Into the Chaos -- Author's note.

Welcome to the seventh chapter of my story 'Into the Chaos'. A Sci-fi story that just happens to take place in the Unknown Regions of the Star Wars universe just after the Great Galactic War, almost 4000 years before the events of the movies.

As I said, this is the seventh chapter and if you haven't read the previous ones, I recommend that you do that first.

Disclaimer: I do not own or hold any rights to any Star Wars licenses, including the star ships used in this story.

Some warnings:

This is an erotic sci-fi adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. The series is self-edited, so any mistakes are mine, though I now have a proofreader, that can catch missing words ect. Thanks to Jessejames932006 for doing that.

P.P.S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

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Chapter 7 -- Building a way out

Dreadnought Majestic, Snare system, the Labyrinth nebula. Year 2 ATC/ 3651 BBY

"Strive for perfection in everything you make.

Take the best that exists and make it better.

When it does not exist, design and build it."

Saying from the CEDF

Interdictor upgrade

Repairship Kraken

Chief Engineer Keller's workshop on the Kraken looked exactly like the workshop of an evil genius in the holovid shows: There were screens everywhere, showing schematics of ships, blueprints for parts and diagrams for everything under the sun. The flat surfaces were filled with various spare parts, with the exception of two tables which functioned as stands for two huge models. One was an Interdictor-class cruiser and the other was a Dragon-Class Dreadnought.

Intrigued, I walked closer to the models. As always, I found the deadly sleekness of the Dragon-class Dreadnought to be one of the best designs I had ever seen in a capital ship. Everything, from gun placement to the way the top armor extended over the engines, shielding them from damage, was just perfect.

Even the aft hangar opening was perfectly placed and though it looked somewhat small on the model, it was only a trick of the eye due to the size of the ship. In reality, the narrow looking opening was almost a hundred meters long, twenty meters high and was separated into three different openings that led into the aft port, starboard and central hangars, allowing multiple squadrons of fighters to be launched at the same time.

Smiling, I turned my attention to the Interdictor. The over-and-under configuration of the hull the designers had used still looked strange to me, but like the Dragon-class there was a certain appealing sleekness to the layout. Looking at the model, I suddenly realised what it reminded me about: An enormous claw from a crab, and I wondered why they hadn't called the class something that reflected that.

As usual when it came to most Imperial ships, the exception was the command tower on the superstructure. I knew that the command tower had strong shields and armor, but shields didn't last forever and once they were gone, the tower was a priority target for enemies.

"What do you think of the design, sir?" Asked Keller from behind, causing me to turn and look at him. He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes.

"I'm not sure about it." I answered. "The command tower is exposed, and the split is still a bit weird, but somehow they made it work. Especially the way they have placed the hangars in the middle of the split, so the fighters can be launched without being shot at immediately."

That made him chuckle. "I have to agree, sir. It takes some getting used to." He paused and then asked. "If you could change some things with the Interdictor, what would you do? Without changing the overall layout, I mean."

I looked at the model again as I pondered his question and then said. "I would move the bridge from the top of the command tower to the bottom, remove about half of it to make it a smaller target and add some extra armor... especially on top of the tower and around the hangars by the split. That much open space inside can't be good for the structural integrity of the ship." My eyes slid over the model. "Those light laser cannons are slow to fire, so I would place dual or quad lasers there instead." I chuckled. "Aside from that, I don't know enough about the ship to give a qualified opinion."

"And the Dragon-Class?" asked the Engineer, gesturing in the direction of the other model.

"Hm." I looked at the model. "That one is harder, but I would bring it back to what it should have been, a Battle Carrier. Limit the trooper quarters to a thousand marines to stop boarders, use the saved space to stack as many fighters and scouts into the ship as practically possible and leave the transportation of troops to the Gage-Class PA ships. Then you'll have a Dreadnought that not only can out-gun a Harrower, but also drop two hundred space superiority fighters and an equal number of strike fighters. Enough to scare the life out of anybody going up against it."

"You're basically describing a MX9, sir." Stated Keller with a chuckle. "So, you're not alone in having those thoughts."

"Nice to know... hmm... Any chance of finding a MX9 out here?"

"Sorry, but that is highly unlikely. As far as I remember, no MX9 ever disappeared without a trace. They were all either destroyed in battle or decommissioned and scrapped."

"Yes, that's usually the fate of warships... Now we're on the subject, what about the MX5 cruisers that we found? I looked at the stats and they seem surprisingly good with a good weapon load, enough star fighters to take on most enemies and just enough troopers to stop it from being boarded."

Keller smiled a tired smile. "We can repair and restore three of them without much trouble. The other three are only good for spare parts."

"How long will that take?"

"Two to three months, unless we run into some unforeseen trouble."

"That's not bad, but I'll have to think it over before I give any definite answer."

"Too bad we don't have any BSX-5 out here." Keller commented thoughtfully. "They sound like the type of ship you would like. Armed and armoured like a dreadnought but only carry fifteen hundred troops and has room for about eighty starfighters."

He had mentioned those before, so I said. "They were the ones built by the same company as the Harrower, right?"

"Yes. I'm rather sure the designers looked at the MX5 when they designed that vessel."

"Well, as you said, there are none of them here, so we'll have to build what we need." I gestured at the model of the Interdictor once more. "Why do you have that model here? Isn't the schematics enough?"

Keller hesitated for a moment. "The Interdictor is actually the reason why I wanted to talk with you." He ran a hand through his hair. "When we found the original version of the Interdictor, I suggested that we repair one and you said that it was too crew intensive."

I nodded at that, and he continued. "But you also said, 'Not unless you can install automated systems.'"

"Oh." I said and turned to look at the model again. "I guess you have found a way to partly automate them?"

"Exactly, sir." The engineer said proudly. "If we strip some of the system off the two smashed Wyvern-class cruisers, along with some spare parts from them as well, and use droids for gunners, we can make the crew requirement a lot lower. In fact, I can get it as low as five hundred, with forty as the minimum skeleton crew, but we must do it now, while we're repairing it anyway, since it involves rerouting a lot of power."

I thought about it for a moment. Considering that the Interdictor's gravity well projectors could not only open holes in a box system, but also prevent ships from entering hyperspace, or, if placed on a hyper lane, could cause ships to drop out of hyperspace, it added a lot of versatility to the fleet. If we had one at Epsilon Eta, the Lictor-class Dungeon ship wouldn't have been able to escape, and many more slaves could have been rescued.

The crew requirement of five hundred was still a lot as it was without gunners and fighter crew, but with a skeleton crew of forty it was doable.

"Talking about power, can the reactor on the Interdictor handle the energy needed for all the automated systems?"

"No, sir. The interdiction field projectors require a lot of power." He said calmly and called up a blueprint of the Interdictor on a screen. "As you suggested with the Dragon-class, the ship has a lot more room for troopers than it needs to have, since we're not about to invade the galaxy. So, if we eliminate the troop quarters in this area here, ..." He highlighted the troop quarters near the reactor. "... we can not only enlarge the hangar space so the cruiser can hold another wing of starfighters, but we can also install another reactor here and let that one power the automated systems. The fuel will be stored here..." He highlighted two cargo holds. "... which will remove about four thousand tons of cargo space, but transporting cargo isn't what this ship is all about anyway and it still leaves five thousand tons of cargo space for spare parts."

Looking at the blueprint, I found myself agreeing with him. So far, everything he said had sounded like it could be done, though there were a few questions I would like to have answered before giving the go-ahead. "Where does that other reactor come from?"

"From a Hammerhead cruiser." He said with a slight smile. "I would have loved to install the newer reactor from the Delta-Class carrier, but the Interdictor-class was originally built by Republic Fleet Systems using Corellian shipyards and they used the same reactor type as the Hammerhead cruiser." He called up the blueprint of a Hammerhead cruiser. "The Hammerheads reactor is smaller, and unlike their Imperial counterparts, all the connections and control system are the same, so it's doable."

"How long will it take?" I asked, fearing that it would take longer than anyone would wish to stay in the 'box'.

"About four months." He shrugged. "But we're doing everything at the same time, so it's only about a month more than just repairing the Interdictor."

I thought for a moment. "How come the difference isn't greater? I would have guessed that it took much longer."

"Manpower, sir." Keller stated. "Not only do we have about three hundred former navy engineers and mechanics from the liberated slaves, but we also have the two hundred Chiss engineers from the Last Chance, and while they're not ship engineers, they're extremely competent. Added to that we have a lot of repair droids from the various ships we have looted, and the Squid salvage ship which makes quite a difference." He glanced at his ever-present datapad. "However, seventy-five engineers are about the maximum number of people that can effectively work on one area of a ship that size, so while hundred-and-fifty work on the inside of the two Interdictors, another seventy-five install the new systems, while the next seventy-five engineers focus on the reactor."

I did a quick calculation and asked. "And what about the remaining two-hundred engineers?"

That earned me a tired smile. "Fifty of them are assigned to look at the Mandalorian MX5s, and if we're going to repair them, that number goes up to one hundred and fifty, while the rest are working on other projects, like helping the pilots get the Aureks back in shape."

I thought for a moment, juggling available crews and assignments in my head. The MX5's could be crewed with a skeleton crew of fifty, forty if cutting a few corners, and they were really good ships. Much better than most other ships out there, including the old Foray-class blockade runners.

Another factor in me wanting them was the future. At some point we would most likely have to turn the Imperial Battlegroup over to the Empire. Especially if we ran into Darth Malgus with his superior fleet. At the start of our trip, I had thought that the smaller ship would be enough to transport the crews, but with the addition of the freed prisoners from the two Kiltirin-class dungeon ships, there was no way the smaller ships could transport more than four thousand people.

However, with life support for a crew of nine hundred along with a flight crew of three hundred, two hundred gunners and five hundred troopers, each MX5 could take nineteen hundred people. Added to that was the eight hundred people each Hammerhead-class cruiser could carry as crew, gunners and passengers. Even disregarding the smaller ships, that enabled us to carry about eight thousand people in ships that didn't belong to the Empire.

Having made up my mind, I said. "Repair the MX5s. I would rather have them than most of the other older ship types. If some of the systems or weapons can be upgraded, it'll be even better, but if not, we'll just take them as they are. We need them to carry people in case the Empire ever lays claim to the rest of the ships... Hmm...And we need to find a new name for the class. Otherwise, they might pop up in Imperial Databases or in the memories of very good engineers."

"Yes, sir." He grinned, nodded and wrote something on his datapad, before looking up again. "What about the cargo we're hauling? I mean, we have found a lot of stuff so far, but we can't really transport it in these ships."

"Good point and you sound like you have an idea."

He chuckled at that. "I do, sir. Some of the civilian vessels have a very low crew requirement and can take a lot of cargo." He turned towards the computer and ordered it to show a list of the civilian ships from the scans we had done, excluding those who were more than a hundred years old, as well as those who were damaged beyond repair. "There you go, sir."

Looking at the list, I said. "Please eliminate those with a hyperspace rating higher than two. I don't want the whole fleet to wait for a freighter."

Keller nodded and a moment later, the list was much shorter.

"Well, well, well." He said with satisfaction in his voice, as he skimmed the list. "It looks like we got some Cargo King Super Freighters!"

Having no idea what he was talking about, I said. "I don't think I've ever heard of them."

"You most likely wouldn't, sir." Keller said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "It's a local knock-off of an old Imperial Military Transport, which basically means that it's decently armored and shielded, has a pair of laser cannons to scare off pirates and can carry eighty thousand metric tons of cargo. There's even room for twenty passengers on it, though on the original, that space would be occupied by troopers. All features that make it an extremely useful, if somewhat expensive, ship out here in the Chaos." He finally looked at me. "Most importantly, it has a Rank two hyperdrive."

I nodded, looked at the screen showing the stat and was pleasantly surprised. With a length of a hundred and twenty meters, the Super Freighters could be flown by a crew of only four. Six if you included two gunners to man the laser turrets.

"Any chance a starfighter pilot can handle one of these?" I asked. While we had an abundance of engineers, we were seriously running low on skilled pilots. Normally ships also had an astrogator, but as any ship in the fleet could just be fed astrogation data from the Majestic, that was less of a concern.

The Chief Engineer. "Yes. Like most big cargo ships they're sluggish and handle like a flying brick, but they're not that difficult to fly. Their only problem is that they only hold consumables for three or four months, but as they will be flying with the fleet, that shouldn't be a problem."

"Fine. Check them out and see if some of them can be easily repaired."

"I'll have someone do that later." Keller agreed.

"Good, so let's get back to the Interdictor and the new reactor." I said and pointed at the area he had indicated. "You wanted to install it here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then that area needs to be armored with just as thick an armor as the main reactor."

He almost snorted. "That goes without saying, sir. We'll need to reinforce the armor belt anyway."

The expression made me tilt my head. "Just to make sure that we're talking about the same thing, what do you mean about an 'armor belt' when we're talking about ships?"

"Oh." He chuckled. "Armor belt or belt armor is what we call the extra thick armor that protects the front and sides of the ship." He touched a control and an image of Majestic showed up on the screen. "The Imperial wedge form was invented for a reason and works exceptionally well when the bow is pointed at the enemy. Not only offensively, where it allows any side mounted guns to hit targets in front of the ship, but also defensively. All the sloping sides are designed to deflect and redirect enemy fire to prevent it from reaching the heart of the ship."

I nodded. That way of armouring a vessel was as old as warships. "What is the degree limitation for deflection?"

"It's most effective under 45 degrees, lessening as the angle goes up towards 90 degrees." Keller answered and continued. "However, the sides of the ship are basically a wall between the two slopes. It's vertical, so there's not much deflection of enemy fire there, which is why the armor is very thick and double layered there. One layer between the weapon emplacement and a thicker layer behind them. It's also where the belt armor is located. It's basically a layer of heavy armor placed in modules on top of the other armor for added protection."

He paused and I held up a hand. "Got it. It means the same in my language. Extra heavy armor designed to protect the edges of the ship and has the advantage of being easy to replace as long as the inner armor is relatively unharmed."

"Exactly, sir. So, we take some of the spare armor for the belt armor on the other Interdictor and use it to build a protective sphere around the additional reactor."

I nodded slowly, as I thought it over. "Well, with all you have done so far, I see no reason not to believe you now, so let's give it a try."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Really? Just like that?"

"Remember Epsilon Eta where the Lictor got away from us with an estimated nine thousand prisoners and soon to be slaves on board?" He nodded and I continued. "I don't want that to happen again, and an Interdictor can prevent that."

"Ahh." He said with a slow nod. "I agree, sir. I know that we can't save everybody, but even a little goes a long way."

"Especially for the prisoners."

"Yeah."

"But this comes with a few conditions." I said as I looked at him. "The ship needs to have a hangar park and all the rest the other capital ships have, so they can lose power without the crew getting killed." He nodded and I continued. "Furthermore, I want the primary reactor to power as many systems as possible, and the secondary reactor to power the field projectors."

That made Keller blink a few times in surprise. "Why that way, sir?"

"Because once we get out of here, I would rather have a functional warship with a non-functional projector system, than the other way around."

"Good point." He said with a speculative look on his face. "Well, the reactor from the Hammerhead cruiser has an output large enough to power the field projectors, so it shouldn't be a problem. I just haven't thought about it that way."

"Well, I plan on taking a few of the newer versions of the Hammerhead-class cruisers with us and if need be, I'm more than willing to scrap one of those to get a new reactor for the Interdictor." I frowned a bit. "By the way, where does that 'cruiser' classification come from? It irks me every time I hear it... Mostly because in the Chiss Navy, the so-called Hammerhead-class cruiser would be a frigate and not a cruiser."

Keller chuckled. "In the old days, ships weren't as large as they are now, so back when it was designed, it was a cruiser. Just out of curiosity, what're the classes of ships the Chiss Navy use?"

"Oh. Warships under a hundred meters are considered Patrol Crafts or Escorts, like the Mantis D5. The next class are Corvettes, which are generally between a hundred and two hundred meters long. A Foray-class Blockade Runner would be a Corvette. Frigates are between two hundred to four hundred meters and as I said, that would make the Hammerhead-class a frigate." I explained and pointed at the Interdictor model. "Cruisers are up to seven hundred meters long, so both the Interdictor and the Wyverns are classified correctly. Battleships are the next step as they go up to a kilometre or a thousand meters in length, so in our terminology, the Dragon-class would be a Battleship." I smiled, "However, with the number of fighters it carries, it would most likely be classed as a Battle Carrier, just as the Wyvern would be classified as a Cruiser Carrier."

It was what Keller had once called the Dragon-class and it made him chuckle. "And here we thought we invented the term."

I shook my head. "The Chiss Navy uses the word 'Carrier' for ships that carry a lot of fighters, so the Wyvern-class would be classified as a Heavy Cruiser Carrier, while the Delta-class Carrier is perfectly named... for the version we have, that is. The normal version that doesn't have fighters, or at least not a lot of them, would be a military transport with a small complement of fighters." I thought for a moment. "Oh... and while we don't use Dreadnoughts as a class, they would have to be bigger than one kilometer in length... like the Mandalorian Kandosii-type battleship."

