Last Stand (Stag Privateers Book 1)

amiably about a seemingly random range of topics as they worked to unstick the valve. When it was finally done she enlisted Lana in several more tasks she had trouble doing alone, although as time passed and the tasks became easier and simpler Lana started to get the feeling Belix was just reluctant to let her go.
In fact, when Lana finally worked up the courage to excuse herself, saying she needed to find Ali, the Ishivi followed her to the doorway. “I hope you'll visit all the time, Lana,” she said wistfully, leaning against the door frame. “It's good to have another woman aboard; Ali doesn't technically count, and anyways she sucks for girl talk. Besides, she's never more than ten feet from that walking hemorrhoid, and void take me if I should come within sight of him without written permission signed and notarized and approved by three planetary governors.”
“I'll visit again when I can,” she replied hesitantly.
To her surprise, the small woman actually hugged her for a few moments before hurrying back into the engine room. Lana heard her begin singing along with the warbling screech that still played in the background.
Unsure what to make of the encounter, she started back down the corridor towards her room.

Chapter Four
Transit
From what Lana could learn from the Last Stand's databanks, the Deconstructionist Movement had officially started the war by obliterating Homeworld with atomics a century or so ago.
She was currently reading from a series of log entries written by Captain Aiden, whose hatred of the Deeks had apparently prompted him to become an expert on their history. Which didn't make much sense to her, since she would've thought someone would avoid thinking about things that upset them.
Still, along with providing insight on these enemies the captain was fighting, it also offered a glimpse into the man's own head, a hint of what he thought and felt. It turned out it wasn't the happiest place, if his entries were anything to go by.
She didn't know how she felt about the destruction of the planet where humanity had come from, since she knew nothing about the place, but apparently, it had meant a lot to every human alive. A place of deep significance, visited by people the universe over as a chance to connect with their past.
From the way Aiden described it, the Deeks had made nuisances of themselves for centuries before nuking Homeworld, growing ever bolder in their goal to erase humanity's past. But in spite of the growing popularity of the Movement, people had mostly ignored it or at worst ridiculed it. Part of that was because the Deeks had started out by campaigning to erase the parts of the past people found shameful, and who could argue with that?
Well, people with common sense who realized that it was hard to learn from the past if you didn't know it, of course. At least that's how the captain saw it. Although he seemed to think that common sense has always been a vanishingly rare trait in the average human, especially since most people liked the idea of erasing the uncomfortable things in the past and leaving just the stuff that made them feel good.
Going with that successful strategy, the Movement had erased more and more of the past, making excuses to find things objectionable and branding anyone who argued with their ideas as stagnant, regressive, and immoral. And considering by that point they were mostly in control of the allnet, it was easy to push whatever message they wanted on the populace of the explored universe.
It had gotten to the point where those who noticed the obvious flaws in their reasoning were being pushed into a corner, forced to push back. It was at that point that the Deeks discovered that the silent majority they thought they controlled actually didn't like them much, but was either not invested enough to protest their actions or was afraid of being targeted and silenced by them. With their popularity waning the Movement started getting violent, to try to hold onto their power.
That was about when they destroyed Homeworld, the ultimate symbol of humanity's past. They called it their greatest victory.
Aiden had written at length about the destruction of humanity's birth planet, and seemed to feel its loss deeply even though it had happened long before he was even born. And as he described it the rest of humanity, who happened to like the planet that had given them life and weren't completely insane, had all felt the same about the event.
The fence sitters had finally been forced off the sidelines by the atrocity. The population continued to polarize between Deconstructionists and their allies and the rest of the universe, and somehow the Deeks began pulling in more and more of the previously neutral people who hadn't really supported them.
Aiden was of the opinion that it had to do with violence, like so much in life seemed to. If your average person had a choice between siding with the people who wanted to give everyone the freedom to prosper, and were willing to leave people alone unless they were causing problems for others, or siding with the people who wanted to go around causing problems for everyone else, and shoved a cauterizer in the face of anyone who disagreed with them . . .
Well, turns out most people went with not getting a deadly weapon shoved in their face. Especially prominent public figures who'd immediately find themselves targets if they said the wrong thing. Lana had to admit that, although that conclusion made most people look cowardly, it might have some merit to it.
It was obvious Aiden's logs were written from the perspective of a career soldier. For example, his musing about how by the time the Preservationists figured out one of the oldest and hardest learned lessons of humanity, that the only way to defend against force was with force, it was too late.
The Stags were outnumbered, out-financed, and pretty much out.
It was