Countryman closed the window on the screen. He was just about done with today’s paperwork, and it was almost time for him to head down to the launch bay. He glanced at the report indicating that his two capital ships and their small destroyer escort were expecting combat at Aizur II. A part of him wanted to be there, but even if the Enterprise left now at maximum warp the battle would be over by the time they got to Aizur II. Which meant that he could do nothing but sit here and wait for their report.

Then he heard the bell for the door ring. He signaled that it was open, and in walked Ruri. She was clearly excited about something, but somehow he felt it wasn’t about the cruise that was about to be undertaken. “Something exciting happen?” asked Countryman.

“Very much so. We just had a breakthrough in our phased weaponry program!” said Ruri excitedly.

“Oh, new toys to play with? When do you think they will be ready for testing?” asked Countryman.

“Maybe in a year or two. In the lab we effectively achieved a fully phased particle stream, but we have a number of bugs to work out. We also need to optimize the process. Right now our current method is woefully inefficient,” said Ruri.

“Interesting, I might just come down later and take a look,” said Countryman.

“I’d love to hold you here, and tell you all about it, but I know you have things to do. I’m going to leave my report on it here on your desk,” said Ruri as she placed a datapad on his desk. He looked it over briefly. It contained a highly detailed report on the operation of a new prototype cannon. He also noticed that it had about fifty pages of bugs that needed to be worked out, and there was a page that outlined what she meant about inefficiency.

“I’ll give it a proper look later. For now I have a crew to brief,” said Countryman as he locked his computer and led her out of the office. She said bye, and rushed off to her lab, and Countryman headed down to the launch bay to brief the crew he had selected.

Sali found herself in a small docking bay off the main hangar on the starboard side of the ship. It was one of the bays used by the scientists for developing new small ships. The bay had been part of the refit. Which she remembered to be quite the experience. Right now the bay was dominated by a small ship that was different from those she had seen before. It was a beautiful ship with clean, sleek lines and an angled hull. From the base of the hull extended two stubby wings. She doubted they were intended for atmospheric flight. She suspected that they were actually warp nacelles or secondary maneuvering engines.

The hull was painted the black and silver scheme that had become popular of late. Even older ships like the Enterprise had been repainted into this scheme. She had to admit that it looked nicer than the old simple grey color scheme they had used before. While she didn’t see any, she had no doubt that the sleek hull concealed a healthy set of deadly weapons. She didn’t think it had shields, but her people didn’t put much stock in shields. She paused in her thoughts at that, and took a few moments before she realized it was true. Having lived with them for decades they had become her people. Besides, even if she did return to the Confederation, most of the people she used to know would either be old, or dead.

Suddenly a hand rested on her shoulder, and she turned around to see a younger girl. She was about the same height as Sali, but was slightly better endowed. “You okay?” asked the girl

“I’m fine, just thinking about my old friends. Most of them would be old or dead by now, yet I haven’t aged a day since I last saw them,” said Sali.

“Well the captain entered a minute ago, and you didn’t notice. So I thought I would check on you,” said the girl. She looked up to see Countryman approaching.

“Admiring Ruri’s work?” asked Countryman evidently he either didn’t hear what she said or was ignoring it.

“She looks beautiful. I look forward to flying it, and getting a feel for its engines,” answered Sali. She was pretty certain that she was here for a test flight of the ship. Countryman exchanged a few more words, and then had the twenty women in the room line up before he gave a briefing.

“Alright the twenty of you have after extensive review been selected for the first shakedown of the LPC. Elder Ruri has designed this ship from the ground up as a test bed for several new technologies, and to fill an important role gap in our fleet. The LPC is designed primarily as a light patrol ship and scout vessel. If successful, there are two larger and heavier corvettes on the drawing board that will follow. Your mission will be to test this ship’s limits, and determine its practical capabilities. What systems that could be, have been locally tested. That includes the all important armor plating.

Now onto the main mission outline. Your first task will be to navigate the nearby asteroid field, and complete one orbit around the system. This will allow us time to determine if the engines are working properly. During this orbit, you will target and destroy several asteroids for target practice, and weapons calibration. When you reach the fleet, I will deploy two fighter wings to engage you in mock combat. This will allow you to familiarize yourselves with the ship in a combat situation, and allow us to better determine the capabilities of the LPC in battle. After the mock battle we will move on to a warp test. You will make the jump to the neighboring LMR-12 star system that was already scouted earlier this week. At maximum warp it should take you about half an hour to reach the system. After arriving we will want you to scout the system and conduct scans of several planets. Your scouting report will be later compared with that of the Gladius that scouted the system earlier.

