Wars had a tendency to bring out the most extreme side of humanity.
Good people became great.
Bad people became horrible.
In very rare cases, useless, blank blobs that looked like people became even more blob-like and useless, but they were the tiny, tiny exception to the rule.
Finley had worked with some truly, unbelievably great people during the war and unfortunately, some utterly horrific pieces of human garbage.
No one escape a war unchanged, but usually, the bond between soldiers, carefully built and maintained by the military, preventing too much rot from taking root.
The cases where it had made it in and ruined entire units were the worst-case events that were studied in history classes for centuries after. The Nazi's in World War II. My Lai in Vietnam. Haditha in the Middle East. The Serenity Crater Massacre in the 23rd century. The Sunspot Re-Routing. The Teran and Bounty Mutinies. There'd been an entire ship that changed sides to the Alari during the war, but they'd died to a man before the war was over.
During the Civil War, there'd been several ships on both sides that had been infected by toxic commands and crews and had crossed the line into committing war crimes. Finley had brought down two of them during the war, both Republican that had tried to fight her. She'd reported two Federal Captains, but their eventual falls had been at the hands of others.
There were more she'd heard rumors about but never seen concrete evidence and since they weren't minor accusations, no starship captain would ever act without evidence.
There was a blacklist drawn up after the war and Finley could guess at some of the names on it. She could probably get her hands on it, if she really tried, but if the new government was encouraging people to try and kill Finley on the off chance that she became popular enough to move into the government, then she was sure most of the people on that list wouldn't be breathing by the time the Loss returned from its mission.
Finley had cut people from her crew list that were even vaguely connected to anyone she suspected was on that list.
In a happier thought, she'd worked with some great people that she'd fought hard to get on the crew of the Loss and hadn't had enough pull to make it happen.
One in particular, she hadn't even been able to find.
Daniel Harmony was a civilian and always had been. Finley had first met him when he'd guest lectured at the Academy. He was a decade older than her, but a recognized genius the likes of which only happened once a century. He'd had his first college degree at thirteen and been off to the races, re-writing everything everyone thought they knew about physics and chemistry and by the time he was lecturing at the Academy he'd upgraded the Hell Engines and the power supply systems for the light wall and developed three new bombs.
When the Civil War had been brewing, he'd been teaching at a civilian university on Mars and both sides had tried to recruit him.
Thankfully, Daniel Harmony shared a common trait with most geniuses in that he didn't think much of any form of government. He disagreed with isolating solely based on the fact that it meant less of a focus on exploration and experimentation. Harmony didn't think anything was more important than scientific progress.
He'd spent the first half of the war teaching on Mars, and then the second half as a researcher on the Titan Station.
Minus the five times he'd been kidnapped and the time it had taken him to be rescued and then refuse to join his rescuers.
Finley had always gone out of her way to visit him whenever she was nearby. They'd even worked together briefly on the light wall, right before the Civil War had actually kicked off.
Finley liked the always-to-busy-for-anything scientist, but she'd always been willing to overlook challenging personalities when they were people she thought were useful.
Harmony had also helped her design the shield upgrade she'd had installed on all her ships during the war, though in his defense, they'd come up with the design before the fighting started.
She'd lost track of him right after the armistice, until one of Russo's longtime sources had braved the comm blackout to tell her Harmony was working on a system upgrade on Walker Hospital.
She'd also mentioned how much he was being paid for the upgrade and Finley had stared at that number for longer than she'd be willing to admit out loud.
Based on his skill level and the size of the team he reportedly had, he should have finished the work a couple of months ago and be just about finished with the final debugging. According to Russo's source, he'd had time to work on the package she'd requested, and it was supposed to be ready to go. Though Finley was hopeful that wasn't what was in the crates that had exploded. Harmony would never damage his own work like that way, but someone else absolutely would. Especially if they'd had no idea what was in the crates.
Harmony's work area was deep in the bowls of the satellite, right next the oxygen generators and main engine. Not only was that always considered the heart of a satellite, it was also the most secure and the fewest people had access to it. Finley hadn't asked Russo how he'd gotten the access card he'd slipped her, but it worked on all three doors. All three sets of guards had let her pass after confirming her identity.
Based on Russo's estimates, she had just over an hour before someone in Winters office realized that she had access where she shouldn't.
Transient officers were never allowed access to the heart of a satellite.
Hopefully, Russo's source had covered her tracks.
The heart of the satellite was a huge open room that resembled what Finley thought a human brain would look like if turned it inside out and pulled it apart.
~ tbc