“Ma’am, I do want to remind you, we’re not totally certain that this is a clear area….”

 

“I appreciate your concern, Admiral Martínez, but….”

 

Elaine Ridgemont caught herself. She had been launching into the kind of mildly imperious tone she’d used often when dealing with underlings. But that wasn’t her intent. It wouldn’t be proper. Not here. Not now.

 

This was a sacred place, and a scarred one.

 

“Admiral, I really do appreciate your concern. But I can’t…how can I stay up in orbit when….”

 

She threw her arms wide, and Ted understood completely. There were no mere words that could describe the scene in front of them. It had been a city of about two million – a population equal to Cologne’s. And it was rubble and destruction, as far as the eye could see.

 

The intent had not been to come down to the city. They had come down just briefly, to meet with the Imperial Military at Tau Ceti Redoubt – or Bass Station, as the officers on the ground had begun to call it. Nobody was going to contradict them; most likely, nobody ever would.

 

Ted nodded; he didn’t really want to be here. He wanted to get back to the Sendrofos, and to his wife’s bedside. She was still in a medically-induced coma, and would be for at least another eighty hours, and she would not know he had left her side, but he did, and though he knew she would want him here, doing his duty…well, that was why he was here. Because he knew why she was in a coma, and it wasn’t so that the people she’d saved during the battle would end up dying of exposure less than an Imperial day later.

 

“It reminds me of Ndjamena, after the Battle of Chari River,” said Esmée Xylander. Her gaze was far away – 11.3 light years and fifty years away, to be precise. “My unit fell back to provide aid, and…well…there were fewer dead, giant bugs. But enough dead tanks and planes and people. I didn’t want to see anything like it again. I believe in fighting when you have to,” she said, “But no soldier who’s seen what battle is like should ever love it.”

 

“Amen to that, Madam Undersecretary,” Ted said. “Commander, what are you going to need from us?”

 

Izzy didn’t want to be point person on the ground for the Imperial Military. She wanted to be literally anywhere else. The only reason she wasn’t – other than that the main place she wanted to be was a ship that didn’t exist anymore – was that she took the star she wore seriously. She had a duty to the fleet, and the she was the senior human officer in it. They needed someone who could walk through the debris without shaking the ground.

 

“I would imagine that the Pentagon would know. Or any other military headquarters,” Izzy said. “It’s…it’s a major city after a horrible battle. I wish that we humans didn’t have a ton of experience with that, but….”

 

“The High Commissioner on Refugees is already pulling together a group,” Elaine Ridgemont said, stepping through the rubble. “Admiral Xú is going with us back to Earth, she’ll work with General Akimoto to coordinate with the UNHCR and other militaries; our first concern is what happens over the next few days, though.”

 

“It’s the good thing about Titans being Titans, ma’am. Rations that will feed a Titan for a day will feed about 18,000 humans. Tent that will hold two of them will hold a thousand of us. Not ideal, not long-term – but enough to keep them out of the elements, keep them with food in their bellies.”

 

“That’s a good start,” Ridgemont said. “And….”

 

She was distracted by a sound, the sound of digging. Ted and Izzy were both armed, and both drew their weapons; they moved around the corner, and lowered them immediately.

 

A young man was working. He was moving steadily, calmly, pulling rubble aside, and stacking it into piles. He showed no sign that he was worried that it was a task beyond him. He was just working. Taking the chaos, and building a bit of order.

 

“What are you doing?” Ridgemont asked.

 

“I’m not sure, really,” the young man said, stopping. “I’m sorry, I know, we’re not supposed to be down here, but….”

 

The man looked around. “This was our home. You know?”

 

“I do,” Ridgemont said. “Take a short break, son. Do you need some water?”

 

The young man nodded, and sat down on a pile of rocks. Ridgemont sat down next to him.

 

“You guys are from Earth, right?”

 

“Some of us,” Ridgemont said. “Commander Ibanez is an Imperial officer.”

 

The young man looked at her. “Hologram?”

 

“Human,” Izzy said.

 

“Cool,” the young man said. “Very cool. I’m sorry,” he said, after taking a drink. “Yandros Josa,” he added, reaching out his hand. He was polite to Elaine and Esmée, and deferential to Izzy, but he was drawn up short when he got to Ted.

 

“Ted Martínez? The guy who commanded the Alcubierre?”

 

“Yeah,” Ted said. “Reputation precedes me, I guess.”

