Tales of the Intrepid: Ch. 1

Commander Jack Foster arrives at his new ship, meets his new crew, and finds out exactly why he's there.

Chapter 1

12MAY70: My orders finally came in today. I'm the new XO of the AFS Intrepid. A nice new, shiny ship with all the bells and whistles and some top secret experimental drive. It's still in the yards, but it launches a week after I get there. I'm really excited that they're finally letting me deploy again instead of training new recruits and sitting at a desk for the last four years. This will be different for me. I've never had a position with more than a few dozen under my command. This new ship has over a thousand. But at least I'll have the familiarity of a Phantom squad again. They'll answer to me, and only me. Which leads me to wonder, why is a Phantom squad already attached to the ship? It shouldn't be ready to deploy for another year at least. Guess I'll have to wait for more details until I get there. Top secret drive probably means top secret missions.

*  *  *

Armstrong Naval Shipyard, in orbit around Earth, Time 0800z, 30 July 2270 C.E.

Commander Jack Foster floated in zero-g towards the airlock of the shuttle. He had just arrived at the Federal Navy's largest space station to assume his new position as Executive Officer, or XO, of their newest vessel: the AFS Intrepid. He hadn't been this nervous since his first combat mission 14 years ago. But combat was something he'd grown used to over the years. This post was entirely different. As second in command of the Intrepid, he'd have far more on his plate to worry about than his own life and those of his squadmates. Command school taught him a lot about being an XO, but he still didn't feel ready.

He grasped for a nearby handle to steady himself inside the airlock, but his sweaty palms made it hard to hold on. It had been years since he was last in space. Seaman Vaughn, the young sailor carrying Jack's sea bag, had no problem stabilizing himself however.

The airlock door hissed shut and sealed behind them.

"Stand by for pressure equalization," a gentle automated voice said.

Jack's ears suddenly muffled as the pressure in the airlock increased to that of the space station's. He dug a finger into his right ear to get it to pop and he could finally hear again. His left had gone deaf several years ago during his last combat mission before rotating out for shore duty.

The other door swung open to the dull grey interior of the Armstrong space station. A few people milled about connecting the power and utilities for the shuttle. Other than them, the docking bay was relatively empty.

"Officer on deck!" a nearby Petty Officer shouted as Jack clumsily transitioned from the zero-g of the shuttle to the artificial gravity of the space station. All work halted as everyone in the room snapped to attention for Jack's arrival. It was an age old custom of respect that he didn't really care for. Some people ate that s**t up. They loved the attention they got from being a high ranking officer, but Jack couldn't stand it.

"At ease," Jack grumbled, so the sailors could get back to work.

"We'll have to check you in at the personnel office before we can board the Intrepid, sir," Vaughn explained. Jack's sea bag suddenly weighed him down in the artificial gravity. "Is there anything you need before we go?"

"No. Let's get this over with," Jack said, smoothing out his well decorated dress uniform.

"Aye, sir. Follow me then," Vaughn grunted as he shifted the olive green sack on his shoulders and made his way to the hallway at the back of the docking area.

Jack followed close behind. As they exited the room, he heard a click over the 1MC general announcing circuit signifying someone was about to speak.

"Commander, American Federal Navy, arriving," boomed the voice on the 1MC, announcing Jack's arrival to the whole station. He was going to have to get used to such grand gestures of respect now that his rank was finally high enough to deserve them. Not that he wanted them, of course. He had spent so many years outside the spotlight as a member of the Phantom special forces unit that all the attention gave him anxiety.

As the two entered the personnel office and joined the line waiting to check in, Jack caught snippets of the news broadcasts playing in the waiting room. There was something about an insurrection on one of the American colonies, there was another damn terrorist attack by the Arabian Nationalist Army (ANA), this time in Vancouver, and the recent global summit to create a single unified government had failed to achieve any sort of progress yet again.