"Hmm..." He nodded thoughtfully. "What would a Terminus-class destroyer be?"

"A fast Light Cruiser or a fast attack cruiser."

"Well, that makes sense."

"I hope so, however I wasn't done with you yet." I chuckled. "I left the most important condition for last." I paused for a few seconds and then said. "Starting from now, you take two days off per week at the very least and you limit your workday to eight or nine hours, instead of the sixteen you're pulling now. And before you start protesting, that's not a polite suggestion, that's an order!"

He looked horrified at me. "But..."

"Stop!" I interrupted and calmed my voice again. "Keller, you're overworked, stressed and tired, but you're also a big factor in us getting out of here and I will not have you fall over with a heart attack or a stroke, just because you wanted to shave a week off the time needed." He widened his eyes in surprise, but remained silent as I continued. "We have been here in the box for months. One week or even a month more will make no difference in the long run, as long as we get out of here. Not to mention that you've got a ton of people to help you, most of whom are perfectly able to handle things on their own."

The Chief Engineer looked down with a sigh. "I just really want us to get out of here, so we can help the slaves or prisoners."

"So do I but working or worrying yourself to death helps no-one." I said calmly as I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Now, do as I say and relax a little. Not only have you earned it, but you have also earned it more than anybody in this fleet."

He sighed again and after some hesitation, he nodded. "I'll try to cut down on the work, sir."

"Good." I said, as I removed my hand. "Now go and get some sleep. You need it."

"Yes, sir."

Just to make sure he did as I had ordered, I took the lift to the bridge along with him, almost escorting him to his room, before I turned around and walked to the bridge to inform Captain Fama Sul of my order.

"Is he alright, sir?" Fama Sul with genuine worry in her voice when I was done.

"Yes. Tired, stressed and overworked, but nothing some rest and food won't cure," I said. "Please make sure that he gets that. He deserves some rest and to get his mind off work for more than five minutes."

She looked at me for a few seconds and then nodded with a smile. "I will take care of that, sir."

"Thank you, Captain Sul."

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The Shark was a wonderful little ship to fly, but as I was deep in thought on my way back to Majestic, I didn't really notice it. Mostly because it had just occurred to me that it wasn't just Chief Engineer Keller that needed a break.

Everybody had worked almost constantly for the eight months we had been in the box and they needed to relax and chill for a while before we continued. That went double for the former slaves, who had gone directly from being slaves to working for their lives.

A colourful glimpse caught my eye and made me slow down the Shark, as I took a closer look.

Somehow someone had managed to program a droid to paint a hundred meters tall Dragon Defence Force logo on the hull of Majestic, the stylized blue dragon with the white shield background standing proudly against the grey hull.

With a slight smile, I turned the ship to look at Glorious. That too sported the Dragon-on-shield logo and a short tour of the fleet confirmed that each and every ship had the logo on both the dorsal and ventral side.

The sight made the smile on my face widen. As far as I knew, nobody had asked permission to paint the ships and that the crew themselves had taken the initiative to have the logo painted, showing a pride in the ships that was promising for the future.

The thought kept spinning in my mind as I landed the Shark in the small hangar and walked onto the bridge. I had never tried to arrange a party or relaxation before, but at least I knew who to ask.

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"So, what's the excuse for celebrating?" asked Betty Nagos, when I had explained my thoughts to her, Captain Iska and Doctor Shakka, along with what I had talked with Keller about and the order I had given him.

"Do we need an excuse for a party?" I asked.

"Well, not really," Chuckled Shakka. "But having something to celebrate usually makes it easier to engage people and get them in the mood for a party."

I nodded slowly. The problem was that I couldn't think of anything to celebrate, that involved all the people in the fleet, since they came from different planets and cultures. "I'm sorry, but I'm out of ideas."

"Well," said Iska with a slight smile. "Let's do things in the time-honoured tradition of the navy."

"Which is?" Asked Shakka curious.

Still with a smile on her beautiful purple face, she turned towards Betty Nagos. "You handle this, XO."

Nagos looked stunned for a moment, but then chuckled. "Yes, sir."

"What!" said Shakka. "Can she do that?"

"Management of both day-to-day activities and special events is the responsibility of the XO." Said Betty Nagas with a nod. "I just didn't think our glorious Captain would pull a fast one on me."

"Hmm... We need to re-evaluate the command structure." I said slowly, making the others look at me in surprise.

Nodding in the direction of Betty Nagos, I said. "Right now, the XO here is actually wearing two hats. One as XO for the ship and one as the commanding officer's Chief of Staff, while Resa is both my Flag Secretary and an Operations Specialist in the science department. In the Chiss navy that I'm used to, there's normally one person for each of these roles, and while I know that droids make it easier in regard to administration, I still worry that I place too much work on you."

"I'll live, sir." Said Betty Nagos. "As you said, the administration droids make it a whole lot easier to handle and so far, I haven't had any problems."

"All right. So, from now on, you are officially the Chief of Staff for Dragon Defence Force, as well as the Flag XO... However, I expect that you'll tell me if you need help."

"Yes, sir." She said with a smile.

"Now, regarding the party," I continued. "I suggest that you make a party planning group. You might as well spread the joy and get people involved."

The XO looked speculative for a moment. "That's a good idea, sir." She turned towards Shakka. "Doctor, as the head of the medical department, you're the first member of the Party Planning Group."

"Yes, sir." Replied the red Twi'Lek with a smile.

"Oh, by the way." I said, "since we've found all that treasure from the Pius Dea ships, I want you to come up with some sort of trinket or medal from the crew. Something they can sell, if need be, to help them start a new life once we get back to civilization." I paused for a moment. "You might want to involve Commander Samko in that. She seems to know the value of things out here in the Chaos."

"Yes, sir." Answered the XO. "Do you have anything special in mind?"

"Not besides something with the Dragon Defence Force logo on it."

She nodded. "We'll figure out something and get back to you, sir."

"Good, then I'll go training." I said with a smile and headed off in the direction of the lift, but before I reached it, Captain Iska had caught up to me. "One moment of your time, sir."

"Sure." I said as I walked into the lift, securing both time and privacy. "Come with me."

Once the door had closed Iska leaned against the wall. "We need to talk about Chief Engineer Keller, sir... or rather the order you gave him."

"Yes?"

"Does that mean that all officers should take time to relax and not work sixteen hours a day?"

I nodded, not really following her thoughts. "Yes."

"Excellent, sir." She said with a grin. "In that case that order applies to you as well. You've been just as busy as Keller and it's time you relaxed a little." She pressed a button and the lift started to move. "Your downtime started an hour ago and I expect to see you in civilian clothes in about half an hour in the park for a relaxing cup of chocolate coffee."

The beautiful Twi'Lek had timed it perfectly, as the lift stopped just as she had finished speaking and without waiting for an answer, she got out, saying. "See you in 30, sir!" just as the doors to the lift closed again.

"Commander's quarters." I told the lift, since getting the lift to go there required voice recognition, and then chuckled. As much as I didn't want to admit it, Iska was right. I did need to relax a little and a trip to the hangar park was long overdue as the last time I had been there was when it had just been built.

The thought made me stop chuckling as I realized that it was more than a month ago, making Iska even more correct than I had originally thought.

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The Dragonclaw Interceptor

Dreadnought Majestic

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."

Saying from the Engineering school

"Every time I see this, I'm more and more convinced that it's the most awesome use of space I've ever seen on a spaceship!" Declared Iska as she leaned back in the seat with a cup in her hands.

"Yes, it's quite refreshing." I agreed as I glanced around.

When they had just made it, the area had looked strange, with a lot of green tubes going everywhere and tall racks with sorry looking sprouting green plants.

It had improved a lot since then and now, just a little more than a month later, the green tubes were almost hidden by the leaves of fast-growing green plants that filled the air with a smell of spring. The vertical sections were no less green and by now, they were impossible to see through, as you could a month earlier. There was still a way to go as not all the plants were fully grown, but it nevertheless gave the impression of sitting in a garden.

The sheer size of the hangar also helped. At one hundred twenty meters in length and a hundred meters in width, it was huge, covering no less than twelve thousand square meters (a hundred and thirty thousand square feet), with big durasteel pillars set at regular intervals to preserve the structural integrity of the ship. Pillars that were now covered with creeper plants, that made them look like trees.

The illusion of being outside was made more realistic by an artificial sky. I knew that it was made by a clever use of lighting and a painted overhead, but it really worked. Especially with the electro paint they had used. Electro paint was simply paint that changed colour when you ran an electric current through it, and while most Chiss armor used that to be able to change between different preselected colour schemes to help with camouflage, someone has had the bright idea to use it on the overhead.

As a result of that, the paint scheme and lighting changed with the hour of the day. In the morning, it glowed with soft, warm hues of peach and pale pink, mimicking the early morning sky. However, as the day started, the overhead transitioned to a bright, airy blue reminiscent of a clear summer sky. Fluffy white clouds were subtly painted across the surface, giving the impression of looking up at an endless expanse of sky, and when evening arrived, the overhead shifted to rich shades of orange, coral, and deep red, simulating the warmth of a sunset. The night setting was just as beautiful, as the overhead darkened to a deep, velvety indigo, almost black, with tiny, twinkling stars scattered across the surface, and a subtle, ethereal glow outlined the shapes of distant constellations, while the light changed into a soft moonlight.

All-in-all, it was a fantastic job, as the transitions were seamless, with the hues gently blending into each other, providing a continuous, dynamic experience that mirrored the natural progression of the day.

Another feature that worked was the railed walkway that rose from the floor, seemingly floating over the beds of plants on the deck and criss-crossing through some of the plant filled vertical panels.

Strange as it was, considering that we were in a ship, and a warship at that, the engineers had constructed two buildings inside the park that functioned as small cafes, complete with an outside area where people could sit and enjoy a cup of whatever they wanted or a light meal.

While many of the crew facilities had originally been spread all over the ships, XO Betty Nagos had rearranged them, so the Hangar Park with its cafes was the centre of the activities, with the training areas, shops, and other facilities in the adjacent rooms. It was a change that had created a centre for crew activities and with a crew so diverse as this one, it was working wonders to install a sense of unity among them.

However, even with all these features, the best part for me was watching the crew walk around in the park or sitting on the benches, talking, laughing and in general looking like they had a good time, despite having been caught here for months.

Iska, Resa and I were sitting outside Raika's Rest, one of the cafés in what the crew had named 'the Hangar Park', and as Iska had requested, we were in civilian clothes, instead of the usual uniform. Raika's Rest was named after the manager, an elderly human woman named Raika, who, according to Iska, served the best Chocolate Coffee she had ever tasted.

Apparently, Iska wasn't the only one who thought that the coffee was good, because there were an abundance of people going in and out of the shop and I was watching them, when I noticed a young couple walking hand in hand. Not that it was the first time I've seen two humans walk hand-in-hand, but the woman was clearly pregnant and that made it an interesting sight. Mostly because if there was one, there were bound to be more, and children haven't been part of any plan we had made so far.

Nodding in her direction, I said. "I didn't know we had pregnant women on board."

Iska glanced at the couple and chuckled. "That happens when people fall in love or lust."

Resa nodded at that, the LED at her temple blinking a few times. "Yes. That's Darrina Almeida, twenty-two years old and a gunner. She's set to give birth in a few months and is married to the man whose hand she is holding. Myles Aiden, twenty-five and a technician."

I drank some of the chocolate coffee, while I thought about the implications of that. Iska had made an excellent point when she said that it would happen when people met, but I had forgotten that not everyone had an implant like the one I had. Mine was standard issue in the Chiss Navy, rendering me infertile for five years, but they came in a variety of time frames, enabling people to plan better.

The problem I had with it was more a question of not liking the idea of babies on a warship than anything else. Warships are meant to go to war, which was not a good place for babies. On the other hand, it wasn't like I was planning a major campaign and since it was highly unlikely that the people from Nodia or Sharon the Red's hideout hadn't produced any children, they wouldn't be the only ones here.

Taking the small intercom from my pocket, I called up Betty Nagos. "XO, were there any kids on Nodia?"

She laughed a bit sadly. "Yes sir. The guards couldn't be bothered with giving people new implants, and people will be people, so there were literally thousands of kids. I guess they thought that since people would be sold into slavery at some point, they might as well have people make some more."

"Thank you." I said with a sigh as I looked at the pregnant woman again. "Resa, please remind me later, that we need to look into facilities for kids. How many pregnant women do we have on board?"

For once, she didn't reply immediately, causing me to look over at her. She was sitting motionless in her chair, eyes staring into the garden.

"Resa?" I repeated, finally making her look at me. "Yes?"

"What is wrong? You were completely gone for a moment."

"I... don't know, sir." She admitted. "I was trying to locate something strange... like a distant alluring song coming from beyond my sensor range." She sat still again for a moment, but then shook her head. "It's gone now. What were you saying?"

"I was asking how many pregnant women we have on board." I said, studying her. "Are you sure you're fine?"

"I'll go get a check-up later. Right now, we have six pregnant women on the ship, with eight more on the other ships, sir. The one closest to term is just a few weeks from giving birth." She said and laughed softly when she saw the distaste on my face. "Relax, sir. It's not a result of a rape by a pirate. Sheena was already pregnant when the ship they travelled on was captured by Mahaw's Raiders. They were on the Duchess when we took it, which likely saved the child's life."

"Nice to know. However, there're bound to be more babies sooner or later, so we might as well be prepared for them and last I checked, nurseries weren't exactly standard on Imperial Dreadnoughts."

Laughing softly, Iska said. "That is true." She thought for a moment. "I guess you're going to place them on this ship as well as Glorius, since they're the toughest ones."

"Well, I did consider the carrier, as that ship is supposed to be far away from capital ship combat."

"But a carrier's a very tempting target, sir." Said Iska thoughtfully.

"What about the Gage PA's?" Inserted Resa. "They have room enough and good armor."

"Yes, but unless we liberate enough people to fill one of them, it would be a waste of an anti-starfighter platform." Explained Iska. "For now, placing them on the dreadnoughts is the best option. At least until we find a better place."

"Agreed, so let's do that." I said and drank some of the coffee, while looking around again.

Aside from the lack of windows, this 'park' could belong to any of the bigger space stations I had been on and while the notion of a 'park' on a warship was unusual, I found that I liked it a lot. It lifted people's spirit, provided us with fresh lettuce to the otherwise bland ship food and once the newly planted greenery has had time to grow, the food would become much more varied, not to mention plentiful, as the vertical placing of the panels yielded a much larger area than just the size of the hangar deck.

"By the way," said Resa, interrupting my thoughts. "I know it's your down-time, but I have a little project that I would like you to take a look at."

"Sounds interesting. What is it?"

"A while back we talked about Starfighters..." she said as she took a little holoprojector from a pocket and placed it on the coffee table. "... and you said that I could make a new design for a fighter."

I nodded slowly. "Yes?"

"I joined up with the engineers and we have a design for you. Allow me to present to you, the Dragonclaw Interceptor!"

She switched the projector on, and a small hologram of a Starfighter appeared in the air above it, turning slowly in the air.

It was an interesting design, with an elongated cockpit that reminded me of a Sith bomber, but the star fighter had three wings arranged in a symmetrical triangular pattern around the cockpit, each wing extending out from the central pod at 120-degree intervals. I blinked a few times in surprise as I recognized the wings as those from a Sith Interceptor, though they had been turned upside down. Unlike the Sith interceptor, the wings were equipped with solar panels and were attached directly to the fuselage, rather than to pylons extending from it as the MK VI had.

The engine and drive section behind the cockpit was triangular and all in all, it was a sleek and streamlined looking design.

"For an 'ugly', that is a good-looking fighter." Stated Iska calmly, using the slang for ships that were put together from different types of other ships. "What are the parts?"

Resa smiled. "Well, at the suggestion of Chief Engineer Keller, I mostly used parts from the Interceptors and Bombers on the Interdictor-class cruisers the engineers are working on, but I did use some parts from the MK VI as well, like the drive. They are small, but powerful, so we took them out of the housing and installed them in an engine section from a Sith bomber along with the bomber's shield generator. The wings are from the Interceptor, but the solar panels are from a MK VI. The twin heavy lasers under the cockpit are from the Aureks and the light Ion cannons in the wings are from a Sith Bomber."

I leaned forward to take a closer look. "That's not a bomber cockpit, is it?"

"Yes and no." Resa answered. "We used the bomber cockpit to build a better cockpit with thicker armor and increased visibility. The sensors and communication system are spares from the Super Sting as they're the best I can get my hands on, but systems from the MK VI will fit right into it as well." She paused for a moment and then added. "We tried to fit a Hyperdrive engine in there, but the drive in the Aureks is incorporated into their engines and doesn't fit anything else."

"And the reinforced wings?" asked Iska.

"Landing gear." Said Resa with a little smile. "It's more practical and lighter than mounting retractable landing gear, and landing gear will allow it to land in hangars that don't have the top mounted rack of the main hangar."

I realized that the hologram we were looking at wasn't a 3D rendering, but an actual 3D picture. "I assume that you have built one of those?"

