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Blue Drop: Seeds of Hope Chapter 4
Back On Arume
Back on Arume Ekaril's ship appears in the same location in space it occupied on the Forime world but here instead of a lifeless pier there is a busy military base below.
"Attention Arume Fleet Control, This is Commander Ekaril on board Corvul requesting landing clearance."
"Request received Commander. Please hold position until further notice."
"Understood. Ekaril out."
A bit surprised that one of their ships in the invasion fleet had returned so early this event was brought to the attention to the base's co Admiral Kaniel who, upon pulling Ekaril's service record realized, "interesting, That's not the ship she left with over 5 years ago. I've got to hear the story behind this." The admiral then ordered that Ekaril be escorted directly to her office upon landing.
"Corvul, This is Arume Fleet Control, You are cleared to land on pad zero one five."
"Thank you Fleet Control. Ekaril out."
Upon landing four armed guards approach the the underside of the ship where an elevator descends delivering Ekaril into their waiting custody.
"Commander Ekaril, Admiral Kaniel would like to see you in her office right away. Please come with us."
"Of course. Lead the way.", Ekaril said.
-19-
Admiral Kaniel while waiting patiently in her office decided to look over Ekaril's service record while she waited. "hmm... Half a dozen commendations and no black marks what so ever. Not bad. Sure hope she hasn't gone and screwed it all up now.", she thought.
"Admiral Kaniel?", said a voice from no where.
"Yes, What is it."
"There's a Commander Ekaril here to see you."
"Send her in.", said Admiral Kaniel.
Ekaril entered and stepped just far enough into the room to be able to close the door behind her and snapped her sharpest salute. "Admiral Kaniel, Commander Ekaril reporting."
"Have a seat Commander Ekaril."
"Thank you Admiral.", she said sitting in the seat directly opposite the admiral's desk which is neat in empty of all but the essential office implements as one would expect of a career military woman. Not a flower or even a single hologram of a loved one to brighten the desk's surface which made Ekaril a bit nervous.
"So, Commander, Care to tell me why you've returned in a ship other than the one you left with over five years ago? It doesn't look at all well when a commander misplaces her ship let alone borrows someone else's."
"Of course Admiral", said Ekaril who then proceeded to tell the long story starting from the events on Kamioki Island and about a half an hour later she finished up with commandeering the Corvul.
Admiral Kaniel pressed a button behind her desk and the voice from no where said, "Yes, Admiral Kaniel?"
"Could you bring me a glass of water please."
"Of course. Right away Admiral.", said the voice.
"Would you like anything Commander", said Admiral Kaniel
"No thank you. I'm fine.", said Ekaril
Just then the Admiral's aid entered with the glass of water and said, "Will there be anything else Admiral?"
"No thank you.", said Admiral Kaniel and with that the Admiral pulled a little packet of pills from her desk drawer and washed them down with the water to ease the headache she got from trying to wrap her head around this story.
"I knew there had to be in interesting story behind your arrival but wow. I trust you have some evidence to back it up?"
"Of course.", Ekaril said and then placed the two data-chips on the desk and added, "These are the logs from Blue and Novaal and some of Shivariel's personal files detailing her plans for the thought condensing weapon."
"Well, Given the seriousness of these events I am going to have to bring this to the attention of Grand Admiral Cherael and place you under house arrest pending the out come of a hearing. My aid will set you up with some quarters. We'll try to make it something comfortable." Admiral Kaniel then pressed the button on her desk again.
"Yes, Admiral?"
"Could you find some quarters for Commander Ekaril please. And try to pick something comfortable please. Oh.. and call for a couple of MPs to escort the Commander to her quarters."
"Yes, Right away Admiral."
"I am sorry for the house arrest but given the event's described I'd never get away with letting you just float away."
"No, of course I understand completely .", said Ekaril.
"Thank you, I'm glad you understand. You're dismissed. You can wait outside with my aid for the MPs to escort you to your quarters."
-20-
Inside Ekaril's temporary accommodations the front door opened and Ekaril entered. One of the guards said, "We'll be right outside here so if you need anything just let us know."
"Thank you." Ekaril said then reading between the lines saw "We'll be watching you so don't even think about trying to go anywhere."
