Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 15:56:38 +0000
From: Douglas DD DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Boys of Lady Lex Chapter 18

Greetings and welcome back readers. In this chapter the Lady Lex finally
gets underway, Jesse works hard to prove his worth, and Johnny Cooper makes
everybody wonder what Captain Hatcher sees in him. We also manage to learn a
little about the rebelious cadet CO. This is a Douglas chapter. Have fun
reading. And thanks for the e-mails.  -Douglas and Ben

The Boys of the Lady Lex
Chapter 18 "Shakedown"
Written By Douglas DD and Benjamin TC


The Lady Lex hummed and vibrated as she eased her way through Mothball
Graveyard. While the boys occupied a command seat they each had their main
crew equivalent ready to take over at the slightest hint of trouble. The
sense of pride in the boys was evident to all. For the first time since they
had been dumped on the old relic the boys, from those in the command chair
to those on the lower decks, started to feel a real sense of accomplishment.
For some, feeling the ship starting to move through space was one of the
greatest feelings they ever had. One of those was Johnny Cooper. Never had
he felt such a power and excitement. He wanted to break out in a grin it
felt so good. His dick was rock hard from the excitement pulsing through
him. He was in charge of a starship. He, Johnny Cooper, was the person with
the power.

Captain Hatcher watched Johnny. Johnny was his project. He saw a lot in
Johnny that Johnny didn't see in himself. He could see some of his older son
Mark; the confidence, the ability to lead, the beaming show of pride at
accomplishing something. After the food fight he had come close to relieving
Johnny of his CO duties. He was glad now he hadn't.

Originally, the Lady Lex's little shakedown cruise was going to be manned
strictly by the regular crew, but Commander Creevey, Colonel Stone, Dr.
Daniels, and Eli had all pleaded that boys get a taste of what it means for
the starship to move. They argued successfully that the boys needed to start
becoming intimately connected to the ship as an almost living entity rather
than seeing it merely as a prison. Yes, they weren't really ready, and yes
the class schedule for the week would have to be changed to train them
quicker, but the results would be worth it. Captain Hatcher was at first
reluctant to agree, but found it difficult to turn down the combined
arguments of his fellow officers and friends. He knew as soon as he saw the
looks on the faces of the boys, saw the shades go on his nephew's face, and
heard the music, that they had made the right decision. A corner had been
turned. The road to travel was still long, but now there seemed to be a
purpose to the trip.

Ben watched as TJ fed his calculations into the computer,  using TJ's
readings to set his course. Ben found that all the deficiencies he thought
he had in math were just the mental block his father had always told him
they were. The numbers in front of him were real, and they almost talked to
him as he read them to set his course. Douglas watched his instruments and
the view screen carefully, knowing that Mothball Graveyard was full of
drifting ships and debris, and part of his job was to be sure they avoided
even the smallest collision.

Captain Hatcher had debated not turning the ship over to the cadets until
they left the graveyard, but he also instinctively knew that the act of
starting the ship was an important one and one necessary to give the boys a
sense of ownership over the Lady Lex.

The only noises was the whir of the life support system and the hums and
beeps of the instruments. The silence was broken by Lieutenant Commander
McKay, the ship's regular operations officer. "Cadet Daniels, do you see the
freighter off to port?"

Douglas checked his panel and the view screen and realized he had been
paying too much attention to Ben and not enough to his own job. "Helmsman,
three degrees to starboard and 5 degrees up," he barked to Ben.

"Excellent adjustment, cadet."

Douglas went quickly from embarrassment to beaming with pride at his change.
All the work was paying off.

Johnny Cooper looked at his own screen and his readouts. The figures he saw
had been provided by his navigator, TJ.  He could see the big picture of the
yard. "Helmsman, set the course to 212 degrees mark 70."

"Aye, sir." Ben made the necessary adjustments. TJ double checked Johnny's
course against his own just to make sure nothing was misinterpreted. The
Lady Lex moved proudly through Mothball Graveyard and out into wide open
space.

Captain Hatcher leaned over and whispered something to Johnny. Johnny smiled
and gave the order, "Impulse engines to eighty percent." The rest of the
boys in the bridge smiled. They were going to start opening her up. The
ancient engines were going to be asked to start showing their stuff. The
vibrations increased, the stars in the view screen moved faster, and the
Lady Lex worked to show there was a lot of life left in her yet.

*****

Ely watched Ryan carefully as the boy studied the instruments. Ryan was his
chief engineer and had proved to be a quick study. He had picked Captain
Hatcher's young son Jesse as his assistant, and it had proved to be a good
choice. Ely knew that Jesse's love of theater and music, his preference to
read a book rather than hit a baseball, and his slim, almost effeminate
body, kept him out of his father's favor.

