Michael smiled at the sentiment, it was true, the Liberty was one of the most well travelled of all ships in the navy. Home was wherever they happened to be at the time.
“Increase power to main engines, lay in a standard approach vector.”
“Aye captain,” Eldathar replied, a smile broke out across the Solarians own blue tinged features, he was also relieved to finally leave that place, the whole thing had been a great wrench on him personally.
“Contact Charlie gamma base command and control, and request permission to dock.”
“Aye, sir.” Kinraid carried out the order with his usual level of light hearted professionalism. “Charlie gamma base confirms, we’re cleared for approach, ‘tey also say welcome back, Liberty.”
“Good to be back,” Michael replied with sincerity.
The matt-black hull of the warship, slowly glided into the small sub-orbital dockyard. Michael watched as Eldathar expertly guided the ship in, thinking that the small, cramped interior of the relatively remote facility seemed to close over them, as though protecting them, the thought gave Michael a measure of warmth as he continued to watch.
The interior lights played along the black and silver hull of the ship as it gently drifted further inside, highlighting the crumpled twisted port docking hatch, the site of the damaged inter-connecting corridor.
The giant searchlights continued to inspect the flotilla as they all slowly glided inside the facility in close formation, it showed up the horrific jagged rent in the Liberties aft section, a painful reminder of just how powerful those Dracos warcruisers really were. If they could do that to the Liberty, a typical E.D. F vessel stood no chance.
Finally, the small warship came to rest, as its starboard docking hatch clamped onto one of several terminals with a dull ‘thunk’, Michael breathed a final, relieved sigh; it was over.
A few hours later after grabbing some much needed rest, Michael returned to the command and control deck of the facility and submitted his official mission report to Commodore Valente, who thumbed through the information on the data navigator in his office.
“We took quite a beating out there, fifteen of the sixteen scientists and landing party dead, over twenty commandoes, five on the Liberty herself, another fifteen on the Eisenhower, as well as the losses of both the Eisenhower and the Copernicus.”
“Aye sir, total casualty count stands at three hundred and forty five, all told.”
“Well at least we managed to drive those damned Dracos back into their own territory again, how is Kathryn anyway?”
“She’s pretty shaken up sir, she has been through a lot on this mission.” The understatement of the year, Michael thought, but said nothing.
“I bet she is, poor woman. You’ve done one heck of a job captain, in very difficult circumstances, once again the Liberty has done us proud.”
“If I may sir, I have requested that Sergeant Heinrich Rachthausen of the 69th Sicarian guards be honoured with a posthumous citation for bravery. If it wasn’t for his sacrifice and leadership in trying to keep those around him alive, even when faced with such a threat as the Dracos, I don’t think we would have found anyone down there, sir.”
“Noted, I will take a look through the mission report in more detail with regard to that. If he fought as you say he did, then a citation should be the least of his reward. By the way captain, Admiral Mason sends his congratulations on your success.”
“Understood sir, we’ve secured what could prove to be a vital facility for E.O.C. A, I just wish it was worth it, because we have more than paid for it in blood out there.”
“Aye captain, that we did.”
A few hours later Nikolai and Kathryn had joined Michael as he sat in the stations restaurant overlooking the various ships berthed in the shipyard beyond, just as he had done before the mission began.
“Have you given any more thought as to your next posting?” Michael asked Kathryn who sat opposite him.
“Apparently I’m being assigned to the Archimedes as it heads out to study an unusually bright star forming nebula near the Epsilon system,” she said with a sigh as she ran her hand through her long dark hair.
“But you don’t want to go, do you?”
“The Liberty is my real home, always has been.”
Michael nodded knowingly, “my voice carries some weight with the admiralty now, I’ll see if I can get you reassigned.”
“Would you!” She asked, her face brightened noticeably as a big grin began to play across it.
“I can’t promise, but I will speak to Admirals Mason and Montrose, see what they say.”
“Oh thank you!” She leaned over and gave him a tight bear hug.
Michael smiled, “hey what are friends for, right?”
Nikolai nodded approvingly, as he took a sip of synthetic vodka, the non alcoholic stuff was pitiful compared to the real Russian spirit, yet out here this was all there was. “My next stop is back to Alpha centauri for a full debriefing from General Mc’ree. The old bull is getting a little long in the tooth now, he’s considering retirement, when he does I guess I’ll finally be promoted to a full general myself and be bound to a desk for eternity. I suppose that’s where all old warhorses go to pasture.”
Michael smiled, and made a move to leave, he had pressing business to attend to. “Well I shall have to bid you all a fond farewell, I have a matter I need to discuss with a certain Solarian governor.”
They both nodded as Michael left the grizzled commando veteran, and his former medical officer turned geologist to their conversation, and made his way down to his personal quarters aboard the Liberty. It still looked dishevelled from the mauling the ship had taken, and he had to clear several pieces of broken cable and detritus from his cracked glass desk, yet his personal terminal was still functioning.
He contacted Kerulithar again, to update him on the unification process, or lack of to be correct.
“Ah Michael; good to see you again, any news since our last talk?”
“Actually there is, the four prisoners who I had intended for you to use in talks with the Dracos are dead. They hijacked one of our ships and crashed it into the surface of the planet, they were killed attacking myself and the rest of my team.”
“That is a shame, though not all that unexpected. It would have been an amazing thing if the Dracos and our own people could integrate as one again. It seems like they are just not ready to let go of their bloodthirsty instincts. We will keep monitoring the situation, and at least it is good to hear that our brothers and sisters were not completely wiped out all those years ago, perhaps one day the Dracos will be ready to embrace the galaxy once again.”
“Perhaps,” Michael said, though in truth he had no idea when that day would come. “Thank you for your time and patience with this Kerulithar.”
“It was my pleasure, old friend.”
With that, he ended the communication.
Maybe the Dracos could one day change their ways, maybe the Solarians could in future re-unify with a long lost part of themselves, the truth is who knows what the future really holds for any of us.
What he did know, was that slowly but surely mankind was becoming an ever-greater presence on the galactic stage, they had now proved that they were not a tiny, weak, backwater empire any more. Through blood, through sacrifice, through pain and hardship they had finally earned their place amongst the powerful races of the galaxy, and were finally respected amongst the elite, and Michael smiled with that thought.
