[i]
“Kelsie, wake up!”

“Mmm, just a few more minutes.” The sheets were so warm and cuddly.

“KELSIE!”

“Whaat?”

“It’s… it’s your father, honey,” her mother was sobbing. “They… they murdered him!” She pointed to a message on a datapad. 

Everything was blurry and fuzzy, Kelsie couldn’t focus on the letters, but some words popped out. Dishonorable discharge. Executed. “W… what did he do?” she mumbled.

“WHAT DID HE DO?” Claire yelled at her. “That is the first thing that comes to your mind? You are just like the rest of them!”

Image of her yelling mother blurred out, shifting and changing to a familiar figure.

“... terrorist attack.” Hamonga and Kelsie were in combat uniforms, their squadron heading out into battle.

“What? No, she wouldn’t do that.” Panic was threatening to take over.

“They stopped her, but…” Hamonga shook his head, unsure what to say.

“No, no.” That couldn’t be true. Kelsie curled down on the floor, desperately fighting the tears. “No.” She was alone. So alone. All alone now. How could her parents have done this to her?
[/i]

[right][sub]([i]Addressing: [@Sigma])[/i][/sub][/right]

“NO!” she screamed out, trying to jump up, too late remembering she had fallen asleep in a hammock. As she tried to gather all her limbs off the ground, there was a soft knock on the door.

The stupid nightmare still lingered in her head. She hasn’t had them in years, all this stress must have been taking a bigger toll on her than she realized. “Come in,” she mumbled, still shaken.

Julianna Petrova peeked into the room. “I am sorry, Guardian, we have tried to reach you over the comms, but you weren’t responding.” 

Kelsie must have turned it off to get a moment alone. Dammit. “What is going on?”

“You are needed on the bridge. Another ship just appeared.”

Fuck. “I’ll be right there.”

Julianna hesitated. “Is… everything alright?”

Wow, did she really look that bad? “I’m fine,” she sneered. “But… thanks for asking. I didn’t even have time to ask, what did you think about our guests?” she asked as they headed to the bridge.

“Well, to be honest, their technological superiority is intimidating. We don’t come anywhere that close. But, I agree with you that we should stay away from them. There was something really off about them. The way they talked and acted… And that predator form crap? Why the hell would they go into such detail as adding dreadlocks on a remotely controlled robot designed to fight off predators?”

Kelsie didn’t even notice such details. “So, you think there was an actual person inside that thing?”

Julianna shrugged. “I think there was something that used to be a person once. What is it now, that is a question I cannot answer. I would love to know how they were communicating, though. And not just through the Gateway, but they must have had some connection with each other. The way they moved in sync, without even looking at the others, like they were just parts of one organism.”

“I don’t think they will be eager to tell us now.”

The whole crew was on the bridge, looking at the monitors, chatting excitedly. “So, what do we have here?”

“Another ship came through the Gateway a few minutes ago. They are trying to contact us,” Parker answered.

“That’s good, so why all the fuss?”

“Because of that.” A 3D model appeared on one of the screens. “It’s huge, and it’s obvious it was designed for war. Look at all the weapons, and those are just the ones our scanners are able to detect and identify. These guys came packin’. They could blow us and the other ships up without breaking a sweat.”

Kelsie studied the battleship model. She was afraid of this, although it was clear that there would be more than a few former colonies ready to wage interstellar war. The Undefeated, however, weren’t one of them, and she couldn’t afford to antagonize yet another technologically advanced civilization. ‘Please just no more robots,’ she thought. ‘Let them just be nice guys who came armed to the teeth to scare off potential enemies.’ 

“All right, hail them, tell them who we are, that we are pleased to meet them, et cetera, just like the others. Tell them that we would love to send our ambassadors to their ship, if they want to meet in person.” If they want to appear strong, we can let them. Not that we have any other choice.