A/N: Constructing Chapter Two... Chapter Two, complete. Auto-launch Set.

Disclaimer: I DO own that wonderful witty play on Homeworld's Construction, and Launching features... But unfortunately, I own neither the original quote... Nor the Copyright. If I did, You can damn sure bet that there would be a Homeworld 3 on the way... And that I'd probably get distracted by a floating hunk of cheese, somewhere along the way.

1 BHL, High Kharak Orbit

The constant, gentle hum of the shuttle's engine seemed to echo through my very bones. Three hours... three hours of this shuttle's malfunctioning Inertia compensator. Three hours of shivering teeth, and vibrating flesh. "Shuttle E2-015, you are cleared for approach to the Mothership." a flight controller responded to the pilot, and I mentally cheered.

The pilot softly adjusted his course to come directly towards the Mothership's secondary bay. A soft fuzz, followed by a short click sounded faintly from the cockpit, before- "Roger, coming in on vector Zero-Eight-Five by Three-Two-Five, Estimated time to arival- one minute." the pilot transmitted back.

I looked around, again, at the other three whom were in the shuttle's passenger bay with me. That Manaani Lieutenant, whom I had learned was named Nihrus, and a pair of engineers who had been called up to watch over the Mothership's systems, during the hyperspace test. I didn't bother learning their names- they wouldn't be around too long, after all.

Two Hours later, aboard the Mothership

Chatter sounded back and forth across various channels- My radio across the room reported all of it, but I only caught some fragments... "All stations green" one officer said... the reply was garbled by static, and drowned out by the sound of my now running shower. As I stepped in, another officer quickly gave an affirmative "You got it." and silenced for a few seconds, before announcing "Bays: Eight- Nine- Ten- Sealed." Yet another officer then reported "Scaffold deck, secure."

"All Systems green" One of the bridge officer's voices echoed out throughout the Mothership's speakers, at the same time as my radio reported his message. I shook my head to get water out from my ears, and almost missed someone muttering "What a beautiful sight" over an open channel.

"This is Fleet Command. Reporting Mothership pre-launch status." I Startled then, and quickly threw open my shower curtain- Her voice sounded as if she was in the room with me- clear of any static before, during or after... Even the other messages through the ships comm's were more garbled! I took a quick look around the room, just to make sure- and spotted a small camera above the door... the light on it was off, so it was deactivated at the moment, but I quickly closed the shower curtain none the less.

As I did so, the ship seemed to shiver and shake, as a high pitched drone- no, a whine sounded off, winding up in pitch slowly. The room rumbled, and my uniform hung ready for me seemed to vibrate on the rack. 'Must be the main engine...' I thought to myself. "Command online" Her voice sounded again- and I had to stop myself from checking the room once more. "Resourcing online" My head peeked out by the shower curtain, and I glared at the camera- Still inactive. Good. "Construction online..." I closed the curtain, once more.

"Cryogenic subsections A through J online..." Speaking of cryogenics- the water started growing cold. I quickly finished, and as I stepped out, she continued "K through S online." her voice seemed to come from all around, yet right next to me as well. I shut my radio off, quickly. I checked the camera once more and could have sworn that I saw the light blink on, then off, through the corner of my eye. I moved the shower curtain shut, and stood behind a cabinet, dressing there, hoping that it would block at least some of the camera's view of myself.

"Scaffold control, stand-by for alignment." the shaking started again... "The engine must still be incomplete... that must be it." I muttered quietly to myself. Though I stuck to the floor like glue, I swore I could feel the ship turning counter-clockwise slowly, before coming to a rather abrupt halt. "Alignment confirmed. Stand by Release Control" the shaking stopped, and a quiet, garbled "Roger" was heard back over the Comm's. 'How does she do that.' I thought to myself, noticing the large difference in quality between the two voices. 'The ships are connected- there shouldn't be that much of a difference in sound quality.'

