A Collaboration of Zarek Dragon and Douglas DD

In Remembrance of TrueFan

When Oliver and Lars left the ship, two boys, Drake and Jonas, were heart broken. They tried to act mature about it, but once the two left, they hugged one of their parents.

After a few weeks, and once everything was ready to depart, Jordan called a Senior Staff meeting. He declared that Jace was his First Officer and explained who would be next in line should those ahead not be available to command. Kyle was surprised by how high up he was in the hierarchy.

During the meeting, Jordan introduced four new crewmembers for Operations. Kash can't wait for Steve to see one of them.

The Sooloo is finally back in space, heading to their next destination. Where will they end up? On a hostile planet? A robotic planet? Who knows?

Kyle and Danny did what they do best, well, maybe not WHAT they do best, but something they truly enjoy.

"Space, the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the…" Oh wait, wrong series.

Friday, 3 July 2122

Bridge ~ 0800

"Captain's Log - 3 July 2122, 0800. I just took over watch from Commander Rivers-Brooks. We are making our way to a world completely covered with water that has two moons. This mission is more of a scientific expedition than a diplomatic one. After all, how can anyone live on a planet with no land mass?

"Randy Kohl, our Chief Science Officer, has a few experiments he would like to try. Space Fleet is also curious how the two moons affect the water. Does the planet change shape based on where the moons are in orbit? We are also curious; is the planet just a sphere of water, or is there a core? If there is a core, what is it made of? If there is no core, that holds the water in place? We have lots of questions and hope to find answers. End log."

Jordan no sooner ended his log when Scott Trevor announced, "Sir, we are being hailed by the SS Asimov."

"On screen," Jordan stated. "Captain Manz, to what do we owe the pleasure?"

Captain Leopold Manz replied, "After you left, Space Fleet decided that you need another fighter pilot aboard."

"But we already have six, and only six fighters."

"True," Captain Manz declared, "but what if one of those pilots is injured or sick? They are giving every ship one extra pilot, who will also be a shuttle pilot."

"I see, and they had you fly all the way out here to bring him?"

"We just completed our refit, and you were only a little way out of our path to our next planet. We should reach you at our current speed in about fifteen minutes," replied Captain Manz.

Jordan inquired, "Should we stop or slow to impulse, to make it quicker?"

"Unless we use the long-range shuttle or a Bubba, you'll need to stop, anyway," Captain Manz answered.

"Helm, full stop," Jordan ordered.

Astrogation's NEW Office ~ 0815

Tudupe joined Kyle in Kyle's newly remodeled ready room. The ensign sat next to his commanding officer at the astrogation table. Like kids often did, even the highly educated and trained kids in the Explorer Program, Tudupe put some stock in age. He found it interesting that he was thirteen years old while Kyle was only twelve. In the adult world that difference would have been meaningless, but it wasn't unusual for kids to compare ages.

That said, Tudupe also knew that even though he was "only" twelve, Kyle Robinson was a legend at the Academy and among astrogators, even adult astrogators who were long-time serving officers in Space Fleet. He was ready to see what he could learn from the great Kyle Robinson, who was not even a teenager yet.

"I've looked over your records from the Academy," Kyle told Tudupe. "Very impressive. Scoring over 95 on the astrogation final is a rare accomplishment; one you should be proud of."

"Thanks," Tudupe responded. That was great praise indeed coming from the only Academy graduate to ever score 100 on the final. Receiving that score was even more of a legend because he was able to prove that the answer on the answer key to one of the test questions was incorrect.

Kyle spent the next forty-five minutes reviewing the astrogation protocols taught at the Academy. Then he went over which protocols he insisted that the astrogators on the Sooloo were expected to follow, which was all of them.

"Even the writing out a hard copy of the plotted route?" Tudupe asked, even though he know the answer. But he wanted to hear it from Kyle, whose defeat of Azazel, the rogue star, which was made possible by Kyle having a hard copy of his route computations. Kyle's preparedness, which allowed him to win the battle following takeover of the ship's astrogation system by the rogue, was already legendary at the Academy.

