With blood-red eyes, Ensign Swan blinked away the sleep threatening to pull him away- never mind the horrible tiredness and the massive headache. He stared at his console as the ship's computers pieced together the data recovered from the enemy ships.
Instead of allowing themselves to be captured, they fought till the UNS Arctic and the rest of the third fleet were forced to fire on them till they were destroyed. Ensign Swan would've loved to have the information that he was searching for handed to him on a platter of gold but the attackers made sure he had to work his butt off for it.
Once the analysis was completed, he carefully went through the readouts from his holoscreen but found nothing. He was about to give up when something caught his eye. After cross-checking that it was accurate he ran to give his report to the Commander.
On reaching the bridge, Ensign Swan looked around but couldn't lay eyes on Commander Taisen.
"Do you have something for me, Ensign?" Taisen's calm voice came from behind.
"We haven't been able to identify the species of the bodies recovered from any of the ships that attacked us and the ship design suggests that they're from a region of wild space that was previously unknown to UN records," Swan said excitedly.
"Stop telling me things that I don't know and tell me something I want to know."
"I had an epiphany after carefully observing their clothing."
"Their clothing? I fail to see how that could help."
"On the last ship that attacked us above Avaros, similar to every other unidentified ship, there were two dozen alien bodies. Most of them were of the same species, with purple skin, feathery head crests, and spindly but well-muscled limbs all wearing flight suits with yellow fabric."
"One of the bodies stood out, I presume."
"A single alien was tall and thin, with large joints and grey skin. Tattoo scars were visible on its temple, and it was wearing a flight suit with red fabric instead of yellow. As previously reported, neither of them match records of species previously known to us."
"The tattoo scar on the grey alien's forehead... did it perhaps look like a crescent?"
"Yes, commander. How did you know?"
"Never mind that right now. I know where we need to go next. Instruct the crew to get ready for a jump to hyperspace."
***
The corridor in front of the main chamber of the UN senate was long, dark and full of echoes. The words inside ricocheted around the cavernous ceilings until they became unintelligible. Grand Admiral Zhang doubted that he could make sense of the words of the politicians inside even if he heard them clearly.
Beside him, Admiral Usyk listened only to the sound of his feet as they hit the marbled ground. The dull thud of the rubber soles of his standard issue black leather navy boots had an uneven rhythm to them. His right foot was moving faster than his left. Grand Admiral Zhang wore a designer brown suede shoe underneath his dark blue suit. He was a man more acquainted with the politics of Earth than the bridge of a star destroyer.
The senate wanted to know why an untrained civilian and an alien no less was placed at the helm of a ship. Admiral Usyk was convinced that Grand Admiral Zhang brought him along as a ceremonial sacrifice to be raked over the coals for the lapse in judgement. Usyk after all was the architect of that decision. This may prove to be the last decision he makes as an admiral of the UN navy.
As they approached the large oak double doors, the heavy wooden panels swung open and the hinges creaked but held steady. The doors of the senate were one of the rare instances that tradition triumphed over functionality. Throughout government buildings, old wooden or metal doors had been swiftly replaced by electro-magnetic automatic ones. Unlike wooden doors, they didn't need to be manually opened and closed by two glorified ceremonial guards. All of this was drama and theatre as far as he was concerned.
Putting as much confidence in his stride as he could, Admiral Usyk walked up to the raised dais overlooked by a committee of senators seated in an arc a metre or two above him looking downward. The senators silently awaited them.
"Senators of the United Nations of Earth, I greet you," Zhang said with an ostentatious sweeping wave of his right hand. "As requested, I am here with Admiral Usyk."
"Greetings, Grand Admiral Zhang and Admiral Usyk," a voice said from the dais. "You may be seated at the witness table, we have some questions for you."
"We stand ready to answer," Zhang replied pulling out a chair and sitting down. Admiral Usyk's eyes flicked across the table at the senators seated on the dais. There were seven of them. All members of the Armed Forces Subcommittee.
"Let me get straight to the point," Senator Yucatan said. His balding head, thick jowls and bronze skin looked animated. "Four days ago, a small force was detached to aid the people of the planet of Avaros which is a hostile neutral nation and a vocal critic of Earth in the Galactic federation. Not only that, that force -commanded by an uncommissioned alien- used unconventional manoeuvres to engage sieging forces. My question is, who was responsible for giving this alien command of a star destroyer?"
Grand Admiral Zhang sat bolt upright as if waiting for Admiral Usyk to answer. Sensing the expectation Usyk said "That decision was mine and mine alone. I felt that Taisen was best placed to identify and end the threat posed by the unidentified assailants."
"Well, this is certainly fascinating," Senator Irulan said. "I've never heard of this being done in the history of the UN. Are you suggesting that the norms of the UN Naval Fleet need to be eschewed for a more free-form style?"
"The operation of our forces were not hampered in any way by my decision," Usyk said. "On the contrary, Taisen showed a cunning and speed of thought to meet the threat posed by the attackers on Avaros."
"Do not misunderstand our tone, Admiral," Senator Yucatan chimed in. "This is a commendation. We're glad that the UN navy is thinking outside the box in order to adapt to the new threat. Frankly, we wonder why Grand Admiral Zhang didn't make that decision instead of you."
"Helping Avaros improves our standing in the galactic federation and incorporating an alien into our command structure will help us shed the xenophobic moniker that plagues the UN as well as our navy," Senator Irulan said. "You have our thanks, Admiral."