"Christmas won't be Christmas this year without presents," Jo grumbled as she watched the holo–message coming through her communication link. The holographic images of her twin niece and nephew as they babbled holiday greetings lit up their dingy corner of the barrack.

     "It's so dreadful to be here while my children are on Mars," Meg sighed. Meg was the mother of the two kids in the message and the older sister of Jo. They had been separated from their family for nearly two years. That was half the life of Meg's children and Jo's heart broke at the thought of what Meg must feel.

     You wouldn't know the two sisters were sisters by looking at them. In fact, if you gathered all four March sisters together you wouldn't be able to tell they were family. All were orphans taken in by a couple who couldn't have children of their own. When the aliens first invaded so many years ago it left orphans on every space station, outpost, and colony in the system. Their bonds to one another were strong though, perhaps stronger than any blood tie could have made them, especially considering the loss they'd suffered.

     "You'll see them again, Meg. John too," Jo reassured her sister as she saw Meg fighting tears at the sight of her children. Josephine clicked off the message and the barrack went dark.

     "I wish I knew where he was," Meg said glumly. Communication, military and civilian, had gotten spotty because the aliens had taken out key satellites months ago. Nobody had heard from Meg's husband since the satellites went dark and as John was stationed on the far side of the quadrant, any subspace frequencies he sent would likely take a year to reach them without those satellites. The techs were working on replacements but the situation was growing ever more desperate as parts for satellites and other necessities were increasingly hard to come by. In light of that fact, procedure now was to scavenge not just from their own downed ships, but those of the enemy as well.

     That's how the two oldest March sisters came to be on Io, the most volcanic moon in the solar system. Even now they could hear explosions from an eruption, no doubt shooting lava kilometers into the air creating a stunning picture, but one which the novelty had long since worn. It wasn't prestigious work but somebody had to do it and with Josephine's recent court martial she and her team were the natural choice, under supervision of a commander of course.

     Josephine March was notorious for being something of a rouge in the ranks. On her last mission she lead her team behind enemy lines to rescue hostages from an alien detention facility. The facility was on the edge of a recent skirmish and the alien forces had suffered severe losses. As had the United Terran Forces but not quite as bad. The hostages were a mix of civilians and low ranking military personnel.

     As horrible as it was to say they weren't priority for extraction. Jo's orders were to collect her men and head back to base. UTF wanted to regroup and assess before any plans were made. Meg was in command of her own platoon and fought in the skirmish with Jo and her soldiers. Remarkably both sisters survived with minor injuries, but the night before they were to pull out they'd gotten word of Beth's death.

     Hearing her sister had been killed, Jo was full of rage and couldn't stand to leave without doing something more. She'd taken a select group of men and planned to assault the base. Meg just barely managed to head Jo off but Meg couldn't stop her. Meg sent most of her soldiers home but a few wouldn't leave their commander and joined the mission.

     Rescuing the hostages took two hours and wasn't without losses. They lost five soldiers and six of the hostages. As they came out with more alive than dead it was technically rated a success. But that success came with consequences. The mission had been without orders, they'd lost people, and it was Jo's second strike which lead to a court martial. Jo was lucky not to be dishonorably discharged but it was a close call. Meg went with her and therefor also suffered the demotion.

     "John's smart and he's been a soldier longer than either of us. He'll come back," Jo laid down on her lumpy bunk. If you drowned out the sound of the oxygen/temperature system, the artificial gravity system, and the smell of new and stale grease, you could almost get a goodnight sleep on the hard cots. She put her hands behind her head and closed her eyes, hoping to dream of earth. To date earth remained untouched by the war. It was a hard won miracle they'd been able to repel the aliens time and time again before they laid claim to it.

     First contact with the aliens happened twenty years ago when Jo was just eight. The space station United was in deep space at the very edge of humanities' colonies. One day it stopped transmitting, at first that wasn't a big deal but when two months passed without contact panic grew. An explosion? A fire? A hit from an asteroid? No, destroyed intentionally by aliens who waited in the debris for investigators to come and lead them in.

