Disclaimer: Still not mine, damn it…
Sorry it's taken so long to update, I just moved back to the main land and have been searching my ass off for a job, which starts on Monday. W00Ts.
Kyoshiro-Crimson-King- Much love as always.
Ebony Falcon and Blue November – Welcome and thanks for the reviews.
Now on with the show.
Aryah
.S.P.D.
"Wha…" Sky said completely lost looking to where Bridge had vanished too, then turning back to the door; it was just like all the other privet barracks. A few of the doors had, had a decal or some other sort of decoration, this one just had a black welcome mat with silver leading on the edges. "So what now?" He adjusted his uniform and wished he knew what the hell he was walking into. Waving his hand over the signal pad he waited for permission to enter, waiting a few moments he did it again.
"Oh what the hell." He said with a sigh. Looking at the auto open button he decided to give a try, unless it was locked on the inside there was not reason for it not to be open. "Well nothing else seems normal around here." Pressing it lightly he waited to see if it would open, to his surprise it did.
It slipped open with a quiet hiss like most other doors did stepping in he didn't instantly see anyone, it was an ordinary room. The two beds that were standard in most barracks were pushed together to make one larger one. A door to what he assumed was the bathroom, senior officers normally had there own, he found it strange that the bed was in the main area when he could see an open second door that should have been the bed room. Setting his things just inside the main door he made his way to the far room, he called out politely once just to announce his presents. Looking into the smaller room he expect to see a middle aged man possibly dead considering how many times he had made himself known. Instead he found a computer with a keyboard typing on its own while an early twenty-something woman sat with her eyes closed, head phones on and feet kicked back resting on the desk.
He stood there surprised, looking back into the main room and wondered with that guy Bridge was messing with him. Clearly this was the quarters of a commanding officer, but who the hell was this? She had on the same grey uniforms that everyone else in the Galaxy Forces, the top of her jacket was unbuttoned and revealed a standard issue shirt, and then he saw it. The collar of her jacket had gems like Bridges, except it was just a single brilliant red ruby and a silver Hawk holding olive branches.
'No way, no way in hell could she be a full bird Colonel! I can't report to this… this KID!' He thought backing up to the main room. 'This has got to be a sick joke, like hazing the new guy or something.' Sky busy in his mental ranting didn't notice the small trash bin next to the door till he knocked it over. "Shit!" Sweeping up the contents and righting the little red bin in one smooth move, looking back up he saw large brown eyes staring down at him. "Ma'am!" Standing strait he saluted smartly, "Lieutenant Colonel Schuyler Tate reporting Ma'am." She blinked at him a few times taking her head phones off.
"Ahheh, at ease Tate." She said with a sigh. "I see you found your way; I take it Carson showed you." She stole a quick look to the main door and then muttered softly. "Ah what the hell happen to your escort?" Running her fingers through her short blue black hair, she shook it. "This isn't good." Looking back at him she gave him a small informal salute. "Really at ease Tate, take a seat." She said nodding to a spare chair in the small room. He looked at her hard, before taking the seat.
"So Schuyler Tate, age twenty-six, first enrolled into the Galaxy Forces Academy at age ten, a full two years younger than the average cadet." She glanced back to the computer with a nod, "Yeah that's about right full file on you form birth to now. You should know the Forces have completed files on all there people. Especially those of 'special' interest."
"Excuse me?" Sky said on guard, standing he looked down on he with suspicious eyes. "Wait the information I was given said the acting head officers name was Nigel Lazaroff age fifty-two. And you ma'am you don't look like a fifty-two year old man." She looked at him with large eyes and laughed shortly, covering her mouth with a small hand.
"Well it's good to know not everything back home has changed." Wiping a laugh tear from the corner of her eye she for the first time a real smile. "Oh Tate, do you think they would really tell you that you were going to be under the command of a twenty-five year old woman?" Waving for him to sit, he did so warily. "Now then, before we can continue, I'm afraid I have to throw something at your head."
"WHAT?" He asked jumping to his feet and shaking his head, "This is insane!" He started out the room looking back when he head something heavy scrape, he barely raised his arm and then a pale shield just in time to stop the keyboard of the computer from hitting him in the face. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Sky barked outraged.
"Well now we've proved you are who you are supposed to be." She said smiling leaning on the door frame, with a wave of her hand the keyboard floated across the room back to the desk. "I'm very sorry about that Lieutenant Colonel… but without your escort from the docking bay I had to be sure of who you were."
"Well who the hell else could I be?" Sky asked keeping up his shield, looking at her through the blue have that was his shield. "What the hell is going on here and who the hell are you?" He just got more irritated when she just shook her head smiling.
"You could have been one of them, they can take the form of one of us but can't reproduce our powers, not really anyway. " She looked toward the main doors of her quarters then back at him. "Carson will be back soon for you, hopefully with information about where your escort was when they should have been waiting for you." Calmly she walked to the replicator in the corner of her room. "Would you care for something? I normally frown on using these things but it is a special occasion." Waving her wrist cuff before it, "Anything? No? How about coffee?"
He just nodded rolling his eyes and finally dropping his shield. "Fantastic, two coffees and two butter cakes." From nowhere two hot cups of coffee appeared with two slices of a rich yellow butter cake. "My mother recipe, you better believe I had it put into the data bank as soon as I could." Setting them on the table she waved for him to sit at the small diner style table as she took her own seat.
Sitting he looked at her questioningly. "Well you answered two out of three of my questions… mind telling me who you are exactly." He took his own cup taking a swig after she had.
"Ah yes… I suppose a name would helpful wouldn't it?" Clearing her voice she gave her best formal military speal. "Colonel Nigella Lazaroff, age twenty-five and commanding head officer of Sentinel Solaris." She took a happy swig of her coffee. "Can I answer anything else?"
"Probably, I can handle you being a full bird, but how can you be the commanding officer? Aren't there older more experience officers on board?" He poked at his slice of cake thoughtfully. "I mean no offence honestly, but how Ma'am?"
"Because… they all died." The Colonel said with a small sad knowing smile.
-.S.P.D.-
"We've been through five commanding officers, one on them died on the way out here. It was only a six month trip but he was old and couldn't handle the jump." Taking a small bite of cake she saw the startled look on his face. "You do know that Solaris was equipped with a one way hyper jump right? Now a days it takes the average being just over two years to get out here, a Ling'q can do it just one year, back then when this all started, it took over three
and a half years. So the U.N.G.F. decided to do something dangerous, stupid and completely unprecedented. They strapped a hyper jump drive to a multi-trillion dollar ship full off a crew that was eighty-nine percent genetically gifted… and of those gifted people ninety-two percent were under the age of eighteen." She gave him a critical eye watching him closely. "Do you get it Tate? Are you following me?"
"That's… Unbelievable, the Forces wouldn't do anything so reprehensible! It would be morally unacceptable to send children G.B.A.s or not. That would go against every law and rule in the book." Sky's eyes were dark looking into his coffee. 'I live by that book.'
"Now now Tate, if you think about it in the long run, it really isn't THAT bad. If you send Cadets, lower officers and enlisted into space with the skills and information to do what is needed then you have multi-generational Forces unit. And as long as you can keep them happy and away from such silly ideas like rebellion you're fine. And if something does go wrong you have the most dangerous kinds of people billions of light years away and hopefully will either get killed off or die one way or another." With a shrug she nodded toward the door. "Now how did it get serious in here? It's not so bad really. Oh, Carson is here." She said looking to the main door.