General Jason Andrew Chambers was sleeping when his phone woke him up. Rolling over, he rubbed his eyes, picked it up, noticed it was 3:44 in the morning, and that it was CMCC (Commonwealth Military Command Center) calling.

He hits the accept icon and says, “Chambers speaking.”

“Sir, I apologize for calling you at this hour, but we have Flash Traffic from HMS Odyssey.”

Concerned now, he bolts upright, instantly wide-awake. “Roger that. I’ll be in as soon as I’m dressed.”

He throws the covers off and swings his legs over the side of the bed as Mariam, his wife asks, “What is it, Dear?”

“The Odyssey sent in a Flash message.”

She sits up and looks at him. “What’s that mean?”

Getting up, he heads to the closet to get his uniform. He looks over his shoulder and answers, “Honey, flash is the priority for a message. It’s reserved for enemy contact or urgent combat messages. With that priority, it means that they’re likely in serious trouble.”

“The Odyssey left, what? Two weeks ago for Tau Ceti?”

“10-days ago, and yes. They should have just arrived.” He turns and heads into the closet.

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Less than an hour later, he arrives at CMCC and hurries to the operations center. There, he makes his way over to the duty officer, currently Colonel Samuel Batson.

“Sam, what the hell? The Odyssey should have just arrived,” Chambers asks, then stops dead in his tracks when he sees his expression. “What happened?”

“Jason, it’s gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“Not somewhere. Gone, as in, they were attacked. Shirka reported that they arrived safely, then 10 minutes later, she suddenly began streaming her video logs. It’ll be faster for you to watch them.”

Jason follows him to his desk and takes a seat as Sam begins the playback of the logs. When he finishes, he says, “Make a copy of this for me. No one, and I mean no one, is to leak this info. You make sure everyone knows that if they do, they’ll be spending the rest of their sorry lives in the deepest, darkest hole I can find to stick them in. Clear?”

“Sure, Jason. I doubt it’s necessary, but I’ll remind them.”

“Good,” he replies as he picks up the phone. A few moments later, he says, “This is General Chambers. Tell Her Majesty that I’ll be at her palace within 30 minutes, I have an urgent matter to discuss.”

Without waiting for an answer, he hangs up. He looks up at Sam and says, “Unless I’m seriously wrong about what Her Majesty is going to say, we’ll be at war within the hour.” He sighs and covers his eyes. “Sam, place all commands at Defcon 3. Alert orbital defense command, and tell all ship commanders to be ready for action without further notice. I have no idea if those aliens have our coordinates or not, but I don’t want us taken by surprise if they do.”

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

[Sora’s POV]

Someone gently shakes me awake. Groggily opening my eyes, I see Teresa, our personal maid. I quietly murmur, “I’m awake, what is it, Teresa?”

“I apologize, Sora, but General Chambers called and said that he’s on his way. He stated that it’s rather urgent that he sees you immediately.”

“How long ago did he call?”

“No more than 10 minutes ago.”

“Okay, tell Michael that I’ll be down shortly and will receive Jason in my office. Oh, I’ll want coffee for both of us.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

As I get out of bed, Ryu sleepily asks, “Where are you going?”

“I’m sorry, Honey. Something came up, and I need to take care of it,” I say and then lean over to kiss him softly. “Go back to sleep. Hopefully, this won’t take long.”

“One of these days, you’ll manage to get a full night’s sleep.”

I chuckle quietly. “Not anytime soon since Ai likes to breastfeed every couple of hours.”

Ai is Chinatsu’s and my gorgeous little blue-eyed, redhead. Everyone in the palace fell in love with her the moment I brought her home. They love all of our kids, but she seems to be a little special to them. Jenny as well since she’s began calling her, ‘my little princess.’ She loves to keep her mothers hopping, too.

He smiles at me, “As if you mind,” he replies.

I smile brilliantly. “You know very well I don’t. She’s worth missing some sleep over. I really do need to go, though. General Chambers is coming to see me.” I kiss him again and murmur, “I’ll be back as soon as I can. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Standing up, I walk over to the dresser, slip on some panties, my nightgown, robe, and slippers, I pad my way into the bathroom to brush my teeth and hair. Then I head downstairs to my office and find Teresa already there with my coffee.

I sit down on the love seat, and she hands me a cup of my favorite coffee, mocha. Taking a sip, I smile happily and tell her, “Thank you.”

“You’re quite welcome, Your Majesty.”

I’ve given up on telling them to call me Sora, as if you can’t tell.

I’ve finished about half my cup when someone knocks on the door, and I call out, “Come.”

Michael enters with Jason in tow. Once inside, Michael steps back out and closes the door. “Good morning, Jason. Have a seat,” I tell him as I gesture to the chair across from me. “Coffee?”

“Good morning, Sora, and definitely.”

Teresa already knows how he likes his coffee, so she makes it for him. Though, she should since he’s here quite often. She hands him his cup, and I allow him to take several sips before I ask, “So, what’s up?”

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a data chip. Holding it out to me, he says, “This will tell you everything you need to know, Sora.”