     Station United was so deep in space the aliens couldn't be sure from where those who built it hailed. Instead of wasting fuel on a guess, they waited to see from what course someone came. From there the invasion began. Deep space stations and colonies began to go silent one after the other. Eventually UTF got video of strange, hostile ships opening fire from surveillance footage someone on one of the stations was able to send before it was destroyed.

     The aliens opened fire on most things that weren't theirs resulting in mass slaughter. The captives the UTF managed to take wouldn't talk. It didn't matter though. The aliens' intentions were undeniably hostile. It became clear with the course of time they wanted earth. Their technology was similar in power to humanities' but their tech was far older. From the ships human soldiers scavenged it was obvious the aliens were working with equipment that hadn't been updated in quite some time.

     The alien ships though capable showed signs of extreme metal fatigue, their weapons were jigsawed together from several components rather than one piece of equipment smoothly assembled. Their food or whatever technology they used to make food were presumably beginning to fail; a new tactic in the last two years of the war saw the aliens take over farming colonies on planets and space stations instead of destroying them. Of course the humans there were never heard from again, whether they were dead or forced to work for the aliens none could say.

     The third March sister, Beth, was an active duty non-combatant surgeon with the UTF, and had been stationed on Pluto three months ago when the aliens attempted to take it. Pluto and its moon Charon were used to grow food so the aliens didn't come in with their usual plan plasma rifles blazing. UTF had been able to fight the aliens off but Beth didn't survive.

👩🏽‍🚀 🛸

     "Lieutenants Margaret and Josephine March report to my office," Commander Laurence barked. The command was so sudden Jo lost her balance and fell from the ship wing she was precariously balanced on. Meg would have found it funny but the Commander only used their first names when he was overly stressed, worried or both.

     "Uggg," Jo groaned. The fall wasn't too serious but she'd feel it tomorrow.

     "Now Lieutenants," he ordered them through the comm.

     The trip back was silent as they thought about what could possibly warrant a private conference. Commander Laurence had known the girls since childhood. His grandson Theodore was practically a brother to them. They'd grown up as neighbors on the USS Concord. The Commander was a strict but fair man and one they loved dearly as family.

     "At ease, ladies," Commander Laurence wasn't behind his desk. He stood near his decanter of whiskey under his painting of Walden Pond from 1865. It was a relic one of his ancestors painted and one he always moved from posting to posting.

     Jo began to sweat. Maybe the Admirals changed their minds and she was getting dishonorably discharged after all. Worse maybe she'd drug Meg down with her. Even if that was the case Jo refused to regret her actions. She'd saved innocent people from a undoubtedly horrible fate. She wouldn't regret that even if she had to go back to earth and once again become an assistant to her bitter old aunt.

     Commander Laurence began to pour three glasses of the alcohol with a deep sigh. "There's no easy way to say this," he began. "Amy and Theodore were coming back from station 35 when their transport was attacked by the enemy. There was a huge battle as the UTF were running exercises not far away. The fighting hasn't let up around the wreckage and they'll be running out of oxygen soon, if the life support is still functioning at all. The systems on the transport were extremely damaged and there's been no signs of life anyone can see. If they are still alive we may not be able to get to the transport in time."

     Jo downed her drink while Meg lowered herself onto a chair, looking grim. Amy was the youngest of the March sisters. As her older three sisters joined the UTF in various roles, Amy pursued her dreams of astrophysics. Theodore or Teddy as Jo called him, or Laurie as the other three tended to call him, was a space station assembler. His work took him all over the quadrant, these days few new stations were built and Laurie was more of a repair man.

     Amy and Teddy had been on space station 35 for the past six months. Laurie was recovering from an injury and Amy was doing research on a project she couldn't talk about. 'The world is like a magical theatre where fairytales and realities intertwine,' was Amy's favorite thing to say when asked about her work. What that meant Jo had no idea.

