I rushed to the transporter. I had just gotten the news and ran from work without asking to leave from Kornel Regev. I bumped more than one person on the way, as I continued to run I called back to them: “Sorry! In a rush!” Luckily I didn’t run into anyone who was higher rank than me as I was flagrantly disobeying the no running ordinance. I burst into the transportation room. “Send me to the hospital ship now!” The two other people in the room were having sex against the wall, they jumped in response to my sudden demand.

“I’m sorry, ma’am! I’m sorry!” The man said as he tried to pull his pants up and get to the consol.

“Shut up and send me now!” I was wooshed away and materialized at my destination. “Which way is the,” I looked at the note, “intensive care unit? I have a friend there and need to get moving there now.”

“Intensive care? Yeah, yeah probably on the hospital ship.” the man said casually. “This is the Battleship Cremenonia. Would you like to go to the hospital?”

“Send me now.” I said through gritted teeth. I wooshed away again and materialized in another transportation room. “Is this the hospital ship?” I asked the new person.

“Yes ma’am.” She said.

“Where is intensive care? I need to get there now!” I asked her.

“Oh, sorry, I don’t really know my way around the hospital. You should go see the people at the information desk. They should be able to help you find what you need.” She replied with a smile. I nodded at her and rushed out of the room.

As I walked up to the desk in the next room that said INFO/DJIZI/SHAKHA with the korveinian GOGLASH chiseled off making the sign off center, the man behind the desk asked me: “Hello, how can I help you?”

“I need to go to the intensive care unit now! Please! Please! Just tell me where it is!”

He stared at me for a long moment. “You don’t seem to be in any distress.”

I broke inside. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire fleet heard me when I responded. “You shitty asshole! Tell me where the god damn fucking intensive care unit is, my friend is there and hurt! I swear if you don’t tell me where she is I’ll be quite cross with you indeed!”

“Ma’am, keep things professional, please.” He chided. I saw an ethereal come down to stand behind him. I checked myself and decided I needed to calm down so I pushed some things off his desk and stormed off. I saw on a sign ‘ICU’ and decided that was probably the right place and made my way there.

I asked a janitor along the way and he pointed me to the proper place. I arrived at the unit. As I walked up to the desk the person behind looked at me. “How can I help you ma’am?” They had a neutral look on their face.

“I am looking for Persephone Rorke. I heard she was brought here from the invasion of the planet.” She looked at her computer.

After what seemed like a thousand years, she looked back up at me. “She is just down the hall here, it seems.” I waited, she stared back at me.

“Can I go see her?” I asked slowly, trying to suppress my raging desire to smash more things.

They shrugged. “If you want. I suppose you could. No rule saying you can’t.” They kicked up their legs onto the desk and lounged.

“Do you work here? Is there someone else I can talk to? You don’t really seem to know what is happening and I would like to make sure of things before I just go fucking around back there. Hey are you listening to me?”

They looked up at me again. “Not really and I don’t actually work here. I’m just,” they spun around in the chair, “watching the place.”

I sighed heavily. “What room is she in? I don’t even care anymore.”

“ICUR2-5-17,” they said dryly. “Could you do me a favor? By the way.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh what do you want now?”

“Steal her pudding cup and give it to–hey! Is that a no? What if I paid you some leaders?” They asked as I stomped away from the desk.

I entered the room they had said she was in. I saw a body wrapped up and laying on a bed. A machine was beeping, I didn’t know what it was about but I came closer to the figure sleeping on the bed. I reached out to grab her hand but retracted before I reached her and decided to sit down instead. There weren’t any other beds in the room. I saw written on the machine Captain Rorke in the subject section.

A shifting happened on the bed. I looked over and she was looking at me, her breathing tube not obscuring her smile. She held a bandaged hand out and I grabbed it.

“Hey Persephone. I heard you did something a bit silly and was hurt a lot.” She nodded. “I’m glad you survived though.” Tears began to flow down my face. “I was so afraid. I’m so relieved to see you are still alive.” I gently squeezed her hand.

The door opened. “Hello Miss Rorke.” A woman in a doctor’s coat said as she came in. “Oh, hello. Who are you?” She asked me when she noticed my presence.

“I’m Commander Gezzini. She is my very close friend. I had to come visit her when I heard she was here.”

“Close friends? Girl, we are killing those korveinians, you two can say you are dating. None of us mind, we hate that korveinian forced straight shit around these parts.” Before I could respond she continued. “So would you two like to talk to each other? We can get that tube out now, it was mostly a precaution for dangers I believe to have passed by now.”

“Oh yes please do!” I said to her with a smile. She removed the tube. Persephone coughed, the doctor handed her a cup of water. She drank it. “I’m so glad you are still here. How are you doing, Persephone?”

“Bad,” her voice was raspy. She pulled her blanket over. “I lost a leg, look. Totally missing ol’ righty. And worse! Those pieces of shit tried to detransition me by taking out my slow dispersal estrogen secreater.”

“Worse? You lost a leg, Persephone!” I felt dumb founded that a replaceable thing being removed was worse than losing a limb. “You can get the medicine dispenser put back in, right?”

“Yes but that has already happened.” The doctor said. “I’ve taken down your vitals. If you need anything else, call me with this button.” She held it up then placed it back down.

Persephone pushed herself up a little in her bed. “If I had not been able to find the transportation blocker and turn it off I would have been in a bad spot.”

“Well in either case, I’m just happy you are still alive and I heard you were instrumental in helping us take the planet. So that's a tattoo for you.”

“I just happened to have the opportunity. They never even suspected the watch was used to locate the type of energy transport blockers give off. Sure they beat my ass when they finally came down but I killed a few of them before they got to me. Would have been worse but some thoughtful and beautiful general sent in a squad to the center of where the shield had dissipated.”