 

“My uncle Taylin followed the trip back when I was a kid. His dad’s a shuttle repair tech, and tried to get him to follow…eh, I’m rambling. Point is, I remember watching with him, my mom, and my sister when you guys landed on Avalon, and he said, ‘Kid, anytime anyone tells you that humans can’t do something, you remember this.’”

 

“Glad we could help,” Ted said. “Honestly, that’s why we did it, more than anything else.”

 

Izzy blinked. “Your uncle’s dad was a shuttle repair tech, so I’m guessing he’s Titan?”

 

Yandros nodded. “He and my Aunt Nanta owned my parents. Used to – that changed with the Zeramblin Act. They both passed the exam easy. Taylin and Nanta are both great, but Taylin always said he wished he had been sooner – though my mom and dad say he and Nanta were always nice…and seriously, I’m rambling again. Sorry, really.”

 

“It’s okay,” Elaine said. “Honestly. So your parents were pets?”

 

“They were, but after First Contact, Taylin and Nanta helped them out. They got them into classes, even before the Zeramblin Act was up for debate. My dad got a job at Rixie’s as a cook. You ever eat at the one in New Trantor, on the north side, by the ocean?”

 

“I have,” Izzy said. “That where your dad works?”

 

“Used to. He’s teaching classes remotely now, for other humans. Doesn’t pay much, but it’s about more than that. He didn’t ever have to work, Tay and Nan had money, but he wanted to. My mom watched Nix and me, and helped watch Jula as best she could, and she made sure we got educated, and when the Zeramblin Act passed, I became a citizen…and then they started building this,” he said, looking around. “And I knew I had to go. I was lucky, right? My parents, my Aunt and Uncle…I had a chance. Lot of humans didn’t. I applied to be a mentor, one of the few of us who weren’t from Avalon. And it was rough at times, and confusing, and we were moving way too fast…but still, we were moving toward something. I know, the goal was always to teach us, and let us go home…but for a lot of us, this was home. There was a little sandwich place over there,” he said, pointing toward an enormous pile of rubble. “One of the first guys I mentored started it. Didn’t have to – I mean, we had food rations and stuff, but he wanted to. He said when he would watch vid shows with his owner, the Titans always ended up in restaurants, not just to eat, but to talk. I let him vidchat with my dad to get some idea of what he was looking for, I mean, at the start, he was just making sandwiches, but he had this great idea to expand, once he could get some more stoves fabricated….”

 

Yandros stopped. “I don’t know if he’s alive. We all…some of us fled north, some south. He was heading south. So was Yurna – I tried to get more people, we ended up going north. I know, there are camps down there, but….”

 

He was quiet for a while, before Elaine asked, “Who’s Yurna?”

 

“My girlfriend,” Yandros said. “She’s a pet, came straight from a breeder. She’s pretty, she’s nice, she’s smarter than I am. She became a mentor after the second wave moved in. I mean, it hasn’t been super-long, but long enough that…well, I mean, it was serious. Is serious. I mean, she might be alive. I just…I don’t know. And I can’t just sit around, not knowing. I have to do something. This was where she lived,” he said, nodding to the building. “It’s her home, and we were hoping, maybe, it would be our home, some day. And I can’t….”

 

Yandros buried his head in his hands, but stopped himself before he began to sob.

 

He stood up.

 

“I know, we’re probably going back to the Empire. We’ll be split up, sent back to the Titan worlds, and…and we’ll be fine. But I don’t want to go. This is my home, and if I have to put this building back together piece by piece, damn it, I will. I know, that sounds stupid….”

 

“Why would it sound stupid?” Ridgemont said. “This is your home. And I will do everything I can to make sure that you can keep it. Commander Ibanez, will you make a note to try to locate Yurna? Is there identifying information we can use, Yandros?”

 

“I don’t…if the records are still around, then she lived at Range Thirty, Row 217, Apartment 33.”

 

“Got it,” Izzy said. “We’ll find her.”

 

“You don’t have to, but if you can. Even if she’s…you know…I just…I love her.”

 

“I know,” Ted said, gently. “Believe me, I do.”

 

Yandros nodded. “All right,” he said. “I…I should probably go back. This is stupid.”

 

“You’re fighting for your home,” Ridgemont said. “That’s the least stupid thing I’ve ever heard. But you’re going to need lots of help. And so we’ll get it for you.”

 

Yandros looked around. “I don’t know how we’ll put it back together.”