She smiled widely. "After Chief Engineer Keller had approved the design, Senior Mechanic Waydar and some of his students put six of them together. According to him, it was good practice for the students, sir."

Iska laughed softly. "I bet it was."

"Have they been tested yet?" I asked.

"Oh yes," She handed me a datapad. "Here's the result as well as the pilots' comments."

Taking the datapad, I took my time to read it all, skimming through the numbers with turn radius, maximum velocity, and the like. It was better armored than the M7 Nightsinger, had a better shield and was even faster than that craft, which had to be due to the engine configuration. The heavy laser-cannons gave it a good punch and the Ion cannons meant that it could peel the shields of larger ships or stop the smaller craft that pirates normally use.

Having the torpedo launchers from the Aureks instead of Ion-cannons would have given it even more punch, but photon torpedoes were a limited resource since we couldn't make them ourselves and the Ion cannon was a good replacement. In short, Resa had given me exactly what I asked for, as the Dragonclaw was perfect against pirates and slavers, or as a space superiority fighter.

After the numbers came the comments and according to Master Engineer Gacith, the design and manufacturing was rock solid, while the pilots praised the vessel's speed and manoeuvrability, as well as the firepower of the three lasers along with the Ion cannon. They all agreed that the Dragonclaw Interceptor was a good ship, equipped with good armor, hard-hitting weapons and even a shield. Some of the former Imperial pilots also commended that the instrumentation was similar to what they were used to from the Imperial starfighters, making it extremely easy for them to transition into the craft, despite the Dragonclaw being a completely different starfighter.

I handed the datapad to Iska and looked at Resa again. "That is one impressive starfighter, Resa. Did you say that they fit into the top-mounted racks in the hangars?"

"Yes, we made sure of that." smiled Resa. "Otherwise, I knew they couldn't be installed in the ships that need them, but the addition of landing gear enables them to land on all the ships, be they Imperial, Republic or neutrals."

"Good." I thought for a moment. "How long does it take to put one together?"

"By the time we assembled the sixth one, it took us four days." Resa explained, "but it would make it easier if we assembled the engine section first. After that, it's not that difficult. The Empire must be a big believer in tradition, because a surprising number of parts fit perfectly together without the need for any converters."

Iska shrugged. "It's not about tradition. The Empire has a lot of ships, so they try to make spare parts as similar as possible, since that enables them to use old spare parts on new ships, which saves time, resources and money."

Resa processed that for a moment and nodded. "That makes sense."

"So does your fighter," I said. "We need to test them to the limit and beyond. Load the data here into the simulator and have the pilots play with them. While the pilots do that, fly them in real life. Have them fly as fast as they can for as long as they can and in general put as much stress on the various parts as you can. Then shoot at them, hit them with anti-starfighter weapons, and smash them. See how much damage they can take without killing the pilot and then see if that can be improved." I stopped and sent her a smile. "If Master Engineer Gacith, Senior Mechanic Waydar and Chief Engineer Keller give the go-ahead after that, build me as many as you can." I paused as a question popped into my head. "Which reminds me... How many do you have parts for?"

"Right now, we can build about a hundred, but with all the ships out there and the spare parts in the cargo holds, I would say about six hundred."

I nodded as I thought it over. While six hundred starfighters was a lot, it wasn't even half the number we would reach once every ship had gotten their full complement of fighters, since that was at around fifteen hundred starfighters.

This insanely high number of starfighters was mostly due to the ships of the fleet, as the experimental designs had been a test for more starfighter intensive tactics. Unfortunately, that brought with it its own set of problems, mostly because unlike the Empire, we didn't have a chain of supply and there were goods we simply couldn't build, missiles and proton torpedoes being the most important.

Both the Aureks and the M7 Nightsingers had proton torpedo launchers and while we had looted all we could from the cargo holds of the Hammerheads, most of those had been spent in their battle against the Sith Empire, leaving us with a limited supply.

That the fleet had been on a test mission meant that the S-13s Super Sting and all the capital ships were also short on missiles, as the fleet only had brought a limited supply.

Of cause, the Tibanna gas for all the Turbolasers were also a limitation, but as that had been used since the invention of those weapons, there was a lot of it in the ships in the junkyard and we had found enough Tibanna gas to last years in the ships we had already searched, with even more to come from the ships we haven't search yet.

What it boiled down to, was that the Dragonclaw Interceptor non-missile layout meant that at some point it was going to be the only starfighter that could operate without being limited by a shortage of either missiles or proton torpedoes, potentially making it our main starfighter for the fleet.

"Build as many as you can, Resa." I finally said. "And loot all the spare parts you can to make more. I have a feeling that we're going to need them at some point."

The smile on her face almost lit up the room. "Thank you, sir." She looked from me to Iska and back again. "Do you mind if I run off? I need to talk this over with the engineers."

Iska smiled. "No, that's okay with me."

"One thing before you leave." I said as a thought hit me. "If they're approved, I want you to include the assigned pilot in the building process. At least to start with. That should make them appreciate the craft more... oh and have Ensign Maxwell in on the team."

"Yes, sir." Resa said as she grabbed the holoprojector and swiftly walked away.

"Resa." I called after her, making her stop and look at me. "Yes, sir?"

"Remember to have that check-up while you're there anyway."

"I will, sir." She promised and started walking again.

Iska looked after her and then at me, lowering her voice as she said. "You know, the more I talk with Resa, the more I think of her as a person. That is not a normal droid."

"You are so right." I agreed. "More to the point, normal droids are not inventive at that level. There's something special about her, that makes her a person and not a droid."

Iska nodded. "There's an old saying about "the sum is greater than the parts" and I think it applies here. Her parts belong to a droid, but the whole is a person."

I regarded her speculatively. "That's the best explanation I've heard so far and you're right. She is a person and not just a droid."

She nodded and drank the rest of her coffee. "Why Ensign Maxwell, by the way?"

I chuckled at her question. "Because he has shown that he is not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to starfighters. It takes self-confidence bordering on arrogance to claim that the simulator was cheating and yet he did it, because he observed an error in the program. Not only do I like that a lot, but any leader needs people who will tell them the truth. Otherwise, we're blind."

"That is true, sir." She said with a smile. "Another question is why build so many of those Dragonclaws? We have a lot of other starfighters, and we really need bombers."

"Only in a traditional setup." I said with a smile and explained my thoughts to her, finishing with. "Bombers are good against large targets, but most of our starfighters are strikefighters, with a near perfect balance of firepower and manoeuvrability, and they are equally effective against both stationary objectives and other ships. Normally, they're not quite as manoeuvrable as a pure space superiority fighter, but the versions we have are, and the S-13s are even more manoeuvrable than most of the space superiority fighters we have in the database."

She considered it for a moment. "I get your point, sir." Her lips parted in a beautiful smile. "And I'm so happy that you're the commander of this fleet and I'm not. Thinking at that level is exactly what commanders should do and I'm not capable of doing that yet."

"Yet." I echoed, enjoying her smile. "You'll get there."

"Well, listening to your thoughts help a lot." She stretched lazily. "Do you mind going for a walk? I'm getting slightly restless."

"That sounds like a good idea."

-------------

We enjoyed a quiet stroll through the park, including the raised walkways, and then took a tour of the various training centres. Not that it was what we had planned, but as we just walked around on the ship, that just happened.

The fun part for me, was that everybody seemed to recognize Iska as the captain and greeted her, while only the Chiss seemed to recognize me out of my uniform, enabling me to observe the lower tier officers and personnel on a completely new level.

"I don't get it." Whispered Iska after a while. "Why can they recognize me and not you?"

"Well, there's a lot more Chiss here than there are Twi'Lek, so you stand out more... and you do look quite spectacular to start with." I winked at her. "However, when I just walk around like this, I do my best not to look like a Commanding Officer... There's no command presence, so to speak."

"I think I know what you mean, but could you explain?"

"I can give you an example. At the Naval Academy we had many different lessons. One of them was named 'Command Presence' and we had no idea what it was, except it was in one of the usual classrooms. When we entered, a lieutenant commander was standing by the viewscreen, while a maintenance guy was fiddling with the electronics."

I paused for a moment to let her set the scene in her head. "Now, back then a lieutenant commander was a high-ranking officer to us, so we were excited, as we sat down by the tables. The tech guy finished fiddling and sat down as well, as the LC started a rather boring lecture about the importance of looking like an officer."

"Boring?" Iska asked with humour in her voice.

"Oh yes. We had all heard that like a hundred times before, and the lieutenant commander was about as interesting as polishing your shoes." I replied. "After a while, the maintenance guy suddenly stood, squared his shoulders and looked at us. I swear that we were standing to attention before we knew what we were doing and why. He gave us a slight nod, said. 'And this concludes the demonstration of Command Presence. Have a good day, cadets' and walked out of the room."

Iska laughed a pearly laughter. "That's something. Did you ever discover who he was?"

"Oh yeah. Vice Admiral Zedais. Widely assumed to be one of the best Admirals the Navy ever had." I smiled a bit. "He even wrote a book and I think I've read it a hundred times."

Iska looked at me with a smile. "You know, I would really like to see that Command Presence you talk about."

"Why? You have it yourself."

She looked at me with a surprised expression on her face. "What?"

"You have it yourself." I repeated. "If you didn't, you wouldn't be much of a commanding officer and I picked you as a captain because you were the best officer for the job, not for your body, however nice it is."

"Why thank you, Thalen." She said with a laugh and looked around to make sure nobody could hear us, before looking at me, the tip of her tongue wetting her lips. "We're on down-time. How about we spend some of it naked? I would love some slow sex right now."

"What an excellent idea, Captain." I said with a wink. "May I suggest your quarters? I've been entirely too much in mine lately."

Her beautiful face split in a grin. "As you say, Commodore."

As Majestic was built to be a command vessel, the large quarters right by the bridge was reserved for the commanding officer, while the captain had a ready-room on the other side of the bridge, which was basically a small cabin with a connected meeting room, so the captain could sleep and conduct private meetings right next to the bridge. This enabled both the fleet commander and the captain to be on the bridge as fast as possible in case of emergencies or surprise attacks.

However, navy tradition dictated that the captain had another, and much larger, cabin called the main cabin or the In Port cabin, located somewhere else in the ship. This cabin was both spacious and luxurious, as fitting for a captain of a Dreadnought.

I didn't know when she had found the time, but Iska's main cabin was beautifully decorated with statues, paintings and other works of art, most likely found among the things we had looted from the other ships here.

The most surprising one was a screen showing the bridge of Majestic, her standing in front of the viewscreen, with me sitting in the commander's chair in the background. Resa, Tavune, Jandar San and Satomie were at their stations, looking busy.

Iska saw me looking at the picture and softly said, "I love that scene. Standing on the bridge of a giant warship as a captain is simply one of the best feelings in the world. I even have a hard-copy of it in case we have to abandon ship at some point."

"Good. Feelings like that are meant to be remembered fondly."

"So is this." She said as she gave me a passionate kiss. "Come. You haven't seen the bedroom yet."

----------------------------------------

Movie night

Good company make good times better and hard times easier.

Universal proverb

There're few words in the world that can send cold shivers down a spine of a man like when a woman says. 'We need to talk.', but fortunately Yaki and I knew each other well enough for that not to be the case, when she said exact that.

"Sure." I answered with a smile. "Who's the lucky one?"

"Good guess." She said with a somewhat embarrassed grin. "How did you know?"

"Well, we've been here before and business aside, I haven't seen you for a while." I told her as I stood from the chair and walked around the table to avoid making the situation too formal. "Not to mention that you disappear whenever you have down-time."

She nodded. "Well, you're right... Titlow and I have started seeing each other."

"Congratulations!"

Being tall, strong and trained in close-combat, former Gunnery Sergeant, now Lieutenant Caskey Titlow was exactly Yaki's type, not to mention choice in sex partner.

"Thank you." She said with a smile. "It really wasn't something I expected, but it just happened."

I almost laughed at that. Mostly because it was the third time I had heard it from her.

"It's okay, Yaki. It's not the first time, but as usual I hope it works out for you this time."

Yaki walked over to me and gave me a hug. "Thank you once more, Thalen."

Returning the hug, I just said, "You're welcome."

Holding her did make me slightly sad, that we weren't going to enjoy each other physically anymore, but the relationship between Yaki and I had always been one of friendship, comfort and lust, and of the three, lust was the least important. That we were out here in the middle of nowhere a thousand light years from home hadn't changed that. If anything, it had made the friendship even more important, and being friends also meant being happy for the other one when they fell in love.

Besides, resenting her for us not having sex was just being greedy, or at least some kind of genetic instinct telling me to breed with as many women as possible. If I needed sex, Resa, Shakka, Iska and Elise Samko were more than enough, though sex with Elise Samko had become increasingly infrequent over the last few months.

"Oh, that reminds me that I wanted to invite you to a movie night." I told her as we released each other from the hug. "The first part of the animation movie about our journey here is ready tonight. Bring Titlow and some snacks if you want to come watch it."

"I'll do that. See you there, sir." She promised and walked out, the automatic door closing behind her.

Shaking my head, I walked back to my chair. I didn't know if it was the thought of being alone out here in a box system or normal humanoid reaction to working close to another person for so long, but I had seen more and more couples in the fleet, along with some trios of one man and two women. The last was most likely caused by the screwed male to female ratio we had in the fleet, as a lot of the prisoners we had liberated had been females. All in all, on average there were two and a half females for every male on board, and while I had expected it to be troublesome, in reality, people were reasonable about it and just went with the flow. A development I credited Betty Nagos for, as she had years of experience with that from the prison-camp at Nodia Prime and knew how to handle it.

One relationship that had really surprised me was Fama Sul and Keller.

I had asked Fama Sul to make sure that Keller got his mind off work for more than five minutes at a time, and apparently that had been the incentive she had needed to make her feelings for Chief Engineer Keller clear to him.

According to rumours, she had waited until Keller had gotten a good, long rest and then walked into his suite with two large plates of food, locking the door after telling the crew that if anybody disturbed them short of a major attack or disaster, they would be transferred to another ship.

It must have been good, because according to those present at the bridge of the Kraken at the time, the Chief Engineer's smile had nearly reached his ears when they came out several hours later.

I had been slightly worried their relationship would influence their professional life, but in the last two simulations we had run, Captain Sul had put that worry in the grave, by improving by first six and then eight percent. Keller had also improved, if in another way, as he no longer looked like he was about to fall over from exhaustion. Fama Sul made sure he got enough sleep, remembered to eat, and again according to rumours, they were having sex at least twice a week.

I had asked Master Engineer Gacith to keep an eye on him and according to the Chiss Engineer, Keller had never looked healthier or happier, and a happy, well-rested and well-fed Keller was apparently even sharper than he had ever been before.

With a chuckle and another shake of my head, I activated the intercom to get hold of Chef Winston and tell her that there would be more visitors to the dinner in the wardroom tonight.

--------------------

The wardroom on the Majestic was, like any other wardrooms on military ships I had been on, consisting of a large dining area for the officers, a lounge and a connected kitchen where the food for the attending officers was prepared. According to tradition, it was also the place where various artifacts from the ship's service were on display, but as a brand-new ship, and an experimental one at that, the display cases on the Majestic were strikingly empty.

As usual, Yaki kept her word and when evening arrived, she and a slightly nervous looking former Gunnery Sergeant, now Lieutenant Caskey Titlow showed up at the wardroom, wearing civilian clothes. The next to arrive was Elise Samko, followed a few minutes later by Shakka and Iska, who arrived as the last two I had invited. All of them were wearing civilian clothes, which was somewhat weird, as I was used to seeing them in uniform.

I had considered inviting more people but had decided against it. I wanted a relaxing and informal evening and some of the people I knew on the other ships, like Keller and Fama Sul on the Kraken, or Tristana, Anna and Elanore on the Hawk, had arranged their own viewing parties.

To make things easier for all of us, I had arranged for dinner, as I intended to enforce the Chiss rule about no titles when having food, and I explained that to everybody while we were waiting for the food to get ready.

"So," said Yaki when I was done. "The movie starts while we're having dinner?"

"That was the plan."

She nodded and glanced over at Caskey Titlow, who was looking around curiously. "What's up, Cas?"

He looked a little embarrassed as he chuckled. "Well, sir, it's the first time I've been here. Normally, lowly Gunnery Sergeants, like I was until recently, are not allowed in Officer's country."

Iska coughed. "Are you saying that you haven't been here even once since you were promoted to lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir." He replied with a little smile. "We've been rather busy with the troopers."

I almost corrected him in his use of 'sir', but the dinner hadn't started and thus he was technically right in using it.

Catching the attention of one of the server droids, I gave a little nod, and thankfully it got the hint, declaring. "Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served."

----------------------

I started the movie when we were halfway through the delicious appetizer, leaning back in the seat to enjoy both the food and the movie.

The 'movie' started with us landing on Alpha Viga and immediately getting under fire from the pirates and the Renegade Sith there.

