[Drivel to follow fic]

"The flight deck of the Damocles is a little unorthodox," the Captain
informed the assembled pilots evenly. "The design team wanted to find a
way to increase launch speed while maintaining safety and structural
integrity. To do this they came up with what you see now:" he gestured
back towards the numerous platforms that were lifting off the floor on
long metal arms that had been hidden below the deck paneling. 
"From there the plane is loaded into one of the launcher modules,
allowing three launches at once. The whole compliment of fighters can be
space borne in less than a minute from Combat Alert. The down side is
this: Once we start launching fighters we can't stop until all of them
are out and the capture equipment is prepared."
Jonah turned around to motion for one of the technicians to bring him
something. Naomi ran over and handed him a stack of papers, pausing to
wave to Dan before she left. It earned Dan a couple of slaps on the
back.
"These are your flight assignments. Today is going to be familiarization
with the equipment day. Until Lt. Fisher here gets his section in order
you gentlemen are going to be hitting some simulator time. Dan will
watch your runs to get an idea of how to put you guys into some
semblance of a fighting unit." He laughed, unused to having to address
his pilots so closely. It's what happens when I get a green Fighter
Section chief, he reflected.
As Dan started splitting the group up into smaller flight elements,
Jonah took a moment to relax against the bulkhead. He'd never been a
fighter jock, but he'd always been aboard ships that had plenty to
spare. He was just an Ensign when he pulled a lucky assignment onboard
the SDF-1. He remembered a hotshot young pilot by the name of Rick
Hunter, who had turned out quite all right. Dan had something akin to
Hunter, though no where as flamboyant or na�ve as Rick had been.
Dan wasn't quite as instinctual a leader as Rick had been, and was going
to need some encouraging before he accepted the role of command. Jonah
watched him from his resting place, Dan flitting around the bay as fast
as he could, getting pilots into groups, talking to technicians and
command staff. Out of the corner of Jonah's eye he saw his first shift
Tac Com officer.
"Lt. Fisher, I'd like to introduce you to someone," he called after
greeting his officer.
"Sure," Fisher said as soon as he had disentangled himself his last
task. A thin layer of sweat covered his face, mostly from nervousness.
Dan had already convinced himself it was impossible to get out of
command during this tour, there simply weren't enough qualified staff in
his section for him to pawn it off on someone else. But after this tour,
it was back to 'my plane, my wingmate.' And since Sakura would be around
then, he had a partner for his next tour of duty.
"Lt. Fisher, this is Lt. Wesley C. Winters. He's the Tac Com first shift
officer."
Wesley Winters stuck a hand out to greet Dan, dressed in a cleaned and
pressed uniform that screamed out "Cleaned exactly to Specifications,
Sir!" Dan felt slightly underdressed in his green t-shirt and cargo
pants, but the rest of his uniform had left him just as it got hot. He
reached out and took the Tac Com officer's hand.
"Pleasure," Wesley said crisply. "How is Shrike Flight coming along?" he
asked, tone warming.
"Excellent bunch of pilots and planes," Dan reported, realizing that in
seniority at least, this man outranked him. "I hope I'll be able to
handle them."
"Don't worry," Jonah chimed in. "Wesley is one of the best Tac Com
officers in the fleet. He'll be giving you a hand. If you'll excuse me,
I have a meeting with the rest of the command staff."
The two Lt.'s saluted and relaxed a bit as the Captain left the bay. The
rest of the crew followed suit, except for Chief Engineer Zhi Gang who
worked like a maniac no matter what the conditions were.
"First command?" Winters asked after taking a moment to look at the
Shrikes.
"Yes. Hopefully my last, too. I'm not really cut out for it."
"Neither was I. I'm going to talk to the other pilots for a bit. I'll
let you know if I have any suggestions."
"Um, sure. Thanks, sir." Winters turned and began walking towards the
mess of pilots, a distinct limp marring his mil-spec walk. "Strange
guy," he muttered, finally noticing the bronze wings on Winters' lapel.
He used to be a pilot? Dan asked himself.

	Sakura looked at Makoto Mizuhara for the thousandth time that day. As
always he noticed the glance and blushed slightly, managing to convey
his embarrassment over the situation. On the first day the two had sat
down and discussed exactly how silly their parents were for arranging
this whole thing. In the end, they decided to go on a date to satisfy
both their parents before calling this whole thing off. 
	So here they were, eating fine sashimi at a traditional restaurant in a
suburb of the rebuilt city of Tokyo. Sakura was picking through her
food, not really hungry. Instead she found herself strangely interested
in the conversation.
	"So you run an inport/export business? That sounds so clich�," she
giggled a little, surprised at how much being home changed a person. A
few weeks ago she would have brushed this man off and talked about gee
loads or weapons load outs. 
	"I actually run a translation house for manga and anime. My dad started
the business a long time ago, and met your father. I guess that's where
this whole arranged marriage thing came up."
	"Probably something my mother thought up. She's still rather
traditional at heart."
	"That's my dad to a 'T.'"
	Sakura laughed again, relaxing for the first time since Dan departed
for the Damocles. There was still no answer to her email and it had been
sent almost three days before. Dan was usually better at keeping up his
end of the correspondence. Why am I thinking about him? She thought,
irritated that Dan could still managed to complicate a dinner when he
was close to a light minute away.
	"So what's next for this date?" Sakura asked as she finished her
sashimi. 

