CYTM101

=Chapter 101=
==Can you tell me where can we start over?==
LCS Golden Lake
Landmark Class Destroyer
Lyran Commonwealth
3077
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Nicole sat anchored at her sea-cabin's desk.  
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Dear Mom and Dad.
It's me.  By now you know what I did. I could try to justify stealing the Emmaline, I guess...or make excuses at least.  Admiral Li showed me your notice. I guess you found the doc who did the surgery, because you included a female projection.
I'm not sorry for what I've become since I left, but I'm sorry for the way I left. I know it's going to be hard on you to see what I am now.
I have become a soldier, an officer, my trade has become the business of war and the bringing of death, and I know how you both feel about that.  I won't soil scripture by quoting it as a justification for this.  In my time as a soldier, I have both taken lives, and saved them. My proudest achievements involve the deaths of my enemies, and they are also my greatest shame.  I know what Joseph would say, that altering my body from god's plan is a greater sin, but I have seen things that if they are not a greater offense, then maybe they should be.
This morning I had the opportunity to examine a true atrocity.  The Word of Blake's leaders had set up a prisoner camp, where they conducted medical experimentation on civilians and prisoners of war.  It is noted in captured documentation simply as 'Site 22' on Skye.  I feel empty, because this isn't the first one we found, not even the first one I've laid my eyes on personally.
There have been others, and we keep finding them as we penetrate into zones that spent more than a few months under Word of Blake control.
Dad, you'll be happy to know I still visit frequently with Chaplains, that we discuss the Bible, and the Savior, and god regularly.
But I truly dread only one thing.  Seeing your expressions when we reach Sol and I have to face you again after almost fifteen years.  This dread is tempered by the hope that I WILL see you, that you won't have fallen victim, that I won't find you in one of these facilities, a victim of medical madmen bent on plunging mankind into darkness once again.  I pray for your safety, because I know you will not fight.
Your child,
-Nikki.
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She read it to herself, and then hit 'erase' and turned off the monitor for another off shift of restless sleep.
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