Conquest: A New Home

"Are you really leaving… ?" Ethan spoke with downcast eyes as the smile on his face faded. Tears were starting to pool at the sides on his eyes. "I-I can't believe you would do such a thing…"

"I'm sorry for not telling you Ethan…" Eliza nearly dropped her fork. "I-"

"Sorry…?" Ethan stiffened a smile. "SORRY?!"

"Ethan, I did not know I was going to be selec-"

"ELIZA!" Ethan stood up. "4 years. I waited four F.U.C.K.I.N.G YEARS to hear you say YES!"

Ethan pounded the table with his fists as he screamed at the top of his lungs, earning the concerned looks from the people around in the restaurant. Ethan did not care of all the pictures being taken, despite his figure as the President of the largest company on Earth.

"Ethan, honey… I really did not expect-" Eliza looked away and face the window to hide the tears rolling from her eyes. "I'm sorry baby…"

"Eliza…" Ethan grabbed her hands and kissed them with trembling lips. "Please… stay with me… I…I can give you a comfortable life here! I-I can keep you happy! The frontier is just a massive scam… there's no way…"

Eliza glanced at the pitiful face of Ethan before she drew her hand back whilst fighting back the tears.

"Ethan…" Eliza held her ring.

Her ring, no, their ring. The symbol of their love, the physical embodiment of their vows. The symbol of marriage that Eliza always dreamt of as a child…

Eliza could only close her eyes painfully as it lay cold on her fingertips.

"I'm sorry Ethan." Eliza placed her ring on the table. "I'm so sorry…"

"No… No, no, Eliza this is a joke, right? RIGHT?!" Ethan stood up and held her tightly in his arms. "Please, baby. I… I don't know what to do without you… Please…"

Eliza finally broke down and silently sobbed on Ethan's broad shoulders.

Yet she still had made her decision.

"I'm sorry Ethan." Eliza wrenched herself off him as she ran away awkwardly in her high heels while covering her face in an attempt to ide her tears.

"ELIZA!"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Eliza mumbled as she ran to the elevator.

"ELIZA! PLEASE!" Ethan still called out to her.

"I'm so sorry dear…" Eliza mumbled to herself as she watched Ethan from behind the closing elevator doors. "I'm sorry."

"ELIZA! ELI-" Ethan's scream was cut off as the elevator doors sealed shut, leaving Eliza alone by herself.

Eliza slumped to the ground as she whimpered as she felt the painful emptiness on her ring finger.

"I'm sorry Ethan." Eliza closed her eyes.

Eliza opened her eyes to see herself back at the executive meeting, her determined eyes reflected that of her coworkers.

"Enough talking." Stadtford spoke first, a fiery glint of passion burning in her eyes. "We start acting now."

"Good to see everyone remembers what we gave up in order to get here." Captain Jorram nodded.

"The DSS (Department of Starship Security) will be covertly apprehending all the suspected 3O personnel as to not alert them of what is happening." Sir Nile Gibson spoke out. "We would like to cooperate with the respective departments in this matter."

"Agreed."

"Seconded."

"Next issue."

"The R-RAO (Resource Reserve and Allocations Office) shall pull out all the resource we have collected so far from the resource nodes of the nearby planet and asteroid belt in order to supply for the repairs." Mr. Gerome Ashford spoke out. "We will now start collecting damage reports and reparation appraisals from this cycle till next week."

"Agreed."

"Seconde-"

"Objection."

"Speak."

"We cannot send reports via any network due to the jam and some hatches and gateways are affected by the directive, thus we cannot open all of those in order to conduct a thorough damage appraisal."

"Is there a compromise?"

"Please extend it by a week more."

"Granted. Problem resolved."

"Next issue…"

After a good few more minutes, the meeting was concluded. The plans were already set in motion and now they were all off to their own quarters to get some sleep.

Eliza floated down the corridor of the research department when she noticed Elaine, one of the junior research personnel, was hovering in front of a locked hatch.

"Hello there Elaine." Eliza greeted. "Why aren't you in bed yet-"

Eliza froze for a second as she noticed the little red bubbles floating around Elaine were coming out from Elaine's neck.

"Elaine…?" Eliza felt something was off. "Are you alright…?"

Elaine still hovered there, virtually still, with her back faced towards Eliza.

"Elaine!" Eliza called out. "Answer me!"

Elaine's hands twitched and her legs jolted for a bit, kicking her still body to slowly spin to the side.

"Thank the stars you're alright." Eliza closed her eyes and exhaled. "You had me worrie-"

Eliza's face froze in horror as she gazed into Elaine's half eaten head filled with worms.