"It is not too late to change your mind," said Sander.

"Now you're being ridiculous." Heru retorted. "We are already on our way to the Empire, brother. Don't you think it's time to accept the situation for what it is?"

"This is your marriage, the person with whom you'll spend the rest of your life. I thought you were a romantic, Heru. Is this how you want your life to go?" His brother looked quite comfortable in his uniform but the tenseness of his form belied the smiles with which he greeted every officer that came across them.

He stared at stars passing them by like lines of light, too tired to discuss the issue of his marriage once more, especially with his brother. It was no secret that Captain d'Aville was firmly against it. The fact that the captain had to be escorted outside the reception hall during the engagement by his mother had been met with both concern and laughter. It had not been something that they could hide from the media, and so the people learned of it as well. They both laughed at what had happened and worried as to why. While the attendees had no time to laugh. The Admiral's amusement and intoxication angered many but it was not so much anger that concerned them, as it was worry that she would treat their fragile Alliance with the same gravitas as her faux-marriage.

"Perhaps, I know better now," He said bitterly. The only way to stop Sander from continuing on another fruitless rant was to play the victim. Nothing silenced him sooner than allusions to his accident and his ex. Sander wouldn't want to trigger any flashback for his poor brother after all.

"We'll be falling out of warp soon," Sander said instead, not even trying to pretend he wasn't changing the subject. "We'll be docking on Station Aeon-35 in about an hour to restock. Want me to prepare an escort for you to go out for a bit?"

Heru shook his head. "No, I am fine here. I am enjoying the view." He motioned toward the large viewing windows on the Observation Lounge. And it wasn't an excuse. He truly was enjoying the view. Having never lived in such an advanced interstellar civilization before, he found everything aboard the spaceship to be fascinating, especially the views it offered of the universe, while they moved at warp speed.

Sander gave him a long look before he sighed and left.

Heru couldn't help but sigh in relief at finally being left alone. At least in the Empire he wouldn't have to pretend so much and his could let down his guard from time to time. Although, thinking of his fiancée, there was a significant chance things would become worse. Not wanting to dwell on such thoughts, he allowed his amazement at the technology available in this time take over. They had been traveling for a little over two weeks on this spaceship, and there only a few days left before they arrived in the Imperial Capital. By then, it would have been a month since his arrival in this world. A month since... Brigitte. He huffed. She would be so furious if she could look at him now. Marrying another woman. And with a grander ceremony at that.

Well, their fake marriage hadn't had much of a ceremony—.

The deck shook abruptly and threw him on the floor. A sharp piercing sound rang out throughout the ship.

"Attention crew. This is the Captain speaking. The ship has been boarded by unknown hostiles. All non-combat and non-essential personnel are to evacuate to their quarters immediately. Repeating. We are being boarded by unknown hostiles. Non-combat and non-essential personnel, evacuate to your quarters immediately."

He tried to stand up. What the—?

The deck shook again, much more strongly, and he crashed with the wall. He felt a sharp pain on the back of his head and then, he knew no more.

* * *

"Sir, the GSS Horizon has engaged in battle with three unaffiliated Battlecruisers. Should we offer assistance?"

"Just as they got out of warp?"

"Yes sir. This is most likely an ambush, although the Battlecruisers do not seem to be Federation or Republics' vessels.

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"So it is as I predicted then."

Her first officer nodded. "If we were to assist either side, ETA would be 12 minutes, sir."

She laughed. "Either side? Commander Dimmock, what must you think of me."

"Sir?" Dimmock asked a bit surprised. Didn't she come here to ensure that the Horizon got destroyed? Why would she stay here in wait and not inform the Galecians of the potential for an ambush otherwise?

She ignored him and instead addressed her comms officer. "Mr. Taruk, can we listen in on the ship undetected?"

"I am unsure sir. Since they are engaged in combat they are likely monitoring their communication channels closely and I do not think we can test our new systems against Galecian technology in these circumstances."

"I see," Ezbeth leaned back on the Captain's chair and wondered. "Is there any way for us to know what is happening inside the Horizon now?"

