First Contact (Galactic Axia Adventure) (14 page)

“And by his own admission, he took full responsibility for neglecting to use his controls properly,” the lead officer said. “He also admitted not calling for help on navigation when he found himself accidentally out of the flight training range.”

“However, it turned out to be fortunate for that other Axia ship,” the youngest officer said. “From the time he spotted the Red-tail, he handled himself rather well.”

“Going into combat unauthorized and without wearing his pressure suit is a serious breach of training protocol.”

“True,” the lead officer agreed as he leafed through the transcript. “But there is the larger matter of the mission of the service. A foundational tenet is that we serve and protect. If Eagleman hadn’t gotten himself way off the range he would not have been able to protect that ship.”

“He did show some good flying when push came to shove,” the youngest officer noted. “However, using the ruse of having Nav board problems to get a navigational fix was a little underhanded.”

“I’d chalk that up to youthful pride,” the oldest officer said. “I can well remember doing a few things like that myself in my misspent youth.”

“In his defense, Eagleman did seem to learn from his mistakes.”

“So gentlemen, what do we do with our young captain? We don’t want to encourage other such mistakes, but we also don’t want to stifle initiative among our captains,” the lead officer said. “He made a major mistake and in the process bloodied his claws in battle.”

“Actually, this isn’t the first time this trooper has seen combat,” the youngest officer mentioned. “What’s more, this other incident happened while he was still in basic training.”

“Sounds like a definite pattern to me,” the middle officer said with a chuckle. “Let’s face it. He blew it and then did an excellent job of recovery.”

“I think we may have an unspoken consensus here,” the lead officer said, smiling to himself. “Now, how much longer are we going to let him sweat it out?”

Out in the holding area, Delmar continued to mull over everything about this training incident. Although he was inclined to try and argue in his own defense, relying on extenuating circumstances seemed like just a convenient excuse. As much as he could, he wanted to maintain his own integrity even if it brought censure and possible changes in duty. Whether it would cause his dismissal from the service was another matter altogether. Trying to relax a little, a fearful variety of outcomes played through his mind.

Just then the trooper stationed outside his room entered and signaled for Delmar to follow him. Without a word, he opened the door to the hearing room and motioned for Delmar to proceed ahead of him. After taking up his original position in front of the review board, Delmar saluted and then remained at full attention.

“At ease, Captain,” the lead officer ordered. Delmar, though confused, complied. Although encouraging, Delmar dared not allow himself hope, knowing it could be snuffed out the moment his hope flamed.

“We have reviewed all the information and testimony available at this time,” the lead officer intoned. “It is our opinion after much consideration that the following facts have been established.” Delmar held his breath and waited anxiously for the other shoe to fall.

“First, you through negligence left the training range and flew out of the effective range of you sensors,” the lead officer continued. “Secondly, you also neglected to call for help when that option was still available to you. Believe me, this problem has happened before. No one would have held it against you if you’d asked for a navigational fix.”

“Yes sir, but…” Delmar answered curtly. The lead officer cut him off with a warning flash of his eyes. Delmar realized his response was not being called for.

“What have you got to say concerning your actions?” the lead officer asked. “Particularly after engaging the Red-tail?”

Here was Delmar’s one serious chance at having extenuating circumstances help his case. The review officers watched the young sweating captain wrestle with the ethical dilemma presented to him. The unvarnished truth was his best course, but at the same time it was his weakest argument.

“I decided to shadow the Red-tail ship to confirm its flight path and ascertain why it was in a normally empty sector of space,” Delmar answered. “As is well known, this sector is deliberately kept empty for safety concerns. There should not have been any ships there, much less a Red-tail.”

“We do not need to be lectured about the training region, Eagleman!” the lead officer said menacingly. “According to the record of your equipment, you were actually well beyond the back of the training zone. Did it ever occur to you that there was not only a Red-tail in what you assumed was a training area, but also an Axia vessel traveling on an approved flight plan?”

