The distinct sound of a pulse rifle charging whined behind Arion as he stared in the face of the cadet. “Let him go son!”

  Arion glanced over his shoulder at Mendrick. The old man leveled the distinctive spinning barrel of his old pulse rifle on Arion’s back.

  “No one dies in my bar. You know that rule. Now let him go.”

  His teeth gritted, Arion released the cadet, sliding him across the fractured table. The cadet crashed down to the deck, clutching at his throat and gasping for air. Deniv, who had carefully moved out of his way, ‘spilled’ his drink all over him. The rest of the Nip Tails gave the cadet a wide berth as his comrades ran to his aid.

  “Now leave,” Mendrick ordered.

  Arion started towards the door.

  “Not you Arion,” Mendrick called, shifting his aim towards the Yellow Jackets. “You three. You aren’t welcome here anymore. Get out.”

  Arion stood there, still seething with rage as the three cadets stumbled out of the tavern. He watched Mendrick go about his usual business as if nothing had happened, replacing his pulse rifle before collecting the three abandoned mugs. Then he nodded to Arion before doing the same to a holo of Alieha on the display.

  Arion didn’t know how to react. He’d never assaulted someone like that before. Numb, he walked over to the table and retrieved his jacket. “I’m heading back to my room.” He didn’t wait for anyone to reply and left. It felt like he was carrying the whole academy on his shoulders and he was exhausted. “I’ll see you on the dawn,” he said and headed out the door.

  Dorm Room 305, UCSBA-13

  Arion had just stripped off his uniform and was getting to take off his sweat-soaked undershirt when the door to his room disappeared into the wall. Instinctively, he made an attempt at modesty. Seeing Blazer, Matt and Chris, he just shook his head and continued to undress. He slipped on a pair of baggy shorts and an even baggier t-shirt, one Alieha had got him as a joke. He felt the soft fabric against his skin, and smelled the remnants of her perfume. The others took seats around the room. Arion sat at his desk and faced the others. “I won’t apologize for what I did at the bar. That little shit deserved it.”

  Blazer nodded. “No one’s saying he didn’t. Still, that was a little extreme.”

  Arion slid back against the far wall of his desk. “Look, I’ll be fine.”

  Chris scoffed and sat forward, her dress uniform jacket opened to the cool air of the room. “Arion. We all know what you’re going through. All three of us have lost someone we love, either to this war, or through chance.”

  Blazer nodded. “Exactly, we just want to help see you through this.”

  Arion fixed Blazer with a hard look. He had experienced major losses in his life, his parents and Lazith. His mouth ran off before he could stop it. “And how are you going to help Blazer? I was there when Lazith was killed, I saw what you did to those Vermba. I can’t do that. And if we’re talking about your parents, you were too young to really remember how you dealt with that loss. I remember. You were moody for a long time, but no more than a lot of kids. Sheol, I don’t think you’ve ever gotten over your grief for any of them. Whether you want to admit it or not, you’re here for one simple reason, to avenge their deaths.”

  Blazer rubbed his eyes and looked up, his face full of pity. “A long time ago, you would have been right. I have never gotten over what happened to my parents, or Lazith. It still gets me mad sometimes, and drives me to make sure it sure it never happens again. But life, and experience, has changed that. I’m not here for revenge. I’m here to....”

  Matt waved a hand, cutting Blazer off. “Think about it this way Arion. You at least have closure. You know without a doubt that Alieha is gone. Me, I don’t have that luxury. Ferelias deorbited before Confed could get an accurate count of the dead and missing. For the longest time I kept myself going by denying that Lademine was dead. I kept playing out scenarios where she’d escaped, or had been captured, awaiting rescue. You saw what that did to me, I was a wreck, until I let go. I’ll never know the truth. I just pray that if she were captured, that the Geffers didn’t torture her, or worse,” he continued looking over at Chris.

  Arion remained stoic for a long while, noting the nod from Chris. She had helped Matt a lot the previous annura. “Losing Alieha was different.”

