Chapter 9: Aftermath

After the Enroe ships and a Union ship had arrived, everything happened fast. The wounded were evacuated. I had stepped down from the Command chair and felt myself ignored as robots and help crews rushed back and forth. I simply sat back down and waited for whatever would happen next. The heat of the battle was over. While it was happening I was neither afraid nor did I have any doubts, but now I wasn’t so sure anymore. Should I have tried to escape and not stay and fight? Was I responsible for the whole mess in the first time for sitting in the Togar woman’s chair?

Then a tall man in Enroe uniform looked around the now empty bridge and snarled.” Who are you? I don’t see you on the manifest.”

“I am Eric Olafson.”

“What are you doing up here? passengers are not allowed on the bridge. Are you hurt?”

“No I am not hurt.”

“Then get your ass of the bridge. I still like to know who you are. You are not mentioned in the manifest. Are you a stowaway?”

“No he is my personal guest and he saved our lives.” Alex Enroe stood in the door. “I was looking for you, Eric. The Union captain and I just watched the bridge recordings and we must talk.”

I saw he had tears in his eyes. I learned that all of the bridge crew, except the tactical specialist who had been sucked out, had survived.

In an empty cargo bay the crew and a delegation of the Union ship had assembled. The American Dream crew had twenty two fatalities among them the chief engineer and the man servant butler. Alex had cried open tears and he didn’t seem to be ashamed of them and addressed us standing behind the row of elongated cargo boxes, now used as coffins. “I am deeply sorrowed about the losses in my crew. One of them was Finlay Pearson, much more than a butler and employee. He was a dear old friend.

War has been avoided and while tensions are high, peace has been restored; yet this brief period of violence was not without suffering, injury and death. We stand before the remains of twenty two of our co-workers, employees, crew members and friends. The reason we stand here and do not share the same fate as them is thanks to a young and new friend of mine, Eric Olafson. Let us pledge in the memory of our friends to be more vigilant at all times and do our utmost to prevent such tragedies in the future.”

Three of the coffins were released into space; the rest so I learned would be delivered to their families.

In a debriefing before the Union officers, the Togar captain and Alex I was shown the bridge recording and every word I had spoken. After the recording had ended one of the Union officers asked. “How did you come to the decision to reverse thrust?”

“The Dai threatened to release Fighters, he had to open bay doors for that and lower shields to launch fighters. I could not let that happen. Fighters would have meant our certain doom”

“It was a brilliant tactical decision.”

The other officer looked onto his PDD.” If you want we can take you to Corri-Door system. Space bus service to Arsenal Gate should resume shortly.”

I wanted to say yes, but Alex stood. “I make sure he will be there on time, but I think I owe the man for saving my life.”

“You owe me nothing sir.”

“Please give me a chance to at least finish that coffee we had started earlier today.”

Interlude 10: Cirruit

There was panic, people screaming and yelling. Something had hit the space bus and damaged it. Against the instructions, Cirruit left his seat and went towards the rear. His eyes capable of seeing across the entire electromagnetic spectrum had no problem using infrared emissions. He avoided colliding with a human crew man in a space suit.”What is going on?”