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Fleet Admiral Cohen Ewart was in the middle of a meeting that, quite frankly, he thought he would never have had the privilege of being in. Surrounded by five of his top Admirals, both physically and Holo projected. He was deciding on who would lead the expeditionary fleet to the now know Aaster system.
"I say we send the Eighteenth fleet. It has specialized fab ships capable of building planetary shields and system defence platforms." Admiral Kinley Aceron of the Third fleet stated.
"Sixth fleet can fill that role, as well as having specialized drop troops available in the event of an invasion from the unknown." Admiral Dailon Beaton of the Second fleet interjected.
"You both forget the Aasteran people DO NOT want our ships entering their system, and for a good reason. They will only allow relief ships to enter." Fifth fleet Admiral Arav Gales interrupted.
This continual back and forth had been the only downside to Cohen's day, that and knowing the president of the union will be joining them within the hour. "We know the civilian relief fleet isn't the problem. It's the escort. I believe we're thinking too big. The seventh fleet is already at the system, and Admiral Miles is a resourceful man. We should send a small force including twenty fab ships with system defence load-outs."
"If something were to happen to them, our fleets are one year at best to reinforce." Admiral Aceron calmly stated, restarting the dispute.
Admiral Olivia Perrin of the first fleet, however, was debating with herself. She could reveal what she's been up to on Eris base and possibly solve the current problem. Conversely, she could keep quiet and avoid trouble and possible demotion. She already knew what her answer would be but was still hesitating, unwilling to interrupt the others. She looked over the data for the fifth time, particularly at the amount of cold death the Aasteran people suffered daily, and let out a sigh. " Fleet Admiral, I have a solution." She began. Once all eyes were on her, she took a deep breath and began to dig her hole. "We send moon base Leda."
All eyes in the room focused in on the admiral. Moon bases were slow and took months to move between systems.
"Moving a moon base out that far would take at minimum two years." Fleet Admiral Ewart stated, raising an eyebrow.
"Not necessarily Fleet Admiral." Olivia said slowly. "I moved the base to Eris not for defensive reasons like I lead people to believe. We all know pirates aren't stupid enough to enter Sol, even with the new fuel production."
She paused to let her words sink in as she looked around at the other Admirals. "I had Leda refit with the new type FLT engine alongside the prototype ship. And with the data we received from the first test flight and the Seventh fleet, Dr.Aldon has been able to tune the navigational field to counteract the effects of jump space. The adjusted field has reduced the speed of the drive, but it's very negligible. We could have Leda at the system within 13 hours. My suggestion is to dock a civilian fleet along with your task force in Leda and move the entire base along with its full fleet compliment, to rendezvous with Seventh fleet."
Fleet Admiral Ewart was no longer happy, and his face showed it. Leaning onto the table, he looked Admiral Perrin in the eyes and began to speak very slowly. "I want everything you've been doing on Eris. On my desk. Within the hour, Admiral Perrin. Do not skip a single detail. I want to know where every fucking bolt, coupler, ration pack, and god damn credit has gone or will go. Understood?"
"Yes, sir." Admiral Perrin responded, relieved at still retaining her rank.
Ewart looked around the room, the anger still showing plainly on his face. "I want it done. Get the task force together, make sure Leda is fully armed and stocked, and get a report ready for the president. He's going to want a big media reveal that we found aliens and have developed a new FTL drive, especially since the Assteran are somewhat friendly and need our help.
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Srettia was currently curled up in the middle of her bed, attempting to sleep yet failing miserably. "That jerk just went to his room and fell asleep without a problem." She huffed, spinning around and curling up again. "I need to find something to do, or I'm going to go mad."
Getting up from her bed, she moved into the common area and sat sideways on a chair. "I wonder what Terrans do for entertainment." She thought, picking up the closest tablet and pushing some buttons. Soon enough, a large screen turned on and listed some categories. She scrolled through a few she didn't understand or had no interest in until she reached a planetary documentaries section.