Captain Hatcher was not only his commanding officer, but his friend. As much
as he loved and respected the man, he didn't approve of how he handled his
sons. He had decided long ago, however, not offer an opinion when it wasn't
asked for. That didn't stop him from aching when he heard the captain
constantly praises his older son Mark, who Ely saw as a spoiled prick, while
belittling his younger son, who wanted so much to please his father, no
matter how much he hid that desire. Jesse was a sweet boy, and deserved
better. Ely had gone out of his way to help Jesse in the fine points of
engineering, and a bond had started to form between the two of them. Ely
hoped that at some point he could use that bond to start forming something
similar between the boy and his father. He had hoped Jesse being on the Lady
Lex while Mark was gone on the "Orion" might help Hatcher notice his younger
son more, but that turned out not to be the case. He had heard about the
remark Hatcher had made about Jesse when Jesse was picked as assistant 7th
grade leader, denigrating Jesse's leadership abilities. It had been totally
uncalled for. Ely sighed. He hoped Jesse could win his way into his father's
heart, but if he couldn't he knew the day was rapidly drawing close when he
would be forced to risk his friendship for Steven Hatcher by standing up for
his son.

The impulse engines started to hum louder. The order had come down to start
opening them up. Ely watched as Ryan, Jesse, Ian, Parker, and Alan scurried
around checking instruments and readings. Chief Anderson watched them
carefully and kept his eyes on the banks of instruments.

"Sir, are the engines supposed to sound like that?" Jesse asked Ely.

Ely listened to the increasing hum of the engines as they revved up to the
demands of the bridge. "They sound fine to me, cadet. What's the reading on
the fuel flow gauge Cadet Thumbleton?" Ely asked Ryan.

"One twenty-five PSI and steady," Ryan called out. "No, wait, it just
flickered."

Now Ely listened more intently to the engines. He detected a very slight
quaver about every eight or nine seconds. Jesse had been right, the engines
were not running smoothly. He called Alan over and asked him to check the
fuel level on fuel cells the next level down. He had Chief Anderson go with
him and watched and listened.

"Good job, Cadet Hatcher. You have excellent ears."

"You need to be able to listen carefully when you're on stage. I guess it's
just a habit."

Interesting, Ely mused. The very skill his father would belittle has proved
to be very useful in the engineering bowels of a starship. His communicator
beeped. It was Alan.

"Sir, there seems to be a blockage somewhere. The fuel flow is wavering a
great deal here."

Ely sighed. It wasn't an unexpected problem on this old dame. The fuel cells
probably had residue left in them that was getting caught up in the pipes
that fed the engines. Even with all the cleaning they had done, there was a
lot of gunk that had built up from old fuel that had been left in remote
corners of the fuel cells. He was going to have to shut down the engines and
find out the source of the blockage. The problem would have been detected
soon as it got worse, but Cadet Hatcher's early discovery was going to save
them a lot of time. By detecting the blockage early he would be able to
figure out exactly where it was and would be able to loosen it up with
thinner. However, he was going to have to shut down the engines for a half
hour or so, which he knew would take away from the sense of triumph. But
better now then in deep space later, and better a half hour than three or
four hours, which would have been the case had they not detected the problem
early. Good job, Jesse Hatcher, he said silently. I will make sure your
father finds out about this.

Ely asked Ryan what a Chief Engineer should do now. Ryan said to shut off
the fuel flow at the source. The boy has been studying his stuff, he
thought.

"Excellent, Cadet. Make it so."

Ryan gave Alan the order to shut the valves where the fuel pipes left the
fuel cells. Ely could hear the engines wind down. As he hit the Comm button
to explain to the bridge why he was shutting the engines down, the lights
flickered and the power died. All that was left on was the emergency
lighting. The Lady Lex was now dark and drifting.

*****

Johnny saw the comm indicator on the arm of his chair light up. He reached
down to answer it when he felt a sudden change on the humming vibrations of
the ship, followed by darkness, then the emergency lights coming on. Before
he could react the hum of the engines ceased entirely and he could tell the
ship was without power.

"Fuck!" he said aloud.

"Keep calm, cadet," Captain Hatcher admonished quietly. "Think about what to
do next, calmly and quietly."

Fucking piece of shit derelict, Johnny thought to himself. I knew this was
all too good to be true. I knew it was all fake. I don't know what I got so
excited about. The adrenaline rush and resulting  boner he got from it were
gone, replaced by a sense of dread and betrayal, as well as the fear that he
had suddenly been taken out of his element. All the bravado in the galaxy
was not going to help him now. He had no clue what had just happened, why it
had happened, and what he was going to do about it.

The captain had told him to think. How could he think when he was put in
charge with this piece of shit starship where everything was old and nothing
worked. As he stewed in his seat he heard Mike's voice from the XO station.

"Do you want me to contact engineering, sir?"