Commander Sayuri you have been given command of the ship. Lieutenant Sali has been selected as your helmsman. Megumi has loaned you one of her most promising students an Ensign Riko as your chief engineer. Your weapons officer is Ensign Erin Steele, and your operations officer is Master Chief Irina. I’ll leave you to sort out the rest of your crew,” said Countryman.

Sali settled into her seat on the bridge of the new LPC. The ship didn’t even have a name, but given its size she doubted it would be given more than a serial registry number. It was smaller than a Firebird class frigate, and not a single one of those ships actually had a name, instead they were given a simple designation. Which meant there was no hope for this ship having a name. The control console was a little different from what she was used to. However it wasn’t all that different from the control scheme used on other ships, and shuttles. As such she had no problems finding the needed controls. The console included a builtin navigation computer, that would allow her to easily chart a course. Near the navigation controls she also found an autopilot function. The controls of which were actually more sophisticated than the ones she was used to. Not surprising, given that this was an actual ship with FTL capabilities. Sure the 1205-B had an FTL engine, but that was a variant refit to a ship that originally didn’t have an FTL drive.

She was still familiarizing herself with her helm console when she heard footsteps and a sigh. Looking back she saw Sayuri settling into the command chair in the center of the bridge.

“Something wrong?” asked Sali.

“I’m not sure if it is a problem yet, but I toured the ship. The ship is a bit cramped, but that is a problem that regularly plagues small ships. That we can probably deal with, but there is only one bathroom for a crew of twenty. At least the captain put some thought into that. My marines actually have small ship training, so they can operate the ships stations as part of the night shift. At least we have twenty beds, so everyone can have their own bed. Don’t count a closet though, we get a small locker instead,” responded Sayuri.

“I have seen ships with worse. I recall a transport used by the Valorian pilot’s academy. It shuttled candidates from neighboring systems to the academy. They used to cram a thousand cadets onto the ship, and the only bathroom was literally stuffed into a closet. I swear it was added onto the ship as an afterthought. As for beds there were only enough for two hundred people,” said Sali.

“I take it you were on that ship,” said Sayuri.

“Unfortunately, yes. That was one of the worst weeks of my life,” replied Sali as she recalled the ship. She wasn’t kidding when she said it was one of the worst weeks of her life. It may even have been the worst, but she wasn’t sure.

“I can imagine. As for the bathroom being an afterthought, it probably was. Designers often have their heads in the clouds. I can recall a few ships that had to be sent back to the drawing board, because the design team forgot to include a bathroom in the blueprints,” said Sayuri.

“I heard about that. Makes you wonder what they were thinking,” said Sali.

“It does, but I think it is about time we get underway,” said Sayuri as the other three bridge officers entered the bridge. Sali suspected that they had been investigating the living quarters. Before long they had completed the preflight checks, and got clearance to depart the ship.

As soon as the bay doors were open she activated the thrusters. The ship gently lifted off the deck. The ship was already angled for launch so she gently eased the ship forward. This bay didn’t have a catapult so the ship would have to launch under its own power. A glowing blue energy field separated the bay from the vacuum of space. The ship felt a slight resistance as it passed through the atmospheric force field, but that was quite normal. The field was actually quite weak. Just strong enough to keep the air in, but not so strong as to impede a ship from passing through.

After passing the field she reported they were out of the bay, and set the ship on the course she was ordered to follow. Switching from the anti-grav thrusters to the Pulsewave engines. To reach the start of the course she had to clear the fleet first, and she took the most direct course out of the fleet’s anchorage. However, since this was a test flight, Sayuri gave her permission to test the ships paces. As soon as she was clear of the fleet, she hit the throttle. Accelerating to full the engines began to hum. The ship instantly responding to her commands. A large rock was coming up, and with deft movements she was able to evade it. Next to her at the weapons console, Steele exclaimed, “That rock is perfect! Can I try out the weapons on it?”

“We can’t target that one. The fleet has marked it for mining. Some valuable minerals were detected in the rock, and a team should already be there mining the asteroid,” said Sayuri.

