[AU] 2199, Space & the Final Frontier

Time Vortex Alternate Timelines
61

The doors to the barracks room opened swiftly, and Michael marched in with the same 2 men as in the control room. Michael had a stern look on his face, crossed his arms, and said, “This is B squad? Shouldn’t you all be out on Patrol?”, squinting his eyes.

The badly damaged FRA Destroyer dropped from slipspace, and began limping towards Myriad II station. A communique came from the bridge of the ship, <This is Captain Royce of the FAS Centurion, requesting immediate technical and medical aid!>. The ship continued towards the station at a constant speed, barely able to slow down at all.

62

Hjalmar was laying on his bed in his room in the palace in New Stromharad on Skagutania when the sun rose. As light filtered into his room, Hjalmar stood up and went to his computer. He sat down, turned it on, and got his email up. Hjalmar saw a few new emails, most of them being spam. Ready to close his email, Hjalmar suddenly noticed another email he hadn’t seen. He opened it and smiled slightly. It was an invitation to a class reunion. Hjalmar frowned slightly as he saw that it was hosted on the Myriad II. “Tch. Should’ve known it would be on an SEPC station,” Hjalmar muttered to himself.
Hjalmar thought it over in his head for a few minutes. Hjalmar shrugged, “Why not? I’ll go. As long as I get to bring some security with me,” Hjalmar stood up, closed his email, and walked out of his room, intending to find his father or uncle.

63

Sarah arranged for a private spaceship be piloted to Myriad II.

One reason was to supervise the Myriad II. When she had authorized two astronauts to Myriad II, she intended it to be a civilization an research project. But hostilities had risen, and she had to be there.

The other reason was the Shiro reunion. Although it wasn’t there yet, it would come soon, and that was an added benefit.

She packed her belongings and stepped into the spacecraft after dressing in the space suit.

The spacecraft took off the runway, and quickly sped into the orbital trajectory.

64

“Centurion, slow down! You’re going too fast!” Three tugboats were dispatched from B Deck to intercept the destroyer.

[hr]

“If you want to come, that’s fine…” I want to punch this guy in the face… Velhanz tied his uniform overcoat around his waist and picked up Harumi, carrying her on his back. Her arms draped around his neck. Harumi mumbled something incomprehensible and Velhanz walked back to the infirmary. With his free arm, he knocked on the door.

“Melor! This is Velhanz, are you there?”

65

Aleksandr wordlessly nodded, waited several seconds after Velhanz started towards the infirmary, and slowly followed at a distance.

[hr]
There were several audible whispers from inside before Melor called, “Come in!” His voice was noticeably stronger, although still a little soft.

As Velhanz entered, Melor smiled in greeting, looking curiously at Harumi but saying nothing. He had shifted to a sitting up position, with Ayase snuggled up against his side. Both were dressed, if somewhat hastily. His breathing, which thankfully had regularized since their last discussion, was heavy as though he had just been exerting himself.

He commented, “Well, I’m certainly feeling better.” Ayase giggled happily at this comment, leading Melor to brush a stray hair from her face. After several seconds, he tore his eyes from her and focused on Velhanz. “What do you need, my friend?” he asked, with another glance at Harumi.

66

“Well, the Strataric Liaison to the SEPC would like to speak with you” Velhanz set Harumi down in the chair and draped his overcoat over her again. Velhanz then crossed his arms and gestured for Aleksandr to speak.

67

The Destroyer retained its quick pace, and didn’t slow down until the tugboats intercepted it and began to slow it. <We’re trying our best! Give us a moment!>. As the ship came closer and closer to the station, and Captain Royce began to sweat hard. He then flipped a small switch, and hit a button labeled “emergency thrusters”, and the ship lurched backwards and began to slow down quickly. The ship eventually came to a stop only a few dozen meters from the station, and Royce let out a huge sigh, and said, “That was much too close. Lieutenant, run a few diagnostics on the ship’s sunlight engines and make sure they are in working order when I return. And get internal repairs started, we will be needing to leave soon”. He then turned away from the viewport, and quickly jogged off with several guards to a Shuttle and took it to a docking bay. Upon landing, he walked off the ship briskly, on to the Command Center.