“I’m just happy you are ok.” I stood and gave her a hug. “What will you do now though? Can you get a staff job on one of the ships maybe?”

She laid back down onto the bed. “I want to get a prosthetic and get back out there. I want to continue on, this is something I’ve moved on from already. I will not give up on the fight against them.” She paused. “By the way, is that why you have all those tattoos? Is it some khaveni tradition?”

I smiled brightly. “It's not all khaveni as I’m sure you have noticed. It's just my little part of it, we have traditions going back to the time of the visiting of applying tattoos for important events in our lives.” I traced one of the lines of my arms. “I got this one when I entered korveinian service as a fighter pilot.” I pointed at another. “I got this one shortly after the rebellion started. I really like the tradition, it helps me remember how much I’ve done in my life.”

She winced in what I assumed to be pain. “Perhaps the tattoo will have to wait. I think I need to recover a little more before doing that. That wouldn’t be culturally insensitive if I got one, would it?”

“I will give you a pass. You are totally fine. Don't even worry about it.”

“I don’t know about that.” She chuckled laboriously. “It seems like I would have to explain too much to strangers. Perhaps I’ll just get a more human inspired one to commemorate this.”

An idea suddenly hit me. “You could do a tattoo your people would do and incorporate this kind of geometric shape into it, then you couldn’t be accused of anything.”

“Listen babe, I’m feeling a bit wiped. Come back again but I think I need to take a nap. Thank you for coming though.” She smiled.

“Eat your pudding before you sleep.” I said. She cocked her head at me but I just left it there and gave her a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

I made my way back through the hospital ship to the transporter. As I passed the ICU desk the person from before called out. “Hey did you get that pudding?” I showed them two fingers and kept walking.

As I walked by the information desk someone called out. “Hey you! Come back here! You can’t cause mayhem in the hospital and get away with it!” I shot a look at her. An ethereal descended next to her. I recoiled and didn’t feel like I was that angry. She became more conciliatory in her tone. “Ma’am, you are allowed to be unhappy about people being in the hospital, that is totally reasonable. I cannot accept you trashing the place though, ok?” The ethereal was still hovering around her, my anger had totally fled me and all I could feel was trepidation at the figure.

I ran at her. “Get down now!” I wasn’t sure what was coming but I needed to do something about this at once. I tackled her to the ground. A loud bang from above knocked a panel loose and caused it to fall. It slammed against her leg and crunched it with a sickening wet slopping sound. She screamed in pain, I pulled back and pushed the panel off of her.

“Get me a doctor.” She said through gritted teeth. “I’m going to kill you for breaking my leg.”

I shrugged. “I saved your life. Death is all you would have gotten if I hadn’t tackled you, sergeant. Now I am going to get you a doctor. Be thankful or not. I did the right thing and if you hate me for it, fine. I can accept that, but if you come at me for it, I will fuck you up.”

I called for a doctor from the emergency department and left the ship using the transporter. I stood once more on the Support Carrier Castalan Lukonia. The sex pest was alone. When he saw me he cringed.

 

“What the fuck are you thinking Commander?” He had his arms folded and his face was the picture of anger and disappointment. “You realize what we are doing here? The enemy ship could have come at any time while you were away.”

There was no trying to excuse my actions. I just needed to take this ass chewing and move on. I did abandon my post, this was deserved but I would do the same again given the circumstances. “Understood Kornel. I shouldn’t have left, sir.”

His frown deepened. “Commander Gezzini, you are a damn good pilot. I know you had a thing with that human woman but we are doing something important here, please please please, just consider that next time decide to go off unlit. We wouldn’t be having this discussion if you had just asked but you just ran out of here.”

“Yes, sir. Understood, sir. I will not repeat my previous actions again, sir.”

He sighed deeply and rubbed his temples. “Admiral Danylov, sir, do you have anything you would like to add?” The speaker crackled.

“You have an impeccable service record so far and your NachtHexen, likely due to your ability to see the raszhug, have much less losses than the other wings. I need you to get your mind right.” I opened my mouth then closed it again without saying a word, arguing would only lead me down the path to trouble.

“Go on, Commander.” Kornel Regev said. “You seemed like you wanted to say something just now.”

“It was nothing, sir.”

“Just say it, Commander.” The admiral ordered.

I felt small compared to the phone and man towered over me. I could do nothing but tell the truth under this mogging. “My mind couldn’t get right, sirs. Not until I knew how she was doing. I couldn’t focus on anything else. When I heard she was,” my voice broke and tears began to pour from my eyes. I took a moment to try and regain my composure. “When I heard she was alive but in serious condition my brain was ignoring any and all other stimuli. I shouldn’t have given in to panic but I suppose I also couldn’t make that choice.”

Kornel Regev shook his head. “Commander, that is an excuse. Do you know what they say about excuses and assholes? Everyone has one and they all stink.”

I felt as though someone stabbed me through with a sword. I should have kept quiet. “Kornel,” Admiral Danylov said, “we are only people and people are imperfect. We all have our own peculiarities. Surely we want people to act in a certain way, we are a military. Sometimes a person is overwhelmed and we need to recognize that. Commander,” I straightened up even though he wasn’t in the room, “I need you to do your best in the future. I don’t begrudge you for going to see your friend. I just need you to do things properly.”

“I will do my best, sir.” I said demurely.

“I’m going to leave the rest with you, Kornel. I have a meeting with some Uthradiri to get to. I don’t believe a punishment is necessary. Make good choices… all around, make good choices.” The speaker chirped as the call disconnected.

I stood in front of just the man now. I said nothing as he gazed upon me, so small and meek. He shook his head. “Go on then. Make sure the pilots and vehicles are ready to fly and fight at a moment's notice.”

