Prologue - Desolation Among the Stars
The helm of the Circumstance was eerily quiet in the hours following their departure from the newly dubbed Salvation Station.
They and many others had gone there in hopes that they would find a way forward out of the destruction the war wrought across the universe. Instead, what they found was a heavy mixture of despair and hope.
“What happened with the peace negotiations, Captain?” one of the officers asked after the silence became a bit too much.
The words took a few seconds to breach the captain’s brooding, but finally, he roused.
“All of the treaties have officially been signed and set into the record, which means all of the major players are officially backing down on all fronts. The war is over.”
The few who had been holding their breath let it out with a whoosh. Such a thing had been attempted several times before, without much success. The whole thing was too complicated, too messy, too many players involved to get everyone to back down at once.
But eventually, the fighting wore everyone down enough to get everyone to back down and send their negotiators to the table.
And finally, after decades of fighting over anything and everything, the war had come to an end.
“So, are they sending the scatter fleets home then?”
The scatter fleets had taken up defensive postures while the main fleets were restricted to their homeworld ports, to prevent any unwanted interference with the proceedings. Things had been carefully arranged to prevent bias and protect the delegates.
Now that the peace was official, it made sense for them to at least be returning to their normal base of operations. Yet, they were heading in a different direction.
Captain Leland McGowan had not found enough courage to inform his crew of the news he and the other scatter fleet captains had been given.
Every time he tried, the words lodged themselves in his throat, refusing to go any farther from the fear that speaking it out loud would somehow make it more real. Would make this fate inescapable, never mind that even the brightest minds left in the universe could find no other way forward.
“Permission to speak freely, Captain,” the first mate said, breaking his mental spiral.
He sighed, resigning himself to the arrival of this inevitability. Alana had never been one to stand on ceremony, at least not with him, and the fact that she asked with such formality meant that either she pitied the state he was in, or she was about to address him in a way that was very unbecoming of her station.
Given their current situation, it was probably a mix of both.
“Granted,” he said, speaking for the first time in days.
“We know it’s a mess out there, and we know that whatever news you got at Salvation wasn't what you wanted to hear. I get that you aren’t ready to talk about it, but we need to know what is going on. I gave you a few hours to stew in your own thoughts, but now is the time to speak,” she said, her words coming out with a firm confidence that said she had rehearsed several times before approaching him.
He must have looked particularly pitiful if she took the time to sand the edges off first. That was rarely her way.
Then again, these were unusual circumstances.
“After all that’s happened, are you sure you want to know?” he started.
“Leland.”
“It’s not the worst that we feared, but that doesn’t mean it is good news. A decision had to be made, one that affects everyone on this ship. They should have had a say in it, but in the end, only I was asked to agree. Now I must carry the weight of what is to come.”
“We have all been through hell together, I think we can be counted on to help you carry this load. Now is not the time to be keeping secrets from your crew.”
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
She was right. He knew it. She knew he knew it. And he knew that staying silent was only delaying the inevitable.
He looked at each of his officers in turn. They watched him in return, well practiced in the art of paying attention to their captain and their stations at the same time. The lack of gunfire made it much easier.
They watched him closely, waiting to see if Alana’s plea would fall on deaf ears or not.
He sighed again.
“Fine, but this is to be kept among us until I have found a way to inform the rest of the crew. There are still details that need to be figured out but you are right, you all deserve to know. Even if you come to wish that you didn't.”
They listened in silence as he slowly told them about the warning they received at Salvation.
How an unexpected series of events meant they could never go home.
How in the following weeks they would have a series of decisions to make that would determine the fate of the 253 souls onboard the ship.
They sat in stunned silence for what felt like ages once he finished repeating what he had been told until finally Alana spoke up.
“Alright. What are we going to do about it?”