Lore note: So, the original colonial ships that went to the Koprulu sector spent twenty-eight years getting there-at warp speed. I'm assuming that this was at 1x the speed of light (making the Koprulu sector 28 lightyears away), and that since technology has progressed, they can now make the journey more quickly (at about 5x light speed, more or less). This would explain why the UED doesn't come there more often, even though SC: Brood War makes it seem like it doesn't take long to get there. This messes with Stukov's age a bit, making him have a real age of 47 at his death and a chronological age of 52.

Also, American carrier names are lame. That's the only reason the carrier is named after the Admiral Kuznetsov. Like, seriously. Go look them up.

UNITED EARTH DIRECTORATE DESTROYER FLEET, CARRIER KUZNETSOV

Captain Carolyn Dauphin woke from cold sleep shaking uncontrollably and dry heaving. Around her she watched several other people emerge from their cryostasis pods. Katie Dean, her navigator and second sat up slightly in her pod and then laid back down with her arms over her head, groaning. Wincing, she closed her eyes.

"Closing your eyes just makes it worse, KD. It's like sea sickness."
"I'm gonna hurl."
"No, you aren't. You didn't eat anything beforehand like everyone el—"

KD sat up suddenly and vomited violently on the floor. The smell was horrendous and people around her started heaving. That food had been in her stomach for five years—frozen, of course—but not exactly kept fresh. A few people in other rows started clapping and whistling.

"Nice job, KD. Way to cement our reputation among the Destroyer fleet."
"I'm sorry! I didn't think it would be that big of a..."

Their conversation was cut short by the ship-wide intercom chiming on.
"Attention, everyone. This is Admiral Reeves of the Fleet Carrier Kuznetsov. We have all arrived safely in the Koprulu sector. Please avail yourselves of any cryostims you need. Food and drink will be available shortly. All personnel must be at their posts in two hours. Compose yourself and be ready to report. Our great destiny approaches for all of us here in our conquest of the zerg and the Koprulu sector. For Earth!"
"For Earth!" All the marines around them shouted.
"For humanity!" The marines echoed Admiral Reeves statement again.

Something about it made Dauphin uneasy. Do they not know what happened to the Expeditionary Fleet? This was take two for the UED fleet, launching as soon as they could after losing contact with the Expeditionary Fleet. Her family had been career military for many generations and she knew the enthusiasm that she felt around her. It was naïve and uneducated—two things that the UED military was good at preying upon. Her own duties were troop positioning and evac; she and KD piloted a shuttle together which put them in the thick of battle but never on the front lines. She knew these people, the enthusiastic ones, would probably go first. She shivered, but it wasn't the cryostasis.

"Come on, KD. Let's get you cleaned up."
The attendant on the cryostasis floor eyed them walking out into the hallway as Dauphin half-dragged KD out the door.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Uhhh, she's really nauseated. That's all."
The smell of the vomit on her clothes hit him.
"Ugh, you ate? What is wrong with you? What part of 'don't eat 12 hours before cyrostasis' did you not understand? It's literally one of five rules..."
"Oh my god, I'm sorry."
"What is your name? You're getting reprimanded."
"Is that really necessary?" Dauphin said more angrily than she meant.
"You too then."
"Oh, fuck off," KD said. Oh, here we go, Dauphin thought.
"What did you just say to me?"
"Look, I'm Carolyn Dauphin, and she's Katie Dean. Can I go get her cleaned up now? She smells like a garbage can." The attendant wrote their names down and waved them on. Dauphin hauled KD into the hall. "What is wrong with you?"
"Stickler motherfucker."
"Sure, but can we not get in trouble five minutes after getting here?"
"Ugh, fine."

The two of them made their way into the women's showers. To Dauphin, the water felt like hot needles all over her body after being in cryostasis for so long. As she was finishing up, she turned to see KD with her forehead resting against the wall under a shower head, unmoving. Hot water streamed through her blond hair making her back slightly red. She must feel really bad.

"Hey, KD, snap out of it. We have to report for our orders."
KD waved a hand at her without moving away from the wall. Dauphin left to dress, pushing her way through the dozens of other women also groggily stumbling in and out of the shower. KD may have been erratic and a bit of a mess, but they had been friends for years after being thrown together during conscription. They'd survived five years of colonial wars in their own backyard and this was no different. Except for the zerg... and the protoss... and the fact that the last fleet to this god-forsaken place never made it back.

Dauphin stood in line at one of the many requisition kiosks with everyone else on the ship. Her uniform had been in her assigned locker, but she'd need a sidearm and a datapad. The banality the situation—waiting in boredom—took the edge off the nervousness she felt at being there. She had been waiting twenty minutes before KD reappeared, her hair still wet and her uniform askew. She butted in line beside Dauphin, much to the dismay of the people behind them.

