Capt. Allen Bates was selected to serve in the elite Pilot Corps and was awarded a Red Foil Star for bravery after his daring rescue of the crew of the ASA Marigold, a ship destroyed and thrown off course by an encounter with dangerous aliens (see Skekt-auk Overlords).

Bates was the first Emergency Responder Pod (ERP) to locate the smoldering wreckage of the Marigold and his quick thinking and finesse with a tractor beam is responsible for saving the lives of the five survivors.

Racing against the gravitational pull of a nearby star and a dwindling supply of batteries, and with room for only one passenger in his ERP, Bates was forced to shuttle survivors one by one to a Remote Rescue Buoy (RRB). There they watched the battered remains of the Marigold succumb to the sun's fire, a fate they nearly shared with their ship. JT Eagle, Commander of the Marigold and the last man to leave that ship with only seconds to spare, stated in his report that, "When the ERP's battery gauge finally hit bottom Bates was somehow able to recharge them with that stern look of his."

Bates maintains that he was lucky to be in the right place at the right time, and that he only did what any Smallonaut would have done under the circumstances.