After being forcefully thrown out from the Alliance’s headquarters, Ga’ruk found himself pacing aimlessly around in his room. He didn’t know what to do—his task was basically a death sentence.

If I don’t follow through with my orders, I will be put on trial for insubordination. If I follow through with my orders, I will be leading hundreds of thousands of men to their deaths, Ga’ruk thought. I don’t want to bear this massive responsibility.

Bzzz!

Ga’ruk snapped out of his thoughts when his communications device vibrated on his bedside table. He stopped pacing, reached for the device, and answered it.

“Hello?” Ga’ruk asked.

“Ga’ruk, this is Sah’ra I want to apologize for Y’lok’s actions today. He usually isn’t like this. He has a lot on his plate; we all do.”

“…”

“Furthermore, I want to congratulate you on becoming the youngest commanding officer of the security detail in our civilization’s history. We have consulted with His Imperial Majesty and He affirmed your appointment.”

“Thank you, ma’am. It is a great honor,” Ga’ruk said while cursing his luck.

“You have been granted access to an officer database from which you will select the captains of the other ships. When you access the database, you will find all of our papers, references, and existing knowledge regarding the humans.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I will get to work right away.”

“Take the night off and begin work tomorrow. Congratulations and good luck.”

When the call ended, Ga’ruk angrily threw his communications device against the wall.

Take the night off, she says. What does she know? Ga’ruk thought. She has never once been out on a battlefield nor has she ever encountered a society similar to what the humans have constructed. No, the first thing to do is to read Captain Ca’luc’s notes on the humans. Everything else takes a backseat.

He gazed out his window at the peaceful nightlife before him—from the couples going on dates to the movies to the young families strolling around the park, all of them more ignorant than the next at the potential danger lurking above the horizon. As Ga’ruk looked down at the scene before him, he let out a sigh. His mission had to be a success or else who knew how much longer the peaceful days would last. Ga’ruk then sat down at his desk, logged onto his terminal, and began the arduous task ahead of him.

The first thing he did was access his late captain’s data logs and read through each and every one of them in hopes of discovering something the captain failed to mention about the humans—a weakness of sorts. Ga’ruk wasn’t optimistic that he would find something that his former captain failed to mention—given Ca’luc’s fine attention to detail—however, he still held out hope that Captain Ca’luc might’ve overlooked one small detail when he prepared his reports.

As he flipped from one report to another, he thought back to the first conversation he had with the Captain. He had been a fresh recruit at the time—eager for his turn to make his mark upon the world—when he met Captain Ca’luc.

The Captain had been at the Alliance headquarters pleading with the leaders of the Alliance for an official deployment order for the security detail. Ca’luc had briefed the leaders about what the humans were capable of and had started to voice his concerns about the potential ramifications of letting the humans be for another chaos cycle when Ga’ruk walked into the audience room.

After listening to Ca’luk’s arguments, Ga’ruk was outraged when the Alliance refused to grant Ca’luc’s request for deployment. When the hearing concluded, he had quickly rushed out of the room to catch up with Ca’luc and asked to be part of Ca’luc’s crew.

“So did you rush here to make fun of me too?” he remembered Ca’luc asking him.

“No, sir. I agree with your reasoning. The humans must be put down while they are a non-threat. I just don’t understand why the Alliance doesn’t see the humans as a threat,” he replied.

“Those idiots have never been to the human’s home planet before, nor have they been on a battlefield; they can only imagine what it’s like out there. Those buffoons have become stuck behind their stuffy desks for so long, they probably forgot what the outside world is like. Just because we have successfully put down several human uprisings, doesn’t mean we should underestimate our enemy. Boy, those humans evolve at faster rates than we could ever imagine, that’s why, we need to respect them. Always learn to respect your enemy, boy, always respect them for you do not know what they are truly capable of.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ga’ruk understood that the Alliance had grown too comfortable in their positions. They had never experienced true war; rather, whenever war erupted, they cowered in their seats and issued orders to the front lines. After eons of putting down all who opposed them, the Alliance had grown soft and no longer felt the need to respect anybody, besides themselves. As a result of their cockiness, Captain Ca’luc had suffered an untimely end.

