"I, Adam Allen Vir having been appointed as a rear admiral in the United Nations Space Corps do solemnly swear that I will support and defend Earth and her aliens against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that I take this obligation freely and without mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office which I am about to enter, so I swear."

"Ladies and Gentlemen Rear Admiral Adam Vir."

Clapping from the assembled crowd well over 100 strong for a man who would much have preferred this all to be done in a more private setting, but still he stepped forward,the lone silver star glittering with pristine polished on his shoulder as he stepped up to the lectern to speak.

He awkwardly adjusted the microphone for a second well aware of a thousand eyes on him, and a thousand more back on earth where his promotion was being broadcast.

The crowd of the Europa Station, mostl veterine UNSC members looked on with a mix of admiration and boredom.

He wished his family could be here, but, unfortunately the Europa station, where his new ship would be christened, had no use for civilians. Behind him, the viewing window framed, with great majesty, the slowly rotating surface of jupiter in white, cream, and peach shot through with little veins of blue and green in swirling patterns and shapes.

Backlit against this majestic sight, and lit by the glowing surface of jupiter and vast eternity behind, he took a deep breath.

"Things are changing in the UNSC.... Things are changing much faster than we, and especially I, had ever anticipated. The universe is expanding rapidly, as we know all too well. Recently, I had an experience that the GA and UNSC are allowing me to declassify for the benefit of maintaining an honest and sincere dialogue between civilian and military entities. Nearly five months ago I was pronounced missing in action after the command deck of my ship was consumed by – what at the time – seemed to be a black hole. Today I am here to explain myself, and what I saw." He looked down at his hands, shuffling his notes.

"The generated field was not, in fact, a blackhole, but a wormhole to an entirely different universe. I cannot say where it was as I do not know, and I cannot say how I made it there, but I can say that we are not the only ones. The GA is not the only alien government entity."

A muttering in the crowd, "I saw creatures there that I have never seen before, sentient creatures that I cannot fathom explaining. My escape was both lucky and prudent, for at this moment our efforts to outreach into the greater vastness of space is expanding. Men, women, humans, Tesraki, Drev, Celzex and all others are being called on more than ever to come to the aid of our cause. Space is an unknown entity, and has long since been deemed the final frontier. We have no idea what is out there, and military operations are experiencing a change in the type of leadership, and the direction of command than it has in over two thousand years Space travel is unorthodox at times, and, in my experience, so are the men and women who best thrive there."

He looked up his eye seeing nothing but vague shapes, "It takes something special to do what is being done here, and it will take a little bit more from the crew of my ship, to travel to places untouched by the living. I am asking for strength, fortitude, integrity, honesty, turst, and I hope.... A little bit of good humor. Space will take everything from you if it can, and sometimes that means fighting back in unorthodox ways. Today is the day that we take the next step in the road to space exploration, with our allies in the GA. Leaving behind fifteen Fleet Commanders, my ship and crew will be exclusively tasked with the exploration and contact of unknown alien planets, lieforms, and systems."

A first lieutenant scurried from the side of the room, bringing with him a glass, which he handed to the Rear Admiral with a quick salute.

Adam raised the glass, "It was once an old Naval tradition to break a bottle of champagne over the bow of the ship as it was named, a tradition that was quickly discarded once we realized we could drink the alcohol, and also that it was pretty irresponsable to get in a space suit just to break a bottle."

There was a slight chuckle around the room.

"So instead, a toast," He raised his glass, and the others followed suit, "To the UNSC Omen, may your engines never fail, and may your crew demonstrate good judgement."

He tilted his head back and took a drink.

The thousands before him did the same with their own drinks. This was anywhere from paper to plastic to glass cups, and with anything from beer, to water, to taquilla or milk in one or two cases.

There was clapping as he stepped down from the lectern.

He grimaced internally to himself.

And may your Captain not be a complete idiot when on the job.

Now it was time to see his new ship.

***

The UNSC Omen was rated as a Heavy Battle Cruiser, but she was equipped with more scientific equipment than the CDC. Technically it had ten decks all together, with the bridge at the top followed by the management deck, crew and recreation, then the science decks five and six as well as engineering, cargo, and hangers which took up the rest of seven eight nine and ten. The back of the ship was generally all comprised of fusion, warp and coolant systems, though they weren't stupid enough to keep all the engine components in one place.

