New: Something....

Part One: Learning to Fly.
'And you sir, your fresh out of The School, am I right?'
'Aye, Chief, that's correct. Passed top 5% in the class, got honours in astro-navigation and weapons protocol. I was assigned here as a weapons officer and….'
'No offence sir, but I know why you're here and all about what you got at School. I was more interested in knowing if you've ever served on a ship before?'
'Only the training skiff Kamso, Chief, as Navigation Officer in a three week run round the system.'
'So this is not only the first time you've been on a true warship, it's also the first time out of the Solar System?'
'Aye Chief. Why do you ask?'
'Because sir, with all due respect, I would like to know what you are doing on my flight deck?'
'Well Chief, I've been talking to the XO, and she said, well she said that seeing as I was pretty high up the line at School, and only just missed out on direct entry to fighter school, well Chief, she said that if it was ok with you then could start a flight course, seeing as we've got an operational flight deck and all, and, well, I was hoping that you might be ok with that?'
'Jesus sir, how the hell did you get through basic being that diffident to Chiefs? So sir, all I have to do is sign your D10a and you'll be right for in service training, am I correct?'
'That's the one Chief. I've got the form right here if you wouldn't mind doing it now. I've got a watch at 2100 and I need to see the XO about this before she hits the sack.'
'What's the catch?'
'Catch Chief? I don't get what you mean. There aren't any catches, at least not as far as I know. I would do it my spare time, you'd teach me….'
'There it goes, there's the catch. I knew there'd be one.'
'Chief?'
'I have to teach you sir. And when exactly am I supposed to do this?'
'Ah, I hadn't thought of that one Chief. It won't be a problem will it?'
'No sir, no it wont, but you will be getting used to running on around six hours of sleep from now on. You get me?'
'Aye Chief I get you. So what time do I turn up?'
'This time tomorrow sir should be fine. And bring some stuff to do work on. You're going need it.'
******
What a way to start a tour. Up at the crack, awake for 16 hours, including a shift at weapons control and a little while on navigation, the first day of a six week course on flight basics that will include one assisted flight. Christ what the hell have I gotten myself in to? At The School after morning drill and before class's I had around three hours free to do as I liked, and in that time I had studied deep into Military history. I had learnt many new things, from the days of the knight on horseback to Hiroshima, to Dontas Field in South China. There was more blood on those pages then I cared to think about when I joined up, more then I really ever wanted to see. But in my digging I had found a passion. I worked every day of my course, brought up my stat grades to get myself an Honours pass in astro-nav, and weapons prot. And all the time I had study, I read the stories, the history, the truth, the lies, the blood and the tears of my fellow man that had been shed on the fields of history. And when grad day came, when we marched out onto deck, in rank and file, as we received the envelopes that held our future, I was proud of what I was part of. But when I opened that envelope, my world had shattered for a while. In it was not the recommendation to attend Fighter School as I had hoped, not the chance to join the list of names that I had gathered on my wall; The Red Baron, Calind Nathan, Joshua Cant to name a few, the great men who had flown the skies and ruled them. I would not get there. My deck Chief, CPO Walker knew all about what I had wanted to do, and he knew how gutted I was that I had failed. That was when he informed me of the chance that I might have. The D10 course. The Flight Training while in Action course. Taught by a ships Flight Deck CO it was a way to earn your wings another way. My hope was sparked a bit more. I looked into the D10 course, and found that it was an entry course to Fighter School, to the place that I had dreamed of going. All I needed was a ship with a flight deck. My assignment to the EAS Cartright, an Ajax class Frigate, with a total of two shuttles was not the ideal ship, but with the same hand it was what I needed.
******
'Officer of the watch sir!'
'Yes Ensign?'
'Sir request permission to leave the bridge to do rounds sir.'
'Permission grant Ensign.'
'Thank you sir. Anything I can get any one on the way?'
'No'
'No thanks.'
'No Ensign. Now get to your rounds Ensign.'
'Aye sir'
The trudge around the Frigate was a short and laboriously boring job. Pop head in to gun turret. Ask report. Get all clear. Move on to next. Pretty quick considering we only had a couple of pulse cannons and some light particle beams. We were a screen Frigate, part of the patrol group Kapa, consisting of the Hyperion Crusier Forthright, two Michigan class Missile Destroyers, Baxter and Carter, and four Frigates, Simons, West, Loud and us. We were at forward screen at the moment serving patrol around Proxima 3. The fact that a lot of the men in charge of those turrets had served almost as long as I had been alive made me feel a bit like I was intruding on their world. But they seemed to like me, and I hadn't screwed up anywhere that I could think of. After the turrets it was to Engineering to get weapons readouts, then on to the flight deck to have a quick chat with CPO Wilson.
