Well this is the first time I have wrote a story since a PC crash took years of work on a novel away from me ... learned the importance of backing up data, the hard way
I am a huge fan of Cowboy Bebob and love my space dramas to be realistic and gritty Of course I have toned it down seeing as a picture of Captain Picard EXTENDING his fingers... lol... was considered a no no Nah, I toned it down to be proper though, so all could enjoy! I'd still put it at PG-13 for alcohol and suggestive themes
I hope you all enjoy it. I have the plot already set down and if there is interest, I will continue to post chapters as I complete them. I take critism well, so please let me know what you all think.
It was already seven p.m. universal time, when the Austin dropped out from it's jump, several kilometers from Evochron Station. The Austin's captain, Robert Parry, setting down his coffee, reached up and switched off the autopilot. He grasped the flight stick and began adjusting the ships course towards the station's docking area.
Only minutes later he heard the familiar sound of the station's docking tractor beam. Spinning around one hundred and eighty degrees in his chair, he saw his four man crew waiting behind him, undoubtedly eager for some shore leave.
Victor Imahara, weapon systems operator; Irving DeTorres, navigation sensor operator; Charles Nettlemeyer, engineering specialist; and Ernest Turtell, science officer. They were an exemplary crew, both skilled and loyal to their captain.
"Well Capitan, will you be joining us tonight? The Space Hopper down on the promenade has dancers now... or so I hear" Detorres said, not trying to conceal his smirk, to the approval of his crewmates.
"Not tonight gentleman. I have a to meet with Vice Admiral Washington. You guys go enjoy yourselves. I've already transferred your payment for this last job." Parry said, rising from his seat.
"Suit yourself sir! More ladies for the rest of us!" Imahara said, laughing, as the crew turned and headed for the airlock.
"Just don't end up in the brig! Bail comes out of your pay!" Captain Parry said sternly, before breaking down into laughter himself.
"Seriously though Mr. Turtell... no fighting!" He added after pulling himself together.
Captain Parry stepped up to the main computer console behind his seat, listening to his crew as they made their way to the airlock. He accessed a Vonari transmission encountered during their last supply run, which almost ended in disaster. Once the data was transferred to his hand held storage device, he set the system to standby and made his way into Evochron Station.
Stepping out of the airlock he made his way over to the security check. After a quick scan and pat down he was permitted entry. Captain Parry made his way to the main lift and began thinking about that last mission as he patiently waited.
He had been contracted to delivery essential supplies to Command Alpha, in the Talison War Zone. Nothing out of the ordinary or seemingly too dangerous. The crew of the Austin were use to these runs, with a flawless delivery record, a fact Alliance brass took into account when they offered such contracts. But this last mission had been full of the unexpected.
They had reached Fauston and were in route to the Talison Jump Gate when the rogue pilot known only as Silent Death had suddenly appeared off of their six. The pirate immediately unleashed a barrage of missiles and particle cannon fire. Thankfully Captain Parry was quick with his stick and pulled a few evasive maneuvers as Mr. Imahara destroyed the incoming missiles, while returning fire. Then Silent Death was gone, having more than likely jumped away when the pilot realized he was out gunned.
After a quick systems check, the Austin proceeded to enter the gate to Talison. He should had known better then to let his guard down. Silent Death was waiting on the other side with a volley of particle and laser fire. It got a bit hairy. Silent Death was no amateur, definitely warranting the large bounty on his head.
Shields had dropped and they were now taking hull damage. In his fury, Captain Parry decided he would run full speed into Silent Death, taking both ships out. As he pulled the Austin around, in came salvation. Three Legion of the Lance ships dropped out of jump and began firing on Silent Death, who must have taken a hint and promptly jumped away.
"Austin, this is the Legion ship Percival. We will escort your ship to the nearest Legion station, over." came over the Austin's intercom system.
"Roger that Percival! Not a moment to soon. Drinks are on me! Over." Captain Parry replied, looking back at DeTorres, both with a look of relief of scrawled across their faces.
