Admiral Amani Wanjala stood on his flagship’s bridge. The captain of the Ark Royal appeared on his main view screen. She saluted.

“Ark Royal and her escort reporting as ordered.”

Amani smiled.

“At ease Janet, how was your trip here?”

She smiled.

“It went well, I have something for you from your granddaughter. I’ll have it delivered.”

He nodded.

“Are they doing well?”

Janet nodded.

“Aye, sir. We dropped them off in good health just a couple of hours ago. Your granddaughter looked happy to be going home. Your daughter-in-law, not so much. Where do you need us, sir?”

He waved his hand dismissively.

“Not on an open channel. Please, bring yourself, your CAG, and your escort captains on board. We have much to discuss.”

Fifteen minutes later Amani was standing in front of the requested staff. He waved his hand over the briefing table and it brought up the star chart for the Ratoan empire. It showed several System’s Alliance Fleets and the positions of the rebel fleets.

“We have had several engagements with the Rebels. While we do have a substantial technological advantage, they are higher in number than our intel led us to believe. Which is why we’re calling in additional fleet support. Most of our fleets are in a defensive position. The Rebels have been making raiding attacks and fleeing. Even my fleet is acting as a shield. Your fleet will be the sword. I will be assigning two additional escort carriers to your command Janet, along with their escorts. The Rebels have avoided staging a large-scale fleet build up except around their home world, which we were pushed back from. We’re still building up forces here. We’re not ready for a direct assault on Utan with all their new ships. We are, however, ready to start striking their supply line, which we determined is coming via League space. The empress has declared Ratoan a no fly zone for the time being. This information has been passed to the League officially. Any spacecraft that are not Alliance, are in violation of this order. We are authorized to engage and destroy, the assumption being if they’re flying, they’re hostiles. Buoys have been deployed by each inhabited planet and at the borders. Everyone coming into this space has been clearly warned already. You do not need to provide another warning. Am I being clear Janet?”

Janet nodded.

“I understand, sir.”

“Good, you’ll receive what we suspect are the smuggling routes. We have a guarantee from their Grand Eminence to track all traffic heading towards us and provide the data real time.”

He was about to go into more detail when he received a message from the bridge.

“Admiral you should come to the bridge immediately.”

Amani sighed.

“What is so important, Ensign?”

The ensign sounded… frightened.

“There has been an attack.”

*****

Allison had wasted no time getting changed after they got home. The bathing suits and shorts and T-shirts of the Pleasure Dome had been replaced by leggings and a sweater. Winter had come back in force. She was thankful for the fire her mother had started and Oozie’s warm fur covered body snuggled up next to her. It was evening and the wind was howling across the snow-covered fields of the farming colony. She settled in when Apiyo brought her a hot chocolate.

“There you go.”

She looked up at her mother who smiled at her. Allison felt a pang of guilt remembering that just a day ago one of her mother’s eyes was swollen shut. Her mother felt Allison’s forehead.

“Are you feeling alright? All this back and forth between heat and cold, it’s not good for the body.”

Allison smiled.

“Its nothing mom, just glad to be home.”

Apiyo patted her cheek.

“Drink up. I’ll get supper going. Something that will stick to our stomachs.”

Apiyo vanished behind the breakfast bar and Allison heard her mother humming a tune from her youth in the twenty-first century. Aryna had gone into her room when they’d arrived home. Allison wasn’t sure if her friend was still angry with her, or just busy with something. She pulled the blanket she had wrapped around her up and pressed her chin against it. She stared at the licking flames of the fire content with that as her entertainment.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Oozie was not content and shoved the remote towards Allison with her paw. Allison looked down at the nargle in mock annoyance. Finally, her free hand darted out of the blanket, and she turned on the wall display. Flipping it to one of Oozie’s favorite shows which happened to be a weekly holo-documentary on various plants, animals and critters that inhabited the various colonies, and Mar’s zoological diversity domes. Funny Allison thought, that Mars, was apparently once feared to hold all manner of Alien monstrosity for early humanity, was now home to a thriving population of Earth humans, plants, animals and insects. The latter three had been resurrected from frozen samples pulled from the glaciers of Earth. Today’s episode was actually on Mars itself. How far the terraforming had come. How with the renewed magnetic field and radiation shield humanity had made it possible for simple plants to grow. It took top soil pulled from beneath Earth’s glaciers. They predicted that in most people’s lifetime people would be able to live outside the domes. The last real challenge was the rust. Mars was literally covered in rusted iron powder. The latest plan was to induce volcanic activity, which had already been used to assist in pushing the planet’s core to liquify and hence build a magnetic field, only they were going to use gravity fields to cause a lot more of it and cover the rust. Together with a lot of rich organic top soil. Oozie was engrossed. Allison pondered why they were bothering instead of just working towards more colony worlds.