Ekaril gave herself the fifty cent tour finding one bedroom, one small bathroom, a modest living room and a small kitchen. "Not great but certainly comfortable enough for one person.", she thought. Then she opened the refrigerator door to find it well stocked with the blandest of military rations and wondered what she missed more Mari? or Akane's cooking? "Who am I kidding... " she thought, "Mari. No contest. I wouldn't care what I had to eat as long as I had her by my side. Heck I'd even eat her cooking."
Realizing it's now approaching twenty four hours since she last slept but knowing she can't sleep when she's hungry she grabbed one of the tasteless rations from the fridge and forced herself to eat with out even bothering to heat it up first. "It's not like heating it up is going to make it taste any better and I need to get to sleep fast.", she thought. After finishing the meal she tossed the container in trash and headed straight to bed.
The next day Ekaril woke up late in the afternoon and looking at the clock realized she'd slept for over twelve hours. Hungry again she headed back to the kitchen to force down another package of rations. On here way through the living room she notice a message blinking on the display wall. After tapping the message icon on the wall Admiral Kaniel appeared on the wall and said, "I've got some good news Commander. Grand Admiral Cherael has placed such a high priority on your case she shuffled her schedule around quite a bit to get you a hearing as soon as possible. It's scheduled for the 15th hour today, MPs will be there to escort you to the hearing at 14:30. Please be ready."
With that the message ended and the wall went back to it's bland grey color. "Oh CRAP! I've got half an hour." Ekaril raced to the bathroom and showered in record time then raced back to the kitchen to force feed herself another cold ration with out even bothering to get dressed first. "I can't have my stomach rumbling during the hearing after all." she thought then raced back to the bedroom to get dressed.
Now fully dressed in her dress uniform, the only clothes she brought with her, she looked at the clock again and sighed in relief. "Whew, 5 minutes to spare.", she said.
Five minutes later and right on cue there's a knock at the door.
"Commander Ekaril, We're here to escort you to your hearing. Are you ready?" She heard through the door.
Ekaril then opened the door and said, "Yes I am. After you."
-21-
Now in a large conference room Ekaril entered to find Grand Admiral Cherael sitting on the other side of a long rectangular table with Admiral Kaniel sitting about a meter to her left and another admiral she had never met before sitting to her right.
"Have a seat Commander Ekaril.", said Grand Admiral Cherael.
Ekaril sat opposite Grand Admiral Cherael and said, "Thank you Grand Admiral".
"This is Admiral Anameriel to my right and I believe you already know Admiral Kaniel to me left.", said Grand Admiral Cherael.
"Yes, and Nice to meet you Admiral Anameriel.", said Ekaril
Admiral Anameriel nodded and said, "Likewise."
"We don't want to take up too much of your time so we've already reviewed the ships logs and all the other data on the data-chips and the testimony you provided to Admiral Kaniel so unless there's something you'd like to add we can move right on to deliberations.", said Grand Admiral Cherael.
"Actually, Yes There is something I'd like to add.", Ekaril said and took a moment to work up the courage to say what she knew would not be received well.
"Yes, we're listening.", said Grand Admiral Cherael
"I feel I must urge that we call off this occupation and withdrawal. The forime are not what so many of us think they are. Yes they are technologically beneath us but socially? Based on there behaviors compared to ours over the past five years? They may well be our superiors in that regard..."
"Careful, Commander Ekaril. You're almost sounding like a forime sympathizer.", said Grand Admiral Cherael in an attempt to save Ekaril from committing career suicide.
"As well we all should be.", said Ekaril. "Look, I understand, we're facing extinction. But i also understand that conquerors was never something we Arume ever aspired to be. We have committed despicable acts out of desperation and I am one hundred percent certain that if we had just made peaceful contact and asked them for help they would have done everything in their power to save us. They're that kind of people."
"And you're willing to throw away your career for these people?", asked Grand Admiral Cherael.
"Career shmareer, I was ready to throw away my life for them. And almost did if it hadn't been for Tsubael saving my hide."
Ekaril paused to take a moment to regain her composure and said, "We can't give back the lives we took but the least we can do is help rebuild what we destroyed and if we do that I'm sure they will help us."
"Be that as it may, your asking the Arume government to completely reverse it's postion on this so I'm sure I don't have to tell you not to get your hopes up.", said Grand Admiral Cherael
"That being said, you've certainly given us a lot to consider so don't count on deliberations going very quickly and in the meantime I'l remind you that you are still under house arrest for the time being and we'll contact you when we've finished deliberations which may well be several days by the looks of things.", said Grand Admiral Cherael
"I understand.", said Ekaril.
