I had finally managed to get off that cursed planet. It had been a week, shortly after the station was constructed, when a dwarf had the bright idea to load people into the orbital launch system and send them to the station that way. Because none of us had a ship to get any of us up there, plus all the military personnel were telling us to screw off as they left the planet, and no one had a better idea, we tried it. And terrifyingly, it worked… like a rollercoaster in the middle of a fucken hurricane, but we did make it to the station. Shortly after that, a letter arrived on my HUD from my uncle, he wanted to congratulate me on getting the clan and I to Solar Baron. However, he also told me that America in it is infinite stupidity had announced I was a wanted terrorist. Yippee. The second part of the letter went into details about a Merchant Corvette. Apparently it was really swanky and because my uncle had paid a little extra for a few added features it was not a single purchase for a favour. We could use it to start building our own merchant fleet of ships.

A week later the dwarfs had finished swarming over the Station, and had gotten a good chunk of housing completed as well as the Galactic Merchant Hub, and they were shipping products up and selling it. I had no idea how much money I was making from this, as for some reason my account wasn't going up. I had sent off a letter to my Aunt, who was supposed to be in charge of accounting or finances. A day later, I had received a reply telling me in exact detail how much of an eejit I was for allowing all the guild money to flow through my own account, and that she had fixed it. I had spent the rest of the week moping around with nothing really to do while I waited.

Week three rolled in, and I was sent a letter from some pencil pusher at the Galactic Federation Headquarters, telling me I had been reassigned again, and the Frigate had been renamed and reassigned to a more deserving captain. I instantly got pissed and sent a letter to General Lucas Winch, basically asking him what the hell? I had received a letter back informing that I had been fined five thousand credits for failing to follow the proper chain of command and would have to patiently wait. I was pissed and stomped around the station in a bad mood for a day or two. Eventually, Zeo got mad enough at me for my behaviour and recent attitude change and locked me away in a room with herself. She would not let me out until I told her what had gotten me out of my, you're all going to die, gun ho, charge into the fray, usual attitude.

A couple of days later, I received a letter from some space dry dock foreman telling me a Galactic Federation Frigate had been decommissioned, refitted then reactivated and reassigned to my command and I needed to report to some space station that I could not even pronounce to collect it within a week, or I would be fined if not charged with dereliction of duty. I had found him very abrupt and rude. It took me a day and ten thousand credits, but I managed to get a couple of rooms for myself and my team. They were on a dwarven ship leaving from the MWOA256 Orbital Station, headed to the same Solar System I needed to reach. That was free, but the ten thousand credits was for purchasing a skiff and keeping it docked until I reached it and could use it for the last leg of our journey. However, I did make it onboard the frigate with a few hours to spare.

I was now sitting in the captain's chair admiring the old bridge with a station at the front for the pilot, a station to the right of the bridge for navigation, a station on the left for communications. There was also a station between me and the pilot but off to my left. So, I could see what was happening at that station from where I was sitting. The last station was the same as the weapons station, but it was on my right, and it was for engineering. I beamed happily as I looked over this bridge, it was a ship, and it was mine to command into battle. If I came out the other side I would earn renown and if I sunk I would be ridiculed and probably demoted… I decided not to think about that bit and turned to ask Brandon to go kick the engine over and get the old girl back on her feet when I received a holo call from General Lucas Winch. I frowned slightly, wondering why he was calling me when his office had basically told me to go shove myself in a hole. I mentally clicked answer on my HUD and saw his face appear on it.

"Kenna, what the hell are you doing? I stuck my neck out for you, and now I have people demanding I charge you with dereliction of duty for failing to collect your frigate and pick up your crew!"

I frowned again as I gave him a confused look before waving my hand around the bridge I was sitting on, showing him I was on a frigate class ship.

"General, I am aboard the Frigate I was assigned it's an old girl, not the brand new one you promised me, but after your office reassigned it and told me to shut up, wait and not to contact your office again unless I had followed the proper chain of command. I did as ordered. Then four days later I received orders to collect this ship and with no way to do, so I was forced to spend ten thousand credits and wait another week just to get here. I literally just got onboard with in the hour to take command, as for crew, I brought the star hawks team with me and no one has given me any other crew yet." I stated simply as if I was reporting.

