Chapter One: System Failure

F T L***VALIANT *STARChapter One: System Failure

The crew of the Valiant Star stood in the ship's bridge, eyes wide. Some said the most beautiful sight in the universe was of the beautiful Pillars of Creation or other such magnificent nebulas. To the assorted Federation personnel aboard the ship however, the final explosions ripping through the burning hulk before them would suffice. The warning klaxons and sirens echoing in their own ship did little to distract from the sight before them. Brightly-coloured flashes of light blinked in and out of existence as the hyperdrives aboard the battlecruiser went critical, tearing the few remaining sections of the ship apart in a frenzy of gravitational fluctuations. After weeks of intensive fighting, the rebels had finally been forced onto the back foot with the destruction of their flagship.

"Captain, shouldn't we, um, stop our own ship from going the same way? I'm fairly sure that those klaxons aren't a good thing," said one of the crew with concern.

"Agreed. Severe atmospheric ventilation throughout ship. Oxygen depleting," finished another being, looking at a panel with what the captain assumed was concern.

"Very well, we'll watch the playback on sensors later. All of you get back to your stations and get things running again. I'll see if the Federation has a shipyard in the area that can patch up the hull damage. Speaking of which, they should be jumping into the sector shortly..." No sooner had he finished his sentence than several new lights lit up on the command console before him. "Finally. Looks like they're bringing in the whole fleet this time! Once you've got your systems back online, head up to the mess. I'll be there soon."

The crew hastily acknowledged his command and headed out of the cockpit, leaving him alone in the quiet, cramped room. He turned his attention to the screens and displays lined up against the wall with a sigh. This mission had been one too many for him. After all, saving the Federation was a task usually expected of their elite combat frigates, not the small corvette he commanded. Hundreds of years’ worth of research had been poured into the field of space combat, and it had come down to a repurposed exploration ship to save the entire Federation. A wry smile crossed his lips. He expected a rather extensive bonus when he returned to true Federation space.

A series of flashes caught his eye through the front camera screens. The large high-definition screens provided views from a series of cameras dotted around the outside of the ship, providing a panoramic view of the space around his ship. "About time you arrived," he shouted at nobody in particular as he laughed with relief. As if plucked from the ether, dozens of Federation cruisers filled the empty space surrounding the jump beacon, releasing a withering volley of lasers at the remnants of the enemy flagship. The ship's captain let out a loud cheer, routing the video feed of the fireworks display through to the various terminals and subsystem screens throughout the ship. He smiled as loud shouting and whooping echoed through the ship. The barrage of fire lasted almost a minute, leaving nothing but a few lumps of molten slag by the time they were shut off.

A few seconds passed before a blinking light appeared on his command console. They were being hailed. "Crew of the Valiant Star, this is Admiral Tully. We watched your battle through the long-range scopes. That is some of the best fighting I have seen in all my years commanding the Federation's fleet. You have the thanks of the entire Federation. The shipyard 'Radiant Dawn' will be jumping into the sector shortly and has agreed to provide a fleet of repair drones to get your vessel FTL-capable again. We will continue your debriefing on Earth, Captain Davies." The communications set clicked, indicating a disconnect.

"So much for that reward," he muttered, patching himself through to the ship's intercom. "As you all just heard, we're heading back to Earth shortly for a debriefing." He smiled wryly to himself. "However, Admiral Tully didn't specify which route we have to take, or how quickly he wants us there. I want everyone in the mess in half an hour." Once again, the ship's crew responded with a series of acknowledgements.

After a minute or two, his command console began to light up with a series of messages. The ship's systems were back online, with the exception of some of the harder-struck systems. "Sara, I'm rerouting power from the shields over to the medbay. Get over to the engine room and give Emily a hand repressurising it. I'm going down to patch up the hull breach in the drone room, so patch any requests through to there."