	1st Lt. Daniel Fisher, Flight Group Commander, Shrike Flight, groaned
and rested his head between his hands. A small trickle of blood dripped
from his scalp combining with the sweat, grease and undetermined goop to
form some ungodly conglomerate that covered his face.
	Beside him, Yeoman Naomi Richards held a towel and a pair of moist
towelettes out to the beleaguered young man. She seemed apologetic, and
stood nervously waiting for the Lt. 
	"I'm sorry you got knocked out of the service access. I had no idea you
were looking in at the work I just finished."
	"It was my fault," Dan said, wincing in pain as his jaw creaked once.
"I shouldn't have stuck my head in there without telling you. Why
exactly did you scream and kick me, anyway?"
	"You reminded me of this guy I used to work with a long time ago. Just
the look on your face like you wanted to see�I'm sorry, never mind."
	"I was just trying to get a look at the feedback assembly."
	"I know. I just over reacted a little."
	Naomi ran off as her name was called by one of the other pilots, Zed
Williams. Dan's day was going downhill at an amazing rate. Today was the
first flight of Shrike flight's Able group. The six planes in the
ventral bay were all being prepared for launch, with numerous onlookers.
The captain, Lt. Winters, the six other pilots and some people that Dan
hadn't met first. Probably the intel staff, he thought as he went back
to Shrike 1. 
	"Lt. Fisher!" Winters said as he stiffly walked over to Shrike 1.
"First day jitters?" he said calmly.
	"We'll be fine. I just need to get a bit more practice with this bay."
	"So do the techs and Tac Com boys. That's why I'm down here and Emily
and Descartes are running the show. We've got another day of travel
before we hit the asteroid belt. Anything coming at us now will be seen
so far off we'll have a good portion of the Fleet here to meet them."
	Dan wondered about that. No one knew how the majority of the battle
pod's came from during the Orbital Ring Engagement. One moment there
were no hostile targets on the screens and the next�
	"Thanks for the pep talk."
	"I'm just trying to tell you to get the bugs out now. Bravo group will
need work too, so don't forget about them."
	Dan grinned. He wasn't planning on forgetting about anything.
	"Hey Dan!" Naomi called from across "Did you forget this?" she said,
holding up one of Dan's checklists.

	"Do you think they'll be ready?" Joshua asked his captain quietly, gaze
fixed on the apparent bedlam that was taking place around him.
	"Certainly. Wesley really is one of the best Tac Com Officers I've ever
worked with."
	"He was a better pilot," Joshua said. "And he'll never fly again."
	"Of course. He's lucky to be walking. I have faith in both the young
Lts." 
	Joshua took a moment to glance at his old friend. "This command suits
you."
	"I like the challenge. Besides, I never was cut out to be a fleet
captain. They try to teach you war by numbers."
	"You always did like to improvise. I remember when it got you into a
great deal of trouble once, at a bar in Rock City."
	"That was a long time ago. You weren't really supposed to be inside as
I recall." The two friends shared a smile. "Things were different back
then."
	"The earth hadn't been bombed from orbit, for one. Our crazed
rebuilding attempts hadn't scarred more and more land each year. Of
course, we were in the middle of a global Civil War. And we were trying
to get laid. You were, at least."
	"Always the doom and gloom with you. It wasn't all that bad," the
captain said, eyes lost in the mist of memory. In those travels he found
his wife, and nothing could ruin that experience.
	Joshua remained silent, memory of those days slightly different. While
Jonah remembered the camaraderie of his men and finding his love, Joshua
remembered the destruction. 
	"Joshua, we've traveled a long way since then."
	"We have put quite a few miles on our souls," Joshua said with a grin.
"I doubt we'll lose them now."
	"I take it that this mission carries your official blessing?" Jonah
asked with a grin.
	"Indeed. Eye for an Eye and all that nonsense," Joshua replied,
matching his friends expression.

Drivel-
	Its still practically writing itself. We've hit the action lull where
new characters are introduced (the cast is growing rapidly) and flesh
out old ones. I also think this is the weakest part written so far, so I
hope you guys won't go too harsh on this thing.

Oh yeah, the setting and characters in this fic are mine(Except Rick
Hunter) but set in a world owned by someone else. I make no claim to
said world.

As before, for more like this and many things much different, visit
www.brandeis.edu/~jmele or drop me a line at jmele@brandeis.edu