Hykarsis, Guadalajara, Vesspucci System, Legion Administration Blocks,
01:00 1.08.826 AS
He'd been heading home after a thirteen hour tour with overtime before he was handled this assignment. His feet aching as he dropped into his desk, called up his assistant program, and read, again, the dispatch from his commander:
Lt Read, we've captured about 500 navymen off of a Overlord. 500 navy POWs about thirteen hours from landing, 30 in critical condition. Set up accommodation and handling for them on planet, as well as a debrief/psych eval. 30 of these men will need to be sent directly from our landing group. Set up an observation team to interface with the debriefs and figure out how they tick, see if you can bring any of them over to the Commonwealth side of thinking while we hold them.
Draft a plan, handle the landing, forward the plan to me by noon tomorrow, so I can forward it to budgeting. In the short term, we're clearing a legion bunkhouse to keep them in, but we want something where we're not going to have to patrol the whole facility as fast as possible. Liaise with CME for a more permanent POW space that won't blow over in a storm.
Read sighs and slides the message off of his tablet, re-orienting it into a typing screen.
"Well, first things first. Assistant, get me the contact information for someone in Legion Medical who has experience receiving and treating either prisoners or criminals."
"There are sixty three such persons."
He drags his hand across his face and starts again.
"Assistant, of that list, people who are...day shift, who have...the freest schedules tomorrow and next week, with security clearance equal to mine and who has staff for treating 30 more people"
"The person who meets those qualifications is Dr. Miriam Zho, aLead Nurse at LHykarsis Medical"
"Draft me a comm to her, then, please."
The machine chirps out an affirmative, and a comms format appeared on his tablet.
Recipient: Miriam Zho,
Hykarsis Legion Medical,
Subject: Incoming POW in Need of Medical
Priority High
Dr Zho,
I've been assigned 30 odd Navy PoWs in need of medical attention, security, and biometricts, who will be on the ground by 2pm local time. Please deploy a hospital team with experience in burns, lack of O2, and general trauma to Hykarsis Starport landing pad 3 by that time for pickup, my department will provide security personnel.
I'll call you in the morning
Lt Alendar Read
So long as he remembered to call that in and confirm it, that was the first part done. The next thing was creating a baseline eval for the panopticon, and otherwise seeing if anything
"Assistant, please request that the commander's staff forward my request to take over 500 slots of immigration debriefing interviews starting at 2pm to the relevant immigration personnel"
The machine chirps out its yes tone, and two tasks were done.
"Assistant, find out if CME has any secure facilities or...drawn up previous plans to secure persons...and request information or quotes on pricing and build times" "sorry, outside field problem"
"Assistant, request expert system from CME"
The machine chimes again.
In the interim, they'd be housed under guard in a barracks unit, which houses 2000, and so that's a lot of empty space for 500 POWs. But...only 8 doors in or out of such a storm shelter.
He could easily have the men to cover that many doors from a planetary brigade...
"Assistant, contact Legion Army on Hykarsis and ask for a quote on securing a standard Barracks against exfiltration, and put that person in contact with me tomorrow morning."
The machine chimes. A request it was set up to handle, talking to Legion organizations.
Without an expert system, he was going to have to wait for any sort of construction project, but he could produce a list of basic needs for the commander's budgeting items. Not that his list was complete, and he had started losing consciousness by the time it was written up.
500 persons,
260 2 person 38 sq meter habs,
780 bio-metric observation suites.
500 beds, frames and mattresses.
1000 pillow.
1000 bed-sheet sets, top and cling
3000 sanitary paper, replenish.
260 table,
780 chairs
260 couch
1000 pants
1000 shirts
1000 underwear (gendered)
500 pairs of shoes
And...sizing. Clothing isn't a standard size, so....add a note to get people sized for clothing.
clothes washing equipment?
510 tablets
~ provided with: educational access to the nets, one way, censored, in-facility comm link, direct oversight.
Or, of course, we could mass print the thing...and...
