“Glacia?”

“Mmhmm?”

We hold our foreheads together, and I pause to feel the air flow between our faces. It’s a beautiful kind of quiet.

“Thank you.”

Chapter Thirty

Captain Blitner’s body lies inside a solid glass cylinder, and the Undil Embassy crest is laser-etched into the glass. His eyes are closed, his arms stretched along his sides. Even now, my brain tricks me into seeing the slight rise and fall of his chest. I’m searching so hard for any sign of life, as if he could reach up and tap one of those bony knuckles on the glass.

Victoria and Officer Remmit sit beside me, and Michael and Ellin sit on the other side of Glacia. At the front of the ceremony, Captain Fallsten, Captain Crowe, and Orcher are sitting behind the glass cylinder, waiting for the honorary music to end. There are Officials from Belvun and Narviid in attendance too, but there aren’t more than a hundred people in all.

It’s Sunday afternoon. The service is in Tayten Park at the heart of the Embassy’s central sector. Bright flowers and leafy shrubs and young trees decorate the fountains and ponds scattered around the clearing. The nearest towers are several hundred yards away, so the only noises are the crashes of the fountains.

The music stops and the park gets quiet. Orcher stands and walks to the podium beside Captain Blitner’s casket. He stares out at the audience, and after a few silent moments, begins his speech.

“Lawrence Blitner was the first Captain I ever hired into my fleet, and there is no other man I would have trusted more to lead my crews across the galaxy. I owe my success to his leadership, because he personally saw to it that my crews became the most efficient in the Undil Embassy. He wasn’t just the captain of the Ember, he was her heart.”

Orcher pauses and looks down. When he next raises his head, he’s blinking a lot.

“The other generals…they always ask what my secret is. Lawrence was my secret. I’ll never forget his first words of advice: ‘Don’t build a crew, David. Build a family.’ It’s absolutely true. Many of my officers have grown together for decades, and we always take in those who want to join our family. The faces might change, but such is life. We owe him our thanks, because his services were not wasted.”