Maris system, Thuan date: 1st day of the year 2800
This was a special day for Auni. She had been working towards this moment for all her life, and she could hardly suppress her nerves. She laid the final preparations to her purple suit and checked if her beard was neatly trimmed. Again. At that moment, the intercom in her room buzzed to life.
"Commander Auni Thelora, 3rd division of the exploration fleet, report to Hangar Eleven. Good luck honey" Ooh, she'd kill him for that when she got back.
She made her way through corridors which would normally have been bustling with life, but were now dead quiet, until she reached the main entrance of Hangar Eleven. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the button on the side and the doors opened to reveal the festively decorated hangar. She gulped and slowly walked through the honour guard up to the rows of Clanless officers, where even most of the member of the Council stood, though her eyes were drawn towards the large object obscured by a scarlet veil.
"Commander Auni Thelora, third division of the exploration fleet, reporting for duty." She gave the salute appropriate for such a ceremonial meeting of superior officers.
"At ease." The councilman who had spoken turned his attention to the crowd while Auni joined her crew on the side. The crowd was made up of high ranking members of the ruling and military caste of most of the existing clans, and Auni had never seen such a gathering of people so full of themselves before. The extravagant outfits made sure it showed. "This is a momentous day for not just the Pact, but for all the Bahnu. We have been working on this project for years now, and I am honoured to be able to give it the festive opening it deserves."
A long and boring speech followed, and Auni had trouble standing still. Her bones ached for space flight, and it took over an hour before the speech was over and finally the veil was lifted revealing the Grasp of Light. For Bahnu standards, the Grasp was a large vessel. Only one ship was larger and that was the Spear of Neehi, which was a full on battleship. The Grasp of light's shape was roughly a triangle with rounded corners and two short wings holding the propulsion engines on the side. Under loud applause, Auni and her crew embarked and prepared all systems. She had flown with it many times before, mostly on test runs for the Flash Drive System, and by now she felt it was hers. When the order came, the magnetic catapult in which the Grasp of Light was hooked extended itself into the airlock. The doors behind the ship closed and those in front of it opened, revealing all the Clanless military ships lying in formation at the sides of the hangar. The final order came to fire the catapult, propelling the Grasp of light into its pre-programmed course.
From this moment on, the ship was fully hers. Officially, it was territory of the Clanless, but she was appointed as its acting regent, despite being of the military Caste. Her crew consisted of 12 Engineers of the Scientist Caste, 1 diplomat of the Ruler caste (though she doubted she'd need him), a landing team of 6 of which 2 of the scientist caste and 4 of the military, and 7 military caste crewmen.
Lieutenant Crawt, her second in command, approached her from the left. "FDS is ready to be fired ma'am"
"Fire away! How long until we can activate the teleport?"
"Roughly 34 minutes before it reaches the outer border of System A-5, and another 2 minutes before it hits the target area." Her chief engineer Simman quickly responded.
Not long afterwards, the Grasp of Light disappeared in a flash of green light, and the ships forming the honour guard went back to their regular patrols or docked again. All was quiet again in the Maris system...
Home 
