"If I can keep my hands off you until we come out of Jump," he laughs quietly.  Brent holds her closely and cradles Joxe as she falls asleep.  He lays awake for a while and then falls asleep himself.

The next day after entering jump space, Brent comes into his shared cabin. Joxe is sitting in the desk chair with the data chip from her parent's house in hand. She smiles wanly as Brent enters.

Brent closes the door behind him and takes a seat on the bed next to Joxe.  "Have you been able to open up the chip yet?  Maybe they got out before things got too bad."  He leans over and rubs her shoulders lightly.  "Do you want company watching it."

Joxe takes a breath. "Dad never was one for videos. It's just text." She plugs the chip into a padd and passes it to Brent.

The text reads:

12/XI/1155

My dearest daughter,

I hope this letter finds you well. Your mother and I have been helping to keep our town running since the attack.

We lost nearly all of our space based infrastructure, and most of the cities and towns were destroyed. Somehow, we survived. I hope that you and your cousins made it through to Montezuma, although we heard later that the war had come to them, too. Hopefully, you're reading this after being able to come back here with the Concordia and your cousins.

Joxe, we have to move away from here, as the raiders have gotten more and more bold. Some friends have offered to let us come with them to Execute, as they say the navy squadrons didn't do that much damage in that system. When you come, be careful about the raiders.
We heard that they are operating out of Kiepes. That doesn't surprise me, as that whole planet is one big mess.

Anyway, we are packing up to leave. Your mother and I both love you very much. We hope to see you soon.

Brent read the message silently. "So they may have made it off to Execute.  We'll have to swing by there.  What happened with your cousins, do you know?"

Joxe smiles sadly. "This ship was originally named the Concordia. The couple you found in the crew lounge were my cousins."

Brent nodded as he recalled that the couple on the ship were Joxe's cousins.  "So what do you want to do?  We can go to Execute but your parents are likely to have passed away in the time since this was written."

"I know," she says with a sniff. "Unless they used low berths. We can check the planet when we arrive. I don't think anyone could survive without tech, though."

Brent hugged her.  "You were in a low berth.  We found at least one other survivor so far as well.  It's possible.  We'll at least try and see if we can find them or any records of them.  That much I promise."

"Thank you, husband." Joxe leans into his embrace. "I think we should share this with our friends. The part about Kiepes is especially worrisome to me."
This message was last updated by the GM at 13:06, Thu 06 Sept 2018.

Brent kisses her gently. "The information may help guide our movements along the Main.  Certainly if there are raiders left after all this time we should be wary."

"That was a long time ago," Joxe says as she studies the letter.

"There doesn't seem to be any traffic around the systems we've visited.  There is nothing really left for anyone to raid so the raiders may be gone as well."

True," Joxe nods. "But, there might be others like us out there."

Brent thought through it.  "Even so, ones like us must be few and far between.  There are no signs of any recent visits to any of the worlds we have gone to.  That doesn't mean we let our guard down though."

"That's true. Should we tell everyone about what we've found?"

"We should definitely do so if you are comfortable."

"I'm glad you're here with me, Brent. You've given me a family again."

Brent tightened his embrace around his wife.  "I'll always be there for you Joxe.  Together we can make our own light against the darkness outside and more later when the time is right.  I want to bring a family into this world with you."

"I hope you weren't planning on sleeping much tonight." She sighs and relaxes into his arms. "Let's go out and talk to everyone before I change my mind and lock us in here for the next day or two."

Brent laughed. "This is important but when we are done I intend to christen our marriage bed in every possible way."  He kissed her then and let his hands travel over her body.  "Or maybe we just wait.  After all we are going to be in Jump for at least a week."

Joxe leans back into Brent's arms. "Oh, please, don't let me stand in the way of a good christening." She giggles and sighs as he caresses her.

Brent laughed and lifted her in his arms.  He carried her the very slight distance from the desk to the bed and laid her on it.  "Your marriage bed my lovely wife." He laid down next to her and taking her head in both hands kissed her deeply.

"Computer, lights to night."

The lights dim to the night setting, just enough to see by. Joxe settles into Brent's embrace with a contented sigh...

And since we aren't an adult rated game ;-)

Fade to a soft black...