Roaming the pastures. The strange adventures of ntsheep.

[ntsheep]

    As Lesleyr came into range, she could see the Mary's Little Lamb and the Miboth engaged in a fight. The Miboth was firing torpedo after torpedo, the few that hit did little damage. Between the counter measures and the pilots skill, it was virtually impossible to land a hit on Ntsheep's ship.

"Taget both vessels and open fire." Lesleyr said.

"Aye sir"

"Priority target is the Mary's Little Lamb but make sure the Miboth is knock out of this fight also." she said.

"Aye sir."

"I want that chocolate!"




"Captain! A De Valtos flagship has locked on to us and is prepearing to fire!" Preacher said.

"Evasive action! Keep lock on Ntsheep, target the engines and solar sails!" Zandrok replied.




"Well it looks like Lesleyr is here, just in time for me to rhyme." Ntsheep said.

"She targeting us sir, deploying counter measures." Deeks said.

"Weapons room, load the Pink Bows and fire at the DV ship." said Ntsheep over the intercom.

"Pink Bows?" Sammy said.

"I got the idea from her when she fired those fireworks torps at me. The warhead explodes leaving hundreds of little pink bows made out of nanomites, some may get sucked into the engines and eat out the cores, or they can jam the sensors, and just for fun, a few transmit the old song "Pink" by Aerosmith over all the ship to ship comms." replied Ntsheep.

"Can't you ever just fire something normal!?"




"Sir, were recieving a trasmssion." Betty said.

"Where's it coming from, Ntsheep?" asked Zandrok.

"Not sure, it's on every comm channel, I'll put it on speaker,"


"Pink as the bing on your cherry
Pink 'cause you are so very
Pink it's the color of passion
'Cause today it just goes with the fashion"


"What the hell is this BS!?" Zandrok said in a puzzled voice.

[ntsheep]

    The Mary's Little Lamb shook from several hit,

"Pink it was love at first sight ," Ntsheep was singing

"Just lost some more armor plates from the starboard side," said Megan over the intercom.

"Pink when I turn out the light,"

"Miboth is closing to medium range, their targeting their guns on us," Deeks said.

"and Pink gets me high as a kite ,"

"Lesleyr just luanched several fighters," Sarah said.

"And I think everything is going to be all right
No matter what we do tonight,"

[ntsheep]

"Fighters away sir."

"Tell them to keep the Miboth busy, they won't stand a chance against a Hive ships close range defences." Lesleyr said.

"Sir! Inbound torpedos,,, wait, they just exploded 500ft from the hull."

"What, this has to be one of his tricks, start scanning the debris."

"I can't, we're getting some interferance with our sensors."

"Sir this is the engine room, some thing just clogged up the number two intakes."

"SHIT! Now what has he done to my ship?" Lesleyr screamed.

[ntsheep]

"There are four fighters going after the Miboth" Sarah said.

"Good, that gives me an idea," Ntsheep said. He hit a button on his chair. A cable snaked its way out of the back and went into the back of his head.

"What the hell?" Deeks said.

"That is so gross." Sammy said.

"Just pretend you didn't see this," said Ntsheep, he closed his eyes for a moment then reopened them. He spoke again but his voice was different, like a computers, "Now accessing drone control. All Valkyries coming on line. Preparing to launch. Opening bay doors."


Several doors on the hull of the ship opened up and and a metal crane holding two fighter craft, they were a sleek triangluar shape. The hulls were smooth and gleemed like polished silver. Their engines fired and they took off. Panels opened up and guns and missles came out.

"Fighters away, targeting enemy vessel. Weapons systems online." Ntsheep said.

"What's going on here?" Deeks asked.

"He linked himself to the ship, he's in control of everything now." Sarah said.

"I've heard of pilot links but nothing like this. What could allow someone total control of a ship like that. I've only heard of Narvid,,," a fightened look came over Sammy's face, "Is,, is he really human?" she said with a slight tremble in her voice.

"Don't worry everyone. He's not what your thinking. He's different than them." replied Sarah.

