Chapter 4 (Revised Version)

She opened her eyes, glimpsing the face of a beautiful woman hovering over her, and then everything went black.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

She slowly came to consciousness. She couldn't feel much of anything, but she sensed a presence close by. Whoever it was seemed upset, judging by the roiling emotions they were broadcasting.

That thought made her pause. This wasn't the gentle presence of her mother, so who—

A sharp pain lanced through her left temple, arcing into her right, and she went perfectly still, instinct directing her not to reveal her wakefulness just yet. A few moments passed and the pain eased.

The external emotions still flowed like waves breaking against her natural mental barriers, but they didn't cause any pain. She wondered once again who would have the audacity to enter her mind with such strong emotions without her permission. Only loved ones or the closest of friends or fellow soldiers were permitted that type of liberty.

Did I give permission?

She tried to remember, but more pain came, almost doubling when she realized she couldn't call up any memories, not even of her own name.

Oh, Melora! What's happened to me?

Fear propelled her to abandon her feigned sleep and she sent out a questioning thought to the presence pushing against her mind, but there was no response. She tried harder, but her thoughts appeared to be trapped behind a wall in her mind.

She opened her eyes, needing to ground herself in something more real, and saw a woman's profile lit by firelight. She caught a stray thought-image of a section of tree trunk and some kind of chopping implement, but she could tell she was missing most of the information. The images were cutting in and out as if the signal was being lost.

Something was seriously wrong with her. She should've been able to see the entire sequence of thoughts. She couldn't seem to figure out the sounds and symbols that accompanied them either.

She felt movement and in her rising panic, she reached out to grab the woman's wrist to stop her from leaving.

»Please don't go!«

She could tell the thought hadn't gotten past her own deficiency, for which she was somewhat relieved. She sounded like a frightened child. But the woman paused anyway at the touch and turned concerned blue eyes on her.

The woman reached over and covered her hand. She could barely feel it and suddenly realized she was almost completely numb, but she wasn't sure why. Any thoughts of trying to search for the memories were cut off when the woman spoke and her confusion multiplied.

"Lmgkl hdtk. Hksp you lslkdjoi me wpuue msppw?"

She concentrated as hard as she could, trying to understand. She thought she recognized some of the sounds, assuming she wasn't mistakenly pulling familiar phonemes out of the gibberish. However, the more foreign sounds were similar to some of those she'd picked up in the woman's thoughts. She'd assumed they were part of her failure to communicate telepathically, but such a lack of telepathic comprehension shouldn't have affected her hearing. That meant the woman was simply speaking a language unknown to her.

"Joljkd asljo. Swijuoin aslkme papsoi. Sljw you asdljle me what adsljfao wemou you?"

She frowned. She was still only catching the simplest of words and it was entirely possible even those were wrong. But maybe the woman knew her language. If so, she had questions.

"What's happening? Where am I?"

Her voice was scratchy from lack of use, so she swallowed several times as she watched the woman's concern change to utter confusion. This was bad.

The woman spoke another long string of mostly foreign words and then accentuated the raising of her eyebrows as she repeated the last one.

She wondered if it might be her name, so she repeated it back, hoping to pick up some glimmer of a thought that would confirm or deny her guess, but the woman only seemed to ask another question. She tried again, repeating the last couple sounds in the hopes that speaking the language might jog her memory of it, but she still had no idea what she was saying and the woman's reaction clearly showed she wasn't making any sense.

She was startled when a young male she hadn't sensed before suddenly entered the room from an adjoining chamber. He held a device to his ear as he spoke. She was wondering if it was a translator and how she might get one for herself when the boy changed his tone and spoke directly into the apparatus. She realized it was simply a communications device and looked away, her hopes dashed.

As the woman and boy continued to converse, she tried to sit up, but found the weight of the covers unmanageable in her weakened condition. The woman noticed her predicament and helped lift the blankets, replacing them again and pulling them up to her neck once she was situated.

