Angels of the Multiverse - Victory

     The early days of the XDCA were hectic at best. The Extra Dimensional Control Agency was only a year old now, and was a bizarre mix of ships from various dimensions that were thrown together, quite by accident by a naturally occuring dimensional distrubance. Several ships from several universes stumbled on a what was possibly the first XDP (extradimensional pirates) group, preparing for a campaign of massive proportions. Amidst the confusion, somehow the competeing ships realized where the real threat lay, and the pirate organization was scattered. This led to the formation of the various cartels, which would continue to harras the XDCA for centuries to come.

     The Nexus Point was the greatest find in the then five year history of the XDCA. Prior to that time, the various ships of the group had subsistted by stealing supplies from pirates, and various evil doing empires across the multiverse, with no home. This led to occasional infights. During one of these battles, a damaged ship, the independent trader ship from what was later called STU2, the Archangel, had tried to escape the chaos throuhg a dimensional jump. Much to this ship's surprise, it couldn't. Somehow, the star system they were in, they later discovered, simultaneously existed in every single universe at once, and had a radiation barrier that kept most 'native ships away. The details over how the ships wound up there have been lost over the years, but this system was named Avalon, and the largest of the two habitable planets was adopted as the new home of the XDCA. The Great Construction began.

     Captain David Raynor was from universe STU5, the fifth Star Trek universe to come under XDCA jurisdiction by way of either XDP or naturally occuring phenomenon. His ship, the Daystar, was nearly destroyed by pirates. In a desperate maneuver which he performed while only barely conscious, he destroyed one of the pirate vessels. It's destruction, happening during the creation of a portal caused a dimensional rip, the dropped all ships within the parsec to be dropped into Avalon system. The pirates were all either captured or killed, and the Daystar was towed in for repairs. Having been declared destroyed by the Federation in his native universe, Raynor joined the XDCA. After some basic formalites he was about to receive his first command.

     The massive space station XS-2 was the second of the XDCA-class space stations, truly the only orignal design in the groups history was the base of operation for the XDSC, the Extra Dimensional Space Corps, and was quite larger than XS-1, which had been sabotaged during the construction process and blew up suddenly and spectaculary after the ceremonial ribbon was cut. Hundreds were killed, and several ships destroyed. Only one ship that was near the destruction of the station survived, albeit badly damaged. The U.S.S. Archangel was a Victory-class Star Destroyer from the Star Wars universe SWU2, the most recent addition to the XDCA jurisdiction. It's surivival of the The Great Construction Disaster was miraculous without a doubt as the sheilds and hull were SWU standard with no upgrades. Even as far away as it was from the main explosion, it still shopuld've been crippled, if not destroyed. The fast action of it's crew saved it somehow, but said crew had lost it's life saving the ship, and the computer banks had been wiped by the radiation. Three years later, the massive upgrading project was complete. The ship, while outwardly looking like an SWU ship, had many surprises stored beneath her hull.One weapon the designers wer especially proud of was the Lockdown Gun. In short, any approaching hostile small craft would be frozen in place, unable to operate any of it's systems, including engines and wepaons, for several minutes. A handheld weapon from the StarCraft universe originally, an XDCA scientist, Stephan Grey, manged to build three prototype ship-sized versions of the gun, two of which were now on the Archangel.While the effects and size limitations of it's effects are the same as the handheld versions, the energy drainage had been greatly imrpoved, allowing the ship to fire each gun a total of 2000 times an hour, as oppsoed to the handhelds' limit of 20. One problem the designers could not get over one problem. Nowhere on the ship could they find a place to give the guns a 360 degree firing arc without hurting the ship itself. So the ships are limited to a 90 degree area in front of the ship.

