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Just a BC3K story that I wanted to put up


Guest Commander Hamblin
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Guest Commander Hamblin

This is just a short story that I wanted to put up. If anyone wants to continue this story or reply to this then feel free.

Ash: Oh God they're following me. Mayday. This is Lt Ash on Terran patrol, wing Gamma, three niner, reporting, taken heavy damage. Requesting immediate fighter cover and rescue. Come in anybody. Mayday. Requesting immediate assistence. Anyone PLEASE!

This was the SOS distress call we had just recieved.

Lt Sandy Crane: Distress call recieved from an interceptor that just came through the jump point.

Hamblin: Reply to it Lieutenant.

She opened a channel and said

Crane: Barely recieving you Gamma three niner, this is GCV Galatea. What is your situation?

I went over to the comms station.

Ash: Oh thank God. Well, we were ambushed, I'm sure they're tracking me.

Crane: Calm down sir, who attacked you? Was it the Insurgents?

Ash: Insurgents were killed too, they slaughtered everyone.

Crane: Look, you're going to have to calm down. You were attacked by Insurgents. Is that true?

Ash: No, we were in a skirmish with a Insurgent patrol and they just came out of nowhere and killed us all.

The pilot was sounding more frantic at this point.

Lt Cmdr Kara Moran at the Tactical station said

Moran: Sir, I've got the interceptor on Long range sensors. He's lost his co-pilot and his ship has heavy damage. His life support is going to fail in a couple of minutes.

Hamblin: Acknowledged.

I walked up to my chair and touched a button on the arm.

Hamblin: Bridge to Medibay, medical emergency. Prepare to recieve two patients. One dead and so should be put into cloning and one with massive injuries.

Dr Alison Weeks, the CMO, replied

Weeks: Acknowledged.

Crane: Look just calm down, we're sending a recovery craft now, just sit tight, everything's going to be alright.

Ash: No it isn't, you don't understand, you weren't there. Oh I can feel them coming, OH MY GOD, WE'RE ALL DEAD, WE'RE ALL DEAD.

Suddenly there was a beeping on the radar screen in front of me and a whole load of red dots appeared.

Moran: Picking up jump signatures consistent with...

She never finished her sentence as the Bridge rocked violently. Consoles exploded and cables fell onto the floor. People were thrown back from the force of the explosion and it nearly ripped my chair from the deck.

Hamblin: Red Alert. Arm all weapons systems and prepare to return fire. Commander Moran, prepare to engage tractor beam and get that interceptor into cargo bay 1.

There was no response from Moran. I turned around and there she was, lying on the deck, her console a mess of wires and cables. The Bridge was rocked again, this time more violently. I checked my radar screen but that was inoperative. I turned to face the helm and navigations stations and said

Hamblin: Ensign Kasugi, plot a course out of here to the Nearest Galcom Starstation. Lt Brooks, prepare to engage hyperdrive.

Lana Kasugi: Navitron is offline Captain.

I silently cursed, but another, more powerful explosion rocked the Bridge. This time a bulkhead came loose and almost hit my chair.

I managed to get away from it but it hit, and broke, my left arm. I managed to stop from screaming out in pain but my left arm was useless. On the Bridgeviewer I saw the ships that attacked us escape into Hyperspace. Then it flickered for a bit and went out.

I checked the rest of the Bridge crew. They were in bad shape. As far as I could tell most of them were dead, the turbolifts were offline so there was no way of the Bridge. And to make matters worse auxilliary life support is offline so we only had a few hours of breathable air. I went to the Navigations station but it was shot to hell. Luckily Ensign Kasugi hadn't taken the full brunt of the explosion and was fine. Lt Brooks was working on the Helm, trying to get us into Hyperspace. Didn't seem to be getting it right though.

Hamblin: Lt Crane, can we contact Earth, send a distress call?

Crane: It's possible, but sir, those ships only left because it figured us for dead. If we send a distress call, they'll come back and finish the job.

Hamblin: If we sit here, we're just as dead.

Crane: Rodger that sir.

Then, a plan began to formulate in my mind. It was very dangerous, but worth the risk.

Hamblin: Lt Crane, do we have internal communications?

Crane: No sir, but if you want me to I could concentrate on that instead of the distress call?

Suddenly, a comms channel was opened. Crane responded and said

Crane: Sir, I have recieved a hail from within the ship. It's Commander Kendrick.

Commander Kendrick, the ships Chief Engineer, said

Kendrick: Thank God sir. We thought you were all dead up there. We managed to get internal communications online by routing it through the external transmitters. By some miracle they were still intact.

Hamblin: Mr Kendrick, do we have any missiles left?

Kendrick: Yes sir. Three Vagrants, 15 questors and 23 Skyflashes.

Hamblin: Alright, I'm authorising their use. Get them into a shuttle and prepare to launch.

Kendrick: Sir, the shuttle bay has taken heavy damage, it's offline.

Hamblin: Then get into an environmental suit and, take as many missiles as possible with you and get out into space. Launch from an airlock. We need those missiles armed and ready in space.

Kendrick: Aye sir.

