BALADA: The Sight Of You Recalls The Grief's That Locked Within man’s Bosom Bide;

by Solea Razvan

  Fortress World Galiana

  Ealiupus 17th 13:18 Local standard time.

  “This is too much to bear!” Hannibal said as he raised the bottle of brandy to his lips and took a drink from it, before handing it to his companion.

  “Paying for one’s sins is never an easy thing.” Turneissnen said as he took the bottle and drank.

  The two of them had just finished with organizing the moving of the wounded to the medical transports bound for home and the dead for the coffins and where currently taking a break before getting to the task of reorganizing what remained of the fleet into some semblance of a fighting force.

  “And what sins would that be? Not going to church enough, drinking, swearing, adultery?” Hannibal said exasperatedly, he was sure that the priest before him would no doubt go into some religious tirade.

  “The sin of arrogance, greed and envy.” Alexander said and took another sip of the brandy before handing it back to Hannibal.

  “Please elaborate.” surprised at the priest’s words, he waited with renewed interest in the conversation.

  “We underestimated the enemy, as such we lost the battle by being fools and whether you are born or become one, being a fool always leads to disaster, thus it is one of the greatest sins of all!”

  “Also we where greedy, since even if we had won at Volun 3, the result would have been an escalation of hostilities, so we should have sent even more ships in order to bolster this region, since it is vital for the war effort, but I’m certain that there was some office politics involved back home that prevented that.”

  “And finally we were guilty of envy, since the admirals sent here where mostly those who had the best ties, thinking that they and their political supporters could further their careers.”

  “That’s………..actually a decent answer!” the captain replied and took a drink or brandy before giving it to Turneissnen once more.

  “But answer me this, why is it that the common man has to answer for the sins of those in power?” Hannibal said and gestured to the left of them, beyond the railed walkway which delimitated the end of the storey they were on.

  Down, on the ground floor was the aforementioned wounded and dead, millions of the former, hundreds of thousands of the latter, all being loading into the trains that would take them away.

  “We where stupid enough to elect them and cowardly enough to follow without question, so I say worthy leaders for a worthy people!” he gave a mock toast and drank.

  Hannibal gave a hollowed laugh, but he did appreciate the joke’s wit, even if it was sadly true.

  “I suppose your right. Still, at least some good has come of this! That Hotzengell fellow has apparently got it through his thick head that he has to reevaluate his way of thinking, it’s not much, but it’s better than nothing I suppose.”

  Though in truth Hannibal was regretful for that, for despite his words and general gladness that Hotzengell had the potential to become a proper Admiral, he regretted that fact.

  Hotzengell analysis of the overall situation was not bad, in theory Bloomfield had enough ships too last until help arrived was a valid view and no one could have predicted that the Empire would annihilate the Volunian fleet and Bloomfield so thoroughly.

  So the problem was not stupidity, but rather idealism.

  Hotzengell believed in the old values of chivalry, honor, loyalty and of course never leaving a comrade behind and unfortunately that was not the way to win wars.

  It was good that Hotzengell seemed to be becoming a ‘proper’ Admiral, but the fact that he had to sacrifice those values, which were good and decent ones, was what saddened Hannibal.

  “We shouldn’t have to become barbarians to defeat barbarians.” he lamented as he craved another drink to ease the pain in his soul.

  “True! But besides the Admiral’s newfound wisdom, there is also the fact the Empire will no doubt send their fleet to attack this fortress and when that happens.......”

  “Then it’s payback time!” Hannibal finished the sentence for Alexander.

  “Correct! Any fool can see that if they just stay in or near the fortress we can hold them back!”

  Just they heard the sound of heavy footsteps, turning their gaze in the direction of where they heard them coming, they saw that it was Lance hurrying towards them.

  “U-urgent-big news!” Lance said as he panted from exhaustion.

  “Easy kid! Take a breather!” Hannibal said and gave him a handkerchief to wipe off his forehead from sweat.

  “Why didn’t you just tell us on the comm crystals?” Alexander asked him.

  “Sorry-y! Too big of a shock!” Lance said and gave them each a slip of paper.

  “It’s a transfer notice! I’m to be sent back to the Federation to act as an advisor to the Fleet that has been ordered to gather as a response to the Empire’s incursions and a promotion to boot!” the tone of disbelief could not had been any more intense, as Alexander stared wide-eyed at the paper, like it was just some figment of his imagination.

  “I got one as well, so did Han and the Admiral, what’s going on?”

  Lance asked, while besides him Hannibal crumbled the piece of paper into a ball and threw it angrily away.

  “Damn that General Douglas!” Hannibal exclaimed as he started pacing back and forth to try and keep his temper under control.

  “What do you mean? What does General Douglas have to do with anything?” Lance enquired, General Douglas was a high ranking army commander, but he was not the one in charge of this theater of war.

  “Can’t you see kid? Now that the worst is over, that tonur is trying to kick us upstairs and replace us with his own lackeys so they’ll win and get the credit for stopping the Empire and we get a great big ‘Get out of here’!”

  “But what makes you say it’s General Douglas?”

  “Kid, that guy has been trying to extend his influence in the fleet for years, now he finally has the means to do it!”

  “That’s correct Captain, it says right here in the dispatch who the new Admiral is and from memory he is one of General Douglas’s allies.” Turneissnen confirmed Hannibal’s suspicions.

  “He did it to me once.” a voice said behind them, they turned and saw that it was Admiral Hotzengell.

  “Back when I was a Commodore at one point I was serving under him, during that time I was besieging a Republican fortress and just as I was about to break through its final layers of defenses he showed up and immediately relieved me of command with one of his own allies/lackeys from the space fleet, the guy got the credit, I got six months without command.”

  “I wowed then that I would never serve under him again, so I guess that’s the one positive thing about this whole mess and I’m glad I won’t be here after the transfers.” the Admiral said and took the brandy bottle and took a big gulp from it, his tone and his actions where clear indicators that he was regretting leaving the fight and was lying through his teeth.

  “How much time until we have to leave?” Lance asked.

  “The replacement arrived an hour ago in the system, he should be here in a day or so, we have been ordered to leave in three hours, to ‘help escort the wounded’.”Hotzengell said disgusted at the political backstabbing, since it meant that they weren’t even given the dignity of turning over command.

  “At least we won’t have to deal with the bickering between the Volunian Fortress commander, Base Commander and Fleet Commander anymore!” Alexander said which did brighten the mood of those present, but not by much.

  “That is something I suppose!”

  “Hear, hear Admiral! By the way who is the new commander?”

  “Admiral Dillinger, captain.”

  “Dillinger! In that case cheers! And may I say it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person!” Hannibal said though the true meaning of his words where opposite of their literal intent and they all said ‘cheers’ and shared the last of the brandy.

  But as soon as the alcohol was finishe
d the mood died down and everyone became somber once more.

  “Come on let’s get out of here.” Hannibal said and started walking towards the docking bays.

  “Aren’t we suppose to formally hand over command?” Alexander asked as he reread them.

  “What’s HQ gonna do? Kick us out of the fortress?” Hannibal asked saddened as he made his way to the docking bay and to their means of transport that would take them to the Federation.

  They pause before it, and upon seeing it he just couldn’t contain himself anymore and started crying.

  To a natural born sailor like himself, who cherished the endless freedom of space there before him stood the worst insult of all.

  It was a warp train.