P.S. Sorry for the crappy name, I couldn't think of anything, so I just wrote the first thing I could think of.
Chapter 1
“Power down weapons Kera, the pirates are running away,” Rowan said over the Kestrel’s intercom system. The new weapons officer was a bit aggressive, and had a strong dislike of pirates, more so than most. Rowan was worried it would cause strife with the new shields officer, /Kath\ , an Engi with a knack for shields and a more than shady history. All any of the crew knew for sure was that she had a secret stash of Engi currency hidden under her desk, and blaster pistols kept disappearing from the armory.
“Yes sir captain,” Kera said reluctantly. She was more caring and friendly than the stereotype the Federation had made the Mantis out to be, but she was a little quick to anger and wasn’t exactly friendly to anyone who had weapons lock on her ship. “Can I just get one more shot off? Please?”
“No!”Rowan said.
“C’mon ple-“
“NO!”/Kath\ finally weighed in. “That would be both highly illogical and against Federation Protocol for ship to ship combat chapter 18 page 12 article-“
“Shut up!” Kera shouted over the intercom, loud enough to make Rowan wish he hadn’t invested in such high quality speakers.
“ –Article 4 sentence 3” /Kath\ finished angrily.
Rowan was beginning to think about what life would be like if he had hired that pleasant Rockman and other human back at the bar. Oh well, no going back now, he thought charging the FTL drive. Just eight more sectors until he could forget about all of this and go back to delivering cargo from Orelius three to Orelius nine, although why anyone would build a colony in that frozen hell, he had no idea.
He had to get his information to Federation command within a few weeks. At his old job, he had accidentally intercepted a secret Rebel transmission of vital importance. He knew if the Rebels found out about the information stored on the Kestrel’s computer, the whole crew, the crews families, and probably just about anyone they had spoken to in the last month and a half would be executed. Rowan was an expert pilot, but very nervous about what was happening. He had been thrown in the captain’s chair two weeks earlier, and beneath his calm exterior, he was freaking out.
“Oh my god, what if we die? What if we’re too late? What if the Rebels ambush us and we can’t get away?” His thoughts were interrupted as /Kath\ walked in.
“Sir, I believe lieutenant Kera committed an act of direct insubordination today at 1406 hours. This is a courtmar-“
“/Kath\, what was it you really came in here to talk about?”
“How did you kno-“
“Engi are terrible liars. Now what was it you wanted to say?”
“Look, I know how hard it’s been for you these past few weeks, with your parents and everything, I just wanted you to know I’ve always got your back.”
“Thanks /Kath\.”
“Call me Kathy.”
“Alright Kathy.”
Kathy walked back to her room on the crew deck. Rowan put his feet up on the control panel. It looked like he was taking the night shift.
I'm going to get into what happened to Rowan's parents a little more in the prologue, and hopefully even more in later chapters. I also want to go into the backgrounds of Kera and /Kath\, and I hope to have them intertwine in a later chapter. Thanks for reading, 90%Cricket out.
