The Ghost Fleet Part 2
The African Swallow in Space


A Year Ago, Ghost Fleet Construction Yard II (Certes I)
Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Angelique Arnauld


An African Swallow is the fastest bird in the world, and with its speed comes beauty and grace. Dr. Yamidovosok glanced over the side of the umbilical to see the ship she was about to enter. It stayed alof, seemlingly defying gravity as she remained tied by the umbilical. Moored silently was the 322-meter long, 161-meter wide, and 45 meter tall destroyer, SRD Clarel. The vessel was the first of her class, and her designs clearly showed her infancy, yet even in its infant stage, the Clarel looked like a very impressive vessel. Yamidovosok smiled to herself, brushing a parcel of brown hair which had fallen from her cranium and hanged loose in front of her right eye. She parted it with her hand, a quick motion over her ear and joined her hands behind her back. Yamidovosok continued to glance at the dark vessel, which was to be a part of a supposed Segan last, and infinitely best hope for victory. As the airlock leading to the vessel opened, she was greeted by the traditional tapping of shoes as the starbase personell placed in charge of guarding the vessel, made a ceremonial salute of the gun to Dr. Yamidovosok. Yamidovosok handed her identity card and watched as the guards made a thorough check of her identity. There was however, little need to do so, for none of the facilities around here "existed".. officially. And if a foreign vessel were to enter this region of space, it'd be shot down, no questions asked. The idea was that the markers signalling the area of space as off-limits would be enough, for the word to the wise was always sufficient.

Yamidovosok heard shouting behind her, which she knew to be shouting because except for her no one had come after her. The shouting seemed almost a distant murmur, but it was approaching fast and was heading this way. She turned around and glanced past the guards as she saw the young Captain in the new ACG uniform run towards the ship. Late, she thought to herself, very late. She glanced down the biological halls, leaning on the wall, seeing the ship's "skin" become lighter at her touch. She turned her eyes towards the Captain Anderson for him to continue his run. The Captain was obviously out of breath as his cheeks were a light pink when he arrived. He turned his head to the two guards and handed them his ID card, watching very impatiently as they cleared him for entry into his lover's ship. He smiled politely to them as they cleared him for entry, and Anderson stopped into the ship, taking a moment to gather back a steady breathing pattern. Anderson stepped in front of Yamidovosok, waching as her smile quickly changed into a frown. He sighed, hoping she would have excused him just this one, but the Doctor was a punctual woman, and punctuality was what she cared for.

Dr. Yamidovosok grunted slightly and turned around, not even taking the time to give Captain Anderson a proper greeting. She was very mad at the Captain and was sure that he was going to feel it. As she walked down the hallways, the clanking of her shoes as it hit the metal floor,which had yet to be carpetted over was defeaning. Her walk was hurried, and Anderson had a slight trouble keeping up. As she made a turn, she walked down the central corridor of the deck and looked at the unpainted doors that led to the turbolift which would take her to the bridge's flight navigations. Hadn't she specifically told Captain Anderson and Commander Davidson not to be late? As she watched Anderson enter the turbolift, she noted his discomfort. She smiled, it was very interesting for a military man to be moved by her in such a way, but she had noticed it of all Segans she had been in contact with. Her stature, her attitude, and her manner impressed them into an almost mute subversity, except for those officials of the Royal Family. Anderson's body shifted, as if he was trying to say something, and refound its stability as the turbolift came to a screeching stop. The turbolift doors opened, revealing a slimmer of the CONN, which was still being worked upon by engineers of all types.

