by E M Garcia
Ten minutes later, I sat behind the desk in my meeting room with two muscular soldiers staring me down. Gale gave me the benefit of the doubt, judging by his neutral expression, but he couldn’t keep his legs or fingers still. Every few seconds, he turned to look at the door behind him and grumbled about the wait.
Xaveer, wasn't as charitable. The Demon glared at me with heat in his eyes that suggested he would rip the flesh from my skull if he thought he could get away with it. He must have heard about J’Selle’s arrest. With his friend confined, my refusal to answer questions until the rest of the Wreckers arrived wouldn’t play well with a Strekhán.
I tried not to let Xaveer’s seething get to me. The Wreckers had a reputation for protecting their own, and I was an outsider. Worse, I hadn’t seen most them since we left Aurora. There should have been time. We weren’t scheduled to hit our first jump point for twelve hours. If they were forced to choose, how could I expect them to side with me over the Lady. I didn't know, but I needed some of them to do just that.
Daq’usk walked in and paused to glance at Gale and Xaveer before turning his eyes to me. The thick black goggles made him as difficult to read as J'Selle. Suddenly, I wanted to dim the lights and slide the offending accessory away from his eyes. When he reacted to the Lady's crimes, I needed to see his eyes.
Daq dipped his chin slightly, and took a space against the wall beside Gale. "Ambassador."
I wasn't sure if it was a greeting for a fuck you. The dynamics on the ship had shifted since the attack. A few rounds of plasma fire had burned through whatever good will being Jackson's little sister bought. How could I blame them for being suspicious? I sold them a pleasure cruise, and on the first full day we came under fire.
Alix was the last to join us. His face bore none of Xaveer’s suspicion, but the none of the warmth from our dinner with the Admiral. He stoodwith his arms behind his back. “Dr. Cage is in her quarters, Ambassador. Agent Sareen has offered to take first watch.”
I had almost forgotten Xaveer's handler was his price of admission. This time, I didn't bother to correct him. The pleasure cruise was over. Shit had officially gotten real. I pressed my hands together and slid them into my lap. Whatever happened in the next few minutes, I didn’t want my body language to give me away. “Gentlemen, I don't think I need to tell you the nature of our mission has changed."
"That's for damn sure," Gale said leaning back in his chair. "Nobody said anything about taking fire in a ship this outdated. What the hell has the Alliance been doing around here?"
“As things have changed so drastically, I think you all need to know what happened.“ I looked to Gale, infusing my desparation for him to stay quiet into my gaze. “A few minutes before the attack, Dr. Cage confessed me. Dr. Kimbale witnessed and can corroborate the confession.”
Xaveer didn't look impessed by the revelation. He sniffed and folded his arms across his chest, scratching his claws at the floor absently. "What did she confess to?"
"Dr. Cage stole a copy of the RAE ARI without authorization."
I swallowed hard. I'm sorry, J'Selle. You didn't give me a choice. "Dr. Cage too a copy of the RAE AI from Aurora station without authorization. Comments she made before the attack suggest she may have been involved."
All four men were silent. I could have dropped a bomb in that room and gotten more of a response.
"Did she confess to the attack as well?" Daq'usk asked.
"Not directly, no." I admitted. "She only said she didn't believe I would have a chance to act on what I knew."
"That doesn't prove anything," Gale said. I could hear the frustration in his voice. "You confiscated the AI. How long do you plan to keep her on lockdown?"
"I can't answer that until Lieutenant Calhoun gives me an incident report." I took a breath and braced internally for their reaction. "If the damage we took in the attack was bad enough, we may have to proceed to an Alliance facility for repair."
"If you fly into a GA facility, you'll have to turn Dr. Cage and the AI offer, ma'am," Alix said.
I nodded. "I'm aware of that, Lieutant. Fleet orders put you and Commander Howard under my command. But nobody thought they were getting into something like this when they signed on. So, I'm not ordering anyone to do anything. If you object to Dr. Cage's confinement, you are free to use any part of the ship you wish, except vital areas and Dr. Cage's cabin."
