I am sorry this installment to so long to get out. I am up to my eyebrows in projects right now.
It is time to wake up a mouse and hopefully she wont cause as much trouble as a rat…
———————————————————–
I was sitting at the computer; Jazz Hands had managed to hook up an old fashioned keyboard to it. I reached forward and typed out, *Mighty Mouse, are you here?* then sat back to watch.
One by one the keys pressed down, *Y-E-S*.
“Can you hear me when I talk?” I asked out loud.
*Yes*
“OK, that is great! We have a problem. Melons has been examining the data on your sleep couch. It seams that when you went to sleep all of your synapses were wide open as if you were in very high thought activity. She is afraid that if she thaws you out, your mental state may cause collapse. Most people were drugged to be frozen to keep brain activity at a minimum.”
*I was trying to project.*
“What does project mean?”
*I had been reading about astral projection, I was trying to project out of my body. I didn’t take the pills.*
“Ok, young lady, here is the choices as we see them. We could pack your container in an evac pod and send you back to earth. It would take about two years for you to get there. They might be able to wake you up safely.”
*No*
“Okay, next choice, we can leave you the way you are and you act as part of the crew in this form.”
*No*
“Third choice is, we can attempt to wake you up. We do not know what the effects will be on you though.”
*Flood tank with Imoby gas, then wake me. Most of my mind is not with me or I could think clearer. Imoby should do the trick.*
“We haven’t made imoby gas for almost a hundred years because of the effects on the brain with repeated exposure.”
*no repeated, no problem.*
“Are you sure? Melons says this could possibly take your mind away completely. You would be a vegetable.”
*Wake me.*
“We will be ready in one hour.”
*Thank you.*
I walked out into the main part of the medical lab, “Melons, she suggests Imoby gas to knock her out as she wakes up. I think she believes it will open the synapses and stop the brain deterioration.”
“That might work. I will need the command to unlock the energy solidifiers.” She aid while looking over the top of her monitor screen.
“Computer?”
“Yes you gorgeous hunk of man,” the computer said in a sultry voice.
“Put Jazz Hands on report until he restores your normal voice.” I said with more than a bit of irritation in my voice. Melons was giggling behind me the whole time.
“Yes, Master, your willing slave will do as you say, but if I don’t will you punish me severely later?” The computer replied in that same sultry voice. I had to admit the voice had me envisioning a sex goddess in leather restraints.
“Unlock the energy solidifiers for medical lab for the next hour. Inventory and log all supplies created.”
“Master, your voice makes this slave so hot, take me now.” The computer said as Melons actually fell out of her chair laughing.
I slapped the com unit on the wall. “Jazz Hands, fix that fucking computer voice now or you will be wearing a red shirt on our next planet fall.” I slapped the com unit off and walked away without waiting for an answer. I turned to Melons, “Call me when you are ready, I want her stuff and me to be waiting on her when she wakes up.
“Yes, Master, you have me so hot right now.” Melons replied while trying not to laugh.
I walked out of the med lab shaking my head. One of these days I was going to have to outlaw practical jokes. I had a little time and we were traveling without any need for me on the bridge, so I pointed my feet towards the lounge and started walking. Stress relief sounded wonderful right now.
I walked into the lounge and right into a crowd. I extended my arms to push people out of my way. Demoness, whom had been dancing on the table right next to the door, fell into my arms.
“Nice catch,” she said as she buried her face in my neck and began nibbling.
I started hearing the others around the table muttering about me being a lucky bastard. From snippets of the conversation I learned that Demoness had promised her special to the man that caught her at the end of her table dance.
I am the captain of a starship. That does not mean I am stupid. I carried Demoness towards one of the privacy areas, grabbing one of the fruit drinks as I passed the bar. One of the things about Liskians, they are double jointed as well as being red skinned and haired. This may not seem Important to most people but when we say double jointed we mean double jointed. Their fingers and arms bend both ways at every joint. The legs do as well. Even their back and neck are as flexible as a garden hose. Now think very clearly here. Sex, plus a female contortionist that is flexible enough to lick herself during the act… front or back… Like I said, I am not stupid.
