For almost a year now the Apahanta was being a decorative element to the Omicron Kappa system, having left it only very rarely. Mostly hidden in the Peloponnese Cloud, the Mako was often moored with Livadia, disappearing when anything Core-related showed up with the help of its cloaking device. Only the population of Corinth and Livadia and a few selected individuals knew about the stray Mako and kept the secret rather well. They were all sitting in the same boat, after all. With the support of the Confederation of Freeports, approved by the very Finn McCool himself, Livadia and the Apahanta shared their ressources. The one being able to maintain the light battleships, providing it with food, fuel and other important commodities, while the Apahanta's presence ensured in many cases the peace in the area around the shipyard. Corinth received a few samples of the equipment produced on the warship, happily analyzing and reverse-engineering it as much as possible. Not much, actually. Core EVA suits, an array of sidearms, nano repair drones, medical equipment and replacement parts for the warship. Later, a bunch of deliveries done by Ezrael's fanatic friend, Sombra Hookier, imported some rather luxury commodities from Curacao and Bretonia, which were shared with Livadia and Corinth. Not much, but enough to maintain a healthy relationship with those two stations, which were frequently visited by the Apahanta's crew. Especially Corinth, as the little promenade deck of the station was a welcoming change of atmosphere for everyone in Kappa, given most of the time people were looking out of the window to see a thick green cloud of radiation and aliens outside of the hull.
Because this view was incredibly boring, frustrating and reminding people of the terrors of the Edge Worlds, Sherry Aguilar, the second-in-command on the Apahanta, decided to use the holo-windows of her room next to the bridge to show the skyline of her home city, Los Dragos on Gran Canaria, in the nightsky. It looked realistic enough to make it feel like her room on the Apahanta was an apartment in one of those skyscrapers. When her working day was over, she used to sit down on her couch, enjoying the view, knowing she had no reason to return home, as her family thought she died when the Apahanta defected. That was what the Core told them, as they didn't know better. With only one exception, Cordelia Lyell and whoever the devil decided to share the truth with.
On the bridge, Sherry was not Sherry. Whenever the crew was around, she was not Sherry. She was Commander Aguilar. The crew respected her, which was why she was in this leading position. And nobody else was able to do it the way she did, as she was handling the crew, the ship, the Livadians and the Apahanta's Captain, Ezrael Vertiga, without allowing any weakness shown by her. But then there were the moments when she entered her room, being alone. Being Sherry.
This time, in the late evening, she was not alone. Her lounger was occupied by the Captain, who lay on it, spooning her as they idly watched what the holo-windows showed them. The back of her head was at his shoulder, her hands on his hands on her belly. There was a slight blush on her cheeks, which was something never happened during her time as Commander. These times with Ezrael were mostly the only times she allowed someone to get close to her.
"How do you feel?", his calming voice sounded behind her head, after a long moment of silence. He knew perfectly well how much she isolated herself from the crew. Something he himself never did.
"I feel alright, I think," she gave him back, in an unusual lame sounding voice. "I'm fine."
"How was your day?" he asked her with a hand stroking her athletic belly. The fact they were both still wearing their uniforms made it less sensual, especially as their hands were still gloved.
"My day was okay. No events worthy to be mentioned. Nothing memorable. It's nice to have you on the ship, the crew is more motivated to do the daily workout," she replied, refering to a certain group of women. He knew what she was talking about. It made him smirk slightly.
"Are you satisfied?" he asked her, and she blushed even more for a moment, looking at his hands at her belly.
"What do you mean?" It was evident she was insecure about his question.
"With how things currently are. If you're unhappy with something, you should tell your Captain," he explained, moving a hand away from her belly to stroke along her arm.
"You know the things I'm not happy about," she gave him back, feeling relief about the turn of the conversation.
"I do. But tell me about how you feel right now about things."
It made her sigh inwardly. To her, it was obvious what he was doing, and he probably knew himself very well she was aware of her knowing it. It was his way of counseling her. Adjusting her head a little at his chest, she looked to the side, seeing a bit of his upper body and his arm. "We're testing the cloak over and over again. It works perfectly fine. Yet we're still here in Kappa, and I just want to leave this place. Omega-49, Omega-3, Bretonia, Cortez, Baffin, any place is better than this here. It gives me headache every time I look outside. But no, we still stay here and test the cloak in all possible scenarios. While the Captain isn't around very often. I sometimes feel like this is my ship, and I just can't do what I'd want to," she explained, knowing he knew her opinion, as she had voiced it often enough during those sessions. "I often think about what I gave up when I joined your defection. I probably would be Sentinel by now," she said, knowing she had the qualities of that rank.
