Chapter 25: Aftermath

The banquet was almost as bad as I had feared, but at least the salad dish called Carax wasn’t too bad and I warned Ninio not to tell me what the little dark brown things were that nested between the dark red leaves and tasted a bit like raw fish - old raw fish. I was hoping it was only the bad lighting that made me think one of those brown bits had moved.

The Yokuta then announced that most of the votes had been counted and the result was an overwhelming approval to go ahead with a Union membership application.

Much to my disappointment, we wouldn’t return to Arsenal aboard the Shetland, but on a destroyer that was to arrive shortly for that purpose. Admiral McElligoot had offered to take the Yokuta delegation to Pluribus on the flagship.

The entire city was celebrating and I overheard businessmen and civilians who belonged to our civilization making plans and talking to local business and finance people. The Yokuta drove us back to the spaceport where we were to await the arrival of the USS Kilroy.

We waited in a sparsely decorated spaceport lobby, the place seemed deserted as most, if not all, the locals celebrated somewhere else. According to our instructors, the Kilroy would be here in six to ten hours and all we had to do was sit tight and wait.

I had to tell Two-Three and the others what had happened at least ten times. Then Ninio asked if he could look for an open store in the spaceport to buy some souvenirs. The instructor shrugged and said, “I doubt they take credits here and Yokuta spaceports aren’t like Union ports with stores and restaurants. This one has been used mostly by the Nogoll. Whatever shops are here are likely closed but I see no harm for you to check it out. Just don’t leave the building and be back here in an hour. Take someone with you.” Ninio, the Garbini and the Human cadet went along.

The tall Elly, Deadan, said to me as if he knew what I was thinking, “Ninio is determined to find some Yokuta recordings. Tescor (the other Human, ) for some unexplained reason likes it too!”

“You’re kidding!”

“No I swear to you. He thinks it could be mixed into psycho plank punk, whatever that is.”

“I don’t know either.”

A while later, four high-ranking officers came into the lobby and someone yelled, “Commander on deck!”

By now we knew we had to stand at attention when this command was given. I recognized one of them as the commander who was with the Admiral while he talked to me and the other was the Psi Corps officer I had seen briefly on the podium.

We were told to stand in a row and then the Commander said, “In recognition of your first mission, you are all herby decorated with the Diplomatic Mission Ribbon, 1^st Class. The Yokuta Government wanted you all to be called Friends of the Yokuta and a special ribbon, which you will also receive, is being specially created for that purpose. Before I have the honor to decorate you with your first ribbons and awards, let me tell you that I’m proud of your conduct, especially due to the fact you’re barely a week into Union service and at the beginning of your Academy training. I see six promising individuals before me and I’m certain you all will be fine officers one day.”

He came down the line and activated medals on the ribbon display of each cadet. As he reached me, he said, “Cadet Olafson, In view of your heroic actions and service to the Fleet and the Union, I have the privilege to decorate you with the Iron Star. Your quick action prevented a probable tragedy. Congratulations Cadet Olafson. Well done.”

All of them then saluted us and we were allowed to stand at ease. The Psi Corps officer also shook my hand. “I am the face behind the voice you had in your head earlier on. You’re incredibly quick. Your thought to action threshold is remarkable, and it’s usually the hallmark of species and individuals raised in a martially oriented society.”

“I’m from Nilfeheim, Sir.”

“I heard you say that before. I never heard of Nilfeheim, is it a Union planet?”

“Yes it is, Sir. It’s in the old Xunx Region. Long ago they called us Neo Vikings and...”

“Ah of course, I think I’ve heard that term before. Well, my colleague was actually already onto Wade. He was called away to help with the interrogation of the captured Nogoll. It was my fault for not acting on his report and doing something about it. I suggested to the Elder that it was a planned demonstration and he thankfully announced it that way as well. I personally owe you one and this is why I wanted you to know what happened.”

He shook my hand, congratulated me and returned to the others. Before he left, the Commander said, “The Kilroy will be here in four hours and the destroyer’s Mess Sergeant was informed to serve you a special dinner as a little thank you from us.”

They left and I sat back down, remembering I was quite hungry, especially after only sampling that weird fish salad. Two-Three kept looking down at his chest. “I’ve got three now! My family will be so proud.”

I said to him, “I’m still fascinated about the things you told us about your home star. I really would like to take that virtu experience one day, and hopefully with you so you can explain it all to me!”

He leaned forward in his chair. “That would make me proud, Eric. If we find the time and the opportunity, maybe you can visit me and my parental unit on Bright Station.”

“I’d love to do that.”

“I bet Ninio and the other two will be disappointed missing getting their medals.”

“I’m sure they’ll get them later, but shouldn’t they be back by now?”

“I don’t think it’s been an hour yet. They might have found a Yokuta restaurant or something.” Then he said, “You know the Iron Star is the sixteenth highest award the Fleet gives! I’m glad you got it for smacking Wade.”

“I should have reported him right away you know.”

“It turned out well and four hours wait time means this energy being is going for some shut eye.”

“You don’t have eyes,” I laughed.

“I like the expression nevertheless, but you’re right about the eyes. Besides, if I said I’d disengage my ability to receive and interpret reflected photons into visual data it wouldn’t make much sense to you.”

“I might just do the same and disengage mine for a while.”

