Xandrian Stone 4: The Academy Part 3 (6 page)

Chapter 8: THE MEDAL OF DISTINGUISHED SERVICE

There was still no movement or sound other than the speech by the Supreme Admiral.

"Now that that is done: Let's get to the business at hand. Officers and former officers of
Quarry
: I have reviewed the data. You have, upon arrival, attacked the enemy without hesitation. You then survived an attack that 5 Bricks before you were destroyed by. You then proceeded to find out how to properly defend against those light-weapons, informed all of the Colonies and kept the enemy busy. That enabled
Tan Line
to Stack up with 2 other Bricks and come to your aid. Together, you destroyed the enemy."

Now he smiled, at last. "For that, you all hereby receive the Medal of Distinguished Service." As my mouth dropped open the entire parade ground exploded in roars of cheering. The former officers of
Quarry
who were standing with the officers of
Tan Line
were receiving pats on their shoulders by their neighbors.

After the roaring died down, the Supreme Admiral smiled again. "The shields of Quarry will all of course receive an Order of the Broken Leg as well. The weapons wounded by that flash of light will also receive an Order of the Broken Leg. The healers of Quarry will all receive an Order of the Bandaged Leg. Dismissed."

Now the crew of Quarry roared, which was taken up by the rest of the officers on the parade ground. The Medal of Distinguished Service had not been awarded in over a century before, and never in the small bit of recorded history that I knew to so many officers at once. To top that off, being both a shield and healer of Quarry myself, I also got a Broken Leg and a Bandaged Leg as well.

In fact, so many orders and medals were being awarded that a small table was set up and everyone receiving one or several got there to claim theirs. The mood was good, there was joking and congratulating. The Supreme Admiral waved me over once I claimed mine and attached them properly to my dress uniform.

"Stone, walk with me." We silently walked to the admiral's office of the academy. There, we took seats and he looked at me.

"Commodore Oriakova has already voiced her disappointment in you not being promoted to Commander." He smiled. "That will happen soon enough. As soon as there are more than just one Combat-Bricks, your quick raise in ranks will be unavoidable. But right now, you don't need a higher rank than the one you have. Do you understand that?"

It was always like he was pampering me or something. "Sir, let me be clear on this: My rank does not really mean much to me, now that I have my own command. Commander or Lieutenant, the Commodore will still order me around and that's as it should be."

He nodded. "Very good. As soon as a Commander-position become needed in the Defense Navy, ..."

I was nodding myself now. "I know. Being Prime Lieutenant I will be first in line for the promotion."

The Supreme Admiral got up. "Now get back to
Quarry
, contact Commodore Oriakova and get your orders. We all have a lot of work to do." I got up and we shook hands. There was a lot to do indeed! But we would be missing all of it, flying around the system looking for anything out of the ordinary. I was actually looking forward to a couple of calm moments to allow myself and the crew to grief properly. The cost of that first attack had indeed, as had been prophesied, been terrible.

End of book 4.

More adventures of Xandrian will come in the next short-bo
ok,
Xandrian Stone Book 5: The Battle at Eden 3-1
.

Thank you for reading this short-book, dear reader. Especially as the story just got a lot darker and less naive. I hope that you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. More are coming!

May I humbly ask you to rate this book as you see fit, both to let me know if you liked it and to help make and keep it visible for others to find? That would be most nice, thank you. :-)

Yours humbly,

Christian A. Breitenstein