Taylen Tenebris sat in the mess hall sipping his drink. He was the executive officer and wing commander of the Hawkblades squadron, aboard the explorer class vessel – Searching Light. His flight suit was unzipped down to his waist, and he sipped his drink with his eyes lost deep in thought.
The mission had been simple; travel through the new wormhole to wherever it lead, explore and report back. However, after travelling through the wormhole it had closed abruptly behind them – leaving them stranded at the arse-end of the universe with no immediate way home. The explorer class vessels were kitted out for this, but in fifteen years of exploration it had never happened to them (or anyone else he had heard of). The ion drive used dust scooped up from the corona of stars to power it for decades. Food Synthesizers would make all they needed, drawing on the ships reserves and water was constantly recycled and easily accessible throughout the galaxy. The ship was self-sustaining for the crew of six people on board.
Taylen sipped his drink, looking around the mess, as he waited for the meeting to start. The commander had called them all here to discuss their predicament. In fact, the captain was the only one currently missing. At Taylen's table, sat his two wingmen, or wing-women... Louisa and Laura... Two of the best pilots he had ever flown with, they had joined him on this mission, detached from peace keeping, trying something different... Bet they were regretting it now. Laura was tall – six feet, with dark brown hair cut short. Her eyes were glittering as she sat there sipping their last remaining stash of whisky. She was trained in communications repair and first aid in the field. Louisa was a science officer who had demonstrated a talent for anticipating flight controls. She had transferred after becoming a science officer, then trained to fly. Both of them had saved his life more times than he could count. She also had the best cleavage Taylen had ever been privileged to see.
The other two people in the mess hall were Nick and Nic... The running joke amongst people were that engineering was run by a pair of knickers. Nick was short, broadly built and the stereotypical engineer; if it broke, he could fix it with a pencil, elastic band and a piece of gum. A useful person to have on board whilst stranded. Nic was wafer thin and genius level smart. Barely nothing to her slight frame, she was nervous around people for too long and preferred hiding in engineering – toying with new designs.
The door gave its tell-tale beep and swung inwards, allowing entrance for the commander. Sue Fyreborn was one of the best ship commanders he had ever met, and was now keeping them all in-line and on task. She walked over, grabbed the bottle from the table and took a swig from it, sitting on the edge of one of the tables.
"We're fucked... and not in the fun kind of way." She took another swig from the bottle, and looked around at them. "We have two options... The first is to sit around here and wait for the wormhole to re-open – if it re-opens... The second option is to set off in one direction to see if we can work out where we are, and then work out a way back home. We could be a few years away, we could be a millennium away from home, we can't tell from this position."
Sue looked around the room for some kind of response but the Knickers seemed to be lost in their own worlds – undoubtedly considering the mechanics of the fixing the problem with some sort of device. Laura looked pissed, and Louisa looked confused.
"Sod it... We came out to explore – I get bored sat around too long. Let's go for a wander and see what turns up. We have one of the newest, most self-sufficient ships in the fleet and a whole universe to go and see what's going on out there." Taylen smiled, and downed the rest of his drink looking around. "I would rather get out of here and look around, than spend the next few years waiting for something to happen, that might not even happen!"
Looking around the room, Sue watched to see how people reacted. Most people seemed unsure. "I am commander of this ship but on this occasion, I would like to know people's thoughts before I make a decision. Stay or go... Louisa?"
"Go..."
"Laura?"
"Go!"
"Nicks?"
"Stay... We might be able to work out how to open it again at some point if we stay..."
"And Taylen...?"
"Go."
Nodding, half to herself and to the rest of them... "I guess that's it then – we take our chances finding our way home. Everyone back to your stations – Taylen, stay a moment."
Taylen watched as the others left, struggling to take his eyes of Laura's swaying hips as she sashayed out of the door pulling it closed behind her. "What's up boss?"
"We have to keep things moving and keep morale up... Take out one of the Hawkblades and scout the immediate area, leave a buoy for the corps to find if we are gone and the wormhole opens up."