around, most with their hands cupped behind their back as if they had stood in that position most of their lives.
Connor glanced down at his brown cadet boots, hoping he'd never find himself in their shoes someday. “Admiral?” He sat in a chair in the middle of the room, where a long table sat in front of him and two tables sat on either side of him. All of the men, including Admiral Byrd, sat.
The admiral held up a bulva card, which was always given to the winner of the annual SGAG's. “This 25,000 bulva card doesn't belong to you.”
Connor about fell out of his seat, feeling the blood drain from his face. “What...why?”
The admiral nodded at the corner of the room where a side door was located. It opened.
In walked a man, looking very much like a Techie, and from the sight of his uniform, he was definitely from Tech Quarters. The man had on large rimmed glasses far bigger than he needed, resting on his long nose. His thin, scraggly hair was swirled on top of his head, an attempt to hide his balding.
His eyes were stone cold and almost lifeless. He had definitely spent one too many hours in front of the HDC monitors and a lot less time in the gym. Connor wondered if the guy only ate pastries, and only on a few occasions a week, because of his his skinny build and tawny skin.
The man sat down in a seat next to Admiral Byrd.
“Connor,” said the admiral. “This is Ted Bays. Those in Tech know him as Sleuth.”
Connor nodded, still not knowing what this was about.
“Ted, I mean Sleuth, found something very important,” continued Admiral Byrd. “Please explain, Sleuth. The rest of the judges would like to hear.”
One of the judges cleared his throat and then nodded. “Begin,” he said. “I would like to know what's going on.”
Sleuth gave a half-grin, then folded his hands in front of him. “I'm not going to sugar coat this: SGC Connor Jay, I'm going to give it as we in Tech have seen it. You cheated and I have proof.”
Connor jumped out of his seat, slamming his fist into his own thigh. “The Guild I did!”
“Sit down, SGC!” growled Admiral Byrd. “Behave like a cadet.”
Connor sat back down, fury in his eyes. “Yes, sir.”
“It seems you and your young, inexperienced cadet friends wanted to try on the Techie label for a while. We have clear evidence that you and your friends have infiltrated Starship Sirona's mainframes, manipulated the weapons deployment and thrust capacity of Sirona's top cadet's starfighter. How you got this around us in Tech Quarters is a mystery,” stated Sleuth.
Connor shook his head, his eyes becoming more innocent and wide. “I didn't do anything like that. I don't even know how to do something like that.”
“That's why you had your friends help you. Show them the vid, Admiral Byrd,” ordered Sleuth.
Admiral Byrd pressed a few holographic buttons on his table. A hologram lifted from the table, showing a three dimensional view of Connor with two friends working feverishly on an HDC.
“Zoom in to their HDC, admiral,” barked Sleuth.
The vid zoomed in, showing exactly what was on the HDC. There, they could see a blueprint of a Thunderbird in the RR7 class, with the words Sirona and SGAG typed on the upper portion of Connor's HDC screen. They were clearly manipulating the blueprint, changing pressure gauges on the thrust capacity of the Thunderbird, and slowing weapon deployment from immediate to half a second slower.
“I'm being framed or set up, or something. I've never seen that blueprint before and I don't even know how to pull that up on my HDC,” said Connor.
“You are disqualified, SGC Connor Jay,” responded Admiral Byrd.
“No, you can't do that. Don't I get a fair trial? This is absurd,” complained Connor. “I didn't cheat!”
Admiral Byrd's face was emotionless, as if he'd done this many times before. “This is Star Guild. I'm law here, son.”
“I'm going to fight this!” seethed Connor.
“And, you'll lose.” Admiral Byrd nodded at all attendees, then gestured at the side door where Sleuth came in. “You all have witnessed and may leave now.” He handed the Bulva card to another judge, saying, “Hand this to the Sirona cadet who wrongfully lost today. He deserves this.”
“Yes, sir.”
They all walked out of the door, Sleuth behind them all. He gave Admiral Byrd a thank you gesture just before the door shut behind him.
Connor went to get up, but Admiral Byrd had other ideas.
“Sit, cadet.”
Connor, slightly defeated, slumped back down in his chair. His arms crossed as he leaned forward. “I won't back down, sir. I'll prove my case.”
