Destiny - 15. Chapter 15

Hey guys, I know it’s been a long time since the last time I added a chapter on this story. Honestly, I was going just to drop it since I’m a very busy guy. But over that last two years, I kept getting emails and reviews. I was surprised. Nonetheless, I feel honored that you guys are still reading this story. I want to say thank you so much… so here it is. Chapter 15 of Destiny Ship

Day 18 of 20

Nate looked at the ceiling as he lay on his bed, still thinking about what happen a few days ago with Derek, his heart was still burning inside. But he has to man up, like his father said, though he knew it was easier said than done. His dreams of Derek and him are so intense he finds himself up at all hours of the night.

It was quiet in the house, as it should be, since it was past 4 a.m. In about an hour he needed to get up and get ready for his training in Maine.

“Oh, the hell with it,” Nate said to himself. He turned himself around so his bare legs fell to the floor. Feeling the softness of his rug, he looked at the corner where his mirror used to be. Nate looked around and, seeing his empty bedroom, the feeling of moving finally sank in. It started when they came and took his furniture. The only thing they didn't take was his bed since it was built into the bedroom. And he still had some clothes for personal use.

It’s just a few days before Nate and his family will head to the shuttle station in Mexico. Nate went into the shower and started his morning, even though the last few days Nate was unable to please himself because of a memory popping up in his head about him and Derek, then he became depressed all over again.

“Morning, dear,” Beth said to Nate as she got her morning coffee. Nate just gave his mom a nod; he doesn’t feel like speaking first thing in the morning.

“I heard you were up late again.” Beth looked at the control panel as she deciding what she wanted for breakfast. Since the apartment was almost empty, except the table and chairs, Nate sat down and waited for his mom to order her breakfast so he could get something for himself.

After looking at the panel, he couldn’t decide, so he just ordered orange juice. Nate left the apartment without saying much to his mom. He figured he might as well head to the train station and meet up with Thomas. It’s been their usually spot to see each other before everyone heads out to start their day.

After Nate finished up his OJ, Thomas emerged from the corner. He greeted Nate, who was sitting on a stone bench near some trees and shrubs at the train station. Thomas put his backpack next to Nate's backpack near the bench and sat down. Not looking at each other, they just watched the trains buzzing by at great speeds.

“Hey, did you get much sleep last night?” Thomas asked when he looked at Nate. He knew that Nate was still struggling to get a good night's rest.

“Getting better…” Nate replied, without looking at Thomas.

“Yeah…” Thomas turned to look at the trains. Another silent moment passed, not knowing what to say to Nate.

They still had 45 minutes before Nate will head out. He didn't let Nate know that once he left the station for his training, Thomas still had to wait another hour before he has to go himself. This is their only time together; Thomas would gladly wait for 5 hours just to be with his best friend. “Tim got in trouble again at school.” Thomas tried to kick start the morning conversation.

Nate looked at Thomas for the first time and had a grin, an almost a foreign feeling to him these days. “What did he do now?”

Thomas turned and they locked eyes. With a grin Thomas said, “Tim, got in an argument with his science teacher, stating the teacher was brainwashing the students in his classroom and he tried to start a riot.”

Nate just shook his head to Thomas with a smile. For a second Thomas thought he heard a laugh from Nate, something that Thomas misses hearing from him.

“Why on earth did Tim do that?” Nate's face starts to relax and he grinned more.

“Tim doesn’t truly know; he just felt like doing it at the moment.” Thomas returned a smile, knowing that he just managed to turn Nate's day around and make him able to talk. Thomas reminded himself to thank Tim for being a bonehead. Thomas and Nate talked about what was happening at school and made sure that Derek's name wasn't mentioned.

Nate's com pad chirped to remind him that it was almost time to get on the train. Sure enough, Beth and his sister walked around the corner and spotted Thomas and Nate. Beth and Thomas greeted each other and made small talk before the train arrived. Nate listened to his mom and Thomas chatting and waited impatiently, knowing that his mother was taking all of Thomas's time, but he sat there being polite. After seeing their train arrive, they said their goodbyes and headed to the train.

Sitting at his desk, leaning his chin on his right hand and silently listening to his instructors on the functions of the ship, Nate kept finding himself lost in his daydreams and fighting to stay focused on the subject, especially since it was about spacesuits and how to poop in them. Neither was a subject that he was thrilled to know, nor to hear about, nor wished to have to do, but a necessity, nonetheless. Hearing the bell signaling that the class was over, Nate got up, collected his pad and backpack and headed to his next class.

