by K. B. Wagers
“So?”
“All sorts of people were killed.”
Julia looked from Max to Nika. “Nothing to say, Commander? I guess we know who’s in charge around here.”
She was scrambling and Nika made his voice as emotionless as he could. “Answer the question, Julia. Are you going to cooperate with us?”
“Why should I? You wouldn’t dare. People saw me in the bay. Someone will talk.”
“You hurt my family.”
Nika had never heard that snarled tone from Max, not even when she’d been so angry at him on Zuma’s bridge. The lieutenant hadn’t moved a muscle and Julia’s expression grew more desperate.
“My boss will come looking for me.”
“No. Your boss will find your name among the dead of Jupiter Station and move on.” A cold smile touched the corner of Max’s mouth. “And no one here will lose any sleep over you.”
“You won’t kill me. You don’t have it in you.”
“I’m not going to kill you, Julia.” Max stood with a second smile. “I’m going to put you in a hole so forgotten that no one will ever find you, and I’ll let you stay there until you rot. Not CHN. Not NeoG. The black is a big place.” She tapped on the table twice and headed for the door. “You’re not the only one with powerful friends.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“And you’re just a pawn that’s about to be taken off the board.”
“Wait!”
Max turned back around, a single eyebrow raised in question.
Julia hesitated. “I have proof that Melanie Karenina of Trappist Express is involved in all of this, but she will kill me if I give it to you.”
“You’re already dead. If you tell us now, though, they won’t know otherwise until it’s too late. We’ll keep you safe.” Max lifted a hand. “Understand, this isn’t because I care what happens to you. It’s because I want the people you work for and you can give them to me.”
Nika held his breath as Julia’s shoulders dropped. “All right, I’ll do it.”
Max crossed back to Julia and sat down. “You understand I will be recording this conversation and any and all parts of it may be treated as evidence against either you or others. Do you agree to this in exchange for a possible reduced sentence for any crimes you have committed?”
“I do.”
“Then start talking. Tell me everything.”
Twenty-Nine
Max stood at Nika’s side, the rest of the crew behind them. The other Interceptor teams were clustered around like the broken family they were. There were holes, gaps where the missing should have stood. Akane, Shay, Boris, Sui, Yang, and Winnie.
So many more. It hurt to even try to list them all.
Four whole teams down. Eight ships damaged or destroyed. Zuma would have been right in the blast zone if the ship hadn’t still been in the repair yard on the other side of the station. Too many other people killed or injured. People she’d worked with, laughed with.
People whose families would mourn them.
Max wanted to scream her fury into the black.
She’d cried on the coms with Rosa and Ma once they’d gotten everything back up. The former Zuma members had offered to come to the station, but Max told them to stay put and stay safe. The warning had been intentionally vague, but she could tell it had gotten through.
“Admiral Hoboins used to tease me that the way I talked would make a poet cry.” Admiral Kassandra Christin didn’t bother to hide the tears tracking down her dark face. “He wasn’t wrong. I’ve never been one for flowery words or useless phrases, and truth be told neither was he.
“We’re here today to grieve the loss of a man who knew the meaning of service and the goodness of humanity. We’re here to remember him and all the others who were taken from us in this terrible act. People who were our friends. Our family.”
The Navy admiral looked around the room. “I know we are hurting and I know we are angry. But I want you all to remember that you were Lee’s family. He devoted his life to the NeoG and believed in its mission to protect humanity no matter where they live. I also know he was deeply, deeply proud of every last one of you.”
Max knew without looking that the noise from behind her had come from Jenks. That inarticulate sound turned into a barely audible whisper. “I can’t. I can’t do this.”
There was murmuring and Max turned to see D’Arcy step back and pull Jenks into his arms. Jenks didn’t fight him, burying her face against his chest. The big man whispered to her as she sagged against him, and when he lifted his head the anguish in his eyes took Max’s breath away.
Could a person really fake that kind of emotion?
She hadn’t been able to get confirmation from Julia about who exactly on the station was involved. According to the woman, her boss kept things fluid and gave Grant a lot of leeway to do whatever was needed to recruit people.
In this moment, Max couldn’t bring herself to even consider that D’Arcy had been responsible, not without losing her tenuous grip on the calm facade she’d built around herself.
But she hadn’t argued with Nika about the need to double-check the decisions D’Arcy was making about the station or that it was better for her to do it than anyone else.
Admiral Christin kept talking, but Max didn’t really hear the words. Her mind focused on the quiet sobs, the rustling sound of Neos embracing one another, the words of comfort being whispered back and forth.