With a resigned sigh, Alan stepped away from the ship's helm. The autopilot subsystem was a sparking, smoking mess of cables in the corner. "Huh. Well, we don't need the autopilot anyway. I always hated that guy." With one last glance, he stepped through the doors of the cockpit, walking briskly through the narrow corridor towards the drone bay. He hated hull breaches. Sometimes it was necessary to go into an unpressurised part of the ship just to stop precious oxygen from leaking into space. At least the standard-issue Federation uniform offered some protection against the freezing lack of atmosphere.

A metallic voice spoke out as he crossed the sensor station. "Captain. Stocks of Insta-Hull running low. Request we purchase greater amounts. Liu Jun prefer atmosphere in ship, not space."

"Agreed. I'll make a note of that." Alan looked across at the thick access door to the drone bay, noting the flashing red light above it. The light indicated the room was depressurised. "Hey Liu, would you like to patch up the hull breach next door?"

"Negative. More entertaining to watch captain spray himself in face with Insta-Hull," the Engi said emotionlessly, handing Alan a can of the cursed repair foam.

"Hey, it was one time! It's not my fault they didn't specify which side of the can the nozzle was on," he retorted, pushing the can back towards his Engi technician.

"Records indicate captain swore for twenty-five minutes straight. Captain threatened to fire Liu Jun from airlock. Liu Jun does not regret drawing angry face in setting Insta-Hull." Alan smiled grimly, remembering the incident with complete clarity. He had accidentally coated his oxygen mask with the grey Insta-Hull foam, which had formed a rock-solid mask across the visor. Liu Jun had decided to etch an angry face into the hardening foam. He'd been forced to hail a nearby merchant wearing the mask, and a video of him swearing at the poor merchant had won several competitions aboard a nearby space station. "Captain should repair hull breach now. Liu Jun has ensured nozzle is clearly marked for the captain."

He slowly looked down at the can, noticing the bright pink arrow painted onto it. "Liu... that was slightly unnecessary." The Engi let out a heartless chuckle as Alan crossed the room to the door into the drone bay. A few oxygen masks were strapped to the wall, with leads feeding into the ship's oxygen system. They provided oxygen when it was necessary to enter a depressurised part of the ship. Liu Jun strapped one onto her face, watching Alan with a hint of anticipation.

"Well, here goes..." He strapped one around his face, punching in the access code to the door. It slid open with a quiet hiss, followed by a considerably larger one as the oxygen began to leak out of the sensor bay. He took slow, steady steps towards the fist-sized hole in the ship, thanking the gravitomagnetic generation system for keeping him from exiting the ship with the atmosphere. There were some rather nasty stories about failed gravity systems, and crew being sucked out of the ship through a hole not much larger than this one. The laser that had created this hole had thankfully missed all of the sensitive cables running along the wall, instead conveniently punching through the room's intercom panel.

He began to feel the deathly chill of space entering his suit and freezing the parts of his head not protected by the mask. With a hasty click of the button, he fired the can at the hole, spraying it with a thick stream of hull sealant foam. Some of it was sucked away by the vacuum, but was replaced by another torrent. Within a few seconds, the hole was patched. "Ship, divert oxygen production into room 26B, repressurise ASAP!" he shouted to the ship's AI, waiting for the atmosphere to enter the room again. The ship's computer silently complied, opening the doors to the room and sending the maximum amount of oxygen through the room's three air vents.

Alan quietly surveyed the damage, looking around at the smashed racks of drones and the charred hole punched through the drone control panel. "Liu Jun regrets the loss of drones. Liu Jun should have disabled laser system first. Liu Jun diverted power from weapons to overclock oxygen during conflict."

'Well, that's the drone system completely wrecked. I guess we'll need to buy another one somewhere," he thought, looking at the sparking electronics. "Don't worry about it Liu, we had to sacrifice some lesser systems in that fight. Nothing we can't replace, eh?"

"Liu Jun apologies for the mistake, but acknowledges the captain's attempt to lessen the severity of Liu Jun's failure."

"Failure? Hardly. If we're gonna play that game, I should have evaded that laser hit. You're a bloody good weapons officer, Liu, and I wouldn't have anyone else operate those systems. Come on, get up to the mess. I have a proposal for everyone. I'm gonna stop by the medbay to heal some of these vacuum burns, but I'll see you there." He smiled at the Engi, quietly cursing their inability to show basic emotion.