After a quick layover at the Legion station K1V, for repairs and a few cold drinks, the Austin was ready to head back out. Parry was a bit disappointed, though not surprised, that the famous King Arthur, leader of the Legion was not present at the station. He had wanted to meet the man in person for some time now. After parting words over the comms, the Austin set off, making for the gate to the War Zone, some sectors away.
The doors to the roomy lift slid open and Captain Parry stepped off looking around. Nothing but Alliance officers going here and there. Walking across the hallway he entered the Alliance offices on Evochron Station. After enduring yet another pat down, he proceeded down the office hallway, only to see Admiral Washington approaching him.
"Welcome back son. I hear you you had quite the time out on the frontier." The Admiral said warmly, shaking the Captain's hand.
"Yes sir. As if the Vonari aren't bad enough, these rogue pilot's are becoming a real nuisance." The captain said walking along with the Admiral. "You would think this war would bring a certain level of unity to systems."
"Well, it has at least helped settle down in fighting among the various clans, but I think there'll always be a rogue element, even during war time. Best to ask questions with your cannons first." the Admiral said, rather cheerfully, will opening the door to his office. " Sit down son. Care for a drink?"
Captain Parry sat down in front of a large ornate oak desk, as the Admiral grabbed a bottle of cognac and two shot glasses from a shelf behind his desk. Parry wasn't a huge fan of cognac, but the Admiral had always had a fancy for it, even when the Admiral served with his father, both of whom were Commanders in the Fleet.
Admiral Washington sat down at his desk and poured two healthy glasses of the dark liquor. Handing one to the captain, he sat back and took a sip himself. Parry followed suite and feeling the fire grow in his throat he began.
"Well sir, we did encounter a Vonari ambush when we came out of the jump into the Talison War Zone. I have no idea how they were aware of a supply run. They may have just been waiting to attack the first vessel that exited. We managed to take out two ships, before Alliance fighters showed up and finished off the other two." Parry said, taking another sip.
"Yes, so the reports say, but you should know, better than most, to expect the unexpected. I was surprised to hear your ship was nearly bested by this Silent Death." the Admiral followed up.
"No sir, I would not say bested. At worst case it would have been a draw. A costly draw. I was moments away from a suicide run when Legion ships came to our aid." Captain Parry continued, taking a third sip from his glass. "I'll go down fighting and take my enemy with me if I have to."
"Yes, you definitely have your father's brave, albeit reckless spirit coursing through your veins, god bless his soul. But tell me son, why have you requested this meeting? Growing weary of your contract with the Alliance so soon?" the Admiral questioned, sitting up now.
"Well, Sir, during the ambush we intercepted a Vonari transmission, from an unknown location, to the attacking ships. I would have turned it over in the debriefing at Command Alpha, but my science officer came across it while we were making our way back. It was embedded under another transmission, using an Alliance frequency. Here you go Sir." the captain said handing the data storage device over to the Admiral.
"Interesting. I'll have this reviewed immediately." the admiral replied taking the device and having himself another drink.
"Well Sir, I must be going. I'm in need of some relaxation. Good day to you Sir." Parry said finishing off his glass and setting down.
"Very well, Mr. Parry." He said, though his attention was clearly focused on the data device.
As Parry made his way back to the lift, he realized he was feeling the cognac a bit, and decided he would join his crew. It had been a while since he had treated himself to a fun night and the dancer's would be a bonus. He had never been able to make time for a relationship due to his job responsibilities and ambition.
He was hit by a cloud of smoke as he entered the club, a quaint little place called The Space Hopper. After scanning the area, he fought three of his crew sitting at the bar, their full attention on the dancer in front of them. Pulling up a seat, Parry sat down next to them.
"So... were is Mr. Turtell?" Parry asked Nettlemeyer, who was next to him.
"HEY! Guys, look what the cat dragged in!" Nettlemeyer exclaimed to the other crew members, obviously a few more drinks ahead of Parry. "Sir, he went of with this pretty little thing, what... like ten minutes ago."
