Chapter 14 Bjorn Muller Orders a Retreat to Repair the Spaceship
671 Words
Bjorn Muller was finishing up his report on the incident with the dislodged Science bay. On this occasion, he had been forced to use the keyboard instead of mind-typing which he usually preferred. Mind-typing was a technology where one could put a hat with electrodes on one’s head and use that to write documents using one’s thoughts. While mind-typing was faster and more convenient, Bjorn used the keyboard on this occasion as he was worried that his mind would betray him and reveal the truth in the report. It had been a couple of stressful hours after the explosion and one of the crew members, Matt Johnson, was accidentally sucked out in the vacuum of space when they were fixing the damages from the explosion. Bjorn felt sorry for Matt; he had liked the man and felt guilt over his actions that had indirectly caused Matt’s death.
After a while, Bjorn tried to shrug off what happened to Matt; casualties were the fuel of the war machine, and Matt had known what he signed up for. Bjorn looked down on the report he had written to the council. Its’ summary said:
“At 03:00 hours, a collision with a meteor caused a computer malfunction, which caused an explosion dislodging the science bay from ISS Supreme Earth. Chief Scientist Markus Bauer died in the blast, and Technical Sergeant Matt Johnson died when performing emergency repairs after the explosion. With the loss of the Science Bay, we lost the following items listed in Appendix 2. Due to the damages to the ship, I ordered the ship to retreat to the closest safety base station at once without retrieving the lost cargo, as this is a dangerous part of space.”
Bjorn looked down on the report, he told himself that he would be alright and that no one would question the validity of the statement. He got interrupted when Captain Adal Schneider requested to see him. Bjorn acknowledged this request and Adal walked into his office. Bjorn studied his 2nd in charge officer, he shared the same idealised North European features as Bjorn, but Adal looked a lot older than Bjorn despite being 20 years younger. This was because Adal was not wealthy enough to afford top-quality DNA regeneration technology, so he had to settle for cheaper remedies. He walked up to Bjorn’s desk.
Adal Schneider:
- Sir! We have received an emergency beacon from Chief Scientist Markus Bauer.
Bjorn Muller:
- That must be a mistake, there is no way he could have survived the explosion and several hours in space.
Adal Schneider:
- Nonetheless, I ask that we go back and retrieve the bodies of Matt Johnson and Markus Bauer for their families’ sake.
Bjorn Muller:
- Request denied. The ship has sustained damages, and this area of space is not adequately secured. There might still be rebels or pirates in the vicinity.
Adal Schneider:
- Our thermal scanners indicate that there is not a single ship within a 1-million-kilometre radius from us, and the Science Bay is only 90,000 kilometres away. We can retrieve them without any worries.
Bjorn Muller:
- For all we know, the thermal scanners might be damaged as well. We are continuing to outpost 5 for service and repairs.
Adal Schneider:
- Please, Rear Admiral Muller, I am the Captain of this ship, in command in your absence, I want to show my men that I care about them.
Bjorn Muller:
- I do not look absent, do I? Do as I say!
- Proceed to outpost 5 at once.
- Dismissed Captain.
As Adal left the room, Bjorn Muller sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair. What a mess he was in! If only that i***t Markus Bauer could have followed orders instead of causing all of this. Bjorn looked for something suitable to punch, but he couldn’t find anything, so he decided to go for sedatives instead and go to sleep.
- Writer