"You'd be Guildkeeper by now, maybe even Guildmistress, if you'd have no issue with sending people into their avoidable death," he gave her back, his arm at her belly slinging more around her. "What would you do if you were to fully command this ship?"
"Looking at it from a romantic perspective, I'd have formed a battlegroup, established a public presence, recruitment, maybe even offered my services to Liberty. It's a warship, and there are many wars. Someone surely would need us," she explained, turning on her side, slinging her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek against his chest. "When I joined the Core, I was willing to fight someone else's wars as long as I was in command. Now I am sort of in command, but I don't have a war. Makes me think I wasted a year of my time, somehow."
"But?"
"But looking at it from a realistic perspective, we're doing better than anyone else in Sirius, I guess. We took a battleship away from mad people who only cause harm for the sake of profit and egozentrism and corruption. I could be Guildkeeper now, but I'd be Guildkeeper of barbarians and soulless hunters. I could command a warship in their name and slaughter innocent or give the nomads more reasons to attack Sirius without ever fully going against them." She looked down at his belly, letting a hand slide over it to feel the shapes. "Fighting someone else's wars is stupid. I know that now. I wouldn't benefit from joining the Navy or anything else. I don't have the means to maintain the Apahanta. I'm pretty sure I would have been forced to sell or scrap it. Thus I am content with you being the Captain. It is good we don't have to fight, and it is good you try and keep us away from trouble. The only bad thing about it is that my potential as Commander isn't blooming here. And that you're so often away," she added, looking up again, keeping her hand her his belly.
"But when we're done here in Kappa, we are very likely to fight," Ezrael reminded her, moving a strand of hair away from her cheek. "We have Bretonia's and Crayter's approval to move through their space. Next thing will be Liberty. We won't get a permanent permission to move through Liberty, but at least for Cortez. Meaning we will fight Gallic Invaders. Your potential will be needed there. You might think your talent was wasted so far, but in fact it wasn't, as a good commander prepares crew and ship for the fight. We're still lacking a major part of a full ship's crew, the Kishiro robots are currently filling the gap. Our human crew however needs the training you provide them."
"We."
"Right. It'll be only a few more test runs, Sherry. You'll have your war to fight very soon. And I need you for that. Both as commander and loyal friend."
The latter made her blush slightly. "Ship, crew and commander will be prepared for that, Captain." Adjusting her head at his chest, her cheek gently rubbed against the cloth covering him. His deodorant smelled fruity, as usual. "What about Nancy Sweetwater, by the way? Will she return to the ship?"
"No. Bretonia doesn't like her, so I have to use her somewhere else. She also isn't healthy enough be helpful when we're fighting Gallia. I can't risk her getting killed."
"Our chief engineer wouldn't like that, I guess."
"No, he wouldn't like that. In fact, I'll tell Lindsay to have a bit counseling with him," Ezrael said, scooting a bit more into the horizontal with Sherry laying on him.
"Counseling like this?" she asked him, smiling up at his face, getting a bit closer to it.
Smirking down at her for a moment, he turned his head away just wide enough to not invite her to come closer. "No. The rather classic and professional version of it. I'd be surprised if Lindsay would do it like this," he gave her back, obviously amused. "Get some rest, Sherry, the combat cloak scenario will need your full focus tomorrow."
Raising her head, she pecked his cheek for a second, then scooted off him, standing up. "See you tomorrow then, Captain," she said, this way signaling him to leave as he already stood up.
5 AM. The holo windows in Ezrael's room were darkened out, yet still showing the many different views of his battleship, both a blueprint view with glowing dots to indicate the position of each crewman as well as live feeds of the most important rooms on the ship. Hydroponics, bridge, engine room, workshop, even the canteen. That was were he was going soon. However, right now he was sleeping in his small bed. The furniture of his personal quarter on the Apahanta was still the same from the very moment he took the command of the ship. A small military bed, comfortable enough to get rest on it, yet nothing in comparison to his harem bed on the Hoffnungsschimmer, which reached from one end of the room to the other, allowing more than twenty people to sleep on. Nothing in this room was anything compared to the luxury he had on the Corvo or on Curacao or on the Little Blue, his Dorado. On the Apahanta, he forced himself not to be a billionaire. Here, he was the captain.
