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favoritism and the caste system Gupta’s family emigrated to escape.
     
    Under the circumstances Gupta’s barely hidden hatred of James was understandable and James certainly hadn’t done anything to ease the situation. When he had first assumed command James had been too caught up in his own troubles to care for a subordinate’s misunderstandings about the inner workings of the nobility. As a result their relationship had only soured as the months had rolled on.
     
    A solution had dawned on James a few months ago and his mood brightened up as he considered it again. Drake was scheduled for a maintenance cycle in three months and this would hopefully take them either to Britannia or Earth. Either way he could write a glowing recommendation of Gupta’s abilities and with luck get her reassigned before the end of the cycle. Nodding to himself James turned to walk off the bridge to his quarters. In mid step he turned back to Sub Lieutenant Hanson.
     
    “Lieutenant, as you are plotting our course back to the main passage you have the bridge, so take care of my ship.”
     
    This time James was unable to hide a smile from the bridge crew. Typically the sub lieutenant in charge of sensors took command of the bridge in a survey ship if the commander or the second lieutenant wasn’t present. The look of shock on Hansen’s face had been worth the slight risk to his ship. Hanson was the least experienced sub lieutenant on board and this would be his first time commanding the ship. But James knew Fisher would be double checking everything Hanson did so there wasn’t really a risk – and everyone had to start somewhere.
     
    As he walked out of the bridge James couldn’t help adding, “Oh and Lieutenant, I want you to plan out the next few jumps further into the main passage. You and Lieutenant Gupta can go over the details when she arrives on the bridge.”

Chapter 3 - Discovery
     
    Analysis of the available records indicates that it took an average of twenty million hours of exploration to discover a new habitable world. Given the available survey ships each major power had during the first expansion era it meant that on average one planet was being discovered every five years. Anything more than that usually brought a dramatic shift in the delicate balance that was the First Interstellar Expansion Era.
     
    -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
     
     
    22 nd November 2464. HMS Drake , the Void.
     
    James woke to a loud beeping noise coming from directly above his head. Groggily he reached up and banged around on the wall until he hit the COM unit built in above his bed.
     
    “Yes,” he stuttered as he shaded his eyes from the COM unit’s display with his free hand, “what is it?”
     
    “Sir,” Lieutenant Gupta’s voice came across the speaker with no hint of remorse for waking her commander, “I think you better get up here.”
     
    “Ok, I’ll be there in a minute,” James replied as he swung his legs out of the bed. It was strange. Gupta usually avoided him at all costs, which meant that any communications came through a Sub Lieutenant. Why was Gupta waking him up personally? Did she just take a strange delight in knowing she had disturbed her commander’s rest or was there a real problem?
     
    Two minutes later James strode onto the bridge in his hastily donned uniform. After glancing at the clock he reckoned he had gotten four hours of sleep. He had finished his novel before turning in, Drake must have made it back to the main passage and Sub Lieutenant Hanson’s planned exploration jumps should have been well underway.
     
    “So, what’s going on this fine morning?” James addressed the bridge crew on watch. Looking around, he noticed that Gupta had ordered tactical and defense manned by Sub Lieutenants. Something was obviously up so he turned to Gupta and waited expectantly.
     
    Meeting her commander’s eye Gupta began. “Once we got back to the main passage we began a series of micro jumps