Allaine left her quarters, the Commander striding from her room
in casual dress. She made her way down the hall, accessing the room and
walking in to look over the exercise equipment. The dark brown haired
woman didn't enjoy this sort of thing, but regular exercise was needed
to maintain muscle tone even with the artificial gravity.
"That reminds me," Allaine muttered, double checking that there
wasn't anyone else using the facilities during the night shift.
Satisfied there was no one else there she ordered, "Computer, adjust the
gravity in the room to one and a half please."
Allaine grunted as her weight suddenly increased, but strode
towards the exercise equipment. Her old trainer back at the academy had
insisted they train under higher gravity and it was a habit that had
stuck with her. She ran for a while first, pushing herself on the
sliding track, then moved over to some weight lifting.
A good hour of effort later and Allaine let the weights slide
back into their holders, puffing softly. "I'm getting soft," she
muttered, rubbing at her arms.
"Oh I don't know," the quiet voice said, "I was impressed."
Allaine jerked her head up in surprise, seeing the woman who
stood watching thoughtfully. She had the lanky grace of a pilot, and
Allaine quickly put a name to the face. "Lynn?" she asked with a frown,
"I thought this was officer territory."
"Ma'am," Lynn threw a slightly mocking salute. "I occasionally
sneak up to this gym," she confessed, "because it has a gravity
control."
Allaine was toweling some of her sweat off as she studied the
woman a moment. "You didn't have a certain Sergeant Haris at the
Academy?" she finally asked.
Lynn tossed her a surprised smile, "You too?" She looked a bit
sheepish, "I always feel a bit odd if I don't work out under higher
gravities."
Allaine nodded as she headed to the door, "It shouldn't be a
problem, just keep it to the night shift." She paused, "And remember to
return the gravity to normal."
"Yes ma'am," Lynn gave her a half wave, almost a salute as she
eagerly made her way over to the weights.
Allaine left with a slight smile on her face, striding back up
the hall towards her quarters. 'I should have just kicked her out of
there,' she mused. The divisions between officers and enlisted should
always be firm aboard ship, the rule books said. 'Then again,' Allaine
thought, 'this situation isn't really covered in the rule book.'
The door to her quarters swished open and Allaine went inside,
stripping her sweaty clothes off as soon as the door closed behind her.
Naked she padded over to the shower, cleaning the sweat away in a few
moments under the spray. She went out, drying herself off with a towel,
then quickly pulled a clean uniform on.
Safely dressed Allaine walked over to the communications system
and crisply said, "Commander Allaine to Bridge."
"Ma'am?" a voice answered, sounding a bit surprised. A short
pause, "This is Ensign Jame, engineering department."
"I remember," and Allaine did, having rode a lift with her only
a few days ago. "Bridge status?" she asked, sitting down to brush out
her tangled hair.
"Ah," there was the sound of conversation among the bridge crew
as the watch officers compared notes, then Jame came back on, "all
systems appear to be functioning normally."
"Thank you," Allaine said, keeping her smile out of her voice.
"I'll be up there in a few minutes," she added.
"Yes Ma'am!" Jame squeaked.
Allaine chuckled to herself softly after she closed off the
link. 'Looks like my reputation as the Iron Lady is still intact,' she
thought with a grin. She sat down on the side of her bed, reaching down
to pull her glossy black boots on.
The walk over to the lift was quiet and Allaine used the
opportunity to read through the ships status reports as she walked. On
this shift the halls were almost empty, and the lift itself ran a bit
faster than usual. The lighting throughout the ship was just a bit
dimmer than normal, designed to encourage the impression on night time.
"Commander on the bridge!" a woman announced as Allaine entered.
Allaine took a moment to look the women over, struck again by
how young the officers were. They were all ensigns manning tactical,
navigation, communication and the captain's seat. All of them leapt to
their feet nervously and Allaine smiled slightly. "At ease," she said.
Jame threw a near perfect salute, her uniform nice and straight.
"Good evening, ma'am," Jame hesitated, "I understood my shift was for
another hour."
"It is," Allaine said with a slight smile. "I'm not relieving
you yet, just checking."
Max sat at the tactical station, short pink hair in a slightly
unruly style on her head as she studied her board. Sala was the
navigator, a slight blush to her pale cheeks as she carefully looked
away from the commander, her white hair neatly styled. Tara sat tensely
at communications, the slim little blonde clearly nervous about being on
the bridge with her. And of course Jame, who had enough seniority among
the others to command them.
'Wish I had more experienced officers to watch all the shifts,'
Allaine thought to herself. 'Which reminds me....' Allaine raised her
voice, "Computer, activate tactical simulation number twelve, bridge
controls in simulation mode."
"Ma'am," Jame squeaked as simulated alarms rang on the bridge,
announcing that an Paranoid craft was incoming.
"You have the bridge," Allaine reminded her as she leaned back
against the back wall.
"Tactical, enemy position?" Jame demanded crisply.
"Approaching from the stern," Max reported, "they will overtake
us in moments."
"Ready main guns," Jame ordered. "Sala," she turned to the
navigator, "I want an emergency return to normal space, as soon as
possible."
"It'll be rough on the ship," Sala said as she worked,
reconfiguring the engines for reentry.
"Tara, prepare a standard distress beacon, download our ships
log on board it," Jame ordered, "if we go down someone may need that
data."
"Right," Tara nodded, downloading the data and launching the
drone. She frowned, seeing an odd wobble as it slid away from the ship,
almost as if it passed something in hyper. She turned to say something
to Jame, then closed her mouth.
"Returning to normal space," Sala reported as the bridge
simulated a rough return to normal space, gravity fluctuating wildly. A
starscape reappeared on the screen, and the disruption eased.
"They'll return to normal space ahead of us," Jame said crisply,
"prepare a targeting solution ahead of us, Max."
The simulated Paranoid vessel appeared before them, and Max was
ready. She channeled the ship's firepower in massive volleys, reducing
the surprised ship to rubble. "We did it," Max crowed!
Suddenly the bridge rocked, gravity shifting as alarms sounding
again. Warning lights came on different boards, the four women worked
frantically, then the simulated Solenoid ship they were commanding
simply ceased to exist. There was a moment of silence as the simulation
ended, the controls reading their voyage through hyperspace once again,
then Allaine moved.
"All right," Allaine pushed herself off the back wall to walk
over to the viewscreen in front of the four women, "who can tell me what
happened?"
It only took Jame a few moments to get it, "There was another
Paranoid ship after us, one that we didn't spot."
"And I didn't check for it," Max admitted sheepishly, "after
spotting the first one."
"Exactly," Allaine nodded her agreement. She smiled when she
added, "Other than that, however, you didn't do too badly."
"Ma'am," Jame said, clearly disappointed by losing.
"Sala, Tara," Allaine continued, "why didn't you offer any
advice?"
"I didn't want to distract the commanding officer," Tara said
softly.
"Maybe," Allaine said, "but it's also a bridge officer's duty to
let her commander know any information she might not have available."
"I'm sorry," Tara murmured.
"Sorry won't save your crew," Allaine said, smiling to herself
as she continued to take apart their performance. 'They may be pretty
raw,' she mused, 'but they've got potential.'
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