     "What are they going to do?" Meg asked.

     Commander Laurence ground his teeth. "Nothing. The battle around the space station is too important for any ship to stop and look for survivors. If the aliens take the territory they have a direct shot to earth. With our fleet so spread out it's of the upmost importance the aliens be defeated there. It's the farthest they've ever made it into the quadrant and it took us by surprise. Until it's decided nothing will be done."

     Jo slammed her glass on the table. "That could be days!"

     "Give us the codes to your personal shuttle," Meg spoke steadily.

     Both Jo and Laurence turned to look at the woman. "For what purpose?" asked Laurence.

     "I'm going there to look for Amy and Laurie. If they're dead already fine, but I can't sit here and let more family slip through my fingers when I could have done something," Meg declared.

     Jo nodded in agreement, shocked her law abiding sister had thought of this and not her. "Let's do it."

     Laurence looked extremely conflicted. "The chances of them being alive are slim, girls. Very slim."

     Jo put her hand on his arm. "It doesn't matter. If there's a chance we have to take it."

     "If I lose the two of you..." he choked out.

     "Come with us," Meg said. "We'll need someone on the shuttle while we search the the transport."

     Half an hour later the three of them were strapped into the shuttle. Meg and Laurence were at the controls as they were the best pilots. Nobody on the base could question the commander taking his shuttle out, so getting away was easy. What had been hard was taking medical supplies and food rations. Not even the commander could take freely from those stores with supplies so hard to come by. The guards would be waking up with nasty headaches any minute.

     "Separating from space dock," Meg said as she pressed the required sequence on the control panel. There was a clank as the docking clamps released them.

     Commander Laurence's hands moved swiftly over his side of the panel. "Engines at full impulse, distance required for hyperspace in five, four, three, two, one." With his last word the stars outside the view screen blurred as the vessel made the jump to speeds once thought impossible.

     "How long?" Jo asked.

     "Fifteen minutes," Meg answered grimly.

     Fifteen minutes was a lifetime in battle, Jo prayed they wouldn't be too late. None spoke as they sped toward the battlefield. Hope flickered in the souls of each, a hope some would call foolish but one they couldn't allow to dampen. The alarm signaling they would soon drop from hyperspace sounded. They silenced it quickly and all held their breath as the sound of their slowing speed filled their ears.

     The stars became fixed points as the shuttle began to be battered by the debris of battle. Chunks of metal made contact with their shields and bounced off with zaps. Alien craft and UTF ships traded photon torpedoes and laser fire, they zoomed in and out of the view screen. More than once they narrowly escaped being hit, not just from alien shots but from their own ships as well. A laser blast made contact with the their shield and the shuttle rattled violently.

     "All civilian shuttles have a beacon transmitting their non–military status," Laurence reminded them. "Jo can you locate it? Meg and I need to keep the shuttle from being torn apart. The shields won't stand up to this beating forever."

     "Yes!" Jo left her seat and stood near a smaller screen. She flittered through the enemy and UTF blips on the radar, the commotion made it hard to search for the smaller blip that would mean a civilian craft. She searched for several minutes her worrying growing, until the small green blip appeared on the edge of the screen. "Here!" She transmitted the coordinates to the pilots and quickly took a seat.

     The shuttle was on the over side of the battle. They would have to carefully weave and dodge to get there. Even with the excellent piloting another alarm warning of weak shields soon blared. Jo's heart sped up and she said another prayer. The transport Amy and Teddy were on had been in this barrage for nearly five hours. Could they still be alive?

     The transport came into view and Jo's heart nearly skipped. Transports were huge vessels, and nearly one half of this one was gone. It floated slowly leaving a trail of debris as more and more pieces of it came loose.

     "Let's go, Meg." Jo jumped from her seat and her older sister followed.

