Cute Girls Doing Cute Things in Space

“The rest of the repair team has already returned. Mocha, what’s taking you so long?” Your question is punctuated as your ship lurches to port, her helmsman giving it her all to evade incoming weapons fire.

“Cap’n, the rest of my team can’t tell the difference between a Warp Actuator and a fucking tuning fork.” The diminutive Chief Damage Control Officer of the Student Training Ship Sunwind yelled back over the radio. “They’ll be safer inside than floating around here being target balloons.” The ship groans in protest as she begins another round of pitching.

The rumble of the ship beneath your feet changes, as if a great weight had lifted from the beast-of-burden’s back. “FUCKING YES!” Mocha shouts in triumph.

“Jump Officer, status of Jump Drive?” You ask, hoping. The Sunwind was never meant to stand under the line of fire like this; you need to get your ship out of here now.

“Actuator malfunction cleared, Jump Drive fully operational in 60 seconds!” The young girl shouts from her console.
“Understood, make preparations for Jump!” You nod to your Executive Officer and she takes her cue, ordering all crew to brace themselves in preparation for the jump.

“She should hurry her ass back inside, the damn adrenaline junkie” You overhear your XO, Ms. Marcroft, mumble in earshot. Apparently, your radio was still in transmit mode, since the Chief DCO’s retort blasts itself from the speakers.

“Hey, I heard that, Ms. Stick-up-my-ass!”

“Ms. Yeong, your unruly behavior can be grounds for reprimand!”

“Oh, you’d like that now, wouldn’t you, Sheila?”

The rest of the bridge crew does their best to suppress their snickers. It’s an open secret that the Chief DCO and your XO have been observed “visiting” each other’s rooms in the dead of the night cycle.

“Alright Mocha, that’s enough. Get yourself to the nearest airlock before we initiate Jump.” You took pity on your XO, seeing as her face was almost glowing red and her mouth struggled to form a retort.

“Aye aye Cap’n!” From the prow of the ship where she had been conducting repairs, it would take the Mocha at least five minutes to reach the nearest airlock. Five minutes, you wager you have enough confidence in your helmswoman’s piloting skills for the Sunwind to survive another-

“Captain! Reading four new contacts bearing two-six-one by three-zero-niner! Torpedoes! Estimating time to impact… 130 seconds…” The Sensors Officer shatters any hope of a clean escape.

Gods damn it.

“How did they get a spread so close?!” You can’t help but scream in frustration, your voice breaking.

Your XO however, remains collected. “They must be using those newer Type 19s with onboard stealth…”

The Sunwind, as with all older Mirage-type Escort Vessels, were built according to the ‘All-or-nothing’ armoring scheme. That is, only the sections essential for the ship to continue functioning such as the CIC, engineering, and life-support are given any sort of armor. All other non-essential sections were added around these and in a pinch can function as makeshift spaced armor.

In fact, the Sunwind can still function with over two-thirds of her non-essential bulkheads breached and open to space. It cannot, however, withstand multi-megaton torpedoes designed to gut even the most armored of battleships.

“Jump Officer! Status now!” You snap. This is not the time to dawdle, with the lives of your ship and your crew at stake.

“Jump Drive fully spooled and ready to Jump at your command Ma’am!”

Good, you can run, but that leaves only one thing left.

“Mocha!”

Her voice is panicked, but not how you expected it to be. “Cap’n, ya need to jump now! I won’t make it to the airlock in time!”

Marcroft takes exception to this. Badly. “You idiot, we can’t jump with you outside, you’ll die!”

“And if ya wait for me to reach the airlock, everyone’s gonna be space dust!” You don’t need to turn around to imagine Marcroft’s desperate visage.

But Mocha has made her choice, and she even made your choice for you.

“Astrogation, plot a course to Tau 16, prepare to jump on my command.”

“Captain, please…” Marcroft’s composure was beginning to unravel.

“Cap’n, secondary Camera B28.” Mocha’s voice reaches out. You stare uncomprehending for a few moments, before remembering that Camera B28 referred to closest secondary imaging camera to Mocha’s position.

“Optics, direct feed, Camera B28 now!” To her credit, to operator doesn’t waste time.

