I felt so alone.
I knew this feeling.
“Adi?” Hugo said softly. It sounded dangerous to me.
I looked up at him. Saw my future vanish before my eyes. I shook my head.
“Adi,” he said again and reached for me, wrapping me up in his arms. “It’s OK, baby. Just tell me.”
“The datapad,” I said, finding my voice and along with it my spine.
Or that could have been the fact that Hugo was holding me, rubbing my arm, trying to warm me up.
“I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t, Adi,” Aquila said. “There was no time to warn you. I doctored your wrist comm to allow you access to areas I thought would help you hide from your father and I placed my core applications inside your datapad. I had thought you might use the datapad sooner, and then I could have offered guidance. To you and any AU crew you managed to find. But alas, you’re fears regarding the rogue AI made that assumption invalid. It does not matter. You found the crew, and together you prevailed. I can confirm, the rogue AI has been thoroughly destroyed. There is no trace of him within my systems.”
“And you?” Hugo asked. “Can we check you?”
“As you wish, Captain. I am certain Lieutenant Commander Saitō can confirm my databank logs. I have not been active during the rogue AI’s reign of terror.”
“Reign of terror,” the male captain, who had to be Jameson now that I thought of it, murmured. “This guy likes his theatrics.” He looked down at Kereama. “Do you think Pavo will like him?”
“Not sure,” she said. “But Corvus is gonna flip for this one.”
Jameson burst out laughing. The woman captain, Anderson Aquila had called her, threw an arched look at him that shut him up pronto. But I could still see him smiling. He offered me a wink when my eyes caught his.
She turned her attention to Lieutenant Commander Saitō. “Leo, if you would,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied and approached Hugo’s viewscreen.
Hugo looked down at me as Saitō got to work.
“The datapad, huh?” he said softly.
“I thought you’d be angry,” I said.
“I was worried,” he whispered back. “Adi,” he said, “if that machine had done something to you, I would have lost it. I would have torn this ship apart to get to you. I don’t think I would have cared if there had been a ship left afterwards. As long as I had you back with me.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t just hear that,” Captain Anderson said.
Hugo offered her a self-deprecating laugh. He squared his shoulders. Looking every inch the experienced and honourable captain.
“Well,” he said, “I have grown rather fond of that new captain’s chair.” He looked down at me and smiled. “In fact, I think you’d have to pry it out of my cold dead hands now.”
I gave him that, I realised. I gave him the strength to face his demons and do what was right.
Just as Hugo gave me light to chase away the shadows.
Anderson smiled at him.
“Just so,” she said.
“Hear, hear,” Jameson muttered.
“We should make that our new AU motto,” Kereama offered.
“Please, don’t,” Anderson said.
Saitō stood up from Hugo’s terminal. All eyes turned to the man.
The walls pulsed a gentle green. Aquila wasn’t worried.
Please don’t let me lose him again, I thought fervently.
I hadn’t asked for this. To be the one holding the reboot code for my friend. It weighed on me so heavily that so many had died and yet none of them could be rebooted like this. The pay-for-passages. All the others who’d perished at my father’s and Rogue Aquila’s hands. So many people. So many. And none of them could be rebooted like this.
But Aquila could. My Aquila could. He was the same one, I was sure of it. I was so, so sure. God, I prayed. Please, don’t take him away again. I’m not sure I could have survived any more heartache like that.
“It’s OK,” Hugo said softly. “I’ve got you.”
No matter what, if I fell, Hugo would be there to catch me.
Just like I would be there to catch him.
I looked at Lieutenant Commander Saitō.
He looked right back at me and smiled.
“It’s him,” he said. “It’s the original Aquila. You saved his life.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later…
Hugo
Ratbag had a tiny little blue bow on the top of his head. I pitied the poor guy. Who wants to wear a blue ribbon at a time like this?
“I know,” I said to him as I checked my reflection in the mirror. “I know. But your mother wants us to look our best.”
The dog whined at my feet. And then tried to scratch his head and remove the offending article.
“Leave that,” I admonished, reaching down and lifting him up to tuck under my arm. I’d probably get dog hair all over my dress whites, but it was better than Ratbag turning up at the ceremony without his little blue bow.
“Captain,” Johnson said as he poked his head in the door. Armstrong was with him. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I said, handing Johnson the dog.
“Um,” he muttered, looking down at Ratbag, who looked up at him with big puppy dog eyes.
“Do not remove that bow!” I said.
“OK,” the lieutenant commander immediately said.
“And don’t let Ratbag do it either.”
“It’s just a bow,” Johnson argued. “And he’s a guy dog. It’s an indignity, sir.”
Armstrong nodded his head vigorously.
“I’ll have none of that on Zenith watch, crewmen,” I said.
“Yes, sir,” they muttered, petting the poor beast as they walked out of the room.
“How do I look?” I asked as we made our way down the corridor. It was empty. All AU staff were either on duty at their respective stations or were on the Habitat One observation deck waiting for us.
“Very handsome, sir,” Armstrong said with a straight face.
I ran a hand through my hair and then straightened my uniform jacket again for the hundredth time.
“Stop playing with that, sir,” Johnson said a second later when he spotted me fiddling with the ceremonial braid on my shoulder. “It’ll fall off.”
“That sounded decidedly dirty,” a voice announced as we approached the central hub lifts.
“Jameson,” I said in greeting. “I thought you’d already be down there.”