So the waiting began. Lt Crane was still working on the distress call but until then we were just trying to get systems repaired and get rid of the blockage stopping us from exiting the Bridge. But other than that everyone on the bridge was just waiting. Then when I heard Kendricks voice saying

Kendrick: Missiles in place, heading back for the ship.

I sighed. The first stage was completed. When Kendrick reported in that he was back in engineering, Lt Crane said she was coming close to finishing the distress call. When she was finished I said

Hamblin: Alright send the distress call. I hope we don't have to wait too long.

We didn't have to wait that long as a few minutes later Lt Crane said

Crane: Sir, I think you're wish may be coming true. We have an echo on approach vector. It might be them.

The Bridgeviewer was, by now, upgraded to a fuzzy and very hazy picture. But I just made out the outline of one of the ships that attacked us. But I noticed it was getting harder to breathe. The Life support was running out. We probably only had ten, maybe fifteen minutes of breathable air left.

Hamblin: Lt Brooks, use navigational thrusters to try and move us away from them. Make it look like we are trying to evade. Which wouldn't be far from the truth.

Brooks: Aye-Aye sir.

Lt Crane, who by the way had tactical operations at her station, said

Crane: Sir, i'm detecting weapons charge from them.

The ship was almost in range of missile one.

But we had run out of time.

Crane: Energy spike, she's ready to fire.

I had to act now. I went to the Comms station (I sat next to Lt Crane) and pressed the button to send the message to missile one. It had layed dormant but now suddenly sprang to life. It raced towards the unsuspecting vessel and hit it with full force. Since the other vessel had been expecting us to have no weapons they had their shields down. Big mistake. The missile targeted it's shield generators and destroyed them. The ship turned around and was heading back for the jump point. Unfortunately, that was what I had anticipated and so therefore had ordered that area be mined with the most missiles. And the other ship fell right into that trap.

Hamblin: See you in hell.

And I finished them off. It was a big explosion that sent the Galatea hurling into space but that only served to help us avoid the massive debris that came from such a large ship.

A few days later (We managed to get off the Bridge by then) the GCV Black Falcon came to rescue us. She had recieved our distress call but was, unfortunately, a few days behind that unkown vessel. Cmdr Tringad had not known what that unknown vessel was but it didn't matter. The Galatea was brought back to Galcom HQ and repaired. There was a funeral held for Lt Cmdr Moran. She gave her life in the call of duty and was buried on Earth, the planet she loved so much, and gave her life to protect.

Hey, Bill Ramsay, I hope you don't mind me using your ship's name or your characters name? If so then I'll change it. Everyone els who reads this, I don't mind if you want to carry on the story (Only if you want to) Or if you want to say where I could improve upon it of if you think I should just stop writing stories altogether.

Commander Hamblin, GCV Galatea, at Galcom HQ going through refit. Also, the Galatea and its officers and crew pledge their lives to Galcom and to defend it and Earth from all threats, internal and external. If the Gammulans want to invade, they are going to have a bloody hard time.

Ships motto: For I dipt into the future, far as human eyes could see. Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be...

[This message has been edited by Commander Hamblin (edited 05-27-99).]

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Just read your story >)

Gee, wonder where you got the first part from? Hmm........ tough question.... >)

Er... sometime we're gonna have to settle this ship-name thing... I got the ICV-Galatae and you have the GCV-Galatae hehe.

We'll probably find some way to work this out in 3020... *hint hint*

------------------

Commander in training Parias

ICV-Galatae

ICQ:1293359

"I took this job because I love to blow sh*t up!"

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Guest Ron Wallin

Interesting tactics, Hamblin. Remind me not to give you any chances should we bump BC's smile.gif

-----

Parias... here's the deal concerning the ship names:

You registered with the name Galatae as an Insurgent vessel first.

Hamblin registered a few days later as a GALCOM vessel a few days later.

You're both on opposite sides, so this is NOT an issue.

Cmdr. Akira

[This message has been edited by Ron Wallin (edited 04-21-99).]

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Sounds good to me!

As far as I know, lets say that the original Galatae was highjacked. The original commander and crew were wiped out with by an "accidental" (hee hee) radiation leak, and was taken over by me.

GALCOM simply replaced the vessel, considering how the ICV version hasn't been identified yet.

------------------

Commander in training Parias

ICV-Galatae

ICQ:1293359

"I took this job because I love to blow sh*t up!"

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Guest Ron Wallin

Interesting, Parias. But before I can believe that you need to do some work on that story. I'd like to read it here soon. Very soon! I'm especially interested in how you were able to capture a radioactive vessel that killed its own crew? Did you suffer cellular damage? I have other questions, but they will be used at another time.

I still haven't seen your application for training, do you plan on graduating to Cmdr. anytime soon?

Cmdr. Akira

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Erm.. well... umm..

We like towed the ship away, then we.. uh.. umm...

Yea we cleaned it >) HAH yes we cleaned it!!

It was dirty.

THE END

------------------

Commander in training Parias

ICV-Galatae

ICQ:1293359

"I took this job because I love to blow sh*t up!"

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Guest Commander Hamblin

Parias, I only used that first bit because I couldn't think of anything else. Anyway, I think my version is better.

