The Next Day

Dresden, dressed to the nines as usual in his uniform, slipped into the pilot's seat and began running standard diagnostics to see what had changed since he went to sleep. Later, he'd do a round to the engine rooms, which through some stroke of luck coincided with his exercise regime. Without taking the lifts, the journey was about two miles there and back. He hummed a small tune to himself, which reverberated in his neck implants from the looseness of the new filters. "Beautiful," He said with a grin of satisfaction. "I love a ship who looks good in the morning."

"You're making her head swell" Rhod said, his words slightly slurred as he sat up in the commanding seat; he'd come up here to read over some manuals last night and fallen asleep in the chair. The chair was so big on him that Dresden had completely missed him sleeping there. The heavy Manuals thumped to the ground, titles like "Cypers and you", "Explosive decompression and how to avoid it" and "Red Shirts, planet exploration and hostile life forms" showing as the pages crumpled on the floor; the actual use of paper was astounding really, considering how many people used lazor disk.

Dresden looked back, an eyebrow raised in surprise. "A little radiating growth in the fore cortex won't throw off her balance that much," He said amiably. "It's good to keep a lady in good humours. Good morning, Captain." He looked at the books strewn on the floor. "Feeling a bit nostalgic, sir?"

"They print them" Rhod gave a small yawn, stretching out "On paper in case the power suddenly cuts and lazor disks won't work... I won't be able to read because everyone would be trying to kill me and it would be increadibly dark but you know, never entered their head." Rhod smoothed out his uniform slightly, the creases still evident as he did "Anyway, this lady keeps going on and on in my head when you say things like that. I don't think you CAN be promoted can you?"

"'Fraid not, sir, 'nless it were purely honorary," Dresden grinned, "But I'd turn it down anyway, just in case th'burdens of higher rank kept me from the privilege of handling such a finely engineered vessel." He patted the control board fondly. Thinking a moment, he said, "I s'pect They're fairly used to information in liquid stasis, but I've always preferred paperbacks to injections. Longer download, but faster install."

The door of the lift off to the side pinged quietly as it opened. Rosie stepped out and smiled slightly at the captain and Dresden. "Morning, gentlemen; Archy, be civil." The gecko on her shoulder waved an arm an licked its eye in a salute to the captain. "Hows the ship fairing?"

Rhod gave the smallest of chuckles and nodded at Dresden "I'll take that into mind." He looked around to see Rosie wander in, straightening up his uniform again out of habit "Good morning. The ship is as well as I could hope, considering what we did, though I'm sure Dresden could give you a better view on how it's handling today."

Smiling an bowing her head slightly to him and taking off her glasses, cleaning them of blurs Rosie took the time to study some of her consoles, clicking a few buttons and humming happily. "Well after last nights fiasco of my brain not functioning on all cylinders, I believe today is going to be a good day, Sir." placing her glasses on an trying to un-crumple her uniform too. "Alas, my packing skills are horrible and my uniform resembles something out of an origami book. Is there anywhere on this blessed ship that you can get REAL coffee?" she muttered out loud to anyone in general. Rosie resumed her checking of systems.

The elevator dropped D'mitri off at the control deck. He stepped off, allowing it to descend as he waited to be acknowledged. The last thing he wanted to do was interrupt any important conversations or orders.

Archy waved to D'mitri and blinked his eyes in succession, nudging Rosie so she'd turn around, and that she did. "Morning D'mitri." trying to figure out what it was on her glasses that was making things blurry, Rosie was mid way through cleaning them again.

"Oh" Rhod spun on the spot again, turning to face the elevator as the passengers departed from it "D'mitri." He paused for a moment as if thinking "I suppose the men are ready for their new course? Not that they're expecting it... but I'm sure they're ready for it."

D'mitri saluted and stood at attention once the Commander spoke to him. "Sojana is making them aware of the practice simulation now. If you are available I would greatly appreciate your presence at the simulation."

"Of course" Rhod said, straightening himself up again as he headed towards D'mitri. He paused for a moment... then turned his head slightly to the two others in the room "You two get along now, you hear?" It wasn't EXACTLY an order... "Shall we head back down?" he said to D'mitri, heading towards the lift quickly while still trying to make himself presentable.

D'mitri had already summoned the elevator back up when Commander Rhod reached him. He stepped back into it and keyed in the facility quarters.

