**Action** "Fresh orders"

**Action** "Fresh orders"
Space-core embassy, in the JMC HQ building
Grimsby
Earth
The morning after the tribunal
 
General Anders had left an order for both Captain Cannon and Commander Niples to come to his office. The two senior officers sat in the waiting room outside the rather crisp looking office. They sat in silence, feeling that there was a lot to say, but nothing seemed easy to talk about- each person waited for the other to start, but no conversation was forthcoming. Eye-contact was minimal.
 
This is stupid! Thought Seymour, A captain and a first officer need to trust each other, in some circumstances they may even need to think the same thoughs so that things could be done more efficiantly, and here we are- hating each others guts, not even talking to each other! How can we effectively run a ship like this?
They were called into the office. General Anders sat them down at a large tactical table, the office looked like a cross breed of the Observational lounge from StarTrek and the high-tech MI5 operations room from James Bond. A huge realtime radar map filled one wall while a map of spacelanes and habited Earth colonies filled a computer screen on the side wall, while another wall had a huge window overlooking Grimsby. Niples had to admit that it didn't look too bad from 12 stories-high. There was even a brilliant view of the fish-finger factory.
 
Anders looked at them both uncomfortably, Niples remembered yesterday when Anders had said: "Cannon will get what's coming to him, and I have a feeling it will be very soon....."
Anders now seemed to be calm and relaxed, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Cannon had been tried in a court yesterday for being incompetant.
 
"As you know, the J.M.C and the Space-core are completely different organisations, one military and one is just a .... mining company."
Niples frowned, knowing he was working for the les interesting of the two.
 
"...But on this mission," continued the General. "the Space-core has asked the JMC to work together."
 
"And what mission would this be?" asked Captain Cannon, hoping it wasn't going to be too much hard work- but good enough to get decent pay.
 
"There is a..." Anders paused, getting up and standing next to the star map. "...a situation, on one of our planets. it seemed that a breed of genetically engineered life-forms the space-core created to form a new 'super-army' have rebelled against their creators and are attacking the humans on the colony here..."
 He pointed to the map.
"...on Argus Prime.
 
Immediately, the name of the planet struck Cannon like a sharp hammer blow to the head. Images of his wife, his daughter and a formal electronic message marked 'urgent' flashed through his brain. Niples turned to Cannon as he winced in pain slightly, clutching his head.
 
"Are you ok?" asked Seymour.
Cannon pused everything aside and his face regained its obnoxious look it had gained these past few weeks. "I'm fine." said Cannon, if he was lying he was hiding it so well.
Anders continued. "The Gelf's seem to have already set up at least one or two bases of operations and have so far being murdering innocent people at random. Mainly preying on transport ships, but there have also been reports of the gelfs sneaking into cities and killing people in the shadows at night. We do not know why they are doing this yet, we just think they hate humanity and are only killing the easy targets first before they build up a big enough army."
 
Niples cut in while the General was catching his breath. "So, what do you actually want us to do? Isn't this a Space-core matter?"
There was a gleam in Cannons eye that Niples did not see, it was a gleam of pleasure, of anticipation. Cannon spoke before Anders could.
 
"You want us to kill them." His voice was cold and distant, but had great intensity as if the Captain had put a lot of force into the statement.
 
"Not exactly." said Anders. "We want you to go to the system and meet with the Gelfs. You will hopefully reach a peacefull solution with these life-forms and if not, you are to take them into custody. You are not to kill them, do you understand?"
 
Niples agreed. It sounded reasonable, after all- killing some of them would probably make matters worse and drive them to killing more innocent humans from the colony on Argus Prime.
 
Cannon nodded his head slowly. "What about protection?" he asked. "We cannot be expected to go into a dangerous situation on an unarmed vessel."
 
Anders smiled at the Captain and pressed a button which caused a 3D model of some kind of weapon to display on the huge computer screen on the far wall.
"The Blue Dwarf will be fitted with a AP-M3000 Missile launcher. This is state of the art equipment which fires a small anti-proton warheads. I must stress this point- This should only be used in an emergancy, we want the Gelfs in custody not killed."
 
Cannon grinned.
 
The briefing seemed to be nearly concluded, so Niples asked just out of curiosity: "What is the name given to these Gelfs?"
 
Anders said the name simply. "The Pikses"
 
*******************
 
A few hundred thousand miles away back on the Blue Dwarf, Whitewolf was sleeping. He only slept for a few hours a day normally, so when he did sleep- he was usually sock-on.
For absolutely no reason at all, his mind thought of the time a few weeks ago when he met Death, he remembered Death saying:
 
"Their transport was attacked by a clan of gelfs called........
..........the Pikses"
 
************************
 
All the crewmembers had now returned to the Blue Dwarf which was waiting patiently at Jupiter Station. Lt. Cmdr Smegg had been surprised when some Space-Core engineers turned up with a huge Missile launcher in a crate so large that it had to be towed behind a starship.
The Blue Dwarf engineering team donned space suits and helped fit the large missilebay/turret to the front of the mining ship. An empty cargo bay had to be converted into the storage room for the surplus missiles and warheads, which were loaded directly into the launcher from the inside.
 
As soon as everything was completed, Cannon gave the order to Kayn at the pilot computer to fly the mining ship away from the station and set course to Argus Prime. It was as if he was actually in a hurry to get there.
 
When they were on their way, Niples want around the huge spaceship to make sure everything was in order. The stay at the Starbase had allowed time for full repairs to be done, the engines were working perfectly, the sickbay seemed fully stocked up on ointment, the security department seemed rested and less irritable than normal and a new supply of Starbugs and Blue Midgets had arrived to replace the many destroyed ones. Luckily for Kayn (who had crashed a few) they came free from the JMC.
 
Niples returned to his officeand reviewed the personnel files, (Despite the tribunal, Cannon still let Niples do all the paperwork) there had been many new recruits come aboard lately and the crewroster was in need of a shakeup. A few promotions were also due, Niples read through the crewmembers recommended for increased ranks.......
 
<<OOC- The promotions will be included in a separate E-mail. Meanwhile, could everyone finish their shoreleave and post up to this point. Nobody else knows about the next mission yet so please nobody let Niples know that the Pikses killed Cannons family- And nobody should know Cannons secret agenda yet.>>
==================================Lt. David "Onion" BallAssistant Helm officer/ Pilot  USS Endeavour-ACommander Seymour Niples  JMC Blue DwarfWWW.Home.JMCBlueDwarf.com==================================