I saluted him. “You’ve got it, sir. I’ll have everything running in tip top shape in no time.” Action stations started sounding on the ship.

Regev looked at his consol. “We are not to go out just yet,” he yelled over the alarm. “Get things ready just in case we are called to fight. Our forces may need the back up at some point. Understood?”

I saluted and headed to the launch bay to check on the condition of each ship. As I began to look over the first ship Treliop came up to me and stood awkwardly near me. She turned to walk away but stood not moving.

“Don’t worry about it. Nothing happened. We might need to go fight at some point so stay around here.” I told her. She nodded, I stopped looking at the ship. “Ma’am, please use your big woman words, thank you.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you would react like that. Kornel Regev was absolutely livid that you pushed him out of the way and ‘abandoned’ your post and I’m sorry.”

“You did nothing wrong.” I tried to reassure her. “Listen, I need to look at these ships, just stay in the briefing room and we can talk later. Nothing bad has happened, ok? Just go relax there.”

I got through seven of the ships before Regev crackled over the speaker. “Attention NachtHexen, suit up. You are being called to battle. Attention NachHexen, suit up. You are being called to battle.”

I hopped off the ship and walked toward the changing room to get into my flight outfit. There were already other women in there changing as fast as they could. I shuffled out of my clothes and strapped into the suit and made my way to the briefing room.

I opened the current battle intel statistics and reviewed it as my pilots began filing into the room. Everyone arrived in the room. I looked at the timer at the back of the room. twenty minutes to launch. Time to be quick. “Ok everyone, listen up, listen up. We have our numbers, our side has about two hundred thirty-ish ships, their side has about three hundred. Which with us going in will make things about even. Mission!” I blew by question time. “We are tasked with winning victories, kill them if you can, really we just want to degrade their fighting strength and ability. We have nineteen minutes, ask questions quickly, we are out of here in nine minutes so we can launch. Who has them?”

“What are the casualty rates for each side?” Treliop asked. “Are we winning?”

“Fog of war and all, the estimates are forty versus sixty victories. Their advantage. They have had the numerical advantage so when we get out there we will flatten that and drive their numbers down.”

“Down twenty victories with a disadvantage in personnel numbers? We're gonna burst some bird feathers ladies! Hell yeah!” Kordzellia said.

Karpkoza raised her hand. I pointed at her and she started to talk. “What are the pursuit protocols?”

“Break pursuit and hold at line kenona here.” I showed the line about ten kilometers from the front of the lead battleship between the fleets. The room was silent for several seconds. “No other questions?” I waited again. “Ok saddle up ladies and get your bird shot ready. Today we hunt.” I smiled as they cheered my cheesy one liner. “Alright alright! Come on, let's move! To your ships, ladies!” I walked to and held open the briefing room door. I kissed each pilot on the top of their forehead and headed to my ship when everyone had left.

We swung a wide arc as we left the Lukonia. Our plan was to come in from the side and blast the korveinian ships in as much of an ambush as you could muster in the vast open emptiness of space.

As always and even from this distance I could see the horror of the ethereals streaking away as they whisked the essence of the dead from the field to forever dwell… well wherever they took the dead. I’d had the passing thought before but never seriously considered where the dead were taken. Today wasn’t the day to think about it either, the battle was at hand after all.

We made our final approach. We were less than a hundred kilometers from them before we started firing. They struggled to organize a defense, they began to retreat some ships from the units that had flown out first chased them, their leaders began ordering their people back. Most listened and broke pursuit, the ones that strayed too far fell victim to the trap. The ten thousand zhuka beam from their battleship ripped through the few that were there an they were blasted to pieces, the dispersal diameter meant that we were safe with our limited shielding at this distance.

I rotated my weapon over to the hardened titanium shrapnel torpedo. “Everyone,” I said on the NachtHexen channel, “select your torpedoes.” I halted for a moment so they could make the change. “Fire.” The bombs zoomed their way to the enemy lines. Several were destroyed by the enemy forces, many were not. The explosion blasted hot metal at them and ripped through several of their fighters. Many pilots were exposed to the vacuum; others were able to get away in their pods.

We held a decisive advantage in ships. Neither side made a move to advance. We stared each other down, the vastness stretched between us. Explosions began ripping the fleet before our eyes. The ships of the fleet started to turn to see what was happening, the fighters began to retreat too. Ethereals swarmed them.

“Forward NachtHexen! Fire everything you’ve got!” I ordered my flight.

“Negative Witch Leader, hold position.” One of the captains of the other fighter squadrons said over the comms.

“I’m ordering you and your flight forward too, Schtintin Leader.” I countered then switched to the general fighter channel. “All fighters, this is Witch Leader, I’m ordering you forward to wipe out the enemy fighters.”

We started forward. A few of the ships refused to move forward but the majority did. We closed the distance quickly and fell upon the enemy force. I could see a little better what was happening behind. A force of destroyers got on the enemy flank and were harrying their supple sides.

I had to focus on my task though. I snapped myself back to the fighters and fired at them as I closed in on them. Victories were as easy as firing the plasma cannon. We got in close enough to fire on the enemy battleship. We didn’t do any damage but it felt good to strike at their largest ship. This was as much as we could do. Their fighters scattered and their battleship fired upon. I ordered a retreat to the kenona line.

Shortly Regev came over the comms. “Recovery, all fighters, we are doing recovery operations. Make your way to the NachtHexen bay.”

“You heard the man, recovery formation, three lines. Aim for the usual restraint points.” I reminded the ladies. Our two battleships began moving forward and fired on the enemy fleet. They were in complete disarray in no time.

 

When I returned to the ship I went to watch the battle with Kornel Regev in the operations room. Our ships were surging forward firing and crashing against the enemy forces. The battle was won for sure. No doubt about it.

I looked at Regev. “Hey, want to get some food? I’m feeling hungry.”

