Previous Chapter 21: Nothing that is Not Regulation: https://onthebeachatnightalone.com/2026/11/06/chapter-21-nothing-that-is-not-regulation/
After the riot on the Plaza of Nations, Maureau felt driven to meet the Emissaries for the United League of Earth. He was sure the Emissaries wanted all of the data London had of their first encounter with the nil-void’s ship. They had not warned London in a timely manner and mismanaged the Plaza crowd. He felt he had some leverage to stand up to them.
Maureau, beyond exhaustion and working on adrenaline, inspected the ship unannounced from one end of the ship to the other. He tried to greet every crew member he met, by name if he had the enough time to check for the ship’s visual haptic identification system to focus where he looked. The names were provided in his headset. He made sure his “star sailors” had scheduled shore leave. His attentions bumped up morale within all ranks.
All Senator Mitchell cared about was getting off the ship. Exhausted from enduring prolonged gravitational forces, apathy drove his silent acceptance of the Emissaries’ denial for an audience. He did not understand why they wanted to meet with Maureau instead, but he did not care for now and was just fine letting him take the burden of negotiations. Maureau tried to improve Mitchell’s spirit by giving him a four Marine security escort to the League’s embassy. The Senator did not thank Maureau for the record breaking time passage to the Portal from Earth.
After the Senator’s departure Maureau visited the Medical Bay. Commander Gray’s distress eased when she saw Maureau. The pyramidal missile had shattered her femur. Doctor Gladman could not provide her the care she needed. “Captain. Thank you for your visit. I know this may be impossible, but I need to have an advanced procedure to be ready to ship out with our Task Force.” She raised her eyebrows in hopeful entreaty.
Maureau looked at Doctor Gladman who stood on the opposite side of the bed. The doctor subtly shook his head. “Commander Gray will need care at a level we cannot provide here. She needs to transfer to a hospital on Portal City. Even then, I doubt she will be fit for duty in anything less than 12 weeks.”
“We will get the Emissaries to help,” Maureau said. “Everything possible will be done to have you ready for the Joint Exercises.” The doctor shook his head again. “Have Commander Gray ready for an immediate transfer as soon as we hear from the Emissaries.”
On stepping away from her bed, Doctor Gladman pulled Maureau aside. “Captain, I see no way Commander Gray can be ready for duty any time sooner than twelve or more weeks. We need to be realistic with her.”
“Doctor, you know the Emissaries have medical technology far beyond ours. I am counting on them getting her back on her feet in time for the Joint Mission.” Maureau left Gladman frowning.
In the Security Division, Maureau found Lieutenant Song studying video from the Plaza riot.
“Carry on,” he said.
She did not pause. Sitting down close to her, he leaned in to see, and they viewed the video together without saying anything. Song paused the playback, freezing an assailant as they released a pyramidal projectile.
She played the video slow down to the point movement was barely discernible. “Captain, see how they grip the pyramid? They release it without giving it spin so they don’t cut their fingers on the edges. It is launched with a push. Now watch.”
Appreciate how, as it picks up speed, it starts to spin to the point that close to the target it is a blur, even in this slow motion? See. Look how it appears at real speed.”
“You cannot see it,” Maureau said.
“You released it with a push. Then it picks up speed and spin to the point you can’t see it,” Song said.
“Even at your is low playback speed it remains a blur. This device was designed to penetrate a body shield.”
“And body armor,” Song said. “It’s very sophisticated technology. If it can be miniaturized and released through a barrel, it could be used to attack the Emissaries.”
“Except, they were able to deflect them with their plasma blades,” Maureau said.
Song smiled. “Yes. They did block them. Single missiles thrown forty meters away. But if a rapid fire device released them? I’m not sure an Emissary could block an incoming hail of these projectiles.
“And one did get through,” she continued. “The armor one Emissary took significant damage. It had penetrated deep enough to draw blood before it ricocheted.”
“Who developed these weapons?” Maureau said. “II am not aware of them being part of the Star Force arsenal.
”
“I have not seen them either and it’s my job to know about any kind of personnel weapon.”
“I especially don’t like the fact that a group of agitators unveiled it,” Maureau said.
“In the hands of supporters of the Progressive Nationalist Party, no less,” Song said pushing back in her chair to look at Maureau from a bit more distance. “They’re a party of malice They want space exploration at the cost of violent struggle with the Emissaries.”
“Just when the Emissaries have reached out to us for the first time in two hundred years,” Maureau said. “The timing could not be worse.” He paused while Song locked her gaze with his for an instant.
“Kristina, your team did well on the Plaza.”
Song looked surprised. “Captain, I’m not sure what we did that was commendable.”
“You got us moving before things got violent. You sensed the direction things were going.”
“That wasn’t difficult. I guess I was sensitive to all the insults.” She smiled. “But I don’t think we were targeted. The Emissaries brought the missiles down on our heads. You can see the instigators were clearly targeting them,” she said with a tone of disbelief.
“Regardless. You got us out of there safely.”
“Except for Commander Gray,” Song said. “She’s the one who should be commended.”
Maureau paused to consider. “Who knows what injury I might have suffered? I will recognize her to the crew when she gets back. My Lieutenant Commanders have been saving my ass. How is your team doing?”
“It’s tense. With the explosion on the Poseidon and the attack at the ghost ship, we’ve lost quite a few comrades. I don’t think they blame me, but I have not been accepted as a fellow marine, either. Disaster has been following me.”
“We all need a good shore leave,” Maureau said. “The Task Force has yet to leave Earth orbit. We’ll have time for a good break.”