"Yep, even writing out the hard copy," Kyle said with exaggerated patience. He knew that Commodore Hanson used Kyle's diligence in his lectures and understood that Tudupe was fishing to get Kyle to give his account of the battle. Kyle was too canny to take the bait, however. Kyle also knew that Hanson did not use Devin French's astrogation screwup caused by his lack of due diligence in keeping a hard copy log of his calculations.

While Devin was disciplined from the highest command, the fact his gigantic gaff was kept top secret, allowing him to recover from his mistake, improve his use of protocols, and allowing him to work at becoming a first rate astrogator and navigator. Kyle doubted that, outside of himself, there wasn't an astrogator in the fleet who kept his hard copies as meticulously as Devin French.

"Okay, enough of the rules and regulations and protocols and other stuff like that. Before we end this session, I have an astrogation problem for you to solve," Kyle told his pupil.

Tudupe set himself up at the astrogation table and logged into the computer. He also opened his notebook to enter the required handwritten hard copy. "I'm ready, so hit me with it."

"Your ship is in orbit around your home planet of Darastix. Your captain has asked you to plot a route to the Water Planet. Your assignment is to create one."

"Whoa. I thought I might be doing one from Earth or something. I wasn't expecting this."

"You have all the information you need in the table to complete the assignment."

"Oh, I know that," Tudupe said, "it just wasn't the assignment I expected."

"I'm sure there was a saying that Commodore Hanson preached to your class almost every day about what to expect in space."

"Yes, there was. He always said that when traveling in space to expect the unexpected."

"Well, you just received a little lesson in that," Kyle grinned. "Now, get me to that planet. I'm eager for a swim."

Kyle sat at his small desk and watched Tudupe approach his assignment with full concentration. He liked what he saw from the new ensign. The mood was suddenly broken, however, when he felt the Sooloo decelerate and drop out of space. Kyle had disconnected the ready room from the ship's PA system, allowing only personal and emergency messages. He flicked the switch on his desk to turn on the full system.

"…for the deceleration," said Captain Rivers' voice over the speaker in the ready room. "The Asimov will be shuttling our new pilot, Ensign Javier Garcia over as soon as they are within range for a short hop. Please welcome our new crewman aboard the Sooloo first chance you get.

"Also, Captain Manz and two of his senior officers will be paying us a courtesy visit as long as we're side-by-side. I will be giving them a quick tour of the Sooloo. Jace and Steve will give Ensign Garcia his own tour, go over the procedures we follow on the Sooloo. and help him move into his quarters. That is all for now."

"How are you doing on your calculations?" Kyle asked Tudupe.

"That was certainly an unexpected interruption. I lost track of where I was on the table," Tudupe replied. "But you know what they say?"

"Yep. When in deep space always be prepared for the unexpected."

"Right. And my notebook will have me caught up in a jiffy," Tudupe grinned.

"And that, my friend is what being prepared is all about."

But before Tudupe would check his last calculations the door buzzer went off. "Enter," Kyle called out.

Jordan entered with Captain Manz and two commanders, one of whom Kyle thought was exceptionally cute. Jordan started right in, making introductions. "Meet Kyle Robinson, my chief astrogator and a new addition to the astrogation team, Ensign Mïtuti Tudupe." Tudupe was surprised and pleased that the captain of the ship remembered his name. "Standing next to me is Captain Leopold Manz. Captain Manz, would you do us the honor of introducing your two officers."

"With pleasure, Captain Rivers. I have with me Lieutenant Commander Alec Burns, our Chief of Astrogations and Commander Clayton Pittman, our Chief of Operations."

Everyone shook hands. "This is incredible. You have an astrogation table in a ready room! Amazing" Alec cooed. Alec was from Glasgow, Scotland, and his accent, while not pronounced, was certainly noticeable. He turned and faced Captain Manz. "Sir, with your permission I would like to stay here and observe Kyle at work and find out how his extra table works."

