Return

Dec. 22 - 23 in transit from beyond the Rim

Two messages greeted me as I returned to Alliance space.

The first message was from one of my staff. It confirmed and expanded on some of the information I received from the young companion Pluto Kozlov.

"...One of my operatives gave me a report of a crashed ship. The ship had crashed on Shadow. A charred body was found. It was wearing William Faith's dog tags.

"The first person on the scene was Drake Neximus. The second two on the scene were Pluto and a Dr Harley Loordes.

"They were followed by a pair from the Alliance, Snuggles Easterwood, Doctor, Scientist, and Falcon 53 Neox, Guard. The DNA on the body came out to be Jebbidia Rowlings, an MIA Alliance Soldier...."

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The second message was from Colonel M___________. He acknowledged my progress and gave me the green light I was waiting for to move from the preliminary to a full scale internal investigation of Commander Faith. He added this caution:

"...Needless to say, treading carefully is recommended with Commander Faith. But it is exactly that kind of heavy handed flouting of rights that has millions of people wanting independence. Unless we want a verse run by the like of Captain Wind and more glassing of inhabited planets, let's find out who we are dealing with and what really is going on.

"You have my full support, use it wisely.

"We also need to discuss a vetted warrant system, to ward off rogue commanders or we will lose to cooperation of the mayors and magistrates...."

Indeed, the stakes were high. Soon, my team would begin our work in earnest. But first, there was someone I needed to talk with.