“Sophia was getting anxious that you wouldn’t show.”
“Of course I’ll show. How could I miss this?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Some guys run a mile from this sort of thing.”
“I’m not some guys,” I muttered.
“No, you’re not,” he said. He clapped me on the shoulder and stepped into the waiting lift.
Nothing was said as the left descended five decks. I fiddled with the ceremonial braid until it fell off. Armstrong shook his head. Johnson snorted. Jameson just sighed.
“Come here, kid,” he said and started to fix it.
“You’re not that much older than me,” I pointed out.
“Older and wiser,” he said smugly. “Wouldn’t catch me doing something like this.”
“You don’t want to make an honest woman of Ana?” I asked.
“The more disreputable, the better,” he said. He paused, checked his handiwork, and then said, “Of course, I wouldn’t say no if she asked me.”
I laughed. “Coward,” I said, coughing into my fist.
Jameson just glowered at me and then burst out laughing.
The lift door opened and we stepped out; our laughter ringing in the air.
“Did I miss the party?” a voice said.
“Vaughan!” Jameson shouted. “Bring the Williamine?”
“I thought you didn’t like the Williamine,” the captain of the Chariot said. He slapped me on the shoulder
and shook my hand. “Nervous?” he asked.
“Not in the slightest.” I started playing with the braid again.
Johnson and Jameson both slapped at my hand.
“Stop that!” they said.
“No, not nervous at all,” Noah Vaughan muttered.
“And you and Camille?” I asked. “When’s the date?”
“Oh, well, I…that is…”
“Yeah, just what I thought,” I muttered.
We stopped before the observation deck corridor.
“You know,” I said, giving my jacket one last tug to straighten it, “there’ll be a digi-bouquet. Someone’s gotta catch it.”
Both men looked at me with horrified looks on their faces.
“You are an evil, evil, man,” Jameson said.
“Cruel and vicious,” Vaughan added.
“Nice one, Captain,” Johnson offered. Armstrong sniggered.
I drew in a deep breath and then walked down the corridor, my Zenith watch best men beside me. The observation room was packed to the brim. Out of the floor to ceiling length windows, I could see stars streak past. Or we streaked past them. Space surrounded us. Its vastness so big we couldn’t possibly discover all its secrets. But we’d discover some of them before we reached New Earth.
Four jump points down. And I couldn’t wait to see what the rest brought us.
I greeted a few familiar faces and said hello to a few I didn’t know from other ships, and then I made it to the windows and Captain Anderson.
“Hugo,” she said taking my hands. “That uniform suits you.” Her eyes landed on the four bars on my collar. “You wear your rank well, Captain.”
“Hear, hear,” Jameson and Vaughan said.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said.
I was definitely ready for this and for anything that came our way in the future. How could I not be with Adi at my side? We had a future. A glorious one. For a while there, it had seemed like we wouldn’t have one at all. It had been dark and it had weighed on me heavily. But the future was bright, and the way was clear to New Earth, and we’d reach it as one large fleet, one large family. The last of humanity. Together ‘til the end.
“Good luck, Captain,” Aquila said.
Then the music started, and the AI changed the gel walls to a forest of Canadian maple trees, their leaves turning, the fall winds blowing them away on a soft breeze. I blinked my eyes and looked toward the corridor leading into the observation deck.
Andrea walked in first. Zenith watch leading the procession. Mandy followed behind. Ratbag barked and squirmed in Johnson’s arms. A second later and he’d nipped the lieutenant commander and made his escape; blue ribbon flying as he scampered toward the woman who had followed Commander López and the spook into the room.
My breath caught. My heart stilled. The stars outside hung in the deep; glowing.
But nothing compared to Adi. She blazed like a supernova. Dressed in a bronze colour that complemented the burnished golden leaves on the gel wall. She carried a small digi-bouquet; one of Mandy’s designs. Her eyes shone with such light and beauty, a lump formed in my throat.
Dear God, she was a vision.
I was a lucky man.
She walked with poise and confidence, a smile on her lips that told one and all that she was in charge of this place, of this world, of her man.
“Adi,” I whispered.
“Hello,” she mouthed back at me.
And then she was at my side.
I barely heard the words Sophia spoke. But I did hear Adi say “I do.” And I managed to say it back to her. And then my hand shook when I placed the ring on her finger. And her hand held steady as she smirked up at me and did the same back. And then Sophia announced us, husband and wife.
I didn’t wait to be told I could kiss the bride. I leapt on the woman and devoured her mouth.
The deck erupted. Jameson said something about, “Get a room!” Noah said something to Camille about, “I’m feeling rather dirty, you?” Saitō let out a piercing whistle.
I didn’t care. Adi kissed me back. Adi was in my arms. Adi was mine, and the future was bright, no more shadows, and I would do everything in my power to keep it that way.
For Adi.
For the ship.
For the Sector Fleet and what was left of humanity.
For those who had sacrificed their lives so we could live.
There are men who have known from an early age what is to be their purpose in this life. And then there are men who wake up one day and have it presented them.
I am the captain of the AUS Aquila.
I am Adriana Tremblay’s husband.
I am a champion of humanity’s survival.
I wear the weight willingly.
And we would reach New Earth.
This I knew unequivocally. Humanity would survive. We’d come too far. Paid too much. We would survive.
And we would reach New Earth together.
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Zenith Point (The Sector Fleet, Book 4) Page 27