Without warning, the boy plopped down in front of her and said a few words. They had a different flavor from the words the woman had used, though they sounded familiar in the same aggravating just-out-of-reach kind of way. When she didn't respond, he tried again. This time, the words almost sounded more like what she was used to, though they still didn't make any sense. In frustration, she shook her head and spoke.

"I don't understand what you're saying. What happened to me?"

The boy muttered a few words, clearly disappointed, and then went back to speaking into the comm. She could faintly hear the tinny sounds of another voice coming through the earpiece, confirming her guess that it facilitated long-distance communication, but that knowledge did nothing to help her. Whatever they were saying to each other was completely beyond her.

She closed her eyes and let the strange sounds of the woman and boy's conversation fade into the background. The mere effort of thinking was making her weary.

As she sat there, she began to feel a slight tingling in her hands and cheeks. Within a few moments, the tingling changed to prickling and spread up her arms and over her face and scalp. She suddenly felt a chill arch her spine, sending a hard, involuntary shudder across her shoulders. She tried to hug her arms around herself, but the pressure seemed to drive the invisible needles even deeper into her skin. A burning sensation rose to meet the needles and a fragment of a memory reminded her of another time she'd felt like this.

The wrist seal between her glove and her flight suit had failed once while she'd been outside making emergency repairs to her ship in space. The suit had immediately sealed off at her wrist to protect the rest of her body, but her hand had swelled up and been frozen in short order. She'd managed to complete the repairs one-handed, but then she'd had to spend several hours back in the cockpit, slowly warming her hand back up and healing the damaged tissue as she went along.

A throbbing pulsed through her head, making her forehead ache, and she quickly let go of the memory, but as the pounding in her head subsided, she finally put together why she'd been numb before. She'd been so cold she couldn't feel anything, but now she was warming up.

Every instinct in her said to throw off the covers. Her skin was so hot, she felt like she was on fire, but she knew that was just the previously understimulated, and now overstimulated, nerve-endings in her skin coming back to life. In reality, she was probably still very cold. She clenched her teeth as another wave of tremors shook her body.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting there in quiet misery when a soft hand covered her forehead and brushed through her hair. She looked up and found comfort in the woman's understanding gaze. She wasn't alone.

She went back to shivering, focusing on trying to speed up her recovery process, but she couldn't concentrate and she didn't seem to have any excess energy to spare. So she just sat there, her body shaking uncontrollably.

The boy left and she watched the woman walk over to the fire and add a piece of wood to the blaze. In an instant, she saw a flash of fire surrounding her as she fell through darkness. She wanted to scream, but then the woman was there, finding her hand under the covers and holding it, squeezing every few moments as if to remind her once again that she wasn't alone.

The pounding in her head had returned, so she resolutely put the frightening images out of her mind, instead concentrating on the feel of the woman's hand in her own.

The woman's fingers and palm were heavily calloused, pointing towards a life of physical labor, but the boy seemed to be carrying out her orders, which implied the woman was his master. The woman seemed very intent on taking care of her, which made her wonder about her own status.

Am I a master, too?

But that seemed wrong somehow. She was sure someone had told her that in this place, everyone was free. It was why they'd come here and her mother had decided to stay...

She felt the pressure building inside her skull again and quickly veered away from the distressing thoughts. The return of the boy made a good distraction, so she watched him as he set a tray with three frothy cups on the table next to the woman. He picked up one of the cups and spoke to her in a jovial tone, smiling and offering her the cup, but the woman caught it before she could free her hands from under the covers. The woman's words sounded like a reprimand, and she once again wondered if the boy was the woman's slave. The woman turned to her and moved closer, holding the cup up to her lips as she spoke.

She didn't understand a word of it, but she comprehended what the woman expected of her and leaned forward. She sniffed at the whiteness. It was completely unfamiliar, but not unpleasant, so she moved in to take a sip.

Rich, warm fluid poured past the cool, fluffy sweetness and combined in her mouth, setting off every taste bud she had and activating every neuron in her brain.