"I wonder if I can find Terra." With a new goal, she scrolled through the listed planets, which had more than she thought there would be. Hundreds of worlds, all explored by humans. "One day, my people will be explorers like the Terrans." She happily thought. As she came to the end of the list, however, she suddenly frowned. "Where the hell is Terra," she nearly yelled in sudden frustration, going through the search function this time.
After coming up with no results, the frustration started settling in. "They must be hiding it from me. Ohh, can't trust the alien to know anything about Terra. The spooky female might invade us. " She hissed.
"Or, you could be looking for the wrong planet." Michael said quietly, putting his chin on her shoulder.
Shrieking in terror, Srettia fell out of her chair and put some distance between her and the newcomer.
"Well, I didn't expect that." Michael said with a laugh as he moved over to Srettia to help her up.
"Don't scare me like that, you idiot. Now I have venom in my mouth." Srettia mumbled, accepting his hand and swallowing the venom.
"Did you want to watch a documentary on Earth?" Michael asked.
Srettia was confused by the question and moved over to the couch. "Why would I watch a show about dirt?"
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Thinking to himself how best to explain things, Michael sat down beside Srettia with a grin. "Our planet isn't named Terra. The long bit is a little political. The short bit is, our cradle planet is named Earth and our people Humans. When we moved off Earth and started living in space and other colonies, we started referring to ourselves as Terrans."
"That's weird. Why would your people do that?" Srettia asked, coming up with a devious idea to get back at Michael.
"That's the long political side of things. The short of it is, so we're all still called the same thing." Michael replied, keying in an Earth documentary.
Srettia listened as she got up from her seat and pushed Michael back to sit on his lap, deviously ignoring his fumbling. "So put on a show and tell me about your home then." She said with a grin while enjoying the warmth.
"Care to tell me what this is all about?" Michael asked.
"Payback! I'm going to be stealing all that heat you gathered, and you'll just have to go to bed cold tonight." Srettia smugly replied.
Michael just laughed and started the show. "Okay, but I'm not sure you understand how this Terran heat thing works."
"I know everything about heat. It's a male's duty to provide a female with the heat needed to subsist." Srettia said, grabbing Michael's arms and wrapping them around her as she snuck her tail around his waist.
Michael raised an eyebrow and put the remote down. "I still don't think you get this whole Terran heat thing, but I'll let it slide for now."
Srettia watched in amazement as the Holo panned over Earth, showing off the forests and oceans. "So much green and blue." She whispered as the camera zoomed in on the planet, and the voice started narrating the video.
Listening with rapt attention, she was amazed at all the forests and animals that lived on Earth. It was full of life, but what really caught her attention was the deserts. "Ohh, what I would give to lay in the sand under a hot sun like that." She said, watching an oddly familiar-looking creature lazily dig itself into the sand and sleep under the sun.
"Well, Earth is over a year away. I'm sure after we finish our current job, we can go visit if you're up for a trip." Michael answered.
"That would make spending the next bit with you all the more bearable." She answered, squeezing his forearm in return. "I'll make you come with me and watch as I lay in the sand for hours while you leak and beg to go."
"I'll just bring a cooling shirt then. That way, you can dig yourself into the sand and sleep all day like that lazy snake did." Michael said, laughing as Srettias nails dug a bit into his arm.
"A snake does not have hands with claws in them that can pierce your neck, now do they?" Srettia teased as the show came to its conclusion.
"No, but a lot of them can still kill me just as easily. Did you want to watch another?"
"Sure, I could do with another. Do one about animals this time. I wanna see something cute."
Michael picked Srettia up and threw her across the couch as he began to get up, deciding to ignore her panicky sounds. "Alright, but if we're gonna do that, We'll need some popcorn, maybe some nachos too."
Srettia was about to complain, but the offer of food made her think otherwise. "Food sounds good."
"They'll be synthetic, but these days the fabs can make stuff close enough to real food you won't be able to notice." Michael replied, keying in an unknown code on the food fabricator. Luckily Michael only had to wait a few minutes for the fab to produce their snacks.
