Free Escape to Earth-Living Legends by Saxon Andrew

in.
    Michael pressed his panel and said, “Lt. Bartolo, report to my office immediately!”
    • • •
    Katy pressed her wrist unit and nothing responded. She stepped out of her office and saw Commander King running up the hall, “What’s going on?”
    “Sir, all communications have been ordered blacked out and all ships grounded.”
    “Who made that order!?”
    “It came from Fleet, Sir.”
    Katy heard a bump on the ceiling and looked at Commander King, “What was that?”
    “I have no way of knowing, Sir.”
    Katy turned as she heard metallic sounds coming down the steps from the landing port on top of the building. She grabbed her neck as she saw Fleet Admiral Stone followed by four armored warriors. Audrey walked up to her and said, “Admiral, you are confined to your office until further notice.” Katy looked in Audrey’s eyes and shut her mouth quickly. She turned and walked toward her office and two of the armored warriors followed her inside. She heard Admiral Stone say to the other two armored warriors, “Find her!” Katy stopped at the door and a warrior pushed her inside.”
    “I’ll have you court-martialed for this!”
    “File the charges but do as you’ve been ordered, Sir.” Katy went to her desk and sat down as the two warriors stood on each side of the door. She looked at her panel and all the systems were dead. What was happening? She looked up and saw Lt. Bartolo walk in followed by Michael. She looked in his eyes and for the first time in her life felt fear grip her heart and squeeze it. A moment later, Lt. Keller was ushered into the office by the two armored warriors sent to find her. Fleet Admiral Stone stepped in behind them and closed the door.

Chapter Five
    M ichael looked at Katy and said, “You will keep your mouth shut until I tell you to open it!! Nod if you understand!!” Katy nodded. Michael raised his wrist unit, “Stop the black out and send the recording I’m about to play in Admiral Greenwall’s office to every monitor on this base.”
    Audrey walked around to stand beside Katy and inserted a data-cube in her desk reader. Katy looked at her with her eyebrows raised and Audrey shook her head. Audrey pressed the play button and a recording began with Admiral Jekins narrating it.
    Katy looked at the monitor and heard Jekins say that the recording followed the two of them from the start of the battle to the conclusion. Katy watched and, after a few moments, was stunned by what she was seeing. The two ships flew through the enemy’s formations destroying black battleships in incredible numbers. They deliberately flew into the thickest enemy formations and blasted their way out. Katy looked at Bartolo and saw her looking at Jan shaking her head. She didn’t want what happened known and it appeared neither did Keller.
    The recording finally ended with Josey destroying the four battleships blocking the heavy from getting off a shot. The recording then moved from the four destroyed battleships, past the heavy, to six black battleships moving in behind the heavy and preparing to fire. Jekins said, “The heavy would have been destroyed except for Lt. Janice Keller’s attack. She attacked and destroyed all six enemy ships before they could open fire on the heavy. Fleet Intelligence has confirmed twenty thousand enemy battleships destroyed by our ships participating in the attack. Lieutenants Bartolo and Keller accounted for three thousand of those. The next closest number killed by another pilot in the rest of our fleets was four ships. It was their actions that won this battle.”
    • • •
    Michael looked at Katy and she saw he was close to rage. “I’ve watched you abuse your authority over the years and I’ve refrained from taking action because you’ve done a good job building Fifth Fleet into a good fighting force. But now I find out that you went to another fleet and told a medal recipient how to act when she received her medal. You threatened her with