"When did this come in?" Brooks asked.

"Two minutes ago, sir," Commander Eboh said over the link. "I knew you were waiting on a message from the team and notified you immediately."

"After I finish the message, put all of the data under the highest secrecy. Don't tell anyone that it came in."

"Yes, sir," Eboh said, and clicked off the comm.

Brooks put the message back on.

"I've included what data and images we have of the intruders," Pirra continued. "We have little of Nalen Kress so I cannot confirm his identity. However, the corpse of the unknown gunman is still present and we will be bringing it back with us with your permission."

She saluted. "We await your command for our return home. Pirra out."

The transmission was ended, and Brooks brought up the data she'd included. The mission had not gone like he had expected, but that was oddly expected.

Potentially, he'd lost his best field commander, for intel that at least ruled out the most dire of possibilities. There was no reason to believe, based on the lack of activity there, that the Leviathan in Terris Prime was awakening.

He looked at the intel. It had been carefully scrubbed, but still he was cautious, looking through the text descriptions first.

He moved on.

The image of the dead man came on screen, and Brooks felt his heart skip a beat.

He was staring into the face of Michal Denso.

*******

Most of Response Team One were asleep, save for those on watch.

That included Iago, who Pirra given some tranquilizers after he complained of strange dreams.

Now that everyone else was settled in, she too had begun settling in for a rest, gratefully.

Tred watched her with concern.

"Are you really going to try to sleep?" he asked her.

"Yes," she replied, not harshly. "It might be best if you did, too, Tred. Sky knows you've earned it."

Her large eyes opened again, turning slightly to look at him. She smiled slightly, and he found it odd. He knew that Dessei did not smile to each other.

But he was too nervous about something else to bring that up.

"Aren't you . . . afraid that you'll wake back up on Monitor One?" he asked quietly.

She was still a moment. "Yes," she admitted. "But I think I'd rather know sooner, rather than later."

"I want to put it off as long as possible," he said. "Just pretend it's all okay for a while still."

Pirra continued to study him for a time, before finally sitting back up.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I'll stay up with you, then," she said.

*******

Apollonia felt hollow as she looked out the window.

For days now, she'd tried to work herself up to walking back onto that medical station.

But every day, she'd turned back.

Jaya's words still echoed in her mind, and she wanted to hate the woman for saying something so stupid and basic and right.

She'd been on the margins her whole life. Surviving, but not living.

That wasn't something she was going to get past easily, maybe never. But she had a choice if she lived in fear or took what control she could.

She felt the presence of Kell as he arrived in the lounge, but she wasn't alarmed. The tension rose in the room, as everyone else sensed his arrival. Even if they didn't see him, they felt it.

The Ambassador walked up next to her, staring out at the stars in silence.

And they stayed that way, for ten minutes.

The lounge had partially emptied by now, as the patrons - many still not realizing the source of their discomfort - went home or to another lounge.

Kell was slightly amused by it, she thought. As dour as he acted, he had emotions lurking beneath the surface, and when she wasn't so keyed up inside she could get hints of them, even if his face gave away nothing.

Apollonia was the first to break the silence.

"Something big is happening," she said.

The being nodded.

"If it is not dealt with, then drastic actions will have to be taken," Kell commented.

She turned to look at him. "You mean you'll have to take care of it."

Kell gave only the barest hint of a nod. "No one will like this outcome."

"Can you stop it?"

Kell shrugged. "Perhaps not. But it does not matter, as one way or another the events that follow will not bother me."

"You mean - either you win or you're dead," Apollonia guessed.

Kell did not answer this time, but she felt that it was what he meant.

"I have to go back on there," she said.

"But you are afraid," Kell noted.

She hated that he could read her so well, glaring at him.

"I am frightened as well, on some level," Kell said softly.

And it shocked her to realize he meant it. She could feel it now, an inkling of fear in the being.

"What do you think will happen if . . ." she asked, unable to give voice to the rest of the sentence. If they failed. If they did nothing.

"Something new will be born . . . beyond that, I do not know," Kell replied. "And that is what frightens me. When it comes to times of action . . . rarely have they come quickly for my kind. We act on our own timetables." He frowned, his eyes going down to stare not out at the stars, but at the floor. "We are not used to acting in haste. Our age can make such actions fall outside of our own consideration."

"You contacted people, right? That was kind of a quick move, wasn't it?" Apollonia said. "I mean, we've not really been that impressive for very long. Going into space for only like a thousand years."

"And we were pondering the question of your people for a thousand before that," Kell said, glancing at her. "Nearly two thousand years . . . and that was still a quick decision among my kind."

Apollonia got a sense from Kell that she could not even quite understand; the closest she could equate it to was a certainty, a conviction so strong that it was more akin to the most intense emotions of people - like love or hate.

"After all," Kell said, his voice tinged with bitterness. "Why should we usually care?"

Apollonia had little to say to that, turning back to look at the stars. These stars were a stranger to her; all her life, she'd seen them from her own system, and now they were deep in the void between them, lightyears from where she'd come from. Their positions were all wrong.

"It was good talking to you, Ambassador," she said. "But I think I have to go."

"I wish you fortune," Kell said. "And I hope that I will not have to follow in your wake."