     "Be careful, girls," Laurence shouted at them.

     The sisters went to the airlock and shimmed into their space suits. Meg helped Jo secure medical packs to her suit on the back.

     "I'll get you as close as I can," said Laurence. "I'll have to constantly match their speed direction. Our scans indicate three human life signs but I won't be able to dock with the ship to rescue you, it's too damaged for me to get that close. You'll have to jump back."

     "Got it," they said. Thankfully it was procedure for all using transports to wear space suits while crossing, just in case something like this happened. That hadn't always been the case it was just one more thing the aliens' arrival had changed.

     "Are you ready?" he asked.

     "Yes, open the airlock," Jo said. Seconds later the the vacuum of space lifted them from their shuttle and shot them off at tremendous speed. Space suits had two oxygen systems. One to supply the necessary gas required for life and the other to make adjustments in course for endeavors such as these. The space suit had small ports all over that would release oxygen to provide enough thrust for course corrections. The ports were activated by neuro–circuits in the helmet which took years of training to use.

     Even with the desperateness of the situation, Jo's heart speed up with excitement and adrenaline. Space jumping was her favorite thing about being apart of the UTF. She hadn't done it in so long she couldn't help the joy rising in her spirit. Meg on the other hated this. Jo could hear her sister groaning and cussing under her breath.

     Shots of white, blue, and green from weapons fired lit up space in the distance, some coming uncomfortably close. The debris made it challenging to navigate the long stretch to get to the transport. The hull of the transport finally came into view as they cleared the debris. Instantly both sisters saw the airlock they'd have to use to enter the transport. While there were no lack of entrances due to half of the transport being blown off, there would be no one alive there. And they'd have to open up the bulkheads which would have automatically slammed shut upon a hull breach. The bulkheads separated the secure parts of the ship from the damaged areas and opening one risked killing anyone on the other side as they would be exposed to vacuum, and you couldn't necessarily count on their space suits being in full working order after a disaster.

     "Contact with transport," Meg said, "five, four, three, two," and their magnetic boots made contact. Once their boots hit the hull they could hear the groaning of stressed metal inside the hull.

     Jo knelt next to the airlock and moved some debris away from the control screen to view the transport status. "Less than one hour of life support," she reported to Meg.

     "Can you tell where the life signs are," Meg asked.

     "Two are in the cafeteria but one is trapped behind a bulkhead; it's amazing the vacuum didn't suck them out. It looks like all three are unconscious by these signs." Jo got the airlock open but it didn't come easy.

     "I'll head for the cafeteria," Meg told Jo as they divided up the medical supplies.

     "I hope Amy and Teddy are the ones in the cafeteria." Whoever was behind that bulkhead might be badly injured, perhaps even beyond help. Jo pulled up a holographic blueprint of the transport. It floated above Jo's arm showing her where they were in relation to the other three life signs. Meg did the same. The cafeteria was not far, but the life sign behind the bulkhead was a fair distance.

     They separated. Sparks and leaking fluids Jo had to carefully step around lest it damage her space suit as she made her way towards the bulkhead; she was stopped by four blue blips appearing on her screen in various parts of the ruined ship. She'd seen those blips before.

      "Meg," Jo said fighting to keep calm. "We've been boarded by the enemy." Only static met her words. "Meg are you there?" Again only silence. "Meg if you can hear me, arm yourself and the others and get out." She drew her phaser and headed forward.

     Jo's breathing and the soft clank of her boots echoed in her ears. One of the blue blips was making its way toward the green human life sign behind the bulkhead. Gritting her teeth, Jo found a control panel and read that systems were critical. Power would give out in a matter of minutes and then the bulkhead couldn't be opened. She closed a bulkhead behind her and listened to the hiss as the room vented of oxygen. Once she was sealed between two bulkheads she took a deep breath and steeled herself.

