Welcome Aboard Captain

Welcome Aboard Captain

Captain Jokko Moranian materialized in the transporter room without his usual dashing grin, he was nervous about this new command. He had spent four years on impulse transports and a internship aboard a dirty dwarven freighter but nothing like this. An assignment to the Dragonheart, the Triumvirate’s newest hybrid starship, on a 5 year voyage of discovery. Who was he, to be given this momentous commission? Jokko brushed away his uneasy thoughts, straightened his impeccably pressed microfiber uniform and cleared his throat.

The room was as clean as his uniform, sparkling white tile and gentle blue light panels. The floor was green carbon carpet. Jokko went over to the wall and pressed a panel. The panel slid up. There, beyond a forcefield and 6ooo kilometers of empty space lay the planet Earth. Great, rotting megacities lay on it like a brown stain. Enormous banks of polluted fog rolled over irradiated oceans. And here and there, small patches of green, small but growing. Trees retaking the world, healing the soil. It would take 6000 years before Earth returned to its former glory. And humanity could never have done it alone. Mankind had only realized what the price would be when they had ruined every beauty, spent every resource and looked up from the grim ruin of relentless Industrialism and realized that they could no longer see the sun.

All was lost, hope had fled, the remains of civilization hid, buried themselves in virtual worlds run on failing electricity or inside vaults and tunnels. And then came the Elves, blasting through the garbage belts and smog of Earth's poisoned atmosphere in their sleek, silver and green ships. When least expected they came from the sky, with biotechnology no one dreamed was possible, but more importantly with hope and beauty and order. Elves, stern but compassionate that began to heal the Earth and helped humans take their first step into the stars.

Jakko started as a young man trotted into the room, tucking in his uniform shirt and smoothing back his blonde hair subconsciously, even though the regulation haircut left precious little to smooth. He shook Jakko's hand, an old earth custom, then saluted formally. "Welcome aboard captain. I'm Corgo Morek, your first officer. Sorry about the reception, but I drank too much elven Silvis last night and overslept." Jakko gave the merest hint of a smile. "Is this by any chance your first assignment Mr. Corgo?" The first officer fell into step besides his captain as they headed through the automatic door and down the hall. "I hardly think that they would send a rookie onto a ship like the Dragonheart sir. I have three years in a Triumvirate cruiser, the Jaguar. We stopped the revolt in the Mars colonies, the Phobos incident."

Jakko was impressed, this man looked inexperienced but he was already a veteran, a quiet hero. During the Phobos incident the Jaguar had been heavily damaged by the rebel Martian colonists but had managed to almost singlehandedly destroy the rebel fleet of modified mining ships.  

As they walked a door leading into the hall whooshed open for a crewman to enter. Corgo indicated it. "Sir, this is sickbay." Jokko swept into the sickbay, taking in the perfectly sterile white walls and neat beds bolted to the floor amid retractable cabinets of medical supplies. He noted the hooks and loops installed in the ceiling. The wonders of dwarven technology had made artificial gravity possible, but there were still provisions for stabilizing patients in zero gravity. Off to his right a slight woman turned and fluttered up to him, hovering on glassy wings. Jokko was startled. She wore the regulation green microfibre shirt, pressed pants and brown jacket emblazoned with the Sigil of the Triumvirate, but also tiny slippers instead of the usual boots. She was small, like a child, with a gentle face. Corgo noticed that his captain was staring and coughed. "Captain Moranian, this is Seelo, our chief medical officer." Seelo smiled and took the captain's hand. Her voice tinkled like a little bell. 'Has the captain ever met a fairy before?" Jokko blinked. “Uh, no, heard of fairies, but never met one, mostly traveled the Earth-Homestone route, nice to meet you and, uh.” Jokko realized that he was rambling and fell silent. There was an uneasy silence. He looked around, desperately wishing that the fairy had a patient to care for, but all he saw were rows of tricorders and several full-body scanners. Seelo hovered respectfully. Corgo rolled his eyes behind his captain’s back and coughed. “Uh, sir, would you like to see engineering?” Jokko breathed in relief. “Thank you first officer Morek, let’s get going.” The captain rushed out of sickbay and trotted down the hall, nearly colliding with two crewmen heading the other way. He returned their panicked salutes and slipped into the hydrolift. Seelo turned back to retuneing the instruments. Her new captain was much younger and less disciplined than she had expected, but there was no malice or haughty pride in his heart.