Read pulled his hand from his screen to rub his eyes. Night silt had built up in his tear ducts, he'd been staring at the list for so long. Blinking as he tried to review his evening
So the plan right now is...a mass hab, two bedrooms and a bathroom and a sitting area, a budget for shipping in nutrition and otherwise keeping a closed loop of panopticon...and...What, expert systems watching, with...how many humans? Sixteen humans, 24/7 shifts..That's not...presuming we get them working extended hours, you have to contend with burnout...
Read taps out a few command, and then closes his screen. He'd take a look at it in the morning...hopefully he'd have been authorized for an expert system by the time his staff arrived.
Silent and listless, immobile reletive to the ice and dust around it, a hulk orbits Vespucci, exhibiting the clean bow of an Overlord and not a murmur of life.
Slowly, a haze of dust is growing over the hull, gentle, silent snowfall that even a shiver could toss free.
Unknown Location, Planet Guadalajara, Vespucci System
10th January, 826 A.S.
The noise of the ECG filled the room as John slowly woke up to a terrible headache. He looked around, only to realize that he was not in sickbay as he expected it. The room was well lit, with no windows only a door directly in front of his bed. He tried to sit up but as he moved, he felt a great pain coming from his chest, so he decided not to get up yet. The small area of the room he was able to see led him to the conclusion that he was most likely in a hospital. “So we made it home. First good news of the last year.” Although he still didn't remember what happened. His last memory was giving out the order to jump the ship. As he was trying to remember what went wrong why he wasn't able to remember the events after his last order the door of the room slid open and a person wearing medical clothes walked in. With his extraordinary skills John came to the conclusion that this person was a nurse or a doctor. "Morning doc. Is this the Hospital wing of Juneau?""Morning. So you woke up." She walked next to the bed and looked at John. "Please don't try to move much. They've brought you in with severe injuries to your lower abdomen not to mention the head trauma and some broken bones. We almost lost you back in surgery a couple times. You've been in a coma for some time. Do you feel any kind of pain at the moment?""Well…now that you've asked, my head is killing me. Do you have something for that?""Sure...I'll get something. Anything else?""Yes…could you tell me where I am?""In a hospital room.""I was referring to the planet or station. Where am I?""Oh...you're on Planet Guadalajara, Vespucci." This news shocked him. Vespucci...the legion's home? That can't be right. And if by some miracle this isn't a trick…then where is the ship. And more importantly where's the rest of the crew? Was he by chance the only survivor? No... that’s impossible. He tried to recall what happened when the ship jumped but still nothing…So many questions...and no answers to any of them yet. He remembered the sorry state Drake was in when they rescued him from the legion. Well for now he is safe. The fact that he is still alive means they need him alive. But maybe they only want him to get better so that they can serve "justice". "Guadalajara?! What kind of sick joke is this?" John asked as he once again tried to sit up but the pain in his chest stopped him along with the doc who held him down and told him not to move unless he deliberately wanted to cause more injuries to himself. Without any other option he complied. " I'll inform Lieutenant Read about your awakening.""Oh great...That's what I need. An overdressed legionary lunatic telling me how painful my punishment will be for the supposed crimes I’ve committed." He thought as he stared at the ceiling. The doc left the room and the door closed behind her...
Hykarsis, Guadalajara, Vesspucci System, Legion Administration Blocks,
01:00 2.24.826 AS
His comm started chiming well before he actually wanted to be awake. There never was anything like enough time to sleep.
With a slight groan, he opened the call while rubbing his eyes. "You've reached Alendar Read"
"Lt Reed, this is Astrid Chu at Hykarsis General, you had asked to be notified when the patient woke. He's was in and out of lucidity during the night, but he's been awake for a few hours."
"Thank you, Astrid. Hmm. How long until he can hold up a conversation?"
"Oh. I mean, Sir, he's been lucid for hours. I've sent you the last contact we had with him, it should be in your inbox"
Read certainly didn't feel lucid. "Right. On my way, then"
as he groped for pants, he asked his assistant to play the media he'd received from the nurse.
Running Content:
"Morning doc. Is this the Hospital wing of Juneau?..."
"Guadalajara?! What kind of sick joke is this?"
Content ended.
This struck the Lt. as funny, and he snorted, while pulling on his dress whites.
At the hospital, he tried not to waste any time, as passing through three security checkpoints on his way to the secure wing would slow him down enough.