"Ahhh. Guess that beats ending up in the brig. Bar Keep, set me and my fellows here up with a shot of vodka. The good stuff! Just leave the bottle!" Parry said relieved his short tempered crew member wasn't in trouble... yet.
It was about one in the morning when Parry took back the last shot of the vodka. The club was getting rather empty and the live dancers had stopped some time ago. Nettlemeyer and DeTorres had called it a night when the dancers had left, but Imahara had stayed to finish the bottle with his captain.
"So cap, whuts the next... whuts on the agenda?" Imahara managed to ask.
Parry pulled his thoughts together and looked over to Imahara, a short stocky man, of Japanese heritage... well when one had a heritage from the Earth.
"Dunno Victor. I was thinking we'd hang around for a day or two. Our last payoff oughtta keep us living good for a while. No need to rush back just yet. I'm heading back to the ship... before I pass out here." the drunken captain said, before standing up and stretching.
They finally managed to stumble back to the Austin, telling each other some of their favorite adventures before the Austin. Imahara had spend time on a mining platform in Sierra, a rather dangerous system and had quite a few tales to tell...when he could form a coherent sentence anyway.
Once on board, Imahara went to pass out, but Parry made his way to the pilot's seat and promptly dozed off in it, when he could not remember why he had come in the first place.
"INCOMING TRANSMISSION. INCOMING TRANSMISSION." blared across the ships intercom system, causing Parry to sit straight up with surprise. He was still in his pilot's seat, and felt the three alarm hangover the moment he opened his eyes. He reached forward and pressed a button on his console.
"Good morning Captain Parry. This is Lieutenant Junior Grade Kohlhepp" Said the strikingly beautiful redhead woman who appeared on screen. "Admiral Washington is requesting your presence at zero nine hundred hours."
"Yea... sure... I'll be there. At the main offices?" Parry said trying to shake the grogginess.
"Yes. I'll inform him. Have a good day captain." she replied before the image faded out, revealing the station's central pylon in front of the Austin.
It was only six thirty a.m., so Parry decided not to rush. After a quick breakfast bar and several aspirin, he cleaned up and brewed a pot of coffee in the common room. His crew was still out cold and he was quite doubtful any off them would wake up before he left. He wondered to if Turtell had ever returned to the ship.
He checked the ships access logs as he sipped his coffee, which was black, the only way he liked it. Nettlemeyer and Detorres had entered, followed by Imahara and him self a little more than an hour later. There had been no transmission received from the security center, so Parry felt a bit relieved. Turtell had a notorious reputation for drinking and getting into fights. He switched the console off and made his trek to the Alliance offices.
Once he arrived he received the ritualistic pat down and was greeted by the young redheaded Lieutenant Kohlhepp.
"Welcome Captain Parry. Right this way if you would." she said with a pleasant smile.
"Please, lead the way ma'am." he said returning the smile.
She lead the way down the main corridor, past the Admiral's office. More than once he found his gaze lowering from the back of the lieutenants head. She had suddenly halted and Parry had just manage not to walk into her. He raised his eyes as she did a one eighty to face him.
"Right in here sir." she said signaling to a door on her right.
"Thank you." he replied just before she started back down the corridor. As he reached for the handle he could not help himself from taking another glance at her.
Parry opened the door and saw several Alliance officers sitting around a large oval table. Their was an empty seat at the table, close to the door.
"Come in son. Have a seat." Admiral Washington said as the others looked at him with stern military faces.
"Yes Sir." Parry said without hesitation, closing the door behind him and pulling up a seat.
"Tell me son, have you ever been to Earth." Admiral Washington said, sitting up, looking at the captain.
Cowboy bebop, my all time favorite anime, and a great story you have so far austin, maybe throw in some bounty hunters? Lol be fun to see how that comes into play.:D
\"There\'s a war going on out there, and it ain\'t easy!\"
\"All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.\"
Callsign: Incoming
Life is like a sewer... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. - Bob Newhart
Hell is being in a pure platinum asteroid field... with a diamond mining beam
Thanks everybody I will try and sit down to finish up Chapter 2: Getting Underway some time tonight or tommorrow. For now I promised my little brother I'd play Nazi Zombies with him, so that'll be my evening
"No Sir. I haven't." Parry answered, hiding his confusion.
