Sparkling eyes. We're heading to Eden Prime

Yes, he was swept around the planet — the service, everything. But Dayna was glad that John hardly ever left the atmospheric shield. He haven't left very often yet. And now... Now, as she clearly felt, there was a long separation ahead. There's a shuttle waiting for John, and there's...That's where Arcturus is, an Alliance of Systems government station. You can't get there that easily, but John's status allows him to fly there safely and freely. If necessary, of course. Just like that, John doesn't fly anywhere — only if there is a need and an order.

* * *

Sighing, the girl rested her head on John's shoulder. The towers of the British military spaceport were already looming ahead. Numbered high-security object. However, for those who see off to the shuttle, everything is the same as at a civilian spaceport.

She would have to watch John for a very long time as he walked away to the tunnel leading to the shuttle hall. That was the last thing she saw when he was on an emergency flight to Akusa... And then he returned from there by medical transport and immediately became a patient of a military hospital for a long time.

How she was afraid for him then! After all, he was the only survivor of several dozen commandos. These worms are... threshers... Dana didn't know much about what had happened there, except within the information provided by Earth's news agencies. The news reports described the events in which John took part in different ways. And Shepard himself...He never "loaded" her with stories about what happened on Akusa. He hid it, he didn't want to worry, apparently. She was grateful to him for that, although she understood that it was very difficult for him there.

And now it's not easy for him either. This order is incomprehensible. An incomprehensible shape. A battle order?! There is peace all around, humanity is not waging any war with anyone outside the Solar System — and suddenly this. Of course, John is a special person, an n-seven, a special forces soldier. Maybe such orders are common for them, but for her, of course, it's excitement and acute anxiety. And now it seems to her constantly, literally every second, that she will now meet John ... it will be a very long time.

* * *

After disembarking from the flyer at the passenger terminal of the departure area, Dayna looked around: little had changed here. Of course, the spaceport was a military one, so special liberties were not allowed here, but, as she had assumed, there were no inexplicable restrictions for those who saw off the shuttles.

Shepard adjusted his uniform, released the car by pressing several sensors on his officer's wristwatch omny tool, picked up an alarm case and a bag of provisions, and then looked at the tense girl.

"Day?" he asked softly, seeing how she continued to look around. Shepard knew she was curious, and he didn't see anything wrong with that, considering it a common personality trait, but now Dayna was clearly stalling.

"I'll... I'll be right there, John." She continued to look around, because there was something to see here — there was a beautiful view of the launch pads from here.

Shuttles and shuttles took off, landed, hovered, people flew in, flew out, and worked in designated safe areas of the landing and launch area.

"Few changes. Very little" She shook her head, causing her loose hair to cover her shoulders in a solid black wave. "Let's go" She said decisively, picking up her purse.

At the check-in desk, Shepard presented the order to a dashing Alliance MSF chief. After making an instant identification, he nodded, returned the order form to the officer, and issued a boarding order — a small piece of thick grayish plastic paper.

Dayna read the number and code of the boarding terminal from over Shepard's shoulder, looked around, singled out the right one, but did not hurry to leave the counter.

Sheppard understood her reluctance to hurry, and resolutely headed for the rows of seats in the waiting area.

"John." Dana looked up at her companion gently but insistently. "I'm uneasy.... I beg...Remember that I'm waiting for you... alive. The rest is not important. I'll accept anyone you want. The main thing is to come back. Come back alive... please," she did not try to make sure that he hugged her.

That's how she's always been-independent and vulnerable at the same time. For John. For others, it is stable and solid. Few people knew Dayna the way John knew her.

Shepard hesitated, then slowly, very slowly, so that she would remember, he nodded. He knew she would take the nod the right way. Without words. Words in their communication, in their attitude, have long played a minor role. Dayna understood him without words, and he understood Dayna without words.

