Grimthorn and Kinnit relaxed on the sofa in their little nook. It was explicitly both of theirs, now; it had enough of her touches that Grimthorn could no longer reasonably call it his alone. He smiled.

He was stretched out on the sofa, and she was curled up under his arm. They spent as much time as they could get away with in here, talking, reading, sometimes watching holos, and sometimes, like now, simply enjoying each other's presence, staring at the portal together.

His smile dipped a little as old Admiral Balia's words jangled again in the back of his mind: "There's no path forward for you two." Grimthorn squeezed her a little tighter. She sighed in contentment and snuggled into him, brightening his smile again.

His mind spun through the barriers to their relationship, looping over the same old arguments. She was an SS. Their relationship was forbidden. If he were found out, they would both be cast out of the Imperium. It was not inconceivable that he would be tried as a traitor.

His smile vanished and his jaw tensed.

He was going to be forced to choose, at some point. The Imperium, or Kinnit?

He wanted both. He needed both. He loved the Imperium, and he loved Kinnit.

The Imperium wanted him to give Kinnit up, and Kinnit did not want him to give the Imperium up.

Somewhere in all that, he knew that the Imperium was wrong.

The Imperium was grand, not perfect.

He closed his eyes and sighed.

----------------------------------------

Kaz Bynar sighed and rubbed her eyes. The piles of reports never seemed to shrink, no matter how many she got through. The Navy did love their reports.

She stood and stretched her back. She walked to the window for a little sun. The fat, young white star rose proudly over the landscape, pouring its life-giving rays richly down on Erebus base. Their small planet in Copper Grove sector was home to thousands of Naval personnel, extensive training grounds, and boasted the largest shipyard within a thousand light-years.

Every hero in the Imperial Navy had been through Erebus base at some point, moving on to greater and more glorious adventures. Yet here she was, defending the galaxy with her reports.

Kaz smiled. Her youthful dreams of adventure and excitement were well put away, though she did still indulge herself in space adventure novels from time to time. But her husband and her son were an adventure more satisfying than anything in the stories.

She watched Erebus base from her window from her third-floor window for a few minutes. The system's star was so bright that very little light was needed during the day, even indoors. More effort was spent keeping light out than letting it in, and anything left outdoors for any amount of time was quickly star-bleached by the harsh rays. The overhead dome kept out the most harmful rays, but the base's young star was robust and energetic.

It was nearly three o'clock. Valin would be discharged from the learning center soon, and Solan would pick him up and take him home. Then she'd get off work around five, and head home to see them again. Kaz smiled to herself. A warm family filled with comfort and peace were better than any adventure.

She turned back to the office to carry on her work. Her console was powered down. She gave a confused grimace and walked over. She tapped on a few buttons. The machine didn't respond.

Kaz tried to panel on the lights in her office, but those weren't working either.

Must be a power outage. Strange, we haven't had a full outage in years.

She sat at her desk, staring at her console. If it came back on in a minute, she could go back to work. Usually these little blinks didn't last for more than a few seconds, but her console remained stubbornly blank.

Should I go home for the day?

She walked back over to the window. Maybe it was just her office?

There was a sudden rushing sound, as of a strong wind. Her alarm spiked. She only recognized the noise because she'd been raised planetside. Erebus base didn't have wind, ever.

The sound grew, a rushing, roaring sound. Kaz' heart thudded, panic rising, but there was no apparent threat, just this weird, growing noise. Kaz darted away from the window, then back, unsure what to do.

The rushing sound clarified suddenly, and a giant wave of water swept around the office across the street. She stared in blank, horrified incomprehension.

Water? Here? Where did it come from?

The wave hit her office building with a tremendous bang. The floor beneath her jerked, yanking her feet out from under her. She toppled to the floor. Panicked breath sawed in and out of her lungs. Her hair was knocked askew and tumbled around her face. A mewling sound escaped her with each breath. She began crawling toward the exit. She had no clear plan, no comprehension of what was going on, she only knew she needed to escape.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The sound of shattering glass and the booming of collapsing walls smashed against her ears, unheeded in her hysteria. The very air itself felt heavy and unstable as the shifting water caused the air pressure to rise. Kaz pulled herself toward the stairwell.

She reached up and pulled open the stairwell door. She was greeted with the horrifying sight of swirling, rushing water in the stairwell. It was only one floor below her, and steadily rising. Trash and flotsam bobbed in the churning water.

She emptied her lungs with a weak, breathy scream. She used the door handle to pull herself to her feet and scrambled upstairs. The deadly water relentlessly climbed after her.

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Kinnit tapped away at her console, cleaning up one of Admiral Stonefist's reports. Grimthorn and Lieutenant Sol Baric were at their desks, working on their own tasks. She looked at Lieutenant Baric. When he saw her, he looked away quickly, a strange expression on his face.