Oddly, when he walked to his next class, he met his mother in the hallway. They walked together, talking about their classes and supper plans.

“BETH… Is that you?” a voice behind them asked. Beth and Nate turned around to see who it was. An older man with white hair and with a gray ESF uniform stood there. At first Nate couldn’t place him, but he does recognize him from somewhere.

“Oh, Captain Remijay. It’s been so long!” Beth's voice had a lilt and she walked towards him. Nate now remembered who this is, he is the head administer of ESF. In other words, he is the top gun here.

“No, no just called me Nate.” Old Nate smiled as he accepted a hug from Beth. Young Nate cocked his head, not knowing what to do. This guy was on the news and TV all the time, but he never heard his first name before.

“How long since we've been on the ESF Galileo?” Beth asked.

“Oh I think it's been 15 or 16 years, hasn't it?” Old Nate looked at Beth with a smile.

“I think you're right. It’s has been a long time; time does fly. Congratulations on your promotion, even if it took me 7 years to tell you in person,” Beth said with a light laugh.

“Better late than never, Beth,” Old Nate said with a laugh. Young Nate could never understand how lame they could be, but then again, adults are boring. Old Nate looked at Beth's son and took in a sharp breath.

“Is this who I think it is?” Old Nate asked Beth.

“Yes. Nate, I want to introduce you my son, Nate, who we named after you,” Beth said proudly as she put her arms around her son. Young Nate was taken aback a little knowing now how his name came to be. Old Nate held out his hand and demanded a handshake from the boy who carries his name. After they shook hands, old Nate told Beth, “He is the spitting image of his father.”

Sitting there watching the monitor on his radar system, Nate played with the screen, scanning this and that. There was nothing out of the ordinary at first. Peter sat behind Nate watching every move. Then an icon popped up from nowhere.

“Peter, I just picked up an unidentified object,” Nate said as he turned to speak to Peter.

“First thing, Nate, since we are role playing, YOU NEED TO ADDRESS ME AS CAPTAIN. Second, you didn’t pick up a UO. You MUST say, ‘Long or short radar picked up an unidentified object.’ Third, NEVER turn around to face or to speak to anyone. YOU HAVE to keep an eye on it.” Peter was firm, but placed his right hand on Nate's shoulder, letting him know it was okay.

“Captain, long range radar picked up an unidentified object.” Nate watched the screen as he corrected himself.

“Better perform a focus scan on the UO.” Peter patted Nate's back, letting him know he's doing a good job.

Nate used his fingers to initiate a focus scan on the object and zoomed up to that region of space, Nate was able to see the object; it was a meteor, free floating in space. The computer was able to detect a number of minerals and no life on the meteor.

“Captain, the UO is a class 2 meteor with 64% iron and other common elements.” Nate reported.

“Nice, put it on the main viewer,” Peter demanded. Nate clicked on his screen to share on the main viewer. As soon as the ‘Captain’ saw enough of the meteor, Nate reset the radar to standard scan and continued watching his screen.

It felt like hours had passed as Nate, watching his screen, logged a couple of other meteors, but mainly space dust. It was just pure boredom to him and Nate wondered how long this was going to be. As a daydream started to fill Nate's head, something caught his eye on the screen.

“Captain, long radar just picked up a UO,” Nate said with much enthusiasm, but he maintained his focus on his screen.

“Focus Scan for identification,” Peter barked in reply.

As Nate just about pressed his focus scan feature, the UO disappear in front of him.

“Captain, the UO has disappeared on the long scan.” Nate spoke with enthusiasm now as he searched his screen to find the UO. Nate used the focus scan on that section of space, maybe it could pick something up. The focus scan came up with nothing, other than space dust.

“Nate, anything yet?” Peter asked.

“Nothing yet, sir,” said Nate, still trying to find his lost UO.

After a few minutes passed, the UO reappeared in another location. “Captain, the UO has reappeared behind us!” Nate spoke up in a tense voice.

“Focus Scan! I want to know what that is!” Peter barked at Nate.

Nate was able to get a focus scan on the UO.

“Captain, it’s a cruiser class star ship and it’s arming its weapons!” Nate screamed in Panic.

“Calm down, Nate.” Peter placed his hand on Nate's shoulder again to calm him down.

“All Hands, Battle Stations!” Peter shouted at the empty room. Nate's face was almost white as a sheet as he looked at Peter. Nate saw the mock up weapon station and started to move. Peter places his hand on Nate and forced him to sit where he was.