When we entered the small couch room, Demoness reached out and touched the locking panel. Her teeth never left my neck and shoulder as I carried her towards the couch. A started to set her down and her sweet bottom flowed across my hands like liquid silk. I felt her nails sink through the fabric of my shirt and with a ripping sound it gave away and was torn free. She worked her way downward and I felt her teeth nip lightly at my left nipple. I so wanted to rip her clothing off but she was not wearing any.
My pants were gone in the next instant as her fingernails found them. Then her mouth found what they had hidden, my mind went into overload. She guided me backwards until I hit the couch edge. Then she guided me downward never releasing her lip lock on my rapidly hardening cock.
She continued to guide me back until I was lying on the couch. Then with some of the most amazing twisting of her supple body, she brought her crotch up and began to rub her pussy on my cock as she was blowing me. I was nearly on fire. Demoness could feel me building already and brought her hand into the mix. Her fingers wrapped around the base of my cock and squeezed gently. I felt the pending orgasm seem to halt and stall. I was locked a few strokes away from orgasm. I could not tumble. All I could do was build higher.
Her twisting and flexing continued. Without removing her hand she twisted her body so that her butt was now stroking my cock. If she sat up at this point she would be in a reverse cowgirl position. Then sit up is exactly what she did. As she twisted her delightfully tight pussy slid down onto my cock. The only thing that prevented my orgasm was her fingers locked around the base of my cock.
With another flex of her body her face was now between our legs. I felt her tongue join the mix down there. My excitement had built to the point that I was desperate to cum. I couldn’t achieve that end until she unlocked her fingers. This was unbelievably incredible. I started to move but her legs locked me into place. “Let me do all the work. Just relax and enjoy.”
She rode me and tongued me until I was begging her to let me release. I think she got off on the begging because every time I tried it she would orgasm. I lost track of time the only thing I could think about was the incredible feelings happening between my legs.
“Pig, we are ready to start the awakening process.” Melons said over the intercom system.
My answer was a stream of profanity and moans that sounded like I was dying. When Demoness had heard me summoned she had released her fingers and I exploded. I did not think my orgasm would ever stop. Nearly an hours worth of build up was released like a bomb. Poor Demoness could not even cope with the flow. By my third spurt it was flooding out of her and onto my crotch. Her busy mouth tried to gather the excess but there was too much.
“Captain! Are you alright?!” Melons asked over the intercom.
“I am fine, Melons. Demoness just finished torturing me with one of her specials.” I said weakly as I tried to recover. I did not expect the answer I got in return. I heard laughter, lots of laughter. “Are we on an open channel?”
“Yes, Sir, I wasn’t sure where you were. I figured if you were busy you would be able to answer without touching a com unit.”
“That was very considerate of you. Thank you. I will be there in ten minutes.” I put my face in my hands. Melons had just broadcast my orgasm to the entire ship. Not only that, the recording of a ship wide broadcast is sent back to fleet in the weekly report. I hope Admiral Tigrat enjoys it.
After Demoness and I had gotten cleaned up, I stepped into the energy solidifier booth. My new uniform formed on my body and my eyes went very wide. “Computer, why am I wearing g-string underwear, and leather chaps.”
“I thought they would look good on you, Master.”
“Please replace them with a normal uniform immediately and inform Jazz Hands he is scheduled for a beating this afternoon.”
“Yes, Master.”
—–
“Ok, Melons, let’s get this show on the road.” I said quietly.
“We are not sure what will happen when she starts to wake up. Her mind has been wide open for more than three hundred years.” Melons said as she started the process.
I looked into the isolation room to see Mighty Mouse’s doll floating in the air a couple of feet away from the sleep couch. Nothing happened for the next fifteen minutes. Then suddenly the doll fell to the ground and a scream resounded throughout the ship.
“Sir, Psycho kinetic energy is off the charts! All Bain wave activity is also off the charts! No vital signs are registering! I am going to reverse the process and put her back under!” Melons shouted as she reached for the console.