"Feeling any better?"
"No. But I'm hungry."
"Of course you are."

It took almost an hour for the both of them to get their side arms and datapads. Then it was one line into another in the commissary where they waited again for food. Dauphin thumbed through her mail. She hadn't received their orders yet.

"That's weird..." She said to herself.
"What. What's weird?" KD said, peering over her shoulder.
"No orders yet."
"Well, that's good... We won't be late for anything."
"No, but we should have something."
"Don't worry about it. You worry about everything."

It wasn't until they sat down that Dauphin received their orders. Dauphin opened them hesitantly. It was becoming real again even through the cacophony of the commissary around her. The first part was boilerplate—the impersonal pep talk that everyone received with their orders. But the rest was unexpected. "A salvage mission?" She said, more loudly than she had intended. KD took the datapad out of her hand.

"The Aleksander? What a crap assignment."
"This has to be your fault."
"What?"
"You made us look like idiots!"
"I just barfed! Everyone was nauseated!"

Dauphin grabbed her datapad back from KD. She didn't know why she was disappointed, but she was. If KD had really screwed up and got them blacklisted, it might mean they wouldn't end up in the first battle or on the front lines. She pushed her food around her plate while KD wolfed hers down. Something about the mission troubled her. How was the Aleksander even in a large enough piece after all this time to be found, much less send a distress call? The operation would be ghoulish. The whole crew was most likely dead. She didn't like the idea of boarding a ghost ship.

Dauphin was momentarily distracted. Two tables away from her, a tall man—or a kid really—was staring at her. He was a ghost, judging by his uniform—and a young one. He could not have been much older than the minimum age of conscription. He looked away when she noticed him.

"I don't know what you're so worked up about. So we go on a salvage mission? So what? We go in, we pick up whatever we can, scan the rest and get out. A few hours, tops. Then, we'll get another assignment," KD said between bites.
"Do you even know what the Aleksander was?"
KD shrugged, her mouth full of food. "Flagship. Admiral DuGalle. Blah blah blah."
"Yes, it was the flagship. But they were trying to control the zerg as a weapon. Did you hear the rumors?"
"No..."
"The second in command was a weapons researcher or something... Experimental weapons and tactics... I forget his name..."

Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed the ghost she had seen before sit down quietly a chair away, facing her, looking at her intently.
"Stukov," he said. Dauphin looked at him, confused and slightly annoyed he had been listening.
"What?"
"That was his name."
"Is that right... And who are you?"
"Greg..." He stopped. "I'm sorry, I interrupted you." Color rose in his pale cheeks, and he looked down at the table. The "kid" was so demure it was disarming.
"What do you want?" Dauphin said brusquely. KD looked up from her food finally and gave her a look that meant "be nice." Greg's eyes darted between the two. There was something unsettling about him. It may have been the ghost training, how wan he was, or the slightly odd cadence to his voice.
"You're Dauphin, yes? You're going to the Aleksander?"
"How do you know who I am?"
"I'm a ghost. And I have high clearance because of certain... affiliations. I wanted to go on the mission..."
"They wouldn't let you?"
"I didn't ask. I didn't want to call attention to myself."
"Okay, so why do you care about a salvage mission but not enough to put yourself on it?"
"I... would rather not explain. But... Here, let me give you something." Greg pulled an ID card out of his pocket and slid it over to her with his long, thin fingers. Dauphin picked it up. It was holographic and an old design—and very worn. On it was a UED officer's face—stern, square, and dark-haired but graying at the temples. He wasn't very photogenic. The ident card flipped between two versions of the ID, one in English and the other in Cyrillic characters. It was credentials for a lab that she had never heard of and was many years expired. "When you go there, if you can find anything with his name on it or what might have been his—personal effects, uniforms, files, anything—will you bring it back to me?"
"What's in it for us?" Dauphin said suspiciously.
"Whatever you want. In reason. Both my parents are gone now... I have an inheritance..."
"How big?" KD piped up. Dauphin ignored her. She could tell it was important to him for whatever reason.
"We'll look, but it's been a long time. And that ship's gotta be in a million pieces," Dauphin said.
"We can talk terms when you return."
Dauphin waved her hand, dismissing his offer. "Just buy us drinks when we get back, kid." Greg nodded, looking relieved.
"Thank you."

Greg rose silently from the chair and disappeared into the crowd.
"What was that about?" KD said.
"I don't know... But maybe this mission'll be more interesting than we thought."