Three days later, Fleet Admiral Keva sat in the center of the circular desk in Musani’s old office at the lowest point in Tetra 5. The Yeran worked diligently, surrounded in a semi-transparent wall of lumes. Beneath her lumionic chair, the OPELs forming the floor revealed Lanan’s terrestrial beauty outstretched across her field of view. Shimmering SIRAC flashed from the orbital dockyards and orbiting ships interspersed between the moon and Tetra. Long streaks of warped plasma trails emerged from the engines of passing strikecraft cruising in formation. Plasma engines from nearby ships glared in Keva’s direction, but the OPELs suppressed any light deemed blinding, such as that emanating from the Akos star. The ceiling was still a perfect mirror, reflecting everything from beneath back down toward the Yeran as she worked.

The amount of Military information at her fingertips was second only to the Secretary of Defense and third only to the President of the Federation. Bits of this information were classified beyond what she could show her adjutants, especially with regard to MARAD which she now had authority over; therefore, she worked in the office alone, much as Musani had done. Even with this mountain of data and the staff, equipment, and AI to analyze it all, she was completely oblivious to the forces that had assembled just beyond the Federation’s coreward borders. Just then, Fiori appeared behind Keva’s wall of lumigraphs.

“Fleet Admiral Tokeri Keva,” Fiori addressed her. Keva immediately hid her lumes, looked upon the grave face of the orange, feminine figure, and crossed her arms over her torso. “This is an emergency intelligence briefing.” The nigh-omniscient archon overseer of the entire Federation Military had more privilege to information than even the President.

“Go on,” Keva said with concern.

“Civilian short-range subdar has recently detected unidentified starships in the coreward Frontier on course for the Federation border.”

“How many?”

“Eight-hundred thousand detected so far.”

At this, Keva slowly dropped her arms to her sides. “Eight-hundred thousand?”

“Contacts are multiplying at a rate of two-thousand per second.”

“Why didn’t our tracking stations pick them up?”

“The only explanation that I can produce is conjecture,” Fiori told her.

Keva replied, “Give it to me.”

“Three years ago,” Fiori explained, “the ejection system for my personality module was deliberately activated by a hostile actor.”

“That was when we lost you.”

“That is correct. After my personality module escaped up to a half lightyear away, it was scanned by a vessel that I was unable to immediately identify. When the module was rescued and reinstalled into the rest of my core, I realized that the incident was perpetrated by the Society. The scan that was made three years ago may have been dissected by the Society, offering them a way to defeat our intelligence network, including our long-range subdar stations.”

Keva turned her chair completely around, facing away from Fiori. Her eyes darted to Lanan below, to the faint glimmers of orbital infrastructure between, the strikecraft trails, and to the reflections in the ceiling. Keva spoke softly, “Most of our armadas are heading to the Rift. A token force on the border, and not many here.” She thought in silence for a moment more before turning back around to Fiori and asked, “What is the best course of action?”

“I am briefing the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at this same moment,” Fiori told her. “Madame President has already declared a civil defense emergency for the coreward Frontier and the coreward border, up to two hundred lightyears into Greater Federation space. Of course, the Akos system falls within this zone and will be the first major Military installation that any hostile force will encounter on its way toward the Federation interior. The Defense Force is diverting their ships toward the incoming fleet, but I recommend that you recall as many ships as you can that are able to regroup at Lanan within seven days. The bulk of the unidentified fleet will near Akos within ten days.”

“Instruct my armada admirals to await my orders,” Keva said, “and please keep me in the loop.”

Fiori said, “The Chief of Naval Operations will be meeting with the Fleet Admiralty shortly.”

The gentle pings from an alarm awoke Aedan from his morning slumber. He took in a deep breath, sighed quietly, and dismissed the alarm’s lume with his finger. He turned over, smiled toward Xannissa’s side of the bed, but upon opening his eyes, he remembered that she never made it to bed the night before. Her side of the bed was left neat and untouched. Aedan pushed away his covers and walked around the bed toward the living room where he found his wife seated upon the couch. She was wearing only her bracers, unfastened short jacket with her arms out of the sleeves, and ponytail clamp. Atop her bare thighs sat a lumionic keyboard, and stretching out in front of her was a collection of lumes. Though she reclined back into the upholstery, her fingers danced furiously, rhythmically, and continuously across the keys. That was until Aedan approached her from behind, leaned down, and kissed her dark blue hair. Despite the fatigue beginning to manifest, she smiled and looked up at him as he ran his hands inside her jacket’s collar, knocking the jacket off of her breasts as he positioned his hands on her shoulders to offer her a massage.

Xannissa closed her eyes and spoke sweetly, “You’re going to put me to sleep.”

“I don’t know why you do this to yourself,” Aedan said softly as he rubbed her skin.

“I’m a brinkman,” Xannissa admitted as she leaned forward, allowing Aedan’s hands better access to her neck while also causing her jacket to fall off. “I don’t get motivated until deadlines approach. I guess I really am like my sister.”

“Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“Maybe a little breakfast.” Enjoying the light massage, she noted, “That feels good.”

Before Aedan could break away from Xannissa, a red-bordered lumigraph appeared before each of them. Aedan stopped massaging Xannissa’s shoulders, and Xannissa opened her eyes wide. The lume’s background bore the emblem of the Federation Department of Defense which incorporated the Federation Triangle that served as the symbol for the entire state. The white, capitalized text in the foreground read:

EMERGENCY ALERT

COREWARD INVASION IMMINENT. EVACUATE OR TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY. LISTEN TO AND COOPERATE WITH LOCAL AUTHORITIES. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

“What’s this?” Xannissa whispered with concern after the alarms the lumes produced silenced themselves. Thinking to Atara, she asked, “What’s going on, Atara? Coreward invasion?”

