Alex
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear,” I said as I pressed accept on the call from the ambassador of Terra. “Ambassador Tobias, what can I do for you?” I immediately got a request for a holo-call, and only hesitated for a moment before clicking accept on my phone and putting it on the surface of the desk.
With that I saw the stern visage of the Ambassador projected into the air in front of me. In his earlier days, he would have been considered handsome. His graying hair was slicked back into a tight yet professional looking haircut that was popular among businessmen well over three centuries ago. I had thought that the haircut was completely extinct until I had the opportunity to meet him over a month ago when I decided to take this job. He looked at me sternly, wrinkles creasing even more to make him look older than he already was. “We both know that I don’t have time for pleasantries, so how about we skip those and get to why I called.” I nodded. “Alright, please state your full name and identification number for the record.”
I sighed. No getting out of this now. “Alex Davis, ID number 7992255.”
“Your mech’s quantum communicator shows that your mech is out of action. Care to explain how that happened?”
“Yes sir, I would love to.” And so, I started my story, from the conversation with Aeva to repelling the boarders to the explosive that ultimately caused this whole mess to begin with.
The ambassador nodded along and asked a few clarifying questions. “And where are you right now? Clearly this ‘Aeva’ person knows, but how many others know? And don’t give me a lowball number either, give me your worst-case guess.”
“Well, right now I’m in the captain’s ready room, with the Captain and Aeva.” I lowered my voice for the next bit, “and for how many people saw me, I would have to say the entire bridge crew, and anyone that we might have stumbled across while on transit to the bridge. They were taking pictures as well, so God knows where those were going. But for those that saw me firsthand, I would have to say at least fifty people.”
The ambassador buried his hands in his face and sighed. “Dammit, do you know how much shit this is going to put humanity into? We were just normalizing relations with the various members of the galactic community, and now everything that humanity has built over the last two and a half years is going to topple like a house of cards, as soon as the galactic news cycle restarts in about an hour, but I give it ten minutes before your image floods the galactic net. If you had just followed protocol like you were supposed to, then none of this would have happened!” I couldn’t help but feel offended. He was right, though. If I had just made my way to the “panic room” inside the mech I probably would have been fine, and the cat would have stayed in the bag for at least a couple more hours.
“Hey!” I heard as Aeva loomed over my left shoulder. “Alex couldn’t have predicted any of this! It’s not his fault that he was following procedure of the galactic community when he charged into that airlock! By doing that, he saved the lives of whoever would have gone into that airlock instead of him!”
The ambassador moved his cold, stern stare to the alien looming over me. “And who the hell are you to butt into a conversation that you have no business participating in?” I saw Aeva visibly flinch at the intensity of the ambassador, the fight in their eyes slowly fading away as they slowly leaned back into a neutral sitting position.
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“Hey, don’t talk to Aeva like that! When the mech was damaged beyond repair, they were the only one that rushed to my aid and tried to help me despite not knowing what was going on!” I said defensively.
He then looked back at me. The river of sweat that I had running down my back started back up again from the pure venom that I could see in his eyes. “I will be having a conversation with the United Terran Security Council about this. Expect me to get back to you within ten minutes. Until then, I suggest that you go back to your cabin or somewhere equally safe and hole up there.” He turned to the captain, his face softening slightly. “Could I get your contact information? I feel like what I have been told today will probably require you to change course to Terran space, so when that decision is reached, I would rather not have to go through Mr. Davis here to get that information to you.”
The captain flexed her tentacles in a fashion that I recognized as acknowledgment. “It would be pretty difficult to just change our entire route based purely on the overreactions of politicians, but I’ll see what I can do.”
The ambassador nodded his head. “Rest assured, whatever the security council decides to do, you will be fairly compensated for your time and efforts.” He turned back to me. “I will get back to you as soon as the security council makes their decision. Until then, keep yourself safe.”
I nodded my head. “Thank you, ambassador, I’ll try to do that. Oh, and tell the boys over in R&D that their mech couldn’t even stand up to that explosion, and that I’m more pissed about that than anything else today.”
For the first time this whole conversation, he cracked a smile. “I’ll have to let them know. I don’t know how long it’ll be before the next iteration comes out, but I’m sure that your feedback is appreciated.” And with that, the call was terminated.
The captain gave a heavy sigh and started massaging her head with renewed vigor. “That was one intense conversation, thank the Tribunal that it’s over.” She then looked at me. “You should probably get to your cabin, it’s probably the safest for you there.”
“You’re probably right ma’am. I’m sorry things ended up this way.” I said with genuine regret.
She waved her tentacles dismissively. “Don’t apologize for the asteroid that happened to hit you.” That must have been a saying in the captain’s culture. “Aeva, would you be so kind to take Alex here to his quarters?”
The giant raptor nodded at the captain and placed their hand back on the desk for me to climb onto. “Thanks,” I said as I clambered onto their shoulder for the second time today.
We stood in silence as we took the elevator back down to the floor that we both lived on, and we happened to pass by the ruined mech, still lying where we left it. “Hang on,” I said.
Aeva stopped and looked down at me. “What? Why?”
“Just set me down on the face of the mech, I just want to check a few things. They complied and set me down near the opening that was my escape from it not even ten minutes ago. I clambered into the pilot’s chair and connected my phone to the central computer through a cord in the seat. With all of that done, I ran the diagnostics program one more time. The list of things wrong with the mech looked more like a barcode than an actual list, and from the looks of it, there was only a small chance that I could get this hunk of junk in working order again.
“What are you doing?” came Aeva’s voice as they looked curiously into the cockpit of the mech.
I sighed as I looked at my potential to do list. “Well, I’m assessing if it would be worth it to try and get this thing operating again. At least then I won’t be at risk of being crushed to death whenever I want to get food from the cafeteria.” I looked back at the phone. It would take some doing, but fortunately I have most of the materials I need, I would just have to get ahold of the fabricator on the ship to make what I don’t already have. I looked back up to Aeva. “I think I can get it working again, but I think I’ll need some help getting this to my cabin, among other things.”
They nodded their head. “Alright, I’ll be happy to help.”