	Captain Veronica Christensen sat pensively outside the office of Admiral Petrarch.  Why the fleet commander wanted to see her was beyond her capacity to understand.  She believed that she performed to the best of her abilities during the Sathanas crisis, so what if she took the entire 14th battle group to counter two Shivan destroyers.  Commodore Mikael was killed during a Shivan attack and that left her in charge of the battle group and who knows what kind of damage those destroyers would have caused if left unchecked?  Sure she got the entire battle group beat up pretty bad; but she didn't lose a single ship!  Well, if the admiral wanted to rake her over the coals for doing what she believed to be the right thing, then so be it.

	She fidgeted with her white dress uniform cap, a habit she picked up during her time at the academy on Beta Aquilae and never manage to rid herself of it.  Young for her position, thirty-one, she was already captain of one of the most experienced destroyers in the GTVA, the GTD Eternity and had promising career ahead of her.  That was until she got her destroyer, two corvettes, and three cruisers shot up in an engagement that by all rights should have finished her and her command off.

	The secretary, a young female ensign, went about her business diligently, clicking away on the keyboard.  Suddenly, she stopped, held her hand to her ear obviously listening to the comm piece in her ear.
Then she looked at Veronica and smiled.

	"The admiral will see you now, captain." she said pleasantly.

	Veronica tucked a stray strand of her auburn hair behind her right ear and frowned.  *Don't I at least get my last rights*, she thought grimly. *Or even a last request would be nice.*

	She walked slowly up to the door to the admirals office, and sighed before pushing the open button beside the door.  Just like the cheerful ensign, the door chimed pleasantly.  Even before the door finished opening, Petrarch had already told her to take a seat.

	Sitting down in a leather seat and in front of an polished oak desk, all she could see of the admiral was his greying hair, that was showing above the tall back of another leather chair.  The admiral was starring out of a window at the shipyards orbiting Capella, and ironically enough directly at the GTD Eternity with swarms of repair robots surrounding it.

	"Captain," Petrarch began, "would you please tell me why you thought it was necessary to remove your Commodore Mikael's battle group from its designated operating area?"

	A slightly scathing voice, but that was okay so far.

	Veronica cleared her throat.  "As you may be aware sir, Commodore Mikael was killed in action three hours before the said incident occurred.  That left me in command of the battle group, sir."  *At least I might be able to impress him my sense of responsibility.*

	Still facing away from her, Petrarch nodded.  "Yes captain, I am aware of the situation at that time.  You still have yet to explain yourself though."

	"Sir.  Shortly after the attack, recon forces from the GTD Eternity located two Shivan destroyers, a Ravana and a Demon that had penetrated into Capella shortly behind the Sathanas.  It was my judgement that if the two enemy destroyers got loose in Capella, the damage could have been immense.  Sir, since we were out of communication with the rest of the fleet, I chose to engage.  The fourteenth battle group under my command neutralized those destroyers swiftly."

	Petrarch sigh.  "Yes captain, the destroyers were neutralized, but you almost got your entire command destroyed, in fact the GTCv Atlas is having her entire power distribution system replaced.  So I'm forced to ask, what do you have to say for yourself?"  He turned so rapidly in his chair that it appeared as if he teleported.

	*Well, here goes nothing.*  Looking Petrarch in eyes, she said,  "It could have been worse sir."

	He snorted in response.  Standing up, he walked over to the window and once again looked at the Eternity.  "Yes captain, it could have been worse.  If you must know, intel suggests that Capella herself would have come under bombardment.  They estimate that you managed to save up to seventy million lives with your little stunt, and that's why you're retaining command of the fourteenth battle group."

	Veronica looked as if she had just been slapped.  "Sir, I was just promoted to captain one year ago, and the commanding officer in me is saying that it is too early for such a promotion in position."

	This time he actually laughed.  "Tell me captain, didn't you ever wonder why you got command of the Eternity; one of the finer ships in the fleet?"

	"At first sir, I thought it was a paper mix up."

	"You got the command because I believed you could handle it, just like I believe that you can handle the command of a battle group."  He paused only long enough to inhale and exhale.  "I'm assigning the GTCv Crusader, and the GTC Spectre to you.  They should be good replacements for the Atlas, and the Morpheus.  That will leave you under strength by one corvette though, but I think you'll manage."

	She couldn't hold back her smile any longer, despite her doubts.  "Yes sir, I'll manage."

	"Good, you'll enter the Nebula with ninth battle group, headed by the GTD Illustrious.  Together you'll set up a perimeter until more fleet elements arrive, then we'll take the battle to the Shivans, finally.  Any questions?"

	"No sir."

	"Good, dismissed."

	Veronica stood, placed her cap firmed on her head and saluted.  Outside the office, the ensign smiled at her, not missing a key from the report.

	"Good news?" the ensign asked.

	"I'm still alive right?" Veronica smiled.