New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

Iago hadn’t looked so happy in a long time, Brooks thought.

Cassandra Caraval, next to him, looked far more nervous.  She didn’t seem to want to meet Brooks’s eyes, which was a little different from how he remembered her.

But in her situation, most people would feel pretty uncertain.

She had, after all, been thought dead for the past few years.

It had been on a visit to the mining colony on the fringe where she had been born – an accidental explosion during a cryo-stir of the colony’s air tanks had vented an entire habitation dome.  Everyone had been thought dead.

Now that she had returned, Brooks felt his caution was justified.  Iago had suffered a strong reaction to tenkionic exposure recently that had seemed to be causing a deterioration of his sanity.  But then he had found Cassandra again and had seemingly recovered.  Miraculous, but also alarming in its own way.

Before him, Brooks had the results of every test they could run on Cassandra.

He had decided to let Y take slightly lighter duties, and gotten Dr. Zyzus to perform the tests, him being the next most senior.  But everything had come back to say, essentially, that this was Mary Cassandra Caraval.

She was not a clone, no kind of hyper-advanced biological machine as far as they could tell.  She had the same scars and physical markings.  She had aged up exactly as made sense, albeit with higher stress markers.

All of which fit.

“Cassandra, if you don’t mind me asking,” he said.  “What do you remember of the incident?”

Her eyes raised slightly, her head staying angled down.  It made her look all the more innocent.  “Very little.  I only vaguely remember warning sirens . . .  I was already putting on a suit, but I can’t remember why.  Perhaps to help check the external power lines for micro-meteor damage?  It used to be my job when I lived there . . .”

“She was probably showing some newbies the ropes,” Iago interjected.

Brooks glanced to him, keeping his face calm, not too sympathetic nor letting his annoyance show.  It wasn’t so much at them as . . . well, his feeling about the whole situation.

“The next thing I remember,” Cassandra continued, “I was waking up on the Grey Gift.  That’s a ship that belongs to the Order.”

“I see.  Did they have any more information about your survival?”

“They just responded to the automated distress beacon and found me floating, unconscious and badly injured – my helmet had taken a debris hit that dented it, giving me some skull trauma.”

That healed injury had also shown up in her exams.

“There must have been a lot of debris,” Urle said, and Brooks was grateful for just how calm and kind he managed to sound.  “How did they locate you through all of that?”

“I don’t know, Commander,” Cassandra said.  Everything about it screamed that she was being honest.  “It was simply a miracle of the Infinite – that is all I can imagine.”

Brooks glanced to Urle.

“Well, Cassandra, I suppose all I can say is that I am grateful that you are alive – however it happened.  And welcome back.”

He extended a hand, and Cassandra nearly jumped in her seat before quickly taking it.

“Thank you, Captain.  Does this mean . . . ?” she trailed off.

“Yes, you are now officially back among the living,” Brooks told her.  “With all of the rights and benefits of that.”

Elation spread across her face and Iago let out a whoop, grabbing her in a hug.

Brooks did feel genuine happiness for them.  How could he not?

But he also couldn’t shake the feeling of concern.

Iago reached out and took his hand now.  “Thank you so much, Captain.  I can’t tell you how much this means to us.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” he said.  “I’m sorry there was such a runaround.  It’s not nice to have to go through.”  A smile crept onto his face.  “I was reported dead once and it was difficult to sort out.  But now I hope that you all can move forward joyously.  Especially Elliot.  How is he, if I may ask?”

“He’s over the moon,” Iago said, grinning.  “I know things were hard for him lately – I know I was.”  He was speaking quickly, stumbling over his words.  “I wasn’t doing for him everything I needed to do.  But I’m better now, and he’s strong enough that he made it through.  There was a light for him at the end of this, at least, and I just couldn’t be more proud of him and happy that he got something back.”

Cassandra was listening to him, but put a hand on his shoulder gently to calm him.

“Thank you again, Captain.  We are eternally in your debt,” she said.

“If I may ask,” Urle said.  “I understand you’re now a member of the Esoteric Order’s faith – we don’t really have any facilities of worship for that, nor is our chaplain familiar with your faith.  While he’ll learn – in the meantime, is this an issue for you?”

“Oh no, Commander,” Cassandra said.  “My faith is very private, anyway.  You won’t see much of it, I promise you.”

“We’re not worried about that,” Brooks said.  “I’m not sure how much you remember of the Sapient Union’s stance here, but we have no state religion and such organizations are treated no differently from any other, people are free to worship as they please – we just don’t allow public proselytizing.”

“You won’t have to worry about that,” Iago said.  “We’ll be private.”

“You’re an adherent now?” Urle asked.  He phrased it in a friendly manner, and Iago clearly took it that way.

“Yes, absolutely.  How could I not be when it gave me back Cass?”

Brooks nodded and smiled.  “All right – well have a good day, you two.  And I know you’re interested in resigning your commission, Iago – I’ll look over that, but take a week off first to see how you feel, all right?  If you still want it then, I can grant it with no issue.”

“All right, thank you sir!”  Iago saluted him, and the two moved to leave, smiling and talking excitedly.

As the door closed, Urle said nothing, and Brooks rubbed his forehead.

“It still doesn’t sit right with me,” he said to his Executive Commander.

Urle sighed.  “Me neither.  I want to believe it, and I can’t find any evidence that it’s not true, but . . . it’s too convenient.”

“It wasn’t long ago that Pirra reported seeing a duplicate of Michal Denso on Monitor 1,” Brooks added.  “Completely intact, unlike the actual man.  And that was the same mission that caused Iago his mental breakdown.”

“Though that copy was insane, wasn’t it?” Urle noted.  “Cassandra seems completely there.”

Brooks only let out a dissatisfied grunt.

A warning flash went off on his desk.

“Brooks,” he said, answering it.

“Captain,” Pirra’s voice said.  “We’ve had an incident on a tour ship.  One man attempted to attack one of our crew-“

The sound was interrupted by screaming.  It was not Pirra, but the voice of a human male, clearly furious.

“Calm him down!” Pirra ordered sharply.

Someone else said something, but the words weren’t picked up.

Y’s voice could then be heard.  “Give him another dose of Sedative 12.  It will not hurt him and I believe it will achieve the necessary action.”

Pirra was panting when she came back.  “Sorry, sir.  We’ve apprehended – or, well, Dr. Y apprehended the subject.”

Urle tilted his head.  “Y?” he commented softly.

“Was anyone hurt?” Brooks demanded.

“No, sir.  Ensign Vale is pretty shaken up, but she’s not hurt.  The only other person involved was the perpetrator, a Gohhi native.  We have not ID’d him yet, his system blanked itself and he had some pretty nice tech that made him practically invisible to sensors.”

“Is he military?” Urle asked.  “Is this an attack on the ship?”

“We don’t think so, sir,” Pirra said.  “He’s augmented, but they appear high-grade civilian, not military.”

Brooks frowned.  “I’ll be down in a minute.”

---

< Ep 8 Part 3 | Ep 8 Part 5 >