House of Mirrors
16:25 SET
2196
Admiral Yuri Pegori, Russian commander of the USS Billy Mitchell and the commander of the 2nd Fleet, entered the hangar that held samples of the wreckage that was the Lunar. Already present was Commander-in-Chief Sean Story, Deputy C-in-C Monica Little, Admiral Thomas Ross, and Admiral Beckerd A. “Blackbird” Benson. Why Admirals Ross and Benson were there, Admiral Pegori did not know. They both had a habit of showing up when they wanted to.
The group skipped pleasantries and dove directly into the meeting. “The Lunar appears to have found a galaxy that is exactly mirror to our own,” Rear Admiral Little informed Admiral Pegori. “Everything from planets to moons to star pattern. With the exception of a few almost moot details, it is the Milky Way Galaxy.”
“That doesn’t explain what destroyed the ship,” commented Admiral Pegori.
“Could be just the fact that they knew this galaxy existed was enough to get them killed,” Admiral Ross stated, looking at Pegori. “Possibly there’s someone that wants to keep this a secret.”
“That is possible,” Pegori grudgingly admitted. He did not like Admiral Ross; he was a pompous man who came across as seeing himself being better than others. It was for that reason alone that Pegori tended to stay away from Ross as much as possible, lest his influences accidentally rub off on the commander of the 2nd Fleet.
“Forensics is taking a look at the burn marks,” Admiral Story continued, pointing to a section of the ship that hadn’t been taken.
Pegori bent down to inspect the burn marks for himself. “If there is a difference between their weapons and ours or the Imperials, it’ll be hard to tell,” he surmised at last. He straightened back up and took a quick glance around at the other Admirals. “Do we have any leads as of yet?”
Admiral Beckerd A. “Blackbird” Benson, commander of the 4th Fleet, shook his head. “We don’t think the Imperials did this. We taught them mid last year not to break their armistice agreement again. Plus this was too deep into UNSF space. It would be near impossible for an Imperial ship to get this far into our territory without having been noticed.”
“What if they were cloaked?”
Admiral Little shook her head. “Our Intelligence shows that the Imperials do not have cloaking capabilities.”
“This could signify a new threat in that area,” Story puzzled to himself, tugging at his lower lip. “Or, it could’ve been a defensive gesture. The reports made by the Lunar show that there were people on Earth, albeit significantly smaller than what we’re used to.”
“How did this system pass our detection until now?” Admiral Little asked, hands on her hips.
Admiral Ross shrugged. “I’m puzzled myself,” he admitted, rubbing at the stubble that was forming on his chin. “My best guess is that this part of space was forgotten about during the war. There’s two other ships out there now, that had been helping the Lunar map this whole system.”
“Have these ships been warned?” Admiral Blackbird asked Admiral Pegori, not taking his eyes off the wreckage. “Do they know that there’s something out there?”
Pegori nodded. As soon as the message the Lunar’s Communications officer had sent was picked up by the desk jockeys at the 2nd Fleet building in Prague, London, Admiral Pegori had been immediately notified. Warning the Nova, the Stellar, and the Red Dwarf was his first and foremost action. Admiral Pegori prided himself on taking care of those under his command. “When are we going to get those reports from Forensics?” he asked the UNSF Commander-in-Chief.
“Shouldn’t be too much longer,” Story answered, reflexively looking at his chrono. Time was always something of an issue for the man who commanded the entire UNSF fleet. There were never enough hours in the day. The same went for all the other Admirals in the room.
The door opened again, and a lift floated in carrying pieces of the Lunar. It was being operated by an UNSF Forensics specialist, a Sergeant. He stopped the life a couple of feet from Admiral Story and handed him an infopad. “A report, sir.”
Story took it, still looking at the pieces the Sergeant had brought in. “Give me a condensed version on of what’s on this pad,” he instructed the Forensics specialist.
Not used to being put on the spot, the Sergeant bristled. “The carbon scoring on the Lunar’s hull matches no other type of scoring we’ve seen. GART, Imperial, we even ran it through friendly fire test...nothing.”
“So what’s your conclusion?” Admiral Blackbird asked the Sergeant, taking the infopad from Admiral Story.
Forensics shrugged. “I don’t have one, sir,” he confessed, now looking puzzled. “It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. It could mean that there’s something new out there in the area the Lunar was mapping. Maybe it’ll keep to itself, maybe it’ll come after us. Whatever it was,” he concluded, “the Lunar didn’t have a chance.”
Blackbird frowned as he looked over the information on the infopad. “We might not be as lost as we think,” he muttered, looking at the molecular breakdown of the unknown enemy’s laser fire, which the Sergeant had been so helpful to include. “I’ve seen this before.”