Nodding at the captain an affixing her glasses to her face again, Rosie Saluted, as did Archy an she got back to looking through the data recorded while she was asleep. Looking briefly over to Dresden an smiling, trying to hide the nervous blush.

"Aye, Cap'n," Dresden said without looking up from the console. "Sorry, one sec--" He pulled a lever very gently and released it, watching the vibrations carefully. He picked up a stylus and transcribed a series f numbers. "Sorry, I was just finishing up the status update for this morning. Usually it doesn't take long, but the Tarveko theorem's meters are traditionally Slovenese, and it's always given me trouble." He smiled apologetically at Rosie. "Good morning, then!"

Smiling back at him a little an letting out a giggle Rosie just looked over her screens an smiled. "Oh I know how you feel, I'm used to working everything out a totally different way. I mean, the SUVAT system on this doesn't even register! It's like swimming upstream through treacle, we'll get there, but slowly." Putting Archy down on the desk, she rubbed her eyes, "So, How are you this mornin'?"

"Well enough," Dresden reported. "Cute lizard." He leaned closer to it, examining it with fascination. "What kind is it?"

"Oh that's Archy, he's a brazilian gecko. You can hold him if you want, he isn't dangerous." Smiling happily Rosie tried not to look suprised by his interest, blushing slightly an rubbing through her hair as she checked out a few schematics. Archy just blinked up at Dresden, blinking each eye independently as he licked his lips.

"That's so cool," Dresden said, poking out a finger and petting him gently on the head. "Hi, Archy." He glanced up at Rosie. "You know, if you're worried about wrinkles in your clothes, I have an iron and a board in my quarters I can lend you."

Rosie blushed deeply and pushed her glasses back up her nose. Archy closed his eyes and bent his head a little, putting a foot on the man's finger. "Oh, that would be wonderful, I-I could pop round sometime and pick it up if it's no trouble. I was never too good at looking after myself, usually I was busy working an I'd work till the point where Id pass out, I had forgotten to eat. Occasionally forgetting to bathe too." Letting out a peal of giggles an snorting a little, she instinctively covered her nose an looked wide eyed up at Dresden.

"Ha!" Dresden chuckled, "I know exactly what you mean. Old college habits die hard." He lifted the finger under Archy's foot gently, enchanted. He set it down back on the console carefully, sliding his finger out from underneath. "So, where are we headed today?" He asked her.

Watching Dresden with Archy, Rosie was just smiling, shaking her head and coming back to her senses for a second. "Oh, somewhere in that direction. Nothing major as of yet, although we are approaching a nice cluster, too hard to tell what exactly it is right now. The system keeps messing up and jumbling up the records and readouts. It's like picking up a book that says history, but inside it's full of math; it's labeled right, but the content is wrong. I'm going to have to get an F2 on that soon... I think he likes you. You should take it as a compliment. He doesn't usually like people." Generally babbling along an smiling weekly at Dresden, Rosie hoped he had kept up and understood what the hell she was on about. He was intelligent enough, but occasionally she did tend to mumble.

"That's sweet," He said, smiling at Archy. He looked up at Rosie, his smile dissolving into a concerned frown. "That's not right. This ship is practically brand new, there shouldn't be any problems with the navigation system." He moved his chair over to another section of console, bringing up the maps. "These are the charted territories, and..." He slid through the files to the active charting system. "By Jove, you're right, this isn't right at all."

Nodding slightly and frowning as well, Rose frantically looked through some more of the files and pulled them out onto the big screen. "This isn't right at all...Maybe we should tell the captain? I mean, this is a new ship, as you pointed out. It shouldn't be this messed up unless there's a virus in the system." She mumbled a little and rubbed a hand through her hair again. "I wonder who's on the technical staff..."

"No, I'm sure we can resolve this without troubling the captain," Dresden said. "If I remember correctly, we have a technician on board...a Cyper, I think. If we find her, we can get her to talk to the computer and sort all of this out."

Nodding an frowning as she tried to access some files that she had been through the other day Rosie frowned harder and took her glasses off, rubbing her eyes. "Whatever it is, its spreading. I looked at these yesterday and they were perfectly fine, now I have no idea whats where!" looking over the desk at Dresden with a mildly worried look. "Could you call the Cyper? we need her up here pronto, I smell sabotage."