     Lieutenant Commander Deradur, a Protoss fighter pilot from SCU1, the one responsible for bringing the Lockdown guns to the XDCA, was a traitor to his race, but a hero to the Terans he was beleived to have died helping. The tall, thin limbed, armor wearing, telepathic warrior was one of the soliders who followed the alliance of the renegade Protoss who chose to violate their laws and ally with the Human empire against the threat of the invading Zerg. The Protoss High Council, xenophobic by nature, was too proud to do this, and attmepted to execute those who would ally with the humans, but he and his crew in their carrier did it anyway. The carier crashed on Char, the planet used as a base of operations for the Zerg hive Mind, it's crew left for dead by the Alliance. He held no bitter feelings though. In all that destruction no one had any reason to beleive there were survivors. The flat faced alien, able to communicate only through telepathy as he had no mouth, was the Second in Command of the starship Archangel. It was an impressive vessel, much alrger than any ship he'd ever seen in his fifty year lifespan. It's arrowhead shape was certainly intimidating, even to those who were looking at from the massive bridge structure up top. His only concern had been the small tower at the top-center of the bridge structure, but the designers of the ship's refit were way ahead of him. Originally, as in all Imperial vessels from the SWUs, that tower had been the Sheild Generator for this ship, but now it was devoid compeltely of any technology. It's destruction would be no loss to the ship, but it was kept, primarily to act as a target for enemy vessels that weren't aware of the ship's changes. The sheild generator now was internal, and was of protoss design. The rechargable palsma sheild gave off a blue tint, the only clue to it's origin, something of concern to it's crew, but according to the XDCA council, this ship would not be used for any covert intelligence operations in any SWUs. Deradur continued his tourn of the almost completed ship. Everything seemed to be in top shape, except the engines, which were being installed last due to the delicate nature of the upgrade. This ship would be half-again faster than any other Victory-class Star Destroyer in existence. Deradur was concerned that the engines would not be in place in time for the Captain's arrival. His grey skin took on a blusih tint of his own, a sign of dismay for the Protoss. This fact was not lost on the crew of the ship, which, despite being mostly human, had seen more things in their lifetimes than most of their species would in an entire century.

     Deradur was not the only alien on the ship. Chief Medical officer Re'Nila was a Gorn from STU1. Most people were shocked by this, but she was used to it. Yes, the Gorn, lizard like people, taller than most humans by at least a meter on average, were agressive in combat, but something that most outsiders seemed to forget was, if they were merely a 'warrior race' how would they have made it into space in the first place? They could've stolen most of their technology like the Klingons, but the Gorn never had the advantage of interference. They got wher ethey were on their own most of the way, the rest of the way with some aid from the Federation, aid which was returned later on in a joint attack on a Romulan Starbase. Her ship had been thought lost in the assault, but she had managed to escape in an escape pod. A cloaked XDCA patrol ship rescued her while searching for evidence of XDP involvement in the sudden destruction of a Federation patrol group. She stayed with the ship for the remainder of it's mission, in which no XDP involvement was discovered, and later transferred to XDCA's medical corp. She was now a respected doctor, whose transfer to the Archangel had led to jealousy from some of her colleauges, but she shrugged it off as simple emotional 'knee-jerks.' She was checking out the ships' medlab, which was the largest she'd ever seen on an SWU ship, when Lt. Commander Deradur entered on his inspection tour. "Welcome aboard sssir." She greeted him, her characteristic Gorn hiss coming through her sharp teeth, teeth which had gotten her in trouble times. She learned early in her medical carrer that most species would mistake Gorn smiles for aggressive gestures. Fortunately, she never had to worry much during her XDCA tenure. Deradur nodded. It was always hard to gauge how he felt by looking at him. From below his well pronouned eyebrows to his chin his face was flat and slightly scaly. Only the glow in his eyes gave any indication. Right now the glow was light and barely noticeable from a distance, so he was either very relaxed or somewhat somber. She heard his reply in her mind, like always. She was used to it by now. The two had served together on the science station Lookout 12, at the edge of the Avalon system. Deradur looked around. "I see the medlab is almost fully operational." Re'Nila nodded. "Yesss ssir. The medical droidsss are fully operational, the bacta tanksss are filled, and the SssssTU medical beds are upright and in working order. All that isss left isss to get our sssupply of hypossspraysss in ssstock." Deradur nodded, the glow in his eyes brightening briefly then fading again, a sure sign that the Protoss first officer was pleased. "I understand Captain Raynor is from an STU, just like you Doctor." Re'Nila nodded. "A different one sssir, but our universssesss are sssimilar." Deradur tilted his head slightly. "I knew a Raynor once, a Terran from my native universe. Jim Raynor. A tough warrior he was. He faced many of the same challenges in allying with us, that we did allying with him. Both our Empires hated each other so strongly they refused to see the benefits of alliance during the Zerg Swarm. Only Raynor, and my commander, Tassadar, were willing." He lowered his head and his eyes darkened. "Tassadar died destroying the Hive Mind." He turned and left the medlab. Re'Nila sighed. Deradur had a lot of sadness in him. He wanted badly to retrun to his homeworld of Aiur, but couldn't because he would most likely be tried and executed for concerting with the Terans. Re'Nila returned to her work, triple chekcing all the medical equipment. She never actually saw her own homeworld. She'd been born on a starship, and had only seen planetfall a scant few times, including a visit to Earth, so she really had no idea how Deradur must've felt, but she tried to empathize.

