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The bridge was eerily silent around her. She could hear herself breathing, jagged inhales and exhales that seemed to only get faster.

The next thing she knew, Jere's arms wrapped around her from behind, his head falling against her shoulder. His embrace was tight, contained, but warm. He held her as though she were the most fragile specimen he'd ever taken care of, and his calming energy seeped through him and straight into Reyna's body, of which she only realized was shaking. She closed her eyes and leaned back against him, the tears spilling in rivulets, because she knew he was right.

"She can't be gone," Reyna whispered.

A few moments passed before Jere responded. "Hopefully, she's not. Hopefully, she's somewhere else, in the wrong place, and we will get a call in a few weeks from Vondra saying theyfound her on a planet made entirely of fluffy pink champagne clouds."

Reyna laughed, a laugh that broke through her tears, but they didn't cease. She felt Jere's smile against her shoulder but also the cold of his own tears against her uniform.

"It's time, Rey."

And then Reyna cried. Not a sob, but steady tears that didn't stop, tears that led to shaky breaths and stained cheeks. Tears that fell onto Jere's arms still wrapped around her shoulders.

A few minutes later, Reyna stood on the bridge, facing the crew before her and connected to comms with the scouts, and gave the formal order to stop searching for the Emberkind's captain.

She said the words, even heard them inside her own head. She was aware she said them clearly, because that was the one thing above all that the crew deserved: clarity. Elena would have demanded clarity, because she would uphold that a captain does not mumble, even in a moment where the cost of the decision being communicated is letting go of someone she loves.

"The search is concluded," she finished. "Chief, log the mission as a failure, that we were not able to complete the task. Note that Elena Voss, Captain of the CMS Emberkind, is now classified as missing in action. It needs to be stated that her status is unknown, despite the search."

"Yes, Second," the Chief Navigator said, communicating with the Chief Mission Specialist next to him to coordinate the report.

"Captain," Jere said from against the wall next to Reyna' console. The Chief Navigator looked up at Jere, and then rounded on Reyna with wide eyes.

"Of course, my apologies.Captain."

The bridge was suddenly quiet in a way Reyna believed it had never been before. But inside, she was screaming.

After the crewcleared the bridge, Reyna walked towards Elena's office. She touched the handle and pushed the door opened. She saw Elena's chair was there, the star maps she worked with lining the walls. Her handwriting was left on the datapads she had stacked at the edge of the desk. This room held that faint, residual presence of someone who had made it theirs, who had sat in that chair and reviewed those maps and left her coffee on the edge of the console where she always did.

Reyna stood in the doorway, staring at the chair behind Elena's desk.

She couldn't walk towards it. It felt as though, with no disturbance to it, that Elena would be back in no time, sitting there, completing her missions and tasks, yelling at Jere for prioritizing a special habitat add-on, or discussing with Reyna the reasons why it was important to change the filter more often than was recommended in Habitat 9A because the smell was driving the Engineering crew to tears.

But her heart couldn't wrap around the idea completely. Even her imagination couldn't lie to her about Elena.

She looked at the chair, but she did not sit in it.

The lights in the office dimmed, only slightly, but then continued darker and darker, that Reyna almost didn't notice, the environmental system adjusting by just a fraction of a lumen each time, until she realized that the ship had registered Elena's absence before Reyna had even finished standing in it.

? 1977 / CYCLE 487 | EMBERKIND CV-0417, SECTOR LYRA ?

10 MONTHS LATER

This time, a mission didn't go wrong. Instruments didn't fail. Return was always possible.

But still, the shuttle came back without him.

Ten months after Elena's disappearance, the Emberkind was running smoothly. The crew were laughing in corridors again, there was enjoyment and camaraderie in the mess hall every night. And to top it all off, the crew members who had been on that fateful mission had all been cleared to return to their positions, and every single one of them requested to rejoin the Emberkind.

They'd continued missions, rescued animals, and were a safe space for rehabilitation as best as they ever had been.

Reyna was a good captain. Jere had told her so, many times. Her bridge team never came right out and said it, but they trusted her, following her orders, believing in her judgement and decisions. They had taken to her easily. Elena's presence was still felt on the ship, but in remembrance, not as a ghost.

The crew had adjusted. Their mission remained completely intact.

The ship had moved on.

But Reyna had not.