Her mother called out to say that supper was ready. Allison extricated herself from Oozie and the blanket. The nargle gave her a pouty look before turning back to the display. Aryna appeared from her room and everyone started to eat the very hearty stew Apiyo had made them. Allison was all ready to go snuggle up under the blanket again but she received a phone call from Tyler’s mother. She excused herself to go answer it.

“Hello, Ms. Grant, is everything okay?”

Tyler’s mother had teary eyes, Allison felt sick in the pit of her stomach but then her rising fear and panic evaporated.

“Tyler is awake. He is asking to see you, can you come?”

Allison looked out her window at the falling snow being turned into a blinding haze by the howling winds. If she were smart, she’d say no, she’d come by in the morning because driving would be nightmarish. She wasn’t very smart when she was emotional, so she just said.

“I’m on my way.”

She wasted no time pulling on her armor and then another layer of clothes. She was in the midst of pulling her puffy pink coat on. Her mother stood up and had her hands on her lower back.

“Where are you going? You have no training and it’s a school night.”

Allison pulled her woolen hat and her gloves down off the shelf they used to hold them.

“Tyler’s awake, he’s asking for me.”

Apiyo’s hands went to her mouth.

“Bless the lord for his miracles. I will drive you.”

Allison shook her head and held up her hands.

“No mom, its okay. I have dad’s truck. It will be fine and if I get stuck Bit can come and rescue me.”

Apiyo looked like she might resist but then seemed to remember she was supposed to let Allison spread her wings.

“Drive safe and if you have any trouble, you call me right away.”

Allison gave her mom a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“I promise. But don’t worry, I have my armor on and it’s good until, well, space. I’ll be fine.”

She left off that it was good in space until it ran out of energy. Her mother didn’t need to think of that. She opened the garage door and started her father’s truck. He only ever used it in the winter because its large tires and all-wheel drive. Allison remembered when the tires were taller than her. She climbed into the old beast as it was called and cranked the heat. She opened the garage and backed out. The snow was truly terrible tonight. Not as bad as the supercell storm that night at the embassy, but definitely the worst of the year otherwise.

Allison was very cautious while driving to the base. Tyler’s medical needs were such that it was the only facility that could ensure his needs were met without sending him off-world. It was the defacto emergency room/hospital for their settlement. An actual hospital was planned to be deployed in the spring and summer now that the colony was big enough to support one. Allison felt bad for the guards at the gate on nights like this, worse for those on patrol duty. She lowered her window. The guard saluted her and shouted above the howling wind.

“Ma’am. Did you get called in?”

Allison made a promise to herself to bring warm drinks when she was leaving the hospital later that night. She shook her head.

“Just heading to the medical center, corporal.”

He nodded and waved her through. She put her window up. The corporal rushed inside the guard shack. The base seemed busier than usual tonight, especially for such inclement weather. She pondered just staying on base overnight when she heard the forecast on base radio. Higher winds, more snow and lower temperatures. She pulled into the underground parking lot for the base, using her holo-phone to grant herself authorization. They kept most of the army vehicles down here because, well no one wanted to clean snow off of them if they were required and it was easier to do maintenance. In the summer it was far less jam packed. She pulled into her personal parking spot, a perk granted to Special Operations officers. The truck was covered in ice and snow.

The lot was heated so she started pulling off her outer layer of cold weather gear as she made her way down the underground tunnels to the medical center. The entire base was built so that you could navigate from one side to the other without seeing daylight. The tunnels were also busier than she expected. Flight crews were moving about at a hurried pace. If she weren’t so concerned about Tyler and what he remembered she might have asked what was going on. She finally reached the medical center elevator and rode it up. The emergency room had a few people in it, based on appearances she guessed, accident and frost bite for most of them. She already knew where she was going so headed right to Tyler’s room.

She could hear conversations going on inside as she approached. She recognized Keira’s voice mixed in with Tyler and his mother’s voice. She wondered how that happened, but let it go. She had no hard feelings towards the young woman. Allison tried not to hold grudges. She failed sometimes but, in this case, there was never a grudge to begin with. She hurried her pace but before she could turn the corner and see Tyler in the flesh the whole building shook several times. It caused a disturbance in the typically quiet medical center as staff rushed to check on the patients in more serious condition. Keira and Ms. Grant came out of the room. Allison assumed it was to check on what caused the building to shake. Ms. Grant walked up to Allison as soon as she saw her.

“Allison what was that?”

Allison shook her head.

“I don’t know. It seems fine though. Probably just a strong gust of wind. It was nothing.”

The pair were about to head into the room when Allison heard her name over the loudspeakers.

“Lieutenant Wanjala, report to Command and Control immediately.”

Allison sighed.

“Or maybe it was something. I need to go.”

Ms. Grant seemed disappointed. Allison felt terrible, but then again, this might be delaying a conversation she did not want to have, so…

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, tell Tyler I’m looking forward to seeing him.”