     David Raynor saw the arrowhead shape of the Archangel barreling towards him. The shuttle he was in flew close at an awfully high rate of speed. He turned to the young pilot who'd been assigned to take him to the ship. "Could you slow down a little? I'd prefer not to literally become one with the ship." The pilot smiled. "Hey, just trying to keep the crew on their toes sir." "Listen Ensign, slow down now. Begin docking procedures. Let them know I'm coming." The Ensign nodded. "You know my father helped design the new systems on that ship?" Raynor raised an eyebrow. "Really? You're Stephan Grey's son?" "Yes sir. Nicolas Grey." Raynor blushed, as he remembered he never bothered to ask the Ensign his name when he boarded the shuttle on Avalon Prime.The young pilot continued. "You know I just got married sir?" Ryanor smiled. "Really?" Nick Grey smiled. "Yeah well it's not all good. She got pregnant three months before the wedding. We were planning to get married anyway, but we had to move it up so the knot would be tied before she began showing. Now we're arguing over what to name him. Any suggestions?" Raynor scratched his chin. "Hmm. Well I've never thought about children's names before." Nick laughed. "That's right, you're a bachelor. The hallmark of the fleet captain." Raynor frowned. "Are you implying something?" "Oh c'mon Captain! You know the reputation you commanidng officers have. You'll bang anything with two legs, sometimes more." Raynor scowled. "I'll have you know Ensign that hinting at a superior officer's sexual history could be seen as insubordination."

     Weapons officer Tophan Durani, an SWU native, had seen his fair share of Victory-class Star Destroyers during his time with the Trading Guild. The forty-nine year old human could remember when the old Republic had introduced the ships. They were impressive, and had seen even more use after palpatine had taken over the Senate. Of course, in the past decade in his home universe the ships had been phased out slowly by the Imperial-class Star Destroyers, much alrger, more powerful, and with two shield generator towers. But, when neccesary, the Empire would still occasionally use Victory-class destroyers. In fact it was a pair of the ships that had led to him winding up here. The Trading Guild had flat out refused to ship chemical weapons to Coruscant, or to anywhere else in Old Republic space. To send a message, Emperor Palpatine sent a pair of Victory-class ships to bombard their base. In a desperate escape attempt, he and some of the civilians on board crammed into an old Corellian YT-1100, and made a jump into hyperspace. Jumping into hyperspace without setting a proper course is dangerous of course, but at the time they felt they had no choice. They drove forward for what felt like an eternity. They soon ran out of fresh food, and the people began starving. An elderly woman died just days before a massive gravity well dropped them from hyperspace. They exited at the Nexus Point. Tophan was a quiet man. His experience with ship weapons came mostly from fighting off pirates in an old T-Wing fighter. In one of those engagements he had lost his left leg. But somehow he managed to be chosen to be the primary weapons officer for the Archangel. He'd been with the ship since the retrofit had begun several years back, and as such had plenty of time to familiarize himself with the ship's defesnes. He was relatively certain he could perform major combat functions with his eyes closed. A panel lit up near him. The communications officer was in the restroom, and her back-up, as well as the ship's fighter pilots, and several others, had not yet arrived, so Tophan hit the button hismelf. "Lieutenant Tophan Durani of the XDCA ship Archangel responding." "Tophan, this is Nicolas Grey. I'm required to inform you my shuttle is carrying Captain David Raynor. He has requested a gathering of the command staff in the shuttle bay." The communicatiosn cut off. The captain was early. Deradur wouldn't be happy. He was still not pleased with the way the refit was coming along. He had been cracking the whip for the past 48 hours, desperately trying tog et everything running at 100% for the launch date, which was 36 hours away. He whipped out his commlink. "Durani to all hands, the Captain is coming aboard. Report to the shuttle bay in full dress uniform." He bolted to his quarters, which were on the same deck as the bridge, like all the command staff, to get his own dress uniform. He wished that Captain's pilot had given him more warning. The motors and gears in his artificial left leg whirred and clicked audibly, as they always did when he was running. When he walked they were dead silent.