"How would you feel about a change in your contract. A chance to better serve the Alliance and protect it's interests." Admiral Washington asked, looking Parry in the eyes.
"It would be my honor sir." Parry replied, feeling his curiosity peak.
"Excellent. I expected no less from you captain." the Admiral went on. "The Alliance has discovered several Vonari transmissions embedded in general messages sent on Alliance frequencies in the war zones, prior to your discovery. We believe the Vonari are up to something big and despite our best efforts to translate their language, the Alliance is coming up short."
"How does the Austin and it's crew fit in to this, Sir?" Parry asked once the Admiral had finished.
"Captain Parry, what we are about to discuss is not leave this room, under penalty of death. Is that understood?" Admiral Washington asked in a serious tone, still staring Parry dead in his eyes.
"Yes Sir." Parry answered.
"Excellent. Admiral Jones, if you would." Admiral Washington said, sitting back, but not taking his eyes off of Parry.
"Yes Sir." The dark skinned man on Admiral Washington's right replied, sitting up now."It has become known to The Alliance, approximately eight months ago The Sol Alliance captured a single, live Vonari, spying near the Earth. This may prove to be more than just chance, being a extremely rare opportunity to have the Vonari dialect translated, which in turn would allow us to discover the meaning of these hidden transmissions."
Parry sat there in silence scanning the hard military faces staring at him. He was starting to understand where this was going.
"We are currently attempting to negotiate with the Confederation, to united against the Vonari threat. We need to send an ambassador to Earth and we feel sending a civilian ship through Confederate territory would be our best option at the moment." Admiral Jones continued.
"But Sir, even if we were to make it through Thuban to Richton territory, it would take months to make the trip to Earth from Sirius." Parry added.
"Indeed it would young man, if you were going to fly straight to Sol from Sirius. You however will be taking a shortcut. It will be unavoidable that your crew will become aware of this knowledge, so they will also need to be sworn to secrecy under the same penalty, should you take this contract."
"Yes Sir. That shouldn't be a problem. I can personally vouch for my crew." Parry said, actually worrying about Turtell's habit of getting wasted and mouthing off. Generally it was a problem, but on occasion...
"There is a fulcrum gate, hidden several hundred sectors away from the Orion System, that will take you into RiftSpace. From there you can take a wormhole directly to Sol." Admiral Jones said, rising from his seat with a two small black tablets in his hand.
"You will find all of the necessary coordinates and relevant intel on this tablet." He handed one over to Parry.
"This one, however is encoded and it shall be your mission to deliver this to the Sol Alliance headquarters on Sol Station at any cost. Should this become impossible you are to destroy both tablets. Is that Understood captain?" He asked handing the second tablet over.
"Yes Sir. Understood." Parry said, taking the second data tablet.
Admiral Jones returned to his seat as Admiral Washington sat up once again.
"These are the terms of the contract captain Parry: Deliver the data tablet to the Sol Alliance and return to Evochron Station with their response. The payment is five hundred million credits. One hundred will be transferred to your account immediately, to cover any travel costs and the remaining amount will be transferred upon your return, should your mission not result in failure. Do we have an agreement captain?"
"Yes Sir." Parry answered.
"Very good. Please start making the necessary arrangements. Say nothing to your crew of the nature of your assignment for the moment. I shall stop by the Austin at fifteen hundred hours to brief your crew. You are dismissed captain." Admiral Washington said sitting back in his chair.
Parry rose from his seat and exited the room in silence. Once he pulled the door shut, he heard the brass engage in a heated argument. Deciding it was none of his business, he made his way back to the Austin, disappointed he didn't see Lieutenant Kohlhepp on his way out of the Alliance offices.