The elevator opened to admit Ka'aias, who was fiddling with her wrist com. She stopped walking for a moment, focused on what she was doing. "Yep, it's here alright," she said to herself. After another moment, she looked up and saw Dresden and Rosie standing there. "Oh, hi. Um..." The grin plastered itself across her face. "Don't mind me. Basic maintenance checks."

Looking up an blinking at the woman Rosie beamed at her an pulled her over quickly. "Just the girl we needed to see, right-io. We think there's a virus in the system because everything's labeled right but the content is wrong. It's all messed up and we don't know why. Information is missing too, its really disconcerting." Talking rather fast an getting up a few files to show the technician.

Dresden got out of the chair so she could have room to engage the computer. "It started acting up when I got here at 0600."

Kai sat down in the seat Dresden had vacated and looked at the computers. She lifted the small panel on her arm and pulled out a cord, plugging it directly into the control panel. Leaning back in the seat, she started humming to herself, looking to the world like she was napping. In reality, she was quickly going through the corrupted files, tracking down whatever had caused the problem.

As she searched through the files she found the cause of the corruption, or at least a hint of where it had come from. She felt the crackle of broken logic, links that rerouted to themselves, then to a second unrelated link; this was basic stuff however, maps, logic, specific things that were not necessary. All the important things however, life support, bank statements, names, addresses, all perfect. There should be nothing that only affected one part of the system, least of all the unimportant parts. She could feel something inside the system however, something spreading out through the system slowly; it was programmed in however, part of the very system itself. It was as if the system had been stripped to pieces, thrown to the floor, then something was picking it up and putting it together, if very slowly.

Kai put herself into the computer, limiting her access to her own body, and her red eye flickered and the light behind it faded. She surfed the files quickly, isolating whatever it was that was in there. Watching it move, she wasn't sure how to help it. Of course, she could speed the process along, this could take days. But the navigator would need maps in the meantime. Kai could supply those herself. She continued to watch the program rebuilding. It was odd to her that something within the computers was fixing this, as if it knew things were wrong.

It was about this time that the computer had spotted Kai, as Kai found herself deeper in the machine she found the computer more bother by it. She felt a sudden clamp, an isolation of her mind, then a slight scan of just what was poking around. Finally her mind was freed and the words "ANNOUNCE YOURSELF NEXT TIME KAI" imprinted into her mind "I COULD HAVE THOUGHT YOU WERE A VIRUS"

"I thought you were the virus," Ka'aias thought back to the program. "Do you know what happened in here and can I help?" She continued studying the problem and focusing on how to fix it.

"The EMP from the explosion was great enough to overpower the dampeners. Not enough that cyborgs or cypers would become aware of it, but enough that it rather scrambled my systems. This was forseen" a hing of smugness entered the impression now "I was programmed with links to each system, like a bookmark on every page. First priority is basics, life support, connections to others. I am still recovering the information logs however. I believe that is why you are here."

"That is what they were saying. That the information was mucked up." Kai let herself drift back towards her link, pulling out of the computers. "I will let them know and supply my back up data for them for now until you can finish." She pulled back into her body, her eye lighting up again. Kai sat back in the seat, taking a deep, unnecessary breath.

"Well?" Dresden said after a moment, shifting his weight uncomfortably.

Eagerly awaiting an answer as well, Rosie rubbed her hands through her hair. She stood close next to Dresden. "Found anything?" She looked over at a monitor to see that the files were unscrambling themselves and the backup files were appearing. "Ohhhhhh, must of been some sort of scrambling due to the explosion, its writing itself and looks like it'll be full capacity soon. This is good, it means nothings really wrong!" Grinning an hugging Dresden out of reflex.

"Fantastic," Dresden said, suddenly being hugged. He patted her gently on the shoulders and then removed himself from her embrace. "Thanks, Kai."

Blushing profusely and cleaning her glasses, Rosie hurried quickly back to her station, muttering something about plotting courses and maps that hadn't been updated.

"Right then," Dresden muttered. "I'll be in the engine rooms. Comm me if you need me," He said. The ship was still on autopilot, drifting idly through space. He jogged off the deck.

Nodding slightly as soon as Dresden left, Rosie hit her head on the desk and groaned loudly, startling Archy. "Ohhhh crumpits, I shouldn't of done that, I've now alienated, excuse the pun, the only one who's paid a blind bit of notice to me!" Archy just put his hand on hers and licked his eye sympatheticaly.

