Emerald Repatriation Society: Humanity (Part 25)
18 Feb 2024Vasil Vasilescu
(<--Part 24)It did not take Jack Vaughn long to find me once I returned to the Emerald Dawn. After my meeting with Captain Whitney and his command staff regarding the loss of life and equipment in Vogulu, I stopped at one of the lounges near my stateroom, and halfway through my second bourbon, Vaughn came into the lounge. I had hoped the reporter decided to take advantage of the Emerald Dawn moving to Sawait and arrange to leave the carrier. After Octavia’s refusal to do anything to help Elena, I did not want to deal with Vaughn and his questions.
“I didn’t expect to find you here,” Vaughn said, sitting uninvited at the small cafe table.
“Why, because it is the first place you looked?”
“Second, actually,” said Vaughn, ordering a pale ale from the table’s order screen. “I checked the hangars first but I’m glad I did not find you there. It seems more like a chance encounter here, don’t you think.”
“It does feel less like an ambush interview than at the hangar lifts.”
“Yes. Last time I tried that with you I ended up in a holding cell. I’d like to avoid that in the future.”
“Sergeant Lydko tells me that you are keeping to the public areas of the ship, which is the best way to avoid a stay with security. Since you are still aboard, I suppose that means you are finding enough interesting stories that you do not feel the need to leave.” Vaughn’s drink arrived and I tapped the pay screen at my seat to put it on my bill.
“Thank you,” he said and took a quick swallow of the ale. “And yes, I am finding people with great stories, both among those who have been rescued, and the crew. In fact, I was able to speak with Martin Janus, one of the volunteer AX pilots who helped fight off the Thargoids while the Emerald Dawn was taking on rescue transports. Did you know Janus is a Lieutenant Commander in the Federal Navy Reserve?”
I shook my head.
“I didn’t think you would. It is nowhere in any of the official reports. Probably not good PR for an Imperial charity to admit receiving help from a Federal military officer.” Seeing that I would not take the bait and admit or deny that was the case, Vaughn continued. “Anyway, Janus gave me the story of how Cmdr Phillips was killed in action.”
“I read the SITREP and the after-action report. He was killed protecting a crippled transport, the Jogger’s Pride.” Hopefully that would be enough to let Vaughn know that the reports were the official account of what happened and that I’d only confirm what was official.
“You make it sound even more bland than the reports,” said Vaughn. “According to Janus, Phillips’ weapons were destroyed, and everyone was urging him to leave fight. Instead, Phillips started using his eagle to intercept caustic missiles targeting Janus as Janus retrieved escape pods from Jogger’s Pride. Janus said it was the most amazing piloting he’d ever seen, like a swallow hunting insects, agile and precise and beautiful to behold. He never thought something like that was possible, or that an Imperial pilot would do such a thing for a Federal pilot to the point that his own ship literally melted around him.”
Vaughn leaned forward. “Those are the kinds of things you don’t find in official reports, but they are the kinds of things that people need to hear. It reminds us that our humanity transcends any notion of us being Imperials or Federals or Independents.”
I started to point out that the escape pods contained Imperial citizens and that Phillips was more than likely protecting Janus so Janus could recover their pods, but there was some truth to what Vaughn was saying. Janus and two other AX pilots volunteered to assist flights of Imperial eagles who were not equipped to fight Thargoids. The eagles and the AX pilots chose to stay behind and defend Jogger’s Pride when the Emerald Dawn was forced to jump. Phillips died protecting Janus and the escape pods.
If our humanity led strangers to help one another without question, why could it not allow for family helping family in spite of honor and the law? Octavia, as head of the family, would do nothing to help Elena. I was bound by family duty to support Octavia’s decisions, and by the law to not interfere with her Abdicare against Elena. Maybe it was time to be more human and do what I felt was right rather than what was required.
I’d spent so much time out in the void on my own that it was a difficult thing to admit needing help from anyone, but I saw no way forward without asking for it. “Vaughn, I need your help.”
Vaughn sat up straighter, caught off guard. “Uh... okay. With what?”
“I want you to find my sister, Elena, and who owns her slave contract.”
(Part 26-->)