Dav had Initially enlisted in the Imperial Navy after his father had gone missing with his vessel.
His last memory of his father was the wide back of the man, dressed in the regal black of a captain’s dress uniform, as he left them behind in the departure lounge. Soon, he was on board his destroyer, the INS ‘Stalingrad’. He remembered his father’s stories of the battle that begot the name of the ship, and always thought the intimidating name was fitting.
Three months into his father’s one-year tour, they received news that the ship was lost in quantum-fold combat maneuvers after being heavily damaged by a separatist ambush.
A destroyer was at least 500 meters in length, with the smaller models built for countering corvettes, screening larger vessels-of-the-line against fighters and missiles. The larger vessels reached one kilometer and held a single keel-mounted spinal main cannon that accelerated a metal slug with the mass of a corvette to 95% of light speed. This was possible because 50% of the vessel’s mass accounted for capacitor banks, with the other half mostly for close-in defense systems, crew accommodations, and propulsion.
Destroyers were fast and agile combatants that relied on size against smaller opponents and relied on speed, agility and the first strike against larger opponents. One of them could take out a Light or Heavy Cruiser, or damage a Battlecruiser – Battleships though, were still out of their class.
They were fragile though, and so their captains had to be smart, decisive and a bit crazy – and young Dav believed his father to be all of the above, as well as a hero to then-five year old him.
Then he disappeared, never to be seen again.
Once Dav finished compulsory education, he enlisted for a military education path with the Imperial Navy’s Veteran’s offices – a perk of family members of past or current serving sailors.
His mother was beside herself for a week, not talking to him and crying her eyes out, but she eventually relented.
As for how Dav got into the position of stealing highly-classified Imperial Navy hardware, that was a different story.
Dav was now sitting in an elongated room, on what appeared to be a human-sized metallic bench, staring at the empty void studded with stars through an observation window. Maybe the aliens the Custodian was serving were humanoids?
Mankind, under the leadership of the Imperial House, had encountered a few alien races in their journeys through the Milky Way.
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There were the Cephia, a species who could shape-shift at will, fitting their bodies to the task at hand. At one moment you could be facing a beautiful woman who Simply had a few extra limbs than normal, then you would blink and she’d be a flurry of tentacles and teeth gnawing on your face.
They were a matriarchal species that was at odds with the Imperial house’s Patriarchal ways, as well as a fully female species. They could either breed between each other, or claim genetic material from another species, by benefit of their shape-shifting nature.
They were also long living, but bred slowly, resulting in a small but very well-defended sphere of influence.
Another was a monkey-like six-armed species of what could only be described as the unholy offspring of what a fictional goblin and a baboon would be – green skinned, prone to tinkering, and evil to the core, the aptly named Gremlin were little more than opportunistic space pirates that would assemble in clan-fleets, and accost anyone and any one, be it Human, Cephia and especially other Gremlin. Once every decade or two, they would gather a war-clan, the equivalent of several human fleets, centered a main “Kingship” captained by the war-chieftain of the clan-fleet. They would go on to raid and accost star systems until a task force would be assembled to smash them back into the dark sectors beyond explored space.
As such, Dav was not exactly unfamiliar with aliens – he’d blasted plenty of Gremlin into paste from the seat of a strike fighter, and he even met a Cephia pilot when one was recovered by his carrier group after being separated from her Leviathan’s Pod.
However, first contact was usually handled by the Captain of the ship acting as Flagship for the task force, and a special xenodiplomat officer on board, stationed after the first-contact fiasco with the Cephia.
Dav was just a disgruntled fighter jockey, on the other hand.
And if he returned to human space, he’d probably be court-martialed for his actions.
His heart broke thinking of his mother, after she’d learn the news.
He had to get back.
And maybe establishing relations with a newly discovered highly developed species as humanity’s representative would be enough for an Imperial pardon.
----------------------------------------
“Human, have you reached a decision?”
The Custodian floated into the room, unaccompanied.
“Where are your body guards?” asked Dav – the two metal goliaths escorting the silver ball around were nowhere to be found.
“Deactivated, to conserve energy.”
“Do you not fear I would misbehave?”
“No – you already hold the fate of this Vessel in your hand, unless the impossible happens twice, and another such as you arrives here with a similar power supply.
“No, Human – you are more of a threat to this Vessel than any other, and I am helpless against you by my own nature. I both loathe you and admire you for this. Now, have you reached a decision?”
Dav stood, and faced the Custodian, taking the round chrome sphere in fully, the starry background behind him.
“I will help you, but I would like to discuss the proposed contract more in-depth. While the reactor is essentially worthless to me right now, it would’ve bought me a life of luxury back home. I believe proper compensation is in order.”
The Custodian slowly rose to eye-level, it’s voice seemingly filled with newfound energy and hope.
“Very well – we still have much more to discuss.”