#CBFF00

I don't know where Callie went. I remember falling asleep on her and when I woke up she was gone and something feels way off. I walked around outside for a bit to see if Grendel knew anything but she's been missing in the woods for a day too. Verdi was doing her best to help Ravi but was getting nowhere. I love every single person here but something seems off and I feel so helpless right now...

"Grendel? Have you heard anything about Callie? She's not here." I ping out in the group chat, but a response doesn't come for a bit.

"I saw her last night, she took Kite's old ship and said the Navy needed her." Ravi says sounding like a lost child.

Oh that's a bit of a relief, but I wish she would have said something to us!

"She said she would come back, and hugged me and left. Is mom going to be okay?" Ravi replies. I've never seen her like this and while I don't know what's happened with Callie I don't like what's happening here. Deacon vanished, Ravi is spooked to hell and our second in command is gone.

"Keep me posted, please." Grendel finally replies. "I'm worried about everything and everyone."

Jorg has been come and go lately, but today he wasn't here or responding to calls or messages. I told him that his dughter was missing but he never said anything back.

//SECTION 4 PING RECIEVED. INCOMPLETE.//

<Ravi what was that?!>

<EMERGENCY PING, 4 IS MOM'S.>

<Where did it come from?!>

<It doesn't say! It's scrambled and tampered with!>

I don't like this, I really don't like this. Where is my wife?!

"Everybody to the boardroom! NOW! Jorg if you're there we need you!" Grendel roars over comms and honestly it felt nice with her in command in some capacity.

As I scramble for the medical building I see Ravi and Verdi looking terrified, we get to the door and it slides open only for us to see a med bed was active.

Grendel thunders in from behind and shoves her way past us.

"Boardroom let's g-" She stops dead when she sees the bed doing the one thing we never want to see: regenerating somebody.

Spacemoms' policy is to bend earth, hell and fire to save somebody from regeneration and this here was a sign we failed somebody.

"Let's...let's get to the board room and leave whoever that is alone." Grendel says like she's watching a loved one die slowly.

We shuffle into the room and we're all in dismay. The head of the table is always Callie's spot, Ravi looks like pale death, Verdi looks like she hasn't slept in weeks while Grendel is covered in mud and dirt.

"Ravi, what's the deal with that priority ping? What's wrong with it?" Grendle says softly while looking defeated.

"It's one of ours, sent anonymously from a mobi and the tail end of the data looks like it was severed before the rest of it could be sent." Ravi speaks so quietly yet so clearly.

"Is there any way to recover it?" Verdi pleads. "Please baby tell me you can do something with it!"

Ravi double-taps the table and a large curved display pops up a few feet from the table, it was a perfect half-circle and Ravi shuffled over to start working.

"Looks like the end is not only cut off, but it looks like it was encrypted with a seal. Like somebody cut the tail off a kopion and put an official government seal on it." Ravi says, tapping, sliding, scrolling, everything.

"What makes you say government seal? Does it say it's sealed off with their signature?" I ask desperately, hoping for anything about Callie.

Tap. tap, swipe tap swipe, and she stares for a solid five minutes straight. I love her determination to her craft and kinda wish I had it.

The door hisses open and Jorg steps in looking distraught and worried.

"Hey dad, guessing you got our messages?" I ask and he nods.

He steps over to Ravi and watches her closely, swipe, tap swipe swipe and a partial swipe before he grabs her wrist and points at a floating chunk of data.

"That's your typical encryption signal, what's that doing there?" he says and stares at Ravi.

We all look at her with disbelief and pending fury.

"My encryption is an old form of UEE work!" She says in a panic. "I got my hands on some classified data years ago and reworked the code to work for what I needed! It's all I know I promise!"

Birdguy is firing death lasers from his eyes.

Her sheepish and terrified face pops to excitement and she starts tapping an swiping again.

A new string of data comes in, she rotates it, does copious amounts of violent tapping and scroling before she stops and puts her hands up.

Callie's ping and Ravi's latest update encryption lined up strangely when BACKWARDS! tap swipe tap swipe tap, swipe and then a sigh of anger.

//YOU TRIED, SHE'S GONE, DEAL WITH YOUR LOSS LIKE AN ADULT HA HA!//

She turns and wraps her arms around Jorg who returns the embrace and pats her on the back.

Never seen a bird cry, never wanted to and I hope this is the only time.

Medical door slides open, and in steps a woman with shoulder-length ginger hair in a medical gown, deep green eyes and...

Familiar.

"Arcantha? Why do you look so...old?" She says and I scream, freaking her out.

Jorg looks confused but the woman broke out in tears upon seeing him and ran over to hug him.

"I thought I'd...I'd never see you again." She says and we all collectively gasp.

"There's no...there's no fucking way." I whisper while shaking my head.

"CALLIE?!" Grendel yells and the woman jumps. She turns and looks at everybody around the room, her mind has no idea where she is or clearly who anybody is but seemingly me.

I don't know how to cope with this, Calliope was 38 when I last saw her, white hair, undercut, battle-scarred and eyes full of love.

This is Callie the day she became a citizen, just barely 30 and we met in the medical academy.

Good memories flooded in, but then the realizing that my fiance was...my babygirl is...no...

I get up and walk out of the room, through the medical bay and I think Ravi was right behind me as I walk to my home while ravi goes to hers. I lock my door and lay in bed.

My everything, my universe, my reason for living was regenerated and those past eight years of our lives are now gone forever.

A knock on the door and I hear Ravi on the other side.

"Can I...can I come in, miss Ivy?"

I unlock the door on my mobi and she cautiously steps in and sits at the foot of the bed. She rubs my leg and I feel the break coming, something deep and unholy is about to burst of out me.

"I um...please miss Ivy, hold me. I can't deal with this."

I nod softly and she crawls up to nestle into my arms and pure agony in my soul manifests in heavy screaming and crying, Ravi holds on tighty and I feel like I'm dying from the outside in. There isn't any number of clones that could make me feel any fucking better right now!

"I WANT HER BACK PLEASE! FUUUUCK! ANYTHING, ANY FUCKING GODS OUT THERE PLEASE GIVE HER BACK! ANYTHING YOU WANT YOU CAN HAVE IT JUST PLEASE!!!"

Ravi jumps up and runs out of the house, locking the door behind her and I'm losing my everloving mind.

I should have stayed awake, I should have stopped her, I fell asleep like a fucking idiot and now my forever is gone for the rest of eternity!

<All comms are to go silent until Arcantha is ready to be spoken to. Let her grieve.>

<Is everything okay?>

And the comms stopped. I don't know how long I was locked in my home but Grendel came and went with food and water, taking care of me as best she could.

Deacon picked such a good woman, just wish he was here for her because we all need somebody right now.

Life felt empty and pointless.

Devoid of any possible recourse or recovery.

May the rats eat the flesh of whoever took my future from me.

I may be delusional, but I swear a few of these days Ravi, Grendel and Verdi were in bed cuddling me.

A sliver of sunshine in the storms roiling inside me.

BOOM! A massive explosion shook the house and it sounded like it was less than a kilometer from us. Too small to be an A2 but definetely bigger than an A1.

We all jump up and run outside to see a fire in the distance of the night sky, fire control already en-route to control it.

Grendel nudges me with her elbow in a panic and points up at the trees above.

What the fuck is happening to my life right now...