Delmar swallowed hard when he realized not only his oversight but the trap he’d set for himself. The board let him sweat a moment.

 “Please continue with your narrative, Mr. Eagleman,” the officer finally said. “Perhaps it will prove entertaining enough to ease our boredom”.

Delmar thought furiously and opted to keep his testimony simple. As his old drill sergeant Stoddard had tirelessly taught him – K I S S --  Keep It Simple Stupid!” While the review board continued to wait patiently Delmar opened his mouth and dove in.

“As to the Red-tail and the civilian vessel,” Delmar began. “When I saw that it was going to attack the Axia freighter, my training kicked in and I decided to fire on the enemy ship. It might have been a stupid thing to do, but I just couldn’t let it attack a merchant ship.”

“And what of your communications with the other Axia vessel? You said you were having trouble with your navigational system.”

“Honestly, I lied to hide the embarrassment of being lost,” Delmar admitted. “I didn’t want to admit to another captain that I had gotten lost in one of the newest ships in the service.”

“That’s interesting,” the officer noted with a smile. “The freighter captain came to the same conclusion and put it in his statement.”

Delmar stared in disbelief. He had thought his little ruse had worked.

“For your information, that merchant captain is a retired service captain and was well aware of the obviously new nature of your ship.”

Delmar continued to stare for a moment as that detail tried to fit itself into his overworked cranium.

“The captain also noted that he considered it not an accident that you were there to, shall we say, ‘save his bacon’ as I remember,” the second officer said thoughtfully.

“In consideration of all the evidence presented, it is the determination of this review panel that you be verbally reprimanded for not making full use of the resources at your disposal,” the lead officer intoned. “Consider it done.”

“Yes sir.”

“And let it further be noted that you may not receive such leniency in the future, Eagleman,” he continued. “The universe is indifferent. A second chance is a miracle from the Unseen One. But don’t expect his intervention on a regular basis.”

“Yes sir.”

“As to your actions against the enemy,” the second officer stated, “you are commended for your initiative and good flying in combat. However, next time we’d advise you to wear your pressure suit. Breathing the vacuum of space is not conductive to a long and healthy life.”

“Yes sir.”

“Let the record read,” said the lead officer, “that this will be considered a freelance training flight that engaged the enemy successfully and that a bonus be added for the recorded destruction of one enemy ship. That you saved another vessel and gave the service useful information concerning the original vector of the Red-tail are also noted. On an aside, it turned out to be headed directly toward an ongoing action against the enemy. You denied them one more ship with which to fight against humanity. Good work trooper! Case closed!”

“Thank you sirs!” Delmar answered happily.

“One more thing, Eagleman,” the lead officer said.

“Yes sir?”

“Even as we speak, the sensors on all of the FAR ships are being upgraded,” the officer said. “The new sensor nodes came in last night and will be flight ready sometime tomorrow.”

“And Eagleman,” the lead officer said as he started to stand and gather his papers. Delmar wondered what was wrong now. “As part of the conclusion of this panel, it is my privilege to inform you that you and your ship are now signed off for normal flight operations along with the other FAR ships. See your Orientation Officer for further details.”

∞∞∞

It was a disappointed science team that gathered around a table in the makeshift lab on Maranar. “We’ve been broadcasting that signal every night for a week without a reply,” Dr. Oren reported. “I just don’t understand it.”

“Do you think something’s wrong with our equipment?” Dr. Spenser asked.

“No,” replied Oren. “We triple-check everything and did a diagnostic run before firing it up every night.”

“Should we continue?” asked Spenser. “It seems to me that they would have certainly answered by now.”

The others around the table began to argue the merits of the last suggestion while the senior scientist, Dr. Garret silently sat by and listened. He found it better to let his colleagues hash it out before he offered his opinion. After several minutes, they ran out of steam and one by one looked to him where he sat at the end of the table. The question of what to do with the project was unspoken on their lips.

