Burdens of Command

[Adm Day 0]

Admiral Day paced, alone, in his Ready Room, trying to release some of the nervous energy that he dared not show to the rest of the crew. At every trip past the port, he glanced at the huge, airless rock that hung there, as if he could actually see the men and women that were busily carrying out his orders, miles away on the surface. Though to the crew, he appeared outwardly calm, this entire mission was beginning to wear on him. They were deep in enemy territory. An enemy of whom they had no idea of thier actual strength. The few encounters that they had already endured had shown that they could be formidable, indeed.

 

Perhaps, if this mission was successful, they might be able to gather more data about the Hundred, but until that time, the Excalibur was out here alone, and vulnerable. They sat, invisible, under thier cloak, hoping that the location in the asteroid field would help mask their presence, but each hour they stayed here made the odds of discovery stack higher and higher against them.

 

Most of his Engineers were on the surface, setting up equipment. He only hoped that the maintenance of the cloaking device, which had never been tested for periods that lasted this long, was being adequately handled in their absence. Captain Sorehl was back at Camelot, administering the operations fo the station and Captain Jcin, his regular XO, and Commander Brianna, his CMO, were both off on a special mission, so much of his crew were new at thier jobs.

 

Wayne stopped and squared his soldiers. He ran through the litany he always repeated when faced with command decisions: "They have all been trained for this. They knew thier jobs. It will be all right. We'll make it through this, and all get back, safely."

 

He glanced out the port again, and took a deep breath as he thought about the next part fo the litany.

 

"... or die trying."

 

He mumbled to himself as he turned to go back out onto the bridge, "I've always hated that part."