As they all headed for the bridge, Yang came along side the captain and helped to guide him through the endless corridors. Riley appeared distracted, as if deep in thought, the man almost missed the junctions that led to the main elevator. Yang was quick to correct him and continued to lead on.

“We’d better get up there, I think they’re expecting us to launch immediately. No doubt the whole ECU is watching….”

Riley said nothing, just nodded as if he agreed. Yang tried again, keeping a positive attitude.

“Let’s hope we don’t scratch the paint on the way out, eh? They might take it out of our salaries.”

Again, Riley just nodded, silent and focused on his own internal matter. They reached the elevator, stepped inside, and pressed the button to head up. The group, Brigham, Nyjiumu, Yang and the Captain, waited patiently as lift took a few minutes to reach to the top.

“I look forward to getting to know you all.” The Doctor smiled. “And you as well, Captain…”

Yang glanced over to see his reaction. The man said nothing and kept staring ahead. This was disconcerting to the group. The silence was too unbearable for the Doctor.

“Do we each need to make a speech before disembarking, or…”

“No…” Riley finally said. “Just do your damn jobs, that’s all I required, Doctor.”

The doors slid open upon their arrival. The captain launched out and headed towards the main doorway leading to the bridge. The Doctor gave a concerned look and rubbed his chin in thought. Yang took off to follow Riley, as did Sarah and Jen.

“That’s not a good sign.” Nyjiumu muttered in thought. “No, not a good sign at all.”

* * *

Riley sat in his command chair and immediately instructed the crew. Jen took to her station, while Sarah sat at the helm, and switched on all the monitors, flatscreen controls and the holographic interfaces. The rest of the bridge crew attended to their stations along the rounded room. The place was alive with electronic sounds and graphic displays that tended to all the ship’s functions. Yang took to his chair opposite the captain and repeated the commands being given by the captain. This was done to ensure the officers understood their tasks and carried them out.

“Helm, prepare to leave the docking ring, half thrusters, we’ll execute the main engines once we’re beyond it.”

“Aye sir, half thrusters…” Brigham acknowledged and tapped on the console.

“Communications,” He spun his chair to the station. “Inform the docking that we are ready to leave.”

“Aye, sir,” The bald latino officer nodded. He quickly repeated the captain’s words, waited for the response and then nodded when it was approved.

“Right, let’s get this show on the road then,” The captain nodded. He turned back to face the main viewer and gestured his hand at Sarah. “If you would be so kind, Lieutenant, forward thrust.”

“Aye, sir…” She nodded.

With a hand on the singular control stick, she gently pushed it forward and steered the vessel out.

* * *

Deep Contact majestically glided beyond the docking ring. The ship, midnight black and well-polished, reflected the glow of the sun as it cruised past the observation platform and headed out past Earth’s moon. Spacial charges randomly set off beyond the distance of the moon, giving a random quick colourful fiery brilliance, as the vacuum of space claimed it just as fast. The celebration of its launch was underway. The president and her staff cheered as they watched the spectacle, both of the ship and the elaborate send-off.

The ship continued to cruise on, picking up momentum and headed out past the moon’s eclipse. Deep Contact looked almost invisible against the blackness of space, but all of the outer floodlights, blinking beacons, and illuminated windows dotted along the hull, helped to outline its hull. The largest and best visible identification was the ship’s moniker—DEEP CONTACT 001-ECUF, it adorned the right starboard side in bold white lettering for all to see.

Other military vessels in close range, lined up in formation along the departing ship’s route, with the officers inside gave symbolic salute as they all stood near the windows facing it. If any of the crew was inside Deep Contact watching out their windows, they would have a hard time noticing this, as the distance made it too hard to see those enacting this honourable gesture.

Still, they knew it was being done, and those glancing out the port windows also saluted back in kind. It was a grand, over-the-top display for all to see. And once Deep Contact was gone from the moon’s orbit, the military ships broke formation and departed themselves.

* * *

Half an hour later…

Captain Riley sat in his command chair, looking unimpressed and bored. He passively gazed around the bridge; Each crew member had a station in the slotted areas along the rounded wall, sitting comfortably and worked diligently on their flat-screened computers. The bridge was well-designed, functional and a lot prettier then some other vessels he’d been on. The helm was small, with only Brigham seated there. The holographic screens hovered over her console, showing all the vectors, long range sensor data, and graphics of the ship’s position in space. There was a full panoramic window ahead, that curved in conjunction with the bridge layout, and displayed a pitch black view of space, with just a few specs of light in the very distance. He could make out Mars, to the right, and Saturn to the extreme left, barely visible, but there nonetheless.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He bobbed his legs, back and forth, and stewed in thought as he sat there. That whole scene earlier was a lot of nonsense as far as he was concerned. “Political grand-standing” he thought. “Military hubris at its finest… if only these poor bastards knew about the lie this whole thing was.” He blew out a breath and rubbed his face in frustration. “Get a grip you ol’codger! Act like you give a damn about this command and don’t show them any weakness.”

First officer Yang stood beside him and watched the forward monitor. Lieutenant Sarah Brigham. was doing a fine job of steering the ship, giving just enough boost on the thrusters to give Deep Contact the momentum needed to glide through the system with ease. It was still slow-going, of course, the Quantum Magnetic Drive hadn’t been brought to full power yet, something that Yang brought toe Captain’s attention.

“I think we’re at a good distance to give the QMD a full run, sir.”

“I concur with that,” Riley nodded. He tapped the button on his armrest pad. “Engineering, you may start your engines… as it were…”

There was no response. The captain hailed them again.

“Engineering? Are you there?”

Yang took to his chair, tapping on his armrest communicator.