Jack let out a sigh. Everything in the solar system was going to s**t. When the Jovian War ended five years ago, everyone thought that there would finally be world peace. But then when the world leaders all got together and started talking about creating a world government, it was clear that there were still too many differences between the great powers for them to effectively cooperate. The African Union supported one of the largest populations in the world, therefore they demanded a larger representation in the proposed parliamentary system. The European Union, on the other hand, thought that power within the government should be held by the most technologically advanced and economically stable unions like themselves and the American Federation, the coalition of what used to be the nations of North and South America. This conflict was further exacerbated by the Chinese Empire steadfastly opposing a parliament in favor of a more authoritarian regime.

The blame, however, was not all on the shoulders of the other nations. America had its own faults that kept progress halted. Among the rest of the world, the Federation was not widely respected and garnered nearly as much hatred as the neo-imperialist, communist Chinese. While the Chinese had expanded their empire through military means, the Americans had been much more subtle. America had buying power. It was more of a corporation than a country. The Federation came into existence through manipulations of the global stock markets. One by one, the markets in Central and South America crashed. In the economic panic that ensued, American operatives installed puppets to win elections. Those yes-men then dissolved the governments of their countries in secret treaties that gave control to the Federation. But when the greedy corporate cronies wanted cheap middle eastern oil and realized they couldn't buy out OPEC, they took it a step too far. The rest of the world hadn't truly turned against America until they played China's militaristic game and took over the former OPEC nations by force. It was said that control of the world oil market was the reason for it, but what the news only seemed to ever cover was the blatant genocide of the Arabian people even after the invasion was over.

Once Jack had finished the check in process his escort led him to the construction bay where the Intrepid was docked receiving the finishing touches before her launch the next week.

"Welcome aboard, sir," a Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTjg) greeted Jack with a salute as he stepped through the airlock to the quarterdeck. "I'm Lieutenant Jason Everitt, the ship's Communications Officer. The Skipper wanted to meet with you as soon as you arrived. I'll take you to his stateroom."

"Sounds good, Lieutenant," Jack replied returning the salute.

The Captain's stateroom was two decks up and a short walk towards the forward end of the ship. It was within spitting distance from the Bridge so he could be there in a moments notice if needed. Jack's stateroom was back down the passageway a little next to the Captain's. He had Vaughn drop off his bag on the way.

Everett cracked open the Captain's door and knocked three times before poking his head in.

"Captain, sir, the new XO is here," he quietly said.

Jack heard something unintelligible from the other side and Everitt gently shut the door.

"Hang tight for a minute, the Skipper will see you shortly," Everitt said.

Jack watched the Lieutenant as he left for the Bridge. He could see a bit of commotion inside the Bridge from where he waited. Looked like the crew was preparing to go underway soon. For a moment, Jack thought he saw a familiar face, but she moved too quickly for him to recognize who it was. He had a good feeling he knew though.

Interrupting his thoughts, the Captain's stateroom door swung open and an absolute bear of a man stood in the doorway. He wore a crisp working uniform on and his short cropped, black hair had streaks of grey along the sides. Aside from his size, he was the embodiment of a perfect officer in appearance.

"Ah! Commander Foster, good to see you. Come on in," Captain Nicholas Maxwell smiled as he beckoned Jack into his stateroom. He closed the door behind him, grasped Jack's hand in a powerfully firm shake, and eased into the big leather chair behind his desk. He gestured for Jack to sit in the chair on the other side.

Jack had done a little research into his new Commanding Officer, or CO. The man was apparently a tactical genius despite his look of a football linebacker. He started his career as an enlisted mechanic for nuclear systems, which is probably where his build came from, and quickly worked his way up the ranks. He was selected for Officer Candidate School after his first tour, gained his commission with honors, and held numerous prestigious positions as an officer before his assignment to the Intrepid. After almost 30 years of dedicated service he was one of the most respected officers in the Federal Navy. He had won many of the Navy's highest awards during his long career, including a Medal of Honor after leading a squadron of seven frigates against a fleet of twenty Imperial Chinese ships in defense of Europa during the Jovian War. The surprise attack was a last ditch effort by the Chinese that took out the American's flagship early on. Maxwell took charge of the flotilla and with superior tactics, managed to destroy or disable all of the Chinese vessels with minimal damage to the rest of the American ships. His actions forced the Chinese to surrender, ending the Jovian War after 7 years of fighting. So it made sense that the brass would give him command of this groundbreaking ship.