*  *  *

The crew of the Valiant Star assembled happily in the mess, taking some time to compliment each other’s' actions during the fight, and to trade stories of what had happened. Alan looked around at his crew with pride. Even the Federation's most advanced battleships had been unable to confront the rebel flagship, and his crew had managed it without a single causalty. Some funky Zoltan music was playing through the ship's intercom network, and Emily, their resident chef, had prepared some food from the supplies they'd dug out in cargo. Normally they just consumed whatever the ship had processed in the food vendors. Real food was a treat, but this was certainly an occasion worthy of celebrating.

"Alright you lot, I want a round of applause for your valiant actions today. Then I want another round of applause for Emily for preparing this amazing meal. Emily, great job!" The Zoltan smiled happily as the crew cheered and applauded. The crew before him always struck Alan as rather amusing. Most ships carried a single race - Federation ships aside - and only recruited other races if they were good at operating essential systems. He, however, enjoyed the cultural variance aboard the Valiant Star. He and Sara were the two humans aboard, Liu Jun represented the Engi, Emily represented the Zoltan and the two menacing creatures at the back of the room were mercenaries he'd hired at a seedy orbital complex. They were Mantis, and they took great pleasure in being his two combat experts.

Alan took a seat at the cramped table, looking at the roast slug on the table before them. Slug was a delicacy in most sectors. Finding the non-sentient slugs was difficult and they were very hard to farm outside of nebulas. They had captured a ship with a rather extensive pantry, and they'd saved this meal for the defeat of the rebel flagship. Emily had prepared herself a simple salad-based dish, refusing to consume the flesh of another creature. He'd never understand vegetarians, but he accepted the Zoltan passive mentality. It was hard enough to find a Zoltan willing to work aboard a combat ship such as his, and Emily was an expert with the 'Faster than Light' warp drives aboard his ship.

"You mentioned a proposition, Alan. We'd very much like to hear it," said Kara, one of the Mantis boarders, clicking her mandibles together. Mantis were freaky anyway, but the whole mandible thing made Alan wince. If the mercenaries decided to forget the contract and claim the ship for themselves, his crew would be dead within seconds. Thankfully, the power of the contract was vital within the mercenary world. A mercenary would never be hired if they broke a contract.

"Ah, yes. Now, I am under the impression that Admiral Tully wants us to return to Earth for a debriefing. This will likely take a few weeks, followed by us Federation personnel being reassigned and you mercenaries being dismissed. I'd like to propose that we take a brief break from the Federation, and go and take a small holiday. I, for one, would prefer to keep this ship and my crew rather than handing everything over to the Federation for recategorisation. Besides," he rubbed a hand affectionately against the wall, "they'd probably take the Valiant Star from us and decommission her. However, some of you might want to pursue a different career now, or settle down. I can't promise safety from now on, as the rebels are still holding sectors nearby. If you want to follow your own life, I'll happily drop you off at a space station or nearby planet. If you do want to stay aboard, there are some particularly nice planets logged on the ship's navigation computer. Tropical paradise, anyone?"

The two Mantis glanced at each other. "Captain, our contracts are now complete. We wish to leave the ship, and continue our mercenary lifestyle. We're in the business for fun just as much as killing, and you don't do nearly enough of either." Damn. Having two Mantis aboard was an excellent boost to the ship's fighting capability as they were fearsome combat experts. Their razor-sharp limbs and mandibles were incredibly useful for boarding enemy ships, and he liked being able to loot vessels without destroying them entirely. Less destruction meant more salvage, and salvage was vital towards ensuring a safe future.

Emily frowned at them. "I will happily remain aboard, captain." Alan mentally sighed with relief. Losing Emily would be a massive blow to the ship. It'd take months to find another engine technician with her skill. The Zoltan were living conduits of energy, capable of running that energy into the ship's systems. They also had a very peculiar appearance, stemming from the fact that they were green, glowing humanoids that looked like they'd spent too long hugging the fuel rods.

