Chapter Text
Tic-Toc. The sound of the clock felt far away even though the analog was on the wall right beside him. A useless place to put it because it wasn't as if he could see it from his chair however, it wasn't really there for him to see. He could use the digital clock on his computer a lot easier, the old thing was really just for listening to. An odd thing to keep it for. For as long as he could remember the tic toc of old fashioned clocks always gave him a sense of calm, as if each tic was a signal to breath in and every toc to breath out. Very odd. The sound would be calming in this instant if it wasn't for the empty feeling in his chest. Numb and unfeeling. Only the whisky that he hid in a secret compartment in his desk for nights like these seemed to help him feel. The burning before that too was numbed until the next sip.
He shouldn't be drinking if he was honest. His liver had been acting up for the past year and he also had tests to grade. A deep sigh escaped his lips as he leaned back and sank further into his chair. His eye gazed at the tests that sat on his desk. He couldn't be arsed. Not when the guilt was eating up at him again, well, more than usual anyway. If it's one thing Miles always disliked doing, it was lying. It was something that could be useful if done correctly, done wrong and you could end up in shit-vile. The Commander especially hated the lies that the Board had told him to croak.
The Board had taken the risk of lying, keeping it all under wraps and out of the public eye. Too bad that it went wrong and they were now in shit-vile. Hounded by the media and just by the public in general. They made sure to drag him down with them. Now thanks to them, the esteemed reputation of the Galaxy Garrison was soiled.
It was always the same questions he was greeted with. "Sir. How long has the Garrison known this information?"
"Commander Iverson, what really happened with the Kerberos mission?"
"Is it true that it was due to pilot error?"
"Excuse me but many are saying that the recorded video of the blue lion was fake. Can you confirm or deny that a robot lion was spotted flying from Earth?"
"Is it true that scanners picked up five humans inside the Lion? Three being cadets of the Garrison and two being ex-cadets, one of which supposedly died on the Kerberos mission."
"Sir, can you please tell us what happened to Lance McClain, Katie Holt, Hemana Garrett, Takashi Shirogane and Keith Kogane?"
"If Corporal Shirogane survived Kerberos, is there a chance that Dr Samuel and Matthew Holt also survived?"
How does one tell the world that what you told them the year before was a lie. It was a shock to his system. He remembers it clearly, waking up at 4am to his phone going off and his comm. going mental as well. The Board screaming at him about information leaks. He wasn't surprised if he was 100% honest. He knew that one day everyone would find out. Miles actually thought that the ruse was up when he walk in on that Katie using his computer. She knew the truth, that something else had went down on Pluto's moon and that they were hiding it. They just didn't know what. Still to this day, they don't know what really happened on Kerberos.
How does one explain to the world that the crew of the three year mission had just... vanished. The ship was still there and outside cameras were still recording. The video showed the three going out on the rover to their site, a few hours later, they record screaming and a flash of bright brilliant purple. That's it. That's all they got back from Kerberos. It definitely wasn't pilot error. Not that it wouldn't have been.
Takashi Shirogane. He'd known the boy when he joined that Garrison at fourteen. A bright young lad. A good kid... He had the pleasure of training him. Back before he got promoted and was still just an instructor. Iverson helped train Takashi, he knew first hand how good of a pilot that boy was. Graduating as the youngest first class pilot at only nineteen, beating the record of twenty-two set almost 40 years ago. On record, he died age twenty-three. He knew that boy and he knew for a fact that if anything killed the Kerberos crew, it wasn't pilot error. Yet that was the lie that the Board had him and the others say.
Imagine telling a family that. He remembers travelling to Tokyo himself and knocking on the Shirogane family home. It was his elder sister than answered the door. Six years older than him yet you'd think that they were twins. She recognised his uniform and already he could see her face tighten and a slither of fear sink into her eyes. A personal visit meant only bad news. He was invited in, mother and daughter sat on the couch in front of him. His father had died in an accident when he was seven. Looks like another family member claimed by accident. If he thought the sister looked like Takashi, then his mother gave her a run for her money. You could easily tell which parent he took after.
It's a horrible thing to tell a family their loss. He remembers how the sisters eyes turned blank as she stared into the abyss, her face emotionless. The mother on the other hand. She seemed to go through the five stages of grief in seconds.
He remembers her screams. Telling him that he was lying. That her baby boy was safe and still helping to take ice samples.