Also, I might write a second part to the story. But I'm not sure how it would go.

Commander Hamblin, GCV Galatea, on holiday on Mars while the Galatea is finishing her refit.

Ships motto: For I dipt into the future, far as human eyes could see. Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be...

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest Commander Hamblin

Alright then, I will put up a second part to the story. I will put it in my next reply.

Commander Hamblin, GCV Galatea, trying to think up a good sequel to my story and not having much luck.

Ships motto: For I dipt into the future, far as human eyes could see. Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be...

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Just read your story, Hamblin, very good smile.gif

I don't mind you using my ship or character, it wasn't a big part of the plot so I don't have to make a big change in my ship history. I will note that I rescued you, if you want. Later.

------------------

Commander Alun Tringad

GCV Black Falcon ISS03

Tactical Support Coordinator, ISS Fleet

"Honor and courage, above all else"

Official BC3K Webring Administrator

ICQ: 18001147

welcome.to/bc3k

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Commander Hamblin

Here is the second part to my story. Also, I would like it if you could put this into your history, Ramsay. But only if its not an inconvenience.

(RP on)

The Galatea had just finished a four week repair and refit after being towed back to Galcom HQ by the GCV Black Falcon. Worse, I had to find a person to fill the vacancy of tactical officer. After the death of Lt Cmdr Moran, her family had requested that Galcom not clone her. They said they wanted to respect her body and let her rest in peace. So, I have to find someone to fill her job (But I doubt no one could replace her.)

I eventually gave the job to a young woman named Niki Tiretis. She had previously been assigned to the Excalibur before hearing about the opening for XO on the Galatea and decided to apply. She was a fine young officer with her whole career ahead of her, and she was a fair sight lovlier than a lot of the other women on board. But, I made sure that I hired her based on her abilities as Tactical officer, and not because of my personal feelings towards her.

I stood on the Bridge. I looked around at it and noted to myself that this time, it looked slightly better, although in which whay I could not tell. I sat down and, remembering watching a movie that was a millenia old, I said "I miss my old chair."

Lt Crane said "We have clearance to depart."

I turned to Lt Brooks and said "Engage thrust profile, ahead one-quarter."

Brooks replyed "Yes sir, engaging thrust profile and increasing to one quarter speed."

The ship accelerated slowly and left the confines of Galcom HQ which had been its home these past four weeks.

"Ensign Kasugi, set course for Alpha Centauri. Mr Brooks, configure the jump profile, input the coordinates and engage the hyperdrive profile." The two officers began working in unison and soon the Galatea was out there in the open space again.

Two hours later and the Galatea was in the region of Centris. We were patrolling the spacelanes, making sure that the freighters and transports were safe. I was in my quarters when I decided to pay a visit to Lt Cmdr Tiretis. I brought a red rose with me.

I pressed the door chime and she said "come in." I walked in and she stood at attention. "Captain, I hadn't expected you."

"At ease Commander, I just wanted to say hi. And give this to you."

I gave her the rose and she said "Thanks. Where did you get this?"

I replyed, jokingly "Don't ask. Top secret Galcom operation."

She noded, smiled and said "Well sir, sit down. What can I do for you?"

I had thought about what I would say and it had come to this. "I was thinking that maybe..." Before I could finish the alarms sounded and there was a call from the Bridge.

"Hamblin here, what is it?" I said.

The officer on duty said "Sir, we have recieved a distress call from the Transport 'Motherload'. She's under attack by unknown ships."

Tiretis and I both ran out of the door and went straight to the Bridge. When we got there, I sat down in my chair and said "ETA at the Motherload's position." assuming that the Helm and navigations officer had already set the course.

They had and Lt Brooks said "ETA in five minutes."

The Galatea emerged from the Jumpgate in the Tramis region and jumped to hyperspace to get to the Motherloads position quicker. The shields were up, the weapons were fully armed, the Interceptors were prepared to launch and the Marines were ready, with twenty of them patrolling the ship in case an intruder broke onto the ship and the other twenty prepared to beam over and take over this unknown ship. We were finally going to get some answers.

The Galatea approached the enemy ship. She turned around and left the Transport alone. The bridge rocked with a missile hit. The shields went down, but not by much, and recharged again in a few seconds.

The enemy ship began firing its weapons on full and the Bridge rocked again. I shouted above the noise "Launch all interceptors, their orders are to try to disable that ship. Fire the IOD on 50% power, targeting their engines and weapons systems. Prepare the Marines to beam over and activate the PTA system." The orders were carried out with surprising effeciency. Tiretis was doing even better than I expected her to.

The Galatea approached the enemy ship. Laser pulses, Ion blasts and missiles flew between the two ships. The Interceptors from the Galatea were making strafing runs on the enemy ship, but it was so big (About 3.1 Kilometres bigger than the Galatea) that they were having a hard time avoiding all the turrets. The Galatea was also taking a pounding and the shields were failing.

On the Bridge, it was hell. Those weapons were powerful and they sure did mess up a ship. I checked the damage report. There was heavy damage to the Nuclear reactor and it was leaking radiation. I ordered the evacuation of deck 3 and quarantined it. We had no radiation control kits on board, they had been destroyed since cargo bay 1 has taken heavy damage.

