Ray stared at her cousin. It shouldn't have been possible. She could not fathom how it even was possible.
"We dared not send any more Nephilim to look," Eve said after a moment. "But, things get worse."
"Worse?" Parry asked.
Bastille sat back a little, and pressed her fingers to the bioscan ident in the table. The holographic projector in the middle of the table lit up, flashing a dossier and images of both an Interstellar Science and Colony Survey ship, and a military cruiser.
"It's why I called you two in," she said, and nodded to the image. "This is the ISCS Black Eye. Its mission was to survey two of our former colony worlds in Tau sector that were destroyed by the Kilrathi at the end of the war, to determine if they were viable for recolonization efforts. It arrived in Tau four days ago, and less than nine hours after arrival it dropped off the board. This was not entirely unexpected; the Regis Nebula encompasses part of that sector and disrupts communications. However, six hours later we got an automated distress call."
She selected the image of the military cruiser, highlighting it. "The TCS Gaza was sent to investigate. It took them nearly eighteen hours after arrival in the system to be able to locate the Black Eye. The last report they were able to send indicates that it was drifting at the edge of the nebula with no response to hails, off course of where it should have been by nearly half the sector. Shortly after that, we lost contact with the Gaza, and have been unable to resume communications."
"All communications," Eve said. "The Blazers of both the Black Eye and the Gaza have gone silent, and none have returned to quantum space."
Parry felt her gut growing cold at the implication. Ray leaned forward. "Have you sent any to investigate?"
"I am hesitant to," Eve told her. "I admit, what happened with Aulani in Kilrathi space is staying my hand. I know that we have no actual evidence that the Blazers on board either ship have died; the Black Eye may have been drifting but that doesn't mean its crew are dead. We certainly have no reason to believe any of the crew of the Gaza are dead, let alone its Blazers."
"They still should have been able to report to quantum space even if they didn't return there. Pass a message, or open a Jump for evacuation, or to send a messenger through back to Sol," Ray said, and Eve nodded slowly.
"Yes, they should have. But they didn't. And we don't know why. Again, after Aulani-…"
"You have to protect your people," Parry said, when Ray didn't respond. "So, what's the plan?"
"The Corinth, under command of Captain Silva, will be departing the Fleet along with the Wellington and the Olympian. They will be rendezvousing with the last known coordinates of the Gaza to investigate the situation, determine any ongoing threat, and establish a solid line of communication back to the Fleet and Command. We need SFT for this, fleet and ground. In the black, that means Alpha and Beta Wings, MSOT for ground. The Wolverines are already heading to the Corinth, and as you know Beta already flies from there. Alpha will be transferring to the Corinth for the duration of this operation. Parry, I know you're dealing with two newcomers to the Wing but they're both veterans. If you'll pardon the pun, they will have to learn 'on the fly'."
"Understood."
"I will be coming along as well," Eve said to them. "The ships already have their own Blazers but the Nephilim are my responsibility, and I want to know what is stopping my people from returning to home space."
"We are taking that into consideration on this mission as well," Bastille said. "And you already know my protests about you going along, Eve, but it is your prerogative as ambassador."
"I understand, but I will be in the company of three of the First's finest battleships, with SFT marines and space forces. I owe it to my people to find out what's going on and help to stop it if I can. I can risk no more of their lives, especially if I am not willing to risk mine the same."
The general nodded once, then looked back at Parry. "The Corinth will be departing the Fleet at 1300 precisely. Get your Wing together and get over there. And good hunting. Dismissed."
Parry had worked with Captain Silva before, in the Battle for Earth.
Prior to being the captain of the Corinth, she'd been Colonel Ivone 'HiHo' Silva of Alpha Wing. After the war, with Merlin and Shadow gone, the remains of the original Alpha Wing had retired from the pit. Rita 'Malibu' Savvas, who had taken over briefly as WC when Parry had flown with them, had tried to stick it out for a short time, but the war had left them with many command positions to fill and fewer qualified people to fill them. When Bastille had been given the Tenacious and full Fleet command, Rita had been offered her former position and had grudgingly taken it. Now she was the Brigadier General in command of Houston station.