The ship vibrated lightly, and I could feel it in my teeth- it reminded me strongly of the shuttle which I had gotten off of not two hours earlier. "The Mothership has cleared the Scaffold." the shuddering stopped once more. 'And thank Sajuuk for that.' I thought quickly, finishing buttoning up my uniform. "We are away." She finished. I heard a couple of small dull thunks that echoed through the entire hull. But they reminded me quite distinctly of the sound the docking clamps had made on the hull of the small corvette sized transport which had carried me to the Mothership. Eight times in a row, I heard it.. "It must be that initial fleet group, I suppose." I muttered quietly.

"Standby for Command line testing..." Her voice came through the ship's communications system perfectly clear.. I still don't know how she did it- even other transmissions from closer inside the ship have a small bit of static... But it was like she was speaking right into your ear. Almost as if she was right by you, watching what you were doing. I shivered at the thought- She does technically have full control over the entire ship... Including...

I checked to make sure the security camera wasn't pointed my way again- 'Fleet Command' or not, the idea of someone watching everyone and everything was a creepy thought. At that moment, I couldn't wait for them to finish their design of the still unnamed Assault Frigate class in development. Maybe then, the constant feeling of being watched would dissapate. I smirked. I'd already been asigned to be the commanding officer aboard the first one of them. Fleet Command wouldn't be watching everything then, right? "Admiral," speaking of whom...

"Go ahead, Command." I quickly replied over my radio. I looked towards the corner, and sure enough, the camera swiveled to face me, and the feeling of being watched returned tenfold. "Please report to the bridge, to provide oversight of the combat trials. They're scheduled to begin in three minutes." She replied over my radio, before generating a small clicking noise, to signal comm's clear. "Understood, I'll be there immediately." I then clicked my radio off, and headed for the nearest Elevator- It figures that they'd shove my quarters to the bottom of the ship, when I'm expected at the top!

-Mothership's Bridge-

I swiped my keycard through the door-side slot, and entered my sixteen digit code in the pad beside it. A soft tone sounded, and the door opened with a small hiss of it's pneumatic actuators.

"Admiral, over here" I was waved over to a small station set right next to a set of large, Open blast doors. Though the lights were off in the room, it seemed to have a small blue glow, eminating from the center, where Karan S'jet was hooked into the ship.

"Sir, the fighters are in position outside of the Mothership, and are awaiting orders. Command's decided that 'Group 1' will be assigned to you, and will be under your direct command up to, and after you have your Frigate constructed." the Ensign whom called me over stated.

I looked over towards Ms. S'jet again, and saw her looking straight back at me, her eyes now open. I Raised an eyebrow, and she looked away, almost looking to be laughing. I blinked, and shook my head slightly. I could almost swear that she winked at me when she looked back.

I looked over towards the Ensign, and looked for her uniform's nametag. 'Hmm, Ahlera LiirHra... Why does that name seem familiar.' I thought to myself. "Sir, did you hear me?" she asked, and looked up at me impatiently. She tilted her head to the side, and looked like she was about to repeat herself, before I quickly cut her off.

"I heard you, get me an open channel to the flight leader," I quickly ordered. "Yes sir. And may I speak freely?" She responded, pressing a few buttons on the console ahead of her, causing a small reading of 'Channel Frequency set to 5.' to appear on the small display readout. "Granted," I picked up the small radio headset, but paused before putting it on, to allow her time to speak. "I'm looking forward to serving under your command- I was one of the ones on that small convoy in the southern hemisphear, two years ago." She said, and gave me a small grin.

Almost immediately, an image of a slightly younger version of the Ensign popped into my head.. her face slightly dusty, yet giving a dull shine due to sweat, and the same little grin peaking up at me from the wreckage of one of the, then newly trackless, convoy vehicles. I saw the small group of damaged convoy vehicles.. Heard the idling engine from my Fighter, which I had been standing on the wing of... I could almost smell the smoke from my wingman's wreck nearby, and see his grinning face as he bleed out on the ground nearby... He didn't make it.

"Awaiting orders." I startled, and cleared my head, focusing on the Arrow Squadron's leader, whom had just reported in.

A/N: No reviews to respond to- so I guess that wraps this up for now. Cya next time, folks! Read and Review, please!