 

“That’s easy,” Ridgemont said. “Just the way you were. Brick by brick. Piece by piece. Person by person. One step at a time.”

 

Yandros nodded. “Thank you for listening. I didn’t mean to interrupt you guys….”

 

“That’s all right. We learned what we needed to,” Elaine said. “Admiral, I’m placing you in temporary command of all Earth forces until we can formalize the command structure. Your orders and theirs are to do everything we can to put this city back together, and make this a home they can be proud of.”

 

Ted snapped off a perfect salute, and the small group, plus one, headed back to Bass Station. There was a lot of work to be done.

 

 

****
 
Alesia sat on the table beside Sorcha’s bed. Her best friend was asleep. And she had been for a while now. She’d been sent to surgery four hours after arriving on the hospital ship. The surgery had taken nine hours. Alesia had waited with Joseph in the triage area of the ship, which was a converted supply bay. The hospital ship was so full that the triage area was filled was priority patients. Joseph had chunks of flesh ripped out of him and had some minor internal bleeding but he was easily patched up. Which was more than could be said for the vast majority of people being treated on this ship.

 

The triage area was filled with Imperial troops with laser burns or flesh wounds. There was a lot of blood on the floor but it was mostly superficial. The really seriously injured troops were further inside the ship. They’d seen people come through, numb with shock and missing limbs. Another cargo area had been set up for Human casualties. Their injuries were of a different sort. Crush injuries, first and second degree burns and impilations.

 

Alesia had only some minor abrasions but the real wounds were invisible. Joseph had tried to leave her, only for two minutes, to go to the toilet but she’d quickly broken down in tears and he’d been forced to take her with him. Limbs could be grown back and cuts healed but psychological scars took much longer to heal, if ever.

 

She had managed to sleep for a while after speaking to her parents and Moze. She hadn’t had a chance to speak to Loona yet as she’d been whisked back to the capital. It wasn’t a restful sleep. It was full of horrors. The scenes from the cafeteria played over and over again in her mind. Instead she read through the reports coming in from the officials on the ground.

 

The city, what was left of it, was now secure. Destruction was rated at over seventy percent. Casualties had passed the one hundred thousand mark. And that was just confirmed. The missing list was…it just didn’t bare thinking about. The Avalonians had bore the brunt of the attack. The security services had been almost totally wiped out. Mentors and teachers had stayed behind to help evacuate as many of the settlers as possible and had paid the price. Alesia had tried to cry as she read the names of the missing education staff. She knew every one of them. She felt like she should be weeping but she just couldn’t feel any more pain than she already did.

 

She was the most senior member of staff for the colony now. No one expected anything of her. She tried to coordinate with the relief personnel on the ground but she was not of much use to anyone right now. She shook the fuzz from her head and dropped her pad and looked around the curtained off cubicle.

 

Sorcha was still asleep. Joseph was dozing in the chair beside her and Eyrn was curled up under her coat on the other side. Both hadn’t left her side since she had been released from surgery. And that was at least twenty hours ago. Alesia hadn’t seen Sorcha sleep this long since she was a teenager.

 

Alesia stood and walked to the edge of the bedside table and looked up at the monitors above her friend’s head. She looked over the readouts. It all looked well from what she knew of medicine. The surgery had been a success and they had managed to repair the renal artery and her kidney. She looked back down to Sorcha’s face and near jumped out of her skin to see her friend’s eyes open.

 

“It wasn’t a dream, was it?” Sorcha said quietly.

 

Despite the softness of her voice Eyrn and Joseph woke instantly. They got up from their chairs and stood at each side of the bed.

 

“No it wasn’t.” Joseph said and stroked her forehead. “But you did good. You saved hundreds of thousands.”

 

“And my Dad? Uncle Aerti?” Sorcha’s voice cracked.

 

Eyrn pursed her lips, tears welling up and she shook her head.

 

Sorcha leaned up, far faster than she should have or been able to and wrapped her arms around her aunt’s neck and buried her face in her shoulder and wept. Eyrn held her niece in her arms, feeling her weight keenly as Sorcha’s body gave up supporting itself. She held her tightly and rested her chin atop Sorcha’s head as her niece shuddered. She couldn’t take it anymore. She wept with her niece. Losing one family member like this would be devastating. But two together. The loss was indescribable.

