We arrived back at Orbital 4 about 10 hours ago. Beth is moving strangely, I think it's because I manually rebooted her. Johnathan is the cyber warfare expert, we could have really used him.

I've spent the last few hours fixing my jump bridge, as well as the holes in the hangar floor where the coils punched through. I took a wheelchair from the MedBay, I haven't taken the time to fix the damage to my body that my run caused. I'm still learning its anatomy, so mistakes like this are bound to happen.

"Sue, we have to be in the breifing room in an hour." Heather called on the intercom. I was in the hangar watching the nanites seal another long hole in the floor, I rolled myself to an intercom and pushed the talk button.

"I don't see why, I can't jump like this." I chuckled at my inadvertent joke; neither body could jump right now.

"How bad is it?" She asked.

"The ship? Between two to three weeks before she can use her Jump Bridge again. The coils were shot out all over the place. We're talking about a month to be back in service if she makes all the repairs herself."

"Okay, meet me at the airlock closest to the bridge. We still need to be at that briefing. Our new Admiral 'friend' will be there."

That convinced me. "Be there in five, I'm on the bomber's hangar deck."

When we got to the room, Lowell was wearing a Captain's Crown on his collar again, and Johnathan was standing behind him, wearing a cadet uniform in the style for males. I nodded at him as Heather pushed me into the place behind her seat. Admiral Bradford told us to have our credentials shown, so the new Admiral wouldn't question our presence.

As we waited the Admiral from our mission brief was brought in, and forcibly seated in front of us. He didn't appear to be happy. He saw our credential cards showing, so pulled his out. Logan, Lowell, Heather, and Danielle did as well, I think it was an intimidation method, but I could be wrong.

A woman walked in wearing Station Marshall rank, "I've been ordered to take all red clearance cards."

The Admiral got a triumphant look on his face as the Station Marshall left the room, but looked defeated when she came back in, handing us black cards, with purple lettering.

"I didn't know these existed." Heather said.

"They don't Captain Garis; not until tomorrow, anyway. I'm Fleet Admiral Dixon." A man stated as he walked in; Danielle paled at his introduction, so I knew this was someone important. "As of three hours ago, I am in charge of the Starcarrier battle group." He paused and looked at Logan, "Rear Admiral Bradford, since your family has intimate details reguarding this project, I would like to assign you the carrier's direct care and maintinance."

"I accept the post." He replied

"You didn't have a choice, Logan." He looked at us, three cadets. "Take off that cadet rank. The facade is over, put these insignia in their place."

He handed us a single silver bar that looked like an ensign's bar, but the center was solid black.

"Your official ranks are now Master Chief Warrant Officer, and you will be paid as such. We will discuss your specific tasks when this matter is delt with; and Susan, tell Tsunami to stop her Nanites, she has other things to worry about right now."

"Yes sir." I say, I then pull out the headset, and plug it in, just to keep up appearances, but the nanites had already stopped.

"I want Typhoon and Hurricane to see this as well." He said, then my counterparts put on their headsets as well.

Admiral Dixon sat down finally, turned to face me, then corrected the placement of my rank, its long side parallel to the seam of my Roman collar. Beth and Jay fixed theirs to match.

"Lieutenant Admiral Albert Siyr. This hearing is to establish whether or not to charge you with treason against the United Space Federation. We are not here to establish guilt or innocence, only if a charge should be made." He looked up from his papers at the Admiral. "Do you have anything to say before we begin?"

"Yes, I have two things to say: first, I resign; and Second, all hail the Zanyx Empire!" As soon as he finished talking, a yellow foam came out of his mouth, and he slumped to the floor.

"Well that established his guilt." I quipped.

"That it did, Susan." Admiral Dixon said. He pulled a phone out of his pocket, opened it, said 'code white' into it, and closed it. "Nobody else is to speak until the medical staff leaves."

At that, a stream of white coated people filed in and out of the conference room. Four of them grabbed the body, and some started to take blood, then Dixon spoke up.

"No bloodwork on the Warrant Officers, vitals only. Their doctors will do the bloodwork later."

They finished their work, and then left. Once the door was closed Dixon stood up, walked to the front of the room, then turned and faced us.

"First, I'm sorry for the loss of Earthquake." He then got a grin on his face, and laughed through his next sentance. "But what you three have accomplished is amazing. You have surpassed all of our estimates on your capabilities."

"Sir?" Danielle asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I know who you are." He said, then pointed to each of us in turn. "Tsunami, Typhoon, and Hurricane. You are the mental replica of your ships, and you managed to figure out a way around the A.I. Treaty."

"I'm the one that gave the order three years ago to stop communications with the ship's computers; we knew then the four of them were becoming self-aware, and we didn't want to have to halt the project. We then left the channels open between the four ships, so they could talk with each other, and know some of what was going on around them."

"Tsunami, your Zero Flight was designed specifically to tell us how you developed. Had you jumped, like protocol stated, we would have dismantled you."

"It's Susan, or Sue, when I'm not plugged in. And, you purposefully put me through that? I was scared out of my mind, and felt like a failure, it took Lowell to calm me down while I was trying to keep the viable air inside the ship, and Heather to convince me I did what I was supposed to."

"I'm guessing that's why you chose her as your guardian?" He asked me.

"I offered it to Lowell and Heather together. Lowell said no, because I might not be safe with him, but Heather accepted before Lowell finished saying no."

"Well, I'll let you all know now: your forged documents are now official, and honest. The blank redactions in your files, now have an honest reason to be redacted, and your citizenship is going through; so now I have some questions."

I looked at Jay and Beth and they agreed I should answer.

"That answered my first question. Marshal Garis, you are stripped of your field promotion." I pushed myself up in my chair, my legs still not able to hold me, Dixon waved for me to calm down, so I let myself back into my chair. "Marshall Garis, the Admiralty of the United Space Federation hereby grants you the position of Fleet Captain of the Starcarrier Tsunami. You are to report to Chief Warrant Officer Susan Garis of the Tsunami for enstatement."

I cocked my head at what just happened, and Dixon handed me a Captain's crown, but it was copper colored instead of silver. Heather leaned down, and I replaced the rank on her collar.

"Because the other ships defer to Susan, whoever serves as her captain leads this battle group directly under the Fleet Admiral."

Logan leaned over to me, "Susan, what he just did is make it so only a Fleet Admiral outranks Heather, I can't even order her to do something with her ships. I can make her salute me, or clean a deck on the station; but as soon as it deals with any ship in the group, I can't say a word to her."

"Okay, my next question is this: how long can you three be away from your ships?"

"Why?" Beth asked.

"Well you three are now Warrant Officers, which means you are specialists in your fields. In this case, that's the Starcarriers. That requires some training, and we can't forge that. You will have to spend three months in a special school for Warrant Officers."

"If we can take our mobile medical beds, I think we can manage that. As long as none of us get a broken bone. We would need to sleep in it at least once every four days." Beth replied.

"I'll arrange it. How soon can those be ready to move?" He asked

"Mine can be ready in the hour." Jay said.

"Mine can be moved from Tsunami's medical bay at any time."

"Same with mine on Typhoon."

"Alright. Susan, this may sound strange, but I would like it if you traveled in that chair. Also, your guardians now have official promotions, they will be attending classes for their new ranks. And Heather, you aren't to tell anyone that you were a mere Marshall three days ago."

"Yes sir."

.