Escaping My Shadows

The Gathering Begins

Once the war with the Chitoxan was over, humanity and other races once again began to expand outward. Star systems toward the galactic core were being explored and quickly settled. Most of the star systems are uninhabited, ripe for some human or non-human group to try to build a new life there. Some of the systems had, at one time, been inhabited. Prior to attacking Earth and the Earth-Alliance the Chitoxan had either driven out the inhabitants of the systems or had eliminated them. For those systems potential settlers are very cautious after they arrive, just in case the previous inhabitants or the Chitoxan had left some surprises behind.

To serve the rapidly expanding human and non-human settlements, space stations are quickly being built. The Achelous Station is one of those stations. Located equidistant from several star systems, it serves as not only a convenient primary hyperspace hub on the way to these systems but also hosts a joint security effort between Earth and several other like-minded races. Though only thirty percent of construction is complete and only forty percent of the necessary personnel have been posted, it is already receiving passengers and cargo. Commander Roque Mendoza, first officer of the station, quick walks down one of many corridors still under construction, dodging tools, materials, and debris. Fortunately, work has stopped for the day, otherwise he would be dodging workers and moving equipment as well. The commander feels like a hyperactive hummingbird as he flits from one construction problem to another.

A beeping from his wrist communicator interrupts his train of thought.

"Lieutenant Klausener to Commander Mendoza, you copy?"

The commander groans. "I wonder what she wants?" he mumbles. He has enough trouble dealing with the issues caused by all of the incompetent contractors trying to follow what the incompetent planners have ordered after reading the blueprints from the incompetent designers. Now someone from C&C needs him.

He raises his communicator to his mouth. "Mendoza here, What's up, Lieutenant?"

"Sorry to bother you, Sir, but since the captain is busy straightening out an inter-species policy issue I thought you'd want to be involved in this."

"What is this I should be involved in?"

"You familiar with the Phaethon?"

"The sleeper transport? The one carrying those Earth VIPs?"

"That's the one."

"Yeah, scheduled to arrive in five weeks, right?"

"Scheduled is the key word. They arrived two hours ago."

"Great, crappy ending to a crappy day," he thinks to himself.

He speaks into his communicator. "Seriously, they can't be here already. We don't have all of their quarters ready yet."

"I know. We're still processing them through customs and medical. However, I've got a rush on getting their quarters ready. We'll have to do some shuffling but I think we can get everything ready in a few hours."

"Great, thank you, Lieutenant. If you need any help with that let me know. I can give up my quarters if you need me to. You get this worked out I'll buy you a drink when we get off duty."

"Thanks, but that's not why I contacted you. I've got the captain of the Phaethon in meeting room three. I asked him why he got here so early, figuring that they must have left way ahead of schedule and the transportation authorities forgot to notify us via the hyperspace links again. When he told me how they got here so fast I figured I'd better get you to hear this. You ain't going to believe it."

"Okay, give me, uh, twenty minutes to put out the latest fire then I'll be there."

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