Chapter 8

“Why, the gret, didn’t someone contact me?!” I screamed.

“Captain!” Rear Admiral Stratten reprimanded. His bald head was covered in sweat and his squinted green eyes were piercing.

“Sir,” I said and came to attention.

Stratten’s jowl shook for a moment while he calmed himself down. He was not a thin man. He was really heavy and had horrible anger issues. I ignored the fact that my sister or I was the cause of said issues most of the time. He took a deep inhalation of breath and I could see him visibly counting backwards.

When he started talking, his voice was low and filled with forced calm. “Red, I understand that you are upset, but think about it. Even if I had commed you, you couldn’t have done anything about it. Furthermore, your sister did fine. She might not have been able to land as well as you would have, but she did ex four more pirates and did it with the gretting Senator screaming in her ear the whole time!” He finished the last sentence much louder than he had started.

He repeated his deep breathing technique before he spoke again and I could still see him counting backwards. “Look, Red. You are one of my best pilots, whether you believe it or not. The Senator loves you, so having you near him all the time is perfect. Until you came along, we were replacing his personal pilots on a regular basis. You could set your chrono by his regularity.” He stepped into me and my nose was suddenly assaulted by sweat, roasted garlic, and another overpowering smell I couldn’t identify. He was well over ten centimeters shorter than I, but he had a way of getting right into your face. “But I don’t give a good gret about any of that Sol!” he screamed. “You yell at me one more time and I’ll have you wiping academy noses so fast you’ll gret yourself!”

I believed him. Stratten was not the kind of man to bluff. If he said something he meant it. “Permission to speak, Sir?”

“Denied!” he screamed. I had to fight to keep myself from rocking back a step. “You will NOT speak again while you are in this office,” he concluded. He walked back around his desk and flicked on a holo screen. “You and Valkyrie have been attacked four times in less than two days,” he said pointing at the display I couldn’t see. “Someone is obviously after the Senator for some unknown reason. I am going to turn over everything you told me to the Governmental Protectorate including your theory. But I am going to preemptively deny your requests to check out Mercury or do any further investigation. If you ask me or anyone else, make any off-handed comments to another pilot or even your sister for that matter, I will snap my boot off in your ass!” He looked at me right in the eye. “You get me, Captain?”

I wasn’t fool enough to fall for his trap to make me speak, so I snapped a solute instead. His face became completely void of emotion. Stratten understood that I had just been horribly sarcastic without speaking.

He pointed at the door without saying another word. I spun, still staying in perfect form. As soon as I cleared the doorway, but before I closed the door behind me, I looked at Stratten’s assistant and said, “Please be sure to let the Admiral know I appreciate his time and understanding,” then clicked the door shut.

I didn’t wait and started walking immediately. I was on the tarmac headed toward Kappa One in no time. My sister was there with Jim and I was not about to keep everything I had discovered to myself.

I hugged my sister with all my might. “Are you alright?” I asked silently in her ear. She jerked her head in the affirmative almost imperceptibly. Releasing her I was met by the waiting arms of the Senator. “I take it you are fine as well?”

He laughed and slapped my back. “There’s a reason I keep the two of you near me.” He loosened his grip and took a step back, but held my shoulders. “Erika did better than fine; more than expected. Though,” he said with a chuckle, “we certainly missed your expertise taking off and landing.”

I glanced over my shoulder at my sister. She was mid eye roll. “It wasn’t that bad,” she said.

I smiled and looked back to the Senator who, still holding me was looking at me strangely. “Something’s wrong,” he observed. “What is it?”

I inhaled deeply and exhaled through my nose. “Maybe it would be better if we talked in the war room.” I gestured toward the ship.

I told them everything Celina and I had learned and all about the theories we had come up with. I transferred everything into the computer and let them actually read the transcript.

They asked me to repeat our theory to them and I did so. Jim had a bit of a smile and I twinkle in his eye. “What did the Admiral say?” He asked.

“Basically to stay away from this,” I replied. “So technically, we can’t do anything at all.”

“Unless I order you,” he corrected.

I blinked at him and stared for a long moment. For some reason, my mind wasn’t recognizing what it was the Senator was saying. Luckily, Erika was there to save my brain from embarrassment. She grabbed hold of my arm and pushed me over a little. “Is that what you’re doing Senator?” she asked.

He smiled at her. “Yes, Protector Valkyrie, I am. Once the fly over is complete, you will go visit Mercury. Please clear our flight plan with Protectorate HQ. Then forward the com to me for verification and finalization.”

Erika came to attention and whipped a solute at him before she trotted off to the bridge. I watched her go as my grey matter slowly chugged through everything that had just happened. I felt fine with my current state of stupidity because I hadn’t slept the night before and had fought off three pirate attacks; two with my hand gun. Add in the exposure to the insane rhetoric of Pirate Jewel and working out what the Sol she was saying, my lack of cognitive ability made total sense.

Senator Lacy set his hand on my shoulder and smiled his warmest smile. “You have a pretty quick head on your shoulders, Erik,” he said gently. A warm wave of pride ran through me. I couldn’t explain to you why, but I felt strongly that he was proud of me. “Celina is one of the smartest people I know. I am impressed that the two of you could break down the poetry so quickly and so well. As soon as she is on board, we’re taking off. I want to be in the air and ready to go when they signal us for the flyover.”

I nodded. “Understood.” I started to turn away and stopped. Glancing back at him I asked, “Where is Celina? We split right after we got here. She was supposed to be finding you.”

He smiled and bowed his head to me. “Worry not, Erik. She did. She’s finishing the last bits of my speech. I wouldn’t listen to what she had to say until that was done. Had I known it was about this,” he said with a wave to the display, “I would not have sent her away.”

I nodded again and headed off toward the ramp. Speech in readiness or not, I planned on dragging Celina aboard as soon as I lay eyes on her. The sooner we were off the ground the sooner we would get the go for the fly over and the sooner we would be able to check out Mercury.

Next Chapter: Chapter 9