68

Aleksandr’s eyes flicked to Ayase, then around the room, then to Melor. “Lieutenant Commander Dementyev,” he began, “I am pleased to inform you that you have been promoted to the rank of commander. Your command, the SPL Luchnik, will arrive at the station within twenty four hours, and will temporarily join the Setznan Task Force Fifty-four. You shall receive more detailed orders shortly. Congratulations.” He saluted Melor, who returned the salute in a daze, and Aleksandr turned and started walking away.

“Oh, and Commander Dementyev?” he stopped for a moment, a drop of disdain touching his voice. “I would suggest a change of clothes.”

Melor barely heard the liaison’s closing remark.

…He can’t be serious.

“My… own command?” he whispered in wonderment.

69

“Congratulations, Melor. You’ll officially be under my command for now, welcome to Task Force 54 of the Setznan Maritime Self Defense Force” Velhanz started to chuckle.

“I’ll have you call me Captain Verlhan, or Sir from now on” He said sarcastically.

70

Melor jokingly glared at Velhanz, then chuckled slightly. “You wish.”

He nodded towards Harumi. “Who is she?”

71

The presidential spacecraft docked at Myriad, and dropped off Sarah Yang. It had been a few years before she had seen some of her classmates. They all went their separate ways after graduation and the wedding.

Gosh, that was fun. I remember when that caek almost-

She was disrupted by her thoughts and walked down the hallway, asking someone where Captain Verlhan was. She was immediately directed to the hospital ward.

As she walked there, another person departed the room, looking slightly disgusted.

When she almost reached the threshold, she heard Velhanz joke to someone, “I’ll have you call me Captain Verlhan, or Sir from now on.”

So she reached the threshold, and took in the scene. Melor was in bed, looking shocked, Ayase was at the side giggling, Harumi sleeping in a chair, and Velhanz (who was facing the other direction).

“Hello, Velhanz.” Sarah said, in a smooth tone. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m here on matters concerning the ‘hole’ in Myriad II. Could you please come with me?”

72

“Huh? Oh… Do you remember the really quiet girl who used to follow me around a lot when we were still students at Shiro? AKA Harumi?” Velhanz then spun around to face Sarah.

“Sarah! It’s good to see you again, and about that hole. Follow me please.” He lead Sarah to Deck C and past a few SEPC security guards. The two of them soon stepped out onto a platform that oversaw the whole destruction.

“Careful, repair teams have managed to set up a shield to pressurize the zone and keep us from getting sucked out into the oblivion of space” Velhanz pointed towards the huge gaping hole in the wall of what remained of the cargo bay. “But there’s no gravity right now, hold on to something so you don’t float off” He’d look down at the massive destruction left by the bombs and the repair teams moving supplies around. The sound of powertools and metal creaking echoed a bit.

73

(OOC: Kash permission given. Minor suggestions from Atlae)

After a moment, recognition dawned on Melor’s face. “Right, Harumi.”

[hr]
Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice from his room’s doorway say, “Hello, Velhanz. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m here on matters concerning the ‘hole’ in Myriad II. Could you please come with me?” Melor recognized her almost instantly.

“Hello, Sarah,” he greeted her.

[hr]
After watching Velhanz and Sarah leave, Melor kissed Ayase. “Moya lyubov’,” he said, incredibly softly, “I’m afraid I’d better get up now. I can’t stay in bed all day, after all.”

As soon as his feet connected with solid ground, he lost his balance and fell onto the hard flooring. As he did so, the tragedy came rushing back. Seeing his fellow crewmen sucked into space, feeling the air robbed from his lungs, knowing that he was at death’s door.

He shivered.

No. Absolutely not. You are going to stand.