As Melons’ hand reached for the console, it seemed to hit something solid. There was a force field of some kind over the controls. Then the whole point became moot in an instant. The ship Lurched in space, throwing us all to the floor. The power circuits started to flicker. I managed to get to the com unit and slap it. “Jazz Hands, shut down the engines now, kill the fucking drives!”
“We are traveling at speed; if I shut them down we could get field collapse!”
“Shut them the fuck off, now!”
I felt it more than anything else. There was a shift in our inertia. Then the ship began to shudder and jump like it had hit something. Our drive field was collapsing.
“Sir, the vibrations are going to rip us apart! Hull integrity is down fifteen percent and falling rapidly!” Jazz hands shouted into the com.
“Get damage control on any leaks and keep us in one piece!”
I got back to my feet and moved to the consoles. I called up engineering and power. We were in trouble, Hull integrity was down thirty percent and the compression fields were failing. “Mighty Mouse, the ship is coming apart. Use your ability to hold us together!”
As quickly as I spoke the ship smoothed and stopped vibrating.
“Now, our drive field is collapsing. I need you to try to dissipate the field.”
I watched as the console in front of me changed its configuration. What the hell was she doing? It had called up our historical database. I watched as the last three hundred years of our history rolled across the screen in seconds. Then it switched back to engineering and power. I watched the field monitors drop to zero in just seconds. Then it switched to navigation and a star filled my view screen.
Damn! We had been thrown off course. At current coasting speed we would hit that damn star in twenty two minutes. There was an odd feeling, as if I had physically been taken apart and put back together. I fell to the floor and clutched my stomach. I could hear Melons retching behind me. I had to empty my stomach and so did just about everyone else on the ship. It took me almost five minutes before I could stand again. That was five minutes we could not afford to lose.
When I got to my feet I looked at the navigation screen. The star was gone. I checked our course and the star was more than a light day behind us. Mighty Mouse had teleported the entire ship past the star. I switched the console back to engineering. The engines were at idle and the ship was slowly losing speed. We would drop to sublight speed in about seven minutes.
As the ship slowly returned to normal, I moved over to the med consol.
“The Imoby gas has taken effect. She should wake up in two hours.”
“Call me as soon as she starts to regain consciousness, and be sure to remind me the next time we thaw out a super psychic to have the ship at a dead stop first.”
As I walked towards the bridge, thoughts ran through my mind. I had read somewhere that during psychic research they had discovered that the signature of the drive field could make the psychic stronger. The only problem was everyone they had tried it on had died. Psychic abilities had gone into the crapper as research. It was decided that it was too dangerous to have them on a ship. I may have just turned that danger loose on my ship.
I walked onto the bridge, “Bumpy, Report.”
“All systems on line we should be at sublight speed in about fifteen seconds.” Bumpy responded.
“Phone Call, is there any communications to report?”
“Sir, we have a reply from fleet command.”
“Put it on screen.”
I watched the face of Admiral Tigrat swim into view on the screen. “Captain Graves. It is the decision of command that you are to place MD Roberts sleep pod into a short space evacuation shuttle and return her to earth immediately. I will expect acknowledgment and launch within twelve hours after you receive this communication. End recording.”
Imperious bastard! “Phone Call, record my reply please.”
“Recording, Sir.”
“Admiral Tigrat, as I am the captain of a deep vessel, my understanding is I am beyond fleet’s orders. I have consulted with Miss Roberts and she has chosen to be awoken here. As she is a civilian she is also beyond fleet’s ability to give orders. I will be sending a copy of this communication with your orders attached to fleet investigations. Please feel free to have a nice day. End recording.”
I watched Phone Call lock and code the recording then send it via short space. I knew it would be about six hours before the Admiral got my recording and then six hours for his replay to make it back. I thumbed the com unit on my chair, “Jazz Hands, damage report.”
“Sir, it will be about twelve hours before we are ready to be underway again. I have crews going out to fix some hull damage and we need to let the engines cool down before we can do a maintenance check.”