     She opened the second bulkhead, which separated her from the two life signs. She shook her arm to make the hologram disappear and took hold of a ladder rung strapped to the hull. As the second bulkhead door opened Jo's section lost gravity. Her feet came away from the floor and she took aim as best she could at the last point the enemy life sign had been.

     The bulkhead opened to reveal a wreck and a tentacled enemy snarling at Jo. She fired her weapon but the monster dodged. The alien had the advantage as its many tentacled limbs allowed it to swing through the wreckage easier than Jo. It was coming toward her and she fired again but missed.

     "Damn it," Jo groaned as she pushed off the hull as the enemy got closer. The aliens not only had six tentacles for limbs, but a gorgan group of tentacles that surrounded their mouth and dripped purple saliva. That saliva was toxic to all life from the solar system. Jo had scars on her arms and face from doing battle with aliens in close quarters, as their suits could be used to launch that vile stuff. Just as she thought that a glob of purple fired past her leg.

     While it wouldn't rip a hole in her space suit, it would soak through it and once it touched her skin the pain would start. She fired at the monster and nicked its shoulder making it howl. Not that she could hear it but Jo knew the look on its face well. In retaliation it managed to get one tentacle around Jo's foot and swing her into the hull.

     The alien held her there pushing its ugly face up to hers. It made what passed for a smile with these evil creatures and began to produce a lot of saliva. Jo brought her phaser to its head but the aliens took hold of her wrist and twisted it until she cried out in pain and dropped the weapon. Jo made the decision not to look away. If she was going to die here at the hands of this alien she wanted it to know it hadn't cowed her spirit, even if it was about to kill her body.

     The alien made a surprised look and its hold on her loosened. It began to cough black goo which was its blood. It also started to rise all around them as the alien was ripped away from her. Jo took a deep breath as relief her life would go on filled her and turned to face her rescuer.

     "Teddy!" She flung her arms around her old friend who stood behind the alien with the phaser she'd dropped.

     "Jo! What are doing here?"

     "Meg, your grandfather and I came to rescue you."

     Teddy looked at the alien now floating away from them dead. "You did a great job."

      The sounds of functioning ship systems all around them stopped. The transport had died. The only way out now was to go through the hull damage. They made their way out while Jo told him that Meg had gone to the cafeteria to see who she could find. Joy filled Jo as Teddy said Amy had been headed there with a friend she'd made onboard named Fredrick Bhear.

     "My wife will so happy to you," Teddy said without thinking.

     "Your wife? When did you get married?" Jo asked.

     Teddy looked sheepish. "I spoke too soon," he said while she helped him over some twisted metal.

     "No, tell me."

     "Amy and I married. We grew close while on the station and discovered we loved each other."

      "Teddy this is magic! Now we're truly family as we always should have been!" Jo hugged her brother–law–fiercely.

     "We are," Teddy laughed. "I hope the rest of your family is as happy as you about this."

     "They will be."

     "Jo," Meg's voice came through the comm. "Is that you crawling up the hull?"

     "Yes, I've got Teddy."

     "Thank God," came Amy's voice. "Becoming a widow on my honeymoon wouldn't have been my idea of a good time."

     "I'm coming, dearest," Teddy assured his bride.

      As they came together near the airlock Jo and Fredrick were introduced.

     "My space suit won't let me access the neuro–circuits," Fredrick told them. "They've been too badly damaged."

     "Don't worry," Jo told him. She pushed a button on her belt and a nylon attachment rope popped out. "I'll tie you to me with this. Just hold onto me and don't let go."

     The man looked nervous but allowed Jo to link them together.

     "Ready to make the jump," Meg told Laurence.

     "Opening the airlock, ready when you are,
kids."

     "On my mark," Meg said as she timed everything. "Three, two, one." And they left the dead transport for the small shuttle. It was more difficult for Jo with the extra weight to maneuver but she had trained for this many times, just not recently. Fredrick held on tight though and they made it to the airlock without incident.