Johnny said nothing, waiting for Captain Hatcher to take over, but the
captain remained silent. Hatcher had a pretty good idea that the problem
wasn't serious. After all there no alarm bells going off indicating
explosions, smoke, and flame. This was a good place to see what some of
these boys were really made of, so see what was cockiness and bravado, and
what was the ability to function under pressure. In other words to see who
talked the talk, and who walked the walk. At the first sign of serious
trouble he would take command.

Douglas had already gone to the engineering station to check the
instruments. He knew the big heavy kid sitting at the station was named Joe
and that he was a freshman. Other than that he knew little about him. Like
most of the Lady Lex boys he was bright, but his lack of athleticism and his
weight had kept him from being picked for a shuttle crew. Joe looked at the
instruments as if they were something written in Kritonese.

"Can you tell anything?" Douglas asked.

"No," Joe said trying to hide his panic.

Douglas looked at the instruments, but he had no clue as to what they said
either. The regular operations office stood silently. He know what they
said, and knew the readouts weren't complete enough to tell the entire
story. It would be awhile before the boys were experienced enough to
understand that not all the answers lay in a bridge instrument panel.

Meanwhile Johnny continued to ignore Mike's question.

"Sir, do you want me to contact engineering?"

"The power is out. How the fuck are you going to contact engineering?"
Johnny finally answered.

Mike shrugged his shoulders and showed Johnny the personal communicator he
was holding in his hand. Johnny felt himself flushing. He was blowing it
again. He wanted out of here. He wanted Captain Hatcher to take over and
kick him off the bridge. He was tired of being in charge of something that
didn't work. He wanted to get his new Mustang gang together and screw the
rest of them. He wanted to be really in charge, not some puppet of the
captain. But as much as he wished it, the captain said nothing.

Mike buzzed engineering. Ryan answered the call.

"Hey, Ry. What's going on down there?"

"I was just getting ready to buzz the CO. The power failure cut our first
communication to the bridge. Can I talk to Johnny?"

Mike looked at Johnny, who was sitting pale and frozen in the command chair.
"You can tell me. I'll pass it on."

Ryan wasn't sure what was going on up the bridge, but knowing Johnny he had
a feeling it wasn't good.

"As far as the engines going down, we have a fuel blockage in fuel cell two.
The CE and I are going put some cleaner and thinner in it. He figures it's
some old gummy fuel that wasn't cleaned out totally."

"And that caused the power failure?"

"No. As far as we know it had nothing to do with the power failure. We don't
know what caused the power failure." Ryan used the pronoun `we' even though
it was Eli who had figured everything out, but he figured it sounded good
for his boyfriend to think he knew what he was doing and knew what he was
talking about. "We should have engine power back in about ten minutes. Then
we'll check on the power problem."

Mike nodded, then, realizing Ryan couldn't see the nod, gave him his thanks
and told Ryan to keep him informed. He then relayed the information to
Johnny.

"Any orders, sir?"

"Um, no, sit tight until we get engines and power back. I guess there's
nothing to do and we're not in any danger." Johnny could figure that much
out, because if they were in danger the regular crew would have taken over a
long time ago. Now there was nothing to do but fume. If the bridge crew had
been his gang he would have joked with and insulted a couple of them to keep
them loose. At least he would have done that with the old Mustang Gang.
Those were good times. He was good. He could get them in and out of
anywhere. He knew alarms, how to bypass them and work them. He knew locks.
He knew who had what worth stealing, and how to hurt the bastards who had
had a hand in killing his big brother, who had taught him so much. Craig had
been all he had. Craig had showed him the ways of crime, but he had shown
him more. He'd shown him how to lead a gang, how to handle people as well as
things. He's shown him how to jerk off, and how to fuck a girl. He was not
only his big brother and mentor, he was the father the two of them never
had. He had let Johnny tag along with his Mustang gang from the time Johnny
was 8 and Craig was 13.

But Craig had one big weakness. He was an addict. When he wasn't leading the
gang he was partying, drinking hard liquor, smoking weed, popping pills, and
in the end injecting hard drugs into his bloodstream; drugs that were sold
to him by so many of the so-called respectable businessmen in the city. By
the time Johnny was 13, Craig was a full blown addict. He stole to get the
money to pay for his drugs. Ironically he sometimes stole from the very
people he later purchased his drugs from. Johnny had pretty much inherited
the leadership of the Mustang Gang, and Craig had become a liability. Johnny
let the gang slide as he tried to help his brother. Their mother was a
prostitute who took little interest in her boys, and like her older boy was
an addict.  They both were sure they had different fathers, though their
mother couldn't tell them exactly who their fathers had been. But she never
tired of telling them how being pregnant was bad for business. So why didn't
you just have an abortion? Johnny would tell her more than once, a question
met by silence-a question that was never answered.

