by K. B. Wagers
“I know. I just—I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” She turned then, unshed tears in her eyes. “Do you realize how you made me doubt myself? That all the work I’ve done to get clear of my parents’ influence got buried again when someone I cared about dismissed what I was capable of doing? When you manipulated me into feeling guilty for not respecting our downtime?”
“I was under orders not to tell you, but you wouldn’t let it go.” He knew he shouldn’t have said it the moment the words hit the air, hit Max, and she recoiled like she’d been punched, but Nika pressed on. “I did what was necessary to get the job done.”
She looked away and he thought for a moment she was just going to walk, but then she shook her head and looked back at him.
“This isn’t about me, no matter how much you try to make it so. Whatever Stephan’s orders were, when we were out there in the black you should have been in charge and the safety of our crew should have been your priority.
“You decided to be Intel rather than an Interceptor, Nika. I don’t know why you bothered coming back at all.” Her words were such a perfect echo of his earlier thoughts that they took his breath away. “I thought we were going to be a team. I thought you respected me—as a person and as your lieutenant—but that’s not the case, is it?”
“Max—”
“You know what hurts the most? You could have just told me that you couldn’t tell me. That I didn’t have clearance. It would have been understandable. But you didn’t.” Max lifted her head and the look in her eyes cut Nika down to the core. “You lied to me. You told me I was wrong. That I was imagining things. That I was failing at our relationship.” She laughed bitterly. “So no,” she said. “I don’t want an apology from you. I’ll let you know if that changes.”
He let her go, his heart breaking as she walked away.
Interstitial
“It’s done,” Grant said.
“Good.” Melanie nodded. “The freighter crew didn’t know about the tech they were hauling, did they?”
“No. They thought it was a usual shipment. We’ve already taken the normal precautions against anyone talking out of turn.”
“My lawyers are working on getting them out of custody; they’ll be headed back to Earth before the week’s out. The freighter will have to be written off, penalty for their screwup.”
“Captain Yui won’t be happy about that.”
“She can come talk to me about it when she gets back,” Melanie replied.
“What do you want me to do about the spacer? They told us about the shipment getting moved and whatever they did has put Zuma down for the count.”
“They’ll fix the ship and the investigation into why it crashed may draw more attention than we want. But we’ll keep an eye on Chae for now, and maybe we can head things off with a message.”
“The usual kind of message?” Grant asked.
“Don’t kill anyone, but find one of Zuma’s crew and tell them the NeoG needs to back off or more people will get hurt.”
“That’s not really my style.”
“You’ll have to live with the disappointment. We need less heat on Trappist, not more, Grant.”
“Given what you have planned I find it strange you’re concerned about how much attention we’re getting in the first place.”
Melanie’s smile was slow and deadly. “Trust me, no one will be looking our way after you get done with our little present to Jupiter Station.”
Grant’s smile echoed hers. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Twenty
The punch caught Chae right in the cheek, pain exploding through their face, and the force of it sent them crashing into the wall.
“You piece of shit.” Tamago’s eyes were rimmed with red like they’d spent the night crying.
Chae could have blocked the next fist they threw, but instead just took the punch to their stomach. They’d sparred with Tamago a time or two, but obviously the petty officer wasn’t holding back the way they all did in the gym.
Chae’s breath left them and they went to a knee, retching, more than a little grateful there wasn’t anything for them to throw up this early in the morning.
“Get up and fight me, you treacherous shit.”
“What the—Tamago!”
Chae lifted their head in time to see Jenks emerge from her room and catch Tamago around the waist, pulling the petty officer away.
“Let me go! They deserve to have their ass kicked for what they did.”
“This is not what I meant when I said we’d deal with it in the morning, Tama!” Jenks grunted as she dragged them back, spinning slightly so that she was in between Chae and Tamago. Only then did she let the petty officer go. Tamago surged forward again. Jenks barely moved, seemed to just settle lower, but her right palm connected with Tamago’s shoulder and knocked them back into the opposite wall.
“We’ll talk about this, Tama,” Jenks said calmly. “You be as mad as you want, but you’re not going to beat on them.”
“How can you stand there and defend them?” The pain, the betrayal, was clear on Tamago’s face, and it made Chae feel like they’d been punched all over again.
“I deserve it, Chief,” they said.
“You shut up.” Jenks didn’t even look behind her when she issued the order to Chae. “You, take a seat.”
Tamago didn’t move.
“That’s an order, Petty Officer. Put your ass in a chair now.”
Tamago stalked to the table and dropped into a chair, crossing their arms over their chest and glaring in Jenks’s direction.
“I’m gonna have to send Ma a fruit basket. I never realized how much shit he put up with from us,” Jenks muttered, scrubbing at the back of her head with one hand while she reached for Chae with the other and pulled them to their feet. “Go sit down, Chae.”
Chae sat opposite Tamago and forced themself to meet Tamago’s glare.
“Let’s start with the basics,” Jenks said, leaning both hands on the end of the table. “Everyone is alive.”
“No thanks to them.” Tamago subsided back to sullen silence at Jenks’s warning look.