     Tophan, Deradur, and Re'Nila stood straight and tall as the door on the shuttle opened. Two men stepped out, one in an NCO outfit, obviously the shuttle pilot, and the other wearing a standard XDCA Captain's uniform. "Captain on deck!" communciations officer Misty Zimmerman shouted. Evryone then stood at attention. The Captain waved at them. "At ease crew!" He shouted, his voice echoing off the massive shuttle bay's empty walls. He walked over to Deradur. "Lieutenant Commander Deradur," The Protoss commander straightened. "In your opinion, is this ship ready to leave spacedock." Deradur's eyes brightened slightly. Raynor heard his voice in his mind. "Captain, 95% of systems are fully operational and ready for service. Our engines are not yet completely installed, and the frieghter carrying the remainder of the ships' crew compliment and our fighters have not yet arrived, sir." Raynor nodded. "Good work Commander. It would seem you are indeed on schedule." The Protoss titlted his head. "You see, Commander, despite what you may have been lead to believe, the new engines have already been tested numerous times. The reason they are installed last, is becuase they are to be brought on-line in 36 hours, when we prepare to elave spacedock." He smiled. "We're doing it that way to impress the on-lookers." Deradur's chin shifted upward, very slightly. If he had a mouth he would be smiling. "I am pleased the engines have been adequately tested sir." Raynor smiled and nodded. "As am I. At ease Commander." He walked to face Re'Nila. "Doctor Re'Nila, is medlab operating at 100%?" "It is sir. We now are capable of treating up to 50 patients simultaneously, as soon as the rest of my medical staff arrives of course." "Excellent. At ease Doctor. Lieutenant Durani, how are the ship's offensive/defensive systems?" Durani coughed lightly. "Well, sir, sheilds are only at 50%, but they should improve when the engines are installed. So far the simulations have the weapons working fine, but there's no way to test them, again, until the engines are in. If possible I'd like to doa  real world, perhaps on a stray asteroid or rogue comet after we leave space dock." Raynor chuckled slightly. "Permission granted. I'm sure we'll find something to shoot at." He stood back, and looked over his collected crew. Yes, he thought, they would be good indeed. "Ladies and gentleman! We are standing inside history in the making. This ship is the best the XDCA has ever built. The Archangel will be the crowning acheivment of construction. But that's not good enough for me. I want to make sure that all of us do our jobs so well, that we become required reading at the Academy long after we're dead!" The collected crew cheered, except for Re'Nila and Deradur, who expressed excitement in their own ways.

     The freighter carrying the remainder of the crew, and the Archangel's fighter compliment arrived 6 hours prior to scheduled take off. Raynor and Deradur were there to greet them. Raynor greeted the crew members one by one, while Deradur inspected the fighters. 6 Pergrine fighters from STU3 that originally belonged to the Maquis, 12 TIE Defenders from the same SWU as the Archangel, 12 Z-95 Headhunters, also from the same SWU, and 8 Protoss Scout fighters. Fast, slender, with rapid fire weaponry, they were an even match for most SWU, B5U, and WCU fightercraft. In addition to the fightercraft, three SWU shuttles, and one STU Captain's Yacht were off-loaded from the freighter. Deradur tirelessly ran over every inch of every craft, and giving approval ratings of 98% to 100% for each one. Despite the large number, he and the Captain finished their tasks at the same time, as the number of crew members that arrived was well over 250. Deradur was performing a check on the last of the 8 Scouts, when Raynor walked up. "I'll tell you Commander I think I got carpal tunnel from all that handshaking." Deradur would've laughed if he could. "And of course by the end of this mission you'll have forgotten most of their names." Raynor laughed. "Maybe, maybe not. How goes the inspection?" "Well sir, everything appears to be in perfect workign order except the fifth Z-95. It would appear that the port tri-blaster is loose in it's casing. I fear that there is a 40% chance that in the heat of combat it could shake lose." "OK. Our repair crews are on board now so get them on it." Deradur nodded.
 
