All That Glitters Ch. 09

FAdm. Charles Thenton stood on the bridge of the NS Korman on the day of her decommissioning. Beside him was RAdm. Mark Haggen, the first captain of the Korman when she was commissioned, Capt. Kiley Somerfield, her last captain, and Senior Chief Bjorn Olleson, her last Boatswain.

"So, sent for scrap," Haggen said, sadly. "What a terrible waste of resources."

"Aye," Somerfield agreed. "I would like to have seen her in action at least once," she said as she slid her hand along the baluster overlooking Ops.

"No, not for scrap," Thenton told them. "She was sold as a pleasure craft to a multi-billionaire, though she was listed for scrap as that was all that she would have received on the open market.

"The owner is none other than Capt. Raymond Clark, late of the Black Lightning Engineer Brigade, and a hero of the assault on Emporium," Thenton let them know.

"He was recently working in space as a miner and struck it rich with an unbelievable find. But most recently he saw action as a navy officer in the Battle of Liramor-23. He was awarded the Medal of Bravery.

"I would rather see the ship go to a man like that than go to the scrapyard. Besides, we didn't give him a choice. The next opportunity to bid on decommissioned ships won't be for another forty-five days, on the other side of Union space from here, and he wants a ship now." Thenton finished with a knowing grin on his face.

"The guns?" Somerfield asked.

"Two of the 48s on her lateral gun decks went to the ventral decks. Twin-rail fifty-millimeter rail guns have been placed on the lateral lines. The tubes are capped, and the heavy guns pulled as per law," Thenton told them.

"Mk-48s and twin rail fifties, not much protection for such a large ship," Haggen mused.

"No, but she's no longer a naval ship," Thenton told them, knowing otherwise.

The decommissioning was a somber affair, lasting most of the afternoon. The last official act was to remove the original commissioning plaque, which would be sent to the Folden Naval Museum for posterity.

The ship was ceremoniously handed over to a representative of Pallanders Shipyards and a small ferry crew which would shuttle her to Liramor Prime.

Pallanders Orbital Shipyard, Liramor Prime, Liramor System

Annette, Liea, and her team watched as the sleek little ship sailed into the construction bay of the orbital platform being used by Pallanders to build, repair, and refit ships.

The large doors closed behind it and air was cycled back into the bay. The ship was tiny, by private ship standards, twenty meters in length and seven and a half abeam. But she was beautiful.

Annette noted that the ship's exterior colours were reminiscent of Liramor One's colours, though with a bit of purple included. Her favorite colour.

The ship had exceptionally large engines aft, and the largest FTL vanes Liea had ever seen on a small ship. Most FTL vanes folded backwards across the vessel on a single hinge. These vanes folded three times on their hinges meaning they were absolutely humongous for the size of the ship when opened.

Part of that was due to the stubby wing-like structures near her rear. The vanes needed to fold to avoid those.

It was clear from the fit and finish outside that the tiny ship was a personal yacht. Otherwise, the name 'The Princess' gave its status away.

"The Princess," Annette queried of Liea.

"Let's go take a look at her," Liea said with a smile.

They stepped into the bay and up to the waiting vessel as the hatch opened. The CEO of Pallanders Shipyards ushered them aboard the vessel. He took them around to show them Pallanders' newest pride and joy.

"The ship can be manned with a minimal crew of ten, there are quarters for fifteen. Though they are comfortable, the crew quarters and the staterooms are tight in comparison to other yachts, most other yachts being considerably larger," the CEO told them.

"However, the speed of this vessel is phenomenal. She is capable of forty-five light year jumps in a single bound. With the new Marilon/Aruna generators on board, she can jump again in just over an hour. That means she could theoretically jump across the 300 light years of human space in as little as seven hours. That far outstrips anything on the market.

"She is capable of planetfall and is small enough to use shuttle ports as opposed to regular space ports, meaning she has far more landing options than say Liramor One," the CEO said.

"You can leave from a shuttle port and be in space in less than twenty minutes. Ten minutes later you could be far enough outside the gravity well to initiate a jump. Its a single jump for this ship to Terra. You could be landed on the planet a little over an hour after lifting off from Liramor Prime. There is no other ship in known space that can do that," the CEO finished.

