Humanity Endures

Part 13 - Epilogue | Chapter 5

Once his minute had elapsed, Velan, required to rejoin the rest of the military and the war effort after his lengthy isolation from such matters, finally acceded to the hails from the leading cruiser of the formation opposite his own, on a verbal-channel; though using voices to communicate between ships was irregular and inefficient at best, Velan, being ignorant of fleet protocol in the wake of the aliens' invasion of the galaxy, assumed that it was a countermeasure intended to help prove the humanity of himself and his crew. Thus, he abided by it. When Velan established an audio link between his ship-station monstrosity, and the cruiser in front of it, the gravelly, worn voice of an aging man, one whose tone was marred with hatred, disgust, and insidious fear, emanated from the bridge's loudspeakers.

"Captain of the INV... Placeholder?" The man sputtered, almost incredulous at the name of the vessel he addressed "Please confirm your name, your rank — if you have one — and allegiance. While you're at it, waste no time in telling me why in the name of the Empire you've arrived at my planet in a half-destroyed Kalithiharian space station!"

Velan, his voice raw and weary from both the recent revelation and the near-endless speeches he'd had to deliver before that, replied, "My name is Velan, I am an Executive Captain of the Imperatorial Navy, and my allegiance is to humanity — more specifically, the Executive Command, as that is my branch of the Imperatorial Navy. I give this vague answer because my crew and I lost all comms just before Earth was attacked, and we were only reconnected to the rest of the galaxy once we breached into this system: we managed to miss the entire civil war, so we have no specific allegiance to either side."

Velan sighed as he came to the man's fourth question, stroking his sidearm and shooting uneasy glances at those he had shot just minutes earlier.

"The answer to your fourth question — why I show up to this system in a half-destroyed Kalithiharian station — is such a long and tragic one that it would really be easier just to send you my record for the past couple of days," Velan replied, seconds before he did what he had recommended, compiling his experiences and attaching them to a textcomm that he quickly sent the way of his Ihndrastarian counterpart; after a few moments, Velan heard the man utter under his breath an incredulous, "By Tehkria! How did... My..."

Half a minute passed as the Ihndrastarian reviewed Velan's experiences over the course of the past week, uttering a mixture of surprised noises and incomplete exclamations as he did so. Finally, the Ihndrastarian spoke.

"Fate has not been kind to you, but I will be. Not many could have survived what you and your crew did: after confirming your record, and after processing confirms your humanity, I will officially nominate everyone on your ship for medals and honors — no one can say that you don't deserve them. More importantly, I will support any request you put in for a new ship, because if this record is even half true, then you're certain to put it to good use. The local military-industrial command will send you to a dry-dock for medical support, confirmation of your humanity, and psychological evaluation; the station you've brought will be scrapped, or blown to pieces — it could contain trace amounts of alien corruption — and the losses you've sustained, I'm sure, will be filled with reservists. As for the civilians that you managed to rescue and keep alive, well, they will be sent to one of Ihndrastar's refugee centers — and yes, we're accepting refugees, a rare thing, but Cehlarxan ordered it done. If you ask me, this compassion will get us all killed, but it's his choice; he survived the battle of Nahmatiix, so it's not like anything will change."

The man began to cough violently and painfully; it was only about a minute until he could speak coherently again, though the instant that he could, he did, "I apologize. Those Traitors damaged my ship, and they damaged me, but that's no longer a concern now that Heralax's head is being digested. At any rate, as for the Kalithiharians, it's unlikely we can arrange for their transport back to their planet during the middle of a galactic war, especially while we're still busy reintegrating the Neutral League's fleets with our own — they might be absorbed into your crew, or they might, because of their experience, be given command of a reservist ship. Whatever the case, Velan, Ihndrastar is honored to host one such as yourself."