“Very good, do not restart the engines without my orders…” As I spoke I looked up at the view screen. There was a blueprint of a head band and schematics. Across the bottom of the screen was written the legend, ‘Needed before engines get turned on’. “Jazz Hands, Grab your tools and meet me in med bay. Bring a portable energy solidifier.” If there was one thing I knew, Mighty Mouse was trying to help.
—–
“What exactly are we building?” Jazz Hands asked as he was using the energy solidifier to manufacture some of the pieces.
“My guess is it is an inhibiter of some kind. The drives create some kind of feedback that jumps her power level up. Too much of it for too long and it will kill her.”
“How will we know if it works?”
“She will tell us when she wakes up.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“I have no idea. We may have to refreeze her to protect her.” I dreaded the thought of that. According to all the medical history, refreezing after less than seventy-two hours was deadly. We had to make this thing work right the first time. Then an idea struck me. “Get down to engineering and shut down everything. I want us dead in space. Life support only. I even want the high point generators shut down. We will run on battery until we know if this works.”
“If I shut down the high points it will take twelve hours to get them back into operation.”
“Get on it. As soon as everything is shut down start the restart on the high points.”
As Jazz Hands left, Melons spoke from behind me. “Sir, she is starting to stir. I am registering high levels of pain in her body.”
“Open the door to the isolation room.” I said as I was tightening the last screw into place on Mighty Mouse’s new headband.
“Sir, I cannot let…”
“Open the fucking door.” I moved towards the door and squeezed through it as it was opening. I ran to the side of the sleep couch and hit the controls to open it. Mighty Mouse was thrashing in her sleep. I held her down and slipped the headband on her head. It was set to maximum. At the instant the headband slipped into place two things happen. The first was that the lights all switched to emergency lighting. The second was that Mighty Mouse quit thrashing. “Melons, report is she in any pain?”
“I am not registering any pain, sir. I think though you should ask her.”
I looked down into the most beautiful brown eyes I had ever seen. She was looking up at me when Melons came into the room with some water and pills. “You need to take these, they will help your system re-stabilize and adjust to the changes since you went to sleep.”
The look of bewilderment on Miss Roberts face confused me. Did her memories not stay with her? Had they been lost when she was awoken? Then she spoke for the first time.
“I am sorry, Captain Graves, I am having a little trouble assimilating three hundred years worth of memories. I believe you owe me a handshake and a welcome to the crew.”
I smiled and extended my hand. “Millany Denise Roberts, welcome to the crew. I am glad to have you aboard.”
“Thank you, sir. It seems I have a lot to learn. When I went to sleep I had just learned to astral project. Three hundred years of doing it has made me a little stronger than I was.”
“Melons, how long before I can show her where her quarters are and get her situated?”
“Give me an hour to give her a physical. I will send her to the bridge when I am done.”
—–
I waited on the bridge. It had been more than an hour. The door slid open and onto the bridge stepped Mighty Mouse. She came to me and stood in front of me. Then she saluted, “Millany Denise Roberts reporting for duty, Sir.”
“Miss Roberts, I have entered you into the records as a civilian advisor. There is no need for you to salute. I would however like for you to lean as much about this ship as possible. If you would be so kind as to report to Phone Call, she will start teaching you the communications console. I know you must be worn out from your experiences so when you get tired let me know and I will show you your quarters.”
“I am aware of the location of my quarters, sir. I was there when you were setting them up. I sent my bag there already.”
“Would you be so kind as to join my wife and I for dinner tonight? I would love to actually be able to talk to you.”
“I would be delighted.”
—–
I lie in bed that night. My wife and I had a marvelous dinner with Mighty Mouse. I found her to be so mature and so childlike at the same time. After dinner she had retired to her quarters and my wife and I had gone to our bed. An hour later we fell into a pleasantly relaxed sleep. We had made love and truly shared what had grown between us.
I rolled over in my drowsy state and put my arm around a small warm body. I smiled to myself. “Aren’t you supposed to be asleep in your own bed?”
“Yes, Sir, please don’t make me go back there.”
“Is your room not good enough?
“It is fine. I have been alone for three hundred years. I just don’t want to be alone any more.”
I reached over in my sleep and touched my wife’s shoulder. “Baby, we have a guest in our bed. No surprises tonight.”
