"Nautilus this is Mission Control, all boards green, you have a go for launch." the control officer sent.
"Mission Control this is Nautilus we hear you loud and clear." Captain Hardin replied. "Too bad this is a secret. Starting main engine." the captain nodded to the helmsman.
"Nautilus this is NSC Actual, good luck Pete." Admiral Tom Anderson stated. "Godspeed."
"Thank you, sir." Captain Hardin replied. Pete Hardin had gone to the academy and worked his way up the ranks. He wasn't tall in fact he was short and even at his heaviest he never weighted more then 145. He worked hard to stay in shape and this ship was killing his muscle tone. Then again no one on this ship was over five and a half feet, or over 150 pounds. No one on board could be considered poster boys for the military, but size was a handicap the larger you were. Many of the crawl spaces of the ship were too small for an average sized man. Even the normal spaces were only six feet high. By building the ship to this reduced size had reduced costs and reduced weight tremendously, and every pound counted on this ship. Less weight in the crew quarters meant more fuel could be carried. "Helmsman, bring the engine to half power and on the moon orbit route. Lets see if we can made some gravity."
"Aye, Aye, Captain." the man responded with a bit of a humorous tone. He had never been in the Navy officially, but he had gone through most of the training. The ship began to move and the command bubble rotated to the induced gravity. It took the Apollo crafts 3 days to go to the moon and the Nautilus would make the trip in eight hours there and back. This would be a full test of its systems and set the stage for the Mars mission, one that had yet to be announced let alone the existence of this ship. Most likely the ship would be seen moving and that would be made public, but the government hoped that not enough would be figured out. Then again the program was so old and so long in the making that not even the current administration even knew about the ship, but it would after the trip is complete.
The lighting of the drive did not go unnoticed and one of the many who saw the new star appear just happened to have his telescope pointed in the right direction. Aric Lorn a student at the Michigan Technological University or MTU was like most nights unable to sleep and used the time to search the heavens for this star or planet. It gave him a sense of calm and always made him wonder why he felt the need to watch the sky. Part of the reason he picked this college was because it was so far North. He continued to observe the new star, but soon knew it was an object as it was moving counter to the star field and after an hour he was sure it was heading away from the Earth.
"A UFO?" he said to himself out loud.
"Right like you are going to spot a UFO through that old thing you call a telescope." Josh stated as he came on the balcony.
"Well take a look." Aric said pointing in the sky. "That just appeared an hour ago and I guess is moving away from Earth." Josh looked up and then looked through the telescope.
"Who knows what that is probably some strange super secret project the military has going on." Josh added as he watched. "I heard a rumor about it from my friend at MIT."
"What rumor?" Aric asked.
"Oh the usual rumor. NASA found a space ship and is flying it around." Josh said as Aric took over the telescope as he stood up. "They even have a little green man helping them and they need to fight the replicators..."
"Oh shut up that is a Stargate plot." Aric interrupted. He would have thrown something at him if there was something to throw. "This is unusual and you have to make jokes."
"Hey anything to get your head out of the heavens." Josh said. "Anyway there is a frat party down the block and they invited three sororities from the community college so even you might even hook up with someone." That made Aric back up and charge Josh. Josh moved out of the way and they both started laughing.
"Like I have ever had any trouble." Aric stated. "You just want me to come along so you can get the girlfriend of whomever I pick up."
"Oh I think it is the other way around." Josh countered. "You are the one who has to be convinced."
"Well I can't help it if I know who is the better one in bed." Aric replied. "One of these days you will learn."
"Oh that is rich. I haven't had a bad lay since I got to college." Josh countered.
"Well you haven't had a good one either." Aric fired back. Josh opened his mouth to counter and shut it. Aric's contorted smile was just too funny and he burst out laughing. Once they both stopped laughing they left for the party. Aric looked up one last time and wondered what it was that bothered him. It was like he was trying to remember something. Something he should know, but what it was only bothered him for a second. He turned and followed Josh through the house and on to the party.
The Nautilus continued on its course and by the time Aric and Josh had cornered two ladies at the party the Nautilus was cruising around the dark side of the moon. Though the dark side of the moon was just a name. As the one camera view showed most of it lit by the rays of the sun. The captain was staring at the screen went an alarm started to beep.
"What is that alarm?" he asked.
