The klaxons rang out piercing through my peaceful sleep. I cracked my eyes open to look at the red flashes piercing through the darkness illuminating the ocean grey walls. I pulled my hands up to my chest and pushed off of the dirty carpet causing a sharp pain through my right shoulder. I held a hand to the aching shoulder and lent against a bulk head holding a cracked computer screen. I removed my hand to look at the wound and I saw what was causing It. A shard of metal had pierced my shoulder and gone out through the other side. My head was now pounding with the noise of the klaxons, getting annoyed I shouted."WILL SOMEBODY SHUT THAT BLOODY THING UP!" The klaxons became silent and the hallway I was in became illuminated with normal light. I looked around to find who had turned of the noise. "Er... Thanks." I said. Turning around I saw that the computer I had lent against was still flashing. Looking at the the corner of the screen it had a name on it.
"H.M.S.Ark royal? CV-404 Ark Royal class battle cruiser?" I said confusedly. I looked around again. "Well that explains where I am." I looked at the map on the screen and began to make my way to the control center of the ship.
I had been walking for about 10 minuets before it struck me just how large this ship was, and just how lost I was.
"Hello is anybody there?" I shouted desperate to see another living soul, I was however answered with static.
"Well, I might as well try to find my way back." As I turned around a computer screen lit up with a big flashing arrow pointing to a corridor to my left. I raised my eyebrow in confusion but decided to follow the arrows. I followed them up at least 33 decks before It pointed out of the stairwell. I exited through the steely grey door and was greeted with a wall covered with windows. I stared out into the vastness of space, I could see stars everywhere, I could see a beautiful shimmering blue nebula and most importantly I could see another ship and it was approaching. I turned and ran down the corridor to where the arrows where pointing and fell into a massive room full of control panels. I jumped into the chair situated near the center of the room.
"Hello?" I shouted desperate for help now. "Please can anybody hear me?"
suddenly the room was flooded with light as the control systems reactivated.
"Hello captain." Said a distinctively female voice. My head flicked Around the room trying to find the source of the voice.
"Hello? Who are you?" I asked still trying to find the woman who had spoken.
"I am the Automated Computer Control System But you can call me ACCS. What do you require sir?"
"I need away to escape from the approaching ship. Now."
"What do you need to know?" She asked when she spoke again. I was silent as I thought.
"I noticed that there was some major damage to some of the decks," I said." Can you give me a damage report for all movement and tactile systems?"
"Yes sir." ACCS said. "Give me a few moments." ACCS went silent for a few seconds as thought thinking about something.
"Damage report: Life support at 56%. Shields are offline. Main engines are offline. FTL drive core is fused, in need of repair. Directional thrusters are online at 19%. Weapons systems, torpedo tubes 1 to 13 are offline; Tube 14 is primed for fire. Main particle weapon banks are offline. Turrets 2 to 8 are off line. Turrets 1 and 9 to 10 are ready for firing. Nanite repair team online.
Hull integrity at 27% efficiency."
I contemplated what I had just heard.
"What are the nanite repair team for?" I asked ACCS.
"They are an emergency team of microscopic robots that were designed to repair ships when they needed a quick fix up." The computer responded.
"And how long until that ship gets here?" I asked again. I heard some bleeps as the computer scanned the approaching ship.
"At its present speed It will be in firing range in 13 minuets." I lent back in my chair thinking about what to do.
"ACCS. If we deployed the nanites now how many of the major systems can we get running before that ship gets into range?" I felt proud of myself for thinking like that, until I heard ACCS reply.
"You must enter authorization code to activate repair team." I could feel my pride shatter around me.
"How am I supposed to know the code?" I asked.
"You are the new captain. you must decide on a code." I racked my brain searching for anything that was important to me.
"Em...new authorization code." I stated with as much authority as i could muster in my voice. "Code: 3475 alpha."
"Code accepted. Deploying nanite team." I sat back, as I heard a clanging echoing through the ship, preparing myself for what was about to happen.
"ACCS put a countdown on the screen with a continuously updating list on repaired systems." I spoke.
" Aye captain." she responded.