Just before Johnny turned 14, Craig died of an overdose. He died in the back
room of Arnie's Liquor and Herb emporium. The owner told the police Craig
had broken in to steal booze and that he had never seen the boy before in
his life. Johnny knew better. He knew Craig had purchased his drugs from
Arnie, or whatever his name was. It was about this time he met Mike and
Ryan. TJ had met them in school, and like so many kids, they were bored.
Joining up with Johnny, TJ, and the rest of the gang sounded exciting. Mike
was 12 and Ryan 11 at the time, but the entire gang had become younger. Mike
quickly proved himself to be adept at planning, and Ryan had an incredible
mechanical and electrical aptitude. The two continued to live the life of
good students, good kids, and members of youth teams, while becoming more
and more involved in the Mustang gang.

Johnny had been able to get Mike and Ryan involved by telling them that they
would be robbing from the people who robbed from kids. And they would start
from the asshole who had robbed his brother of his life. But after a couple
of years Johnny grew tired of being a do do-gooder. He started to remember
the blank-eyed addict his brother had become rather than the special friend
he had been. He started to tire of being poor and having nothing, and
started getting the gang to steal for profit again, especially his own
profit. When Mike, Ryan, and TJ threatened to leave the gang, he merely
forgot about them and set out on his own, failing to realize how much he had
come to rely on their unique talents and clear headed thinking. It wasn't
long after that he was caught and sentenced to a youth detention facility.
By this time Mike, Ryan, and TJ had formed the Donkey Gang, and went back to
taking from the assholes of the world.

Johnny was placed in one of the toughest facilities in Texas. He was just
short of 16, well built, cute, smooth, and the target of some of the older,
tougher boys. He gave up his ass to them, but not willingly. He fought them
all the way, and after six months the older boys learned to leave him alone.
He was no longer worth the price that had to be paid for a romp in bed. As
they left  the facility he climbed up the ladder of seniority. He learned
how to be tough from them, He learned how to stand up to and insult
authority. He learned how not to give in to anybody. He also vowed not to
force himself on any boy the way those "faggots" had on him. He would have
ended his sentence there, but one of the counselors took an extra interest
him. Like Captain Hatcher he saw something buried deep in the boy, an
intelligence, a caring, and a vulnerability that had been pushed deep inside
the boy by the rottenness of life. The SFA was all icing on the outside, but
so much of the inside was rotten to the core. The counselor had Johnny
transferred to a school, but not until after he did something that was the
final blow to any trust Johnny might have had of what adults or life had to
offer. Then a funny thing happened on the way there-things changed and he
ended up on the Lady Lex.

"Are you still with us Cadet Cooper?" Captain Hatcher's voice brought Johnny
out of his reverie.

"Yeah, I'm here."

The Captain ignored the insolence. He would have to deal with that later.
Right now he needed to get Johnny out of himself and get him in charge of
the situation.

"Do you have anything to add?"

To add to what? Johnny thought. I have no idea what's going on and I don't
really give a fuck.

"Sir," came Mike's voice. "Engineering says the engines will be online in
just a couple of minutes." And to think I used to like and respect him,
Johnny thought. Then I find out he and Ryan are faggot boyfriends. Like this
whole ship is full of faggots. I had my share of that in juvie. They can all
rot for all I care.

"Doesn't do us much good without power," Johnny heard himself saying. He
didn't want to talk, didn't want to get involved. But somehow, the fact he
was sitting in this chair seemed to keep him coming back to his position of
CO. Well then, why the fuck don't you just get up out of it? he asked
himself. But he stayed, waiting for whatever Donkeyfag had to say next as he
talked to his faggot boyfriend.

"They will get to that as soon as the engines are online."

"Why not get power first?" Ben asked.

"Because you fix what you know first in case the two problems happen to be
interconnected," Captain Hatcher answered. Ben nodded, satisfied with the
answer.

Down in engineering, Ryan and Eli closed the last connection between the
feeder line and the fuel cell. Eli had Alan open the valve and the pressure
went up and held steady. Eli had Chief Anderson and Ian start up the impulse
engines, and he could soon hear their satisfying purr as they came online
and idled. The feeder line appeared to be cleared out, but now they had to
deal with the issue of the power failure.

The ship's power did not come from either the impulse of the warp engines,
but from a separate generating engine. Eli went down a deck to where that
engine was, with Ryan and Jesse following him. The engine seemed to be
operating. Chief Anderson was checking out gauges.

"The generator is on order. Everything on her checks out."

"Then we need to run a complete system diagnostic," Eli said. "Let's put the
disk in the computer and get is started."

"It can't be the entire system," Jesse said.

"And why not, young man," Eli said a bit impatiently.

Jesse ignored Eli's tone of voice and went on. "Because we still have
gravity."

"And just what does that have to do with...," Eli caught himself. Shit, he
thought, I was so concerned with the impulse engine problem and making these
kids realize I know a hell of a lot more than they do, I forgot one of the
basics of this profession. Figure what is working and what isn't working and
go on from there. He looked at Jesse with even more respect. Out of the
mouth of babes, he thought. Steve Hatcher doesn't know what he's missing in
this boy.