Then her eyes were alight with rage. Hell has no fury to a mother whose child is threatened.
It went on and on until she was on the ground. Cries that would forever haunt Iverson came from both women who'd lost a loved one. He'd never forget how she cried "No. No..not my boy. Not my boy" when he told her it was to pilot error. Both women knew that wasn't true.
Back at the Garrison, they had an assembly. Telling the cadets and instructors what had happened. Lance Corporal Jamie Hughes. An instructor that same age as Shirogane. In fact, the two were best friends during their time as cadets, and continued to be into adulthood. ...Had been best friends. The shenanigans those two got up to. Imagine finding out your best friends had died in space. He remembers the exclamation of "Shiro man... shit" as the brunet clumsily fell into a chair, slumped over and held his face in his hands. Iverson pretended not to hear the sobs that came from the man. Everyone who knew Shiro all had the look of bullshit when they were told that it was to pilot error.
He doesn't know how Colleen Holt took the news. He knows first hand her daughters opinion on it, but not hers. Peter was the one tasked with telling the Holts but apparently they had already heard before he could get to them. Iverson did know how she took the news about her daughter though. Colleen stormed upon the campus. The woman looked like the living embodiment of rage. Her hair had grown out a bit since Kerberos, just touching her shoulders and the stands stood up. She looked like a roaring lion as she screamed at him and the other officers.
It always, without a doubt, eat him alive at night.
The chime from his computer startled him. He looked over to see that the he just had more tests to grade. A groan left his mouth. He'd forgotten that he also had to mark the tests from the Garrison Campus in New Glasgow. Treacherously, his mind started to think about how the kids would be there right now.
Galaxy Garrison had two Campuses. One in America which was for junior cadets. Those who became senior cadets or showed immense promise went to New Glasgow. He didn’t like to think about how they would be there. Lance McClain and Hemana Garrett, or Hunk as he heard most cadets call him, would now both be old enough to go there. Even Pidge Gunderson, Katie Holt, would have been accepted there, though not old enough, they had the promise that New Glasgow would make an exception for. They're families would have been proud. Their families wouldn't be feeling their loss right now.
If you had told Miles Iverson that one day, he'd witness a giant, blue robot lion erupt from the ground and start flying about the place only to shoot up into space, to find out that four children were on that thing as well as the man they called dead. He would have probably hut you. He didn't really understand what was going on when he watched the lion. He was still to caught up in Takashi's return to be honest. Nobody expected him to be in a, ship of sort.
The security feeds were... upsetting. Last time he saw Takashi, he was calm. He had a bright smile that reached his eyes. His skin was tanned and his hair solid black. He was intact. The Takashi in the video however. He was strapped down to the table. The doctor around him wore suits just in case of anything that he brought with him. The man, was in panic. His eyes were wide, his voice laced with fear of what was coming. He was frantic. The Commander thought that he could see the start of worry lines on his forehead. His skin was pale, making the deep, wide scar that sat across his nose more noticeable. He looked far older than just twenty-four. His hair now had white growing in it. He's lost an arm and gained a new one. That shook Iverson.
He never doubted that there were things living outside the solar system. He just didn't expect to have evidence of them in his lifetime. Here though, an alien prosthetic stared at him in the face. The alien ship that he'd returned home in. Then the lion. It wasn't Human. Finally, the cherry on top was the Alien spacecraft that was spotted chasing the lion. Satellite helped them watch the chase until the edge of the solar system where they were lost to them. It was unnerving. It was terrifying.
Then all hell broke loose when the public found out.
A cadet had been standing at their open window when the lion showed up. They didn’t just stand there like himself however, nope, they took out their phone and recorded the whole thing. Then, what did they do? They uploaded it on to the internet. That’s when it all came in. All of the other recordings that people had taken. Some were cadets from here, others were taking from the Moon, the Moon videos had more content in them. One video, the guy had already been filming something when he caught the Alien Ship appear in front of Earth. Catching the lion wiz past it and off it went only for the ship to give chase. After really close watching, you could even say the lion fought the ship. It was mayhem. People from all over were charging to NASA and the Garrison, demanding answers.
Then the scanner readings which showed Human signatures inside the lion were handed to the media.
Then, the security videos of Takashi in the tent were leaked.
The next day, he got an email from both Kimi and Hoshi Shirogane. Where is he. Gone again.
What does one do when the world calls for answers that you don't have.