Kai turned in the seat she was still occupying and looked at Rosie. "Should I leave?" she asked, curious about this woman's reaction. She seemed flustered.

Blinking slightly and raising her head, Rosie blushed deeply and squeaked a little. "Erm... stay, go, 'tis your discretion as to what you do."

"I do not work here," Kai said. "So really it is your call. I can supply you with temporary maps until the computer is up a running."

ROsie shrugged slightly and pulling her hair back in a bobble, bunching it up slightly into a bun. "Erm, I think the archives and stuff are still good right? I could just use the maps off of there. Stay if you wish, if your not needed elsewhere that is."

When Dresden returned, he had somehow gotten his suit to look sharper than it had been when he left. "Let's have another go at it, shall we?" He said to Rosie with a smile. He touched the back of the pilot's chair and asked, "Mind if I drive?"

Not looking up from her desk realy, Rosie nodded a little and was tinkering away on her computer, humming a tune to herself as she did.

Kai stood and looked at the control panel then at Dresden. "This is an area I am unfamiliar with. Would you show me how to pilot so I might better understand the panel?" She could of course plug herself directly into the computer and pilot that way or download a piloting course, but Ka'aias had the sudden urge to learn something like everyone else did.

"Certainly," Dresden replied, and sat down. With a flick of a finger he brought up the HUD, which was covered in meters and various statistics. "These here are the regulatory systems-- oxygen levels, temperature, radiation levels, that sort of thing. These measure the ship's roll, pitch, and yaw, which is based off the measure of Earth's north and south poles and Sergei's Principle. This is the measure of lph x5,000, and this cluster tells me about how the engine is acting, and how it will handle hyperspace." He raised his hands, and blue discs appeared on his fingertips. "Now, moving the ship is a mixture of light control, eye tracking and level 3 telepathy. Some species come by that last bit naturally, but for mere mortals such as you or I, that's where the implants come in handy. They enhance gammanoct waves with short-wave transmissions, and in some cases you can get away with only basic empathy if you're fluent in Pala JHC 7056, although I wouldn't recommend flying that way. This is why pilots prefer ships we've flown before, because the sync is easier when there's a working imprint between the ship and the pilot. There's less left up to interpretation. Plus, the better the imprint, the more can be controlled by that link. For instance, when I went to the Academy I had a Mach 7 Peril, and by the time I graduated I could pilot it a thousand yards away while inside another ship." He flexed his fingers. "The controls are based off of the Kyringian maneuvering system, which only requires eight points of contact. On a ship like this, I like to use ten, but you could fly it with two if you wanted; it's all a matter of preference." He gestured, turning the ship around to view a neighboring system. "With a big Dewport battle cruiser or a transport ship like this one, you wanna keep the controls fairly symmetrical, but with smaller ships like fighters or experimental craft you can handle with pretty much whatever you want." He grinned up at Ka'aias. "Probably more than you wanted to know, but you asked."

Ka'aias nodded. "More, however you are correct, I did ask." She looked down at the control panel. "There is something I do not understand. Why follow Earth norm patterns of gravitation and orientation. One thing I learned quickly is that in a low or null gravity situation, if you can quickly reorient yourself so down is up or west is down, it might make control easier."

"Tradition, mostly," Dresden said. "When humans made first contact in 2146, they established the system. Earth's polarity is just a frame of reference. We can move so that west is below us," He flexed his fingers and raised one hand above the other, turning the ship sideways. "After all, west is just 90 degrees from north; this tells me which 90 degrees." He reoriented the ship to where it had been. "As for gravitation, it's basic health regulation for an interstellar transport ship. Prolonged exposure to low or null gravity weakens the body, irreversibly after a point."

Kai looked down at her own body and frowned. "I still have much to learn on biology. Machines are easy enough. Organic life forms are frail things." She said this without thinking that Dresden was organic, or that it might be considered an insult. "Cypers were put through rigorous null gravity simulations. We learned to reset our own thoughts on direction. I did not understand why the ships that contained life were sent out radially instead of in all possible directions. Now I am beginning to see why."