The hydrolift deposited Corgo and his captain at engineering. In sickbay it had been so quiet that one could have heard a pin drop. Here the air throbbed with a constant roar. Before them lay a gray room 300 yards square lit by harsh yellow lights and crowded with machinery. Engineers hurried from panel to panel, finishing the final checkouts. Corgo motioned one of them over. “Captain, this is Chief engineer Darvas Stoneheaver.” Darvas was a dwarf, four feet tall, with a fluffy red beard and piercing blue eyes. He looked Jokko over, seized the captain’s hand in his own iron grip and shook it until his new superior’s eyes watered. “Sure is nice tae meetcha cap’n. Didn’t expect sich a pretty boy gittin charge of this boat, beggin yer pardon sir, an’ no disrespect intended.” Jokko nodded, still trying to process the dwarf’s thick accent. “So what are you doing right now?” He asked. Darvas beamed under his beard. “I’ve been makin’ some adjustments tae the Inversion Reactor.” He waved in the direction of the center of the room. Jokko looked up and took a closer look at the massive cylinder bulging with pipes, the heart of the dragon. The walls vibrated and hummed. Several of the rivets dotting its base glowed red-hot. Darvas chuckled at the look of dismay that washed offer his captain’s face. “Ach, dinna worry about tha reactor sir. She’s my baby, an’ I won’t let nothin’ go wrong wi’ her.” Jokko swallowed, not convinced. “And if something, uh, goes wrong?” Darvas never stopped smiling. “Well sir, that reactor operates on the infinite inversion principle an’ she is lined with the metal of Azokathom. If there were a serious leak tha heat of a sun would seep through the quantum relay an’ burn a hole clean through this ship from end to end.” The dwarf walloped his unnerved captain on the back and escorted him back to the hydrolift. “Dinna worry cap’n. There ain’t no danger, this reactor should last fer a thousand years. You just fly me ship an’ let me worry about the propulsion. Darvas was still chuckling as the officer’s left on the lift. The new captain was a good sport, he just hoped Jokko knew what he was getting into.

The hydrolift was as silent as death after the racket of engineering. Jokko felt sweat on his forehead, from the heat in engineering, he told himself. “I’ve been on five dwarven ships in my career, and I never seem to get used to the Inversion Reactor.” Corgo sensed his captain’s unease. “Well sir, without the dwarves and their amazing reactors we wouldn’t be going on this five earth-year cruise, exploring the universe. Only a 500 year old dwarf like Darvas would understand the reactor. Imagining how to harness near-infinite energy still baffles me, even the layman’s explanation leaves my head spinning.” Jokko felt relieved that his first officer knew as little about dwarven technology as he did. “I still wish that we could have got the elves to lend a hometree for the Dragonheart.” Corgo shivered. “Well captain, personally I prefer riding on a dwarven radiation-bomb to trusting my skin to some hocus-pocus magic tree.” Jokko was baffled by Corgo’s hostility towards magic. The elves disdained conventional technology and powered their ships with magic, an ethereal energy that flowed in channels through space. They used sentient plants called “hometrees” as ship computers. A single hometree could simultaneously maintain artigrav, cycle air and pump water throughout the ship, coordinate communications and, with the help of an elven mediator, open a “splice” in a channel of magic, propelling a ship through space at many times the speed of light.  

The two officers got off of the hydrolift at level 5. Corgo pointed down a hallway packed with crewmen. “This way to the bridge Captain.” Jokko pushed forwards. Crewmen quickly got out of the way when they saw the double gold bars on his sleeve. But Corgo was not so lucky. He tripped over a hovercart full of replicators. Jokko pushed on, unaware. He hoped that things would be more orderly once the ship got into open space. Confused by the crowd he turned into a side-hall, and again into a room marked 10-4. This appeared to be a lounge or bar of some kind. Everyone was busy getting the ship stocked. Two dwarves passed him carrying boxes of drinks for the bar. Jokko’s legs were aching after his long stroll through the ship. He began wishing that he had spent more time working out in the Fleet Academy gym and less time loafing in bars like this one, getting chummy with fellow cadets.