After a few more moments Garret decided to speak. “I think we should continue the project,” he said quietly. “We know they’re out there, so I think it’s only a matter of time until they hear us and respond.”

∞∞∞

Even as the secret group spoke, the protective shell of watcher ships was reforming around their planet. Careful to avoid detection, the ships took up their former locations and resumed the dual task of watching both the planet below and the empty space outward from the region.

There were a few changes among the ships surrounding Maranar, as replacements filled the gaps. One of the ships that was normally assigned to these positions had been destroyed in the battle with the Red-tails. Another missing from its regular post was undergoing extensive repairs aboard one of the retrieval ships. The success in routing the concentration of Red-tails was bittersweet. Once again, the men and women in the service had paid the bloody price of protecting the Galactic Axia and its people.

Further out from Maranar, a half dozen fast attack patrollers were still searching for the Red-tail ships that had managed to escape. A review of sensor logs revealed that a total of nine small Red-tail ships had fought their way out of the entrapment. Using the main holographic display aboard the mothership, navigators determined the fleeing enemy had all headed in the general direction of Maranar.

Commander Tess ordered an extra layer of protection around the planet and deployed ships equipped with extra sensitive sensors outward from the protective shell to seek out the elusive enemy. So far the tactic had proven successful as the attack patrollers torched six of the Red-tail ships within hours.

The other three Red-tail ships were more elusive. With aura detectors set on their highest sensitivity, the attack and sensor ships carefully began a sweep of each rock and asteroid where the enemy might hide.

∞∞∞

The crewmen aboard the orbital rocket from Maranar watched through the windows of their craft as they rapidly approached Maranar’s largest moon. A glimmer over the horizon reassured them that the fuel supplies sent up on the previous unmanned mission were still waiting for them.

At a signal from the Maranar Launch Center, the rocket captain activated the engines of the craft to set them in orbit around the moon. A little work on the attitude jets brought them into matching orbit with the waiting fuel supplies. Their situation stabilized, the crew started their photographic survey and mapping of the moon’s barren surface.

Further out in the Maranar system, a watcher ship noted the flare of the spacecraft’s rocket as it swung around on its orbit of Maranar’s largest moon. He put in a call to the mothership to report the sighting.  “Scout MW-45 calling Observer Control.”

“Go ahead MW-45,” the comm officer aboard the mothership replied. Commander Tess overheard the exchange and came over to listen.

“I just picked up the rocket flare from some sort of space mission from the closed planet,” the scout reported.

The commander nodded to the comm officer and picked up the extra mic.”Where is it now?” Commander Tess asked. It was a pleasure to handle something like this after the stress of the battle.

“The rocket has established an orbit around the largest moon,” the scout answered. “I also saw another vehicle in stationary orbit around the same moon. The latest craft is maneuvering to match orbits with it.”

“Are there life forms aboard either rocket?” the commander asked. If memory served her correctly, these rockets would represent the first missions the people below had taken beyond strictly orbiting their own planet.

“My aura detector shows four humans aboard the second craft and none aboard the stationary one,” the scout replied.

“The unmanned craft is probably just a supply rocket sent up in support of the manned mission,” the comm officer suggested. The commander nodded her agreement at his assessment.

“Maintain discreet observation of the mission,” the commander ordered into the comm. “Take all precautions to avoid detection. Scientists on the planet are probably tracking both rockets with everything they’ve got.”

“Acknowledged and understo… just a minute,” the scout interrupted himself in mid-reply. The comm officer and the commander looked at each other and shrugged. “I was getting some sort of interference,” the scout reported. “It has cleared up now so I’m signing off.”

“Understood MW-45,” the comm officer said into his mic. “Keep us advised on the progress of those rockets.” The scout answered with a double-click.

The commander was just about to move away from the comm center when a second call came in from another watcher ship. “Observer Control, this is scout MW-33,” a female voice called.