metallic left eye never revealed anything. "Yeah..." he enthusiastically replied.
The old man lied back into his chair. "Well let me think... I can tell you about the Ghostship...I have encountered in my days as an officer aboard the
Fury."
Through a half opened window a stream of wind caused the light to flicker wildly. An eerie aura filled the room and the kid quickly grasped a pillow in front of him.
The old man smiled inside.
[align=center]***[/align]
[align=center]Mice and men[/align]Officer Warren to the bridge. Officer Warren to the bridge. The neurotic voice of the communications officer awakened Thomas Warren from his slumber. He just had taken his first rest since his twenty three hour shift. It lasted an impressive thirty four minutes.
Officer Warren to the bridge. The Captain is requesting your presence.With a slap from his hand on the wall button he silenced the voice. A voice that could talk someone into doom if it could not be stopped. Maybe they should use it as a weapon against mankind’s enemies Thomas thought. Reluctantly he raised his chair into sitting position. He grasped his badge and laspistol from the table next to him as he stood up.
“What does the git want from me this time…†he mumbled to him selves as he made way to the door.
[align=center]***[/align]
Thomas walked, better said made a giant slalom through the middle decks. The pathway to his security office, and any other room on
his deck had been in use as a storage room for the food supplies.
A needed affair after some tubing’s gave their ghost two weeks ago. It nearly costed them four weeks of travelling space. And they appointed him as the honoured person to lower the food ratios in the lower decks. He was just lucky he had seconds in command to the dirty job.
But now he had to listen to the complaints of the inmates about mice running through the deck.
Yes, life aboard the
Fury always had some unexpected surprises.
“Officer Warren!â€
With a sight Thomas halted as he heard the voice of his secundant. He raised an eyebrow as he saw him walking towards him with two data slates.
Two, by all, one isn’t enough these days he thought.
“Yes, Vincenze, what is it this time?†Thomas asked. “And hurry, our revered Captain is expecting me.â€
Vincenze nervously smiled as he heard the sarcasm drowning from his officers words. “Okay, okay, the medical bay is requesting an investigation as more narcotics have gone missing.†He handed the first data slate to his Officer before continuing on the second one: ‘’In the lower decks two men have been arrested as they fought over a food ration.â€
Thomas was seriously surprised, he thought he had been genuine with the lowered ratios. “They are already fighting over food? By our Holy Emperor! What is too expect when we hit rock bottom with out supplies…†Thomas sighed. “Check on the medical bay yourselves and make sure you have a report on my desk within ten hours. Install a surveillance servitor on some of the lower decks. Just as a token from warning on our part.â€
“Aye Officer,’ Vincenze replied. “good luck with the Captain upstairs.â€
“Heh,†Thomas grinned. “with him around luck is always in another room.â€
The two men saluted as they went their own paths.
[align=center]***[/align]
Some elevator shafts, one being an instrument of possible suicide, and metres of crammed pathways later Thomas finally found himself on the bridge of the
Fury. The first thing he saw, a very hard to miss thing when you walked onto the bridge, was the bald backside of the Captain’s head. Its colour being a quite unnatural green flesh colour and decorated by two large tubes plugged into the side of the head. After the person entering the bridge had shrugged off that particular nasty view, or just had grown used to it, something which Thomas never did, he would see that even though the bridge was not small it appeared to be too small from all the hectic and frantic running around by bridge personnel, the buzzing sounds of servitors plugged into the mainframes and the constant beeping of the dozens and dozens of terminals and screens across the entire bridge. And this was all on top of the continuous, soft and monotone, droning sound of the ship itself.
Thomas walked down the stairs at the side of the command pit in which the Captain was installed, as he did he tried to remove all the sounds from his head. The captain wanted to speak to him and so he better paid some attention.
Evading a programmed servitor racing around him he stepped into the circular command pit and that is where the Captain’s cleverness came into play: you had to watch up to him and the dim white lights along the walls of the bridge where strategically placed so that one such light formed an aura of white around the Captain his head. The baldness giving it an extra shine.
Negating the Astropath who was installed in a smaller chair to the left of the Captain Thomas started the conversation he was looking forward too: “Captain, you wished to see me?â€
The Captain looked down at his First Security Officer. A function he saw as a great medium to carry his will to the needed scum of the ship. “Yes, Officer, I
requested you. About more then a half an hour ago. You do know I do not like to wait. Yes?â€
Thomas gave his studied nod.
A moment of silent followed as the ship ‘spoke’ to the Captain. Thomas had experienced several captains within the Imperial Navy, yet none of them seemed to be as grown together with their ship as Captain Grünfrost did. Many times a capable captain but a character rigged with flaws. Perhaps the melting of ship and man was the cause of that Thomas thought to him selves.
A slight flickering around the bridge made Captain Grünfrost come back to his senses. “Ah. All right. We will be leaving Warp within thirteen minutes. Then the
Fury will be heading towards
Tamo station. Fleet Command has requested us to visit the sitting command at the station for further orders. I urge you to gather all data on
Tamo station. Furthermore I need you to assemble a security to accompany me when we go aboard
Tamo station within seven hours. Is that clear Officer?â€
Always to the point, that could be seen as a good thing Thomas acknowledged. “Affirmative Sir. Data slates on
Tamo station will be on your desk within two hours. An security team will await you on deck seventeen in the entrance bay.â€
Without waiting for a reply as there was no need to get one Thomas turned away and made started to make his way back up the stairs.
