The past week had gone by in a flash but finally the Mercutio had been given a clean bill of health from Starfleet and their “specialists” were off the ship. The refit had improved the ship’s computer core, installed new carpeting in the hallways and turbolifts, and made some other aesthetic changes, but it was nice to have the ship to themselves.

Patricia had spent most of her week getting back into the swing of things. Her main priority was Cassie. She was now over the illness she’d come back with. She was eating regularly again, gaining weight and getting used to her new surroundings. After the first few days, Patricia waded through four months of messages, the overwhelming majority of which were her superiors asking where their operator had gone. After the first two months the tone changed to more concern. She was glad nobody thought that she’d just gone awol for the hell of it.

After that she started scrolling through intel reports, nothing major seemed to have occurred. She took a sip from her coffee mug when she came across a series of reports and almost choked. She set the mug down and read every sentence at least twice. Shadow Incorporated had fallen apart, the Nadalls were now believed to have escaped when a major uprising overthrew them. But why and how had this happened? As she scrolled back her breath caught in her throat.

James was dead.

They said he went out of a hero but that had to be a lie, he was chickenshit as the day was long. Maybe he offed himself. She leaned back in her chair, taking the news in and one thought kept pushing itself to the front of her mind……someone did this and it wasn’t her. Regret filled her. If anyone was going to put an end to him it should have been her. Now she felt as if someone had stolen something from her. The old feelings of anger, revenge, action came flooding back.

Then she heard a fussy cry coming from the nursery. Quickly she went in and found a little girl with a full diaper in a bad mood. That was easy enough to fix. Her other problem would take more time.