Part V The yacht landed with an audible thump and the reason for the distress call was instantly obvious to anyone who wasn't medically blind. For an asteroid it must have been really moving because the impact had nearly folded the cover for the portside thruster. Guards scrambled to station themselves on all sides of the ship, while the medics rushed forward to the opening hatch of the ship. Captain Henry stood calmly at the bottom of the steps and waited for the smoke from the ships thrusters to clear away. The smoke cleared to reveal a tallish man of about forty, who walked down the stairs calmly as if nothing as happened. He was followed by a man and woman, both of about thirty and obviously a couple, then a burly man in his late twenties, another woman in her mid-twenties, and finally an elderly gentleman about sixty finished off the group. Brian Setzer, who had led the group off the ship, stopped at the foot of the stairs, smiled and shook the captain's hand. "Captain, how nice it is to meet you. It was absolutely wonderful of your boys to come and pick us up like that. I hope we won't cause any sort of problems for you. If we can get some parts and a little help I'm sure we can be on our way within days." Henry was sort of overwhelmed by the rush of information took a moment to collect his thoughts. "Yes, well then why don't I have someone show you to your guest quarters. Then of course I will have my executive officer Xanatos look into fixing your yacht as soon as we can." "Your executive officer? Why, your too kind do you really think all of that will be necessary, I mean it was only one asteroid." "No, I think it will be necessary. You see, a ship's computer will routinely set itself to go around or otherwise dodge asteroids that can do it severe damage. This really shouldn't have happened, and besides it will give my repair crews something to do besides just sit around and whine. I think I leave you with Lieutenant Konig who will show you to your quarters." Captain smiled and walked away, frowning as soon as his back was turned. Tourists, this was everything a captain could want in a media disasters if anything further went wrong. Konig took the group to the guest quarters on level twelve and promised that somebody would be sent down as soon as they were free to give a complete tour of the ship. To keep it as simple as possible Konig put them in five rooms on one side of the corridor. First he started with Amanda Fitzhumme, then Mark Gowrie, Patrick Cahn, then the McEwen couple, and finally Brian Setzer. Walking back to his office in security, Konig sat down and though about who would have to get the shaft on this one. It took a couple of minutes before the idea came to him in a flash and he turned to his intercom. When the communication buzzer sounded, Lieutenant Commander Brendan Hobbes was right in the middle of a wonderful classical piece by the Alsatian symphony orchestra. They were playing a portion of the Planets Suite by Gustav Holst called Mercury the Winged Messenger. Growling he rolled out of his chair and sat down at his desk to answer the call, stopping first to turned down the music. Turning on the screen brought him the smiling image of Lieutenant Konig, looking suspiciously like the cat who had swallowed the canary. "This had better be good, Konig. I have better things to do than listen to you spouting shipboard conspiracy theories." Hobbes smiled. "Although, I'm sure that my middie would be happy to listen to you any day of the week." "I'm sure Morris would be thrilled for something to do but this is more important. The captain promised those 'stranded' civilians a tour of the ship and I couldn't think of anyone better to do that." "You're joking, aren't you? I will not be lowered to shepherding a bunch of lost ground pounders just because you don't feel up to it." "Don't you remember the time you absolutely needed to get those Beatles albums of yours aboard the ship. You had forgotten them back on earth and needed a way to get them aboard. So who did you turn to? Me. Well, its time to pay the piper." "Damn it, Konig that's not fair. I should have known you would call me on that one of these days, you sneaky bastard. You know I don't have time for this crap." "So send that middie of yours. I'm sure he knows the ship and there isn't much else for him to do right now without a mission. He'll be perfect for it, tell him it builds character or something, give him the usual ground rules. Keep an eye on them at all times, no restricted areas, and they have to stay in their quarters after last bell at night until first bell in the mornings." "Fine, but we're even now, you got that, Konig." Konig smiled, "Yes, sir. Lieutenant Commander, sir." With that Konig's image winked off the screen leaving Hobbes once again in his room listening to classical music. Well, Hobbes thought to himself, I guess the middie would have to do. He should be all right, just show them