"Of course. You're right." Eli corrected himself. The power for the gravity
generator came from the generating engine. If the engine was defective, or
if something was wrong with the main power cable, then not only would the
lights be out, they wouldn't have any gravity either. Eli remembered the day
the old generator failed and the boys had found themselves floating around
the ship. At the time it had been an emergency, with bruised, bumped heads,
and a couple of broken bones. Now it was one of the days the boys loved to
talk about the most. They took pride in telling the best story of how they
survived the day of sudden zero gravity. The next time the ship underwent
zero g was planned. It was the day the new ASG 7000 gravity generator had
been brought online. It meant going two hours without gravity, but this time
the boys had been prepared and given things to do in the zero g environment.
It was good practice for them, as well as fun, since they knew how to handle
the situation.

Now he had to think about why there was no electrical power, but they still
had gravity. They also had life support, but life support had its own backup
and could function independently. The answer had to be in a junction box.
Power was going to the gravity generator but not to anything else. If it had
been the opposite he would have suspected the computer had tripped the
gravity generator off for some reason. Instead the generator was running but
nothing else was. Could it be a problem with the computer instead of the
computer actually doing its job?

He climbed up a ladder to the second engineering deck to log into the main
computer console. Ryan was already there typing in some data. Jesse, who had
skittered up the ladder ahead of Eli, was looking over Ryan's shoulder.

"Yeah, that's the problem all right," Ryan said. "I knew it had to do with
the impulse engines. Why else would the power go down at the same time we
started to shut down the engines."

"You figured it out good," Jesse said. "Let's tell Eli."

"Tell me what?" Eli asked. Both boys turned their heads.

"Ryan figured out what the problem was," Jesse said proudly.

"Oh? And just what kind of theory did he come up with?" Eli asked
skeptically.

Ryan swiveled on the office chair and said, "I think the power going out was
connected to the impulse engine."

Eli smiled and shook his head. "I doubt that, Ryan. You're misreading
something."

"No he's not," Jesse said. "Look at what he found. He's right."

Ryan explained that since the systems on the "Lexington" had been mothballed
for so long, not all of the circuits were reading things properly. A lot of
them had been jury-rigged by Eli and his engineering crew. When the impulse
engines came online, the computer was misunderstanding the readings, and
thought they were coming from the generator engine. So, when they started to
shut down the impulse engine, the computer, thinking the ship was losing
electrical power, shut down all systems and rerouted life support to it's
backup, all in order to protect the gravity generator and keep it running. A
gravity generator took up a large source of power, and the ASG 7000 used a
great deal more than the older generator had.

Eli looked at Ryan's readout screen and nodded his head. The boy was right,
that was exactly what happened. I must be getting old, Eli thought. These
kids have been a step ahead of me all day. Once again one of them was right.
The computer had indeed shut down the system thinking it needed to protect
the gravity generator.

"If we tell the computer to quit confusing the impulse engine with the
generating engine, we should be okay. I'm just notsure how to key it in,"
Ryan said.

Good lord, Eli thought, there is something one of these kids can't do? Eli
replaced Ryan at the console and typed commands into the computer. The
screen shifted, the readouts changed, and the lights flickered on. Eli would
have to put in a more permanent fix later, as well as compensate for the
fact the new gravity generator used up a lot of extra juice, but the fix he
put in should keep them going for a couple of days until he took care of the
issues.

"Well done, gentlemen." After watching Jesse and Ryan at work, Eli was
actually beginning to think the Lady Lex might have a chance when the
Olympics started. The boys on board may be the dregs of SFA youth, but you
couldn't tell that by their brain power, and Ryan was a prime example of
that.

"Jesse, your dad would be proud of you. You and Ryan figured things out
quite quickly." Not that I wouldn't have figured it out, I'm just amazed
they beat me to it.

"My dad will say I was lucky," Jesse said bitterly. "Then he would tell me
that while I was down here in the engineering hole, Mark would have been up
in the bridge taking charge of the ship. There's no way I can win."

Eli shook his head and made a mental note to have a chat with Steve Hatcher
real soon.

*****

In the bridge, a cheer erupted as the lights came on and the control panel
screens once again lit up.  Ryan called up right afterwards on the ship's
comm to let them know everything was in working order and they could once
again engage the impulse engines. Mike acknowledged the message. Johnny told
Ben to engage the impulse drive and resume their course setting. Somehow it
didn't seem the same this time. No adrenaline, no boner, no rush. He did it
because he was sitting in the chair. For the period they were down he had
felt helpless and not in control. That didn't happen when he was running his
own gang. He was always in control when he was doing that. Yeah, getting the
old bitch going was a big rush, but it wasn't what he was all about. Making
life miserable for a few officers in this ship, not to mention a few cadets,
that was what he was all about, and he couldn't wait to get going.

