When Keisha regained consciousness she was still aboard the Icarus. Out the window, she saw a huge fireball outside the hangar bay window. She looked over to see Fiolas coming around. His curly hair was matted on his forehead. "Keish?" he whispered, "Does your head feel like someone hit it with a hammer?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "That sounds about right. Any sign of the fifth Pytheas?"

Fiolas brought the screen up showing the immediate landscape, "No, no sign. They must've gotten their propulsion offline in time." Keisha let the silence fill the room. She had let her past self go to her own demise and didn't hesitate. She felt the guilt cycle begin and pulled away. I made the best decision I could with the time I had.

"She's just as brave as I thought she was. I'm sorry Fiolas." She reached her hand out towards him and he took it with his.

"You've always been brave Keish. In the end, she made her own choice, just like you do." Their hands squeezed and let go.

"Keisha and Fiolas, please meet me on the bridge of the Pytheas, we have a lot of decisions to make." Andromeda cut in through their implants.

"Are you ready for this?" Fiolas asked her.

"No," Keisha said. "How am I supposed to get you down there?"

Fiolas laughed and clicked his comms on, "Hey Carter, can I hitch a ride to the bridge?"

They were the last ones to enter the bridge and by the time they got there, Keisha saw Andromeda addressing all the commanding officers aboard the ship. She had never been to the bridge. It was a massive room and had to be at least half the length of the inner rod all the rings circled. The bridge was on the top floor and Keisha now knew directly beneath it was Andromeda's room. It had floor-to-ceiling windows in the front and back with rows of consoles facing the front and back with a podium circlet of consoles in the middle, which she assumed was the captain's chair.

Andromeda was standing there now explaining what had happened over the last few days for this crew, weeks for her. Carter pushed Fiolas' chair to the edge of the group and Keisha followed, barely listening. After everything that had happened Keisha just wanted to go back to normal life and start living with Fiolas.

"--- which is why I will be appointing Shipmaster Keisha Brakas as the new captain aboard the Pytheas." Her holo image gestured toward her. Every eye turned to her and Keisha felt her cheeks turn blush. She glanced at Fiolas, he nodded his head toward the podium and gave her a slight push to start walking.

She looked out into the crowd and Zayd Runslo started clapping then Tempus Kline and Mrs. Rose. Fiolas shouted a "whoop" at the back. She joined Andromeda in the circle and let her continue.

"I know for many of you this is a shock and you feel a sense of loyalty towards my mother. I appreciate this loyalty and I'm sure she does as well." Keisha noticed Andromeda's mother and Sturletto were not in attendance. "This is why we will give the entire crew three days to decide if they would like to live on the planet Henear with my mother in charge, or if you would like to keep venturing with us here. We are still technically in Dark Space just further out than we initially anticipated." She gave the crowd one of her signature grins, and Keisha could tell at least a few people were put-off with her presentation.

"May I?" Keisha asked Andromeda.

"Please." Andromeda floated down the podium and stayed next to it.

Keisha took a deep breath, "This all seems very sudden to you all. I appreciate that. However, for me Pilot Runslo, and Dr. Mirlaj," both of them waved at the crowd, noticed they had done so at the same time, and started laughing, "This has been a conflict of weeks. We have devoted ourselves to keeping not just the Pytheas safe, but the entire sanctity of the timeline safe.

"We left here over four weeks ago, we found the Icarus, we brought it back here with its wormhole technology and we escaped another Pytheas trying to steal this technology for themselves." She looked at as many commanding officers in the eye as she could stand, "It's been a very long four weeks." She got a few chuckles from the crowd now.

"I can't promise this conflict is over, I can't promise safety either aboard the ship or on this new planet. However, I can promise, I will never stop doing everything in my power to keep my people safe. Whether on the planet or on the ship, I now devote my life to your safety. The details of the planet will be made available for everyone and a log will be compiled for those who choose to go. I only ask if you stay, work with me to ensure the safety of our people. Remember, we are all on the same team and while the leadership of the team has changed, the mission is still the same." With that, she gave what she believed was an authoritative nod. "Good, now I know you all have a lot of questions and I promise, I will get to them. But right now, I think we could all use some downtime to think and plan. My first order is for some R&R for everyone. Essential personnel only, please make a schedule that optimizes rest for everyone Andromeda."

"Done." She said. A few people in the crowd saw the changes and looked at this flowy creature in awe.

"I will be available for meetings and questions in 24 hours. Please feel free to kindly ask Andromeda for a scheduled time." She smiled at her friend who looked so pleased to finally be free to speak with the crew personally.

