Glance at a Corvette
He sat in his chair looking blankly out too the corner of the control room. His eyes staring motionless upon the blankness of the dark abyss. As the seconds went by his conscience passed from present to his own past experience. The cold hand of a man as he dies was something he still felt from time too time. The sounds of screaming in pain, and forceful push of a enemy army upon his wounded men. He stared into the eyes of the solider begging him not to leave him alone.
That day he had stood and ever since he had not forgiven himself. A a leader those memories are precious though many let them slip. He though held on too them so that risks that look tempting too him don’t happen. His entire naval career was based on this one experience that he could not help but live over and over again. In his early years he felt it was the trauma that every leader knew and respected. In his later years he realized it was merely something he should of let slip but his heart couldn't let that happen. His mind was forever burned with an image of his greatest mistake. His most daring mission that failed him and he had lost so many men from. That was 20 years ago and since then it has plagued him.
The quiet drumming of the machines all around him helped him fall tired even in the most intense of times. Yet, just before the old man drifted to sleep the door to the hall way opened screaming in pain against the walls. ‘I have to fix that,’ the old man noted. Coming from the hallway was a middle aged man with a uniform medals lined his left side right above his heart. He had a looked of urgency to his face and his swift movement pulled the man from his chair too a standing position.
“Commander, we have reports of unflagged corvettes moving too our system. Eta is at five minutes 43 seconds as of two minutes. Shall we fire or force a recall?” The man handed a folder with papers in it too the Commander looking worried at the slow reaction the commander had made. “Commander, we need to deal with this immediately. I am sorry for my urgency but we can not waste a minute we must have orders now. I can have a heavy cruiser there in 2 minutes thus the time frame is small.”
“Captain, respect your elders.” The Commander said back too him. He reviewed the information of the guild and the travel time of the corvettes. “Captain, has anyone taken any interest in checking where the corvettes are coming from? The speed at which they are traveling they must have a high leveled jumpgate. Since they are taking the action of coming too look at our fleet they must have reinforcements behind them. Attacking the corvettes will give them reason to hit us since right now we are semi friendly with the guild. I say send a corvette too the closest level 12 jumpgate you can find. If you find any fleet there apart from base defense we shall move to a different galaxy in a few hours time. We are on a level 16 jumpgate so I doubt they will be able to catch us if we move.” The Commander smiled and then paid close attention too the face of the Captain. The Captain was displeased in himself but also pleased a plan was in order and if the time frame had closed he need not worry.
The Captain took a quick bow, “I am sorry Commander.” Then he turned around wih urgency back through the doors too the hallway and escaped into the rush of traffic.
“This appears to be a interesting development,” the Commander said aloud to himself.
Story sent by Lord Ted for the AE Stories event.