  Chris inhaled and locked eyes with Arion. “You can’t dwell on it Arion. Harsh as this may sound, we’ve all lost someone. That does not make you special. You go on. You fight in her name. You wave that banner high and celebrate her life. No matter how Alieha came into being, she was alive. She was one of the most alive Sentients I’ve ever met. And you going into some dark place because of her death, or because you found out she wasn’t what you thought, isn’t going to help matters one bit. If anything, it’s a disservice to her.”

  “She didn’t die in the impact,” Arion stated. “She was alive when I found her.”

  The room went silent. Chris and Matt had no idea what had happened when he’d found Alieha’s body. Blazer looked at Arion, and he nodded for Blazer to tell them. It was just too hard to relive it himself.

  Chris and Matt said nothing for a long moment after Blazer had recounted the event. It hurt almost as much to hear Blazer tell it, yet at the same time, it left Arion feeling disconnected from it. Blazer left out the goriest details, but the way he told it, it was a mercy.

  Chris interrupted the silence. “Given the chance, I would have done the same, to Alieha or Kerjus. If I’d had a gun the cycle Kerjus had died, I would have put a round through his brain and ended his suffering. No one deserved to burn the way he did. I saw the pain in his eyes as he burned. It was horrible, but no one could get to him in time. No one but the outer colonies uses internal combustion vehicles anymore and I’m glad.”

  Matt reached down and pulled a tiny concealed plaser pistol from an ankle holster. He palmed it, staring at it for a long moment, then met Arion’s eyes. “I started to carry this after the fall of Ferelias. I just thought that, what if I’d been there with Lademine? What would I do, if we’d faced capture together? I decided I wouldn’t let that happen, not to her. So this,” he continued bobbing it in his hands. “This is that last ditch holdout. If all else fails, it has enough rounds to end it for whoever I’m with and myself.” He reached down and replaced the weapon in its concealed holster. “So yeah. I made the decision to do that for me and those I love a long time ago.”

  Arion leaned forward into the light. Blazer sat silently. He knew what Blazer was capable of. Against impossible odds, he would take as many with him as he could, sacrificing himself. Arion wasn’t so sure he could kill his loved ones. But he would give them every opportunity to escape. “Thank you, all of you. Believe it or not, this helped. Look I just need some time, same as all the rest of you. I’m not quitting. I’m going to stick it out for Alieha, for all of us. Whether we’ve fallen or are still standing. Just give me the time I need.”

  Chris crossed the room and hugged Arion. He was too shocked to react. In a matter of moments he felt the tension drain away, as it did Chris pulled back. “We’ll always be here to help you, any way we can. And if you tell anyone I hugged you like that, then I’ll kill you myself,” she said with a smile.

  Arion couldn’t help but smile back. “Just one thing guys. Please just let people think Alieha died in the crash.”

  Matt sat up. “Who all knows?”

  “The command staff, you three, Marda and Que Dee.”

  Matt rubbed his cheeks for a moment, leaning against his desk. “It’s still hard to believe that Que Dee is a Synthetic Sentient.”

  “That caught us all by surprise,” Blazer commented. “Arion. I’ll leave it up to you if you want to tell the rest of the team.”

  Arion nodded. “I will; later. Can I just get a little time to myself now?”

  Blazer nodded and led the other three out. “Just link us if you need anything.”

  Arion nodded and turned to his computer after the door closed. A message awaited him. He had intended to make a journal entry, maybe stitch some messages to his family and Alieha’s. He decided those could wait, the message light blinked urgent, and so he clicked it.

  A hologram of Alieha appeared, smiling at him.

  Arion sat back, uncertain, and the message began.

  “My love, I hardly know where to begin. Let’s just say, if you’re getting this, then I’m sorry, I’m gone. God, I sound like somebody in one of these cheeseball holovids you like. By now you know what I am, and I’m sorry that I couldn’t tell you. I tried so many times, but that was the one thing they hardcoded into me. I hate that.” Her holographic form locked eyes with Arion. “I know your upbringing, and what you father would say if he knew. What I am, was, that a machine can’t feel. But I know that what I feel for you is real. Love has always been the hardest concept for me, or any of my sisters, to grasp. Everything else was easy. Love has taken a long, hard time. I still don’t entirely get it. But talking to our flesh and blood friends, neither do they. Still, I know with every fiber of my being that I love you. Nothing will ever change that. Arion, however my end comes about, don’t be sad, just, how does that saying go? To all those who have fallen, we carry on in your name!” She held up her hand as if carrying a mug of ale.