Vapor, Notch, and HiHo, the only members of the original Alpha Wing left after that, had ended up with command of various battleships, and Alpha Wing had been given over to Parry.
Rho Wing, the newest SFT Wing that Parry and Ray had gone into straight out of their Academy, had never made it long enough after the end of the war to do a single SFT mission. Almost the moment their training was officially completed the new Wing had been broken up, with some going to the new Alpha Wing under Parry's command, and others going to Beta Wing which had been given to Jondell Killdare, Merlin's son and Rho Wing's former WC.
When Alpha arrived on the Corinth, Beta were waiting for them in their mess. The members of the original Rho still considered each other family, and the reunion was quite a loud and happy one.
Parry hadn't seen Jon face to face since the wedding. Three years prior, another Killdare had officially been put on record with the Confed, as Judy had accepted Jon's proposal.
It wasn't the only wedding that had happened in their ranks since the end of the War, either. Rafe had not waited seven years before marrying Evalyn. In fact, he had barely waited one. Even Parry, his commanding officer and arguably best friend, still didn't know all that he and Blade had gone through in the Kilrathi prison camp. She didn't have to. When they'd gone in to rescue him and she saw him with her as they broke her out of the stocks, well. The bond those events had forged between them had been obvious, and they had never wavered.
Marriage and families in the Confed were an odd thing. During war time, rules against fraternization had become winked at. The Confed still didn't like it when their active-duty participants married and had families, especially if one was in command of the other, but could not deny them their rights in that regard when their entire adult life could be spent in service. Houston had been set up with family facilities, including day cares, schools, and social programs. Jon himself had been raised entirely aboard ship, his parents having met and married while both in service.
Now that the war was over, those rules had undergone some small reform. Marriage between active duty was still allowed, even chain of command (which was fortunate, given that Parry was technically Ray's CO, just as Jon was Judy's), however now children were a bit more discouraged. They could still be raised aboard ship or on a platform, but if the parents decided to have kids and remain active duty with the intention of raising them shipboard, they had to file additional paperwork stating that intention and it had to be approved. Without it, if a child was born, the parents would pay a small portion of their salaries back to the Confed for the use and availability of such facilities, or they would have to adjust their careers and deployments to raise them Earthside.
Right now, the amount paid to the Confed in these cases was fairly negligible. As the human race had literally lost billions of souls in the war, discouraging people from having babies-in space or otherwise- was about the last thing on Earth Command's mind. In the future, as their numbers increased, it was likely that negligible amount would be raised. As there was no such thing as an accidental pregnancy any more, especially on the Front, it would only be fair.
Neither Parry nor Ray wanted kids, but Parry knew at least Rafe and his wife were open to the idea of having them someday, and she could imagine neither of them giving up their careers in order to do so.
As Alpha and Beta reunited and reminisced, Parry kept half an eye on her two newbies. Being immediately deployed on a mission like this was hardly the usual welcome onto a new Wing. Parry had also long ago resigned herself to the reality that the Confed and its pilots considered her a hero and a celebrity, even if she herself did not. She remembered how intimidated she'd felt when she'd learned that her new CO was the son of a living legend, and that they were going to be trained by the equally legendary Alpha Wing.
Ten years on, and she still got the double takes. She still heard the faint wondering whispers behind the hands of other pilots, their stares in her direction awkwardly shifted whenever she looked at them full on. She was resigned to it, but she still hated it.