"Very good. You are dismissed."
With that Ekaril stood and saluted here superiors and turned to exit the conference room.
-22-
Back at her quarters Ekaril opened the refrigerator once again and looked at the rations inside. Not able to stomach them any longer she floats to the front door and opened it to take up the guards on their original offer. "Now that I think of it there is something I could use if it's to to much trouble." she said.
"Sure, what can we get you?", said one of the guards.
"Some civilian food please... any civilian food. I don't care what it is as long as it didn't come from a military base. Please, for the love of all creatures great and small please get me some civilian food."
The chuckling guard replied, "hehe... of course. we'll round something up for you."
"Oh thank you so much. You've saved me."
With that Ekaril went back inside and sat on the couch and turned on the wall ,which is basically arume TV except everything is on demand and the word commercial does not exist in their vocabulary, and started browsing through menu's looking for something to watch to fight off boredom as she knew she was going to be there for the long haul.
A little while into some wildlife documentary she settled on she heard a knock at the door. "Commander, We've got that food you asked for.", she heard through the door.
"Oh thank god.", she said bolting to the door trying to keep up with her stomach which just might've gotten there first.
Ekaril opened the door and took the bag and said, "Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
"Don't mention it." the guard said. "I remember what those rations were like from basic training. No one should have to eat like that except maybe the enemy. It's near bad enough to be considered a biological weapon." the guard added laughing.
"I'm sorry I can't pay you now not having access to my money in here but please keep track and run me up a tab and I'll pay you back when I get this house arrest lifted. I have five years of back pay piled up so price is no object.", Ekaril said with a grateful grin.
"Oh, well in that case I'll get you something better next time. This time it's just cheap fast food.", said the guard.
"That's quite all right. It'll still be a thousand times better than the rations."
"You've got that right.", said the guard
"Thanks again.", Ekaril said before going back inside to eat something with actual flavor.
After eating and being surprisingly satisfied by such a mediocre meal Ekaril moved back to the couch in the living room to resume the documentary she started watching earlier.
"I wonder what Mari is doing right now.", Ekaril thought to herself not really the least bit interested in the documentary playing on the wall.
"Damn I miss her so much already.", she thought as she looked at the clock and realized, "It's been less than twenty four hours so far. How the hell am I gonna get through this without her."
Then she grabbed one of the couch cushions and held it tight as if it were Mari and said, "Oh god I need you Mari." with tears starting to flow.
Then getting a bit angry at herself she threw the cushion on the floor and scolded herself with, "Get a grip already! You're a Commander in the Arume military! Get a hold of yourself." and with that she stood up and stood straight as if standing at attention before a superior trying to regain composure and replaced the cushion on the couch and sat back down again trying to feign interest in the documentary on the wall.
"Crap if I'm reacting this way how hard is Mari taking this? ", Ekaril thought. "Damn, there I go thinking about Mari again. Oh who am I kidding. I'm not going to get her out of my head. maybe I should just let it happen. Just let myself hurt. I'll go to bed and cry myself to sleep missing her and get it out of my system and by morning I'll be right as rain. Yes, That's what I'll do." With that Ekaril turned off the wall and headed to the bedroom.
-23-
After a torturous week of intermittent sobbing missing Mari to death, her despair broken up only be the good food the Guard would occasionally bring her, Ekaril finally got word that the deliberations had finally concluded and that she would be escorted back to the conference room at 14:00 to hear their conclusions.
Later that day Ekaril entered the conference room and saluted her superiors before having a seat.
"Good afternoon Commander Ekaril."
"Good afternoon to you too Grand Admiral Cherael, Admiral Kaniel and Admiral Anameriel."
"Are you nervous?", asked Grand Admiral Cherael.
"Yes quite."
"I imagine you would be with your career hanging in the balance."
"With all due respect there's all a lot more than just my own fate on the line here."
"Fair enough.", said Grand Admiral Cherael. "Lets get started than. shall we."
"While it's true that you have committed several infractions of your own in all this it has been decided that you've acted in the best interests of Arume and more specifically in maintaining the good name of the Arume people so no charges will be filed against you and the house arrest is hereby lifted."
