Chereads / The Evergreen Files; Banshee / Chapter 18 - Part 18

Chapter 18 - Part 18

Solomon woke up abruptly, it took him a few minutes of sitting bolt upright in his bed to realise what was wrong. The gentle humming of the warp engines he found so relaxing and the vibrations he found lulling, had ceased. Rushing to his feet, trying to hastily put his pants on, causing himself to fall with a crash as the string chair upended. "Eve, what's the problem?" asked Solomon worriedly. "Sir, I am currently showing no issues, could you be more specific?" asked Eve in her usual soothing voice. Solomon's heart slowed as he began to fully wake up. The drowsiness began to subside. After engaging his brain, he asked the question he knew he needed to ask "Why have we stopped?" as Solomon knew the ship had stopped with the lack of vibrations and the warp engine in idle. "Sir, we have completed our first jump route. We are making our routine hull integrity checks. We are on schedule to make our next jump tomorrow." said Eve with precision. Solomon got to his feet, checked his room clock, he was due to be on shift on the bridge in less than half an hour. With his heart slowing to normal, shaking the stupid feeling, knowing if anyone knew about this, he would never hear the end of it. He cast a dubious eye over to his alarm clock that showed no numbers, it had been unplugged.

Coffee. Coffee always understands. Solomon used to be contempt with the stale boiled coffee in the jug that is left on a hotplate for hours on end. No, no longer. When he reached the rank; Lieutenant Commander of The Evergreen, the first order of business he undertook, was to personally supply the bridge with a decent, ground coffee bean machine, complete with chocolate sprinkles canisters, if the need should ever arise, you never know when you need that extra pick me up. Coffee. The first is always the best, even when it's mediocre, it's the best. The Void outside, always attempting to suck the life and air out of The Evergreen, The Hull checks, usually found nothing out of the ordinary, ordinary was the term used to state no holes in the hull found in the checks. It's simply procedure, something to occupy the crew whilst Eve re-calibrates the engines, the ships always pulled themselves out of warp travel well within their thresholds before dangerous vibrations took place. Seven vessels gracefully swam through the void on sub-light thrusters - basic engine power and began arranging themselves into a standard diamond formation with a central line. The Evergreen sat as the diamond point, followed by The Judgement not far behind, followed by The Infinity. The Pride Of Lions sat gracefully above The Infinity as the top diamond spike, and The Hopeful, The Vengeful and The Iron Fist making up the other flanking points of the diamond. This formation was Kyril's favourite. It acted as a spear tip, driving hatefully into the enemy ship line, the two ships behind the central point would then slow, and break from the rear. This allowed the formation to easily outflank the enemy and protect its own, without overextending. And with The Judgement trailing behind The Evergreen and all the crew busy with their checks, nobody picked up on the small pod that left The Judgement's docking area and slithered its way inside The Evergreen through an Airlock that it attached itself to.

At the end of Solomon's shift, he eagerly returned to his sleeping quarters, in desperate need of a shower, his body odour had become rather repulsive throughout his shift. Kyril prefers to have the heating on and a humidity in the air of the bridge. 'cosy' he calls it with a smile. Solomon had always preferred the cold. Before Solomon was aware of how fast he was walking, his path had been blocked by a monstrous body. With a crash, Solomon collided with this hulking mass. Solomon picked himself up, rubbing his elbow that he had just grazed on the steel floor. The monstrous figure turned slowly, unaware of the previously approaching Solomon, looked down with surprise. As if hearing a mouse squeak and finding it sitting there in shock. The ever-proceeding frowning glare from the dark eyes of Captain Deeph hovered over Solomon's tiny form for a moment before grunting and stomping away without a word. Solomon swore under his breath and walked more slowly as he turned the corner to his room, still rubbing the damaged skin flaking from his elbow. Entering his cold room and grabbing the bottle of Krit and quickly scuttling off to Captain Syn's room to hand him his reward before returning back to his own quarters.