Having learnt some unpleasant developments, I exited the Grand Admiral's room. Just outside the door, I ran into Commander Mei. After an awkward second, we saluted each other due to formalities in the headquarters.
"Taking some time off during the repairs?" I asked.
"Yeah." she said. "I want to visit my relatives before we fly into the unknown again... perhaps for the last time."
"I understand. Take good care of yourself, and be back soon." I said.
"Is there something wrong?" she asked.
"There are a lot of things going on." I said. "You'll see, with time."
"Oh." her eyes opened wide. She noticed the slight change on my uniform, and the missing Lieutenant Commander pin. "You've been promoted again! Now we are even, Commander."
"Pretty much." I said. "Anyway, have a good flight."
"Thank you." she said. "Take care."
We walked towards opposite directions. In her cheerful moments, I didn't want to tell her about the loss of Tachibana and her new duty as Lodos' XO.
Other than me, Commander Mei and Lieutenant Commander Scott were the only people who had high enough ranks for a command duty aboard Lodos. But I could not choose Scott for a few reasons; his lack of command experience and the nature of his profession. He had never been on the bridge of a Navy ship before, and furthermore, Lodos was more than a huge war machine. Managing people was not a similar job to controlling complex machinery and electronics.
Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice Mei's amazingly efficient navigation abilities. We had to find a replacement officer. But my immediate problem was different...
I got out of the headquarters and the surrounding military zone. From the nearby Intersol station, I took a flight home. I changed my Navy uniform with some civilian clothes. I took some money with me and drove back to the local Intersol starport again. Hopefully, I could rent a shuttle here.
Intersol would rent it's shuttles for private use, with or without a pilot; provided the shuttle would be brought back to an Intersol station. Of course it was expensive, but it was way cheaper than owning and maintaining a spaceship. And this was exactly what I needed.
I went to the office that took care of rentals. I showed them my basic flight license, and paid a hefty amount of money. They gave me one of the two shuttles available for rental, without a pilot to accompany me.
I sat in the pilot's seat, fastened my seatbelt and started up the engines. After I requested clearance, I lifted off and changed my heading towards Cydonia. Maintaining level flight just a hundred meters above the surface, I got out of the station's traffic control zone.
"Shuttle NN-1076, resume on your own navigation."
As soon as I heard the message, I shut down all communication amd navigation systems. I slowly made my way to Cydonia, relying on visual flight practices.
As I approached the outskirts of the city, I saw huge flames above Port Cydonia and some nearby neighborhoods.
While I was circling around, I saw people on the streets looking up to my shuttle and running around to see where I was flying. Were they angry, or were they expecting something?
With those citizens below me and Port Cydonia in flames, I couldn't land inside the city. I decided to hide the shuttle outside the city, in the red deserts of Mars. I landed kilometers away from the edge of the city and began walking to Cydonia.
Just outside the city enterance, a few armed men stopped me. They definitely weren't Republic police.
"ID please." one of the men said.
"I don't have it on me." I said.
"Name?" he then asked.
"Harun Yezid" I lied. If they found out that I was a Navy officer, who knew what could happen?
"Why do you wish to enter Cydonia?" the man asked.
"I came to visit my father." I said.
"How did you come? Did you walk all the way through the giant and hostile deserts?" he asked. Now, that was a good question!
"Please, let me see my father." I said instead of answering.
"Who brought you here?" the man asked.
"No one." I answered. The man sighed. The armed men looked at each other.
"Go." the man opened the way for me to pass. I entered the city, and went between buildings until I could no longer see those men at the enterance.
I looked around me to find my bearings and locate Port Cydonia. While looking around, I saw a few interesting stuff. A green banner that read 'Mars Freedom Front' was hanging down a long building, just next to the fascist Mars Independence Movement and anarchist Black Arrow banners. Seeing them side by side was unusual. Were they fanatics, or could they have...
"Not now." I said to myself. I had to go to Port Cydonia first.
The streets I was walking through were silent. Either everyone was scared in their homes, or they were all gone. It was also possible that they were searching for the shuttle that flew overhead a while ago... The shuttle I had brought with me.
I kept walking until a man held me by my shoulder. I turned around to see his face.
"Come with us." he said. There were a few militants with him. I had no idea what was going on. I was sure I had nothing Navy-related on me.
"Where?" I asked.
"Follow me." he said. His men surrounded me. Perhaps they had manged to track my shuttle. I wordlessly followed them. They brought me to that large building I saw before, the one that had 'Mars Freedom Front' banner on it.
We walked upstairs to higher floors. Eventually, I was brought to a room that looked like... an office of some sort. There were chairs, and the walls were decorated with flags.
One of the men came close and scanned me. Fortunately, I had nothing suspicious; other than an Intersol shuttle remote and a considerable amount of money. The man reached my pocket to take the shuttle remote. I didn't resist.
Just then, with the corner of my eye, I saw someone entering the room... He was Rear Admiral Tachibana! He saw me looking at him, and immediately averted his gaze.
"Are you an Independence Movement or a Black Arrow member?" a man asked me. I did not support either one of these political parties, but at that moment, I couldn't decide how to answer.