"That being said..." Grand Admiral Cherael paused to consider how to proceed with the next part. "Commander Ekaril..."
"Yes?..." Ekaril said with her recent relief turning back into worry.
"For what it's worth we did give your suggestion of withdrawal a great deal of consideration. And while we agree that perhaps a peaceful contact would have been preferable the damage is done and we can not risk a delay by an offended forime people refusing to help..."
"They're not like that!", Ekaril asserted.
"DON'T INTERRUPT!" Grand Admiral Cherael barked
"I'm sorry. please continue.", Ekaril said cowering.
"So there will be no withdrawal. I'm sorry I know how strongly you felt about that. However..."
"I am about to ask you to do something you will likely find very difficult..." Grand Admiral Cherael paused again.
"We've come to understand that we've been giving our Commanders and Fleet Commanders far too long a leash and it seems they've been running a muck so I want to send you back to oversee the occupation as Admiral Ekaril."
Ekaril's bright blue eyes opened wider than they'd ever been "Admiral?", she said.
"I realize that promotion skips a rank but I don't want any Fleet Commanders stepping on your toes."
"But why? Why me? Not that I'm complaining mind you.", Ekaril said.
"There is one purpose and one purpose only for this occupation and that's to collect forime DNA samples to find a way to bring Arume men back from extinction. Anything beyond that, bisecting them, experimenting on them mistreating them in anyway only serves to give the Arume name a black eye."
"It'll be your job to see that that doesn't happen. Keep them on a short leash and don't let them step out of line. They're just there to collect DNA samples and the sooner we solve our problem the sooner we can pull out and let them have their planet back. and I can't think of anyone I would entrust that task to more than you."
"So do you accept?" asked Grand Admiral Cherael
"Yes... Yes, of course." Ekaril replied happily.
"Excellent, now, as far as your ship. Based on your report and your logs it seems that Blue performed rather well. Would I be correct in assuming you'd like another like it?"
"Is there another one like it?" asked Admiral Ekaril
"As it happens They started production of another one a year ago and it's due for completion in about a month so you have that much time to hand pick your crew if you want it."
"Oh Yes! Absolutely!" Ekaril said with all the excitement of a kid on christmas morning."
"Right then. It's yours. You can even name it what ever you want. Oh and one last thing..."
"Yes?"
"When you get back to Forime if you could deliver a message for me..."
"Sure, to who?"
"Please inform Commander Tsubael of her promotion as well for me."
"Of course and please allow me to express her gratitude on her behalf as I'm sure she'll be as delighted to hear it as I am."
"Based on these logs it seems she pretty much single handedly fended off three other fully staffed ships. It seems to me she's more than capable and ready for command."
"I couldn't agree more. And thank you again. Oh but what of Novaal's Flight Chief Azanael?"
"I'll leave her in your hands. You're an Admiral now. Give her what ever promotion you see fit."
"Thank you Grand Admiral Cherael."
"Well, you better get to picking your crew. You've got two hundred positions to fill and a month to do it in. You are dismissed."
-24-
Admiral Ekaril was floating back to her quarters this time unescorted and realized, "Hey, I can go where ever I want. Why am I headed back to the same quarters I've spent every minute in for the past week. I'm so ditching this dump."
Before leaving the base she stopped by the quartermaster's office to pick up a currency card (which is like an ATM card except with a connector on the end so two cards can connect together to exchange funds) so she could access her backpay and then spent about an hour tracking down the guard that was posted at her door so she could settle her debt for the food and thank her one last time.
All business on the base settled she heads out into the civilian world, "First stop, Clothes shopping. No wait... Rent a Car, then Food shopping, then clothes shopping. Yes, that's the plan.", she thought to herself.
About an hour and a half later she returned to her quarters on the base and set the groceries on the kitchen table. She then opened the refrigerator door and took all the rations out of the fridge and dropped them right in the trash before loading up the fridge with real food.
"Okay, Now for the clothes shopping. I have GOT to get out of this uniform if I'm ever going to be able to relax.", she thought to herself. And after spending several hours picking out and buying more clothes than she can possibly wear in a month she headed back to her quarters on the base.
It took several trips back and forth from the car to the bedroom with all the bags of cloths and after that immediately got out of her uniform and showered and and put on something very casual resembling jeans and a T-shirt. Looking at all the clothes she thought, "Okay, so I got a little carried away. At least I had a little fun. Still, It would have been so much more fun shopping with Mari."