"To late man, I can't help it, it just popped in there. Wait a minute, you know what he, it, is!" Deeks yelled.

"He's our captain, and the man I love. That's all I need to know and all I care about. Whatever else he may be doesn't matter. He told me about himself shortly after we first met." Sarah said.

"Fear not my human friends. I will not hurt you or allow anyone else to. We'll talk afterwards. I have to devote my full concentration to this at the moment." Ntsheep said.

"What the hell is going on up there!? I just lost control of the engines!" Megan yelled over the intercom.

"Increasing velocity, course 5-8-3-7 mark 11-29," Ntsheep said.

"HOLY CRAP! He's gonna ram the De Valtos!" cried out Deeks.

[ntsheep]

"Sir our engines are failing! We're dead in the water!"

"Damn it, get them back online before something else happens!" yelled Lesleyr.

Warning sirens began blaring,

"Sir, the hive ship is on a collision course with us. Impact in 30 seconds."

"All hands brace for impact!" she said.


    Although a De Valtos flagship is one of the biggest ships ever made, as the hive ship came closer, it began to be dwarfed in comparision. The front of the Mary's Little Lamb slammed in to side of Lesleyr's ship, armor chunks flew everywhere. The outer hull was breached, the De Valtos began to roll under the hive ship and tumble.

    The fighters from the De Valtos made several strafing runs targetting the engines and solar sails of the Miboth. They didn't see the fighters from the hive ship.

"We've got inbound bogies approaching our six squad leader."

"Shit, they've locked on to us, evasive action."

"To late, their firing!"

"I'm hit!"

    Ntsheep controlled the drones with a precision not even the best human could do. They fired missles taking out the engines leaving Lesleys's fighters drifting. Their guns shredded what was left of solar sails and the remaining engines of the Miboth. They returned to the hive ship in just two minutes.

    As the Mary's Little Lamb flew past Lesleyr's ship, it fired a single torp which flew into the hole in the hull. It was a cargo torp full of chocolate.

"Sorry to hit and run my dear Lesleyr but I have somewhere else I need to be," she heard Ntsheep say over the space comm, "rules is rules, enjoy the chocolates and check with the bank on the planet. Left some funds for the repairs."

[ntsheep]

Somewhere between Aro Prime and Tucanae


    Everyone was sitting in the lounge room, the ship was on auto pilot. It had gotten very quite and a uneasy feeling was in the air. Sarah was busy checking over Ntsheep making sure he was ok.

"You sure your ok?" she asked.

"Yes I'm fine, it doesn't hurt me to do that." he replied.

"Speaking of "that", what the hell are you!" Deeks said.

"First of all," Ntsheep said looking at everyone, "I can assure you that my body is as human as it can be. I took this form long ago."

"You mean you can change your shape." Sammy said.

"I can take pretty much any shape I wish."

"What are you really?" she asked.

"That's hard to answer, my original physical form was crystal based, but I'm energy also, damn this is tricky to explain." Ntsheep said shaking his head.

"No shit! I'm ready to jump in a life pod and get the hell out of here." Deeks said.

"A inorganic lifeform? That sounds like a Narv to me. How did you change?" asked Megan.

"Please don't leave Deeks, I really wanted to tell you all when the time seemed right. Sarah took it rather well the first time. As for my change, it wasn't really that hard. I have data stored digitally about all the lifeforms I've come in contact with. Starting with the right Amino Acids, growing cells is easy. Most of what you are is electricty anyway. We're not really that different in that respect. 70% of your body is water. A perfect medium for conducting and transfering minerals." repiled Ntsheep.

Sammy looked at Sarah and said,

"How long have you known and why didn't you say anything."

"Not long after we first started dating he told me. He was working on a Palace generator and got shocked, he should have died, but when he didn't I realized there was something different about him."

"How many times do I have to say its the amps that get you, not the volts, it was only a 5 million volt capacitor discharge! Gave me a pretty good punk rocker hairdo for a week." Ntsheep said with a smile.

Sammy laughed a bit and then said,

"I still don't understand just what you are? I've been up against Narvs and just about every Zeno there is. I'm willing to go out on a limb here and trust you for the moment, but where did you come from?"

