4 Chapter 4

After what seemed like ages, we finally finished explaining. Commander Tres paused and turned to us.

"Did you make sure to destroy the base?".

Dervan nodded

"Yes sir"

"Good, get ready for a meeting".

Then he glanced at Julin and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"And make sure she gets a bath".

I watched him walk away and released the breath I didn't realise I was holding.

Sareba was the first to break the silence

"I'm so glad I didn't have to explain why she is tied up".

I grinned

"Me too, that would have been so awkward".

Then she started fidgeting

"Umm, guys, you see I've got this project that I have to finish before the meeting, so bye". And with those parting words she quickly walked away.

I looked at Dervan and pointed to a fuming Julin.

"Sorry bud, but you're on your own".

And I took off, ignoring his desperate pleas for help. Poor Dervan Julin is going to give him the talking to of his life.

I headed off to my room to change out of my mission suit so I could get to the meeting. I guess it's time to explain what all this is about.

You see this is an order, The Intergalactic Space System Order to be exact, we are a group of soldiers from around the cosmos that is dedicated to the protection of the universe blah blah blah, stuff like that, I really didn't listen to the orientation video. So since the universe is a big mass of space, the order normally allocates several galaxies under the care of certain individuals such as our dear Commander Tres, unfortunately for you to qualify for the position, you must have reached rank 85 and above, I know right, ridiculous, the highest rank so far is rank 137. You climb ranks by the number of your merits.

Right now I'm on rank 19, joined the force five years ago, kept me on the bench for two years one more mission and I'm going to rank 20.

I stepped out of my room and spotted Rue, my roommate one of the few humans on the ship.

"Rue!"

She turned around looking for who called her when she spotted me she smiled and waved.

Blonde hair, 5"3, Rosy red lips, Cobalt blue eyes and the perfect figure every girl wished they had. I mentally slapped myself.

Snap out of it, snap out of it.

I jogged towards her spot and she hugged me.

"Silena, you're back".

"Yeah, I missed you too". I said while patting her back.

We broke away and started walking to the meeting.

"Is it true?"

I looked at her

"What is true?".

She sighed

"What you guys did to Julin?".

I shrugged

"Well we originally thought of leaving her behind and saying that she died, but Sareba didn't agree with us, so we just went along with leaving her that way".

She clapped her hands

"I would have loved it if you want with plan A, but anyways that should teach her lesson".

"Tell me about it". I murmured

We got to the Strategic Planning room aka the war room, when I entered everyone started murmuring, sometimes I forget how news travels fast these days, I ignored everyone and took a seat between Sareba and Rue, while Dervan and a still angry Julin sat at the other side of the table, since the Commander was not yet around I caught up on everything that I missed while I was on my solo mission, I'm still angry at Commander for sending me on that mission alone, with no definite backup.

I looked around, the head of all the sections were present as always as well as their assistants, on a normal day we aren't supposed to attend this type of meetings, but because most of the agenda's on our mission, we are entitled just this once.

Just then Commander Tres entered in all his glory, note the sarcasm, by all his glory, I mean the door was opened for him and he entered with his cape flying behind him and looking like a prince from those fairy tales they tell back at home, well used to tell, after that nuclear war things were never the same, anyways that's all in the past now. We all stood up to greet him, he walked over to the seat at the head and sat, he gestured for us to have our seat.

He put his hands under his chin and cleared his throat. "We all know the motion behind this meeting, is the mission that one of our squads' went on recently to Planet 28, though it has been a fact that the planet has been desolate for years now, with only a few primate species, it was recently that we just got intel, that it is in fact, a base for hostiles. So a squad was dispatched to find this base and destroy it, the mission itself was a success".

"But.... we also got information that there is a whole that there is a whole army of hostiles headed for the nearest base, which is ours...". The room broke out in murmurs, Commander Tres held up his  hands for silence. "Which is why we will be sending out a squad to ask for troops at the HQ, since we have not yet recovered from the last war which depleted our resources". I rolled my eyes, this was obviously not his plan, no offence to him, but, he couldn't have thought out all the details by himself. There were some nods of agreement at this. Commander Tres leaned back in his seat and continued.

