Sorcha stood side by side with Joseph in the middle of the old square in front of what was the Temple of the Goddess in Atlantis’ Old Quarter. It wasn’t just that the Old Quarter was the only part of the city with streets wide enough to accommodate Titans but the former Temple of the Goddess was now the Temple of the Fallen. Whether you still followed the goddess, or had converted to one of the many religions that had found their way to Avalon from Earth or the Empire or worshipped nothing at all, the Temple of the Fallen held a special place in Avalonian society.

 

It was a place all could go to remember those who died defending Avalon in its time of need. Interred in it were the bodies of hundreds of men and women, dating right back to the first attack by the demon that had destroyed the original temple. It included soldiers from the civil war, the bandit campaigns and had been expanded to include those who lost their lives in pursuit of the collective good, such as the first astronauts of dared to venture unaided off their world for the first time.

 

It represented no gods, but to the Avalonians it was a sacred place.

 

And now Sorcha stood in front of it, at the head of one hundred soldiers from Jacks Division, Dog Company. To her left and right dozens more companies of soldiers from Avalon’s (now the Empire’s) armed forces. They stood in perfect square formations of ten by ten. Behind them were tens of thousands of civilians, standing in perfect silence listening to the list of names being read aloud, followed by a face appearing on screens all across the square. Sorcha glanced to her side. There may have been tens of thousands of people in the square but the side streets all around were full as well. It seemed as if most of Atlantis had turned out.

 

One by one someone from each of the assembled companies stepped forward and read a name, bowed their head and returned to their comrades. Sorcha recognised a good few of the faces that appeared. They weren’t soldiers. They were just staff at the colony. Mentors, construction staff, teachers; all people who had stayed behind to help evacuate the colony rather than run.

 

It was the Avalonian civilians that had borne the brunt of the casualties. The Jacks were fearless, there was no question of it, but they were trained, heavily armed soldiers operating as one unit. The Avalonian civilian staff were not. Their bravery had saved tens of thousands of lives. But at the loss of more than half of the civilian staff.

 

The last soldier in the company to her right walked down the steps of the temple and returned to his unit. Sorcha took a small step forward and turned around and looked out over the sea of faces.

 

“Manka Shirrel.” She said. Her voice easily heard across the square without the need for speakers.

 

The pale face of the woman Sorcha had gotten to know quite well appeared on screens around the square. Sorcha could feel the anger and sadness rise in her as she looked at Manka’s face. The image of her lifeless, deathly white face remained impressed in her mind. She tried to think of a happier memory, like the time they shared drinks in her room but it still proved hard to do.

 

Sorcha returned back into line and Joseph stepped forward to read his name. The whole ceremony took hours. But the citizens of Atlantis stood patiently and quietly. Avalon had experienced its fair share of tragedies over the centuries and some people were old enough to remember the civil war but this was a different tragedy. It wasn’t self-inflicted or gradual. It was a great shock, all at once at a time when Avalon was itself stepping out into the universe for the first time.

 

Joseph stepped back into line and Sorcha once more took his hand. They waited after the ceremony for the crowds to disperse. They’d been allowed into the city without an escort. It was an odd experience for Sorcha. She was used to seeing the city from a holographic, human perspective. She had spent a lot of time in the Old Quarter as that’s where the university was located. And most of the bars. It was also odd since the last time she had come anywhere near the city as she really was she’d been arrested quite quickly and banned from returning.

 

One other odd thing was the picture takers. It had been years since a Titan had entered Atlantis and a lot of the younger people had never seen one in the flesh. Sorcha and Joseph stood quietly as people milled around their heels smiling for cameras. A few months ago Sorcha would have likely grumbled at them or made a tasteless joke about stepping on someone but not now. Not after what she’d seen.

 

Eventually the crowds and the onlookers cleared out and the pair made their way through the wide, cobble-stoned streets.

 

“What do you want to do now?” Joseph asked as the ambled through the street towards the gate out of the city.

 

Sorcha shrugged. “I don’t know. Go somewhere nice and just sit and be for a while?”

 

Joseph smiled and put his arm around her. “I more meant that we came to Avalon for the memorial. What next? Back to Archavia?”

 

“No, my mum’s away in the Sol System. I don’t want to go home…it wouldn’t feel right.” Sorcha said. “And Lessy…I don’t want to crowd her. She needs space.”

 

“I can understand that.” He replied. “We could stay here for a bit? You still have your apartment here. Or we could stay with my family.”

 

“No…no…” Sorcha sighed as they walked through the gates. Joseph gave the saluting guards in old uniforms carrying pikes a nod. “I don’t know what I want to do.”

