Elinor
Hyper-jump after hyper-jump, it was the same each time. Secure the world, secure the asteroid, secure the system, secure the outpost, or whatever target was going to be on the other end of the jump throughout space.
Each hyper-jump had largely been the same as the one before it. Empty, and abandoned subsystems, bases, or outposts. A few farming, and lightly populated subsystems, and worlds with no signs of what the Crown Prince were looking for. It was a nice change of pace from their routine tasks of hunting pirates, and raiders throughout the Furia Sector.
It was also nerve wrecking at times as the ‘Skreap’ encountered more, and more civilian starships with each jump it made. It wasn't like major systems where civilian ships were not only expected, but under the control of local inner system traffic control. Civilian starships out of the major systems could be dumber than Elinor believed anyone could be. They sometimes acted without thinking as crews fled for unknown reasons, or worse, as they tried to get close for protection.
Elinor hated clearing ship after ship. Confirming starships with transponder codes. Checking scans to ensure the codes matched anything they had on record, if they had anything on record at all. Her main task were to ensure the starships posed no threat to the ‘Skreap’, no weapon turrets were aimed on the modified Victory class Dreadnought, or other readings of threats like major power reading that could be bombs, or power plants ready to blow if the ships got within range, and push whatever data she could confirm to her own CO.
Elinor was one of the few ensigns on the command deck of the ‘Skreap’. At least she preferred to be in CIC. The Combat Information Center had twice the capabilities, and most of what Elinor reviewed came from them on the other side of the ship. Commander Zax, like most Commanders, kept a staff on the Command Deck at all times though, and Elinor served Sub Lt Dena as part of that detail.
Crown Prince Osmund was looking for something, but Elinor was unsure of what. She didn’t have the security clearance for that. The Crown Prince had led them from abandoned hideout to abandoned hideout. Most of them had looked like they had only been lived in for a few days by no more than a few people, while other hideouts looked like they had not been lived in at all.
Whoever they were chasing, they had done well in hiding, and covering their tracks as far Elinor could tell. Field teams seemed to never turn up anything. Computer systems were wiped clean, and CIC had not been able to restore any data, or if they had it wasn’t common knowledge.
Whoever or whatever they were searching for, the Crown Prince was pushing them. The ‘Skreap’ was even being pushed so hard that it was having minor equipment failures. The ‘Skreap’ had gone ahead of the task force whose starships had begun to show their age, and required longer cool downs between jumps.
Elinor was feeling the stress of it as well. She was always tired. She could never get a good night’s sleep, no one could. She didn’t know anyone who could sleep through an FTL jump. The whole crew seemed to always be queasy. She could remember a few moments that she hadn’t felt queasy in the last few weeks between jumps, but they were quickly becoming a distant memory.
The ‘Skreap’ was one of the fastest ships in the Commonwealth fleet, and could jump every three hours on average, but could push itself to every 2.4 hours with military speed. After so many jumps, the Crown Prince had been forced to increase times between FTL jumps to more than four hours. Elinor didn’t know if the extra time to try, and sleep helped, or if it made her more fuzzy.
Elinor was struggling not to make mistakes. The whole crew was struggling. Several pilots had already crashed their starfighters in the last couple days. There had been no deaths lucky enough, but simple mistakes were becoming more common, and mistakes on a warship often meant death, and she felt it was only a matter of time before that happened..
“You hear the news?” Edgar asked Elinor, breaking her free from her thoughts as they sat at their duty stations.
“What news?” Elinor asked, puzzled.
Edgar turned to her, and grinned. “Captain’s ordered eight hours between jumps.”
“Eight hours?” Elinor asked in awe as though he had said something almost mythic.
“Eight fucking hour of sleep baby,” Edgar chirped with a whistle. “After this jump, the ‘Skreap’ needs to undergo some maintenance,” he added.
Elinor looked at the countdown clock, there were only a few minutes. “I don’t know what I will do with eight hours of sleep.”
“Sleep,” Sub Lt Pilgrim cut in.
An alarm went out, the one which sounded out every time the ship was about to perform an FTL jump. Elinor braced herself, and closed her eyes as the ship jumped through space, and in seconds traveled more than half a light year.
“Contact,” Elinor heard Lt Commander Zax call out a moment after the jump. “Transport… several million kilometers out.”
“Battle stations,” Crown Prince Osmund called out. “Hail them. What do we know?”
“Elinor?” Sub Lt Pilgrim asked quietly.
Elinor moved her hands through her work station as she tried to confirm the transponder reading that was coming through.
“Meteor class Transport,” Elinor said calmly as her mind and eyes focused more clearly than they had in days. “It’s the… ‘Firebird’.”
“It’s her,” Elinor heard the Crown Prince say. “Elwin, any response to our hails?”
“No ser,” Elwin replied.
“Ser the ship is powering up engines, and the sub light course has changed to try and run,” Commander Zax cut in.
Elinor could see the same thing that the Commander could see, that any of the senior officers could see from the main holographic table, or the countless work stations around the Command Deck. She had no idea what the transport was thinking.
“Commander Nightfoot target their engines,” Crown Prince Osmund said. “Elwin give me a channel to the ship.”
“Yes ser,” both officers said. “Channel open,” the Comm officer replied.
“‘Firebird’, this is the Commonwealth Forces Starship ‘Skreap’. You are hereby ordered to power down your engines, or you will be fire upon. You have five seconds to comply.”
“You have no right,” a voice came through the comm system.
“Four seconds,” the Crown Prince replied. “As captain of the CFS ‘Skreap’ I have every right to search any starship within Commonwealth Space, which you are. Three seconds.”
“We will not comply,” the voice cracked through again.
“Two,” was all the Crown Prince said.
“You wouldn’t dare fire on an unarmed ship,” the voice continued.
“One,” the Crown Prince said simply, and calmly as he pointed at the Weapons officer, Commander Nightfoot. “Fire.”
Elinor watched her display show the signs of the ‘Firebird’ scream out and change as weapons fire took out it’s engines, and the power began to fail.”
“Prepare to be boarded. Any action to resist will be met with deadly force.” Crown Prince Osmund stood still as the other voice was drowned out by alarms on it’s side of the comm. “Cut the comms.”
“Comms cut ser,” Elwin replied.
“Commander Branch, I want that ship board, and everyone on board transferred to our briggs,” the Crown Prince ordered, and Elinor couldn’t believe how fast everything had happened. “Commander Zax, prepare agents for data recovery. I want whatever files they delete recovered.”
“Yes ser,” both orders said and went about carrying out their duties, and Elinor realized that whatever the Crown Prince had been looking for, he found, and it was the ‘Firebird’, or whatever was on the ‘Firebird’.
