Alex had always tried to do his best to endure discomfort no matter what form it took. Whilst it was an easy assumption from an outsider's perspective to assume Alex was stiff and highly composed it was, in truth, a well disguised attempt to hide his discomfort that plagued him. Anyone who was not familiar with Alex or knew him well would not have noticed the minute instances of him twitching or notice the sweat in small beads forming along the side of his head from him resisting the urge to tend to his body’s needs to cool down and scratch the persistent itching that his ceremonial garb was causing. The ceremonial suit he wore stood apart from its everyday counterpart with golden trimmings crowning the clean white suit with black seams. The ceremonial garb, made entirely of wool, lacked the proper functionality of a working space suit, Alex had started to notice the itching when he stood at attention at the beginning of the ceremony in the hall as he watched one of the Admirals give a long winded speech about what duty in the Space Navy meant which segued by how Samantha’s life story coincided with the ideals of the Alliance Navy ranging from her childhood to the day she signed up; to his left stood Milo firmly at attention in his ceremonial uniform without any visible signs of discomfort. Alex wondered if perhaps his layer of dense fur had shielded him from the irritable fibres reaching his skin.
Banners which bore the shield emblem of the Alliance Navy against a field of azure were hung in rows from the ceiling, the floor neatly filled with a crowd of family and colleagues alike with the only discernible way to tell one from the other was the choice of attire. Alex retained his composure as he watched Admiral Valso talk of Samantha’s career like it was an epic out of ancient earth poetry. After the admiral concluded his speech, much to the applause of the crowd, he instructed Samantha to stand at the podium front and centre; no instructions were conveyed to Milo and Alex as they walked up behind Samantha and proceeded to tear off her existing epaulettes from her shoulders, the sound of Velcro ripping echoed throughout the ceremonial hall. After Samantha had been stripped of her rank, Admiral Valso presented both Milo and Alex a small wooden box with the captain's epaulettes inside, they each took one and neatly attached them to the patch of barren Velcro patch on Samantha’s shoulder. Both men then took two steps back in perfect lockstep before Admiral Valso approached Samantha once more.
“It is my honour as your teacher and your admiral, that I hereby grant Samantha Hammer the rank of Captain in the United Terran Alliance Navy.” Valso said, his weathered face bore a wide smile as he began to clap his hands and congratulate Samantha.
The crowd stood up to applaud, the flash of cameras erupted from the cheering crowd in celebration strained his eyes. Milo and Alex approached Samantha and shook her hand congratulating her.
Samantha had shed a tear from pride of her accomplishments. The guests started to scatter from their arranged seats and moved around the vast ceremonial hall only to swarm in on the tables lined with food and drinks from the hospitality. Alex had poured warm tea into his styrofoam cup to wake himself further up. He gently held his heated disposable cup in both his hands as Alex walked outside the building and leaned on the moss covered grey stone balustrade on the balcony. The building’s exterior appearance was no different than the ancient sandstone manors of the English countryside, the rustic stately appearance did the rich two hundred and fifty year history; its size covered a large plot of land with its own hospitality staff and groundskeeping crew and several occupied shuttle pads with the flight crew staying close by. He looked down at his cup of tea before setting it down on the wide stone railing and watch the steam waft out of the cup with its hypnotic movement. When Alex first arrived nearly three hours ago the fog that had once blanketed the area was thick enough to almost hide the Ceremonial hall had it not been for the lights; now that the fog was slowly lifting enough for him to not only see the shuttle crew but a faint view of the green fields beyond them. The flight crew hung near the launch pad and occupied themselves performing diagnostics and field repairs on the shuttle’s engines or sat still and stared at their tablets.
Alex heard footsteps approaching from behind,he turned around and to his delight, Samantha stood behind him. She wore a warm smile which showed off a scar going along her snout more noticeable, her jet black fur well combed started to stiffen in the crisp cold air.
“What are you doing out here, the party and food is inside.” She spoke softly.
Alex had turned his whole body around to sit on the stone railing, grinning.
“What are you smiling about?” She asked.
Alex lightly chuckled. “I got a tip; I know which ship you are getting,” he said.
Samantha’s smile dropped, replaced by genuine surprise. Her face quickly turned to one of annoyance as Alex kept his silence. “Oh, no you don’t!” quickly raising her voice, Samantha chuckled as she quickly closed the gap between her and Alex before playfully trapping his head under her vice-like arms. “Come on, spill it already, human!” She laughed.
Alex chuckled and struggled to escape her grasp. “A captain will never reveal information under duress! I will resist interrogation!” he laughed.
Their chorus of laughter broke the silence on the balcony. Samantha clenched her knuckles and forcibly rubbed them along his scalp making him yelp in pain. “Gah! Alright, alright fine. I will tell you. I’m told you might be getting the Atlantis.”