Keisha stepped down and walked through the crowd to Fiolas.

"Ready to go home?" she asked him.

He smiled back, "I thought you'd never ask."

Over the next month, Keisha had more meetings than she had ever had in her life. No amount of schooling could have trained her for taking over a project as large as colonizing a small planet that was careening between two stars. She had given the crew three days to choose and three weeks to prepare for their choice. A large amount of the commanding officers chose to follow Anna Katapodis to the planet, which left a lot of roles Keisha had to fill in the meantime.

She walked onto the bridge in her new slate grey uniform, nodding slightly to her crewmembers as she passed them. "Zayd," She walked up to her second-in-command, "are we ready?"

"The Thyella is packed and loaded with the last of the colonists and their gear. Awaiting permission to take off." He sat down at the consoles directly in front of her.

Keisha stood at the podium, "Thyella, this is Captain Keisha Brakas, permission to take off granted. Take good care of my ship Tempus." Losing Tempus and Charlotte was one of the biggest blows. She had been hoping the two original Icarus crew members would stay and help her navigate being a captain. Tempus knew everything about how ships worked instinctively and Charlotte was a mastermind at organizing large projects. They would be invaluable in setting up Henear's manufacturing and political systems. But Keisha still didn't like that they were going.

"We'll take good care of 'er Brakas." He said back. "Thanks for all the shinies too. Check back in with ya in a coupla years." Keisha had let him strip the Icarus of the hard coating and let him take it down to Henear. He had told her he had a "mighty good plan fer it."

"We'll see you in a few years. Take care." She sat down at the podium. The Thyella would have to move quickly if it wanted to reach the planet's gravity well this revolution.

Andromeda had said the planet was the best hiding place and she was right. The inner two stars of this system were so close they revolved around each other every 10 years, Standard Chronos Time, and the little planet Henear made a figure eight between them. Keisha had asked if the people on the planet would get whiplash with how fast it was going. Andromeda assured her the super-dense core and extremely thick atmosphere would keep the people perfectly safe.

Andromeda now freely floated through the ship. Keisha was happy for her. She seemed to flourish without her mother's thumb on top of her. She had witnessed their last goodbyes and Keisha knew the memory of it would haunt Andromeda the rest of her life. She had only wanted to make her mother proud, but she never would. It was enough now though, to have the love and the admiration from those she worked for endlessly. The ones who had decided to stay had taken to having Andromeda's mind to work with and collaborate with.

A few days after being named captain Keisha had asked Andromeda why she chose her. Zayd, Mina, and Fiolas had done just as much if not more to save the ship. Andromeda had told her it was because of her ability to make hard decisions, even when they might cost her everything. Keisha didn't know if she liked that answer or not.

She watched the Thyella chase down a small dot of a planet before it went behind one of the stars. "May the stars watch over them." Everyone on the bridge took a second to watch them disappear.

"Ok, who's ready to map out this sector?" The plan for the Pytheas was to circle the two stars and relay communications with the planet twice a year when the planet was on the outer side of a star. It would be twenty years for the people on the planet. In a few revolutions, Keisha wouldn't even know anyone personally on the planet anymore. Then maybe they could venture out further.

Everyone on the bridge had their orders and the first day of being the only Captain onboard began. Keisha walked down to the windows and stared out at the two blue giant stars. Fiolas wheeled up next to her. She rested her hand on his shoulder. "Think we'll ever get tired of seeing this view?" She asked him.

"Never," he said. "Hey, want to accompany me to the Medbay? One of the Mina's has something new for me to check out."

"Any idea what it is?" She asked as they went to the elevator.

"Nope, but knowing them, it's nothing good."

Andromeda the fifth, holo'd into her mother's quarters. Captain Anna Katapodis was sitting calmly at her desk. Everything was immaculately clean and organized. Mother never suffered anything to be out of place. In an effort to appease her, Andromeda never let her holo image appear out of uniform. "Vee, I told you never to holo in here without permission." Her mother had insisted on using a different name so as to not confuse the two in her mind. At first, she had just spelled her name using the old Roman Numeral system, then eventually just dropped the Andromeda part altogether. Andromeda hated it.

"They escaped, we were able to follow them into the wormhole enough to exist at the same time, but they exited before we could make it to their destination. Now we're 50 years into the future and stuck in the middle of dead space." If she wasn't just an image display she would have been breaking things by now.

"What about the Velos? Did we capture them?" Her mother's hawk eyes glared at her.

"They're in holding now. They have requested asylum and wish to speak with you." Andromeda answered.

Her mother got up and smoothed her jacket, "Then let's go meet them."