The Crucible: Leap of Faith by Odette C. Bell

my eardrums, I
swear they still rang, and there was a dense nauseous feeling
settling in my gut.
    I walked quickly to the designated
meeting room.
    I wanted to get this over with so
I could inspect my ship.
    Everyone had been
calling it an accident. There’d been some kind of mistake during
the resupply of the Godspeed , one critical enough that it
had initiated an explosion that had torn a hole 20 meters wide in
its hull and ripped it from its dock.
    I arrived at the room to see
Annabelle Williams outside. She’d been leaning with her back
against the wall, staring at her hands, but as soon as she saw me
approach, she lurched forward. “Nathan, oh my God, are you alright?
I heard you were caught up in the explosion? I was so
worried.”
    “I’m fine, Annabelle,” I said
quietly. “But I want to know what the hell happened to my ship.” I
brushed past her into the room.
    Waiting for me
was the controller of the station, Captain H’agovan from the Ra’xon , and Admiral
Phelps.
    As I entered the room, the
atmosphere was grim.
    “What the hell—“
    Admiral Phelps cleared his throat.
“It wasn’t an accident, to answer your question, Lieutenant
Commander.”
    I stopped.
Floored. “What?” my voice trembled.
    “It was a terrorist attack,”
Phelps said flatly. In his 80s, he was relatively young for an
Admiral. With the long lifespans of humans these days, you could be
expected to serve the Star Forces for a good century or
more.
    “Terrorist attack?” I repeated in
a hollow tone.
    “It was the resistance,” Phelps
added.
    “The resistance?”
    “This is the first time they’ve
attacked a high-value target like this,” Phelps’ calm cracked, and
his voice bottomed low as he brought a hand up and ran it through
his still black beard.
    “Sit down, Lieutenant Commander.”
Avral, the Commander of the station motion towards a chair. “You
are still injured.”
    I couldn’t sit. I couldn’t sit at
a time like this.
    I stared at the Admiral, incapable
of controlling my expression. “Why did they target us?”
    “It seems their
goal was twofold – not only did they want to destroy the Godspeed , but they
intended to use her to damage the Ra’xon as well. They would have
managed to, but this station’s structural integrity held long
enough that the Ra’xon had time to pull away and initiate their shields,” Phelps
explained.
    “In other words,
we were lucky,” Captain H’agovan grumbled. She was from a massive
race. She stood at least 2 feet over me, and I was 6’1. A truly
powerful build, you wouldn’t want to take her on in an arm wrestle.
“If deck 46 hadn’t held, we’d be looking at a completely different
situation here. The Ra’xon could have spiraled out of control and taken the
whole station with it. We should be extremely thankful no one was
killed.”
    I shook my head. “I can’t believe
this. I thought this station was one of the most protected places
in the Milky Way? How the hell did the resistance get aboard my
ship?”
    Nobody answered. The silence felt
as if it swelled around me.
    I swallowed hard, gaze darting
between the Captain and the Admiral. “What aren’t you telling
me?”
    “You want to know how the
resistance got aboard your ship? It’s the same way they’ve been
carrying out the rest of their terrorist attacks against Star
Forces’ assets.”
    “How?” I felt my cheeks pale and
slacken.
    “They’ve spread throughout our
ranks, Shepherd,” Phelps answered in a controlled tone. We were in
the station controller’s own office, and Phelps was standing next
to the large table that was her desk. He leaned forward, made a
fist, and pressed it hard into the smooth metal. “You had spies
aboard your ship,” he stated bluntly.
    I took a step
back. “What?”
    “One of your crew did this,”
Phelps said as he raised a finger and pointed it towards the
massive window behind the station controller’s desk.
    I shook my head again, the move
jerky, a cold tension