“No, Nate, you do not move or look to see who is over there. Keep your eyes on that ship; you bark out where the ship is and where it might go. Everyone has a job to do. You have only one job to do. Be our eyes!” Peter calmly explained to Nate, since this is his first mock up battle simulation… and he has his private tutor.

“Err, the ship is directly behind us and weapons are still active.” Nate returned his focus on the screen, nothing changed since he last looked.

“We need a heading and distance between us.” Peter informed Nate. Nate knows that the Captain doesn’t have time to bullshit.

“What do you mean heading and distance? How do I know that?” Nate was frankly panicking over his screen, trying to figure out what Peter meant.

Peter then realized he never told Nate how to do that, he pause the program.

“Sorry, that is my fault! Okay. The Bow of the ship is 0 degrees, Port side is 90 degrees, Stern of the ship is 180 degrees, Starboard side is 270 degrees. Got it?” Peter asked Nate to make sure he understood.

“Now the confusing part, Bow of the ship is 0 degrees, the Conn is 90 degrees, the Stern is 180 degrees, the Keel is 270 degrees. Understood?” Peter asked again.

“Oh you mean for X and Z; what about Y?” Nate now knew what Peter was talking about.

“Rarely will we change that, but if we use a Y Axis then you say 90 degrees by 90 degrees with Y 45 degrees. But again, we rarely use that unless we go through an asteroid field.” Peter was happy that Nate understood perfectly.

“The ship is at 270 degrees by 16 degrees and holding course at 13,000 meters, speed is 1/3 sublight.” Nate read the screen; it was simple enough for him. Unknowingly, Peter smiled. He knew Nate was picking it up as quickly as he hoped, Peter patted Nate on the back and told him he was doing a good job. With the smile still on his face, Peter shut down the simulator by using his pad; Nate's station screens went blank. Nate stared at his screen, making sure nothing was on.

“Breathe in and then out!” Peter smirks.

Nate did not respond.

“Nate, it’s okay. You did great!” Peter tried to snap Nate out of it.

Nate looked at Peter and finally took in a deep breath and turned around to the side of his station. Peter waved at Nate to come and sit on the floor. He let Nate to come down from his panic. Then he gave Nate an hour of prep talk; He also gave him advice on how to talk on the bridge.

“Even though we're out here alone, the captain likes to be kept informed and it's important to keep all conversations and actions at a professional level. There is no room for errors, even though he knows it does happen. But don’t you let it happen. Got it?” Peter said.

Nate was about to say something when the door opened and a gentleman entered the room. Peter turned and recognized the man and stood up to greet him. Nate stood up as well. Although this is a mock up version of the bridge, all rules still apply, just as on the real bridge.

“Just in time, Mr. Yoon.” Peter said. Mr. Yoon just nodded and looked at Nate for a second.

“Is this the new junior officer?” Mr. Yoon asked Peter.

“Yes, this is him. Mr. Yoon I want to introduce you to Nate. Nate this is Mr. Yoon, our weapons senior officer.” Peter made the inductions. Mr. Yoon asked Nate some questions and asked how the training was going. Nate answered the questions professionally.

“Are we ready to start?” Mr. Yoon asked Peter. Peter replied with a nod as he looked at Nate. Nate looked back, unsure of what Mr. Yoon meant by that.

“Okay, Nate, break is over. Take your station. Mr. Yoon, will you?”

Peter told everyone to take their positions. He never told Nate that this is a battle simulation and Mr. Yoon is going to be there fighting the ships. With one click on his pad, all the screens turned on. Weapons, Helm, Radar station chirp on. Nate had a feeling something was going to happen. With that realization, he focused extra hard on his screen and hoped he didn't embarrass himself. Peter took the helm station.

For the next twenty minutes nothing happened. As a rule, when there isn’t anything that threatens the ship, you need to check your equipment to be sure that it's working 100% all the time. Other officers could ask for radar records for a project. In other words, Nate needs to appear that he is doing something or the Captain will give him a job.

A UO popped up on Nate's screen and, as soon his saw this, he focused his scan on the UO. “Captain, long range scan picked up a UO. Doing a focus scan on the UO now,” Nate said without looking at anyone. The computer took a few seconds to get the details of the UO. It was a meteor and it was heading towards the ship, a collision alarm siren sounded for 3 seconds.

“What is the heading of that meteor?” Peter asked.

“The heading is 112 degrees by 85 degrees.” Nate checked out the projection and saw the math was correct.