"I understand why you would ask," Dresden said. "On smaller ships like fighters or interplanetary transports it's cheaper to forgo gravity altogether, but in those cases planet-side R&R is required by law. As for the radial system, that's where Sergei's Principle comes in: North, south, east and west cover the x and y axes, and Sergei's Principle takes care of the z axis--roll, pitch, and yaw. It also has to do with the fact that the Milky Way was prominently horizontal; most galaxies are not spheres, but graduated discs. I'm sure when we find another galaxy we'll have to reorient to the system." He shrugged. "That's all practical navigation. If you want to know about Theory, you'd have to ask Miss O'Shira, I'm sure she'd be happy to tell you."

Humming almost angrily to herself Rosie was buisy stabbing in some calculations and specks, Archy had taken cover under some paper to avoid the mad stabbing of a pencil on paper, still preffering to work out all her maths by hand.

The pitchblack image of space on the outer window seemed to gain more life than usual, not much, but a small green line that squiggled in the bottom right had corner. Not that was the interesting part, the interesting part was the sound now coming through the speakers in the room.
"This is Captain Hayley Irmine" the woman's voice was obviously scared, talking quickly and loudly as screams and yells of terror filled the air around her "of earth evacuation ship Fox" a loud yell reverberated around the room, blocking out her word "Halo Halo Shepard. Putting out a distress signal to anyone within range! For the love of god pick up!"
"I'm here captain, what's the situation?" this was Rhod talking, calm, smooth, trying to keep the other Captain's head as havoc burst around her.
A laugh of desperation filled the speakers now, only to be cut off by an explosion that almost rocked the control room the three were sitting in, the next time the woman's voice came through it was on the verge of breaking down "They're in, they're in..." she was whispering again and again "Oh god we don't have much time. R-requesting search and rescue of bodies" there was no talk of survivors, only screams getting louder and more frequent, now pain mixed in their as well. They seemed to be crawling into the listeners ears, burrowing deep and sinking fangs of dread into their minds "Oh god... oh god let it be quick."
"Captain" Rhod was commanding her with his voice, almost sounding angry at the woman "stay calm, just stay calm and tell me the situation. What is attacking-" He was cut off by an explosion this time, an almost dreaful silence before with a small gurgle Captain Irmine lost contact.
"Captain? Captain respond!" Rhod was obviously having trouble accepting he'd just lost contact with the woman "Dammit man you can't go out like this!" There was a clatter as his chair was pushed over, his deep breathing coming through the mikes now, the walls seemingly bending with them as the sound of his heavy breathing filled the air. He didn't know what to do. Then all sound cut, the little green line at the bottom of the screen dissapeared. And the last known location of Foxtrot Halo Halo Shepard shone at Dresen from below, displayed on his own screen. It was less than a day's travel away.


Staring off into space, literally Rosie looked like she was about to throw up. She looked franticaly round the room for Dresden and Kai. "W-what... the, w-hat was... ohhh god." With that, she ran out of the room looking for the nearest toilet.

"Orders, Captain?" Dresden reported through the comm, his eyes hard and professional.

Returning a minuet later, hair damp a little from splashing water on her face and clothes ruckled, Rosie looked better and had her head on straight, eyes focused again. "Have you called the captain? Shit.. looks like the telecoms are down though the fasility decks and the living quaters." Clicking a few buttons and picking up Archy, and a phaser pistle that was stashed in her draw. "If we cant get hold of him in five minuets Im going to go look for him."

There was a crackle as the comms realligned themself for a moment, then a smaller voice came out of the desk in front of Dresden "The computer just told me that you heard that." Rhod's voice was shaking slightly but he still sounded in charge "We can't risk the ship... but we must do something. I'll be up there soon."

Sitting down with a huff and relaxing back slightly, Rosie put back the pistol and replaced Archy on her desk. "Ohhh thank the heavens." Bringing schematics back up and typing in a couple of things, Rosie let out a little squeak and whimpered, quickly putting up a few files on the big screen. "I do believe we have a problem, a rather large... scary... deadly problem."

Dresden leaned back and looked at the screen. An expression of dread formed on his face. "Oh, hell."

Tapping a button on her screen Rosie Hailed the captin via computer "Sir, we have... a small problem." Letting go of the button and walking up to the big screen. "Hell is close to it, yes."

Rhod was panting slightly as he emerged, stroking his hair back slowly and gazing around at everyone in the room. "So you all heard that, correct?" he asked the group "and you're aware of our current situation?"

Ka'aias looked over at Rhod as she stood there. She did not have a reaction like the others, not quite being programmed to do such. Kai nodded, not really having any words to say at the moment.