The rest of the shakedown cruise went routinely. Captain Hatcher gave Johnny
some tasks and tests for the bridge crew do to, and the ship responded well,
as did the crew, all but Johnny that is. His heart didn't seem to be in,
which confused Hatcher, because he more than anybody had detected the pride
and eagerness that had swelled up in Johnny as they started pulling out from
the Mothball Junction.

After a couple hours of tests and maneuvering, tests of both the ship and
its cadets, Hatcher gave the order to return the ship to the Junction. He
let the boys take it in as close to the main space station as he could,
until the amount of ships and debris proved to be too much for their
experience level. He thanked them for a job well done, and the regular crew
brought the "Lexington" to within a few thousand kilometers of the space
station. Except for the plugged fuel line and the surprise power failure,
the first voyage of the Lady Lex in twenty years had been a huge success,
with both the ship and its cadet crew earning passing grades.

*****

When the Lady Lex traveled in space, the cadets would all be busy. They
would be manning stations, standing watches, attending class, tending to
assigned duty tasks, having free time, and all the other things that they
would be doing on a normal day. But that was the future, and this was
now-this was the maiden voyage of a ship so many men, boys and women had put
their sweat and heart into. It was a voyage that should never have happened,
but it did. The boys who did not have specific assignments were given
permission to find a room with a view port and watch as the Lady Lex made
her proud way out of the Mothball Graveyard. The images from the view screen
in the bridge would also be beamed into the cabins. Classes for the day were
canceled, but of course Harrison Wolfe had left each of his students with an
assignment. He asked them to write about the emotions they felt the moment
the starship started moving.

Nipper and Andrew were two boys who had no assigned duties during the brief
shakedown cruise. They decided to experience the trip from the "Lady Hawke",
which was docked outside the Lady Lex. The "Lady Hawke" was larger and more
comfortable than the small shuttles the cadets used. Those shuttles had
seating for the crew of six, as well as two extra seats. They were all
functional seats and the boys were looking for both privacy and comfort.
They hoped nobody else would come up with the same idea, but after Andrew
and Ben's adventures the other cadets wanted nothing to do with climbing on
board a strange shuttle. Some of the cadets did board their own shuttles,
but only Nipper and Andrew had the idea of using the comfortable seating on
the "Lady Hawke".

"I guess you're the expert on this ship," Nipper said with a giggle.

"Shut up," Andrew said, and he put a kiss on Nipper's lips. Nipper eagerly
returned it. Both boys knew that sitting on a small couch watching the stars
go by was not the main reason they were on the shuttle. Sure they had to
watch the start into space so they could describe it and their emotions for
their demanding English teacher, but they had more in mind over the two
hours the shakedown cruise was supposed to last. They adjusted the couch so
they could look out of the center, and largest view port on the side of the
shuttle. Nipper cuddled up closely to his friend and kissed him hard on the
lips. Andrew kissed him back, only more lightly. Both boys had learned
something about kissing from their older brothers, but they had a great deal
more to find out.

Inexperienced or not, the kissing turned them on, their preadolescent boners
pushing out their uniform pants. Nipper stopped kissing and pulled off
Andrew's tunic, and started rubbing his hands along the boy's smooth back,
chest, and belly. His hand circled the boy's dime sized pink nipples, making
them hard. The kissing became more passionate, and more expert, as the boy
got into what they were doing. Andrew pulled off Nipper's tunic, and now
their hands were exploring each other's upper body. Nipper's hand rubbed
along Andrew's boner, feeling it through his tented out pants.

Their passionate making out was interrupted somewhat when they felt motion
as the Lady Lex started her shakedown cruise. Nipper and Andrew held hands
and concentrated as much as they could on the scene outside, the moving
stars, the other mothballed ships seemingly floating by, and the smooth
motion of the shuttle that was attached firmly to the starship. Both boys
remained hard and turned on, both shirtless, holding hands, ready to touch
and kiss each other again.

Nipper and Andrew both wondered to themselves just how they were going to
explain their emotions in their paper for Harrison Wolfe.

"Horny," Nipper said.

"What?"

"Mr. Wolfe. For his paper on how I felt when the Lady Lex started up."

Andrew giggled. "That's what I was going to say."

Sometimes Nipper swore he and Andrew could read each other's minds, and by
saying little they still were saying a lot.

The boys took off their shoes, then resumed their making out, once again
rubbing each other's upper bodies, kissing passionately, allowing their
hands to wander down below the waist bands of their lover's uniform pants,
touching each other's genitals both inside and outside of  their pants. It
didn't take long for both of them to peel off the pants. They both wanted to
be naked the moment they stepped onto the shuttle, but neither wanting to
appear too eager. Now they were both naked, hard, touching holding, feeling.

