Eric Olafson, Midshipman 10

Part 10: FIELD CLASS

The first thing I noticed when I regained consciousness was the face of a blonde woman that smiled at me. She wore the white of the medical Service branch.” Good afternoon, Mr. Olafson. How do you feel?”

I closed my eyes for a moment and thought I might have dreamed it all; I felt fine and had no pain at all.

I sat up and said. “I am fine.”

A spherical read out established itself next to her and she studied it for a moment. “You had quite a few broken bones, third degree burns and a sizeable chunk of Duro-Plast sticking in your back; luckily it somehow missed vital organs and nerve centers. All in all nothing problematic and you are as good as new.”

“Captain Zezz. Did he make it?”

She kept smiling and answered.” Ask him yourself. He is right here.”

In a bed next right next to mine was the Shiss Captain and he too was sitting up. “I made it, Eric.”

“I am glad Sir. Do you know what actually happened?” I didn’t want to ask him about his brother Zuzzh because I was certain he was dead.

But he said, perhaps guessing what I was thinking. “Zuzzh made it too, but he needs more time in the Regen-tank. They grow him new arms.”

Zezz swung his legs out of the bed. “As for what actually happened I am as much in the dark as you.”

A new voice said. “Why don’t you let me fill you I then?”

Through the door of the infirmary stepped an old man in black uniform. He had five golden stars above his Admiral rings, the Admiral of the Fleet himself.”

I literally flew out of the bed and snapped in attention.

“At ease Midshipman, at ease.”

Elligott sighed looked around and then said to the Med Tech. “Can I trouble you for a chair or something, I rather sit for this.”

A chair was carried in by a marine a moment later. The ancient immortal sat down, tugged on his kilt. “It almost becomes routine now meeting you, Mr. Olafson. Not that the circumstances have been anything even remotley routine. It seems of all talents you have, able to turn up in the middle of trouble is foremost among them.”

Zezz scratched his throat. “It was my fault. I dragged him along, Sir.”

“True that, and I like to believe in coincidence Captain Zezzzzazhh but somehow I think if you dragged any other cadet along, you be back on Arsenal IV writing a Small craft report.”

He held up his hands preventing me or Zezz to say something and laughed. “I am kidding of course.It was me who send you to Tabernacle after all.”

Zezzh grunted. “With all due respect Sir, I think I if I had been with any other cadet, you would write my eulogy and that of my brother now.”

Elligott became serious. “Getting to know Mr. Olafson and seeing what I have seen, I agree with you. I was on my way to this facility because of the unusual. I came to this infirmary to fill you two in what happened and that is what I will do now.”

He produced his smoking device, I knew was a tobacco pipe and lit it. The Medic rolled her eyes but did not dare to say something to the ancient Immortal.

McElligott looked at her. “It is highly classified what I am going to discuss with these officers. I must ask you to leave.”

With a huff she left. To the marines that apparently were part of the admirals entourage he said.”Make sure this place is secure indeed.”

The tough looking marines, acknowledged and left the room as well.

McElligott waited till the door was closed. “As you know the space past Barrow System, was until recently controlled by the Galactic Council and off limits to us. “He paused and used a little tool to stuff the glowing material deeper into the pipe’s bulb, and then after he was satisfied with whatever he was doing he continued. “About five hundred years ago and near the Barrow system, one of the last big space battles against the Y’All was fought.

I am not sure how good your history is, but the Galactic Council led by the Kermac thought it would be a good idea to declare war against us; as we were severely depleted fighting those four armed monsters for several years, almost being defeated.

During that subsequent Intergalactic war, this region again was the sight for a big battle.

A damaged Union ship made an emergency landing on a planet that had never been surveid before. It was the third planet of what you all know now as the Arsenal System. After they landed to make emergency repairs they found something remarkable on that world. “He puffed a dense cloud of smoke into the room, almot disapearing behind it for a short second. Something that made us put every resource we had to secure that system for us, but that is a completely different matter. Getting back to the story at hand, the USS Seneca was tasked to closely survey this section of space as that area is getting busier in terms of traffic and make a detailed tally of the star systems. The Seneca found a drifting asteroid. Such deep space rocks we call wanderers or dark objects. These things usually go unnoticed as ships pass them in Quasi Space rushing to the next star system.

Such dark objects however are highly valuable. They can be developed into Trade Lane forts or in this case It would make a perfect Listening post, as it is very close to Galactic Council space.”

He made a grunting sound as his pipe went out, and he cursed and said something about inferior tobacco and put the thing back in the fur pouch he was wearing attached to his belt. “The Seneca found what they thought was a recently abandoned Kermac lab complex. Complete with an intensive collection of salvaged, mostly damaged Y’All ships and technology and two Y’All warriors, completely intact and alive in suspended animation.

During the actual Y’All invasion we never managed to capture a live Y’All. To make the find even more significant, very recently we fought Y’All in the Fornax Cluster. New Y’All, different from the ones we faced before. Smaller, more agile and more articulated but not as brutally strong or vicious.