Back during the war, Parry had been credited with killing one of the most powerful and feared Cats in the galaxy- the Head of Kilrathi Intelligence and eldest daughter of the Emperor, Ara Chaz. The truth of the matter was, it had all been a set up. Ara had killed herself rather than bring dishonor on her family by being proven a traitor, and staged it all to appear that Parry had done it (suicide also being highly dishonorable). Later on, a SOTAC undercover agent had similarly staged Parry's 'capture' of the Emperor's youngest son, Zuhn. It was an act that further inflated her legend in the eyes of the Confed rank and file, and the target on her head. Although command knew the truth about both events, they were deemed classified. The rest of humanity would never know the truth of it.
While it was Masha and Willa that she kept half her eye on, it was really Ray that had her full concern. Ray had barely said anything since the meeting with her cousin and Bastille, and from the brooding expression on her face this wasn't just her normal wall-flower behavior either. Marty Cox had once liked this behavior to a scientist studying pilots in their wild habitat; Parry now knew that it was a defense mechanism. Ray had grown up doing her best to remain as unnoticed as possible while she people-watched, in an attempt to understand the at times bizarre behavior of human beings and why they seemed to think so differently to herself. She hadn't known it at the time, but this was because she was truly a Nephilim.
To be honest, Parry was concerned too. Something out there had killed Aulani when she'd attempted to spy on the Cats, and prevented her from returning to home space. She knew that Eve had said that there was no reason as yet to suspect that the Blazers on the Black Eye or the Gaza had suffered a similar fate, but Parry had hardly come down with the last drop of rain. What had happened to Aulani and what had happened to those Blazers was connected, that much was obvious. Obvious enough that Eve had wanted to come along rather than risk another of her people. Obvious enough that it terrified Parry for her wife.
Ray may have insisted that she legally be nothing but human again, she may have put aside all her abilities and connection with anything having to do with the Nephilim, but the long and the short of it was that she was still a Nephilim. What had happened to Aulani, what may have happened to those Blazers, and what might happen to Eve, might also happen to Ray.
Maybe it won't. Aulani was not in her body when whatever it was that happened, happened. So long as Ray doesn't actually use any of her Nephilim abilities, perhaps it can't happen to her?
That was a big stretch, she knew. She had no proof that a Nephilim had to use their abilities for whatever it was to happen, but neither did she have proof otherwise, and it terrified her.
She didn't want to lose Ray. Her dying would be bad enough, but Parry had long since known that if Ray died, she'd just return to quantum space. It may be that she'd never see her again, but knowing that she would go on somewhere had brought along a great deal of comfort.
Now that was in doubt.
As they two Wings broke up for the night, Ray and Parry returned to the temporary quarters they'd been assigned. The Corinth, thanks to its own Blazers, had arrived in Tau sector moments after leaving the Fleet, but it would take several hours further to locate the Gaza and the Black Eye in the interference of the nebula the old-fashioned way- with sensors and scanners, instead of Nephilim scouts.
Only two years since the first Blazer was able to join a ship as full crew and already everything feels extremely limiting without their help, she thought.
Settling back on the bunk, she watched as Ray quietly stripped out of her uniform, laying it aside with almost precision neatness.
"You ok?" she asked, and the way Ray nodded seemed automatic, distracted. Sitting up a little she fixed her wife with a look. "Ray."
"Hmm?" Ray finally glanced over, focusing, and Parry asked again.
"Are you ok?"
"Pumpkin," Ray said in response. Parry, who had long since grown used to her wife's non-sequiturs and strange responses, barely batted an eyelash as she folded her arms around her knees.
"Pumpkin?" she echoed, a gentle nudge for elaboration.
"Do you remember Karen, from my Academy?" Ray asked, moving over to the bunk and sitting down as she began to remove her prosthetic.
Parry scowled a little. She did indeed remember Karen, though she had never met the woman face to face.
"The one who tried to get you to wash out," she said. "The one who tried to report you, turned your squad against you, kept calling you stupid. What about her?"
"Her callsign was 'Pumpkin'," she said. Freeing the prosthetic she set it aside, shifting on the bunk to look at Parry. "She was WC of one of the Wings on the Gaza."