"Now March!" Commander Trizon barked at us.

     Zak started marching in an exaggerated way, humming the imperial march under his breath.

     I choked back a snort.

     We came to a halt in front of the entreway to the restricted area of the station and folded our arms stiffly in front of us--the frederation salute. The doors opened, releaseing compressed air. Zak started humming the imperial march again, but even quieter this time. I tried to keep a smile from my face and failed miserably.

     The General stalked out, his back straight, with his hands behind his back. He was trailed by his trainee, a expressionless guy my age named Garrett. He didn't pause to look at us, like General Perea did. He just walked quickly up the ramp, into the ship. General Perea moved slowly through the ranks, like some predatory bird from one of the moons of Mitra. He stopped at Zak, who had stopped humming.

     "What's this one's name?" He barked at Commander Trizon.

     "Zak Hydrus, Sir." Trizon glared down at Zak.

     "Your second best fighter pilot?"

      "Yes." Trizon shuffled his feet and avoided Perea's stone hard gaze.

      "And where is Captain Orion? You said he was your best."

       I took a step forward. "Captain Petra Orion, reporting for duty...Sir."

     General Perea looked at me hard. "Is there another Captain Orion, Commander?"

      Trizon shook his head, looking at his feet. "No Sir."

     Perea Grunted, turning back to Zak. "Captain Hydrus!"

        Zak went stiff, bringing his hands in front of his unmentionables protectively. "Sir yes sir!" He barked.

     I tried. I swear, i tried my hardest not to laugh. But i couldn't help it; one, short bark of laughter escaped me. I quickly bit it back. Perea glared at me, then Zak. In the end he decided to ignore it.

     "Captain Hydrus, is this Captain Orion?" He asked, clearly stating that he doubted Commander Trizon.

     "Yes sir!" Zak was being serious now, but i could tell that he could hardly stand to not make another joke.

     "You sure?"

     "Of course sir, Petra and I have been friends since we were kids." He was completely serious now, looking Perea eye to eye.

     Perea turned away from Zak. "Commander, Captain Orion, would you stay here a momment? The rest of you, go back to your stations!"

     Zak hesitated for a spilt second, then followed the rest out. Once we were alone, Perea rounded on Trizon. "You! You failed to mention in your report that your best pilot is a girl!"

     Trizon cringed. "I did not think that the difference mattered."

     "What did you say?" Perea growled menaceingly. "You are not here to think, you are here to take orders!" I half expected him to use Darth Vader's signiture force choke. Instead, he slapped Trizon in the face. He turned to me. "The mistake was a small one, and it is already done, so nothing can be done to change it. Captain Orion, when Garrett returns, you will become his pilot. Once his ship is in the repair hanger, you will fix any damages and then await his orders. Understand that this assignment is top secret and you are not to talk about where you go or what you see. Is that clear?" He stared intently at me, looking like he was about to bite my head off.

     "Clear as pea soup Sir!" I took advantage of his ignorance of earth culture to poke fun at him again.

      He grunted again, turning towards Garrett's ship. "Captain Orion, you may go now."

      I walked out of the hanger, pauseing to look back at Commander Trizon. He was on the floor, clearly trying to apoligize to General Perea. Perea stomped on his foot, ignoreing Trizon's cry of pain. He hissed unintelligable threats at my unfortunate Commander.

      "Hmm..." I muttered as I headed back to the pilot's courters.

      This was going to be interesting.