Learning Curve, B
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2022 by Walter Reimer

Thumbnail art by  baroncoon, color by  marmelmm

Prompt: knowledge


The trooper-attendant of the Imperial Guard had a very long stride for a kam; so long, in fact, that he actually forced the High Admiral to lengthen her own pace to keep up with him. Beside Vikan t’Klar, the Fleet Commander, Kandun b’Vat, also labored to maintain the pace.

But had the Sovereign’s message been any more urgent, they would have been running down the long, vaulted corridor.

The trooper came to a halt beside the door to the Emperor’s private office, and graciously waited a moment for the two officers to catch their breath and make sure they looked presentable before touching the room’s annunciator. “Yes?” came a voice.

“The High Admiral and the Fleet Commander, my Lord,” the attendant said.

“Please come in,” and the attendant stepped aside as t’Klar and b’Vat went inside.

Tarval XXI was seated at his desk, reading something on a padd; his tail gestured for the two to sit. They did so and he laid the device flat on his desk. “What happened at Lalande?” the Sovereign asked.

T’Klar glanced at b’Vat who replied, “A six-ship patrol group of Cruiser Division Six, Second Fleet, was on duty at Lalande when a stronger Terran force, comprising two battleships, twelve cruisers and seventeen destroyer-type craft crossed the border without first asking permission or stating their intent. The patrol group came under attack and conducted a fighting withdrawal to the Lalande System, and withstood the Terran incursion until the rest of the Second Fleet could arrive.”

“Admirals Tajan and k’Daridh offer their apologies,” t’Klar said, “and a stronger force will garrison the system after this.”

Tarval gestured comprehension. “The Foreign Minister has already contacted me with a message from his counterpart on Terra. According to him, former Ambassador Balakrishnan is terrified of our reaction to this incursion.”

“Aka,” t’Klar muttered, “at least one Terran there is capable of learning.”