[Captain Nathaniel Brand]
The routine melancholic silence of overseeing the colony’s progress was interrupted by a much anticipated urgent notification, notifying me of Pioneer-233’s return. Avalon’s excursion lasted far longer than either of us estimated, and I had been apprehensive about reaching out to him for fear of compromising his cover. I wasted no time in signaling the hangar to prepare for docking, overseeing the process with the surveillance system.
I was taken by surprise when two people exited the ship. One was the tin man I’d expected to see, but following behind him was an alien passenger that I hadn’t been informed of. I recognized them as a Moqango from the information package supplied by the Meldren, but it’d been detailed that they’re an extremely sparse race. Even more surprising was that, instead of the hangar crew raising a concern and contacting me on how to proceed, they continued with offloading and escorting as though this had been expected. I hadn’t given out orders on where they should be taken, yet their destination had already been decided.
“...Avalon?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“You gave out orders without my permission?”
Avalon operated under a specific set of rules we had determined and agreed upon during his official recognition as a member of this colonization. One of the most important rules outlined was that Avalon would not communicate with the crew without my permission. Now he’d broken the rule and wouldn’t respond to my query.
“Avalon, speak to me. Why did the mission take so long? Who is that alien?”
“...The alien seems to be a close friend of Pioneer Dominique. The two refused immediate extraction in place of their own goals on the planet, forcing me to cover for them during the operation. They located and razed a hidden facility, though Dominique won’t tell me what was in it.”
“And why did you send them straight to the isolated quarters?”
“Captain…please view this recording.”
The live feed of the hangar was replaced with a video depicting an overhead view of thick jungle. There were hundreds of highlights along the trees marking the locations of Grahtonian soldiers, all facing towards the cliff side that Dominique emerged from. It seemed like they initially tried to communicate with him, but he made an example of the speaker, getting showered with bullets in the process.
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Sloppy work, Dominique…
The ensuing footage was a story I knew all too well. My time in service had made me a witness to multiple mental breakdowns, sometimes with dangerous results, depending on what the person had access to. None of those people ever had quite the implant licensing tier that Dominique has, nor were the victims of their outbursts so… flimsy, but the situation was of the same nature. The question that plagued me was why. Dominique was a headstrong individual, so something terrible must have happened in that facility for him to crack like this. Did he not disclose it to Avalon due to a lack of trust?
“Cyborgs above a certain licensing tier have failsafes installed to help mitigate catastrophic outcomes. Why didn’t you use them to control the situation?”
“Pioneer Dominique is able to resist my signals and shut me out, Captain. It’s completely unprecedented, but he has a presence over his own mind, as if he were a sentient machine like myself. We nearly fought each other when I first reached out to him.”
I internally sighed. Someone breaking their own failsafes would have caused system-wide panic back home, but out here it was just a reality I would have to work with. Control over the situation was constantly slipping further out of my sole grasp, despite my position as Captain. Now the two most key individuals in my command were both displaying unruly behavior and aggression towards each other.
I was exceedingly busy already and didn’t have time to act as a chaperone. In less than an hour, I would be attending a meeting to discuss the possibility of Humanity’s second alliance on the galactic stage. This time, however, the other party was a nation in active conflict with the Grahtonians. They had gone as far as pushing their frontline with the Grahtonians in a losing trade to pull away the blockade on this system so the meeting could be arranged. The last thing I needed was an accident on the ship while I was planetside.
“I don’t have time to deal with this right now. Prepare my lander for me and, while I’m gone, do what you can to mend your relationship with Dominique.”
“Captain, that’s absurd! He’s the one that initially showed aggression and made the mission difficult-”
“At least be professional, Avalon. It doesn’t matter if it’s unfair, you two are going to be working together by necessity! There are too many things going on for me to treat you two like children.
…
And while you’re at it, get that alien evaluated and have Dominique see a therapist. I could do with a reduction in unknown variables every now and then…”