The crew and officers of the IS Sidrat were busy. Normally in hyperspace most of the crew usually preformed routine, repair or refurbishment tasks. On this evaluation trip however, all on board were busy checking and rechecking the many aspects of the gigantic ship.

Every officer had his list of items to check and certify. These were passed, in part, down to senior non-commissioned officers and ratings. Also onboard were representatives of the various builders, including representatives of Star Builders and its many subsidiaries. One of the critical systems was the control runs guiding the mighty hyper drive.

That these function well was essential because there could only be two possible outcomes. While hyper drives have failed in hyperspace, and ships have survived, no ship has ever been known to survive a catastrophic drive failure. Indeed, while serious drives failures have occurred and been survived, often with damage to the ship and many casualties, only a failure to arrive would be recorded for other losses. Nothing could be proven of course, and there were many possibilities.

It was not possible, due to the extensive crosschecking by both the legions and subcontractors inspectors, for Star Builders to plant a faulty drive into the IS Sidrat but the software was another story. Carefully developing the software, with the help of experts and artificial intelligence, using each separately under the guise of testing for failure possibilities, the results were assembled into a software package by a team loyal to Slav di Naska and his sister.

What was installed was the correct software with subprograms written in that could only be initiated by a series of commands with the necessary passwords. The program could not be inserted directly into the command computer due to priority command sequences designed to prevent an outside entity from taking over the ship. That meant it had to be installed as a peripheral program in an obscure location. The commands would have to be inserted manually, which is where Senior Space Rating Issa Jones came in.

Issa Jones hailed from Canders World, a planet located in one of the first clusters galaxies. His joining the legion was a little unusual as the planet was not a strong legion supporter and his family was of some prominence. Unwisely, he had boasted that he would be made an officer quickly although he knew that all members of the Legion had to start at the bottom, either as a spacer or a trooper. No one went straight into officer training, all had to do at least three years standard service before they could apply for officer training. Following these three years, those who wished to go into officer training had to pass an entry exam and those meeting the desired standard were accepted to fill vacancies. The acceptance course had stringent conditions and at times all those applying for officer training failed. Jones had tried twice and failed to gain acceptance on both occasions. He could only try once more, three attempts was the limit.

These failures had made him angry, this was reinforced by his officer mentor advising him that he should not try again. While the mentor tried to phrase this as delicately as possible, Jones was not the type to accept such a rejection philosophically. He became very angry and stormed out of his mentors’ office.

Retaining enough control to avoid a charge that would have him discharged by the legion, he took some leave and went on a spree. As this happened to be on a world with a significant Star Builders presence, his behaviour was quickly noted and Jones was watched. An investigation into him was carried out by the companies’ security apparatus, who quickly came to the conclusion that this was not an individual in which the company would want to spend time and credits cultivating. However, the few who were deeply involved in the plan to challenge the Empire, saw possibilities in an angry and discontented computer operator. It was Lia Du Passa who sensed that this was the man to carry out the psychological attack on the empire. As the information gathered showed that he was assigned to the IS Sidrat and was already one of the computer operators assigned to engineering, they looked no further.

Delicately, Lia Du Passa began to orchestrate Jones seduction into being a willing collaborator. Of course, she did none of this directly, but used trusted male and female accomplices. Jones was told no more than necessary and nothing as to what would really happen. Angry as he was, it still took several months before he became a willing dupe who believed that he would be striking back at an unfeeling and impersonal organisation that could not see how important he was. Lia smiled as she read the reports.

The final step was to have a senior executive meet with Jones. The meeting was to give Jones the passwords that he would need to carry out his revenge. What he thought was to happen would be the hyper drive would fail and the ship drop from hyperspace to normal space. It would be rough but nothing that he couldn’t handle. What he didn’t know was that the programs would cause a massive overload and the engines would explode while transiting hyperspace. What would happen then, no one knew, although much gruesome fiction had been written about it!

Captain Jonia Krina was the Senior Captain, acting Commodore and Commanding Officer onboard. The term ’Senior’ was a courtesy title to distinguish her from the other captains in their various departments. This was a temporary expedient for this cruise only as the other Captains would leave the ship on its return to Tihab.

Looking over her board, she was pleased to see that there were no anomalies or cautions showing. All systems were operating within their parameters, although some were edging close to upper or lower limits. Tempted to com the officers concerned, Krina kept her peace. She had worked with all these officers and indeed the majority of the crew were all experienced in bringing a new ship to active status. Most of the test crew would stay with the ship when it was accepted by the fleet.

Deep in the engineering and computer rooms, Captain of Engineering Kapt Aneper was bent over a computer screen. “Keep on those readouts of energy flow. Resistance is getting up there.” Went to a builder’s representative who was sitting beside the engineering Space Rating operating the consol. This particular space was the Reserve Systems Control Room, Engineering, so was normally unstaffed. It was being used now only because all systems were monitored on a shakedown cruise.

The builders representative, a young woman, resisted the urge to roll her eyes and responded with a crisp “Got it Captain.”

Senior Space Rating Issa Jones was at his station, monitoring several of the other ratings. He was getting irritated by the presence of Lieutenant Maria Fandt who was stubbornly adhering to her orders and double checking everything including inputs by Jones. He had not had chance yet carry out his plan, but there was plenty of time, he reasoned.

“Looking good sir.” Petty Officer Ugikla-Re Nickap dropped by. He was responsible for this room when it was used so wanted to make certain that none of the systems being monitored from here were out of sync. “Everything between the marks so far. Just tweaking a few items.”

“So far anyway.” Fandt turned away for a fraction. “I hear that weapons has a problem. Reloads out of spec by a few thousands. Fire the first salvo then nothing!” The two laughed.