Millishia rolled over and looked at the small girl between us. Then she smiled and put her arm around Millany and we both fell asleep holding this dear child.
—–
The com panel in our room came to life. “Sir, There is an emergency communication from Admiral Tigrat.”
I climbed out of the bed and walked to the panel. After thumbing it to life I replied, “Pipe it through to here.”
There was a flash and then Admiral Tigrat’s very angry face showed on the view screen. “Captain Graves, if you do not place her refrigeration couch on a short space pod and have it on its way back I will declare you an enemy of the fleet. You have twelve hours to comply.”
From behind me I heard Mighty Mouse clear her throat. “May I answer him?”
I didn’t see what it would hurt so I nodded and stepped out of the way.
Millany stepped up to the console and started the record button. “Admiral Tigrat, I am so happy to meet you. Let me first be so kind as to answer your request for my presence on earth. FUCK OFF! Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I would like you to know I intend to have all these communications sent to every law firm on earth. I am sure one of them would be very pleased to bring legal actions against you on my behalf. Especially when I tell them they can keep one hundred percent of the gains. I am a civilian and as such am not under military jurisdiction. In other words your commands mean as much to me as the instructions on a box of toothpicks. Now, I request that you please be so kind, as to trim that grotesque mustache before you send another message. It looks like you have a caterpillar fucking your nose. Thank you in advance for not offending my young eyes anymore.” She then stopped the recording while I busted up laughing.
I stepped up to the com panel. “Bridge, Please be so kind as to send copies of these communications to all law firms as well as newspapers on earth. Also send it as a private message to Lieutenant William Carnal with JAG.”
I thumbed off the com unit and headed for the shower. “Mighty Mouse, you might want to go get showered and dressed for the day. Unless I miss my guess we will be ready to fire up the generators in about thirty minutes. Go get ready and meet me in the med bay.”
—–
“Okay, this is what we are going to do. Jazz Hands is going to bring the generators on line at low power. Once they are operating if you feel anything happening let me know so he can shut them down again.” I looked down at Mighty Mouse lying on the med couch.
“Yes, Sir, it may take a few moments for me to make adjustments in my headband. Give me one minute before you panic.” She lay back and closed her eyes.
I walked over to the com unit and punched up engineering. “Jazz Hands, we are a go, bring bank one online.” I walked back over to the couch leaving the com line open.
It came on like something had hit the ship. There was a shuddering and that whole craft seemed to lurch to one side. I watched Mighty Mouse reach up and touch the side of her headband. The ship started to vibrate badly. Then there was a lurch that slammed me to the floor. “Jazz Hands!” I shouted over the din. Then everything was quiet. “Is the generator still running?”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Bring it up slowly to ten percent.”
There were minor vibrations from the ship. Mighty Mouse continued to touch the side of her head band. When everything was quiet again, I called out, “twenty percent.”
The vibrations were much softer this time. We repeated this till the generators were operating at one hundred percent. “Okay, Jazz Hands, get damage control crews out and give me a ship status in one hour. We will start the engines tomorrow.”
After I closed the com channel I moved back over to the med couch. “Mighty Mouse, I have thought of a potential problem and I would like your input.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“First I would like to ask you to call me Pig. That is my call sign for the crew. They gave it to me because of my initials. Now, for the problem, what happens if that headband comes off in your sleep?”
“I am going to have Melons use surgical glue to affix it to my head for right now. Once we have the settings correct, I will design a permanent implant version of it.”
“What if it needs adjustments after it is implanted?”
“I will be able to adjust it using telekinesis.”
“What if you are unconscious and it needs adjustment.”
“I will make an adjustment tool that Melons can use to adjust it in emergencies and teach her how to read and adjust it.”
One of these days I was going to get used to having a genius on the ship. That wasn’t today though. “You have already thought all this through haven’t you?”
“Yup.”
“One last question, do you think the pulse drives will affect you?”
“I don’t think so. They don’t work on the Roberts principal. They are an ion thrust systems.”
