What do you mean, that's not a typo??

Posted on Sun Mar 8th, 2026 @ 9:39am by Lonian Royal Sovereignty

Mission: Season 6: Episode 7: Crossroads of Destiny
Location: Niea Orbital Control
Timeline: 1 week before Elysium's arrival to Niea IV
712 words - 1.4 OF Standard Post Measure

One small space station in geostationary orbit. That was all Niea Orbital Control was. It was a small, circular structure, perhaps only 80-100 personnel at a given time, but it was alive with activity. The top three decks had windows around the entire ring to see outside, and the bottom five decks were larger and had fewer windows. Several beacons were positioned around the station, providing location pings so each vessel in the system knew where they were located to avoid collisions.

The top deck of the station had two rings of workstations with a command station in the centre of the room. Voices overlapped each other as personnel communicated with the various ships in the area. Personnel from all four Houses were present, however the gold uniforms of the Administrative House dominated the roster. Many were manning stations and communicating with ships, but some of them were working with guards in dark blue who were assessing each ship to make sure they didn’t pose a threat. A handful of mint green and silver uniforms, from the Second and Third Houses respectively, were helping with communications by advising the traffic controllers on how to communicate with various ships.

The outer ring of stations was reserved for traffic controllers, and the inner ring had those processing requests and other administrative matters. At the centre, a man in a gold uniform stood, watching over the room. Four pips rested on his collar. It took nearly ten cycles for A'arel Tevon to get here, and it showed in the grey hairs starting to pepper his otherwise dark hair.

"Colonel," one of the officers in the inner ring called out. "I have an unusual request that just came in."

Tevon glanced at the Sub-Lieutenant who had spoken. "Send it to the command ring." He then glanced down at the request. As he read, he furrowed his brow. There had to be typos in this, because there was no way a ship was this big. "Was there a problem with the transmission? Why are these numbers off?"

"They aren't, sir," the officer responded. "I confirmed with the ship. The specs are accurate."

That only made Tevon more confused. "What?? You're telling me a ship that big is coming here???" He read the information again before shaking his head. "This will need Head of House approval. I'm sure we can figure something out, but a ship that big will throw off the normal approach vectors."

"Aye, sir. Forwarding the request." The officer sent the request for approval to Lady Vanei, who would distribute it to the other Houses. Since it was still early, they wouldn't expect an answer until the morning.

Tevon nodded his acknowledgement before reading through the request again. Apparently the ship reported moderate damage, which was enough to warrant a more distant orbit so there was time to intercept any loose pieces. He couldn't get over how massive this ship was. 37 decks was insane, comparable to a small space station. He could only imagine how many people were required just to maintain such a beast.

A few hours later, the officer who had spoken up earlier had her console beep, and she looked down at the message. "Colonel, the Houses have approved their approach. We may use discretion on where to put them."

Seeing the message come in as well, Tevon nodded but also sighed. At least they were courteous enough to provide advance notice, but this meant rearranging some traffic patterns to accommodate. "Get the map of our orbital space and start plotting orbits for them. Keep them at least 3000 km from the atmosphere, I do not want potential debris to break off their ship and enter the transfer corridor."

"Aye, sir," the officer replied. The transfer corridor was at 1200 km and was an orbital holding pattern designed for entering the atmosphere. It was often occupied by small ships or personal shuttles, but it also meant a higher risk of consequences if something happened.

Once the officer got to work, Tevon took in a steady breath before leaving the central ring. He went to the replicator along the wall and ordered another tekko. It was too early for this, and he hadn't had nearly enough caffeine yet.