Maxima Ch. 01

Commodore Thomas Jeffries paced around the waiting room, anticipating what his fate would be after he had disobeyed a direct order from his superior officer admiral Ben Davies. He had been ordered to retreat from the fighting and link up with the fleet which was retreating so as to escape. The battle against the bixan who were clearly dismantling their fleet with their superior numbers. He had ordered his squadron of ships to counter the aggression of the bixan by launching their long range missiles and detonating them when they reached their targets. He knew that he had to buy as much time for battered ships that were about to jump out of the system with their state of the art warp drives. He sighed in relief when they activated their warp-drive and disappeared leaving him to face the bixan along with his squadron.

"Sir? You are now cleared to enter the meeting room." The desk officer informed him while giving him a warm smile and removing his mind from his earlier thoughts.

"Thank you." He replied as he strode stiffly to the massive double doors. Those events had happened almost two weeks ago and he had been dreading this exact moment since he had been court-martialled. As he entered the boardroom where the meeting was taking place, he was glad that he was looking presentable to his senior officers who were all dressed in their white uniforms identifying them as the Admiralty. He stood and saluted them waiting for his judgement.

"Commodore Jeffries, It seems that you had disobeyed a direct order from your superior officer during the battle against the bixan, how do you plead?" asked the gentleman at the centre of the raised table.

"Guilty" he replied evenly, which kind of amused some members of the Admiralty who were seated on their respective seats.

"You do know the punishment that comes along for disobedience?" asked the gentleman who was the fleet admiral.

"Yes fleet admiral Walters" Tom replied with a frown.

"What would you like to say for yourself commodore?" asked fleet admiral Stones as he stood up and made his way towards him. "and you should make it quick."

"I won't apologize for what I did but all I ask is that you show leniency to my crew." He replied. "They are good officers who were just following orders from me."

"You do know that you costed a considerable amount of damage to your squadron's fleet and also the loss of life of over 300 personnel under your command?"

"Yes" he replied as his shoulders fell feeling the sudden weight of the implications of his actions.

"I would like to offer my apologies to you admiral Davies..." as he was looking to make eye contact with the sourly admiral to show his sincerity, he couldn't find him so he directed his questionly gaze at the fleet admiral who was making his way towards him for the whereabouts of the admiral.

He had expected him to be here for this hearing and recommend his punishment to the board of Admiralty, but he wasn't present, how strange. His seat was currently unoccupied.

Fleet admiral Stones passed him without a backward glance as he headed towards the massive windows, and leaned over the railings as he examined the on goings of the massive shipyard. Tom had to admit to himself that the sight of the confederation's might always made his chest to swell in pride.

"Admiral Davies and his fleet were all killed while they escaped," replied the forward looking man without breaking his gaze from the site before him.

"What? But I made sure that they had escaped from battle, how?" asked a startled Tom as he tried to make sense of what the fleet admiral was damping on him.

"Our research show that they had been ejected from hyper-warp and plunged into a mine trap that wiped them out," Fleet admiral Stones replied. He continued in a somber voice," The bixan empire has claimed responsibility for the attack and have officially declared war on the confederation starting at 1700hrs Terra time." Finished the confederation's senior most officer.

"Fuck!" swore Tom as he contemplated the consequences of being in war.

"That now brings us here, why didn't you follow those commands commodore?" asked fleet admiral Stones as he turned to face him.

"Sir, l wanted the bixan to concentrate on us and let admiral Davies to escape, l saw that it was in our best interest if he survived at the cost of my crews lives," as he broke eye contact with the man and looked at his ship being repaired. "No squadron is more important than its fleet." The fleet admiral nodded at this piece of information having also made similar calls in his career.

"We checked your credentials and have been impressed by it ,as with immediate effect you have been promoted to the rank of rear admiral, congratulations."

"Thank you sir" replied a shell shocked Tom. The fleet admiral nodded and with a small smile replied, "You are dismissed rear admiral Jeffries."

As Tom was leaving the room, he felt a mixture of emotions ranging from relief for being forgiven, elation at being promoted, sorrow for the death of his fellow officers and anger for what the bixan did. He would make them pay, one way or another he swore as he exited.