Adventures of The Liberty

"C'mon, Al!" Nikolas S'praan pleaded with his brother. "Just imagine it! We could carve our names into the history of the galaxy itself as the greatest explorers ever!"

"You mean you could carve your name as the greatest pilot ever," Alexander S'praan retorted. "I'm perfectly happy with my research, thank you very much."

"You mean with that jackass of a professor that keeps blocking you from getting your doctorate?"

"Professor K'rath..." Alex began to defend, but merely huffed in annoyance and began to walk away. Unfortunately, his younger brother was taller now and could catch up much easier than when they were children.

"Yeah, the whole damn university knows how much of an ass he is and pities you. That sexist nepotist has only ever passed his sons and nephews to be doctors in their fields, even if they didn't deserve it. Just transfer to another prof or appeal to the dean and *go with me to explore the galaxy*!"

"Do you even have a ship?"

"An Exerion-class cruiser that I've outfitted with a type-4 warp core," Nikolas stated proudly as he puffed out his chest. Alexander, however, stopped in his tracks.

"Exerion-class cruisers stopped being manufactured almost thirty years ago and only had the capability to fit up to type-3 cores," the elder brother stated in a tone that made the younger blanch and break out into a sweat. "What. Did. You. Do."

"A-a-actually, the Helexion brand type-4 cores were designed to be retrofitted into old models like the Exerion. And while the Gamal Corporation stopped manufacturing Exerion cruisers, they have continued to support and update them since they were so popular and widespread across the Empire," Nikolas rattled off while backing away from the protective wrath of his brother.

As the tense silence filled the air, Alexander ran the numbers in his head. Ship design was both a specialty and a passion of his, so he knew the kind of wiring, resistance, and max warp factor that his brother's ship would be capable of. "What else have you fitted?" he finally asked, having calmed down a bit.

Nikolas's face regained its color and he popped up like a spring. "Type-7 scanners, four survey and collection drones, and a fifth-generation Gamal Fabrication and Processing unit. It's also got 50-exabyte storage and a processing speed of 20 terabytes per second."

"Any AI?"

"Just a basic one. I've got a programmer from Barit-6 coming with us that'll probably make adjustments to personality as we go."

"Any other crewmembers?" the cautious, but curious, elder brother probed as he and his sibling walked across the campus to his office.

"Saris is coming with us, of course. She's got experience with the gen-5 fabricator and you know she's the best cook either of us knows."

Alexander couldn't argue with that fair bit of logic. His sister-in-law was a gifted cook and would likely keep everyone in high spirits. The spitfire of a woman could handle a blaster pretty well, too so that was a bonus.

"You didn't bring up the hard points for the ship."

"Oh! Right! Two type-4 mining lasers, a 150-millimeter double-barrel laser cannon, and even a couple proton torpedos and neutron missiles."

"Magitech support, I hope?"

"No duh, numb-nuts."

---

"So are you in, brother-dearest?" Nikolas asked while rubbing the neck that had just been pinned in his brother's headlock for the last dozen meters to his office.

"Do you have any plans to leave without me?" Alexander asked while pouring some tea for both himself and his obnoxious younger brother.

"No Alex; No expedition."

Alexander finished pouring the tea and proceeded to weigh his options. If he stayed at the University, He'd be an old man before he got the doctorate that he deserved and had worked so hard for, but it was safe and paid very well. On the flip side, the chance of expedition and mapping the unknown regions for the Empire that he so dearly loved while ending up in history books seemed to far outweigh the danger and lack of security that such an expedition would entail. His office was starting to get stuffy anyways.

"Give me a week to get my affairs in order," the elder brother said as he handed a teacup to his brother.

The two shared a toast and spent the next week going over everything to make sure that everything would be as smooth as possible during the journey to the edge of Imperial space. The pair even got tipsy at the farewell party that the University held in Alexander's honor. In a seeming flash, two weeks had passed and the two were standing in the younger's home with the rest of the crew that had been gathered.

"Alright, let's go over who we have and who we still need," Nikolas suggested before shoveling a fistful of his wife's homemade pretzels into his mouth.

"Well, there's you obviously; the captain and pilot," Alexander pointed out. "I'll be working as the engineer and just generally making sure we *don't* blow up."

"For which we are all very grateful," Saris said as she settled in next to her husband. "As for me, I'm basically going as moral support and because I am the most experienced with that gen-5 fabricator my husband installed into The Liberty."

"I still say my name for the ship was better," the only Baritian in the room brought up.

"JJ. Buddy. Pal," Nikolas said between chewing his pretzels before finally swallowing. "There is not a being in the whole damn empire, other than another Baritian, that can *pronounce* that name."

"It has great cultural significance to the Baritian people!" he tried to argue.

"Then after this expedition, you can get your own ship and name it the Pre'egloathion," Nikolas retorted. "My ship. My name."

That seemed to settle the matter and the Baritian simply shrugged and went back to the original topic. "J'makil Jithrati, JJ for short. I'll be working as the copilot and handling the computer programming stuff for The Liberty."

"Alright, so who do we still need?" Nikolas asked. "We've got six more rooms and while we have the basics for the expedition, getting more detailed stuff would definitely help."

"Well, if we had a linguist, diplomacy would be easier with any other species we make contact with," Alex suggested.

"And don't take this the wrong way Saris," JJ said, "but having some kind of gunner slash security person on board would make me feel a lot safer."

"Seconded on that, dear," Nikolas said, putting his arm around his wife. "You're a hell of a shot with a blaster rifle, but we need someone who can work those hard points."

"Any sort of mage would be nice, as well," Saris interjected. "You and Al are pretty good at self-reinforcement but I've yet to see either of you make a flame bigger than what a lighter can make."

"Fair," both brothers responded.

"I think as far as crew goes, we know who we need. We can recruit between here and the Garmeris Station. If we need a mage though, we'll have to set up one of the rooms as a bedroom-laboratory combo," JJ said as he telekinetically lifted a few pretzels into his mouth.

"You'll probably need to write a database with any languages the Empire already has access to," Alex suggested. "An algorithm for grammar detection and sentence structure would help, too."

"Fair point. I've got the database, but I'll need to write the algorithm on our way to Garmeris."

"Awesome! Now the small things," Nikolas brought up. "We've got a few games and puzzles programmed into the ship like chess and checkers. If you have any other games that you want to bring, we'll need datapads for each game. We've got a pretty good library installed, but I'd bring some personal pads to make copies onto in case we end up somewhere we can't access the ship's library. Finally, you'll each need about ten cycles worth of clothes. If we find anything we like while exploring, we can add it to the fabricator's database to try and experiment with it a bit. I also ask that each of you keep logs of your personal discoveries, opinions, thoughts, etcetera. If gods forbid, something happens to us, I want the people who find us to know what happened. Otherwise, it'd probably make for some good reading or listening for people when we get back. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Saris then picked up a bottle of beer and held it up for a toast. "To The Liberty!"

"To The Liberty!"