And that wasn't to mention all of the alien technology that had been added to the ship. This thing had everything.

The engine system was of Rundi make, and that included the warp core and the dampening systems. IT made sense that the oldest race in the galaxy was to provide the most important piece of tech.

They had Vrul Shields

Celzex weapons

Drev Soldiers

And even an entire team of Tesraki Auditors in the accounting department.

That being that they actually had an accounting department now instead of just one guy in a room the size of a closet.

They had received the bulk of their crew increase by way of scientists and marines. Their command structure was relatively the same, with the same officers running their old departments.

Now that the crew was up to 1000 strong that meant 4 full-time doctors each with a different specialty. Surgical, Emergency, Orthopedic and Bacterial. They had extra nurses and support medical staff. Krill had convinced the GA to give them all the latest and greatest alien medical technology to the small creature's great delight. The psychological support team had ballooned to four including support staff.

The marines had swelled to three platoons, and their numbers didn't include the fifty or so extra military med including shock troopers, pilots and artillery officers.

The science crew had been augmented exponentially. And could have staffed a small ship all by themselves if they had the training. Virology, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Physics etc.etc and on and on.

Engineering had also doubled and included four head engineers, though they answered mostly to Narobi, who had the most experience.

As far as the command structure went, things remained rather much the same.

The crew waited in one of the main hangers on deck seven whisperingly slightly to each other as they waited. Many of the new crewmen had never been off planet, before, they were young and full of adventure, or they thought they were.

Many of them had Still been in school when the Drev war began and ended.

Some of them had grown up and finished their training on the tail end of Commander Vir's rise to fame.

He was a legend.

And though the movie had portrayed him as an excitable fun loving man who mostly just stumbled into success on accident and a little bit of bravery, a lot of them still had trouble imagining him as anything other than a gruff older man scarred and stoic from his experience in space.

So when Admiral Vir stepped onto the ship, they recognized him, but had a hard time believing that the man, with a slight bounce in his step, and a nervous smile on his face was really the man they had heard so much about.

He stopped before them, and they had to crane their necks to see him.

He was about to speak before stopping and, frowning, ordered a Drev over to his side, she was short, for a drev, bright blue in color, and when she came over he leavered himself onto her back before wobbling his way to stand on her shoulders, held there, secured by her hands around his ankles.

And in that way, standing on the shoulders of a Drev, he spoke with the crowd.

"Alright Children, let's see if the crew can remind you of the first and most important rule on my ship."

"DON'T CHUCK MARSHMALLOWS AT NEUTRON STARS."

***

The crew turned to look at their Admiral standing at the head of the bridge, everything in the room was pristine and new, silver and chrome shining on all sides with a new polish that it would likely never see again after this day. He stood with his hands behind his back staring out into the space beyond Jupiter and Europa, an unexplored black vastness.

And with the universe reflected in his eyes, he stepped forward hands on the railings.

"Engage fusion core."

"Engaging fusion core."

"Charge shields."

"Charging shields."

His commands continued to issue forth, and off in the distance the fusion core roared to life. He could feel it in his feet, like a sort of thrumming. It was almost rhythmic pulsing up through his feet and into his knees. Where the harbinger had kept a beat too, a sort of concussive racket, the Omen seemed to sing.

And his insides sang with it.

He closed his eyes feeling the vibrations through his feet and hands down into his bones.

It was like he could feel her talking to him.

He stroked a hand across the metal, "Almost girl, almost."

He turned around and back to where the shiny new command chair sat waiting for him. He walked over, turned around and slid into the seat.

Awesome, gel cooled.

He sunk down into the chair trying to get the feel for her.

Stroking his thumb down the armrest, he was greeted with the crisp snik of the forward hand controls and the lower pedals pushing into place. He slowly wrapped his hands around them pushing forward and feeling the fusion core thrumm to life. Her soft singing turned into a triumphant roar.

A part of him felt guilty for leaving the harbinger behind, but remember that there were still pieces of her living and breathing with the Omen were enough to calm his guilt.

The thought made him smile. Krill would love to hear about his guilt related to an inanimate object, perhaps he would tell him about it later.

