YOSHI
Yoshi gazed out the portholes at the small specks of light, counting as many stars as he could in an effort to pass time. The sat in the briefing room stifled by his full military dress uniform. The high collar made his neck itch, he hated these damn dress uniforms, a deflating space suit would be more comfortable.
Yoshi looked across the briefing table to see Daisa Hirayama Yuka, not appearing so arrogant today. Yoshi would go as far to say he looked a little nervous, that thought brought the ends of this mouth to upturn slightly. The final member seated at head of the briefing table, Daisa Noro Sen sat patiently viewing her tablet in front to her. Females dress uniforms were no different to the men’s, however her slender neck was not troubled compared to Yoshi.
The briefing screen crackled to life, the link to Earth was finally established and there 45 minute wait was over. The image displayed showed three men seated in a similar configuration. If one viewed down the length of the brief table, you could have got easily confused that they were all at the same table.
Yoshi was a bit surprised to see Kaigun Shosho Yanagi absent from such an important meeting, instead Minister Tako was leading the briefing. Yoshi only knew Minister Tako by the various rumours through fleet gossip, but his fat face and beady little eyes rimmed by circular spectacles did not improve on those rumours. The two other men he had seen before in the Fleet operations room but he could not recall their names.
Sen spoke first “Minister Tako, I did not expect to see you at this briefing, it is a pleasant surprise. May I enquire will Kaigun Shosho Yanagi be joining us.”
Minister Tako, eyes narrowed “Firstly Daisa, I would not call this briefings topic pleasant and secondly Kaigun Shosho Yanagi has no business here as she has resigned her position”
Yoshi surprise was now compounded, Sakiko had been a great supporter of his, and the task force had not been informed of the resignation. This briefing now had put Yoshi on edge, even though he was not supposed to be in the firing line. Yoshi turned to view Sen, who either already knew or hidden her shock completely.
“Very well Minister, as you say we here to discuss the incident that lead to the destruction of the alien vessel, Daisa Hirayama Yuka, will give you his full account of events. I have already taken the liberty to send Fleet the incident logs and transaction logs of the FF Kanpur”
Minister Tako scribbled something down in the tablet in front of him, and then looked up waiting for Yuka to begin. Yuka rose out of his chair smartly and stood at rigid attention. Yoshi though caught a glimpse of a single bead of sweat sliding down from his brow.
“Minister, the FF Kanpur was dispatched to review a reported sighting of the alien vessel in the inner planets. Dasia Nori vessel the FFL Haiphong and Kaigun Chusa Yuki vessel the FF Kaosiung guarded the entry point into the system” Yuka was about to continue before being interrupted by the minister in a challenging tone.
“Daisa Nori why did you split the fleet”
Sen did not waiver in her answer it was short and direct. “The system was unexplored to us, we did not know the capability of the enemy and a single ship might provide better diplomacy then several warships.”
The minister grunted and added something further on his tablet, Sen looked at Yuka to proceed.
“After three days of searching we spotted the enemy vessel and closed slowly. We attempted to hail the aliens on all known frequencies. The sensor data was telling us it was large around 100,000 tons and it seemed to be dead in space. We started to believe perhaps the vessel was adrift or was at least was in dire trouble, so we closed the range to 50,000 kilometres.”
The minister used Yuka small break to ask some pointed questions, questions with hidden tripwires.
“Daisa did you keep constant communications with Daisa Nori” Yuka followed with a quick “Hai”
“Daisa why did you break the 100,000 kilometre exclusion zone on unknown vessels, was this a an order by Daisa Nori” Yuka swallowed hard, “No it was not an order by Daisa Nori, we broke the exclusion zone because we thought the ship was unmanned or in trouble”
Minister now went in for the kill, Yoshi could see his only objective was to find someone to blame.
“Daisa you just said you were in constant communications with Daisa Nori why did you not request an order from your superior officer to enter the exclusion zone.”
Yoshi knew Yuka was trapped but Yuka did what all good officers should do. Face the sword when it is pointed at you. “Minister I acted on my own initiative” The minister furiously scribbled further notes down on his tablet, the two other officers seated next to the minister showed Yuka sympathy from their faces. The Fleet had always taught officers to use their own judgement, but yet when they do and it an unpopular decision the lessons taught are no long valid.
Yuka bravely continued “We closed on the vessel and the alien engines came online, two missiles were launched at the FF Kanpur which our point defence systems knocked out. The vessel had plotted a course to ram our vessel. I then gave to order to fire on the alien vessel. A single burst from the main 35cm laser turret brought the alien vessel to a complete halt. We followed a second shot 30 seconds later to which the vessel exploded. No life pods were ejected.”
The minister burned his eyes at Yuka, and Yoshi knew Yuka could feel it.
“Do you know what you’re done Daisa, the first alien race we encounter, you have made it an enemy, we do not know how advanced they are, how capable they are. You would have been better off dying then leading this back to New Osaka.” The minister voice rose each sentence in anger until he was trembling at the end.
“There will be disciplinary actions, fortunately your exemplary duty up until now will save you from a court martial. Diasa Nori, you are to return with the task force and take up position as Head of the Fleet. Good Evening.” With that the image feed was cut.
Yoshi shook his head in confusion, “Diasa Nori did you just get a promotion”
Yuka slumped into his chair his colour had faded from his face and he looked exhausted as if just spend a 12 hour session with Yoshi’s first drill instructors.
Sen laughed “Promotion or a death sentence I am not sure, especially from that delivery”
Sen looked at Yuka, “Diasa you did well, I had reviewed the logs and I would have acted no differently then you. Think on the bright side, your disciplinary result will be not as bad as mine, I have to work with that man now every day.”
They all gave a slightly chuckle, but no one could bring themselves to really laugh.
