( a week later, two months before classes)
I stepped off the shuttle from the fox after waving good bye to my former main helmsman and looked around the ship... station? no ship.... maybe. see the Academy was technically a carrier vessel after all it held 20 frigates and had perpolsion and a jump drive. but it held 20 Frigates! as in two zero. with more external docking arms it was sized and shaped like a station. supposedly it was orginally supposed to be the new fleet HQ 100 years ago but then it hit so many delays that the new new ( and much more reasonably sized) fleet HQ was finished first then this became an Academy build. there have been rumors that it was actually started to be a goverment in exile base when we were losing the four nebula war but then when the smaller allied nations joined the republic the tied turned and the massive... ship wasn't needed anymore. whatever reason it was created Academy was now the Academy and it was huge. and I was a little lost not that lost just never really been to the instructor section before. I wandered around for a bit and found myself in the hanger section which Is close to the main campus. the Academy had two main sections the academy was on the " north" side if your calling the engines south litterally the only ship people navigate by compass heading. west side was the docks and commercial district east was the shopping district and south was for rent housing. I planned to just live out of the Captians quarters on the inspiration Ive been living In quarters much smaller for 4 years on the fox and it saves on rent and commute time to work I'd go by the Academy after I dropped my kit bag In my new slightly larger quarters. as I approached the dry dock were my new frigate was parked. becuase yes the Academy could park the frigates in fully pressurized hangers I got my first look at the inspiration. It was a frigate technically, I think, maybe. see the problem was Academy posting come with some perks and requirments. the frigates assigned to the class are the teachers to do with as they pleased so long as they can be luanched and provide an acceptable training platform for new officers to learn the ropes the Academy would provide enlisted personnel and fuel for sanctioned activities but they could be used on weekends for personal use so long as the Captain/ teacher paid for it. what I was looking at now however was not a frigate or hasn't been for a long time. the main armaments should be three dual turrets on the spine and one mounted below the bow. well it had the belly mounted bow gun . the spinal mounts? empty. the two forward and one aft torpedo tubes looked to be there at least but who knew the state or configurations of the magazine. oh and it was gold. the whole flying pleasure yacht pretending to be a warship was gold. dont get me wrong a pleasure yacht is all nice and good I have a small one slightly larger then a shuttle parked on a forested moon where I own a small cabin on a lake with a nice little landing pad. I'm a little wealthy not buy a planet wealthy or anything but the prize law has become more privelant since man colonized space and capturing pirate vessels pays well and we would also get a bonus for those special missions we did for the old man out of the Scout fleets discretionary funds. all itemized and taxed appropriately. but what I didn't do Is make a cargo ship a yacht. why? becuase its a cargo ship and it jas a job to do. this frigate was a warship and it has a job to do and while I enjoy relaxing not so much that I would hamper my own abilty to do the job. as I was standing there wondering how much out of my personal funds it was going to take to make my ship back into a war machine I heard a noise I recognized only becuase of my love for old earth flat screen movies. as the beastie boyz song hit my ears I laughed. " your right it is a sabatoge!" a squick came from inside the access panel and I heard a thumping as I looked up to see a figure falling out of the hatch! rushing forward i managed to just get to them before they hit the floor my hands on there shoulders slowing there fall as a pair of legs and a.... tail wrapped around my head this person... women judging by the squishy feeling against my stomach panicked and tighted their legs around my head burying my face between her thighs. her squirming not helping the rapidly akwarding situation. as I turned my hips away to keep from pokimg her in the face with what could only be a whole hell of a lot of paperwork and akward work place retraining. I said " you can let go" and different tone of squick was made as she hurried to jump off me and I got my first look at my flying harassment report. she was a blonde mouse kin big round mouse ears and a tail stick out of her cover alls the only signs she wasn't human. she jumped back face red and looked at my uniform and new instuctor pin. she snapped to attention " my applogies Sir" oh thank God shes taking that route I thought no mandatory counciling schooling my features to that of a proper officer I returned the salute " as you were