Hi guys. This is my first story on fanfiction, so bare with me if I'm slow with updates. First things first, there are a few things you need to know before you start reading.

1) The UEF: The United Earth Federation - A coalition of somewhere around eight thousand worlds scattered across a small section of the Orion Arm. Formed in the year 2035 with the construction and launch of the first great colony ships.

2) Addimantium - A semi-organic metal that literaly grows. Native only to eight planets in the UEF: Earth, New Castiana, Jericho, Tau Ceti IV, Halemia V, and Epsilon Eridani II and III. Not only is it alive, it's near indestructible properties mean normal mining of the metal just isn't viable.

3) Space whales - The living ships built from addimantium, affectionately called space whales by the citizens of the UEF, make up the back bone of the UEF Navy. Divided into eight classes, in order of size: dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, battleships, cruisers, capital ships, frigates, destroyers, and finally, the tiny scouts. Fighters, while living, aren't included. All ships, barring fighters, interact with their crews through the use of a hardlight holographic avatar. They also have emotions. Bonded at birth with a human captain or pilot. Avatar's made up of DDNA; Digital Deoxyribonucleic Acid.

4) UEFS Ticonderoga - The main ship of this story, and the ship that ends up going back in time 147 years. Avatar, Alaya, is slightly in love with her bonded captain.

5) Bonding - The mental and emotional bond between ship and captain/pilot is created at birth. It is so strong, that the avatars will usually fall in love with their bonded partner, all the while juggling a relationship with another space whale. Only works between ships and humans of opposite genders, i.e.; female ships only take male captains/pilots, male ships only take female captains/pilots. Because of this, it isn't uncommon to find children born from these avatar/captain relationships.

6) Peak Efficiency - Space whale version of adulthood. Reached after the fifth year of life, and where the ship reaches its full size. Depends on ship class and power. Power output by ZPG's (Zero-point generators) is matched by power usage.

And finally 7) Birthing - The process of which a female space whale evacuates all the air in a special cargo bay, called the Womb, and delivers an infant space whale into the universe. Takes upwards of eight hours to do. Female space whale's are incredibly vulnerable during this time, and their mate, along with any other UEF ship in range, will instinctively form a protective shield around the birthing space whale.

Hope you enjoy :)

UltimateFanJob123

Luna orbit; July 2nd, 2157

0938 hours:

Space, an almost peaceful affair. Until you realize that space is just one, giant, bubbling cauldron of plasma and things that like to go boom. However, one third of the way up the Orion Arm in the Milky Way galaxy, a single and incredibly advanced race inhabits the stars. And one world stands out amongst the rest. Earth, birthplace of humanity, and centre of a galactic federation, made up of hundreds of planets. This is the United Earth Federation, or UEF, a coalition of federal democracies spread out across a one thousand by three hundred light year span of the Orion Arm.

If one were to be floating in space above the moon around Earth at this point in time, they would see her rising almost serenely above the Luna horizon. But that image is shattered in a blinding flash of white light, and where there was once nothing, there is now a small ship, barely four hundred metres in length, and twice that in width. And written in what appears to be Latin, a single line of numbers and words. FFG-121 UEFS Ticonderoga. One of the most powerful ships to grace the stars. Its size belies its awesome firepower and impenetrable defensive shield.

The UEFS Ticonderoga is the third in the Ulysses-class frigates, one of only five ever created. Young, strong, and alive. Her skin is made from a near indestructible semi-organic metal called addimantium. Pass a strong enough current through this metal, and any ship made from it grows. But that's not all. The UEF found a bonus to making ships from addimantium just eighty years ago, when the UEF was still in its infancy. The ships that reached 'maturity', i.e.; ships that reached what's known as 'peak efficiency', were taking the personality of the AI's that were used to keep the ships in working order. This caused them to seem as if they were alive. Eventually, they developed emotions, and emotions led to love, and love...well, ships like the Ticonderoga were the result.

