Chapter 8: A New Beginning

David lay in bed tossing in his sleep; He chose to spend the night sleeping instead of using the training chamber at Dr. Jones’s Request. The doctor felt it would be best to let Spaz’s and his minds concentrate on recovery after the procedure to repair his shoulder and Spaz’s legs and spine, than on training. He woke suddenly to the sounds of alarms; He quickly sat up in his bed and looked around the room. It took him a few minutes to get his bearings and determine where he was. “Lanvy Silence the alarms in my quarters.”

There was no response from the Lanvy and the alarms continued to sound. Suddenly David found himself sitting on the bridge of the Lanvy in his bed cloths. “What the hell... ?” He started.

Riu turned from the console she was using. “I am sorry sir, but the Lanvy is having major malfunctions all over the ship. I had to transport you out of your quarters as all power to life support and communications in that section has failed.”

“Wait, all power to life support? Spaz and Dr. Jones’s quarters are in that section.” David replied

Riu held up her hand to calm him. “Sir, it is ok, they were transported to the Excalibur along with the others.” She stated as she came to stand next to David. “The Excalibur however was having issues locking onto you, so I had to use the last of the Lanvy’s energy reserves to bring you to the bridge. As of this moment the bridge is the only section of the Lanvy with life support functioning.”

David looked down to Riu as she handed him a transport beacon. “What now then, we abandon the Lanvy?”

Riu frowned up at David. “No Sir, we simply have to leave him for a while, we will need to regroup on another ship and the Excalibur is in the best condition. The Lanvy used most of its systems to locate you while the RIU and Excalibur spent most of their time at minimum power being towed by the Lanvy. Once we have sufficient personnel to repair him we can reestablish command on board. The Excalibur has agreed to tow the Lanvy to a safe location near Mars until we can get him repaired.”

David took the beacon and shook his head. “Sounds like you have a plan?”

Riu smiled up at him as the two of them appeared on the much smaller bridge of the EDS Excalibur. “Yes Sir, when you put me in command of the Lanvy you made me the ranking officer, all military decisions concerning the ships and their crew, are my responsibility now. Unless, that is, you do not want me to do my Job?”

David grinned at Riu. “No, most certainly do your Job Captain.”

David turned to the assembled crew of the new EDF Flagship the EDS Excalibur. Standing among them was a young man in his early twenties, with short cut blond hair and very bright blue eyes, wearing a Kreg’ar Military uniform with no rank insignia. He stepped forward and crisply saluted David. “Welcome aboard the EDS Excalibur Sir, I am the ships AI, how may I serve you?”

David returned the salute and then leaned down to Riu and whispered through the side of his mouth “Why does this one look so young?”

The AI dropped from his position of attention and stood at parade rest, with his feet shoulder width apart and his hands clasped behind his back. “Sir every ship in the fleet has a unique AI, for ease of identification. The AI’s are also programmed to appear and react differently depending on their functions. Carriers like the Lanvy are programmed with the personalities and knowledge of old Kreg’ar Generals and Admirals, they guide the fleet. Battleships like the RIU are programmed with the personalities of Female ship’s Captains and Den mothers. They are the protectors of the fleet. The cruisers and destroyers like myself are programmed with the personalities of a Kreg’ar Weapons officers or fighter pilots, we are the assault vessels of the fleet, and the frigates, when we get some, will be programmed with the personalities of merchant captains, they control the supply chains of the fleet and perform troop transport.

Riu once again smiled up at David and gave him a wink. “The Frigates also tend to be the most argumentative and opinionated of the ships, which is probably why one was not sent in the search party.

“Actually Captain, there were two frigates assigned to the Lanvy’s convoy, they were most stubborn in their opinions on the mission, they were of the belief that this was a fools errand and that there was no purpose for them in the fleet. The Lanvy agreed, and left them in the construction yard.”

David shook his head in wonder and turned to the rest of the crew. “Well it looks like we ran out of time. Excalibur I am naming Riu Emtoo as Captain of the Excalibur until...” David started to say

“My apologies for interrupting you sir, but Riu Emtoo is currently listed as the Captain of the Lanvy, She can not command two vessels.” The AI interrupted him.