He rubbed his face and took a drink from his coffee cup. “Yeah, yeah I could do with a bite I think. I’m gonna continue to work on this report while you get changed.”

I gave him a questioning look. Then I looked down at my clothes. “Oh right. I’m still in my battle suit. Ok, I’ll be back quickly.”

I trotted off to the changing room and stripped out of the flight suit and put my regular clothes back on. The ship shuttered, I was thrown to the floor. When the shaking had stopped I got to my feet and dashed out of the changing room. People were picking themselves up most with a look of bewilderment on their face.

“Is everyone ok?” I asked. “Come on, everyone out here. We might be being attacked, get out of the bay in case the shield fails. Everyone out now!” I prodded people. Regev shuffled out of ops and we both ushered people out of the bay.

The ship shuddered more violently and we all went to the floor again. “Our comms were taken out in the first hit, we have no clue what's happening back here. Go to the bridge to see what's happening, commander.” Regev ordered me. “Go, now.” I nodded at him and made my way there.

Most of the pilots and work crews were milling in the hall, no direction whatsoever. “All of you get to the damage control teams and aid them however you can. I don’t know how bad it is but more hands make less work. Go.” I pointed to one of my pilots. “Leutnent Karpkoza, you come with me, we’re going to the bridge, Kornel Regev needs information.”

“Yes, ma’am. Do you know what is happening? I thought the fight was happening far ahead of us.” She asked, she was visibly and unsurprisingly scared.

“I’m not sure. That’s part of the reason we are going to bridge.” I told her. “I assume we are under attack though. Perhaps one of their ships got on our flank? I don’t know. Let's get moving though.”

We set off for the bridge. Before we got there we were hit three more times that sent us to the ground. The internals of the ship began to fall apart. Things were getting serious now. I was starting to get scared too.

Another heaving sent us to the ground as we stepped onto the bridge. “Kornel. We were sent by Kornel Regev.” Karpkoza shuffled off of me so I was able to stand up. “We were told to find out what is happening.”

“The enemy had a second fleet and are fighting the rear guard. We are catching stays every so often. We are making our way out of here. It's too hot for our lightly armored support carrier.” He checked something on his screen. “Seems like we are coming to the limit of our structural integrity.” He pressed a button on his consol. “Attention everyone. Get near a jettison station. Everbray get us some more speed, get us out of here. Suflim get more juice into the shields. Give us every second you can. Commander, stay here. The bridge is a jettison station.”

“I’m scared, Commander.” Karpkoza said.

“We are where we are and we are going to get through this. This is a concerning situation to be in though. I do agree with you there.”

We went to the ground again as the ship was bracketed by enemy fire once more. An alarm started blaring. I pushed myself to my feet and went around helping people up.

“Thank you.” The Kornel said. “What alarm is that?” He said to the room.

“Structural integrity in the bay section is totally compromised. We are venting atmos. The affected sections have been cut off, the bulkheads are sealed.” One of the bridge personnel said.

“Silence the alarm then. Pilot, detach from the haul.” He pressed the button for ship comms. “Everyone exit the ship now, our structure is compromised, abandon ship.” He let the button go. “Why am I still attached to haul? Pilot detach now!”

“Fredrickson is unconscious, her head is bleeding.” The comm officer reported.

The Kornel looked at me. “On it, sir.” I jumped into the seat and was immediately brought back to flight school. “Ok, it's been a while but this should do it.” The controls were suddenly lighter as we lurched away from the wreck of the haul. The sound of scraping metal nearly defended me.

“Stay behind the haul for a moment, Commander.” The Kornel ordered. I followed, lifeboats were shooting out from the haul. “How many are still trapped on the ship?”

“Maybe twenty?” Someone responded.

“Transport one onto each of the lifeboats and one onto this ship.” I heard a button click. “Lifeboats assemble and attach to the bridge-boat. Hold position here for a little bit, Commander.”

A body appeared in front of my station and I jumped up and ran to Regev as soon as I recognized him. “Leutnant, pilot now.” I hovered over my commander, he started coughing and sucking in air. I sat him up and placed his head on my legs. “Sir are you ok?”

His breathing was still ragged and he coughed every so often. “That was a close one.”

“Regev, welcome to the bridge-boat.” He nodded. “What’s the progress of life boat attachment?” The Kornel asked.

“The enemy has destroyed about ten percent of boats. I think they are being targeted. Of the ones that haven’t been destroyed eighty percent have attached. Eight four now.”

The Kornel sank into his chair. “Well this has been bad. I better report this to higher now.” He inserted his ear phone and pressed a button. “Ma’am, this is Kornel Zorko of the Castalen Lukonia, we have had a structural failure and have had to abandon ship. Yes ma’am. As many as we could. Of course. I’ll get the names to you as soon as we can. Yes. Yes. Of course. Yes ma’am. Yes we still have her. Yes ma’am, we will head out as soon as the rest of the boats attach. Are you sure? Yeah, of course. Yes, of course. Ok we will go now, ma’am.” He took the ear piece out. “Leutnant, jump to the planet. Leave the lifeboats, they will be picked up by other ships.”

“Yes sir, we are heading out now.” Leutnant Karpkoza said as she engaged the engines.

“All other lifeboats attach to another ship. This ship has been ordered away from the battle.”

I helped Regev to some seating off to the side of the bridge as we abandoned the lifeboats and the battlefield. My squad was scattered and my ship destroyed. This day was not such a good day for me.

 

We arrived near Ungdarfeg, precisely at the shipwright beyond the atmos of the planet. Kornel Zorko had the wrights fix the damage the lifeboats had sustained during our flight from the battle. In the meantime we went to relax on the orbital shipwrights. 

“Kornel Regev.” I said to him before we left the bulkhead. “We never got our lunch. Would you still like to go eat?” 

