52,415 / 50,000
Chapter 29: All things...
The next morning, Robert and Shannon found a message waiting for them in the ship's computer system. it stated that the kegs had been placed in Ted's office, and they decided to get them after the day's work had been finished. The four pilots all met at the Alpha Squad boarding room at 0700, and waited until that squad left. Shannon had the computer bring Gertrude's Getaway and Gunship over first, and then to randomly select fighters to fill the remainder of the availible slots. As the dock slowly brought the fighters up from their storage bins, The four of them discusses the best stratagy to move ships over, and Robert made up the list of what ships would be docked where.
The ship transfer took several hours, and Robert was just getting out of one of the crimson-stripped fighters that came from the Pacifica when he saw a familar face in the boarding dock. It was Colonel Jackson. Robert drew himself to attention and saluted. "Sir! Bravo deck is at 80% at the moment. We'll have to take the power to it down and tap the plasma reacters for power, but the repair crews tell me that everything should be back to normal in three days." Ted nodded blankly. "No problem. You and Shannon got a few minutes in my office?" Robert remembered the kegs. "Yes sir! uh, sorry about the kegs, sir. They were delivered over night and that was the safest place to store them until the club reopens." Ted shook his head. "I don't care about that, there's something else we need to talk about."
Shannon had her crew take their well deserved lunch break, and the three of them went up to Ted's office. After they crammed in the small room, Ted had Shannon close the door and engage the privacy field. "First and foremost: Thank you for helping me out last night. There are no words that can convey what I feel, and 'thank you' do not convey the gratitude I feel." Shannon smiled. "You would have done that for me, I'm certain. And I know that Robert was hit pretty hard, too. He broke down after we turned in for the night." Robert nodded silently, and Ted continued. "Even though I'm not supposed to be here, I wanted to return to talk to you. I'm going to stay at the castle for a couple weeks and get it out of my system, and that means staying away from here. Robert, I'm putting you in command of getting the area used by Bravo back up and funtional. I also have the promotions list, and I've been authorized to let the two of you have a peek at it."
He handed them both a datapad. All the dead jumped one rank, except for Anderhall, who was promoted to a full colonel. Robert then saw the list of promotions for the remainder of the crew: He and Shannon had both been promoted to Lt. Colonel. Ted had been given a promotion as well, and he was now a Brigader General. Robert stammered. "I... I don't deserve this." Ted shrugged. "I don't deserve it either, but apparently keeping a droneship off the force that was singlehandedly taking out the command structure of the enemy forces apparently counted for something." He leaned forward across the desk, resting his elbows on the mess, and lowered his voice a little. "Frankly, we are all reluctant heros. I sure as hell don't want it, not after what the rest of my group did without me present. I was fond of Anderhall too. Best damn tactian I've ever seen, and a helluva pilot to boot. But again, that's in the past, and we all have to move forward. This means accepting the accolades that we have been given, regardless of why we earned them, even if the why or how is something we feel was unimportant." He straightened out and smiled. "That's all I wanted to talk to you about, but before you leave, I also want to hear how you managed to talk Jackson Miles out of four kegs of his best ale."
The next two weeks were a blur of activity. Between working on repairs to the ship, integrating new flight staff, and everything else, the time went by at a very rapid pace.
The fleet was cleared for hyperspace transit at the same time that Ted returned to take command. His hair was a bit more frazzeled and grey, but at the same time, his command presence was still there. The Fleet slipped into hyperspace and arrived safely at the Cignus Beta colony, the site of the original treaty and the first mixed colony of human and Tigereans. There the entire fleet assembled in the only structure large enough to hold them: the 3 kilometer long Space Assembly and Repair Facility, which was the only facility that would be pressureized to drydock multiple ships. There the Fleet would be checked and re-fitted as required, and it was also the location for the mass promotions and awards ceremony that everyone had been ordered to attend.
It was a grand ceremony, Robert reflected afterwards. Everyone had been requested to wear standard uniforms, and not dress uniforms. In addition, there were a large number of civilians present in the audience. On stage, the commanders of the assembled ships were there, along with the Fleet Admiral himself, who was wearing a simple, long grey clock with his rank insignia pinned to it. He was also holding a staff almost as tall as he was. Robert and Shannon were sitting in the first row on the left hand side as instructed. The openng was brief, and Tigra had stated it very well from the podium on stage. "Friends, honored guests, and fellow soldiers: This is a night about honor: about joy: and about celebration. We have assembled here to honor everyone who fought and gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives so that this galaxy may be saved. We have assembled here for the joy of victory, although hard earned. And finally, we are here to celebrate the sacrifices of our fallen, and to celebrate victory."
