Starship Armstrong - Season 3

Part 47 - Coincidence and Misunderstanding (IV)

"Now I have to find enough people to make two equal away teams?" the Captain complained.

She waved her hand in the general direction of Gibson and Mitzner.

"Split up the Science Department between the two of you," she said, flopping down into her command throne. "Take whoever else you want. Just leave me with enough people to run the ship. I have a feeling we're going to be here unraveling this mess for a while.

"Aye Captain," said Gibson and Mitzner in near unison.

"Lieutenant-Commander: if anyone asks, just tell them you're a Commander. I don't want one side thinking the other is getting a higher ranked representative."

"Captain I must protest this," said Gibson. "It's against Foundation protocol to claim an unearned rank."

"Fine," said the Captain. "Don't do it."

But then she gave Mitzner a look that said "do it anyway."

"I understand," said Mitnzer.

"Let's not waste any more time on this than we have to. Go now. Do it," said the Captain. "Make it so."

* * *

The Commander and Lieutenant-Commander decided to walk down to the Science Department rather than page them. They were certain they were listening in on the previous conversations didn't want to give any of them a chance to escape.

"I'll take the Ensigns, you can have Kang," said Mitzner.

Gibson laughed. Mitzner thought quickly and she couldn't remember another time she heard him laugh.

"Nice try," he said. "Actually I retract that. It wasn't particularly nice even for a try."

"Ensign McAfree is really in a bad place right now and I want a chance to talk to her."

"Away missions are not therapy," said Gibson. "You're making the case for why I should take the Ensigns."

"We'll need to institute some kind of draft."

They finally arrived at the door to the Science Department. As usual it didn't open for them.

"Kang let us in!" snarled Mitzner.

The door slid open.

"Charming as ever, Lieutenant-Commander," said Dr. Kang as they came in. He was sitting in his favorite chair, by his many and various monitors and holoscreens.

"I'm going to assume you heard all that," said Gibson.

"Just the last part," admitted Dr. Kang. "We missed the start. Are they relatives of yours Commander?"

Mitzner snickered, and then got extremely mad at herself.

"They are not," said Gibson. "We are forming two away teams."

"Ensign McAfree, Ensign Wager, you're with me," said Mitzner, in an aggressive opening bid.

"Wait just a minute-" said Gibson.

"I don't want to go with her," said McAfree. "I'm going with the Commander."

Commander Gibson turned back to look at McAfree.

"Well it's not up to you Ensign," he said. "Lieutenant-Commander Mitzner is your superior officer so if she says you're going with her then you're going with her."

"Fine," said McAfree.

"I suppose that means I'm going with you then, eh, Commander?" said Dr. Kang, standing.

Commander Gibson wasn't sure if he had just been played like a fiddle or not.

* * *

The two teams met in the shuttlebay. Commander Gibson was taking Dr. Kang, Lieutenant Ngige, and Ensign Takahashi. Mitzner had Ensign McAfree, Ensign Wagner, Ensign Gul and Ensign Anhkbayar.

"We'll take the Vostok," said Gibson.

"Why do you get the Vostok?" asked Mitzner.

"Because I outrank you," said Gibson.

He and his team started loading up into the Vostok.

Mitzner turned around and looked at the other shuttle, the Voskhod. She hate the Voskhod. Everyone did. And the Voshkhod hated them right back. She couldn't remember the last time someone got stuck with it, probably the Reunification wars and she bet the thing got them killed.

She walked inside and sat down at the pilot's controls.

"Ugh the height adjuster is broken on the pilot's seat," Mitzner observed almost immediately after sitting down. "I hate you so much Voskhod!"

The teams got into their respective shuttles and the two tiny spacecraft lifted into the air and took off into space. The Voskhod team headed off for the nearby Terra, since they were in the worse shuttle, and the Vostok team made for the opposite Terra.

The Captain watched the two shuttles depart on the main screen, with an empty Command throne beside her and Lt. Solarin sitting at tactical.

"Good luck," she said.

She didn't think anything else would help.