Author's Notes: So, for those of you who follow the One More Time series, I chatted with my beta, the awesome Katari_Michelos, over Discord, at one point about this idea for Caslet that could have made Shannon even more of a wreck than she is in One More Time. That idea didn't work out, and won't be written (Katari, you know what I'm talking about). But, I thought maybe another reaction to the battle and the changes from canon (besides someone's past causing plot implications down the line, Admiral Chin got more of her fleet out with Tourville bringing his tac witch along). This was gonna be written earlier, but RL got insanely busy.

If you haven't read my One More Time series, well, this only spoils a few things from the early chapters and the past books through At All Costs.

Rear Admiral Caslet of the Protector's Own, scrolls through the recent sitreps on his datapad, as new ones download. 

 

 

He taps on it, and reads the summary.

 

 

He continues reading the report and thinks more about the name of the promising officer he used to know. He wonders: Why wasn't Shannon at Bolthole?

—

Several weeks later, he sees a draft press statement regarding the Battle of Manticore that would have been released on Manticore, by the time it got to Grayson. He taps on it, and opens it on his datapad.

 

The first thing his hazel eyes notice is the attached holos. The first one is of Admiral Lester Tourville. He gives it a once-over, before continuing. The second one is of Vice Admiral Shannon Foraker. He pauses at the second holo, letting the details sink in. Her hair’s still in the same style as it’s always been in, though she appears to have gotten some new Elvanian style hairpins in the past decade. She’s wearing a few of the medals she’d gotten as my former tac officer, but she’s gotten quite a few more. It looks like she caught the wave of promotions again, despite everything. 

And that more demure edition of the “eyes on what you can sneak a glance at” look isn’t new. He notices the traces of shock and PTSD, from having known her for years, and merely nods slowly for a second, before scrolling down to the article.