"Before we announce the promotions and awards, I wish to honor our fallen: As we read each name, we will sound a bell to honor their passing from this life, into the next." The next fifteen minutes were spent with Tigra personally reciting the list of the dead. James, who was standing next to him, had a mallet with which he struck a large bell that had been brought on stage for this purpose. After the last ring had died away, Tigra took a sip of water hidden the podium and continued. "By your act of being here tonight, you also honor our fallen, and I thank you for this. I stated that we are assembled for joy; The joy of a hard earned victory. I also stated that we are assembled to celebrate. At this point in time, I wish to present those present with their promotions and awards." He made a further announcment, and in short order there were a number of soldiers in a line being presented with awards and promotions. Oddly enough, the front row did not get called up first, but rather last. The reason was given by Tigra.
"Finally, as all of you are aware, there have been a small group of inviduals who posses talents that the majority do not. These indivuduals choose to utilize their talents in order to bring this war to a much quicker close then anyone else may have thought. I wish to honor those people now." Robert and Shannon found themselves being asked to stand up and to proceed on stage along with 30 other individuals. They proceeded to the stage, and turned to face the audience. "These people before you-" Tigra waved his paw at the group on stage- "are directly responsible for providing the Alliance with the means of defeating the Shivan threat. Between their research, their abilities, and their innovation, we defeated an enemy that not only threatened our system, but all life in ths galaxy. While I realize that no medal, no promotion could show how much we owe in gratitude, I would like to ask that we try to show them with our appluase." The audience erupted into a mass of cheering, while Tigra, James, and Bear turned to the group and bowed deep and low. The group whispered to each other quickly, and in return they bowed back, and started applauding as well. Tigra then announced each person in the group, and while the audience cheered, presented them with their promotions and several medals. Each person then returned to their seat, except for Robert and two others one humand and one tigerean, who were last to be called. Tigra paused at this point. "The remaining three on stage are the individuals directly responsible for the systematic elimination of the Shivan capital fleet far above and beyond what the Alliance could hope to manage, by providing the prior group with the energy to use their talents and abilities to maximum effect. Without these three, I daresay that we would not be here at all." Robert realized that these were the other two wellsprings that Tigra had mentioned when he was being trained. Before he got a change to ask them their names, Tigra was bowing to them and the audience was cheering again. After the crowd had calmed down, Tigra read their names. "Major Jon Andrew, please come forward." The other human walked forward, and received his promotion to Colonel and the various medals of honor. "Major Ha'neeth Warstar, please come forward." The Tigerean came up and bowed to him. He too, was promoted to Colonel and given a variety of medals. "And last, but certainly not least, Major Robort Corlo." Robert walked up to Tigra and was about to salute and bow. "No Major. We salute and bow to you." And at that, the Three saluted him and bowed.
The rest of the ceremony was somewhat downhill: Robert was promoted to Colonel, and he had a case with a handful of ribbons and medals in it. After the ceremony was over, he and Shannon were milling around when several people came up to them. Two of them were Shannon's mother and father. Surprisingly, They turned out to be very 'with it' folks who not only know what she was, but did not care that she was getting married to a were-bear. "We knew when she first told us, before she discovered that you were a wellspring. We were fine with it then, and we are still fine with it now," they had said. Another person that came up to them turned out to be Jackson Miles. "'course I had to come up here! Biggest event of my life? I'm not missing it for the world!" He leaned in closer. "you get a chance to tap those kegs yet, laddy?" Robert shook his head. "No sir, they spent most of the time in Ted's office waiting for the club to re-open. And now that we are in drydock, it'll be longer, I'll wager." Jackson got an evil look on his face. "I've got an idea. Let's go." The htree of them managed to sneak away from the party, and shortly came back with the kegs on a dolly, with the equipment to tap them and several stacks of plastic cups. They were stopped by the guards, who suddenly were overridden by Tigra when he found the errent wellspring. "So THAT's where you three snuck off to! And a capital idea, I must say."
The morning after was not so bad, Robert remarked. He still had no idea how he and Shannon managed to end up back in their cabin, nor did he care. The rest of the morning was spent packing up for the three weeks of shore leave. Shannon's parents had a summer house that they said Shannon and Robert could use, and as they arrived, they saw the most beatiful sunset that they had seen in a long time.