He stretched. “I’m so fucking tired. Let’s eat first though.” He looked down at himself. “Maybe I'll take a shower first. Maybe you should take one too.”

I looked at myself. “Oh wow, when did I get so dirty? Yeah shower then food. Leutnant, come shower and eat with us.” I said to her before she walked away.

She looked horrified. “You want me to shower with you and Kornel Regev?”

I burst into laughter. “Oh sorry, I suppose people would have misunderstood that in that way. No. We will shower separately then eat together.”

“That sounds better. I will tag along.” She said and her stomach rumbled in repsonse.

Karpkoza and I went directly to the showers. We grabbed our towels from the anteroom for the showers. I stripped my clothes off and placed them in the cleaning chute. I placed the towel on the hook and washed myself. The shower was so revitalizing after all the battles and chaos and abandoning the ship. Stripping the grime off made me feel like a person again.

I toweled myself off. I felt clean and smiled. Karpkoza yelped “Sorry ma’am, I didn’t mean to look.”

I laughed. “I’m a mighty warrior of the central sea empire. I’ve bathed in ancient bath houses. I have no shame with my body. I’ll go put my clothes on so you feel more comfortable though.” I finished drying myself then walked to the clean clothes hamper. I put on my intimates and pulled on my other clothes. “I’m dressed. I’ll wait outside for you.”

Regev was waiting outside, his smudged and filthy face was now clean and grime free as well. We waited for Karpkoza and headed to the cafeteria.

I had noodles and chicken, it was everything I wanted. The human’s fowl was so good, the most similar thing on khaveni was more bitter and so less desirable. I fucked up the noodles quickly. Regev had eaten half and was poking at the rest. Karpkoza barely touched hers.

“Hey are you two ok?” I asked after a few minutes. They both looked at me.

“I’m just thinking… I… I nearly died. I was gasping, lying on the floor.” Tears began streaming down his face faster than the coursing vitorlio river. “I feel a bit weird about things, I was so sure I was dead for what felt like hours. Here I am now.” He pushed the tray aside and grabbed his head and rested his head on the table. “Am I even alive? Is this real? What if I’m still there and this is the last gasps of my brain before it dies?”

“Woah woah. I was never about to die, I can assure you this is real. You are really here, Kornel. I cradled your head when we escaped, remember?”

He stood so suddenly, heads turned as the loud crash of the chair echoed through the room. “I need to go. I need to go and have a lay down. If I’m still alive I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.” He sounded so sullen.

“Wait, sir! That was a very concerning thing to say! Sir!” He ran out the door.

“How many of our friends are dead now, Commander?” Karpkoza asked me.

I was in a stand-squat position. My eyes moved between the door Regev had gone through and Karpkoza sitting at the table. “Come with me, we can talk while we chase Kornel Regev down. Both of you are a bit out of sorts and need some extra attention right now.”

Tears were streaming down her face now too. “What's the price of a star system? How many wasted lives? How many dreams have been foregone? Is this a worthy sacrifice, Commander? Our friends, the people we have known are lost forever. Blown into space to suffer and die in the bitterly cold vacuum. Sons, daughters, and sciogeny they will not be going home.”

I gritted my teeth. “Hey, listen. I don’t like that people I know and care about are dead. I do my best to keep people alive. I’ve lost so many people at this point that I’ve just grown a bit of a callus on that feel of loss. Which isn’t the best thing in the world, sure. But I’m trying to push forward regardless. So listen, Why don’t we get you to the hospital ship so we can get you to talk to someone about this. Would you like that? Talking about it made me feel somewhat better when I first took command.”

She nodded.

“Ok, let's go find Kornel Regev and get him to the hospital ship too. Follow me.” We cleaned up the area and went to find our commander.

We found him doing his best impression of a fussy toddler. Instead of annoyance all I could for him was sympathy. We picked him up and dragged him to the nearest transporter. There were none, probably some bullshit security measure the damn korveinians had taken. We grabbed a taxi vessel instead and landed in the hospital ship which was not far off from the orbital shipwright. Our lifeboats were still being worked on. People in work suits were swarming over the thing like a bunch of ants on sugar.

We landed in the launch bay for the hospital ship. There was an emergency team waiting for us as we exited the ship.

“Hey, you can’t park here. This is a patient drop off only place. Which of you is hurt?” One of the EMT men asked.

“These two.” I pushed them forward.

He studied them for a long moment. Considering their condition, I supposed. “Jaime, escort them to the emergency mental health clinic.” He locked eyes with me. “Was there anything else ma’am?” I shook my head and started heading back into the taxi. “Good luck out there.”

As I made my way back to the station I could see ships approaching the station. My heart sank as I saw symbols were not from my fleet. More enemies. I landed back on the wright and went to a window where I could see the impending fleet. Their fleet symbol was a white star in a blue circle, now that I could see it better. I’d never heard of that korveinian symbol but was here to let them break over me. There was nothing to do against such overwhelming force but resist until I broke.

Someone came running up beside me, she looked excited and relieved. “Why are you happy about korveinians attacking us?” I asked.

She gave me a wide toothy smile. “Korveinians? No, thats a friendly fleet. That symbol is from one of our most powerful nation states, before we were a united humanity. I’m so relieved our salvation has arrived. I’ve been keeping up with the battle on the sensors and—”

“You have access to see the battle from here?” I grabbed her by the shoulder so we were staring each other in the face. “Take me there now!” The friendly fleet was completely forgotten at this new revelation.

We entered a room labeled: external security room, in korveinian. She brought up the wide view which encompassed most of the gravity well out to even the ice belt then pushed in closer to where the battle was localized. Mostly near the -5’s path.

