Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til morning ALP2018

The view was (as it always seemed to be) spectacular in it's comfortable familiarity.
The tall, gangly form of Captain Gabrielle DeBromwic R.N, stood, slightly stooped as she shrugged her pea coat around her in the chill October air. Standing as she was on Plymouth Hoe, her eyes drank in the cold, grey water lapping at Drake's Island before her and her lips twisted into a smile around the butt of the fat Montecristo cigar as she considered her place within the same lineage of the Captain for whom the island was named. Little more than a pirate, Sir Francis had been, but success breeds acceptance and he had become part of the history of the Royal Navy. An aged institution that still, in these days, used the examples of it's heroes to inspire and tutor those who served in the United Kingdom's “Senior Service” even now.. Smoking a cigar before deployment was a habit she had picked up from her father. The old man bringing out a cigar to mark the passing of Christmas Dinner, a family Wedding, Christening or some other notable event in the calendar. The memory of that mischievous twinkle in the old man's eyes as he patted her on the shoulder and slipped the cigar into the top pocket of her “Number one” dress coat made her chuckle and she tapped the heavy crown of ash from the glowing ember at the tip. She turned slightly, squinting to see the Mayflower steps, where another band made their way down to the sea to find their place in the world, to cast their dice upon the winds of fate and make a new life in a new world.

She thought back further in her own life, her grey eyes staring out towards the horizon. All the stories of Nelson, Collingwood, Admiral Fisher, the fictional heroes like Hornblower and Bolitho. For as long as she could remember, she had been obsessed with the sea. Devouring the histories, the stories, sailing her little 15 footer, then her 21 footer whenever she got the chance. Learning celestial navigation with an ancient sextant from a junk shop and a series of tables downloaded from the Admiralty website, just because she wanted to understand how it used to be done. The trips to visit HMS Victory a moderate drive up the coast. The old wooden ship still the most ancient flagship of any navy on earth. The way she could almost feel the lives lived and lost below decks amidst the smoke of guns and screams of the wounded. The defiant bellows of the gun captains as they sent another dose of iron and fire into the belly of the enemy. How different things were now. Once Britannia really did rule the waves. Now though, even the last of the Trident class submarines had been broken up. The surface fleet of the once imperious Royal Navy comprising just a handful of Destroyers, Frigates and coastal patrol vessels.

The heat from the end of the cigar started to burn at her fingers and she flicked it out towards the sea with a wry smile, reaching into her hip pocket and pulling out a silver hip flask. A gift from her brother upon passing out at the Royal Navy college at Dartmouth. She unscrewed the top and raised it up. “A willing foe and sea room” she half whispered, it being a Friday and her being a product of an organisation that valued routine and ritual like few others. She took a long draw from the flask. The fiery, hundred and thirty proof, dark rum making her body flush with warmth against the chill coming off the sea and she turned back towards her car. At that moment the piercing scream of a Rolls Royce scramjet made her eyes flick towards the Royal Dockyard at Devonport and her gaze traced the silver arc of a shuttle launching up towards the stratosphere, it's engines seeming to tear the very fabric of the sky as it rose on a pillar of blue fire. Twenty minutes later she was boarding her own shuttle to make the same trip up to her new command, HMS Hyperion. The newest of His Majesty's ships. A full million tons of interstellar dreadnought, part of a fleet that dwarfed anything any other nation on earth could call upon. “How funny” she thought as the Petty Officer checked her belts, “One crazy old man working on his own in the shed at the bottom of his garden had come up with a faster than light propulsion system that had taken the world by surprise and gifted Britain and its dominions an insurmountable lead in the space race.”

The Times of London
21st January 2068
Admiral Jennings hails decisive action in the Pleiades
From our correspondent aboard HMS Agamemnon in the Pleiades Sector.

At approximately 0700 GMT on the 19th of this month, the Squadron comprising six ships of the line, HMS Agamemnon, HMS Hyperion, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Monmouth, HMS Duke of Sussex, The Fleet carriers HMS Argus and HMS Glasgow and various supporting cruisers (Most notably,HMS Hood, HMS Nelson, HMS Raleigh and HMS Drake) detected, closed with and engaged a larger enemy force consisting of at least twelve 1st Rate ships of the line, two carriers and a flotilla of smaller attack vessels.

In the battle that followed, the entire enemy fleet was destroyed. Utterly. Not a soul survived. Not one ship limped from the battle to recover and repair.
HMS Hood, Glasgow and Raleigh suffered significant but not devastating damage in what will go down as possibly the greatest show of Royal Navy force since the time of Nelson.