Yamidovosok grabbed a padd from one of the supervisors that was assigned to help explain the current situation of the ship, and stepped over some fiberoptic cables that laid strewn on the floor. Anderson looked around, amazed the ship had even flown at warp speeds, let alone hyper-transwarp. Anderson's view was blocked partially as two engineers carrying plexiglass walked past Anderson and entered what would be the Commanding Officers' offices. Anderson smiled, seeing another sheet of plexiglass being cut and melted into a console's covering. Interesting he thought, the construction of the ship was going very similarly to the first starship constructions of the Monarchy, but after all, no manufacturing plants had been designed to make the parts needed for the Clarel class starship, which explained the style of construction. Yamidovosok grunted towards Anderson to follow her, as she walked past an immobile pocket of dust that appeared from the machinery that was working all around the new bridge set. Anderson followed her, looking around for his lover. He glanced over, thinking he had seen the Commander at the corner of his eyes, but thought nothing of it as he clasped his hands behind his back and nodded to some of the engineers who stood at attention at his passing.

Late, Yamidovosok thought as she walked around the bridge, inspecting the Engineers' work. She looked around for Commander Davidson, sighing that these two Segan captains were so unpunctual. Just because they were the best Captains in the fleet didn't give them a right to be above time. She glanced around, noting that the engineers were doing an excellent job of getting these new 3D consoles installed. She watched as Commander Davidson appeared out of nowhere, passing her and giving Anderson a kiss. She was not amused, glaring at the two as they stopped kissing each other. She nodded to them, and walked over, placing a hand on either of the two gentlemen's shoulder. She gave them both a sarcastic smile, and led them and waited for either of them to speak. That was not forthcoming, and so they sat their for three minutes, awkwardly entangled in one another and waiting patiently for one person to say what they were thinking or were planning to say in the first place. Yamidovosok, being the leader she was, dropped her hands from either of the commanding officers' shoulders and stepped in front of them, doing an about face to face Captain Anderson and Davidson. She glanced at the two, trying to contain the anger which was uncontrollably burning within her.

"Late!" She struggled under her breath, "You *both* were late! How dare you be late under my presence, I am Dr. Yamidovosok, I am not to be insulted in this manner, gentlemen, if you want to remain in this project I suggest you play the ballgame my way. Understood, gentlemen?"

"Yes Ma'am," Captain Anderson and Commander Davidson replied in unison, looking over to Yamidovosok with an expection of more.

"We're going to proceed with this little tour ,Commander Davidson," Yamidivosok sighed, "And we'll see how the construction's going. I'm glad the ship's been able to do some hyper-transwarp test, that is well ahead of schedule. But we're still lagging behind in other sections. So let's hop to it!"

For the next few hours, Dr. Yamidovosok began inspecting ever little bit of the Clarel class destroyer as she could. The ship looked in good order, except for a few power surges here and there, but this was to be expected with the new gal. She had so much power stored within her that she was almost ready to burst into a full sprint without even being ordered to. The vessel's generators and engines purred loudly, professing equally well their new strength. Anderson and Davidson watched calmly as Yamidovosok did her thing, she checked the engines, and checked the impulse power generators. She mentioned misallignments and Davidson took down notes, and within the hour. She was completed, boom-done-goodbye. The entire procession had been completed so quickly that it all seemed like a blur. The Doctor stepped out of the ship, and Davidson and Anderson shared their longest kiss yet, a kiss which went beyound to a french kiss, and beyound until the two were disrupted by two pesky Ensigns. Anderson grinned, blushing bright red.

"How long, till you have to leave, honey bun?" Anderson looked at Davidson, smiling and looking down at Davidson's shoes.

"Very soon," Davidson replied, leaning his head on Anderson's shoulder, " I don't wanna go, I wanna stay here with you.

"I want you to stay here with me too," Anderson grinned, feeling Davidson's weight on him, "But, business is business."

"Uh-huh," Davidson looked up, "Can't you order me to stay?"

"Nope, "Captain"," Anderson smiled as he placed the emphasis on Captain as he pretended to take a pompous attitude, "I bid you farewell, and may your ship be safe."

"Uh-huh," Davidson kissed Anderson, "I'll miss you."

"Me too," Anderson grinned, "Now Go!" Anderson watched as Davidson retired back into the Clarel, and he turned around and walked out of the Clarel umbilical.. He still had work to do.