Our ships formed a defensive circle. The support carriers were protected in the middle, their flights vainly striking at the enemies. This was a losing battle; a full ten percent of our ships were missing, not to mention personnel losses on the ships that still stood.

I pulled out to see how far the new fleet was to the battle. They were at least ten minutes out. As battered as the fleet must be by now, I prayed to Khavet they would hold out until our fleet reached them. We were lost otherwise.

Suddenly half the star fleet disappeared while the rest steamed ahead making for the final stand of the clover fleet. I could imagine the bursting as half the disappearing fleet suddenly appeared behind the korveinains. Their hauls turning to fire at the enemy. The rest attacked from the other side. The korveinains started to break formation and retreat to a more defensible formation.

They were nearly surrounded by both fleets, before the final encirclement they broke and began to retreat from the field. The battle was over! About a half hour later I watched as the fleet arrived at the wright. Some had several holes in their haul completely open to the vacuum. Contorted and deformed but they came. I relaxed and was surprised I had been so tense.

“Well that was a crazy battle.” I said finally. “Luckily that other fleet showed up.”

The woman beamed with pride. “I never doubted the warriors of the khaveni or humans. You are all superstars and heroes.” She gently guided me out of the room and closed the door behind me. I sighed and made for the main docking port.

Kornel Zorko stopped me. “Commander, I have been able to gather the information on the strength of your wing. Do you know where Regev is?”

“I took him to the hospital ship. He was having a bad time and needed some help. Similar to a Prakh who is denied their medicine.”

“Oh my, that bad, huh? Ok well I’ll tell you for now then. Your flight is down to fifteen pilots and twenty support personnel.” My mouth dropped, he gritted his teeth. “Yeah we got our bell rung in that fight. What are you up to right now?”

“I was on my way to see Regev and Karpkoza. I was going to stop by and see my human friend Persephone too, while I was over there.” I said.

“Oh, right then. Carry on. Their morale is more important right now. I’ll take care of these reports and reconstitution requisitions. We’ll be nearly as green as the star fleet by the time the new arrivals get here.” He said with a mirthless chuckle.

“I don’t know what any of those papers are. It would be good to learn but I want to see all of them. It's… it's been a rough day, sir.” He waved me on and I left.

One of the star battleships was docked. I saw many of the clover fleet lined up for repairs. I entered the ship and made my way to the transporter. I wandered the halls of the hospital ship looking for Karpkoza and Regev. They were given accommodation in the mental health section.

Regev hugged me as I entered the room. “Hey, thanks for taking care of me. I was not having a good time.”

“I understand. It’s been a traumatic day for us all. I’m glad to see you are doing a little better now.”

I nodded and smiled. “Yeah they gave me some,” he looked at the bottle. “Whatever this stuff is. Makes you feeeeeeeel reeeeealy good.”

I took the bottle and read the label. “Morgrolokh, thats an antidepressant and mood stabilizer. Are they doing anything else for you?”

“Therapy, therapy every few days.” He pointed at the door. “Did today. Maybe tomorrow too? I don’t remember.” The struggle left him and he smiled again. “Thank you for helping me earlier. I was in a bad place.”

I sat with him for a little longer but he kept saying the same things again and again. I said my goodbyes to him and exited his room and walked to Karpkoza’s room.

When I walked in she hugged me. “Hello Commander. How are you?” She smiled.

“I’m having a rough go of it, I won’t lie. I just met with Kornel Regev. He is not doing so well. I’m worried about him. I also met with the Kornel of the Castalan Lukonia and…” I sighed. “He told me the extent of the damage to the NachtHexen.” I started crying and fell to the ground. “It’s not good.” I whispered. “So many have been lost.” I finally said through my tears, “how is your stay in the hospital going so far?”

“I was in a bad way for a while there but I am feeling somewhat better now. The doctors want to keep me for the night and if everything seems fine in the morning, I'll be able to get out of here and come back to the unit.” She hugged me again. “I will do whatever needs doing to help you rebuild the NachtHexen. You are not alone, Commander. Stay strong.”

“You do seem so much better than earlier.” I said with a smile. “I’m happy about that at least. I’ll try to be strong but I’m not going to lie, this has been extremely difficult for me. Your help would be very appreciated though, Leutnant. But make sure you are well enough to do so.”

“Only if you to the same, ma’am.” I had nothing to say to that.

I changed the subject. We talked for a little longer about things that happened during the battle and since she had gone to the hospital. I stepped off after some time and left the mental wing to go see my… was she my girlfriend? I hoped she would be ok with me thinking that about her.

She was still wrapped up in bandages. “Torkona! My friend, I’m so happy to see you again and that you are safe. How are you? I heard the fleet had a rough battle. I was… I was very worried about you.”

I collapsed into the chair. “Most of my unit was wiped out when the ship we were on was destroyed. The haul is still out there, exposed to space. We’ve lost more than fifty percent of just our flight. Regev had a mental break and is in the hospital.” I looked at her. “I feel like I’m on the verge of a break myself. If the star fleet had not arrived when they did our entire clover fleet would have been annihilated.”

“There is good news though. The war has been going on for only six months and we’ve been able to stand up a fleet from nothing so quickly. With the capture of more shipwrights that will only accelerate that process, don’t you think?”

“I realize you are trying to help me see some jewels in the slag but I’m not really here for that right now, Persephone.” I started to cry again. This was all so overwhelming. What is even happening right now?

“You’re right. I’m sorry, I should have been more sensitive to your needs. Come here, I’ll hold you for as long as you need. Come here.” I carefully allowed her to envelope me. I cried and she held me. The doctor came into the room and she held me. It was hours before I let go but eventually I slid off and puffed out my cheeks.

“More ships huh?” I kissed her. “Thank you for giving your leg to capture Ungderfeg, my love.” Her head snapped toward me, I could see the surprise on her face under the bandages. I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to–I mean…” I groaned.