"As soon as we walked into the room, I had a feeling you were going to ask exactly that," Captain Manz grinned. "I will buzz you when we're ready to meet in the shuttle bay."

"Thank you, sir. I will see you soon." The two captains and Commander Pittman left the room. Kyle wondered if Alec's formality was part of the overall Asimov culture or it was something that was done when they visited other ships, as was the case with the Sooloo.

Shuttle Bay ~ 0820

While Alec was chatting with Kyle and Tudupe, and Captain Manz and Clayton were touring with Jordan, Ensign Gary Parker, who piloted the shuttle from the Asimov to the Sooloo, left the berthed shuttle and walked to the shuttle bay control room. He knocked on the control room door and was invited to enter. He saw an ensign sitting at the control console studying a shuttle diagram on the big screen monitor.

The ensign turned and greeted Gary. "You must be Gary," he said. "I'm Jesse Gross the current officer of the watch. Nice job bringing your shuttle into the bay and berthing it."

"Good to meet you, and thanks for the compliment, Jesse. It helped that the shuttle bays of our ships are identical and that I received expert berthing instructions from you."

"Well, now that we've initiated our mutual admiration society, have a seat here at console." Gary did so, sitting next to Jesse. "What do you know about the Bubbas?"

"I know they're big and clumsy, until you get them revved up in space, and I don't enjoy flying them." Gary looked at the lit diagram on the screen and saw that it was the diagram of a Bubba. "Are you guys having a Bubba problem?"

"That we are. The Bubba Loo was vibrating while bringing cargo up from Earth. It happens when slowing from launch speed to match the Sooloo's orbital speed."

"I take it you contacted the Maintenance and Repair facility."

"Of course, like they gave a shit. They said we would have to wait our turn or until their techs had the time to analyze the problem and then see how long it would take to fix it," Jesse groused. "I told him the Captain and First Officer were on Earth at Space Fleet headquarters. I was told to have the Captain contact them when he returned to the ship. So, I, Juro from engineering and Curt, one of the shuttle bay crewmen got on the Bubba Loo, setting up the monitors."

"Can I take a closer look at the diagram?" Gary asked.

"Feel free."

Ship Tour ~ 0820

After dropping Lt. Commander Alec Burns off with Kyle, Jordan continued the tour. Though school was on "summer break," Jordan showed the classrooms, and the children's lounge. He took them to Operations, where Steve freaked out about Pittman wearing glasses, "Whoa, Dude, your glasses look awesome."

"Thanks, so do yours. What's your vision?" Clayton Pittman asked.

Jordan whispered to Captain Manz, "I knew once Steve saw the glasses, he'd react."

Leopold chuckled, "Had I known Steve wore glasses, I could have told you so would Clayton."

Steve answered Clayton's question, "Before the dragon sat on my…"

"Dragon? What dragon?" Pittman inquired.

Jordan replied, "We were on the planet Darastix, commonly known on Earth as Draconia, but that's slowly changing. There is an island where creatures we thought were mythical live. There are dragons, unicorns, and other mythical creatures."

"Yeah, and if a unicorn comes up to you, you pet it and can make a wish," Steve continued, "but a dragon touches you and it heals you. One landed on my shoulder and now I have 20/20 vision."

"Then why do you wear glasses?" Clayton questioned.

"Because I like my looks with glasses," Steve averred.

Clayton nodded, "That's all that matters. My right eye is 20/20, but my left without glasses is 20/100. The nice thing is… my glasses have an added feature that allows me to see various spectrums."

"Clayton, we're heading to the Mess next, and then back to the Shuttle Bay. If Captain Manz doesn't have a problem with it, you can either join us or stay and talk with Steve."

"I wouldn't mind talking with Steve, but we haven't had breakfast yet."

"I was hoping we could perhaps eat here," Captain Manz requested. "I've heard so much about the Executive Chef on the Sooloo. Admiral Bowman suggested I try the lasagna."

