The Return of the Beijing

Draft at writing.com 1.
Outline
1.Introduction-Updates
2.Beginning-Decision
3.Body-Back to the barrier of the Milky Wayers
4.End-Andromedans
5.P.S.-Prediction
    Most all of the crew is back on Earth a decade after our first adventure[ to be posted soon ]. The decision is made to go back to the barrier with a new ship. We encounter the leaders of our galaxy. Just as the discovery unfolds we are found by the next galaxy. Our heroes predict what they should do and the action, suspense, and relationships begin again.

Previously on Peter China...
The Histories bring you from the present to the time of the story. The Beijing is introduced. We began with our antihero Peter China and crew stealing an artificial lifeform No. IX and being sent out to a newly contacted world called Seko. Pete aquires Watch.
Mission One is about the aquisition of the ESS.
The Return sees Pete arrested.
MIssion Two Peter returns to Seko with a priest.
The crew tries to Return Again to Earth with others.
In Mission Three they are diverted to New Planet and then boarded. They escape, fight, escape again, and are sent back to Earth.
At The End the Beijing is reintroduced.

Next: the continuation
The story resumes in the next millenium. Watch, Ix and ESS have descendants that begin a quest to find the oldest civilization. They require the help of the Timemasters. The group is sent on a research project to find the end of known prehistory. Discovery reveals the people of the galactic supercluster's first protocivilzation.

The Return of the Beijing
        The crew of the Beijing was still in a cloudy haze as they instinctively began the docking procedures with space station Helen of Troy. Beijing's computer was up to the task. She and her dazed crew manuevered into the correct port on Helen of Troy that had been built just for this exercise four decades earlier. It was worth the wait. Since then however it became dated and saw little use and was assumed to never complete its original purpose. Surprise can be wonderful. New ships and docks came and went, but old 4250 was never abandoned or rebuilt. Perhaps some glimmer of hope remained eternal. It was occasionally maintained just in case. The case developed. Beijing was unusually well preserved for her age. Her wear was that of a vessel half her age. There was something strangly timeless about her. The docking crew on Helen of Troy was working overtime on this monumental piece of history. Seldom did recovery occur this way. The greatest mission of its kind believed a failure, the Beijing lost, the rescue mission nearly wasted, and time forgotten only to end in triumph unexpected. It is serendipity from a ghost ship returned.
        Captain Lee began task orientation by getting Beijing's crew to pay attention to the immediate concern. Complete docking. His mind was beginning to flood with thoughts when it occurred to him that orders need be simple till everyone absorbed their shock.
        "Everybody on the ball. Check that. Attention!" he commanded. "Let's do this in one take so the games can begin. Check that. Turn to on the rendezvous. Carry on." He could not help but oscillate from the familiar to the professional because of his mixed emotions. He felt the joy of homecoming and the urge to lead.
        The docking area for such vessel was more like an airport terminal than an airlock chamber. There was a security site complete with one large and two small isolation cells. A quarantine facility with a clinic for general medicine was included. Baggage claims were familiar.
        Once the ship and the station had mated, the scene became somewhat mundane. The various inspectors had to verify the crew's readiness to board ship to station. The situation was softened by the welcome line for the representatives of the  officials.
        Socorro Trujillo, the director of the Universal Intelligence Agency, waited patiently until the captain was the last man to leave the ship. He was with the ship's security but that did not stop the mob of reporters, family, fans, and dignitaries from adoring him. Station security came in to keep things safe and moving. The captain was free to move whereever he pleased but the Navy claimed him first. Socorro was prepared to simply observe, report to superiors as needed, and tag along if possible given the hero's discretion.
        The world leaders from many fields had already received downloads of ship's logs within classification parameters and other information from the ship's computers. The headlines were written, printed, and posted.
        Navy debriefing could not be described as routine in this case, but it did not make things as exciting as they were. Trujillo was permitted to interrupt.
        "Captain, Trujillo, UIA." The captain looked at her carefully. "Allow me to oversimplify. In spite of your great mission you feel no great security concern?"
        The captain answered,"No Ma'am."
        Trujillo said,"Thank you,sir, I'll be in touch." She waved and left.
        Socorro was satisfied that no urgency was needed in this matter with all its importance. She would have an agent with the captain for a long time. The captain would be going to several place she had anticipated. The agents would obtain information as needed until the decision was made on a future mission.
        Stevan Toth was probably going to be in on all this because he was her new assistant. She liked him and thought him competent and ethical. Toth was in the position that Trujillo was a decade before at UIA although he was a little older then she was then and still not battle proven on an interstellar scale. Thinking of him made her think of John Washington now retired. She missed her old boss very much regardless that his departure was a boon to her. She would have to run him down sometime. Fortune was good professional men in your life. She had more like them and women like herself at headquarters and at H2. Main headquarters was in Cairo where the global capital of the National Union was. H2 was a secret and not far away. Of course Socorro was at both places often when she was on Earth but clearly she need be in space and so the office on Helen of troy was frequently used. Now she would go home. Time must be taken to prepare for that which would unfold.

AMTEX American Texas Incorporated International was the name of the company. It was an integrated fuel, food, information technology organization. It did exploration, transportation, marketing and production. One hundred power and processing plants it had.