The Beginning of the End (Universe in Flames Book 4) by Christian Kallias Page B

that includes the lieutenant commander?”
    “Especially the lieutenant commander.”
    Something blinked on her desk for half a second. The admiral looked at it for a long time, as if lost doing so.
    “Admiral?” inquired Saroudis, a little worried.
    She rose from her desk and walked towards the viewport, looking into space.
    “You’re not making things easy for me, Commodore. But you’ve made your case. Very well, I’ll let you deal with this. But that’s the last time I give you any leeway in these matters. You’re dismissed.”
    The commodore was relieved to hear her say that, but something didn’t feel right. The entire conversation made it very clear she had intended to nail Chase to the wall, and then, all of a sudden, she dropped the matter entirely.
    He rose and approached the admiral near the viewport but she raised a hand which stopped him in his tracks.
    Her next sentence was icy cold. “What part of dismissed don’t you understand, Commodore?”
    “Very well, Admiral, thank you.”
    Saroudis left her ready room, still unsure what had just happened.
     
     
    *   *   *
     
     
    Three weeks had passed since Chase’s return to Earth. It had been a difficult time. Sarah was still quite distant and Chase felt uneasy about how to mend the relationship. Argos’ forces had started conquering resource-rich worlds and every request Chase had made to Admiral Thassos, either directly or through Commodore Saroudis, to go stop him had been flat-out rejected.
    She wanted to make sure the Alliance was ready for their next attack and preferred to have a strong defense around Earth. He had argued against her decision for more than a week upon his return but it had all been in vain. Admiral Thassos had explained what had happened while Chase went on his revengeful path: the threat of the Gaia AI presence on Earth. She also wanted this to be resolved before going on the offensive.
    Yet Gaia had given no signs of life since his return, so Chase thought her argument was unfounded and sounded more like an excuse.
    But it had become clear to him that whatever frail relationship he had with the admiral before was now entirely gone. The only reason Chase was still a member of Earth Alliance was thanks to Commodore Saroudis, and perhaps the occasional appearance of Ares.
    His request to at least go find the Olympians or the Asgardians had also been denied point blank, and he had to fight every one of his instincts to just go do these things on his own and the admiral be damned.
    But he didn’t want to leave Sarah and Chris behind. Since he had seen them in trouble in his vision, he feared that if he wasn’t there when the next battle happened, they could get killed.
    Yet the stars beckoned him. He wanted to get out there and fight the enemy, not wait and give them time to build ships with which they could destroy everything and everyone.
    As almost every other day since his return, he was out training. He always chose a deserted place, to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone.
    Ares had been absent for a few days, and that made training much less efficient, but already Chase felt he could reach full power in much less time than before, though he didn’t manage to enter the same fury mode that allowed him to defeat Argos twice.
    It seemed only utter rage helped him reach this almost unlimited power. He did feel near, though, a couple of times during training, so he would keep training until he could unlock the secret to accessing this power consciously.
    Chase had chosen to train in the Death Valley desert today. It was so hot that the landscape appeared blurry and wavy. Chase closed his eyes and grew his aura. Soon he felt a tremendous amount of power burning within him. When he re-opened his eyes, sand was dancing around him like a tornado as he stood in the eye of the storm that his purple aura had created.
    Purple lightning ran over his muscles. He focused on a series of huge boulders he had brought from all around his