"Good morning, Captain," the synthetic voice of the Apahanta's AI sounded through the room's speakers while the lights turned on, the holo windows started to glow at full capacity and one of his favourite rock soundtracks started playing. He lay on his back, the blanket somehow managed to roll up to a sausage, barely covering his body. Only his lower body and his thighs, while the rest of the blanket was hanging down at both sides of the bed, left and right. Opening his eyes slowly, he quickly decided to press the eyelids of one of them together again. Too bright. There were eye rings, and together with the stubbles of a five o'clock shadow, they were actually making him looking as old as he was, thirty-two. "You slept only four hours, Captain. Please ensure you get enough sleep to compensate the current lack. Your body needs at least eight hours of sleep per day to rejuvenate from stress," the Apahanta's synthetic voice sounded, reminding him of his only health issue. And each time he got reminded of it, he had to think back on how he passed out on the Eidolon Wraith, embarassing himself infront ot Joshua Hunt and the Auxesians. He knew exactly where the stress came from, but he loved her. Maren.
"Rejuvenate my dick," the Captain gave back mourning, not thinking about how the Apahanta's AI was browing it's internal library, and after it, the neural net, to find a way to do as the Captain requested. Short time later, the ship's doctor, Adrianna Carr, would receive a medical request from the Apahanta on her PDA, asking for blue pills. "Status?", Ezrael asked with a little bit of a more clear voice while covering half of his face with his arm, angling the elbow at his forehead.
"All systems nominal. The crew is waking up. Today's breakfast is now getting prepared. Fruit Salad, based on Curacaoan fruits. As you requested, Captain. No new messages. Cloak-to-Arclight-test is scheduled for 13 o'clock in the early afternoon, approximately eight hours from now. Chief Engineer Leon Isley's departure is scheduled for 10 o'clock in the morning," the Apahanta informed him. "Please stand up now, Captain. You need to shower."
"No you," he replied, confusing the AI into the believe of the ship's hull being unclean. Which was the case, given they were in the Peloponnese Nebula for a very long time, and the outer hull was slightly radioactive thanks to the Omicron Kappa phenomena.
"Ship hull depolarized," the AI informed him, actually having done it. It made Ezrael laugh and stand up, the blanket falling down. Stretching his body, he yawned, then looked down at himself. Before the shower he would definitely need to pee.
It was the canteen, a very clean room. Five people were already here as Ezrael entered, showered, shaved and ready to be the Captain. He remained at the entrance for a moment, taking in the view. Commander Aguilar was there, sitting as usual with the wall to her back, the only person on her side of the table while the other four people sat infront of her on the other side, all of them waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive for breakfast. They had their pots of coffee infront of them, and while Sherry was hiding it very successfully, all of them needed the coffee without a doubt. Smirking at his crew, he moved over to the counter to fetch his morning tea from the Kishiro Service Robot which already prepared it. Two other KSRs were busy cutting fruits from Curacao.
Holding the warming cup in his gloved hands, he leaned his back against the counter, looking over to his crew, and mostly Sherry. She was definitely the most solid and character-strong person he knew, at least from her appearance. There was a time where he wasn't sure if she was trustworthy. In the end, it was the Core-Zoner-Conflict that made her pledge her loyalty to him, as she was a Gran Canarian. Before that, she was intransparent, although she was one of the very first people Ezrael met during his time with the Core. Thinking about it, it made him smile at her.
Yaren, evening. The dayshift patrols were over and many pilots returned to the base, boasting about their accomplishments. Back in those days, Core was at peace with Freeport 11. In fact, they fought together with Zoners against the invading nomad forces. It were the very early days of Ezrael in the Core. Not many people knew him, just a bunch of people who either were rebuilding the Apahanta at Alabama or the people he used to work out with on Yaren or Durban. The CV-Eclipse, the former CV-Hoffnungsschimmer, was often moving between Rho and Delta back then.