 

They walked. Following the river away from the city, past a forest and small town and eventually settling on top of a small hillock overlooking Wanderer’s Bay. They sat, quietly watching the boats make their way in and out of the harbour as the sun began to drift away.

 

“I just realised…” Sorcha eventually spoke.

 

“What’s that?”

 

She turned and looked at him. “There’s someone I forgot to thank.”

 

****

A Thoon class shuttle zipped through the Tantalus system, its pilot easing it around the considerable traffic. There was a shipbuilding boom on; two Imperial months had cut through fifty Imperial years’ worth of dithering. Three Azayea class ships were being laid down in Sector Four, and the Wedney and Tremarla were prepping for shakedown launch a full Imperial year ahead of schedule.

 

Seven officers were aboard, senior staff from one of the ships destroyed at the Battle of Tau Ceti. They were en route to their new ship – or maybe an old ship. They didn’t know. They only knew that right now, everything with an engine was being readied for launch, and given what they’d been through, they’d take whatever they got.

 

As the shuttle turned and straightened, a small voice grumbled, “The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe. We’ll get a freighter.”

 

Lauryna Gwenn burst out laughing, in spite of herself. “Izzy…isn’t that from Star Wars?”

 

“Star Trek, Red, and keep ‘em straight. From what I hear, there’s still a healthy battle brewing between the fan bases.”

 

“How long have you been sitting on that?”

 

“Oh, since they ordered us to Antrova. And don’t pretend you aren’t amused, Commander Riases, I see you smiling.”

 

“I was just remembering the movie. ‘Double dumb ass on you,’ right?”

 

“See? Paying attention to xenocultural media. You’re fitting nicely into that red uniform, kid.”

 

Izzy wasn’t upset that she wasn’t going to be exec on the new ship, whatever it was. She couldn’t be Lauryna’s exec, not effectively, and while Grand Navarchos Fasobi had actually offered her a ship of her own…she didn’t want a ship of her own. She wanted to be with Lauryna. The anti-aging treatments had kicked her back to about fifty, or thereabouts, but she wasn’t aging any slower.

 

She wasn’t upset about it. Earth had good treatments for aging, and maybe someday she’d seek them out, but…well, Niall had many, many more years at the rate he’d been going. You never knew when you were going to get hit by the bus. Izzy didn’t need to be the first human captain of a ship. She needed Lauryna. Everything else was details.

 

Not that her role wasn’t going to be important. She might not be commanding a ship, but she had two stars on her uniform. Captain Ibanez was set to serve as Commander – Human Flight Operations, a position that was essentially co-equal to Lauryna’s. Red would command the ship, she’d command the two fighter wings that Earth was busy putting together, and coordinate their operations with Lauryna. They’d make a good team, she thought.

 

The shuttle turned its lights on, and Lauryna leaned closer to the window. The ship that they were approaching matched no configuration that she was familiar with. It was vicious, with a large phase canon at the bow; this was no ship of exploration. This was a predator.

 

“We actually began construction on her two years ago,” Navarchos Pheon said. “They wanted to get the airframe complete. It was meant to be experimental, a possible replacement for the Talanis class. They decided to finish it up, and they were leaning toward commissioning it as a one-off, at least. Now we’re laying down four more. If not for Tau Ceti, I don’t know if this would have been a full class, but…well, you know, Captain.”

 

“I do,” Lauryna said.

 

“It was 90 percent complete. We were ordered to push it into service, and now that we’ve got it up and running…well, the folks here have really enjoyed flying it. It’ll push Warp 10 when running full-out. Double the shielding of a Kuklopes class ship, and triple the firepower. Bigger, too. Not as efficient as the Azayea class, but that’s hardly the most important thing.”

 

Lauryna looked at the ship carefully. This was a ship designed to be the tip of a spear, a ship designed to wound anyone who would stand against the Empire.

 

She smiled.

 

“What’s the class going to be called?” she asked.

 

“Well, the class name is part of the reason that this is your ship, Captain. These ships will be named for heroes of the Empire, people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. This is the lead ship, and the class will be named for it…and it seemed fitting to give it to you.”

 

The Navarchos pressed a button, and the ship’s name lit up.

 

Aertimus H. Bass, ΨFB/01

 

“Damn hell,” Izzy said, shaking her head. “The Aerti Bass.”

 

Lauryna rubbed her eyes, and took just a moment to compose herself. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a feeling this ship will keep surprising us for years to come, and Emperor help us, but it’ll be hard to control. But I know…for gorram sure…it’ll never let us down.”