He showed them around the ship. There were three decks. There were two well appointed staterooms on the middle deck, small by the standard of Liramor One, but comfortable enough. There were two smaller staterooms for guests. Also, on that deck was a VIP comms/theater room large enough for twenty people, and the bridge. The bridge was crewed by four, the captain, two navigation stations, and a comms officer.

There were crew quarters for fifteen on the lower deck, with the ship's Captains quarters being the most spacious.

The engine room was supported by three, the Chief Engineer, and two engineering crew members.

The upper deck had the Captain's Ready room just behind the bridge, a small but well-appointed gym, and a small theater. The mess, crewed by the cook and one crew member, was also on the upper deck aft. The final crew member was a general-purpose staff, usually cleaning and such, though there was room for five more staff at the discretion of the owner.

She was too small to carry a shuttle but had enough space on her emergency escape pods to serve a crew of forty-five.

She carried no weapons, but her speed was a weapon. There was currently nothing in Union space that could catch her.

The CEO handed a scroll to Liea. "The ship's certifications, giving you the right to hire a crew and run the ship as a private yacht."

Liea took the scroll in hand and opened it, showing it to her immediate staff.

"Actually, it is not my task to hire a crew for this vessel," she said with a smile. "Someone once told me that ships were often named for corporations or after the people who owned them. So, who do you think 'The Princess' is named after?" Liea asked Annette, handing her the scroll.

Annette looked suspiciously at the smiling faces of Liea and her personal staff of Lisette and Kim. She opened the scroll and looked under the line of 'owner', only to see her own name printed on the form.

Her eyes snapped up to Liea's face to see her happily nodding yes. "No, Liea! I couldn't..." she started, only to be quickly cut off by her friend.

"You have given so much to me, Annette," Liea stated with shinning eyes. "You took a shy space miner working on a mining platform and turned her into the confident person who now stands before you.

"You showed me how to live at this financial level, how to manage my personal and business affairs, how to find staff to help me, and how to make the best of what fortune has blessed me with.

"I have no way to show my thanks for all that you have done for me since you took me under your wing. You could have just left me to flounder on my own, but you didn't. I will forever be grateful for that."

Liea's tears began to fall as she took her friend into a hug that was soon joined by Lisette and Kim. The Pallanders CEO wisely stood back and let the four friends cry themselves out. Truth be told, he was nearly brought to tears himself.

Forty minutes later the CEO brought the excited friends into a conference room from where they could see many of the exterior construction bays used for large ships. He pointed to one in particular.

The ladies were not sure what they were looking at. They could see a very large ship inside the well-lit bay.

"That is not a cargo vessel," Annette said looking at the ship.

"No," agreed the CEO, "that is 'The Wanderer'. She arrived this morning. We have already begun the refit."

The four ladies were stunned, two rather eventful surprises in one day!

Liea looked expectantly at the CEO, but he just shook his head. "No, you cannot go aboard. Its under refit now and will not be safe to board for several months. The next time you personally see the ship, will be at her naming ceremony, in roughly five months time. Although, we might ask for you to confirm the fit and finish via a holo-vid call. Congratulations, ladies."

The CEO allowed them to use the testing crew to take The Princess down to the Liramor Holdings Space Port. Annette was only too happy to call her father on landing to show off her brand-new ship, courtesy of her friend Liea.

Her father laughed at the name, making Annette blush. She wanted to change the name, but her father told her not to. "It is such an appropriate name. Your friend has pulled a good-natured jest on you. But the name suits its owner well," her father told her, smiling.

Annette had a gruelling travel schedule for the next two weeks. She now realised that her travel time would be significantly reduced thanks to her new ship. Multiple jumps with four to six hour waiting times between bounds simply didn't exist for her anymore. The little ship was going to be a boon.

She had no doubt that she would have many jealous friends who would want one of these tiny time savers. She couldn't wait to rub it into their faces, that the first such ship belonged to her.