"The other side of the universe. I was sent out to gather data and report back." Ntsheep said.

"You're a frakking probe!" Deeks said.

"Yes, I guess that is the best way to say it." replied Ntsheep.

"How long ago were you sent?" Megan asked.

"Its been awhile now, give or take a few millennia," Ntsheep said while raising his eyebrows and looking at the ceiling, "about 1 million years ago."

[ntsheep]

"Wait a minute!" Sammy said, "The data I stole was about an alien lifeform codenamed Quartz Crystal! Are you,,,"

"The one and only, perfect for time keeping, takes a licking and keeps on ticking!" Ntsheep said proudly.

"It says you've been known to De Valtos for over 500 years! The Templar have been tracking for almost a 1000 years. Your the reason Squad 7 was sent on a recon mission and no one has heard from them since." Sammy said.

"They're ok, just trap in a time dialation wormhole. As long as they follow the directions I gave them, they'll get where they need to be." Ntsheep replied.

"It was 950 years ago!"

"They knew the risk, When they return, only three months will have passed for them."

"Why do the Templars want you besides the fact your an alien?" Deeks asked.

"It's not that they want me per se, I just happen to have several copies of their databases from the time of the Exodus." replied Ntsheep.

"This is still too much to deal with. Our captain is a freaking alien robot probe." Deeks said looking at everyone.

Megan spoke up next,

"Deeks, I've seen some strange things in the quadrant. Xenos, Narvs, a ship that has a cat as its first officer. I've even repaired the engines of the Carrot Stick once. We've been working with this man for a while now and he's treated us pretty good. I've gotten use to his strange habits, this new info doesn't really shock me that much. In fact, it's the most normal thing thats happen to us in a while. We spend most of our time hunting for Artifacts and other rarities on fairly safe planets. We take part in a few solar wars here and there, a bounty contract now and then, cargo runs for some time off to relax. I think if he had wanted to hurt or kill us, he would have done it be now."

"Yeah Deeks," Ntsheep said, "I'm still waiting to see you get the courage to ask Megan out. I can't wait to see the looks on your faces."

"WHAT!" both Deeks and Megan yelled at the same time.

[ntsheep]

"So who's this Squad 7." asked Sarah.

"An advanced Templar Tech team. I was working with them to try and rebuild some ship based Hyper Gates and Warp engines. We got caught in a wormhole while testing one of the systems." replied Ntsheep

"Did they know what you are."

"Yes. When I first made contact with them, I told them. They weren't as scared of aliens back then. At least a friendly one like me."

"How did you get out of the wormhole and why are they trapped." asked Sammy.

"Blind luck. There were only two ways out of the hole. My ship was closer to the true time end. Had I been on the other side, I would be the one stuck. Now that I think about, after this business with Javet, we need to go to Dark Epsilon and rescue them. They're due to reappear soon."

"You weren't joking when you said they'll return." Sammy said.

"No, I wasn't. Three months was not going to be a problem for them. I had installed Water\Food replicators on their ship. "

"Wow, I've heard of those! They're Dark Age artifacts. We could use those on this ship." Megan said.

"Cargo bay 34-X"

"What! You've got one here! What else is hidden on this ship Beside that and those drone fighters." exclaimed Deeks."

"All sorts of fun stuff. Do you want to see?" Ntsheep said with a big grin.



As Ntsheep and Sarah laid in bed together, she rubbed her hand over his chest,

"You don't feel like a crystal," her hand went lower, "but certain parts of you definitely have the hardness of one." she said with a smile.

"Do you think Deeks will leave us when we get to Tucanae?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. His parents were killed in a Xeno attack when he was eight."

"Yeah, I know about that. It was in his school records. He actually helped fly the ship back to a stardock."

"It'll be hard to find another pilot like him."

"I know, the boy has more skill than what he realizes."



As Megan and Deeks approach the door to bay 34-X a light came on and the ships computer said,

"Please stand still for Bio Identity Scan."

