Chapter 134: Admiral Lorenza

I emerged from the teleporter, back in the cargo bay of the ship, looking out over the millions of people that were about to start their new lives. 

I'd contacted the entire inner circle before teleporting away, meaning Akash, Yr'Arl, Rin, Vadton, Klatissi, The Urstnir of Napdid, Boledo and Ke'Zuc were already present. 

"Any trouble from anyone down there?" I asked, striding toward the group and taking my place on the left of Akash. 

The tree-like alien looked down at me, "Surprisingly not, Squadron Leader Lyre," He reported. "So far the general population of refugees have not caused any trouble, though it is apparent from the video feeds that tension is beginning to rise. If the journey had been a few days instead of 12 hours, we may have had some problems." 

That made me feel a little bit less worried about the transfer. I knew things were going to be difficult going forward for the people int he Cargo Bay, and we'd try to help them every step of the way that we could. On the plus side, they were behaving. For now. 

"In that case, I'm going to ask for teleport coordinates. Then, Yr'Arl, if you're up to it you could teleport us all over, okay?" 

"That would be acceptable, Squadron Leader Lyre," Yr'Arl said. 

"How many times am I going to need to tell you people to just call me 'Jacob'?" I sighed, exasperated. "Computer, ping the station and ask for some teleport coordinates. I'd like to talk to whoever runs this place about emergency plans to get the refugees situated on the planet below." 

The computer gave off three short beeps, which I took to be an affirmative. 

"It would not be right to call you anything less than your station requires, Squadron Leader Lyre," Vadton said, their voice still mechanical and gravelly. 

I rolled my eyes. I went through so many people calling me out on my humanity and giving me no respect at all, even though I hadn't done anything to earn their ire, and now I was getting more respect than I could handle because of the position that Adonis had granted me in his moments before flying off to his doom. 

I guess the saying was right, you really should be careful of what you wish for. 

My holo watch gave another ping, and began to display some complicated coordinates that I couldn't understand. I brought my finger over them and flicked the lot toward Yr'Arl, which instantly made them available on his watch as well. 

The magical technology of this universe would never cease to be impressive to me. 

"Right team, everyone huddle up around Yr'Arl, and we'll teleport over," I said. 

All eight of the aliens gathered in a circle, holding hands where they could, or touching with wispy bits of gaseous cloud where they couldn't. 

With a blast of white light, we left the ship and reappeared on what I could only assume was the space station that we had docked onto. 

"Ah, Squadron Leader Lyre, we meet at last," came a voice from behind the rest of my group. 

The aliens parted from our teleportation circle and moved back to a position behind me so that I could see who was addressing me. 

"The pleasure is all mine, Admiral Lorenza," I said, knowing who I was addressing the moment I had seen him. 

The dossier that I had been provided on the situation regarding Actaeon had gone over many things, and one of those things was the person who would be liaising between the refugee rehoming effort and the council of the planet. 

The man in question was Admiral Facitus Lorenza, an alien that belonged to the Actaeon's home species, the Acta.

They were a few feet taller than your standard human, with big barrel chests and four powerful arms, two that came from the shoulders and two that emerged from the middle of the alien's back, curving around their sides. 

They had human-like faces, with two eyes, a nose and a mouth, but the mouth was lipless and much wider than what you would usually find on a human's face. They were also completely bald. 

The Acta also appeared to have completely skipped leg day in their evolution, their two legs were skinny in comparison to their bulky upper half. 

"You flatter me, Squadron Leader," Lorenza said with a wide, toothy smile, "but please, let us get to work immediately, it would not do to have those poor people cooped up in your ship for any longer than necessary."

I nodded at that, "Indeed, while there have been no incidents on board as of yet, I wouldn't count on that to last if the millions we have at the moment are kept locked up for too much longer." 

"In that case, computer, bring up the plan for the Prespian Refugee City," Lorenza continued. 

A bright hologram erected itself over Lorenza's desk. 

I had been worried that Lorenza was planning to shove all of the refugees into some kind of hastily constructed mega building, one that would only bring back memories of what had happened back on Prespian City, fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case. 

The city design was wide and spacious, filled with plenty of parks and even a few lakes. There were public transport tram and train links for every location, and even the streets had lines of trees on either side of the roads. To be honest, it looked almost like paradise. 

"It looks beautiful," I said matter of factly. "A major change from Prespian, that's to be sure, but one that I think the refugees will be able to appreciate. I wouldn't be surprised if those people never wanted to see another mega building in their lives." 

"That was the thought we programmed our design computers with when the idea was formulated," Lorenza said. 

"How long will it take to complete? I can't imagine you've had all that much time since being told of our arrival to get things in place." 

"Oh," Lorenza said, "It's ready now, people can start moving from your ship to our teleport banks immediately." 

Magic was, as ever, incredibly awesome.