A guard finally buzzed him into a room, rather small with a bed in the middle, a wooden bedside table with drawers, a heartbeat monitor, other devices of more esoteric medical uses that Alendar couldn't guess. He gathered, in his glance about the room, that it was like many other secure rooms he'd visited, typical of CME bulk construct, square joinery and not a real touch of architecture but the most functional of mass extruded materials. Secure, if you didn't have industrial drills, but drab, even in institutional blues.
He cleared his throat, and spoke.
"Sir, I'm Lt Read. I'd like to welcome you to Hykarsis. I assure you, that's not a joke. I'd give you a tour, but you're being held under rather tighter security than would allow that. I'm here to debrief you, but first, I'm sure you have questions."
Sader, not even lifting his head, lit into the lt with a growl. "If you don't have a pack of cigarettes and coffee with you don't even bother."
Read plastered a smile on his face, trying to keep the composure that would get this man on a proper psych baseline. "Sir, I can absolutely have someone bring you a coffee. Cream and sugar? but...As for the tobacco, this is a hospital, and I'm sure they can add that addiction to your therapy."
"Listen to me Lieutenant. If you don't bring me a cigarette I'm going to take a catheter from the drawer and show you why you have to be on good terms with the nurses in a hospital. Send someone to get me a coffee and cigarette. "
"Cream or sugar with the coffee? I might be able to get you a nicotine-patch or have it added to your drip"
"No cream and a lot of sugar. And get me a cigarette, we're on a planet for crying out loud. It's not the nicotine that is the problem here. It's the psychological part of the addiction that's problematic. If i don't have a cigarette there's gonna be trouble."
"While your men are working on it we can talk of course.."
Read taps his comm and says "assistant, find someone to get us a pair of coffees, cream and three sugars. And, separate priority, find cigarettes and have them delivered, have any debates routed to my office, send my office the transcript of this message with my authority to take it up the chain."
"Good enough, Admiral?"
"Yes. Thank you." he pauses for a second and finally looks at the Lieutenant. If killing with looks was possible Read would have died right then and there."Now tell me what the hell is going on here? Where's my ship, and my crew? What did you do to them?!"
"Your ship's right where you left it, adrift in the Sonora. Your crew, by now, are housed in an older barracks. By this hour, I believe they ought have gotten through eval, been issued a few changes of clothes and a tablet."
"I assume you mean some kind of labor camp with armed guards."
"Aside from being rather inhumane, that would imply that we are undercutting local labor, and I don't think any of the local groups would stand for that. You're correct that five hundred enemy crewmen aren't unsupervised."
"What? Five hundred? What about the other forty we had? What did you do to them?"
"Sir, I'm terribly sorry.
I only received orders for five hundred and eight persons, and thirty landed in very critical medical conditions. Worse than your own, sir. Five have not survived surgery"
"In other words..five of my men died because your butchers protected their collective butts instead of doing their job. Great. Just great." The anger in his eyes was raising slowly reaching a white glowing hatred. Unfortunately even if he wanted to he could not hide it as the ECG showed how his pulse and blood pressure were rising.
"And 35 who didn't so much as make it off your ship, sir. I'm willing to take the blame for those deaths, as well. We ought to have reached you sooner." "How did we even get here?"
"That's actually one of my questions for you, sir. I don't believe it was intentional."
"No it was intentional. I planned to jump into Vespucci with the flagship of my fleet get myself captured and make sure i kill off a huge percent of my crew in the process, just so i could annoy you."
The door buzzes, a nurse walks in with a pair of coffees, two miniature pitchers of cream, a small pyramid of white cubes, and one slim pack of cigarillos,Read thanks the nurse and takes the tray, setting it on the side-table, and collects his coffee with one sugar, leaving two creamers near Sader
"Thank you nurse."John finally finds the buttons and adjusts the beds position so he could sit."Ahh..ouch..." Grabbing the coffee Sader quickly drinks it, then grabs the cigarette and notices the missing of a lighter. "Got some fire?"
"Not something I carry, sir."
"What kind of officer are you. Rule 11. Always have a lighter with you." He sighs. "If my clothes are here then there should be one in my pocket."
