Disclaimer – Everything either does belong to Joss or it should. I’m just borrowing his shiny ‘verse for a while.

The 21st Lancers belong to the British Army so I’m borrowing them too. I hope they don’t mind.

Thanks to my readers and special thanks to my proofreader Landry

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INS Charybdis – Action Stations – 2520AD

Van der Heijden struggled with his pressure suit. He had never liked wearing them but only an idiot fights a space battle not wearing one. The ship might be armoured and airtight but having to leave the bridge just because a lucky hit depressurised part of the ship was just stupid. You didn’t need to wear the helmet, it could sit ready secured on a tether next to you on the deck, or hooked to your belt, but if the ship suddenly suffered explosive decompression you’d never be able to put on your whole EVA suit before your blood boiled out of your nose.

All the controls were deliberately oversized to allow for clumsy hands but most of the bridge crew were working without gloves to get a better feel of their stations, their gloves stuffed securely into their helmets. If the alarms went off you just breathed out expelling the air in your lungs and quickly put on the remainder of the gear, as long as you didn’t panic there was time to don gloves and helmet before the tiny blood vessels in your body started to pop, well that was the theory at least.

The bridge was actually more like a small amphitheatre than the command deck of most vessels. Like her sister ship Scylla , the Charybdis was a command and control vessel not just a warship so the various bridge stations, navigation, gunnery, communications etc. were arrayed in a semi-circle around what was apparently a large empty space, unless the holographic gear was running.

The Admiral began pacing around as was his habit. He had always found it easier to think if he was mobile. ‘Give me the cube,’ he ordered in his best command tone and then he began stomping around the command deck in the oversiz