Darkworld: Earth

2.48.

Captain Moon was back in her uniform. The traditional ESF formal dress looked good on her, and she wore it proudly as the shuttle took her into orbit, and then skipped through the solar system on a short FTL jump before reaching one of the newest acquisitions of the ESF fleet.

A Yukopan vessel. Destroyer class. Sleek and deadly, and one of hundreds. Thirteen crewmembers were joining her to examine whether the ship, designed for Yukopans, could be flown by humans.

The ESF had literally leapt at the chance to reinstate her, pausing only briefly to perform medical tests to ensure that she was fit for duty. While her brain continued to show signs of Tunnel Drive exposure, her cognitive and reasoning tests were all within or above normal. The moment she was cleared, she was briefed on her new post.

Her civilian employer was understanding of her call to duty and placed her on a military leave.

Her boyfriend was taking care of her cat. He was angry with her; she hadn’t discussed it with him first. She hoped that Trevor would forgive her.

The docking umbilical connected to the ship’s airlock, and the crew boarded the destroyer, which Captain Moon had privately decided to name The Other Shoe .

Pending command approval, of course.

The Yonohoans had once told her that the Topokans didn’t understand the human convention of naming their ships. Captain Moon thought that was fine; the Shoe was a human owned vessel now. She was on her way to accept command from the ship’s Captain. Alpha? Alphas? Council? She wasn’t entirely certain what their command structure was and the briefing that she’d received in Topokan behavior as relayed to military intelligence by Eolai and other Yonohoans had only confused her further.

Not that the Yukopans would be leaving. This was only a preliminary examination of the vessel, to see what modifications needed to be made, what positions needed to be created and filled, and whether the Yukopans were critical to its operations or not.

She embraced the familiar feeling of zero G as she transversed the docking umbrell, then emerged into the belly of the destroyer, gravity taking affect partway through the journey and allowing her to orient herself towards the ship’s ‘down.’ She made it look natural. Her companions not so much.

“Form up. If you let the Yukopans see you like that, they’ll question their decision to surrender to us,” she told her men.

“Yes Ma’am,” they agreed, getting their legs under them and untangling their limbs from the unexpected collision with the floor. They got up, adjusted their clothing, and in some cases reattached the Yonohoan made translation devices to their ears.

Several of her subordinates were in hero-worship mode. While it was widely known that she had stepped down for health reasons, she was still the captain that had discovered intelligent life in the universe. The rumors of her action and leadership methods had been echoing quietly throughout the ESF for some time before she had reenlisted. They hadn’t been expecting to be part of her crew, and they were wondering if her history of making earth-shattering discoveries would continue under her new duty station.

The airlock door opened, and they were faced with rank after rank of nine-foot tall furred monsters. The creatures were standing at attention, as though they were waiting for examination.

And, Captain Moon realized, they stank of fear.

Abruptly, all except for one of them turn and ran further into the ship. The one who had remained behind nervously stepped forward, ringing its hands in a surprisingly human motion, and began growling quietly.

“Welcome dominant one. We submit to your leadership and will serve as you demand. An adjutant will be with the dominant one at all times. Our Topokan cousins tell me to expect you to be confused when the adjutant [untranslatable] and is replaced by a new adjutant. Do not be confused. Only the adjutant will be near the dominant one, the others are not serving as adjutant at the time that the adjutant serves,” the creature said.

“Did you get any of that?” one of her crew asked in a whisper.

Captain Moon turned and glared at them, and they abruptly stood to attention. She returned her attention to the temporary adjutant. “Thank you. I believe I understand. I was told that you view your roles as flexible and often change from station to station during the course of a single shift. The knowledge that my adjutant will change as well is helpful to my understanding of how to command this ship during its integration.”

The adjutant nodded, its ears perking up slightly. “This one is pleased to be of service. In what manner may this one serve the dominant one?”

“You can start by calling me Captain. That is the title I go by,” Captain Moon said. “My name is Ji-eun Moon. For respectful address, Captain or Captain Moon is how you should address me.”

The adjutant cocked its head. “My mouth cannot make those words. It is your translator which must be adjusted to your preferences. But these ones shall address this Dominant one as [Brightest Moon in the Sky] if it pleases the dominant one.”

Captain Moon suppressed a grown at the translation of the growl that was her new Yukopan name. “I suppose that will do,” she said. “I wish to arrange a tour. Show me to the bridge,” she instructed, and the Adjutant nodded and motioned for them to follow.

Hours later, she had examined the majority of the ship. Her crew had split apart as the Adjutant, which had switched with a new Adjutant three times during the course of the tour for reasons that Captain Moon couldn’t understand, had summoned representatives of their various professions to go into detail about the various equipment. The Engineers were examining the weapons, the gunnery officers were examining the weapons and the space superiority fighters, etc.

She’d come to one definite conclusion. Fetching her PHDA from her pocket, she dialed her commanding officer.

Admiral Bell appeared before her after a moment. “How is the ship shaking out, Captain?” she asked immediately.

“It won’t be easy, but we can make it work as long as we have the Yukopans helping us,” Moon predicted. “Like most alien tech I have no idea how the weapons, engines, or drive work. But they do, so all we really need to know at this point is how to operate them. The Yukopans have already patched their software with the Yonohoan-Topokan interface and are in the process of getting that interface to translate everything into English. For our non-english companions, well, the sooner they get the Yonohoans to create a codex for their language, the sooner they can operate a Yukopan vessel of their own.”

“You think that that a human only crew is possible?” the admiral asked.

“Not for the foreseeable future, but we can work to integrate the existing crew into the command structure,” Moon predicted. “They’re jumpy as all hell, ma’am, but they’re eager to please and they know there stuff.”

“What about living quarters and crew sustainability? What are we looking at to convert the ship for human habitation?”

“We’ll have to convert their sleeping quarters into dormitories. There won’t be individual rooms or privacy aboard these ships, unfortunately. The Yukopans seem to have a very communal living experience, and their ship layout reflects that,” Moon explained.

“That might be an issue for morale,” the admiral said.

“Yes Ma’am, it might be,” Moon agreed.

“What about the ships actual capabilities?” the admiral inquired. “What can it do?”

“According to the Yukopans, it can reach speeds of two thousand times the speed of light, and the weapons can supposedly crack the moon open like an egg. I asked if it could defeat the enforcer vessel from the previous battle in single combat. They were unwilling to commit to a firm answer, saying that the battle would be long and the outcome uncertain one on one. It would depend upon the individual actions and decisions of the respective captains and crew,” Moon explained. “But they said it was possible.”

“Excellent work so far, Captain. Continue the integration exercise. Bring the ship in to the asteroid belt, I’ll send you the coordinates. We’ll want a demonstration of the ship’s weapon systems.”

“Yes Ma’am. If there’s nothing else, then Captain Moon out.”

“Admiral Bell out,” the admiral said, and the link cut off.

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