"Lasagna for breakfast?" Jordan chuckled. "I suppose it's no worse than cold pizza for breakfast."

"Right," Manz grinned, "Admiral Bowman also suggested either Randy's special sausage or shimmy steak and eggs, but he wouldn't tell me what shimmy is."

"Either choice is good," Jordan confirmed. "I'm planning sausage and eggs, myself."

"So, what's shimmy?"

"I'll tell you after you've tried it. I don't want to influence your taste one way or the other."

Astrogation's Office ~ 0825

"Like I just said, this is amazing!" Alec said. "How did you get this setup? And in a ready room to boot. Captain Rivers must have some real pull."

"Well, first, this is not a Ready Room any longer. It is my Astrogation office. As you know, when you're plotting a course to a place no Earth ship has ever visited there's a lot of time needed to plot the best course. So, it was decided by Captain Rivers to create an astrogation office in this room. I have a feeling that the other Explorer ships will be seeing the same setup depending on the how it works for us.

"The second thing is, this is Jordan's first voyage as Captain of the Sooloo. So, his pull is close to nothing. That said, we lost our first two captains to promotions as they got kicked upstairs." Kyle knew that wasn't the full story, but it worked in the short time he had to tell it. If Alec wanted to find out more, he could do his own research.

"Is this a full astrogation table? I mean can you get all the info from the bridge table and control the navigation system from here?"

Tudupe answered the first part of the question right away. "I'm using all of the information on the bridge table to solve the problem that Kyle gave me. I can access it anytime at this table." He looked at Kyle and nodded to indicate that Kyle should answer the second part of the question.

"As you no doubt can figure out, it would not be a good idea to be able to command the astrogation table from here," Kyle said. "We don't have the instant communications that the bridge gives us. Our view screen isn't nearly as big. And the chain of command would be hard to maintain. That said, four of us can use our code to program astrogation changes and give commands from here in case of an emergency. Those four are me, Jordan, Jace, who is our first officer, and John Luke, the assistant chief astrogator. The only times any of us would need to enter their code into this table would be in a dire emergency or in one of our monthly drills."

"Can I look at your present course figures?" Alec asked.

"Feel free. Tudupe will clear his work and save it and you can take a quick look at what the table does."

Alec sat at the table and called up the newest coordinates. It didn't take long for him to determine that the astrogation table in the office was indeed exactly like the one on bridge if it didn't have some of the fancy bells and whistles, like a bigger view screen. "I want one of these," Alec grinned. Then he saw the notebook sitting on the table near Tudupe's chair. "Is Kyle making you write down all your calculations?" he asked Tudupe.

"He sure is."

"But I bet Kyle never does it himself." Kyle gave Alec the look Koji received when he stuck his foot into his mouth. "I guess that look means you do it all by the book," Alec said feeling both chagrined at saying something stupid and pleased that even Kyle Robinson kept a pencil and notebook at the astrogation table and used them.

"Apologies if I insulted you in any way, Commander. I get carried away with my sense of humor at times. And before you think that what I said means I don't follow the rules, I assure you that I follow the rules and keep a written hard copy of my calculations and expect the astrogators under my command to do the same. You can ask Captain Manz if you don't believe me."

"No worries, I believe you," Kyle assured Alec. "But before you go, I do have a question for you."

"I will do my best to give you a straight answer," Alec responded.

"If you're Scottish, what are you doing being the chief astrogator? I thought Scots were all engineers."

"You realize, I'm sure, that what you're saying is known as stereotyping," Alec chuckled. "Machinery doesn't interest me that much. I like numbers and love studying the stars."

"I can relate to that," Kyle said.

"Me, too," Tudupe grinned.

Shuttle Bay ~ 0830

Gary scanned the diagram for a couple of minutes, nodding as he went. He pointed to a line on one of the circuits. "This is the line that feeds braking power to the engines."

"Right, I know that."

"See how it's red on the left end and then green all the way to the other end except for that tiny red dot at the very end of the circuit?"

