known as professionalism. The starship rotated through watches as the inky blackness passed by. Each blink brought them across another gravity wave trough. With it came an even longer transit across the peak.
When the ship exited a blink they would scan passively, followed by an active scan across a wide range of spectrums. The watch would stand ready with systems ready to deploy to defend, or attack. Normally nothing happened.
The ship was quiet, subdued, relaxed. Every ship took on its own feel. Some were mellow, almost like a civilian freighter , while others took on a sense of urgency and tension.
Combat only came in two ways. One was immediately after a blink, the second after watching it approach for days, sometimes weeks. The jump engagement was quite rare. Every ship would make a slight course correction followed by a return to course. Following a blink the ship would exit in a slightly different point. The Haydn drive ignored the starting point as long as the travel was perpendicular to the gravity wave.
The most common style of engagement was two starships eyeing each other like boxers in opposite corners. Depending on velocity it was possible to turn and run, or shift and pass by. Engagements were a fairly rare occurrence, even the largest ship could be thoroughly destroyed by a small frigate if the velocities and weapons landed just right. Though normally the largest ship with the best shields and largest weapons prevailed.
In the latter case it wasn’t uncommon for two ships to stare each other down for a week. In a few cases , communications between the two occurred, with almost cheerful banter between the sides. As if each ship wanted to remind the other that vacuum was the most lonely of things.
William settled in slowly. The tone of the Captain traveled through the ship like an oily slick. He found himself on the defensive in nearly every situation as the crew challenged his authority in subtle ways. For if he didn’t have the approval of the Captain , why should they obey?
The main console that hung above the bridge showed simple icons for the status of the ship. Functioning systems were a bright green, systems that were on standby a dim yellow, with offline systems red.
Each of the watch stations would contain more in depth information about each subsystem, although the officer of the watch would focus on simply the main screen and request information if more was needed.
The remainder of his time was spent learning the routines and rituals required by Captain Khan. For one hour per watch she required all shipboard entertainment to be turned off. A single hour of “quiet” time was observed.
William, at first, bristled against the practice but found it to be quite relaxing in the long run. The day’s tension added to the availability of entertainment was a definite stress multiplier. The stories that came out in that time were quite amazing. The tough part was sorting out the fiction from the truth. Sometimes a story didn’t have to be fact for it to be true.
The commons room was a combination of a small town diner and a sports bar. One section was definitely for eating, while the other was more social, relaxed, with couches and plush chairs. On the far wall a single large screen flickered with images. A pack of Marines were jeering at the screen with slender controllers in their hands.
William sat at a small aluminum table and spooned down his dinner. The rice like bits of pasta were particularly satisfying with fresh shiitake mushrooms grown in engineering. He couldn’t help but eavesdrop on a booth of petty officers sitting across from him.
“So I’m sitting in Sydney watchin’ the Redmond clock and they shows the new star. Bugger is a damn long ways off. Ya know,” Thomas Greer cocks his head and shrugs. “I get the message and off I go, two year rotation.”
“What colony?”
“Well , we only knew it by the number, GJ and a bunch.”
“I didn’t know of any recent ones
When the ship exited a blink they would scan passively, followed by an active scan across a wide range of spectrums. The watch would stand ready with systems ready to deploy to defend, or attack. Normally nothing happened.
The ship was quiet, subdued, relaxed. Every ship took on its own feel. Some were mellow, almost like a civilian freighter , while others took on a sense of urgency and tension.
Combat only came in two ways. One was immediately after a blink, the second after watching it approach for days, sometimes weeks. The jump engagement was quite rare. Every ship would make a slight course correction followed by a return to course. Following a blink the ship would exit in a slightly different point. The Haydn drive ignored the starting point as long as the travel was perpendicular to the gravity wave.
The most common style of engagement was two starships eyeing each other like boxers in opposite corners. Depending on velocity it was possible to turn and run, or shift and pass by. Engagements were a fairly rare occurrence, even the largest ship could be thoroughly destroyed by a small frigate if the velocities and weapons landed just right. Though normally the largest ship with the best shields and largest weapons prevailed.
In the latter case it wasn’t uncommon for two ships to stare each other down for a week. In a few cases , communications between the two occurred, with almost cheerful banter between the sides. As if each ship wanted to remind the other that vacuum was the most lonely of things.
William settled in slowly. The tone of the Captain traveled through the ship like an oily slick. He found himself on the defensive in nearly every situation as the crew challenged his authority in subtle ways. For if he didn’t have the approval of the Captain , why should they obey?
The main console that hung above the bridge showed simple icons for the status of the ship. Functioning systems were a bright green, systems that were on standby a dim yellow, with offline systems red.
Each of the watch stations would contain more in depth information about each subsystem, although the officer of the watch would focus on simply the main screen and request information if more was needed.
The remainder of his time was spent learning the routines and rituals required by Captain Khan. For one hour per watch she required all shipboard entertainment to be turned off. A single hour of “quiet” time was observed.
William, at first, bristled against the practice but found it to be quite relaxing in the long run. The day’s tension added to the availability of entertainment was a definite stress multiplier. The stories that came out in that time were quite amazing. The tough part was sorting out the fiction from the truth. Sometimes a story didn’t have to be fact for it to be true.
The commons room was a combination of a small town diner and a sports bar. One section was definitely for eating, while the other was more social, relaxed, with couches and plush chairs. On the far wall a single large screen flickered with images. A pack of Marines were jeering at the screen with slender controllers in their hands.
William sat at a small aluminum table and spooned down his dinner. The rice like bits of pasta were particularly satisfying with fresh shiitake mushrooms grown in engineering. He couldn’t help but eavesdrop on a booth of petty officers sitting across from him.
“So I’m sitting in Sydney watchin’ the Redmond clock and they shows the new star. Bugger is a damn long ways off. Ya know,” Thomas Greer cocks his head and shrugs. “I get the message and off I go, two year rotation.”
“What colony?”
“Well , we only knew it by the number, GJ and a bunch.”
“I didn’t know of any recent ones
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