Dead Man Walking

[Silus Xilarian]

A few months had passed since Silus' return from captivity on Telos IV. His recovery was moving along at a good pace. He was still pretty scrawny, but he was starting to get the first glimpses of his old look back. He was mostly clean shaven again, though he kept a permanent 5 o'clock shadow due to having to use an electric shaver rather than an actual razor. It wasn't optimal but he did the best he could. He was able to pass most of the physical fitness tests they gave him despite having a decent bit of pain in his right leg when he ran. He always lied about the severity of it. No matter what he did it was going to require surgery, but he would put that off as long as possible.

As soon as he was cleared for basic service he'd requested a transfer back to the Imperial Navy. At first he was overjoyed to hear that not only had he been accepted back, but he would also be serving on the ISD Admonisher. That cooled when he found out all the details. Due to his service to the Empire, he was told, he would be allowed to retain the rank of Commander that he'd had before transferring to Intel. This was completely ceremonial though. No one reported to him, and he had zero responsibilities. His only duty, apparently, was to do his physical therapy and see his shrink on a regular basis. He even found out later that the only reason he was on the Admonisher was due to Captain Ragnus being literally the only person who would accept responsibility for him.

Even though he was able to pass all of the physical requirements, he wasn't cleared for starfighter flight. This meant the sims were off limits to him as well. He'd asked Ragnus several times for access to just the sims, but the Captain wouldn't relent. At one point he'd lost his temper and threatened to put Silus on the rotation for shuttle pool and was shocked when Silus accepted the offer. He reneged at first, but after some back and forth he relented and allowed the assignment to go through. There were some conditions though. Supply transits only, no passengers allowed without special permission that was never asked for and wouldn't be granted anyways. Also, the first time Silus skipped a visit to his shrink (which he'd planned to do often) he would be pulled off rotation.

That was where he found himself now. It was menial duty and he probably should have been ashamed to do it, but it gave him something to do and actually got him flying again. It was early in the day and he was waiting on his first flight to come up. He didn't have any physical or mental therapy that day, so he looked forward to a full day of flying.