"So welcome to your new home for the next five years," the Captain said spreading his arms wide. "I understand this is your first time in a non-combat command role, correct?"

"Yes, sir," Jack replied with a nod.

"Well, then I sincerely apologize because I'm going to have to dump a lot of administrative s**t on you right off the bat," Captain Maxwell explained. "My last XO was forced to retire a couple months back for medical reasons, which is why you got your orders when you did. So unfortunately you won't be getting a turnover from him."

"I'm a quick learner, sir," Jack said. He suddenly felt like he needed to loosen his collar a little. I was bad enough to be thrust into an unfamiliar position, but having to learn it on the fly made him wish he could just go back to being shot at.

"I know, that's why I hand picked you for this position," Maxwell continued. "Your combat record clearly shows that you can adapt and excel under stressful conditions, and your instructor file is equally as impressive. Some of our best Phantoms have come out of your graduating classes."

"You hand picked me, sir?" Jack furrowed his brow. "May I ask why?"

"Well, Foster, I was about to get to that part," Maxwell leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands together. "Now this information does not leave this stateroom yet, understood? The crew knows where we're going, but not why."

"Yes, sir," Jack replied.

"The nature of our mission is highly sensitive and requires us to have a squad of Phantoms on board as well as a full company of Marines," Maxwell continued. "The brass want this ship out of the yards and underway by next Monday. They've ordered us shorten our space trials by three weeks and head straight for the Gliese 581 system. As I'm sure you've seen on the news lately that we've lost control of our colony there. An insurrection, most likely fueled by the ANA, has overthrown our colonial government. We've been tasked with regaining control of the colony and eliminating whoever is supplying the insurrectionist forces."

"So what exactly did you need me for, sir?" Jack asked. "Phantom squads already have handlers that coordinate all their missions for them."

"That is Earth's first extrasolar colony, Foster," the Captain continued. "And it's American. We need to prove that this kind of situation can be dealt with correctly. Now I may know my ship to ship combat tactics, but I need your ground combat expertise. Our skill sets compliment each other. This is basically going to be your operation with my oversight."

"Roger that, sir. That sounds like something I can handle," Jack felt a little relief at the news. He couldn't go into combat anymore, but he could certainly coordinate a mission like this.

"Good! That's what I like to hear," Maxwell sat back up and slapped his desk with a hearty thump. "I'll send all the intel I have so far to the tablet in your stateroom. But for now, I think a little ship tour is in order. Let's go meet the rest of the crew."

With that, Captain Maxwell stood and ushered Jack out the door of his stateroom and into the room directly across the passageway. It was filled with stacks of electronic equipment. Computers, digital recorders, and cryptography equipment lined the walls making the room feel much more cramped than it really was.

"This is the Radio Room," the Captain explained. "All communications to and from the ship, whether its top secret encrypted stuff, or just phone calls and email all go through this room. You've already met our CommO, Junior, right?"

Maxwell pointed to LTjg Everitt who was sitting in the corner typing on one of the many touchscreens.

"I'll be right with you, sir," Everitt said without looking away from the screen.

"Uh, briefly, yeah," Jack answered.

"Hey don't worry about it, Junior. We'll be out of your hair in just a minute. Keep up the good work," Maxwell said.

"Aye, sir!" the Lieutenant replied as he furiously typed away.

"Junior is quite the dedicated sailor," Maxwell lowered his voice.

"Junior?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, he's our most junior division officer, and he looks like he's fresh out of high school," the Captain smirked as the comment made Everitt pause his work for a moment to glare at him.

Maxwell stepped back out of the Radio Room and Jack followed him onto the Bridge.

The Bridge was bustling with activity. Junior sailors doing pre-underway checklists, cleaning, and setting up their watch stations, and officers with their eyes glued to their tablets sorting through administrative paperwork for their departments. Jack had rarely been on a ship's Bridge before, and he was a little uneasy about how much time he was going to have to spend there now.