A beam of blue light came up from the floor and went back down in just seconds.

"Identity comfirmed. Ships Pilot James Deeks and Chief Mechanic Megan Del Sanos. Door locks disengaging."

The doors slowly lifted up with some creaking noises,

"The rollers need to be lubed," said Megan.

"Two rows in and to the left is the control panel he said," replied Deeks.

As the door became fully open, lights inside came on. The cargo bay was huge. Big enough to hold several small freighters. A lit pathway began flashing on the floor.

"Please follow the path to control panel." the computer said.

As they followed the path, they came to a three screen operations station with a refridgerator next to it. Megan pressed the power button and the screens came on,

LOGON INFO:

She type in her name and password,

GREETINGS CHEIF MECHANIC SANOS. PLEASE SELECT AN OPTION FROM BELOW OR TYPE IN COMMANDS AS NEEDED.

1: CARGO MANIFEST
2: REPAIR LOGS
3: ACTIVATE MATINANCE DRONES
4: SECURITY CAMERAS
5: GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR

INPUT CHOICE# OR COMMAND


"Does the man ever take anything seriously?" asked Deeks.

"Let's ask it for the Food Replicator." she said and typed it in.

The screen cleared,

INPUT FOOD SELECTION:

Megan typed in "Steak dinner for two", "Lets see it figure that one out,"

"I don't think," Deeks started to say as the refridgerator began making noise. After a few seconds a bell dinged and the screen changed,

PROGRAM COMPLETE.
DEFAULT SETTING USED.
OPEN DOOR.

Deeks opened the door and saw to plates with T-bone steaks, baked potatoes, and green beans. He picked them up and handed one to Megan.

"I don't believe this!" he said looking at the plate he was holding, "a T-bone dinner just like that. Ask it for a beer!"

VOICE INPUT RECOGNIZED.
PLEASE CLOSE DOOR TO BEGIN PROGRAM.

"Sweet!" he yelled as he close the door.

After a few seconds the bell dinged again and two beers were in the fridge when he opened it.

"How are we going to eat this?" Megan asked.

A drawer opened on the control panel. Megan looked in it and found the silverware.

[ntsheep]

As they finished eating, Deeks looked at the screen and said,

"So what kind of joke do you think option 5 was?"

"Only one way to find out." replied Megan.

She typed in a standard return to home screen command and the five options appeared again. She selected number five.

The screen then read,

SECONDARY WEAPONS SYSTEM HAS BEEN OFFLINE FOR MORE THAN 90 DAYS.
MAINTENANCE WILL BE REQUIRED.
DRONE ACTIVATED.
51 NOVA WARHEADS IN STASIS.

Both Deeks and Megan gasped as they read the last line.

"Nova's! Freaking Nova's! Those are planet busters!" Deeks said.

"I haven't even heard of anyone other than the Templars using a Nova." Megan said.

Deeks started to say something but stopped when a loud clanking sound started coming from behind them. Around the corner came a dull silver colored humaniod robot. It walked toward them and stopped. Its head had only a small horizontal slit where the eyes should be with a red dot that went back and forth. On its chest was K9.

"Greetings," it said in a robotic voice, "I am a Kenneth Woolverton Industries repair droid. My unit number is K9. Repair subroutine has been called. Data records show that secondary weapons system has been offline for a total of one hundred fifty years. Warhead stasis has not been compromised. Ship alert condition is green. Main weapons system is in stand by mode. Please state reason for activation of secondary system."

"Oh man, this is bad, we're going to end up blowing ourselves to pieces." Deeks said.

Although Megan was scared a bit, she had an idea,

"Standard function check. Is secondary weapons system operational." she said to the robot.

"Processing,,,, all systems checks verified." replied the robot, "Awaiting further commands."

"Continue previous command, ah, no need to activate weapons." she said.

"Acknowledged. Standard repair routines engaged. Shuttle craft records show maintenance required on vehicle 37-54," the robot lowered and shook its head, "Why that one. God damn pain in the ass." it said in a mournful tone.

"Holy crap!" yelled Megan, "It's got an emotions sub program!"