As Jokko headed for a couch to rest he was jostled by a trio of rowdy ensign’s. He considered reprimanding them, but decided to let it go. Everyone in the bar froze as a deep voice bellowed across the room. “Hold it there, you orcish scum.” A towering man strode across the room and glowered over the ensigns, his muscles rippling under a short-sleeved uniform shirt. “You spunkless trollings, you dare to pass your commanding officer without saluting? I should throw you goons out of the airlock. Sixteen demerits and sanitation duty for you, now do it right.” The cowering ensign’s saluted, as did everyone else in the room. The muscled man, obviously an officer, turned to Jokko and saluted. “Chief of security Baran Hew reporting sir.” Jokko resisted the temptation to take a step back and hoped that Baran couldn’t see his knees shaking. “Uh, very good Chief Baran.” He turned on what he hoped was still his winning smile. “I am sort of, confused about where the bridge is.” Baran pointed to a microchip panel embedded in the wall. “Is the ship computer broken?” Jokko walked over to the panel, feeling very ignorant. “Thank you, that will be all Chief Baran.” Baran watched as his new captain asked the computer for directions and hurried out of 10-4. He liked this guy, who was obviously intimidated enough to be not stupid but brave enough to avoid being a coward. Jokko seemed a little distracted, but it took everyone time to get used to this ship.

Corgo found his captain in barracks hall 21, chatting with two ensigns about developments in hydroponics. “Captain, sorry I lost you there.” Jokko bid the ensigns farewell and resumed his walk. “That’s alright, my new Chief of Security found me.” Corgo turned pale. “I hope he didn’t scare you sir, I mean, well, he grew up as an enforcer in the Mars colony. He can be rough but he is really a nice guy once you get used to him. Rather protective. Not that you would be scared, I mean.” Jokko held up a hand to stop his first officer’s flow. “I was scared for a minute there.” Corgo was silent. Jokko laughed. “Yes, even brave starship captains get scared sometimes. I remember my first time I entered slipspace. I nearly threw up on the bridge, not from the trip but from being so nervous. It amused my captain to no end.” Officer Morek smiled. “The first time we ran the Orc battle simulation in the holoroom I actually fainted. Scared my teachers. They gave me a “energy shield” on the next run to boost my confidence.”

The two reached the last lift and arrived at the bridge. As the doors opened Corgo straightened to attention and called out “Captain on the bridge.” As one the half-dozen people sitting at control stations stood, turned and stood at attention. Corgo led the captain to a side panel where a young man with curly hair and blue eyes stood stiffly. “This is Dingo Komandus, our tactical officer.” Dingo smiled and shook his captain’s hand. “Just you tell me where to fire the torpedoes captain and I’ll be cool.” Corgo nodded. “Dingo is always cool. And this is Elara Silvaru, our communications officer.” Elara was an elf, with long, pointed ears and spiky white hair. Dingo’s station had been covered in taped notes and several instruction manuals. But Jokko could see his own reflection in the glistening instrument panels of Elara’s station. She stood at perfect attention, green eyes straight ahead. Jokko ran his hand along the instruments as if looking for dust, although he was really looking for something to say. “Very good, um, what are your qualifications tactical officer Elara?”

Elara kept her eyes straight ahead, her voice snapping out perfect syllables. “300 years of experience in the Elven guard, including 27 years 4 months as a mediator. Graduated Triumvirate Fleet Academy with honors. Majored in Communications, Diplomacy, Navigation and Tactical Operations. 6 years’ experience in the Triumvirate Fleet as Comms officer, recommended by the Elven Ambassador Mellion and Tulias, Prefector of the Trium office of liaison coordination. Perfect record, no demerits. Three commendations.”

 Jokko was nodding as a reflex action. He extended his hand and Elara shook it before returning to attention. It may have been his imagination, but her hand seemed cold, like gripping ice. He moved on the next station. Corgo whispered in his ear. “Elara is very proud of herself. One of the ensigns who knows elvish heard her say that she could run the whole ship herself, and I almost believe it. I keep asking her questions and she always has the answer.” 

“Now this.” Said Corgo in his normal voice. “This is helmsman Root Taku.” A dark-skinned man with serious brown eyes took Jokko’s hand. “A pleasure to meet you sir.” Something in his grip made the captain felt more confident, felt that he could trust helmsman Root completely, with anything. “Likewise Officer Taku.”

Jokko turned around to the Navigator’s seat and found himself facing a beardless, nervous youth with large, round ears. Corgo suddenly sounded uneasy. “This is Ensign James Chevo.” Jokko turned back to his first officer. “Ensign? This kid can’t be over 20 earth-years old. Why is he the Navigator?” Corgo began smoothing his short hair. “Sir, we are already behind schedule for the launch. And when our assigned Navigator suffered a serious injury two days ago I had to improvise and find the best qualified replacement.” Jokko was still not reassured. “How qualified is he?” Corgo stood straight and with an effort kept his hands away from his hair. “James is older than he looks. He is not really human, he is a Shortling and almost 24 years old. And he is a fully qualified Navigator who graduated with honors, as well as the best non-dwarf engineer I know.” Jokko let his frown fade a smidge. “Captain, He may be inexperienced, but I personally vouch for James. And if you insist I have two other people who can Navigate if necessary. But it takes several hours to fill out a transfer application and several days to get is approved. We must launch today.” Jokko nodded and turned back to James. The young Navigator shook his hand warmly, giving out a winning, chubby-cheeked smile. “Don’t worry Captain, I won’t fail you.”

