t and take command thereafter at a nice little ceremony in front of the gathered ship's company… until Fleet Command saw fit

dry dock before Final Checks could be performed! The lead refit Foreman had refused to sign off on the ship's space worthiness certificate, and Falcone had just ordered him off the An

state Antares was in, Ripley could only imagine the nature of the emergency at hand! It must h

n line within four hours, Captain." She might've said th

at about the shields? Have they b

een re-cut and recalibrated. They sho

e nodded, "I don't want th

Falcone's hair shone even whiter under the lights in the ceiling of the elevator car, and his usually warm brown eyes seemed a cold faded gray today, skulking

ir

holiday on Tarsus is going

been thirty hours and still he hadn't

his all a

ly uncomfortable. He

ontact with a

peated. "That's in the O

mmand wants to know why – and we're th

at shape we're in, sir? In th

ly making himself look evil in

e cruiser close enough to respond – w

space. Antares – the ship she'd been with since she left the Academy as a Lieutenant six short years before, had seen her meteoric rise to the rank of Commander and to the position of Exo. Along with the ship, C

itters are down, Capt

features softened into a grin, and for a moment she recognized the wise, genial old man who had mentored her growth into an outstanding officer. "They've just found a way to liven up my l

up on those power fluctuatio

– said it was fine when he looked at it. He sai

o check again. We may need o

Chief Entech aboard the Antares. Nore was due to be transferred off the crew at Spacedock 7 – at his own request, to be posted somewhere quiet where he could tinker with a desk for his last year of service before retirement. Antares had also been waiting for a replacement Chief Entech there, one that conformed to the normal requirements –