Ultima Ratio

Chapter 37: Corporal Quyen Hale

Interlogue

Quyen Hale was born in Sector 18 of the Ad Solem space colony in 2179.

She loved space, a trait she probably inherited from her parents. Both thrived as guardians with the US Space Force, her mom as a pilot and her dad as an engineer. When her mom had trips to neighboring colonies, Quyen would always jump at any offer to ride alongside; when her dad's spacewalks lined up with Quyen's recesses, she would proudly point him out to the other kids on the playground, and they would all watch in awe through the colony's massive windows.

But if there was one thing they all loved more than space, it was their family.

Her parents had always wanted a large family and they certainly got it, making Quyen the eldest of six children. She was ten years old when her parents affectionately split them into the Oldies and the Newbies. The Oldies were Quyen and her next oldest siblings, ages eight and five; the Newbies consisted of the three-year-old twins and the newborn baby Hale.

The Hales had dinner together almost every night, and they would all take turns sharing the details of their days. Fridays or Saturdays were designated as movie nights, depending on schedules, and they would huddle together in the living room to watch a film, the selector of which would rotate through each of the siblings. Birthdays were celebrated with higher priority than official holidays, and running errands were made into family field trips. And as busy as they were, their parents always made sure at least one of them attended each of their children's events, ranging from band performances to science fairs.

It wasn't a surprise some people found it strange how close their family of eight was. But Quyen didn't care what they thought. All they needed to know was that if they messed with anyone in the Hale household, they would have to deal with her.

When she heard a classmate had stolen the twins' banh pia cakes at lunch, Quyen packed their next lunch with a spicy version of the pastry, along with strict instructions for the twins to not eat them. At the news of a teammate spreading rumors about her third eldest sibling, Quyen tracked down the liar's sports bag and filled it with anesthetized fruit flies from the biology lab. Then, when a teacher publicly ridiculed her second eldest sibling's poor test grade, Quyen researched the "educator's" suspicious extracurricular activities and submitted it to the school, kicking off a police investigation.

And whenever anyone tried to pick a physical fight with any of her siblings, Quyen was more than willing and able to make it a fair match.

Her parents knew of course, and they approved. While they made a point to remind her she didn't have to take on as much responsibility as she did, they were proud of her for doing so. Besides, Quyen enjoyed having her siblings look up to her, and it only made her more determined to live up to their expectations.

When the war started, Quyen was fifteen years old.

Her family was about fifteen thousand meters above sea level, having just wrapped up a trip on Earth. They were still in a post-vacation high, laughing and joking as they traveled up the Axis Mundi space elevator, a journey they had done dozens of times before.

But then Concordia attacked.

Quyen remembered the feeling of weightlessness as their capsule plummeted to the ground. She remembered sounds of her family screaming from their seats, up until the pressurized protective pods enclosed around each of them. She remembered the silence, filled only with her panicked breaths that echoed behind her emergency air mask. She remembered the muffled sound of screeching metal, then an explosive blast, a burst of light, then the sound of nothing—not even silence.

The next time she awoke, she was in a hospital—an Earth hospital, she quickly realized. And while she was surrounded by her family, each with expressions of relief and concern, she couldn't hear their familiar voices. In fact, every time they opened their mouths, all she could hear were the sounds of their screams as they fell.