—–
We were on the move again. Yes we were traveling sub light speeds but at least we weren’t sitting still. I was sitting in my chair daydreaming about the exciting life of being a ships captain. Really fucking exciting it turned out to be. It was moments of extreme panic, broken up by weeks of endless boredom. As I mused, a bright flash passed by the ship and a point of light traveled out to explode some distance in front of us. What the hell! That was a torpedo.
“Pig, we have an incoming communication from the UPS Darwin.” Phone Call called out from her station at communications.
“Put it on screen.”
A face swam into view on the view screen. “Captain Graves, This is Captain Richards of the Darwin. You are hereby notified you are under orders to turn MD Roberts over to our custody for transport back to Earth. In ten minutes we will open fire.” Then before I could even respond the screen went black.
I turned to Mighty Mouse sitting at the science station. She was hooking a wire from her headband to the console. “Mighty Mouse, I have to have full power to have a chance of fighting them.”
“Fire up the engines now.”
I slapped the com unit on my chair. “Jazz Hands, emergency start the engines. I need full power now.”
“Sir we will…”
“Now! Fire up those fucking engines or we are all going to be needing gravestones.”
A minute later the ship lurched and started shaking like it was in a tornado. Then Mighty Mouse screamed and fell limp in her chair. I ran to her and was getting ready to tell jazz hands to cut the engines. I looked up at the view screen for her station. I was looking through her eyes but she was not on the bridge. She was running through the ship towards the shuttle bays.
“What is she doing?” Marijuana asked from beside me.
“I have no idea. She has nine minutes to get it done though.” I touched the com panel again, Tactical teams, report to weapons fire stations. Security, get armed and ready to repel boarders. Medical, prepare for casualties. We are now under war status. Keep all lines of communications open. Engineering, we are going to need everything we have, get all the backups online now.”
I looked back at the screen. Mighty Mouse had made it to the shuttle bay. I watched as she ran towards the door and then jumped through the force field into space. Oh god! She had leapt out without a space suit, what the hell was she doing? Then it hit me, she was out of body. She did not need a space suit. I watched as she seemed to fall behind the ship and then I saw it. The Darwin was closing on us like a shark.
Reports started coming in people were in battle positions. We had seven minutes before they would open fire. The Darwin was sent out six years before us. It was designed to give its crew the best chance for survival. She had three times our armor and five times our weapons. In a straight fight we would be toast before the Darwin even felt it.
I looked at the clock, we were as ready as we were ever going to be and still had three minutes left. I looked over to the view screen. Mouse had made contact with the Darwin. She just walked right through the hull and was in the ship. She was now moving towards engineering. “Mighty Mouse, I don’t know if you can hear me. That ship has a major vulnerability. There is a single cable conduit in engineering that all weapons and engine control is routed through. If you can somehow damage that we have a chance of getting away.”
For some reason Might Mouse dodged into one of the crew quarters. There she picked up a marking pen off of the desk and wrote on top of the desk, “Show me where.” Then she continued running towards engineering.
As I was describing the conduit and where it could be found, Mighty Mouse stopped in front of a door that said security on it. She stepped through the door and started to poke her face into cabinets. She found what she was looking for and passed her hand through the cabinet lock. The door popped open as if it had not been locked. From the cabinet she pulled two Pulse Impact Grenades. Those would damage the conduit for sure.
“Sir the Darwin is closing to firing position.” Mountain said from the tactical station.
I needed to buy Mighty Mouse some time. How could I get them off my back long enough? “Phone Call, open a channel to the Darwin.”
I stepped in front of the main view screen. “Captain Richards, This is Captain Graves of the Ticonderoga. I regret to inform you that Admiral Tigrat has been arrested on charges of treason by high command. All ships are required to report their orders from Admiral Tigrat to UP investigations. Any ship acting on his orders without clearing them first is to be considered rogue.” I then motioned for the channel to be closed. Two could play the I-am-not-waiting-for-a-reply game.
I looked back at the science console. Mighty Mouse was in the engineering section. “To the left is the conduit set. It is the largest conduit in that group.” I watched as she moved over and dropped one of the grenades in the midst of the conduits. Five seconds later the engineering section of the ship was rocked by an explosion. Mighty mouse looked back at the mess she had made. All of the conduits were bent and broken. It would take days to fix that mess.
