Angels´ Fall – part 1

09-12-2012

He walked back to the closet to get himself some clothes, he was still, a little underdressed to go and face his crew this way. Equipped with only a pair of boxers and socks he would look quite interesting. I wondered what would happen. I couldn’t help but chuckle a little. He zipped up his shirt and raised himself into some pants. A lot more presentable person appeared in the mirror. “Lookin´good” he told himself while staring at his reflection. Neat and ready for another day at the office. So he activated the door panel and took his uniform jacket from the peg and made his way to the briefing room. He walked down the hallway to the front of the space ship along the pipes that transferred all kinds of supplies throughout the vessel. Water; hot and warm; electricity, gasses and fuel for the backup generators. Also data was send trough cables since they were less likely to be hacked into while in battle. Cyber warfare was one of the many concerns  while in combat. If your weapons got hacked into, or your shields were turned off for just a second, the odds of your survival would be diminished. Servers worked around the clock on high speeds to keep up the firewalls and counterattack the hackers. The best way of defense is an attack of your own. It kept the enemy´s servers busy  with defending their own firewalls so that their own attacks would be minimal. Also jamming communications by sending large amounts random messages was effective. Especially when the attacker´s computers were superior then yours. But with no one in sight and radio signals far slower then light speed, servers were mostly on standby while traveling at speeds faster than light.

The blast doors opened before me and I walked up the steps toward the holographic display table. I observed the numbers displayed on the screen and concluded not much had changed but the time remaining until arrival. We were only a few hours away to our destination. “Good morning sir, would you like a cup of coffee?” my assistant asked. She was gorgeous. She had long brown hairs with a soft but appealing curve at the end. The hair fall almost as far as her chest. The volume was terrific. It rivaled most advertisement  women whom were used to popularize certain shampoos. Her face was round and her cheeks almost always seem to blush. A sharp nose and sparkly blue eyes completed the picture. The rest of her body wasn’t that bad either, if you catch my drift. And just about ten centimeters shorter than I was. She smiled at me and waited for an answer. I quickly recovered and nodded politely. Her smile grew and she flowed off to the coffee machine which held just enough coffee for one full sized mug. The mugs were great, they held just enough coffee to get trough the morning and the handle was perfectly fit for all your four fingers. Also, it was long enough so your fingers wouldn’t touch the hot ceramic. Finally the edge was just thick enough for your lip to rest on, but not be uncomfortable when drinking. Pure genius in design and ergonomics.

Mandy came back with the generously filled cup and a data panel. We went over all the changes and events that transpired while I was asleep and addressed any issues or query’s that weren’t of the utmost concern. These were handled immediately and personally by me, which gave them the right to wake me and sometimes enter my personal room. But mostly they were capable enough to handle things themselves. These were the most skilled personal in the world, I was just there to make the call, keep oversight and give direction.

”We made all the preparations necessary to exit the space jump. Weapons have started to charge and are ready for any hostility we might find on the other side. We calibrated everything in advance so that we don´t have to when we are in battle. Long range scanners detect nothing so far and we have seventy present of the crew on their stations, the other thirty present is already alerted and on standby until arrival. Power plan focus is switched to engines, shields and weapons when close to deceleration. The rest is normal and we are on schedule as far as travel is concerned. Sir” she drummed up.

“Good work men, good to hear. Well done Mandy, and crew.” I replied.

“Thank you sir!” the crew shouted.

“Lets go over the plan one more time, just to be safe.” I shifted my attention back to my assistant, and turned towards the holographic display. “As the galaxy map told us, we are now here and over exactly one hour and twenty minutes we will arrive at this location. About ten kilometers away from the planets atmosphere. Upon exit we will automatically switch to evasive maneuvers and activate shields, weapons and fully thrust forward. Accept when we face a blockade scenario. At that point we will make a U-turn and retreat till we have reached a safe distance and time to think about an alternative strategy. When we find no hostility or life at all we will enter the planet as planned. Scan for life and civilization and discuss further actions. And I want the whole crew on their assigned stations at all times Understood?”

“Yes I understand commander.” she replied while she checked upon the schedule . And nodded to confirm everything was still as they had planned in advance.

“You are dismissed Mandy, see you at exit.”

“Yes sir!” and she run off to her station which was located near the missile command. She had her own computer to manage schedules and received messages towards me. She also was in charge of keeping me informed with all information necessary to do my job. She gathered reports digitally and asked around for detailed information. But she mostly just chatted with the crew, which also gave me a pretty good insight in what was going on. Of course in addition to the info the psychologist gave me. But that was besides the point. I liked her a lot, and a bit to much for my taste. What was even worse is that I knew that she felt the same way, and knew of my history with Shell. She often tried to make a conversation change to other subjects, but I allowed that only to a certain extent. I didn’t want to give her the wrong idea. But somehow she didn’t mind and kept trying, trough very subtle. Maybe it was all just a game to her, but I got the feeling she had other intentions than just a friendly relationship.  Well it wasn’t the time to figure these kinds of things out anyway. I had, in fact, more pressing matters to attend and I walked toward the tube shaped ladder that led to the cockpit.

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