“Well, it’s good to see you,” Sheppard told his old friend.
“I heard you had an accident,” stated Commodore Avery.
“Yes, a saboteur tried to blow up a section of one of my starship refit stations, and I happened to be in it,” replied Braddock. “Luckily, it was one of my own facilities, and I have good security systems and sensors. My droids had detected advanced warning signs, and the explosion was contained partially with force fields. The saboteur’s ship escaped using some sort of masking technology similar to what the Varlon use. Afterward, fortunately, we didn’t lose much data, as some old holographic data crystals were used as backup for the facilities information.”
“We’re glad you’re alive and well, Admiral,” Avery said, “although you’re not the only one using the old holographic data crystals as backup storage. We have had to implement that at security central as a result of recent data losses to some of the station’s primary memory systems.”
“Yes indeed, it’s good you were not personally harmed,” added Sheppard. “Now what are you doing here, sir? I thought you had a command in the engineering branch when you do your reserve time.”
“Usually I do,” Braddock said. “However, due to the loss of command staff, I have been reassigned to an active command section. I do have experience in fleet command, though not as much as I would like, considering the problem we’re likely to face. You may not be aware of this, but I have been informed the Varlon are again charging forward and looking to take new territory.”
Sheppard said, “I have some knowledge, and Avery here has informed me of some things as well. I understand part of today’s meeting will be a briefing, preceded by a promotion session. It seems I will be receiving another star cluster.”
“May I be one of the first to congratulate you on your promotion to commodore, Bob,” Braddock said.
Just then, Prime Minister Desserix and Chief of Staff Orlond walked into the meeting hall. Sheppard watched as they moved to the central area.
“There will be some notables here today for a short period of time,” Brandon said. “The Betellians have sent their Ambassador Viess, who is also one of their admirals. He will be giving a presentation at this briefing. Since the Betellians are here only briefly and may not likely get a longer opportunity to meet with our prime minister separately, the PM decided to come here personally.”
Sheppard looked around the large room. Several other officers had entered, many of whom were non-human. Some required atmospheric modification and had small devices attached near their breathing orifices. Desserix himself belonged to the Rigezon Alliance another founder of the Alliance of Worlds.
The Rigezon had been in space somewhat longer than the people from Earth, perhaps by two centuries, and they were fair and generally honorable. The Rigezon were essentially an avian or birdlike people; they had a remnant wing structure but were flightless. All were highly pigmented, mostly in blue or greenish shades, occasionally mixed with oranges and browns.
Sheppard saw the prime minister’s chief of staff in the hall already. He remembered that Orlond was from the Epsilon Four Confederation, who had also joined the Alliance of Worlds as one of the founding members. They were humanoid in general structure and had light orange-colored skin. Orlond’s people had been spacefarers for a few centuries now, about as long as the Terrans of Earth.
Others were arriving—a few grand admirals, fleet admirals, vice admirals, and commodores of many different racial groups that comprised the Alliance. A few were humans. Sheppard recognized an old acquaintance, Commodore Tang, whose great grandparents originally came from China, on Earth. Some were here for a briefing and a few for both a promotion and the briefing, like Sheppard.
Two war-droids were stationed inside the conference hall. The hall itself was large enough for three hundred persons, but approximately a hundred were here today. The oval room had two circles of concentric tables, each with information displays. There was also a head table section close to the speaker’s platform where the most senior personnel would sit, and the rest of the inner circle was for high-ranking officers. The inner circle was arranged with one table for each grand admiral and those fleet and vice admirals in his group. Sheppard and any other commodores or fleet captains invited would be in the outer ring, where other lesser dignitaries would also sit.
Desserix and Orlond were at the head table, along with Defense Minister Narthag and Interior Minister Preston. The Betellian, Viess, arrived and made his way, along with two others of his people, to the head table.
The Betellians walked very gracefully to the head table with their unique, three-legged walk. They were non-humanoid, with red to orangeish-brown skin. They had trilateral symmetry, with three arms, three legs, and a three-sided, largish head, and were about two meters tall. They were known for having psychokinetic and telepathic abilities. A few were Star Knights, but none was in Sheppard’s present Star Knight Order. For communication, most Betellians utilized a crystalline translator that produced a voice that spoke in the established language of the Alliance of Worlds. They used this device to avoid invading others’ privacy telepathically.
Shortly after he had arrived, Sheppard had seen one of the Betellian ships with its trans-dimensional drive appear. No doubt, the Betellians sent a representative to arrange the particulars for this meeting. The representative had to be sent as it was determined that at least one of the Alliance’s main encryption codes was compromised, and communications could be deciphered. The coded communications problem was probably an inside espionage, according to snippets Avery had revealed in a specially secured conversation with Sheppard earlier in the week just after Sheppard disembarked from the Endeavour and was assigned officers quarters for his section at Star One
Sheppard and Avery moved to sit at a table with their identifiers flashing on the personal information panel. The meeting would start soon; Fleet Admiral Braddock moved to the inner circle of tables and sat next to Fleet Admiral Renhau and Grand Admiral Pendragon. Sheppard noted the lack of high-ranking officers seated at the inner tables and realized what Brandon had been saying about assassination targets.
Lord Garfield passed behind Sheppard on his way forward, nodded to him, and sent a quick telepathic greeting. He was one of Robert Sheppard’s professors at the Academy, and he was also a fellow Star Knight, although in a different order. Sheppard noted that his former instructor looked pleased with himself. Garfield moved toward the inner circle and sat at the table to the right of the head table.
Fleet Admiral Peregrine, who would be one of the primary speakers, made an entrance dressed in the formal Alliance of Worlds uniform of dark blue with sections of white trim. The admiral had many medal and campaign ribbons, and he was generally thought to be a physically striking member of the Rigezon people. Peregrine was considered one of the Alliance of Worlds’ best tacticians and was one of the few admirals Sheppard actually admired. Years ago, Sheppard had first served with Fleet Captain Peregrine after his promotion to lieutenant commander. Sheppard also had later served under then-commodore Peregrine as the starfighter wing commander of the battlecruiser Valiant, assigned to one of Peregrine’s task forces. Peregrine once had even turned down a promotion in order to stay out in deep space.
Now Fleet Admirals Peregrine’s fleet, the Third Fleet, had returned from a tactical engagement with the Varlon. It had not had a positive result; however, most present knew that most of the other fleet commanders would probably have fared worse against the Varlon.
Sheppard noticed that the room seemed to be quieting, especially after the Betellian Admiral Viess and Admiral Peregrine entered the hall.
Minister Narthag, of the feline peoples of Kyz and the Alliance’s present minister of defense, went up to the podium. “I am honored to be able to begin this meeting,” he said. “I realize that these monthly meetings do not usually have quite as many guests, nor does this group usually hold a promotions ceremony in conjunction with an informational meeting. However, some of those present for both the information in this briefing and for promotion