The Journey of Atlantis: The Children of Earth by Jeff Knoblauch

Author:Jeff Knoblauch [Knoblauch, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-19T07:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Out of the Frying Pan

Admiral Johnson had sat too long going over reports and signing documents, and he stood up from his desk to stretch. This was a big office compared to others on the Intrepid, but he still missed his old office on Atlantis. In times like these he wished he could be enhanced like the captain--he would have been done with all this mess in two minutes. Captain Williams had been the steady rock he needed and depended on. They had been battle-buddies since the rebellion. Humanity’s numbers had dropped over four hundred souls in that little civil war.

It used to make him almost physically ill to think about it. He had seen plenty of men die before, but now the stakes were just too high. Human life was too precious to waste on a disagreement. Over four years had passed since then, and the pain had become a little better. There had also been casualties on the Te’Hat side. The Te'Hat mostly made it a point to keep out of the way but Te’Hat observers would sometimes get a little too close to the action, which caused Te’Hat tunnels to cave in or got them caught in the crossfire.

After Captain Schmidt on the Valiant died while trying to take out Alice, second in command Commander Sokolov had been just as fanatical as Schmidt about claiming this rock for their own. He'd also claimed Captain Schmidt had been assassinated even though the truth had been communicated to the ship. The admiral’s suspicion, later proved correct, was that Sokolov had told the crew what they wanted to hear to incite them and bring on this conflict, but the truth had come to those people too late. Alice and Captain Williams had run the ground conflict while Alice and Johnson made sure the space above Searth remained safe. Neither ship had much in the way of weapons. However, Intrepid’s Navy personnel were armed to the teeth. Valiant was a civilian ship; they never stood a chance. The only reason the conflict had gone on as long as it did was to allow the diplomats time to negotiate, as opposed to the decisive but bloody victory that would have come from an all-out attack on the Valiant by the Intrepid. The diplomats had saved both human and Te'Hat lives and had lost many of their own in order to broker peace.

And now he'd heard the Te’Hat had decided whether the humans could stay or keep their promise to leave if asked. The decision had been made a few days ago when the Mat’Ma said a meeting of the Elders had taken place. The news made him nervous. Leo felt like he was waiting for a verdict in a court-martial. He sat back down at his desk, staring at the work he had to finish. These reports are not going to sign themselves, he thought, and sat back down at his desk to pick his stylus and sign on the digital line next to his thumbprint.

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