Shannon opens the message she just got from her family.
Dear Shannon,
I hope you and the rest of Admiral Tourville's personnel are being treated well. We are. We are praying for you. That's good to hear. The weather's nice, and we are all thinking of you. Everyone is doing well at home, and we are all grateful that you're still alive. We'd send you some books if we could, but the Manties said to wait a few more weeks, as they just started letting POWs write home, despite the fact that the Republic restarted it after President Prichart took over. Keep your spirits up, as we all know we didn't fake the diplomatic papers. Why does everyone think we or even I did it? I never desired to hack the diplomatic servers, and didn't have the time either. Cousin Eimear had just made Captain in the Republic Navy and full Commodore in our SDF when you left with Admiral Tourville, in case you haven't heard! Good for her, I know she's been looking forward to that for a while! She'll do great as a flag officer!
The Republic's Congress wants to give you the Congressional Cross for telling Admiral Chin to hyper out. Oh, no. I don't deserve the Cross, our highest award for that. If they were offering me the Thanks of Congress, it would be a lot easier on them, but no, they want to offer me the Cross itself. Do you want the Cross? Hell, no! President Prichart hasn't announced it, so you can still decline it, though she might try to mousetrap you into something else. I'm going to decline it, and make sure I'm not mousetrapped into anything else. Please write back when you can. I will, I promise. Please tell me and your parents that the legends of Republic Navy officers being tortured for intel are false, if they are. As far as I know, they are false. Can the Queen name a ship for the SDF and a museum in honor of you? I'll say no thanks to the ship, Auntie, but I'll take the museum, if you don't try to mousetrap me into anything else, because otherwise, knowing you, if I get released at some point, I'll come home and find a ship named after me. I don't really want that.
Love, Aunt Cadhla, Mom and Dad
Notes:
Ao3 gave me a warning for a different fic, so if you're wondering where it went, I yanked it and another I shouldn't have posted off the site. PM me if you want them, and I'll send them to you. Cadhla is pronounced Ky-lah. Her nickname is Kay. This universe has an AU history and family for Shannon that's different from my House of Lies story.
Yes, Shannon's a royal, but hasn't said anything.
As for Sonja appearing, I really wanted to give you a tease of this chapter. I promise Sonja will appear.