Sherry was there, entering the bar in her typical way, showing invincibility by not having any clearly readible expression on her face while walking up to the counter. Ordering a sidewinder fang, she leaned her back against the counter, looking around. It was loud, crowded, dominated by men of all houses. It was difficult to get an oversight from this position, so she tried to find another spot for herself. And she was lucky, as three people were just leaving their table. She turned back to the bar counter to fetch her drink, and turned around again, accidentally bumping into a man by doing so. Surprised, she spilled the sidewinder fang all over his lower body. She saw it happen, way to quickly. The drink soaking the black pants of this guy, an entire leg of sidewinder fang. The neutral expression on her face slowly changed to an overwhelmed one as she looked up at the man. Green eyes, a scar on the flawless face, long black hair. He didn't wear a Core uniform, but a black T-shirt and a leather jacket, and now sidewinder fang-soaked black jeans. It looked very out of place. "Ouh, I'm sorry..."
"Bartender, this woman needs a new drink, and I need new pants," he said, obviously in an amused tone before looking at her, smirking. "Don't worry. I never left a bar without at least one person spilling their drink all over me." It made her smirk at him.
Back on the Apahanta, the innocent talk at the table was disrupted and Sherry's pokerface perfectly hid the Oh no in her mind as they heard the sounds of tables and benches getting pushed. They looked over at Ezrael, watching him moving the benches away from the tables, over to the walls. "Captain?" Sherry asked him, wanting him to explain himself.
"We're a small crew, so I'd prefer to have everyone sitting at one big table instead of many small ones," he explained, carrying another bench to the wall. "Feel free to help me. Two rows, one big table." And thus they stood up, doing as the Captain said. Two minutes later, they ended up with one big table and the benches around, the superfluous benches at the wall. "Way better," he commented satisfied, then got his cup of tee from the counter, sitting down next to Sherry after it. They were sitting at the head of the big table row. "Makes it way more personal, don't you agree?"
Being a fan of having a respectful distance to the crew, she gave him an expressionless stare for a moment, just to get his charming smirk from him. He knew perfectly well she didn't like it that way, but then again, she was the commander of crew of 23 people and 380 Kishiro Service Robots. The crew admittedly was sort of a family. There was a short moment when her expression indicated a slight smirk on her lips, before she rose her cup of coffee to her mouth, taking a sip. It was enough of a reaction to him, though, and his look moved over to the crew, who had observed the silent scene between Captain and Commander. It made them smile.
It was Leon's room on the Apahanta. He still never got to decorate it. The room was just functional, although it had, other than Ezrael's room, a big bed, as he got him and Nancy this one when she was sharing the room with him. There was a journey bag on the bed, Leon was currently preparing it for a trip. "You're the Chief Engineer, that's something you need to know better than me," Ezrael said quietly, smirking at him while stood at the wall next to the door, watching him doing. "Have your fun with Nancy and as soon as you two are done, come back here. I just want to know my Chief Engineer is around when we do the tests."
"I see. I guess then I'll be back tomorrow in the afternoon?" Leon offered, wanting to hear if that was alright while stuffing a staple of clothes into the journey bag. "I mean, IRG double-checked everything, we double-checked everything. The previous tests were all successful. Everything will be fine," he explained.
"I'm not worried. What are your plans with Nancy? Hotel?" Ezrael asked, grinning at Leon, knowing when he and Nancy came together it would result in a big bang of a non-cosmical kind. "Remember the lube."
"We didn't make any plans yet. But I guess it'll be something along those lines. A nice evening together, a hot night, and then I won't see her for another bunch of weeks. But at least she's happy about her new job." Zipping up the bag, he turned around, looking at his mentor. Knowing he was about to say something, he answered it already. "I'd prefer having her here, yes. I know why we can't. Still a shame. And are there any news from Bretonia?"
"No. Nothing since the report I filed about the jump holes. Will need to create a catalogue about it, tho. No special operations so far, nothing scheduled. Good for us, bad for Nancy," Ezrael told him, a bit more serious. "You're ready to go?"
"Yes."
"Well, then don't waste your time here and get to the liner before they start without you," Ezrael told him, refering to the heavy armed convoy that was about to leave Livadia, heading over to Corinth, then Freeport 9, Freeport 5, Freeport 1 and then Gran Canaria, where Leon would meet Nancy. "Give her a slap on the butt from me," he added, smirking before hugging his best friend. "Remember to get some wine when you come back. Sombra brings the next supplies in a week."
"Will do," Leon simply replied, breaking the hug to get his journey bag. "Don't blow up the ship while I'm away."
