Southern Cross by Windstar

Southern Cross would coast on her own momentum and traditional plasma thrusters while her
gravitic drive systems were put on stand by. It took four minutes for all of her stations to report
in. Two minutes longer than it would take on a well-trained ships crew such as the one on North
Star. Not that it was surprising, since her entire crew was brand new, but she was going to have
to hold a few more drills and have a word or two with her department heads.
Lieutenant Sanders doubling as her Provost, as well as head of Engineering until she choose a
permanent second in command, double checked at his station and called out.
"Ma'am, all stations are reporting in secured for zero-g. Engineering is ready to put the gravitic
drive systems on stand by. All systems show green for warp gate formation and Translation
through a warp gate."
I really do need to choose a Provost.
Out loud she thanked the Lieutenant and opened her eyes to look towards the silent First
Guardian. Who met her eyes and smiled slightly. The deep blue eyes, as always, called to her
and for a moment Julie had the near overwhelming urge to undo the straps and tackle the First
Guardian. Getting her wandering hormones under control, she instead returned the smile.
"You'll do fine, don't worry."
The reassurance was welcomed and Julie's smile grew at the older woman's words.
"See you on the flip side."
As if she held no doubts at all that Julie would manage to form a Warp Gate, Emily stretched out
her long legs and reclined in her chair. As best one could recline in a chair to which one was
strapped down to that was. The First Guardian was here as Julie's mentor and friend, and had no
official duties other than some hand holding and encouraging. Apparently it was an old tradition
and one that the Tiri had every intention of continuing now that the first human Guardians were
emerging.
Those humans, and Tiri, who had the ability to bond with machines, were called Gifted. They
were an absurdly small fraction of a percentage of the entire population. The Tiri had been on
earth for a touch over sixty human years, ever since their evacuation in the face of the Bak'ra
threat and the plague which had killed so many of them. In all those years they had only found a
thousand or so humans who showed signs of being gifted. Out of a population of six billion. Of
those three hundred were able to attend the first Guardian class, and of those only a hundred and
ten would be graduating as Guardians. Julie was the first of those human gifted to bond with her
ship self, even if it was an experimental ship self which had been due to be used as a test
platform for new weapons.
Have to keep things interesting, I guess.
Taking a deep breath, Julie closed her eyes and allowed her senses to expand once more.