'Hey there Chief.'
'Hey sir, what you doing down here?'
'I'm on my rounds, just about to head back up to the bridge, but I thought that I would come in and see if I could get today off. I'm about to fall over where I stand, and that is never a good thing. I'm running 16 to 18 hour days with the occasional two hour stint added on to the end for good luck. I'm burning out, and we're still out for another three weeks before we do some R & R at Proxima base. I need some rest. Especially before I get in and fly that shuttle with you next week.' I knew I was pleading, but I didn't care, I was dead as dead could be, and still be alive.
'Sure sir, I was actually going to tell you to take a brake. You've been pushing yourself pretty hard these last few weeks, and I was starting to worry about you. I was actually going to have a talk with the XO about this, but now that you've asked for the brake I don't have to. Take the rest of the week, get some sleep, and come see me on Monday. Got that sir?'
'Aye Chief, I got it.'
******
Sleep, blissful sleep. There are many types of sleep, but right now I'm sleeping the sleep of an innocent babe. Oh how good if feels to finally have sleep....
The klaxon wailed and brought me to with a start. The sound echoed through the ships halls as the seconds rolled by. Rolling out of my g-bunk and over to my kit locker I put together the thoughts that were whirling in my mind. The klaxon that was sounding was the "action stations" klaxon, calling all hands to duty. At this time I was a fire warden at the third deck forward Damage Control station. I was to co-ordinate the fire teams that would gather there. Pulling on my working kit, I when to the small kitchen that belonged to the junior officers. I got a drink of water and then dashed of to my station. While in transit I heard the CO on the ship wide intercom.
'Crew, this is not a drill. Moments ago an unidentified vessel passed into scanner range. The Forthright has ordered us to action station after the ship failed to respond to our attempts to communications. We will stand as guard on the Baxter. All DC teams stand by.'
Moving with all the speed I could muster in the zero-gravity environment, I came to my action station.
'PO, what's the teams status'?'
'Their all but ready sir, just waiting on AG Winson, but she's the furthest away, sir.'
'Good. Get them kited and then report back, I'm going to get me some water.'
'Aye sir.
A quick track to the near by water dispenser gave me the refreshment that I needed to keep going. This was a bad time for me to be so badly wasted, but that was just the way things were going.
'All the teams kited up sir. We ready as we'll ever be.'
'Good PO. I'll report to the bridge.'
Moving over to the com controls, I flipped the switch that opened a channel to the bridge.
'Bridge this is third deck forward DC station. All teams ready and standing by. Area is at Zulu condition.'
'Bridge. Roger that.'
Now came the hard part. The waiting. I didn't even know if anything was going to happen. I didn't even know what the hell was going on. I didn't know how likely it was that we would end up with a huge hole in the side of the of the ship, or worse, no ship at all.
Then it came. A sound that you get used to if you've ever heard it before, something you don't really want to hear in real life in the middle of space. A sound that is accompanied by a shaking…
'We've got breach lights on section ten sir' the PO chimed, 'and looks like there might be fire in surrounding compartments.'
'Send teams to the fire areas, see if there is anything, and check the integrity of the bulkheads to make sure that there is no secondary breaches.'
'Aye sir, their on their way.'
I didn't have much to do as a DC officer. Tell them what to do and let them do it. I reported to the bridge, let them know the situation and what I was doing to fix it, but apart from that there was little I could do. When one team managed to put out heir fire, I ordered them onto the one beside them to give support to their fellow team. When that was out, on to the next.
Soon after I had only one still burning, and the CO called the ship down from action stations.
'All hands stand down from action stations. All non-essential personnel report to secondary action stations to relieve primary teams. A shoring team please report to third deck forward, ASAP. That is all for now.'
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So if I put it at the top of the page will ppl read and comment???


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"If there was light then we could behold it, but I don not see any, do you?"

Never give in, never surrender to the coming of the night.

[edit; put stroy at the top of page to fet ppl to read it!!!]

[This message has been edited by Schmacker (edited 11-16-2000).]