In the center of the room was the Conn, a slightly raised platform about ten centimeters high with three uncomfortable looking, empty seats in a triangle that Jack guessed were for him, the Captain, and the Officer of the Deck (the senior officer on watch in charge of the ship's operations). Directly in front of the Conn, on the forward bulkhead was a large screen for both visual and data displays.

To Jack's immediate left and right in the back of the room were two large tables with three dimensional holographic plots floating above them. The one on the left was for navigation, while the right was for fire control. Eight fire control stations, called the Attack Center, lined the starboard bulkhead on Jack's right for all of the ship's weapons systems. Two large curved panels sat in front of the navigational plot in the forward, port corner for the ship's control party: one for the Helmsman to steer, and the other for the Chief of the Watch who controlled the general operation of the ship.

Maxwell led Jack over to the navigational plot. A petite Lieutenant with long blonde hair wrapped up in a tight bun slaved over the plot setting up vectors and charts. She looked up as the two approached and her face lit up with a smile. Jack returned the smile to his childhood friend.

"Foster, this is our Nav, Lieutenant Commander Victoria Ashburn," Maxwell introduced.

"Good to see you again, Commander," the Navigator winked as she extended her hand for Jack to shake.

"I take it you two know each other already?" Maxwell looked confused.

"Yeah, uh, we grew up in the same neighborhood. Went to the same schools and everything," Jack stared at Vicki as he explained. "She even followed me to the Naval Academy."

He was intentionally vague with Maxwell mainly because the relationship he had with Vicki was borderline fraternization. Not only had they grown up together in the same neighborhood of the Northeast Mass, which was the colloquial name for the urban sprawl covering most of the land between Baltimore, New York City, and Boston, but they had lived across the hall from each other in the same apartment building. Being three years apart, Vicki was like the younger sister Jack had never had, and she, in turn, looked up to him like an older brother. They were the type of best friends that did everything together. But where Jack was always the honorable, stand up guy, Vicki had been the mischievous one, always managing to stay out of trouble through her skillful manipulation. Thus when Jack was accepted into the Naval Academy, she was determined to follow him by any means. She altered her grades just enough to get accepted herself three years later. Early on in her career she figured out how to manipulate where she was stationed so that they'd always end up at the same command even if it meant volunteering to skip a shore duty for back-to-back space tours. She always happened to be on every ship, station, or base Jack went to. They both knew that if anyone found out they would lose their commissions and get kicked out, so neither of them gave any hint of how close their relationship really was. So far, nobody was able to catch on.

Needless to say, Jack wasn't surprised at all to see Vicki on the Intrepid. But even though he was positive that she hadn't truly earned her position as the navigation department head, or "Nav," he knew that she was smart enough to do it. She would do everything possible to be on the Captain's good side, and convince him that she knew everything there was to know about being a Navigator.

However, something kept nagging at Jack's conscience that there had to be something more than just a sibling connection for her to constantly weasel herself into positions where she was close to him. Or maybe he was just overthinking things. He had a tendency to do that around her lately.

"Wow! Small world, eh?" Maxwell exclaimed. "I guess I'll spare you the introductions then. You two can catch up when you get settled in then."

"Yeah, I'll come find you later," Vicki said to Jack.

He gave her a little wave goodbye before following the Captain over to the Attack Center area of the Bridge where another officer had just finished signing some paperwork for a junior sailor.

"Weps! I hope I'm not interrupting. Come meet our new XO," Maxwell said heartily.

"Not at all, Captain! Joe Moretti at your service," the Lieutenant Commander grasped Jack's hand in a firm, two-handed shake. He had a thick Bronx accent. "Nice to meet ya, XO. I'm the Weapons Officer here. Everything that goes boom on this ship is my domain, from missiles, to tanks, and all the way down to your sidearm."

"Do you provide the firearms for my Phantoms?" Jack asked.

"I do indeed," Moretti nodded.

"You better make sure they're in the best condition, otherwise I know about thirty different painful ways to kill you with my bare hands," Jack said with a completely serious look on his face.