“Being briefed at the moment,” Atara replied. “I’ll tell you after.”

In the meantime, Xannissa and Aedan shared a quiet, anxious breakfast. Xannissa hadn’t even bothered to put her jacket back on, leaving her completely naked—save for her bracers and wedding ring—as she ate lightly. Aedan’s appetite was also ruined by the alert.

As they sat across from each other, Aedan asked, “Mind if I turn on the news?”

Xannissa kept silent.

He whispered, “Talking to Atara?” Xannissa nodded at him without looking toward him. She just stared toward Aedan’s bowl.

“I just left the briefing.” Atara thought.

“I’m scared, Atara.”

“I am too, Xann.”

“What’s going to happen to our daughter?” As Xannissa thought this, a tear streaked down her face. Aedan took note, but despite his concern, he maintained his silence.

“Everything will be okay,” Atara assured her. “Just… be ready if you’re called to serve. They’re going to hand down orders soon.”

Xannissa looked up, wiped her face, looked Aedan in the eyes and said, “Aedan?”

“What is it?”

“I love you.”

The two of them finished breakfast in silence. Without a word, Xannissa stood up from the table and walked toward the bathroom. After removing her hair clamp, she stepped into the shower and let the hot water rain down from the ceiling and run across her cool gray skin. Transparent lumionics contained most of the shower’s moisture, but steam wafted over the top of the shielding and drifted across the room, accumulating as fog. After standing under the water twisting her ring around her finger, she ran her hands through her hair and soaked it in the stream. Then, another lumigraph manifested itself next to her distorted by the water droplets. Xannissa let down her hair, stepped backward to lean against the shower wall—the lumigraph following her—and read the message. Sighing, she closed it and continued bathing. She still had no idea what was happening, and that feeling of ignorance ignited a feeling of dread. After taking a protracted shower, the Elestan deactivated the water and activated the shield-scrubber. The brief lumionic sweeps left her clean and dry from head to toe. Stepping out of the shower, she pulled back her hair, clamped her ponytail in place, fixed her bangs, and left the bathroom.

Still in the nude, she approached her husband who was seated on the edge of the couch. She had something she wanted to tell him, but she stopped when she noticed the news was playing. Xannissa stood quietly as she watched with him.

“…about the civil defense emergency declared in the coreward areas of the Federation,” the anchorwoman said. “The Defense Department has issued this statement: ‘At oh-four-fifty-three this morning, short-range civilian subdar detected the presence of unidentified crafts tracking toward the coreward Federation border. The crafts are potentially hostile, and due to their ability to circumvent long range detection, insufficient Military assets are available to repel an attack. Those living within the path of these invading crafts are strongly encouraged to evacuate immediately. Those living closer to the border are encouraged to seek refuge in siege bunkers. Orbital bombardment shields will protect you from orbital artillery, but they will not protect you from planetary invasion. Only bunkers will’—hold on.” The anchorwoman paused for a moment. “We are switching over now to President Solana Hethan who is addressing the Federation.” The view of the anchorwoman was exchanged for that of an Elestan woman in a white dress walking elegantly toward a white semi-spherical lectern emblazoned with the orange Federation Triangle. Her dark blue hair was braided regally, and her cool gray hands met the lectern as she approached. She paused to look at the audience before her: thousands of journalists and the unseen quadrillions of Federation citizens as well as a quintillion more across Civilized Space and the Frontier.

“Citizens of the Greater Orionan Federation,” spoke the president, “our Constitution states that a role of government is to provide for the common defense—our defense. It isn’t just a provision—it’s a promise. While our brave women in the Military have been defending your freedom against the aggressive advances of the Persean Corporate Alliance, we have been caught off guard by an unseen enemy amassing at our backdoor. This enemy has declared no formal war with us. They are cowards, seeking to strike us under the cover of darkness. Such an unprovoked attack will not go unanswered. I have authorized the Military to use every means under its disposal to hold off these invaders, and when this tide has been turned—and it will turn—, I urge the Legislature to declare a state of war against these hostile elements from Sagittarius.

“In the meantime, I have declared a civil defense emergency up to two-hundred lightyears from the Federation’s coreward border. All civilians that reside within this zone are…”

“Aedan?” Xannissa asked, interrupting the broadcast. Aedan swiftly turned his head, looked at his naked wife, and eased himself off the couch.

“You okay?” he asked her.

“I have orders.” Xannissa’s voice was somber. Aedan moved around the couch as she spoke. He was standing in front of her when she said, “I’m being called up to Tetra.” Aedan said nothing. He just reached out with his arms and wrapped them around the distraught Elestan commander. Xannissa slowly grasped him while Aedan rubbed his arm up and down her back. “What are you going to do?” she asked him.

“I’m not leaving you, Xann,” he whispered. “I’m not leaving our daughter. I’ll go wherever on Lanan they tell me to go, but I’m staying here if you are.”

“Aedan,” she whispered back, “Go. Go somewhere far away from here.”

“I can’t do that,” he replied.

“I may not make it back to you.”

“Better to die with you than die apart from you.” He hugged her tightly for several seconds before trading her a kiss on the lips. “I love you, Xann.”