Rosie just stood rock still and nodded too. "Aye captain, though I must say, we have a teensy problem." Pulling up a large image of the space between them and the broken ship they were traveling to. A large expanse of the space was covered in asteroids, so tightly packed there was no way they could get the ship through. "A small, asteroid field. Sir."

"We're not taking this ship anyway," Rhod said, waving a hand slightly at the screen as he saw the small asteroid field "We can't endanger the people on this ship, especially if whatever did this is able to rip a ship like ours to pieces. So we'll be taking a smaller one, with only a few of us... but I have to decide who's coming."

Kai took a slight step forward. "I will volunteer. If it is something dangerous to organic life, it may prove useful to have intelligent inorganic life present."

"I was hoping you'd volunteer," Rhod said, nodding at the woman. "I should have kept in contact for longer with the Captain, even if she died. That means they hit the computer, hit the generators at the very least. I could use a mechanic." He nodded slightly and glanced at the tightly packed asteroid field, then at Dresden. "We don't need a good pilot, we need to best. You up for it?"

"It would be my pleasure, sir," Dresden said with a straight face. He looked at the asteroid field and suppressed a giddy grin. The ship was stabilized and safely out of range of the field.

Holding up her hand shakily and pushing her glasses further up her nose. Rosie bit her lip a little. "Am I needed on this mission, because I would verry much like to go."

Rhod bit his lip for a moment, scratching at his head as he gazed at Rosie "I'm not sure, perhaps I should discuss it with the others a bit more?" He wasn't sure if Rosie would be another civilian down there getting in trouble, or if she'd be useful.

Nodding and returning to her station,Rosie didnt hum as she worked, just trying in a few mathmatical problems, drawing up maps and bedinning to plot a rout that could possibly help them, if she wasnt going she could atleast help, Astrophysics wasnt realy a hands on subject but she did love the excitement of new adventures, she was heavily into extreem sports before the planet imploded.

"Should we contact our security officer?" Kai asked, gesturing at the comm on the control panel. "I have built in weaponry, though we may need more if there are sentient and dangerous life forms aboard."

"D'mitri will have to stay behind, we can't take him away from his job. However this would be a good chance for us to use our away team in a non-civilian circumstances" Rhod said, nodding slowly as if to himself "Try contacting Sojana instead. We will need to contact everyone anyway, to tell them what I intend to do, but right now only those who need to know."

Ka'aias nodded and sat down at the control panel. After a few moments, she located Sojana and pressed the button on the communicator on her arm. "Sojana, if you could, please come to the bridge." She depressed the button and sat back while Rhod was thinking.

It took a minuet or two but Sojana arrived on the bridge, still outfitted in her combat finest after the simulation Chief D'mitri had built for her and her men. She stood at attention and waited to be announced to the Captain.

Rhod was looking nervous and had been waiting for Sojana since she was called. He approached her quickly and saluted, getting that out the way as he said "Sojana we have a mission coming up, we have to move quickly, and there will be few civilians with us. This is volountary of course, but I would feel better with some back up on this."

"You've got it sir." Sojana told him, finishing off her salute as he did his. It was hard to keep her stoic composure, a hint of a smile could be seen in her eyes. "When, where and how heavily do you want us armed?"

"Three hours, the docking bays and we're flying in blind. Bring anything you want, just know how to use it" Rhod said, nodding to her and taking a deep breath "Whatever it was took down another earth evacuation ship. We don't know to what extent the damage or what really did it, so we could be talking tight corridors or anti-gravity." He'd seen it before, ships ripped open so people were fighting in no gravity or air, bullets propelling their the shooter backwards so low recoil was needed for those circumstances.

"You got my hopes up Captain, I thought my claws where going to get to touch dirt on this one." Sojana said and then added in a more professional tone "Should we expect to encounter wounded?"

"or dead" Rhod tried to say emotionlessly "I'm hoping to contact the good doctor and persuade him to accompany us. Even if the ship was cut in half and one half of the population survived we'd have many more people than we could cover with medpacks. We'll need an actual doctor for this."

"It could also be possible that some individuals made it into secure chambers." Sojana observed "A tech or two might be beneficial. It'll save my men from having to use D-6 to blow any secure doors."

"Kai has already volunteered" Rhod pointed his thumb behind him at Ka'aias "She's one of the best tech and engineers we have." He took a deep beath and glanced over towards Dresden "We've also got a pilot, but would you kindly call the doctor now?"