 

****

Sorcha pressed the call button on the door and waited. She could hear some movement behind the door but there was no answer. There was no need for a second ring. She knew she’d been heard. And they deserved a little time.

 

A minute later the door slid open and a woman who looked a lot like Rixie Tam, except covered in multi-coloured flour looked out at her.

 

“Sorcha! What can I do for you?” Rixie asked sounding just a little exhausted.

 

“Ehhh…I can come back another time if you like?” Sorcha said eying the rainbow woman opposite her.

 

“This?” Rixie looked down at her clothes and then back up again shaking her head. “This is what comes from when a father lets his three year old girl run wild with homemade paint! Come on in, Asteria and Alex are asleep now.”

 

“Thanks…” Sorcha said following her inside.

 

“Just a social call?” Rixie asked as she started to whizz around the room collecting toys and cups of various colourful liquids.

 

“Just wanted to check in,” Sorcha said looking around the spacious living room that looked like it had been hit by a multi-coloured bomb. “How’s Ryan?”

 

“He’s doing well. Just one more graft to go and then he should be pretty much back to normal.” Rixie said.

 

“Pretty much?” Sorcha’s brow furrowed.

 

“Well, that’s not the kind of injury you ever truly recover from. But it won’t change him and it certainly won’t stop him. He’s itching to get back out there. I want to keep him here…but that’s not going to happen…” Rixie sighed. “What about you? How you doing?”

 

“Eh…not sure.” Sorcha said and picked up a few toys that were hiding behind a sofa. “My Mum is away working on a project. It’s helping her cope. My aunt has stepped down. My family is getting ennobled and I kind of just want to stop.”

 

Rixie offered a small smile. “Going to?”

 

Sorcha shook her head. “No. There’s too much to be done. I think I’ll go back to Tau Ceti. Finish what I started. I’ve been invited back in an advisory capacity. All the perks of solving all the problems without the downside of having a world on my shoulders. I never want to be responsible for a whole planet again.”

 

Rixie chuckled and disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a wet cloth and tossed it to Sorcha. “Wipe the windows down would you?”

 

“Why the laugh?” Sorcha asked as she wiped pink splatter marks off the window.

 

“Welllllll, it’s just when you got here you were pretty damn set on ruling the galaxy. Now you’re swearing off responsibility altogether!” Rixie smirked.

 

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.” Sorcha replied.

 

“Well Pryvani tells me you did a pretty good job all things considered. If you’d gotten the resources you were promised and weren’t attacked Tau Ceti would be going strong. That’s no small achievement.” Rixie said. “Hells, I know she was seriously considering asking you to run her corporate risk management team.”

 

Sorcha stifled a laugh.

 

“And that right there is why she decided against it.” Rixie said looking around satisfied that something resembling normality was returning to her living room. “Right! Can I get you anything? Tea? Kafta? Hustain?”

 

“No, thanks.” Sorcha smiled. “I’m not going to stay. I just wanted to say thanks. I owe you.”

 

“For what?” Rixie asked, wiping her hands down.

 

“For teaching me to fight rather than brawl. If it weren’t for your lessons I could never have beaten Myrell. I could never have saved Lessy.” Sorcha explained.

 

“I thought she beat you? Stabbed you in the kidney?” Rixie sounded a little confused.

 

Sorcha smiled. “I won actually. She had me fighting her with a sword and she strapped these blades to her arms. Remembered what you taught me and decided to drop the weapon and do some old fashioned bone breaking instead.”

 

“How’s you get a knife in the kidney then?”

 

Sorcha smiled once more. “I didn’t kill her. Just left her in agony instead.”

 

Rixie nodded, sage-like. “Always secure the enemy.”

 

Sorcha rolled her eyes. “Well I know that now. But seriously Rixie, thank you.”

 

“Don’t mention it. I was happy to spar with someone who was capable of actually posing a threat. I may be bigger than you, but you pack a harder punch than any I’ve ever taken.” Rixie said and pulled Sorcha into a hug. “If you ever want a go again you just give me a call.”

 

“It’s ok.” Sorcha said as the hug ended. “I think I’ve had my fill of fighting.”

 

“Haven’t we all?” Rixie sighed. “Haven’t we all?”

 

 

****

Ryan flexed his right hand unconsciously as he waited for the doctor. It felt tight. He knew it wasn’t supposed to. The state-of-the-art bioskin they’d used to replace it was custom-printed to conform with his DNA and match his skin tone precisely. It had been four Titan weeks since the battle, and three since they’d replaced the charred remains of his right side with new skin and muscle. It should, by now, be completely indistinguishable from his normal skin, and at least as far as function went, it was. His right hand wasn’t actually tight. It just felt tight.