She wondered if she had any Pallanders stock yet in her portfolio. It might be a good idea to invest in them.

Control Room, Liramor-23, Piscium Star System

SOps, Richard Fent, was reading through the daily messages from the latest Liramor FTL comms probe. One notice in particular caught his eye. He immediately flagged it to the director.

Fiona received the notice and comments from Fent and asked him to join her in her office.

"What do you think this means?" She asked.

"Not sure, really," he told her. "We have had several people ask to work here from outside of Liramor Prime, usually through our embassies spread around Union space. All of these people are flagged immediately as we don't know why the are specifically asking for Liramor-23. Miners generally ask for work on 'A' mining platform and not specifically by name unless they have already been on that platform or have friends and family there.

"This one has been flagged for two reasons; first, she asked specifically for Liramor-23, second, an in-depth security check showed anomalies in her records. That might not mean anything, but it is being more thoroughly checked by the embassy on Terra. We are going to have to watch her carefully to see what she is up to, if anything other than just a miner looking for work," Fent concluded.

There were usually no direct flights from Terra to Liramor-23, which meant that most applicants would have to go to Liramor Prime and then join a cargo vessel meant for the Piscium system. It would take at least a week for Ms. Corden to arrive on platform. That would be sufficient time to set things up.

Senate Offices, The Senate, Capital City, Terra

Senator Wasim Andjuran was in his element. He was working behind the scenes to set up his pet project of disrupting anticipated Terran relations with the heathen aliens.

Andjuran had used his minions to stir up opposition to such relations among the religious right. A small, but very vocal minority, these people were not above bombarding Senate offices with e-mails and holo-vid messages showing their disdain on the subject. The religious right believed that aliens had no soul, therefore could have no relations with human deities and as a consequence, with humanity.

Rights groups of various stripes were then thrown into the mix by making them believe that funds appropriated for their needs would be dispersed to help the mythical aliens establish relations with the Union of Planets. Every time that any consideration was made to removing funding for any specific reason, a stupendous hue and cry would go up decrying the loss of funding in favour of these aliens.

As more and more groups were being affected by cuts to projects, or the conclusions of projects, more and more citizens became angry over the losses to 'The Others', as the aliens were now being referred to.

The Others was a good general term that focused opposition to planned cuts, the ending of projects, and religious fever, without explicitly mentioning aliens. The media would have had a field day decrying the opposition to relations with such mythical creatures.

Andjuran chose wisely which funding cuts to hit. There had to be a reasonable expectation that such funding was necessary, or that it could be of use for the 'impoverished' of the Union. Whether that impoverishment was for the poor, or the downtrodden mattered not.

In addition, he had used his resources on the religious right to influence entertainment channels in how they depicted aliens in their Sci-Fi holo-vids serials. Any that showed aliens as benign were given a poor rating, while those who showed aliens as evil or at war with the Union were given a higher rating. It wasn't long before all that was being depicted on Sci-Fi entertainment channels was war against evil aliens.

In the background of all this, was Andjuran's need to go to war against the heathen aliens. He was positioning the religious right, under the guidance of the Church of Andanii, to be ready to call the Union to war after the revelation that aliens actually existed.

As Senior Elder of the church, it would be Andjuran's hand that guided the war. His place in the Senate would be fixed for years to come, and with the right outcomes, he could be placed in the President's chair itself...

End of chapter nine.

For those who do not know, nor have bothered to look up, the word 'Callipygian' refers to one with well shaped buttocks. It is defined as 'Bumtastic', 'Bootylicious', or 'Rumpalicious'. In other words, the kind of rear look that would attract most red-blooded males.

Forgive me for using unusual or rare words within my stories, however, we on Literotica are all supposed to be eighteen plus, which means most of us have completed high school. In theory, we have seen some of these 'rare' words already. To those of us a little more well read, these words are probably not so rare. As for the others, there are plenty of services such as Wikipedia available.

Forgive me if I didn't get the translation of New Lapland (Uusi Suomi) correct. There was little agreement from most of the translation matrixes available, so I had to choose one and hope for the best. If it is wrong, please let me know.

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