Braddock was now in the Star Command section because of his reserve status, which he obtained when he joined TERRASEC, the Terran Space Exploration and Security Council. Later, when that organization merged with the Alliance of Worlds, Braddock continued an intermittent affiliation. He found it a beneficial one, since three centuries ago, Earth had been one of the founding planets of the Alliance of Worlds.
After completing his personal log, Sheppard left his office and went down the corridor to the larger tactical planning and briefing room. It was not in use, so he walked over to a secured and shielded viewing portcullis, ordering the computer to lower the room illumination so he could view the stars. He could see part of the aft and starboard sections of the Phoenix as he looked outward, contemplating his plans.
Like all Alliance of Worlds spaceships, the United Galactic Alliance starship Phoenix was a rhomboid-shaped spacecraft composed of reinforced trans-titanium alloy with multiple enclosed decks. As a Pegasus class battlecruiser, it was over sixteen hundred meters long and a third that at its widest area. There were comfortable crew quarters for over two thousand officers, mission specialists, and support crew. Phoenix had a very large main bridge, including an added task force command section, where Sheppard and Fleet Captain Sherman organized fleet and task force missions. Within the Phoenix there was also a secondary bridge, science and research decks, primary and secondary engineering control areas, and two separate hangar bays for the starfighter attack craft. There were even multipurpose areas for storage of the supplies and recreation areas for a prolonged journey over a few years.
The sixth fleet, like the other forty-nine fleets in the Alliance of Worlds, had approximately two hundred, fifty capitol ships in its armada. The capitol ships were of several classes, from the largest Galaxy class dreadnaughts, spanning over five thousand meters, down to the smaller Waterway class lightcruisers, which were eight hundred meters long. In between were the Constellation class battlecarriers, which were close to the Galaxy class in size but had more starfighter craft. Next were the battlecruisers, and there were three major types: the Legendary class, the Oceania class, and the Pegasus class. These ships were named after legendary places or things, large planet-bound bodies of water, and flying creatures, respectively. The battlecruisers ranged in size from just over two thousand meters to over sixteen hundred meters in length. The next type, the Heroic class heavy cruisers, was named after heroic or notable citizens or ancient persons of the member worlds. Heroic class ships were usually twelve hundred meters long. The final class of capitol ships was the Waterway class, with ships named after notable waterways and rivers of the member worlds.
Sheppard continued to look out the observation portcullis. He was dressed in his duty uniform, its embedded sensors sending occasional updates about his health to the medical surveillance database. Likely, now that looking at the stars calmed him, his blood pressure was slightly lower than it had been earlier. The duty uniform of the Alliance of Worlds was unisex and designed so that each section’s uniform jacket was represented by a unique color scheme. White represented line officers and command; blue was for the sciences section; a light green color was designated for the medical division; an orange-red was for the engineering and maintenance section, and yellow-gold was for operations, the general operation of the starship.
Sheppard’s duty uniform jacket was the bone white of command; the duty shirt, like that of all sections, was dark gray, and the collar area displayed his rank. On his left shoulder was the insignia emblem for command of the sixth fleet. Others wore the emblem of the ship—in this case, the Phoenix. On the right shoulder was the small section patch to represent fleet officer. On his right breast he wore his identification badge, and on his left, the insignia symbol of the Alliance of Worlds. The commlink hand unit or an embedded interlink device could also be used to distinguish an individual by the information chip located in the uniform. The duty shirt showed the rank designation on the collar, and the jacket sleeves were broken by the section color and rank designation near the sleeves’ end. The jacket even had storage pockets. The ship’s duty trousers were charcoal gray, extending to above the ankle, and the duty boots were charcoal black
Although Robert Sheppard was the acting admiral for the sixth fleet, his fleet command rank was granted as much because of his experience and skill as because of the relatively recent assassinations that occurred on Star One, the Alliance of Worlds Headquarters, which had resulted in the deaths of many senior fleet officers and ministry officials. Sheppard touched the two silvery constellation-like star clusters of an Alliance commodore attached to his uniform’s neck area, which he had received relatively recently, as he thought about his continuing mission to locate threats to the Alliance. He also thought about his recent added mission to make first contact with the other Talcon who had recently entered the Milky Way galaxy, having traveled in hyperspace from their own galaxy.
Chapter 2
Bridge of the Phoenix
On the bridge of the Phoenix, the crew monitored their stations, looked at astrometry data, and kept track of systems and ship operations. Fleet Captain Wilder was in charge of the day-to-day operations for the battlecruiser Phoenix as well as for oversight of Task Force One. Commodore Sheppard was his senior officer and, as an acting admiral, commanded the twenty task forces in the sixth fleet that were now patrolling the coreward part of both the Quellus and Mercan sectors.
Wilder, like Sheppard, had similar beliefs about bridge crew. To avoid cultural problems in the nerve center of a starship and prevent environmental compatibility issues in crews with temperature, humidity, or atmosphere differences, only species with similar tolerances were usually on the bridge for a particular duty time. The bridge could alter atmosphere and temperature or pressure for the crew; however, if a given crew included individuals with a wide range of differences, the climate suitable for some could be far too hot or cold for others. Thus, duty times were organized to limit such problems.
“We have been directed to pick up a Talcon officer from the group that helped Alliance explorer St. John,” Captain Wilder announced to the bridge crew. He looked over at the Helm officer. “Lieutenant Commander Darani, I have transmitted coordinates for the rendezvous point to your station; set course and then ready for maximum translight jump.” Lyra Darani was actually an adaptive nonhuman; she was a Quarlusian and was somewhat capable of shape shifting. She had been brought aboard the Phoenix at the request of Commodore Sheppard. Originally, while on Star One, she was in the form of a Kyz, one of the feline-like species and founding members of the Alliance of Worlds.
“Aye, Sir,” replied Darani, “course set.” She looked at the first officer, who nodded to her to proceed. The hyperspace jump window that the Phoenix was generating showed briefly like a whirlpool of light just before they passed through. A short translation effect occurred, and they were traveling in hyperspace.
“Are we in a hurry, Sir?” asked Commander York, the first officer of the Phoenix. York was sitting at his station using his interlink to read information. York, a human originally from Mars, was an excellent officer. He was not that far from promotion to the rank of captain. He had athletic, clean-cut, “farm-boy” good looks and dark brown hair.
“I believe we probably are,” Wilder replied. Wilder sat down at his command console and absentmindedly combed his fingers through his short brown hair as he began to review several starship readiness reports on his terminal.
“Yes, we are in kind of a hurry; we have an added mission to make first contact with more Talcon arriving in the Milky Way,” acting Commodore Brandon Sherman said. He was Sheppard’s fleet coordinating officer. He had just walked the relatively short distance from his station in the fleet operations command alcove section connected to the bridge and Sheppard’s office.
“Don’t worry, I will make sure we get to our rendezvous on time,” Wilder added, looking at Sherman. “I’m guessing that Commodore Sheppard