The office of the Admiral of the Fleet, Dasos, Prasinos system
Admiral Loftt sighed as another avalanche of messages appeared on his computer screen. Years ago, as a captain and then commander, he could weed out the critical ones and deal with them first, leaving the rest to answer at his leisure. These days, since the Xavier Lake attack, everything was critical and had to be dealt with yesterday. Even delegating a lot of the workload hadn’t seemed to reduce the burden.
Everyone was a critic too. He wasn’t even in charge when the attack happened, but both public opinion and the media pointed the finger firmly at the failure of the GDA navy to thwart the attack and ensuing catastrophic climate change on the planet. That was of course his fault.
He glanced out the window of his seventy-fourth floor corner office window. The snow was again piling down in the seemingly never-ending winter. The scientists had assured him the effects of the engineered change had been reversed by utilising their own terraforming technology. Watching the snow storm outside, he wasn’t so sure, but they had said it would most likely be a decade before the climate was back to previous temperatures. Maybe a little warmer, which wouldn’t be a bad thing. Shame they couldn’t do anything about the heavier gravity on Dasos. After decades of living aboard starships that on the whole had lower gravity to appease the crew members from lower gravity worlds, he had got used to being a lighter weight. Edward Virr had once said “On this planet you literally do have the weight of the world on your shoulders.” He smiled at the thought, before rolling his eyes as yet another message arrived at the top of the list with the annoyingly cheery pinging noise.
Although, his mood was momentarily buoyed as he noticed it was notification of a jump drone-delivered video message from his aforementioned friend. The moment of animation was short-lived however, as he played the message and Ed explained the situation out in the halo.
Oh, joy of joys, he thought. An alien invasion now, while I’ve only got half a fleet spaceworthy, that’s just perfect.
He called recently promoted Commander Mye and now personal adjutant to the admiral into the office.
‘Come in Zaphir, there’s something I want you to see,’ he said, as she entered and closed the door.
She watched Edward Virr’s message play out on a wall screen and rolled her eyes as it ended.
‘Pardon my Earth language but, oh, shit,’ she said. ‘That’s all we bloody need.’
‘Have we got any spare ships?’ Bache asked, already knowing the answer as he saw Zaphir return his gaze with a “you’ve gotta be kidding” expression. ‘I know, I know,’ he said. ‘But if what Ed says is true, this could be a massive problem if those insects get loose in our region. Especially if they can potentially disguise themselves as humans.’
Zaphir sighed and pulled out her tablet.
‘I might be able to spare K52,’ she said. ‘It’s just completing its space trials this week, but I’ll want it back as soon as the situation has been managed. I did have it earmarked for simpler operations that would break the crew in a little more moderately.’
Bache adopted a more pensive expression.
‘That’s Captain Grogun Whipper isn’t it?’ he said. ‘Her first command.’
Zaphir nodded and gave her boss a knowing look.
‘She still carries a torch for you, you know,’ she said.
‘She’s a good kid,’ Bache replied, a faraway look in his eyes. ‘She’s got a sensible head on her shoulders, just like her father who’d probably come for me with a laser cannon if I made moves towards his daughter.’
‘Oh, I don’t know about that, Gastion has a lot of respect for you. I think he’d be thrilled.’
Bache puffed out his cheeks and gazed out at the snow again.
‘Yeah, well, I haven’t put any thought into dating again since my divorce. I’ve just been too busy. It might’ve been a different story if I’d remained retired like I was supposed to be.’
‘You’re a martyr to the cause, Bache,’ she said, smiling. ‘You always have been. You could never abandon the love of your life.’
‘And who might that be?’
‘The navy, you idiot.’
Bache shook his head and tutted.
‘Disrespecting a senior officer, I could have you court-martialled.’
‘Oh, please do,’ she said, the grin getting wider. ‘I could retire and live on a tropical island on some distant planet and live happily ever after.’
‘Not going to happen,’ said Bache, turning back to the ever-growing list of messages. ‘Now, as Andrew Faux would say, “bugger off” and make sure you send Grogun and the 52 to help Edward with this infestation of insects thing.’
Zaphir turned, tucked a lock of hair behind an ear and made for the door.
‘I’ll send a jump drone to the 52 straight away,’ she said, hovering in the open doorway. ‘But knowing Ed as I do, I think this could be a bigger threat than you might realise.’
As the door closed, Bache scratched his chin in thought and stared at a large snowflake as it fell and settled on the outside window ledge.
‘You might be right, Zaffie girl,’ he said, to an empty room.