The mission was over, and it didn’t end with me in a situation I didn’t want to be in. The bad guys were caught, the bigot was in the brig and, soon, we were all going to be on our way back to the Academy and basic training. Just before I closed my eyes to take a nap, I wondered why Ninio and the others weren’t back. Unlike Two-Three I was certain that over an hour had passed.

Interlude 25: Distant Events (several weeks previously)

Deep space, minus 270 degrees Celsius. The stars were sparsely seeded in this region of space and the suns were generally very old. This near vacuum hadn’t been disturbed since the universe began. An observer would have seen a sudden glimmering disturbance and then it was there!

Out here there was no light to reflect off an object but this shimmering gray thing with bright lights behind tiny space ports brought its own light.

It was shaped like a wedge and on its wide end it had four big boxy extensions. If an observer could read it they’d see the bold lettering on its side: USS Ivanhoe. Right next to the name, a blue field with red and white horizontal stripes forming the logo of the United Stars of the Galaxy. The sleek visitor to this place in time and space paused for a moment. Sensor beams whispered and reached out from the object, testing, sensing and probing, collecting vast amounts of data. Then it accelerated, stretching as if elastic for a fraction of an eye blink, and then it was gone again.

Captain Flowar Saxa brushed a hand over his dull blue, bald head, as he always did when everything seemed alright and nothing was out of the ordinary. And yet, somewhere deep inside, he had the feeling there was something the sensors hadn’t picked up or had somehow overlooked. Something that might pose a potential danger to his crew and ship.

Saxa was a Plato, and one of a handful of this species living as free beings within the Union. So far, he was the first and only Plato Union Captain. To the Kermac, the Plato were the lowest class of slaves, only good for the most primitive labor. No Plato came from where they originated. The Kermac reproduced them in factory-like breeding facilities. There were billions of Plato serving on virtually every Galactic Council planet, ship and installation. The Kermac sold them like a commodity to other species as laborers and cheap workers.

Plato were strong and tough and had legendary endurance, needed little sleep and could tolerate temperatures, at both ends of the scale, most other humanoid life forms could not.

Saxa had been sold as slave merchandise when he was young, but the slave trader made a mistake. He tried a short cut through Union Space and was caught. Saxa became a Union citizen and ever since had only one goal in life, to repay this glorious Union with his unwavering dedicated service. He knew that the Kermac reign was steadily declining and the day of freedom for his brethren was coming. He wanted to educate them about how wonderful freedom and liberty were and why it was no longer a distant fantasy. He hoped it would happen in his lifetime.

His ship, the USS Ivanhoe, was based on the same hull as the Galantor-class supercruiser. 1400 meters long, 400 meters wide and 600 meters deep at its base, tapering to a chisel bow of only 20 meters. It wasn’t as heavily armed as a Galantor supercruiser, but it had the same armor and shielding and his ship had much greater range. It also was equipped with a wider array of sensors and had a much larger science department. His mission was deep space exploration.

The Ivanhoe and other ships like her were seeking to expand the Union’s knowledge about the this mostly unexplored sector of the M-0 galaxy. And the Ivanhoe would be the first ship to reach the Palomar 12 globular cluster, 64,000 light years away from the Galactic rim. No Union ship had ever ventured this far into the unknown space of the Coreward sector.

He got up from his command chair and walked over to the OPS station and asked the Klack Lieutenant, “Nn’tik, anything on the boards?” The Klack was a dependable officer and he’d report anything he saw, but Saxa couldn’t shake this feeling. “No Sir, all boards show green and I have nothing on the scanners. We’re almost done with the deployment of sensor relay buoy 27.”

The Ivanhoe had placed 26 SRBs since they left Union Space. Each of these sophisticated robotic devices would allow them to be in zero-delay communication with Fleet Command, and also monitored space with automated sensors, allowing both his crew and analysts back home to monitor the space they had passed through. Officially their mission was the same as all the thousands of explorer ships, to expand the Union’s knowledge horizon, to make contact with other civilizations and contribute to the Galactic Survey project. The goal of this project was to completely survey the M-0 galaxy. The projected completion of this project was in 13,200.

His XO, a Pan Saran complete with polished brass chest armor, knew his Captain well and said, “Maybe we should take a longer break here and send out two P5-Specters to recon the space ahead. It’s the last star system on our course and, from what I’ve seen, it looks like it has planets, two of which are in the green zone.”

“Yes Marcus, good idea and while you’re at it sound alert condition yellow.”

No one on the bridge questioned his decision to raise the alert condition to elevated status despite the fact that nothing seemed to warrant it. Many of them had served with Captain Saxa for more than five years and, more than regular combat units, explorers were often a long way from known space and regular base visits and that usually bonded crews like tight-knit families. The crew wasn’t nervous or concerned but they knew if Saxa had a gut feeling, there usually was a reason and they trusted their captain’s feelings more than they did their best sensors.

His Chief Science Officer, a Wurgus, and one of the few not a solar or planet engineer, waved his captain over. “Sir, I went over the sensor recordings with a Terran fine tooth comb and I did find faint traces of exotic hadron particles, all in a linear pattern towards that star system ahead. These patterns are decaying and they’re at least a month or so old, but hadron particle spurs are often associated with Kermac T- engines, their equivalent to our ISAH Drive.”

“I was just thinking about those bald-headed bastards. Hail the Specters and tell them to be extra careful and hightail out of there as fast possible if they think there’s danger.”

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