“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I’d get to meet the man who commanded the Pioneer Star Fleet…” Karl couldn’t hide his astonishment.

Cross snorted. “You make it sound so glorious. Well then, since you seem to know your history, you must know what happened in the end?”

Karl looked down and didn’t say anything. He couldn’t say anything.

Cross gave a hollow snigger. “That’s right. Thirty-three years ago, after the success of our first mission to blow up an asteroid headed for Earth, the international space council was too eager to flex muscle and rushed us off to another expedition. They wanted us to go out of our patrol route, to explore unknown territories with higher stakes. After all, the higher the risk, the greater the reward. Except we only got the risks, while they got all the rewards.  Pioneer Star Fleet, my ass. We were more like the pioneer sacrificial pawns.

They lost contact with our fleet en route to the Dark Rift. And we just wandered off, forever lost in space. No survivors. That’s the official story anyway, and what they said in newspapers, and most likely what you were taught in school. But what they never told you was what really happened that night.”

Cross reached for his booze once more and gulped down. “We crossed paths with a ghost ship. Can you believe it? A damn ghost ship!” He guffawed. “Wouldn’t take a single hit from our entire fleet. Every shot we fired from every weapon— from every piece of artillery we had— went straight through it. Not a single scratch.

But us? Our ships went off like firecrackers, exploding one after another. From shots that came out of nowhere! We called for help. We know the base heard us, but they never sent anyone. All because they wanted to cover it up. ‘We don’t want to traumatize the public. We don’t want to cause panic,’ my ass. What a load of crap.”

Seething, Cross gripped the wine bottle as rage blazed in his eyes. “When I returned, I found out that those assholes whined about losing their investment. But I lost men. I didn’t just lose my ship, I lost an entire fleet.”

Alawa, not bothering to wipe the tears rolling down her cheeks, spoke softly. “Admiral, I’ve never asked you this before, but how did you survive? How did you end up back here?”

“It was thanks to my adjutant. He was probably around your age back then,” He nodded at Karl. “He was our expert navigator, and in his spare time, he loved taking photographs of the stars. On the last few months of our journey, he had been trying to tell us that there was something odd going on. Every now and then, he would get a distorted image. At first he suspected that there was something wrong with his camera. But he started noticing a pattern.

The distortion, though captured in different locations, was the same size. He tried to warn us of his suspicions that something we couldn’t see was tailing us. But by then, it was too late. A cruiser that looked like a flying galleon materialized out of nowhere and attacked us.

He was still so young, so I led him to an escape pod. I wanted him to live, and perhaps to tell the world our story. But when we got to it, he shoved me into the escape pod instead.” Cross’ mind wandered to the past, to the face of that young man that was still so vivid in his memories.

*******

“What are you doing? You get in this escape pod. You still have a long life ahead!”

“No sir, you have to live. The world still needs you.”

 “You damn brat. Let me out of here, that’s an order!” He banged on the door.

“I’m sorry, Admiral… I’ll have to disobey your final order.” With a bitter smile, the young man gave his last salute.

And that was the last thing the Admiral saw before his escape pod was ejected. His vessel sped further and further away while his ship, the last cruiser standing and shielding him from the crossfire, blew up.

*******

“Sixteen months later, my escape pod landed in the sea. Alawa here rescued me and nursed me back to health. Before I left to report what happened, a trusted comrade still in active service tipped me off that if they were to find out I was still alive, they’d try to get rid of me. In the end, all those brave men died for nothing.”

“That’s not true,” Karl shook his head then met Cross’ eyes. “GDF was founded because of you.”

Cross snorted. “Don’t make me laugh. What, did you recruit people who wanted to end up like us? Dead? A joke? Both?”

“When our founder brought up the idea of establishing the Galaxy Defense Force before the international space council, they said the same thing. ‘Who would want to become space pilots after hearing what happened to the Pioneer Star Fleet?’

But, Admiral, do you know what he said? It was because of the brave warriors in the Pioneer Star Fleet that he believed people would answer the call to defend our universe from those who threaten our peace and stability.

History has taught us that the threat of people with evil intentions in and out of our planet would always be there. It’s just a matter of time before they appear. The only choice we have is to be prepared or not.

The council gave him six months to recruit and if no one signed up, then that was that. He told them he only needed a month. And within 48 hours of recruitment, the initial quota for qualified applicants was reached, and the first batch of cadets was called in for screening. When asked what motivated them to enlist, most of them said they were moved by the story of the pioneer star fleet and joined GDF to honour the fallen.”

An unguarded expression flashed on Admiral Cross’ face before he averted Karl’s gaze, gripping his bottle. “You’re not making shit up just to make me feel better are you, brat? And even if you weren’t, how’d you know all this happened? Were you there?”

“No.”

“Ha! See?”

“I heard it from the man himself.”

Cross frowned. “What did you say your name was again?”

“Karl, sir. Karl Takaya Lyle. I’m the son of GDF’s founder, Dr. Artemis Lyle.”

Cross grunted in affirmation as he raised his bottle to Karl then downed the rest of his drink before getting up and retiring for the night. Alawa followed after him, saying she was going to prepare a place for their guests to sleep.

Karl gazed up at the stars, and for a moment the only sound that could be heard was the crackling of the firewood and the concerto of nocturnal birds and insects.

“Karl, have you ever encountered a ghost ship? Like the one in the Admiral’s tale,” asked Rywa.

Karl turned to him and shook his head. “No. Why? I guess it’s hard to believe, so…”

“On the contrary, I do believe his story. And that’s why it worries me,” Rywa frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“It would have been better if Viernn was here to explain, as it’s her forte. I suppose it’s better to show you.” Rywa took out what looked like a purple glass marble from his pouch. A crest lit up inside and made it glow as he uttered something under his breath then said “Karl, look at my mug.”

Karl was surprised when the mug disappeared and then reappeared two feet to the right of where it was, closer to him. “Whoa!”

“All right, now take it.”

“Okay,” Karl reached for Rywa’s mug, but when he tried to grasp it, his fingers went right through the object. Eyes wide in surprise, he tried again but it felt as though he was trying to catch air.

Rywa moved his free hand towards Karl, but before their fingers could meet, Karl felt cold metal against his fingertips. But there was nothing in the space between their hands, or so it seemed. Karl fumbled until his hand circled on the mug that was invisible. “… Projection?”

 Rywa nodded. He muttered something and the stone in his hand glowed once more before the mug reappeared in Karl’s hand. “This is an illusion stone. While we cannot say for certain it’s what really happened that night, it’s one of the possibilities.”

“So is it possible that the ship that attacked them was Zirkan?”

Rywa’s face went grim. “I don’t know, but what I do know is to be able to conceal an entire cruiser, it would require massive amounts of these illusion stones and at least a few dozen mages. If that was the case, then that was no small involvement in Zirka’s part. But why would Zirka be part of such a dirty trick and a cruel massacre?”

Rywa clenched his fists. He heaved a deep sigh and looked up, voice pensive. “I came to your world to seek answers. Instead, I keep getting plagued by even more questions…”