“Atlantis? Cannot say I am familiar with it.” Samantha shook her head.
“Doesn’t surprise me, only eight years old, one captain, everything is still squeaky clean. Nova class, standard mid-class frigate.”
Samantha looked at her freshly sewn epaulettes admiring them and what they represented, thinking about the new responsibilities she held. She told Alex how she could not believe she had finally made Captain, Alex, likewise responded that she had every right to be pleased to earn the prestigious rank. Alex proceeded to ask Samantha if she had been given her list of senior officer candidates to which she responded she hadn’t yet, Alex offered his help, but Samantha immediately declined.
Hey, what are you two doing out here, party’s inside.” Both captains looked surprised at Milo, completely unaware of his presence. Alex noticed in Milo’s hand the small bite sized portions of food and chuckled as Milo gorged himself on the food.
Once back Inside the hall, Samantha and Milo went their separate ways whilst Alex headed for the bathroom, the interior warmer atmosphere had shown him how uncomfortable he felt in the crowded hall and how it truly was compared to the calmer outside.
The bathroom was well insulated from the ceremonial hall, the noise from outside rarely crept in the clean tiled room leaving it in a state of calm silence; After Alex had finished relieving himself he made his way over the marble counter to rinse his hands under the lukewarm water. He straightened his posture to face his own reflection in the mirror and was caught off guard when he saw the bright red reflection in the glass showing Admiral Valso behind him. The elderly officer stared at him with his wings folded in closely behind his back and arms folded behind him, his tail tentatively hovering above the floor while he smiled, Alex turned to face the red skinned creature and saluted. Valso told Alex not to be so tense.
“I am sorry sir; I had no clue you were here.” Alex nervously muttered.
“Relax kiddo... I am here to celebrate, the same as you.” Valso said. “Captain Samantha Hammer… Has a nice ring to it wouldn’t you agree? Then again, with that name any rank assigned to her would have a nice ring.”
Alex nodded agreeably.
“I admit I was hesitant at first when you submitted her name to the Board of Admirals,” Valso continued. “But I believe in due time she will become a fine example of what it means to be a captain.”
“Thank you, sir, I am certain Captain Hammer would be honoured to hear those words.”
“Does she know you sponsored her?” Valso asked.
“No, as far as she is concerned, she earned this promotion fair and square.”
Valso chuckled warmly, he pulled on his fashionable greatcoat that had a cherry red satin interior contrasted by its black leather exterior to cover his right arm before donning his hat. The weathered old gargoyle smiled before giving a casual salute to Alex while he returned the salute back with more courtesy. Alex watched his own reflection for nearly a solid minute before he let out a sigh.
Over time, the crowd of officers and civilians started thinning shortly after the conclusion of the promotional ceremony and having their fill of the free catering. Nearly three hours ago the hall was packed with just over two hundred attendees and now only a quarter of those attendees remained, mainly civilians and relatives have left. Alex enjoyed the less populated hall far better than he did before. Whilst standing idly he spotted Milo from across the hall approaching him.
“Are you ready to take off?” he asked.
“Yeah… lets get out of here.” Alex nodded.
Both Alex and Milo walked out of the Ceremonial Hall to board the shuttle that had brought Alex to Cardiff. The flight crew stood at attention as Alex approached before saluting him. Alex ordered them to prepare for takeoff and the crew had rushed to their stations. The early afternoon sunlight had erased all the fog that once blighted the open fields of the English countryside. Inside the passenger compartment he strapped himself in on the torn faux leather seats when the engines loudly roared themselves alive to begin lift off, opposite him was Milo firmly gripping his roll cage to pull it down to cover him as the shuttle shook on take-off; after the shuttle had achieved its ideal altitude, Alex reached above him for his rollcage and pulled down on it while he heard through the hull the muffled sound of servos rotating the shuttle’s VTOL engines into a horizontal position with only a short moment of stillness before feeling a strong force pull him and Milo toward the rear of the shuttle. His ears rang under the sound of the engines roaring behind his head.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Emerging from the cockpit door a member of the flight crew emerged, a satyr wearing a full body flight suit walked to the centre of the crew compartment. She lifted her helmet visor up before she addressed them. “Alright sirs, we are airborne, where would you like to go?”
Milo gestured for me to speak first.
“Take me to Alice Springs Spaceport in Northern Territory, Australia. Then take Commander Hammer here to Shackleton city, Antarctica, Lieutenant.”
She acknowledged and pulled her visor down which obstructed her face once more. She went straight for the cockpit and disappeared when the door closed behind her, shortly after Alex felt a shift in direction as the shuttle banked north east. He brought the microphone close to his mouth as he spoke. “Pilot, what is our ETA?”
