Minmei eagerly shared her news with Rick and Lisa as they ate dinner. "Vance called an hour ago. He says Mark approves, as long as he gets to meet me and gets an autograph."

"Wonderful!" Lisa said. "If we ever needed a concert, it's now. And of course we'll provide a military presence. I would insist on that even if your manager didn't."

"So how did your day go?" Minmei asked.

"Not too bad," Lisa said. "Rick is now the highest-ranking officer in history who refuses to give up pilot duty."

"We need every pilot we can get!" Rick said.

"I know, honey, I'm not complaining," Lisa said. "I'm on your side, remember? It's just really weird having a vice admiral still being a fighter pilot."

Hearing Lisa call Rick honey stabbed Minmei through the heart, but she never let it show. Not one bit. She covered her feelings smoothly by saying, "Bizarre problems call for bizarre solutions."

Lisa nodded.

"What've you got going on tomorrow?" Minmei asked.

Lisa looked at her solemnly. "Well...we're going to some funerals."

Minmei nodded. "Would it be okay if I came, too? I'd love to pay my respects."

"Of course," Lisa said with a warm smile.

 

"Did you hear the news?!" Sammie squealed like she was in soap opera heaven. "Lisa, Captain Hunter, and Minmei are all living together!" She clasped her hands and sighed so hard her eyes almost rolled back in her head.

"Vice Admiral Hunter," Vanessa corrected her.

"I don't care what his rank is! They're living together!" Sammie had stars in her eyes.

"Well, bizarre problems call for bizarre solutions," Kim said.

"What does that mean?" Vanessa asked.

"It means, that's one way to resolve a love triangle," Kim said. She looked at Vanessa meaningfully and waggled her eyebrows.

"I don't think Lisa rolls that way," Vanessa said, then scrunched her face up in puzzlement. "Or would she?"

"I don't roll that way either, but I would for Minmei," Sammie said.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwww!" Kim exclaimed, while Vanessa laughed.

"I'm sure it's all fine," Vanessa said. "I mean, look at Claudia and Admiral Gloval. They're living together now, too."

"Admiral Gloval and Claudia are living together?!" Sammie exclaimed. She looked like she'd just heard the gossip equivalent of a supernova.

"Not like that, you dork!" Kim said, swatting Sammie on the head with a sheaf of papers. "Just until Claudia can find a place to stay." Sammie stuck her tongue out at her.

Lisa had been observing all of this, counting down the moments until she put a stop to it. That was how she dealt with the Terrible Trio. Let them have a few moments of fun, get it out of their system, then step in like the Big Officer she was and tell them to get back to work. That moment had arrived.

But Lisa suddenly realized she shouldn't be there. Something was wrong. Somehow, Kim, Sammie, and Vanessa were in a place she wasn't allowed to be. She was an intruder. She felt like a student who had walked into the wrong classroom and couldn't find the way out. "I shouldn't be here!" Lisa wailed.

"It's all right, Lisa," Vanessa said. Lisa saw them smiling at her. Then Claudia and Admiral Gloval were there, too. All of them were smiling at her.

"No, something's wrong!" Lisa said. "Can't you feel it?"

Vanessa came to Lisa and put a hand on her face. The others gathered around her. "All we feel is peace," Vanessa said, and her smile was beautiful.

And, standing in their presence, Lisa felt it. Pure love, pure peace, pure joy, enveloping her. We're all right, they said, without saying it. It's okay, Lisa. We're at peace.

Lisa woke, staring at a strange wall. It took a few seconds to remember she was in Rick's bedroom.

She lay still, allowing herself to feel the dream. Even waking, it stayed with her. She closed her eyes and breathed it.

After a few minutes, she got up, went into the bathroom, shut the door quietly, and turned on the light. She stared at herself in the mirror for a long moment. Then she closed her eyes and hugged herself.

"Thank you," she whispered, and wept, shivering and covered with goosebumps. "Thank you."

 

Somehow, somewhere, Lisa found Minmei some nice clothes. Lisa and Rick looked sharp in their dress uniforms. Dr. Fredericks, Dr. Lang, and Exedore were there, along with Bron, Rico, and Konda, and Max, Miriya, and little Dana. Together, they laid the bridge crew of the SDF-1 to rest on a beautiful spring day. They also paid their deepest respects to Vice Admiral Maistroff, who had been in the midsection of the SDF-1 that morning and had no remains to bury.

Aside from the chaplain, no one else was there. Lisa had specifically wanted this to be intimate. No media. Admiral Gloval had shunned the limelight his entire life; she would be damned if the limelight would intrude upon his death.

One by one, they filed down the line of graves and tossed a clump of dirt onto each coffin. Everyone except Exedore, who couldn't bring himself to do it.

The faces of Bron, Rico, and Konda were the faces of men shattered. With Rick, Lisa, Max, and Miriya beside her, Minmei took the hands of the three Zentraedi ex-spies – her three biggest fans. She held their hands, in much the same way they had held hers before she gave the performance of a lifetime to help the army defeat Dolza, two years earlier. "I'm so very sorry," she said. "You deserve better. All three of you deserve so much better."

"Do we?" Rico asked. "Before we heard your singing, Minmei, we helped destroy civilizations. We once caused suffering, the same suffering we're feeling now."

"It's our ladies who deserved better," Konda said. "They were the finest."

"They were the finest," Lisa agreed. "But they are at peace now." Her voice had a strange quality to it, one which caused everyone to pay attention. She looked into the distance, and the breeze lightly played with her hair.

Miriya put a hand on Rico's arm. "We all deserve peace and love. I carry the same guilt you do, but I use it to make this universe a better place in every way I can, including giving life to my own child. I know you three feel the same."

Bron looked at the graves. "I curse Khyron. I curse the day he was made. I curse the day he came to this solar system."

Lisa held out Vanessa's glasses to Bron. "These are for you, if you want them."

Bron looked at them, then slowly shook his head.

Miriya explained. "We Zentraedi have difficulty feeling sentimentality over material objects."

Bron nodded. "Without Vanessa's smiling face to go with them, her glasses mean nothing to me."

"Then I shall keep them," Lisa said.

Tears sprang to Bron's eyes. "She would like that."