The Bridge shook more violently, this time sending wires and conduits down to the deck. Suddenly, consoles exploded, the Bridgeviewer and the HUD failed and the weapon system was completely destroyed. The Tactical computer also failed, as well as the TacOps. A report from the Medibay indicated that it was understaffed and over full (Some of the medics had been injured themselves which made it harder).

The logistics computer was still online, although damaged, and that ment that damage control operations could still be carried out.

The report from the chief engineer (He was working on a spair station on the Bridge) was that the ship had taken a severe amount of damage, but the only major systems still operational were communications, radar, Main and aux life support and the Medibay. This was thanks to Kendrick for concentrating the damage control efforts on those systems, they were still operational.

Then I noticed something. The ship wasn't shaking from weapons hits anymore. I said "Ms Tiretis, use radar to locate the enemy ship."

A few minutes passed as Lt Cmdr Tiretis located the enemy ship. "Sir, it hasn't left. And all the Interceptors are simply staying put around it."

"Lt Crane, contact Interceptor 1." I said, turning to Crane. She didn't look too good. She had a nasty cut across her forehead and her uniform was torn. She looked like her legs were broken. I touched a button on the armrest and said "Emergency medical team to the Bridge."

I went to the communications station and opened the channel with Interceptor 1.

"Sir, we have managed to disable the enemy ship. They were concentrating on the Galatea so they ignored us.

I also took the liberty of contacting Lt Cmdr Resnig and getting him to beam the marines over to the enemy vessel. I'll patch them through to you now."

The voice of Colonel Dekker, the CO of the Marines on board the Galatea, said "Sir, we have taken this ship over. We found something very interesting. It seems that this ship is crewed by Terran raiders. The ship is an old vessel left over from a million years ago when an ancient and powerful race ruled the galaxy. But they died out and left relics like this ship behind. I managed to access the ships databanks and there is a large amount of information. As soon as we have secured the ship, we will take control of it and pilot it to Galcom HQ."

Five hours later and the Galatea was back in perfect working order. A lot of the repairs had been done by the systems engineers while en route to Galcom HQ. Unfortunately, the unknown ship was destroyed by some Terran raiders who wanted to make sure that if they couldn't have it, then no one can. Colonel Dekker and his men were all killed and that ship was the only known record of this ancient race. So the Galatea continued on to Galcom HQ.

Then, Lt Cmdr Tiretis said "Sir, long range sensors have detected an unknown anomaly."

I said "Change course to intercept."

The Galatea dropped out of hyperspace, let its hyperdrives recharge then jumped to this anomaly on the edge of the Alpha Centauri system. She arrived and (By now we had most systems operational) I stared at the Bridgeviewer. It showed a hole in space. On its outline, it had a blurred edge. On the inside, it showed different constellations so obviously it led to another part of space.

Suddenly, the Galatea was caught in a gravitational field on the other side. Her engines weren't fully operational so even as I ordered the ship to full reverse, she couldn't fight against it enough. The ship slowly went into the hole, everyone on board not knowing what was on the other side.

(RP off)

Well, I am going to do a third part as well. Also, I made that unknown ship get destroyed because I don't want to mess up the BC3K history with all this 'Ancient race' stuff so I have just destroyed the only evidence they existed and I will leave it at that. I hope you like the second part of my story.

Commander Hamblin, GCV Galatea.

Ships motto: For I dipt into the future, far as human eyes could see. Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be...

[This message has been edited by Commander Hamblin (edited 06-06-99).]

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Guest Ron Wallin

Although it's possible, Hamblin, you cut it a little close. I don't want to deal with another Parias like issue here. No more creating things which don't already exist in the universe (at least not yet smile.gif ). Stick to what you know about the BC universe, not what you'd like to know! Thank you.

Cmdr. Akira

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Guest Commander Hamblin

Thanks for the advice. I just read what happened to Parias and I don't want that to happen to me. I will stick to the BC3K universe in the third part and in all future stories, I promise. Thats what I ment by 'I'll leave it at that.'

Anyway, in the third part, a lot of changes are going to happen to my character and this will affect the other characters. I won't say what right now (Because I''m not too sure how I'm going to do it) but any help would be gladly recieved.

Commander Hamblin, GCV Galatea, assuring everyone that a promise is a promise is a promise.

Ships motto: For I dipt into the future, far as human eyes could see. Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be...

[This message has been edited by Commander Hamblin (edited 05-28-99).]

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Commander Hamblin

Ron, I'm sorry but I haven't had a chance to E-mail you. Here is the third, and final, part to the story. Ron, if you want to edit it in case I might have done something wrong (Added something to the BC3K universe that doesn't belong there, for instance) then feel free.

By the way, just in case anybody was wondering, I put the date in the British version, not the US version (So its day/month/year) Just so everybody knows.

