Chapter 1:

Sara Werec ran as fast as she could, which was pretty fast since she ran on a G-treadmill for four hours each day. She had been summoned to the Captain's private conference room five minutes ago by the first officer while she had been in the stern hanger working on her Strain. Now she was running to the conference room on the 50th deck of the Liberty… a 100 deck 2.5 mile long, Deep Space Battle Cruiser.

It was a recovered cruiser… discovered by a salvage team traveling through sub-light space. It was wedge shaped with the bow being as high as the rest of the ship instead of coming to a point like most ships. After engineers and scientists turned the ship inside out and upside down trying to learn everything they could about it… they discovered the ship was designed for attacking ships by ramming into them at high speeds due to a highly advanced engine that could run at a speed below sub-light speed but still faster than any ship the Union currently had, and the hull was comprised of some kind of alloy that resisted every type of weapon used against it. And even withstood traveling through an asteroid field without shields and without changing course, all the asteroids were smashed or, in the case of some of the bigger ones that were directly ahead of the ship, were cut cleanly in two by the bow of the ship.

When the Union was convinced that they possessed the one thing that could turn the tide of the war they began to reassign anyone that was considered an expert in their field to the ship from all around the fleet. As a result Sara, Lottie, Jessie, and all the rest of the SSS (Strain Space Squadron) were stationed onboard the newly named Liberty.

Sara reached the entrance to the conference room to find Lottie waiting for her with crossed arms and an upset look on her face.

"Where the hell were you? We've been waiting on you for six minutes!"

"Sorry Ti, I was working on my Strain with Emily… I got here as fast as I could."

Lottie softened a little at Sara's nickname for her, Sara had called her that ever since they started going out, which was after Sara defeated her brother Ralph, and had been rescued from the planet she and Emily crash-landed on.

"Common, let's see what all the urgency's about."

Sara straightened her Reasoner uniform and walking up to stand on Lottie's right, then both Reasoneres walked into the conference room. All the heads from every department was present and seemed to be focusing all of their attention on them as they entered.

"Excellent, now that everyone's here we can begin," said the captain of the Liberty as Sara and Lottie took their seats.

"We are currently traveling through sub-light speed using a 'classified' route," said the captain as a map of the galaxy appeared with a small blinking blue dot indicating the Liberty's current position. "This route was used only once before and the ship that used this route disappeared."

"Why is that Captain?" asked Becky, who had graduated from the same training crew the SSS had been on and was the head medical officer on the Liberty.

"Nobody knows... there were rumors that they were running tests on some highly dangerous stuff while in sub-light space and as a result, they were all killed in an explosion that destroyed the ship."

"You need to get the story straight..." came the voice of the head engineer, Melchi while his second, Carmichael was typing away at her portable keyboard. A projection of a file with a Top Secret label appeared in the middle of the screen. "The ship was named the Independence, it was a research and development class cruiser designed for experiments in sub-light space. When it disappeared it had been performing test runs on a new type of Strain."

As the Head Engineer spoke a scale model of the ship in question replaced the image of the folder. It rotated a few times while he spoke about it only to be replaced by some strange looking armored mecha. The Alpha Strain was larger than the standard strain…even the Gloire types, issued to Lottie and the rest of SSS (with the exception of Sara who pilots the only Ink Strain in existence) when they transferred to the Liberty, were dwarfed by this Strain by a few meters. The most noticeable features were the hands and feet that are non-existent in any Strain model to date. The only other difference was the extra set of wings and the head design was different. All in all, it was definitely something that looked intimidating and awe-inspiring.

"That's the Alpha Strain," Melchi stated. "It's six meters taller than the Ink Strain (which is the largest Strain to date) with a sleeker designed, reinforced body to protect the pilot better. The arms and legs are larger than other Strain models, allowing hands and feet to emerge when in combat. When it is in flight the hands and feet fold together with the arms and legs to form the stream-line limbs that other Strains have. The four set of wings are for combat as well as long distance sub-light speed travel, better maneuverability during combat and in tight spaces. The rest of the data has a higher classification than I have so I can't access it… the only ones that can access it are the creators and the Reasoner piloting it. The one thing that surprises me is the date of the disappearance of the ship and Strain…It vanished three years before Ralph Werec attacked Grabera."

