He brought the cubs with him, with them bonding to him immediately. Their eyes were closed for the first two days, and as soon as they opened, the two little beasts started running around Adrian’s apartment, and growing fast. Then the announcement from the fleet came, and Adrian was forced to go to his ship. After a lot of pleading he managed to convince Laura to let him take them. She didn’t really have any grounds to deny him, Fleet personnel were allowed pets on the ships, provided they stay in their quarters. Of course that rule was made with Earth animals in mind. Looking down on them, he saw how big they got. When he found them they were big enough to barely fit in Adrian’s hand. Now they were the size of a small Earth house cat. And they were smart, to Adrian it looked like they understood him. He knew that they probably needed open spaces, to run and hunt. He planned on taking them with him on runs in the mornings, as for hunting, there he couldn’t really do anything. He knew that they were carnivores, and people in Olympus mainly ate plants, vegetables and fruits they brought from Earth, and synthetic meat, they have also started experimenting with Sanctuary plants. There was still natural meat, though not a lot, they brought very few animals from Earth. But the trend is slowly dying off with the advances in synthetic meat. It was too much bother for something that tasted the same. So Adrian made sure that his pantry was stocked with meat, and that he had enough bio matter to fabricate anything that the cubs need.
The two little beasts were chewing on Adrian’s boots, so he instructed them that that was a no-no.
“Akash! Sora! Stop that.” He said sternly. The cubs turned their faces up towards Adrian, then moved backwards a few steps and sat on their hind legs, looking attentively at him. Adrian thought that he named them appropriately. The female was Sora which in Japanese meant sky, and the male was Akash, meaning sky in Indian. He named them because of the color of their fur, soft blue, like the color of Earth sky. Looking down on them Adrian marveled at how quickly he bonded to them.
Adrian turned to his steward. “Have they eaten?”
“Not yet, I was just about to feed them when you came in.” Goran answered.
“Alright, I’ll take care of it. I would like a cup of tea though.” Adrian said.
“Of course.” Goran said.
After feeding the cubs, he entered his study retrieved his datapad and sat in his reading chair. The two cubs followed, jumping up on his lap and making themselves comfortable. Adrian brought his hand down to pet them for a while, making sure that each got the same amount of his attention. Then, when they fell asleep, he opened a book on the datapad and started reading. He liked to read on a datapad, even though he could just read through the implant. Goran entered the study silently and brought Adrian’s cup of tea. Adrian thanked him with a nod, and started reading.
Four days later Adrian was sitting in his ready room, as the last of the crew boarded, and with them came a package for Adrian, from Laura. The package came with a message, and Adrian was told to listen to the message before opening the package. So he sat in his ready room, package on his desk, with the message now playing on his holographic viewscreen. It was a video message, Laura looked straight out at Adrian.
“Adrian, I know that you did not want this position. But you really are the best person for it. That being said, I am afraid that I need to put even more pressure on you. We planned on doing this differently, but the events have forced me to do it this way. Originally I would have come to inspect our new ship, but well… It doesn’t matter now. Adrian Farkas Reiss, effective immediately upon ending of this message you are promoted to the rank of Fleet Commander. And will take command of the newly formed First Fleet, which consists of four light cruisers, three heavy cruisers, two battleships and your own ship. All the pertaining data is included in the message attachment. The package holds your new insignia. Congratulations, Fleet Commander.” With that the message ended. Numbly Adrian opened the package, inside were new bars, to replace his old ones. A silver star and three silver V shaped bars. His old ones were dark blue. He took the old ones off, and put the new ones on. Then he opened the attached file that was in the message.
It was a list of ship names, along with some additional information. Each ship was already named by their commander. He read down the list of ship names.
- Olympus Light Cruiser Conqueror
- Olympus Light Cruiser Swift
- Olympus Light Cruiser Sting
- Olympus Light Cruiser Talon
- Olympus Heavy Cruiser Enterprise
- Olympus Heavy Cruiser Freedom
- Olympus Heavy Cruiser Valkyrie
- Olympus Battleship Battle Song
- Olympus Battleship Protector
- Olympus Dreadnought—
The empty spot where his ship’s name was supposed to be made it all too real. He had an idea about the name. A name of a beast in ancient human mythology. Adrian typed in the name, and waited for the response from Fleet server, to see if the name was available. When the response came he was asked to verify the name. He did so, and the name was recorded.
- Olympus Dreadnought Leviathan
As soon as he put in the name he felt that it was right. He entered a few commands and a notification was sent to every crewmember, notifying them of their ship’s name. He looked over the orders from the fleet, the coordinates of where Leviathan needed to meet with the rest of the fleet. The Second Fleet would be there as well, it was an exact mirror image of Adrian’s. They were supposed to practice maneuvers together, and participate in war games. Adrian sent out the alert to his crew, letting them know that they would leave the shipyard in two days. With that he leaned back in his chair, thinking of how much more responsibility was just put on his shoulders.
Chapter Twenty
Orbit of Nuva
“I fail to see how this will aid us against the Sowir. Don’t misunderstand me, I realize that it is an amazing feat of technology, but it will not fight the Sowir Dominion for us.” Lanai Sumia said to Retsar Isani.