“If I have to be honest, I would have picked an entirely different crew for the continuation of this mission but the reports of your interrogations came back clean and the esteemed Fleet Admiral has managed to convince the Chancellor otherwise...” That didn’t start off well, his words immediately upsetting a large part of the crew and anyone else present. “As such I am forced to let you resume your function on board of your ship. However, there will be some alterations made to…. ensure your loyalty, but first and foremost your safety. But for those technicalities I will let the Fleet Admiral speak.”
Fleet Admiral Hanssen was staring daggers at minister Kerskuri. But after taking a deep breath she sighed and spoke to us. “Your ship has been retrofitted with a couple of extra arms packages to enhance the ship’s combat abilities even further. Structural weaknesses that have been detected have been strengthened and extra armor plating has been added in the more crucial points of the ship. The specifics of which you will be able to see shortly. Due to confidentiality we will be sending everyone the new specifications of the changes to your holo sticks. It’s pretty last-minute but please do go through the specifications that are most relevant to your respective stations before you board.” She flipped through her own holo stick to the next page. “Aside from the structural changes the ship has gone through, you will also be joined by a sizable complement of robotical soldier units. These units will provide further surveillance and security on board of the vehicle and will be directly controlled by the ship’s AI.”
“The AI’s programming has been altered to step-in when set regulations are being broken.” The minister grinned at us smugly. “Do not try to tamper with it, for the engineers have assured me that that isn’t possible and will result in severe repercussions.”
“Hmm.” I hummed silently, it was just about loud enough for my girlfriend to hear though. I can’t imagine that Ellie didn’t know about any of the aforementioned changes. The fact that she didn’t mention them must mean that she didn’t find it noteworthy enough to tell us. I find it very hard to believe that the engineers actually managed to do anything to her. Apart from giving her new toys to play with… But on the other hand it could also be that this was a rather recent addition to the list of changes as Ellie did inform us about the weapons packages and the armor upgrades…
“In addition you will also be joined by a list of additional officers and crew members. Their identities will be made known to you six hours prior to departure.”
Now that, that will definitely be problematic… From the look on the minister’s face when he said that, it was pretty much certain that at least some of those soldiers would have been appointed by the minister himself. As much as I trust Ellie in having resisted the engineer’s tampering attempts, I am not so certain about trying to fool politically appointed komissars…
However… When I looked back over to Fleet Admiral Hanssen she was surprisingly calm about the minister’s statement. In the matter of fact, she actually looked rather content with herself. As soon as minister Kerskuri looked back, she immediately looked down again.
-Did she do something about the appointments? Did she make some of them ill? No, that would be way too obvious… Kerskuri would definitely not let that slide.-
In the meantime, while I was internally still debating the dubious look on Hanssen’s face, Kerskuri had continued speaking and had arrived to the point of our mission.
“As for what your mission is concerned…” He started. “That will remain mostly unchanged, although with some more parameters. When possible we would like you to scout out more of the… potencies… of any alien vehicles you encounter. Furthermore it is very much advisable to completely eradicate any bug-alien populations that you come across, and if that is not possible, to stop their spread dead in their tracks. We also want you to send more regular updates of charted star territory.” He put his pretty much full bottle of water on the table Hanssen was sitting behind. “Anyway, that was pretty much all for this meeting for what I am concerned.” He then walked off back towards the elevators from which he entered. “If anyone wants to, you can have the water.” And with that, the prick disappeared, leaving us faster than the extra time he took away from us by getting the bottle of pretty much untouched water. His entourage followed him swiftly along. Leaving us alone with Fleet Admiral Hanssen.
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Once they were well and truly gone, the entire room quickly started to murmur. Most of the murmurings were talking about the new robots that would be overseeing us, though that wasn’t really going to be an issue. Among the officers it was mostly the new crew that was being discussed.
“Uhum.” Fleet Admiral Hanssen coughed, quickly silencing the room again. “I am very sorry about that.” She started. “The man just really wanted to come and make a point.” She shoved the barely touched bottle of water out of the way to the complete opposite end of the table. “And as he is technically my superior I wasn’t exactly in any power to stop him.” She then proceeded to also put away her holo stick on which the rest of her talking points had been written down on. Continuing after yet another sigh. “When I first made a speech on the moon, sending out a first manned mission to verily explore the region of space around our solar system, it never even crossed my mind that we would find alien life as soon as we did. And definitely not in such a hostile manner. I think all things considered, that everyone present here today, and those that sadly have lost their life, has done an overwhelmingly great job. You’ve made decisions and sacrifices to secure humanity’s future in this universe. And for that everyone should forever be grateful to you. That’s also why in a way it saddens me to ask you to continue your mission in the dark reaches of outer space. But then again, it would be a crime against our species not to put the foremost experts back out into the field.”
“We would also be really disappointed if you didn’t ask us to go again.” It was Lieutenant Zu who spoke out. A couple of people from the crowd were also quick to support that statement with some yeah’s and definitely’s.
That was also a sign for me that I also couldn’t stay quiet. “All of us knew there was danger involved in taking on this mission. While it was a welcome break for most of us to get back to Earth for a little while, we did sign up for a mission that would last years, not mere months.”
Zu and the officers gave me a respectful nod.
“And it would also be a disservice to those we have lost along the way not to continue on. We are at a dangerous crossroads and it would pain us a lot more to see their sacrifice go in vain.”
Hanssen smiled and nodded. “That’s why I would like to announce a small altercation to the mission alterations that minister Kerskuri has just announced. We would like you to keep a look out for more potential allies in outer space. Like your friends who you’ve had to leave behind due to their… inconvenient illness. As minister Kerskuri is skillfully displaying by a reenactment of his own, one does not build an empire without stepping on some toes. So I, and by extension the Chancellor, would like you to find those adversaries and find out what it would take for Earth to join into an alliance with them. You’ll be given the necessary diplomatic authority to make these kinds of treaties.”
“Is this something minister Kerskuri is aware of?” I asked. “If the Chancellor is involved.”
Hanssen shook her head. “As I said, his reenactment of empire-building is quite on point. So the Chancellor has chosen to keep the minister in the dark for now.”
“Why doesn’t he just fire him?” A voice from the crowd behind us calls out. Which made the Fleet Admiral chuckle a little.
“I think that if that were an option, that the Chancellor would already have gladly taken it, so for now we will have to work on it in a bit of a roundabout way. But please don’t worry about that too much. It is best to keep your head focussed on the task at hand. Let us worry about the Earthly business. We’ll make sure to keep the home front secure for you to come back to.
Luna poked my thigh and leaned in. “I think I might actually be able to help them a little with that.”