     "Everyone come strap in. We've got a problem," Laurence's voice was tense as they raced toward the cockpit.

     "What's wrong? Are we being fired on," Meg asked as she strapped herself in the other pilot seat.

     "No. Our forces were defeated and the aliens are heading for earth," his voice was sad. The humans had failed.

     "How many ships," Jo asked.

     "Just two but none of our forces can intercept them in time. They will make it to earth soon and in time more will come." Laurence stared out into the view screen.

     "Then let's go," Jo said. "The shuttle has weapons and their ships must have sustained damage. If we leave now we'll be right on their tails and might be able to stop them."

     There was a moment of silence as each thought on her words before they all began to voice assent for this plan.

     "There are three gunner positions in the back of the shuttle," Laurence told them, "and two at the side stations. I'll need someone on radar to track their movements."

     The younger people moved to positions as Meg and Laurence did the calculations for another hyperspace jump.

     "All positions ready?" Meg's voice asked over the comm. They affirmed they were and the stars began to blur outside the view screen. "Earth bound now, we'll drop out of hyperspace in twenty minutes."

     The ride was smooth but the tension was thick. What did the horrible creatures have in store for the home of humanity? What if they weren't enough to stop them? What if it was already too late?

     Jo wanted to bite her nails but she kept her hands on the gunnery. Indulging in old habits wouldn't help her here. She found herself thinking of their childhood when she and her sisters, and eventually Teddy, had put on plays for the other children in the ships and space stations they found themselves on. Jo would write the works most of the time and help build sets with Meg and Teddy, while Beth and Amy did the props and wardrobe. They once made a tower which Jo had to climb to save Princess Meg from the evil knight played by Teddy. Of course the tower wasn't well built and it came down on top of her but the show went on. Jo smiled at the memory.

     "Prepare for drop from hyperspace," Meg told them. "Three, two, one."

     "Where are the hostiles," asked Fredrick in his accented voice.

     "Already landed on earth. They appear to have crashed, both ships," said Laurence.

     "That makes our job easier," Amy said hopefully. "Where did they come down?"

     "Roswell, New Mexico, laying in a landing course. Keep guns ready," Meg said as the fire of reentry flashed on the view screen. In just a few minutes they hovered over the alien crafts. They had wrecked hard. Those ships would never fly again and as they weren't fired on, they began to believe the aliens hadn't survived.

     The five younger people armed themselves heavily while Laurence stayed in the shuttle to transmit their coordinates and try to get ahold of higher command. The younger team members exited the shuttle and went to see what they could find on the alien craft. What they found was dead or nearly dead aliens. Jo examined the bodies and found they were being killed by viruses and bacteria that humans had long been immune too.

     They reported to Laurence and exited the alien crafts having seen enough. Meg went back in the shuttle as Laurence managed not just to contact high command, but he stumbled upon an old frequency transmitting a message from her husband. The message said he was ok and was headed home for earth with a company of men. It would take awhile to reach home as their hyperspace arrays were badly damaged but at least they'd get there inside a year with luck. Amy and Teddy sat in the desert sand whispering together which left Jo with the newcomer.

     "After all this war and loss they can't even live here. It's all been for nothing," Jo said shaking her head.

     "Yes. But at least they will leave now," Fredrick said. "And we can have peace."

     "Peace," the word felt strange on her lips. "I've been a soldier for so long I wouldn't even know what to do with peace."

     "I think I'll go to college and study philosophy," Fredrick told her. "My father loved philosophy."

     "My father used to read me the old poets. I loved their stories. Hmmm. That's what I'll do. I'll write new stories. Maybe even a book on the downfall of the aliens."

     "A worthy pursuit, I'll help if I can," he said.

     "I'd like that." Jo smiled at him and he smiled back.

     "Would you like to share an orange?" He pulled the round fruit from a small compartment of his space suit.

     "I'd love too."