"So, the mess." Xaveer spat.
"And the entertainment room," I offered. "There's also a confrence room that doubles as formal dining. It's where the breifing room used to be."
"Good old Alliance," Gale grumbled. "Rip the heart out of war ship and replace it with a designated schmoozing area."
"The Cal isn't a warship anymore, Commander," I said. "Until this morning, scmhoozing was about all we did around here."
Each of the Wreckers had the same expression on their faces. They couldn't deny the attack had happened, but I couldn't prove J'Selle was involved. Not enough to justify turning her in if I could avoid it. The AI had to go back to the Alliance, but J'Selle didn't.
Xaveer's wide nostrils flared. His upper lip curled as he sniffed. He pulled his vest taunt across his bare, sable furred chest. "If it's a GA’s AI then this is their business. It's not my job to clean up after them, anymore and I don't put friends in chains. If anyone wants to drink I'll be in my cabin.”
Without so much is a backwards glance, Xaveer stormed out of the room. The blow hit me like a punch to the gut. He had been the happiest of the Wreckers to meet me on Aurora. Now, he couldn’t even stomach the sight of me. I could reminded him that he was a guest on my ship, but not a free citizen. If telling him the truth didn’t earn his goodwill, tugging the leash the Protectorate had around his throat wouldn’t either. If he wouldn't follow on his own, I couldn't expect him to follow me at all.
I turned to Daq. His service had earned him full citizenship rights withing the Strekhan Protectorate, a rarity for Knaewa. He had as much right to refuse me as Xaveer.
He leaned against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. The pose was somehow threatening and distractingly seductive at the same time.”I’m not useful unless we’re boarded. In those circumstances, it would be foolish not to heed your orders. Until then, I’ll be in my quarters."
“That’s understandable,”I said. “But I’ll have to ask you stay away from Dr. Cage should you wander around the ship."
Daq dipped his head. For some reason, his refusal stung more than Xaveer's.
And then there were two. Alix kept his face neutral, but I could see him flexing his hands behind his back. If one more Wrecker defected, I would have effectively lost the ship. These were professional soldiers. They wouldn't mutiny unless I gave them no choice. I would just have the satisfaction of knowing that I could keep my brother's ship going, but I couldn't keep his crew together.
“I go where the Fleet sends me, ma'am," Alix said in a flat tone. “If the mission on the ground changes, then it changes.”
I caught a flash of disappointment on Alix's face as he turned to go. That left me alone with Gale.
He leaned forward, bracing his elbows against his knees. When we were kids, he often took the same posture. In it, he would dream up wildly destructive schemes sure to get both of us into trouble with the colony administrator. His penchant for destruction earned him a spot on Jack's team. I wondered what talents earned him his rank when Jack wasn't there to guide him.
"You can speak freely, Commander," I said. "I'm not ordering you either."
"Thanks for that. You're out of your damned mind, Tam." Gale rubbed his fingers across his close cropped, curly hair. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"Instituted protocols to recover Alliance property," I said cooly. "And frankly, gotten my ass handed to me while doing it."
"Because it's what you think Jack would do?"
"No, because it's what I'm paid to do," I climbed to my feet, bracing my hands against my desk. Holding them together couldn't keep
the trembles at bay anymore. "This is a decision J'Selle made. She wasn't thinking about Jack or me or anyone but herself when she took that AI. She for damn sure wasn't thinking about what would happen to the nine people on board if her friends had taken out our shields too quickly."
"You don't know for sure that she did that." Gale leaned back. "And you should have known people with that much history wouldn't side with you over her. Look, I'm not attacking you--"
"I wouldn't care if you were. These are your orders, Commander, and unless you can give me a damned good reason why I should look away from the evidence in front of me, they're going to stand."
"The Hammer," he said. "It's a stealth ship with heavy fire power, and we know it's in the area."
I rolled my eyes and sat back down. "You're reaching, Gale. Why would our Fleet escort fire on us?"
"Why the hell would the Fleet send us a small aresnal of weapons you said we didn't need?"
