Future Fur-A Hero Rises

Chapter 4 Setting out (Unrevised)

     "It's been two years since the raider attack, what we lost to the raiders can never be ours again; almost six years ago I never thought I would be in a position like this, and at that point I can't say if I would have taken it as seriously as I do today. The past two years have given me more than I thought I could have after my family died, I found old and new friends, I'm have support from people I thought I would never meet face to face; today I stand before you all as an explorer, a captain, a husband, a friend, and a soon to be father. In just a few hours the newly renamed Argos Explorer will leave The Saltaner shipyards, and our mission that was set in stone by the original captain of the Argos Explorer Nadori Zarelna will continue as planned; our mission is to find out if there are any other life forms out in the void of space. I know I am the youngest captain in the New Howler program, but I will always do what is necessary to bring: my ship, my crew, my family, my family, and hopefully a lot of valuable information on the outside of our space back to the A.C.P. in one piece. With a little luck the mission of the Argos Explorer always be a successful one". It had been a perfect day for the Explorers send off: mostly sunny, a few clouds, a nice breeze, and no interruptions. Over the past two years Zane And Shadow had gotten closer than anyone had expected after the events of their first meeting, and now after a lot of begging and compromises the Explorer would ship out with a single heavy weapons officer; however proud I was of my speech I was not done quite yet, "I know this is supposed to be a speech dealing with only the Argos Explorer, but I want to say two more things before I stop talking I would like to about the Explorers change in name and about some of her crew. I'm sure a lot of you have noticed the metallic brace on my left arm, but it's not exactly a brace; Argos, transfer delta procedure".

     No later than I stopped speaking the familiar blue haze came to life, and appeared to be standing on my shoulder; however, his appearance was slightly altered because Argos had altered his program to wear a uniform of the aligned coalition of planets instead of wearing the blackish jacket I wore on the day of his activation, "transfer complete Captain".

     I started relaxing after Argos appeared considering the transfer had a chance not to work, "this is Argos, and yes he is an artificial life form or at this point an A.I.; originally he had been an interface program, but he has become so much more than that simple program. Over the past two years i have figured out exactly what caused this event, and have recreated it to create three more A.I. Units: Theta, Delta, and Crimson. The process is simple and efficient, I can see that the future has a possibility of all ships one day having programs like Argos and his siblings; however, it is unseen to what extent these programs will help starship efficiency". I knew I had to finish my speech soon so I shifted to my other topic, "I know you all would probably like to move on to another task by now so I will keep this brief; to my left is my first officer Zane Dedran, and to Zane's left is my heavy weapons officer Collin Alder. Please you two stand up". They stood up, and I took a deep breath before I spoke, "I know this is not how I should end my rant, but you two have been my friends for a while now and in a way am the reason you two met. The road ahead of us all is a challenging one, and I don't know where we will end up; wherever our path takes the Argos Explorer, but I would like to state how glad I am that you two decided to join me on the Explorer. I will stand down now, I wish you all a safe trip to wherever you are headed". I turned around and walked back to Rehana who had almost fallen asleep and now was up stretching and moving off the stand.

                                                                                                    ***

     Not even an hour later I was walking down a street of Saltaners capital city with Rehana, Zane, and Shadow; in a few hours the Argos Explorer would be leaving Saltaner and I could not leave again without visiting Aunt Tala, "come on Rehana, you can't just mope your way around the city".She spoke up sounding a little angered, "sorry I have not slept much the past three days, I have been a bit busy trying to fix deck sevens power network; either way I would still like to know where we are going".