For several minutes they stood facing each other next to the "ribbons" of empty semi-upholstered chairs. The cosmodrome staff, accustomed to the scenes of farewell, passed by without pausing, without looking at the young man and the girl.

* * *

A short melodious signal sounded, then a synthesized pleasant female voice clearly announced the arrival of a passenger shuttle at the exit indicated in the departure documents.

A deliverer has arrived in Earth's orbit, a small military passenger spacecraft ship that carried out regular flights from the Arcturus station to Earth's orbit.

"He's here," Dana breathed, taking her time to grab her bag. Shepard picked up his briefcase and bag from the floor, slowly turned around and headed for the right entrance terminal.

The escorts were not allowed to go any further, and after presenting his documents and an order to the second lieutenant on duty at the terminal, he turned to Dana.

The "junior" looked at the screen of his console — he understood that the officer needed to say goodbye to his companion here, since the way was closed for her.

"Dayna... Thank you." John hugged the girl, who clung to him, hiding her desire to cry. "I'll... I'll be back. You write... I'll write to you," John promised. "As soon as possible... I will definitely write to you." He hugged her gently, and she hugged him tighter.

Strong. Physically and spiritually strong and whole. A true girlfriend for him, a soldier and an officer. She doesn't know how to talk about trifles, she knows what discipline and order are from her own rich experience. And at the same time — able to open up to him, to appear gentle and vulnerable. Trusting him with all of herself over and over again.

"Johnny..." Dayna called him as she had only ever called him. With the same intonation, with the same timbre as the first time... "Come back... alive. I... I'm waiting for you and I... love you. Come back," She looked up at him, let him wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes with his fingers, and stepped back, realizing that there was no more time. "Come back alive... please..." Her nervous fingers fiddled with the handle of her purse.

"I love you, Dayna," Shepard said, picking up his briefcase and bag, turning to the opening doors of the boarding entrance and taking a step out the threshold. He wasn't very good at saying goodbye, especially to Dayna.

* * *

In the shuttle's cabin, he nodded to the other officers and sergeants and petty officers-protocol and ritual, there was no escaping it.

Civilian life, and now peaceful life, remained beyond the threshold of the boarding entrance arch. Where Dana remained, watching him go until he stepped onto the travelator's ribbon, which carried him down to the tunnels of the shuttle exits. He could feel her gaze-intense, loving, tender, inviting.

Many people would consider such a relationship strange and unacceptable. Many. Shepard knew that it was not always those who became people's first love who later crossed the line of platonic relationships and embarked on a path leading to the formation of a family and the birth of desirable children together. But it was different for him and Dayna, the children of the orphanage. They had been building their relationship for several years and then, when they came out of the orphanage into an independent life, they got their first apartments and did not move away from each other.

Shepard never put pressure on Dayna, did not limit her right to lead her own life, to meet with friends. And she... she decided to keep in touch with him. Not only to preserve, but also to develop. She accompanied him to the army when he flew to "training" from the same terminal of departure of the military cosmodrome. She wrote letters to him, she replied to his letters.

Yes, rarely, but she wrote. After all, her life was stressful: she made the difficult decision to enter professional sports while still in the orphanage. And since then, a series of training sessions, training camps, field trips, competitions, championships, and Olympiads have become familiar to her.

She quickly achieved significant success, became convinced that this life was suitable for her, that it was acceptable to her. Behind every medal, behind every diploma, there was her tremendous work. That's why Dayna understood Shepard so accurately, deeply, and completely when he decided to try to become a professional Special Forces soldier. Yes, they met very rarely. For a very short time. And Dayna was able to fill these minutes of meetings to capacity. Meaning. The content. A value. John was important to her.

They hadn't thought about the baby or the wedding yet. We met and loved each other. Dayna knew a lot about John's work and service, and he knew a lot about her athletic career. And they talked about more than that over and over during the meetings. They talked about many other things. We went to museums, exhibitions, concerts, new films. They were free to choose and surprisingly suited each other.

