Chapter 7: Chapter 5: Faster Than Light

--A couple of hours later aboard the UFS Roald Amundsen--

 

Back out of my dress uniform and freshened up, I was standing above the lower part of the bridge, my hands on the metal railing in front of me. The people below me were buzzing around, getting to their posts. My XO was standing behind me with her holostick tablet open.

“D-docking ports disengaged.” LC Moore said.

“Engines?” I nodded and called out to the station on my front left. 

“All operational ma’am!” Lieutenant Bailey called out. 

“Navigation?” I looked to my right.

“Systems up and running!” Lieutenant Zu yelled back! Her voice sounded full of enthusiasm. 

“Alright.” I smiled and stared straight in front of me towards the helm. “Let’s get her off the ground, Miss McAllister.” 

“Aye aye, ma’am.” You could sense the glee in her voice as the engines increased their output to the engines. The lunar horizon started to lower in the windows in front of us. Soon, the moon’s surface was far below us. 

“Leaving the lunar gravity well in 3… 2… 1…” Luna stated. 

“Ok, Lieutenant Zu, set the course for Alpha Centauri.” 

“Set and coordinates sent, Commander!” The ship rotated slightly. 

“Lieutenant McAllister. Engage FTL engines on my mark.” I commanded.

“Ready when you are, ma’am.”

I opened the ships com systems. “Everyone, this is your Commander speaking, brace yourself for FTL acceleration.” And then pushed the FTL warning signal on my interface, turning back to my pilot afterwards. “Lieutenant, get ready, 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…, Mark!” 

“Engaging FTL systems!”

A rumble went through the ship as I braced myself on the metal railing. I noticed just in time my XO wasn’t bracing herself, so I grabbed her close against my chest, so she didn’t fall and hurt herself.

“Eep!” She yelped.

As the ship accelerated, I luckily managed to hold on to the railing with my gloved hand. Ten seconds later the ship was at speed and the acceleration stopped. I then let go of my XO, who had developed bright red cheeks. And she quickly took a bit of distance. 

“I told everyone to brace, didn’t I?”

“S-sorry… I-I was spacing out a little…”

“LC, you really need to pay attention at times like this. I don’t want you to get hurt.” 

“I-I will do better, C-Commander...” I nodded and turned myself to the bridge again. 

“All systems nominal.” Lieutenant Bailey reported. 

“Speed optimal, ETA to Alpha Centauri in two hours and twenty-three minutes.” Zu saluted me.

“And how are our shields?” 

“100 percent Commander.” Lt. McAllister almost sang. 

“Great. I will be checking on the crew, can you take the bridge LC?” 

“Y-yes, Commander.” Luna saluted. 

“Okay, notify me if anything comes up.” I saluted back and left the bridge to tour through the different parts of the ship.

 

I decided to visit my favourite Gunnery Sergeant first. 

“Ellie, do you know where Gunnery Sergeant Turner is?” 

“He is currently in the marine’s lounge, Commander.” 

“Thank you very much.” I headed towards the elevator, as that lounge was a couple of levels down from where we were. When I got there, most of the ship's marines were there chatting with one another. Gunnery Sergeant Taylor was playing a card-game with three other marines. You couldn’t blame any of them because marines had very little to do while we were not on the ground, most of the ship was being held clean by bots, so it’s not like I could make them scrub the floors or something like that. As for drills, we’d only just left port, so that could wait a bit longer. They were responsible enough not to let their skills drop.

“Ah, Commander!” One of them saw me and stood up with a salute, followed by nearly everyone else. Gunny just saluted me from his seat while he held his cards close to him. 

“At ease, marines.” I saluted all of them back with a smile. “How’s everyone doing here?” 

“I can report these gravity cups work wonders during FTL acceleration, Commander.” Gunny laughed and took a drink from his cup. “No drinks were spilled today.”

“Good to hear, Gunnery Sergeant.” I laughed back. “What game are you playing?” 

“Just some poker, Commander.” One of the other marines replied. 

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“Want to join a game? Corporal Jones has a losing hand anyway.”

“No, I don’t.” The corporal aggressively shook her head.

“I will have to decline this time. I still need to check on the other sections.” I smiled. “Also, you better all fold because Gunnery Chief Turner has a royal flush.”

