Blood Impulse

Part 37.1 - HYBRID CONTROLS

Cardioid Sector, HR-14 System, Battleship Singularity

Operation: start. Main battery loaded and raised. All systems manned – the ghost paused to correct the records subsystem. All systems ready. It was an easy mistake, really, more of a habit than anything. She was used to sailing with the crew manning all the operational stations. Today, however, many of those stations were empty, and not every station was being directly manned. That absence might have unnerved her, but the entire crew was still aboard, simply preparing to board the base rather than crewing their usual posts.

It was ...different. The ghost could not say that she favored it, but she understood the necessity. Running a final check, she reached out to the Admiral, 'Hybrid controls are performing nominally. Standing by for commands.'

Admiral Gives had already received such confirmations from the bridge crew, but as far as he cared, the ghost made it final. We're ready. As ready as they could get, anyway. "Alright," he said, laying a hand on the thick metal rim of the radar console, "Lieutenant Jazmine, take us in."

"Yes, sir," Jazmine acknowledged, edging the throttle forward.

The volume of the engines heightened, and the ship began to accelerate. It was a slight movement, the engines limited to a mere fraction of their thrust, so the crew felt none of it, but an enormous grin still blossomed on Colonel Zarrey's face. "This is going to be fun. You never let me off the ship."

Admiral Gives regarded Zarrey's enthusiasm with a measured calm. There might be a reason for that. Zarrey was a loudmouthed, energetic Marine who wore his heart on his sleeve. If one tried, it wasn't hard to get a rise out of him, and it never looked good when a battleship commander had to go station-side to bail his XO out of the brig for throwing a right hook at another ship's commander. Still, Zarrey was a competent officer, and well-liked by the crew, even if ship operations were not his specialty.

Today, Zarrey stood beside him in the center of the bridge kitted out in a set of Marine body armor. His helmet, complete with the mounted bulk of night vision goggles sat behind him on the flat, glowing top of the radar console. There was a delighted fire in his eyes, lit by the promise of adventure. Admiral Gives never understood the Marines' craving for combat. He distinctly preferred the calm of a long patrol, but it was relieving to see that they were primed for a fight. "Should you not be with the boarding party, Colonel?"

Zarrey snorted, shifting a head of sandy blond hair he hadn't bothered to groom today. "And miss the fireworks?" he retorted. "Nah." Grinning, he raised the silver flask in his hand and took a long sip.

By the pungent smell, the Admiral knew the flask didn't contain alcohol, but some of the crew was taken aback his behavior.

"Hey," Jazmine called, "shouldn't you be saving that for the victory lap?"

Taking another, distinctly longer sip, Zarrey just grinned some more. "It's coffee, dipshit." He never went anywhere without it. "I couldn't get my mug to fit in my pocket. And believe me, I tried." Capping the flask, Zarrey turned to the Admiral. While Zarrey had on tactical gear, the ship commander was in his usual black uniform with the mere added addition of his sheathed sabre. "You sure you're comfortable with this?" There was a potential for a lot of things to go very wrong on this mission, the boarding action the least of them.

Admiral Gives raised an eyebrow. "Would you care to switch roles?"

"Ha, ha, no," Zarrey said drily. "The Old Bitch never behaves herself when I'm in charge." He would much rather lead the boarding party. "It's just been a long time since we took her off manual control. It's dangerous." With the Eran AI running rampant, that was more dangerous now than ever.