"Oh wow! What is this? It's wonderful." She glanced back and forth between the woman and the boy as they looked at her blankly. "You don't understand me, do you?" She sighed. "Never mind," she said as she shook her head in dismissal and leaned forward for another mouthful.

She hardly noticed the boy's departure as she continued to take sips from the proffered mug until her shaking had eased up enough for her to hold the warm cup herself without spilling it.

As soon as the other woman's hands were free, she picked up her own cup and took a taste. Judging by the woman's hum of pleasure, she was enjoying the amazing drink, too.

The woman pointed at her cup and spoke.

"Good."

That word not only sounded familiar, but also seemed to fit what she thought the woman was trying to say, that is if the intermittent emotions she was picking up were at all accurate. She nodded.

"Very good."

Even as she said the words, she realized she hadn't used the woman's language. She was going to try again, but the woman was already talking, seemingly upset about something.

Suddenly, a sharp yowl came from another part of the chamber. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she tried to figure out if the sound portended danger or not. Another cry came on the heels of the first and then a small, furry creature seemed to just appear at the other end of the couch. It immediately headed straight for her. She tried to scoot backwards, but she had so little strength and she didn't want to lose any of the wonderful drink remaining in her cup, so she didn't get very far.

The woman laughed and said something that sounded conciliatory, but she could see the tips of the creature's fangs, which were only partially hidden by its upper lip, and didn't want to take any chances. To her surprise, the woman didn't hesitate to pick up the little beast and held it so she could see its face.

The woman spoke again, but she couldn't grasp any of it. However, she could clearly hear the subvocal vibrations the animal was emitting that seemed to get louder as the woman rubbed it on the back of its head and along its spine. The woman sat down and allowed the animal to drape across her thighs. There were more words, most likely of encouragement, so she slowly reached out her hand, ready to yank it back at any moment if the animal turned out to be hostile.

She was unprepared for the instant connection she felt when her hand brushed over the animal's head. She couldn't read its thoughts, but she sensed a definite presence, where before she'd felt none. She wondered if maybe she was beginning to heal from her injuries, whatever they were. She looked up to find the woman smiling at her and couldn't help grinning back.

She continued to run her fingers over the animal's soft fur, pleased to hear she could evoke an even louder vibration than the woman had. The animal seemed perfectly safe, despite its sharp teeth. She wondered how that was possible, but the more she tried to pull up any memories related to a domesticated predator, the more her head hurt and the more anxious she became. It was becoming clear that there was something bad in her memories and part of her was quite adamant that she not remember what it was. Given the throbbing just behind her eyes, she was inclined to agree, at least for the time being.

As she tried to refocus on the animal, she caught a flash of herself naked in the woman's arms. She glanced up to see if she'd really sensed that or not and found the woman staring at her with glazed eyes. As her hand brushed over the woman's cloth-covered thigh, she concentrated on sensing the woman's feelings and was blasted with a pulse of arousal that vanished and reappeared from one second to the next. She cursed her inadequacy and tried again, intentionally slowing her caresses so she could prolong her contact with the woman through the porous material.

Her first thought was that they must be lovers. The constant sending of the woman's emotions seemed to imply they were quite close, but other things made that appear unlikely. Though the woman had shown concern for her welfare, she hadn't overstepped any physical boundaries. Also, the image she'd picked up from the woman had been hazy, more like an idea than a memory, which meant the woman was probably merely attracted to her.

She smiled. She found the woman quite attractive herself. Her long dark hair was fascinating as it glinted in the firelight, setting off streaks of auburn, and the woman's clear blue eyes held such compassion. And arousal. Her gaze narrowed to the woman's plump lips and she wondered how they would feel against her own.