"If I may, sir?" her science officer answered and continued once she got her go ahead. "We can piggyback on their routine monitoring cameras. Their security personnel should be focused on the battle and thus they probably won't notice a passive hack at this time. In addition, if the systems do notice our presence, I am able to get us out without leading them to us, sir."

"Even better, Ms. Centera. What about sound?"

"Perhaps on the bridge, but it is unlikely."

"Very well. Show us the Horizon, Ms. Centera."

Minutes later, their holoscreens showed what appeared to be the insides of a damaged ship.

"The bridge," Ezbeth ordered. Instead of some unmanned deck, they could now see the Horizon command crew working on the bridge. Despite the lack of sound, they could see Captain d'Aville's anger and worry as he shouted orders at his bridge officers.

While she could easily think that the anger was a result of d'Aville's frustration over the attack, she had seen his track record. He was a great captain, known for his patience and logic. So, why the emotive display—? Oh.

"Check all their cameras. Find me my prince consort."

Placing the Horizon command screens on the side, Ms. Centera went through each Deck as they looked for the Admiral's fiancé. Finally, they saw him on what seemed to be either an entertainment or an observation lounge area on the Deck 12.

"He must have crashed and gotten a concussion when the Battlecruisers first attacked, sir." Her first officer commented.

She hummed in agreement as she saw the little substitute get up on wobbly legs. He seemed to get better as he walked and then, he ran for the elevators.

Ms. Centera followed him with the cameras without even needed the Admiral's command. They saw him step out into an empty hall before moving with purpose toward the front. That was not the way toward's the Crew's or the Officers' Quarters.

"Oh, he is going to the bridge." Ms. Centera whispered as she kept following him down on the elevator once more. Unfortunately, whether that had been the Omega's intention or not, as soon as he entered Deck 3 and into Communications Office, he ran into three men with who weren't wearing officer uniforms. He tried to run back into a fork that would have led into the Science Laboratories but phaser fire shot just in front stopped him.

"Sir?" Mr. Dimmock asked, a silent question on everyone's minds. Do we help or not?

"Wait," she said and watched.

The omega turned back, eyes tearing up, all wide and scared. He held his hands up front and said a few words. Even with the lack of sound, they could imagine his pleas for mercy.

The men seemed to be taken aback by his appearance. They hadn't expected such a beautiful omega in the Officer's floors. One of them, the one who seemed to be in charge, by the deferring look the other two sent him, put his phaser back on his belt and stepped forward. He grabbed the omega's arm and looked him closely.

Seeing the man's intentions, plainly placed there for all to see, the bridge officers held in a breath and looked at their admiral, wondering how she would react to someone assaulting her fiancé. Instead of the anger they expected, she appeared to be bored.

Then, before they could even make sense of what was happening, they saw the omega lean into the man's embrace, arms touching his face and then, he snapped the man's neck. Taking advantage of the baffled state the other two were in, the omega held onto his body, grabbed the phaser from his belt, and used the body as a shield just in time before one of the others tried to physically attack him. Throwing the body at his attacker, he set the phaser to kill and shot the third man who had just grabbed his own phaser right on the chest, before turning and shooting the other one. Still holding the phaser, the omega then ran down the hall, and continued making his way to the bridge.

Sudden laughter awakened the Bet'heldian crew from the shocked silence that had befallen them. They saw their admiral laughing at the sight of her fiancé, a civilian, killing three men expertly and with no hesitation.

Ezbeth ignored them and watched as her future 'prince consort' made his way through two other hostiles before riding the elevator again. She continued to laugh as her suspicions were confirmed. That was no mere self-defence. That wasn't even murder. She knew what a civilian fight looked like. This was not it. It was assassination. Professional assassination, trained and practiced over many years.

And she checked the smaller screen on the side showing the Horizon bridge, she laughed once more. Captain d'Aville was staring dumbfounded at the same screen she had just looked at, the one where his 'brother' fought hostiles in Deck 3.

Her eyes hardened as her amusement grew. That little liar was in trouble now.