     On the bridge, Re'Nila and Durani stood on either side of the captain's chair, which was actually a recreation of the command chair from the control center of XS-1. Raynor didn't feel comfortable siting in that chair. It looked too much like a throne, but he was the captain of this vessel, and as such had little choice in the matter. One of the other three lift doors opened, just as raynor was taking his seat. Deradur walked in and took his place between the Captain and Durani. The captain hit a button on the side of his chair, then stood up. The holographic comm system would project his image to everyone inside the ship. "Well ladies and gentleman, it would appear we are ready to go six hours ahead of schedule. I compliment you on your efforts." The crew on the bridge applauded. Raynor smiled. He enjoyed the rush of joy he felt whenever the crew was happy. He seemed to draw strength from the crew's morale. Deradur understood this. He too felt stronger, as though he could take on the XDP cartels by himself when crew morale was high. The captain took his seat, and Durani soon did the same. Re'Nila bowed respectfully before the captain then went to the Lift to return to Medlab. Deradur took his seat at the command console just a few feet to the left of the command chair. "We can begin take off as soon as the brass arrives sir," communications oficer Misty Zimmerman said, her Cajun accent still strong though she hadn't been on her Earth, or any other Earth, for almost a decade. Raynor nodded, frowning slightly. "Those Admirals are all show. Do you know how many in-flight simulations and system checks we could do while we're waiting here in spacedock?" Deradur assumed it was a rhetorical question and merely nodded to indicate he shared the captain's dislike of senior officials' tendency to care more about looks than results.

     The bright orange and red line lanced through the medium sized asteroid just inside the perimeter of the Avalon system with no problems. Tophan Durani cheered inwardly as the phaser test results came back. "Captain, computer reports show that phasers and targetting systems are at 100%." Raynor smiled. Durani was clearly unable to hide his excitement. "Excellent work Lieutenant. It would appear this ship is truly ready to begin her mision. Helm, open a portal. Take us to STU11, the Motara Nebula. One of our XD Sats has malfunctioned and is drifting towards Regula 1 science station. We need to catch it and bring it back, before they, the Reliant, or the Enterprise catches it." The helmsmen nodded, then the two men began dancing their fingers and hands over the large console before them. Deradur watched as the purple swirl opened in space before the ship. It always vaugely reminded him of the storm clouds on Aiur. The ship lanced through, shuddering slightly as it was pulled through. Raynor looked concerned. "That was a little odd." Deradur brought his chair to face the captain's. "It's the size of the ship sir. Larger ships like this always shake a bit when making a dimensional jump." "We're inside the nebula sir. Sheilds are dropping, and sensors are going static," Durani said, watching his console like a hawk." Raynor nodded. "Conventional sensors won't work here, but our XD sensors will pick up the satellite's signal in a few moments, if it's still sending."

     The Federation starship Enterprise rose up behind the Reliant, taking advantage of Khan's two-dimensional thinking. The Reliant, damaged and moving slowly didn't know what was about to come. Khan Noonien Singh watched the blurred viewscreen in front of him, waiting for Kirk to make his move. A black spot that could've been a starship appeared in front his vision, and he smiled.

     The Archangel shuddered. The massive explosion in the front section was visible through the front viewports. "What the hell just happened?" Raynor shouted, gripping his chair. Durani calmly checked his conole. "Photon Torpedo hit sir. Came from the starboard side!" he turned to look behind him. Though the window behind him didn't have as clear a view as the ports to his right, he could see the outline of a ship coming closer, and what looked like another ship behind them. "Aw hell, either the Enterpise missed or the Reliant just shot at-" Another explosion, The ship shook even harder, and deviated from it's course due to the force of the impact.

     "What the hell is she shooting at?" Kirk asked. The Archangel was not yet visible in the Enterprise's equally fudgy viewscreen. In Captain James T. Kirk's eyes the Reliant appeared to be shooting at nothing, a nothing that was exploding when it was hit. Spock raised an eyebrow. "It appears to be a ship of some kind."

     The Archangel's alarm klaxons were blaring. Raynor was cursing out loud. Less than 6 hours into their first mission and the ship was already nearly crippled. Mercifully, the areas damaged had few people in them. Casauaity reports suggested that only a few were killed, if that. Medlabs 1 and 2 were reporting numerous radiation burns and vacuum exposures, but only one death, a repair droid, had been confirmed. But Raynor didn't expect this luck to last. "Durani, can we get a lock on the Reliant?" Deradur's eyes widened. His voice filled Raynor's head. "Sir! XDCA charter strcitly forbids-" "No need to quote the charter Commander. It allows room for extenuating circumstances, which this certainly is. She's already seen us, which means the Enterprise might have too." Deradur considered protesting, but the fact was Raynor was right. Durani waited until he was sure the two had their say before speaking up. "No sir. The interference is too great." Raynor stood up and went over to his console. Another torpedo hit, this one sheering off the nose of the Archangel, taking several of the ship's most powerful weapons with them. "Fire as many Starboard side concussion missle launchers as possible, using the path of the torpedos as a flight plan." Durani smiled then nodded. "Excellent work sir!" Raynor didn't respond. "Helm, fire any reverse thrusters that haven't been totaled yet! We're gonna get creamed before we have a chance to fight back."