 

In theory, the new skin should match close enough that nobody could tell, and that was true if it was over a small area. They had ways of hiding the seams, blending them so any slight differences couldn’t be seen. But 58 percent of his original skin had been replaced, and while he looked much better than he had before the surgery…well, you could still see the line that bisected his face, and dipped down his throat. You could still, if you looked carefully, see the slight criss-cross pattern that remained from the reconstructive surgery on the muscle and bone beneath.

 

He shouldn’t worry about it. He looked very much like himself, and he knew that had he been injured on the Earth his father had grown up on, or Atlantis of even ten years ago, his scars would not be subtle. Indeed, it would have been doubtful he would have lived long enough to worry about them.

 

As it was, they’d done as much as they could. Brinn had watched over him, then Nick; they’d moved him to Dhantee Memorial for the reconstructive work, as they were honestly better-prepared to work on a human than the best Titan hospitals in the Empire. He really should be grateful. He was alive. He looked basically fine. He would be able to resume his career. He would be able to marry Thyllia. If he could get over it.

 

Right on cue, the door opened, and his fiancée walked in, or at least, her avatar. She smiled, and walked over to him, and hugged him tight as she always did.

 

“Ready to come home?” Thyllia asked, sitting down next to him on his left side – he’d angled his chair to ensure she would.

 

“Yeah,” Ryan said. “Just….”

 

Thyllia rolled her eyes, and gently turned his head to face her square. They’d had this discussion quite enough for her liking. “Ryan Alexander Carey, how many times do I have to tell you that you are beautiful? And that you’d be beautiful if they hadn’t been able to fix up your face? Do you honestly think I’m so shallow that I would leave you because you were hurt while saving two million people? Give me some credit. I’m not my mother.”

 

Ryan smiled at that. “Princess, you’re you. You deserve a handsome face to show off at galas. One that can keep up with yours.”

 

“Right, Ryan. I already didn’t deserve you before you were a war hero. So don’t you dare worry that I have any problem with your face. I worry that you’ll grow tired of me once you realize you can have basically anyone.”

 

“If I can, then I want you,” Ryan said. “And like you can’t have basically anyone.”

 

“If I can, I want you,” Thyllia said, and kissed him fully.

 

There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” Ryan called, backing up slightly.

 

“Hello, Ryan. Hello, Lady Fand, I don’t know if we’ve met, I’m Dr. Smit.”

 

“I think we met a few years ago. You’re Ammer’s sister, right?” Thyllia said, reaching out a hand.

 

“Yup. And Thio’s daughter. And Jaya’s daughter. Hard to be my own person,” Daphne Smit said, with a grin.

 

“Gods, don’t I know the feeling,” Thyllia said.

 

“They’re making you check me out?” Ryan asked.

 

“I’m on administrative rounds unless someone needs emergency heart surgery. Dr. Gotel and Dr. Archer both are very pleased with your progress, but they want me to remind you that it’s still another month before you can go full-out. You’re still integrating the new muscles in your right side, even if they feel like they’re already fully part of you. You have check-ups in seven and fourteen Avalonian days, make sure you come to them. And if you feel off in any way, you come back in immediately. Your case is the most significant reconstructive one in this hospital’s history, Ryan. We are very confident in it; I know Dr. Gotel’s been working directly with Tannhauser General’s reconstructive department, and they feel confident as well. But it was serious surgery, and we want you to be around for a lot of poking and prodding, for many years to come.”

 

“He’ll follow-up. I’ll make him,” Thyllia said. “And as for any travel….”

 

“Dr. Gotel has already cleared it. We’ve enclosed a list of doctors on Tuaut who you can work with if you need to.”

 

“Thanks,” Ryan said, flexing his hand. “Honestly, you guys….”

 

“My part was just assisting on a couple surgeries, but I can tell you, Archon Carey…we know what you guys did on Tau Ceti. We’re just glad we could get you back on your feet. Now, I will warn you,” she said, with a sigh, “there’s a bit of a media scrum on the way out….”

 

“Huh? Why?” Ryan asked.

 

“Hero of the Empire and Avalon is leaving the hospital, obviously,” Daphne said. “Don’t worry, peacekeepers are keeping them back, we’ll take you straight out to the car.”

 

Ryan sighed, and stood up. “Well, I’ve been through worse. Probably best to get going.”

 

****

 

All in all, Ryan was happy not to have a welcome-back party.

