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// Amber and Brass 
// Story: Citizen of the Stars 
// by Yuri Petrovitch 
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	There was little that could shake Admiral Sheng's nerve. The cool and collected figure his men knew him as would sometimes joke that if an explosion could go off in the same room as him and Sheng wouldn't even bat an eyelash. 

Which wasn't too far from the truth, as once during a skirmish with a Vandul assault force his ship was rammed and a hull breach started to depressurize the bridge, Sheng's only reaction then was to shut the connecting door as if he was annoyed with a draft of air someone let in and continued the battle as his men and women worked to repair the breach.

Sheng was also known as one of the more capable commanders among the UEE, having numerous sorties as both as a fighter pilot in his youth and later as a commodore leading successful raiding parties behind enemy lines. His mettle was tested and proven repeatedly, yet despite the scars and losses he made he would ways make it through to victory.

So when Admiral Li Sheng read the report regarding Major Castle's mission and subsequent ambush a cold sweat broke over Sheng.

"...God, what a mess." He muttered as he re-read the report back in his office. Sheng could almost feel the grey hairs starting to increase in number and add to the near white tuffs at ether side of his head. 

"This needs a drink, don't you think so Lieutenant?" 

Across the other side of the desk sat an extremely pale faced woman in uniform. She gulped down some air and tried to respond to her superior officer. "Sir, I must remind you that drinking is prohibited while on duty." It seemed that if even the stone faced Admiral needed a stiff drink to handle the news then things were that bad.

The man hummed at his aide's remark, silently agreeing with her. Later then, he'd burn his gut with a bottle of bourbon. So for now he did the next best thing. From a drawer the middle aged man pulled out an engraved cigar box and set in between them. Lieutenant Page frowned, but held back on stating regulation again.

After Sheng had lit up and placed a micro carbon collector next to his tray did he finally let himself relax into his chair. The thick leather chair had nearly served as long as he had, it had been a gift from the crew of his first command over an Idris class frigate. The soft material felt cool under the Admiral's palms as he let his bones settle comfortably. 

Lt. Page anxiously awaited a response from her commanding officer, with her body sitting rigidly on her own chair and piercing gaze she was the complete opposite of Sheng. She didn't know all the details, all the related documents where classified several times higher than her pay grade, but from what she could gather one of their operative's was MIA during an operation and somehow this could lead to an even bigger disaster. The cold knot in her stomach increasingly grew tighter as the seconds ticked by. She needed to know or else the pressure might swallow her whole.

"...Sir, What happened out there?"

Sheng opened an eye to peer across his desk, his gaze calculating as if to sum up his aide's character to see if she was worthy of his secret. Lt. Page felt a shiver run down her spine at the way Sheng glared at the red headed woman across from him. "You should know better than to be so direct, Lieutenant... But I suppose it's rather pointless at this time to keep it hidden for much longer, especially since I'm sure I'll need you up to date on this matter in the coming days."

Waving a hand over his desk the Admiral brought up a holo map of the surrounding star systems, another flick of the wrist shifted the map's coordinates to a far off corner of the UEE's frontier. "How much do you know about Alien's Lieutenant?"

"About as much as anyone else; there's quite a few other species other than Humans out there, Xi'an, Banu, and of course the Vanduul.  Only a few Tevarin still exist, and there's also the Kr'Thak, but they're almost a complete mystery."

Taking another puff from his cigar Sheng let his Leftenant finish before he pulled the rug out from under her, "You're correct, those would be all current sapient life the UEE has officially come across. Unofficially there's quite a few more."

It took a moment for Lt. Page to register that last sentence, her face carried the look of someone told they had a second head growing out their armpit "...What?"

"About a few Earth standard months ago an unmanned probe was sent into an uncharted system that displayed some unusual radiation signatures.  Our little drone came across a little planet called KPX-97225, where upon further inspection found evidence of a pre-space flight civilization, not of human or any previous alien civilization that we've come across thus far. We haven't sent any probes past the atmosphere, but judging by the amount of light pollution, terraformed land for agriculture, and even railway lines we've guessed they're somewhere around 1960's Earth in terms of technology. Luckily enough it seems they've never caught onto our little snooping around their back garden either... Well, maybe that's changed after Castle's clash in orbit, but we'll find that out later. If we're lucky they're a kind and tolerant race that'd be open to talking with extraterrestrials. If we're not, we can expect a warm nuclear welcome if they've figured out how to build bombs yet."

"Also mind you this was only a relatively recent discovery, so the brass at the very top has been sitting around with their thumbs up their asses as they make up plans regarding this discovery." Though it wasn't uncommon for Sheng to use some crude vocabulary he occasionally used it when his temper flared at certain topics, usually his less than favorable view on politicians. "So far everything's been kept hush hush, with little traffic near the sector. Castle was stationed above orbit to keep an eye on the surveillance equipment and to keep any wandering eyes away... But it looks like the Vanduul don't care too much if we have a guard dog on patrol." 

"We're gonna have to act fast in order to salvage this situation Lt. Page, that means mobilizing an entire blockade around an alien planet we've never established contact with, keeping any info leaks to an absolute minimum till the UEE can figure out how to actually deal with these creatures in the long run, and to top it all off we need to find out if one of my best men is alive or a meat popsicle floating in orbit... God, this is all gonna go to shit." 

After listening to Sheng's little debrief Lt. Page couldn't find any words to express how she felt about the mess she and her CO had found themselves in. Wordlessly she left her seat and opened up a cabinet on a far side of the room. Retrieving an amber bottle and two glasses she returned to the desk and shakily deposited the glasses between each of them, "I-if it's all the same to you Sir, I'll take that drink."