(RP on)

"Captains log, stardate: 05.06.3000. The Galatea has been travelling through this 'hole in space' for two hours now. When we first discovered it on our way back to Galcom HQ, the sensors had failed. Aparently, the Galatea wasn't working as well as my systems engineers would like to believe. She still needed some repairs. So the sensors gave back false information. Now that they are fully repaired, they show that it is nothing more than an uncharted, and extremely unstable, wormhole. To where is unknown.

Lt Cmdr Tiretis believes that travelling through this wormhole will make it even more unstable, causing it to collapse when we get to the other end. I just hope she's wrong.

Personnel report: Nine senior staff, 8 pilots, 15 systems engineers, 3 flight engineers, 12 medics and no marines. That makes a total of 47 people on board. Over half my crew is dead."

"Personal log, continuing. My feelings for Lt Cmdr Tiretis seem to be more than a temporary infactuation. In the time that I have gotten to know her, I find myself liking her more and more. I am not sure if I will confess my feelings towards her, or if they will fade away and I will find out that it is, in fact, a temporary infactuation. Only time will tell."

I finished up the personal log quietly, making sure no one would hear it. I didn't want anybody to know about my feelings. I wasn't even sure if they were actual feelings, or just an attraction based on her looks. She really is quite beautiful, even with a Galcom protocol hairstyle.

I turned my attention back to the Bridgeviewer. The Bridgeviewer was flickering, probably from travelling through the wormhole.

"Ms Tiretis, you have the Bridge. I'll be in my quarters."

"Yes sir." She said. I stood up and walked to the two doors at the back of the Bridge. One led to the turbolift, the other to the corridor on deck 1. I walked through the one leading to the corridor and walked to my quarters. There were a few systems engineers making some minor repairs, still a few conduits on the deck but other than that, the corridor was just the same as ever.

I was going to turn a corner to get to the corridor outside the officers quarters when I heard a beep. It was internal communications. I went to a bulkhead with a comm unit on it and pressed the button.

"Hamblin here, go ahead." It was Tiretis, on the Bridge.

"Sir, we're approaching the end of the wormhole." I acknowledged it and pressed the button again to end the call. I ran back to the Bridge.

"Captain on the Bridge." Said Tiretis as I ran on. I quickly settled down into my chair and I could see that the Bridgeviewer was getting better, indicating we were apporaching the end of the wormhole.

I turned to Tiretis. "Raise shields Ms Tiretis."

"Aye sir." Said Tiretis and she immediately raised them. The HUD confirmed it. The other end of the wormhole was approaching fast.

BUMP! The ship emerged badly out of the wormhole. She went into a violent spin.

"Sir, the wormhole has collapsed. The shockwave sent us into a spin. Also, there is an enourmous gravity well in front of us. It's a planet." Shouted Lt Cmdr Tiretis.

The ship spiralled wildly out of control, entering the atmosphere. "Sir, we've lost attitude control." Shouted Brooks.

On the Bridgeviewer, the ground was racing towards the ship at an alarming speed. There were even some mountains up ahead, which the ship was hitting the tops of. "We're coming in too fast! Reverse thrusters." I shouted at Brooks. He did his best to keep the ship under control, but it was damned near impossible.

Brooks shouted back at me "I am firing the forward thrusters. Attempting to level our descent."

I pressed a button on my armchair and shouted "All hands, brace for impact." The ship shot downwards like a rocket, impacting on its side. It's spin dug it further and further into the ground. On the Bridge, at the moment of impact, I was flown out of my chair right to the front of the Bridge. I hit the hard deck very fast and almost passed out. I rolled over to see the Bridgeviewer collapsing down on me. I quickly limped forward, but the Bridge was still falling apart. I fell down and almost got caught by a falling bulkhead. Fires were raging across the Bridge and I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to die when suddenly I was being pulled up. I looked up and saw it was Lt Cmdr Tiretis.

"Come on sir, I'm not leaving you here." She pulled me up and dragged me out. The fires were very hot and she looked like she was going to pass out. But she kept on going, until she got to a gaping hole in the side of the Bridge. It led to the outside (Only part of the ship was dug underground).

"Sir, I need you to stay awake. Come on sir, stay awake. I won't let you die on this planet." She shouted. Her voice was distant to me, almost like a memory. It seemed easier to just fall asleep and let it all end. But the urgency in her voice brought me back to reality.

I opened my blood stained eyes, tried to wipe some blood away, found out my right arm was broken and tried to use my left arm. Unfortunately, that was broken too. So I just thought 'Too hell with it' and quickly started pulling myself up, even though my arms were screaming in agony. I pulled myself out of the hole and fell down onto sand. I was quickly being dragged away from the ship by Tiretis. I quickly had one last look at my ship before the pain got the better of me and I fell unconscious.

The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back facing the sun. It shined in my eyes and I immediately closed them again. I heard voices. I recognised them as Dr Weeks and Lt Cmdr Tiretis.

Dr Weeks voice came out loud and clear. "Look sir, I need to operate immediately. He has severe internal injuries, and he is bleeding internally. With the small amount of medical supplies I managed to get out of the Medibay, I managed to stabalise him. But those supplies are dwindling and he needs immediate surgery. Otherwise he will die."