------------Equestria------------
Twilight Sparkle and her friends had gathered atop the grassy hill once again to observe the annual meteor shower like they had since Twilight had arrived in ponyville 3 years before. everypony except Pinkie Pie and Twilight were observing the shower with there eyes. Pinkie had abandoned her friends in favor of the the fairy cakes Mr. and Mrs. cake had provided them with for the evening and sat there on the blanket munching away, Whilst Twilight had set up her telescope to observe the shower a bit closer.
"Hmm." Twilight grumbled to herself. "This telescope won't zoom in far enough." Her horn glowed as she used her magic to shift the particles in the lens to try and zoom in further.
"That should be good enough." But before she could release her magical grip on the atoms she was startled by Pinkie Pie tapping her back, causing her to power the lens much better than any of Equestria's best observatory and to flick it up into a random direction.
"Yes Pinkie?" Twilight asked, obviously trying to hide her annoyance that Pinkie had potentially just destroyed her 500 bit telescope, that was a present from the princesses themselves after the whole Nightmare Moon ordeal.
"Oh nothing much," Said the pink pony. "We were just about to start the pick nick." She said pointing to wards the blanket where Twilight could see the element bearers, the Cutie-mark crusaders and Spike sitting down and getting out the basket while flicking glances at the ongoing meteor shower.
"Ok Pinkie, i'll join you when I've sorted out my telescope" Said Twilight turning back to the viewing device.
Pinkie shrugged. "Ok, but you might want to hurry, Spike's found the crushed ruby cupcakes." She said as she headed over to the blanket. Twilight just sighed and shrugged to herself, Pinkie Pie was Pinkie Pie after all.
Twilight put her eye up to the telescope to try and locate the shower again. She scrolled slowly through the night sky, Lest she miss it. As she scrolled she saw something cross over the telescopes point of view. She shifted the telescope up a bit and gasped. She could see a grey kind of ship floating surrounded by debris with a shifting pattern over it. Moving a bit further over to the left she could see a very sinister looking ship covered in spikes and glowing red moving menacingly towards the first ship. She took her eye off of the scope and called Spike.
"Spike! Can you come hear a second?" As she looked at him she could hear him groan in annoyance.
"Yes Twi, what is it?" He asked with annoyance and tiredness in his voice.
"Can you look through the telescope please." She asked. Spike sighed and placed one eye against the viewing part of the telescope.
"All I can see is a floating object surrounded by debris." He said as he took his eye off of the telescope, suddenly his eyes widened and he put his eye against the scope again.
"Is that a spaceship." He asked quietly as so not to alert the others. at Twilight's nod he reached into his bag and pulled out an ink vile,a quill and some parchment.
"Ready." He said looking at Twilight expectantly. Twilight began to speak.
"Dear Princess Celestia,"
-----------Ark Royal-------
The klaxons began blaring startling me out the nap that had taken me.
"ACCS. What's happening." I shouted over the noise.
"WARNING! Bish attack ship closing in! Battle stations, I repeat battle stations" I looked panicked at the screen for any systems that could help me. All the weapon systems were back online,78% shields, 3 quarters impulse engines and directional thrusters. "ACCS," I began before I was interrupted.
"WARNING! 3 Bish missiles on course." She shouted.
"ACCS, give me full neural control." I shouted remembering the emergency control system ACCS had told me about.
"Aye,sir." She said as I felt a prick in my spine. I began to lose consciousness and regained it able to feel all the ships systems.
I could feel the missiles closing in on the bridge so I rolled the ship allowing the missiles to make contact with the bottom of the ship, shields absorbing a majority of the impact but still ripping through the bottom deck. I flipped the ship towards the planet and pushed on as fast as the Ark Royal would allow. I could feel ACCS in my mind as she spoke.
"Sir you are on a collision course with a pre-FTL society." I could feel her worry.
"No I'm not" I said. "I'm heading for the moon. If your scans were right they can not stop as soon as reverse thrusters are out, correct?" I asked.
"That is correct." I could almost feel her smirk as she realized what I was planning.
I could feel the Bish ship closing in on me and smiled. Turning my aft turrets and priming all aft torpedo launchers and particle weapon banks I waited until there was less than 1000 meters between us and I fired. I could feel their ships pain as it's shielding was torn away and all it's reverse thrusters were taken out.