around, a quick one time tour through the ship and then back to the cabins until their yacht was fixed. Flipping the comm. system back on he put a quick call through to Morris with his new orders. Jason Morris, Midshipman, though it could have been worse, he could still be in the hangar bay stuck with the job of cleaning his e-frame. Sure leading civilians on a tour of the ship wasn't great but he had to admit that Miss Fitzhumme didn't look all that bad. From what he could figure out this whole group was pretty much dependent on the whims of Mr. Setzer, who apparently owned the yacht. Brian Setzer was on vacation from his newspaper, and for some reason he had brought one of his security guards, and four people from some research firm he owned. Amanda Fitzhumme, was a communications technician from that research firm, Mark Gowrie was a security guard at the newspaper that Setzer owned, a large man with a permanent frown plastered onto his face when he came aboard. The McEwens, Ramsey and Elisa, were teachers and did part-time research with the firm, obviously newlyweds. Patrick Cahn, a researcher, was the oldest member of the group and also seemed to be the most respectable. Starting at the bottom with deck nineteen with its hangar bays, 19 Aft, the enlisted quarters, the maintenance areas for the shuttles and e-frames, and torpedo tubes 3 and 4. And that was where Jason Morris began a slow tour upwards through the ship. Next came deck eighteen and with it the hangar bays and the main cargo bays and the first of a set of coincidences that Jason Morris would never forget. Leading his group through one of the secondary sections of the cargo bay, Morris wasn't looking but when he heard the grunt he turned to see what was happening. As he turned he saw Ramsey McEwen falling to the deck, trying to stop himself on the way down, he managed to grab the edge of a crate. Fate would have it that the crate was precariously balance atop another crate and with the weight of Mister McEwen it tipped over and smashed into the deck besides Ramsey's head. The crate was full of standard issue combat knives and when the box landed they scattered across the aisle. Morris swore at this and after making sure that Ramsey was all right, loaded all of the knives he could back into the crate and pushing it back on the shelf. Jason told the group he would take care of the paperwork and as long as everyone kept quiet about this everything should be fine. Making sure the crate was shut tightly one last time before taking the group up to the next level. Level seventeen was supply bays, followed by level sixteen holding the deuterium tanks and the secondary life supports systems. Level fifteen had two of the ships five fusion engines, engines Charlie and Delta, the secondary deuterium tank and the refueling ports. Fourteen was more enlisted quarters and the ships primary sensor array, while deck thirteen was mainly the ships hydroponics gardens and the tertiary life support systems. Deck twelve where the guests were staying also held main engineering, fusion engine number Echo, and a docking port. Deck eleven directly above that was more torpedo tubes, enlisted quarters, and the shooting range. The guest were rather honored that the middie was giving them such a through tour but by the time the group reached deck ten both Mark Gowrie and Amanda Fitzhumme had departed. The remaining people found that deck ten held junior officer's quarters such as those for Morris's XO, Ratislav O'Muirdagh. Meanwhile the rest of the deck was given over to the ship's brig and the Sewage Processing and Environmental Waste(SPEW) terminal. Deck nine is fusion engines Alpha and Bravo, the barber shop, and the Disaster Instant Response Team(DIRT) station. Continuing on to deck eight, Jason showed the McEwens, Patrick Cahn, and Brian Setzer, 8-Forward, the ship's mess hall, the arboretum, gymnasium, Officer's club, and the recreation deck. The seventh deck was devoted almost entirely to the ship's sickbay and its necessary stores, and the sixth and fifth which Jason never showed them was the ships computer core and two further torpedo tubes. Deck four was more junior officer's quarters and a docking port, and deck three was the armory, emergency batteries and the wardroom. Deck two held the senior officer's quarter and the briefing room, and finally deck one held the bridge, ready room, and conference room. Afterwards the McEwens would go back to their room and spend the night, Amanda got lost on her way down to 19-Aft but did eventually find it. Patrick Cahn had dinner in 19-Aft, while Brian Setzer ate with the captain as befitting one of his stature. Mark Gowrie got along with the jump troops especially well, he got drunk with them that night and told them tales about his days back when he was a marine. Things were rather quiet until the next morning when the ship was rocked by something unheard in the history of human space travel. End Part V