He let about five seconds of awkward silence pass between them before cracking a slight smile.

"Ahhh!" Moretti pointed a finger at Jack and looked over at Maxwell. "I like this guy, Cap! He's got jokes!"

"No, but seriously, make sure my guys have access to good equipment," Jack said. "They need to have complete faith that their weapons won't fail in the middle of combat."

"You got it, boss," Weps made a clicking sound with his tongue and pointed a finger gun at Jack. "Nothing but the best for our boys, right? Let me know what they need and I'll see what we have. I can get Chop to make an order for us before we leave if we're missing anything. Sound good?"

"Thanks, Weps. I appreciate it," Jack replied.

Jack couldn't shake the thought out of his head that Moretti was an Italian mobster dressed up in a Navy uniform. The accent, the mannerisms, and the dark, sharply styled hair made it very convincing whether it was intentional or not. Jack stifled a chuckle at the thought of Al Capone being his Weapons Officer.

Jack followed Captain Maxwell around for the better part of two hours visiting the main compartments of the ship and meeting the various department heads, division officers, and upper echelon enlisted personnel.

They met up with Lieutenant Monroe down in the Sensors Array one deck below the Bridge. As the Operations Officer, or "Ops" for short, she oversaw most of the miscellaneous stuff on the ship. If it wasn't propulsion, navigation, supply, medical, or weapons related, she owned it.

Chief Warrant Officer Garland, the AI Officer, was in the Data Center aft of the Sensors Array. His only job was to maintain ship's Artificial Intelligence, which was a much bigger task than most others realized. He had a small division of sailors to help him out though. The AI was vital to every area of the ship and required constant attention.

They made a quick stop in the Chiefs' Quarters to say hello to the Chief of he Boat, or COB as everyone called him, and the Engineering Department Master Chief, or EDMC. Both men were the senior enlisted advisers to the crew for operational and engineering aspects respectively.

The Captain then brought Jack to the Crew's Mess and made a brief announcement to everyone that happened to be there that Jack was their new XO and for them to help him settle into his new position as best they could to make their own lives easier. He did the same in the Wardroom, which was like the mess hall, but just for officers. The Supply Officer and Medical Officer, nicknamed Chop and Doc, were there grabbing a quick bite along with a few junior officers.

Finally the tour ended at the door to the engine room.

"Now, I'd like for you to take a full tour of he engine room," Maxwell paused. "But we can only go as far as Maneuvering since you don't have your dosimetry yet. Can't go past the reactor without it. Eng should be hanging out in Maneuvering though."

The thirty centimeter thick door to the engine room swung open and Jack stepped through into what seemed like a completely different ship. The ceiling was twice as high as in the other parts of the ship. There were only three decks back there instead of the usual five. He could see all the way from the port side of the ship to the starboard side. No walls in between. Large machinery occupied most of the open space in the room making the otherwise cavernous area seem cramped. Bundles of cables and pipes of all sizes ran in every which way. Jack stood with his mouth open just inside the doorway.

"Don't get too excited yet," the Captain laughed. "This is just the Machinery Space. All of the auxiliary machinery that keeps the ship running is in here. So all the compressors for air conditioning, oxygen generators, air scrubbers, and potable water and sanitation equipment are right here in this room. The good stuff is on the other side of the reactor. You went through the reactor theory course, right?"

"Yes, sir," Jack replied, still gawking at all the equipment.

"Ok, so you've got a basic idea of what goes on back here then," the Captain continued. "I'll see if the Eng can give you a quick crash course on our FTL drive then."

Jack followed the Captain like a child in a candy store to the back of the Machinery Space. In the starboard corner was a small enclosed room about four meters on each side and only coming up about halfway to the ceiling. The Captain opened the door to the room and stepped in.

"Entering Maneuvering with the XO," the Captain announced and waved Jack inside. "Close the door behind you."

As Jack stepped in and slid the door closed, he saw a lone enlisted sailor staring intently at wall of numbers and data, gauges and meters, taking logs of everything he saw on his tablet. Jack was amazed at how just one person could keep track of so much data.