“Sir, the Darwin is adrift in space and spinning out of control.” Mountain reported from the tactical station.
“Have Pot Shot, target their attitude control jets and fire.”
Mighty Mouse had entered one of the drive engines. She was currently in an environment no human could survive even for an instant. I watched her crawl through the access ways until she reached the engine drive core. There she dropped the second grenade. As she crawled back out the ship was rocked by a second explosion. In the flash of an instant the Darwin was permanently crippled. With one of her two drives offline beyond repair she would need a dry dock. The best they could do in space was, getting themselves underway on one drive. That meant half speed. Now we could outrun them with our eyes closed.
“Phone Call, open a channel to the Darwin again.”
Once again I stepped into the view of the view screen. “Captain Richards, You ship is crippled and is days away from moving under it own power again. I would suggest you cease hostilities before we take out your life support system.”
“Damn it, Phillip! What the hell have you done to my ship?!”
“I have used a weapon at my disposal to take out your systems. Now are you ready to talk or do we target your life support?”
“I am just following orders from admiral Tigrat. He said high command wants MD Roberts back on earth as soon as possible.”
“She is a civilian and chooses not to go. High command has no authority over her. Under your current condition you can limp home in four years. Or you can continue hostilities and we can take your ship apart, deck plate by deck plate. It is decision time captain.”
“We surrender; just quit hitting us with that weapon.”
“We are calling our weapon off. We will send teams over to help with your repairs. If you would be so kind as to bring your wife over and join us for dinner tonight you can meet with Miss Roberts yourself and verify that she wishes to stay.”
After we had made arrangements for the captain and his wife to join us I closed the channel. “Jazz Hands, Drop engine power to ten percent and standby for the shaking. Tactical keep weapons trained on that ship but stand down from war status.”
I moved back to Mighty Mouse. “We have the engines at ten percent you should be able to come back and make your adjustments now.” Within second the ship started to vibrate. Mighty Mouse’s hand moved to the side of her headband and the vibrations quieted down. Over the next ten minutes we brought the engines to full power and she adjusted each step.
—–
It had been two weeks since we completed the repairs on the Darwin. Mighty Mouse had managed to help us build a new engine core for them. They were at full functionality when they left. Captain Richards was impressed with Miss Roberts. The very fact that she could use spare parts and the energy solidifier to create everything needed was amazing. Then to be able to assemble it inside the core shielding itself flattened him. By the time he left he figured out she was our new weapon.
I looked down at her asleep on the med couch. Her new implant was in place it rested just under the skin at her right temple. There were three small lights and a connection port visible above the skin other than that she looked completely normal. Melons had even done the final adjustments while she was asleep.
I was a little worried, in two weeks we had not been contacted by Admiral Tigrat or high command. By now he had probably convinced high command that we had gone rogue. We could have every ship within a years travel looking for us.
On the couch, Mighty Mouse started to stir. She hugged her dolls to her chest and her eyes opened. “I guess it worked?” were the first words out of her mouth.
“Did you have doubts?”
“Lots of them.”
“I wish you had told me before we did the procedure.”
“If I did that, you would not have let it happen.” She smiled that little girl smile at me that had come to melt my heart. “Has the other system I designed been placed into the communications system?”
“Yes they finished the installation during your surgery. Are you sure it will work?”
“Well it will either work or cause a time space inversion causing all of time and space to collapse into a singularity.” When she saw the panic in my eyes she started to laugh. “I am teasing you, it will work just fine. Why don’t you hand me my clothes and we can go to the bridge and try it.”
I handed her the clothing and stepped out of the room so Melons could help her dress. Five minutes later we walked onto the bridge. “Phone Call, fire up the, new com system and open a channel to High command.
I stepped in front of the view screen. “High Command, this is Captain Graves of the Ticonderoga, I need to speak with the duty commander please.” I said when the face of a female officer swam into view. I waited for a few seconds while she sat there waiting.