~- FIN -~
2036 / 1667
The next morning, Robert and Shannon found a message waiting for them in the ship's computer system. it stated that the kegs had been placed in Ted's office, and they decided to get them after the day's work had been finished. The four pilots all met at the Alpha Squad boarding room at 0700, and waited until that squad left. Shannon had the computer bring Gertrude's Getaway and Gunship over first, and then to randomly select fighters to fill the remainder of the availible slots. As the dock slowly brought the fighters up from their storage bins, The four of them discusses the best stratagy to move ships over, and Robert made up the list of what ships would be docked where.
The ship transfer took several hours, and Robert was just getting out of one of the crimson-stripped fighters that came from the Pacifica when he saw a familar face in the boarding dock. It was Colonel Jackson. Robert drew himself to attention and saluted. "Sir! Bravo deck is at 80% at the moment. We'll have to take the power to it down and tap the plasma reacters for power, but the repair crews tell me that everything should be back to normal in three days." Ted nodded blankly. "No problem. You and Shannon got a few minutes in my office?" Robert remembered the kegs. "Yes sir! uh, sorry about the kegs, sir. They were delivered over night and that was the safest place to store them until the club reopens." Ted shook his head. "I don't care about that, there's something else we need to talk about."
Shannon had her crew take their well deserved lunch break, and the three of them went up to Ted's office. After they crammed in the small room, Ted had Shannon close the door and engage the privacy field. "First and foremost: Thank you for helping me out last night. There are no words that can convey what I feel, and 'thank you' do not convey the gratitude I feel." Shannon smiled. "You would have done that for me, I'm certain. And I know that Robert was hit pretty hard, too. He broke down after we turned in for the night." Robert nodded silently, and Ted continued. "Even though I'm not supposed to be here, I wanted to return to talk to you. I'm going to stay at the castle for a couple weeks and get it out of my system, and that means staying away from here. Robert, I'm putting you in command of getting the area used by Bravo back up and funtional. I also have the promotions list, and I've been authorized to let the two of you have a peek at it."
He handed them both a datapad. All the dead jumped one rank, except for Anderhall, who was promoted to a full colonel. Robert then saw the list of promotions for the remainder of the crew: He and Shannon had both been promoted to Lt. Colonel. Ted had been given a promotion as well, and he was now a Brigader General. Robert stammered. "I... I don't deserve this." Ted shrugged. "I don't deserve it either, but apparently keeping a droneship off the force that was singlehandedly taking out the command structure of the enemy forces apparently counted for something." He leaned forward across the desk, resting his elbows on the mess, and lowered his voice a little. "Frankly, we are all reluctant heros. I sure as hell don't want it, not after what the rest of my group did without me present. I was fond of Anderhall too. Best damn tactian I've ever seen, and a helluva pilot to boot. But again, that's in the past, and we all have to move forward. This means accepting the accolades that we have been given, regardless of why we earned them, even if the why or how is something we feel was unimportant." He straightened out and smiled. "That's all I wanted to talk to you about, but before you leave, I also want to hear how you managed to talk Jackson Miles out of four kegs of his best ale."
The next two weeks were a blur of activity. Between working on repairs to the ship, integrating new flight staff, and everything else, the time went by at a very rapid pace.
The fleet was cleared for hyperspace transit at the same time that Ted returned to take command. His hair was a bit more frazzeled and grey, but at the same time, his command presence was still there. The Fleet slipped into hyperspace and arrived safely at the Cignus Beta colony, the site of the original treaty and the first mixed colony of human and Tigereans. There the entire fleet assembled in the only structure large enough to hold them: the 3 kilometer long Space Assembly and Repair Facility, which was the only facility that would be pressureized to drydock multiple ships. There the Fleet would be checked and re-fitted as required, and it was also the location for the mass promotions and awards ceremony that everyone had been ordered to attend.
It was a grand ceremony, Robert reflected afterwards. Everyone had been requested to wear standard uniforms, and not dress uniforms. In addition, there were a large number of civilians present in the audience. On stage, the commanders of the assembled ships were there, along with the Fleet Admiral himself, who was wearing a simple, long grey clock with his rank insignia pinned to it. He was also holding a staff almost as tall as he was. Robert and Shannon were sitting in the first row on the left hand side as instructed. The openng was brief, and Tigra had stated it very well from the podium on stage. "Friends, honored guests, and fellow soldiers: This is a night about honor: about joy: and about celebration. We have assembled here to honor everyone who fought and gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives so that this galaxy may be saved. We have assembled here for the joy of victory, although hard earned. And finally, we are here to celebrate the sacrifices of our fallen, and to celebrate victory."