Sol had been strangely quiet since yesterday, glancing at her repeatedly throughout the day. Kinnit tried to shrug it off. Since he had joined them, he hadn't been exactly rude, but she could tell that he was uncomfortable around her. It wasn't a case of intimidation; if he should be intimidated by anybody, it would be Grimthorn. He maintained an awed respect around the Admiral, but toward her he was aloof, indifferent, and always anxious to put some distance between them.

Kinnit's face scrunched up as she worked through her confusion. Had she offended him somehow?

She resolved to try harder to reach him. Surely they could be friends, if she tried hard enough.

The ceiling flashed red. Grimthorn immediately looked at his console.

"Emergency alert for Erebus base," he said. "No details yet. Let's get to the bridge and get the fleet moving."

Grimthorn strode firmly down the hall with his Assistants in tow. The mood in the ship was elevated, with people moving faster and talking louder.

They deployed onto the the bridge, Sol and Kinnit flanking Admiral Stonefist on the captain's dais.

"Kinnit, set our nav plan. Tactical, get us in formation. Comms, any more details on the situation?"

"Some kind of natural disaster. The communication must be garbled. We're getting reports of a... tsunami?"

Grimthorn cocked his head in confusion.

"On Erebus base? Contact Imperial Disaster Management, ask them to clarify."

"Yes, sir." The Communications Officer worked quietly for a few minutes. "That's the best they've got, sir. Communications with the surface are spotty, but the reports they have are that there's been a huge wave that's swept the base, along with some kind of power outage."

"How could they have a power outage? The star in Copper Grove sector is strong. They should have power and to spare." His mouth twisted. "Comms, are there any reports of enemy activity?"

"None, sir."

Grimthorn shook his head.

"All right, we'll get eyes on the situation. Tactical, how's the fleet looking?"

"Ten minutes to departure formation, sir."

"Good. Kinnit?"

"The nav plan is ready to go, sir."

"Thank you. Lay it in, please. Comms, keep me apprised of any new information as it comes in."

"Yes, sir."

"All ships, warm up your weapons, just in case."

The fleet organized itself with agonizing slowness, then crept toward the first jumphole on their nav plan. Even in the uncertainty and worry of a crisis, Kinnit still got a little thrill at the thought of the entire Ninth Fleet following her nav plan.

It took seven short jumps for the Ninth Fleet to arrive in Copper Grove sector. They emerged from the final jumphole, spreading out, looking for trouble.

Copper Grove was a sparse sector. A thin asteroid belt circled the young star. A single medium-small planetoid orbited it. In traditional Navy fashion, the planet had received just enough terraforming to make it habitable, but not enough to make it nice.

Somewhere down on that otherwise uninhabited planetoid was Erebus base, and their crisis.

"Comms, get Erebus base on the horn. Renning, scan for any evidence of combat. Debris, energy signatures, anything."

"Erebus base is not responding."

"When is Imperial Disaster Management going to get here?"

"They're saying it will be a few hours, sir."

Admiral Stonefist nodded.

"Send some recon shuttles down to do a flyby and get us some scans and images."

"Sir, no evidence of hostile activity in the sector." Renning tented his eyebrows as he scanned the data. "The planetoid's magnetic field is disrupted, though. It's... oscillating."

"Scan the planet's surface, let's get some preliminary info for the recon ships." Grimthorn paused. "Wait, what do you mean 'oscillating?'"

Lieutenant Renning waved his hands around helplessly.

"I don't know, sir. The magnetic lines are snapping and reconnecting. I don't know what it means."

"Sir," Kinnit said, "that's the behavior we see when an EMP interacts with a magnetic field. But I've never heard of an EMP big enough to affect the magnetic field of a whole planet. Even a small planet."

"S-sir?" Sol piped up. "Could it have been a CME?"

Grimthorn looked thoughtful.

"A coronal mass ejection?" He eyed the white star. "Could be. That would have to be one heck of a CME. But that star looks like it could be rowdy enough to manage it. Good thinking, Lieutenant Baric. Lieutenant Renning, scan the star and send the data to Infography. Ask them if there are any traces of a recent CME."

They waited on the bridge for several minutes while everybody worked on their assigned tasks.

"Sir, initial scans are back from the surface."

"Very good, forward them to the ISS Wraithspire. They're closest, have them send out their shuttles for close scans and imaging."

Data trickled in.

"Sir, Infography reports that the surface of the star is extremely active. Likelihood of a recent CME is very high."

More time passed, and the recon team began sending data back. Images of Erebus base popped up on the main screen. Kinnit hissed through her teeth.

"Whatever happened, it sure looks like a tsunami hit them. Look at the damage--"

"The lines of debris!" Lieutenant Baric interrupted her, anxious to contribute. "They radiate out from a central point. Right here."

Grimthorn frowned at Sol, but looked at the image.

"Kinnit, get me a map of Erebus base. I want to know what's at that location."