“Everyone is alive,” she repeated. “And while yes, Chae is responsible in part for putting us in that situation, they are also responsible for us not being splattered all over the surface of this planet.”
Chae swallowed. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” Tamago scoffed. “What good is that? When your best friend dies right in front of you, come try that line again and see how it feels.”
Chae flinched and squeezed their eyes shut as the misery surged up into their throat, blocking off all their air.
“Tamago—”
“I’m serious, Jenks. Just because you decided everything was forgiven doesn’t mean the rest of us have to do the same.”
“Their best friend is dead.”
The words were like a hydrogen explosion, sucking the air out of the room. Chae kept their eyes squeezed shut and clenched their hands in their lap, but it wasn’t enough to keep the sob from escaping.
“These people have been holding the lives of everyone Chae cares about over their head, Tama,” Jenks continued softly. “They killed Chae’s best friend because we caught that freighter. They threatened their fathers. What would you have done?”
“Told someone! Told you or Max. I—”
“Because you trust us, right? Who was Chae supposed to trust? Their girlfriend was working for these bastards. They already knew others on the station were keeping watch on them. What do you do when you have no one left to trust?”
Jenks pulled out a chair from the table, the legs scraping on the floor, and she sat with a sigh. “I understand the anger, Tama, I do. I also understand what it’s like to have no choice at all and still try to keep the people you love alive.”
“Permission to be dismissed, Chief?” Tamago’s question was properly formal and void of any feeling.
There was a pause before Jen
ks answered. “Granted.”
Chae dropped their head onto the table as Tamago left, burying their face in their hands. Hot tears stung their eyes and dripped down between their fingers. “I’m sorry, Chief. I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me anymore,” Jenks said, resting her hand on the back of their head. “Sapphi will likely forgive you with an ease that will surprise you because that’s just who she is. Tamago will come around, though I’d avoid them for a while unless you want another bruise. Look at me.”
Chae lifted their head and met the chief’s mismatched gaze. There was sympathy and an echo of the sorrow that was wrapped around their own heart.
“You had our backs when it really came down to the wire, Chae. I know some of that was self-preservation kicking in, but you could have chosen to let us crash and you didn’t. The big question is, what are you going to do from here?”
“Chief?”
“Are you going to be a member of this team? Apologize for your colossal fuckup and make it right with your actions rather than just your words?”
Chae took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m an Interceptor, Chief. Zuma’s Ghost. I’ve got your back.” They tapped their fist to their heart.
“And I’ve got yours.” Jenks grinned as she finished the handshake. “That’s my Neo.”
Jenks wandered through the streets of Amanave, hands shoved into the pockets of her cargo pants and music blaring in her head. She was mostly out of uniform, dressed only in a black T-shirt and her boots, but with Doge trundling by her side—and the look on her face—the locals were giving her a wide berth in the afternoon sun.
Amanave was a huge, sprawling habitat, well established and better equipped than most of the smaller outlying ones. Named for a Samoan village lost to the rising waters of climate change and as an homage to the explorers who’d once sailed those same seas of Earth, it was one of the first habitats set down on One-d in 2339.
After the ruckus with Tamago and Chae, Jenks had visited Sapphi in the hospital and Max had given her permission to catch a ride back out to Zuma on the hauler. She hadn’t bothered to ask Nika, and she still wasn’t sure what to say to her brother about all this.
Instead she’d lost herself in the mundane task of facilitating the ship’s transfer to the dockyards in orbit above the planet. Whatever her opinions about the naval yard and their polite refusal of her help, they’d be able to get the bridge cleaned and the window and airbags replaced by the time the Laika returned, and the rest of the work could easily be done at Jupiter Station.
That had taken the better part of the day and now, instead of heading back to the NeoG base, she was on the street, studiously ignoring the chat messages pinging her DD.
“You are not answering Luis or Tivo.”
She turned the music down and looked at Doge. “Sorry, I forgot to shut down the notices on your end.”
“I don’t mind. You are angry with them.”
“That’s a word for it.” She rubbed at her chest. “It hurts, Doge. Even if there were reasons, it hurts when people you care about lie to you. I don’t really want to talk about it, though, okay?”
“I understand.”
Jenks wasn’t sure he could, but as long as Doge was quiet right now, she wasn’t going to question it. She rubbed at the back of her head as she walked across the street to a somewhat dilapidated hangar. The big doors were closed, but the smaller door at the corner was open and she stuck her head in, turning her music all the way off with a thought. “Anyone in here?”
“Can I help you?” A person with black hair and bright green eyes came around the side of an older-model Winslow shuttle with a bolt gun in their hand.
“I’m Jenks,” she said. “I was—”
“Not what your handshake says, Chief Petty Officer Altandai Khan of the Near-Earth Orbital Guard,” they cut her off, eyes narrowed as they looked her over, but then those green eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, is that an original ROVER?”
“‘Jenks’ is the short version.” Jenks grinned and kept her hands visible. “And besides—you don’t have a handshake at all.”
“Ah shit, that’s rude. Sorry. The Winslows get weird feedback going on the internals and I turned it off. Blythe Hup. She/her.” The woman’s handshake flashed in Jenks’s vision as she spoke. “Hup’s Repair Shop.”
