The silence that followed Kaelen’s scream was heavier than a planet’s gravity. It pressed down on us, suffocating, absolute. The glorious star chart, his father’s final gift, still hung in the air, a silent, glittering accusation. Every officer in the Central Control Room was a statue carved from shock, their faces pale in the holographic light.
Their collective gaze shifted. First, from the star chart to the crumpled, kneeling form of their Commander. Then, with a dawning, murderous rage, to Adjutant Lyna.
She was the first c***k in the frozen tableau. Her paralysis broke, and she took a single, shuffling step backward, her eyes darting around the room, searching for an escape that didn't exist. She was a cornered predator, suddenly finding herself the prey.
“He authorized it,” she his