“Suggest heading, Nate?” Peter was testing Nate to see if he could figure out how to avoid the collision.

“Turn the ship to 140 degrees by 0 degrees even.” Nate rubbed the sweat off his eyebrow.

“Turning to 140 degrees by 0 degrees even.” Peter repeated the order to make sure no mistake occurred.

Nate looked at the main viewer and switched to a camera that was positioned off the far end the stern, overseeing the ship. The meteor passed the hull without any issues. Nate released a breath of air, knowing the ship wasn't in any danger. Peter heard Nate and turned around and gave Nate a smile of approval.

There were 6 more meteors over the course of an hour; each one was getting harder and harder for Nate. The last one was two meteors that collided in space, causing the meteors to head to the ship on a chaotic path. Nate had a hard time because of the chaotic path. Changing the course of the ship several times saved them, but the meteor barely missed the ship's hull by a meter.

Peter stopped the program and let Nate and Mr. Yoon take a break. Nate's eyes were glued to the screen until it was powered down. He slowly leaned back into his chair, faced at the ceiling and closed his eyes.

Peter walked over to Nate and, as soon Mr. Yoon was out of ear shot, said, “Nate you're doing great! Almost everyone fails that last test of the chaotic twin meteors.”

Nate opened his eyes and looked at Peter, he didn’t know if was proud of himself, or pissed at whoever made that test. Nate gave a smile just to please Peter. After a break, Peter, Mr. Yoon and Nate did simply bridge functions and set courses around static moons, suns, and meteors.

Something caught Nate eye, but his eyes weren't fast enough, he checked his backlog and saw a UO appear in 1/15 seconds.

“Captain, UO appeared at 139 degrees by 221 degrees.” Nate informed the bridge officers.

“Weapons are on standby,” Mr. Yoon replied with calmness, because when a UO just disappears in thin air, weapons need to be on standby for safe measure.

“Staying on course, Captain.” Peter also replied with calmness.

It was quiet on the bridge. Nate was on edge, waiting for the UO to pop up on his screen. After 5 minutes of no UO appearing, Mr. Yoon informed the non-existing Captain that he took the weapons off standby.

Just as Mr. Yoon finished his statement, the UO appeared on Nate's screen and did a scan of their ship.

“Captain, the UO disappeared again. Unable to complete the focus scan of the ship,” Nate stated, as though he was talking to an officer of the bridge.

“Weapons are on standby,” Mr. Yoon replied with calmness again.

“Staying on course, Captain,” Peter also replied with calmness again.

Nate's eyes were glued to the screen, doing a long scan, and he had his fingers on the focus scan. Nate could hear the buzzing and tones from the computers as they were working. It was silent in the room, all were waiting on Nate to find this UO. A few minutes had passed. Just as Mr. Yoon was going to stand down, the UO appeared directly behind them. Nate was able to get a focus scan of it.

“Cruiser class star ship directly behind us and powered its weapons!” Nate shouted.

“Course changing to 300 degrees by 15 degrees and increasing 2/3 sublight,” Peter informed the bridge.

“Firing aft weapons,” Mr. Yoon also informed the bridge.

“Cruiser is matching sublight and turning to 270 degrees by 20 degrees to intercept us,” Nate read his information to the bridge.

“Suggestion?” Peter asked but never looked at Nate.

Nate thought for a second and came up a plan. “Course correction. 12 degree by 200 degrees at 1/3 sublight.”

Peter entered the course change as Nate instructed. The cruiser tried to adjust to their course, but it was too late. Nate's course change had moved their ship's aft directly in line with the cruiser, allowing Mr. Yoon to fire his aft weapons. Nate watched on the screen and saw every hit that Mr. Yoon took was severely damaging the cruiser. Mr. Yoon fired a torpedo and it slammed into the hull of the cruiser, causing a massive implosion on the enemy ship.

Nate's radar system wasn’t able to pick up the ship anymore, but it did pick up numerous chunks of the ship's hull and tons of debris.

“Umm, I think the ship was destroyed, Captain!” Nate said.

Feeling a hard whack on his back, Nate jumped and turned around; he saw a man standing behind him.

“Yes, the cruiser is destroyed and you may start the repairs and continue the previous course, helm,” the man said with firm voice.

“Yes, Captain,” Peter said.

“Repair teams are on their way,” Mr. Yoon said.

“By the way, I’m the captain on Destiny, and, sir, you did a good job. Glad to have you on board,” the man said to Nate with a grin.

‘Oh SHIT’ Nate thought to himself.