Chapter 638 Analysis Paralysis

Chapter 638 Analysis Paralysis

The next day, TFS Proxima, the SCIF.

Fleet Admiral Bianchi had decided to gather a debriefing question list, considering Joon-ho was incapable of remaining in a mana void for any length of time, lest he risk collapse and death. Laifu had explained his situation the night before during their conversation before returning control of Ayaka’s body to her. It had been quite a surreal experience for the admiral, and he was still contemplating the ramifications of Ayaka’s new mana attunement. It wasn’t every day that you met one of the beings that governed all of existence, after all.

“As you were,” he said to the rest of the people in the room, who had stood to attention as he’d entered. “Since Warrant Officer Lee is... otherwise occupied, my chief of staff will be collecting the questions your sections have for him.”

Everyone at the table was silent.

“None of you have any questions?” he asked.

“No. We simply don’t know enough to know what we don’t know, Admiral,” Dr. Standing Bear finally replied. “There’s no baseline reference we can use to determine what we need to know, so asking anything at this juncture is likely to be a waste of time at best, and send us haring off after wild geese at worst.”

“Very well. Then this’ll be a short meeting. Last night, I spoke with the being that... borrowed, shall we say, Commander Takahashi’s body, and....” The admiral went on to explain what had happened to Joon-ho, as well as sum up what he’d learned in the conversation with Laifu.

“So does that mean...” Dr. Standing Bear began, but trailed off as she realized her thoughts were beginning to circle. Ayaka had awakened completely outside the age range that would allow for awakening, and in such a short time at that. And not only that, she had awakened an affinity to one of the five fundamental forces that governed all of creation—and it was SAPIENT!

She had so many questions they were all jammed up in her head and stuck there, unable to fit through the gate that was her mouth. It was a classic case of analysis paralysis, something she rarely suffered.

“Commander Takahashi, would you mind—”

“No,” Admiral Bianchi interrupted.

“But Admiral, we could learn so much—”

“No, Dr. Standing Bear. Laifu made it perfectly clear that it would not allow Commander Takahashi to become a lab rat, I’m sorry to say.”

“Aye aye, Admiral,” Ayaka replied.

“Dismissed.”

Everyone filed out of the SCIF, still digesting the bombshell that Fleet Admiral Bianchi had dropped on them.

......

Admiral’s ready room, TFS Proxima.

Ayaka, with Joon-ho at her side, was just about to palm the door to request entry when it slide aside with a hydraulic swoosh. “Enter,” the admiral said from inside.

The pair walked through the door and Ayaka came to attention and saluted. “Captain Takahashi and Warrant Officer Lee reporting as ordered, Admiral!” she crisply said.

“Sit down, Ayaka,” Admiral Bianchi chuckled. “You’re a captain now, no need for formalities in private.”

She sat in the chair on the other side of the admiral’s desk and looked around at the room. It was decorated in the style of an old tallship from the Age of Sail, all wood paneling with brass accents and a large “window” to the rear of the room. The desk was to the left as she entered, and opposite the desk on the right side was a table, upon which rested the map of the Proxima Centauri system in the style of an old naval chart. On the bulkhead by the door, the admiral’s coat and beret hung from a peg, and behind his desk was an assortment of crystal decanters filled with various colored liquors.

The admiral’s steward entered from a camouflaged door beside the bar. “What would the captain and warrant officer like to drink?” he asked, setting a mug of steaming coffee on the desk in front of the admiral.

“Nothing for me, thank you,” Ayaka said.

“I’ll have a mango juice please,” Joon-ho added.

“Very good.” The steward bowed at a precise angle and, like any good steward, seemed to vanish, his presence no longer required in the room.

“Alright,” Admiral Bianchi said. “We have much to do and little time in which to do it. You two will be headed to the surface tonight at midnight, ship time. So use the next few hours to come up with an initial action plan.”

He threw Ayaka a data file and continued, “Your official orders and requirements are in that file. Read it and ask anything you need to ask for clarification.”