Even wrapped up in each other they could tell the ship was speeding up. Even
isolated in the shuttle they could feel the light vibrations from the hull
of the Lady Lex and she started to accelerate. Suddenly the vibrations
stopped and the lights went out. Emergency lighting came on, but the shuttle
was still mostly dark. The boys had not turned much lighting on when they
had boarded because they didn't want light to reflect off the view port. But
now, except for one small light recessed in the ceiling, the room was dark.

Andrew got up off the couch and found his way through the shadows to one of
the pull-out beds in the wall. One his unplanned trip he had become an
expert and unlatching them and pulling them down quickly.

Nipper got up from the couch and came over to the bed.

"I wonder what happened to the lights?" Nipper asked.

"Don't worry about it," Andrew said as he got on the bed, pulling Nipper on
it after him. "If it's a big problem, we'll find out." He grabbed his hard 4
inch cock and said, "Now this is a big problem." He and Nipper both started
giggling hysterically like the two little boys they were. It didn't take
long, however, for a couple of well placed feels and a kiss and touch to get
their attention back to each other. It didn't take long to for them to
remember what it was they wanted to do.

Andrew got down on Nipper, putting his steel hard 4 incher into his mouth.
Nipper twisted and groaned.

"Nipper, I want you to put it in me."

"You mean in your butt?"

"Yeah, in my butt. I want to feel you in there."

"I don't know how."

"You just put it in there."

"You mean just jam it in?"

"I guess."

"Won't it hurt?"

"Not from you. You could never hurt me. Please, do it. I'll make it wetter,
then it will go right in."

Andrew put Nipper's dick into his mouth again, spitting and slobbering on
it.

"How do I get it in you. I mean how are you going to let me. I mean, I don't
know what I mean, how are we gonna do it?"

Andrew instinctively raised his legs, exposing his pucker to his lover.
Nipper could make it out in the dark and pushed his cock up against it and
pushed. Andrew grunted some, feeling some pain as Nipper kept pushing. He
was wet enough to slide in, but not wet enough to make it easy. Fortunately
he wasn't big, with the cocklet of an 11 year old. Small, thin, but
incredibly hard, and it didn't take much for him to push himself all the way
into Andrew's butt. Andrew moaned, loving the feel, loving having the boy he
loved so much inside of him. Andrew's hot tight ass around his dick was one
of the most wonderful feelings Nipper had ever experienced. His entire body
shook with pleasure.

Nipper started making some experimental thrusts, causing Andrew to grunt and
moan.

"Does it hurt?" Nipper asked,

"NOOOOO," Andrew wailed. "Keep doing it."

Nipper went back to his thrusting, sliding his dick in the hole, sometimes
hitting Andrew's sweet spot, a couple of times sliding out and having to
guide himself back in. He and Andrew started to get into a rhythm, Nipper
thrusting harder, grunting on each thrust, hearing Andrew moan and say his
name. It didn't take long for the horny boy to have an overwhelming dry cum
as he made a hard thrust as deeply as he could into Andrew's ass. Nipper's
moaning cum was all it took to take Andrew over the edge, his body shaking
with the force of his dry orgasm.

Nipper collapsed on Andrew, both boys breathing hard. Nipper kissed Andrew,
and said breathlessly, "I love you, Andrew."

"I love you, Nipper."

The power came back, the ship started moving, and the two naked boys held on
to each other, unable to let go.

*****

Jake Masters got up out of his double bed on the "Honey of the Stars". The
space yacht was orbiting Kriton, ostensibly on a trade mission. He turned
and looked at the naked boy who had shared the bed with him. Very sexy, Jake
thought, very sexy indeed. Maybe better than most of the women I've had,
maybe. Certainly as good as most. Definitely experienced for a 12 year old
boy.

Jake had slept with man women, many boys, and many men. He loved sexual
conquests, and saw Matt as one of his best. His attempt on the raider had
backfired because of the wrong approach. Once he found the right approach,
Matt had become a willing conquest. Lonely, frightened, in need of a friend,
he was perfect for a romp in bed. Last night had been their first sex
together, and Matt had clung to him like there was no tomorrow.

Funny how I am, Jake thought. I have fucked anybody I could since I was
Matt's age, maybe even a little younger. But the two times I was married, I
never cheated on my wives. No, they divorced me for other reasons, like
never being around. The life of a smuggler is a tough one, he thought with a
smile. And I never touched my boy, Kalon. That would have been wrong, wrong,
wrong.

Kalon had given him satisfaction in other ways, especially his amazing
piloting abilities and his confidence in himself. Kalon had been an
incredibly cute boy, and though Jake never considered touching him sexually,
he never hesitated to give him a hug. Besides, it didn't take long to see
that Kalon was completely heterosexual. By Matt's age he already had the
girls crawling into bed with him. In fact he never touched any other boy the
entire time he was raising in training Kalon. And what was his reward for
that? Kalon joining the SFA. He was having a tough time forgiving Kalon for
that. He didn't consider being in the employ of Admiral Whitaker the same
thing as being an officer in the SFA fleet. Me and Whitaker have something
in common, Jake thought to himself. We're both slime balls.

