Nestira opened her eyes to light above her. Bright, warm, and somehow different from what she had expected.
It told her she was safe. Comfortable.
It didn’t imply home.

​Still, for a merciful moment, everything was alright.

Until, a heartbeat later, reality reasserted itself, and memory returned.

​She reached out – instinctively, automatically – and found nothing.

“Rhaelle…”
The thought poured out unfinished. Whispered. Like something she knew the answer to, but was unwilling to accept.
When she tried to move, her body resisted. It ached. Not sharply, not immediately.
Instead, it was a dull throb without urgency, a heaviness in her limbs.

“Commander.”

Nestira turned her head, finding the voice belonged to Serith, one of the medical personnel.

They had spoken once, maybe twice. Both conversations had been cordial. Adequate. But they had lacked the warmth Nestira so desperately needed upon her assignment to the Hathos.

“It’s important you remain still,” Serith warned without looking up from the biobed’s readout. “You were injured. No lasting injuries. But I won’t risk your recovery.”

​“Forget that.” Nestira’s reply came out rougher than intended. “What about Rhaelle? Is she-…”

The doctor’s smile faltered. Briefly. Long enough to matter.

“Don’t you worry about that now, Commander Aristren.”

Her words were carefully chosen, the smile professionally detached.

Yet it fooled no one.

Least of all Nestira, who could sense what lay underneath.

Nestira pushed herself upright. “What happened?”

Slowly, Serith looked at her. “We weren’t able to retrieve her. That’s all I know.”

​Nestira closed her eyes. The Gloaming Settlement rose up in fragments. Then the Ry’kol attack. Vianh running away from them. Rhaelle sprinting after him.
The scream.
Then nothing.

​“What about Vianh?” Nestira asked, forcing her voice level.

​“Who?”

​“Our… we… We had a guide. A local.” Her words felt defensive even as she said them. “His name was-… is Vianh.”

Serith turned back to the console. “I don’t have any information on a local, Commander.” A pause. “If there was one, I fear he, too, is unaccounted for.”

​It wasn’t an accusation. It was worse than that.

​Nestira opened her mouth to reply, but closed it again and swallowed her response.

It was well-known that she hadn’t gotten along with Rhaelle. That no one was particularly thrilled to have her on board.
Returning comparatively unscathed while Rhaelle’s whereabouts were unknown only meant that she’d lost the little trust they had in her.

​But that… she couldn’t let it matter.
She swung her legs off the biobed.

​“Take it easy, Commander.”, Serith warned.

Nestira stood anyway.
The room tilted.
The light fractured.
Her head protested.

She ignored it and headed to the bridge.