"The kids are back?"  I asked the young fleet captain.  She has impeccable discipline from her years enlisted.  Now I need to get her to relax some.

"Yes sir.  We have all returned safely." Heather replied.

"Good.  They probably didn't like the order to be confined to bay four."

"It's not the order they didn't like sir, it's the fact that bay four is where they lost a brother."

Sympathizing with them.  Good, we are going to need that later.  She will make a good captain indeed.  Now I see why Tsunami chose her.

"Well, you are all on leave until further notice, however, you are restricted to quadrant four while onboard the station."  I said to her.  Admiral Bradford and I had already discussed this.  We know they wouldn't like it.

"They are anxious to get back onboard their ships sir, they won't like this."  She replied as expected.  Her face is flushed, she is angry.  Good, a good parent makes a good captain too.

"I know, but their last checkup showed their body modifications while at school these last three months mean their bodies can now be maintained indefinitely away from their cores."  I lifted my hand to stop her from interrupting me.  "Heather, we need to keep the three of them away from their ships a while longer."

"Use this opportunity to take them to the beach, do some shopping, meet people, let them know what the ships were meant for.  Give them the reasons to fight that we have all had to gain in order for us to be where we are."

"Do the things with them real parents will do.  Like taking your niece to her parent's graves on the anneversery of their death.  Let her hear the story from you, instead of just reading the reports.  Let her hear it."

"Heather, you are her mother now, you must be that force for her, and show her what it means.  You will have years of pushing her toward danger.  Take this next month, and show her why you will."

She was tearing up, I know she had never taken a day of leave, so making her do it now, and forcing her to tell Susan why, may be a bit much.  But I know they are all questioning why they are here.  I've seen it in every member's eyes at some point.

I never thought I would see a war machine question why they kill.  But seeing Susan's questioning face has made me stop thinking of her as a ship, and as a scared 11 year old girl; one with enough firepower to level a planet, and she is scared to use it.

I can't take that fear from her, but I can ease the burden.

"Heather, you have a beautiful girl waiting for you to tell her how her parents died.  You are on leave for the next thirty days, I expect it to be done by the time you get back."

She turned to leave, "oh! And if she returns to the station wearing a uniform, I will make her scrub the deck of quadrant 4 with her own toothbrush."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Yes sir."  She said and left.

An hour later their shuttle went to the surface, just the two of them.  I felt happy about it.  It's a hard task, but they both needed this.

"You alright Dixon?"  Admiral Bradford.  I figured he would come up.

"Yeah, I just gave possibly the hardest task to Heather one could give."

"You told her to tell Susan how her parents died?"  He called it, I just nodded.

"Well, Lowell and Danielle are down at my estate.  But doing their best to keep the kids seperated for now."

"Good, we will have to have them together when we reveal Armageddon."  

"I know.  Have you declassified the real reports on Ernie yet?  The real reason he is gone?"  He asked me.

"Do you really want me to tell them that he left of his own free will, destroyed his own ship, and was in league with Zyanix?  I can't bring myself to tell them that they will one day have to sink their brother."

"So we are just going to wait till its done to tell them: 'oh your brother was alive, but you just killed him; here is another lame ass award for killing your brother'.  Real smart Dixon."

I chuckled at his light hearted look at it.

"I'm serious man.  I don't want even one of those three mad.  Let alone what they are going to be like when they hit puberty and start really discovering what hormones are all about."  Bradford said as he left my office.

"You are right, old friend.  But right now they wouldn't understand any of it."

Over the next month the three learned about being real human kids.  sunburns, swimming, and the joys of being a child.  And Susan also learned about loss, and how humans deal with it.

Heather had told her all that she knew, that they had been on a battle cruiser as part of Admiral Dixon's fleet, they had been ambushed, and although they made it back to their port, they were already gone when the medics boarded the ship.

Susan had read all that in the report, and had seen the video.  She knew, but now she had the emotional capacity to understand what it all really meant.  She now knew why Heather fought.

It was a warm early fall day when they all made their way back to the station.  None of the adults had let them wear uniforms for the past month.  And they had gotten used to the looks at the beach because of the metallic fixtures on their backs.

They went straight to their rooms in the fourth quadrant, and looking out their windows saw the frame of the ship being built to Ernie's blueprints.  Now being called Armageddon.