Alexander had staid in his apartment until he was kicked out by his landlord and then drove straight here without talking to anybody. Samantha had tak...n a break from college. She didn’t say why, but to Alexander it sounded like she had to battle some sort of personal crisis. “So we both haven’t had any contact to anyone in a while.”“Kind of sad, isn’t it?”“Well, at least we know that we probably don’t have the virus and can’t pass it on to each other.”“So no social distancing for us?”“I’d say. The trick was in calculating when they would re-enter real space. If this happened inside a vessel, the effect was devastating. Thankfully, the Halim hadn't figured out a way to defend against them.We took more losses in this engagement than all the others combined. In a fierce battle, that lasted almost one hour, six ships were destroyed. Eighteen fighter craft were also lost. The Halim force was completely destroyed, but the encounter was sobering for all of us.I felt guilty for being. Just a guy in a cotton shirt with the royal emblem, carrying a small, white cardboard box he had taken out of a styrofoam cooler.“Mister Carstairs?” he asked, as I came to the gate.“That’s me.”“For you, Sir. Bye.”And he was gone. I went back inside and opened the box, which I expected to contain sandwiches. Asim wasn’t around, but he would order food without telling me. The drivers that were sent to our house had a key to a store room, or would just put their stuff out on the pool furniture. It. ‘What the fuck is this?’ She crossed her arms under her naked breasts. I could hear her words as she looked at him. ‘Have fun with your little Honey last night, cause I had fun with mine.’ He shook his head at her look and she flipped him off as he turned to leave. That morning Jessi drove me to the airport, in the car it was quiet, though, not the kind of quiet that somebody could have cut in two with a knife either. I sat wondering in the silence about what would happen between her and her.