"An overabundance of caution. As it turns out, they were right." I lowered my head. "I don't want it to be Jay either, Gale."
Gale nodded. He climbed to his feet and straightened his uniform, rising to attention. "For your sake, ma'am, I hope you're the one who's wrong."
From anyone else in the galaxy, I would have considered that a threat. But from Galeon Howard, I knew it was a prayer.
14
After drumming on my desk in time with the most aggressive songs in my library, I filled out an incident report on J’Selle and the stealth ship. The report bought me an excuse to give Price if he had followed us into the nebula. I would simply tell him that it happened so fast, I didn’t have time to send in the report before communications went down. If the Hammer didn’t pin us when we emerged in twelve hours, I could use that excuse to buy at least another eight hours of thinking time.It sounded promising in my head, but six hours later, I sat at my desk with the report in my hands and no idea how to get myself out of the mess J’Selle had plunge me into.
I didn’t think Gale was right about Price, but he was dead accurate about the dynamics of the ship. None of the Wreckers had a reason to trust me more than the Lady. But even now, hours later, it was really only Alix's and Daq's lack of faith that nagged at me.
My stomach growled, reminding me that I had never gotten back to Izzy’s brunch. A quick glance at the clock told me I had missed lunch and dinner as well. By now, the abandoned dishes on my table would have congealed into frigid mass of awful. I couldn't face dealing with it before putting anything in my stomach.
I left my room to find the ship mostly dark and deserted. That was nothing new, ship the size of the Cal was so few crew in residence always felt like a ghost ship. Still, with the extra body, the quiet disappoint me. It was like the Wreckers it all decided to hold up in the rooms to spite me. I made my way to the mess hall and tried to shake the feeling that I was being scolded.
Like the rest of the ship, the mess was dark and deserted. But in the silence I heard the sound of rifling bottles and containers .
“You’re not alone," I called out.
Alix peaked his head around the side of the fridge. A sheepish grin spread over his lips as he stepped back, revealing four containers of leftovers, a condiment cylinder, and a bag of bread tucked into his fist. I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing at the unexpectedly adorable sight. For all I knew, he was as pissed at me as Xaveer and Gale.
"You caught me", he said, laughing softly. "I always get a mean case of the munchies after my late night workout."
“Is snaking outside of regulated meal times allowed in the Fleet?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow. “It wasn’t when I did my time.”
“What do you say I make you a sandwich, and we keep this between us.” Alix looked at the top container then looked back to me., shaking his head. “Ugh, I spoke to soon. Nobody with an assignment this cushy would take meatloaf as a bribe.”
I wasn't sure whether his laugh was contagious or i was just relieved Alix was not only speaking to me but being nice. I settled for nonchalant, shrugging as I walked deeper into the kitchen.
“Don’t be so sure. Izzy’s a foodie and her meatloaf is amazing.” I crossed to the food generator and punched in an order of passion fruit tea. Play it cool. If he wants to be friendly, just start there. I smiled as I turned back to him and blew into the steaming mug. “So, what prompted the late night training? That comment about us getting boarded was it's a joke, right? The Cal’s never been boarded. Her defenses—”
"Like Gale said, there's a first time for everything.”. He set his armload on the counter and started sorting through it. I couldn’t identify the system on sight, but the precise distance between each ingredient suggested he knew it by heart. “But mostly I stay in top form to set an example for the recruits.”
I took a sip of tea, wincing as the searing hot liquid scalded my tongue. “You’re an instructor? Where?”
Alix frowned and stepped away from the counter. He disappeared into the deeper recesses of the kitchen and returned with a cube of ice. Icy drops of water contrasted with Alix’s warm skin as he passed it to me. “Here, you should be more careful. “
I nodded thanks and slid the cube against my tongue. At least I wasn’t playing with my necklace this time.
“To answer you’re question, I spend most of my time back in the Inner Territories. Sometimes on Earth, but usually the Luna colony. My background comes in handy in low gravity training.”
Pulling the cube away from my mouth, I plopped the cube into the mug. “I’ve heard IT recruits aren’t as prepared as colony kids, but my branch of the Academy didn’t get many from that far.”