A sense of fear and shame jolted her out of her cozy fantasy. She looked up to find the woman's eyes filled with pain and then resignation as they gazed unseeing. She frowned in consternation, trying to pick up anything in the woman's mind that would explain her sudden change of mood, but the images were wispy and incoherent with gaps in the flow and words she couldn't understand. After a few moments, they returned to fleeting impressions of the two of them engaged in a slow exploration of each other's bodies, and she found herself even more confused.

This was maddening. Not only was she missing every other word of the woman's mental musings, but it was also taking place in a foreign language. She redoubled her efforts to pick up any pieces she'd missed, but when the woman noticed her watching, the woman's mood reverted again to fear and shame.

She stared as the woman seemed to suddenly become completely absorbed with petting the small creature in her lap. She tried to catch even the barest hint of what was going on in the woman's mind, but it was a blank wall, and a sense of building pressure behind her forehead forced her to back off, the stress of trying to use her abilities taking its toll.

Then the woman looked up at her, trepidation showing clearly in her expression, and she suddenly realized how offensively she was behaving. She looked down in shame, her fingers mechanically stroking the animal's soft fur as she mentally berated herself.

Trying to steal another's thoughts or emotions was reprehensible. Obviously, the woman didn't want to share them, at least not completely. The woman probably hadn't even realized she was broadcasting and had immediately stopped when she'd noticed her impropriety. Not to mention there was plainly something wrong with her own abilities, so the woman had probably believed her thoughts weren't receivable.

But why wasn't the woman more upset with her? She should've been horrified at the invasion of her private thoughts. Unless the woman was unaware the transgression had taken place. But that didn't make much sense. Her own abilities might not have been fully intact, but the woman's should have been working just fine. Unless...

She isn't telepathic. She isn't dokäré.

Before she could contemplate that thought any further, the little beast jumped up and walked across the gap from the woman's legs to the couch, oblivious to the cup it nearly knocked out of her hand as it nosed its way beneath the blankets and nestled against her side, half sprawled on top of her arm. Luckily, the other woman's reflexes had snagged the cup before it could spill and she turned to place it on the table next to her.

Even though the blankets had been pulled down by the animal's antics, leaving her skin exposed to the air, she felt a flood of warmth everywhere the small creature made contact with her. She cradled it in one arm as she stroked her hand along its proffered underside and was shocked to discover how much softer the fur was there compared to the coarser hair on its back and head. She looked up to find the woman staring at her in similar amazement, so she spoke her thoughts, hoping the woman might understand this time.

"I can't believe how soft it is." She couldn't stop running her fingers through the down on its belly. "So soft."

The woman seemed to come back to herself and suddenly leaned forward, grasping the fallen blankets and dragging them up to her neck so that even the little beast was concealed beneath them. The woman spoke, but the words were still indecipherable. The woman stood and held her hands out, palms up, and then left, running up the stairs in a rumble of thumps that continued overhead, paused, and then came thudding back downstairs.

The woman stopped in front of her again and held out what looked like several scraps of cloth. She took them automatically and the woman reached down and grabbed the edge of the top blanket, holding it up in front of her. Another string of gibberish didn't help, but she was pretty sure she understood what was expected of her, especially when the woman turned her head away.

Nudity was a taboo in this place. That sounded right. Some of the older hidden colonies had those types of social restrictions, one of many customs which had built up over several generations, though as a slave, such indulgences had never been an option for her. Personally, she didn't care one way or the other, but conforming was the backbone of her existence. At least she hadn't been reprimanded with a beating...

Her head gave a warning twinge and she instantly let go of the thought trail and focused on the clothes in her hand. She maneuvered herself out from under the rumbling furball and held up the two garments. Judging by their shapes, it wasn't too hard to figure out which went where, though getting into them was easier said than done. She finally climbed into the largest holes and pushed her limbs into place, only to have the woman gesture at her as if something was wrong. She checked the positioning of the clothes, but they were covering the only bits their shapes could cover, so she had no idea what the woman could possibly want her to do differently.