As the ships developed, in ships with female AI's, an empty cargo bay, which for some reason sealed its self to the outside world shortly after construction was completed, began to take on the characteristics of the womb. Ships soon became massive space-dwelling whales. And like their human creators, the ships began to mate.

This would set the stage for a miracle of engineering. A ship actually baring a child. Depending on the parents, the child would either develop into one of eight sub-species. The massive dreadnoughts, huge leviathans packing enough weapons and defences to stay in a fight were the odds were at a range of 1,000,000:1, and come out on top with minimal damage. The slightly smaller but no less deadly battlecruisers, the centre of the UEF fleets and were often made flagships. The light and agile frigates, which, while small, could still blow up a star with a low level kinetic weapon like the Null Space Erupter. The fortress-like cruisers, larger than the frigates, but packing less punch and more defences then you can hold a candle to. The sleek and deadly battleships, which packed nothing more than massive guns and huge amounts of missiles. The insanely fast scouts, who while lacking in both the offensive and defensive categories, made up for it with insane levels of speed and agility. The silent and hulking destroyers, the size of battleships and packing almost as much firepower as the dreadnoughts. And finally, the capital ships, medium sized moving weapons. Of all ships in the UEF, capital ships made up less than one percent. They were heavily defended, shaped like hammers, and armed to the teeth.

The Ticonderoga, while marked as a frigate, is actually a capital ship, along with the other four Ulysses-class ships. Looking like a hammer with the handle pointing forwards, this gives away the fact that it is one of the seventy-two frigate-sized ships that give orders, lead raids, and generally cause mayhem in enemy fleets. But no matter what class of ship they are, all of them have two things in common.

Their power supply and their FTL drives.

The power units that feed power to the ships, acting as the ships heart, harness the abundant energy of subspace. Zero-point energy is what keeps things running in the UEF, be it homes, businesses, or ships. The only difference between them is how much power they put out per ship class. Then there's the FTL drive, the Hyperwarp generator.

It involves tearing apart space and time to enter an alternate space known only as hyperspace. The travel itself is almost instantaneous, and ships of the UEF can cross hundreds of light years in mere milliseconds thanks to the time-bending qualities of the warp field which surrounds ships a nanosecond before they enter the twisted dimension of hyperspace.

UEFS Ticonderoga, 0939 hours

July 2nd, 2157

Bridge:

Fleet Commander William de Borouge looked upon the Earth. The green and blue planet floated in space, almost serenely in its orbit around Sol. His crew was just back from a small exploration mission to find another suitable planet to colonize. He felt the ship hum around him, the spiritual and mental connection he shared with her thrumming in time with the steady pulse of her three zero-point energy generators.

The holoprojectors in the ceiling of the bridge hummed with power and a life sized hardlight and fully interactive hologram materialized next to him. As it coalesced, it began to take on the form of a young woman in her early twenties. When it finished, the hologram opened its ruby red eyes and looked out the viewport.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" the hologram asked in a light, slightly seductive voice. This was Alaya, the actual personality and interactive form the Ticonderoga took on when she wanted to interact with the crew.

"Yeah, it is," Will responded.

A light giggle came from the avatar.

"Must you always be so serious?" she asked, coming up behind her bonded and wrapping her arms around him.

"Standard procedure."

Alaya's lips brushed his cheek. "We're home; you don't have to be so uptight and vigilant anymore."

She felt him relax slightly, but only enough so that his body wasn't so taut. Will looked around the small bridge. The reason why it was so small, is because Alaya, and by extension, the Ticonderoga herself, managed most of the systems, mainly weapons, and defences. The only two other people on the bridge were the communications officer, and the pilot, who told the Ticonderoga where to go. Apart from the commander, he was the only one allowed to order Alaya to do something, but his options on what to say were limited to telling her where to go through a Hyperwarp jump, or to physically control the ship under sub-light power.

