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“I trust, Captain Brooks, that you have a very good explanation for what has just happened,” Verena asked him.
She had appeared in his office via an augmented reality feed in front of his desk, projected by his system. It was almost completely convincing, only the slightest of blurring around the edges of her body.
Brooks knew she would not be blinded by pride or insult or annoyance. Anything he said would be analyzed dispassionately for flaws.
She wasn’t even angry; anger he could have handled better.
“I sent a mission to the Terris System,” he replied. “My best Response Team. They will investigate the last known position of Michal Denso’s cruiser and its current position.”
Verena asked immediately; “Why?”
“Because Michal Denso has spoken repeatedly of home. And to him, I believe that this means the Sunspot.”
“What is your reasoning for this?”
“Ambassador Kell feels certain that the Terris system is the home Denso is talking about, and it is our only potential lead – I will forward you my report on the meeting. Since they can’t go searching the entire system, they’re just going to check the ship and send some probes towards the star to get long-term readings on it, then report back to us.”
He sent the file, and Verena glanced away for a moment. “Hold, Captain.”
She looked back to him. “This suspicion of the Ambassador’s does not justify the risk you have put your team into, Captain – nor does it come close to justifying violating the exclusion zone around the Terris System.”
“Respectfully, Admiral-Doctor, it was my prerogative,” Brooks replied. “You had no team capable of performing this operation.”
“I do not understand why this was performed with secrecy at all,” she replied. “You could have told me.”
“Would you have let me?” he asked.
“Not on my current information, Captain.”
“I predicted as much. But this was my call.”
“It places your team in jeopardy,” she replied. “For medical reasons it was an unsound decision. How do you justify this?”
“I’ve invoked Executive Action Command 1.”
She shook her head. “This was unwise of you, Ian.”
“Nevertheless, it is done.”
Verena looked him over as if studying him anew.
She couldn’t have her feelings hurt, he thought. But she realized that she had misjudged him.
“My memories tell me that you will be honest when I ask you; do you truly believe that this mission was important enough to risk those lives? And while less important, to betray my trust in this way?”
Brooks felt a surge of pain in his chest as guilt gnawed at him. Going behind her back had wronged her, and there was no way around it.
As strongly as he felt he had chosen right, he owed it to her and to his team to question his own motives. It was not the first time he had done it, but he considered the facts carefully.
“I do,” he re-affirmed, both to her and himself.
She nodded. “I am no longer capable of anger, Captain, but I believe this situation would warrant it. As much as I trust your judgment, I feel that this was a pointless and foolish risk.”
He could only take her critique solemnly. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Doctor.”
“But let us move back onto the matter at hand; as you have said, whether I agree or not, this mission has been launched. And you believe it will give us some kind of vital information.”
“That is correct. We may learn nothing – I think that’s the likely outcome. But there is a chance – at least some chance, that it may be much more serious than that.”
“How so?”
He took a deep breath. “Denso’s connection to Terris, his changes, the fact that Kell says he is no longer a human. We know almost nothing about the Leviathan there since it went into the star. We also know nothing of their kind – how they communicate, how they travel long distances, how they reproduce. Or even if they reproduce. They defy physics as we know them in most ways.”
That piqued her interest. “And what is it that you’re afraid of, Captain?”
“That Michal Denso is not a man anymore. But that he has become something of a carrier for the egg of a Leviathan. And if so, if he turns into something like that . . .”
He trailed off. There was little need to describe the outcome of such an event.
Verena was silent for a long moment.
“I shall consider on this, Brooks. But I am not yet convinced.”
Her image disappeared.
Other Terrestrial 