“So long as navigation sends us to the right place. Not in the opposite direction!” Nickap commented. There was more laughter.

Maria Fandt had kept swivelling her eyes back to Jones screens, so just grunted an acknowledgement.

“I am going to eat sir. When I get back I will relieve you.” Petty Officer Ugikla-Re Nickap was due a break.

“Don’t be too long.” She looked at Jones. “Go and eat, Jones. I will watch here.”

“Thank you sir.” Three periods into an eleven period transit to a world used by the legion for this purpose as it was a major base with extensive facilities, Jones knew that he had plenty of time. Halfway through the transit would be best, tests would be completed, any problems identified and worked on. The crew and the builders would be relaxing or working on problems and he should have some uninterrupted time to make his move. He wasn’t worried about computer traces, the program would erase itself, he had been told.

*********

Almost four periods later, the senior rating allowed his eyes to sweep the room. Half the consoles were now on standby, their previous users transferred to other tasks and the other operators engrossed in their tasks. A glance over his shoulder confirmed the door was closed and no one was behind him. With a deep breath, he reached for the comm unit, entered a command and spoke the first password. Several lines of code appeared as he expected. A smile crossed his face.

Opening his mouth to speak the next password, he froze as a hand laid itself on his shoulder. His eyes flicked to the small hand as a soft voice told him to be silent.

“Do not move.” The voice continued.

Coming into his view was a slender and pretty young woman. A woman with shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes. She wore a white top with long sleeves and an open sleeveless, short, red jacket along with light tan pants. On her feet were sandals.

Alerted by instinct to a strangers presence and the feel of something wrong in the computer room, an operator, this one a trooper with the rank of sergeant, glanced over his shoulder. Startled he clambered to his feet.

The Lady did not smile but spoke in her soft voice. “Sergeant, please contact Captain of Engineering Kapt Aneper and Lieutenant Maria Fandt. Request their presence here as a matter of urgency. Security will also be needed.”

The trooper, gaped at this then was galvanised into action by a softly spoken, “Quickly, please.” The rest of the staff in the room had been startled by the sergeants’ sudden moves and were now all staring at the strange lady and Jones.

Grabbing his comm unit he frantically called security. Aneper was closest and beat Fandt, though barely.

“What, what is the emergency.” Came out haltingly. The two officers stared with shock at the spectacle in front of them. Several security personal crowded behind them. A couple moved to the Lady. They stopped as she shifted her eyes onto them.

“Senior Space Rating Issa Jones is the unwitting accomplice in a scheme to destroy this craft. Out of a sense of injured pride, he was convinced to run a hidden program which he thought would disable the ship. In fact the program would have caused the hyper drive to overload and explode.”

With a flick of her finger, Jones comm unit floated to her hands, those watching gasped. Still holding onto Jones, The Lady stood him up and walked him to the security personal. The comm unit she handed to Captain Aneper.

“The passwords are all inputted verbally, so I suggest you keep this away from Spacer Jones.” She smiled. “Indeed, it will be best if you kept all means of computer use away from him for a while anyway.”

“Of course, Lady.” Captain Aneper breathed. This could only be one of the Ladies. Pretty rather than beautiful, she still radiated the grace and charm they were renowned for.

Both the officers and other ranks were somewhat glazed. The security police had Jones in restraints but now, feeling free of the binding the Lady had on him, he snarled and his anger at his grievances flared up. Pulling himself away from security, he threw himself at the Lady.

In a sea of pain, he found himself on the floor. Not even looking, The Lady had flicked a finger at him so that he flew backwards, hit the bare metal walls with force, and then crashed to the metal floor, where he laid still. Slowly, carefully watching the Lady, two members of the security team picked him up. All the rest remained motionless.

“I will speak to Captain Krina now.” The Lady glanced at Jones. “That was foolish,” was all she said, leaving. All the crew members stepped aside to let her pass, their faces reflecting the shock of their first encounter with a Lady of the Circle. With a shake, Captain Aneper pointed at two security officers.

“Give the Lady proper escort.” Sent them on their way after her.

Catching up with The Lady at the transit shaft, the senior officer called for a unit.

“Transit will take some time, Lady.” He respectfully informed her. It was a large ship.

“Thank you.” She smiled.

The doors opened. They stepped in. The doors closed behind them, then opened again. The three stepped out onto the bridge, the escort in shock.

Also in shock was Captain Krina who had just been informed by Captain Aneper that a Lady of the Circle was on board and that she was on her way to her with an honour escort. Captain Krina was an experienced officer however, and came to her feet straight away.

“Welcome aboard, my Lady.” She gave a short bow, not as deep as one she would have given the Dark Lord. “Captain Aneper informs me of an emergency.” The rest of the bridge staff had also come to their feet. A nod from the Lady followed by a command, sent them back to their duties.

“Indeed Captain, the Master sent me to assist you which I have done. However, the programing for hyper drive feeds is compromised to an extent. It can be repaired, but this should not be attempted while your ship is in hyperspace. The unfortunate Jones has been stopped and will need to be interrogated. I feel that he will give little, but it will be all the information that he has.”

Turning to her escort, with a smile she sent them back to their duties. With salutes and a nod from Captain Krina they left.

“I must return to the Master now, Captain, Thank you.” Again the beautiful smile.

“My Lady.” The Captain gave another short bow and watched as the Lady walked through a door. Looking at her second in command, the two just shook their heads. Picking up her comm unit, she contacted Captain Aneper. Assured that the situation was under control, they briefly discussed the solution. Agreeing that it would be best to continue the voyage and rectify the software when they were safely out of hyperspace, the two went back to their work.

The Lady was not mentioned. The story of what happened to Jones was already circulating around the ship.