From the moment Lieutenant Candace Winchester opened her eyes, she had a strange feeling about the timeline in front of her. Not in a warp could she have guessed what was about to happen, just a general, malevolent feeling. Not that many would have listened to her. At just sixty years of age, she was considered far too young to know much about anything by most. At times, it felt that the gerontocracy would prefer no young people whatsoever but there was always new space that needed colonizing, and hence a need for new humans. Still, she had managed to excel, and was now in charge of her squadron.
She had never known her parents as was the case for most of her generation, and was birthed or manufactured biologically on one of the many space habitats in orbit around the Earth. The rest of the batch became her surrogate family. It was a joyous childhood but short. She matched that cohort of intelligence and athletic ability that was assigned to the military.
This ultimately led her to being assigned to the Danu just a few months prior. She remembered the first time she took sight of it. It was giant, majestic with the large circular warp engine far off in the distance to the rear. However, nothing could have prepared her for the inside of the ship. Despite having a crew of over one thousand, one could walk its corridors and chambers for hours without meeting another soul. Parts of it were barren and cold, other parts luxurious with every conceivable manner of entertainment. At times, she would love to lose herself in one of the many virtual worlds.
Her squadron had only been informed of its mission two hours previously. To extract Dr. Lenz from the nearest star-base and to expect trouble. It was a high priority mission and space marines were to be fully armed. This was all very strange to her considering it was a friendly vessel.
However on disembarking from the Supply Vessel – nicknamed Maria and onto the floor of the Space Port, she was sure happy they came prepared. There were screams far off in the distance and the air smelt rotten.
Then she saw a man running towards her with a brief case. He was lean, athletic with blonde hair and shouting “Lt. Winchester!”.
“Dr. Lenz? Where is your security detail?”
“Long story, here is my ID. We better be off!’
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