Age of Lies (Original Version)

Chapter 4

The next morning Markelium got out of bed and showered. He donned his uniform and was about to head out when his holopad chirped. He picked it up and saw the message I.D was the captain's. He listened to the audio line and Captain Kelly's voice was soon heard, "Please make your way to the bridge today. I need you to start learning it inside and out, now that you are an officer. Kelly out." Markelium grabbed his officer's coat and headed for the elevator nearest to the bridge.

On his way to the elevator he ran into Joe. "Good morning Sir, how are you today?"

"Doing good Joe. How about you? O, thanks for yesterday, it was a big help. Could you pass my appreciation to every one again?" replied Markelium, knowing that he may not get many chances to see them for a while.

"Sure thing sir," replied the cheerful Joe.

After parting ways, Markelium rubbed his eyes as he waited on the elevator. A moment later the door chimed open and in he stepped. As the elevator rose and slowed to a halt, Markelium straightened his collar and then stepped out onto deck B once the doors finally opened. He then made his way towards the bridge which lay just aft of his current position.

A minute later Markelium reached the blast doors that lead to the bridge. The two guards on either side of the door did not pay him much attention besides saying good morning. The doors opened soon after the hidden security scanners had read him as being authorized to enter the bridge and showed him being clear of any unauthorized weapons.

Markelium proceeded to enter the bridge and felt awe as the large forward viewing windows showed a spectacular sight that could not be admired equally from any other interior view.

Before him lay a planet with a large asteroid ring surrounding it with icy comets flying by. In the background several nebula made the picture feel surreal. Markelium stood frozen as he took in the sight almost forgetting his current task.

Behind him Captain Kelly's deep voice broke Markelium's concentration of the beautiful sight, "This is what few men can experience and appreciate first hand. Just remember that. Now get acquainted with the communications stations and workers. That will be your first order of the day. Now get going."

Markelium faced Captain Kelly straight on, "Aye aye Captain." he said with a quick salute. He then turned and headed over to the comm station located on the back right wall of the bridge.

As he walked over towards the communication station, a woman stood up and met him halfway. "Hello there. You must be James Markelium. My name is Crystal. I'm in charge during first shift's communications. Over behind me is Macy and Flint." As their names were mentioned Macy and Flint waved to Markelium who nodded in reply.

Crystal turned back around to face Markelium and continued, "So what I want you to do is sit by Flint and study this hand book. It contains the standard procedures how to use this equipment. I had heard you know a bit of basics on it, so that should bring you up to date equipment wise."

"Thank you," replied Markelium. He then took a seat next to Flint and read through key parts of the handbook. After about thirty minutes he spoke up. "Hey Flint. May I borrow a head set to listen with? And, is there anything you need me to do?" Flint looked in the storage drawer next to his post and grabbed an extra headset and passed it to Markelium. He then began giving Markelium the rundown of his orders for the next few hours. "Alrighty. I need you to scan the different frequencies and make sure there is no emergency broadcasts, threats made out to us and etc etc. I'm sure you know the basic drill for this stuff. Glad to meet you by the way." Markelium and Flint shook hands and they got to work on monitoring the system.

About four hours later as Markelium was monitoring the different frequencies, he picked up a garbled transmission. "Som---- ple--- --lp us. Our ship --- ----n consid------ ----ge and we --- not mov-. -- are ru----- ou- -- powe-." Markelium spoke up, "I believe that I have picked up a distress signal. Flint can you verify. It's on channel 381.032." Flint soon confirmed the plea and the matter was brought to Captain Kelly's attention. A moment later Captain Kelly called for the helmsman, "Helm, power up the drives. Navigation, get a course laid out. Make it snappy. Crystal connect me to the ship-wide comms." The whole bridged coursed an "Aye aye Captain."

A moment later Crystal called that the comms were connected. "Attention crew. This is your Captain speaking. Moments ago we received a distress call from a nearby ship. We are about to head there and give our assistance. We will be on full alert for the duration of this time. The time has come to once again prove yourselves. Now let's get this rescue a move on. Kelly out."

After ending the message and getting an all clear on the coordinates of the S.O.S, Captain Kelly called out in his deep voice. "Helm, jump us a safe distance out from the S.O.S." He paused a moment until the helm gave the ready signal. "Now initiate warp," called Captain Kelly with a slight grin on his face.

A moment later a dark blue electrical looking rift with a black center opened in front of the ship and the Prince slipped inside. Soon nary a trace was left.