Jesse peered in closer and barely made out the red dot. "Holy shit. How did I miss that? There's some kind of blockage in the circuit creating feedback. When we command the engines to brake the speed, the feedback causes the shuttle to vibrate. How did you know to look there?"

"We had the same problem with Bubba Onthego on our ship. Earth maintenance said they would need time to study the issue and when they figured out the problem, repairs would have to wait until our next Earth layover. So, Hank, our assistant chief engineer and I, searched the circuits ourselves and concentrated on the braking circuits. Guess what we found?"

"A small blockage caused by a broken circuit," Jesse guessed correctly. "We should have thought of the route."

"How long have you been working on the problem?"

"About an hour."

"It took us three hours to finally find it," Gary said. "You would have gotten it. The fact that I'd worked on the same problem and was able to save you time was just lucky for you guys."

"Did you send your findings to Maintenance and Repair?" Jesse asked.

"We did as soon as we fixed the problem."

"That means they knew what was wrong when I contacted them." Jesse thumped his fist on the console top. "Those assholes in Maintenance and Repair think the Explorers are all a bunch of little kids who don't know how to tie their shoes let along diagnose and repair a shuttle problem. How do they think we survive in space if we don't know what the fuck we're doing? They could have saved us all a lot of time by just looking in their fucking database and telling us what to fix, and how to fix it if we don't know."

"I'm glad to be of help. You know what we should do together?"

"Yep. Send what happened to us and the records of lack of cooperation from M&R to Admiral Crusoe," Jesse said. "It's time those bozos get put in their place and treat us like the explorers we are and not like a bunch of Academy flunkies playing video games. Give me your contact info and I'll get with you to write a report."

"I can give you what we did to fix the problem. I know you and your help will figure it out, but I can save you more time. It took us three possible solutions before we found one that worked perfectly."

"We need to tell HQ that considering the Bubba's poor performance record we need to get the assistance we deserve to keep them operating."

"You've got that right," Gary grinned.

Officers' Mess ~ 0845

As Jordan, Captain Manz and Commander Pittman sat down, Che approached them. "What are you gentleman in the mood for, this morning?" he asked.

"Sausage with an omelet and hash brown," Jordan replied, "and you know which sausage."

Clayton inquired, "Do you have sausage and gravy over biscuits?"

"We sure do, regular sausage or shimmy?"

"I would like to try the shimmy, please."

Leopold Manz ordered next, "Which do you recommend? Sausage or shimmy steak with eggs?"

"Either is good, but I prefer the shimmy steak, myself."

"Then, I'll try the steak," Manz stated.

"And have Randy make up four to-go boxes with lasagna for these gentlemen," Jordan requested.

"Ummmm, Sir," Che sounded nervous, "We only have four servings of lasagna left, and Randy told us we were saving it for your family's lunch."

"Not to worry," Jordan smiled. "We can have lasagna the next time Randy makes it. This will be their only chance to try Randy's lasagna."

After they ate, Randy brought over four to-go packs. "How was everything?"

"Everything was great," Captain Manz declared, "now, what is shimmy?"

Randy looked at Jordan who just nodded. "Shimmy is an animal from Darastix that resembles a skunk, but without the stripe."

"So that delicious meat is essentially space skunk?" Clayton questioned.

"Now, you see why I didn't want to tell you before?" Jordan chuckled.

"I do, but I must say, that was a very delicious sausage. I need to get some shimmy somehow and have Robert, my Executive Chef get some recipes from you."

Randy pulled a memory key out of his pocket and handed it to Captain Manz. "All my recipes are on there. As for the shimmy, several were taken to Earth for breeding, so within a year, every ship should be getting some."

"Good to know." And with that, Captain Manz signaled Alec and Gary that he was on the way to the shuttle.

Astrogation's Office ~ 0900

Before they could say anything else, Alec's communicator buzzed. "Time for me to go. Thanks for showing me everything. It was awesome to be at the same astrogation as the great Kyle Robinson."