"There will be a representative from each section  as well as the squad that went on the mission, if there are any objections please come forward". No one came.

"Okay then, all heads please submit the names of your representative later in the day, meeting closed". And with that he stood up and left the room. Sareba leaned to me, "We are going to the HQ, The HQ, oooh, I'm so excited".

I waved her off, "Yeah, yeah, but did you notice that he didn't say anything about the spy". Sareba frowned "That's true, but maybe he didn't want to us to panic, I mean, we already got the news that there's a whole army after us, just imagine announcing that there is a spy in our midst too".  Now that I heard it, it does make sense. I turned to Rue who was in a conversation with someone, ",I want to catch up with Dervan, so I won't be heading back immediately, just in case". She nodded and went back to her conversation.

Sareba and I walked over to where he was standing by the hallway. Sareba put her hands on his shoulders, "So, you ready for another trip". He snorted, "By saying trip, you make it sound like a vacation".

"Well it is, going to the HQ sounds like a vacation to me, have you ever been there, I heard it's like a city made of glass, except, it's actually a ship and not a city and it's rumored that there's over 5.8 million species living on it, including species that are endangered or said to be extinct, that means I might actually be able to meet a Miriean, my teacher always said they were extinct". she ranted.

Before she could continue, I cut her off, "Anyways, let's head over to commander's office, I heard we are supposed to leave today".

Dervan looked at me incredulously "Today?, isn't that too fast".

"Of course not". Sareba said before I could reply, "Didn't you hear, there is a whole army after us, we need backup as soon as possible".

He sighed "I guess so, it's just that I wanted to finish a project I was working on before we left and it's really important".

"Well, you can carry it along, since we are going to the HQ, they would have all the parts you would need and just in case you can carry spares along". I offered.

"Yeah, sure, let's go pack our bags and meet up at the docking port". I nodded and turned, "See you in ten". I shouted over my shoulder dragging Sareba along.

"Come on, how may things do you want to pack, we are just going for a few weeks, we are going to be late". I complained.

"Haven't you heard of packing for every emergency, we need to be prepared". She said.l It was like Sareba wanted to pack the whole ship along and technically she could, because the luggage bags no matter how small they look like would be able to pack all the items in the ship, I never really bothered to ask if there was a limit because I am a light traveler. She locked the bag into place, "There, I'm done now quit whining and let's go". I huffed but obediently carried my bag and followed her to the docking port, when we got there half of the crew were present; there was Amelia from the interplanetary exchange Section, Jedar from Species Relation Section and a few others that I didn't recognize they were all boarding a spacecraft but Dervan and surprisingly Julin was standing at the far end , we walked over to them, "What's wrong, why aren't we entering?". I asked.

Dervan sighed "Commander, said since we were the original squad we should board a lighter and faster craft so we can reach there before the crew". He said gesturing to a LightSpeed M34. "Well at least they gave us a nice ship". Sareba said.

"Well, it took you guys long enough, we are already behind schedule". Julin snapped before any of us could reply she had already boarded the ship, hauling her luggage behind her. Sareba shaked her head, "Tsk, tsk, she lacks proper manners, good thing I'm tagging along". she said smiling mischievously.

"Let's go, she was right about one thing and that is we are behind schedule". I chided. We all boarded the ship, it wasn't that bad there were four rooms, along with a command deck, a planning room, weapons vault, storage and leisure room.

"Okay guys, I'm going to get this baby running". Dervan announced. Sareba and I got ourselves comfortable in the leisure room, while Julin entered for a nap. I was talking to Sareba about ways to keep Julin in check, when Dervan entered with a panicked expression.

"Guys we have a problem" He said, obviously trying to look for a way to relay his message without us panicking.

"What's wrong?" I asked

"Well, erm....the engines have stopped working". He replied.

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