Part 10: FIELD CLASS

The first thing I noticed when I regained consciousness was the face of a blonde woman that smiled at me. She wore the white of the medical Service branch.” Good afternoon, Mr. Olafson. How do you feel?”

I closed my eyes for a moment and thought I might have dreamed it all; I felt fine and had no pain at all.

I sat up and said. “I am fine.”

A spherical read out established itself next to her and she studied it for a moment. “You had quite a few broken bones, third degree burns and a sizeable chunk of Duro-Plast sticking in your back; luckily it somehow missed vital organs and nerve centers. All in all nothing problematic and you are as good as new.”

“Captain Zezz. Did he make it?”

She kept smiling and answered.” Ask him yourself. He is right here.”

In a bed next right next to mine was the Shiss Captain and he too was sitting up. “I made it, Eric.”

“I am glad Sir. Do you know what actually happened?” I didn’t want to ask him about his brother Zuzzh because I was certain he was dead.

But he said, perhaps guessing what I was thinking. “Zuzzh made it too, but he needs more time in the Regen-tank. They grow him new arms.”

Zezz swung his legs out of the bed. “As for what actually happened I am as much in the dark as you.”

A new voice said. “Why don’t you let me fill you I then?”

Through the door of the infirmary stepped an old man in black uniform. He had five golden stars above his Admiral rings, the Admiral of the Fleet himself.”

I literally flew out of the bed and snapped in attention.

“At ease Midshipman, at ease.”

Elligott sighed looked around and then said to the Med Tech. “Can I trouble you for a chair or something, I rather sit for this.”

A chair was carried in by a marine a moment later. The ancient immortal sat down, tugged on his kilt. “It almost becomes routine now meeting you, Mr. Olafson. Not that the circumstances have been anything even remotley routine. It seems of all talents you have, able to turn up in the middle of trouble is foremost among them.”

Zezz scratched his throat. “It was my fault. I dragged him along, Sir.”

“True that, and I like to believe in coincidence Captain Zezzzzazhh but somehow I think if you dragged any other cadet along, you be back on Arsenal IV writing a Small craft report.”

He held up his hands preventing me or Zezz to say something and laughed. “I am kidding of course.It was me who send you to Tabernacle after all.”

Zezzh grunted. “With all due respect Sir, I think I if I had been with any other cadet, you would write my eulogy and that of my brother now.”

Elligott became serious. “Getting to know Mr. Olafson and seeing what I have seen, I agree with you. I was on my way to this facility because of the unusual. I came to this infirmary to fill you two in what happened and that is what I will do now.”

He produced his smoking device, I knew was a tobacco pipe and lit it. The Medic rolled her eyes but did not dare to say something to the ancient Immortal.

McElligott looked at her. “It is highly classified what I am going to discuss with these officers. I must ask you to leave.”

With a huff she left. To the marines that apparently were part of the admirals entourage he said.”Make sure this place is secure indeed.”

The tough looking marines, acknowledged and left the room as well.

McElligott waited till the door was closed. “As you know the space past Barrow System, was until recently controlled by the Galactic Council and off limits to us. “He paused and used a little tool to stuff the glowing material deeper into the pipe’s bulb, and then after he was satisfied with whatever he was doing he continued. “About five hundred years ago and near the Barrow system, one of the last big space battles against the Y’All was fought.

I am not sure how good your history is, but the Galactic Council led by the Kermac thought it would be a good idea to declare war against us; as we were severely depleted fighting those four armed monsters for several years, almost being defeated.

During that subsequent Intergalactic war, this region again was the sight for a big battle.

A damaged Union ship made an emergency landing on a planet that had never been surveid before. It was the third planet of what you all know now as the Arsenal System. After they landed to make emergency repairs they found something remarkable on that world. “He puffed a dense cloud of smoke into the room, almot disapearing behind it for a short second. Something that made us put every resource we had to secure that system for us, but that is a completely different matter. Getting back to the story at hand, the USS Seneca was tasked to closely survey this section of space as that area is getting busier in terms of traffic and make a detailed tally of the star systems. The Seneca found a drifting asteroid. Such deep space rocks we call wanderers or dark objects. These things usually go unnoticed as ships pass them in Quasi Space rushing to the next star system.

Such dark objects however are highly valuable. They can be developed into Trade Lane forts or in this case It would make a perfect Listening post, as it is very close to Galactic Council space.”

He made a grunting sound as his pipe went out, and he cursed and said something about inferior tobacco and put the thing back in the fur pouch he was wearing attached to his belt. “The Seneca found what they thought was a recently abandoned Kermac lab complex. Complete with an intensive collection of salvaged, mostly damaged Y’All ships and technology and two Y’All warriors, completely intact and alive in suspended animation.

During the actual Y’All invasion we never managed to capture a live Y’All. To make the find even more significant, very recently we fought Y’All in the Fornax Cluster. New Y’All, different from the ones we faced before. Smaller, more agile and more articulated but not as brutally strong or vicious.

To the misfortune of the Seneca, the base was not as abandoned as they thought it was. The Kermac knew of the base and tried to secure the things right under our noses and not too far from Arsenal sysem.”