Chapter 1: Promotional Materials

The incessant beeping from the comm station drug me out of my dreams. You wouldn't think I'd be able to dream after all that alcohol last night; maybe I just didn't celebrate hard enough. Finally I roused myself enough to slap at my bedside panel, "C'mon, I'm not on duty yet. What could you possibly..."

"Good morning, Commander."

That cool voice woke me up faster than a cold shower. My eyes shot open to an active viewscreen. I immediately bolted out of bed, thankful that I'd been too tired or drunk to take my pants off the night before. "Vice Admiral Ugara! I apologize, I didn't..."

"It's all right, Commander," said the admiral calmly, "Those promotion parties can be rather taxing." The corner of her mouth curled with a hint of an amused smile.

I'd finally come to my senses enough to remember some decorum, "Yes sir, thank you sir. What can I do for you, sir?"

"I was calling to congratulate you again on your promotion to the rank of Commander." As if I needed reminding. Few Commanders have a flag officer present at their promotion ceremony, unless of course they were family. Vice Admiral Ugara definitely was not. Her matter-of-fact tone continued, "It is also my duty to inform you that your commission with the USC is hereby terminated."

"Wha...what?!" This had to be a bad dream. Vice Admirals don't just call you up and kick you out of the service after they promoted you. Do they? Is it because I slept with my pants on, or maybe because I didn't sleep with my shirt on? "Sir...I don't understand."

"You should put your shirt on while I explain. Due to your excellent xenodiplomacy and xenosociology scores along with your military expertise, you've been transferred to Terran Commonwealth Intelligence. You'll be transferred immediately to a TCI base ship. Your deployment orders will be given to you tomorrow morning. Under no circumstance should you discuss your orders with anyone else."

"I...understand sir. When you say "immediately", do you mean..."

Ugara glanced at her timepiece. "You have seven minutes before a pair of TCI agents arrive to escort you to the passenger transport. Don't bother packing; you won't be able to take anything with you. Good luck Commander." With that, she signed off.

This isn't exactly what I thought I'd be doing today.

The next day passed in a blur. The TCI agents were professionally efficient and humorless; all my requests for a cup of coffee went unheard. The passenger shuttle had no windows, but I felt that peculiar shift that I'd only experienced before in training simulations: an interstellar jump. Wherever we were going, it wasn't inside the Sol system.

After docking, I was hustled into a medical bay, where I'm sure they ran every test and took every measurement possible. With all that information, I'm pretty sure they could reconstruct me from an atomic level if it became necessary. It quickly became clear that no one would answer any questions, so I stopped asking.

That night I was given a room so small that it probably would have been a violation of interstellar law if it'd been called a holding cell. It had a bed and a small folding tray with a plate of food on it. I was not quite as hungry as I thought I would have been since I didn't eat much the whole day, but I was able to finish it. Since the tray was over the bed, I was sort of at a loss about what to do with my now-empty plate. I tried to put it outside when I discovered that my holding cell analogy was a little too close to home: they had locked the door. Tired and frustrated, I put the plate at the foot of the bed, laid down, and went to sleep.

768-04-30 19:38:54

-= AUTH BEGIN: c3b2e224ab7a4c214d722aa9c9d74896bf0af654ca19cf101fca8d4ca7c2ed98

Commander Valejo, you are hereby ordered to proceed into the Commonwealth and act upon the following objectives:

1) Build a relationship with each of the governments of the Commonwealth.

2) Evaluate the technology offered by each of the governments of the Commonwealth. Due to this objective, permission to use non-Terran technology is granted.

3) Explore the gate network of the Commonwealth and construct a sensor net tuned to the provided secure TCI frequency. Attempt to cover as much of each sector as possible with an active sensor net.

Your official cover is a liaison for the Terran Diplomatic Corps with a prior military background. It is expected that you will demonstrate Terran technological superiority to the citizens of the Commonwealth. The necessary documentation to support your cover identity has been provided.

You have been provided with a Scimitar and a small amount of credits to begin your mission. You will be provided transport back to Uranus along with your ship. Authorization is granted to fund your mission using profits from your initial allowance.

The following standing orders still apply: At no time should Terran technology be made available to the Commonwealth. Report any AGI activity immediately.

-= AUTH END: c3b2e224ab7a4c214d722aa9c9d74896bf0af654ca19cf101fca8d4ca7c2ed98