At this Rosie looked up and nodded slightly, pushing a button and peeking loudly into the computer's mic "Will Dr Shaq'l'phard please report to the Control deck as soon as possible please? thank you." Keeping her voice calm and gentle as to not rouse suspicion.

With a grumble and a ruffle of his feathers, Dr. Shaq'l'phard entered the Control Deck. "What is so damn important that you had to drag me away from my office, eh?" It wasn't as if he was doing anything at the moment anyway, but the doctor was an eccentric being who hated being disturbed, let alone being around others.

Rhod gave a smile and a nod of thanks to Rosie, then turned to Shaq'l'phard as he shuffled in "Your Captain, for one" he pointed out "and the fact we might have several thousand dead, and maybe if we're lucky some people injured. We'll need a doctor to, at the very least, tell us what happened there. We won't have time to have a full autopsy, so anyone you find you're going to have to find the cause of death very quickly." He kept a long hard gaze on Shaq'l'phard, trying to stare the man down to see if he would have anything pithy to say now "Will you come?"

"Several thousand dead you say?" Shaq'l'phard responded with, his tongue licking the edges of his beak carefully. "Not much for determining cause of death really. They're dead, what do they care anyway? But I suppose I could take a look at a few of the bodies. You sure you want to take me there, Jim? I'm not exactly the thing people so close to death want to see."

"You could be swinging a class five atomic destabiliser round your head and these people would bow at your feet to hear you were a doctor. And I need an autopsy, we don't know what did the damage and I want to find out, in case we need to protect THIS ship" Rhod was starting to get annoyed at being called 'Jim' all the time "And it's Captain until you learn my real name."

"Bah! The way I look at it, it's you who need me, Captain." Shaq'l'phard spit the words off his tongue. "Dead is dead as far as I am concerned, how it happened is only important to big wigs like yourself." He waved his hand at him as he walked off, "I will take a look around however, if for nothing more than my own amusement."

Rhod was tempted to smack the doctor off his self-obsessed pins, his fist clenching into a tight ball. The lift doors, the only way back downstairs, smacked closed in the Shaq'l'phard's face "Doctor I just heard a ship get slaughtered INSIDE MY OWN HEAD, I need to know if this was a war ship attack or some kind of massive BEAST. I don't care if you doubt yourself so much that you can't even make a GUESS between bite marks or a phazer burn, I need to know what we're up against. If you're that busy we'll ask your nurse to come with us! I was expecting the best, perhaps my calling you was wrong."

Shaq'l'phard turned around sharply, a move that did not look as though one of his age and appearance could make with such obvious grace. He raised a clawed finger at Rhod. "Make no mistake, Captain, I AM the best. Never once did I say that I could not do the job you asked of me." He took a step forward, that placed him much closer to the Captain than one would have though given how many steps he had taken on his way out of the control deck. He straightened himself up until he was no longer hunched over. With his back straight, he now towered over the man calling himself captain. "I simply stated that I am a doctor, not a coroner. Autopsies are not something I am particularly acclimated to doing, but I am quite capable in the matter at hand. Besides the fact remains that if you heard an entire ship of people die in your head, perhaps you should speak with a Psychologist rather than a medical doctor such as myself." Despite the fact that he was clearly outraged by the Captain's words, he kept his voice calm, straying only a few choice words to show his agitation. "Now, if you would excuse me, Captain, I must go and ready my autopsy kit for immediate field work."

"Three hours. The docking bays" the doors behind Shaq'l'phard opened as Rhod glanced at them "Drop the attitude or I'll have the radio transmission I recieved pumped into your room every night for a week." It was an empty threat really, he couldn't make the Doctor miss a week of sleep... but maybe one night. He'd probably take his own sedatives to try and sleep though, the one thing about being a doctor is that you can self medicate.

"Sir," Dresden said, "with your permission, I'd like to prep the ship." He stood at attention, waiting to be excused.

"Permission granted" Rhod sighed, glad that there were some people with respect around this place. "And don't worry, everyone who DOES know my name just call me by it." Oh how he hated working with civilians, specially doctors; they never took orders, always thinking that their projects were more important than another person's.

