Commodore Thomas Jeffries paced around the waiting room, anticipating what his fate would be after he had disobeyed a direct order from his superior officer admiral Ben Davies. He had been ordered to retreat from the fighting and link up with the fleet which was retreating so as to escape. The battle against the bixan who were clearly dismantling their fleet with their superior numbers. He had ordered his squadron of ships to counter the aggression of the bixan by launching their long range missiles and detonating them when they reached their targets. He knew that he had to buy as much time for battered ships that were about to jump out of the system with their state of the art warp drives. He sighed in relief when they activated their warp-drive and disappeared leaving him to face the bixan along with his squadron.
"Sir? You are now cleared to enter the meeting room." The desk officer informed him while giving him a warm smile and removing his mind from his earlier thoughts.
"Thank you." He replied as he strode stiffly to the massive double doors. Those events had happened almost two weeks ago and he had been dreading this exact moment since he had been court-martialled. As he entered the boardroom where the meeting was taking place, he was glad that he was looking presentable to his senior officers who were all dressed in their white uniforms identifying them as the Admiralty. He stood and saluted them waiting for his judgement.
"Commodore Jeffries, It seems that you had disobeyed a direct order from your superior officer during the battle against the bixan, how do you plead?" asked the gentleman at the centre of the raised table.
"Guilty" he replied evenly, which kind of amused some members of the Admiralty who were seated on their respective seats.
"You do know the punishment that comes along for disobedience?" asked the gentleman who was the fleet admiral.
"Yes fleet admiral Walters" Tom replied with a frown.