Alix shrugged, sliding four slices of black rye bread out of the bag. “Half of them think it's half of them think they can roll out of bed, lift a few kilos, run a few miles and they're ready for heavy armor.”
“Not the Cage kids,” I said. “One of my first memories is of Jack running laps in the field around our house.”
”Ten miles every morning,” Alix said, nodding. “Fifteen if he was feeling slow.”
“Guess old habits die hard.” I blew into my tea to by myself time. It didn’t hurt as much to remember N’Cali when I was with Alix, but the sharp memories were a distraction I didn’t need. “It’s still supposed to be a vacation. Don’t most people have fun on vacations?”
“What do you do for fun, Ambassador?” Alix asked as he stacked together a sandwich.
The question caught me off guard. It was a simple enough question, typical getting to know you stuff. I had answered it a dozen times before. The problem was, I have always lied before. For some reason, I couldn’t lie to Alix, not even about something so trivial. The best I could do was avoid the subject.
“I’m not on vacation.” I braced my elbows against the counter and glance up at him. “Less so after this morning.”
After the attack, I wasn’t even qualified to be leading the mission. As I filled out the report in my office, I realized I should never have accepted command back from Gale. I would never be able to justify the decision if the Alliance called me on it, but I knew in my gut why I hadn’t refused. Gale and I had known each other for decades, but I couldn’t trust him to protect J’Selle.
Alix paused in the middle of assembling a sandwich. He leaned toward me. “All the more reason to blow off some steam every once in awhile, Tam.”
“Yeah, you’re definitely a teacher.” I took another sip of tea to steel my courage. “Mostly, I drum.”
He looked distinctly impressed, to my embarrassment. "Jack never told me you were drummer."
"I didn't say that. Mostly I pretend to relieve stress. Kind of like playing air guitar.”
Alix smiled “Nothing wrong with that. Everybody needs a good stress reliever. A soldier needs it more than most.”
"What was yours?" I asked. Alix’s cheeks flushed. “Right, new question. What was Jack's?”
Alix turned his eyes back towards the sandwich, heaping a mound of ground meat and onion onto the
bread and topping it with roasted peppers. He brought his hand up to his mouth, his tongue darting out to like the excess gravy from his fingers.
“Doctor Kimball is a wizard with a food generator,” he said, letting out a short grunt of pleasure. “I usually stick to the base recipes. It takes half a tube of salt to give that crap flavor.”
“You’re avoiding the question, LT,” I said.
He shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s the truth.”
I nodded in agreement. The spread in front of Alix was better than our usual requisition. I didn't have any idea where we got such good ingredients for this trip. Someone in command must've given us our food allowance and increase because the Wreckers were on board.
“Is it that bad?” I asked.
“No, just awkward.” He sighed. “J’Selle was Jack’s fun. She was his everything. There women around, Jack only ever had eyes for her.”
“Oh, right. Awkward.” Alix slid one sandwich toward me. I took the plate, but suddenly eating held no appeal. “Would Jack be pissed? About J’Selle, I mean.”
Alix’s brow furrowed. His hands stopped moving with the sandwich inches away from this lips. “You know better than that.”
“I don’t actually.” I admitted. “The Fleet Academy had to take me early. Jack went in when I was 10 and there wasn’t much of a home to go back to not long after that.”
Alix set his sandwich back on the plate. “Do you remember him at all?”
I swallowed. “I remember a lot of fragments, like the morning jogs. And I remember Mt. Victoria.”
The way Alix flinched told me he knew exactly what had happened on N’Cali. I wondered if he heard the story from Jack or from someone else along the way. It had become another one of Jackson Cage’s legends over the years. Lots of people’s only memory of Jack was of him saving them. It was just my rotten luck that he happened to be my big brother, too.
Alix crammed a quarter of his sandwich into his mouth, swallowing it mostly whole. “Honestly? If he were pissed at anyone it would be J’Selle. If there was one thing he couldn’t stand, it was somebody putting their own shit above other people.”