“Commander Lawrence? This is Captain Rosa Saunders, of the Heid.”

“Good morning, captain. What can I do for you?”

“Uhm, I… I was one of the captains on Operation Blackbird.”

“Yes, I know. You and Captains Field and Junig. Do you have something to report?”

“Yeah, uh, we found the craft early this morning, sir. It, it attacked us, when we lowered shield to make contact. It fired some sort of cannon, and Mul and Rak were both hit. They- they exploded. We were able to raise our shields before it could reload, and we disabled it. One of its crew fell overboard and drowned, but we took the rest prisoner, and they’re being questioned by Ptok’s squad. I’m so sorry, commander… There was nothing we could do.”

Lawrence stumbles backward into a chair, sitting heavily, feet suddenly numb. Twelve dead. Twelve. In an instant, twelve young women’s lives had ended. He could picture Rak and Mul’s crews easily; Jessica Field and her girlfriend lived in the apartment next to his, the Denna sisters- Harriet and Laura- baked mountains of breads and cakes and pies for the Fleet orphanage at Banse every time they were home, Rebecca Mason’s father organized marathons so he could brag about his daughter when she trounced them all, Jane Morrison and Helen Pool were new this year, and only joined Rak three weeks ago… Kyra Junig’s husband was Julia’s therapist, Cathy Lorette’s little brother liked to play elevator operator, Miria Cours helped him with his taxes, Andrea Willis and Felicia Grange decorated the base entrance with lights every winter, Penny Hannier had passed him Chauncey back when he was a Fighter Captain.

And now they’re dead. All because some idiot somewhere decided they wanted to take on the Fleet.

He kind of wants to cry, because twelve women, twelve girls, are dead, and if these people, these monsters, are serious, it’s just the beginning.

Well, if they were after a war, they’ve got one.

“Thank you, captain. Your- your crew, they’re alright?”

“Yes sir.”

“I want you to meet me in Relent, in two days. Can you do that?”

“Sir, I’ll have to check with Commander Hawth—”

“Can you do that?”

“Yessir.”

“I will speak to Hawthorne. He won’t mind.”

“Yes sir.”

“Be careful, captain.”

“We will be, sir. And I’m sorry.”

“So am I… So am I.”

Previous: Scene 5-V

Scene 5-VI

Next: Scene 5-VII