To her Royal Highness, the Queen of Saturn,

From First Lieutenant Damien Ayryn, Attaché to Admiral Pierre Delos.

To her Highness, respectful and fondest greetings.

For too long we have been separated by this vast empty expanse, for too long I have had no one to talk to, no one with whom I can match wit and humor. I miss our walks along the Sea of Tranquility, and our late night card games. I miss your smile, rarest of precious gems, and your laugh, more melodious than a symphony of Jovian Paradisios. The universe is not the same without you by my side to enjoy it.

I am deeply saddened that I cannot address my concerns to you in person, but the mandatory blackout of the fleet has been placed in effect, and all vid communication with the moon is prohibited. Thus I must resort to this rather primitive method of communication.

I have a favor to ask of you, as one wandering soul to another. I harbor grave fears that the Kingdom of the Moon may be in grave danger, indeed, by the time this letter reaches you, my fleet may be already engaged in a fierce struggle with an outside foe. However, all my efforts to warn the Naval Admiralty of the danger have gone unheeded, and the politicians have all but laughed in my face, and have refused to convey my fears to the Queen. Therefore, I would ask that you bring this letter and present it to her Highness, in the hopes that some measures may still be put into action to ensure the future safety of our kingdom and the citizens therein.

Until such a time as I am once more able to return to the moon, please rest assured in the knowledge that every day that passes here, my thoughts remain with you and the others, and I count the days until I am once more able to stand in your presence.

Yours respectfully, and with love,

Damien.


As I sit at my desk, staring at the large pile of paperwork that mysteriously appeared on my desk since the last time I was here, I resist the urge to find something breakable. Every single day, my life boils down to this. Paperwork.

The best tactician in the fleet (and I don't say that lightly) reduced to trying to find the file on food poisoning cases. It simply isn't fair.

Instead of tearing my office to shreds (it takes way to long to get it clean for it to be worth the hassle), I open one of the drawers in my desk and pull out a picture. Immediately my mind is sent back to that last day on the moon.

I sat on one of the benches in the gardens, next to the pond that had become so familiar to me in the five months I had spent on the moon, an official looking document crushed in my hands.

I knew she was behind me, but didn't turn around. She would announce her presence when she was ready. She always did. I let out a deep sigh.

"Serenity told me you were leaving…"

Without turning around, I let my head sink slowly. I could hear her letting out a breath that she probably didn't realize she had been holding.

"I didn't want to believe it. I was hoping there was something I could do."

"Do what? Your Highness, I'm a soldier. I do what they tell me, I go where they tell me. We both knew that eventually they would send me off somewhere. There will be others…"

"Not like you. They're all afraid of me, afraid of what I can do. You never cared. You were the first person to see me for me.

"You'll still have the other Senshi."

"It's not the same. You know that. They are my friends…"

"And what then am I?"

"You know what I mean."

"It would not work. I am too young, and filled with too much fear and hate. I would only corrupt you, turn you from your duties. Perhaps, perhaps it is best that I leave."

I stand and straighten my uniform. "I must leave. They are expecting me."

"You will write?"

"Every chance I get. And you will do the same?"

"You know I will."

She looked exactly as I remembered her. Sitting in front of a fireplace, a book open on her lap, and a small smile on her face.

Somehow, seeing her like this, exactly as I remember her always brings me comfort, even in my darkest moments. I remember that there is good and beauty still in this universe, worth fighting for, worth dying for. Perhaps, in another life, in another time, we could have been lovers.

Making sure that no one was around to see me, I pick up the stack of paperwork and carry it out of my office and dump it onto the desk of one of my subordinates. Let them handle the work, I have far more important matters to attend to. I pull out a holomap of the regions around the colonies we were given to protect, and, turning down the lights in my office, open it.

Springing up into the darkness of the room, the colonies hang above my head as I walk to each of them in turn, then step back and view them as a whole.

"Initiate protocol 3762904. Display damaged or repaired colonies over the last three months."

Immediately, a small handful of colonies lit up.

"Now display the path of the fleet over the same time frame."

A line of light cut through the map.

I smile. It was just as I had anticipated. As the fleet moved, the colony furthest from its current position was attacked.

Intelligence, tactics, a thorough battle plan and a deep desire to carry it out to maximum effectiveness. By the time we get back to the colony attacked, the enemy has already disappeared. Then another task force, separate from the one that we were at that time chasing, appears and attacks the colonies that we had abandoned. We're spread to thin, and they are taking full advantage of that fact.

But how can it be stopped?

I quickly open a channel to Jacen's private quarters, then, realizing what time it was, quickly turn away from the vidscreen.

Note to self: Jacen doesn't wear clothes to bed.

"Are you decent?" I ask, without turning around. I hear the sound of clothes rustling, then get the affirmative that I was looking for. "Take a look at this." I move aside so that Jacen can see the map I had laid out.

"Ah."

"You can see it too, then?"

Jacen nods. "They've got more than one fleet. You think an invasion force?"

"I don't know. Right now, it would appear that they're content simply to pick away at the colonies. I was thinking, check out the time when this all began."

Jacen gives a confused look, then a dawning comprehension appears on his face. "The foundation of Colony 32, the farthest settlement from the sun."

"Indeed. What if when we founded that colony, we accidently encroached on the territory belonging to this alien race?"

"They would consider it an act of aggression; a hostile annexation of territory they believe to be rightfully theirs."

"And would immediately set out both to recapture the land that belongs to them…"

"And to eliminate the threat to their sovereignty."

I nod. "And the all the politicians can see is the potential to continue expanding humanities sphere of influence."

"We need to tell Draco. He can get word to Pluto, who I'm sure will recognize the danger. And you can get word to Saturn."

"By all means, tell Draco, although I would put money on the possibility that he's already figured it out. It won't do any good though. The red tape involved in bringing the settlers back into the solar system will take at the very least a year or two to finalize. By then we'll be in a war for our very existence."

"So what do we do? It's not our job to be analyzing the tactics of the enemy. If the Admiral knew…"

"If the Admiral finds out, I'll tell him I'm doing it on my own time, for fun. Listen, can you secure this channel? There's something that I think needs to be said before we go any further with this."

Jacen fumbled around for a moment off camera, then with a flicker the vid dimmed, then came back up. Jacen returned to the screen and gestured.

"Shoot."

"I fear that the only way to rectify this situation may be to remove the Admiral from his position. He will not act until it is too late, and, if all else fails, one of us may have to replace him."

"You're talking about mutiny?"

"I'm talking about declaring the Admiral mentally unfit to continue in his current position."

"In other words, mutiny. You know they still hang people for that."

"I'm not saying that we'll absolutely have to. But if it comes to that, I think our lives are worth sacrificing if we can save the tens of billions of people throughout the moon kingdom. Are we in agreement?"

Jacen stood silent for a moment, then nodded and cut the transmission.

I stood in silence for a moment, taking one last long look at the map, then turn off the holo and raise the lights.

Time to get back to work.

Same thing as the last chapter. Please read and review, for comments and critiques are love, and I really would like some love.

Thanks for reading!