Tiretis was the second voice I heard "That's easier said than done. We went back to the crash site again a few hours ago. All we managed to salvage were some parts from different bits of the Bridge. Mr Kendrick believes he could salvage the emergency communications system but it would only have a range of ten light years. Luckily it's solar powered. Anyway, we only have enough rations to last for another two days. After that, we had better get rescued soon. There is no vegetation on this planet whatsoever. The recon teams have found nothing."

Weeks replied "Well, I can't do anything more for him. He needs surgery or he'll die. It's that simple. You wanted a report, I gave you one."

Tiretis simply replied "No, what I want is to get off this Godforsaken planet."

At this point, I groaned. I opened my eyes to see Weeks leaning over me. She looked like hell. She was sweating and she had some cuts on her face. "Sir. How are you feeling?"

I opened my mouth, slowly. I tried to speak. My mouth and throat were dry and my voice came out hoarse. I said "I feel like my head has been jumped upon by a few dozen elephants. I need a drink." Weeks reached over out of my sight and came back with a cup in her hand. She lifted my head and poured the water into my mouth. I drank the water slowly. It was refreshing.

I lay my head back down and said "Ms Tiretis, report."

"Sir, there are 11 survivors. Mr Kendrick, Dr Weeks, myself, you, Ensigns Roberts and Palmers from Engineering, 2nd Lt Casey a combat pilot, and four Nurses, Jones, Wesley, Mitchell and Stone." She said it like it was just a normal, everyday report.

I smiled and said "Carry on, Commander."

I closed my eyes and just went to sleep. The heat was making me sleepy.

The next thing I knew was cool air on my face. I opened my eyes. The last thing I knew, it was hot, dry, I was almost in constant pain and the sun shone in my eyes. Now it was cool, the pain was completely gone and the only light shining in my eyes was artificial light. I opened my eyes to see a female doctor who I had never seen before.

She said. "Sir, welcome back. I am Dr Hannah Bates, chef medical officer of the GCV Excalibur. My medical staff managed to save you. You were almost dead when we found you."

I blinked a lot in surprise, trying to take all this information in at once. "How...how long were we down there?" Was all I managed to get out.

Dr Bates answered. "Three weeks. We found two survivors when we got there. You were hanging on by a thread. We're lucky we found you when we did."

I struggled to comprehend how I could have survived three weeks. Last time I was conscious, I overheard a conversation between Tiretis and Dr Weeks about how I had massive internal injuries and was not expected to survive. And Tiretis mentioned how they had been there for four days.

"Three weeks? What...what happned to everyone else?"

Bates just looked away, saddned. "Er, I'm sorry to say that they died of malnutrition. Only you and Lt Cmdr Tiretis survived."

I was shocked. I couldn't believe that only me and Tiretis could have survived the crash. I tried to get up but Dr Bates pushed me back down, gently. "Sir, you need some rest. You shouldn't be walking about. Doctors orders."

"Doctor, I need to talk to your captain." I almost shouted at her. I was still reeling from the revelation that everyone else, except Tiretis, was dead.

A voice from beyond my view said "You have my attention, Commander." I lifted my head to see Commander Robert Harris, captain of the GCV Excalibur.

"Bob, good to see you again." I said. I got up, this time without Dr Bates pushing me back down. I got off the bed and saw, behind him, Tiretis. She was lying down on a bed, being cared for by a medic. I walked over to her, Commander Harris on one side of me and Dr Bates on the other. I turned to the medic. "Doctor, how is she?"

"She's going to be alright." Said the medic. She was happy to relay the news, but surprised by my reaction. What had she been expecting me to do, jump up and down with joy? I turned away, sighed in relief and walked out of the medibay with Commander Harris beside me.

I stood outside the medibay. "Bob, tell me what happened." Harris pointed in the direction of the turbolift.

"Follow me." He said. I walked with him to the 'lift and took it with him to the Bridge. Half way up he said "Computer, halt turbolift." The turbolift car suddenly came to a halt.

Harris turned to me and said "Ok then, here's what happened. We recieved an echo of your distress call. It seemed that the collapse of the wormhole that Lt Cmdr Tiretis said the Galatea traveled through caused some type of subspace disruption in this system. As a result, all subspace messages started echoing through the system, even weeks after they had been sent.

So, we found you and Tiretis. You were in bad shape. We also found the bodies of nine other people there. They all died of malnutrition. Lt Cmdr Tiretis was like you though sir, she didn't give up. She forced herself to stay alive until we found her.

We contacted Galcom HQ about it and we are en route there now. You're to be court martialed as per standard Galcom procedure. But you should get through it in one piece."

"I see." Was all I could say.

"We've arranged to give you guest quarters until we arrive at Galcom HQ. Get some rest. You're going to need it." I simply nodded and Harris resumed the turbolift back to the Bridge. After he got off, I took it to my guest quarters and, when I got there, I lay down. I was extrodinarily tired. I just needed some rest and relaxation. It was my last chance for any in a long time.

The Court martial was short but hard. I was exonerated of any responsibility for the destruction of the Galatea, but it didn't make me feel any better. I had a whole load of conflicting emotions inside me which were hard to ignore. I had to settle them. So I took a shuttle up to Galcom HQ and stood before Admiral Johnson.