  Arion couldn’t help but laugh at that.

  “I love you Arion. Please, carry on, fight on, love on. Don’t let my end drag you down. Don’t let it change you. My sisters are out there somewhere and so especially is my older sister. She’s real, and you’d really like her.” An alert klaxon wailed to life outside of the camera’s view and Alieha turned to look. “Well, it looks like Chertsin finally taken the bait. I’d better get to my station. I love you Arion.”

  Arion sat there for a long time until he tasted salt on his lips. He reached up and felt the twin warm streams of tears; he hadn’t realized he was crying. He stared at the image for a long while, her smile frozen in time. Closing his eyes, he wiped away the tears before archiving the message.

  Swallowing hard, he opened a new window and created a message to her family. He explained his relationship to her, how much he’d loved her, and how sorry he felt for her loss. Without going into details, he explained that she’d died in his arms, and that they should be proud of her. He didn’t know who to send it to though and stitched it to Admiral Sares. He’ll know how to get this to her family.

  He then opened up his journal and spent the better part of a hect relating what had happened over the last few cycles. It helped to put it into words on the screen. Then for several long pulses he just sat there, staring at the blinking cursor. He had no idea what to write. He looked up at the holo of he and Alieha on the wall and placed his fingers on the keyboard.

  In Alieha’s honor I will carry on. I loved her, and am not sure I can ever find a love like her again. I started this journal after I almost died, when Marda Sciminder of all people held me back from death. Now I end it.

  The last few cycles have made me a different man from the one she saved.

  End Journal.

  UCSB DATE: 1003.219

  Admiral Sares’ Office, UCSBA-13, System: Classified

  For the first time that Blazer could recall, the whole squadron sat in Admiral Sares’ Office. Even Tadeh Qudas had joined them this cycle. He sat opposite the Admiral at the massive smartscreen-embedded wood conference table extending from his desk. Blazer had heard that the Admiral would prefer a smaller office with a separate conference room. But a previous commander of the academy had designed the office, and Admiral Sares wouldn’t spare the funds or personnel just to change it to his liking.

  Admiral Sares sat there for a long moment after the squadron had taken their seats. Blazer and Trevis were seated opposite each other, closest to the Admiral’s desk. “Standard procedure calls for the notice of first assignment to be given via a message stitch. However, given the incident with the Gorvian corvette, and the number of dropouts from your class as a result, I have opted to break protocol and announce the assignments in person.”

  No one said anything. Blazer remembered the statistics he’d seen on the academy intraweave before breakfast. In the six cycles since the funeral over two hundred cadets had turned in their forms, forty from their own class.

  The Admiral touched a control on his desk and all around the room holograms of various ships appeared. Most were older craft, frigates, cruisers, a handful of destroyers and one older carrier. It was nothing spectacular. A hologram of the galaxy appeared above the desk and zoomed in on an area of space Blazer wasn’t familiar with. Matt let out a low whistle as a series of systems lit up.

  “Evidently some of you recognize this volume of space,” the Admiral began. “This is the Tre-Tian sector, the last known location of the Gorvian Horde.”

  Blazer swallowed and looked back up at the holograms. These were the ships of the Gorvian Monitoring Fleet.

  Zithe let out a displeased snarl when he realized where they were about to be sent. “Sir., is this correct? The Gorvian Monitoring Fleet is the assignment handed out to… Well, let us call it what it is, to the worst crews in the Space Forces.”

  Admiral Sares remained quiet for a long while. “In the past that might have been the case...”

  With a swipe of his hand half the ships on the walls disappeared. Far newer craft replaced them, most of which bristled with heavy weapons. Blazer blinked his eyes in disbelief when he recognized the image of a Tacit Class Super Carrier, the UCSBS Robial.