The entire room was silent for a moment before Sara spoke up. "Why bring this up now and why do we need to know about this Sir?"

The Captain of the ship sighed, "We are approaching an uninhabited planet that was the last known location of the Independence. Command has asked us to exit Sub-light space and search the planet and the surrounding area for any sign of the missing ship."

"And we are to come up with a few ideas on how we will go about this search," finished Lottie.

"No, a plan has already been developed. You are here to receive your assignments… Sara and SSS will be ready to launch before we exit sub-light space. Engineering will be on the bridge observing the video feed we will receive from the Strains. Gambees will be sent out to protect the Liberty. This will be for both safety precaution and to provide a full view of the area around the ship. Medical will be on standby, just in case we get attacked. The rest of the crew will be at Battle stations just in case. The last thing I want is for us to be blindsided and not have our Strains here to protect the ship," the Admiral finished. The heads of each department gave their acknowledgement to their orders and began to leave after being dismissed by the Executive Officer.

"Sara, standby for a moment please," the Admiral said over the low volume of background noise from the people leaving the room.

After the room was empty Sara sat in the chair next to the Commanding Officer when she was directed to by said CO. "Sara, I didn't want to mention this in a room full of your peers because I wasn't sure what type of reaction you would have…" the CO sighed before focusing on the unique Reasoner in front of hm. "Sara… Command also gave me some information on the Reasoner that was selected for the Alpha Strain… apparently you knew him."

Sara was silent already getting a sinking feeling in her gut due to nerves and the suspense.

"Sara…The Reasoner… his name was… Alexander Slade, you knew him in your childhood? He was your brother's best friend?"

==Time Skip 30 Minutes==Sara and Lottie's Cabin==

It helped that the military was so supportive of its personnel's relationships, no matter the type of relationship. When Sara and Lottie were transferred to the Liberty they both placed a requested a family cabin so they could be together and take care of Emily who Sara had officially adopted as her daughter. The request was approved almost immediately and they were able to get situated straight into the family cabin closest to the Strain Hanger near the stern of the ship where Sara's Ink Strain was docked.

The family cabin was built for exactly that, a family. The Master bedroom that Sara and Lottie shared was very basic in design being out of the cabin most of the time and only being there for the occasional meal times or to sleep they didn't bother decorating outside of putting pictures on walls and shelves. The master bedroom had a master bathroom connected to it that was a simple in design as the bedroom. The master bedroom was connected to a common area that was a living room, dining room, and a kitchenette combined. Two bedrooms were also connected to the common area; one was a guest bedroom and the other was Emily's room, which was covered in drawings that the little alien girl had drawn herself and even some that Sara and Lottie helped her draw.

Pictures also hung on the walls and rested on shelves, each had a small girl with long, pale blue hair and red eyes, with blue markings on her forehead wearing different clothes that were designed by her adopted mother, Sara. Some pictures showed the girl holding a porcelain doll that was a near identical replica of the girl but without the blue markings and with blue eyes instead of red ones. This doll was also named Emily, and Emily was a special doll, for it contained a brain from another alien that was from the same race the living Emily was from. This brain was able to establish a mental link with Sara and allowed her to pilot the Ink Strain.

Many of the pictures had Sara in them and fewer still had Lottie with the two alien girls. But the one that Emily treasured the most was the big picture that hung in the living room which showed Sara holding Emily in one arm with the other wrapped around Lottie's shoulders since Sara was taller than Lottie. Lottie had her arm wrapped around Sara's waist and held Doll Emily in her other arm. All of them were smiling because they had just been told that Emily had been officially adopted by Sara. It was one of the happiest days of all their lives and was one that Lottie wouldn't forget.