“It’s nice to meet you. To answer your other question, this is Doge. Yes, he’s an original ROVER. Say hi, Doge.”
“It is nice to meet you. You’re not going to shoot at us with that bolt gun?”
Blythe laughed and put her hands behind her back. “God no, it can barely get bolts into place as it is. You’re a smart one, aren’t you? So, Jenks. What can I help you with?”
She swallowed. All she really wanted was to bury her head in machine parts for a few hours and stop thinking about the shit rolling around in her brain.
“This might sound odd but . . . you got anything I can work on?”
Blythe blinked in surprise. “I’ve got a fussy fuel pump I just pulled out of this beast. You any good with older mechanics?”
“Not bad,” Jenks replied, lifting a shoulder and crossing to the woman. “I’ve worked on a Winslow or two in my time.”
“I’ll be honest, you don’t look old enough to know what a Winslow is, let alone have worked on them. But I’ve never been one to turn down offered help. I can’t pay you, mind—” she said, wary.
“Just want to get my hands dirty.”
“Okay, come on, then. Make yourself useful.”
An hour later Jenks had the pump disassembled and was bent over the table with all the parts laid out in front of them. “There it is,” she said to Blythe, holding up the broken part in triumph. “Those little valves have such a habit of breaking, it’s good to keep a few spares on hand. You got a welder? I can make you a new one if you don’t have them.”
“I’m impressed, Jenks from the NeoG.” Blythe grinned at her. “Let me go dig through the pile and see what we have.” She disappeared into the back of the hangar.
Jenks returned her focus to the table, humming to herself as she sorted through the pieces in search of anything else that was worn or about to break.
“Jenks?” She stiffened at the sound of Luis’s voice and multiple footsteps, turning her head just enough to see two men duck under the Winslow.
She heard Doge growl and Luis’s quiet “Jesus, Doge, come on.” The growl didn’t abate and both men stopped, hands spread wide in surrender. Luis glanced her way. “That was fast, buddy. She put me on the enemy list?”
“You hurt Jenks. You are both currently untrustworthy.”
Jenks was glad she’d turned her head back to the table, keeping her surprise concealed. She hadn’t done anything with Doge’s parameters, but she wasn’t about to tell Luis that.
“How’d you find me?” She didn’t turn around from the pump parts. It was safer—for everyone—if she kept her hands busy.
“I know you. Once I figured out you weren’t up working on Zuma, it was a matter of searching around here for your chip.”
“My chip’s off.” Jenks glared over her shoulder.
“Yeah, I know, but Doge’s isn’t.” Luis offered up a smile she didn’t return.
“According to the Navy, I’m not qualified to work on repairs unless it is absolutely necessary.” Jenks changed the subject and looked away again.
If they were back on Jupiter Station the yardheads would let her do whatever she wanted, but they all knew her. Here, she was a stranger.
Which was exactly how she felt with Luis and Tivo right now.
Jenks picked up the rotor and held it to the light. “Go away. Both of you. I’m busy.”
“Dai, you’ve been avoiding us all day.” Luis sighed. “Can we talk about this?”
“I’ve been working all day. Trying to keep my crew together. Dealing with my busted ship. And I don’t think there’s anything to say to either of you. You’ve been lying to me about thi
s thing from the beginning.” She put the rotor down. “Which, fine. Opsec and all that. I get it.” She couldn’t stop the bitter snort.
“Dai, are you mad that I didn’t tell you we knew each other?” Luis asked.
“I’m assuming if something had been going on in the relationship area between you two last year we would have had a conversation about it like adults.”
“You assume correctly,” he replied.
She forced herself to let go of the wrench she’d picked up without even noticing and stepped away from the table, spotting the way Luis’s shoulders relaxed just a fraction.
Of course they expect me to lose my shit. Can’t trust Jenks to think things through. I’m just the weapon you point at whatever you want destroyed.
“No,” she said. “I get it. That was need-to-know and I didn’t need to know. I do have more than two brain cells to rub together. I understand the need for secrecy on something like this, as hard as that may be for you to believe.”
“Dai, don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
Frustration made the muscle tic in Luis’s jaw as he closed his eyes briefly. Tivo frowned in confusion, not understanding this argument that had been going on long before he’d met them.
“Don’t make this out like I think you’re not smart enough to get my work,” Luis said. “I meant what I said on Earth: you are amazingly talented when it comes to piecing things together. Stephan should have—”
“Found it!” Blythe emerged triumphant, took one look at the three of them, and whistled. “Awkward interruption. Gentlemen.” She glanced at the two men and then back at Jenks. “Is there a problem?”
Jenks sighed. “No, sorry, Blythe. They just came by for a talk.”
“I’ll leave you alone, then. My office is in the back. The door isn’t too thick, so holler if you need something.”
Before Jenks could protest, the woman was gone. She looked from one man to the other. “Putting aside that actions speak louder than words, Luis, you want to know what I’m mad about? Max already told you. You read us into this op in the most half-assed manner I’ve ever seen. You were just using us as fucking bait. Again. No warning, no way to protect ourselves.”