Read glances at the fire suppression system, and then walks over to the cabinet. A collection of pocket items are there, he retrieves a lighter, places it on the tabletop.
Sader quickly grabs it and lights his cigarette with it. "Don't worry. The suppression won't start until a certain amount of heat triggers it." As he is saying this he inhales deeply, letting the smoke seep into his cells.
"So you were saying?" "You have four hundred and seventy crewmen in a secure facility, being treated well. There's another twenty five still in medical, not all doing as well as you. Some have breathed...incredibly strange substances. You got here through jump failure, after taking heavy damage preceding the jump. You're unwilling to tell us who was shooting at you, or what sort of inhaled contaminants you might have had aboard your vessel. That about sum it up?"
"Alright. I can tell you what i know." He slowly extended his hand above the empty cup. The ash sprinkled as he flicked the filter. " On the 10th of march, my ship was en route to the California jump gate in New York. We were deployed to the front. After leaving zone 21 we set course and engaged cruise. About 20 minutes later we picked up a strange signal on scanners. After examination we determined that it was a cloaked vessel, but before we could raise shields we were ambushed by nomads. They scored really good hits on us but we managed to get the shields up eventually. Up to this point we were fighting small fighters and bombers but for long as a giant nomad battleship decloaked right next to us. The first lucky shots knocked out our comm system and we could not ask for help. Worse that more and more nomads just kept decloaking near us. With two nomad battleships and their fighter escorts i ordered a retreat using the jump drive. The two ships quickly took out our shields and started ripping through our hull. We barely escaped. And just before the jump we took another hit near the bridge which caused a secondary explosion inside the bridge."
"A blast which would have fouled your jump."
"Well, sir, we'll see what the psych's have to say about those statements, won't we."
"Why would you need psych's for this? I'm not a lunatic."
"The psych's are running biometric and semantic evals on your debrief, sir. To ascertain truthy-ness and quality of belief, as well as otherwise building a profile of who you are, useful to health and security professionals. All quite standard."
"Anyway, the story did not end there"
"We jumped into an unknown, remote and uninhabited system where the XO took over command for a time and organized repairs. I was severely injured during the attack."
"This is all i can tell you. I don't remember what happened after this. Obviously i was once again injured and incapacitated. You might want to ask the XO about the events after our jump."
" After some repairs we found out that we are in the middle of nowhere. First we started scouting the system for a jump hole or a habitable planet just in case we have to abandon the ship. We searched for five months, but unfortunately we found no jumpholes and there weren't any habitable planets in the system either. This is when we started repairing the jump drive. It took us another three months to get the ship fixed up enough for us to even attempt a jump. Last thing i remember is giving the order to jump. And then i woke up here."
"Yessir, we'll have taken his statement and that of every member of your crew. What else do you remember?"
"I just told you i don't remember anything else. According to your doctors i hit my head very hard and maybe it caused partial memory loss. which explains why i don't remember anything. Either that or i was instantly incapacitated when we jumped. Plus seeing that i still can't sit up properly and that my chest hurts as hell my injuries are not simple scratches. If i had to guess i will be stuck here for at least one more week. Something went really wrong with our last attempt at getting home."
"Well, jump coordinates change, sir. If it took months...that's a long time to not get any coordinate updates. Its lucky you ended up in the Sonora, and not inside Guadalajara, or the star."
“Our coordinates were right. I think the main problem was the damaged navicomputer. And the fact that the ship was severely damaged. Normally you would not even consider a jump with a ship as damaged as the Odyssey...let alone attempt it.”
“Sir, that’s about the end of my time. I’ll have a tablet sent to you. It will be connected to your crew, and I’ll have the hospital drop you the standard reports for medical. Do you have anything I can answer in the next minute?”
“Yes. Give me the list of the survivors. And the names of those who died after you found the ship. I need to write up the letters to the families.
“I will absolutely get you that list. It will be accessible through that same tablet. Sir, thank you, and do have a good day.”
And with that, lt Read exits the room. The door clicks shut behind him.
About six hours later, while the Admiral was dozing, a tablet would be deposited on his bedside table.
Unknown Location, Planet Guadalajara, Vespucci System
25th January, 826 A.S.