"I'm usually on the receiving end of the blowy", the Captain gave him back, leaving the room with him. "Have a good one!" And with that, their ways split, with Ezrael heading for the bridge and Leon to the airlocks. A big passanger liner and a pilgrim liner were moored with Livadia, escorted by a wing of heavy fighters, a gunboat and an Aquilon carrier. Leon always felt more comfortable joining those convoys than using his own ship. Space still was a deathtrap to him, a horror he learned to live with. However, it was worth it. Thinking about Nancy and how they would spend the day together, he couldn't help himself but to smile.
While the Zoner convoy had departed hours ago, it was time for the next test on the Apahanta. The new cloak upgrade by the IRG was working perfectly well, and the Apahanta was able to cloak for an indefinite amount of time. The longest time thus far was three entire days, which was more than enough to stay hidden somewhere, spy, scout, move through a house or leave a battlefield. The charge-up tests were also successful, as thanks to the IRG AI add-on for the Apahanta, the cloaking device was charging within nominal parameters even when started multiple times after another, as for example, when a cruise disruption field hit the cloak. This test about about the energy diversion from cloaking device to weaponry after decloaking.
The bridge was almost empty, with only Sherry and Ezrael here, together with Kishiro Service Robots to replace the other bridge officers. As usual, the ship was sort of evacuated for the test series, shrinking the crew from 23 to eight people who were absolutely necessary. The others were on Livadia, with the exception of the Chief Engineer, who by the time was with the Zoner convoy in Omega-3. "You know, you don't need to be here, Sherry. It's bad when in case of the ship blowing up both the Captain and the Commander die," Ezrael said, standing behind the Captain's seat, leaning against the backrest with the arms folded ontop of it while looking over at Sherry in the seat next to his. She was monitoring the systems, triple-checking everything on the various screens all over the bridge and at the console very next to her seat. He knew everything was alright, as everyone else also had triple-checked everything, as well as the Apahanta itself via various diagnosis systems. Even the IRG personnel triple-checked everything. He was relaxed. It would be fine, as usual. To a certain degree, he liked the idea of this upgrade being Finn McCool's legacy, as he was the one approving and initiating all of this, as well as providing shelter and immunity for the Apahanta. Ezrael owed him much, yet from what he had heard, McCool was dead, killed by the Core. He never got to get drunk with McCool. One thing he had on his To-Do-List. In the perfect scenario, he also wanted Maria Calvo and James El Harady with them as well, just to watch a bunch of brilliant heads getting shitfaced.
"If the ship blows up, I wouldn't have anything to command left," Sherry gave him back, smirking slightly while typing on the console at the armrest. "Apart from that, in a case of emergency, I should be on my ship and try everything to fix it," she added before raising her head to look at him for a moment. "You know more about biology, I know more about engineering, Captain."
"I know about biological engineering," he replied, grinning. "Wait, your ship? Did I miss something? Did I die and didn't notice it?"
Looking back the main screen infront of them, she just smirked. "No, Captain. You're annoyingly alive."
"Annoyingly," he just repeated deadpan, following her look at the mainscreen, which was right now showing the engine room in a big window. Before he got to say anything to counter her, a kusarian, Asato Toru, moved closer to the camera.
"We're ready down here. Everyhting alright, Commander. Shall we begin?" the young kusarian asked, directly after it blowing his black front hair to the side to uncover his eye.
"Yeah, Commander, shall we begin?" Ezrael asked Sherry amused, shaking to the left and to the right with the Captain's seat. Asato looked at his Captain for a moment, feeling like he just blundered as he didn't address the Captain with this and talked to the Commander instead. He then grinned awkwardly at the Captain as he noticed how Ezrael took it.
"Yes. Apahanta, open the announcement channel," Sherry ordered the ship's AI to do, and after a beep, it was done. "Bridge to all decks. We're starting the test in one minute. Get ready. Report any anomaly, no matter how small and insignificant. Same procedure as usual. Use your consoles to send a ready signal to the bridge."
Nodding, Asato moved over to a console not too far away from him, pushing a button, then turning around to look at the people in the distance at the other consoles. The smaller screens on the bridge where showing red spaces which in a few seconds, with each signal, turned green. Ezrael's heart was beating with an increased pace by now. Everyone on the ship knew the high stakes. One mistake and they all could be dead. "You know, I don't regret having asked you to join us. You're doing a great job." Sherry looked at him for a moment, and once more her usually expressionless countenance got hit by a genuine smile.