Looking at the clock she realized it took so long to get ready to go out there's just no time left in the day and it's getting late. "Oh well. Going out will have to wait until tomorrow. At least I can look forward to a good breakfast."
The casual clothes she put on felt so comfortable having been trapped in her own uniform so long she decided to just go ahead and sleep in them.
The next morning waking up depressed that there was no one to kick her out of bed, which pretty much described every morning she'd had on Arume so far, she moped her way to the kitchen and fixed herself a breakfast that only served to remind her of Akane's cooking which just reenforced her depression.
"Maybe the beach" she thinks, "Yes, I think I'll go to the beach today. A nice walk along the beach will do me some good.", she thought to herself, having become so accustomed to walking while posing as a human for so many years.
A while later she's walking along the beach a little too late in the day to catch the sunrise but still pleasant scenery just the same. She can't help but think "Wow, this would be so much better if Mari were here walking with me."
Just then she spotted a conch shell which reminded her of Tsubael and she began to realize it's more than just Mari she misses.
She misses all of her friends are back on Forime. She'd always been such a workaholic, she never really formed any bonds with any one on her home world and is now feeling like a bit like an alien on her own planet.
"This is useless. There's no way I'm going to have any fun here. If I go to a bar and get drunk I'll just wind up sobbing about my forime girlfriend which would no doubt not go over well. Even if I just try and relax I just get depressed. There's only one thing I can do and that's go bury my head in the task of picking my crew and hope that keeps my mind fully occupied until Blue is finished.
"Right then, That settles it. Back to the base." she decided. She took two steps and stopped and thought, "But not before at least grabbing a souvenir for Mari" and she ran back to grab the conch shell. "I was going to give her that one I found during summer break but Maybe she'll like this one better since it came from Arume."
Back at her quarters on the base she turned on the wall and started scrolling through personnel files to start filling the crew positions. The conch shell sitting on the low table in front of the couch was in constant view and a constant reminder of Mari but somehow in a good way. When she did take her eyes off the screen to look at the shell it brought a smile to her face and she looked forward to seeing Mari again and giving her the souvenir.
-25-
One month later Admiral Ekaril steps on to the bridge of the new Blue for the first time looking sharp in her new Admiral's uniform which has pants. Blue announces, "Admiral on the Bridge." and her one and only bridge officer manning Tsubael's former post jumps to attention to salute her.
"At ease Anzinel."
"Yes Admiral."
"Take her out.", said Ekaril .
Anzinel looking at the other two empty stations said, "Admiral? Aren't we still waiting for a Commander and a Navigator? I'm just a Gunner I'm not sure I can..."
"Don't worry, Blue is very forgiving. I'm sure you can handle it. And we'll be picking up our Commander and Navigator when we arrive on Forime."
"Yes, Admiral. Taking her out."
Once Blue achieved sufficient altitude to safely make the Shift back to Forime Ekaril ordered, "Full stop."
"Full stop". repeated Anzinel
"Blue, Open all inter-ship coms. I want to address the crew.", said Ekaril
"All coms open.". said Blue
"Attention all hands, This is Admiral Ekaril speaking. You all know where we are going. And all of you are fresh out of the academy and may be a bit concerned about facing combat for the first time and so far from home. I would like to take this time to assure you there will be no combat. The fighting on Forime was over very quickly and this tour is going to be a cake walk. Just do what you were trained to do and everything with go smoothly . I'd also like to add that this is my second ship of this class and I can say from experience that if you do have to go into battle this is the ship to do it in.
One more thing I'd like to say before we shift, While we are there none of your duties will ever require you to leave the ship but when I do grant shore leave I ask that you treat the forime with as much respect and consideration you would treat a fellow Arume with. In fact I'd encourage you to take every opportunity to get to know them. If you do I'm confident you'll realize as I have that they are not lower life forms in any way. I spent 5 years living among them and some of them have been the best friends I've ever had. That said, If i catch anyone physically abusing, verbally abusing or mistreating them in anyway you'll have me to answer to... And for those of you that just said 'Is she serious', i assure you I am. That is all."
"Anzinel, Initiate Transport."
"Yes Admiral. Initiating Transport"
Author's Note: BLUE IS BACK BABY! Wooohoooo!