David looked at Riu who simply shrugged. “It is true sir, and I will need to remain in command of the Lanvy in order to properly oversee the repairs.”

David gave an audible sigh. “Fine,” He said as he looked at the rest of the gathered personnel.

Spaz simply shook his head and held up his hands as soon as David looked his way. “I am sorry my friend but you are the only one with any command experience. Excalibur, until further notice General Chris Walker is Captain of the Excalibur, with all rights and responsibilities.”

Spaz shook his head and frowned slightly. “As you command sir, I don’t know how good of a ships captain I’ll be, but I will give it my best sir.”

Riu looked towards Spaz with a grin “Well Captain Walker our first order of business will be to get command and ship functions and protocol added to tonight’s training session. Welcome to the EDF Navy, Captain.”

Spaz walked past Riu and pointedly sat down in the command chair. “I believe Captain Emtoo that you are a guest on board MY ship which makes me the ranking officer.”

Riu nodded her head to Spaz and took a deep theatrical bow. “I concede to your logic, Captain Walker, however as Captain of the Lanvy, once I am onboard him, I, am the ranking Captain.

Spaz nodded to her “Agreed.”

Everyone started to laugh at the antics of the two Captains. “Now that the two of you are finished posturing and maneuvering, can we get back to business?” David said with a smile. “We have one ship completely out of commission, another almost there and this one is in need of repairs as well. Currently our crew roster consists of two ships Captains, a Navigational officer, a rookie pilot and two medical doctors. We are sadly in need of a large number of crewmembers, preferably with engineering, electrical and mechanical experience to work with. Does anyone have any suggestions?”

Dr. Jones sat down at the communications station and then looked up towards David. “Well whenever any of the Earths militaries needed recruits quickly and in large numbers they would conscript from the general populace.”

David shook his head as he leaned against the side of the navigation console with his arms crossed. “Unfortunately, we can’t do that, we have no general population from which to recruit from, unless we wish to kidnap people off the street...”

“Why stop now, isn’t that pretty much how you recruited us?” Stated Julia with a smirk.

“Lt Jimenez that will be quite enough!” Growled Spaz. “You are my responsibility and I will not have a Jr. Officer talk to her superior in that manor!”

David raised his hand and paced around the navigation console to stare at the view screen to the Earth below. “It’s ok Spaz she has a point, she might have stepped out of line with how she delivered it, but she does have a point. Most of you were brought here against your will, even though it was your decision to stay. However I do not wish to continue to take people against their will, especially since we deal with such advanced technology. We need to make sure our training does not fall into the wrong hands. The first phase of that is that anyone who joins us understands that it is a lifetime commitment.”

Lt. Jimenez nodded to David, “I apologize sir for my choice of words; however there was a purpose behind them. I am sure that there are plenty of people on earth who if given the choice, even after the fact, would choose to stay like we did. People who have nothing to return to, or what they would be returning to would be worse than what we are offering.”

David turned away from the screen. “How would we find these people in the numbers we need, and how would we ensure that we would not still be viewed by the governments of Earth as kidnappers of their citizens?”

“Excalibur, how extensive are your scanning capabilities?” Lt. Jimenez asked.

“Lt. I have highly detailed scanning and mentoring capabilities. From orbit I am capable of scanning a single individual to the molecular level.” Excalibur replied.

“How many people can you monitor and scan at one time? Also how many are you capable of transporting to the ship and placing into stasis?”

“Ma’am I can track and monitor the movements of thousands of individuals at one time, I can simultaneously transport thirty people at one time from multiple locations, hold them in the buffers and then move them to stasis chambers.”

David looked towards Lt. Jimenez with interest. “Lt. what exactly are you thinking?”

“Sir, I think, Riu or Excalibur please correct me if I am wrong, but I think it would be possible for the RIU and Excalibur to monitor people across the globe shifting from person to person, looking for people performing acts of heroism or actions intended to save another persons life. If this act would lead to the death of the person attempting it, and the body would not be able to be recovered, have the person transported here and placed into stasis, once we have enough say a few hundred. Orientate them and give them the choice of staying or returning and dealing with questions on what happened. I think many of them would choose to stay, given that as far as the world is concerned they are dead, Like Dr. Jones and Dr. Debbin.”