“One hour and fifty-three minutes, Captain Rowan.” A masculine voice responded.
As time passed inside the shuttle its flight crew had given Milo and Alex the okay to freely move about the passenger compartment of the craft. Its spartan design left much to be desired in the way of creature comforts before Alex reminded himself of the shuttle's primary purpose was none other than troop deployments from orbit. The idea of adding comfort to such a vehicle was not a priority. No one spoke during the flight but rather occupied themselves by admiring the view outside the windows, far below them they spotted a metropolis; Alex approached a monitor that was mounted to the hull and accessed its geographical data. It showed that the city below was the vast city of Bosteri, safely nestled between the vast peaks of Pik Talgar and the great lake of Issyk Kul it had encompassed. The city hugged the lake's rim with large bridges crossing the water and vast highways stretching out into the vast lands of Central Eurasia.
When the shuttle had finally arrived in Alice Springs spaceport and opened its bay doors to the dry desert air it hit Alex and Milo strongly. For a moment during the ceremony he had forgotten about the dryness, Cardiff had been the exact opposite to Alice Springs in every definable aspect from colour scheme to atmosphere. He stepped off the ramp to be greeted by cooler evening air that made the suit he wore to Cardiff all the more impractical as he felt the temperature inside rise up. The sun had already settled beyond the horizon leaving only its dark orange aura lingering in the sky. The sound of the engines rang more loudly with the opened bay door as they stayed active in preparation for immediate departure, Alex looked around the tarmac, he had observed atmospheric flights taking off in the distance. The shuttle’s door retracted itself shut with a loud Thunk behind him before the thrusters burned to lift the shuttle off the ground; Watching it rise in the sky before the engines swung themselves into their Horizontal configuration and ejected a thruster plume that propelled the shuttle off into the distance; a ground crew arrived in an electric cart to meet Alex and take him to the spaceport car park.
The long ride had taken him to an auto-taxi waiting for his arrival to take him back to his apartment, Alex started to undo his ceremonial uniform to allow better ventilation for his body had showed signs of sweating, it reminded him of his days in the Academy where he was instructed to crawl through maintenance tunnels in seventy degree heat to simulate an engine failure. ‘Fire training’ was what recruits used to call the compartment of training; train recruits to withstand fire in an enclosed environment that involved an engine with faulty cooling, a ship that had been caught in the gravity well of a star or battle damage that had destroyed fire suppression controls. Thinking back to those days didn’t seem as bad as he once thought at the time.
When Alex had finally walked in his apartment he walked toward his living room window, he began to blankly stare out of the window to admire the vista below him. Alex checked his watch and saw it was only seven thirty post meridian, he pondered to himself what to do to occupy himself with all the spare time he now had as he slowly shuffled his way to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of rum. He poured the brown liquid out of the crystalline decanter and into a small glass with a sense of delicacy, the fumes of the liquid hit his olfactory senses hard and opened them both up until he put the bottle back in the cabinet. He stared out the window once more as he gently cradled the cup in his hand before giving it a few swirls and slowly sipped on the alcohol. A chime sounded off from his kitchen, he looked back to see what it was. He sat his glass of rum gently on the marble benchtop and grabbed his tablet, gently tapping the screen to pull up the messages function Alex saw he had one unopened message awaiting his viewing, but when he saw the name and address, he had furrowed his brows for he already knew he didn’t want to read the contents of the message.
Birahl Maximum Security Prison, Birahl, Green Hills.
Inmate No: 7889656
Name: Tobias Culvert
Headline: Hey old friend, how ya been?
Without batting an eye, Alex tapped on his tablet with one hand and deleted the message without a second thought before setting the tablet down on the bench top and grabbed his glass off the counter top while walking back to the window and focused on the streets below.
I thought I blacklisted him from contacting me. Alex thought to himself.
He was sure he had done everything right to not get any messages from Tobias. Alex thought back on what he had done to make sure he didn’t leave some venue open; he had told the man to stop contacting him, he had blocked all messages coming from that prison.
Alex took another sip of rum. The liquid burned his tongue and gums until he swallowed and the burning sensation had travelled down his throat until it had reached his chest bursting forth with a warmth that was almost sleep inducing. He figured it did not warrant any further thought to pursue prompting Alex to move away from the glass window before downing the last of the alcohol before he sat the now emptied glass down on the marble bench top. A thought occurred in his head to consider replying to the message, to see what he wanted; Alex shook his head, no, he didn’t want to have anything to do with that man. Instead, he reached for his coffee table that held his paperback book, Alex smiled as he got back to reading his novel of adventure pre-emergence day.
