Free The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception by Andrew Beery Page A

for her friend and captain. He had not been able to fully trust her yet because of her alien heritage but he had wanted to. She was sure they would have eventually become best of friends. Stiffening her shoulders she recognized she now had a job to do.
     
    "Cal says we lost eleven total. How is engineering?"
     
    "Fine, we were lucky" Ken said. "Environmental was hit pretty hard though. They lost the entire shift... All nine crewmen were sucked out the breach... Captain"
     
    Cat froze as the Chief Engineer addressed her as captain. She wanted to correct him but she knew that what the Bowman desperately needed in addition to a full month in a shipyard was in fact a captain.
     
    "Cal, put me on ship wide intercoms"
     
    " Acknowledged " the synthetic male voice of her AI responded. She noted that Cal had started using the bridge intercoms so that everyone could hear his responses.
     
    "Attention crew, this is First Officer Catherine Kimbridge. The Bowman took a direct hit in an unprovoked attack by the alien race we know as the D'lralu. We escaped but not before losing eleven of our comrades... Including Captain Ramchandani. Effective immediately I am assuming command of the Bowman. Also effective immediately I am appointing Lt. Commander Ken Kirkland as acting First Officer. He will wear two hats as Chief of Engineering for the duration.
     
    We were hit hard. We have bought ourselves at best a few hours before the enemy is upon us again. I need everyone working as hard as they can to get as many systems back online as fast as possible. Prioritize hyper drive, weapons and environmental in that order.
     
    I need you focused people. I promise you there will be time for mourning later. That is all, Captain Kimbridge out."
     
    Turning to face Ken, Cat asked "How long before we have hyper drive available?"
     
    "Captain, the better question is 'Are we going to have hyper drive available?'" He shifted to the side as the medical crew started to carry the stabilized Lt. Cortez out of the room. "I need fifteen minutes to make an assessment and then I can get back with you."
     
    "OK Ken, I trust you but I'm going to hold you to that fifteen minutes. I'm giving Cal free reign to travel through the ship's systems. It took him only a fraction of a second to get most of the bridge back up and running."
     
    "Are you sure that's wise?"
     
    "Right now trusting Cal seems the safer of available options. We need all the help we can get if we are going to be ready for Three of Nine"
     
     

Chapter Eight – The Battle for the Bowman...
Personal Log
     
June 4, 2112 - I took command of the USC Bowman today. It was not how I wanted to take command, but with the loss of Captain Ramchandani there was no choice. I've started to notice how my life changes drastically every time I encounter the D'lralu.
     
I've given the Heshe AI named Cal access to the ships systems. The speed at which he can work was the deciding factor. The D'lralu will be back in a few hours, and even with the Heshe's help I don't know that we will be ready. A hell of a first command.
     
 
     
Cat was sitting in the captain's ready room... her ready room - she mused, when Ken walked in with a stack of tablets which he proceeded to scatter on the tablet.
     
"Sorry for the mess Captain but the Bowman's AI is as shot up as the rest of the ship... I can't move data between any of the major systems because of network corruptions. If you hadn't injected Cal into the net with his incredible noise filtering routines I doubt we'd have anything running right now."
     
"Ken, " Cat said softly "when we're alone... please call me Cat... This chair... This chair is too big for me."
     
"Nonsense. You're exactly the captain we need right now... Captain... Cat."
     
"Thanks Ken... By the way... How is Rebecca?"
     
"She's hanging in there. Most of her friends on board were from environmental. They let her grow an herb garden in hydroponics. She lost quite a few of them... It's hitting