The next day Countryman was walking down the corridor on deck 5. He stopped at the door of his chief engineer a young woman named Megumi Richards. Countryman was looking forward to the encounter and wondering what kind of person the daughter of his former love would be like. He activated the doorbell on the doors control console. 

Megumi was in the middle of changing when the doorbell rang. As soon as she heard the bell she rushed over to the door panel and fumbled for the comm, but in her haste, she accidentally opened the door instead. As she flushed in embarrassment about being seen in her underwear, Countryman turned around. Megumi was a young woman of 26, she had black hair and like most humans from Mars, her eyes were red. She composed herself and spoke:

“One moment, Commander”

Then she closed the door and hurried to put her uniform on. Then she exited her quarters and asked the Commander.

“Can I help you, commander?”

“I mostly wanted to introduce myself. I am commander Countryman, my friends call me Jac”

She quickly took a second look at Countryman. He was an older man who looked to be around 50. His hair was a dark brown and beginning to gray. He was clean-shaven and his brown eyes reflected the wisdom gained from years of experience. In disbelief she responded:

“You can’t be that Countryman, can you?”

“You look like your mother almost exactly the way I pictured you, but I take it I am not as you pictured,” replied Countryman.

“But mom said you were already an older man when she met you. You don’t look old enough to be him.” She replied still trying to reconcile the disconnect. But as she looked at him she noticed he looked almost exactly as her mother described him.

“Then I take it your mom never told you that I am a Cyborg.”

“No, she didn’t but it would explain why you haven’t aged much.”

A few minutes later she asked:

“I have heard mom’s stories about you for years. What was she like when you met her?”

“Sarah was young when I first met her back on Mars. She was my student then and she was younger than everyone else in the class. It was two years after the 2nd colonial war ended, I got to know her when she came to me for tutoring. She was strong-minded and brilliant, but most importantly not afraid to ask for help when she needed it. After she left my class we kept in touch a few years later she graduated and since work outside of the military was rare back then she came to me for a job. It was during those years that I first got to really know her. By that time she had grown into a pretty, young woman but I was most impressed with her intelligence.............”

As she listened a part of her began to wish she hadn’t asked. As he spoke he signaled a direction down the corridor and they began to walk in that direction.

“...... it was a lovely day in the middle of the Martian summer when we went on our first date. She was wearing a lovely red dress that day that brought out her eyes, which seemed like rubies in comparison. I took her to a lovely restaurant on Aka street. We ordered steaks that day she was surprised that I could afford them. After the restaurant, I took her to watch the setting sun and presented her with a box of martian chocolates......”

It was around this point that they got off a lift and rounded a corner before entering a room in the forward sections of deck 12. It was one of the ship’s Lounges, the room had dozens of tables. The chairs at the tables looked like normal chairs but they were actually on concealed tracks. At one end of the room was a small bar, at the other was a bank of recreational computer consoles. Next to the console was a series of shelves stocked with board games. Next to the bar was another set of shelves stocked with a number of data disks for use with either the consoles or the tables. The tables had a screen built-in and control panels on two sides. They had games programmed in such as chess and checkers. The external wall was dominated by a series of viewports. Like all viewports on the ship, they were equipped with retractable armor plates. The plates were currently retracted and provided an excellent view of the debris field and the moon which was just entering the field of view but Earth was not in the field of view. They sat down at one of the nearby tables.

“....... with the New Industrial Revolution on Earth, we decided to move to Earth as the economic opportunities were immense. We settled into a nice house at Star Tech Headquarters that had been in my family since 2033. My cousin had more than enough space for us. She also had no right to complain since I had been the one paying the bills on that house for decades. The next two years were the happiest in my life. But that turned into sorrow and pain 28 years ago.”

The fact that the house had been in his family so long was impressive especially since few buildings survived WWIII and most of the ones that did were appropriated by the then newly founded U.E government. That last statement caught her attention and she asked:

“What do you mean?”

“It was a lovely day in February, and I had just purchased a ring worth ten years of my savings when I heard a strange rumor, naturally I investigated. That rumor turned out to be true and wounded me to the core. The woman I loved and was planning to marry had betrayed me. She had cheated on me with another man just two days before. I was furious and confronted her later that day. We had quite the argument then she left for Mars despite the fact that the Third Colonial War was raging. We did not speak again for 12 years. 16 years ago though she contacted me, told me of the illness she had contracted and asked me to take care of you if she died, in fact, she told me a great deal about you. After that, I began secretly sending her money.”

