Chapter 23

"So what's all this then?" I asked sternly as Candy and Erin stood before me, both beautifully naked.

"We've had a crew meeting," said Candy equally stern. "And we have a grievance."

"What?" I said trying to keep a straight face.

"A grievance," repeated Erin. "It's you and 'er."

She nodded to the room where Tasha was sleeping.

"Since she's come on board, Candy and I don't get a look in," she explained. "All we want is equal dibs."

"Oh," I said. "Sorry, I didn't realise how you felt."

"Well now you do," said Candy. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"What I need is some help here," I muttered more to myself than to them.

"Hang on there's a message coming through," said Erin. "It's a Commander Jefferson for you captain. Isn't he the one?"

"Yes, yes," I said.

"Commander," he said.

"Hi, see you got your promotion at last," I remarked.

"Yes, just an half strip, but they couldn't delay much more after the Teleporter thing," he explained. "Which is one of reasons I'm calling you."

"Yes?" I said.

"I hear that you've been through it," he enquired.

"Yes," I agreed. "No ill effects that I can tell."

"Good, good," he said. "Many thanks for your heads up on it."

"And the other thing you wanted to ask?" I said.

"Yes captain," he said with an embarrassing cough. "It's since my promotion I haven't been assigned a ship as yet and I would like to come aboard for a while."

"We already have four aboard and the life support isn't up to five," I said truthfully. "But saying that we do have some life support modules taken from some escape pods, we used them last year when we ferried an official."

"Sounds like a plan," he said, "So how about it?"

Well it looked like I needed some help in the stud department and I know he's up for the task.

"Yes ok," I agreed. "I'll see if I can clear it with the Commodore."

"So what's he like," Erin badgered Candy.

"He's young and handsome," she said with a giggle. "Not that I knew him that well for Lila monopolized him when he was here last."

"So you've never," she asked.

"No, no," Candy said with a blush.

I caught Candy's eye and smiled.

"No he's all yours," she said smiling back at me.

"Stop your chatter and get on with fixing those life support modules," I snapped but with a smile too.

Unlike last time we used them this time we were fixing them permanently, with new wiring and circuit breakers.

"Welcome aboard Commander," I said with a salute.

"God it's nice to be back," he said taking my hand. "Hello Candy."

He took her hand but Candy reached up and kissed him on the cheek.

"This is Erin and this is Tasha our newest crew member," I introduced them to him.

"Yes, yes," he said taking each of their hands in turn. "The Commodore told me about you two," he said.

"Lets get you squared away," I said.

"I take it I'm allowed to," he said his question fading away.

"Yes of course, but please not with Candy," I said knowing full well he could have whoever he wanted."

"Same as before then," he chuckled.

We were two days out from our Sol base and Jefferson and I sat in the cockpit together.

"So tell me about the Warp barrier?" I asked right out of the blue.

"The warp barrier, what brought that up?" he enquired.

I didn't reply just shrugged.

"Well they say that it's at warp ten but that's not true," he said staring out of the cockpit window. "It's around there but it's not exactly warp ten."

"So how do we go faster than warp ten then?" I asked.

"We can't," he explained. "Space can't warp out of the way any faster and that restricts us."

"Yes I see," I said and nodded at Tasha who had joined us looking magnificent straight from her bed. Her pure white hair all ruffled and tangled.

"You're talking about the warp barrier?" she asked.

"Yes," I agreed.

"Just suppose you projected the warp field ahead of the ship," she said, looking directly at me and smiled.

"What good would that do?" asked Jefferson with a frown on his face.

"Get the warp space moving before the ship arrived," she said.

"No, no, that won't work," he said. "You would have to project it a long way, many thousands of klicks at least."

"Do some sums and see," she said and headed for the crew quarters for something to eat.

"Project ahead," Jefferson muttered.

I left him still muttering and joined Tasha and poured some coffee.

"So that's how you do it?" I said taking a sip of my brew.

"Yes and he's wrong," she said with a smile. "You don't have to project it far, just enough to get it moving. About half a klick will do."

"Well you've given him a head start so let's see how he does," I said.

"You know I think she may have something," he said to me next day. "Every time I do the calculations it gives me a figure of less than one kilometre, which still sounds wrong but I can't find any fault in my calculations."

"So?" I asked.

"Well the energy to project the warp field a kilometre ahead is nothing really, say less than ten percent," he said sounding excited now. "Most Navy ships have that sort of spare capacity."

"So you could make this ship do Warp eleven or twelve?" I asked.

"No, no, not this old tub," he said with a laugh. "One of the new Star class ships that can almost do warp ten now could though. Just imagine it, warp twelve, that'll push back the boundary's."

"Write it up and I'll submit it to Navy central," I said.

"Yes I think I will," I said.

"Captain, I'm picking up a distress call," shouted Erin from the cockpit.