Ticonderoga – Episode 1: Adrift

Ticonderoga – Episode 1: Adrift

Cast of Characters;

***

Name: Phillip Irving Graves

Rank: Captain – commanding officer

Call Sign: Pig

History: He was born on old earth in the area known as the Western Territories of North America. As a youth he was a trouble maker this, being virtually unheard of in his century, forced the military to deal with him. He was given a choice. Join the United Planets peace keeping and research force or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioral problems. His career in the military was a great example of how not to advance. After twenty years he was still only a petty officer third class. That was when he was caught pulling off his worst infraction yet. Fleet Admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his wife, and both of his daughters, at the same time. Phillip was doomed to go back to base rank again. But instead the admiral made him an offer. Find a wife, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

Description: He is six foot tall, with jet black hair and brown eyes. His body type is thin and muscular with tan skin tone.

Mate: Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

Name: Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

Rank: Commander – Ships science officer and fourth in command

Call Sign: Marijuana

History: She was born a simple farm girl in the Midwest Territories of North America. She led an exemplary life, with no problems, until she came of age. Then she found she had a taste for bad boys. To try and curb her appetite for self destructive behavior, she joined the service. Her career was in good order and she was happy after five years but she longed to go deep. The only problem was you had to be married and no one was asking. There was also the problem of Phillip; she thought he was just dreamy. He was everything she wanted in a bad boy, but his career meant he would never even manage to make it into space. She only had one more rank to go then she could go. That would take another six months. Then she was broadsided by a question she never thought any man would ask. “Will you marry me I need a wife before I can go deep?”

Description: She is a five foot six inch tall, blond haired, blue eyed beauty, with medium sized breasts. Her body style is lithe and athletic.

Mate: Phillip Irving Graves

***

Name: James Mitchell Penzo

Rank: Master Chief Petty Officer – Chief engineer and mechanic.

Call Sign: Jazz hands

History: He was born on the emerald isle of Europe. He was a good kid and went to college. After school he joined the service to set up a little nest egg. There he met his wife and fell in love. He had a promising career ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicinal effects of the engine solvent. Just a little nip of it could make any man happy. He stayed happy a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a choice, military separation or he and his wife go deep.

Description: He is five foot eight inches tall with dark green eyes and brown hair. His body type is thick with just a slight spare tire.

Mate: Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

Name: Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer – Chief of off ship security.

Call Sign: Demoness

History: She was born on her native world of Liskia. She is strong and fast and excelled in her career as military police, until her husband introduced her to the solvent. Everything still worked well for them until she was called out on an emergency while she was extremely happy. Six weeks later she boarded her new vessel, The UP Ticonderoga.

Description: She is six foot two inches tall. Her race has red skin and hair with light grey eyes. Many people say they look like the mythical demons, right down to the two tufts of hair on their foreheads that resembled horns. Her body type is thin and lithe with a well defined muscle tone.

Mate: James Mitchell Penzo

***
Name: Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade – xeno-biologist.

Call Sign: Buster

History: He is a native of Ling, a human colony, joined the service to go deep, he wanted the life of an explorer, he was also married and his wife joined at the same time looking to ship out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to study new species of both plants and animals.

Description: He is five foot eight inches tall with mousy blonde hair and blue eyes. His body type is thin and non muscular.

Mate: Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

Name: Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade – ships doctor.

Call Sign: Melons

History: She is a native of Ling, a human colony, and was married to her college sweetheart. She joined the service to go deep with him.

Description: She is five foot six inches tall with platinum blonde hair and very large breasts. He body type is voluptuous.

Mate: Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

Name: Lorka Dumont Willock

Rank: Commander – Security officer, second in command.

Call Sign: Mountain

History: He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the service to get a chance to do battle in this time of peace. He is very popular with the ladies because his race believes that love play should be as tender as war is violent.

Description: At well over seven feet tall and four hundred and fifty pounds of solid muscle he is by far the largest member of the crew, except for his wife. His black skin looks like a shadow come to life. The only break in his darkness is his red eyes.

Mate: Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

Name: Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

Rank: Commander – Weapons officer, third in command

Call Sign: Everest

History: She is a Female Tithian warrior. She joined the service with her husband, in the hopes of finding battle. She is a foot taller than her husband, and a hell of a lot meaner.

Description: She is eight feet four inches tall with shadow black skin and red eyes. Her body type is extremely muscular.

Mate: Lorka Dumont Willock


———————————————————–

I stared at the blank view screen in front of me. My ship had been adrift for three days. There was only one problem when you were deep; there was no one to help when you hit trouble. The nearest ship to us was two months travel away. It had taken us two years to get this far out.

“Going deep” is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find inhabitable planets that we could colonize or resources we could mine for. The fun part, the rules say the first crewman to set foot on a planet gets to name the planet.

The united races had managed to colonize or mining camp every rock for sixty light years around earth. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to travel sixty light years with the snort drive as it was called. It got its name because the matter and antimatter explosions inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying sound to travel at sixty times the speed of light. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communications panel on my chair to life. “Jazz hands, What the hell is taking so long down there? If you are nipping at the solvent again I’m going to take you off of relief rotation for two weeks. ”

“Not a chance, Pig, I am trying to repair the damn damage those cockbiter rats did to the engine wiring. The fucking little beasties chewed through every light wire in the main fire control cabinet.”

“How long before we have engine power again?”

“Another day at least, we have over a thousand wires to replace in this cabinet.”

“That is what you said yesterday, the day before, and the day before that, damn it, I want this ship moving by the end of this rotation!”

“Captain, even if I get this repaired that is no guarantee we will be able to move. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the little bastards. Go take a relief break and let me do my damn job.”

I stalked off of the bridge. The damn lifts were down so I had to climb down the access ladders to get to the crew decks. I guess we could call ourselves lucky; those little varmints had not reached the life support equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter rats had managed to chew through our main power control, lift control systems, helm control interlink, navigation, and engine fire control in less than twenty four hours. Twenty rats had crippled a ship, with crew of one hundred people on board. Only fate knows what else was damaged. Jazz Hands was right I needed stress relief; it was time to head to the crew lounge.

There is a major set of rules about going deep. The first one is all crew members must be mated couples. The second rule is all relationships are open on the ship. When off duty personnel need stress relief any off duty person of the opposite gender is available to them, unless they are in their sleep cycle. Any same sex liaisons are not forbidden but are open to be refused. Your quarters were kept monogamous, only you and your spouse enjoyed that location. The lounge is where you go to arrange liaisons with other crew members. That is also where the “training” rooms are. There is one for just about every taste, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

Rank has its privilege as well. Command officers are allowed to take stress breaks during duty if there is no pressing need for their attentions. As of right now, there was no pressing need for me. I could not command this ship to move if I were a god.

I no sooner walked into the lounge when Melonie saw me and came over. I knew what she was after, she loved my oral techniques. “Need some stress relief, captain?”

“At least a week’s worth, Melons.” I said as I took her by the arm and guided her towards the bar.