Like the short footage XO Betty Nagos had shown me a couple of months ago, the animation was surprisingly good, looking almost like a real holovid, with most of the dialog taken directly from the recordings or so cleverly inserted, that it was impossible to know the difference.

"Well, I heard you met some Sith, but did it go down like that?" Asked Shakka in wonder after the first Sith on the planet was killed by Ilana's sniper rifle, while I used telekinesis to catch the APC, preventing the troops inside from getting hurt. The second Sith attacked almost immediately after that, but was killed as well, after I parried his lightsaber and used a Force Push to send him flying backwards, enabling the troopers to kill him with their Charric (maser) riles.

I nodded. "Yes, so far they've kept it as close to the truth as I imagine they can come."

"That's pretty impressive." Rumbled Caskey Titlow. "Can't the Sith parry those shots?"

I thought for a moment. "Yes and no. Yes, because they can be parried if the lightsaber has the right frequency for it, and no because they usually don't and maser shots pack a lot more impact than a blaster and if you don't know that, it'll rip the lightsabre out of the wielder's hand, like it happened with the second Sith you saw. Having a squad armed with charric weapons shooting at a Force user unfamiliar with maser weapons will almost always end up with them being dead."

"As happened there." Stated Yaki with a smile.

"So why doesn't the Republic use them?" Titlow wanted to know. "Masers, I mean. What're the drawbacks?"

Yaki shrugged lightly. "They have a shorter range than ordinary blasters, so you'll be at a disadvantage when facing Imperial soldiers and enough troopers firing blasters at a force-user will still overwhelm them."

"Ahh."

"Shyyy. I want to see this." Said Iska, as the animation of me said. "Buckle up, people. We're about to do something so stupid it might even work!", causing most people in the room to laugh.

"And before any of you ask." Said Yaki, still chuckling. "Yes, he did say that or at least something close to it."

The scene shifted to where we were flying through the city, keeping so low that the buildings zapped past us, and once again I had to admit that the animators had done a fantastic job. With action music on top of it and a couple of tight turns that were thrown in there for effect, it was both exciting and dramatic. Especially when we landed on top of the enemy ships and disembarked under heavy fire with me in the front, parrying a lot more blaster bolts than I could remember, while Yaki's heavy weapon squad cut through the pirates.

To my surprise, Titlow looked at me with approval in his eyes. "That's a good plan, sir. Surprise them, prevent them from taking off and get the high ground in one go."

"Thank you."

Yaki nudged him in the side with an elbow, whispering. "No titles or 'sir's. We're having food."

"Sorry." He whispered back with a grin. "It's not easy to break a habit of a lifetime."

"No worries." Said Elise as she brushed a strand of red hair away from her eyes. "I did that a few times myself the first time I had dinner with Thalen and Yaki."

I ignored them, because on the screen, the Black Dragons were taking down a group of enemies, and on-screen Yaki shot one person with her assault maser and then hit another with a swing of her armoured glove, making his scull cave in before taking out yet another pirate with a precise shot.

"Nice moves, Yaki." I said, not doubting that it happened that way.

She confirmed it by saying, "Thank you.", as the screen showed us taking the Fury-class Interceptor and the D5 Mantis, before turning our attention to the Dynamic-class freighter.

That made Elise Samko grimace. "I don't think I've ever been so nervous, as when you walked in, Thalen."

"Really? I thought we were quite nice about it."

"You were, but on the other side, your troops had just taken out the pirates and seen from the cockpit, that looked very impressive, and I didn't know what to make of you at that point."

"Fair enough." I chuckled.

The rest of the scene went as I remembered it happen, except for Commander Samko being dressed in a covering jumpsuit, showing a lot less skin and more cleavage than she had done back then.

With perfect timing, the server droid came back to collect the appetizer plates and serve the dinner at that time, so I paused the movie and waited until everybody had gotten their food and drink, before we continued.

The animation team had really outdone themselves on the next part, which was the space combat against Lord Mahaw and his Hammerhead-class cruiser.

The graphics looked like the real thing, the choice in music was perfect and they had managed to build the tension, as we prepared for combat against the much larger ship.

Thankfully, they had omitted the improvised speech, and kept the parts where I accepted command and where the crews picked the names for the ships.

Both Iska and Titlow frowned when the animation of me ordered the flight of missiles to be fired, but cheered a few minutes later, when the missiles activated and slammed into the cruiser, taking out an engine along with the shields.

The scene shifted to the clawcraft as they attacked the enemy starfighters and won after an intense and exciting combat.

That was one of the parts I really enjoyed watching, as I, for obvious reasons, was focused on other things at the time.

There were also interior shots from the Rising Star, where Georgina Writ managed the controls with cool competence, despite it being her first time in a Fury. The only thing that was missing were scenes from the Phoenix, but as the animation team didn't have the scanner or security data from the frigate, they had been unable to do anything and to be honest, I didn't miss it that much.

"Ouch." Said Iska with a grimace when they showed the sequence where a shot from the Hammerhead-class cruiser ripped off the Mantis' weapon pods. "Not fun!"

"No, it wasn't." Agreed Yaki, surprising me. Mostly because I found the scene much more dramatic when it was shown on the screen, than it had been in real life. Of course, with nothing to do, Yaki had more time to worry than the rest of us.

Apparently, the animators thought the same, because as the battle continued, the engineers kept working on the ship, creating even more tension in the scene. A tension that was released with the Phoenix's mega-masers tearing some of the armor covering the Hammerheads bridge away and the turbolasers from the Fury and Mantis' taking out that bridge along with Lord Mahaw.

The rest of the scene was almost as I remembered it, including my explanation to Samko about the tactics. The movie ended with us getting ready to go to Centauri 21 to rescue the kidnapped Chiss, while my order of getting a cape and a Sith-like helmet was used as a sort of unexplained hook for the next episode.

"You know," said Yaki thoughtfully when the end-credits were rolling on the screen. "It seems a lot..." She searched for the right word. "...wilder, when being told like that."

I nodded, but before I could say anything, Iska laughed. "You were up against a Hammerhead in patrol ships. How can it not be wild?"

"Because when you're in a situation, you just do what needs to be done." Said Titlow quietly. "It's why we train so much. We need to be able to do it without thinking too much about the risk, so we can focus on the tactics instead."

"So it has been written." Intoned Yaki with a slight smile, as her hand on his leg gave an approving squeeze.

"So it shall be done." I added with a smile of my own.

"I didn't get that." Said Shakka calmly after a moment's silence in the room. "What did you mean?"

"It's from the Naval Academy." Explained Yaki with a chuckle. "Whenever one of the cadets said something that sounded like it came directly out of the Training Manual, the others would say 'So it has been written, so it shall be done'. Mostly to indicate that what was said was so true that it might as well come from the Holy Book of War."

"Which is...?" said Iska, curiosity written on her face.

"A small collection of texts about war." I explained. "It's not really a holy scripture, but for the cadets at the Academy it might as well be, because it contains just about every lesson they need to learn to become good officers."

Yaki nodded and added. "Not that you need to memorize the book to become a good officer, but when analysed, every winning tactic follows the rules and suggestions in the Holy Book of War, while the losing tactics break them." She grimaced. "Though it's not always easy to see beforehand."

"No, it's not." Confirmed Elise Samko. "I had Thalen explain it to me when it happened, and I still didn't believe we could win." She smiled a bit. "I'm glad he proved me wrong."

Iska glanced over at me with a speculative look on her face. "Can I see that book?"

I nodded. "Sure. It's not like it's a secret."

"Well, if it's as good as you say, I find it hard to believe it's not a secret." Said Titlow. "I mean, if one side of the last Great War had it and the other didn't, the war would not have lasted that long."

"It's not like the book gives you unbeatable tactics." I explained. "As Yaki said, it's a set of guidelines and suggestions, and not specific tactics as every plan must be adjusted to fit the enemy." I thought for a moment. "Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the Commander works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing."

Iska looked thoughtful. "So basically, some common tactical sense written down?"

"Yes." I agreed.

"Except that common sense in warfare isn't all that common." Inserted Titlow with a grin, making me nod and say, "Which is why it has been written down."

"Like every other text about tactics through the history of the universe." Added Iska, making Yaki nod. "Yes. Thalen's biggest advantage is that he is able to apply the lessons in the Holy Book of War to real life situations, which means that he wins more often than not." Her smile turned into a grin. "Much to the dissatisfaction of most other officers at the Academy, who seemed to think that he was cheating somehow."

"There is no cheating in war." I said absently, as I wondered who the officers Yaki were referring to had been.

"Tell that to Ensign Mocime." She answered with a grin. "She was so convinced you cheated she complained to the instructors, claiming that you were using the Force. They shut her down pretty quickly."

"Pirm'ocim'ettar is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and sexy Chiss I have ever encountered." I said calmly. "She is also a miracle, being the first and hopefully last person, that succeeded in not only living, but even gaining entrance to the naval academy despite having absolutely no brains at all."

That statement caused Shakka to burst out laughing, spitting lemonade over her plate. Quickly, she snatched her napkin from the table and dried her face. "Thalen! You can't just say something like that when I'm drinking!"

Chuckling, I leaned back in the seat. "Unfortunately, it's the truth. I was on the last year when she started, and after a while, she wanted to sleep with me. Not because she found me sexy, but in order to get help to write a tactical assignment. I declined the sex but ended up trying to help her with the assignment anyway because I felt sorry for her. Unfortunately, she hasn't got the brains for tactics... or anything else more complicated than eating, drinking, sleeping or having sex."

"Okay, now I'm curious." Declared Iska. "What happened after you helped her?"

"She took the advice I gave her and tried to use it in not only one, but two completely different scenarios. Naturally, it didn't fit any of them at all, and she was so close to being ejected from the Academy, that I still wonder how she avoided it." Looking at Yaki, I said. "She must have been on the last year when you started."

She nodded with a grimace. "Yes, and she was still a terrible tactician. I was up against her two times and won both times."

Iska blinked in surprise. "You were up against a senior in your first year?"

Yaki nodded. "Yes, everybody participates in the war games at the Academy and after the first few times your opponents are picked according to their rating, not seniority." She thought for a moment. "As far as I remember, I was also up against Captain Meistrin and she was a nightmare to meet."

"Still, you must have had an excellent rating."

"Oh, I did." Said Yaki with a grin. "When I was a Sergeant, I had a Lieutenant, who was a brilliant tactician and a good teacher, and didn't mind teaching me how to think tactically, so my rating was pretty good after a few months. Mocime, on the other hand, was rather clueless and I'm sure that if her family weren't well-connected, she would have been booted out of the Academy before the second year."

Iska frowned. "Is she really that clueless?

Yes." Said Yaki firmly and lowered the pace of her speaking as she continued, making every word as clear as possible. "When it comes to tactics, Mocime couldn't get a clue during the clue mating season in a field full of horny clues, if she smeared her naked body with concentrated clue musk and did the traditional clue mating dance."

That caused Titlow to bend over, laughing so hard he started to cough, while the rest of us grinned as well.

Yaki tapped him none too gently on the back. "Are you okay, Cas? Or do you need medical attention? I mean, Doc is right here."

Titlow got the amusement under control as he nodded, though his voice was still cracking up when he said, "I'll live."

"Good choice, 'coz the doctor is off duty." Stated Shakka drily, causing more chuckles.

Iska tilted her head a bit, as she usually did when she was curious about something. "I have to confess that I don't know the first thing about the Chiss Naval Academy, but I found the first year at the Academy on Zagrass to be pretty easy."

"Yes, but you have a natural ability for leading and tactics, so of course you'll find it easy, which is clearly not the case for everybody." I told her. "Mocime is not only incompetent, but she's also convinced that her failures are due to other people being out to get her. When she tried to repeat the tactics I had told her about in a completely different scenario, she accused me of tricking her so she would fail. The same happened with everybody else she was paired up with." I frowned. "I sincerely hope that the only job she ever gets in the Navy is an organizational position far away from any combat."

Yaki nodded and turned towards Iska. "By the way, Iska, is Zagrass a possibility for the people here? I mean, most places with a Naval Academy must have some level of sophistication, not to mention a fleet."

Iska shook her head. "Zagrass is in the independent Kintal sector and both the Empire and the Republic want control of it due to the natural resources there. During the war they clashed several times, but the battles were inconclusive, as none of them seemed to be willing to commit enough forces to really take the systems." She sighed. "However, I have no doubt, that when the war breaks out again, it'll do so in the Kintal sector as well."

That made Elise Samko nod in agreement, while Titlow looked surprised. "None of them attacked your fleet?"

"No, but to be honest, the Zagrass System Defence fleet wouldn't have been a problem for either of the two major powers. I mean, the fleet was decent enough, but the ships were mostly old surplus Republic ships, bought several hundred years ago. We had Hammerhead-class cruisers, Thantra-class corvettes and Stinger-class Starfighters, with Foray-class Blockade Runners as patrol and support craft." She shrugged. "Most of them had upgraded systems, but after I have experienced this..." She gestured around in the wardroom. "...I doubt the Zagrass System Defence Fleet would have a chance against a determined modern fleet."

I nodded at that. There was a world of difference between the type of ships used in the Mandalorian Wars and the subsequent Jedi Civil War three hundred years ago and the ones used now. Lessons had been learned; reactors, electronics and weapons improved, and the new ships were tougher, faster and better armed than ever before.

The Hammerhead-class cruiser Iska had commanded was an excellent example of the development. The original version had seven turbolasers, with three batteries of two and a single turbolaser cannon mounted atop the hammerhead bridge structure, along with some lighter point-defence lasers mounted at various points along the hull. The new version had ten point-defence lasers, but newer technology had allowed it to carry twenty light turbolasers and ten medium turbolasers, which, needless to say, was a considerable upgrade when it came to capital ship combat.

It was also a costly one and a lot of smaller systems simply didn't have the millions upon millions of credits it took to make those upgrades. At least not according to Elise Samko.

"By the way, Yaki," said Shakka. "Did this... Mocime... ever graduate from the Academy?"

Yaki nodded. "Yes. I don't know how, but as I finished my first year, she graduated as a Junior Lieutenant. I think she was appointed to a staff position somewhere."

I swallowed the last of my dessert. "Let's be thankful for the small things in life. Mocime in command of a patrol vessel is the stuff of nightmares."

"Let's talk about something more positive, then." Declared Shakka.

"Good idea." Agreed Iska and looked at Elise Samko. "Elise, I've never found out where you learned how to be a pilot."

"Oh." Said the red-haired human. "I'm from Terminus, so I attended Flight School there, but it was a civilian one... Not the naval academies you guys have been to."

"I have no idea where that is." I chuckled and asked the computer to show it on a star map. A moment later, the screen showed a location at the extreme end of the Galaxy's south, but more importantly, Terminus proved to be one of the last stops on the Hyperspace Lane known as the Corellian Trade Spine. One of the Galaxy's oldest hyperspace lanes and one of the five most important hyper-routes in the Galaxy, for which reason it, along with the other four were known as Super-Hyper routes.

Corellian Trade Spine ran towards the Galaxy south from Corellia and covered an enormous distance, while enabling trade to flourish on the planets on the way.

"Wow." Said Shakka as she looked at the screen. "Talk about a good location!"

Samko nodded with a grin. "It is... Terminus is at the cross between Corellian Trade Spine and the newly discovered Hydian Way, and it's close to both Wild Space and the Unknown regions... which you know as The Chaos. Lots of trade there, along with a lot of different kinds of ships from all over the galaxy."

"And a flight school." Added Iska with a smile, making Elise Samko nod. "Yes."

"What made you chose to go into the Chaos?" Titlow wanted to know. "I mean with both the Hydian Way and the Corellian Trade Spine there, there're a lot of other possibilities."

"The war." Elise Samko said matter-of-factly. "When I was done with flight school some ten years ago, the war was still raging and much of the trade had stopped, except for that which went into Wild Space or the Unknown Regions, so my first job carried me that way and other jobs had done that ever since until I ended up here."

"I might be slow." Said Yaki. "But what're the differences between the two regions?"

"Oh." Chuckled Samko. "Wild Space is as the word implies a wild space, without the protection of a greater power, but also without any laws beyond what the planets there can project. Basically, it's pirate heaven, if they manage to stay clear of the few places that do patrol the areas, but most of Wild Space is explored and mapped. The Unknown Regions are exactly that: Unknown. It's not explored nor mapped and in general, very little is known about it."

She looked at the female Chiss and changed the subject by asking. "Yaki, you said you had a good lieutenant that taught you tactics. What happened to him?"

"Oh, after a few successful combats against pirates and some other missions I can't talk about, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and let loose on the galaxy." Said Yaki with a straight face. "And is currently sitting next to you, trying not to give away that I'm talking about him."

The redhead laughed and looked at me. "You!"

I nodded. "Yes. For better and for worse, Yaki was one the sergeants when I was at my very first posting as a very green lieutenant five years ago and I discovered that once you get past the quirky humour and peculiar ways of expressions, she's extremely capable."

Titlow rubbed his forehead with a hand. "There're so many things I can't wrap my head around in that sentence, that I'm afraid I'll need an explanation."

"Oh? Just ask."