Back at the Austin he found his crew, all four members, sitting in the commons room drinking coffee. Mr. Imahara looked as though he was really regretting finishing the bottle of vodka last night.
"Good morning captain!" Turtell said, looking rather happy. "Damn shame I missed you last night. Well Victor was saying we'll be enjoying an extended stay, so maybe we can party tonight and I'll introduce you to Shannon." He finished with a wink.
"That's a negative, Mr. Turtell. The plan has changed. We're taking an urgent military contract and we need to begin making preparation immediately."Parry said to the general disappointment of his crew.
"We just got here! We usually get at least forty eight hours of down time. What's the rush?" Detorres exclaimed.
"I can't say at the moment. Admiral Washington will be by to brief you guys personally at three. I'd really like to have the ship ready to set off immediately after. This is going to be a long trip. Mr. Nettlemeyer and Mr. Imahara, I want you two on a systems check. Mr. DeTorres and Mr. Turtell, you two begin loading the ship with food, fuel and other essentials and well as some non essentials. Have all expenses billed back to the Austin." Parry said to his crew. Then looking at DeTorres, he continued "And see that Mr. Turtell doesn't get side tracked."
His last remark got a few laughs from the others, but a scowl from Turtell. Parry made his way to the cockpit, and walked over to a small safe to the left of his chair. He entered the code to the electronic safe, pulled it opened and placed the tablet destined for Sol inside.
He sat down in the pilot's seat and activated the remaining tablet. Stored on it he found coordinates for the planet Q746, recommended as a resupply point before reaching the gate. Moving down the list, next were the coordinates for the gate to RiftSpace. This fabled place he had only heard of in rumors. Moving on were the coordinates for the actual wormhole to Sol. In the description in mentioned multiple wormholes but no descriptions of their outlets. Finally were the coordinates to the return wormhole in Sol, which would take them back to Pearl.
Parry entered the coordinates into the Austin's Nav Map, then sitting back in his chair, began to thoroughly read the descriptions provided on the tablet. He was most interested in the intel on RiftSpace, which apparently was crawling with Vonari. This would more than likely be the hardest part to the trek.
Within hours, the Austin was made ready for it's voyage. Parry and his crew were talking in the commons room, when Admiral Washington beeped in over the intercom."Anyone home?"
Parry made his way to the airlock and opened it. The Admiral greeted him with a firm handshake and followed Parry to his waiting crew. The Admiral gave them the summary of their current mission and swore the crew to secrecy. The crew seemed rather excited about having to set off early now, likely due to the fact none of them had seen the Earth either.
After answering the crews questions, Admiral Washington made his way to the Airlock escorted by the captain.
"Well son, good luck. You have a fine crew and vessel. I have no doubt that you all shall return safely. Take care you your self Robert." Admiral Washington said shaking Parry's hand once more, before stepping of the ship.
Parry returned to his waiting crew in the commons room. They were already sitting at the round table off to the side, obviously awaiting their pre-launch tradition. Parry grabbed five shot glasses and a large, expensive, bottle of Cristall Vodka, imported all the way from Earth. Parry now had a good idea of how.
He sat down at the table and filled all of the glasses. Everyone grabbed their shot.
"Well gentleman, here's to our next adventure." Parry said raising his shot and taking it back as his crew followed suite.
"Well, what are you all waiting for? Report to your stations."
Callsign: Incoming
Life is like a sewer... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. - Bob Newhart
Hell is being in a pure platinum asteroid field... with a diamond mining beam
Well I'm glad you all like it so far Thanks! I've begun setting down the next chapter. It will be quite a bit longer than the previous two, so it will take longer Things will pick up from here on out, Spike Spiegel style . If you all like the occasional non-monetary gamble like I do, Let's start a poll on who will die FIRST. It's all set out in general, so death sentences are unavoidable! Peeps shall die... (
Hoping to take you all for a fun ride
... learned the importance of backing up data, the hard way 
Of course I have toned it down seeing as a picture of Captain Picard EXTENDING his fingers... lol... was considered a no no 