To the misfortune of the Seneca, the base was not as abandoned as they thought it was. The Kermac knew of the base and tried to secure the things right under our noses and not too far from Arsenal sysem.”

He chuckled and grinned deeply.”To the misfortune of the Kermac, a very special Neo Viking and his Shiss mentor was not too far away in one of our new prototypes when they tried to prevent the Seneca to make off with this important find.

“I was informed about the incident and of all those involved in the incident, I knew Captain Zezz personally and consider him trustworthy and reliable.” He pointed at me.”And I do know you Mr. Olafson. Despite what I said earlier, I trust you as well and that’s why I send you to take the two Y’All to Tabernacle. We have the ones we captured form our recent fight in the Fornax Cluster there and planned to compare and examine them. “He tugged at his kilt in an absent minded fashion. “We have strong suspicions that the Kermac have something to do with the Y’All and their repeated appearance and recent events and revelations put those suspicions on solid foundations.

“What we did not know is that two Kermac Agents managed to infiltrated one of our most secure and secret Xeno Bio research facilities. Their mission was to monitor Union research and find out just how much we learned about their control and knowledge of that Warrior species. After all, if it became common knowledge that the Kermac had something to do with the Y’All invasions it would instantly turn every civilization against them, even those who are neutral now.

Current generations don’t know how wide scale and how brutal the Y’All invasions have been, and how many planets, civilizations and billions of individuals were destroyed and lost.

Including the Nul, the Shiss, Togar, Karthanians and countless others.” He had a grim expression on his face and I realized that he of course had seen it first-hand. To him 500 years was almost like yesterday to me.

He looked up and kept speaking. “The Kermac needed to prevent us from gaining any proof of this. As I mentioned they had two agents here and aparently for quite some time. They managed to turn the professor and controlled him with their Psionics.

Initial investigation shows that they turned Neuberger many decades ago during some science conference. He was their gateway into Tabernacle. When they heard about the live Y’All, the Kermac could no longer stay secretly hidden. Their intention was to steal the Y’All and eliminate all data we had collected so far. To this they needed three code keys and three Officers with Blue-Blue-Red clearance. With all three keys they would be able to purge all data and activate the base self-destruct, while they escape in a ship. This is why there are normally only two officers with such keys on installations of this importance.The professor and two command level officers were needed. You, Captain provided them with the third. They had to act before you left. They had no idea, did not even expect you, Mr. Olafson to have one as well.

“Thankfully this what if scenario never played out, thanks to a resourceful Midshipman who managed to raise alarm and make security aware of the situation. The Kermac had disables almost all door locks, but the fire alarm deactivated the lock-outs and the door could be opened.”

Zezz hissed angry “We know for sure, they have a device that controls the Y’All. Does this mean war?”

“No it does not. Everything will remain as it is for now. The Kermac do not know what happened to their Agents. They don’t know what we know and we have the device and can examine it.

What happened here has not happened. You are under strictest orders to tell no one about this incident ever. Unlike a certain other Admiral, the Union Council and I believe that the worst peace is still better than the best war and if I can do my part to postpone it hopefully forever then that is what we do.”

“Sir I understand all this. I am in the Navy long enough, but with all due respect. That midshipman went hand to hand with two Y’All and foiled the Kermacs plans, Sir. I hereby recommend him for the Medal of Honor. I am sure my brother Rear Admiral Zuzzh will agree and sign such a petition.”

The old Admiral laughed silently. “I saw the Vid feed and I have never seen anything in all my long life. Throwing Y’All warriors in unarmed hand to hand combat that is indeed a feat like none I seen. You defeated them and almost killed one.”

I gasped.” The Y’All wasn’t dead?”

“I am sure you would have managed eventually but they have two brains and incredible regeneration abilities, but that does not take away from your achievement.”

He turned back to the Shiss. “Captain Zezz, you are one of our best Captains and your recommendation carries much weight. I would grant him the Medal of Honor on your word alone, even if I hadn’t seen what he did but he is a second year Midshipman, due at the Academy very soon and what happened here will have to remain top classified.”

Elligott got up, was about to leave, but thought of something and turned around looking at me. “Midshipman Olafson, this is the second time your actions saved us a lot of problems. It is the second time you seem to get nothing out of it and I might appear ungrateful but I will think of something to have your heroism recognized, I promise.”

“I didn’t do it for any medals anyway, Sir. I hoped to prevent them from killing Captain Zezz and his brother and that I was able to do that is all the gratification I need, Sir.”

“Given your nature and special talents, Mr. Olafson I am sure we meet again and maybe then I can show you that true heroism and gallantry will neither be forgotten nor ignored.”

He nodded and then without any further comments left the room.

Zezz was quiet for a long moment then he said. “Eric, you earned the right to call me Zezz, forget the Sir and the Captain. You and I are beyond that and I give a hoot what regulations say.”

“Aye Sir, I mean Aye Zezz.”