 

They’d offered – his parents, Thyllia, even Pryvani had offered to host one. But he didn’t feel like a celebration. Not yet.

 

Ryan knew he was lucky. The psych check showed no sign of PTSD or other serious mental injuries. But that didn’t mean had put it all behind him; it just meant that he’d be able to put it behind him bit by bit, hour by hour.

 

No, he’d come home, and they’d had dinner with his folks, and his mom had fretted and his dad had only once ventured a half-hearted “two-faced” joke. Ryan was frankly not sure how he felt about that. He was sensitive about it…but his dad had always believed in lancing tension with humor. Ryan wasn’t sure if it was because his father was trying to be tactful….

 

No, he was sure his dad wasn’t trying to be tactful. Which meant his dad was fretting as much as his mom.

 

“Enjoying being home?” Thyllia asked.

 

Ryan turned, and smiled in spite of himself. He’d been sitting on their porch, looking out over Atlantis – a lovely view, with Herakleos setting behind it. But no sight in the universe could compare to the towering figure silhouetted in the doorway, dressed in a rather skimpy nightgown, holding a glass of kapskrasi, smiling down on him from on high.

 

“Princess…you have no idea how happy I am to be home,” he said.

 

She walked over, crossing thirty yards with each step, before bending down by the table where he sat. He gave the view down her nightgown a quick glance, but only a quick one…he was far more focused on her face. He’d missed it so much. And he was so damned lucky he got to see it again.

 

Thyllia gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. “Mind if I join you?” she asked.

 

“Please,” Ryan said, and she came around and sat in the monolithic chair beside him. She reached down, and plucked him up – carefully, yes, but without asking. She settled him on her thigh, on the soft satin of her nightgown, where she often would when they sat together like this.

 

She had asked, the first few times, of course. But he’d told her that she didn’t have to. If the day came when he didn’t want to be picked up and placed on Thyllia’s lap…well, he couldn’t imagine it would come before he was dead.

 

So it had become a habit. One they both enjoyed very much.

 

It was simple gesture, and normal. And for the first time since he’d woken up after surgery…his hand didn’t feel tight. She didn’t see him as broken, and she wasn’t going to treat him like he was. She was just going to be the Thyllia he’d always known.

 

He leaned back into her, chuckling as he stared up at her perfect breasts. “God, it’s good to be home,” he said.

 

Thyllia didn’t answer right away. When it took her longer to answer than a moment, Ryan did what he always would do – he hopped up, and taking advantage of the lower gravity in the compound, climbed up her nightgown, popping up on her right breast.

 

“Thyllia…oh, darling,” he said, as he saw she’d teared up. “I’m sorry.”

 

She blinked, and looked down at him. “I just…Ryan…it’s not your fault. I just…when your dad told me you were on Tau Ceti, and it was under attack…you don’t know how scared I was. Scared that you’d never come back, that I’d never…never get to tell you….”

 

She sniffled. “I was afraid I’d never get to tell you I loved you, not ever again. And I…I couldn’t imagine that. All I wanted was this. To be sitting with you, like we always did. And I’m afraid I’m gonna wake up, and find out that it’s a dream. I know, that seems stupid….”

 

“No,” Ryan said. “For one thing, that’s how I feel all the time when I’m around you. For another…there were too many people there who didn’t get to say goodbye to their families. And I was awfully close to being one of them. But Princess…don’t ever think I don’t know. I always know. The only times I ever doubt are about whether I’m worth it.”

 

Thyllia half-laughed, half-cried, causing the ground beneath Ryan to quake. “Oh, you are worth it. If you’d died, I had a plan to go kill my mom. I don’t know if your dad told you….”

 

“Yeah. Don’t do that. She’s not worth it.”

 

Ryan settled on her breast, laying back on it. “I suppose you’ll want me to retire.”

 

Thyllia sighed. “I want you to be you. I’d rather you not be in an Acolyte again, selfishly, but…but you want to protect people. I told your dad, before we knew…he felt responsible. Like he’d let you down, by letting you be in danger. But you want to help people, to keep people safe. And you do. And as scared as I was, as horrible as it was…I know that people are alive because you were there. I am so proud of you for that, Ryan. Honestly, you helped save millions of people. Ishin-Bozh has nothing on you.”

 

“Well, he did save a princess,” Ryan said.

 

“And you think you haven’t?”

 

Ryan sighed, happily. “No, Thyllia. The princess saved me.”

 

They sat that way for a long time, in quiet, together, watching Herekleos dip beneath the horizon, before they rose together, and headed back inside.
 

---

 

Thanks to DX for his contribution.