Luckily I managed to intercept Eva so she didn’t lay into Gunny about getting Luna and I drunk.

“So you don’t really know what’s going on with him then?” Eva asked as the both of us talked in a somewhat more private spot in the hallway.

I shook my head. “No, apparently he wasn’t very specific about it while we were drinking.”

“Is he fit to come along with us? I mean… If he has things to sort out… Maybe he should take some leave?”

“You know how Gunny is, that’ll probably only make matters worse. Besides, if he wasn’t able to function, he wouldn’t risk our lives by not being in shape. It’s probably nothing too bad.”

“If you say so…” Eva looked around me into the next room. “They are all waiting inside?”

“Yes, just having some breakfast and waiting until we get called up.” Eva nodded and started to walk off to join the rest of the group, but I caught her hand to delay her just a little bit longer. “Please don’t lay into him, okay?”

Eva nodded again and gave me a smile. “I won’t, but I will be keeping an eye on him. And I’m trusting you to do the same.”

“Of course.” I let go of her arm and then followed her into the room to also get a bit of food into my stomach before we would get called up.

The reunion was calm and friendly, Gunny was a bit guarded as I had warned him in advance that Eva would come to talk to him, but he quickly noticed that my intervention had, at the least, delayed that for the time being.

The morning also saw the arrival of pretty much the rest of the remaining crew members. Except for a couple of people who had called in sick, we were all present in the headquarters.

Therefore it didn’t come as a big surprise to me that we were notified per message to get ready for the meeting about an hour after we had finished our breakfast.

When the time came, a group of soldiers from the Naval Intelligence Unit came to collect us to move to a meeting room on one of the other floors, though they didn’t really want to say the exact location out loud. That made me believe that it was probably a meeting location on the higher floors.

The Sergeant who was leading our particular group dialed one of the top numbers in the elevator, confirming that suspicion.

“Why are we not holding a meeting in one of the subterranean floors?” I decided to just straight up ask. “It’s clear from the secrecy that there is at least some kind of security risk involved holding the meeting higher up.”

The Sergeant looked at me in silence for a couple of seconds before she sighed. “That was the original plan. We were even preparing the meeting room floor -2 up until half an hour ago. Apparently one of the big shots insisted on holding it above ground because ‘it has a way better view’.”

“Politician?” I guessed.

“Yeah… Don’t know which one though. But if they can make changes that easily…”

I nodded. I didn’t really need any more information than that to narrow down the culprit to just two people. That meant it was either the minister of Defence or the Chancellor… It surprised me a bit that any of them would put any effort in talking to my crew directly rather than just giving orders from their ivory tower.

The trip took us to the very top of the HQ building, a room from which the view over the surrounding area was fantastic. So regarding that, whatever politician asked for the room to be changed, did at least know what a good panorama looked like. Militarily not the smartest of moves for security or privacy, but as this was the highest building around too, it would not be the easiest task to get a clear line of sight of this room, especially if you didn’t want to be seen yourself.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

As our group was the first to arrive I used the opportunity to guide my girlfriend to chat near one of the windows. I did keep in mind to keep one of the support pillars nearby so we could get some cover from that. Apart from Luna, the rest of our group consisted mostly of officers who worked in the engine room of the ship, and they weren’t particularly bothered when I took her to the side for a little while.

“Are you sure we should be standing this close to the windows, Lauren?” Luna asked.

I gently guided her a bit closer to the pillar. “Don’t worry, if someone shot at you I’d catch the bullet for you.”

“That sounds a lot less romantic than you think it does…” Luna rolled her eyes.

“Just kidding.” I winked. “There’s going to be paparazzi around at most. But they probably have that figured out.” Practically wiping away my own concerns from earlier just to make my girlfriend feel a bit better. “What do you think of the view though?”

“It’s pretty impressive.” She admitted. “But I think I prefer the view from space rather than from a high tower… Might as well go for that extra mile right?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true. But you gotta realize that the people who wanted to come here have pretty much never been to space, so this is the closest they are going to get.”

“Really? Those bigshot politicians have never been to space?”

“Not as far as I know. Why do you think the Chancellor was holding his speech through a video feed back on the moon?”

“I wasn’t exactly mentally present. I don’t really remember if he was actually there or not.”

“Right… The painkillers…”

“Yeah…”

“Well, then you’ll just have to take me on my word that the Chancellor was not there physically.”

“Hmm.” She nodded as she continued to stare outside the window into the awakening world outside. .

Two minutes later the next group arrived which brought Eva and Yuki to our little clique. The other groups of our crew arrived within the same intervals until we were all present. Funnily enough it was Gunny’s group who arrived last. That meant that the only people we were waiting on, were the higher ups from the Admiralty and the mystery politician. It was anyone’s guess how long they were going to keep us waiting though.

From the looks of it, the security personnel in the room did not really appreciate whatever it was that was holding up the VIPs.

To keep them from stressing the hell out, I raised my voice and suggested to my crew to already take a seat. That way they could at least keep an overview of those present and those arriving as easily as humanly possible. The gesture seemed to go over rather well with the commanding officer who gave me a friendly nod.

Ten minutes later, the opening of the elevator doors finally sounded in the arrival of the people who had invited us in the first place. Fleet Admiral Hanssen, who walked in first, absolutely didn’t look pleased. She was trying to hide it but I could tell she was biting down hard not to start saying unnecessary things that might not go over well. It was also clear that it was not us who were causing her frustrations. The cause of that would be the very pompous looking Minister of Defence Kerskuri who was following at the center of his entourage. That man seemed way too full of himself, sipping from what looked to be a very expensive brand of bottled water.

“My apology-” Fleet Admiral Hanssen started but she immediately got cut off by minister Kerskuri.

“Please, our apologies for our tardiness, the air around here is rather dry.” He started. “I just had to get something to drink first.”

My eyes shot over to the table Fleet Admiral Hanssen had sat down behind, it was equipped with multiple bottles of water and there even was some orange juice present. Apparently that hadn’t been good enough for the man.

“It’s good to see all of you here present today, as we have some very important matters to discuss. Matters of the utmost importance to the safety and further development of our Federation.”

Every word that came out of that man’s mouth made me wish more and more that it was the Chancellor who had come rather than him. While the Chancellor didn’t always seem so agreeable, at least it’s a lot better than minister Kerskuri… A post-war career politician who got his post through connections and favors rather than merit. As he used to head the finance department previously, it was anyone’s guess as to why he was chosen to be the new minister of Defence after the previous minister had to retire early on his tenure due to health problems. If we are lucky he will be voted out soon… If anything scares me about diplomatic contacts with more alien races in the future, it’s that he is technically the head of the entirety of Earth’s military at the moment…