Jake showered and dressed. He opened the wall safe and took out a long,
narrow gun and tucked put it into the lined compartment of his bag. As he
prepared to leave, Matt opened his eyes.

"What am I doing here?"

"What do you think you're doing here, lad? You're naked and in my bed."

Matt blushed. Jake pulled back the covers, causing Matt to blush even more.

"You're beautiful, lad, not to mention damned good in bed. Jake never takes
anyone inexperienced, and you're as good as anybody."

Matt shook the sleep out of his head and remembered the night before. Jake
had been kind and gentle to him. It seemed strange to have his big, hairy
body next to him, but it wasn't gross like he thought it would be. Jake had
been seducing him all week, he knew it, he figured he wanted it, but he
would make Jake pay to get him into bed. He was not about to make it easy.

"Where are you going?"

"I got a little mission now, lad. But Jake will be back before the day is
out."

"Can I sleep here again tonight?"

Jake smiled as the boy sat up, naked, with morning wood. If I didn't have to
do what I have to do, I'd be staying here, he thought. He's that good.

"Sure ya can. lad. And if you're lucky, Jake might even sleep with you."

Jake left the cabin and headed for the ship's shuttle bay. He now had to
take care of business on the surface of Kriton.

Since the yacht actually had some company trade representatives on it, who
were unaware of the intrigue going on, a legitimate trade meeting could
actually be scheduled. For the representatives, the trip to Kriton was a
pleasant surprise. They had actually planned to stop off at Hawkingworld.
They had been told Jake Masters represented the interests of the SFA, making
sure the Kritons played fairly.

Discussions were proceeded by a lunch and the opportunity for everyone to
get to know each other. Jake circulated through the gathering, nodding and
exchanging small talk. Jake had the gift of gab, and loved to use it. What
he didn't like was being dressed in business clothes, but it was necessary.
At one point, he disappeared momentarily with his business case, then
returned. His circulating eventually got him into a conversation with the
Earth Ambassador. He was fearful the Ambassador might send his number two
man, Matt's father in his place, but fortunately he felt any meeting with
the Kritons at this point in their relationship required his presence.

Jake exchanged small talk, took a step away, reached into his pocket, and
palmed the small needle shaped gun. He pushed on the tip, and a thin needle
popped out. He stepped back, thanking the Ambassador for the talk, at the
same time driving the needle into the Ambassador's leg. The Ambassador felt
a twinge, like a bee sting, and dropped his hand to feel it. Jake had
already taken the needle out, and he felt nothing. However, a powerful drug
was now at work, and in less than twelve hours, the Ambassador would be dead
of a heart attack. Jake's mission accomplished, he prepared himself to
listen to two hours of boring talk.

*****

As lights out approached all of the boys, save those on watch, were in their
cabins. Not only had the Lady Lex done her shakedown cruise, but for the
first time the showers in the cabins had hot water. Some boys were not sure
which was more important.

Trevor stepped out of the shower in his cabin. He didn't bother to cover
himself up. Ian couldn't help but notice his roommate's nakedness,
especially since it was turning him on. He also took great pains to make
sure Trevor didn't notice him noticing. Trevor, however, wanted Ian to
notice, and was disappointed when he got no response. His dick was semi
hard, and he could easily make it hard with the slightest touch or thought.

Trevor knew what his twin brother Andrew and Nipper had done in the shuttle
that morning. Andrew was never shy about sharing his sex life with him. He
also suspected something was going on between his older brother Ben and
Douglas. So why couldn't he get anything? What was wrong with him that
nobody wanted him?

Well, Johnny Cooper wanted him, even if it was for thievery instead of sex.
Johnny never quit reminding him how disappointed he was that he never was
able to steal the candy. Trevor was unhappy that Johnny was adding the boys
from the "Fagin" into the gang. He wanted to be the original and only
member. Well, now he would have to be the best, and to be the best he would
need to learn the art of stealth from Harrison Wolfe. And to do that he
would have to finish the books the English teacher had loaned him. The books
were hard, but the end result would be worth it. What he learned from
Harrison Wolfe would make him the best thief in the new Mustang gang. He
crawled in under the covers, naked, thinking who needed sex when they can be
a criminal and get noticed.

Ian watched Trevor's naked butt disappear. Trevor turned out his light as
Andrew's evening "Taps" played over the ship's communication system. Ian
turned out his light, and then quietly jerked off, thinking of his naked
roommate, and wishing Trevor had come into his bed instead of his own.

*****

Because they came from different sources, only three of the twelve student
shuttles were the same kind and model. The rest were all different. A couple
were almost brand new, but most were old. Two were almost relics. But only
one of the shuttles had an electronic timer clicking away the seconds under
the pilot's control panel.

To Be Continued.