Still in the hospital room Sader was laying in the bed typing on the tablet. Altough he recieved the tablet many days ago everytime he tried to write he was to his shock out of words. This wasn't the first time he had to inform a familiy about their father, mother, husband, wife, son or daughter losing his or her life. Still so many have died in such a short time and to make it worse those that survived are now the prisoners of the hellfire legion. The words slowly but surely formed and they soon became sentences.
Dear Mr. and Mrs Wyeth!
It is with great regret that I have to inform you, that your son Michael was killed in action during a suprise attack by nomad ships on the L.N.S. Odyssey. Due to reasons for national security i cannot reveal more information regarding his death, rest assured his sacrifice will forever be remembered.
With condolences
Admiral John Sader
Liberty Navy 5th Fleet.
Sader took a deep breath and continued with the rest of the letters. Hours passed by and slowly only one letter remained. This one was actually a report to Navy High Command regarding the people who died and the ship's current status along with the situation of the crew. Without access to the ship's logs this was all he could write down. Setting the tablet aside he reached towards the pack of cigarettes left behind by the legionary officer about two weeks ago. Quickly grabbing one of them and lighting it. Just as he was about to return to the tablet the doors slid open and the nurse walked in. "Good news Admiral. It seems you are recovering fast." She said as she walked in without even looking up from her tablet she was reading. "What are you doing. I thought i told you. You cannot smoke here." Sader not really paying attention to her simply grabbed the tablet and continued writing. " Sue me. I don't give a damn. Besides, it's only a matter of time and that overdressed legionary officer will visit again and escort me to another place." The nurse realizing that its no use in arguing with him decided to turn arround and walked out of the room. "And now for the family."
Dear Melissa!
I'm sorry that i wasn't able to contact you earlier. Things were, complicated to say the least. You might be suprised that you are getting this. After all the Navy should have declared me and the Odyssey M.I.A. a long time ago. Ever since we ended up here i've been thinking about you and Charlie. I will be honest with you. I'm in a really bad situation. We are practically prisoners of war. And there is little to no chance we'll be able to escape or that i will ever see you guys again. So you listen carefully. I was able to save up quite a lot of money for you and Charlie in case something happens to me. The credits on my personal account will be enough to cover his education from the age of 16. I also need you to keep the information regarding me a secret within the rest of the family as them knowing about this will not help at all. I miss you guys so much.
Requisition drafts, construction bills, a staff proposal needing his signature, three citations regarding carcinogens being burnt in a hospital, from increasingly senior hospital personnel had reached his desk, and nearly eighty thousand messages from the crew…presumably every last thing they’d put into their tablets, all waiting for his’s office’s overview. He hadn’t yet acquired the staff he’d been promised, and so piles of mail were just piling up. No message left the planet, of course, without his approval…and one simply does not approve un-read PoW messages to home, to command, to lovers, etc, to leave the planet without getting that across a censor’s desk.
Lt Read had been able to sort the flagged items from the hospital group. He’d skimmed the admiral’s letters for his dead. Those he had absolutely suggested the censors allow to transmit, though how they would be routed to arrive at their destinations, he was sure would be the sort of plan that gave him headaches, involving too many sleights of hand and subterfuge. The letter for Sader’s own wife, and definitely any communication for command, he didn’t expect the censors to leave any sense of, if they allowed them to pass at all.
He would have to….
“assistant, please produce a persuasive-informative on the best schooling options for adolescents and young adults on Guadalajara, add it to notes regarding the Admiral.”
"̴̝̮̝̈́b̴͍̭̲̿͛̀ȩ̴̞̜̤̈́̇ê̴͎̰̤̊ȩ̴̱͖̈́ṕ̸̥̠̣͓̏s̵̛̘̐̉s̸̪͕̅̎ͅş̸̂̅̆"̵̣͛ The machine beeped a series of tones that Read didn’t recognize.
His assistant had acquired more modules and capacity than he was really authorized to handle, and given the complexity it had gained, the thing was disturbingly close to aware. It just slowly blinked at him, and built out more plans for his approval. He could, presumably, get a pych-system loaded into it, but he definitely did not think that was a good thing to add into the unregulated mess of “please solve it with minimal oversight” he’d been asking the machine to handle.
