ELEVEN MONTHS LATER
The red and blue pattern wasn’t quite the same, but Harry appreciated the work the tailor had done on the garment. It was almost a perfect match. Although a large part of him wondered if he preferred not to don his uniform again. After all, it was a symbol of betrayal and death. But, given the efforts the kind people of Santana Prime had gone to in order to help him and his remaining crew, he decided he would wear it. At least once.
It had been a long journey to this point. After their rescue from the Expanse by Darven, Harry and the others had learned there were actually almost two hundred survivors on board the Odyssey. Still, that meant eight hundred lives had been lost. And for what? They still didn’t know. Darven had refused to explain to them what he had seen. He was clearly incredibly disturbed after his own experiences in the Expanse. He did explain how he had managed to suppress the invasion of his mind long enough to lock on an energy tether and pull them clear. Something the creatures were not impressed with, he could tell. They had fled the Odyssey as it approached the golden nebula and attempted to infiltrate Darven’s mind once more, but his increasing distance helped keep his safeguards in place. The Darla Captain had sent them on their way, before fleeing himself, but had failed to give them the access codes to their lockout. This meant thruster travel. For three months.
Finding themselves here, was a miracle. Not only that, but to find an intact colony willing to trade was invaluable. The people of Santana Prime had made it clear they could not stay, as they had limited resources themselves, but it was part of their custom to never turn away those in need of help. The ship was all but repaired, the bodies of fallen crew relocated to the cargo bays in proper caskets, ready for burial among the stars, and food supplies had been topped up. With the lockouts now broken, Harry was free to resume whatever journey he saw fit. And yet he was troubled.
He couldn’t shake the feeling of discomfort at the alien creature knowing his name. There had been a tinge of the artificial to the sound of the voice, but also a touch of familiarity. In order to move forward, he tried to put it down to something he must have picked up from Drusilla while their minds were joined previously. After all, it was her who he assumed had planned to send them to the Expanse eventually, as Darven had alluded to when they first met.
“Ship is ready to go Admiral.”
Commander, now Captain Kelly Dresden, stood alongside Harry, in a straight stance, hands clasped behind her back, and her blonde hair in a perfect bun, not a hair out of place.
“Well then, Captain, let’s get back to it.”
Kelly nodded, still proud of Harry’s promotion of her, despite the haunting of their experiences. The Odyssey was hers now, Harry deciding to take a backseat advisory role. He needed time to think. About what came next. Where he should go. What future there was for them out here. And where and when Drusilla might turn up again.
The Santana Prime engineers had done wonders. The Odyssey sat on a landing gantry the size of New York City with three other ships of differing design. She looked brand new. No exterior damage visible, new weaponry, new shielding, and even a special gift from the Prime Minister of the outpost – a cloaking device.
Inside was the same. The bridge was even more advanced than it had been originally. There were now two chairs in the centre of the room. The Captain’s chair which would now be occupied by Kelly, and the First Officer’s chair, which would be occupied by Harry, despite another promotion for Commander Teale. She had generously donated her new chair to the Admiral until the completion of their journey, although nobody was sure of how long that would be.
The crew was down to just one-hundred-sixty-five upon departure, dozens succumbing to their wounds after landing. Positions were promoted, and shuffled around, and Teale was trained in security to serve alongside Joshua Knight, who was the new Chief. Harry had a good feeling about those two. In the near calendar year they had been here, Knight and Teale had gotten very close. He had considered advising against inner ship relations, but given what they had been through, he decided everyone deserved a little happiness however long it lasted.
As they left orbit, leaving the moon outpost of Santana Prime behind them, they did not realise that their happiness would stretch to almost a full decade. Travelling among the stars, meeting new species, and even an encounter with one of the other starships, the Valiant. But like everything else, all good things must come to an end. And almost ten years to the day of their departure from Earth, the end came swift, brutal, and unforgiving.