Putting a full reverse on the Ark Royal I could feel as the Bish ship skimmed the upper launch decks and plowed into the moon at over 20'000 kilometers an hour. I felt the neurological link fade and awoke just in time to see the Bish ship detonate with the force of 3000 nuclear weapons.
"ACCS, put us into a high orbit around this moons planet." I felt the engines shudder as they heaved the Ship to an orbit around the planet.
"Aye captain." ACCS replied as I fell into a sleep.
--------End Chapter one-------
Of nanites and Princesses
Of nanites and Princesses
-----------Ark Royal----------
"Attention captain." I awoke to ACCS calling me out of slumber. I groaned and rolled over,trying to block out the computers voice. When she hadn't called me for five minuets I smiled thinking that I had won, when the klaxons began blaring at full volume causing me to jump and fall out of the chair I had fallen asleep in.
"OK i'm up." I shouted as I pulled myself up off of the floor."What is it?" I asked as I dusted myself off, Not that I needed too I just did it for show.
"The Ark Royal is now in a high orbit, just like you requested." I sighed as I shook my head.
"Thanks for informing me ACCS but did you really need to wake me up for that?" I asked as I stood in front of the view screen, staring out at the green and blue planet bringing back flashes of familiarity.
"No sir." ACCS replied pulling me back out of my thoughts. "But the captain of the nanite repair team wishes to speak to you." You looked around puzzled before questioning her.
"I thought that the nanites were microscopic?"
"They are sir" She said as a door near the back of the room opened and a swarm of liquid like robots fell in. I hopped up onto to the chair to avoid getting any of them on me. Suddenly they began to gather and take a form. I watched on in fascination as they took on a human form. When the nanites had stopped they were in the form of what appeared to be a woman in her early twenties, she had shoulder length brown hair and magenta eyes. She was wearing an orange jumpsuit with strong brown boots and white gloves.
"So you the knew captain?" She asked me whilst glaring directly into my eyes, making me feel very very uncomfortable."Hey kid I asked you a question." She said forcefully. I could only nod as she rolled her eyes. "Hey ACCS Is he a mute or something?" Then ACCS replied in a tone I had never heard from her before.
"No he isn't Nancy, but it would probably help if you got out of his face and let him speak." ACCS said with a almost growl like tone in her voice.
"Ok ACCS cool ya' self." She then turned to glare at me again although not as strongly as before. "So captain, as you probably just heard my names Nancy, well it is when us lot are in this form. Any way i'm your chief engineer now due to that old wind bag of a human being incinerated." She stopped speaking to reach into her pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to me.
"Whilst ACCS was hauling us over to this planet me and my crew took the liberty to fix the Ark Royal up to 100% efficiency." She said whilst holding a smug look on her face. I stared at the sheet in my hand to see a damage report.
I looked it over to see she was right about the fixed up ship.
"Well done Nancy." I said handing her back the paper.
"No problem cap'." she said as she began to dissolve back into the swarm. "See ya." She said as the swarm melted into the deck and dispersed.
"Is there anything else ACCS?" I asked.
"No captain, you can go back to sleep." She said and the lights lowered leaving the room bathed in the light being reflected from the planets surface. I yawned and lent back in the chair again.
" 'Night ACCS." I said as I fell asleep once again.
---------Canterlot--------
Princess Celestia was sitting on her throne with a smile on her face as she listened to the light red earth pony stallion who stood in front of her. He was asking if it would be possible to get the rights to sell his goods in Canterlot as it was the most likely place to want fresh ingredients because of the nobles fickleness with the freshness and quality of their food.
The stallion had just finished his petition when a letter from her student appeared in a flash of smoke next to her head.
"I'm sorry everypony but I am going to have to cut this session short." As Celestia turned to walk out the room she heard the sadness filled voice of the stallion.
"I understand princess thank you for your time." He turned to walk out of the room until Celestia called him back.
"Red Autumn." she said causing the rusty stallion to turn around.
"Yes princess?" He asked with hope in his dark brown eyes. The Princess smiled.
"You have my permission to sell your family's goods on the main street of Canterlot." the stallion's mouth hung open before he stammered out his words of thanks.