“assistant, add a specialist in expert-systems complexity emergence to the team proposal”
Again, a different series of beeps. There had been a time that it simply chimed at him and recorded text. “Call the site”
“ ‘ello? This is CME Site Two, Toby Harris” Toby was the third shift foreman, a Leeds expat with deep experience operating mass-compilers in construction jobs.
“Toby, its Read. We’re on schedule?”
“Eh. You know, what with that storm that just blew through, we had tarpaulin up for five days? Did critter-work and used headlamps, but eh…Hailstones the size of my fist!”
“So…Toby…that’s a not on schedule or…”
“Eh…You could move em in next week, providing the weather holds. Windbreaks are almost ready. Habs..I mean, you don’t want them shift-bunking, which would be an option…” An option, Read guessed, used by on-site work crews on Leeds, each man scheduled to 9 hours in a bunk on some sort of 27 hour a day rotation.
“So…two weeks?” “You got weather prediction for four days before it just ‘could be anything’ with the shit out in the bay blowing streamers towards these mountains…so yeah, sure, two weeks. Provided we see the sun for most of them.” “Noted. Thanks a lot, Toby. Get some sleep.” “When I’m dead. Toby out”
“assistant, pull up a report on the 22 still in hospital, highlight status”
Read was pleasantly surprised to see that after two weeks, the Admiral was ready for release, along with a handful of his men. He highlighted those men who were. “assistant, route a request to the MPs that they move the Admiral and the men highlighted to general holding, the doctor’s say he’s well enough.”
This time, the machine chimed a simple, agreeable tone, rather than sounding like a swarm of bees.
Unknown Location, Planet Guadalajara, Vespucci System
Two individuals entered the hospital room where Sader was enjoying a supprisingly good piece of grilled cheese sandwich. Looking at the two Sader noticed one of them had something what looked like some sort of clothing in his hands. " And who are you?"
"I'm sergeant Phillips and he's corporal Peterson. We've been ordered to escort you to another place.
"I see. And what's that in your hand? Some sort of present i suppose from Reed."
"It's your new uniform Admiral." Peterson walked next to the bed and after dropping the prison jumpsuit on it then walked to the cabinet.
"Intresting. I don't recall asking for one."
"Well you will have to wear this. We'll take your old uniform away."
Sader looked at the clothes then looked back at the guy standing in front of his bed.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I will stick to my navy uniform."
"This is non non negotiable sir."
"Exactly what i was about to say to you." Sader looked at Peterson who was getting ready to pack his stuff from the cabinet. "Boy if you value your life. You won't touch my stuff."
"Sir don't make this hard. Just dress up in that uniform and let's move." Phillips said this with a bit more authority coming his voice.
Sader noticing this got out of bed and stood up. Then walked right into the face of Phillips, looking into his eyes. "Don't try my patience boy. Maybe i'm not in the best shape but i'm sure as hell that i could kick both of your arses back to boot camp without breaking a sweat. So you will tell your collegue over there grab this prisoner outfit and take it with you outside while i dress up in MY uniform. I won't let myself be treated as some sort of a common criminal."
Phillips reached for his communicator.
"Sir, this is Phillips. We'Ve got a little situation here with Admiral Sader."
"What's the situation, Phillips?" Reed answered through the comm.
"Umm...Welll...the Admiral..is..refusing to dress in the POW uniform.
Saying that he will not let himself treated as a common criminal.
"Don't treat him like a criminal, then? He trying to walk away?"
"No...actually...he's...umm.." Sader quickly interrupts the man who's still trying to find the right words. "I'm standing right in front of him. In fact i'm in his face. And he's about to wet himself.
"You're going to have to explain that one, Phillips"
"Well sir...umm..." Sader being very annoyed by the situation quickly grabs the communicator and takes it out of the intimidated MP's hand. "God damn it Phillips give me that thing. Reed! What is this? April fools joke? I'm not going to wear some ugly prisoner uniform and be treated like a common criminal. I thought you knew that by now. Besides i demand to know where theese idiots are taking me. And i also demand to talk with my crew!"
