Space Pirate Felix

Posted on 11 Aug 2016 @ 6:33pm by Lieutenant JG Felix Langston

715 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Risky Business
Location: Cochrane - Bridge
Timeline: MD 6 || 1220 Hours

Lt. Felix Langston found himself alone on the bridge of the Cochrane. Nearly everyone had either evacuated or been removed by force from the bridge by Lt. Di Pasquale and her team nearly a half hour ago. He hummed to himself as he sat at the helm and kept the ship steady, hoping to drown out the drone of the engines and beeps from the consoles. It was strange, being one of the only ranking officers on a ship, much less the highest ranking officer. Felix felt a tinge of loneliness as he breathed out a small sigh and continued working.

Wait a minute, thought Felix. He then turned his chair to look at the empty captain's chair behind him. There's no one else here. And if I'm the highest ranking officer on a ship... He slowly rose from the helm's seat and looked around. He then fixed a steely gaze on the captain's chair and walked back towards it. Once he approached, he reached out and touched the soft leather-like material on the backing. It wasn't too different than any other chair on the bridge; yet it seemed to emit a strange and wonderful feeling that captivated all officers of Starfleet. The Chair inspired the same feelings of wonder and awe in Felix as it had from an early age when he saw his father sitting in the captain's seat on the USS Potomac.

"Well, what the hell," Felix said as he shrugged his shoulders. He then sat down gently.

"Oh wow," he said as he chuckled a little bit, sinking into the seat's plush material. "I always thought these seats were comfy, but hoo boy." He reached to his left side and pressed a button on its console, flipping up the captain's display. The LCARS interface popped up with a readout of all the ship's status reports and channels to each department. Most of them were offline or not responding, but then he saw the familiar "CAPTAIN'S LOG" button on the LCARS interface and gently pressed it, not expecting it to respond.

The console beeped affirmative, making Felix recoil in surprise. It looked like it was recording.

Felix gently cleared his throat. "Um...Cap-I mean...Acting Captain's Log, Stardate...um...continued from previous."

He took a minute to recompose himself and continue. "As of right now, this is Lt. Felix Langston, Chief Flight Control Officer of the USS Black Hawk and acting captain of the Cochrane. We engaged both this ship and the Chimera during a dogfight in the Haydn nebula because they were housing Consortium agents on board. Lt. Catherine Cooper secured the ship from Consortium forces during the fighting. A team including myself and Lt. Camila Di Pasquale have evacuated the crew and transported them to the Black Hawk. I stayed behind to fly this ship out of the nebula."

He leaned back in the captain's chair and continued his log. "I want to commend the teams that bravely came aboard and secured these ships in the name of Starfleet. I also want this noted exactly in mission reports: 'Lt. Felix Langston performed some of the sickest nebular maneuvering in the history of Starfleet.'"

He chuckled a bit as he continued. He tried to keep a straight face and his composure the best he could. "Now as the ranking officer aboard this ship, that makes me the acting captain. And since we took this ship by force with orders from Starfleet, that makes us privateers, because space falls under the tradition of maritime law. Under maritime law, if you take over a ship by force in international waters, you are committing piracy, even as a privateer. So, all that, in effect, makes me a pirate. In space. So, from now on, I'm going to ask any of the remaining crew aboard this ship to refer to me as 'Space Pirate Felix,' or 'Captain Scruffybeard.' in addition to 'Captain Langston.' Time will tell if the name sticks. End log."

The computer stopped recording and saved the file. "Oh I sure do hope Starfleet Records comes across this," he said as he closed the console and went back to the helm.

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