"Thank you so much your highness." He said bowing so low his dusty brown mane brushed the floor.
"It was nothing." Said Celestia with a smile. "Now if you will excuse me I am going to retire to my private chambers."
Red Autumn nodded again still thanking the princess for her generosity.
The princess entered her room greeting the guards with the formality that was expected of her in public.
As soon as her doors were closed she removed her regalia and put it on her bedside table before flopping onto the bed and rolling onto her side. She sighed and closed her eyes, It was a rare occasion that she called off the day court early but when she did she always savored the little bit of free time she had. She was about to doze off when she remembered the letter from her student. She looked at the letter again and saw that it had a purple seal on it. Celestia sat up when she remembered that Twilight only used that color when it was an emrgancy she cracked open the seal to read what could be so important.
Dear Princess Celestia
At around 01:30 this morning me and my friends were watching the meteor shower that you sister had put on when I decided to set up my telescope. Unfortunately I could not get a good view so I used my magic to expand the lens to get a better view when Pinkie mad me jump accidentally putting to much power into the lens.
After that I looked through it when I saw something strange. It appeared to be a ship of some sort being pursued by another, I followed them for about 20 minuets and lost sight of them after they went behind the moon, however I did see a flash of light afterwards.
I continued to search this morning to see if I could catch a sight of either of them but could only find the original one. I watched it approach the planet but stop at a high orbit just over the area between Canterlot and Ponyville.
If you or Luna know anything about this vessel could you please let me know.
Thank you.
Your Princess in arms.
Twilight Sparkle.
Celestia rolled up the scroll and stared out of her window, which over looked Ponyville, and stared up to the sky.
one of the many perks of being an alicorn that Celestia liked was being able to see much further than anypony else.
After half an hour of searching She spotted a grey speck in the sky. She concentrated on it trying to see it even clearer.
When she had achieved this she could see a grey-ish ship like vessel hanging upside down in the sky.
She stopped smiling and began frowning.She turned and galloped out of the room desperate to find her sister. After 10 minuets of running across the massive castle she ran straight into the navy blue alicorn.
"Luna!" Exclaimed Celestia. "I'm so sorry I didn't expect you to be awake."
"It's fine 'Tia." Said Luna shaking her head and pulling herself off of the ground, hissing in pain while she did so.
"It can't be if your in pain after that fall." Luna chuckled and shook her head.
"It's not because of the fall." Said Luna as she directed her sister's eyes to her bandaged torso. Celestia Looked at her sister in worry.
"How did that happen Luna?" asked the older alicorn, worry lacing her voice.
"Well you see when an asteroid hits the moon it gets damaged, therefore my natural affinity with the moon means it scales down the damage to my size. However something big hit it earlier on causing a massive scrape on my side that has yet to heal." She said. Suddenly Celestia's eyes widened as she realized something.
'Wait, two ship go behind the moon only one comes back around and this morning my sister, who gets hurt every time the moon gets damaged is hurt. That's where the other ship is!"
Celestia grabbed Luna in her magical grasp and picked her up before darting back towards her room.
"Tia, where are you taking me?" Shouted the younger alicorn who was struggling in her sister's grasp.
"Too my room." Celestia shouted back. "You have to see something."
Celestia burst into her room, shooting past he guards who didn't even bat an eyelid. She shoved her sister onto the balcony and directed her gaze to the still present starship.
"Can you see that?" she asked he younger sister. Luna shook her head in disbelief.
"What is it?" she asked when she looked at the alabaster mare again. Celestia picked up Twilight's letter and offered it to her sister.
"Read this." She stated simply. Celestia gauged Luna's reaction as she read the letter. when she finished she looked at her sister.
"A starship?" she asked and Celestia replied with a nod.
"what are we going to do?" Luna asked after several long moments of silence.
"Perhaps we should call the UNE together." Luna was silent as she considered her sisters opinion.
"That is probably a good idea." said Luna with a Nod.
"I'll send a letter to the members." Said Celestia pulling out a quill and parchment.
"Goodnight then sister, i'm off to bed." Said Luna as she walked out of the door.
"Ok." Celestia replied, already too busy preparing a letter for the members of the United Nations of Equis.