After some struggling, Melor’s arms failed him and he collapsed.

Stand, chert it!

By this time, Ayase had slid from the bed and was at his side instantly. “Melor…”

He managed to sit up, leaning against the bed and attempting to brush off her help. “I can stand… I can stand…”

Something inside Melor broke at that moment. The full weight of his recent experience suddenly crushed him. He had failed his captain, he had failed his crewmen, and now he failed to even pick himself up from the floor.

I, Melor Dementyev, have failed in every conceivable way.

He hung his head tiredly. Several tears dripped from his eyes and pattered softly on the floor beneath him.

“…I can’t.”

Ayase tenderly eased his right arm over her shoulders. “But we can,” she replied gently.

After several minutes of trial and error, wife and husband together walked haltingly from his infirmary room, one supporting the other.

74

“This is B squad? Shouldn’t you all be out on Patrol?”

Lieutenant Roy looked up from his seat.

“Huh? It’s down time for us right now, what do you mean?” The entirety of B squad was either sitting on their bunks, on couches, or talking to each other. It was obviously evident that the squad was made of young recruits fresh from training, ranging from ages 19-22.

75

Michael stayed standing where he was. “I was told you’d all be on patr-…never mind. Well, I am Colonel Conway of Adumaran SCAF Unit 16, and I’ve been assigned to this station temporarily. In that time, I am to work in conjunction with this team. Who’s the leader here?” He then started walking closer to the soldiers in their resting places, quickly succeeded by his own two men.

76

“I’m the leader of Squad B, Lieutenant Roy Hughes at your service, sir”

77

“Alright, Madam. You will arrive at the Arcadia in approximately ten minutes. Enjoy the ride.”

Ten Minutes Later

Annabella, along with her brothers Antony and Jorkov, along with sister Levila, buckled up to prepare for docking. The pilot spoke into the communicator. “This is the BSS Leroy requesting to dock with the Arcadia. Do you copy?”

78

Sarah gaped at the destruction, and held onto the handle tightly.

She wasn’t even quite sure if the engineers here knew what they were doing.

“Uh, have you apprehended those responsible?”

79

The Ajax had docked at Myriad before the pirate attack, though was thankfully left undamaged. Jon was lead aboard by captain Adams and shown to the cargo bay on the lower decks, where banks upon banks of samples from Camilla lay.

“Dr Adams may I be the first to say you have done a fantastical job!” Jon Remarked inspecting a peculiar sample of fauna “Before we transport this lovely load to the Bastion of Prey, may you tell me what the system’s like? what kind of planets are there?”

“Well it’s not too dissimilar to our system” Adam Replied, pride leaking into his voice. “There are 5 rocky planets and two gas giants in total orbiting the star, with numerous dwarf planets scattered here and there. the fourth rocky planet, Camilla, is the one we’re especially interested in and where most of this stuff came from” he gestured around the room. “Though we have taken rock samples from the other rock planets for an assay.”

“Interesting, interesting… what about Camilla? Is it suitable for colonisation?”

“Is it? you’d better believe it! I’d tell you more but …” -He glanced over his shoulder at the rows of sealed crates behind him.- “…We’d better get this lot sorted first.”

“Yes, very good. I’ll return to the Bastion of prey and oversee the loading process. Make sure every package has one armed guard escorting it, preferably two. Don’t worry about raising suspicion, its not unusual for exoplanetary substances to be guarded in such a manner.”

“I’ll get right to it sir” Replied Adams with a short salute. “I suppose I’ll see you back in the Motherland sometime?”

“We’ll see,” Jon grinned, returning the salute and leading himself out of the ships cargo bay.

80

“Alright then, Lieutenant Hughes, it is a pleasure to meet you.” He extended his hand for a shake. “How long does your ‘break’ last?” He asked, slightly awkwardly.

Captain Royce walked further into the busy room, going unnoticed before, and spoke up. “Is there an Admiral Gonzalez in here?” He said, looking around the room.