"And this room is called Maneuvering," Maxwell explained. "This is basically the heart of the engine room. From in here, Petty Officer Wilson can monitor every parameter of our reactor, propulsion, and electrical distribution systems. Due to the nature of what's back here, formality is highly important, which is why I announced that I was entering the room. Only you, me, the Engineer, and whoever the engineering watch officer is at the time are allowed to enter without permission from the watchstander."

Suddenly the door behind Jack slid open and a short officer carrying a large open book stepped in nearly colliding with Jack.

"Entering... Oh!" the Lieutenant Commander looked up from his book just in time. He quickly squeezed past them to the opposite corner of the room without waiting for them to move. "Excuse me, Captain, Commander."

"You'll have to excuse our Engineer, Foster," the Captain whispered. "He's a bit eclectic."

"You say that, but without me this ship wouldn't exist, nor would we have a colony on Gliese 581," the Engineer said, head still buried in his book.

"Very true," Maxwell sighed. "Foster, this is Lieutenant Commander Duncan Leonard, the brilliant mind behind the Intrepid's experimental Gravity Well drive. Eng, this is Commander Jack Foster, our new XO."

"A pleasure!" Leonard said setting his open book down on the desk in the middle of the room and pulling another off the shelf on the wall.

"So you designed the ship's propulsion system?" Jack asked.

"I did. Ah ha!" Leonard slammed the book in his hands closed and put it back on the shelf. He then took out a pen and scribbled something in the margin of the book still open on the desk.

"Why are you reading the manuals if you built the thing?" Jack was genuinely curious.

"Correcting, not reading," Leonard finally looked up at Jack as if he was insulted by the question.

"Eng, I know how much you like talking about your baby, so why don't you give the XO here the short and sweet version," Maxwell jeered.

"If you insist," Leonard shot a glare at the Captain, closed his book and sighed. "It's really quite simple if you understand the behaviors of gravitational singularities. The superluminal transit drive creates a singularity at a distance of exactly three hundred meters from the center of the ship, where the drive is located, in any direction. That singularity then creates a gravitational field that pulls the ship towards it. However, the ship never actually gets closer to the singularity because it is at a fixed distance from the drive, and since the drive is attached to the ship, the singularity then also moves with the ship. It's like falling, but the ground is moving away from you at the same exact speed you're moving towards it.

"Also, the longer the drive is operating, the stronger the singularity gets, which means the ship's acceleration will continuously increase until we turn the drive off or move the singularity behind us. The longer the voyage, the faster we go. Light speed takes about two weeks to achieve, and theoretically there's no limit to how fast we can go. Even though Gliese 581 is 20.4 light years away, we should make it there in about 3 months, give or take a week. Superluminal travel is wildly unpredictable in terms of time. Hell, I bet if you kept the drive on for one person's lifetime you'd leave the known universe."

"So if there's a giant gravitational field pulling the whole ship forward, how do you keep the crew from getting pulled to the front of the ship?" Jack was incredibly confused by the info dump.

"Are you serious?" Leonard asked.

"Hey, this is the first job I've had where I'm not shooting people for a living," Jack casually explained. "So I'm sorry if I'm a little slow on the uptake."

The Engineer pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "Ok, think of it like this. If you're free-falling in an enclosed container, you don't get pulled to bottom of the container by the Earth's gravity, right? You float relative to the container around you. Same concept. We don't get pulled towards the singularity faster than the ship does, so we are basically free-falling towards it at the same speed as the ship. We do, however, have an artificial gravity generator that provides us with a constant one gee towards the deck at all times. We will never feel the effects of the Gravity Well while we are underway."

"Confused yet?" Maxwell smiled from ear to ear.

"Yes," Jack replied holding a hand up to his now throbbing forehead.

"Good! Thanks, Eng!" the Captain said as he guided Jack out of Maneuvering.

Author's Note

Brand new 1st chapter. Was written as an attempt to separate character introductions and backstory explanations from the action sequences that were in my old first chapter. Please leave comments on what you think about my character creation and backstory. I tried my best to explain the Navy terms, and will eventually have a Glossary to help explain them.