"Engi motivation: exploration. Subject goal: exploration. Captain's goals are compatible with Liu Jun's goals," the Engi said, looking at Alan strangely. He assumed it was a smile and thought nothing more of it. The Engi were a strange race, indeed. Part machine and part living tissue, they were incredible engineers. While he regretted the loss of two trained boarders, he still had his weapons and engine technicians.

"Sara?" he asked, looking at his human companion. Her approval would make a hat trick of vital systems personnel.

"Huh? Oh, I guess I'll stay aboard if we return to Federation space after we take our holiday. You're not planning on going mercenary, are you captain?"

"Of course not. We're still members of the Federation fleet, but we're taking a small detour on the way back to Earth," he said reassuringly, smiling at Sara. Perfect, he had his whole crew with him. Now he had some chance of reaching the sector he had in mind, although overclocking the FTL drives would make the journey significantly shorter. "Now, you guys tuck in. I'm going to head down and make sure the orbital shipyard Tully is bringing in has our location. Oh, that reminds me, did any other systems get critically hit?"

The crew exchanged some guilty glances. "I ran some system diagnostics. It appears... some of the systems are entirely offline. The ship's computer overclocked the reactor and damaged almost every system. Some of it will be fixable, but some won't. We've lost half of our shield capacity, three quarters of our engine capacity, the oxygen distribution upgrades, our tier-three medical theatre and three-fifths of our weapon capacity. Our burst lasers are damaged and one fire bomb detonated in the launcher and wrecked the system. Also..." Sara looked around nervously, "I can't find the ship's cat. He may have, uhm, been fired out of an airlock during the battle."

Emily shot a horrified look at Alan, searching the room quickly for Crew Chief Mittens the Fourth. Alan sighed, looking down at his wrist-mounted computer. The 'system function device' allowed crew members to access the ship's database and basic functions while moving around the ship, and his had accompanied for almost a decade. The system was usually used alongside a small headset, allowing for broadcast through the ship's intercom. The intercoms were much more reliable, but the headset was useful for receiving alerts and alerts was exactly what it was receiving. It was true, almost every system was frantically flashing, displaying error messages, warnings and threats, in some cases. "O...kay, I guess we can always earn enough to replace those systems again..." At least the universal translator hadn't been hit. That certainly would be a setback. The systems were one of the most expensive aboard, and he'd paid almost an enitre year's salary into integrating the shipboard translator into the SFD's earpiece and headset.

Alan walked mutely out of the mess, looking down at the device in disbelief. He knew the ship was hit hard, but this was going to require half the scrap in the galaxy to repair. Well, at least the orbital shipyard would be able to repair some of the hull damage. 'That shipyard should be here by n--'

"Valiant Star? This is the Federation shipyard 'Radiant Dawn'. We have your ship locked and confirmed, and we're standing by to dispatch repair drones to you. Please confirm your current location to ensure our data is correct. Admiral Tully has ordered us to provide a full hull repair, along with an FTL upgrade for your current system. We will dispatch a shuttle to teleport the FTL upgrade to you."

"Radiant Dawn, this is the Valiant Star. Stand by for current location statistics, I'm making my way to the helm now." Alan slid down an access ladder in a practised motion, stepping onto the battle deck. Doors parted as he strode briskly towards the cockpit, mentally calculating exactly how much scrap would be required to restore a good amount of power to the engines. As he entered the cockpit, he stared at the ship's viewing computer in awe.

Only a few kilometres away from them, the massive shipyard was preparing to receive a badly damaged battlecruiser. Two massive doors parted at the front of the capital ship, lights blinking as the battlecruiser slowly inched into the dock. The shipyard was easily the largest vessel he'd ever set eyes on, and the engines strapped to the side were larger than some of the Federation frigates lazily circling it. It looked large enough to hold several thousand personnel, which it probably did. The dark cockpit slowly lightened as a set of panels turned blue, bringing up lists of information.