"Before we announce the promotions and awards, I wish to honor our fallen: As we read each name, we will sound a bell to honor their passing from this life, into the next." The next fifteen minutes were spent with Tigra personally reciting the list of the dead. James, who was standing next to him, had a mallet with which he struck a large bell that had been brought on stage for this purpose. After the last ring had died away, Tigra took a sip of water hidden the podium and continued. "By your act of being here tonight, you also honor our fallen, and I thank you for this. I stated that we are assembled for joy; The joy of a hard earned victory. I also stated that we are assembled to celebrate. At this point in time, I wish to present those present with their promotions and awards." He made a further announcment, and in short order there were a number of soldiers in a line being presented with awards and promotions. Oddly enough, the front row did not get called up first, but rather last. The reason was given by Tigra.
"Finally, as all of you are aware, there have been a small group of inviduals who posses talents that the majority do not. These indivuduals choose to utilize their talents in order to bring this war to a much quicker close then anyone else may have thought. I wish to honor those people now." Robert and Shannon found themselves being asked to stand up and to proceed on stage along with 30 other individuals. They proceeded to the stage, and turned to face the audience. "These people before you-" Tigra waved his paw at the group on stage- "are directly responsible for providing the Alliance with the means of defeating the Shivan threat. Between their research, their abilities, and their innovation, we defeated an enemy that not only threatened our system, but all life in ths galaxy. While I realize that no medal, no promotion could show how much we owe in gratitude, I would like to ask that we try to show them with our appluase." The audience erupted into a mass of cheering, while Tigra, James, and Bear turned to the group and bowed deep and low. The group whispered to each other quickly, and in return they bowed back, and started applauding as well. Tigra then announced each person in the group, and while the audience cheered, presented them with their promotions and several medals. Each person then returned to their seat, except for Robert and two others one humand and one tigerean, who were last to be called. Tigra paused at this point. "The remaining three on stage are the individuals directly responsible for the systematic elimination of the Shivan capital fleet far above and beyond what the Alliance could hope to manage, by providing the prior group with the energy to use their talents and abilities to maximum effect. Without these three, I daresay that we would not be here at all." Robert realized that these were the other two wellsprings that Tigra had mentioned when he was being trained. Before he got a change to ask them their names, Tigra was bowing to them and the audience was cheering again. After the crowd had calmed down, Tigra read their names. "Major Jon Andrew, please come forward." The other human walked forward, and received his promotion to Colonel and the various medals of honor. "Major Ha'neeth Warstar, please come forward." The Tigerean came up and bowed to him. He too, was promoted to Colonel and given a variety of medals. "And last, but certainly not least, Major Robort Corlo." Robert walked up to Tigra and was about to salute and bow. "No Major. We salute and bow to you." And at that, the Three saluted him and bowed.
The rest of the ceremony was somewhat downhill: Robert was promoted to Colonel, and he had a case with a handful of ribbons and medals in it. After the ceremony was over, he and Shannon were milling around when several people came up to them. Two of them were Shannon's mother and father. Surprisingly, They turned out to be very 'with it' folks who not only know what she was, but did not care that she was getting married to a were-bear. "We knew when she first told us, before she discovered that you were a wellspring. We were fine with it then, and we are still fine with it now," they had said. Another person that came up to them turned out to be Jackson Miles. "'course I had to come up here! Biggest event of my life? I'm not missing it for the world!" He leaned in closer. "you get a chance to tap those kegs yet, laddy?" Robert shook his head. "No sir, they spent most of the time in Ted's office waiting for the club to re-open. And now that we are in drydock, it'll be longer, I'll wager." Jackson got an evil look on his face. "I've got an idea. Let's go." The htree of them managed to sneak away from the party, and shortly came back with the kegs on a dolly, with the equipment to tap them and several stacks of plastic cups. They were stopped by the guards, who suddenly were overridden by Tigra when he found the errent wellspring. "So THAT's where you three snuck off to! And a capital idea, I must say."
The morning after was not so bad, Robert remarked. He still had no idea how he and Shannon managed to end up back in their cabin, nor did he care. The rest of the morning was spent packing up for the three weeks of shore leave. Shannon's parents had a summer house that they said Shannon and Robert could use, and as they arrived, they saw the most beatiful sunset that they had seen in a long time.
~- FIN -~
2036 / 1667