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the Commonwealth as a whole if the CEF concept was to be grounded without further exploration? 
    It was selfish of her, she knew, but she almost wished that she’d died instead.
    When the service came to an end, she walked out of the churchyard and headed back to the apartment on the outskirts of Churchill Garrison.  As the CEF’s commander, she was expected to be near the base at all times, rather than sleeping on Castle Rock.  And besides, it had other compensations.  Some of them made sleeping away from her fellow Marines almost worthwhile.
    ***
    Councillor Gordon Travis waited until the preacher shooed the remaining witnesses out of the churchyard, then walked over to the gravestone and knelt beside the hard stone.  The muddy ground soaked his trousers, but he found it hard to care.  His son was buried below the soil, his one and only son.  What did a little discomfort matter compared to that ? 
    Gordon knew he’d been lucky.  His father’s ticket to Avalon had been purchased by his father, who had gifted his wayward son with enough Imperial Credits to avoid the debt peonage that had blighted so many unwary colonists on Avalon.  Gordon had grown up earning money without having to worry about it draining into an endless black hole of debt, money he’d swiftly invested in a shop when he'd finally realised he didn't want to spend his life staring at the back end of a mule.  His father’s farm might have been permanently hovering on the verge of bankruptcy, but Gordon’s store had been a runaway success.  It helped that he didn't have to save money to pay back loans he’d never taken out. 
    But when his father had been killed by bandits – and the old Council had done nothing – Gordon had sworn revenge.  He’d joined the Crackers, funnelling money and resources to them, helping to keep the insurgency alive.  It had seemed a dream come true when the Marines had arrived; they’d defeated the bandits, overthrown the old Council and come to terms with the Crackers.  Gordon hadn't even raised any objections when his son had decided to join the Knights of Avalon.  Every young man wanted to join. 
    I should have said no , he thought.  God knew he’d had endless fights with his father over his reluctance to stay on the farm, fights that had resulted in them not speaking to each other for years.  He’d known better than to bar his son from joining the military.  How could he say no when the new elite were those who wore a uniform?  But now ... he knew he should have forbidden his son to join.  Elman might have been mad at him, he might have stormed off and done something stupid, but at least he would have been alive.
    Bitter hatred curled around his heart as he started to weep.  Elman had been his only son and, as such, had been special in his eyes, even though his daughters had taken over the family business.  Losing him hurt ; somehow, Gordon knew he’d always assumed that he would die long before his son.  But instead ... he clutched the gravestone, feeling the cold stone against her bare skin.  The Commonwealth had seemed a great idea at the time, one that would ensure that Avalon would never again be at the mercy of faceless bureaucrats thousands of light years away.  But now ... it wasn't worth his son’s life.
    And he didn't even die in defence of Avalon , he thought, bitterly.  He died on a world we should have known better even than to visit.
    Angrily, he stood up.  It would not happen again, he vowed, as he marched away from his son’s grave.  He would make sure it never happened again, whatever it took.  No more sons would die on foreign worlds.

Chapter Three
    This should not be surprising.  The Empire did not provide solutions to most of the flashpoints within the Empire’s vast territories.  Unsurprisingly, the best the Empire could do was keep a lid on the trouble ... which tended to flare up again when the Imperial military was withdrawn. 
    - Professor Leo Caesius.