"Cloak-to-Arclight test successful. Engine room, let every thing cool down, then prepare for the last test, Cloak-to-Heavy-Mortar. Same procedure, you know what to do." Almost fourty minutes had passed since the beginning of the first test. Cloak-to-Solaris was successful, Cloak-to-Point-Defense was successful, Cloak-to-Arclight was successful. No anomalies. Reason for Captain and Commander to be in a good mood.
"Aye Commander," the Kusarian replied and moved away from the camera, back to the console.
Ezrael sat in his Captain's seat, looking at the screen, at the power core in the engine room. Only a few shells of metal hid the hybrid of human, gammuian and nomad technology. He never understood how APM was able to do this. The artificial growth of nomad crystals, wiring from nomad to human technology, the almost snowflake-like gammuian constructs. The purple beams, like pillars, bent at APM's will. Sometimes he wondered if the nomad parts used by APM were really dead. Valery had a reason to dislike the Apahanta, calling it a graveyard. The Captain was caught in thoughts, only to be interupted when Sherry started talking to him. "How is your girlfriend?"
Blinking, he slowly turned his head towards Sherry, who happened to be giving him her full attention. "Fine, I guess? Didn't see her in a while, she isn't a fan of the good night calls. Mostly because of the time differences all over Sirius," he explained, before looking back at the main screen.
It made Sherry sigh. "And how often do you call each other?"
"I think I called her three days ago? Not sure." In fact, he was hesitant about calling her since the latest calls with Nancy. Shifting around a little in his seat, he licked slightly in a quick fashion about his lower lip, then noticed Sherry was still looking at him, catching it from the corner of his eye. Slightly startled, he grinned awkwardly at her. "What?"
"Everything fine between you two?" she asked him, leaning more on the armrest of her chair, in his direction. "Did you two have some trouble?"
"No, not at all." Yes. "We're fine." No. "She just enjoys her privacy from time to time. Maren is a pretty interverted woman," he explained, not knowing how Maren was showing her repertoire of horribly racist jokes against Kusarians at Liberty's capital planet. "Why do you ask?"
"I wonder how it affects your relationship, the fact you're spending so much time on the Apahanta recently. For how long now? Two months? Before that, the seat you're sitting in was mostly empty, as you were with her." Her typical pokerface felt to him like it was piercing into his face. "I'd have expected you two to be all over each other, thinking about how you claim to be in love with her. Did that change?"
Yes. "No, not at all," he replied, sitting more upright in his seat, cutting the feed to the engine room with a button on his armrest console. "We've been in a spa recently, Maren and I, together with some friends. It was really nice. I mean, every relationship has waves of highs and lows, but we're currently at a high."
"Ah. So there is no reason why you don't call her more often?"
He chuckled at that. "Are you just pulling a Lindsay on me?" Giving him a lopsided look, she blinked in confusion, first not understanding, then comprehending. Lindsay Camillo was the ship's counselor, who had a tendency to ask the questions nobody wanted really to answer, as it would deguard them. "My relationship with Maren is blooming, don't worry. I think the only issue with how it currently is the lack of daily sex and the fact I can't prevent her from eating chips and chocolate. She lost a few pounds since we're together, but I know she eats the same garbage they eat on Crete, smearing it in two layers on her buns."
Not knowing what he was refering to, she blinked at him, without any further expression. "Chili Sausage?"
"Nutella."
A beep interrupted their conversation, as the engine room requested a reestablishing of the previous feed. Grinning at Sherry, he used a button to do exactly that, turning his head to the main screen. "We're ready, Captain, Commander. Recuperators have been replaced, so we're ready to start," Asato sounded, a little bit exhausted. There was a bit of sweat on his forehead, causing his front hair to partially stick with the skin above his eyes.
"Bridge to all stations, send a signal to the bridge when ready," Sherry ordered, looking at the small screens next to the main screen, as almost instantly all red areas turned green. "Alright, proceed. Charge cloaking device. Ten minutes, then decloak and relay energy to the heavy mortar weapon group. Status updates every thirty seconds." Followed by a nod, the kusarian engineer returned to his console, initiating the test procedure. Turning her head to Ezrael, she was hesitant about continuing their talk they just had. Before she could say anything, she watched him standing up.