“Confirmed, Sir. I am detecting multiple lifesigns, and several drilling sites on the surface of the asteroid. I’m reading several valuable minerals including natural Rydium, some Pholite, and small deposits of that Mydorian mineral Erentium,” said Irina. Sali was familiar with those minerals. Even if they weren’t her specialty she had learned a few things about minerals. Rydium was a material used heavily in Refuge technology. So heavily in fact that their systems couldn’t operate without it. She would be hard-pressed to name a system that didn’t include at least small amounts of it. Its unique properties made it very useful, especially in anything involving energy conversion. Hence it was most notably used in cooling systems, armor, weapons, and propulsion. Refuge engines were in fact the first use of the stuff that came to mind.

Pholite was a material they had only recently started using, but the Confederation had used it for centuries. Pholite was used heavily in containment systems and energy fields. It was most notably used in shields, reactors, force fields, and plasma weaponry. She had heard rumors that the lab was experimenting with using it in next generation armor systems. As for this Erentium she knew almost nothing about it aside from what she had heard in rumors. Apparently it showed properties that would be invaluable in most forms of energy weaponry. She had heard that it showed signs of being especially useful in particle weapons.

No one really commented on the materials. They were too busy with other tasks, and didn’t really know each other yet. The asteroid soon vanished behind them. A few minutes later they came upon a rock that they were actually allowed to shoot. It was smaller with a roughly similar mineral composition, but it was lacking in significant quantities of valuable ores. The most valuable ore in appreciable quantities was Titanium, and breaking the asteroid up would just make them easier to harvest.

She glanced to the side and watched as Steele eagerly worked her weapons console. Moments later a concentrated particle beam ripped from the ship, and carved through the rock. The asteroid easily broke apart under the beams. Sali adjusted her course slightly to compensate for the effects.

The next few hours went according to plan, and they destroyed several larger asteroids. It was safe to say the weapons, and engines were working as intended. They had just returned to the fleet, and were docked with a shuttle. It was replacing the dummy bombs with actual Photon bombs and torpedoes. They had used a few dummies to test the launchers. Mostly so the crew could get a feel for the ship’s underside mounted tubes. Sali had heard Steele’s comments on the systems. The ports were actually on deployable turret mounts, which greatly expanded her targeting arc for the torpedoes/bombs, and made them fairly easy to use. These launcher systems lacked the rapid fire modifications that larger ships in the fleet had, but their rate of fire was still respectable. They found that the autoloaders allowed a fire rate of thirty per minute. Which meant they could empty the bay very quickly, and had its advantages.

Larger ships could mount a bulky, but effective autoloading and magazine system that allowed a fire rate five times that. The system was much larger than standard launchers however which meant they had to mount fewer launchers. The overall result of this technology inherited from Earth was that Refuge ships could put significantly more missiles and torpedoes in the water than their rivals.

Sali turned her attention back to the main viewscreen. Countryman was currently on the screen listening to Sayuri give her impressions so far on the ship. So far they hadn’t found any major problems. Only the minor kind that a shakedown was meant to iron out in the first place. All of which they had already fixed while in the field. Which she was telling the commander of their fleet.

“I would say the biggest issue we found was that the targeting scanners were slightly out of alignment. Didn’t have much of an impact at short range, but it did mess up long range shooting. We were able to correct the issue without much trouble, however,” said Sayuri.

“Sounds like the ship design may be viable then. Still a few more systems to test, but I think its about time to see the ship in a fight. I have two wings of Eagle Starfighters ready to engage you in mock combat,” said Countryman.

“Eagles, captain? I believe they were designed to dominate against light craft such as fighters and corvettes. Guess that would make them a fair test of our abilities though,” said Sayuri.

“Yes, I thought they would be as well. On paper this battle can go either way, and should test not just the ship but the crew as well,” said Countryman just as the sound of a decoupling could be heard. Indicating that the shuttle was undocking, and at the same moment Irina interrupted to inform that the shuttle had finished transferring over their torpedoes.

“We are ready when you are, sir,” said Sayuri.

“Fighters are on their way,” said Countryman moments before he signed off. Sayuri immediately began giving orders.

“Sound the alert, and set all systems for simulated combat,” ordered Sayuri. It was a standard order for a mock battle. Mock battles were an old tradition used by many different races, and the modern form used computers, and low yield lasers. Along with simulated torpedoes. It was an excellent way to foster basic combat experience, and test new crews and craft.