"A day or two of R and R on Rigel Beta 5 is exactly what the doctor ordered", the Chief said as he leaned against the counter in the galley, sipping his cup of coffee, "Krebs is driving me nuts.  If I don't get away from his constant babbling, I'm going to rip his tongue out," then added with a half hearted laugh, "or space him."

Laughing at the remark, I replied, "don't worry Chief, I'll make sure you get off the ship and away from him for a day or two.  As tempting as it might be to shove him out an airlock, I need him... where else could I find somebody that works as cheap to replace him?"  Then turning to Janice, who was also there, I asked, "by the way, Janice, where's S'dira?  I didn't see her this morning at breakfast.  Isn't she helping you any more?"

"She helped me cook this morning, then asked if she could run over to the medical bay and study some more", Janice responded.

"The med bay," I questioned, "to study?"

Janice replied, "seems some of her memories are returning."  Janice continued, "she told me she had recollections of working as a medic or nurse before she was captured by the Feds.  She's been there every day during her spare time, for the past couple of weeks now, studying the medical database.  Told me it's the least she can do to repay our kindness"

"God knows we can use a medic on this boat," I responded' "I'll check in on her, later.  Thanks for the heads up."

Suddenly, the ship came to a dead stop from hyperspace, causing the Chief and Janice to grab the counter to keep from falling, but sending me sprawling out of my seat onto the deck.  Recovering from the jolt, Tyrell stepped over to me and offered his hand to help me up, adding, "are you all right boss?"

Taking the man's hand, I replied, "I'm fine Chief, I've survived worse, thanks," as he helped me to my feet.  I was about to call Luci to find out what had happened, when she called for me to come to the control room immediately and to bring the Chief with me.  Knowing Luci as I do, I figured it was best to do as she requested and save the questions for when we got there.  As the Chief and I entered control, I saw Luci standing in the middle of the room, staring out the front window.   "Luci, why did you make an emergency stop?", I asked the Lekkulion woman.

"I didn't," Luci responded as she pointed ahead, "safety protocols did, it detected a strong gravity well and that."

As Tyrell and I walked to the front window to see what Luci was pointing at, the Chief let out a whistle and said, "holy mother of..."

Peering out the window, I was taken aback by what I saw, it was a huge ship of the type I've never seen before.  All I could muster to say was, "how big is that thing?"  Regaining my composure, I queried my first officer, "what kind of ship is that?"

Turning toward me and looking a little flushed, Tyrell responded, "it's a Gondaari Battlecruiser... Luci, any response from it?"  Luci herself nervously replied with a negative and informed him that sensors indicated it was unmanned and dead in the water.  Noticing the baffled look on my face, Tyrell began to explain.

"The Gondaari is one of the handful of races that even the Feds won't, actually, don't even want to mess with in any fashion,"  the Chief began to tell me,  "the first time they met them, the Federal battle group came upon a lone cruiser like this and the Feds being who and what they are, decided to show them who was boss and attacked with the intention of commandeering it."  Continuing, the Chief stated, "the first salvo hit the cruiser and were deflected by its shields," then after a deep breath added, "there wasn't a second salvo."  With a slightly choked voice, he continued, "the cruiser returned fire and blew the group out of the sky with a single volley.  Twenty-four top of the line ships and over one hundred thousand personnel ceased to exist that day.  Only one ship was spared, an unarmed hospital ship.  They were given a text only message to take back to the Empire, it was a warning... as long as the Gondaari were left in peace, there would be peace.  No one has ever seen what they look like,  it's SOP now to beat a hasty exit from the area when they are encountered."  then with a slight laugh, added, "at least somebody back at HQ had enough brains to heed the message."

"They must be some badasses if the Feds tuck tail and run at the sight of them," turning to my first officer, I queried, "you say it's empty and dead?"

"All sensor sweeps indicate there is no one aboard and all systems are powered down," Luci replied, "it's just sitting there.  I hailed it that we are an unarmed freighter and mean no harm, no response."

"All right," I said as I looked at them both, "get everybody to the galley, I want to talk to all of you.  I have an idea, but I want everybody's input."

As the crew sat down around the table, I brought up the image of the Gondaari Battlecruiser on the holographic projector.  "OK everybody, I'm sure by now we all know what we found," I started the meeting.  Without missing a beat, I continued, "I want to salvage it."  With that, the room became as silent as a tomb as I went on, "by all indications, the ship is abandoned... I don't know how, I don't know why.  But from what I've heard so far from Chief and Luci, there's a treasure of technical items that could prove worth the risk.  Please hear me out, I have a plan that should keep us from being blown away."

Details of the plan included taking the shuttle over to the Gondaari ship with the crew being the Chief and Luci, as they were the closest we had to experts on the Gondaari, plus their tactical knowledge in case of problems.  I also chose Lenny to go along, I figured he had the technical knowledge to hopefully retrieve some very useful items.  After about an hour of discussing the pros and cons, everybody reluctantly decided it was worth the risk.  Lenny was the most vocal of the pros, he was chomping at the bit to get his hands on the advanced technology and study it.  However, S'dira was uneasy the whole time, she said she couldn't explain it, but that she was worried something might go wrong, then dismissed it as left over feelings from her capture and detainment.

"OK, so that's the plan,"  I concluded,  "Chief, you and Luci prepare the jumper and the EVA suits... make sure it's all working perfectly.  Lenny, you gather what equipment you think you'll need.  Remember, you're mainly after the ship's database.  After that, I'll leave up to you all as to what might be the most useful to collect."

Standing there, looking at the people I now thought of as my family, I couldn't help but be a little afraid, but with a smile and as cheerful a voice I could muster, spoke to my crew,  "let's do this!"

To be continued...

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Not sure what's going on?  Well give this link a click: A Little Introduction Is In Order and hopefully it will clear things up for you.
Thanks for dropping by and hope you enjoyed yourself!  Until next time, this is Aria... signing off.

Minbari Sharlin Cruiser model courtesy of daniel181 at ShareCG