How many more lives must be sacrificed before the Alliance decides to view the humans as the threat they truly have become? How many more lives will be lost before the Alliance relearns how to respect their enemy? Ga’ruk thought as he drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up, he discovered a memo from Sah’ra on his terminal regarding the orders she issued after their talk last night—he was to be granted the first choice of all available captains and crew members. As he read the memo, a part of him wondered why Sah’ra treated him so kindly.

Ga’ruk knew the timetable he had given the Alliance was too optimistic—normally it would take multiple chaos cycles before one would be deemed ready for battle—but time was of essence. He needed to collect information, brainstorm battle tactics, recruit the smartest, cleverest soldiers, and then brief the new recruits on the mission.

After making a cup of coffee, Ga’ruk dived back into reviewing his former captain’s notes and logs. On one screen, Ga’ruk highlighted and annotated important sections as he browsed through the documents. On the other, he reorganized the papers into an index, so he would be able to reread them with ease later on.

Ga’ruk stopped what he was doing when he came across Ca’luc’s personal notes—they were intricately hidden in one of the Captain’s daily logs. After deciphering the encryption, Ga’ruk opened the file and was astonished when a hologram of a younger, stronger, less battle-hardened Ca’luc appeared on his desk.

“If you are viewing this, then it means I have passed on and you have now been named commander of the new security detail,” the hologram of Ca’luc said.

Ga’ruk nodded.

“Sigh, I guess all things come to an end; regardless, of how careful one is. Was I killed in battle?”

Ga’ruk fell out of his seat in shock—holograms were antiquated technology and served primarily as a way of leaving messages. They weren’t supposed to be able to interact with their audience.

“Kid, I don’t have much time. In an effort to avoid tedious questions, I uploaded a strand of my consciousness into the database as insurance—I didn’t want to let my knowledge of the humans disappear when I died. So, answer my question.”

“On our last mission to eliminate the humans, we discovered that they had advanced further than we expected—they were ready for us. When we realized we were outnumbered, you gave the order to detonate the ship.”

“At least my death served a purpose. When you brought the news of the failed mission to the Alliance, I bet they put you in charge, gave you more ships and more men, and ordered you to lead another offensive.”

“Yep.”

“Idiots, the lot of them.”

“…”

“I left this strand of consciousness to help my successor organize and analyze all the data I have collected over the years regarding the humans. I wish you the best.”

Ga’ruk watched open-eyed as Ca’luc’s hologram disappeared, only to be replaced by thousands of documents, spreading out all over his desk and reorganizing themselves into proper sequential order.

He knew when it came to the subject of humans; there was no one, alive or dead, who could rival Ca’luc’s claim of being the utmost authority on mankind. He was a decorated war hero—survivor of multiple excursions to the humans’ home world. It was said the Captain had gone solo for some scouting missions. While the Alliance may not understand how much of a threat the humans are, Ca’luc surely did. From brief glimpses of Ca’luc’s personal notes, Ga’ruk knew that Ca’luc had been preparing for an emergency such as this one for a long time.

He noticed quite a few pages regarding what would happen if they suffered defeat at the hands of the humans and noted numerous predictions of the outcome of the battle, each more frightening than the next, but one thing remained consistent—if the humans won, they would quickly regroup and rebuild, and set their eyes on conquering the other galaxies. Ga’ruk could almost hear Captain Ca’luc’s voice warning them of the consequences—should they suffer defeat at the hands of the humans—once more.

“Should the humans emerge victorious in this battle, any survivors must—using any means necessary—make their way back to Olras and warn the Alliance. We must convince them to send out a formal army to crush the humans as soon as possible. If the Alliance fails to respond to the known danger within a short period of time, I fear the humans would advance farther and quicker than before and take the war to us. At that time, it will be impossible to guess the outcome…”

Ga’ruk gulped as he recalled Captain Ca’luc’s final warning before they entered the humans’ solar system. He knew no matter what, he had to get his forces together—as quickly as possible—to combat any advances the humans could’ve accomplished in a short time frame. Suddenly the pages on his desk stopped sorting themselves, Ga’ruk looked down at the top page and froze. There was only one line written on the page—in the event of a failed offensive, the Alliance should expect the humans to bring the war to them in one or two chaos cycles, maybe less…