"I'll fetch an apple from the canteen and then go to the engine room. You have the bridge, Commander," Ezrael said, smirking as he walked over to her, patting her shoulder before he moved to leave the bridge.
"You leave me alone on the bridge?" she asked in faux offense, not even looking back at him but at the console to her right. She heard the automated door open for him.
"Yeah, before you're startingwith the girlytalk again," he sounded as he left, quickly followed by the door shutting. That way, he left her alone on the bridge, with only a few KSRs there. Nevertheless, she had to smile.
The engine room. The place where the technologies of humans, gammuians and nomads culminated into the powerful AP-605940 power core. Incredibly powerful, incredibly hard to handle and thus never working at full capacity. Something that got changed with the AP-609. The Apahanta however was unique because of that, and the alterations done by the IRG and Livadia. Ezrael sat on a metal crate, biting into his apple while the rest of the crew was operating the consoles, checking all the monitors for even the slightest anomaly.
"Alright, ten minutes passed. Engineering to bridge, we're uncloaking now. Apahanta, reassign energy from the cloaking device to the heavy mortar weapon group once the decloaking sequence has finished!" Asato was visibly tensed up, sweating even more by now. Ezrael saw it and decided to walk over to him, taking another bite of the apple.
"Decloaking sequence complete," the synthetic voice of the Apahanta AI sounded all over the ship. Some things were moving now all around them, as energy was diverted to other systems. Other packed cables with glowing lables were lighting up. The temperature in the engine room was rising slightly, while the life support systems were running to counter it. Ezrael put a gloved hand on Asato's shoulder.
"Keep calm, Toru. Everything is fine, nothing will go wrong," Ezrael said quietly. "Take a deep breath, exhale and then focus again. Nothing bad will happen. You need to signal that to the other people of your team, too."
"Aye, Captain," Asato gave him back, keeping his eyes on the screens of the console. Listening to him, he inhaled audibly, then exhaled, then smirked for a moment. Removing his hand from the kusarian shoulder, Ezrael bit off the lower end of the apple core, chewing on it while looking at the other people. There was the rather young Annie Reese, next to her was Jeff Powell, who was mentoring her. At another console, Insa Bockmeyer was keeping track of all the screens. Ezrael knew they all were slightly stressed under the current circumstances. The heavy mortars used incredible amounts of energy. If something would go wrong, they wouldn't just lose a few energy relais or a turret. "Everything good so far, heavy mortar weapon group is charging within normal parameters."
"Good. Target the first buoy and fire when ready," Sherry sounded over the internal speakers.
"Captain, Commander, the weapon group is charging fast than expected," Asato said, gulping audibly. "By two seconds."
Turning around to the screen at the wall, which was showing Sherry on the bridge, who was busy checking it on her console next to her seat, Ezrael took a few steps closer to it, then looked at Asato. "That's good."
"No, Captain, it's not. The recuperators can't cool down fast enough if we the charge-up is sped up," Asato explained, typing on the console.
"And why does it charge faster?"
From behind them, Sherry answered over the speakers again. "The cloaking device diverts energy to the weapon group. However the cloak shouldn't receive any energy by now. Apahanta, decrease energy diversion to the cloaking device to zero! Gunnery, fire when ready."
That wasn't good, and Ezrael walked over back to Asato, looking at the console. The kusarian was significantly more stressed now. Especially since the Apahanta didn't react. They heard a loud sound as the first mortar shot was away, followed two seconds later by the second mortar on the other side of the ship. "It's only the right one. Why?"
Highly focused on the interface, Asato just shook his head in a slight increase of panic. "The Apahanta doesn't react, the manual changes are overwritten by the ship's AI."
"Apahanta, disable auto-adjustments of the energy diversion, allow manual input only," Ezrael ordered his ship, looking at a blueprint of the energy relais system. Yet the ship didn't listen. "Apahanta, Captain Ezrael Vertiga speaking. Disable auto-adjustments of the energy diversion. That is an order."
But the ship didn't react. "Nothing, Captain. We need to abort this."
"I agree. Apahanta, abort cloak-to-heavy-mortar test. Power down all weapons and cloaking device. All other systems on standby." It got warm in the engine room. No reaction from the ship's AI. "What the fuck is going on here..."
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