Will suddenly swung Alaya in front of him, causing her to emit a small squeal of surprise, but she soon cuddled up to his chest, feeling his heart beat in synchronization with her power plant. She let out a small sigh of content, and tried to snuggle even closer than she already was, which was impossible to do with making her bonded fall over. Will's arms wrapped around her form, pulling her tight against him. The Ticonderoga felt her avatar's pleasure and content, and a slight tremor ran through the ship. Steel and titanium wall groaned in protest to the biomechanical hulls movements. The floor shook slightly, but no enough to make anyone fall over, although, if a newcomer to space and the UEF in general, which had never happened, and probably never would, were to be onboard at the time, they would've fallen over and face the embarrassment of the crew and the ship laughing at them. Even people from the UEF who'd never been in space or on a ship before would've remained upright.

As the ship neared Earth, space became more and more crowded, and soon, the only place to manoeuvre were the almost razor thin space lanes specially reserved for the living ships of the UEF Navy.

Alaya watched out of the corner of her eye as the Earth grew larger and larger, until it dominated the view screen. A soft hum started to fill the ship as the gravimetric drives that enable the ship to move inside the influence of a planet's gravity kicked in. A dull grey dot in front of the ship grew larger, until she could make out the shape of one of the thirty kilometre long orbital stations. The Ticonderoga slowed as it approached the station, and eventually came to a stop with a dull clang as the docking arms on the station delicately gripped the ship and pulled the airlock to mate with another one on the titanium station.

Will stroked Alaya's long raven coloured hair idly. Said raven-haired girl sighed at the treatment, experiencing pleasure that only the bond of a captain and his/her ship could enjoy. She started to hum, an odd personality quirk she'd developed throughout her four year life. Even though the Ticonderoga's avatar looked like a woman in her early twenties, her actual body was just under five years old, having been born five years ago. Throughout her life, she would continue to develop into the mature and slightly heavenly, even to humans, piece of art that her mother was. Even though Alaya was slightly in love with her captain, she was just outside of the living ships version of puberty, which would come around in a little under two months. The specially designed cargo bay that all female ships had would develop into a comforting cocoon for any young she decided to have, while her avatar would develop internal organs so she could remain active for longer periods of time. Currently, Alaya could only remain active for a little over six hours, before shutting down for a recharge. Once she hit peak efficiency, or puberty to humans, she could remain active indefinitely. She smiled at the thought of sneaking into her captains quarters and slipping into bed with him, and almost giggled at the thought of the look on his face when he woke up to find her half-naked form lying in bed cuddled against him.

Unfortunately, her thoughts were picked up by said captain, and caused him to look down at her in surprise. She blushed, well...as much as a hologram, hardlight or not, could blush. This brought a light chuckle from the man holding her in his arms. She tilted her head at him and puffed her cheeks out in indignation. This only caused Will to laugh even harder.

Alaya continued to pout, but this was cut off by a light kiss from Will. The whole ship shuddered in its moorings as the pleasure and surprise of the kiss leaked from avatar to ship.

When his lips left hers, she blushed immensely. Will chuckled slightly, a big grin on his face. Everyone in the UEF knew of the bond between a ship and its captain, and said bonds odd tendency to blossom into a romantic relationship, which, after peak efficiency was reached, led to kids born from the captain and avatar. This was due to the fact that male ships only accepted female captains, and female ships only accepted male captains. While the avatars had there own little human partner, the ship itself would pair off with another of the opposite gender, and spend the rest of their eighty year lives together. Of course, this would create more 'space whales', as the ships of the UEF Navy were affectionately called, and a whole other life form was born. Off course, this had been going on for so long, that shipbuilding was obsolete, as it just couldn't produce enough ships to remain viable.

Soon, space whales were crowding space, moving in and out of orbit, vanishing and appearing in brilliant flashes of light.

Next chapter will be up as soon as I finish it.

In quote of one of my favorite authors

PEACE!