Shepard didn't rush Dayna. He didn't talk about the wedding or the children. Although, of course, he meant all this. But he didn't rush it. He did not insist that all this should happen like this — very quickly and in the very near future.

Dayna was delighted and pleased to hear that her John had become a student at the N-Seven Academy. And then... then I sincerely congratulated him, my John, on being awarded the highest qualification category. It was very important to her — she never doubted John's ability to reach the top.

Watching his shrinking figure, Dayna realized more and more acutely that now... now something very important and very big had changed. Not in their relationship, no. Everything remained the same here, and therefore she did not focus her attention on it.

Here, in the departure hall of the spaceport, she felt that something black was standing in front of John. Something that would no longer allow him to write or fly to her as often. And this black can consume not only John, but also many other warriors. She felt very uneasy on the soul. She couldn't explain it in words, but... she was afraid, worried.

Now John wasn't just going to serve, he was going... to war. Probably, only she knew what she should have said "to the war", to say inwardly, silently.

She did not feel such fear for John even when he wrote to her that he had received an order to fly to Akusa. And then... then she found out about the deaths of fifty commandos who were attacked by threshers.

Of course, there was a lot said in the Extranet news release... very streamlined, but she felt it. She felt it with her heart and soul, always and everywhere open to John.

She felt that John had narrowly escaped death. She felt that he had flown to Akusa precisely to participate in this operation. About which so little was said in the general planetary "news". So, in a very blurry, fuzzy way. But she felt that people like John only go for such complicated and difficult operations...

What did he say once? "Clashes." Fifty of his colleagues died as a result of an attack by snake worms. It took her a while to find out that he had survived. She wasn't sure, she was afraid, she was crying. She also had to prepare for the next competitions and participate in the training camps....

She flew straight from the training camp to the hospital, where John was transferred. She saw him... spent several hours next to his bed and realized that he was the only one important to her. No one else. Yes, she had a lot of friends, acquaintances, but only with John could she afford to be herself to the fullest. He accepted her for who she really was when she wasn't trying to appear.

And now she felt that John had gone to war. Which has not yet begun, but which has already moved towards the Solar system, towards the Earth. I flew away so that this war would not affect so many people. Civilians people. He flew away because he was always a warrior. She should know about this, because she accompanied him to the army, he wrote letters to her from the training division, and flew to her on rare leave and vacations. Who better than her?

* * *

She couldn't remember how she got back to John's empty private apartment. Yes, she knew that John had secured for her the right to live here permanently — his status allowed it, after all, a special forces soldier, an n-seven, an officer, a captain. Therefore, she did not pack her things in bags, did not book tickets for a return flight to the town in the south of Britain, where her personal apartment was.

She decided to stay here because John was all around here. There were traces of his presence everywhere. Let it be so. While. Until he sends a few letters, a few messages from the Arcturus. And if possible, then from where it will fly after the Arcturus.

For a long time now, the Arcturus station has ceased to be just a government station. It was also a very large and one of the most important military stations of the Alliance's MSF. For thirty years, humanity has already been present in the Big Space. Thirty years old. A lot has changed, a lot has happened over the years in all sorts of ways.

The Arcturus station was commissioned just two years after John was born. It was opened in the year two thousand one hundred and fifty-sixth, and John was born on the eleventh of April, two thousand one hundred and fifty-fourth. Dayna knew this date not only with her mind, but also with her heart. She always remembered her.

Yes, as a woman, dates had a special meaning for her. Especially such ones. She never forgot to wish John a happy birthday. There wasn't a single year when she forgot to do it on time. Every day.

A year later, the war of First Contact began — humans entered into an armed conflict with the first alien race, the Turians. This conflict was strange, and huge scientific teams are still working on understanding it. Since then, humanity has gone into Space. Dayna thanked all the gods she knew, and sometimes unknown ones, for the fact that John was still very young at the time.: she understood that if he were older, he would certainly try to take a personal part in this war.