After a moment, the woman gave up trying to communicate the source of her disapproval and sat back down on the table, so she sat down, too, the minimal activity having drained her. The little beast took that as an invitation, immediately climbing into her lap and flopping over so she could rub its head and belly as it vibrated in a soothing rhythm.

"I adljnz you jh dwlj tyv friend xpsq fwbn."

She looked up in surprise. This time she was positive the woman had just used the word 'friend,' though it wasn't the same word she knew in her own language. That meant she knew at least some of the woman's language. Perhaps only the basics, but at least it was something. She was also pretty sure the word had been used in conjunction with the sounds she'd previously associated with the words 'I' and 'you.' Maybe they were friends after all and part of her injuries had included damage to not only her memories, but also her language center. It would explain why the woman had been so kind to her and understanding of her lack of propriety.

The idea they were friends filled her with such joy, she couldn't help smiling. She knew her reaction was all out of proportion to the situation, but she didn't care. She'd felt scared and alone since waking up, except when this woman had held her hand and spoken in soothing tones to help calm her. She felt giddy and not just a little light-headed at the thought that maybe everything would be okay after all.

She was about to question the woman and try to confirm the word she'd heard was indeed 'friend' when a high-pitched whine sounded from across the room, startling her. She followed the woman's gaze to another furry animal, this one much larger than the one in her lap and with much bigger teeth.

The woman spoke and patted her thigh and the animal leapt to its feet and galloped towards them. It stopped and sat down next to the woman, its bushy tail brushing back and forth over the floor behind it.

The woman spoke again, offering her palm to the animal, which lifted one of its legs and placed its clawed foot in her hand. The woman raised and lowered it several times and then let it go. The woman turned to her, obviously asking her a question, none of which she understood, but then the animal pawed at the blankets and she realized it was attempting to introduce itself. She took its paw and again felt the sudden sense of a mental presence burst into her mind. She mimicked the woman's earlier movements, shaking the paw, and then promptly let it go.

The large beast got up and she thought it was leaving, but it merely walked around the table so that it could sit closer to her. She realized it was as docile as the small creature in her lap, but with the little furball pushing its head into one of her hands, she only had one left over to pet both of them. She moved her hand back and forth, enjoying the sensations of physical and mental contact with both animals, until the larger of the two tried to join the smaller one in her lap.

The woman grabbed its collar to hold it back and said a few words to it, though it didn't sound like a reprimand. The woman rubbed its head and stroked its back, which seemed to content the large animal so that it didn't try to climb on her again.

She felt drowsy, the rhythmic movement of petting the little beast's stomach making her eyelids droop.

Then a sharp pounding sounded nearby and she was instantly alert for danger. She heard the boy yell, but it didn't have a tone of alarm and the woman seemed completely at ease, so she tried to relax.

It wasn't long before a white-haired old man walked in from the other room, followed by the boy. The man had to be in his one-fifties, at least, but he appeared as fit as a hundred-year-old. The larger animal bounded over to him, standing up on its hind legs so that it was nearly as tall as the man. The man scrubbed it behind the ears and then it let him pass. The man walked over to them and the woman stood so he could sit down in her place.

The man spoke to her, seeming quite happy about something, but other than a few pronouns, she had no idea what he was saying. When he swept his hand towards her, she flinched back involuntarily and looked to the woman for a hint as to what she should do. The woman seemed distressed and spoke to the man instead.

The man faced her again, so she waited. He pointed to his chest.

"Doc."

He did it again, and then moving slower this time, held his hand out to her as he said a few more words, one of which she was sure was the pronoun 'you,' and waited expectantly.

It took a moment for understanding to sink in, but when it did...

"Oh no. You don't know who I am, do you."

All the hope she'd felt bubbling in her chest earlier at the notion the woman was her friend came crashing down into the pit of her stomach.

What am I going to do?

Tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to blink them away. The woman was at her side in an instant, a comforting hand on her shoulder. The large beast also seemed to sense her pain and pushed its nose against her hand, emitting several high-pitched whines in empathy.

