Seraph’s Gambit- Episode 49

Back to Episode 48

---

Olivia

When the airlock door cracked open, a gush of fresh air flowed into the escape pod. Olivia greedily sucked in as much as she could, realizing for the first time how stale the air inside the pod had become. She had never thought that Rokma had much of a stench, until she had become cooped up in a small space with them for several days.

Without any sense of decorum, Olivia pushed her way out of the pod and onto Seraph. She stood in the corridor outside the airlock hatch panting for several minutes. For the first time in several days, she felt safe.

“You all right there kid?”

Olivia looked up to see Noah standing over her, a concerned expression on his face. Without thinking she threw her arms around him, causing him to stumble slightly. He stood there dumbfounded for a moment, before lowering his arms around her. When he did, she finally lost all her resistance and started sobbing uncontrollably.

Continuing to stand there uncomfortably, Noah cast a look at Squee, “Uh, Captain wants you to bring our new guests to the cargo bay.”

Olivia lost track of time for a few moments, but when she recovered herself, the Rokma were gone. She glanced up at Noah. Suddenly, feeling embarrassed, she quickly released him and pulled away.

She expected him to laugh and make a comment about her acting like a little girl, but to her surprise, Noah only looked sympathetic as he said, “It was bad, wasn’t it?”

A lump welled up in her throat, and she fought back a new set of tears. She could only manage to nod. He rested a hand on her shoulder, “I wish I could tell you it will fade, but I suspect you already know you can never unsee that kind of thing. But that means you also know that you can learn to live with it.”

An image of her mother’s dead body flashed into Olivia’s mind. It was just as vivid as it always had been. But she knew the panic and sadness she felt at the thought were not as intense as they had once been. She glanced up and nodded her head slowly to Noah.

“Can you tell me one thing?” Noah asked, his voice cracking slightly, “Did Serene at least die fighting?”

The worry lay evident on his face as he waited for her answer. Olivia felt uncomfortable with what she had to say. At one point, she could have imagined herself reveling in revealing Serene’s treachery, but now it just felt vindictive and pointless.

As neutrally as she could manage, she said, “She’s still alive. She joined with LFD.”

Noah’s sudden smile and look of relief startled her, “I assume they had a gun to her head at the time?”

“Not exactly. They offered us a chance to join them or to stay behind on the Rokma cruiser while they blew it up.”

“Exactly, gun to her head. I think our job just got easier.”

“Easier?”

Noah laughed, “Yeah, not only do they have to worry about us, but now they have to keep Serene in line.”

The thought made Olivia laugh too. Much like the earlier tears, the laughter came out stronger than she would have expected. And much like the tears, she felt an overwhelming sense of release and comfort afterward.

“Now, come on. I know the others will be relieved to see you’re alive.” Noah said, and gestured down the corridor.

When they entered the cargo bay, the only room on the ship large enough to accommodate half a dozen Rokma at once, Olivia was reminded of her time in the escape pod. At least here, she could move around. The conversation that had been going on ceased, and all eyes turned to her.

Ariana and Vlasa moved immediately to her side. Unexpectedly, hugs were shared by all. Even Vlasa, who had never been very affectionate, despite his general kindness to her. Even Mesu rolled up near her.

“It is pleasurable to see you alive and undamaged.” The drone intoned.

Olivia did not cower from Mesu’s presence. After coming face to face with a combat drone again, she couldn’t picture the fragile, spindly frame of the medical drone quite as much of a threat. Despite that, she didn’t feel an overabundance of affection for the drone either, so she merely nodded to him.

Once the greetings were over with, Olivia turned to Ariana, “Captain, the LFD captured Javi.”

Ariana nodded, “Squee told me. That is regrettable. Fortunately, he did leave a copy of the schematics with me. So, we can still get those to the PUG.”

“Captain, they’re not waiting anymore. They’re headed straight for Triask.”

Ariana frowned, “Javi’s information said they weren’t ready yet, and they planned to attack next month during the Memorial Festival.”

“But that was when it was a surprise. I met their leader, Mitchell. He’s obsessed and a little scary.”

“So, I’ve heard,” Ariana said quietly.

“Meh,” Noah said dismissively. “So what? Now we have less time than we thought. We’ve always been on a clock.”

Olivia shook her head emphatically, “No, now we have the entire LFD fleet between us and Triask. There’s no way we can beat them there.”

Silence hung over the room. The Rokma, who had remained quiet so far, all bowed their heads in shame. The atmosphere in the room had already been tense and sad, but now it suddenly felt defeated.

“It doesn’t matter.” Ariana said forcefully, “We still have the plans. All we have to do is get within range to get a message to PUG fleet command. With the schematics for their command ship in hand, the PUG fleet should be able to take it out and disrupt LFD’s control over the AI. The only thing we’ve lost is our margin.”

Ariana looked down toward Olivia, “Ready to get back to work?”

Feeling suddenly energized, Olivia nodded, “Aye, Captain.”

“Then plot us the fastest course. It’s time we got moving.”

---

Continue to Episode 50

---

Vote on Top Web Fiction

---