After hearing this dozens of questions flew through her mind. She wondered what happened to the ring and why he started sending mom that money. She was even curious about what exactly mom had told him. A part of her even wondered if this man could be her father. The first thing she chose to ask him was about the ring.

“The ring? I still have it,” he replied then suddenly his right arm opened up, eight plates retracted revealing complex circuitry and a mixture of organic and artificial materials in complete symbiosis. She even noticed the casing of what looked like an E-11 personal defense cannon and fitted over the emitter was a beautiful diamond ring. Countryman removed the ring and handed it to her and said:

“This is the ring I was going to give your mother. I considered selling it after our argument but I didn’t, it's been decorating my cannon emitter ever since.”

As she looked at the cannon she began to wonder how old Countryman was. She then took the ring and began to look at it before asking him his age.

“Tomorrow would be my 191st birthday, not that it is worth celebrating in the light of our recent sorrow,” he replied while closing his arm plates.

“Then you must have some insight into the technologies of the first colonial war. In fact, what was it like to travel on those ships?” asked Megumi.

“They were slow and maneuvered like tubs. When WWIII started to break out I boarded a transport headed to Mars colony. Those were the most boring 8 months of my life. Even with the books and collection of old games I brought with me,” replied Countryman

Having finished examining the ring she moved to hand it back. The ring was an elaborate silver band with a beautiful natural set of stones arrayed to resemble a flower instead of the synthetic stones that were popular nowadays which also explained the high cost of the ring. It was obvious to her that the ring would have cost Countryman a few hundred million dollars. But Countryman pushed it back and said:

“No, I think you should have it and I don’t need it anymore.”

She argued with him for a while, but eventually accepted the ring. Then Countryman asked her a question.

“So, have you familiarized yourself with the ship's layout yet?” asked Countryman.

“Haven’t had a chance yet sir,” replied Megumi.

“Then let me show you some of the highlights,” replied Countryman

She agreed and he showed her around the ship. He showed her where the ship’s maintenance pathways were, The shuttle bays on decks 4, 98, 50, and H deck. The lettered decks were located in the secondary hull and numbered primary hull. He also showed her the War Room on deck 30, Central weapons control on deck two, the science labs on deck 102, Energy Web Control on deck 52, Navigational Control on B deck and several other facilities before they came to deck one. The bridge was not yet repaired, but they were heading to the Officer’s Conference Room inside a number of officers were waiting from both the Baltimore and the Enterprise. They had come to the conference room before the tour could be finished because they were summoned.

As they entered Greyman and Williams were arguing over who should be captain of the Enterprise. Williams seemed to be of the opinion that she should take command, while Greyman was arguing that they should follow standard protocol, and put Countryman in charge of the ship.

Countryman moved to the table and took a seat and silently motioned to Megumi to take a seat as well. Then he began to listen while silently charging his defenses and switching them to stun just in case.

“...... and since he has little command experience I am a more suitable candidate for command of this ship then he is,” stated Williams.

“I have quite a bit of experience with command actually. I have commanded a few science ships in the past.” interrupted Countryman.

“A science ship is a far cry from the Enterprise,” jabbed Williams.

“If you are worried about my tactical skills, I was trained in modern ship to ship tactics by command, and I have quite a few tactical manuals loaded to my neural net.”

“Cyborgs are almost as bad as androids you can’t trust them,” spat Williams.

“Well if you're going to play that card go ahead, it won’t get you anywhere. Besides I outrank you,” coldly replied Countryman. 

“I doubt that, there is no way, a commander outranks me, I have been a captain for 15 years, I am more qualified than you,” replied Williams.

“Actually I do. My military rank may be commander, but I have High Admiral level authority anyway let's just put it to a vote, I would rather not have to use my clearance code to assume a command that is by rights mine, according to the chain of command, and military tradition,” replied Countryman.