“And make sure you will lead the security team Warren.†Captain Grünfrost called after his Security Officer.
Thomas just gave a nod to his side to show he heard the request.
As if I would entrust your life in the hands of ratings Captain…A wide grin made master of his face as he left the bridge. The captain needed him, that was a good sign. Being needed is much better then the airlocks.
[align=center]***[/align]
[align=center]
Regular Static[/align]
On his way back to his office Thomas felt the usual rattle from the ship to announcement it had dropped back into real space.
As he entered his office he appreciated the silence and rest it radiated. His files all neatly arranged and a Terminal on a clean desk. Thomas smiled as he noticed how neatly Vincenze had placed his data slate in a corner on the desk.
He took a quick glance at the data slate and noted the report regarding the thefts on the medical bay. He resisted to delve into the file as the Captain’s request, as always, had the highest priority.
After some searching in the Imperial database he gathered all the relevant data about Tamso station and its inhabitants. A small routine operation. It all appeared to be a regular Imperial Deep Space outpost with regular Imperial shipment and regular Imperial command. All in a regular Imperial sub sector called
Genisa Seven, in a regular Imperial held sector called
Genisa. The system only counted for a single habituated planet, known for farming, and a small moon used to mine ores.
Tamso itself gained its position as it was the collective focal point of various mining operations through the entire sub sector.
The command of the station had currently been in the hands of the retired fleet admiral Sevan Mjanoric. Several times decorated but the reason for his replacement, some would say demotion, had not been recorded.
Thomas sighed as he scrolled to the rest of the rather uninteresting officers aboard the station. At such moments he was happy to serve aboard a vessel of the Imperial Navy. Always bound to happen something inside or outside the ship.
His eyes peeked at the data slate in the corner of his desk, perhaps that was more interesting reading material. Yet, a sense of duty urged him to finish the report on Tamso station. In a flash of though he opened a communication link to the Fury’s Tactical officer. Seconds later the officer answered the line.
“Reginald Stein here. What is it Mister Warren, I have very little time and much to do.â€â€œYes Reginald, I know, filling out a report on Tamso station just like I am called to do.†Thomas replied.
A sigh filled the line before a reply came: “
Yes. Among all my other duties. You found something unusual which I should look into?â€â€œYes, I discovered that Tamso station is really regular,†Thomas said. “there is nothing noteworthy, did you find something?â€
“
Ah so,†Reginald replied.
“Tamso itself indeed is ‘regular’ as you say. The one thing that struck me is the lesser mining shipment incoming from area seven-eight-twelve in the Genisa four sub sector.â€Thomas ran through his files to find a confirmation on the matter in the internal log codes of Tamso station as Reginald detailed some numbers and percentiles on the regular mining shipment. He discovered several entries in secured files. They indeed did mention that various vessels had not reached Tamso station as scheduled. He pondered on why the information had been secured. “Reginald,†Thomas interrupted the tactical officer. “these missing shipments have been stowed in secured files. Do you have any idea why?â€
“
Not really,†Reginald replied. “
I guess that is a job fo - - - -â€
[align=center]...sss…ghhhhhh…hhh…ssss.sshsshhhsss…[/align]
“
--- dertake when we arrive at Tamso station.â€
Thomas was completely caught off guard by the static noise drowning Reginald’s voice. “Reginald… did you have static as well?â€
“Nope, nothing here. I assume we are done, I need to finish my report.†Reginald answered.
“Well. That was odd. I had an audible static on my side.†Thomas said.
“The Fury is an old ship Thomas, ask a mechanic to overlook your system. Reg out.â€The noise of the line faded as Reginald went offline.
Thomas tapped his terminal a few times to see he heard something unusual. Indeed an old ship Thomas. He raised his shoulders and continued reading the secured data files.
[align=center]***[/align]
“Here is the report as requested captain.†Thomas said as he stood before Captain Grünfrost in the Captain‘s lounge.
Grünfrost nodded as he took the data slate being handed to him. “Appreciated Warren.â€
Thomas waited patiently as Grünfrost went over the report. His eyes became fixed on a distant star cluster he could see through a large viewing porthole. The cluster consisted of a dazzling pattern of stars, all of them placed as little gems in a purple-blue aquarelle drawing. It had an eerie, yet strange attracting lure to it.
“Well, Warren, same conclusions as Stein,†Grünfrost suddenly spoke. “A regular situation which suddenly sees something they had never seen before.â€
“Captain,†Thomas said. “If I may be so free… piracy and the loss of ships is not something uncommon within our Imperium as we both know.â€
Grünfrost frowned a little at the obvious statement by his Security Officer. “Your point being Warren…â€
“Well,’ Thomas continued. “normally such files have a standard clearance code but it seems Tamso station has secured the files on missing shipment with a higher level code. A code normally being issued by Fleet Command itself.â€
Grünfrost placed his hand palms together. “I see. So Fleet Command gave priority to it. It might explain why we will be instructed at Tamso itself and not through an open Warp Transmission using our Astropath. Good Warren. I will meet you when we are about to dock. Dismissed.â€
Thomas saluted and left the Captain’s lounge.
[align=center]*** [/align]