He sighed. "First of all, you look to be around twenty, so five years ago you would be fifteen... at least in my head... so how could you have finished the Academy already?" He paused for a moment and then continued before I had time to answer. "Secondly, you're a Navy commander... So how can you be in the chain of command for the Spacemarines?"

I chuckled. "Chiss grow and mature at approximately double the speed of humans, so a Chiss is a fully grown adult around the age of twelve, where everything slows down and we age slower than humans from that point on."

"Not to mention, that Thalen talks in Chiss years." Added Yaki. "We calculate time, and thus age, from our home planet of Chilla and not the Republic capital of Coruscant, like the rest of the Galaxy. So, our years are 462 days of 25 hours each, and not the Galactic standard of 365 days of 24 hours each." She raised her voice a bit. "Majestic, how old would a twenty-year-old Chiss be if we used Galactic Standard time and not Chiss time. Just the number of years."

"Twenty-six point four years" The computer answered immediately.

"And a twenty-five-year-old?"

"Thirty-one point six."

"Thank you, Majestic." Yaki turned to look at Titlow. "So, Thalen would be twenty-six and I'm thirty-one."

"Which makes me a dirty old man." He sighed. "I'm forty-nine."

That caused a general laughter at the table.

"Who really cares?" Asked Shakka with a smile when the amusement had died out a little.

"I do." He answered.

"No, you don't." Elise stated calmly, making him look at her in surprise. She continued. "If you did care about it, the two of you wouldn't be together. What you really mean, is that you're worried about what the other people on board will think about the age difference, and as Shakka said, don't care about them."

"And besides," added Shakka. "With the skillset the two have, I'll expect the first person to complain to become a patient of mine." She glanced over at Iska and me. "Not that I would endorse beating people up."

Titlow raised his eyebrows at Shakka, but then shrugged and looked at me. "Now the time makes more sense to me. What about the mixing of branches?"

"Thalen doesn't like down-time." Mumbled Yaki, causing smiles from the others.

"Yaki is partly correct." I admitted with a shrug. "I get bored easily, so at the Academy I took as many extra lessons as they allowed, including infantry and space marine tactics. Mostly because I figured that if I ever got close enough to an enemy to use a lightfoil, knowing the tactics for ground combat and boarding actions would be a good thing, if I wanted to survive. So, while my main focus is Naval combat, I'm certified in those two as well." I shrugged lightly. "The downside of that, is that has caused the higher-ups to send me to various hot-spots at our borders, no-matter if it was a naval- or infantry focussed mission."

"Then stop being so efficient." Grinned Yaki.

"Yes, next time I'll sacrifice a certain Lieutenant, so they'll stop sending me every time there's a fire that needs to be put out."

That caused another round of laughter at the table.

"Anyway," said Iska, still chuckling. "I hate to break this up, but we're occupying the wardroom and I'm fairly certain the next watch would appreciate us leaving."

"You're right," I said with a sigh. "Thank you all for a good evening."

"Likewise, sir." Said Yaki and stood, followed by Caskey Titlow a moment later. "Thank you for inviting us, sir."

"You're welcome." I said with a smile. "If we can get the duty schedule to match, I hope we can do this again when the animation team drops the next instalment."

"Oh, that would be nice." Said Yaki and said her goodbyes to everybody before she and Titlow walked away.

Elise Samko opened her mouth, looking like she was going to say goodbye as well, but Shakka whispered something to her, which made her stop.

Iska turned towards me. "Doctor Shakka and I have a theory we would like to talk with you about, so can we take this elsewhere?" Glancing over at Shakka and Samko, she added. "I think Samko might be interested in this theory as well."

Elise nodded slightly, so I said. "Certainly. My office?"

"Perfect."

---------------------------

"So, ladies, what is this theory you would like to talk about?" I asked with a slight smile, as we reached my quarters. Knowing the two, I was sure it was something sexual, but it was always better to ask than to assume, especially with Elise in the room as well. Even after I had informed both of them that as long as it didn't interfere with our duties, they had my consent.

"Just take a seat and I'll explain." Said Iska and kicked off her shoes while I sat down in the chair. Then she reached out and dragged Shakka closer, kissing her slowly and passionately. A moment later, as a smiling Elise Samko joined them, letting her hands roam over first Iska and then Shakka, who in return broke the kiss with Iska and kissed Elise instead. It was a long and passionate kiss that was only broken when Iska reached up and gently turned Elise's head with her hand before she kissed her.

I watched in amazement, as the three beautiful and well-shaped women kissed each other, the sight giving me an instant hard-on.

Iska had gone back to kissing Shakka again, and the red-skinned Twi'Lek returned the kiss, hands roaming over Iska's body in a combination of fondling and undressing. The uniform top was opened, giving Shakka access to Iska's breasts and a moment later she was gently squeezing and caressing them while lightly tweaking the nipples, while Elise took hold of Iska's uniform top and removed it completely, dropping it in the sofa.

"The theory..." said Iska with a groan, as Shakka bent down and ran a tongue over an exposed dark purple nipple. "... is that the longer you watch us playing with each other, the hornier you'll become." Her body shook as Shakka sucked the nipple into her mouth, while Elise fondled the purple Twi'Leks backside. "When we think you're as horny as you're going to get, we want you to fuck us."

"Sounds like an exciting experiment." I commented with a smile. With the beauty of the three women in front of me, it would be pleasant torture, but one I was all in for. "Majestic, Lock the door and activate the privacy screen."

The lights by the door obediently shifted from a single green light to two reds.

"Yeah." Iska groaned, as Shakka somehow managed to take the uniform top off herself without letting go of the nipple in her mouth. "We thought so too and as it turned out, Elise finds us just as sexy as we think she is."

Shakka let go of the nipple and kissed her way up the bare purple skin until she reached the shoulder, at which point she exchanged a heated kiss with Elise, who used the moment to reach around Iska to fondle her breasts from behind, the pale pink fingers looking pale against the Twi'Leks purple skin.

They took their time, but after a while Shakka broke the kiss and looked at me with a grin. "And if you wonder why Iska is the one being undressed first, She and I had the computer do a random determination and she lost." The grin widened a bit. "Or won, depending how you look at it."

I nodded as I felt my dick grow even harder at the sight of the three passionate women in front of me. They were sexy all by themselves, but together they were unbelievably hot.

Elise's hands on Iska's purple breasts splayed open, letting the nipples pop in between the fingers, before she slowly closed her hands, putting more and more pressure on the hard nipples. Iska had her eyes closed, breathing heavily and then shivered and moaned as Shakka moved slightly to the side and began licking one of her lekku or headtails with a soft tongue.

The pale hands let go of the breasts and wandered down Iska's curvy purple torso, until they found the pants and without hesitating yanked them down, taking the panties along with them.

Elise went down on one knee and licked Iska's ass, while one of her hands helped the woman get completely out of her uniform. The other hand stroking the inside of Iska's legs, touching her, teasing her with every move.

One of Shakka's hands took over the 'job' of fondling Iska's breasts, pinching the nipples lightly, while she was still licking the lekku.

Their moves were working, because Iska was breathing heavily and when her feet were freed from the restraining clothes, she shifted her position slightly, standing in front of me with her legs spread. Her eyes were still closed as she bent over to rest her hands on the sofa table, her face towards me.

Elise stayed right where she was, licking Iska's buttocks and crack, while a pale hand sneaked down between the legs, playing with Iska's hairless pussy, opening her lips, her finger penetrating slightly, feeling the wetness there. Meanwhile, Shakka groped Iska's gently swinging breasts shamelessly, obviously enjoying the feeling.

"Ladies." I said with a shiver of lust, looking at the three of them. "I need to get undressed. This is starting to hurt."

"That is fair." Iska moaned and opened her eyes, watching me as I took off my clothes as fast as I could, making me sigh in relief as my hard dick was freed from it's confinement.

Iska licked her lips at the sight and growled. "Come here. I want that in my mouth."

It just took a short step forward to bring me close enough and Iska welcomed my cock with open mouth, letting her tongue dance on the tip for a few seconds, before engulfing the head with her lips and ever so slowly taking as much of my dick into her mouth as she could.

It felt heavenly, but it was rather short, as Elise removed her head from Iska long enough to say. "And that's enough. You're ruining the test."

With a sigh, Iska removed her head from my dick. "I know, I know... but it looked so tempting and delicious."

"Please sit down again, Thalen." Shakka said with a chuckle. "You'll get your turn and more later."

With a smile, I sat down in the chair again. With a promise like that, I could be very patient.

"Raise your body and lift your leg, Iska." Shakka commanded and the purple Twi'Lek obediently lifted one of her legs, placing her foot on the sofa table, allowing Elise more room than before.

Her raised upper body allowed me to see Elise's hands between Iska's legs more clearly and as I watched, a finger entered between the wet purple lips, slightly penetrating her, quickly followed by another finger.

Shakka licked her lips and her hand slid down the front of Iska, reaching between the legs, where they felt Elise's fingers already there. With a slight smile, the red hand moved upwards a little, found the clitoris and started to rub it, making Iska shiver even more than before.

Then Elise's hand thrust upwards, the fingers disappearing into Iska's pussy, while Shakka's red finger slid over the clitoris. When the fingers came back out, they were shining with Iska's juices for a brief moment, before Elise slowly pushed them back in, while Shakka ran her fingers in small circles over Iska's clitoris.

My dick was throbbing as I watched the erotic spectacle less than two meters away from my face, and I was starting to believe that their theory might be correct. I was hornier than I could remember ever having been before.

The redhead woman moved her head a bit and suddenly Iska's eyes went wide. "Fuck, you're kinky, Elise. Not to mention so freaking good." Staring at me, she moaned. "Her tongue is licking my ass.... and it.... feels... fantastic."

In response, Shakka picked up the speed with her hand and anything Iska had planned to say after that disappeared in moans and groans, as her hips began to move, pushing back against Elise's fingers when they were going in and pulling away when they were going out.

Moans became panting, then cries and Iska suddenly bent over to grasp the table for support as she exploded in an orgasm, her hips gyrating wildly on Elise's fingers, while tremors ran through the purple body.

Elise didn't have any mercy, as she stood from her position behind Iska and roughly took the still orgasming woman by the arm, as she looked at Shakka. "Let's give her a little of what she wants."

Shakka considered it a fraction of a second and nodded. "Excellent idea."

Then she took Iska by the other arm and together they led her the few steps towards me, turned her around and before Iska knew what was happening, Shakka and Elise had placed her on my stiff cock with a leg on each side of mine. The purple lips of her slit spreading around the head, before allowing the rest of my cock into her wet tight pussy.

A moan escaped Iska's lips as Shakka kissed her way down her breasts and stomach, ending where my dick filled her pussy.

From my position and with Iska sitting on top of me, I couldn't see anything, but from the sound and feel of it, Shakka was licking Iska's clitoris, causing her to jerk around on my lap, which in turn made my dick move inside her, giving both me and her a lot of pleasure.

Elise nodded approvingly and walked over to the side, before bowing down to kiss the purple Twi'Lek, her hands fondling Iska's breasts.

From Elise' position, I could easily reach her, so I let a hand slide up the inside of her leg, reaching her pussy to find it soaked. Clearly I wasn't the only one being aroused by this, so I played with the wet lips of her pussy, while Iska rocked back and forth on top of me, bringing herself closer and closer to an orgasm.

Lust shot through me, as I slid two fingers into Elise, feeling her pussy accept my fingers and then close around them in a warm, wet squeeze that almost felt like a hug, when I moved them in and out.

The redhead moaned and shivered as she continued to kiss Iska and fondle her breasts. That paid off a moment later as the kissing and fondling, along with a tongue on the clitoris and a dick in her contracting pussy made Iska come again, screaming into Elise's mouth, while grinding away in circular movements on top of my hard cock, just like she had done on Elise's fingers.

Standing up with a lustful smile on her face, Shakka took a moment to watch the other two women kissing as they moaned into each other's mouths. Iska from her recent orgasm that made her shiver and shake, her pussy almost vibrating on my dick, while she groped Elise's breasts, and Elise from being groped and the feel of my two fingers in her pussy.

Shakka waited patiently until Iska had finished shaking. "If you continue like that, Thalen will come way too soon."

Elise broke the kiss with a sigh and straightened her back, as she turned a little, gently forcing my fingers out of her pussy. The move brought her magnificent breasts within easy reach of Iska, who didn't waste a second, as she licked a stiff nipple, causing Elise to shiver and moan. "I know, but it's so good."

"Sorry." Said Shakka without looking sorry at all. "Let's get Iska on her feet again."

Elise nodded and with a grip on each of Iska's arms, they dragged the purple Twi'Lek to her feet again, meeting her in a hug, as they took turns giving each other slow passionate kisses. Hands groping breasts and asses, caressing lekku and whatever else they could reach.

"Fuck," groaned Elise after a while, as Iska's hand teased her clitoris from the front, while Shakka had reached around the pale-skinned and red-haired human to play with her shapely ass, with the fingers touching her pussy from time to time. "I need to get off, or I'm going to explode. You two are even sexier than I imagined."

Iska licked the sensitive skin on Elise's neck and whispered. "Oh... so you have been imagining having sex with us?"

"Yes." Admitted Elise with a slight smile. "How could I not, when you're both so freaking sexy and beautiful?"

Shakka mirrored Iska's action, by licking the other side of the redhead's neck. "Ohh... Thank you." Her tongue continued up to Elise's ear. "I think you deserve a bonus for that."

"I agree." Whispered Iska with sparkling eyes. "And I know just the thing."

A shiver of anticipation ran through me, as the two of them made Elise turn around and take a step backwards, the back of her legs colliding with mine.

"Stay there." Ordered Iska and sat by the side of the chair to take my throbbing cock in her mouth, getting it as wet as possible. When she was satisfied, she removed her mouth and looked up at me with a smile. "I hope you're not close to coming yet."

I shook my head. "Not quite yet, but I have a feeling that it's about to change."

She nodded with a grin and held my dick vertical with one hand. It was intended for Elise, but before the redhead could sit down, Shakka suddenly appeared on the other side of the chair, kneeling on the deck, before she leaned in to kiss the tip of my dick, before sliding her soft, wet lips over the head in a kind of open-mouthed massage that sent shivers through my body. Then she let her lips slide down the shaft, tongue playing on the sensitive skin all the way.

With a giggle, Iska leaned in and did exactly the same on the other side, following Shakka's moves as her mouth went back up my cock again until they met at the head, kissing both each other and the tip of my dick simultaneously.

"God, that looks sexy!" I heard Elise mumble and looked up. The redhead was still standing with her back to me, the delicious curves of her backside on full display, but she was looking at the two Twi'Leks over her shoulder, licking her lips.

I wordlessly agreed. The feeling was sensational and normally I would have closed my eyes from sheer pleasure alone, but the sight was so sexy, I found myself staring at them, just taking in the incredible sight.

They took their time, taking care to make it arousing, without being so intense that I would come from the feeling. It was also clear from the slight hesitation that it was new to both of them, but they experimented happily. Some of the time, one would have the head fully in her mouth, tongue dancing against the head, while the other kissed and licked my shaft. Others, they would have their lips stretching to meet each other in wonderfully wet kisses past one part or another of my cock.

"Ladies," I finally groaned. "If you continue to do that for much longer, I'm going to come."

Reluctantly, they stopped pleasuring me, kissing each other instead in a long passionate kiss, hands reaching out to caress the other one.

Then Shakka stood and embraced Elise once more, kissing her just as passionately as she had kissed Iska a moment before, running a hand down her pale skin until she could reach in between the firm round buttocks to play with her pussy from behind, while the other hand played with the redhead's large breasts.

With a groan, Elise placed a foot on each side of mine, spreading her legs and leaned forward, while pushing her ass backwards, giving Shakka room to play. It also gave me an excellent view of the action, as it happened less than a meter from my face.

Iska moved a bit so she could give me a kiss and then whispered, "Tell us when you can last more than a few minutes."

"With a sight like that, that's going to take more than a few minutes." I groaned.

"That's okay." She grinned, eyes sparkling. "We got time."

It did take a while before I was sure I wasn't going to explode like a nova the moment Elise sat on me, but finally I nodded to Iska. "I'm ready."

The purple Twi'Lek nodded and looked up at the others. "Now, Shak."

Then she took a hold of my dick again, holding it up, as Elise, helped by Shakka, slowly sat down, hesitating for a moment as the tip of my dick touched her dripping pussy.

Iska rubbed my dick a few times against Elise's lower lips, making sure it was as lubricated as possible, before holding it still with the head in exactly the right spot. "Sit down."

Elise nodded and relaxed the muscles in her leg, lowering herself on me. Her pussy lips spread, and the head of my cock slipped into her soaked pussy. As my dick slid into her, I was once again amazed by how tight she was, despite being so wet the juices ran down my dick, and I groaned as the walls of her pussy closed around my dick, caressing it.

Having been worked over by Shakka for some time, Elise gasped as she impaled herself on my dick, exploding in an orgasm before it was even all the way inside her. The orgasm caused her to lose control of her legs and she howled as my dick suddenly went all the way into her.

