It looked as if the enemy ship’s engines fired just before the first shots struck the hull. Just a little too late. The hull started fragmenting as our shots hit the ship’s armor. It was clearly a bit more robust than those bug ships we’d fought before, but still not nearly strong enough to stop the full force of our kinetic weaponry. One of the torpedoes hit the rear of the enemy ship, causing a chain explosion of purple fire that rippled from the back to the front. That’s where they must’ve had their fuel cells. The entire bridge crew looked at the devastation we were causing, and I could tell absolutely no one was feeling the slightest sliver of remorse.

I’d ordered the crew to cease firing as the ship was totally ruined already. It’s not like we needed to save the ammunition, as we could produce that ourselves, but it would spare our system a bit of bandwidth with the ammunition orders.

The purple flames kept raging for another hour or so, even after our fire had ceased. Most of us still hadn’t moved and were watching the flames finally die down. Others had taken the opportunity to start their own kind of mourning rituals. We hadn’t lost that many people, but the nature of being on a ship meant that you knew pretty much everyone. In the corner of my eye, I could see Luna was beginning to have a hard time as well. I put my hand on her shoulder. “Hey, why don’t you go and take a rest in our cabin? You must be tired, right?”

She didn’t say anything, she just came closer to me and started crying on my shoulder while solidly grasping the cloth of my collar. She even started shaking. I took her in for a hug to comfort her.

“Commander, you can go and take her to your cabin. We can hold the bridge for now.” Lieutenant Zu lowered her voice as she talked to me so she didn’t disturb the others.

“Alright, could you start by jumping us away from the border?”

“Yes, ma’am, I already had the coordinates planned.”

“Great.” I gave her a nod as my arms were a bit occupied. I then looked down and whispered to Luna, who was still crying her heart out. “Luna, come, let’s go.” When I tried to move her, I felt her sink through her knees. I knew the feeling all too well.

Without further ado, I scooped her off her feet and carried her away, leaving my crew at the bridge to manage things for now. Before I left, Jacky gave me a nod. He’d probably be staying to keep an eye out as well.

The entire way to the cabin, Luna kept crying against my chest. Luckily the area our quarters were in hadn’t really been affected much by the fighting, so it could provide a stable environment for Luna to calm down in. “Shhh, we’re almost there.” I tried to soothe her a little bit more. Her crying had someone lessened in intensity, but that was probably more because of the sheer exhaustion.

The door to our cabin opened with a silent and calm swoosh. Everything was still in the same place, even though it was a lot messier than I had remembered. The initial blasts must’ve knocked down a couple of things. But the cleanup was definitely not going to be too hard.

I carried Luna to my bed and laid her down. Her eyes were completely swollen red. I sat down next to her on the mattress and gently caressed her cheek. “Hey, do you want something warm to drink?”

She struggled but managed to open her eyes. Luna gave me a nod and tried to speak but only a very faint and coarse ‘yes’ managed to escape her lips.

“Alright.” I smiled and slowly stood up. Before I went to my small kitchen, I took her shark plush from her own mattress and placed it next to her. She immediately started to hug it tight.

I was out of milk, so I decided to make her some tea instead. As the water was boiling, I already started to clean up some glasses that had fallen from my shelves and a couple of books that also had found their way to the floor.

It didn’t take long for the water to boil and for me to rejoin Luna on the bed.

“I put a little bit of honey in it for your throat.” I gave the cup to her after waiting for her to sit up a bit straighter. “But watch out, it’s still hot.”

Luna heeded my warning and blew some of the steam away. “Thanks.”

I smiled at her and then stared in front of me into the room. It was so quiet now. I put my face into my hands to rub a bit of warmth in my eyes and cheeks, and felt my hair fall over my hands. -My hair must look a complete and utter mess right now…-

“I probably should go and take a shower…” I said as I tried to stand up from my mattress, yet again. But before I could, Luna had grabbed me by the back of my shirt.

“Are…” It sounded like speaking physically hurt her right now. It was painful to watch. “You okay?”

I chuckled and sat back down again. It was touching how she could still think of me after having gone through so much pain today. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone in this, and that helped a lot. “I will be. Thank you for asking.”

Luna drank a bit from her tea. After which she gave the cup to me so I could put it on the bedside table. She then brought her hand to the side of her head with a pained expression. “My head hurts a lot.” Her voice sounded a bit better now. The honey must’ve helped a bit.

“Yeah, that happens when you cry that much. Do you want me to get your painkillers?”

“Yes… please…”

I gave her a smile and stood up, heading towards the bathroom, where Luna’s special painkillers had been stored. That reminded me… I hadn’t taken my own pills yet either…

When I entered the bathroom, I was overwhelmed by the utter mess. Since the door had been closed, I hadn’t seen what kind of chaos was waiting for me in here. I’d apparently forgotten to close the bathroom cabinet yesterday and that meant that all the pill bottles, tooth brushes, etc. had decided to take a trip into the kitchen sink and onto the floor. At least the pill bottles had all stayed close so I wouldn’t have to start deciphering which pills were what exactly.

I couldn’t really be bothered right now and just searched for the pills I needed at this moment. It took me a couple of minutes but I’d finally managed to gather the bottles of pills I needed.

With the bottles in hand, I closed the bathroom door behind me, I didn’t want to look at that disaster right now, and got a glass of water for both Luna and me.

“Here.” I offered a glass to Luna and put my own on the ground. I then unscrewed the lid and handed her a painkiller too.

She didn’t waste a second to swallow it. “Thank you…” She offered the glass back so I could put it on the bedside table next to the tea.

Then I found myself sitting down next to Luna once more.

“You should… you should rest too.” Luna told me and moved a little bit so I’d have some space to lay down on the bed as well.

I quickly swallowed my own pills before putting my glass back down again. “I don’t know…”

“You should.” She tried to raise her voice a little but the only thing that managed to accomplish was a painful cough.

“Luna…” I looked at her. Her facial expression was so sad, yet full of concern. Concern for me.

She slowly reached out for me and crawled a bit closer again.

“Luna…” I repeated but she didn’t stop there. She laid her hand on my shoulder and pulled me towards her, as she dropped herself towards the mattress. Dragging me down with her.

I was too tired… too exhausted… or I just couldn’t be bothered to resist. I had become trapped within the comfort of Luna’s embrace. And once I had laid my head down on her, the adrenaline my energy was still running on, decided to call it quits for the day. It was getting increasingly hard to keep my leaden eyelids open, and I definitely couldn’t be asked to take off any of my clothes anymore. Even my shoes would have to live with being kept on for the night.

My mind started to drift off, away from reality.

“Good night… Lauren…” Luna whispered.

“Good night…” I mumbled back, just before my lights went out entirely.