Johnson was surprised as I walked into his office. I saluted him and he said "Sit down Commander. I think I know what this is about."

I was surprised that he could know my intentions. I barely knew the man. I had only met him once before, when I was first assigned as commander to the Galatea. He smiled and said "Commander, you're new ship is going to be better than before. The Galatea was Constellation class. She was going to be decomissioned in a few years anyway. Your new ship, a Galactan class, will be right out of the construction yards. The Adelphi. She's got one of the best crew's in the fleet. And everyone here thinks you should have her, after how you survived on that planet." Johnson was obviously mistaken about why I came here. He thought I was here to ask about my new ship. That was not at all why I was there.

"Sir, I didn't come here to discuss my new ship. I came here to give you this." I handed him the piece of paper. He read it. It was my letter of resignation.

"Well Commander, this has certainly come as a shock to me." He put the letter on his desk and shook my hand. "We'll be sorry to see you go." I shook his hand back, turned around and left. And I never looked back.

Later on, at my hotel room that I hired while I was back on Earth, I heard a knock on the door. I opened it and it was Tiretis. "Oh, come in, come in." I said. I was certainly surprised to see her here.

She sat down and I sat facing her. She looked a little awkward being here. "Well, what can I do for you?"

She looked me right in the eyes and said "You can tell me what the hell you are doing resigning!" She said, fiercely. "James, why? why did you resign? You could have had a great career on the Adelphi."

I just looked back at her and said "Do you want to know? Do you really want to know?"

"Yes! That's why I came all the way down here. To know why you gave up the biggest promotion of your career." She shouted. She was obviously not going to go away until I told her.

So I did. "I knew everyone on that ship. I trained them. I moulded them into a team. For almost ten years, I was on board that ship. You know Ensign Roberts? I held his birthday party in the mess hall. Kara Moran. I was with her when her mother died. I went to the funeral. Tom Brooks. I showed him every maneuver he knew and it didn't make a damned difference. They didn't deserve to die. I should have died. I would have died in exchange for their lives. Yet I survived. On the planet, everybody else died of malnutrition yet I survived. I'm a fraud. I DON'T DESERVE ALL THE PRAISE I'M GETTING." I shouted the last part, driving home my point. Tiretis was just sitting there until she got up and left. I lay down, thinking of how things should have been.

Three months later

'Oh God, they're catching up.' I thought. The shuttle's sensors showed the Adelphi catching up. They hailed. I put them on the screen. Cmdr Tiretis appeared. "James, I have an offer for you. Lower your shields, cut your engines and we'll beam you aboard. In return, Galcom is willing to be lenient in your sentence. But only if you return the shuttle."

I cut off the comm line. I was amazed they could think up such a good lie. Another shot grazed past the shuttle's hull. Those interceptors were catching up fast, and the Adelphi wasn't far behind them. I initiated evasive maneuvers, but to no avail. The Adelphi used her afterburners and caught up with me in seconds. She used her tractor beam and towed in the shuttle. I was about to send a resonance burst back through the beam to disrupt it when suddenly, I was beamed aboard, straight into the brig. A marine was standing there, obviously the gaurd. I sat down on the bed, exauhsted, and awaited my visit. It wasn't long before Tiretis came through the door and relieved the marine.

"James, how could you? Stealing a shuttle? You must have known you wouldn't get away with it. And where were you planning to take it anyway."

I simply lay down, looking up at the ceiling. It was plain and sterile. Tiretis sighed. "James, answer me. What were you thinking? We haven't spoken in three months. At least talk to me."

I turned my head to face her and said "Niki, I had to get back there. You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." She said. "I was on that ship too. I was there too. I survived too. And every day since then, I've been trying to cope with what happened on that ship. But I've learned to live with it and I've moved on. Why can't you?"

I decided to change the subject. "Remember when you first arrived on board? I visited you in your quarters and gave you that red rose. Well, I was going to ask you if you would join me for dinner. But we got interrupted. Well, it's out of the question now, but I just wanted you to know that I care for you, a great deal."

Tiretis was a little surprised to hear what I said. "Look, James, I'm sorry but, I don't share your feelings."

I simply said "I knew already. It's obvious."

Tiretis had calmed down by now. "Well, that still doesn't change what you did. But, I will be happy to give a statement on your behalf at your trial."

My trial, like my court martial, was quick. I was found guilty, but my sentence was reduced thanks to the testimony of Commander Tiretis. I was given a choice. Jail for 3 years (Which had been reduced from 15 years) or exile from Terran space. After that, I would be able to go as I please, as long as I didn't enter Galcom space. Returning to Earth was out of the question. I chose exile.

The vessel I was being transported on was the Motherload, the ship the Galatea had saved. Her captain was only too happy to take me out of Terran space, still remembering what the Galatea had done for his ship. Halfway there, we passed the planet which had the Galatea on it. I managed to hijack the ship (It's crew was only six) and use it's transporters to beam down to the wreckage of the Galatea. I materialised inside what was left of the Bridge. The fires had long since died out, and there were still a few spaces where the bulkheads hadn't collpased in. There was dust everywhere, and parts of it had collapsed in further, since it first crash landed here. My standing on the deck seemed to cause some rumbling deep inside the ship. 'Must be more bulkheads collapsing in.' The Bridge didn't look too sturdy either. But I didn't care. I was back here. And I was never going to leave.