The other officers in the room were 1st Lieutenant Kaori Airi a 23-year-old from Mars with red hair and eyes, she was formerly the Chief Tactical Officer aboard the Baltimore. Ensign Misaki a young girl of 17 from Venus with red hair and blue eyes, a recent graduate of the academy she was serving as operations and comm officer aboard the Baltimore. Ruri a 32-year-old woman with black hair and blue eyes, who was currently serving as the Enterprise’s chief science officer. 2nd lieutenant Mitsubishi Eri a young woman of Japanese descent with black hair and brown eyes, age 19 she was formerly the helmsman of the Baltimore. 1st Lieutenant Maria Sanchez, a Hispanic woman of 27, she was the navigation officer aboard the Baltimore. The Chief medical officer was mysteriously absent. The vote for captain was almost unanimous with only Sanchez voting for Williams. Most of the officers being smart enough to know that voting against tradition would open a can of worms best left closed. With Sanchez being the only officer who had been under Williams’ command for more than a couple of months. Williams and Countryman weren’t allowed to vote. Making the vote 5 to 1 in favor of Countryman.

Williams was not happy and stormed out of the room and Sanchez followed her. Greyman approached Countryman and said:

“We are still receiving distress signals and both Captain Dykes and Captain Smith say they need help rescuing the survivors. When do you plan on getting underway?”

“As soon as the bridge transfer is complete and the damaged hull plates are replaced. Which if everything goes according to schedule would be around 1400 hours today.” then Countryman turned to the others and thanked them for their support before asking Megumi to accompany him. The two then left the room.

A couple of hours later the bridge officers filed into the newly replaced main bridge. Countryman took the captain's seat and Greyman stood next to him. The other officers took their stations. Countryman took a moment to survey his bridge before giving his first order.

“Sanchez lay in a course for the nearest distress call,” ordered Countryman.

“Aye sir, course laid in,” said Sanchez.

“Eri ahead full” ordered Countryman.

“Aye sir,” replied Eri while she engaged the engines then she said, “Just so you know sir Eri is my given name.”

“Richards keep an eye on those new hull plates,” ordered Countryman, while ignoring Eri’s statement, he had already known that, but chose to use her given name because it was shorter.

“Yes sir,” replied Megumi while Ruri entered the bridge and approached Countryman.

“Sir I have analyzed the last engagement and I think I can improve the Energy Webs effectiveness.”

“Let’s hear it,” replied Countryman

She then described her idea to Countryman.

“Run a few simulations and see if it works, if it does we will implement it. I also have a few ideas for enhancing the hull plating that take advantage of our superior power generation. You will find my experimental AIF configurations in file XAE-2370943-B. Also, check out my enhancements for the Energy Absorbers in file XAE-2370941-F and my ideas for improving the dispersion field emitters in file XAE-2370943-D,” said Countryman.

“Yes sir and may I ask why you chose such long names for your files?” asked Ruri.

“No,” replied Countryman than Ruri left the bridge while writing the file names into her datapad before she forgot them. A few minutes later a damaged Charleston class light cruiser entered view. 

“Sir we are approaching the EFS Essex,” reported Eri.

“All Stop. What is the status of the Essex?” said Countryman.

“Her hull plating has failed. She has 42 hull breaches, fires on decks 4, 7 and 18 her port nacelle has been destroyed, her weapons array is offline and her port fighter bay has been destroyed. Her main reactor shielding has failed and is leaking radiation. We are detecting 113 survivors in the ship's forward sections. Fortunately, her comm array appears to be undamaged, sir,” reported operations.

“Hail the ship” ordered Countryman.

A few moments later a young man with a Lieutenant's markings appeared on the forward view screen. The room behind him was in shambles with a collapsed bulkhead in the background.

“Sir, glad to see you the captain and most of the crew is dead and the ship is flooding with deadly radiation,” said the young man.

“Can you eject the reactor core?” asked Countryman.

“No, the remote control systems are frozen. We can’t eject the core or separate the secondary hull,” replied the young man, clearly frightened. 

Countryman then assured the young man that he would take care of it and closed the comm channel.

“Kaori charge the cutting beams,” ordered Countryman.

“Cutting beams charged, sir” reported Kaori.

“Lock on to the connecting struts and fire,” ordered Countryman.

“Beams locked, firing” reported Kaori, as she guided the beams to cut the connecting struts.

An instant later twin blue particle beams shot out and started to cut through the thick armored struts that connected the secondary hull to the primary and the remaining nacelle. 34 seconds later the beams cut out and had to recharge before firing again. It took three full discharges of the beam array to separate the secondary hull from the primary taking a total of 110 seconds. As soon as the hull was separated Countryman ordered the ship to move into a towing position. The ship then closed the distance to a little under 50 km and Eri angled the ship so that the aft Mag Tractor Projector had an angle to fire.

