<div dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-ae333f2d-7fff-8e6b-8ced-fa6496962ad2"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Mission: Andromeda's Chain</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Day: 1</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Stardate: 2446.01.03</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(USS Exeter – Bridge - Empress Lana Wakeman and aCO Ailynn Bracken– 0445)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Lana straightened herself as the Commander stepped away; she had looked into Bracken’s eyes. She had hoped for the outwardly playful, insincere, and fleeting creature,fleeting of thought and dulled of senses. However as the Commander's hands twisted the cloth around her throat with a surgical precision that she both recognised, and to a degree commended, the Empress saw something else, she saw tender tactility and pain, she saw love and hatred, she saw death...and life. There was an instant, a moment of the purest quanta of time where her and Ailynn stared into each other’s soul, she knew that foe the moment that she had go the more of that glance, and even that had pushed Lana’s psyche to the edge. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">~Damned Brackens and their utter unserving feelings about duty, and honour. That iota-sliced sliver of time had only given her so much, the most of which that she could have guessed. Ailynn was of that Dark bloodline the ones that had so many times stepped up to take a lead; when all sensibility told them to , whose familial destiny was to be the one that needs to do what was needed and that she was completely and utterly wired at a genetic level to sniff out pain and injustice, and destroy it.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Lana slinked, able to breathe, “As you see fit to secure them.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Reply BIlly)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Billy then turned to Her. "My lady, we have control of Engineering from here. Outside of command control authorization, we have full control of the ship. There are a few loose agents out there, but other than that the Exeter is all yours."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(reply Lana)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">"Might I suggest, my lady, that perhaps we lock our three friends in the Ready Room. Stow them away until, they are ready to comply." Billy then nodded as he stood waiting for his Empress to command him.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Lana nodded. “If that’s what you recommend. I shall reward you later. Escort them into the ready room,” smiling as she turned around, she missed Ailynn’s glance to the others as did  the entire bridge, shaking her head gently to the other Officers near her, she smiled internally.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Reply Billy/ ‘goodies’ on bridge)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ailynn feigned a fightback as she and the other were forced by Billy into the ready room. For herself Ailynn stood her ground and stared Billy deep in the eyes, seeing nothing. But hoping to hit a conscience that was buried. “Billy...she felt the full force of her her attention throw itself forward. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Io chiamo….Mia dispiace...Rivendico una faida di sangue” Ailynn translated instantly. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“I claim blood feud. So long as there is there is fire in my soul and blood in my veins or life in any progeny of my loins we will know no peace. Her other hand slapped him out of nowhere. “ I abhor you, and all of your descendants. .” She stared deep into his eyes </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Reply Billy)</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br><br></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Ailynn saw nothing of the pleasant boy that she had known, and from nothing threw her palm around in an open slap, an ancient display of unforgivable insult.“faida.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Reply Billy)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">She allowed her and the others to be moved, very very carefully, she noted, to the ready room, were she assumed that the Empress thought them secure. The moment the door was shut, her demeanor switched to one of being more supportive,she ripped open a panel to reveal a medkit. “Okay so eat. That is an order, grab your favourites  perhaps more maternal. “Grab something to eat, then present it to me to scan.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“HIt me....”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Reply Ready Room)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.9872;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Posted by Mark)</span></p></span><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></div>