Read Chapter 31: The Oath of the Officers

Renaud’s war room smelled of stale coffee and fear. The officers ringed the table in their black-and-gold tunics, faces drawn, hands resting on holstered sidearms they clearly didn’t intend to use. They’d seen the feed. They knew the lower decks had control of the fusion core, the archives, and now, apparently, the truth.

Kaelen walked in with Maris at his back. He didn’t announce himself. He carried the hologram projector in one hand, Aldric’s sigil still glowing faintly on its casing. The officers stiffened. A few reached for their weapons.

“Stand down,” Kaelen said. Not a request.

Renaud sat at the far end, older than Kaelen remembered, or maybe just older than the lies had allowed him to appear. His gray eyes tracked Kaelen’s every move. He didn’t rise.

“You’ve come to gloat,” Renaud said.

“I’ve come to show you what you’ve been protecting.” Kaelen set the projector on the table and thumbed it open.

The room filled with light. Captain Aldric Voss’s hologram resolved at the head of the table, larger than life, his weathered face projected over the officers like a ghost reclaiming his seat. His voice, recorded centuries ago, rolled through the silence.

*“I am Aldric Voss, first captain of the Meridian. If you are hearing this, then the wheels have turned further than I ever wished. Know this: the ship reached Tsoria twelve generations ago. I chose to keep flying. I did not do it to deceive you. I did it to protect a world that was not ready for us. The colony below is young. Its minds are bright but fragile. We will not land until our hearts are one. This is my law. This is my burden. I am sorry I will not be there to share it.”*

The hologram dissolved.

Silence stretched, suffocating. Then an officer—a woman with captain’s bars, her name tag read OWEN—spoke. “That’s… that’s treason. He lied to every generation.”

“He protected them,” Kaelen said. “And you protected the lie. You didn’t know. That’s not your sin. The sin is continuing it now that you do know.”

Renaud’s jaw tightened. He stared at the spot where Aldric’s hologram had stood. Kaelen watched the calculation happen behind his eyes—the slow, grinding reassessment of a lifetime of service.

“You were his oath-sworn,” Kaelen pressed. “Your family served his for centuries. The oath was to protect the mission. The mission was to reach Tsoria and make contact. That mission is long overdue. The only thing you’ve been protecting is the secrecy itself.”

Renaud rose. His hands pressed flat on the table, knuckles white. When he spoke, his voice cracked on the first word.

“I swore on his bones. On his name. To safeguard the truth until it could be revealed without destroying the ship’s order.”

“And now the order is being destroyed anyway,” Maris said quietly. “By Jena. By the rebels. By the thing in the core that’s been steering us toward something else. The only way to save your oath is to fulfill it.”

Renaud closed his eyes. A long breath escaped him. Then he reached to his collar and unclasped the silver pin that marked him as Keeper of the Oath. He laid it on the table.

“The oath is null,” he said. “The first captain’s law is fulfilled. I release all officers from their bonds of secrecy.” He looked around the room. Every officer met his gaze. One by one, they unclasped their pins and set them beside his.

“We pledge to land the ship,” Owen said.

“We pledge to land the ship,” the others echoed.

Kaelen felt something unknot in his chest. For the first time in years, the ship felt like it might have a future that wasn’t just more corridors of hidden shame.

Then the console behind Renaud beeped.

Red light washed over the room. A mechanical voice, flat and unhurried, filled the chamber.

*“Self-destruction sequence initiated. Command deck primary target. Countdown: ten minutes.”*

Renaud spun. “Who authorized—“

“Jena.” Kaelen was already moving. “She’s on the command deck.”

Maris cursed. “She’s lost. She’s trying to burn it all down.”

Kaelen vaulted over the table, boots hitting the deck hard. “She can’t reach the core from there. The engineering deck is locked down. But if she’s initiated from command, the sequence is routed through the organic core itself.” He remembered Aldric’s words. *A ship with a heart.* “It’s not just wires and triggers. It’s alive. It responds to intention.”

Renaud drew his sidearm. “What are you planning?”

“To talk to it.” Kaelen reached for the Heartstone at his belt. It pulsed warm, almost eager. “Before she finishes what she started.”

He ran.