Ka'aias watched the scene with interest. It was one of those things she could never truly understand, the need to seem larger or more impressive to make another stand down. It didn't quite process yet in her mind exactly what was going on. She looked at the captain, a slight tilt of the head all the clue that she might be mildly confused. "Sir," she said, "does that include me?"

"Of course" Rhod said with a slight smile at Ka'aias "You can call me Rhod. If you like..." He didn't mind being informal with those he knew would do the same, he was only a Captain to those who were troublesome.

"Sir," Dresden clipped, saluting. He quickly walked to the docking bays.

Kai nodded and sat back in the chair, fiddling with the computer on her arm. She was running a diagnostic on herself to make sure she was operating at top efficiency.

Rhod huffed slightly and straightened his shirt, closing his eyes for a moment. He had to compose himself... Turning to Sojana he nodded at her "Your dismissed, have you squad ready down there alright?"

"Sure thing... Rhod." Sojana said with her salute. Calling him by name was her slight attempt at levity due to his encounter with the good doctor and at the same time, testing weather or not she was among that select few he was going to allow such a luxury.

"I'm hoping we get through this without incident" Rhod said, nodding to Sojana and not saying anything about her calling him Rhod "Still, nice to know you have our backs." He had meant EVERYONE to call him Rhod after all... Everyone but the doctor really.

"It's nice to know we have backs to have Sir." Sojana told him aqnd took her leave, back to the facility quarters to alert her men of the recent development.

After printing out a map of a section of asteroid field, Rosie highlighted a possible path that the jumper could get through, she still didnt trust computers, specialy when the hunks of rock and ice debris would mess up the sencors because of being so close to the hull. Keeping quiet as to not disrupt anything, slightly startled by the Doctors outbursts and general obsenity. "S-s... R-Rhod? I have a small idea, type thing... a possible path?" Sounding rather distant and shaky, she didnt want to be in the way or meddling in any kind.

"Hmmm? Oh yes... of course" Rhod nodded slightly at Rosie and tried to give her an encouraging smile "May I see?" He moved over to her side, to look down at the screen that she had been working on for the last few minutes.

Smiling shakily back and pulling out the long printed out coppy of the asteroid belt. "Well Ive been looking at the asteroid belt and ive plotted the fastest path that could be taken, rather easily I may add with the pilot we have. Ive printed out a coppy of it incase the sencors mess up due to the asteroid proximity, you might want to turn off the collision allarm because it would be going off every five secconds, but I assure you youd be fine. But yes, Ive highlighted it and added suggested speeds and angles, because the asteroids are in motion and this is going from the start to finish of with of the belt." Perking up as she explained the way of going through it and gestered with her hands alot, stoping abruptly and blinking at Rhod Rosie smled sheepishly and rubbed through her hair, pens sticking out of the bun she had put it in and glasses clinging to the end of her nose. "Want me to explain it slower, I have the unfortunate habbit of speeking quickly when nervous."

"Sir, I am going to check if the ship is ready," Ka'aias said without thinking to use Rhod's name. That particular change in attitude would only take effect after her nightly restart. She took a small disk-like device from her arm and handed it to Rhod. "My tracker. It will let you talk directly to me should you need to." With that she made her way to the lift and to the docking bays.

"Make sure we have enough food!" Rhod called after ka'aias as he tucked her disk away "It's about a day away from here, and we can't be sure if we'll find anywhere to eat when we get there. There also might be some people trapped, so extra supplies would be a good idea." Rhod smiled and turned back to Rosie "Thank you, no it's alright, I understand." He reached out and tapped the screen a few times, a small card sliding out of the console's base "I'll take it to the Pilot, it's good to have extrea input on this, specially with a ship he's not used to."

Folding up the paper plan and handing that to him aswell Rosie just smiled "Just incase the computer crashes or something." she still wasnt a great fan of technology.

"Thank you" Rhod said, taking the paper and thinking that if the computer crashed directions wouldn't be on the top of their priorities at that moment... but still it was useful. He looked up at the clock and took a deep breath "I think I should head down now, see if we're ready to set off..." He nodded to Rosie, turned and headed down the lift.

Nodding and humming ever so slightly to herself, Rosie began manualy checking through all the old files to moniter how well they were repairing well. watching as corrupt files became more clear and finaly were understandable. Humming to herself as she desided that being cooped up all day in the controll deck with no one elce was going to send her crazy. Desiding a quick tripround the Fasility quaters might be fun, she did like the look of a man in soilder uniform.

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