On a planet at the edge of the Pirou system, Sabitha Lendrick let out an anxiety riddled howl of frustration. She looked at the screen again, hoping against hope that her eyes had deceived her in their exhaustion. Yet, it wasn’t to be. Even in her fear and a wish that she hadn’t read what she had, the words still scrolled across the screen, tiny white symbols on a black background that taunted her every time she gazed on them.

“Cam Ket,” She said in a hushed whisper, reading it aloud from her datapad. It was one name of many, all which made up the Free-Space documentation for the newest batch of registered pilots. It was also name whose significance she knew very well. Ever since her husband had returned from Ketris, it was a name that had never seemed to leave his lips. Even in the dead quiet and solitude of their most intimate moments, she knew that name was never far from his mind.

“Oh Lazarus, you absolute fool,” She hissed, pacing the room, deep in thought. She knew who that name belonged too. Even if Lazarus hadn’t told her, she was the Chief Information Officer for Amreith’s military affairs, she would have learned about the fate of the Pellyn boy, eventually.

She also knew, that the Prince was unhappy with the outcome. A ‘Mismanagement in every sense of the word’ he’d called it. Lazarus was lucky he wasn’t in one the penal legions, piloting a squire with a bomb strapped to its chassis, or worse. And now the Pellyn brat had been threaded. Even if Prince Caustos was a higher class of pilot at beta, this was bad. She gulped, her eyes drifting back towards the screen, up towards a red button marked with the word ‘Delete’ in the far right corner. Could she really do this? Would she really do this?

She would. This was her husband after all. The love of her life, the father of their children. She wouldn’t offer him up like a lamb to slaughter, Amreith be damned. Slowly her hand reached up, hovering over the button.

“I wouldn’t do that if were you, Sabitha.” A deep, refined voice, dripping with venom and cold as the winter night cause her to jump in her place. She whirled around, where she was to face, or rather, face to sternum with a massive blackish-gray mass of muscle and scar tissue.

“G-General Aylim!” She exclaimed, dropped her datapad on the desk and clasping her hands behind her back, bowing slightly at the waist in a show of respect. “W-What are you doing here?!”

“You don’t get to ask those questions Sabitha. I go where I please.” He said, walking past her and gazing around the empty office space that belonged to her and her team.

Her heart dropped into her stomach at his harsh words, she swallowed hard, putting on her friendliest smile and nodded, bowing lower, “Y-You’re absolutely right General, I forgot my place. It is an honor to have you grace our section.”

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“Indeed,” He said, tone imperceptible as he ran a finger along the spines of several binders situated on a bookshelf in the back corner. They all had dates and names signifying different operations Sabitha and her team had undertake in the past. Whether it was the hedonistic gluttons of the Ma’Kirian empire, or the glorified harbormasters that was the Ketris nobility, Amreith requested information and analysis on all interplanetary assets friend or foe. Aylim, however, demanded it.

“Do you enjoy your job, Sabitha?” He asked, not looking back at her, choosing instead to continue touring the room.

This question gave her pause. She rose slowly from her deep bow and turned back to look at him. “S-Sir?” She asked.

“It’s a simple question,” He said in response, his eyes slow rising up to meet hers, “Do you enjoy working for the planet of Amreith, more specifically, do you enjoy working for his majesty, Prince Caustos?”

“Y-Yes, of course!” She said, forcing excitement through her tone to help better convey her conviction to the crown, regardless of how disingenuous it truly was, “I… Love my world. I would give anything to protect it.”

“Would you die for it?” Aylim asked, his eyes boring holes into hers. The cold neutral expression even more menacing than a violent sneer could ever hope to be.

Her eyes went wide, her pale skin, growing even paler as she ran a trembling hand through her graying chestnut colored hair. “I… I don’t like to think about something like that.”

She clearing her throat, her heart hammering in her chest as she mustered up all the courage she could to hold his gaze and respond with the answer she knew he wanted to hear. “But if it came down to it… Absolutely I would, General.”

Aylim simply stared at her, and Sabitha wasn’t sure if he was taking her measure, or guaging her honesty. She eventually got her answer when, without breaking contact, he reached behind his back and pulled out a datapad, similar to hers.

“That’s good to hear Sabitha,” He said, looking down as he unlocked the pad, swiping through a series of pictures with his finger as he spoke. “Though, there is a distinction I need you to be aware of.”

“W-What’s that?” She said, her voice trembling, and her stomach knotting. She felt a cold sweat break out on her neck as the tension grew heavier with ever second that passed in dead silence. Finally, his eyes looked up, catching hers and she could see that the once cold gaze radiated fury, though his voice maintained it’s calm.

“There is a difference, between a martyr and a liability,” He said, turning the slate around to show the same screen she had been staring at for the last few hours. And there, right in the middle, circled with red e-ink, was the name she had longed to never see.

“Don’t be a liability Sabitha,”