Clinging to Shakka and desperately kissing her, she sat still while the orgasm tore through her body, making her hips jerk and my dick move inside her, and if I hadn't had the lengthy break from being pleasured, I was sure I would have exploded inside her.

Eventually, the tremors subsided, but Elise took a few moments more to clear her head after the orgasm, before she moved her hips a little, testing her sensitivity and causing her to shiver.

"Fuuuuuck." She moaned. "This is epic!"

"We've not even started." Grinned Shakka and got down on her knees. She might have been aiming for Elise's clitoris, but the human stopped her by throwing her arms around her, dragging her into another kiss.

Since I was at the bottom, I couldn't do much, but my hands were free, so I reached around Elise's upper body and caressed her big tits, while she was kissing Shakka. Elise gasped into Shakka's mouth at the unexpected touch and immediately clamped her hands on top of mine and mashed my fingers around her boobs even tighter.

Then she started moving her hips, rocking back and forth on my dick just as something gently touched my balls and I realized that Shakka had placed a hand between Elise's legs and was teasing us both with her fingers. For a short moment that is. Then the fingers moved away from me and judging from the way Elise jerked, I was sure Shakka had found her clitoris and was rubbing it.

"Uhhhhh." Cried Elise as she broke the kiss to lean her head against Shakka's shoulders.

For a second, I had forgotten about Iska, but I caught a glimpse of her behind Shakka, using her hands on the red Twi'Lek's tits and pussy.

Then I forgot about her again, as Elise placed her hands on Shakka's shoulders, using them for balance as she started moving up and down, instead of back and forth. I kept my hands on her big firm breasts, fondling them. The hard nipples feeling like small hard pebbles against the palm of my hand, and the sensation of her gripping pussy sliding over my dick was nothing short of fantastic and when she stopped at the top to move her hips around in a circle, massaging the head of my dick with her pussy, it became even better.

Judging from her moans, it was just as good for her as it was for me, and she enjoyed it for a while, before she sank down again. Hard. Gasping as my cock swiftly disappeared inside her. She paused, took a deep breath, and began to bounce up and down, driving my shaft into her repeatedly, while Shakka was playing with her clitoris.

Elise's moans changed to short grunts each time she slammed herself back down onto me, bottoming out on my cock, and coming closer to an orgasm with each move. She was starting to sweat and suddenly switched to the back-and-forth motion she had started with.

A shriek of delight escaped her as she came, the rhythm of her hips broken as she spasmed on top of me with a series of pleased moans, her pussy squeezing my dick in a very pleasant way each time a tremor ran through her.

Then I had to let go of Elise's breasts as she was pulled to her feet again by Iska and Shakka, and like last time, the three women kissed passionately in front of me, while caressing and fondling each other.

Taking a deep breath and leaning back in the chair, I enjoyed the sight and the small break from physical stimulation, giving me time to cool down just a little. Physically, at least. Mentally the sight of the three women, coupled with the treatment I had just been given by both Iska and Elise had heightened my lust to a higher point than ever before.

In front of me, Shakka moaned and spread her legs a bit as Elise sank down to her knees on the rug covered deck to lick her, while Iska was kissing her, one purple hand fondling the perfect red breasts and from the movement of Iska's shoulder, I was sure her other hand was doing something behind Shakka's back that I couldn't see.

Whatever it was, it seemed to work well with the oral attention she was getting from Elise, because she was moaning into Iska's mouth, and small tremors ran over her body.

They continued their play for a while, with Shakka's moans becoming heavier, but just as I thought the red Twi'Lek was going to come, Elise and Iska stopped as if by an unheard command, looked at each other and nodded.

"Not fair." Groaned Shakka, but then grinned as the two other women led her over to me. "Oh! Wonderful idea." Reaching out, she dragged Elise and Iksa into a hug, whispering something to them in a voice so low I couldn't hear it, despite being less than two meters away. Whatever it was, it made Iska widen her eyes and Elise grin, but both nodded.

"Are you up for something new, Thalen?" Shakka asked in a low, sexy voice.

I nodded. "Yes... at least within reason."

"Is anal sex within reason?" She asked matter-of-factly.

Speechless, I just nodded, making her smile and turn around, her well-shaped ass looking tempting.

Elise sat down and took a good hold of my cock, holding it upright, while Iska kissed Shakka as the red Twi'Lek bent her knees and lowered her back, until the head of my dick was pressing against her small hole, and I suddenly noticed a lot of juices there, as if one of the other women had been playing with her ass with Elise had licked her.

Then Shakka pressed down, and I stopped thinking, as my lubricated dick slowly, but surely was buried in that glorious looking red ass. It was warm and oh so tight and as my dick penetrated her, the sensation sent shivers through her body, that in turn made her muscles clench rhythmically around it. It felt fantastic.

She continued to press down until her buttocks met my hips and stopped with a happy giggle. Then she surprised me by leaning back so she was laying on top of my chest, twisting her neck so we could kiss. I slid my hands over her body to grasp those delightful tits, and massaged them greedily, catching the erect nipple between my second and third fingers.

Then I felt something between our legs and at the same time Shakka shivered again. It took me a second to figure out that one of the other women had started to lick Shakka's pussy and judging from the feel of soft hair again my naked leg, it was Elise.

Shakka moaned into my mouth and started to move. In her present position, I would have thought that it was almost impossible, but by arching her back and rocking back and forth, while simultaneously changing the angle of her hips, she managed to make my dick go in and out of her tight hole without ever lifting her buttocks from my hips.

Anal sex wasn't exactly new to me, just a rare occurrence, but Shakka took it to a whole new level, as she kissed me deeply, working her ass on my dick, while Elise licked her.

Suddenly I felt another new sensation, as I could feel two fingers sliding into Shakka's pussy and start fingering her, adding to both our pleasure.

Then Elise's fingers found Shakka's G-spot and gave it a rub, which I could clearly feel through the thin walls of her pussy.

I groaned as I felt my body getting ready to come and yanked my head away from Shakka's mouth to growl a "Stop!"

Hearing it, Shakka cried out in delight and moved her hips faster, muscles clenching around my dick as she bounced her hips up and down. Since she obviously wanted to come, I returned my lips to hers, kissing her furiously. In my lust I accidentally closed my hands around her breast, pinching her nipples between my fingers. Shakka stiffened, broke the kiss, and came with a howl, her hips jerking and driving my dick even deeper into her.

That was too much. In a flash, the feeling overcame my resistance in a single moment that gave me no warning as I felt myself go, spraying stream after stream into Shakka's tight ass, growling as pleasure shot through my body. It was amazing. So good, that for once my brain stopped working and I lost track of ... everything.

When it restarted, Shakka's orgasm had faded and she was sliding off my softening dick, but her legs threatened to give way under her, and if both Elise and Iska haven't held her upright, she would have fallen to the ground.

"That," she declared in a trembling voice. "Was the best orgasm I ever had. Period."

Iska grinned and looked at me. "Did our theory work?"

"Yes!" I answered with a chuckle. "Nobody... and I repeat, nobody has ever made me so horny that my mind blanked out when I came." I stretched in the chair. "It was fucking fantastic."

Iska and Shakka grinned widely and high-fived before turning towards Elise to high-five her as well.

"So," asked Iska, turning back towards me, eyeing my dick. "Are you going to be ready again? I would like some more."

Shakka laughed at that. "Thalen is usually good for a second round. You should know that by now."

"Not to mention, that he's a Chiss." Added Elise with a soft chuckle. "He'll be ready."

The purple-skinned Twi'Lek looked at the human in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Elise's chuckle widened into a smile. "Chiss males not only have exceptionally long tongues, but they can also come as many times as there are women... Within reason at least."

"What?" Said Iska, sounding stunned. She looked at me. "Is that correct?"

"Yes." I admitted. "I think it's a survival thing from our ancient past."

"I didn't know that." Admitted Shakka and thought for a moment before giggling. "But now I understand why almost all of the trio's in the fleet are a Chiss male and two women."

"Nice!" Said Iska and gestured towards me. ""So, can we continue?"

Shakka held up her hands. "Not with me... My whole body is tingling and I'm pleasured out for today. Doing more would ruin it... But I'll happily watch as Thalen ravishes the two of you."

"After a trip to the bathroom." I said. "You can move into the bedroom while I clean up."

"Deal."

The sight that met me when I came back from washing my dick in the bathroom was a tempting one. Shakka was sitting in the bedroom's big chair, drinking something from a glass, Iska was laying in the bed, relaxing with her back on some pillows, while Elise was here kneeling on the deck between Iska's legs with her upper body laying sideways across the mattress, knees and feet on the floor, and her beautifully rounded ass sticking up. Due to their position, I couldn't see what Elise was doing, but judging from the look of pleasure on Iska's face, I had no doubt that Elise was putting her tongue to good use.

With a smile on my face, I walked over and kneeled being the redhead, reaching out to caress that tempting ass, squeezing the soft buttocks firmly. Elise groaned and spread her legs to give me more room and I leaned in to lick all the way from her ass down to her clitoris, stopping there to let my tongue play for a moment, while inhaling her scent.

The aroma of her pussy went straight to my balls, making my limp dick start to grow again.

Making my tongue hard, I rubbed it over her clitoris with increasing pressure, enjoying the groans and moans, before I went back to her entrance. Elise moaned as my tongue slid deeper and deeper into her, feeling her shake and the muscles twitching.

She groaned into Iska's pussy. "Shit. That tongue is really insane!"

"So is yours... keep going." Moaned Iska and used her hands to press Iska's head against her crotch.

I found her G-spot with my tongue and licked it a few times, causing her to moan even more, but she was in the wrong position to really do that for a longer period of time, so instead I licked the insides of her pussy, slowly pulling out to let my tongue dance over and between the folds of her pussy, before drawing circles around her clitoris.

Samko wriggled her well-formed ass, groaning "You're making me come!"

There was a pearly laughter from Shakka. "I think that's the plan, Elise."

"Indeed." I confirmed as I removed my face from her and replaced my tongue with my dick, rubbing my cock against her shaved opening, spreading the juices over my cock. She braced herself in anticipation, so I waited, caressing her back with a hand.

"Oh com'on!" Elise blurted out. "Just fuck me!"

"You're forgetting Iska." I told her. "Get going."

Elise resumed licking the purple Twi'Lek and I pushed forward, sliding my dick all the way into her wet pussy, only stopping when the head of my dick hit bottom as my hips connected with her soft ass.

"Yesssssssss!" The redhead hissed.

I placed my hands on her hips and picked up the speed, driving deep into her with every stroke.

"Fuck yes!" Elise groaned, rocking her butt against me. "Harder!"

"Get Iska off." I demanded as my dick went all the way into her again. Despite the earlier orgasm, I could still feel the teasing the women had given me, and the sensation of slamming into Elise's wet, but tight, pussy was making me approach an orgasm faster than I would have imagined was possible so soon after the first.

One of the arms Elise had been steadying herself with disappeared under her and a moment later, Iska's eyes flew open as Elise started to use her fingers on her as well.

"Oh yes, oh yes!" Iska moaned, crossing her long purple legs on Elise's back. "Like that!"

Her groans intensified and it didn't take long before she came with a cry of joy, her body shaking all over, making her breasts jiggle pleasantly.

Suddenly, Shakka was by my side, reaching in between Elise's legs to rub her clitoris. Getting the clue, I picked up the pace, repeatedly slamming my dick into the redhead.

Elise buried her head in the bed as her pussy started spasming around my dick and a few seconds later the climax spread through the rest of her body, making her scream and squirm.

Being close myself, I kept fucking her through her ecstasy, enjoying the feeling of her orgasmic body around me.

"I'm coming." I said and delivered five long hard strokes that made Elise's ass ripple every time my hips smashed into it. Then I erupted again, sending stream after stream into her.

To my surprise, the feeling made her come once more, crying out as pleasure tore through her body, her muscles milking my dick for every last drop of semen.

Then she collapsed on the bed, breathing heavily.

I retracted my rapidly deflating dick from her and staggered to the bed where I let myself fall down next to Elise and Iska, with Shakka joining us a moment later.

"Don't get any ideas." Warned Iska with a weak smile. "Just like Shakka, I'm all pleasured out by now. I need a long break before doing anything involving sex."

"Good job." Giggled Shakka and gave me a gentle kiss. "And thank you for a fantastic evening by the way."

"Trust me, it was all my pleasure."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Grinned Iska. "I feel pretty pleasured out right now."

"Agreed." Mumbled Elise without lifting her head from the bed. "I just want to sleep."

"Later." I said and stood from the bed. "First we need a bath."

The women sighed and complained a little, but we ended up in the bathroom anyway, soaping and cleaning each other, which was pleasant enough by itself.

In fact, having the three naked, beautiful and well-shaped women in the bathroom, along with all of us touching each other as we cleaned up resulted in me getting a hard-on. A condition the three women took care of with their hands and mouths, before they left my suite by the back lift.

When they had left, I took a deep breath and sat down in a chair with a cup of tea. It had been the best sexual experience of my life, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it would kill me if repeated too often.

I smiled to myself as I drank from the tea. Given a choice, death by pleasure was surely the way to go.

----------------------------------

New armor

If there are cracks in the armor, the opponent is going to find them.

From the Holy Book of War

A few days later I was sitting in my office, enjoying a quiet dinner, when Senior Mechanic Arthur Waydar came to visit.

"Hello, sir." He said cheerfully as he walked in, followed by a repulsorlift with three large boxes on it. One large and two smaller ones.

"Hello, Senior Mechanic. What can I do for you?"

He waited until the door had closed behind him and then said. "I need your opinion about an armor, sir. It's somewhat unusual and I'm not sure we got it right."

As the Senior Mechanic on most Imperial Ships was the one responsible for the trooper's weapons and armour, Waydar was also our armourer. "Sure. Do you have a picture?"

He nodded and activated a hologram. A moment later a 3D picture of the armor showed up, turning slowly.

The armor was a stunning combination of black and gold, adorned with the same kind of intricate decorations Yaki tended to make. The design was elaborate and elegant, with swirling patterns and ornate embellishments that gave it a regal yet formidable appearance. Despite its beauty, the armor appeared quite heavy, its imposing bulk hinting at the power concealed within. I could only assume that it was some form of powered armor, built to enhance the strength and capabilities of its wearer.

"The body sleeve is a Verpine fibre ultramesh armor, reinforced with Songsteel." Explained Waydar as I watched the hologram turn.

That made me lift an eyebrow. Verpine fibre was an armor material I had only heard about, normally reserved for the main Hero or Villain in holovid shows. According to them, ultramesh was made by tightly weaving processed Verpine fibre into a dense and durable cloth. Despite its denseness, it was still lightweight and flexible, making it ideal for the construction of body armor. Naturally, one thing was holovid shows. How it worked in the real world was an entirely other matter that remained to be seen.

"Now, I know it looks heavy, but it's both extremely lightweight and silent when moving. With the helmet on and activated, it will function as a vacuum suit. It's just as blaster- and lightsaber resistant as Mandalorian armor but weighs a lot less."

"And the rest?"

"Commander Yaki and I worked together on the design, but the most important part is that the armor plates are made from Songsteel Duranium composite." Continued Waydar and grimaced. "Songsteel is really a nightmare to work with and we had to upload four different armor programs, before we found the right combination of Songsteel and Duranium, and it still took an armour droid the better part of a month to construct the outer armor."

"Well, congrats on the result, because it looks good."

That made him smile, his teeth almost impossible white against his dark skin. "I'm so glad you said that, because this is for you, sir."

Slightly at a loss for words, I said. "For me? But I already have armor."

"Not as good as this, sir." The Senior Mechanic said matter-of-factly. "I would love to say that we made all of this ourselves, but the body sleeve belonged to Admiral Vost Hennat and all I did was to refit it to your size."

"Why would an Imperial Admiral need that?" I asked.

Waydar shrugged lightly. "According to Chief Engineer Keller, Admiral Vost Hennat's ship was boarded by a squad of Republic troopers led by a Jedi during one of the Battles for the Outer Rim in the Galactic War and despite his best efforts, Vost Hennat was soundly defeated."

"Well, that often happens when normal people go up against Force users... at least in close combat."

"Exactly, but after he was liberated, Vost Hennat vowed that it would never happen to him again, so the sleeve is just about the best anti-Jedi armor money can buy on an Admiral's salary, and it fits under standard armor." Explained Waydar with a chuckle, adding "Unless I'm mistaken, the sleeve and the Vibro-rapier that came with it, cost about the same as a D-5 Mantis."

Along with the production time, that certainly explained why the Empire hadn't just made this kind of armor for all their troops. Of course, since Sith and Jedi were mirror images of each other, the armor and vibrorapier would work just as well against a Sith as it would against a Jedi.

Waydar turned towards the boxes. "Let's see if it fits, sir. I have a feeling that you're going to need it as soon as we get out of here."

As we planned to launch an attack on either Sharon the Red's compound or the Nodia prison camp almost as soon as we got out of the pocket, he was right about that and instead of arguing, I let him help me into the armor.

It fit like a glove and was comfortable to wear.