All of a sudden, the dozing creature in her lap jumped up, hissing and belting the larger animal across the muzzle with outstretched claws. A second later, it leapt past her shoulder onto the back of the couch and made a horrible yowling sound that tapered into a never-ending growl. In response, the larger beast showed its teeth and let off a deep woof she instinctively knew meant danger. If the two monsters were going to fight, she certainly didn't want to be sitting between them, so she moved as fast as she could to get out of their way and tried to climb over the side of the couch.

As the boy yelled at the larger of the two animals and took hold of its collar, the woman stopped her retreat and began murmuring a string of soothing tones next to her until she relaxed. She glanced up to find the old man grinning at her, though she didn't think it was all that amusing. He reached out to tap her hand and spoke similar words to the woman's, which she guessed were meant to let her know she was safe, but as she watched the two animals, she wasn't so sure.

The others talked while she caught her breath. She was still quite weak and all that excitement had left her shaky, but after a few minutes, the old man seemed interested in her again.

He slowly took her wrist. She had no idea what her response was supposed to be, so she looked to the woman, who squeezed her shoulder and said a few words, which she guessed meant she was doing fine.

Then he brought a small plastic stick towards her face and she couldn't help pulling away. It looked like a tagging device. She'd already removed the last four of her back teeth to get rid of her tags. Unless they planned to hold her down for the procedure, she had no intention of getting tagged again.

More throbbing sliced through her temples, but she kept her expression blank so as not to reveal the pain to a potential enemy. She pushed the thoughts and memories away, trying to make her mind as empty as her eyes, and the pain eventually receded.

After a few more attempts and her obvious refusal, the woman took the device from the man and opened her mouth wide, lifting her tongue, and placing the device under it, and then closed her mouth. She slipped it out again and handed it back to the man, who pulled the clear sheath off of it and replaced it with another. He held it up in front of her and waited.

She suddenly realized her mistake. It couldn't possibly be a tagger, not if it went under the tongue, so she carefully opened wide and raised her tongue so he could rest the device under it. She sealed her lips together and after a beep sounded from the stick, the man pulled it from her mouth and looked at the small readout on its side.

The man brought out a wide strip of cloth with tubes attached to it and gestured for her arm. This time, she let him do what he wanted, allowing him to wrap the material around her upper arm. The cloth slowly became tighter and tighter, and she almost reached up to tear it off, but then the pressure lessened, and after a few moments, the man removed it himself.

He shined bright lights in her eyes, looked in her mouth and ears and nose, and pressed at various places along her throat and neck. He felt along her skull and inspected her arms and legs. Through a series of demonstrations, he conveyed how he wanted her to squeeze his fingers with both hands, and then push and pull against his arms. At one point, he seemed to be using a device to listen to her internal organs, and it slowly dawned on her that he was some sort of healer, but that didn't make sense. All the devices were wrong. A simple med-scanner would have told him nearly everything he needed to know about her health, or lack thereof.

As the poking and prodding went on, she found herself growing more and more tired, though she resolutely kept her eyes open, so she could follow what the man was doing and move when he gestured for her to do so.

Eventually, he brought out several small rolls of cloth, a bowl, a bag of water, and a few other supplies she didn't recognize. He went about meticulously washing the gash on her arm, the dirty water caught by the bowl. He tweezed out a few pieces of larger debris, then dried her arm. She watched him, curious about what he was doing, until he applied some sort of thick liquid to the wound and covered it with a section of cloth he cut from the roll.

He can't heal.

If she'd needed any further confirmation she wasn't dealing with her own kind, she'd found it. She might not be able to remember her own name, but she knew her people had innate healing abilities that allowed them to heal minor, and even some major, wounds in both themselves and others. The fact that hers didn't seem to be working was most likely due to whatever had happened to her.

What if I never heal? What if I never remember who I am?

