**Action** "A change of assignment"

***3 years ago***
Onboard the JMC Red Dwarf
 
Chen was staggering back to his quarters as he usually did at this time every saturday night/sunday morning. Come to think of it, he did this every night, whether he was on duty the following day or not.
After a few more drunken steps, he turned to see his friend Peterson. "Where...where you gone you big hairy ...... ape?" he shouted in his Irish accent. The sounds of Peterson coughing his guts and last nights dinner up, along with a few crates of lager came back at him through the darkened corridors of the mining ship.
 
"Awwww feck 'im," Chen said to himself. "Feck 'em all!".
His other friend, a man named Selby appeared from around a corner. The man was having trouble zipping his flies up, slightly less intoxicated than the Irishman but still not with it.
 
"What's that sound?" Selby enquired, he could feel a low vibration through the floor.
"You're just pissed, ya old fart!" said Chen, turning to the direction of his quarters, but then fell over. Selby started laughing histerically and then he fell over too, but not from the drink- this was a shockwave that the entire ship felt.
"What the b-bastard was that?" Chen shouted. The vibrations through the floor started to get more intense, and Selby could hear sound echoing in his ears- as if his head was about to explode.
Through the ear-splitting roaring noise, a voice could just be heard, it cried once, then again.
"Run!!!"
Chen and Selby turned, their friend Peterson was running around the corner- sprinting at a speed you wouldn't have thought he could manage. The reason why wasn't far behind.
A fireball that filled the entire corridor and everything beyond shot out from behind Peterson. As the catering officer tripped and fell, the fireball caught him and dissintigrated his body in a matter of nano-seconds.
 
The effect was instantly sobering. "Bloody bollocks!" yelled Chen and he and Selby dived into an adjacent passageway. Chen managed to find the controls to an escape pod, luckily it was right in front of himj and he wouldn't have known it was there unless he hadn't hit his head on it when he dived. 
He clambered into the small tubeway and held out his hand to his friend Selby who was a half-second behind him.
 
But Selby didn't take his hand, he stood paralysed. That was when the fireball shot past the escape pod corridor, taking Selby with it. As soon as he felt the burning sensation, Chen pulled his hand inside the small pod and closed the automatic hatch by jabbing a huge hand-sized button on the wall. The door slammed shut to stop the fireball from getting in.
 
Chen turned around in his pod, laying on his back allowing his mind to catch up with these events. Suddenly he felt the pod move, it accelerated forwards throwing Chen against the back wall of the tubular pod. After a few seconds the pod reached maximum speed and the acceleration stopped. Chen felt the weightlessness and rolled over in his prison to see the Red Dwarf through the small window. The ship was intact, but the remains of the fireball was dispersing through just about every hatch of the huge vessel.
 
Chen looked away, thinking that the ship was about to explode any second...
 
**JMC Blue Dwarf**
Present time
Date: 16/4/2101  10:30AM
 
***Captain's office, Drive room***
 
The Captain sat down in his comfortable office chair, having checked on the rest of the drive room crew. Jay was at helm, Allie Fletcher had just finished her duty at the comm computer and now Ashley the blonde had taken over.
 
Down in engineering, Smegg was running safety checks on the engines and other engineers were busy making sure things worked- and if not they were covered in duct tape untill they did.
 
The security department had arrived on the scene down on the promenade where a few of the house robots had escaped from the robot wars competition and were now battling it out with a union of scutters. Sir Killalot had injured Jackson by using his revolving lance in a very sensative area and Penny Lloyd had unfortunately got the grenade launcher out again.
 
 Niples turned his computer on and it began to print out the messages he had recieved in the last few days. The first one was from Earth, and most importantly- was marked with the Space-core's logo.
 
He began to read.
 
***A few minutes later, outside Katrina Swete's quarters***
 
Seymour stood facing the door, thinking about how to tell Katrina the news. He heard a soft purr anf felt something brush against his leg. He looked down at PITA and picked him up, striking the feline under the chin.
"I hope she understands" he said, and rang the door buzzer.
 