"Not sure it shouldn't even be reporting at all." the radar tech replied. "I am showing a large object along our course."
"What? The radar is warning us of the moon?" the captain questioned.
"No sir that." the tech change the visual on the main screen. It wasn't a natural object and it left the bridge crew stunned. The captain was the first to react.
"Helmsman are we going to get any where close to that thing?" he asked.
"Plotting course." he answered. "It will be close, but we will fly over the thing so long as it doesn't move."
"And if it does?" the captain asked.
"Then I don't think we could do anything but try to fly away from it and Earth." the helmsman answered. "Plotting an alternate course to gain some distance from the object."
"Belay that." the captain said. "Can we match orbits?"
"Sir that ship is large at least a kilometer long and any maneuvers to match orbits would bring the engines to face that ship and if anyone is watching they could see it as a threat." LT Colonel Abigale Martins the XO stated. "We would need to pass the ship before we could slow down."
"If we did that we wouldn't be able to hold moon orbit." the helmsman said. "Best we can do is continue on course and come back in a day at a slower velocity. We would then be able to use the hydrogen engines to brake us."
"I don't want to wait even a day." Hardin stated. "How long before we pass it up?"
"Fifteen minutes." the radar tech said before anyone else. "Even at two Gee's we wouldn't match orbit safely without going around a few times."
"And that is if the computers can figure it out in the mean time." the helmsman stated. "Not sure if we could hold a stable orbit for long."
"Well that ship is doing it I don't see why ours can't." Hardin said while his eyes never left the screen. The bridge crew went silent in awe as the foreign ship began to rotate. They were getting plenty of footage of the ship and there would be no doubts once they showed this to mission control. Earth was not alone in the universe. "Okay the ship is moving is it trying to hail us?"
"I have nothing on the comms, but beeps and whistles it is driving me nuts." she replied. "And it is not like we can hail them any open transmission even if they could hear us Earth would possibly hear too."
"Not possible we are in communication blackout the signal will just bounce out to space." the radar tech stated.
"Ya but there are a few satellites that will have no problem picking it up." she countered.
"Well point an antenna at them and open a channel as the show goes." Hardin said. She flipped a few switches and nodded to the captain.
"Unidentified vessel please respond to our signal." the captain said then waved to cut the signal. She hit the button as he did so.
"Sir why didn't you say this is the USS Enterprise and all that?" the bridge engineer asked.
"Noble movie jargon is not my idea of a simple hail, plus a short message like that can be ignored as random from some fan on Earth." the captain answered. "Not..." the captain stopped as the ship shook briefly then started to vibrate. "What the hell was that?"
"Not sure ,but the engines are powering up to make corrections. I am getting course errors across the board." the helmsman reported.
"Great we talk to them and they put a tractor beam on us." the engineer added.
"You can't be serious?" the comms tech said.
"Ship is shaking the computers are reporting we are off course what else could it be?" he fired back.
"Helmsman reduce thrust to zero let's be sure it is the alien ship." the XO ordered. He got busy at his station and then looked up as the vibrations stopped.
"I think he is right." he reported. "We have stopped vibrating."
"And the radar is showing that we are closing with the alien ship." the radar tech added. "If we live through this no one is going to believe us. Not even the Admiral."
"All hands report to the safe hold. All hands report to the safe hold." the captain ordered over the intercom. "What ever that ship is doing I don't like our chances. Get your suits on we may crash into that thing or they may tear a hole in us." the captain got up and floated over to the suit rack. "Abby cancel ring rotation and lock them. Less damage if we hit that ship." No one answered as they scrambled to get into their suits and bumped into each other as they returned to their stations.
"All crew in safe hold." LT Nicole Summers reported over the intercom. "Captain we are wondering what is going on? That shaking got us concerned back here. Even the gunny turned white."
"We are a little busy up here at the moment. Get in your suits and I will update you all when we know more." the XO stated.
"Radar report." the captain ordered as he strapped himself in.
"We are being pulled into the ship. We would have passed by at a distance of two hundred klicks and now it is under fifty." the tech replied. "And we are slowing down at a good rate. Not enough to change the bridge rotation but enough that I guess will put us right next to that square opening on the other ship."
"So they are hauling us in just like in the movies." the engineer stated. "Wonder if we are going to have to fight some stormtroopers?"
"I have to admit it does look a bit like a star destroyer?" the comms tech replied.