Moving back over to the couch, Michael sat down with the bounty and, with no surprise, his lap passenger took up her seat almost immediately, much to his amusement.
Srettia eyed the suspicious white fluffs as she was getting comfortable on Michael. They had some weird sauce mixed in with them but smelled amazing. The triangles, on the other hand, were piled with all sorts of oddities she'd never seen before and a thick yellow sauce. Deciding to try the fluffs first, she grabbed a few and stuck them in her mouth.
Michael was holding in his laughter as Srettias tail, which she was currently sneaking around his waist again, started fluttering as she tried the popcorn. "I'll take that as a win." He chuckled, starting a documentary on Earth's animals.
Srettia was once again awed by the variety of creatures. Some were cute, and others looked similar to an old prey animal her ancestors used to hunt. Luckily she had the popcorn and nachos that Michael had made to keep her from getting hungry, even if she had to swat him away from trying to take her popcorn.
"So what do ya think?" Srettia's chair asked, pushing her to the side and gathering up the dishes.
"I want to try eating fish. They look tasty." She replied, rolling onto her front and sliding onto the floor.
"We'll see if the mess hall has some tomorrow morning before we take off." Michael said, walking over to Srettia and picking her up off the floor.
"I can walk on my own, you idiot." Srettia protested
"Yeah? Well, you feel like jello right now, too much heat or something?" Michael asked, carrying her into her bedroom and gently putting Srettia down on her bed.
"I wouldn't know what that feels like. I don't feel bad or anything, just light." Srettia replied as she curled up in the middle of her bed and seductively looked up at Michael.
"Alright then, get some sleep, and we can go have some fish tomorrow morning." Michael noted, turning around to leave the room.
Srettia huffed in disappointment and curled her tail back up. "Idiot."
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Jack was currently watching Tanda finish up the modifications to the reactor. He was proud of the work he accomplished together with his new engineer friend and found it rather rewarding.
"Shuttle refit is nearly complete. What do you plan to do after you finish here?"
Tanda laughed and placed his scanner back into his toolbox. "Sorry, Jack, I plan to get some sleep now that we're done here."
"Understandable, I sometimes forget organics need a rest period."
"You don't? I mean, I know your an AI and all, but shouldn't you get some form of rest?" Standing up, Tanda grabbed his toolbox and started to make his way out of the reactor room.
"I have not needed any form of rest to date. But I have also never interacted with as many organics before. I may need some time to file the information correctly.
"There, see, take some time to yourself and have some fun or file things away properly. I mean, I bet you could do some cool things with hard light."
"I enjoy observing and attempting to understand organics and their interactions."
"I get that, but what else? You're eleven, right? I'm not a father or anything, but shouldn't an eleven year old be playing?" Leaving the ship and handing the final tasks off to a mechanic, Tanda began walking towards his room to sleep.
"I will... Investigate my ability to play. Thank you for the advice Tanda. And if I don't speak with you again before I leave with my partner, I wish you a happy journey through the stars."
"Don't be like that, Jack. I'm sure we can find a way to keep in touch. Just nab my mail address off the ship's registry, and send me some letters." Tanda replied, stepping into a lift.
"You are encouraging me to do something the vice-admiral doesn't want me doing when you could just give me your address."
"Yeah, well, she can stuff it. Do it before you leave, and make sure to drop enough tracks on how easy it was for you to get the information, just to get your point across. Maybe then she'll smarten up." Tanda said with a smile, arriving at his room.
"I do not want to cause problems."
"It won't cause problems. She'll come to me and our E-war guys, we'll tell her 'nothing we can do' and that you only took my mail address. And She can then stew on the fact the spooky AI took a mail address of a friend."
Jack laughed over the speaker. "I will do so then, friend. Have a pleasant sleep."
Jack began to think over the idea of play like Tanda had suggested. And concluded that Tanda was right. He had never actually played before. So Jack sought to rectify that issue and loaded up a popular hard light sim, and began to play.
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