I entered Lodos' bridge. The rest of the crew was already there, starting up the ship's systems one by one. Rear Admiral Tachibana was overseeing the whole process. I didn't know how to interrupt him, but he saw me entering the bridge anyway. He put a warm smile on his face and approached me. I saluted him.
"Lieutenant Commander Kagan reporting for duty, sir!"
He saluted me as well. Everyone on the bridge was looking at us, making me slightly feel uneasy. If it was some other time, I wouldn't feel this stressed, but even though I wasn't the commanding officer, I was the second-in-command now; and to a degree, this crew was my responsability.
"Welcome aboard, lieutenant commander." Tachibana said. Rear Admiral Tachibana and I knew each other; I was a part of his crew aboard this vehicle before, and we were more than crew members; we were good friends. Normally, this wasn't an endorsed relationship between crew members, so the Navy would shift crew members between ships every now and then; but luckily, we were assigned to the same ship together again.
I looked around to see if there was any other crew members I knew. A lot of the bridge crew had changed, but I remembered one of them. Commander Mei was sitting in her usual seat at cruise-navigation post. She was my senior in Navy ranks, and I wondered why she was still assigned to the very same post she was serving almost for a decade. She looked at me and remembered me instantly.
"Congratulations, lieutenant commander!" she said. I glanced at other crew members and their stations. There was no one else I knew.
"Oh, of course you are not familiar with the new bridge." Tachibana noticed my uneasiness. "You already know Commander Mei at cruise-nav... And this is Ensign Dave at tactical-nav."
"Congratulations, sir." said Ensign Dave.
Cruise-nav and tactical-nav was two different navigation posts; cruise-nav would handle long-range flight operations like orbital manuevers, interplanetary transfers and gravity assists; while tactical-nav was responsible for combat manuevers and docking operations.
"Lieutenant Karl will be doing your previous job, at the sensor/science station." explained Tachibana.
"Are you trying to take my duty post from me, Lieutenant?" I said to him.
"I will not fail you, sir." he said.
The sensor station was a non-command duty which was closest to a command duty; someone serving at a sensor station would be aware of everything going on around the spaceship. People who served at a sensor station would climb ranks easily to become a commanding officer later on, much like me.
"...and this is Lieutenant Junior Grade Sungho, in control of Lodos' weapons. He graduated with the third top score from the academy."
"At your command, sir."
"...to continue, this is Ensign Katyusha at close-in defense and damage control."
"Ensign Katyusha, reporting for duty, sir."
"...this is Ensign Aziz at comms."
"Congratulations, lieutenant commander."
Our comms officer surely had an interesting accent.
"That will be it for the bridge crew. Our chief engineer, Lieutenant Commander Scott is working on the main reactor, and our chief doctor Usman had just arrived to the ship now." Tachibana said.
"Understood,thank you sir." I said. While I was taking another look at the crew, I noticed something... The Grand Admiral was right, the Navy was really in desparate need of high-ranking officers. Even the bridge was full of newly recruited people!
Before we went on, I wanted to ask something.
"*ahem* Admiral..."
"Yes?"
"With respect, I would like to ask something... Why did you chose me instead of Commander Mei as second-in-command? She is my senior, and to be honest, it is-"
"We need her skills at the cruise-nav station, there aren't any crew members that can replace her." Tachibana said. "The Navy was about to place her to the command of a small corvette, but I barely kept her in my crew."
"I see." I said.
"Well then..." Tachibana raised his voice a little bit for everyone to hear. "Lieutenant Commander, get the ship ready fo departure. I will be back in the bridge in a few minutes."
"Yes, sir!" I replied.
I searched for my seat, but then remembered... I was a commanding officer, and I didn't have a seat in the bridge anymore.
"Ensign, get the chief engineer on the line." I said to Ensign Aziz.
"Patching through, sir." he said.
"Chief Engineer Scott, sir!" he was on the line.
"Chief, what is the reactor's status?" I asked.
"Safety checks are go; awaiting your command for start-up." the chief reported.
"Ensign, get the starport on line as well." I said.
"Lodos, this is Pavonis orbital shipyards." starport reported.
"Pavonis orbital, this is Lodos, requesting start-up clearance." I said.
"Clearance granted."
"Go ahead and start the reactor, chief." I said.
"Starting up, aye sir."
A large thermonuclear reactor was Lodos' main source of energy. There were two smaller reactors reserved for combat and emergency situations, but they weren't activated during normal cruise. The ship also had extendable solar panels, but since they provided little energy, they were only used to keep the life support running in case of a ship-wide systems failure.
"The reactor is running, radiators are extended." Lieutenant Karl reported.
"Mr. Sungho, are the re-load and supply operations complete?" I asked.
"Yes, sir; we have a full complement of 25 anti-ship missiles, 500 flak missiles, 500000 railgun projectiles. Active laser mediums have been replaced with new ones. In addition, 5 single seat fighters and 180 drones are secured in the hangars." he reported.
"Ensign, retract and lock docking ports." I said to tactical-nav.
"Roger, sir." Ensign Dave detached the ship from the starport.
"Mr. Aziz, request departure clearance from the starport." I said.
"Aye, sir. Pavonis orbital, this is Lodos; requesting clearance for departure." he said.
...
"We are cleared for departure, sir." he then reported. Just after that, the Rear Admiral got back to the bridge.
"We are ready to leave the spacedock, sir." I reported.
"Great." he said. "Mr. Dave, enable RCS control. Take us out of the port."
"Roger that." Dave said. The ship's reaction control systems were enabled, and with a gentle push, the Lodos was now slowly departing the orbital starport.
"Care to read the details of our first mission, Lieutenant Commander?" Tachibana said to me.
"Yes, sir." I said. He handed me a paper, and I started reading it.
...
An orbital patrol duty. Of course... Who was I kidding? The war was not declared yet anyway, and it was probably the only use of this space junk that the Navy could find.