Katrina answered, looking blurry eyed as if she'd just got out of bed. She was wearing only a T-shirt, which went down nearly to her knees. Seymour lifted an eyebrow.
He dropped PITA and the cat ran to its milk bowl.
"Late night last night?" Seymour asked kissing her on the cheek.
"Yeah, I went out to Parrotts..." she said, reciprocating the kiss, putting her hand in his uniform jacket.
 
They went into the quarters and Seymour kicked the door closed.
"Look, Katrina, theres something I need to tell you....."
Katrina layed on the bed, playfully propping herself up with her shoulder. She looked slightly worried, as if Seymour was going to tell her that they were going to break up. The captain saw her fear and comforted her with a smile and stroked her arm gently.
 
"I have to go away for a while.... I'm being shipped to Earth for a command training program. All the Captains in the Space-core have to attend this training at some time. Even Mining corporation Captains like me. As I've only just been promoted to Captain in space, I havn't had any formal training."
 
Katrina looked hurt. Her first question was "But for how long?"
"I don't know, it should only be a few weeks, two months at least. I wanted you to be the first person to know."
They hugged for what seemed like a long time. "You will wait for me won't you?" asked Niples. "And promise me you won't try and sleep your way to the top with the temporary Captain too!" he joked.
 
"Who's that going to be?"
 
***Meeting room***
 
"Whitewolf, you will be taking my job as Captain for the meantime." Said Niples.
 
The department heads had been rounded up and were all sitting around the long table. Kayn looked uncomfortable and was shifting in his seat. The old miner Stromile Keegan had dozed off and Dr. Keto was wiping leftover ointment on his trousers. 
There had been a disput over who was actually in charge of security, Jackson was temporary head so he'd turned up- but Niples had requested that Frank Harris attended too, so Harris stood in the corner of the room and loomed in the expertly way that he did.
 
"So what are you going to do again?" asked engineer Lt. Cmdr Smegg.
Niples sat with his fingers interlaced, "It's a training program for captains. I can assume we'll be acting out computer simulations and doing fitness programs, that's all I can guess. I'll be able tomeet fellow captains and share ideas as well."
 
"So while you're off on holiday enjoying yourself, who's the lucky punter who gets to be the wiseass first officer?" asked Harris, wondering what any of this had to do with him.
 
"You." Said Niples. The off-duty security chief groaned and put his hand over his eyes. "I should have kept my mouth shut!" he moaned.
 
"I know you don't like command, but your the best person I can trust to keep the crew in order while I'm gone. Especially since you 'retired' from your former job there has been a crime increase. I hope you can sort it out while I'm gone."
Frank Harris managed a mock salute. trying to hide his sarcasm, but failing.
 
***3 years ago***
Tribesleader Barry Hastard led his fellow villagespeople to the site where they had seen the star crash to the ground.
Questions of the village people were voiced as they travelled.
"Maybe it's the great one himself!"
"He came to us on a burning chariot!!!"
"He truly is a god!!!!"
"The chariot's a bit burned though.... do you think he's alright?"
"He's a god- he's invincible!!!"
 
They reached the charred red pod and managed to crack it open like an egg. Pulling the charred metal away they found the occupant inside, he was laying still- in a deep sleep, his chest rose and fell so they knew he was living.
"He looks a bit funny for a god..." someone said.
The tribesleader lifted the man's arm. "But look!" he said in astonishment. "Look at this mark on his left hand......" he pointed to Chen's tattoo. "He has the mark of the gods!!"
 
Chen stirred and awoke.
 
The tribespeople bowed down to their newly apponted deity.
Chen sat upright and wiped his hands on his dirty vest.
"Buggary bollocks!" he exclaimed.
 
Unknown to Chen or the tribespeople, the Red Dwarf escape pod transmitted a radio distress signal which travelled across space.
3 days later it was going to be picked up by the Blue Dwarf.
 
==================================Lt. Cmdr David "Onion" BallAssistant Helm officer/ Pilot  USS Endeavour-ACaptain Seymour Niples  JMC Blue DwarfWWW.Home.JMCBlueDwarf.com==================================