I donned the helmet as the last part and immediately it switched on, giving me access to a targeting system, infrared vision and an advanced commlink, along with the life support system.

It wasn't the only system coming online though. It seemed like the Senior Mechanic had spent a lot of time analysing Mandalorian armor and had incorporated some of the features from those armor into this. There was a mini-missile launcher on one arm and a smart flechette launcher on the other arm. Both were capable of sending out either missiles or flechettes towards targets selected by the targeting system in the helmet. Having the force to rely on, I doubted I would ever use those weapons, but it was a nice thought.

"You're right," I said. "This is better than my old armor. How does it look?"

As usual when in a helmet, my voice came out slightly metallic sounding and so neutral, that it was impossible to determine a person's age or even gender from the sound of their voice alone.

Waydar paused to think for a moment before he chuckled and said. "To be honest, sir, now that you're in a holovid show, you should have your own theme melody."

"Good. If it can save some lives to make me look like a Villain, I can handle it." I said, as I took off the helmet. My movements were unhindered by the armor. There were a few adjustments needed, but that was it. "What about armor for the troops?"

"That's a longer story, sir." Waydar admitted and explained that while the troopers active on the ships when they had hit the pulsar might have been equipped with Dark War armor, the ones in the armouries on the newer ships wore modern Imperial Trooper armor. To complicate matters even more, each of the Hammerhead-class cruisers we had plundered for Aureks and spare parts, held hundreds of troopers and the search teams had brought several thousand of the spare armor back to our ships, giving us a choice of what to equip the troopers with.

Yaki and Waydar had done some tests to compare them against each other, and during the tests they discovered that the new Imperial Trooper armor was significantly better at resisting blaster fire, was better in vacuum and had a better communication package than the Dark War armor we originally had sought to use. In fact, it was better than the Republic Trooper communication package.

However, just as they thought that the matter had been decided, Yaki had decided to test the armor she had designed together with Waydar, and those proved to be even better at resisting blaster fire than any of the other armor.

Mostly because Yaki had gotten the bright idea to use the Nyix-alloy from the destroyed Warhawk as a tribute to the crew of that ship, coupled with the body sleeve from the Imperial trooper Armor.

They had even designed the helmet, so that the communication package from the Imperial Trooper armor could be easily installed in it.

"We had planned on showing you the armor and their test result next week, sir." He finished. "But unless we find something extraordinary, the nyix-alloy armor are our best option at the moment. Not only are they better, but the design is also the one that resembles Imperial or Republic armor the least."

I nodded slightly. Normally, making armor from the rare Nyix was reserved for the bodyguards of powerful noble families, but with the number of locally produced ships made from Nyix alloy, that wasn't a problem for us.

"Let's go with those, then." I decided. "It's not like we're going to run out of Nyix-alloy when a lot of the ships out there are made of it. Just make sure to cannibalize enough material for the armor while we're here. I doubt we'll ever get the chance again."

"Yes, sir." He replied with a wide smile. "Just be aware that Commander Yaki has decided to make some of the armor fit the names of the different squads of Spacemarines." He handed me a datapad. "Take a look at these, sir."

I did as he said and was impressed as I looked through the pictures. The highly decorated and engraved armor, along with their helmets, looked extremely good and nothing like any other armor I had ever seen before. The armor for the 'named' squads even in some way resembled the wolves, lions and phoenixes the squads were named after. A design choice I found to be a little too much.

"No offence, Waydar, but how're the troops taking the designs? Have they seen them?"

He nodded. "Yes. We asked them which one they would prefer and the Nyix-alloy armor was a clear winner. Especially the named ones."

"Well, I'm not the one to wear them, so if it's the best armor anyway, use them." I said and thought for a moment before asking. "How fast can you make them?"

"Somewhere between 18 and 22 a day, depending on how complex the armor is." He said, adding. "But that is just from the fabricators here on Majestic. If we use the other ones as well, we can make a lot of good armor very fast."

That made the month it had taken to produce the armor I was currently wearing into perspective. "Won't that interfere with whatever else the fabricators are doing?"

He shook his head. "No, sir. The fabricators and droids in the armoury are not used to make any of the spare parts the engineers use for ships."

I swallowed a sigh. Compared to the ones back home in the Chiss Ascendency, both fabricators and droids were much more advanced and while that didn't necessarily make the final products better, it did make production faster and more efficient.

"Well, in that case, just make as many as you can as fast as you can, but don't forget the helmets for the starfighters."

Compared to the relatively simple trooper helmets, the starfighter helmets were filled with electronics that interacted with the starfighter and provided the pilot with a heads-up display showing information like friend-or-foe identifier, a simplified sensor map and a multitude of other things a combat pilot needed.

"Oh, don't worry, sir. They're already done. At the insistence of Wing Commander Swur, Chief Engineer Keller had ten of his people working on the pilot's helmets for a month to fit the electronics in a new model." Waydar told me. "They even constructed a signal converter, so the same model can be used in all of the starfighters."

That made me smile a little. As a leader there was a certain satisfaction in observing the people under my command doing their job well.

"However, I'm not quite done with you yet." Said the Senior Mechanic with a smile and whistled.

The two untouched boxes opened from the inside and two feline guard droids, like the ones we had encountered on the moon base, leaped out.

"These are your bodyguards." He explained. "These Panther droids were the ones you encountered on the moon base in Centauri 21. They were in the Chariot, but I found them and had one of the engineers repair them." He smiled a bit. "Commander Yaki said to tell you, that it's either the Panther droid or half a squad of Black Dragons."

"Why would I need bodyguards?"

He hesitated for a moment. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

"You need bodyguards for the same reason that you need the best armor possible: You're a Force-user and can do things nobody else in the fleet can. That means that you can't always be in a safe spot and these two along with the armor can make you a bit safer." He thought for a moment and then continued. "I might be relatively new here and I haven't experienced your leadership abilities in combat, but I've seen the movie and everybody I talk with seems to have a story about how good you are. Not only in combat, but as a leader in general. After having experienced the last part myself, I must agree. This fleet is yours and without you here, it will fall apart in a few days."

"There are other officers than me." I said gently. "They can keep it together."

The Master Mechanic shook his head. "No, sir. Iska, Meistrin and Yaki are fantastic people, but they haven't proven themselves like you have." He paused. "Now, I don't want this fleet to fall apart just yet. Not only do I want to settle somewhere safe, but I also want to free the other slaves at Nodia Prime, as well as the people at Sharon the Red's base. To be honest, we're their only hope right now."

"That is the plan," I said. "But like those panther droids, we need to get out of the box first."

He smiled and nodded, but before he could say anything, the intercom came to life.

"Commodore." Said Shakka's voice. "If you want to be present at the first childbirth on the fleet, you better come down here. Sheena Marlan has just gone into labour."

"On my way, Doctor." I replied with a smile and placed the helmet on the table. "Looks like we have to cut this short, Master Mechanic Waydar."

He chuckled. "Not a problem, sir. We were finished anyway and right now; the birth of a child is more important than fitting an armor."

Not knowing how long a time I had, I didn't bother taking the armor off as I hurriedly walked out of the office, heading towards the lifts, only vaguely noticing the sound of soft paws on the deck, as the two panther-droids followed me.

----------------------

It was the first time I had seen a birth in person and even standing in another room along with Resa, Iska and Betty Nagos, observing the event through a window, it was an impressive and heart-warming sight. Shakka, a nurse I didn't recognize, and the medical droids were somewhat hidden behind a screen of cloth covering Sheena Marlan from the waist down, while Raika from the café in the Hangar Park was standing next to her upper body, holding Sheena's hand and offering words of encouragement, while drying sweat off Sheena's forehead from time to time.

"XO, why is Raika there?" I heard Iska ask behind my back.

"The father of the child was killed during combat, when the pirates captured the ship they were on." Answered Nagos in a low voice. "As one of the eldest on board and the manager of the cafe, Raika talks with almost everybody and, according to most of the crew, acts as everybody's grandmother. So, Sheena Marlan asked if she could assist during the birth and Raika accepted."

I hadn't known that, reminding me that I seriously needed to update my knowledge of the crew I was commanding. Shaking my head slightly, I stopped thinking about things that I needed to do and focussed on the scene in front of me instead.

Considering that the whole thing went fairly undramatically, it was still a wonder to see the little newborn baby take its first breath and hear its cry of dissatisfaction at having left the comfort of its mother's womb.

"Yet another reason to get us out of here in one piece." Remarked Iska with a chuckle, causing me to look over at her and nod. "Yes, and while whipping has been outlawed as punishment, I'm considering bringing it back for keeping secrets from the higher-ranking officers."

"What do you mean, sir?"

I nodded in the direction of the two Panther droids, who were sitting on the deck behind me. "They followed me in here and yet none of you wondered about it, which has to mean that you most likely knew about them before I did."

Iska smiled and nodded, not looking like she had one bit of regret. "There're some things that you don't need to know right away, sir, and this was one of them."

"Not to mention, that we had been sworn to keep it secret." Added Betty Nagos, smiling just as widely as the purple Twi'Lek, while Resa just nodded.

Shaking my head with a chuckle, I turned my attention back to the scene on the other side of the glass, where Shakka had placed the baby on its mothers chest, where it was trying to find a nipple to suck on. It quickly succeeded and as the mother and Raika started chatting, Shakka walked out of the room. A moment later, she opened the door to the room we were in.

"Well, as you can see, that went as planned." She said with a wide smile. "What a beautiful little one."

"And it's always nice, when things go according to plan." Said Resa.

That caused both Iska and Betty Nagos to laugh, which made the droid look at them in confusion. "What, sirs?"

The XO dried her eyes. "I can't decide if it's the most droid thing to say or the most male thing to say, but most females would comment on how cute the baby looked."

"Despite almost all babies being wrinkly and dirty." Added Iska and then surprised me, by looking through the window to the mother and baby there, quoting a poem.

"A new life, a tiny star,

May joy and safety be by your side.

"That's a beautiful little blessing." Said Nagos. "Where's it from?"

"Zagrass, and yes, it is a blessing." Iska smiled a little. "Usually said after a child has been born... like now."

"That's sweet." Said Nagos and looked at me. "And if we ever needed an excuse to party, here's one right there. I mean, the first child to be born in a fleet is something to be celebrated, isn't it?"

"Not in any fleet I've ever heard about." I said with a slight smile and held up a hand before she could comment on it. "However, we can make any rules we want... it's not like there's anyone around to protest."

"Good point." Admitted Iska with a grin. "At the very least we can make it one of the reasons to have a party."

"Which reminds me..." said Betty Nagos. "Should we have a watch on the ships, when we have the party?"

"Only on the Dreadnought where the party is taking place." I told her. "We've simply not enough people to do otherwise. Yes, it's taking a chance, but to be honest, we haven't got the crew to have a watch on the ships, and considering where we are, it's highly unlikely that somebody will steal a ship." I smiled a bit. "Not to mention, that if anybody knew a way out of here, I would gladly give them a ship, if they could lead the fleet out of the box."

"Even Majestic?" Resa asked curiously.

I nodded. "Even Majestic, if giving it away meant getting everybody out of here."

"Good to know." Said the XO with a smile. "However, I don't think we'll get out of here that easy, so until somebody decides to show us the way out of here in return for a dreadnought, I'll go prepare for a party. I'll swing by later to congratulate the mother. Nobody should be forced to be social right after they have pushed a living being out of their body."

I nodded slightly. The birth looked like it had been a lot of work for the mother, Sheena Marlan, and I was sure the XO knew more about the etiquette of greeting a newborn and the mother than I did. "In that case, I'll follow your example and give Sheena Marlan some privacy."

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Modifications

"When you take risks, you learn that there will be times when you succeed, and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important."

Vice Admiral Zedais, CEDF

There are people who look good in almost everything and as I was standing in the dimly lit training room watching Iska and Shakka going through the training forms with curved hilt lightsabers, I determined that the pair in front of me were two of those people. Both of them were dressed in the tight-fitting black armor sleeve that, in my opinion, made their bodies look even more curvy and made a nice contrast to their coloured skin and the yellow blades that glittered in the air as they whirled them around their bodies.

Iska had told Shakka about our training and the doctor had asked if she could join. Iska and I had agreed and to my surprise, Shakka had borrowed the longer of the two lightsabers I had made for Tristana and taken to it like a fish to water, making full use of her natural quickness and agility as she wielded it. Like all beginners, she had hit herself more than a few times, but she had taken it in stride, accepting the hits as part of the learning process, just as the cardio training that came along with the sword training.

Both Shakka and Iska finished their routines as I watched, coming to a compete stop with their swords in the ready position.

"Nicely done." I congratulated them.

"Thank you, sir." Said Iska and glanced over at Shakka. "Though I would like to know how a beginner can be so damn good at this."

Switching the blades off, Shakka sent her a teasing kiss. "Natural affinity, Captain."

Iska laughed. "I would say so. I think it's wonderful, but I must admit that I'm a little bit envious as well."

"Well, some're natural with a set of lightsabers, others are natural leaders that command spaceships with hundreds of crew members." Said Shakka with a smile. "Care to trade?"

"Not when you put it like that." Said Iska with a small laugh and looked at me. "Are you ready?"

With a smile, I took the helmet I had held under one arm and put it on, before nodding. "Now I am."

After the new armor had been adjusted, I had started training both ordinary and lightsaber combat in it, since it was likely that if I ever needed to use the lightsabers, I would be in a situation where I was in armor, like I had been on Alpha Viga.

Activating my own lightsabers, I took a ready stance and eased into the flow of the Force as Iska and Shakka exploded into motion, their lightsabers a blur of yellow as they attacked me. None of their attacks touched me as I parried and dodged their blades, moving just enough to avoid the attacks, trusting the Force to direct me.

The clash of lightsabers became a symphony of crackling energy, sparks flying with each parry as my attacks and counter attacks blended seamlessly into the defence, with minimal direction from me.

As I floated deeper into the Force, I started to anticipate their attacks, deflecting the blows effortlessly and frustrating Shakka and Iska, as they struggled to counter my attacks.

Shakka suddenly lunged at me, apparently thinking she saw an opening. I sidestepped, redirecting the attack with the shorter blade as I used the other to disarm her, sending her lightsaber flying through the air. Then I spun around to face Iska, delivering a few swift, precise strikes that forced her to retreat, giving me time to 'finish off' Shakka with a strike to the chest.

I went on the attack, forcing Iska backwards until she made a small error in her footwork, bringing her slightly off-balance, which enabled me to feint an attack and then move to the side as she attempted to parry and hit her in the side with a slash that would have cut right through her, have we been using the lightsabers at full strength.

"Shit, that hurt." Complained Shakka with a gasp, as she stood, tenderly touching her chest where I had hit her.

Iska chuckled, clutching her side. "I agree... but then again mistakes like the one you made there should be punished. Don't lose patience, dear. It's bad for your health."

I deactivated my lightsabers. "Yes, it is. Calmness during a fight will keep you alive. It's only the Sith that grow stronger with anger. All others suffer and make mistakes." Thinking back at the ones I had met at Alpha Viga, I added. "Those who can direct the anger and hate properly, that is. The rest tend to die early."

Iska opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted when the computer announced that Resa and Ensign Maxwell wanted to see me.

Looking at the two women, I chuckled. "I think I'll go out to meet them, giving you two time to recover."

"Thank you." Mumbled Iska.

Taking off my helmet and tucking it under one arm, I opened the door and walked out, discovering that Resa and Maxwell were waiting outside.

Maxwell widened his eyes slightly when he saw me in armor, while Resa looked like she was expecting it. Of course, connected to the computer as she was, she had most likely known it before choosing to disturb me.

"Resa, Ensign Maxwell. "I greeted them. "What can I do for you?"

"We have a disagreement, sir." The female droid explained. "Ensign Maxwell here wants to change the weapon loadout on the Dragonclaw and I'm not sure I agree on that."

I nodded shortly and looked at the young human male. "So, Ensign. Why do you want to change the weapon load-out?"

"Because it's not optimal for a fighter as good as the Dragonclaw." Maxwell said in a composed tone of voice. "In theory, equipping the Dragonclaw with the heavy lasers is a good choice, but they're linked and along with the Ion cannons, the slow reload of the weapons makes it a less effective dogfighter and better at attacking capital ships." He shrugged slightly. "As it is now, the Super Sting is a better dogfighter."

"And why is that?" Asked Resa, looking slightly offended.

"The rapid-fire laser of the Super Sting might deal less damage, but in a Super Sting, I can fire four shots in the time it takes to get off two shots in a Dragonclaw, and that's a small eternity in a dogfight." Maxwell explained.

I nodded slowly. "You have a point. So, what is your suggestion?"

The young man blinked a few times, but then said. "The pilots have talked it over and we think there're two ways to fix it. The real problem is that both the heavy lasers and the light ion cannons have a slow rate of fire, so we need a fast-firing weapon. Either replace the heavy lasers with Ion cannons and install three rapid-fire lasers in the wings, or give us three wingtip mounted heavy lasers, that are not fire-linked, so we get a high rate of fire even with heavy lasers and move the ion-cannons under the cockpit. We have run simulations on both, and the last option will enable the ship to do everything it does now but make it a better dogfighter."

