Day 5
The 63rd anniversary of the USFP had come and passed by the 4th Light Division.
Whereas most of the worlds were still celebrating, and wishing each other well, this little pocket of classified research space was still doing anything but the sort.
Sombre would be the word for it.
Recovery and restoration were still on-going. Most of the senior staff seemed occupied by the still yet-to-be-named entities capabilities.
But Solari was backtracking even further. The pirates and the ship theft. The explosion of the jumpgate. It all seemed like a minor random act compared to what happened afterwards. So, why was he even thinking about it?
Still nursing a spiced tomato juice in the galley, the edgy Ensign was remembering having fired the Hydras main batteries at one of the stolen mining ships that had suddenly turned into a hostile RFF ID. Lieutenant Verok, the acting Captain, had reminded him after-the-fact that they should have had an ECM ready to disable it. They never got another chance to do so though.
Solari knew why he had clicked on the ship. He simply had a dumb moment and thought he was on sensors again that could scan. He’d been curious. But that, as Humans might say, killed the dog. Or some sort of domesticated animal.
He sipped his drink with a quick swallow and gave a sigh. That had been the first of his two mistakes on that extended duty shift. From that, he was starting to think Science and Tactical didn’t mix well. Or perhaps the truth was, he didn’t mix the two well. The thought of that was dangerous.
Gulping the last of his drink, he placed the glass back in the replicator for recycling. Watching it disappear, he rather wished self-doubt could be taken back just as easily.
In the end though, the day wasn’t about him. The USFP was another standard year older. For all the good and ill that had happened so far, it was still around. A good enough example to live by.
Solari exited the galley and went back to living. The mine field surrounding the bases needed re-stocking and they weren’t going to lay themselves.