Of Particular note it must be said, that when the flagship, HMS Argus was heavily engaged with the enemy carriers, HMS Hyperion, broke through the screen of pickets, and unloaded a devastating series of broadsides into the sterns of the enemy vessels, displaying astounding manoeuvrability and supreme ship handling by her captain, G. DeBromwic. Admiral Sir Arthur Jennings was adamant that this reporter should quote him thus “That was worthy of the very bloody best of the service. She has the Nelson touch alright,”

In other sectors, most notably, Maia at the centre of the Pleiades Nebula, 2nd Brigade Royal Marines, aided by the 3rd and 4th brigades of the Parachute regiment completed their landings and took all objectives against heavy opposition but with losses described as light to moderate. It cannot (in this reporter's opinion) be more than a matter of months before the whole sector is completely pacified.

a reply to: SprocketUK

Is that the end!?

a reply to: DictionaryOfExcuses

It's the end of this story, but maybe not for Captain DeBromwic

a reply to: SprocketUK

You could extend this to a "Starship Troopers" sort of novel/la. The ending of this "chapter" provides foreshadowing and irony (because the journo says the war will be over in a matter of months...when are they ever?)

I like it, and hope I didn't send the impression that I was turned off completely by the ending. It is abrupt.

But, you made me want to read a story about something I normally don't dwell on (military-related fiction), so that's good! In particular, I like the way you describe the minutia of her actions, focusing on her lips, eyes, fingers, etc. & the way you let info seep out, like air out of a balloon. (Like when the year is revealed.) The juxtaposition of her learning to use a sextant, etc. with the surprise of being far in the future where such tools are laughably obsolete.

Cool.

a reply to: DictionaryOfExcuses

Thanks and yeah, that was what I was aiming for that idea that she grew up wanting to sail the seven seas in a warship, only to see the maritime arm of the navy wither but to get a chance to command a starship, somehow more akin to an 18th or 19th century captain, being far from home and with the prospect of real battle ahead.

And I am glad you liked the little things. A simple twitch of the lips can allow you to imagine all sorts of things about a character's emotions, can't it?

originally posted by: SprocketUK
a reply to: DictionaryOfExcuses
And I am glad you liked the little things. A simple twitch of the lips can allow you to imagine all sorts of things about a character's emotions, can't it?

Only because it is so in "real life".

a reply to: SprocketUK

You shoulve credited the copyrighted title to it's real origins.. Not you.

Peace

Taking back the Pleiades!

a reply to: mysterioustranger

Ha. Like anyone who ever read or saw Peter Pan would be in any doubt.

originally posted by: Osirisvset
Taking back the Pleiades!

I picked the Pleiades purely because it's an interesting part of the galaxy in a game I play so I've spent a lot of time exploring the area.

originally posted by: SprocketUK
a reply to: mysterioustranger

Ha. Like anyone who ever read or saw Peter Pan would be in any doubt.

And a few of our 300,000+ members world-wide in many different languages and ages... may never had read it.

But you're taking credit... nice. Real original when you didn't create it...

M. S.
Copyright owner
Published author
World Wide trademark holder.

You? Oh... I see....

originally posted by: mysterioustranger

originally posted by: SprocketUK
a reply to: mysterioustranger

Ha. Like anyone who ever read or saw Peter Pan would be in any doubt.

And a few of our 300,000+ members world-wide in many different languages and ages... may never had read it.

But you're taking credit... nice. Real original when you didn't create it...

M. S.
Copyright owner
Published author
World Wide trademark holder.

It's ubiquitous by now. I took sod all credit for JM Barrie's work.
I've read that quote in a huge number of commercial novels and not once thought the author was trying to take credit for Peter Pan.

The fact you think I was speaks volumes about you completely missing the context of using it as the title.

And it's not copyright.

originally posted by: SprocketUK

originally posted by: mysterioustranger

originally posted by: SprocketUK
a reply to: mysterioustranger

Ha. Like anyone who ever read or saw Peter Pan would be in any doubt.

And a few of our 300,000+ members world-wide in many different languages and ages... may never had read it.

But you're taking credit... nice. Real original when you didn't create it...

M. S.
Copyright owner
Published author
World Wide trademark holder.

It's ubiquitous by now. I took sod all credit for JM Barrie's work.
I've read that quote in a huge number of commercial novels and not once thought the author was trying to take credit for Peter Pan.

The fact you think I was speaks volumes about you completely missing the context of using it as the title.

And it's not copyright.

Open any copy of that book. Read the copyright contained in each and every copy.

Therein establishes credit... and it's not me... or you.

My point

originally posted by: mysterioustranger

originally posted by: SprocketUK

originally posted by: mysterioustranger

originally posted by: SprocketUK
a reply to: mysterioustranger

Ha. Like anyone who ever read or saw Peter Pan would be in any doubt.

And a few of our 300,000+ members world-wide in many different languages and ages... may never had read it.

But you're taking credit... nice. Real original when you didn't create it...

M. S.
Copyright owner
Published author
World Wide trademark holder.

It's ubiquitous by now. I took sod all credit for JM Barrie's work.
I've read that quote in a huge number of commercial novels and not once thought the author was trying to take credit for Peter Pan.

The fact you think I was speaks volumes about you completely missing the context of using it as the title.