I quirk an eyebrow as I take the chip. I’ve got a bad feeling about this and have no idea why. Inserting it into the coffee table, the holo emitters begin playing the video logs. A half-hour later, I look back up at him, “Do we know their current status?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “That was the only transmission we’ve received from them.”

“And? I know you have a theory on how it turned out.”

“Sora… In my opinion, they’ve either been destroyed or captured.”

“I know you wouldn’t have come to me without a plan in mind, so?”

You can say many things about Jason, but being ill-prepared or indecisive isn’t among them. There’s a damn good reason I appointed him as chairman of the joint chiefs.

“I’d like to send a strike fleet to investigate and see if we can find Odyssey. Even if they towed her from her last position, we can ping her QC locator.”

“What kind of risk are we talking about here?”

He shrugs. “There’s risk either way, but I’d like to see if there are any survivors and if possible, recover the Odyssey.”

“Is there any chance this was a mistake?”

“You saw the log,” he replies as he shakes his head with a pensive expression. “I doubt that you believe for a single moment that this was a mistake. To my eyes, that was a completely unprovoked attack. Yes, Odyssey had her shields and defenses active, but she made no aggressive moves. None whatsoever. In my opinion, they planned to attack Odyssey before they even headed out to meet her.”

I nod in agreement, though I had to ask that anyway. I pick up my cup and take a sip as I consider his proposal. I don’t like that they attacked Odyssey without even attempting to talk, in fact, it pisses me off. Those are my men. Damn brave and good ones, too! It also tells me that they’re even more aggressive than we are, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s saying something. I also think he’s correct in that they fully intended to attack Odyssey from the outset.

As I’m holding out my cup for Teresa to refill it, a thought occurs to me, and so I ask, “Jason, do you think they were after her navigational data?” He nods. “Then, you believe it’s likely that they’ll show up here at some point?”

“That right there, that’s why I love working for you. You get it and don’t try to play political football when things are difficult.” He pauses and then continues with a serious expression, “If I were them, and I’m assuming they have the technical means to do it, you can bet your cute ass that I’d be coming to Earth.”

“Alright. Order Admiral Jessup to get our ship and crew, but I don’t want you to just send a strike group. Since they’re that aggressive, I’d rather you send a supercarrier battle group and back it up with 2 fast action strike groups. That’s more than enough firepower to give anyone pause and enough manpower to take back Odyssey and my people.”

In case you don’t remember the makeup of those groups:

A supercarrier battlegroup consists of: 2 supercarriers, 5 carriers, 2 dreadnoughts, 4 battleships, 10 assault carriers, 10 battlecruisers, 10 cruisers, 50 destroyers, and 100 frigates. A fast-action strike group consists of: 2 carriers, 5 assault carriers, 10 battlecruisers, 20 cruisers, 40 destroyers, and 50 frigates.

It’s beginning to look like my decision to hold off on building those Planetary Assault Carriers Jason requested was a bad idea since it’s looking like we’re going to be needing them soon. Well, that’s easily fixed, and I believe it’s time to upgrade the fleet, again.

“Roger that.”

“Before you deploy them though, I’d like to tell everyone what’s happened to Odyssey and what we’re going to do to get her and my people back. Also, cancel all leave and recall all military personnel. Then move us to DEFCON 3. I don’t know how much time we have, but I want our forces to be ready in case they unexpectedly show up in the system.

“If need be, destroy the Odyssey, but Jason, whether they’re alive or not, I want my people back.” I lean forward and stare intently into his eyes and state, “No matter what you have to do to accomplish that goal, do it, understood?”

His predatory smile would frighten most, but in my eyes, he’s just a big ol’ Teddy Bear of a grandfather figure. He then stands up. “Roger that, Your Majesty. I’ll let you know before we deploy the fleets.”

He turns to leave, and I forcefully state, “One more thing.” He pauses and looks back over his shoulder, “Jason, make it clear to Admiral Jessup that he is to ensure that they understand in no uncertain terms that they screwed with the wrong species.”

“I’m quite sure that he’ll be more than happy to apprise them of their error. Assuming they have balls, he’ll rip 'em off for you.”

“Good. Keep me updated, and thank you for coming.”

He leaves, and I sigh as I lean back on the loveseat and close my eyes since I’m quickly developing a headache. Someone begins rubbing my temples, and I open my eyes to see Akari.

“Good morning,” she tells me with a smile.

“Morning, but there’s nothing good about it.”

She continues to rub my temples as she asks, “I saw Jason leaving. What’s going on? Are the Chinese making waves again?”

“I truly wish it was the Chinese.” I lean forward, restart the video, and then lean back again so that she can continue rubbing my temples as she watches Odyssey’s log.

[Jason’s POV]

Moments after I board my plane to return to CMCC, I’m on the secure comm issuing orders. As I’m doing so, I think, ‘The next two weeks are going to be super busy, and I need to tell Mariam that I won’t be home for a while.’

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

The press would’ve had to have been blind not to notice the tense atmosphere of the military personnel hurrying along in HPS, LSS, and the arc, as the orbital ring is colloquially referred to. Not to mention the massive deployments and the fleet gathering around L1 for their deployment. The sudden presence of several thousand armored and armed soldiers in HPS, LSS, and throughout the arc alone would have told them that something is seriously wrong.