I watched his mouth fall open, and he stared at me for a solid minute before his mouth slowly closed, and he rushed over to his computer and began typing away. I sat silently as I waited for him, I also took note that this clearly was not supposed to be happening. A few more minutes later, he sank into his chair, looking slightly defeated, before straightening his back and looking at me again.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Alright, Flight Captain, here is what has happened. I assigned a ship to you, and some other general put a hold on that order. There's a note stating he wanted to check the validity of a Flight Captain named Kenna Mackenzie actually existed. After a week, another general found the ship had not been assigned to anyone and decided to assign it to one of his people. It is unclear how you got assigned to the ancient Frigate that is assigned the call sign The Lost Souls. But here we are. You are now the captain of The Lost Souls. There is nothing I can do to change that at this time. As for the ship, she is an ancient frigate if I ever saw one. Honestly, she should have been decommissioned centuries ago and scrapped for parts or stuck in a museum. However, some admiral has kept it floating under a Personal Project label, he recently died and well it got assigned to you instead of decommissioned permanently."

He sighed as he looked at his computer again, watching the screen for a few moments before leaning forwards and starting to type something into it.

"I am squashing the b.s. To have you charged with dereliction of duty as you certainly have followed your orders, I'm going to need you to forward those letters to me by the way so I can use them in your defence. Then I am going to have the crew assigned to you, split up and assigned to new ships. I will then form a brand-new team for you, and I will make sure the engineer is top-notch. I will make sure he is aboard your ship by issuing him orders via black operatives under my command. I will not allow this new crew to be squashed and left waiting in the wind again."

He turned his head suddenly to look past the camera as the frown crept back on his face again.

"Kenna, you said you received that shut up and wait order from my office?"

I nodded my head as I responded. "Yes, that is what the letter said, also I have already begun forwarding them to you."

He glanced back at me, probably checking his HUD beside my screen, then nodded his head as he narrowed his eyes.

"Ah, yes I see, well that will be solved, don't you worry. Alright Flight Captain Kenna, i hereby shift you out of the chain of command you are apparently in and assign you as my direct subordinate, you answer directly to me!"

"Yes sir!" I responded quickly as I saluted my new commanding officer.

"Alright I have forwarded coordinates to your navigation systems, I recommend you pick up your new crew in the order I have suggested, it's only two stations and a carrier, I have also set up a ship account that you can use to pay for docking fees and food, I have put a sizeable slush fund in it as an apology for you being left in the wind like that. I recommend handing that financial job over to your XO." he then smiled, waved his hand and vanished from my HUD.

I instantly turned my head to look directly at Zeo and grinned.

"Oh hell no! I know that look whatever it is, I ain't doing it!" she declared forcefully.

"Too bad, you are already promoted to XO of the ship and the finances are your responsibility.

"Damn it! I wanted to be navigation, fine, whatever, let's get this tub flying, Brendan go kick over the engine our docking fees are running out, and we need to be out of here. Trevor, congratulations to your joining of the Star Hawks, go order some food and make sure the water is topped up, fuel as well. Travis, get on navigation and plot our course. Captain, while I know, you're supposed to sit there and overview everything. However, you are our best pilot, I recommend you take direct command of the pilot's seat and fly us." she then moved to stand next to the captain's seat and just stood there.

I slowly nodded my head and moved from my seat and walked down to the pilots. As I did, I noticed most of the boys running off the bridge to go complete their tasks; Travis just sat down at the navigation station and waited. Once I was sitting in the pilot's seat, Zeo quickly sat down in the seat I had vacated and declared XO has command to the bridge. She then stuck her tongue out at me, causing me to roll my eyes. I am not sure how long we sat there staring out at space before the power kicked on, and the stations came to life. However, when mine turned on, I noticed that a security window popped up over the console and asked for my access codes. I instantly thought of them and the console unlocked, I was slightly surprised that just thinking them had worked. My attention was quickly drawn away from musing on the advances of technology by all the screens that started showing up around my consol. I could monitor everything from here, not just the piloting screens, but it looked like all the captains ones were also displaying for me.

I smiled when I saw the fuel gauge indicated we had a full tank and the water gauge was slowly rising. I instantly started modifying the screens into a way that I liked to view them, including a few that showed camera feeds around the ship, like the cargo entrance, the airlocks and just for fun I even set one to display the bridge so I could see what everyone was doing. Once I was done, I noticed the water gauge was indicating we had a full tank and the boys had returned from their tasks.

"Captain, Cargo Master, reporting all tanks full, food stores stocked for twenty people, will need resupplying in roughly three months. Ammo is fully stocked, and the armoury is also fully stocked, we are ready for departure! Ma'am"

"Captain, Engineering officer, reporting a rust bucket that requires a fair few repairs, it's all minor work that can be completed while underway, we even have a fabricator, this allows us to print most of the parts we need. It is fully stocked. Engineering is ready for departure! Ma'am."

"Captain, Navigation Officer, reporting a course set for three space stations in different solar systems, we have a subspace drive that is… well if the readings I am getting are true then it is experimental. Until we kick it over and see what it does, I am not sure if I can report more than that on it. Navigation is hesitantly ready for departure! Ma'am"

"Captain, all stations reporting ready for departure! Take us out, Pilot."

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