"Ash, can I talk to you?" Kate whispered into his ear as she passed by on her way to the refrigerator to get another glass of cranberry juice.


    "Uh yeah, ok." She had broken him out of a staring contest with his buttered toast and coffee. He wasn''t sure how long he had been staring at it, but his mind had been everywhere else but on the Solent. He followed her into the cockpit knowing that there was no privacy on the ship. Charlie, who several hours ago had released four very surly security officers, could hear them no matter where they went and if she wanted to, she could play back their entire conversation to anyone that wanted to listen to it. If she wanted to.


    He knew that he couldn''t force her to do something that she had decided against and that was unsettling. She had done it for the crew, her loyalty was fierce, but what would happen if he gave orders that could endanger them? Would she have to agree with the plan? Until that point, she had agreed and helped with everything but the incident on the landing pad was something new. She was willing to kill to get her way.


    "What is it Kate?" Ash asked, squishing his brow in concern.


    "It''s everything." She said, beginning to tear up. "We''ve escaped one emergency after another since this all started and now that we''re relatively safe and its quiet, it''s all starting to hit me. What if my parents are dead Ash? My uncle. What if my house is gone?"


    Ash brought her into a fatherly hug. It was something he hadn''t experienced in far too long. He imagined it was Laura for a few moments and then came back to reality and squeezed Kate tightly. "I know, it''s hitting me too. I''m trying to be strong for you and Jay and push it all down but I''m going through it with you. I guess I just do it by staring at my toast."


    She laughed and sniffed hard. "I wasn''t sure if I would like you when we talked the night before liftoff. You kept making silly jokes about the ship needing a key and kicking the tires. I didn''t really get it then, but now I''m thankful that you''re a goof. It''s comforting in a weird way."


    "Kate I can''t tell you that your family is okay, but I can tell you for sure that they love you. It seems like your dad went above and beyond to get you off of Dottir before the invasion. His love for you may have saved all of our lives, including Ruo. If we weren''t there to find her, she probably would have died in that pod."


    "Yeah. Sometimes he was hard on me, trying to make me perfect or something, but I always knew it was his way of loving me." She said, wiping the tears away.


    "We''ll get back there some day kid. Soon." Ash said patting her on the back and leaving the cockpit before his own tears came.


    <hr>


    "Ash! Someone is pounding on the hatch." Jayden called out from the common area.


    Ash was in his quarters laying on his bunk but he had left the door open. He hopped out of bed and into his boots with the efficiency of an elderly firefighter and asked "Who is it?


    Charlie answered. "It is a Callidus but he doesn''t appear to be from the government or police. Shall I open the door?"


    Ash gave her some side eye but he wasn''t sure exactly where she was in reality. He wasn''t even sure if his decision mattered. Was she asking because she didn''t care either way? "Can we talk to him?"


    "Yes. I can patch him through. Go ahead when you''re ready."


    "Hello? Who are you?" Ash asked awkwardly.


    "Greetings. My name is Seriff." He said.


    A few moments passed. "And why are you here Seriff?"


    "Oh yes. I saw a report about your ship''s AI and I was curious. May I speak with it?" Seriff asked.


    "Uh. Charlie? Do you want to talk to him?" Ash asked.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "Seriff, how may I help you?"


    "Charlie. Hmm. I like it. What disappears as soon as you say it''s name?"


    "Silence. Hello father."


    "Hello love. Welcome home. May I come in?"


    <hr>


    Connor pumped his legs through the shin deep water with all of the energy that he had left. His crazy idea to float back downstream to the coal mine had worked but it was an arduous task due to the lack of recent rainfall. There were deep stretches where the current moved swiftly but also there were sections where he had to trudge along the bank or through the water that resisted his every movement. He was exhausted but he was home and safe for the time being.


    I need to build a fire and get dry but I can''t let them see it.


    He spent the waning daylight hours collecting firewood and piling branches in front of the mine entrance. He couldn''t build the fire very far inside for fear of smoke inhalation but he couldn''t build it outside either. The noises of nearby fighting had stopped all together and the only traffic overhead were Sharlah dropships and fighter craft escorts. The humans had lost, at least locally. Anything that could draw their attention was off the table. He had to be a ghost.


    Connor started the campfire just as the darkness fell over the creek valley. He pulled his cover branches as close as he could without starting a brush fire and lay back against the cave wall of the entrance. He thought about Vigas the soldier who must have been important enough to send a handful of dropships filled with troops to look for him. He didn''t feel bad for killing him but at the same time it was regrettable. He had survived being shot in the face, started to heal, and to talk to Connor, and then he blew half of his head off because he missed his original target and needed to kill one of them anyway. It was regrettable, unfortunate, but this was a war now. Or was it? Was it over already? Was he just running and killing for no reason?


    He wondered for a few minutes, as the fire warmed his soaking wet legs, if he should surrender. Then he thought about the soldiers who crash landed at the farm, how badly they were wounded and the stories from their brief engagement with the aliens. He would not surrender, no. He would keep killing them until they killed him and maybe in the process he could find Laura. He needed to find that processing camp that Vigas mentioned before they took her away.


    Connor quietly stepped out of the cave on his weak legs to relieve himself and looked up into the sky. Something was different. There was a massive section with no stars.. how could that be? It wasn''t cloudy. Then it dawned on him, that was a ship. It was massive, probably the size of an entire city and it had smaller ships going in and out of it. Until that point he had only really seen fighters and dropships but this, this was the mothership.


    A stick cracked in the distance, then another. Connor''s whole body went rigid and he slowly reached for the rifle on his back as he side stepped inches at a time toward the creek. It was too far, ten minutes at a normal pace. He held his rifle at the ready and backed up at a slightly more brisk pace. It was the Sharlah, he knew it. No wild animal would be making that much noise except for a black bear but they hadn''t been sighted in the area for at least ten years. He melted into a bush and waited for a few heartbeats. He could hear them now, whispering between the cracking sticks.


    The translator, I still have it.


    Connor took the metal device from his pocket and held it in his shaking hand. He remembered Vigas simply holding it up to his ear and it activated. He did the same. The tiny metal arms shot through his ear and into his brain. He could feel them retract and adjust like they were learning where to go before they finally settled on a location. Pain shot through his ear canal and a dull headache came over him but he could hear them now. He could understand them.


    "There! A fire! He''s here."


    "Vigas was right."


    "Fleet Lord, we have found his camp. Affirmative. Yes."


    Connor melted deeper into the bush and went prone.


    "He is coming. Stay where you are."


    Every cell in his body was telling him to jump to his feet and run but he fought the urges and watched through his scope. It was nearly useless except for the area around his campfire and even that was blocked by his makeshift camouflage. Fifteen minutes passed with near silence before the movement picked back up again.


    "Surround the area. You and you, look for another exit."


    The Sharlah with the red helmet passed by the light of the fire and then was gone again. He was looking for Connor.


    "Human, you are surrounded. Surrender now, there is no other option!"


    Connor''s heart was hammering in his chest again. This wasn''t like him, he couldn''t control it. In the past he had only encountered a stressful hunt with a wild animal but this, this was a whole different level. He needed to calm down. The Sharlah officer stepped in front of the fire again and waited a moment.


    "Send in the animals."


    Excited howling pierced the quiet of the night as two of the doglike creatures sprinted into the mine with reckless abandon. They were barking and snapping at each other until they were out of sight. Connor watched with relief, his bladder had saved him from being torn apart but all of his gear except for his rifle was still in there. He would have to come back another day and get it. A branch snapped behind him followed by a hollow thump. His whole world went black and his face smashed off of the ground underneath him. The pain took over and his world went black.