Breakfast Serial is a serialized collection of short stories. We will post an episodic entry each week.
“ENGINE FAILURE IMMINENT. RECOMMENDED ACTION: ABANDON SHIP.” First Officer Bey Jo-Cho silenced her forearm computer. The message had been received loud and clear. The captain, for his part, was working quickly at one CC 325’s many abandoned consoles.
“Computer, execute emergency engine shut down.”
“COMMAND DENIED. COUNTERMANDS EXISTING ORDER.”
“What orders?” barked the captain.
“ORDERS GIVEN BY SHIP’S RANKING OFFICER.”
“There’s no one here! Shut down the engines!”
“COMMAND DENIED. COUNTERMANDS EXIST…”
“We need to leave!”
“We can’t. This ship is headed into he Treaty Zone. It’ll cross that barrier in six minutes, exploding soon after. This has to be intentional. The cruiser’s explosion will be blamed on the Collective, and the war will resume.”
“What do we do? How do we stop this?”
The captain didn’t move, didn’t respond. “Captain?” the first officer touched his arm. She had become used to these moments of paralysis over the past few weeks. With all that the captain had been through, she was taking it all in stride. However, at this very moment, there was no time for grief.
“Captain! How do we stop the ship from exploding? Or at least stop it from crossing into the Treaty Zone?”
Jolted back to the present, Captain Wzro sprang into action and approached the command screen.
“Computer, break off from our current path and chart a new course for the nearest command ship.”
“COMMAND DENIED. COUNTERMANDS EXISTING ORDER.”
“Computer, I am taking command of this ship according to provisions of section four, subsection 5 of the Fleet Command Protocols.”
“AUTHENTICATE PLEASE.”
“I am Captain Jek Wzro of Fleet Command, officer number WZJ0002489. I have over two decades of service and five meritorious services awards. I am twice recipient of the Crimson Star and am the lone survivor of the Battle of Titan.”
Pausing to steady his voice, the Captain sat down confidently in the previously vacated captain’s seat, “And I am now the captain of this vessel.”
First Officer Jo-Cho began to breathe, having only recently realized that she’d been holding her breath a few minutes before. Her overdue breathes were the only noise on the bridge for a whole minute.
A minute that aged the first officer ten years.
The captain, however, had become a statute. The very image of a captain in command of his ship.
Fortunately, the computer agreed.
“COMMAND ACCEPTED. GREETINGS, CAPTAIN.”
Speak your mind...