Title: Ship of the Line: Walk in Dark Places
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: General for Buffy and Babylon 5
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy or Babylon 5. I would buy them but I am broke.
Summary: Answer to the Ship of the Line Challenge on TTH. The Scoobies dress as people who walk in dark places and do what must be done
"" denotes speech, '' denotes thought
A/N: There have been some comments around the uniforms for the Cadets. Firstly, the full Anla'Shok Uniforms, as seen on the show, are only used by the Cadets when on patrol at night, and by Xander, Buffy, Willow and Cordy on patrol and during formal occasions at the Academy. Normally the Cadets wear a stylish and modern uniform designed by Cordy, while the Shok'na either wear 'business attire' or clothes appropriate to the class, like exercise gear. The regular public would, under normal circumstances, never come into contact with anyone in the Anla'Shok Uniforms and would certainly not associate them with students at the new private Academy.
Alarms were blearing as the White Star took another hit. It veered around trying to track its target, only to almost collide with the enemy vessel and have to dramatically drop its speed. The White Star fired, but the entire salvo passed harmlessly by the enemy ship, hitting where the ship would have been two seconds later. While the White Star was focused on the enemy it had in front of it, a second enemy swept around from the side and fired a full salvo into its flank.
"Damage Critical." The computer announced.
"End simulation." Xander said with a sigh.
On the instruments and view screens the outside battle disappeared, leaving only a view of the massive warehouse that White Star 19 was housed in. Given that this was their first session in the White Star, and they had only been introduced to the, admittedly reasonably user friendly, systems a few hours prior, Xander was not expecting them to perform like fully trained crew.
"Ok, that was a simulation against two Narn Light Patrol Ships." Xander said. "A single White Star should have been able to easily defeat them without a scratch. Who wants to tell me where they went wrong? Anybody?"
"I don't know why, but I always seem to plot courses that would hit the enemy rather than follow them." Faith said from pilot's seat.
"Correct, Faith. Timothy, you keep leading the target too much with the guns. Stella, you need to speak up more when on sensors, none of the other crew knew where that second Patrol Ship was. William, you need to be able to predict better the power outputs. A few times Timothy had to wait a half second to fire the guns, and in combat that can be the difference between life and death." Xander said, before pausing and looking around.
This was simply a combat drill, so there was no cadet at the Navigation or FTL Stations, though the FTL station would be manned by one of the Shok'na if the indication was that the Pyramid Ship was hostile. The three other essential stations were not on the Bridge, but were down in Engineering.
"Ok, let's mix this up. Faith, you take weapons. Stella, you take Helm. Timothy, you go Power Control and William, you take Sensors." Xander ordered. "Computer, start next simulation."
This time it was a trio of Centari Patrol Craft, and the Cadets did much better, ending the simulation with two of the Patrol Craft destroyed and the third crippled, but with the White Star crippled as well. While Faith seemed to fall well into the Gunnery role, though still with a lot to learn, the others did not seem as comfortable as the dark haired girl did with the guns.
"So, how are the recruits coming in the simulations?" Buffy asked.
Xander and Willow had been conducting the training simulations. It was almost four days since the unknown ship had appeared in the outer solar system, and some of the passive readings the White Stars had been getting indicated that they were probably performing repairs. Still, Xander and Willow had been running the advanced Cadets through the simulations at fast pace, rotating them through all the different stations.
"Faith Lehane is a natural with the weapons systems. She needs some practice when targeting specific systems, but has an innate grasp of relative velocities and intercepting trajectories. She does not even have to do the math, she can just tell where to fire to hit the target. Of course don't let her near the helm unless you want to ram the enemy because she does the same thing on course plotting." Xander said with a bit of a chuckle. "As for the other recruits, they are about where you would expect after a few days training. I can give you a list of who I would put where on the bridge, but they all would be pretty green."
"I agree with Xander, most of them would be adequate for the Engineering posts in an emergency, though I recommend Jennifer Hailey be assigned to Engineering. It does not matter which station, she is capable in all of them and soaks up the theory like…" Willow began.
"Like you do?" Buffy asked.
"Well, yeah." Willow replied. "If we needed to today, I would put her in charge of an Engineering Section. Another six months to a year of intensive training and she would be the match of any Anla'Shok Chief Engineer in the fleet."
That basically wrapped up the reports on the Senior Cadet's training. As Buffy began a report on how the new intake was settling in, one of the datapads beeped with an update from the White Stars, and Cordy picked it up to take a look.
"Sorry to interrupt, but it looks like our visitor has just jumped to FTL." Cordy reported. "And White Star 11 got a good data feed on its jump profile."
"We might be able to reconstruct and replicate that FTL method with our jump engines. I would have to analyse the data." Willow said. "But without knowledge of their navigation method, I would not recommend using it."
"Agreed." Cordy said. "I would also recommend getting the White Stars to plant Hyperspace Beacons marking Strategic Points within the Solar System. We know that beacons planted in Hyperspace can't be detected in Real Space without a jump point open, so we can use them for rapid redeployment within the Sol System."
"Then if we ever figure out the other FTL drive and navigation, we can plant Hyperspace Beacons as we go and we'll have the element of surprise." Buffy concluded.
"I know it is a bit overwhelming the first few weeks." Joyce said gently. "Now, tell me what is scaring you the most?"
"I just don't know if I can keep up with the work." The new Cadet said.
"What exactly about the work is bothering you?" Joyce asked, noticing out of the corner of her eye a slowly blinking red light.
With a slow and clam motion, she reached out and pressed a button on her desk. The slowly blinking light indicated that someone wanted to talk to her but it is was not urgent. It took another half an hour for her to talk the new Cadet through his issues. She escorted the Cadet out and then went to the Staff Room to find out who was after her, and found Giles sitting there with a cup of Tea.
"Hello Rupert." Joyce said. "Were you after me? I was just dealing the issues of one of the new intake."
"That's fine, Joyce." Giles said. "I was merely wondering if you were free for dinner tonight."
Joyce simply smiled at that. Much to Buffy's embarrassment, Joyce and Rupert had become close over the last eighteen months, but the two adults were discrete enough not to let it interfere with their work and did not overtly display their affection while at the Academy. Buffy, influenced by the Shok'na personality, had taken their relationship in her stride, though she did spend a fair amount of time at the Academy in order to supervise the Cadets at night.
"I would like that." Joyce replied. "Should I cook or are we going out to eat?"
"Neither." Giles replied. "I will be cooking."
"Should I be worried?" Joyce said with a laugh, which got a head shake from Giles.
"Seven o'clock?" Giles asked.
TBC…