  “Given the recent intrusion into Confed space, the Monitoring Fleet is being reinforced by the Robial Battlegroup, along with several others.”

  A few nods of approval echoed across the table, even Zithe let out an appreciative growl.

  “Your assignment will be to the Medical Frigate Mercy,” the Admiral continued. The hologram of the Tre-Tian sector disappeared,to be replaced by the dark brown, almost leathery-looking, hull of a Shinekian Goit Class Frigate. A bulbous primary hull made up the bulk of the ship with multiple smaller ovoid secondary hulls emerging from the central mass like massive blisters. The front and rear of each bore medium and heavy beam cannon domes. A long tail extended from the rear of the primary hull, with a heavy beam cannon at its end. Finally, from the tail emerged the almost delicate looking engine nacelle pylons.

  Blazer watched the rotating image for a long while. The craft looked more like some alien beast than a warship. Each of the larger blister hulls featured at least one hangar bay. Two were obvious retrofits. The grey bands grafted over the original docking areas featured sixteen fighter docking hatches and two smaller docking bays each.

  “The Mercy’s mission will often require it to operate independently from the main fleet. So the Monstero Nach’s primary mission will be to act as her onboard Splicer 5000 squadron. The Blade Force will undertake missions as her primary rescue team. The Explosions will use their particular skill set to secure damaged craft in need of rescue.”

  Blazer caught the look of frustration on Trevis’ face. The assignment was not ideal for any Tomeris. The chance to prove oneself in battle would be limited and would garner them little glory back home. With the Gorvian on the move however, it might allow them to secure a glory no Tomeris had in centuries, the kill of a Gorvian.

  “I realize that this assignment might not be what any of you expected. But this is what the Confederation requires of you. As a result of the recent attacks by Gorvian ships, the Confederation has decided to do more than just passively monitor the borders of Tre-Tian space. We will be conducting forced recon missions into Gorvian systems to find out just what they’re up to.”

  Tadeh Qudas tapped the table and the hologram shifted to the navigation display again. “There’s a further complication that has forced Confed to reinforce the Monitoring Fleet.” A system was highlighted near Tre-Tian space. “This is the Cynial Expanse. You should all know what that means.”

  Everyone exchanged glances. The hum of Que Dee’s de-grav generator reinforced Tadeh Qudas’ point.

  “The proximity to the Synthetic Sentients’ home systems has high command worried. Should the Gorvian intrude on the Cynial Expanse and attack any of their worlds, it could be regarded as a breach of the Cynial Accords. Despite what Que Dee and other agents have assured us, we cannot be certain that the Synthetics will not retaliate against all biologics.”

  That sounds bad. No one knew just what the Synthetics had been up to for centuries. If their technological advancements during the last conflict were any indication, then they could be millennia ahead of the rest of the galaxy. Que Dee’s presence had been a reassurance that they might have given up their warlike ways and were seeking peaceful coexistence. They certainly seemed to want to increase their understanding of biological life. Alieha proved that they desired to attain some higher calling, perhaps through the fusion of synthetic and biologic. To hear that they could still go to war didn’t fill Blazer with hope.

  “Commander Tadeh Qudas is correct,” the Admiral continued, emphasizing Tadeh Qudas’ rank. “There is also another concern. The Gorvian may have developed weapons of planetary-level mass destruction. The few probes we’ve managed to insert into Tre-Tian space over the annura have provided accurate gravitational maps of several systems.”

  One of the systems appeared before the cadets. It was unremarkable, eight planets orbiting a blue giant with at least three jump points. Nothing about it stood out to Blazer.

  “That reconstruction of the Sog’Reuv System was made ten annura ago. This one,” the Admiral said tapping a key, “is from two tridecs ago.”

  Blazer looked at the hologram. Nothing appeared different at first glance. The planets had moved about in their orbits as was expected, but when he counted, one was missing. He scrunched his forehead and checked again. The orbit where the original fourth planet had been was now empty save for a large debris field. He let out a low whistle.