A last quiet night

Posted on Wed Dec 4, 2019 @ 1:54am by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

367 words; about a 2 minute read

Captain’s Quarters

Entering her quarters, aware of the door closing behind her for the moment Rhea merely stood there in the darkness. Until she turned on the lights and saw the empty rooms she could, for a moment, indulge in memory. Indulge in the fantasy that she was back home...

“Lights.”

Obediently, the lights came on at her soft spoken command and she dragged in a slow, shaking breath. The book she’d been reading still rested on the small end table, book mark holding her place. She couldn’t see clearly for the tears scalding her eyes, couldn’t seem to get a breath past the tight knot of pain in her chest. Damn them. Damn them all to hell ..

And if she was to be truthful.. Damn her with them for the action she was about to take.

Speaking to the empty room, to the shadows which lurked just beyond the light, eyes still closed she said “You would not approve of what we’re going to do. I’m going to kill them soon, for what they’ve done. There’s no other way that I can see, and maybe I am simply blinded to a better course of action. I can’t see any other way.. And if I have to, I’ll kill Bennett too..”

Somewhere, deep inside the well of grief, rage and heartbreak which had risen up to swallow Rhea whole.. She knew she wasn’t really thinking. She was reacting. ‘Emotionally Compromised’ was the official term for it.

She didn’t care. There wasn’t time. No time.. No time to grieve, no time to look for help, no time to find another path of action.. No time. Someone had to act and act now.. Or millions, perhaps billions more would die if what Yeager and Bennet had suggested was to come true.

Neatly she hung her jacket onto a hanger and placed the garment into the closet she then turned and entered the bedroom. There was a lot to do, and only three hours left to get it done. Victory was departing space dock tomorrow, slightly ahead of schedule and whether dock control liked it or not.

 

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