“Torkona. Torkona, I was thinking during my time in captivity and especially when I was defending the anti-transport machine, I think I’m doing somewhat better since her death. I think I’m ready to move on from grieving her. I’m still saddened by her death but I’m prepared to let new love in. Do you know anyone who might be interested?”

My legs started to buckle and I fell to my knees. “Are you saying? Do you mean?”

I heard the smile in her voice. “I’m ready to be with you, Torkona. Will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?”

I tried with all my might to drag myself to my feet, scaling the insurmountable side of the hospital bed. As I crested the side of the thing, she was looking at me, a concerned look on her face. I kept pushing myself closer to her, finally my legs were under me again and our faces were hovering close to each other.

We kissed.

My heart flipped in my chest. Warmth surged through my entire body. I felt tipsy like I had consumed a hundred shots of kherzhu.

She is my Forever Person.

 

Since we didn’t have a ship and most of our fleet was in tatters, Kornel Regev volunteered us for a humanitarian mission. The campaign to take Ungderfeg had taken a toll on the planet’s food growing potential. Several important centers of agriculture were completely wiped out by the defending forces leaving the population of korveinians on the verge of starvation like a Palestinian in Gaza.

The shipments from other systems was barely enough for the korveinians to stay alive, especially given the bottleneck of transportation from the interstellar port. We loaded smaller ships the wrights created quickly so we could deliver more widely. I was tired after a week, we were flying constant missions to and from the most random places.

The people I saw were mostly in shock and commented that they thought mighty korveinia would never be defeated. So because they were now laid low they were desperate. They would beg for food, cried over their lost fields and were angry at their own forces for burning their fields. We even found a village where the civilians had beat and decapitated a few soldiers, hanging their bodies and spiking their heads by the fields.

I had done at least two hundred trips. No stopping, all in a row. It was at least twenty hours before I finally decided to have a sleep.

“Commander Gezzini.” My eyes flitted open. “Commander, Kornel Zorko wants you back out there doing more trips.”

I looked at the nearest clock I could see. With my mouth partially covered by the pillow I muffled. “I have been sleeping for five hours. If he wants more deliveries made now, he can take some trips himself.”

“He said he didn’t care about how long you’ve been sleeping, ma’am.”

I sat up and looked the sergeant who I didn’t know in the eye. “Get out now.” She hesitated. “Sergeant, are you ignoring a direct and lawful order? Leave now.”

She hung her head. “Yes ma’am. Sorry to bother you, ma’am.” She left and I stared at the lockers in front of me as I drifted back to sleep.

The door swung open again. Footsteps approached, I rolled my eyes and sat up on the hard bench. Karpkoza was looking back at me. “Kornel Zorko–”

“I don’t care. I’m sleeping. I did twenty hours of deliveries and and two hundred in a row before that! Now, I am happy to fly more but I will not leave until I’m done sleeping. Please see yourself out, Leutnant” 

She stood over me. “I’m not paid enough to get into the middle of this.” She started walking away. “He is gonna send Kornel Regev next.” She warned as the door to the women’s locker room closed.

I wanted to lay back down but knowing that another person was about to visit me annoyed me too much to close my eyes. I sighed as the door opened again. In a rage I screamed. “Get the fuck out of here I’m SLEEPING and I’m not leaving until I’ve finished!”

“I’m ordering you to be finished now.” Kornel Zorko stood at the end of the row. 

“Dude I did twenty hours right through. Is this so fucking important? I realize korveinians are starving down there but I need to sleep. These are huge machines that if operated poorly could be catastrophic.”

He scowled. “Commander, are you refusing to follow a lawful order?”

I snapped my head toward him. “Good night, Kornel.” I stared at him. “Buhbye.”

“I’m going to get the MPs if you don’t come with me right now, Commander Gezzini.” I felt a shift in me. I was done. I pushed myself off the bench and began walking out of the locker room. He had a smile on his face. “Good. Let's get to the launch bay to get more food for those korveinians.”

He walked with me down the hall. I turned down a hall. “Commander?” He asked. “Commander, the launch bay is that way. Commander! You are going the wrong way.” I ignored him and continued traversing the hall. He ran up to me, I pushed past him.

I entered whatever ship was currently docked and went directly for the teleportation room. I stood on the pad after I entered. “The hospital ship, transportman. Send me now.”

“Belay that order.” Kornel Zorko said.

“Sergeant, I am experiencing a medical emergency. He cannot belay that order. Send me now.” I insisted.

“She is lying, do not send her, sergeant.” He tried to counter again. 

The sergeant looked so worried and frazzled. He slumped forward, a defeated look on his face. “I have my orders,” he said. “If someone says they have a medical emergency I have to send them, no matter what, sir. Sorry.”

I was shunted to the hospital ship. I dragged myself to the mental health clinic and when I was admitted I fell asleep in my nice safe and quiet room.

I was released a day later after some intensive therapy. They diagnosed me with a temporary mental episode. I transported back to the port station having to jump through a few ships before getting there and presented myself to the launch bay. I was feeling nice and rested.

Kornel Regev was standing near the flight control, he waved me over. “What happened, Commander?” I handed him my doctor’s note. After reviewing it he said, “oh, ok. No problem then. I’ll get you on the list to deliver food right away. Give me a few minutes and you’ll have your first delivery of the day.”

“What is she doing here?” Kornel Zorko asked as he stomped his way toward us. “I ordered the malingerer should not be admitted in this area. Get her out now!”

“She wasn’t malingering, Zorko. I’ve reviewed her declass health info. The doctors gave her case the green light.” He brandished the note but pulled it back when Zorko tried to grab the paper.

“Give me that paper.” He demanded.