“Bridge to engineering… respond…”

Yang and Riley looked at each other in confusion. There was a loud repeating ping that suddenly came from Sarah’s console, she located the source of it and she quickly informed the captain.

“Sir, we’re losing power…”

“Where?” He glared at her.

“There’s a drain, I can’t explain it.”

“What?” Yang glared.

“Thrusters are down…” She stated, tapping wildly on the holographic screens. She brought up the graphic of it. “Dropping rapidly, sixty percent… forty percent…”

“Are we drifting?” Yang ran over and checked her station.

“No, sir… we’re right on target.” She glanced at the holographic monitor to her right. “We had enough boost to give us some directional momentum. Dopping down to ten percent…”

“Oh, for the love of god…” Riley grimaced. He slapped the communication button on his chair again. “Engineering! What the bloody hell is going on down there?”

There was still no reply from them. Yang quickly returned to the captain’s side and waited to see if there was any response at all. The two looked at one another.

“Comms must be out…” Yang said. “Maybe it’s linked to the power drain…”

“Get down there, now! And find out what’s going on.”

“Aye, sir…” Yang nodded and rushed off of the bridge.

The captain swirled around in his chair and shouted in his direction.

“This is a brand new, bloody ship! Kick their ass in to gear or I’ll have them out there in spacesuits to push us out of the solar system!”

“Dropping again,” Sarah called out. “Five percent now…”

“Sweet Jesus,” Captain Riley grumbled. “What’s causing this?”

The ship’s power suddenly sprang to life again. Riley gave thanks to the maker, and tried to hail engineering again. They finally responded back to him.

“Sorry for that, Captain… we’re working on the issue.”

“Who is this?”

“Amanda Berkins, sir, chief engineer…”

Riley took a minute to remember the name. Then it dawned on him, she was the Omega Group that signed up for the mission. It seemed odd to him that one of their own wouldn’t know how to operate a complex engine like that. He was pretty sure she was the one who created it in the first place.

“Berkins, right…” He said, directing his eyes at the armrest panel. “You came on before the rest of us did. I didn’t see you at the assembly earlier.”

“I had no time for that.” She stated factually.

“Uh-huh…” Riley quipped. “I Guess you’re not much of a people person.”

“Not at all,” She agreed. “Look we’re really busy down here, I’ve got way too many people to train on this thing, and they’re not as efficient as…”

She hesitated for a second. Riley seemed to know what she was going to say, and finished the thought for her.

“Omega group?” He smirked.

“Uh, yeah…” She conceded.

“Well, too bloody bad, Berkins.” Riley stated. “Welcome aboard, late as my saying of that to you is.”

“Thanks…” She replied.

Riley leaned closer to the armrest pad, and kept his voice low. “What’s going on? If you where here prior to our arrival, why the hell didn’t you train the staff before then?”

“It takes a lot to explain it to them, sir.”

“That’s no excusse, chief, you’ve had months to prepare for this…”

“Sir, I really do need to get back to the…”

Suddenly, she was cut off in mid-sentence. There was a loud bang, and some crew members arguing in the background. Amanda let out a frustrated exhale and shouted at the personnel to clean up their mess. Riley listened with surprise, she was scolding them like a parent would to an unruly child.

“Just…” She finally addressed the captain again, “Give me a few hours here, sir. I’ll report back later.”

“First officer Yang is on his way to see you…”

“Wonderful, more norms…”

“Bite that tongue of yours, Berkins,” The captain warned. “You’re a ECUF officer now. I’ll have none of that kind of elitist talk on my ship. You may have been a big shot in the Omega Group, but you’re part of this crew now. Be professional in your role.”

“I’ll consider it, sir. Amanda out...”

Riley was, again, surprised by her obtuseness. He gave slight chuckle at how frustrating she was to him right now.

“Thrusters still not at full, sir.” Sarah informed him. “We’re not able to increase our velocity.”

Riley stood up from his chair, arched his back, and gave a long exhale to calm his nerves.

“Well, what have we got, Brigham?”

“We’re holding at less than two-point-five percent…”

“Then, switch off the thrusters and take a break.”

“Sir?” She glared back.

“Until the engines come back online, we’re not going anywhere fast.”

“But, sir…” Science officer Jen Sakura said. “We’ll take weeks, perhaps months to reach anything coasting along at that snail’s pace.”

Riley turned to her. She was sitting at her station, looking confused by his lack of urgency.

“I’m in no hurry,” He shrugged. “Are you? Or you?” He pointed over to her and Sarah. “I’d rather fix the problem now, instead of kickstarting an engine that may, or may not, work properly… it might even kill us, if we push it.”

“Couldn’t we just use the back up power to…”

“No, we could not.” He sharply answered, holding out his hand to stop her. “The engines are all linked to the QMD, it generates the power we need, even when in stand-by mode. Back up power is just enough to keep the ship up and running, it’s not enough to propel us at a decent rate.”

“Who the hell came up with this idea?” Sarah squinted in disbelief. “No offence, sir, but, that’s some crappy engineering…”

“Yes, I agree, but, we’re in the hands of an Omega Group brainiac who built the damn thing.”

“Some genius…” Sarah rolled her eyes.

“I’m surprised by it too, Lieutenant.” The captain nodded. “Very unusual, given their track record for such monumental technology working flawlessly. But, I’ll give her the benefit of doubt, perhaps the staff is rather unfamiliar with running it, hopefully she can get them sorted out in time.”

“Are you still willing to have them out there in spacesuits pushing us out of the system?” Jen stated, arching a brow sarcastically.

Riley giggled at her response. That little jab at his past remarks was rather snarky, but a clear reminder of what he instructed Yang to tell the engineering staff. He folded his arms and conceded.

“Well, we’ll see how it goes first.” He smirked. “Hopefully, it won’t be too long a wait.”