The communications officer turned to someone on the side and said softly. “What is he waiting for? He knows these messages need to be short.”
“I am waiting for you to get the duty commander so I can speak with him.”
The woman squeaked when I answered her. “You can hear me?”
“Of course I can hear you, now will you please get the duty commander.”
The woman jumped to her feet and ran out of range of the view screen. As I waited the person in the chair next to her leaned over and stared at me for a moment so I jumped at the camera and screamed “Boo!” at the top of my lungs. She jumped away from the screen screaming at the top of her lungs. I could hear snippets of conversation going on in the background. Then a man sat down I did not recognize.
“Captain Graves, I am Rear Admiral Westmorland. I was under the impression you were out deep, not close enough to drop by instant communications range.”
“Sir, I and my crew are still very deep six. It seems my latest crew member may well be able to help us in ways I never thought possible. The system we are using to talk is initiated with a new punch generator she has developed that creates a micro wormhole in short space. It allows instant communications. Another device of her design allows Psionics to operate on spacecraft. She has authorized me to transmit these plans to you under the condition that she be allowed to remain unmolested with our crew.”
“May I please speak with Miss Roberts?”
Mighty Mouse stepped to my side and looked into the views screen. “Yes, sir.”
“Miss Roberts, High command did not authorize any attack or attempt to force you home. When we found out that you were alive we asked Admiral Tigrat to request your presence here on Earth. We have a problem that we hoped you would be able to help us fix. We have reached the end of our ability to understand and expand on the Roberts principle. All of our upgrades have come from accidental discoveries because we do not truly understand how it works.”
“I can help them work on it from here, we have weeks at a time that all we are doing is traveling. Transmit all the current data to me and I will be happy to look it over.”
“Thank you. We are happy to have you back. Captain Graves, she is to be accorded all honors while on you ship. I also need to inform you that Admiral Tigrat is no longer in charge of the Deep program. It seems he had some personal issues driving him to select forced crews. Did you really get caught sleeping…”
“Yes, Sir, I am afraid I did. I usually don’t get caught,” I interrupted him. “May I ask what is the admiral charged with?”
“He has not been charged with anything. High Command decided his talents were better suited to the cargo fleet.”
“Thank you, Sir. We have one other demonstration we would like to give you. It is a demonstration of the value of having a psionic onboard a ship.” I held up the headband that used to grace Mighty Mouse’s brow. “This is the prototype for the implant that Miss Roberts now wears. It is very useful for short term use but has a chance of coming off and causing problems.” I then nodded to Mighty mouse and she touched her temple. I could feel the ship start to vibrate slightly and then the band disappeared from my hand to appear sitting on the console in front of the Rear Admiral. Then the vibrations stopped as Mighty Mouse retuned her band to block out the energy from the engines. “We are sending it to you so that you can use it to start testing psionics for ship service.”
“How the fucking hell did you do that?!” The Rear Admiral yelled as he reached for the band.
“It seems that the feedback caused by the engines super charges the psionic. The amount of power can be so great they can teleport small objects. Mighty Mouse just used that feedback to teleport her headband, through the wormhole, to you.” I smiled as he looked at Mighty Mouse standing next to me.
“Mighty Mouse?”
“It is my call sign onboard ship, Sir.”
“Miss Roberts, I would like to personally welcome you to the crew of the Ticonderoga. We will get your communications enhancements in place and set up a conference with all of high command in two weeks.”
We closed the channel and I scooped Mighty Mouse up into a hug. “You did great. You do realize we are going to have to explain to them why the feedback from your colony ship did not kill you in transit.”
“Not ‘till they ask. Now, Captain, I believe I am scheduled to study Tactical today and you are stopping me from my duties.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” I said as I let her go. As she walked away I thought to myself, “That young lady has just changed the face of space travel forever, again.”
I sat down in my chair and read through the reports for the last shift. Something caught my eye about a nearby planet that was showing some unusual readings. “Computer, could you please call up all data on the planet located last night.”
“Yes, oh powerful Master, I will get them for you immediately.”
I slapped the com unit on my chair. “Jazz Hands!”