He compressed the controls forward and felt the distant clunk as the ship departed from the docking station. He moved them forward, the ship gliding through space like a creature born to the darkness, but perhaps that was a fitting feeling, as per his request, the white dragon symbol embossed on her side, a reminder of an unlikely friend who had saved his life.

The UNSC Omen sang into the darkness, a single bead of collective endeavour on a string of stars, and once they were far enough away from the Europa station, she left off a single, silent flash of light, and then was gone.

***

Sunny stepped into the Captain's quarters hands clasped behind her back.

She paused, head tilted at the view from the massive one wall viewing window where Admiral Vir now stood hands resting behind his back. She paused, head tilted, with the way the light filtered in from the window, it was only his silhouette she could see. Tall- broad shouldered and very still. He had the bearing of a warrior without having to say it, back straight head hold high.

She continued to watch for a moment until, sensing her presence like all humans can, he turned to face her.

"Everything settled in?" She asked

He stepped into the light to face her delicate lines of turquoise running in familiar patterns down his face, where his UV stripes could be seen.

"It seems so. The crew is in place, the ship.... She runs like a dream, and all of our new alien recruits seem to be fitting in nicely."

"Even the Celex?"

He smiled slightly, "As long as none of the crew try to cuddle them, I think we will be fine."

'And how about you? Settling in?"

He turned to look towards the viewing window and finally the room, which, situated just above the administration deck, was the largest crew room on the ship, with a massive bed, viewing window, private bathroom, and office. It was much bigger than his old place and seemed surprisingly sparse in comparison to all the room.

He seemed to be thinking the same thing, "I think I am going to need some more posters, or this place is going to feel like an asylum."

Sunny walked over to stand next to him.

"Well, I got you something, that might help take up some space."

He turned to look at her one eyebrow cocked, "Oh?"

"A bit of a promotion present I guess. Hijan, your mother and I made it, while you were working."

He lit up a bit a look of excitement crossing his face. For an instant as she looked into his single eye, she thought she saw a spark of light appear, like a flicker or sparkle of life in his excitement.

She pulled her hands from behind her back and offered up the object, "Your mother made the design. I worked on the inner mechanics, and Hijan did the metalwork."

"Its.... it's gorgeous." The weight lightened from her hands as she deposited the helmet in his. He stared with wide eyes and spun it over in his hands."How did you make it that color?" he wondered, passing his hands over the blued metal.

"Chemical things help keep back the rust." She said.

He looked up at her, his single eye shining in the dark. His teeth flashed white, "This is gonna make the gift I was going to give you kind of lame now."

"You were going to give me something? But I didn't do anything special."

He shuffled his feet, "Who said you had to do anything special... besides, this is a.... Sorry that I made you think i was dead sort of present."

"Oh, she wondered, her head tilted in amusement."

He shrugged, "Yeah uh. Here." he reached into his pocket, "Kind of a set really."

When his hands came back up she saw a very beat up K-bar knife and poorly made, crude stone arrowhead on a thick black cord.

He shuffled his feet, "The knife and the arrowhead saved me while I was out. I don't need them anymore obviously and they are kind of junk.... I... but."
She hugged him, shutting up his nervous stammering, "It is a perfect gift." She announced, and meant it.

"Put it on." She directed, and with his arms still around her neck, he reached up and tied the arrowhead around her neck.

The cord was just big enough to allow the arrowhead to dangle down onto her chest.

She turned her head down to look at it quite pleased.

He slid the knife into one of her hands.

He gave a somewhat lopsided smile, "Compared to you my art projects look like shit."

She frowned and cuffed him across the arm.

"Ouch hey!"

"Don't talk about my things like that. Someone very important gave that to me."

They both laughed somewhat, her feeling the comforting weight of the stone spearhead against her chest, him with the helmet tucked under his arm, and together they stared out at the viewing window.

"This isn't going to be easy is it?" She said softly staring out at the stars which were surely infinite."

Adam sighed, "Sure seems like it doesn't it

They stood alone in the silence for a moment. And then something brushed lightly over her hand.

She didn't look down, didn't move for fear of scaring him off.

Another hand gently clasped hers tentative and unsure like a wild animal, curious but wary.

She stood still .

She wasn't going to be the one to scare him off.

The skin of his palms were warm against her cool one, as, together they prepared for the second phase of their impending journey.

And yes it wouldn't prove to be easy.