I found the remains of my chair, lifted it up, dusted it off and sat in it. Some more rumbling and shaking, this time louder and worse. I just sat there, remembering the times I had on this ship.

I remembered Kara and how she joked that her husband should get a real job (He was an actor). I saw him at the funeral. He was just sitting there. Never said a word throughout the entire thing. I felt deeply sorry for him. I nearly broke down and cried. 'They didn't deserve this!' I thought bitterly. 'They were a good crew, loyal to Galcom. They didn't deserve to die on some Godforsaken planet in the middle of nowhere, or in the cold depths of space!' My movement caused some more rumbling inside the ship, really loud now. It didn't stop, just got closer and closer until the bulkheads on the Bridge gave away and fell on top of me. It just went dark, instantly. Finally, it was all over.

The GCV Adelphi smoothly emerged from hyperspace and entered orbit around the planet. They had recieved the distress call from the Motherload that the Captain managed to send before it was hijacked. The Adelphi had followed it back to here.

"Sir, we're picking up some wreckage on the surface. It seems to be the remains of a Constellation class Battlecruiser." Said Lt Cmdr Bryson at tactical. Commander Tiretis already knew what that was.

She turned to Bryson and asked "Are there any life signs?" Bryson checked his instruments, then checked them again.

"There were some human life signs a few seconds ago, but they've disappeared. I don't understand it."

Tiretis already knew exactly what had happened. She only speculated when she heard that the Motherload was hijacked. Now she knew for certain.

She turned back to the Bridgeviewer and said "Mr Bryson, arm some OTS missiles. Target that wreckage and fire."

Bryson immediately set about doing the task. A few minutes later, he said "Wreckage destroyed."

Tiretis then said to him "Now, erase all records of that wreckage from the logs. And speak of this to no one."

Bryson quickly erased the logs and the Adelphi jumped back into hyperspace.

(RP off)

Also, I haven't thought of what planet would be appropriate for the location of the wreckage as nearly all of them have a starbase or a starstation. I'm trying to find one with neither and when I do, I'll edit it and put in the name of the planet.

Commander Hamblin, GCV Galatea, (Now desceased?)

Ships motto: For I dipt into the future, far as human eyes could see. Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be...

[This message has been edited by Commander Hamblin (edited 06-26-99).]

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Commander Hamblin

Hey, why hasn't anyone responded for ages? I was hoping to find out what you thought on the final part. I worked hard on it (Well, not that hard). I'm working on a new story if anybody's interested.

Well, like I said before, you don't HAVE to read my story. I was just wondering why.

Commander Hamblin, GCV Galatea, working hard at his new story. And not having much luck.

Ships motto: For I dipt into the future, far as human eyes could see. Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be...

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Well, I liked it. I really lived through every moment. The images were strong and realistic. Your deterioration of your character's sanity progressed in a very believable way. I think that maybe people got put off commenting, because you've killed yourself off. I certainly didn't expect it, because of the type of roleplay forum we have here, but it fitted the plot.

So, do you want to be cloned, or will the rest of your posts be set earlier on, or I suppose you could carry on as your character's brother or other relation seeking to regain the family's honour or something, or is there some other way you can come back that I can't think of?

Well done on a good story though.

Bye

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Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda

ISS Fleet

"Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

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Devined intervention, anyone? smile.gif Perhaps the twisted and tattered remains of the hull protected him somehow... Who knows? Stanger things have happened (can't think of any, but it's early friday morning, so what do you expect?) smile.gif

It is a good story, Hamblin. Don't give up on it smile.gif And unless you want yourself dead, I'm sure there's another way than simply cloning yourself (on the other hand, a brand new clone wouldn't have to deal with the insanity bit). Who knows? Maybe he and Tiretis can hit things off better this time smile.gif

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Commander David Foss, GCV Deterrence

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Commander Hamblin

Hey thanks for your feedback on my story.

I have almost completed part 4, as soon as I can think of a sutable ending to it. I never expected to be writing a part 4, so it's taking a little longer, but I should have it done in a few days. When I post it up, I hope you like it.

Commander Hamblin

Constellation Class starship: GCV Galatea

For I dipt into the future, far as human eyes could see. Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Commander Hamblin,

If you need a hand with that ending, just send me an e-mail ([email protected]) and we'll see what happens.

Good to see you're still at it, man! Keep up the good work!

Sorry, been meaning to say this for a while. Been so busy I only just now got around to cruising the old threads smile.gif

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Commander David Foss, GCV Deterrence

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Commander Hamblin

Ok, ok. Since I haven't replied to this thread in ages, I'll admit it. I cannot think of a THING to write for my story. I am just completely stumped. I could really, really use somebodys help. Anybody. David, you said I could e-mail you if I needed help, well I NEED help. I cannot think of anything to write for part 4.

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