“We are in position, captain” stated Eri.

“Engage tractor,” ordered Countryman.

A second later a pair of mag disks shot out and attached to the hull of the Essex. Then a pair of towing beams were established.

“Tractor beam established, sir,” stated Richards.

“Eri, move us away from the Essex’s secondary hull, ahead one quarter. Tactical target the hull and prepare to fire on my command,” ordered Countryman.

“Aye sir” replied Eri.

The distance slowly started to increase. Kaori stated the distance every twenty seconds. A few moments later:

“We are now at 12000 Km from the target, sir.”

“Destroy it,” ordered Countryman

An instant later a beam shot out and pierced the Essex’s Secondary hull. After 22 seconds of continuous fire, it shot out the other side. The next second the module exploded as the reactor lost containment.

“Local radiation levels are dropping captain,” said Misaki

“Evacuate the Essex and shut down the tractor projector,” ordered Countryman.

“Aye sir launching shuttles,” replied Misaki.

“Aye sir disengaging tractor,” replied Richards

A few seconds later the mag disks detached and the beam pulled them back into the projector before shutting down. Ten minutes passed before the first shuttles left the shuttlebay to evacuate the Essex. It took time for the bay workers to load and ready the shuttles before decompressing the bay, to allow for a launch. It took nearly half an hour to evacuate the Essex. After that, the Enterprise evacuated 4 other ships before coming across the EFS Yamato. The Yamato came into view and the damage was very noticeable even from a distance.

“Scan the Yamato, I want to know if the damage is as bad as it looks,” ordered Countryman. The Yamato had a huge chunk of her primary hull on the starboard side blown away and all three of her starboard nacelles were gone and she was venting burning deuterium from rips in her secondary hull. As they approached an explosion rocked the Yamato and tore another hole in her hull.

“The Yamato has suffered severe damage sir, most of the ship is vented to space and there are fires on every deck not vented to space. Her star frame is beginning to buckle and the ship is breaking apart,” reported Misaki, after consulting the sensors.

“Life signs?” asked Countryman.

“None on the ship, but I am picking up hundreds of escape pods,” replied Misaki.

Countryman ordered the ship to begin recovery operations. Dozens of shuttles were launched to tractor the pods back to the ship. It took hours to collect all the pods and they only accounted for 4,752 people out of a crew of 12,700. Among the survivors was the injured Captain Ashley Drakes and his daughter Hannah. Countryman headed down to sickbay to see him.

Countryman entered sickbay on its uppermost level on deck 39. The rooms were a flurry of activity with dozens of personnel moving back and forth. Some people were being rushed into the operating rooms on stretchers with severe injuries. Countryman walked over to the officer at the desk and inquired as to the location of Captain Drakes. The young man there told him that Drakes was on deck 42 in recovery room 49. Countryman then headed to the sickbay lift. A few minutes later he entered recovery room 49. There Drakes sat on a bio bed he was an older man in his 50s with brown hair that was beginning to grey and blue eyes. He had a short disheveled beard and his uniform was torn.

“Here to greet me, eh, captain?” said Drakes as soon as Countryman entered.

“Welcome aboard, Drakes. May I ask what happened?” said Countryman.

“They sent half their fleet at us, and once the hull plating failed they dumped a dozen torpedoes into our starboard side lost half the ship when the Starboard torpedo bay exploded. One of their torpedoes must have ignited the fuel for our torpedo warheads. Would have been the whole ship if the bay wasn’t nearly empty. After that fires broke out and the fire suppression systems failed. I was forced to give the order to abandon ship,” replied Drakes.

“Well then Drakes may I ask how you got stuck with a girl's name?” asked Countryman.

“My parents wanted a girl. Let’s leave it at that,” replied Drakes.

Countryman and Drakes continued to speak for half an hour before Countryman had to leave. Countryman then headed back to the bridge. It took two days to find and rescue all the survivors of the Battle of Earth after that they began salvaging the debris field. Every ship Human and Cathamari alike were stripped of usable technology and materials. Anything they could not take with them was stored aboard the converted defense station Star Tech One, They were able to start up and expand the hydroponic bays on the Enterprise with crops and fish they found on the surviving orbital hydroponics facilities. For food, they had a variety of grains, vegetables, fruits, and fish.

