Ivan Kal - Sanctuary

Adrian stopped to greet a group of new cadets that had just arrived. He introduced himself and ask them how their trip was, making small talk, before continuing on his way to his quarters. He tried to at least always greet everyone on his crew. Adrian found that the life on the ship was good for him, everything was faster somehow, and he had less time to think about Beth. He did learn however that she got the command of a battleship in the Second Fleet. Adrian’s routine was simple, he got up then went for morning exercise in the ship training bay. It was now occupied by the army personnel, but they welcomed him, and trained with him, even sparing. Then he would go to breakfast, then review the reports from his High Prime Paul on the status of various matters on the ship. Then lunch, followed by his daily walk around the ship. Lastly, he spent the time before dinner in the simulators, or relaxing in his quarters.

Today he planned on simply relaxing in his quarters reading a book. When he arrived at the door to the Ship Masters quarters, he sent the authorization codes and the door slid open. Doors to the quarters on the ship all had their own authorization codes, which their occupant set. They could be transmitted via implant or entered manually on the pad. Adrian entered the room, and was immediately greeted by a rush of small feet and barking/yowling sounds. He got to his knees and picked up two little balls of fur.

“Hello to you too.” He said, nuzzling their snouts gently. That produced another series of sounds from the two wolions. Another person came through the door to the side.

“Thank you again for looking after them while I’m busy.” Adrian said.

“It’s no problem Ship Master.” Goran said. Goran Baczewski was Adrian’s steward. He was an army chef back on Earth with the Concordis army, now he was in charge of Adrian’s quarters.

Adrian lowered the two cubs to the ground and stood up, immediately they started cozying up to his feet. Looking down Adrian wondered about bringing them with him, everything since he found them seemed blurry to him. He took them to the veterinarian hoping to find someone to take care of them, now that their mother was dead. The veterinarian, who was also an “expert” in Sanctuary fauna, immediately showed interest in them. He took their blood and made sure that they were healthy, as much as he could without preforming more invasive tests. Based on the blood test and the contents of their waste (they peed all over Adrian’s jacket) he managed to synthetize all the necessary supplements that the cubs need to ingest daily in one of the new bio fabricators. After they were fed and asleep Adrian asked the veterinarian what would happen to them. He was told that they would be kept in captivity, studied daily so that they could learn more about wolions, as they were forbidden from catching one from the wild. That answer did not sit well with him at all. Adrian tried to convince him to give them a home or release them back into the wild, but his words fell on deaf ears. In the end Adrian decided that he would take them. The man tried to stop him, saying how Adrian had no right to them, threatening to call a security squad. Adrian responded that he had right of being the one who saved their lives, and as such they were his responsibility. Finally, when the man didn’t back down, Adrian was forced to call Laura and get her to pull strings and get the man to back off. He didn’t like to use his connection to Laura, but he felt justified in doing so. After a long conversation with someone over the comm the man backed down, and let Adrian leave and take the cubs. Before he left, Adrian took the “recipe” for the food stuff the cubs needed and went out of his way to acquire one of the new bio fabricators, which were not yet widely released. In theory they worked the same as the other kind, except that they used bio matter.

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.