Aphelion

This one reads like an episode of The Twilight Zone. A little glitchy though -- I got yanked out of the story pronto when I read:

Only one unmanned drone came back after it lost power,

How did it get anywhere if it lost power?

I wasn't quite expecting Lori to shoot herself in the foot, but I had the idea she was headed for Earth while she was still in orbit. And they were right; she should have waited for the HAL 802.

The laser fired. Its flash was Major Lori Anne Colquitt's final recollection.

This line confused me too. I guess I'm easily confused.

No, I had the same confusion about that -- and the apparent mixed-up-dates problem at the beginning.