The poker playing marines looked at each other, then at me, then back at the gunnery sergeant and all folded at the same time. 

“Damn it, Commander, you owe me a drink for that.” Gunny put his cards down. It was indeed a royal flush.

“Sure, the drinks are free on the ship anyway.” I winked while I saluted and then headed down the hallway. The medical ward was just around the corner, so I might as well visit Doctor Winter too now that I’m here. 

 

I walked into the medical ward and immediately got greeted by Medical Assistant Yueh who was putting some pre-prepped medicinals in one of the many cabinets. 

“Good afternoon, Commander.” He wanted to salute me, but I motioned that he should just keep himself busy with the drugs. 

“Good afternoon, Doc, where is Doctor Winter?”

“She’s in the back, synthesizing some more medicine.” 

“Thank you. I hope the FTL didn’t break anything.” 

“No, the Federation’s R&D did their work thoroughly. Not a single breakage.”

I happily nodded. So far everything was going great, but then again this mission had been prepared for quite a while. 

As I moved further into the ward I could see Doctor Winter working on the synthesizer, some earpods in her ears as I knew she liked working with some music. 

I leant back against the countertop and crossed my arms while watching her work. 

It took her a while to notice I was there. 

“Ah, Commander.” She smiled and took out one of her earpods. “Do you need anything?” 

“No, I’m touring the ship. To see if everyone’s okay after our first jump” I smiled and started helping her put a couple of vials into boxes. “What are you listening to?” 

“Just my citypop playlist.” She closed a box and handed it to me. “Can you put this in that cabinet?” She pointed at the cabinet to my top left.

I nodded and did as she asked. “City pop, huh?” 

“Want me to send you the playlist?” 

“Sure, I’m a bit curious about it.” 

She took her holostick from her belt and flipped it in my direction, my holostick immediately got a notification. I took out one of it’s earpods and put it in my ear. The music was already playing with a song which was apparently called ‘Remember Sunny days’.

“Sounds very relaxing.” 

Eva nodded. “I was in the mood for something calm. If you want something a bit more pacey I could always send you my power metal playlist.” 

“Maybe later. I should probably go on with my tour.” I winked and walked away. “If you need anything here, just send me a message.” 

“I will, Commander.” Doc then got on with her synthesizing. Medical Assistant Yueh also waved me goodbye again when I walked by. 

 

The rest of my tour was also quite uneventful. The engineers in the engine room were doing completely fine, the damage control party was currently just holding some theoretical exercises. Really, the only thing that had gone wrong with our first FTL jump was that someone had accidentally dropped his drink in the cafeteria. But even that cup didn’t break so that wasn’t very exciting either. When I got back on the bridge Luna gave me back my spot.

“If you want to you can go and take a break, LC. I don't think anything will happen until we get out of FTL.” 

“ETA one hour and thirty-two minutes, Commander.” Lieutenant Zu said, overhearing our conversation. 

“Just get back in ninety minutes.” 

“Yes, Commander!” She saluted me and left the bridge as I just continued to stare out in front of me into the warped space around us. Technically what we were doing now was an immense feat of technology and human ingenuity but in the end, it was still pretty boring to just stand here. Well, it was part of the job and I knew what I signed on for. At least now I had a new music playlist to go through while I waited.

 

The time came for the ship to drop out of FTL, XO Moore had joined me at my side once more as the ship started to decelerate. A shipwide warning wouldn’t be necessary as there wouldn’t be nearly as severe as when we entered FTL. 

Gasps went through the bridge as many saw a new star system for the first time in their lives. Although some, like me, had already experienced it during previous FTL trials. 

I opened the coms again and spoke to the entire crew. “When we commence our next FTL jump, the UFS Roald Amundsen will go beyond the furthest point a human has ever traveled. So hold on, everyone. From here, the real adventure starts.” I closed off the coms and directed myself towards the crew on the bridge, setting our next destination. “Ellie, if you would, please, sound the FTL alarm.” This time Luna was holding on to the railing pretty tight, and when she noticed I was watching she blushed quite profusely.

Ellie sounded the alarm and in the matter of seconds, our ship was off, back into FTL. 

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