"Radiant Dawn, this is the Valiant Star. Stand by for location transfer," he sighed, preparing to read off the long list of data. Giving precise details in a three-dimensional format was a long, boring task. At least he had an incredibly rare sight before him to keep him interested for the next thirty minutes minutes.

*  *  *

Twilight Sparkle sat in her comfortable study, deep in thought. 'Aliens... how could we have been prepared to discover not just one, but four new sentient races in such a short amount of time? It's amazing! And... we even have a specimen to *study! We could learn so much about so many things! Princess Celestia must be so busy trying to keep the nation calm. Maybe I could write her a letter to see if she's coping...'* Twilight giggled, instantly dismissing that idea. 'She's a princess, she's ruled the country as far as anypony can remember. She must be fi-

A deep, rumbling noise snapped her out of her thoughts. A letter! 'Princess Celestia must need my help with something! Maybe research, or a field expedition, or maybe she wants me to write a report!' The librarian danced with excitement, waiting for Spike to enter the room.

Her assistant walked into the room, looking nervously at the bouncing mare. "Uh Twilight? You've got a le-" She plucked the letter out of his grasp in a scant second, breaking open the wax seal with a practiced motion. Her eyes hungrily devoured the page, making Spike back away slowly. "Twi, it's not gonna disappear. Slow down!"

She gasped, looking around the room. "Spike! Princess Celestia is sending me part of the crashed spaceship to study! This is..." Her voice faltered as she tried to find the right words. Twilight shrugged, squeeing. Spike smiled in return, but the nagging feeling in his chest refused to leave. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to be with Twilight in an enclosed space with an important research task to work on. She could get... weird... about her studies. As he pondered this, Twilight raced over to the table and pushed the contents onto the floor, levitating a series of heavy tomes over and dropping them onto the desk.

Several newspapers were thrown onto the floor along with the other papers, one of which floated over to Spike's feet. He looked at it curiously, picking up the oversized broadsheet with an interested look on his face. Media establishments around the planet had been reporting constantly on the crashed alien ship, and the story had dominated the headlines for weeks. However, scientists had only been able to access the ship since another contact a few days ago, where another alien ship had come and recovered the pilot. A mischievous smile crossed Spike's lips. "Twilight? What's the big deal about getting inside the ship?"

She spluttered, whirling around. "W-what's the big deal? Y-you... I..." Spike burst into laughter, earning him a disapproving look from his caretaker. "Spike! This is important! I need to focus on getting my information together for when the... spaceship parts arrive!" She grinned again, flipping open the first book. "I need you to look after the library for a while, Spike. Can you do that for me?"

Spike smiled at her, already making a mental list of chores he'd have to finish before he could take on running the library for the day. That's one skill he'd certainly learnt from Twilight; how to mentally arrange all of his tasks to give himself more free time! Which was, of course, consumed by more chores. He sighed, nodding. "Sure Twilight, I can do that for you!"

"Thank you Spike! I don't know what I'd do without you! Maybe I can speak to Rarity about getting you some gems as a treat..." Spike licked his lips subconsiously, already drooling. "Well, I'd better get started on my reading! I have to make notes on ancient languages, just in case any from inside the ship bear a resemblance. Maybe I can cross-reference the new language with my compendium about..."

Spike zoned out, already daydreaming about the delicious ice sapphires Rarity had bought in surplus. He could certainly eat a few of them, that was for sure...

* * *

"Repairs complete, Valiant Star. Our drones have repaired the extensive hull damage and have repaired your laser arrays. However, we have not been authorised to repair your ship's internal systems. You will have to find a local sector merchant to do that for you. Our scans show you will have enough power from your reactor to operate your basic systems, but a reactor overhaul will be required if you wish to make effective use of yo-"

"Yeah, I know. We'll get the reactor overhauled soon," Alan muttered, irritated that he would have to finance the extensive repairs needed.

"Very well. I would suggest testing your systems before you progress, to ensure that they are still in working order. We've been authorised to dispatch two outdated repair drones to act as targets." Almost instantly, two drones detached from the shipyard's hull and accelerated towards the ship. Alan smiled grimly, walking over to the central console. From there he could command all of the ship's systems, including the weapons.