Lottie was sitting on the bed that she and Sara shared in their bedroom. Emily was in her room with Doll Emily and both were "talking" via their mental link. The peaceful silence was disturbed when the door leading from the cabin to the rest of the ship slid opened with a slight hissing noise. A stoic, glassy-eyed Sara entered and walked straight to the bedroom and sat in the chair at the desk that held their computer. Concerned for her girlfriend, Lottie walked up to her and straddled her lap placing her hands on Sara's shoulders. The movement caused the glassiness in Sara's eyes to disappear and for taller woman to focus on the smaller woman.

"It's him," Sara whispered lunging forward and wrapped the brunette in her arms.

Lottie was surprised; she had never seen Sara like this. "Who…Who is he… Sara, tell me"

Instead of answering Sara reached for the keyboard and accessed the picture files on their computer. After scrolling through hundreds of pictures she got to a secured folder with her name on it. Lottie always wanted to see the pictures hidden in this file. Maybe they were pictures of her brother or something more personal.

After entering the password, the folder opened and Sara began to scroll through the pictures. Lottie's guess had been right; these were pictures of Sara with her brother, Ralph. As Sara continued to scroll through the pictures Lottie noticed another guy appearing in them more often until Sara stopped at one picture. This Picture was different than the rest. In it was a young man that looked to be the same age as Ralph but was much taller, had short, spiked, dark brown hair, and was wearing a pair of baggy cargo jeans, a black wife beater and black shoes. He was laid out on his back, on a grassy hillside, eyes closed like he was sleeping. The one thing that drew Lottie's attention was a much younger Sara wearing a white sundress and white summer shoes laying on her stomach next to him with her head on his chest, eyes closed and a smile on her face.

"Alexander Slade," Sara whispered. "He was born and orphan, his father died before he was born and his mother died in childbirth. He was raised in an orphanage until he was old enough to join the military. He took the Reasoner's exam and passed with a perfect score. He graduated the same year as Ralph and the both of them were placed in the same squadron. They became close friends and brothers in all but blood. One Christmas, Ralph came home and Alex was with him, I was jealous of him at first because he spent so much time with my brother while I was stuck at home, waiting for my brother to come home again. After I learned about the life Alex had, I changed. I began to do everything I could to make him feel like he was part of the family. Two years before he left for a secret mission I had come to the decision to marry him when I was old enough so he could be part of our family officially. He was always so innocent when it came to the topic of marriage especially when I would openly tell people about my intentions with him in the room. Then Ralph left for that mission that caused him to go insane and Alex left on that secret mission. Now Ralph is dead and I learn that Alex was the Reasoner for that Alpha Strain and he could be one of the bodies recovered if there are any to recover that is."

After finishing her explanation, Sara wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and buried her head in the crook of Lottie's neck. She had thought Alex was still on that secret mission he had told her about and now she learns that the man she was going to marry had died around the time her brother had gone insane was too much for her. Lottie was trying to think up a way to get Sara out of her depression, she had suffered enough at the hands of the military, including but not limited to killing her own brother that she had upon arriving at the Galactic Union Military Headquarters she had petitioned for a voluntary discharge from military service. When she was before the review board and was asked why such a promising Reasoner wanted to leave the military she responded with, "The military has brought nothing but pain and suffering to my brother, me, and to the race that my adopted daughter belongs to." Afterwards, the board took the information they had received and dug through every file they had and learned that this kind of instance had happened to many families over the years. This resulted in a major reform of the military standards on families. They also did everything in their power to convince Sara that they needed her to stay. Providing counseling, a promotion, all kinds of favors, they even went public about the experimentation on the race of people that Emily belonged to which caused a massive blow to the image the military was trying to sell to the public but in the end, because they had gone and let more skeletons out of the military's closet, that honesty caused many people to stop hating the military and began to trust them more.

After a year of therapy and witnessing the reform of the military, Sara managed to regain some of her old self, the old, reclusive, Sara Cruz was gone and the energetic, Ace Reasoner, Sara Werec was back. She still mourned the loss of her brother but after that she became an older version of the Sara Werec that was at the Reasoner Academy on Grabera before Ralph Werec's attack.

Lottie instantly knew Sara needed to stop her downward spiral before Sara Cruz returned and took matters into her hands by taking Sara's face in both her hands and pulled her away far enough for her to lean in and plant her lips to the taller woman's in a forceful kiss.