"You didn't realize that you were going to be placed with your crew before you demanded to speak to them, did you? Anyway, we didn't have to shoot anyone to get you into the medical gown. Put Philips back on!"
Sader gave the communicator back to Phillips, then took a few steps back. "SIR! This is Phillips again."
"Philips, let me call up the chain and see if I can have someone change the orders for the monkey suit. And..in the mean time, tell him that there isn't anything we couldn't fake if we wanted him to believe us, so he might as well believe whatever he wants, so long as he doesn't break and run. Read out."
"Yes sir!" Phillips turned off his comms. "Peterson leave those things alone. We'll wait outside untill you're ready Admiral."
"Just get outta here." The two soldiers left the room closing the door behind them. Sader quickly finished his meal then grabbed his stuff and dressed up in his Navy outfit. A quick look at the room making sure everything that belongs to him is in his pockets and he opened the door. "Well then gents. Lead the way." The two were really surprised how calm and respectful Sader was suddendly. "Peterson you take point." With a quick nod the corporal replied and they began walking down the hallways of the hospital, reaching an elevator at the end of the hallway, wich took them to a garage where the transport vehicle was. After leaving town they ended up in one of the vast jungles of the planet. The road if you could call that was a simple path carved out by the various vehicles in the mudy ground.
Eventually they reached the site. As oe would expect it was a military installation. Most likely some small outpost or training camp but it wasn't yet suited for this purpose. They went down again to another garage and after a few more minutes they stopped. The two guards exited and Sader followed them. They eventually reached a somewhat big hall and after Sader walked in the doors behind closed and the two guards remained outside. Walking arround he attracted the attention of many of the crewmembers who saluted to him, to wich he replied with the usual quick nod he used every time. He was about to ask one of them about the officers when he noticed McKenzie talking to someone. "Drake..McKenzie.. it's good to see you again." Sader said when he noticed them.
"Admiral. Good to see you too. How's your wound."
"Could be worse. Now tell me what the hell happened? How did we end up here?"
"We don't really know. Something went wrong during the jump. And we were quickly surrounded by the Legionaries. The ship was immoilized and we had no means to fight or self destruct either. So Drake..."
"So Drake?."
"So with you incapacitated yet again i made the hardest decision i had to. I surrendered to the legionaries and with their help we evacuated the ship."
"I see. Well, at least we're alive. Do you know what their plans are for us now? I've met some legionary lieutenant who questioned me about the entire journey we had that led up to this moment."
" And?"
"Well i told him what he wanted. That we were attacked by nomads in New York 10 months ago, and that we eneded up in the middle of nowhere. Plus that our last attempt to get back home resulted in this situation. Since at the time i did not remember anything that happened after the jump."
"I'm no suprised about that. Your head took quite a hit. Not to mention the rest of the injuries." Sader reached into his pocket and lighted a cigarette.
"They questioned us as well."
"They asked roughly the same questions. They wanted to know more about the Odyssey." Sader with a curious face looked at Drake.
"You think they want the ship? Can it even be repaired?"
"Well she's badly damaged but not beyond repair. Sorry, i've just heard that you were released from the hospital. I was on the other side of the camp. Glad you made it sir."
"Lieutenant Commander Foster. Good to see you."
"If i had to guess the ship is in a similar condition as it was after the Nomad war. So its not a lost cause. On the other hand the ammount of repairs she requires is also depending on how much extra damage she sustained ever since she was abandoned. Last time we saw her she was just a floating empty bucket of bolts."
"Hmm...i guess you followed protocoll when you initiated evac."
"Yes we did. But it wasn't much to do, thanks to the damage we sustained. Most of the essential systems were already beyond repair."
"Good. Maybe we could use the ship as a bargaining tool. The four of us know this ship better than anyone else. That means they will need us if they want the ship. And we might be able to convince them to send the others home. On the other hand less favorable news. After that overdressed clown left i had time to write the letters. Intrestingly enough he gave me a tablet and i was able to write the letters to the families of the deceased. I also wrote my own report to navy command detailing our current status. I doubt that they'll send it to them but it's worth a try. Altough the report is still not complete so i will need you to write your own versions as well."
