Southern Cross by Windstar

Sixty years was a long time, even for a Tiri, and a lot had happened.
"Yes, they're ready to be rotated off soon now. I wish I could give them more shore leave though.
At least I can reduce my crew numbers."
Emily watched her carefully at that, knowing the pain that lurked behind those simple words.
Two Guardian-Class ships had been dispatched to scout, both of them Variant Ten's. They'd been
a partnered team, Mira and Talia, for as long as Emily could remember. Even before she'd gone
through her own Guardian Training, Mira and Talia had been together.
Darrien was watching Mira with a surprising look of tenderness on the old bear's face. Even
Nicholas had stopped fidgeting.
"What happened to Talia, Mira?"
The white-haired Guardian's fingers tensed, curling around the glass she held until Emily was
certain it would shatter. The stark pain in her voice cut through the First Guardian as Mira
seemed to shrink in on herself.
"We were leading the Bak'ra on a wild goose chase. Trying to muddy the trail, keep them from
heading this way. There were a lot of them, a couple of their big Thor-Class ships, and
supporting elements. We jumped into the Vir system. The colony was still there, some of it
anway. Two thousand were left, Emie, two thousand."
The cold hatred in Emily's chest burned and she gritted her teeth. The Vir had been a prosperous
Tiri colony, with a population of over a billion.
"They had a few old cargo ships, and were trying to get out of the system. Hard to do with no
Guardians to form Jump Gate's for them. When we showed up they had all put themselves into
stasis, aimed their ships at a destination, and gone to sleep. They must have been praying that
they'd wake up to a better universe."
Mira stopped, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. Darrien silently handed her his shot of
Vodka and she downed it without question. The burning trail left by the liquid as it went down
seemed to help a bit.
"We led the Bak'ra right to them, Emie. If we hadn't entered the system, the Bak'ra probably
wouldn't have found them before they got out of the system. As it was… we couldn't stop. Talia
knew that. By the Abyss, we both knew it. We tried though, we were going to grab onto them
with tractors, open a Jump Gate and pull them through with us. Then the Bak'ra showed up,
jumped in almost right on top of us. We fought, best we could, but there were so many, Emily.
So very many of them, and they kept coming. Talia put herself between them and the cargo
ships."
The endless pain in the old woman's gaze told Emily all she needed to know about what
happened to Talia after she did that.