The Recovery of Dreams

[Emily Gataki]

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Emily sighed. Aboard the Gryphon had been rough adapting, but the conditions were good enough that the change wasn’t the most tedious. The ships intercom warbled in the distance, but she tuned it out. With the setbacks to the operation, she wondered if they would even be able to find what was left, or if the integrity of the ship had degraded enough that it wouldn’t be recognisable.

“Some trip, huh. I do hope Ikarus Station is in one piece.”

The news had reached her of the station’s need to be towed halfway across Tau-23 back towards the anomalies. An inconvenience for sure, considering now everything had to be recalculated. Fuel costs, maintenance and repairs, flight time. Each part of the meticulously planned retrieval had to be ironed out once more, recalculated and refined. It was why she was pouring over fuel datapads, and the equally daunting maintenance report for the assets involved.

“With fuel costs going up, and now more mileage to cover, budgets are going to be tighter than ever… may have to reduce our boundaries somewhat..”

She tapped a few keys, inputted some numbers and watched them grow semi-alarmingly. It’d cost them Nineteen percent more fuel, unless they reduced the payloads of the fleet. Not an easy task. She toyed with the idea of reaching out to her family, back in Liberty, but another thought of the state of Erie and Pennsylvania stopped her. Zoners hadn’t been treated well there by the Lawful presence. It would not go down well, to be accepting aid from such a source, unless there was dire need of it.

“Maybe lighter support ships, that would help.”

Emily knew the mission may have to progress to the next stage at any moment, but she put the pads on her side table and laid back on the bed. Her eyes closed, attempting to think about the mission and its complexity. Only one thought persisted: Bring Her Home.

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