Milky Way Galaxy

Sector 9a - Inner Ring of the Milky Way Alliance territory

Fleet Rally Point Hotel-Zero-Zero-Nine

M.W.A.S.S. Brederode - Captain's Ready Room

Captain Sylvia Nightingale

Captain Sylvia Nightingale sat at her desk, staring at the small, animated statue of her wife and kids, a tear running down her cheek.

“The Andromeda fleet stopped reporting in one month ago,” she thought, “We lost the first colony in Sector 9b at the galaxy’s edge three weeks ago.”

Reading through the report again, she skimmed the key details in her mind, “Sectors 7b through 11b are no longer reporting in and believed lost. Hundreds of trillions of lives lost in a matter of weeks.” Wiping away a tear, she tried to quantify that scale of loss and found herself lacking.

She turned away from the report and back to the letter from her wife, Abbie. Handwritten like in ancient times. An anachronism if ever there was one.

“Syl,

I don’t agree with you, my love. We will beat whatever this is, and when we do, you and I will finally take the kids to see the cradle of our species. No more procrastination.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

But I know how stubborn you are with military matters, and I’ll abide by your ‘request’ for now. Seamus, Aurora, and I will be on our flight to the ‘exodus’ fleet by the time you read this. No, I will not use your silly military code names. Who names an exodus fleet “Project Afterlife” anyway? Sounds like we’re all going off to die, and that’s far too dark for the kids.”

Captain Nightingale’s tears fell unbidden on the letter now, but she kept reading.

“I can hear you now, ‘I don’t want to fight. Exodus fleet it is.’ and for all my positivity, I can’t help the fear that I’ll never hear those words from your mouth ever again.

No, I refuse to believe that. You come home to me, Sylvia Alexis Nightingale! You beat these bastards; you teach them what it means to fuck with the badass I married, and you come home.

I’m sorry, I swore, but I need you. We need you.

I love you Syl,

Abbie”

Captain…no, Sylvia brought the letter up to her face to kiss the lipstick stain her wife had placed as her telltale signature. Abbie said it was so that Sylvia could take a piece of her everywhere, and Sylvia loved her for it.

A klaxon blared, followed by an all-hands call to general quarters from her XO.

“No…” Captain Nightingale whispered. Dropping the letter to the floor as she bolted for the exit hatch leading to the bridge. The door opened before she got close enough to trip the sensor, pulling her up short.

Standing in the doorway, ears and eyes bleeding, but the latter betraying both fear and sadness, was her XO, Commander Arsenault. His hand raised, and a sidearm pointed at her. The barely audible whine of a charge building before he fired.