The thoughts sent tremors of panic through her, but as the man diligently worked on an even deeper wound on her thigh, she forced herself to calm down. The woman obviously trusted the old man's expertise and everyone she'd seen so far had been in good health. Either her body would heal itself or the man's medicine would do it for her. As for her memory...

A low throbbing pulsed across her skull and as was becoming her habit, she pushed all thoughts of trying to remember to the back of her mind and the throbbing ebbed away.

Just as the old man was finishing his work, she felt a soft paw on her shoulder and warmed at the connection. The little animal had calmed down since being upset by the larger one, so she leaned back to allow it to half-slide down her chest and into her lap. Once it had stopped walking in circles and found a comfortable spot to lie down, the man pulled the blankets up to her chest, covering the little furball completely, which didn't seem to bother it in the slightest. A moment later, the larger beast settled its chin on her thigh, adding to the security she felt flowing all around her. The man smiled at her, said a few indecipherable words, and then turned away.

She watched the woman and the old man as they continued to converse, but even when she caught flashes of images from what she was now sure was their unintentional broadcasting of their thoughts, she still had no idea what they were saying.

A new voice suddenly sounded in the room and she tried to figure out where it was coming from. Then she saw the man pull a comm unit from his belt and understood it to be similar to the device the boy had used earlier, though the boy's version was stealthier.

After a short conversation, the woman went with the old man into the adjoining room, leaving the boy sitting on the low table while he rubbed the large beast's head. He smiled at her, but didn't try to talk to her.

She wasn't sure what would be expected of her next, but she didn't think it mattered anymore. She was too tired to do much more than lean to the side so she could rest her head against the end of the couch. The little creature didn't seem to like where it had ended up and tunneled its way under the blankets to curl up along her side, using her arm as a pillow, its little head exposed just outside the covers. A moment later, the larger animal hopped up onto the other end of the couch and settled itself on her legs.

The boy stood, gathering up their cups from earlier, and smiled before turning away to head into the same adjoining room the others had disappeared into.

She was asleep in seconds.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Sub-commander, may I have a moment?"

The first lieutenant, now acting as Sub-commander, turned and spread her hands wide in invitation.

"How may I be of assistance?"

The second lieutenant bowed and handed over her display.

"Sensors have lost contact with the Commander's ship."

The Sub-commander scrolled through the readout.

"Have you run diagnostics?"

"Yes, twice. Sensors appear to be in perfect order. We also tried the relay satellites, just in case, but they can't locate the Commander's ship either, though they confirm receipt of our signal." The second lieutenant hesitated, but then continued. "Should we begin preparations for a rescue mission?"

The Sub-commander frowned, but didn't lift her eyes from the display.

"The Commander's orders were specific."

If anything were to go wrong on the Commander's end, they were to wait three days for her to correct the problem. If she still hadn't made contact, then and only then were they to mount a rescue mission.

Unless the fleet was needed elsewhere. The Commander had stressed that point several times. If the hidden colonies were in danger, they took precedence over her or anyone else's individual well-being.

"I know what she said, but... You're in command now. If you were to—"

"Sub-commander!" The third lieutenant rushed over from her station on the bridge and bowed deeply. "I beg your forgiveness, but communications has just received a distress call from Rastis IV. They're under attack. They've withdrawn into the underground shelters, but while their shields and armor appear to be holding, most of their water stores were contaminated in one of the blasts and are now undrinkable. They won't be able to last more than a week."

"It'll take us nearly that long just to get there," the Sub-commander said.

"Wait, what about the Commander? We can't just leave her behind," the second lieutenant said.

"We don't have a choice." She turned to the third lieutenant. "Set course for the Rastis System."

She turned to see to her other duties, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"You can't leave without her. We need her. The Elders—"

"We have the Commander's orders and the Elders agreed with her." The second opened her mouth to speak, but the Sub-commander continued. "And I happen to agree with them." The Sub-commander lowered her voice, suddenly understanding exactly how the Commander had felt when she'd argued with her in just the same way. "We will return for her, I promise."

"If any of us survive," the second muttered.