“You fly with a cleverness and a improvisation that I admire, and I wish all my pilots had the same genius as you. This is why you were chosen.”
“Chosen to be lied to? This is absolute...” he cut himself off and exhaled in exasperation. He glanced down at his brown boots, then scanned the floor across to the boot's Admiral Byrd was wearing. They were brown as well.
“Don't worry, you'll get your money,” said Admiral Byrd.
Connors eyes shifted from the admiral's boots to the admiral's eyes. “What?”
“I said, you'll get your Bulvas. Just, hear me out.”
“I'm confused. First I don't get the prize money, now I get the prize money? What's going on?” Then he broke into a big grin and looked around. “Am I being pranked? I knew it. I'm being pranked.”
“You're not being pranked, you're being used. But I used you for certain reasons that I see in your flying. I need your improvisation, just as Star Guild needs your clever and ingenuous mind. You're not getting your prize money. You're getting more than that.”
Confused, Connor asked, “Permission to speak frankly, Admiral?”
“As if you haven't already, but permission granted.”
“What in the Guild is going on? If this isn't a prank, then why are you ruining my damn day and potentially my future? I just won the SGAGs for you and our starship.”
“SGAGs don't mean much, other than to appease the masses and distract them from bad political decisions and secret governance acts passed without much outcry, other than from myself of course. If you saw what political crap we went through during the month of our annual SGAGs, you'd want to slap every governance official you saw.”
Connor shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his jaw tightening. He could feel anger growing in his belly. “I don't get it. So, are you using me for political gain?”
“I apologize, cadet. In time you'll see what you will have done for all of humankind. And to calm you down—if I can—it's not for political gain. At all. You'll be given more money than your win today and from my own bulva reserves. It will also be more than you'd ever be given as a pilot in the Star Guild Fleet.” He paused, looking Connor dead in the eyes. “You'll be going underground.”
Connor rubbed his temple. “Umm...”
“The Techie you just saw, Sleuth, is a liar and is working for someone who isn't in this for the ultimate service of humankind. If you think I believed his contrived story and his made up vid of you and your friends for a minute, then I'm a better actor than I thought I was. I need to understand why he is undermining your victory in the SGAGs, for one, and I need to find out exactly what he's doing and for whom. There are many things that are coming from his HDC that are encrypted data streams and going to places that we can't find, and I've given up on all of my silly hackers in the military. They are useless and can't expose Sleuth's data streams, or perhaps don't want to.”
Connor scratched his chin. “I'm not getting it. You want me to expose Sleuth and get his encrypted data? I just know HDC basics. I can't do that stuff.”
“I know. That's not what I'm getting at. You'll be paid by me to get out of the limelight, to go places where I ask you to go to, to fly outside of Star Guild boundaries—all undercover. Not even Prime Director Zim Nocki will know. You'll be honorably discharged and ranked as a civilian.”
“Why???
?
“You can't be in service any more if you choose to accept this new position. You must lead an ordinary life. You'll be given a part-time job from home, most likely working for a friend of mine.”
“I don't know about this. My entire family line has been captains in the military. I'll be letting everyone down. I'll be giving it all up. What if this doesn't work? What will I have?”
Admiral Byrd pondered for a moment. “By the time you're one year into this, you'll have more money than most starfighter jocks make their entire lifetime. You'll be set.”
Connor's eyes brightened. “I see.”
“Most importantly,” responded Admiral Byrd, “I need to know exactly what happened with Admiral Revel Sune, and how Starship Hathor really died. You'll be my eyes and ears. You are the path to uncovering the truth about what is going on with Sleuth and others that are involved. I have a bad feeling about all of this. I mean to expose Zim and the governance.”
Connor leaned back, his young mind racing and his heart pounding. “I'll be flying around and looking for evidence?”
“You'll be discovering new worlds, new materials, new evidence of the suspected asteroid belt that killed Starship Hathor—if there really is a belt in that sector.”
Connor shrugged. “How many bulvas we talking?”
“25,000 bulvas per mission.”
“How many missions?”
“A lot.”
He held out his hands. “A lot?”
“Ten plus missions a year, perhaps more.”
Connor blinked a couple of times. That's more than any Star Guild pilot had ever made, and will