35.

The airlock door closed, and Captain Moon waited calmly as the air cycled in. Then she calmly took off the belt of the Toormonda vacuum safety device. She stepped inside her former ship and began packing the safety devices piece by piece in the lockers which had been cleared out to house them. The crew wasn’t ready to throw away the vacuum suits that they’d been trained on, but more and more of them were using the Yonohoan devices for the purposes of traveling back and forth from the Keeper to the Seeker .

“Welcome aboard, Captain,” Anders said, floating in the doorway.

“Thank you, Sir,” she said, saluting. After her decision to step down, he was now her commanding officer, despite the fact that she was still acting as a captain of the Keeper .

He returned her salute, and they relaxed.

“You have one hour before the meeting. Is that enough time for you to pack your belongings?” he asked.

“I pack light. I’ll be leaving my uniforms behind, and I only have a few personal effects. The primary purpose of my visit is to formally enter the codes surrendering this ship to your command and removing my remaining authority from the computer systems,” she reminded him.

“Of course,” he said. “You know that I don’t want this commission, right? Not in the way that I received it. If I had been selected as captain on Earth, I would have naturally accepted. But I make a damn good XO and I was proud of my role as your subordinate.”

“I know, Anders. The truth is that knowing that you were there to step into my shoes was a source of comfort both before I began questioning my capacity to lead the mission, during my crisis, and when I came to the conclusion that stepping down was my only option,” She told him.

“Shall we get it out of the way, then?” Anders asked.

“Yes,” she agreed. “Lead the way, Captain.”

They returned to the bridge, passing through the twisting and narrow hallways of the Seeker as they approached the heart of the sphere. One side of the bridge was, ironically, directly up against the housing of the Tunnel Drive. The sleep rooms where the crew was sedated during translation was further from the center of the ship. The idea was that the Tunnel Drive was supposed to be inert until the threshold was reached for the translation into FTL, so it made sense to put the bridge in the most protected area of the ship.

Next to the device that was killing their braincells when it was turned on.

“Officers on deck!” came the call, and the bridge staff got out of their seats to salute as Captains Moon and Anders entered. They both returned the salutes, and Anders called out “At ease” after a moment.

“Let’s not get emotional now,” Ji-eun said, her voice wavering despite her words. “There’s a procedure to follow for this. We’re the best men and women that Earth has to offer the universe, so sometimes we color outside the lines. But today we follow protocol to the letter.”

Stolen story; please report.

She got into her captain seat, strapping herself in only so that she did not float away. She put on her headset one last time and pressed the button for the intercom.

“All staff, all staff, stand by for a message from the captain,” she said. She paused, allowing the microphone to hear her take a breath to steady herself. “I, Ji-eun Moon, hereby resign my commission as the captain of the Earth Space Force ship The Seeker of New Discoveries due to a medical condition. I do so willingly and without coercion.

“The decision to step down was not taken lightly, but after careful consideration and prayer. It was my own idea after hearing my diagnosis. Commander Anders was reluctant to take my place, but I am confident that he will rise to the occasion and perform with the excellence and dedication that I have always expected and received from him during his time as my XO.

“This marks a turning point in the legacy of the Seeker , which may have failed the missions for which it was commissioned and launched, but which has fulfilled the spirit of its purpose and earned its name in the discovery of the world of Totola, the Yonohoan people, and their close allies the Sulivans. The Seeker will go down in the history of Earth as having found the answer to many of the most profound questions that the humans of Earth have ever asked.

“Is there life outside of earth? Yes.

“Are we alone? No. We are not. We have more allies than we ever imagined. We have friends who are waiting to embrace us and welcome us into the light.

“And perhaps, the Seeker has brought with it a present for the humanity we have found in universe which has forgotten it’s own origins. While we cannot be certain whether or not Earth is the origin system, we cannot seek answers if we do not ask questions.

“Some of the answers that we will be bringing home at the conclusion of our modified mission to the stars will cause trouble. We will challenge the old beliefs and the old answers. But one way or another, I am certain of one thing.

“We bring the light to a dark world.

“Serving as your captain was the greatest privilege of my life. Captain Ji-eun Moon, out.”

She killed the intercom and removed her headset. She began typing on her console, entering memorized codes which were not written down on any surface within a thousand lightyears. Codes that she had memorized before leaving the earth’s orbit and which had been destroyed once she’d committed them to memory.

The system did not prompt her yes or no. It simply shut down, rebooting. She exhaled. It was done.

“You have command, Captain Anders,” She said, removing her strap and standing before saluting smartly.

The collected bridge staff saluted her as she saluted Captain Anders, and then she kicked off and left the bridge.

Anders took her seat. He clicked on the intercom.

“This is Captain Anthony Anders. Captain Moon is the finest offer I have ever had the privilege of serving with. That is all. At ease.”

She made it to her quarters before the tears filled her eyes.

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