Displayed now on the main viewscreen was the bulky white EVA suit that protected Chief DCO Mocha Yeong from the uncaring vacuum of space. The whitewashed assortment of life-support systems and maneuvering thrusters a stark contrast to the absolute darkness and unblinking stars of the void.

“Can ya see me?”

“We can, Mocha.”

Mocha’s helmet began untinting, a dangerous thing to do since it exposes one’s face to the harsh cosmic radiation. But that concern was moot for her. Her face, slightly pretty Asian features topped with small tufts of brunette hair that had somehow gotten free from her undersuit headcover, was visible to everyone on the bridge, especially Marcroft.

“Ey, Sheila, there’s a box under my bed, the password’s ‘Lemon Cake’. You know what to do with it.”

Marcroft was still either in the “Denial” or “Bargaining” stages of grief. “Ms. Yeong.” She gulps in deep breathes, moments away outright sobbing. “Stop your delaying,” Deep breath. “And get your ass inside the airlock-“

“Sheila, you’re a good girl. Promise me you’ll find someone nice to take care of you, aight?” Mocha lets out a pained smile.

“Captain, there must be some other way!” Marcroft pleads with you.

“Captain! 30 seconds to impact!” The Sensors officer shouts. Everyone within the bridge has already secured themselves within their crash seats, with the exception of Executive Officer Marcroft.

Mocha, affects a stiff salute from within her EVA suit. “It’s been a pleasure serving with ya Cap.”

“20 seconds Captain!”

“Sheila, take care of yourself, Love.”

“Captain!” Marcroft runs up to you, her hands placing a vice-grip on your shoulder.

“All hands, Prepare to jump!”

“CAPTAIN!” You do look this time. Marcroft having long since abandoned any pretensions of being a proper spaceship officer, her face is that of a young woman about to lose something dear to her. She’s pleading, begging you to reconsider, all thoughts of everything else thrown to the sidelines.

But a Captain is the Father of the ship, and all her crew are Family. And the Father must do all she can to protect her Family, even if it costs her one of her own.

“Jump!”

---------

A moment of sickness and vertigo, as the laws of the universe briefly come undone. You can see the taste of the hashed browns you had for breakfast and hear the sterile gunmetal gray of the ship. Then, inertia and the rest of the laws of physics return.

You feel the urge to vomit, but you hold it inside. Marcroft, unseated, would have been thrown to the floor had she not braced herself on your shoulder.

The main screen shows only infinite black, the camera being unable to process the unlight that exists within Warp Space. No human being can survive for even a second of exposure to the unreality of the Warp. It is only through several meters of armored plating and distortion field generated by the Jump Drive that man can safely traverse this dark shadow of the Universe. Chief Damage Control Officer Mocha Yeong had none of that.

As the rest of the bridge crew loosen themselves from their clamps. Executive Officer Sheila Marcroft stares at the blank tactical screen. You dare not pester her, so you busy yourself with checking on the Sunwind’s condition.

The crew should have been exuberant over escaping certain death, but the somber quietness that shrouds the atmosphere as you work tells you otherwise. You know very well why.

Minutes pass, and the rest of the crew finishes their mid-jump safety checks call, your XO, speaks up.

“Captain, permission to leave the bridge.” Marcroft almost whispers. She doesn’t turn around to look you in the eye.

“Permission granted.” She didn’t even wait for you to finish speaking, as she turns sharply on her heels and fast marches out of the CIC.

You don't know if she'll going to her room or Mocha's. But you do know she's not going to be in any shape for duty for a while.

You lean back on your command chair, content that the Sunwind wasn't going to blow up or suffer a Warp failure at any moment.

The thoughts of repair work leads your mind back to Mocha.

Mocha Yeong was just a hair over 15, the youngest Chief Damage Control Officer in the class to earn that rating, she may have been crass and too easy-going, but she kept her charges safe and always managed to fix up any problem that was handed to her.

Now she was gone.

You take out a handkerchief from a pocket, ostensibly to wipe the cold sweat forming on your forehead.

You let it linger a bit over your face, allowing it to soak your tears; it would do no good if the crew see their Captain crying, not at this time. Not now.

This was just supposed to be a Gods’ damned training exercise. This should have never had happened.