[AgentZero]

OK, given that I'm away from home at the moment, I don't want to write up TOO much, since all my notes & reference material is 3000km away and as such inconsitencies and plot holes would likely result, but I figure I've left you poor guys in suspense about what that boom was for a couple months, and that just ain't nice. So here ya go!

After extraditing himself from Alice, Kagan rose and surveyed the chaos all around them. People, as they do when the universe is not so kind as to provide forewarning before it does something unusual, were running quickly back and forth, although aside from managing a quite heroic amount of arm waiving, it wasn’t entirely clear what, if anything was being accomplished. Some semblance of order was restored as a few began to realize that not everyone had gotten back up, and various people began attending to the wounded. The semblance of order was quickly shattered, however, as a great number of people realized exactly how badly, or rather, how gruesomely, some of their fellows had been injured. This caused a great many people to hastily depart from the promenade, ostensibly having decided they’d much rather waive their arms somewhere much further away. It is worth noting at this point that having a Traxian knife-stand fall on you holds the record as the fourth messiest way to die in the universe. This holds little relevance to the story at hand, aside from explaining why Alice glanced down and said, “Ewwww!” This was followed shortly by, “Smoke. Smoke is bad in space.”
Kagan followed her gaze to the other side of the promenade and one floor up, where smoke was indeed drifting lazily out from one of the corridors. Without a second thought, he charged forward, nimbly weaving between the wounded and crowds of arm-waivers. As he neared the far side of the promenade, genetically and technologically enhanced muscles flexed, and he hurled himself up into the air, landing heavily at the entrance to the smoking corridor. He had just enough time to reprimand himself for being thoughtless enough to leave Alice behind to muddle up the stairs, and turn halfway around before she landed nimbly beside him.
“We’re going to talk about this later,” he said, eyeing her warily.
“Won’t help,” she informed him. “Don’t know.”
Kagan made a noise that perfectly transmitted his doubt on that particular subject, along with the slight sense of worry that she might be telling the truth, before the two of them jogged down the corridor. It wasn’t long before they came across someone who obviously knew something important, since he was busying himself with exhorting people to keep moving, and reminding them that despite evidence to the contrary, there was nothing to see here. Kagan caught a glimpse of his name-bade and raced up to him.
“Corporal Jonestown, report!” he barked authoritatively.
The young corporal snapped immediately to stiff attention. “Admiral Kagan, Sir!” he bellowed with such enthusiasm that Kagan had to suppress a wince. “There’s been an explosion, Sir! Berth 117A, Sir!”
“At ease, Corporal,” Kagan said, rubbing his right ear. Then in a more conversational tone asked, “What else do we know?”
Jonestown relaxed –slightly- and replied, “Not a lot sir. The Barinas –the freighter- was on final docking maneuvers when there was an explosion. Looks like something in one of the docking clamps blew, shot the clamp out like a kinetic warhead. It must of hit the Barinas’ main grav-thrust array, I don’t know that for sure, but she dropped all the way down to Tango deck.”
Kagan winced openly. That was a drop off a little over one hundred meters and probably hadn’t left much of the freighter intact. Or of Tango deck for that matter.
“Sabotage?” he inquired quietly.
“Well…. That hadn’t occurred to me sir, but now that you mention it, there isn’t anything in the docking clamps that can explode. You don’t think-“
“Admirals don’t think, Corporal,” Kagan interrupted. “We have people who are much better at it to do it for us. Give me a dump of the bay’s sensor logs and I’ll have my people take a look at it.”
“Aye, sir.” Jonestown’s fingers flicked across his handpad and a second later there was a beep from Kagan’s pocket indicating a successful transmission.
“Keep up the good work, Jonestown,” said Kagan as he jogged off.
“Admiral?!” Alice exclaimed as soon as they were out of earshot. “You’re an admiral?”
“Not any more,” was the reply.
“But he-“
“Sometimes, when everything has just gone horribly horribly wrong, people just want someone else to take charge, and they’re usually not to particular about who it is, at least, not until later.”
“Oh,” Alice said, the simple expression coming out far to thoughtfully for anyone’s liking.
“This, by the way,” Kagan pointed out. “Is why we should be running faster.”

A few minutes later, Corporal Jonestown was still basking in the glow of having met the legendary Admiral James Kagan, and even better, the admiral had known his name! Jonestown’s mind was running through the impressive list of accomplishments the admiral had racked up over the years until it hit the most recent event, namely the admiral’s honorable discharge at the end of the war. Jonestown turned back to the direction the admiral had disappeared and slowly uttered the immortal catchphrase of the duped.
“Wait a minute…”