“With Gray laid up with her injury, I can spend some time with her to get her perspective on how to command of the Security Division,” Song said, sitting forward, ramrod straight. “We can also discuss her position now.”
Maureau was pleasantly surprised. I sure could use my two best officers working with one another. Maybe some of Song will rub off on Gray.
“I’m happy to hear that. Her command of the Division was exceptional. She sure established recognition at Central Command before I took command of the London. I underestimated her.”
“Don’t ever underestimate Madelaine,” Song said quietly, almost to herself.
“What?” he said.
“Don’t ever underestimate her or you might get cracked in the head. Which reminds me. You need to give an order for the crew not to speak of our encounter?”
“That is going to be a challenge. I need to think about how to explain the reasoning. It will be next to impossible to keep it secret. I am afraid there will be rumors circulating in Portal City immediately after the first of the crew is on leave.’
Song settled back into her chair. “There are rumors circulating within the ship. Not everyone has direct knowledge of what happened. They know we lost someone in an accident involving the nil-void phenomenon. They do not all know that an alien ship was involved. You need to address that. You may be surprised that the crew does keep quiet about it.”
Maureau left Song studying the video from the Plaza and arrived in Engineering. Chief Freihoff did not hear him come in. The Chief sat at a desk with a computer tablet, a notepad, and pen. Yoshi was squatting on a chair at a station Freihoff had set up for it.
“Chief, how is the check-in going?” Freihoff jumped.
“Yoshi has found a few things that need adjustment. Nothing major. Easily taken care of. I’m studying the crew’s physical profile as a function of his vector changes. He does push us to the limit.”
“What is Yoshi doing now?”
“Helping Song analyze what happened on the Plaza while he runs through inventory and operational specs for check in. We may be able to identify where the pyramidal missiles came from.”
“Gerhard, I want to understand how Yoshi is able to disobey a direct order to not use the term ‘aye, aye.’ A biodroid pilot should not be able to do that. Can you find out how its decision algorithms allowed this to happen? You may need to shut it down to study this.”
Yoshi looked up at Maureau. “This BDP can help Chief Freihoff with that,” Yoshi said.
Looking unhappy, Freihoff said, “Given the nature of the question, I may need to shut you down while I confirm how it happened.” Yoshi reflected his look and appeared sad. The reciprocity was striking. What is this bond between the Chief and Yoshi? What independent action is this BDP capable of?
“I want your analysis before you take shore leave.”
Yoshi was of great concern for Maureau. On leaving Freihoff and Yoshi he was worried about his BDP. He wondered what the history of the BDP was. I need to find out the history of this BDP. Cannot have it malfunction on a mission.
#
Arriving back on the bridge, Maureau was met with a flood of communications from the League’s Central Command. He had directly sent them the same information already transmitted to the Emissary Portal Command when the London was free of the communication void. They were barraging London with questions regarding what they thought they had encountered. He was relieved to see that there were no follow-up questions regarding justifying going off mission. It was Maureau’s understanding the Emissaries would see Senator Mitchell, so the mission was saved. He thought. That, and the fact that the nil-void anomaly was a phenomenon never seen before, may have mitigated the blowback from the admiralty.
Maureau seemed to get himself in positions where his decisions made it difficult to stay a straight course towards promotion. Holding back all data regarding the ghost ship and London’s interaction with it was an act of commission. The data had to be scrubbed of any trace of the encounter. This included the loss of a crewman. He felt confident in his decision. Deferring to the Master Daemone’s request was the correct decision given all of the forces at work.
He went into his office and searched for news about the celebration on the Plaza. The Emissaries’ official story, and it was the only one available, downplayed the occurrence of disorder. The Progressive Nationalist Party had arranged for a speaker to address the Longshore Workers Union together with the Tug Ship Pilots Association, ostensibly, to honor their work as the foundation of the Portal City.
Before the speech by the Progressive Nationalist Party member, festivities at the headquarters of the two organizations near the Plaza included complementary spirits. The liquor pours were doubles and the large beer cups were filled to overflowing. Some said the affair had been sponsored by the Progressive National Party, but the Party did not openly take credit for the excess. After two hours of merriment the attendees followed the spirits into the Plaza where extra stands continued to serve free alcohol. It was a remarkable expenditure given the number of people being served. They were joined by the curious in the Plaza taking advantage of the servings.
The report described the speech as one that encouraged the two groups to demand more control of the Portal. This was an unusual request, according to the article, since they were not in negotiation with the Emissaries over their work contract and already received excellent pay and benefits. The exhortation to take control of the Portal was not brought to focus. Rather, the story portrayed the speech with a union point of view.
A group of individuals arrived after the speech commenced. With chants of “Give us freedom, these latecomers started to throw metal balls at embassy windows, and the crowd was dispersed by embassy personnel with help from Emissaries. The article did not mention the direct attack on the Emissaries, nor did the released video show the barrage at the Emissaries.
Maureau searched the social boards and found no commentary by eyewitnesses describing what actually occurred. They are that good at controlling information. They do not want the attack on them to be publicized. But the PNP is sure to have video that the Emissaries will not be able to suppress.
Leaving his office, Maureau went to sit in his captain’s chair. With eyes closed he listened to the voices around him check off the London’s system parameters. A surge of pride rolled over. He felt a deep commitment to take care of the crew, especially Gray, during his meeting with the Emissaries.
The Emissaries had known what the London was about to encounter from the nil-void and had not warned them in time to avoid a casualty and the near loss of the London. Near disaster had occurred on the Plaza, again with injury to his crew. While feared as invincible, imperfections came into clear focus. He was going to make sure Emissaries communicated openly with human forces. Maybe the Progressive Nationalists had a point. The Emissaries should start treating humans as allies.