Homecoming

[Karmotrine Dream]

"Are they gone, XO?"
"Leaving as we speak, captain."

The Artio stood at the edge of the ice cloud, still and at a safe distance from the nearby battleship - watching as if in awe the procession of navy warships growing ever more distant on the scanners.

"HMS Black Prince's off the map too, captain. They say we better behave, or else."
he scoffed, halfway amused and pleased by that bit of normalcy.
"Psh. Typical."

The woman at the helm slumped on the chair, closed her eyes and exhaled the long, deep breath she hadn't noticed holding back.
She looked ten years older than she was - drained and tired, restless, a maelstrom of conflicting emotions on her features.

"Captain... Lefina, we should move. I heard the vice admiral, I know he said he'll help us out, but if some other patrol finds us now we'll be in big trouble."

Lefina nodded slowly, after a brief hesitation.

"Yes... yes, you're right. Sorry. XO, set a course for Torshavn... we're going home.
At last... we're finally home..."
said she, her voice cracking at the end under the titanic pressure of relived tension, clashing emotions and sheer, manic disbelief of it all - the day's revelations, the circumstances of their return, their very return even.

"Home..."
repeated he, somberly, as he executed the order.

The destroyer's drives began to spool up, while the manoeuvring thrusters pushed its prow towards the ice cloud.
Lefina blinked, and stammered an apology.

"Ah... I mean..."
"It's fine, captain. I know what you meant. I'm fine."
(Liar...)

She said nothing to that and remained silent, for a brief while.
He wasn't fine, she could tell - his customary vigorous enthusiasm and resolute bearing had abandoned him, now the immediate 'threat' of Armed Forces had returned to New London, leaving behind a restlessness not unlike hers.
Even if he pretended otherwise.

"Sean..."
"Hell of a day, eh captain?"
she opened her mouth to interject, confront him about it - but elected not to, at least for the moment.
"Ever seen anything like it? I know I haven't. Bloody hell..."
he smirked at her, as he left the controls to the autopilot for the last stretch and started pacing around.
"If anyone told me, years ago, we'd be sitting in New London and talking politely to a half a fleet of navy blokes and cutting deals with them, and that we'd still be in one piece by the end of it... bugger me, it's unbelievable. Just unbelievable. Don't know how else to say it."

She gave a little nod and a thin smile; out of the day's many upsets, that was one that roused a measure of hope within her.
"Agreed. I myself can scarce believe it..."
"Did great out there, captain. And thank the stars you've always been 'untrustworthy', hah! Had it been me doing the talking, we wouldn't have lasted a minute."

She chuckled softly at the remark, waving away both the sentiment and a handful of scarlet curls from her forehead.
It would've elicited much different reactions from both, back then - and it was a simple fact that she'd always been more eager to talk over conflicts than shoot them up, even if it meant ignoring factional lines and IFFs, or that she had never shared her past with anyone but the upper leadership. By all means, they were justified in deeming her 'untrustworthy'.
But, with time and effort, things do change.
(And now here we are.)

"Captain... do you think they were sincere?"
she blinked; her XO had stopped, and was looking at her with the closest thing to apprehension she'd ever seen on his face.
"About the working together again, I mean. And the Gauls, and Gaia, the safe passage, and..."
she averted her eyes and looked down, darkly knowing where the sentence was going; he did not finish it, but there was need to.
"You know them better than I do, so..."

She drew a deep breath.

(They COULD have lied, or exaggerated. But why? What would be the benefit? Had they wanted to rid themselves of us, they easily could have - and yet they didn't.
Not many were happy about it, true, but aside from that BPA officer none were outright hostile either.
Unfortunately, this must mean...)

"... I have no reason to believe they were not, Sean. They're navy people, if they wanted a problem gone they would've just shot at it. They're not ones to lie... usually."
"..."
"And there is precedent for it, as you well know. I do honestly believe they will keep their word."
"Then..."
"Then we will make the best of the leeway we have been granted, Sean, and do as we planned once the Artio is restored to her proper form. We will see for ourselves then. Okay?"

She smiled reassuringly, or gave it her best effort. She did not have the heart to crush his hopes... and besides, she too wanted to believe it.
He remained silent for a while, the distant roar of the cruise engines filling the void, then nodded and forced a smile himself.

"Okay, captain."
"Good. Now... what do you say we make ourselves presentable? What's the ETA?"
the man hesitated briefly, then smiled a little more and turned to the console.
"Five-fortytwo, captain. Make it half that to enter hailing range."
"Mm. Are our codes in order? The encryption?"
"Well... they were years ago, captain. Must've changed a thousand times by now."
she adjusted her hat, flicking away a lock of hair from her eyes.
"It can't be helped. Let's hail with them anyway, and send our designation if it doesn't work - they'll be suspicious, but they won't fire."
"Hope so. Would be damn ironic if we got sunk a few k away from the door by our own."

A few more seconds of silence ensued as they both stare off in the distance, watching as the ice floes go by and trying to make out shapes and shadows, wondering when will one of them turn into their destination.

"What do you think their faces will be like when they see us, captain?", he smirked.
"They're gonna think we're ghosts or something. Maybe turn a few Supernovas on us, see if we melt away in the light."

"Haha. I don't know, really... and it's so odd to think about, you know. All these years I've been dreaming of this moment, picturing our return in my mind so many times and in so many ways... and now it's here, it's all a blank."
the XO nods, pensively.
"All I can think of now, Sean, is that we're back. At long last, we are really back... and there are no words to express how overjoyed, relieved, incredulous, hopeful... and so many other things besides, I..."

The sentence trailed off, as her voice cracked once more.
She pulled the peaked cap over her misty eyes, trying - and failing - to stifle a quiet sob.

"Captain...?"
the older man moved over to her, unsure of what to do, and tried to spy the expression beneath the hat.

It wasn't the first time he'd seen her cry, Gaia knows they've all had good cause to over the years.
Of the many misgivings he - and not just he - had about her, was that emotivity... and sure, at the time it really was a hindrance, and he was sceptical about her ability to properly command the Artio, let alone advance their cause. A captain must be stoic and resolute, he thought; an example to all, no matter what, of zeal and dedication to the cause.
She would prove she was, in time, although in her own way.

And now... now he's doing his best not to give into that same relief she's feeling - hell, all of them must be feeling - and fight back the lump in his throat, still adamant that he shouldn't be showing any such side of himself to the crew.
Even if they most likely shared the sentiment and remained quiet, as if terrified of doing something that may suddenly shatter the dream.

"Yeah. I'm really happy too, Lefina."
he smiled and patted her shoulder, after he'd seen the tears of joy streaming down her face.

"Um... captain, XO?"
"Ye-", he cleared his throat, turning to the scientific officer. "Yes?"
"We should be in scanner range. They'll be hailing us any moment now. Want to do the honours?"

Captain Lefina Elwyn, MIA like all of them in years long past, sniffled and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of the uniform, then nodded.
The crew held their breaths.

"Gladly. Eita, open the hailing frequencies and send our designation."
"Aye captain, on it. Here goes..."

Silence.
One, two, three, five seconds - and then, a darker and larger shadow emerges from the clouds, a silvery flash of metal refracting against the ice.

"Friendly signature, halt and identity yourself. Your codes are years old and we are not expecting any capital sh... by the stars! It can't be!"
"It can. We're home, Leigh."
"T-that's... captain Lefina?!"
"The Artio is back, control. We are back."
a loud crash boomed over the channel, followed by frantic, exhilarated shouting.
"Commander! COMMANDER! You've gotta see this...!"