And it's not copyright.

Open any copy of that book. Read the copyright contained in each and every copy.

Therein establishes credit... and it's not me... or you.

My point

Like I said. You have zero understanding of the context or, indeed how copyright works. Go bother someone else with your idiocy.

I am amazed that anyone is bringing up copyright as an issue but in fact JM Barry donated the copyright benefit to Great Ormond St Hospital. It expired 70 years after his death in 1937 so, from 2007, it has been in the public domain.

Copyright - Gt Ormond St Hospital

No need to worry, Mr Sprocket (not that you probably are).

Look forward to more - stories that is, not copyright stuff.

Very Honor Harrington, though.

a reply to: oldcarpy

Good work. I didn't actually know he did that. Pretty nice gesture by the old fella.

I just googled honor Harrington. Thanks. I now have a new series to read. Just as I was getting to the bottom of my reading list too.
You earned a beer.

a reply to: SprocketUK


Cheers.

I am just getting into HH, but have two Peter F Hamilton epics to dive into first.

My fee note for the advice will follow.

originally posted by: SprocketUK

originally posted by: mysterioustranger

originally posted by: SprocketUK

originally posted by: mysterioustranger

originally posted by: SprocketUK
a reply to: mysterioustranger

Ha. Like anyone who ever read or saw Peter Pan would be in any doubt.

And a few of our 300,000+ members world-wide in many different languages and ages... may never had read it.

But you're taking credit... nice. Real original when you didn't create it...

M. S.
Copyright owner
Published author
World Wide trademark holder.

It's ubiquitous by now. I took sod all credit for JM Barrie's work.
I've read that quote in a huge number of commercial novels and not once thought the author was trying to take credit for Peter Pan.

The fact you think I was speaks volumes about you completely missing the context of using it as the title.

And it's not copyright.

Open any copy of that book. Read the copyright contained in each and every copy.

Therein establishes credit... and it's not me... or you.

My point

Like I said. You have zero understanding of the context or, indeed how copyright works. Go bother someone else with your idiocy.

I own over 45 musical and literary copyrights, the 1st being filed in Library of Congress in 1974.

Multiple quarterly royalties received, music in 2 movies and The Sopranos tv show and DVD collection, contracts w Universal and Sony publishing.

Additionally, 3 published literary works(non self published).

I certainly know what I am talking about..you are seemingly clueless..and with that...good luck to you.

Perhaps..I'll think about copyrighting your o.p...under my name.

Good luck, God bless and good bye... Peace!

originally posted by: oldcarpy
I am amazed that anyone is bringing up copyright as an issue but in fact JM Barry donated the copyright benefit to Great Ormond St Hospital. It expired 70 years after his death in 1937 so, from 2007, it has been in the public domain.

Copyright - Gt Ormond St Hospital

No need to worry, Mr Sprocket (not that you probably are).

Look forward to more - stories that is, not copyright stuff.

Very Honor Harrington, though.

I brought it up only regarding credit to source...not to get permission nor pay to use a line, source or quote.

I can copyright "Starway to heaven"..even "The Bible"..but only my version of it..not the original source taken from..

Proper credit is always nice..period.

Thank you..M.S.

originally posted by: mysterioustranger

originally posted by: SprocketUK

originally posted by: mysterioustranger

originally posted by: SprocketUK

originally posted by: mysterioustranger

originally posted by: SprocketUK
a reply to: mysterioustranger

Ha. Like anyone who ever read or saw Peter Pan would be in any doubt.

And a few of our 300,000+ members world-wide in many different languages and ages... may never had read it.

But you're taking credit... nice. Real original when you didn't create it...

M. S.
Copyright owner
Published author
World Wide trademark holder.

It's ubiquitous by now. I took sod all credit for JM Barrie's work.
I've read that quote in a huge number of commercial novels and not once thought the author was trying to take credit for Peter Pan.

The fact you think I was speaks volumes about you completely missing the context of using it as the title.

And it's not copyright.

Open any copy of that book. Read the copyright contained in each and every copy.

Therein establishes credit... and it's not me... or you.

My point

Like I said. You have zero understanding of the context or, indeed how copyright works. Go bother someone else with your idiocy.

I own over 45 musical and literary copyrights, the 1st being filed in Library of Congress in 1974.

Multiple quarterly royalties received, music in 2 movies and The Sopranos tv show and DVD collection, contracts w Universal and Sony publishing.

Additionally, 3 published literary works(non self published).

I certainly know what I am talking about..you are seemingly clueless..and with that...good luck to you.

Perhaps..I'll think about copyrighting your o.p...under my name.

Good luck, God bless and good bye... Peace!

All that and yet you still cannot understand that using a quote from a book as a story title is not plagiarism. Or copyright infringement. Jeez mate bugger off and start your own thread if you want to bleat about how great you are.


If the work you are claiming is real, I hope to god iit's better than all this, really.