"Ship? Divert reactor power from the medbay to the weapons, divert reactor power from the shields to the engines and lock onto the two approaching targets." The computer silently complied, powering up the two burst laser arrays mounted to the ship's wings. He then tapped in some commands to the console, opening airlocks within the ship to test the door controls. As expected, the air in the corridor between the cockpit and the rest of the ship vented into space. He then re-sealed the doors and repressurised the room. Perfect.

"Ship, fire both laser arrays at the drone to the right. Direct sensors to report on the damage, then redirect the weapons to target the drone to the left." Six pulses of light crossed the screen, ripping the first drone apart with a small flash. "Excellent. Now target the drone to the left." The ship shuddered slightly as the weapons discharged again, shredding the second drone. The console in front of him showed the extent of the damage, salvageable materials the drones had left behind and the nitrogen cooling system for the lasers. All was working perfectly.

"Valiant Star, your systems appear to be in full working order. We're taking receipt of our drones now." A loud hiss echoed through the ship, followed by a series of loud bangs and jolts. Alan watched the drones pilot themselves through space, back towards the shipyard. Well, that was that. He switched his comms channel over to the ship's intercom with a smile. "Crew? Get the ship ready for a series of FTL jumps. Navigation has our destination locked in and our systems are all in order."

Emily's voice echoed back through the intercom. "Confirmed, captain. I'll have the FTL drives online in... two minutes, give or take. Where exactly are we going?"

"Ask Liu Jun. It's where we re-activated her, after all. Small verdant planet that the ship charted as T-972. Inhabited by a primitive race of equines that shouldn't be too much of a hindrance. If they are, we can just find somewhere else. They were fairly docile though so we should have a pretty easy time. It's one of the nicer planets logged, and it ain't one of those tourist hotspots. I hate those places."

Sara's voice chimed in as well, transmitting from a different intercom station. "Sounds like a nice place. Maybe we could give them some Federation materials. It'd be a good idea to give them some knowledge of the Federation before they become spacefaring. It's not first contact, either! I mean, technically the crashed Engi ship we rescued Liu from was the first contact, so we won't be breaking Federation guidelines."

"I guess so," he replied absent-mindedly, daydreaming about having the chance to breathe non-filtered air for once.

"Liu Jun remembers purple equine disconnected Liu Jun from ship's interface. Liu Jun wishes to interface Liu Jun's handgun with purple equine's oral cavi-"

"Now Liu, that's hardly necessary. The poor horse probably thought you were a... carrot, or something."

Alan could picture Liu's sigh of annoyance from the other side of the intercom. The Engi didn't have a sense of humour most of the time, and he would probably receive a twelve-page report on how an Engi looks nothing like a carrot, along with a request for a mental examination.

"Captain, Liu Jun does not understand how Liu Jun could possibly resemble a carrot. However, Liu Jun accepts the captain's recommendation of pacifism on the planet. Liu Jun has no desire to be licked by equines." Alan let out a small laugh, imagining Liu's reaction if a horse decided to lick her. It'd probably end up as a pile of brightly-coloured ash on the floor.

"Captain, FTL drives are charged and ready to fire. Just waiting on you, sir," Emily confirmed. The large 'FTL' button on his console pulsed, bringing up a sector map alongside it. He carefully picked out a course that would hopefully navigate away from frequently-attacked beacons. If they stuck to his route, they'd be at T-972 in a week or so. Once the preparations were sorted and the route was decided, he looked at the FTL button eagerly.

"Well, at least things can't get any crazier than a goddamn three-stage capital ship that got destroyed by a repurposed exploration corvette." He patted a nearby bulkhead lovingly. "I'll have you fixed up in no time, and then we can go blow up more rebels. Well, assuming that was their flagship and not an oversized orbital strip club." He winced, realising he'd just said that on the intercom. "Uh... right, let's get out of here!" The FTL drives purred in reply, sending the ship hurtling towards the next beacon.