The Return Home
11 Sep 2017Kaloonzu
15 months. 15 months since I'd seen the lights of Azeban.
15 months since Soph had been killed.
I've been in the black 15 months, hunting the monster that violated and murdered her.
15 months of living with the fact that in seeking justice for her, I pulverized his ship and crew from orbit, only a few light years from the beast that holds our very galaxy together.
And now I am home. Civilized space feels... less so. My old master has been revealed to not be as virtuous as I had once thought, and I now work, however briefly, for a rival, if only to reap something from more than a year of nearly uninterrupted spaceflight, and the data that came with it. Sirius Corp is just as monolithic an entity as they tell you, but the Commanders who fly those colors are not all that different from those who fly for the Alliance's Prime Minister. They certainly aren't as blood-thirsty as those who fly for Petraeus or Hudson, and are more interested in moving product than sending metal and plasma though space at the hulls of other ships.
I've also been told that the data I've brought back has merited my invitation to join the Elite Federation of Pilots, and that a stateroom, and a ship berth, aboard the hidden station Jameson Memorial are mine whenever I choose. A cold comfort for having failed to protect the girl whose fate was never truly her own.
At least she won't be here when human space meets the others.
They are coming, and I do not believe we can stop them if they mean to remove us.