<blockquote><div><cite>thefallen wrote:</cite>Malicent returned the slightest of nods to Atremis, and looked out of the front veiwport and into outer-space. New life, he mused. Possible. The goddess need not be in one place. He kept his balance as the ship shuddered due to a nearby mine exploding. He wished he was on board one of the Church's Night Cruisers. A fully sized battle-ship, armed with enough firepower to wipe out a small moon. Unfortunatly, they were all busy, mainly beign repaired. The terrorist attacks had hit the fleet hard, and had lead to Malicents placement on board the Elyandra. His previous ship, the Nightingale, the biggest ship in the Church's fleet, had been crippled by two of the sucide bombers and nearly destroyed. Torsion feild generaters didn't work very well after 40 pounds of semtex had exploded next to them. He had been sent to the Elyandra by his superior, the Abbot of Dusk. He sighed. If only he was on baord one of the battle-ships. He would have blown those over-zelous fools into Underland before they coudl draw breath. But, no point musing about what could be, rather, focus on the now. He quickly turned and walked over to the navigation unit, and looked over the sholder of the operater at the screen. The captain was right. It was broken. No sensors, no sheilds on the tactical unit. Malicent swore under his breath. Did they buy this ship second hand? Did they buy this ship, period? No scanners, goddess save us. With that Malicent looke down at the navigation officer, seeing him shake slightly. <br/><br/>"Calm yourself, Officer. The Goddess watches over us, even now. And if it is our time, then we shall at least go down fighting. Now, prepare for a hypersapce jump, as the captain has requested" With that, he walked around the rest of teh bridge, checkign on the officers, offering a quiet prayer here, a blesssing there, and confort when needed. He reached the weaposn officer, who was shakign as well, but more violently. Malicent clicke don his mike "Azreal, we have a Section 8 - Nervous Breakdown. Send up the off duty Weapons Officer to teh bridge please" With that, Malicent quickly began to tlak to the man. "Officer...Jackson, please, come with me" The man looked at him, and slowly realised he had no real choice in the matter. While he got up, malicent transfered dontrols of weapons systems to teh defense officer. Seeing the sheilds were down, he wasn't really doing much else. After completign this, he took the arm if the still shaking officer, and led him toawrds the exit. "It is fine, my freind, you are in no danger. Do not fear, take a deep breath, and then we shall go for a short walk, to gatehr our nerves. If you would be so kind to wait here, and take deep breath until I return" Leavign teh man breathing deeply, Malicent quickly walked up to the Captain. <br/><br/>"Captain" he said "I must take this man from the bridge and to the Secure Psych Secion in the Medi-Bay, under regulation S8-NB (Section 8 - Nervous Breakdown). You will have my report by tommorow. I have already sent for his off duty counterpart to take up the slack. My the Goddess guide you" With that, he returned to teh officer, adn slowly led him off the bridge, past Artemis, and to the litf to get Medical Floor. As he walked pas tthe scientist, he smelt teh smell of ciggarettes. He wrinkled his nose. Horrible things, no-good at all for your mentl of physcial helath. And they didn't help when he was doing therapy either. Last time a smoker had been smokign in the same room that Malicent had been doing therapy in, the smoker had had a clip-board thrown at him. The smoke blocked the meridian lines in the body, as well as affecting neurone activity. The latter was easy to deal with, but the former required acupuncture treatment to reset the meridian lines and unblock the flow of qi. Malcient had taken multiple courses in acupuncture to assist in his psychological duties aboard ship. Hearign Artemis request to go to the Medi-Bay with the captain, he hit the "hold lift" button after getting in with the shaking officer, and waited for either the Captain and Artemis, or just the former, to join him in the lift.</div></blockquote>