—
It was almost a nail-biting tie; everything had come down to the final moments. In a race of twenty-five contestants only two had the potential destiny to win. The dragons sliced through the air of the Grand Canyon and flew dangerously close over the bright orange soil, Alex’s fists were in a tight grip as he watched Ry’tharl, A star athlete in his eyes, beat his opponent. His teeth clenched with uncertainty and his heart was racing at a pace his mind kept spitting out possible outcomes and fears; If Ry’tharl were to collide with the ground he would be out for the rest of the season and would not be able to play again, but, if he could force his opponent to fall behind than Ry’tharl would be able to make it to the finish line. Alex had placed a substantially sized bet on the dragon as he aggressively zipped through the canyon, the cameras closely tracked their movements and occasionally switched to the small cameras worn by the dragons while a display of statistics blocked the view of the real action. Only three more kilometres left to the finish line and the dragons were not far from each other, Alex was starting to feel a well of energy fill his very being with energy with only one of two outcomes destined to be anger or unrestrained jubilation. Less than one kilometre left to go and it was still a tie. Alex shouted at his television in some vain hope that Ry’tharl would be able to hear his encouraging words.
Then the race had ended.
Ry’tharl had managed to cross the finish line within inches of his opponent Alex was beside himself as he jumped out of his couch screaming at the top of his lungs in joy. He jumped around his living room screaming in excitement as he checked his winnings coming into his bank account; 24,576.66 terras.
Alex sat back down on his couch coming down from his high, breathing heavily and with a pounding heart there was no way this could be better, he thought to himself. The dragon whom he had betted on was being interviewed, being asked how it felt to win.
“I know how I felt when he won!” he shouted to himself.
Coming from the kitchen behind him he heard the dual tone chime of an incoming call, Alex kept his smile on as he grabbed the tablet off the kitchen bench, the matte black display screen displayed a priority call from STARCOM, Naval intelligence with the emblem of the organization brightly displayed. He sat down on his couch and pressed on the answer button prompting a visual feed of a familiar crimson skinned gargoyle to his tablet.
“Admiral Valso, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
The rugged creature’s face barely emoted when he spoke “Captain Rowan, I am sorry to interrupt your holiday, however I deeply regret to be the one to cut it short by two months.”
Alex steeled his expression and braced himself knowing the gravity of the situation.
“What is it, sir?”
“What I tell you comes directly from the Council of Terra and is not to be shared with anybody without a level seven clearance or above. Am I understood?”
Alex nodded “I don’t have a level seven security clearance, sir.”
“You’re the exception, the Council has asked this of you personally.” The admiral cleared his throat before he leaned down to grab a tablet device and looked at its contents before looking back to Alex “They would consider it a personal favour from you if you can complete this task for them.”
“What is it?”
“A Draconic Freighter, registered as the Krath'let, was reported missing. It’s manifest contained some highly sensitive cargo.”
Alex raised an eyebrow in confusion, was he being asked to conduct a search and rescue mission?
“Sir, no disrespect to you or the Council but… A search and rescue task would be better suited for the V.R.O and not a captain of a battleship.”
“This is where the briefing gets interesting captain, the freighter was meant to arrive at Draco III almost five days ago. When it was reported missing a Vessel Recovery Operation ship was dispatched; the Procyon Lotor where it too, had disappeared. Its last known transmission indicated that they had exited Warp space but then nothing after that.”
“It could be a variety of factors. Gamma burst, proton storm, micro meteorite took out their comms. A plethora of things.”
Valso nodded in understanding. “I have collaborated with the V.R.O and they have not found a sufficient explanation as to what caused the communications black out.”
“So, what are you asking of me, sir?”
“Captain Rowan,” Valso said sternly. “I need you to assemble your crew and prepare for a search and rescue mission for the Krath’let and if you are able to find out what happened with the Procyon Lotor then please investigate; but the Draconic freighter takes priority. Am I understood, Captain?”
Alex stared steely at the screen as he processed the request. He pondered the possibility of refuting it, however he ultimately concluded that he did not have the luxury.
“Aye aye, sir. I understand. Give me three days to recall my crew and restock my ship.”
“One last thing, captain. One other personal favour came down from the Council.”
“I take it finding their ship was not enough?”
“This comes from Dragon Chancellor Silure Grayich, he has a nephew who just graduated from the Alliance medical academy. Top of his class. I had him assigned as your new Chief medical officer.”
Alex furrowed his eyebrows In response, did he seriously get a senior officer change without his knowledge or input. “Sir, an officer change like this is- “
“I am aware, Alex. However, in this instance I was pressured to allow it. Your new CFO won’t join you in space dock he is currently on sabbatical at the moment. You will rendezvous with an Imperial Draconic Naval ship to pick him up; is that understood?”
“Crystal.”
Valso nodded before the feed went dead leaving behind the logo of STARCOM intelligence. Alex lightly tossed his tablet onto the cushions as he leaned back. “Fuck.”