 

Joseph placed his hand on his girlfriend’s back and watched, feeling utterly useless. He would do anything to take the pain away. He felt like he should do something, he wanted to do something but there was nothing to do expect be here for her. He looked to Alesia who was gently sobbing. He wrapped his hand around her and gently scooped her up and passed her to Sorcha who unconsciously cupped her and held her.

 

“My…my…m…mum.” Sorcha eventually stammered out. “Does…does she know?”

 

Eyrn leaned out and shook her head. She sniffed and wiped tears away on her sleeves. “The military is letting families know first. Your grandmother knows. She’s on her way to Tannhauser now.”

 

Sorcha nodded, not sure what really else to do. She wanted her mum. She wanted to call her and weep with her but she couldn’t do that to her. She couldn’t tell her and then leave her on her own. Somebody had to be with her. She wished it could be her but she was so far away. And there was of course all the people below.

 

“They colony? Is it safe?” She asked.

 

“It is.” Alesia spoke.

 

“How bad?” Sorcha asked.

 

“Last count…” Alesia paused and looked to her pad. “One hundred twelve thousand two hundred and nine dead.”

 

The number washed over Sorcha like an artic wave. It made her feel sick. The number of lives lost. Lives that had been entrusted to her to keep safe and to nurture. “The staff? Did anyone else make it?”

 

Joseph shook his head. “Just us.”

 

“My pad. I need my pad.” Sorcha said looking around and moving more than she should. She winced in pain.

 

“No. No work for you.” Eyrn said. “Not for a while.”

 

“I’m responsible…I can’t…I can’t just sit here!” Sorcha said.

 

“Sorcha,” Eyrn held her niece by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “There’s barely a colony left anymore. You saved nearly two million lives. You built a working colony despite having a shoestring budget and barely any staff. You’ve done enough. You’re done.”

 

“But those people…”

 

“Those people now have the full attention of The Empire and of Earth. They’ll be evacuated and integrated into welcoming communities, as they should have been to begin with.” Eyrn explained.

 

“No more colony?” Sorcha asked.

 

“Not for now. It’s too close to Insectoid space.” Joseph said. “This war is just beginning.”

 

“We’ll be back.” Alesia said.

 

Sorcha lifted her friend to her face and studied her carefully. She knew Alesia better than she knew herself. She knew how she moved and how she sat. And right now the woman in her hand was not Alesia. She was something much smaller and more fragile.

 

“Do you want to come back…after…”

 

“I’m going back.” Alesia forced the words from her chest. “I won’t…I won’t let what happened here define my life. I won’t let what that monster did make me afraid.”

 

Sorcha set Alesia on her chest and she felt the small warmth from her friend’s little body against her skin. She draped her hand over her like a blanket. It had been a long time since the two of them had lain together like this. Far too long. It made her feel a small amount of hope amid the torrent of grief and uncertainty.

 

She held out her other hand and clasped Joseph’s. “Thanks for coming back for me.”

 

“I couldn’t let you save me more times than I saved you.” He said with a small smile.

 

“Weren’t you supposed to be on a medivac?” she asked.

 

Joseph shrugged. “There were people who needed it more. Besides, it turns out you’re a shit medic.”

 

She laughed despite herself, jostling Alesia in the process. “I’m better at inflicting injuries than healing them.”

 

“Damn right you are.” He leaned down and kissed her. “And I love you for it.”

 

“Awww.” Eyrn said and blinked back a few more tears. “You guys…” She turned and headed for the door. She hadn’t realised. She felt like she should give them some time. Especially after all they’d been through. “…I’ve…I should probably call my kids. They’ll want to hear from me.”

 

“Tell them I love them. And I miss them” Sorcha said realising it had been a long time since she’d said that to her cousins.

 

“I will.” Eyrn said. “I love you too Sorcha. And I’m so very proud of you. And I know Aerti was as well. You did what he would have done, what he did. You put yourself between innocents and danger. You couldn’t have made him any more proud doing that.”

 

Sorcha nodded and sniffed back some awaiting tears. “I love you aunt Eyrn. I’ll be here if you need me.”

 

“I know. I’ll…I’ll be back soon.” Eyrn said. “Rest up.”

 

Eyrn left and Sorcha sank further into her bed and tried not to feel. She looked down to Alesia dozing on her chest and Joseph holding her hand sitting in the chair beside her bed. She tried to focus on this room, on this moment and none of the terrible things than lay beyond the door. In here were two of the most important people in the universe to her.

 

Out there was only loss.

 

 

———————————————————————————————-

 

Author’s note: Thanks to DX for his contribution