Chains of Command

[Boss]

I got about two hours of sleep before Eli knocked, which was about two hours more than I'd been getting a night for the past two weeks. "Jim? We're here. Get dressed, we're docking in five minutes."

"Okay, but...where is 'here', exactly?" I pulled on my boots and checked over my pistol; more from force of habit than anything else.

"Ah, but that would be telling. You'll know soon enough." I heard his footsteps recede towards the cockpit as I holstered my pistol and finished dressing. I palmed open the door and followed where Eli had headed.

The cockpit of a Grizzly is a pretty busy place, with several consoles and lights everywhere. It's sort of like an electronica concert stage with the synthesizers and laser arrays, only this one is designed for more mundane purposes. To the left of the door was a comms station, a rack of transceivers running from floor to ceiling with a single master console for the comms officer. To the right was weapons. On this ship, there were a standard load of shieldbuster turrets and a trio of forward-mounted Magma Hammer cannons for hull breaching duties. Unlike most, though, this one had an additional console to the gunner's left that controlled the cloaking device. To the front were the pilot and copilot's seats; these were occupied by Mike and Eli. Out the front viewscreen I could see a planet, which the HUD registered as Folsheim. There was a station, but its signal was masked. "So where are we, exactly?" I couldn't stand not knowing.

"Ellesmere." Mike answered without looking. I suppose, being the only one on the ship apart from the four crew made looking unneeded; besides, he had to focus on docking with the station. "More specifically, here's a nondisclosure form to sign." He handed me a clipboard over his shoulder. I took it and glanced over it. Standard LSF Form ND-18b, colloquially called a "Thou shalt not tell". I read it--all of it--signed, and handed it back. The usual stuff. Apparently the station's classified to the point of you-tell-you-die. I guess any stories I have from here will be just for me, myself, and I.