Now Earth knows about what could be out there, they won't say what is out there because anything could be. Everyone was scared. All countries, colonies, every person was terrified. How long had that lion been there. What if it was a threat. That ship, that appeared from nowhere and was gone just as quick. Look how easy it got to us. Look how vulnerable we were. Humanity was scared and that’s not a good thing. At first, there was complete panic, some places had even escalated into riots.
Scientists and Engineers from all over collected together to study the ship that Takashi had came in, they sank their teeth into it without prompt as well as half of a robot that was also in there. They spoke about amazing things. About how advanced this technology was and how they'd never seen anything like it. They were stumped at what was powering the machinery, they could tell that it was energy but not any energy that they'd ever found before. It was amazing. It was a breath of fresh air. They loved it and gladly ripped it apart. It was surprising how quickly they reversed engineered. Amazing in its own right. Replaced the unwanted parts of Human tech with the better parts of this. They took everything from what they had.
The people started to calm when they realised how much faster our ships had become. How much stronger the materials that had been found were and that they could easily be synthesised. Our weapons now had more impact. Earth was more protected. Whatever the energy was, it was outstanding. It was actually Mrs Holt who'd discovered the energy on Earth. Nobody knows how she did it, Colleen simply told everyone how to get it and that was it. They had a name for it now, Aura. Everything was changing. Technological advancements that couldn't even have had been dreamed of became reality.
Its been two years. Two years since the lion incident. Three years since the Kerberos.
He should probably get to marking those test papers.
—
It was a few days later that he got a call. Iverson was in the mess hall when Lt. Murray walked in. "Commander, there's a comm. for you. They've been put on hold in your office Sir." He was surprised, not expecting anything from anyone. He nodded to those who were sitting beside him and walked out the door, passing the Lt.
"Thank you Lt." The walk to his office felt longer than usual. As he sat down in his chair, he could see the red light flashing on the comm. that showed someone was on hold. Breathing in and out he turned it on. His comm. was linked to his computer so it was able to use the camera on that for this. A blue screen appeared in front of him. The face of Dr Paula greeted him. Her dark eyes matched her skin and hair. She was a living symbol of professionalism. "Elizabeth. What can I do for you?" A small smile cracked her cold exterior.
"Hey Miles. Would you like to be in a project of mine?" Her Spanish accent seemed to amplify the play in her voice, the smile grew larger. It'd been a long time since they'd really done anything together. Iverson had two eyes back then. A twinkle danced in her eyes as she noticed the taken back expression on his face.
"What kind of project?"
"Eh, just a new kind of ship that me and a friend thought up. We've already made most of it right enough but I'd like to hear what a pilot has to say about it so... you want in?" Iverson was silent. There were other pilots that she could ask, some more qualified, right enough, who'd pass this opportunity.
"Yeah, I want in."
"Excellent." The grin on her face should have unsettled him but he was use to her by now. "I'll add you to the list. There's a meeting for this next week being held in the New Glasgow east square. I'll send you the tickets and the times for the thing."
"Right then, guess I'll see you in New Glasgow then."
"See you in New Glasgow." That was that. His old friend ended the call and he relaxed into his seat, letting out a sigh. He didn't know anyone that'd pass up a chance to go to NG. It wasn't as if the city was off limits to those without clearance, it was the capital of Earth's first colony. If you could call the Moon a colony. Iverson remembers picking up an old book once, a romance novel from 2038. The confusion that he felt when it started taking about a white satellite in the night sky with an eerie glow. What could that be, he only got more confused when they called it the Moon. His young mind didn't understand, the Moon didn't look like that at all. It wasn't until much later that he for out that it was in 2082 when Humanity started to terraform it. The terraforming was a slow process but it was done. It was interesting to look at before and after pictures. Now instead of looking white and pale grey, the Moon looked like a miniature Earth. You could see Charmed Bay sometimes, the Moon's sea noticeable in the top left when you looked up at the sky. Green sprinkled all about where there wasn't city.
In a sense, the Moon had been renamed New Glasgow. It was mostly city anyway, it started in the near side of the Moon and through the years, quickly spread as the population grew, ending on the far side. Apparently, he'd never seen it personally, but apparently there was a great forest on the far side. Full of nearly every kind of plant and tree you could find on Earth. NG was a jewel in human history. Though, there was talk of the Trips settlement on Venus taking that spot in the next couple of centuries.
Shaking his head, he realised that if he has to go to NG next week, then be better get these fucking tests marked.