     "The unknown object is backing up." Sulu noted. Kirk stodd up. "What is that thing?" Suddenly, over a dozen small flashes slammed hard into the Reliant. "The unidentified ship has fired some kind of missile array at the Reliant, Captain. Without sheilds she is taking heavy damage," Spock spoke calmly from his station.

     "We got 'er!" Durani yelped exictedly. Raynor wasn't quite as happy. "Helm, continue reverse course. Try to open a portal if you can. Send out a tachyon signal to activate the satellites self-destruct." "Sir!" Deradur yelled out, staring at his console. "A Genesis energy signature just started emminating from the Reliant!" "Aw hell, she's gonna blow. Full speed reverse!" Raynor shouted. The ship began it's retreat. Meanwhile, the Enterpirse began doing the same, just as she was supposed to, but going in another direction, following the Archangel. "Oh great." Durani groaned. "First mission and already we've screwed up one of our protectorate universes." Raynor couldn't help but agree, but he wasn't so willing to give up. "Helm, ramming speed. We'll scare the Enterprise in the right direction!"

    "Captain! Unidentified ship has changed course. She's headed for us!" Sulu shouted. Kirk looked out at the screen. Spock stood up. "Captain, Mr. Scott is going to need help with the engines." "Go ahead Spock," Kirk replied, not taking his off the massive arrowhead shaped vessel moving towards them. Mr. Sulu, best speed possible. Get us out of that thing's way."

    "Enterprise is retreating captain. If they keep moving at this current speed they won't get out of the way in time," Misty announced. Raynor nodded. "Spock'll fix the drive, at the cost of his own life. It's happened before, it'll happen again. Just keep herding them towards the exit people." Deradur sighed "Too late.," he said. He felt it before it happened. The Genesis device exploded pre-maturely, likely as a result of the Archangel's interference. Without even thinking about it, the ship's helm officers lept to warp, passing up the Enterprise as she and her crew were ripped to pieces by the shockwave. The only sounds on the bridge of the ship were the sobbing of several crew members, punctuated by a recitation of a Protoss funeral chant by Deradur.

     It was many days before any of the crew members of the X.S.S. Archangel ever saw natural light. Almost immediately after the disasterous loss of the Enterprise, a loss that would lead to the deaths of billions in STU11, the Archangel limped home to Avalon, much to the dismay of thousands, not the least of which included those few native of STU11 that even knew the XDCA existed. The final tally after the failure of her maiden voyage was that most of the new eapons had been smashed apart, the engines were salavgable but only barely, and more than a dozen crewmen and droids had been killed. Raynor himself was railroaded into court martial and sent to a prison facility in WCU6 for a period of no more than 12 years, and no less than 3 for Reckless Endangerment, Failure to Adhere to Protocol, and Neglient Homicide. Durani and Deradur got off lightly with dishonorable discharges. Both eventually wound up doing civilian work on Avalon. Re'Nila and Misty Zimmerman and the rest of the comand staff received demotions to Ensign, and were spread across the fleet. The Archangel herself was demolished.

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   Centuries later, Jackson Dupree sighed heavily. "That is so sad," he said to himself. He and the rest of the crew of the fourth XDCA ship Archangel sat in a library on the sruface of Avalon a few days after the climactic defeat of Jakob Grey. Greymoran stood over him nodding. "Like I said son, we've got our work cut out for us. There were three XDCA ships named Archangel before this one. The fact that we beat Jake Grey might cancel out the so-called Archangel curse, it might not. That's why I wanted you and the others to read the histories of all three ships." Rita and Keith Yeager both made a noise that explained in one short syllable their confusion. Only the robot Hudzen, who stood next to Greymoran understood. "If any of you wish to transfer to other ships, it would be understandable," he said. Jackson looked at Greymoran. "What about you?" "I'll go along with whatever you decide. Stay or go, I'll be by your side. All of you." The Vulcan engineer tilted his head and raised his eyebrow. "Curses are a by-product of illogical thinking. However, I think I speal for the entire crew Captain when I say, we'll take our chances." Keith, Rita, Jackson, and Ahz smiled and nodded thier approval. Greymoran held up his hand and shook his head. "I want you to read about the other two first. I don't want you to rush into anything." Everyone except for Sorik and Ahz sighed. All of them returned to reading about the WCU13 incident with the Battlestar-class vessel X.S.S. Archangel at it's center.