Two days after they had left the Gryph ship simply drifting through space and had left the creatures and their fallen brothers and sisters behind in their wake. Two more Warp points had been completed and the ships were well on their way to their fifth waypoint.
Two days of paperwork. Two days of Lyra and Sandra bickering about the creatures. "We should just exterminate them all!" Lyra would state "No, we should leave them be, they only defended themselves!" Sandra would return. Solomon saw Sandra's point; after giving it some thought. They did not venture into the docking bay, they only attacked when they were deep inside the ship. Maybe that was what the creatures considered 'theirs' but also, Solomon strongly agreed with Lyra. Twenty four soldiers killed and one grievously wounded, left fighting for his life was too much for Solomon to just 'leave them be'.
A week had passed since the catastrophe on the Gryph ship before bad news came to Kyril's attention. "Sir, the Infinity has issued a ship wide quarantine, looks like reports of Influenza, sir." said the communications specialist softly into Kyrils ear. Naturally Kyril wouldn't report such a small thing back to Earth – too much paper work. Influenza was easily curable now, which did not sit well with him. How can something so easily cured be so wide spread? However, the Infinity would have to remain in High Orbit over Merriden IV for one month after the last symptom was shown. Kyril wouldn't allow a small illness to them, like the flu to infect a whole planet that had no or little defence against that form of virus. "Ask if they would like to break quarantine and receive more medical staff from us." asked Kyril, knowing Captain Gee would appreciate it, but decline the offer through pride, As he did.
Kyril had given orders over the last week to interview the ship's entire crew about the murder of Doctor Fredrick. So far, no leads. The body could only be identified due to the name badge upon the breast of the bloodied jacket that wrapped the mutilated corpse.
Almost two weeks passed, with one more warp jump to complete before they can meet with the Grpyh outside the Planet of Merriden IV. When Kyril called Solomon into the Captains Conference Room, Kyril had been in there most of the day whilst Solomon sat on the Bridge directing The Evergreen's resources. Lieutenant Sykes once again had tried to remove his coffee machine, so Solomon had Kyril say it was his personal gift to Solomon, and that she was not to touch it. The Conference Room was unusually cold for Kyril's tastes when Solomon entered. "The Infinity has reported three deaths due to the Flu, which is strange, considering we have medication to destroy it overnight. They say they will stay here until they have sorted things out, and will join us at Merriden IV when they are ready." said Kyril with a sigh. Solomon thought for a moment. The Infinity will only be four hours away from Merriden IV if they leave them here, but they will be on their own. Any messages will take way more than four hours to be acted upon. After an hour of debating, Kyril gazed upon the large metal clock hanging upon the wall above the door and sniffed. "It's a bitcold in here..." he muttered to himself, before committing his decision.
The Convoy was to leave The Infinity here, on it's own, at their Captain's request, but Kyril ordered The Iron Fist to remain in high alert, ready to deploy itself accordingly to any distress calls from The Infinity, and have the rest follow when they could. This would reduce the action time to just four hours. If a call came through, The Iron Fist would instantly make way to its aid. Two ships were better than one, after all. Still uncertain of it, but it was the only call he could make. Could he risk relations with The Gryph, especially this close to their boarders? The Emperor would not allow it. The Emperor had a fixation to know the Gryph beyond anything else. Kyril had often questioned the bordering obsession to himself, Little did Kyril know, a fleet had already been sent to the Gryph System, many months ago, and been utterly destroyed within ten minutes of first contact, this information was kept secret by The Emperor himself and the High Command Council of Earth.
"Very well. We shall leave them." sighed Solomon with a heavy heart. "I shall alert the fleet, I would recommend alerting Command." Solomon walked from the room, to find Lieutenant Sykes once again playing with his coffee machine. "Sykes!" shouted Solomon as loud as his throat would allow, Lieutenant Sykes quickly scuttled off down the corridor like a cockroach suddenly found by light.
Solomon muttered harsh words about Sykes as he made himself another coffee, stronger than usual, with two sugars, instead of the one.
Soon Eve had brought the ship into faster than light travel to their final destination. 'Not long', Solomon thought, 'not long until we are finally there', Solomon would usually allow the excitement to creep into his emotions, but this journey had already cost them much.
One Ship.
Hundreds of lives lost.
And now, another ship left behind.