"I've seen several weddings," Veronica says, "but this is the best of them all."

After a moment, Malcolm speaks up. "Congratulations to the both of you."

Joxe smiles. "Thank you." She releases Brent's hands and turns toward the kitchen. "If it's okay, I'd like to look around for a few minutes."

Brent nods and smiles. "Take your time my wife." He turns back toward the others.  "Thank you for participating with us.  It means so much for both of us to share this with you our friends."

Joxe walks through the kitchen, noting that all of the small items are gone, presumably packed away when her parents left. She walks upstairs, and then returns two minutes later. "This is interesting. I found it in my old room." She holds up a datachip. "It has my name written on it in my father's handwriting."

Gareth observes the ceremony silently and continues plotting.

Brent waits quietly as Joxe investigates.  He's lost in his own thoughts as he looks around the abandoned home.  When Joxe returns he looks at the data chip.  "They must have thought you might come home.  Do you want to try and read it now or take it back to the ship?"

"I'd like for us to read it later. Just the two of us."

Brent nods and takes her hand again.  "Is there any more that you wish to do here?  I think we can depart.  It looks like the laser from the ship will be our best means to provide some burial ending to the group lost at the city hall."

Joxe agrees, and a little while later, the items they collected are stored, and Wanderer is ready to fly. Everyone is at their stations, and the laser turret's emitter is deployed, with the capacitors fully charged.

"Stand by to lift," Brent calls over the intercom.  He pauses for a count of ten and then lifts.  "Lifting."

He brings the ship up to about 1500 meters, well clear of any debris from the laser.  Brent slewed the laser around to bear on the coordinates of the massacre.  "I'm going to incinerate the massacre site.  Does anyone have anything to say?"

"Go ahead," Joxe says quietly. She is standing behind Brent's chair, and she reaches out to grip his shoulder.

Brent looks back at Joxe and puts his hand on hers.  He turns on the intercom  "I don't know these people but I do know that the did not deserve what happened to them.  They died fighting to the very end and we give what we can; dignity after death as much for us as for them." He pressed the fire button with his free hand and then watched the results on the holo screen in the bridge.

Malcolm had rolled Wanderer into a 60-degree right bank to bring the single dorsal laser emitter to bear on the dome below. The ship's grav plates canceled out the side forces, but everyone with a view outside felt a bit of vertigo at the oddly tilted horizon.

Back in Engineering, Veronica heard and felt the heavy thump as the laser turret's capacitors discharged over four hundred megajoules of energy into the laser circuitry. Much of that energy was consumed in the laser itself, but some of it flashed through the emitter array. The three-meter wide beam of coherent light was squashed down to the size of a man's fist by the grav focusing field projected three meters in front of the emitter array.

The laser beam slashed through the dome as if it wasn't there, and tore its way into the ground floor of the government building. Dust and bits of building material flew as the beam dumped its remaining kinetic energy into the target. There was no fire, of course, but the tremendous heat from the impact was clearly visible on Naimh's and Gareth's sensors.

Nothing else happened for a moment, and then the building collapsed on itself in a cloud of dust.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:54, Mon 27 Aug 2018.

Brent had them hold the ship in position for a count of twenty.  "Take her to the Jump point," was all he had to say.

26/V/1402 0600hrs

Three hours later, Wanderer is closing in on Poznan's jump limit. The crew has stayed up all night, and everyone is exhausted. Joxe has returned to her post in Engineering, helping Veronica keep an eye on things as they prepare for jump.

"Thirty minutes to jump," Malcolm intones. "Um, we are jumping to Execute, right?"

Brent is quiet as the ship moves directly through space to the hidden limit. "Yes, take her to Execute.  We can use the time off in Jump to recover."

"Will do," Malcolm replies. "The jump routine is set up; why don't you go get some rest?"

A moment later, Joxe appears in the bridge doorway. "Come to bed, husband."

Brent sighs and gives the instruments a check.  "Yes, punch in the course and let's try to rest if we can."  He looked up as Joxe appeared at the hatch.  "Ok, my darling wife, let me shut down here."  Brent carefully secured and locked down his workstation and then rose.  "Thank you for handling things Malcom.  That planetfall was difficult for us all."

He stepped over and took Joxe's hands.  "I'm ready darling.  We have our life ahead of us now."  There was more he would say but later...

In their bed, Joxe curls up in Brent's arms, exhausted from the events of the day, and drifts off to sleep with a mumbled apology.

Wanderer transitions into jump space under the watchful eyes of Malcolm and Veronica. The envelope is perfectly formed, and the jump drive is running correctly. The ship's computer is capable of standing watch, so the rest of the crew retires to their quarters for some much-needed sleep.

Brent sighs and holds Joxe close as she nods off.  He watches the repeaters set in the ceiling of the stateroom showing the ship transitioning to Jump and system showing green.  The crew were skilled and could handle things for the next twelve hours or so.

26/V/1402 1030hrs

Everyone is awakened by their sleep alarms four hours after the ship enters jump. "I'm sorry," Veronica says over the comm, "but I didn't want to completely mess up our sleep schedules."

"I'm going to strangle her," Joxe mumbles into Brent's chest. "Right after I get some coffee." She is lying on her side, with her head on his chest.

Brent snorts a bit as he wakens suddenly.  "Well, that was... rude."  He pulls her to him and strokes her hair.  "Don't permanently strangle her if you must."

"Okay, since you asked nicely." She languidly moves on top of him, with her knees beside his hips. "Good morning, husband." Joxe leans down, pressing her chest to his, and kisses him gently.

Bent throws back the covers as Joxe shifts over him.  He wraps his arms around her neck and pulls her down to him.  "Good morning wife.  I like the sound of that."

It takes the newlyweds another hour to arrive in the crew lounge. Malcolm is sitting with his feet propped up on an empty container, reading something on a large padd. "Good morning," he says with a smile.

Brent nods to Malcom as he and Joxe enter the room.  "Good morning indeed.  Did you sleep well Malcom?"  He heads over to the coffee machine and pulls out two mugs.  As he pours the hot, black liquid for himself and Joxe he asks; "Do you want some coffee Malcom?"