“No, you are not in charge of her. You aren’t in her chain of command. You are in charge of the ship, not the flights of fighters.” He stuffed the paper in his pocket. “She is flying the food. Take up freighter forty-nine, Commander Gezzini.”

“Regev!” He shouted.

“Stand down, Zorko. This is my operation and quite frankly I don’t enjoy how you’ve tried to weasel your way into control of it. Please fuck off now.”

“You are under my command.” He snarled.

“No, my wings and I are under the command of Admiral Danilov.” Regev retorted coolly. “We are part of the united fighter command, not the united fleet command.”

“Both are under the united naval space forces.” He pointed out weakly.

After several long moments Regev responded, “are you done Zorko?” Visibly deflated, he nodded in silence. “Leave my pilots to do the thing we have been ordered to do.”

He walked away.

Regev turned to me. “Well now that that’s over, I need you to make some runs, Commander.”

“I’m ready, sir.” I got into the ship and completed the preflight checks. “Cargo Runner 49 to flight control, preflight complete, ready to receive load.”

“Rodger CR49 standby we are finishing loading CR21.” I heard some pages flip. “Distribution team 12 report to airlift launch bay, you are assigned to CR49.” I heard over the station’s internal comms.

They loaded me up with rice, seeds, and a few crates of worms in tubes by that food in tubes corporation. Korveinains were absolutely obsessed with the stuff, quadrillions used a year, I’ve heard. We left the station and headed for the capital of Ungderfeg, Teokharza. Millions lived there and already thousands had starved to death. Our comparatively small injection of food from this run would feed less than five percent of the population of the city for a day.

We landed at the astatrans and aided the korveinian ground crews unloading food.

“Ah, if it isn’t the lesbian again.” The foreman said. “We hadn’t seen you in so long, I thought you might have gotten lost in an other woman’s pussy, you disgusting degenerate faggot.” Some of his compatriot laughed and snickered.

I sighed. “Nice to see you again too, Averken.” The man was a greasy dirty person. His feathers unkempt sticking out in odd directions. “Glad to see you’ve taken a shower since we last saw each other.”

He laughed. “I haven’t showered since the war began, but I still smell better than your nasty cunt licking breath, fucking whore.” He spat on the ground in front of me.

It was always like this with this man. Feelop walked over to him. “What the fuck is your problem. She has taken her time to feed you and your people, so no more die of starvation. Why raze her so hard?”

He scowled. “My people and I don’t want help from faggots. We name and shame evil where we see it and faggots limit our growth potential. You and your people, if you were to get power will enact a conspiracy for birdist genocide which would start with encouraging faggotry to birds on bird worlds. All that starts by showing your own faggotry to your betters.” He thrust a finger at me. “She is a precursor to that genocide and I’m not going to stay quite and let the greatest race this universe has created die out because degenerates want to fag around.”

Feelup shoulder checked him to the ground and threw the crate he was carrying at the bird’s leg. It snapped with a sickening crack. “Show some humility and respect for people who help you, asshole. She is who she is, There's nothing wrong with her or people like her, they are just different ways of being people. I demand you give her your respect or I’m going to keep hurting you.”

“Trannies and faggots need culling. Wiping them all out is the rule we live by. Not a single one will survive our resurgence, we will finish them off and refuse their return ever again.” He spat.

“Leave him.” I said as feelup wound up his foot. “Kill them with kindness, sergeant. He believes he is part of the best race? Show him how a great person acts. Not with violence but with empathy and caring.”

“I’ll get the bird bone juice then, ma’am?” I nodded and Feelup stabbed him with the concoction. “Your people are so selfish you haven’t adapted this for us.” The stink bird’s leg snapped loudly as his bone knit together and straightened out.

“Fuck that’s painful.” He squawked. “I’ll spread the word of fags assaulting their upstanding betters.”

Feelup stepped in his direction. “Feelup, stand down. Off load the supplies, sergeant.”

“Yes ma’am.” He said angrily. “On it.” He jumped back into the cargo runner and I turned back to the stink bird. 

“I killed a korvainian.” I stated. “I’m very mad at your people for suppressing and repressing me and people like me for the last three hundred years.” I approached and he flinched. I rubbed his face. “My men will lie and say you attacked me. I could have your life as easily as I breathe. Think about that before you start throwing words like faggot and tranny around me again.” I slapped his face lightly. “So get over there and off load supplies unless you want to meet your fate here and now, stink bird.” As I walked back, his legs were shaking and a noticeable wetness spread across his pants.

“You bitch, how… how… how very dare you threaten me. Know your betters.”

“If I see one I’ll let you know. My girlfriend for instance is better and you know? She broke the transport blocker and paved the way for the fall of your planet, stink bird.”

He lunged at me with a box cutter. I saw the ethereal hovering around and parried the intended blow. He smashed his face into the hastily built haul, the non sanded edges did a number on him. He pulled away and his eye had fallen out of his face. I shuttered and he screamed.

Feelup came around the corner. “Whatever happened he deserved it.” Some medics came and rushed him away. “I hope they are out of medicine here and he never gets his eye back.” Feelop said as he placed another box on the pallet

I helped off load the rest of the cargo runner and we jumped back into the ship. I had a quick look around the ship, everything looked fine so we dusted off. We arrived back at the station in less than ten minutes from leaving the city.

I walked to the ops center, Regev was talking to someone. “Kornel Regev,” I said. “Can I be on any other route? I don’t want to be annoyed by this stink bird in Teokharza.”

The man turned to look at me, an MP. “Commander Gezzini?” I nodded. “Come with me, we are taking you in for disobeying a direct order.”

Surprised, I looked at Kornel Regev. “Sir?” I asked. He shook his head.

“We’ll figure this out. Go with them for now, Commander.” He said.

I kicked at the ground. “This week fucking sucks.”