Ms..." I trailed off realizing she was in civilan coveralls and hand no name tap or rank " Ensign Samantha Gadjeet sir, everyone calls me Gadget" she said dropping her salute as I dropped mine. avoiding the akward situation as best as I could I said " so who has sabatoged my ship it appears my guns have been stolen" I gave her a quirked eyebrow " and I hope your not stealing more of her" she blinked then realized I was making a joke and gave me a small luagh and a cute smile " no sir I'm your cheng ( chief engineer) was just trying to get her ready as best I could wasn't expecting you 'tel tomorrow figured you'd go unpack." I smiled " well I was going to Live on bored until I saw the state of her" gadget cringed " yes sir I was reassigned to this ship from one of the old B class vessels after the switch around at the end of last year she needs a lot of parts and equipment if we want her combat ready In the next two months" I sighed yep was gonna have to buy less vintage blu-rays this year. " I figure any good news?" she thought about it for a minute. " well you have an extra large cabin thanks to the previous Instructors?" I shook my head " where did they get the spare space? " she pulled out a data tablet. " looks like they knocked down the walls to the servant's quarters and moved stuff around and moved it all into the space formally occupied by the tertiary turret mount" I groaned fearing I knew the answer " well I dont have a servant so no servant quarters are need " the mouse kin gave me a funny look but didn't say anything " what about the other stuff can It be fixed In the two months we have?" gadget shook her head " sorry Cap no dice the sheild battery is there" I frowned confused. " shield battery this is a frigate its shields dont normally have a battery back up" she nodded in agreement "yes sir about the only simi useful upgrade someones made to this girl In a while they were able to shove light cruiser grade shields into her she can easily take a pounding " I raised my eyebrows at her phrasing she seemed to realize and turned red again stuttering " from two... frigates in her weight class that is" I nodded as if my mind hadn't been somewhere in the gutter. looking at the bottom turret I noticed something odd " gadget is that a size 3 mount converted to a two for the belly mount?" she recovered from her embarssment. " yes sir, she started as a murader class frigate then got the class three mount when assigned as a strategic bombardment vessel for plantary assualt support. and was transfer to the Academy from there where the first teacher sold off the bombardment cannon for a converted standard package" I nodded " well at least I can understand why he would want a standard ish build" but that mount made me wonder " can you pull up the exchange for me and check something that slot looks almost perfect for a xrm7 mk K " Gadget tapped away then puased and frowned and looked at me " sir are you sure thats what you ment it will fit but thats a cruiser class plasma cannon it would take It two minutes to charge between shots" I grinned " normally you would be right but what happens if you hook it up to a back-up power source like say a shield battery made for a light cruiser?" her mouth gapped open in the cutest way " depending on how much you were willing to drain it" I nodded " lets say to a normal frigates shield level " she ran some numbers in her head " you could store enough power for 6 shots and you could recharge that in 15 minutes " I smiled like a shark this time " yep and the mk K is a double barrel one shot to punch a hole in a frigate sized targets sheild and the second shot should hit home and cripple her. or dump all six into a crusier and give her a real bloody nose as you run back to mommy yelling about the scary ship" the mouse kin was speechless " Sir you must have been hell to go up against In the fleet trials no wonder they want you as an instructor " I luaghed " I dont know never participated I'm from scout and escort fleet." we continued to talk for a while we apparently had the bare minimum of torpedos. five. not five salvos nit five stacks just five. one in each forward tube one in the aft tube and one in each forward magazine. magazines that were designed to hold one hundred each. all and refiting this ship to what I deam exceptable Is going to cost 1/4 of my wealth. good thing if I get reassigned within five years it gets refunded. so the final plan for the frigate when I left gadget to it was. the primary and secondary spinal mounts would get standard mk four dual barrel rail gun turrets with a 80/20 split between solid shot shells and flak rounds. full load of standard torpedos. and one cruiser level cannon system. also she had orders to sell off anything that was over done decorations for a pleasure yacht and not a war ship but to please make sure the chairs were comfortable. after she acknowledged the orders and began to get to work orginzing what was effectivly a retrofit I sighed and reliezed I would need a hotel for a while which was of course on the other side of the station.