Jokko restrained himself from wiping the sweat from his forehead. Making a good impression on his new crew was hard work, perhaps he was overdoing it. Corgo broke in on his captain’s thoughts. “Sir, your Science Officer, Tuol S’cop.” A tall elf stood straight before him. Jokko was impressed, not just by his perfect uniform and station, but by how regal he looked. High cheekbones, straight eyebrows, impeccable poise and blue eyes that seemed to stare at some distant galaxy. The captain extended his hand for the mandatory handshake. He had lots of practice, one had to shake a lot of hands-and other appendages, to become a captain. But meeting all of his officers in such a short space of time was putting stress on his hand and his good humor. Tuol did not help, gripping Jokko’s hand so firmly that the captain fought back tears threatening to escape his eyes. He decided not ask about his Science Officer’s qualifications. Elves were always so annoyingly accomplished. “Well, glad to have you aboard Tuol.” Tuol raised his eyebrows a fraction. Jokko coughed and glanced at Corgo, who leaned in. “He doesn’t say much captain, not chatty.” Tuol shifted his electronic tablet and glanced at it. “Captain, we have been given permission to launch. I have checked all of the equations and we are ready begin our voyage.” Jokko ran his hand over a console. “What about the Inversion Reactor?” Tuol didn’t glance at his tablet. “Operating at 110% power, full efficiency.” Jokko turned to Officer Morek. “So, have I met everybody?” Corgo smiled mischievously. “You can relax now captain. There are only 3026 more people on this ship that you must meet. But they will understand if you just talk over the intercom for now.” Captain Jokko Moranian took a deep breath, straightened his impeccably pressed microfibre uniform and sat in the Captain’s chair.

 “Officer Elara, open a shipwide channel.” A beep. “Attention crew of the Dragonheart. This is Captain Jokko Moranian. I’m not great at making speeches, so I’ll keep it short. Today we set out into Space, that final frontier. Our mission is a five-year voyage into the depths of the universe. To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man, no dwarf, no elf has ever gone before.”

Jokko switched off the intercom and swatted his combadge. “Engineering, are we ready for Warp?” Darvas’s deep voice bellowed back. “Aye cap’n. Ready fer Inversion on yer mark.” Jokko winced and lowered the volume. “James, plot a course for…oh, somewhere in the Beta quadrant.” James activated his charming smile as he punched in the numbers. “Course set Captain.” “Mr. Tuol, release the mooring lines.” “Mooring lines and stabilizers released Captain.” Jokko spun his chair, sinking into the soft fabric. “Mr. Chevo, one-half impulse please.” The Shortling pushed forward the throttle with infinite care. “One half impulse Captain.”

The Dragonheart swung out off Homestation 2 with grace, it’s dozen impulse engines pulsing with blue fire. In three minutes the ship had cleared the dock. Jokko relaxed, his back muscles loosening. He had worried all day, about his crew, how they saw him, if they were capable, if they would respect him. Now, at the helm of the newest ship in the Fleet, embarking on the most unique and challenging mission of his career, with a bridge full of new friends that he was learning to trust, that were beginning to trust him, Jokko began to feel at home.

James glanced at his consol. “Captain, we are clear of Earth’s magnetic field.” Jokko ran his hands over the armrests of his chair. “Commence inversion on my mark Mr. Chevo. Three, two, one, mark.”

Beams of read plasma rippled from the Dragonheart and whirled in a spiral, faster and faster. The ship’s engines glowed, emanating a purple aura. 500 yards from the prow a wormhole appeared, bending space and time. Beads of plasma drew the ship into the gaping abyss. There was a final blinding flash, a backwash of red plasma and the Dragonheart was gone.

I hope you enjoyed this short story, which is a blend of the fantasy genre with the classic TV show Star Trek. Please comment below and tell me how I did and what I could have done better. And maybe recommend my blog to other bloggers, because I am trying to expand my audience.

Thank you for reading. Merry Christmas