"I've got news for you, Alec," Kyle said.

"What's that?"

"I'm just plain old Kyle Robinson. I go exactly by the book just like everybody else, which is how I want everyone who mans the table to do it. Keep your astrogation a totally serious business, continue to do it all by the book, and you will be the great Alec Burns. Now you'd better get going since nobody wants to keep a captain waiting. Thanks for the visit and good luck on an astrogation office on your next visit to Earth." Alec then left quickly. Since the layout of all of the Explorer Class ships were the same, Alec knew how to get to the shuttle bay.

"Wow, I thought you were going to pound him for a minute," Tudupe said.

"I just wanted him to know that astrogation is a serious business, and it's important for a Chief Astrogator to see that his entire navigation staff understands that. And now, after all the unexpected things we were, of course, expecting, what is your progress like?" Kyle asked.

"Give me ten more minutes and I'll have the course for you."

"That soon?"

Tudupe nodded and went to work. Eight minutes later he had all his figures entered into the astrogation computer and his calculations penciled into the notebook.

Kyle programmed a simulation of Tudupe's work and found that his new astrogator had the Sooloo arriving at the Water World on the best possible course and the fastest possible time. "Great work, Tudupe. I can see you're going to be a real plus to the astrogation team."

"Thanks, Kyle." Tudupe felt like he was walking on air after receiving the praise from his commanding officer.

"Now, how about shutting the training table down, pack your book and pencil and let's head to breakfast."

Kyle sincerely believed that the new member of his crack astrogation team was going to fit in nicely. There were a few more training problems he wanted Tudupe to do, including one that John Luke would supervise. Then it would be time to put Tudupe on the watch schedule.

Shuttle Bay ~ 0900

Gary felt his communicator buzz. "Time for me to get back to the Foundation, our ride home, and prep it for the hop back to the Asimov. Great working with you, Jesse."

"The feeling is mutual. You saved our asses so much time. I can't wait to get to work on our report to HQ. I'll be your traffic controller when you leave, so I'll talk to you soon."

Jesse surprised, and pleased, Gary by giving him a heartfelt hug. As the ensign walked out of the bay control room with a tantalizing wiggle of his ass, Jesse thought, much to his surprise, If I were gay, and we were on the same crew, I could fall for him in a hurry. What a great, not to mention good looking, guy.

Officers' Mess ~ 1300

With the Asimov heading toward whatever planet they were going to, and the Sooloo back under way, things were getting back to normal. Aiden, Connor, Juro and Arytiss made their way to the Officers' Mess for lunch. Once they walked in, Randy asked for everyone's attention, "Today is a special day for someone in this room. It's his fifteenth birthday." Aiden tried to hide behind Connor, but since Connor is 157 cm (5'1.8") and Aiden is 166 cm (5'5.4"), he found it difficult.

Ben Maxey wheeled out the "Cake" cart and pulled off the sheet. Randy started describing the cake. "I'm told, the cake is a spice cake because that is Aiden's, and many of the crew's, favorite. The frosting is cream cheese flavored, an excellent pairing for a spice cake. There is an image of a blaster firing, probably because Aiden is Chief of Tactical and Security. Ben, what are the lines going up and down?"

"Those are brig bars," Ben explained. "Back before brigs had a forcefield keeping the prisoners in, they had bars. I figured the bars would be more noticeable than a forcefield. And that's a cot on a wall for the prisoner to sleep."

"That was going to be my next question," Randy chuckled.

Captain's Ready Room ~ 1330

As many of the off-duty officers were enjoying cake in the Officers' Mess, Dr. Tom Abernathy rang the chime to the Captain's Ready Room. Jordon's voice called out, "Enter!"

"Captain, I really need to speak with you," Dr. Tom averred.

"Have a seat," Jordan offered. "Is something wrong?"

End Notes:

This work is a collaboration of 2 authors, since the third passed away. We will be posting chapters of this story as we are able. When commenting, please send to both authors or click here... Authors of Voyagers.

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