Change of Post

A door slide open with the typical loud whoosh, Jayce, Lissah and L’Ran stepping off the lift and traveling down a busy hallway bustling with many people garbed in pale white jumpsuits. They wormed themselves through the hallway till they reached a door labeled “Conference Room” on it. Jayce reached out and pushed a button on the door, the doors popping open before them. Inside, the three where greeted to a large conference room housing a large table surrounded by many chairs. At the back of the room sat a large panoramic type view of Mars, the large red orb slowly turning in the background. In front of the large window stood an older gentleman in an admiral’s uniform, his back turned to the door. The three enter into the room, the door sliding behind them, all three standing at attention.

“Honestly expected you several days from now, Jayce,” the Admiral said as he turned to the group.

“Sorry Admiral, if you wish, we could jump back in and head over to Risa for a few more days,” Jayce responded, replying with a smile. The Admiral laughed some, motioning over to the chairs at the table.

“No no, that is ok, but understand that we are not exactly prepared for you, but we’ll double our effects to minimize the downtime,” the Admiral responded, sliding a data pad across the table to Jayce.

“Not a huge deal Admiral Cortland, we have a month correct? Seems like more than a enough time to get whatever needs to be done, done.” Jayce responded, activating the pad and reading it.

“Not quite Jayce, sorry to have mislead you but we had to scramble the line so much on this it was virtually impossible to tell you the whole truth. You’ve been with the Tethys for a while now, and it is true that she’ll be undergoing an overhaul to activate several new systems, but unfortunately for you and your command crew, you’ll be advancing on to another ship…the phase 3 ship…” Cortland spoke, a large grin on his face.

“Phase 3 ship is ready already? We’ve just barely broken the Tethys in…” Lissah spoke up, obviously not too grateful of being jumped ships so quickly.
“Indeed it has. However there is a difference here that you should consider first. One is that the Tethys, when you all took command of her, had many dry runs and training missions. This phase 3 ship has just been completed, and has not even left the shipyard yet. She’ll be a lot more rough..” Jayce stroked his goatee in thought.
“What about the secrecy? I had figured a classified transmission would be more than adequate to convey this news,” Jayce pondered out loud.

“Perhaps, but we decided to error on the side of caution. If news of the prototype ship was leaked, we could see ourselves facing down infiltrators or a fleet of ships waiting just outside the system waiting to turn our new ship into scraps. We made the collective decision to mislead you till we could bring you here, and then tell you the truth.” Jayce, Lissah and L’Ran slowly nodded at the Admiral’s words, while misleading in the first transmission, it was well worth it to ensure the prototypes and programs were not harmed. “Enough of that though, the situation stands that the command crew of the Tethys will be moved to the prototype, and the remainder of her trails will be handled by another crew. You all will start trials of prototype starting immediately.”

“And what of the James Cook and her mission?” Lissah piped up again. The Admiral nodded several times.

“The mission shall not change, she and her command crew are being briefed as we speak of the change. As soon as the James Cook has finished her outfit, you both will be redeployed to deep space. But we’ll worry about details later, if you don’t mind. For now, how about a tour of our latest creation shall we? “ Admiral Cortland spoke, standing and opening a hand to the door. The three stood up, following behind the Admiral out into the hall way.

“One question though Admiral, if you may, “ Jayce questioned, “What is the new ship’s name?”

“Her code name was Dione, however the build crews gave her another name that grew on her, till we decided to use that as her ship name, instead of Dione. Aegir. NX-978888.”