Turning towards Resa, I asked. "Is that doable?"

She thought it over and then said. "We can't have heavy lasers in the wings. The power management for three unlinked heavy lasers would fry the system... The first suggestion is better and doable." She turned towards Maxwell. "The power management can handle the lasers from the MK VI Supremacy-class, which are a newer, harder hitting version of the rapid-fire lasers from the Sith Interceptors, while being just as fast firing. So, we move the Ion-cannons to under the cockpit and give you guys some faster firing weapons at the same time."

I looked at Maxwell. "How does that sound, Ensign Maxwell?"

"That sounds perfect, sir." He struggled not to smile as he saluted both of us with a "Thank you, sirs.", before he walked down the passageway.

Looking at Resa I asked. "Could you tell me what the problem here was? I mean it was solved in under a minute."

Resa sighed. "I really don't like it when people mess with my design, so I wanted a second opinion."

"Learning is a part of life." I said lightly. "And the pilots usually know what they need to not only survive, but to win a confrontation."

She considered that for a moment. "I guess that the Dragonclaw isn't just my project anymore."

"No but look at the bright side. If the pilots didn't like the starfighter, they would never have bothered to even make suggestions for improvement. They would just have requested that we used the Super Sting or the MK VII instead."

"Hm. I haven't thought about it that way."

"Do it." I advised. "Suggestions for improvement are not criticism of what they have now. It doesn't mean that they're always right, but as I said, they do deserve to be heard and you came up with a brilliant solution. Due to us using the Aureks, there's a limited supply of spare heavy lasers, but by switching to using the lasers from the MK VI, we can produce a lot more Dragonclaws."

"Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome and now I'll go back to training."

"Yes, sir."

With a nod, I turned and walked into the training room again, but before I even had the chance to close the door, there was a loud DING ... DING from the comm, signalling an emergency call.

"On screen!" I called and a moment later a worried looking Fama Sul showed up on the room's main viewer. "Sir, we have a problem. A gravity generator on Interdictor Two was activated by accident and that caused a section to collapse, killing two engineers and trapping Chief Engineer Keller under it. To make matters worse, the collapsed section also blocks access to the gravity generator, meaning that we can't turn it off."

A chill went down my spine. Losing two engineers was bad enough, but Keller was the only one that could repair the Interdictor and without him, getting out of the box would be close to impossible or at least take much longer. It was also a testament of Captain Sul's professionalism that she managed to stay calm, despite her love interest being in mortal danger. "What's his condition?"

"He is in a hard suit, so he's only knocked out for now, but according to the remote readout from his suit, one of the tanks is damaged, so he only has an hour of air left, sir." She calmly said. "The section that fell on him is large and in a tight area, so we cannot get any heavy equipment in to lift it. Frankly, we're out of idea's, sir."

"I don't have any right now, but I'll be there in five." I promised and closed the connection.

"Pilot Satomi will be ready in the Shark when you reach it." Promised Iska, slipping back into her role as a captain with just as much natural affinity as Shakka had with the lightsabers.

"Good." I said and was off towards the lift.

----------

As Iksa had promised, Pilot Satomie was indeed already in the Shark, starting the engine just as I came running up the ramp, hitting the close button when I ran past it, and threw myself into the nearest seat as Satomie took off.

Normally, flying with Satomie was a smooth experience, but this time it was a rollercoaster, as she went all out to get to the Interdictor as fast as possible, making me grateful that I was already wearing armor and didn't have to struggle into one while flying.

Putting the helmet on, I activated the suit's air supply just as Satomie flew the Shark through the hole the engineers had cut into the Interdictor to get the new reactor through, and landed right on the deck.

I was out of the airlock a few seconds later, walking quickly in the direction of the accident, the magnetics in the boots of my suit ensuring that I could walk normally until I came near enough to the scene of the accident for the artificial gravity to start working.

Unlike the rest of the ship, this area was a mess, as a whole section of the deck above it had collapsed and a group of engineers and droids looking like they were working as fast as they could to cut it into smaller parts that could be moved.

I was met by Engineer Janson, who hastily explained exactly the same as Fama Sul and added that they were trying to cut a hole through the section. A job that was made a lot harder by the blast walls that had fallen along with the rest, and blocked the access to the gravity generator.

"Is the section free or is it stuck on something?" I asked when he was done.

"Stuck." He answered. "We've tried to lift it with droids and repulserlifts, but it simply won't move... Unfortunately, the section weighs about a hundred tons, so it's not really a surprise that we can't lift it without a heavy crane."

"One moment."

Looking at the section, I dived into the force and reached out, taking a good hold of it, before I tried to lift the section. It did lift a few centimetres, but then came to a halt from where it wouldn't budge and I guessed that some of the armored sections of the warship were stuck in a place where we couldn't see it. I carefully sat it down again.

"Excuse me, Sir." Said a new voice over the intercom. "G4--S10 here. I have a suggestion, but the engineers won't listen to me."

The name-tag was typical for a droid, listing the type, series and number, which in this case meant that the speaker was a G4 droid. Built for heavy lifting and construction, the G4 droid-series was an enormously strong two-meters tall, three-legged, and two-armed droid that was commonly used for building in dangerous environments, with the S-version being used in ships and shipyards. According to Resa's explanation about droids, it was also equipped with a heuristic processor that enabled it to learn and problem solve and this one was clearly capable of both.

Looking around, I spotted a G4-series Heavy Fabricator Droid with a 'S-10' written on its chassis standing a few meters away.

"One moment, Engineer Janson." I said and muted him, before answering G4--S10 on a private channel. "Go ahead."

"We can't get through that section in time, but if we use the maintenance tunnels, we could go under the Chief Engineer and make a hole in the floor, making him drop down to us."

I considered it for a moment. Simple and brilliant, it was a good plan. "Why won't the engineers listen to you?"

"They think it's too dangerous. The maintenance tunnels are just above the reactor and if the whole thing collapses, it will crash down on the reactor." It paused for a moment. "But as the reactor isn't running, so even if it happens, it'll just smash the reactor... Along with anybody between the two of course. Granted, it will cause us to have to find a new ship, but I don't see any other possibilities to get the Chief Engineer out in time."

Looking at the time, I discovered that we only had 30 minutes left. "One moment." Switching channels, I got back to Engineer Janson and re-stated the idea of going in from below, making sure to credit S10.

"It's extremely risky, sir. There's a real risk that the whole floor will collapse, fall down on the reactor and smash it."

"What's the percentage for a hole big enough for the Chief engineer?"

"Twenty percent."

"Get everybody out." I ordered. "We're going that way. It's the only chance we have."

"Excuse me again, sir." Said G4-S10. "But while we make our way down there and the engineers are getting out, the droids can weld the fallen section to the walls of this section. That should lessen the chance of the floor collapse by ten percent."

"Another good suggestion," I said and switched channels, so the whole team could hear me. "As per G4-S10's suggestion, leave the droids here to weld the fallen section to the walls of this section. That should minimize the chance of the section falling by ten percent." I said, repeating what the droid had told me, while hoping that it's calculations had been correct.

"Yes, sir." Said Engineer Janson and ordered the mechanics and engineers out of the room, and the droids to do the welding. Then he turned towards me again. "I did a recalculation and apparently, S10 is right. Welding the section to the walls really works."

"Good. Now let's get to the maintenance tunnels."

With his face obscured by his helmet, I couldn't read his face, but there was no mistaking the surprise in his voice as he said. "We, sir?"

"Yes. I am coming along and so is S10."

"Yes, sir, but please take care. People will never forgive me if both you and Chief Engineer Keller died on my watch." He said with a small sigh and picked up a plasma cutter. "This way, sir."

--------------------

The maintenance tunnels were thankfully large enough for us to move through without having to crawl and it didn't take long before we were under the fallen section. Diving into the force, I used it to detect life-force and looked up. To my surprise, there were two life forces, separated by a few meters.

"There're two people there." I said calmly and marked the two locations on the visuals. "Who's the other one?"

"Two?" Engineer Janson said with surprise in his voice. "We did a count and everybody was present."

"There're two now." I repeated with certainty in my voice, as I pointed at one spot. "One there and another one there. Maybe one from another team?"

"Let's find out." He said, as he switched the plasma cutter on. "But let's get them out first. S10, you take the other one."

"Yes, sir."

While they were cutting the areas I had designated, I used the time to contact Captain Sul and had her do a headcount on the other teams. She came back surprisingly fast with the answer. An apprentice mechanic named Maxine from Team 3 had left the team to deliver a plasma torch battery to Chief Engineer Keller and hadn't returned yet. Fortunately, her suit had enough air for several hours, while Keller was down to ten minutes.

"This is not good." Said engineer Janson suddenly and took a step back. "The deck is too thick for me to get through in one go and we don't have time to make the hole large enough for me to reach inside it and cut the rest as I would normally have."

Looking at the beam of his plasma cutter, I said. "Please move aside."

He did as I asked and I took his place as I drew and ignited a lightsaber. With the blade at full extension, it was much longer than the plasma cutter and it didn't take me more than a few minutes to finish what Janson had started.

Of course, since there wasn't much gravity, the cut-out piece remained in place, causing the Engineer to say. "How do we..."

That was as far as he got, before I used telekinesis to pull down the piece, revealing a suited figure laying on top of it. It wasn't Keller as the suit was too small for that, so it had to be the apprentice Maxine.

"Take her." I ordered and turned my attention to S10. "You got through?"

"Yes." Replied the droid. "My built-in plasma-cutter has a longer beam than the held ones."

"Good. Please step aside."

It did and I pulled down the cut-off deck plating, so we could get hold of Keller.

A movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. To my left the deck above us was starting to bend and I was sure that if the ship had an atmosphere, we would have been able to hear the metal groan like a wounded animal.

"Get out NOW!" I ordered. "It's collapsing!"

S10 scoped Keller up in its arms and moved past me, followed by Janson. Looking up, I dived into the force and used telekinesis to push against the bulging deck as hard as I possibly could, as I slowly walked backwards towards the entrance.

To my surprise and worry, the deck started to righten under the telekinetic pressure, indicating that the hull material was not nearly as strong as it was supposed to be. Pushing the thought away I simply concentrated on keeping the pressure up on the deck, as I backed out of range.

"Can I pick you up, sir?" I suddenly heard S10 ask.

"Yes, but don't turn me away from the section." I managed to say and a moment later a pair of mechanical hands lifted me up like I was a feather and carried me away a lot faster and safer than I could have done myself.

"Are everybody out of the section?" I asked without taking my eyes off the upper deck.

"Yes. The droids pulled out when they were done."

"Good." I said and stopped concentrating. "Let's get out of here!"

S10 placed me on the ground again next to Engineer Janson, picked up both unconscious people and moved towards the waiting shuttle, followed by Janson and me.

"Not good!" Warned Janson as we could feel vibrations in the deck plating.

Glancing back, I could see a ripple in the deck as some unseen part of the ship collapsed. Reaching out with the force again, I disengaged the magnetics in my boots, and jumped up, before I took a telekinetic hold of both S10 and Janson and lifted them off the ground as well.

The ripple passed under us, cracking and displacing deck plating, making the former flat deck look like a frozen lake with solid waves, sharp, jagged edges pointing in every direction.

Dragging Janson closer, I took hold of the apprentice, ignited a lightsaber and carefully punctured her spare air-tank. Air began rushing out of it, functioning like an air-fuelled rocket engine, pushing us towards the end of the room, flying over the cracked deck plates.

Thankfully, the room ended with a blast wall. One of the extremely solid walls designed to keep the structural integrity of the ship intact even when the other parts were damaged.

Changing the angle of Janson's leaking air-tank I steered us towards the open cargo door. It had seemed large when I walked the other way, but as we flew toward it, it felt like I was trying to dock a large and barely manoeuvrable shuttle in a very small hangar.

"Sir!" I heard Engineer Janson call out, but I ignored it, as the edges of the door flew past us so close that I would have hit it, if the armor had had an extra layer of paint.

The landing was a bit rough, but as the saying goes, any landing you can walk away from, is a good landing, and on the bright side we were on the other side of the cracked deck plates and could hurry towards the room with the shuttle.

Unfortunately, it wasn't there, causing my heart to skip a beat before I activated the comm. "Pilot Satomie?"

"Coming, sir." She answered immediately and a moment later, the shuttle flew through the hole in the hull, turning around perfectly as the ramp was lowered and coming to a stop right next to us without touching down completely. Both airlock doors were also open, enabling me to see straight inside the craft.

"Hurry, sir, and don't take your helmets off." Pilot Satomie said over the comm. "I let the air out of the cabin to get you inside quicker."

No sooner were we inside, before Satomie took off again, closing the ramp as she cleared the hole at full acceleration.

Looking at the clock ticking down, I quickly took one of the emergency air tanks from the rack and connected it with Keller's suit, so he would get air no-matter what. That was quickly followed by Engineer Janson, who did the same with apprentice Maxine.

Then we both leaned against the wall, breathing sighs of relief, before I activated a channel to Fama Sul on the Kraken. She answered immediately. "Yes, sir?"

"We got both Keller and a young engineer out alive, Captain Sul. We're taking them to the infirmary on the Majestic for a check-up now."

The relief in her voice was almost physical, as she said. "Thank you, sir. I'll tell the rest of the crew."

"Good. We can talk later. Thalen out."

--------------------

Back on Majestic, we were met by Shakka and a group of medics, who quickly took charge of the two unconscious persons and walked off in the direction of the infirmary.

Taking off my helmet, I turned towards Engineer Janson, and extended a hand. "Good job, Engineer Janson."

He took off his helmet, revealing a youthful face and a mob of light-brown hair, and took the offered hand. "Likewise, sir. I'm so glad you were there, or we would most likely still be inside the ship."

"That would be a bad idea." Said Resa as she showed up in that moment. "The bridge tower collapsed into the ship, crushing the sections you were in a moment after the shuttle left it."

"That should not be possible. At least not according to the calculations." Protested Janson. "The Interdictors are too tough for that."

"Not this one. I saw the deck bending like rubber above us." I said and looked over, as Pilot Satomie joined us. "Fantastic flying, Pilot Satomie. That was a good job, even if you nearly gave me a heart attack by not being there."

"Thank you, sir, but I had to evacuate. That ship wasn't safe to land on."

"You were right." I said with a nod. "And thank you for your timely return." Turning I looked at G4-S10. "and you, my friend, are going to go with Resa here. She has a few tests for you... and possibly a new paint job."

That made Resa smile. "I certainly hope so."

"I'm not sure what that means, sir." S10 said, his voice a lot more mechanical in real life than it had been over the comm.

Resa's smile widened. "It means, that if you make the tests, you'll be a full member of the crew and not just another droid."

It stood completely still for a moment and then surprised me by doing a little dance. Arms in the air, while the three legs moved back and forth. "Yes! Thank you, sirs."

I exchanged looks with Resa. The dance alone proved that S10 wasn't 'just another fabricator droid', but we still needed the tests just to be sure.

Resa took S10 away and I turned my attention back to Engineer Janson, who immediately asked. "Do you really think the G4-S10 has become self-aware?"

"Yes. It acted on guesses and intuition and pursued a solution even after you had told it to back down. Not to mention the little dance it did." I answered with a slight shrug. "I'll be utterly surprised if it doesn't check out."

"And then it'll be a real crewmember?"

I nodded. "Yes, as described in the protocol. No truly intelligent being should be slaves to others, biological or not."

Janson looked like he pondered that for a moment and then nodded. "I see what you mean, sir, but it'll be quite a change."

"Well, so far it has only happened once in six months, so it's not like we're suddenly going to be overrun by intelligent droids." I said dryly. "The chassis gets a paint job so people can see that it's a crewmember and we'll give its technical programs a few upgrades, along with a social conduct program, so it knows how to react with us. Then it can go back to work.... It'll be like one of us was in the infirmary for a short time."

"We'll see how it goes." Janson thoughtfully and changed the subject. "I hope they have the visuals from the collapse. I would like to see it."

"Me too," I agreed. "So, let's go to the bridge."

Pilot Satomie hadn't extravasated when she had said that the bridge tower had collapsed, as it almost looked like slow motion when the huge tower sank down through the ship, collapsing under the minimal gravity.

"There goes a month of work." Said Engineer Janson sadly as we watched the recording. "We'll need to start over with another Interdictor."

"I prefer that to losing people." I said firmly. "There're plenty of Interdictor-class out there and they can't all be in that bad a shape."

"That is true." Janson answered. "So, back to the start."

"Well, I assume you guys have learned something, so it'll go faster next time."

That made him nod. "At least when it comes to rewiring the cables, sir. Moving pieces as big as a reactor from one ship to another simply takes a lot of time and there's not much we can do to speed up the process."

For a moment I was tempted to offer my assistance but didn't. While I'm extremely good with Telekinesis, I doubted I could do it faster than a corps of engineers, equipped with all the tools, tractor beam projectors and droids the fleet had to offer.

------------- To be continued ---------------

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