“Rak and Mul are dead.” Sera announces, hugging her knees to her chest.

“How?!” Bella demands, and Natasha, if possible, looks worse than she did just a moment ago.

“That boat that started this whole thing? It attacked them. Killed them all.” She says, laying her head against her knees, and rocking back and forth. “Heid survived. They took prisoners. Five of them. They’re Mettian.”

It’s silent in the comms office as the two other women struggle to take this in, and Sera isn’t going to cry. Bella slides to the floor, legs flopping out in front of her, looking stunned, and Sera knows exactly how she feels; if she hadn’t been sitting down when Lawrence told her, probably her legs would have given out.

“So we’re at war then.” Bella says weakly, and Sera looks up. The room is shaking, a bit, lines wavering and bending.

“Yeah. Could you fix that?” Sera asks, gesturing vaguely at the jelly like walls.

“Sorry.”

Bella blinks, and things are normal again. Well, not normal, but at least the room isn’t actively disintegrating any more. That has to count for something, right?

“So what do we do now?” Natasha asks.

“We go back to Banse. And then… I don’t really know.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah…”

Previous: Scene 5-XIII

Scene 5-XIV

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