 As the month ended and June came around they were finally ready to depart Earth orbit, but Williams brought up the issue of command again. The bridge officers and former captains all gathered in the officer’s conference room. Countryman sat down at the head of the table and began to listen to her power-hungry argument. 

“....... and furthermore putting a cyborg in charge is like putting a computer in charge. I don’t know about you, but I would rather die than accept putting a computer in charge,” finished Williams.

“That can be arranged,” said one of the former captains.

“Really, well I don’t see why that means we should put you in charge,” stated another.

“I don’t have a problem and Countryman’s pre-service record shows he has a strong grasp of command and tactics,” said a third.

“What do you mean?” asked Williams, now a bit worried that her speech hadn’t rallied her fellow captains against Countryman.

“The incident occurred 69 years ago, Countryman was in charge of the MFS Nebula he was testing the ship's new engines when she was attacked by three Lunar cruisers, despite being heavily outgunned, out-ranged and outnumbered he managed to sink all three cruisers with minimal casualties and only light damage.” replied the  officer

“How did he accomplish that?” asked the ship's tactical officer Kaori, her eyes seemingly sparkling.

“My ship was more maneuverable and a bit faster, so I outmaneuvered them. The Nebula was equipped with sophisticated computer equipment it was easy to reconfigure some of it to serve as a basic electronic warfare module. I was able to sink the first cruiser by tricking their missiles into thinking their cruiser was my ship. In the brief moment of surprise, I quickly closed to weapons range on the second and sunk her by targeting her reactor module. The third proved more challenging but I was able to avoid her missile volleys by using the debris as a shield forcing her captain to close to laser range. Just before he entered laser range I generated an EM pulse that temporarily blinded her sensors. It only lasted 3 seconds but it was enough for me to knock out her main engine. I took some damage from her return fire before I could maneuver into the cruiser’s blind spot. Once there I fired a few shots into her main reactor with my lasers,” explained Countryman. Most of the officers were impressed, but Williams wasn’t.

“An incident 70 years ago involving outdated weapons and defenses doesn’t mean he is fit for command of the Enterprise,” argued Williams.

As the discussion went on the officers were more and more in favor of maintaining the current captain. Especially since any action that went against tradition would cause problems, and dissatisfaction among the officers. Most of the officers gathered recognized that making anyone other than Countryman captain would open up a can of worms that in the current situation was best left closed. To calm Williams one of them proposed the creation of an officer's council which would wield some power on the ship. After some debate, they decided to create one. Its job would be to manage fleet resources, maintain order, and determine the fleet’s long-range goals.

“Alright then I agree that those powers make sense, now who do you think should be on the council,” said Commander Greyman. 

“The former ship captains,” said one officer.

“Any officer currently holding the rank of captain,” said another officer.

“It should be a group of elected officers of rank commander and above” suggested a third.

They were several more suggestions before they began to debate the pros and cons of each suggestion. After several hours they had finally decided who belonged on the council and the subject moved to supply.

“One of the big items that would affect morale is our limited coffee supply, we only have enough for a few weeks before we run out and we have no means to replace it,” said one officer.

“Perhaps one of the colonies has a supply of coffee plants we could use,” suggested a third.

“Unlikely all the colonies imported the stuff from Earth. Mars tried to grow coffee 120 years ago but the resulting coffee was considered disgusting so they stopped,” said Countryman.

“Well then perhaps we could synthesize a substitute for coffee,” suggested Williams.

“We don’t really need the stuff and I know of several mild stimulants that could substitute for the stuff. Even though they don’t taste the same,” said Chief Medical Officer Robins.

“We will use the substitutes Robins suggests. Now let's move on to our immediate goals” said Countryman.

“Have any in mind?” asked Williams.

“I was thinking we should take Star Tech One and hide it in the Asteroid belt. We should also visit Mars and see if we can find any plants that could supplement our list of crops. If we get lucky we might even get a supply of Martian Chocolate plants which would definitely boost morale, and who knows they might make a decent trade good,” replied Countryman.

“Mars sounds like a good bet for food supplies. Given that they were the largest agricultural producer outside of Earth, I am certain some of their farming survived the last battle of Mars,” replied one of the other officers triggering a mutual line of consensus. They then began to consider which star system they should head for after they cleared the inner system. Several systems were proposed, but they eventually chose Alpha Centauri.