You really would have been proud of us, Admiral, she thought. Coming together like this.
The crowd broke up as Admiral Christin ended the memorial and a chat notification popped up in the corner of Max’s vision.
Scott: Max, we’re in the back. Come find me when you’re done.
Max: Headed your way now.
She looked behind her, but D’Arcy and Jenks had already vanished into the mass of people so she turned back to Nika. “Scott’s in the back with Tivo—we should go talk to them. D’Arcy’s got your sister, he’ll look after her.”
Nika sighed and rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. “I hate this, Max.”
“Me too. Let’s go get it over with. Tivo will have an alibi. He wouldn’t have helped with this.” Even as she said the words she thought of Chae, sabotaging the ship and nearly killing them all in the process because they were so desperate to keep their family safe. Would Tivo have done the same?
Would you have done it, Max? If you were the one who had to keep people safe?
The sounds of raised voices broke into her thoughts and a sudden shift swept through the energy of the crowd, grief changing to anger. Max shared a look with Nika before they both started pushing their way through the assembled people to the source of the shouting.
Commander Alice Trine of Avenging Heroes was facing off with Commander Janelle Pham of Sol Rising. The tiny trans woman was barely taller than Jenks, but Max already knew she hit like an asteroid and right now she stared up at Alice with her hands open but fury in her eyes.
“Free Mars was responsible, Janelle. So how do we know he wasn’t involved? He used to be one of them.” Alice flung a hand in D’Arcy’s direction. Jenks stood in front of him, one hand pressed to her side, the other clenched in a fist.
Janelle took a step closer, ignoring Heroes’ master chief, Paula Sox, who was trying to keep them apart. “My best goddamned friend died in this attack and you want me to believe one of our own was responsible? Past is past, Trine. D’Arcy wouldn’t have done this and you shouldn’t be parroting rumors about Free Mars as if they’re facts.”
“I don’t want to go up against you, Janelle, but you need to get out of my way. He has to answer for this!”
“Fuck you.” Janelle laughed. “You think you can make it through me, you’re welcome to try. And I’ll tell you now, you won’t get through Jenks, wounded or not.”
Alice’s gaze flicked over Janelle’s shoulder to Jenks. “How can you stand there and defend him when Luis is dead?” she demanded.
&n
bsp; The sudden hush that fell on the crowd was what Max imagined getting sucked into the black without a suit felt like. She tensed, waiting for Jenks to launch herself at the commander, but her friend just stared.
There was a long moment of quiet where no one even seemed to breathe.
“Shame on you.” Jenks lifted her chin. She looked from Alice to the others in the crowd. “Luis would have been the first to tell you that D’Arcy is one of us. He also would have said: How dare you do this now. When we are grieving. When we are hurt. When we should be living up to what Admiral Hoboins saw in all of us, what he was so proud of having helped create here.”
Max watched as some of the Neos on the other side of the divide shifted uncomfortably. Jenks hadn’t even raised her voice, but her words were clear and struck with calm precision to the heart of the matter.
“Shame on all of you,” she said again, turning her back on the crowd. D’Arcy put an arm around her shoulders and helped her out of the Interceptor bay.
Max met Paula’s gaze and stepped forward. “We’re done here, people. Go grieve with your friends.” She put her hand on Janelle’s shoulder. “Come on.”
“Back it up, Commander,” Paula said to Alice, and only then did Alice tear her gaze away from Janelle and walk away. “I’m sorry, Janelle,” Paula said. “For that and for Shay.”
The commander waited until Paula had also walked away before pressing a trembling hand to her lips and turning into Max’s embrace.
“I know, I’m so sorry,” Max murmured, pressing her cheek against the top of her head.
“Lieutenant, I can take her,” Inaya Gorelik said, and Max nodded, allowing Janelle’s ensign to lead her away.
She felt Nika’s fingers wrap around hers and fought to keep her own emotions in check when all she wanted to do was turn around and let him convince her that this was a terrible dream.
Nika watched Max pack all her grief back down into some safe place inside her before she headed for the door and wondered how long it was going to be before she allowed herself the space to feel anything.
He hated that he couldn’t give it to her.
“Max?”
She turned at the sound of Scott’s voice, offering up a poor shadow of a smile at her brother and Tivo.
“We’ve got almost everyone accounted for now that coms are back up. I’m having the shuttles do a second sweep to look for bodies.” Scott reached out and took Max’s arm in a gentle grip when she stumbled. “When did you sleep last?”
“When everything wasn’t on fire? I don’t remember,” she whispered, and Nika mouthed, “Yesterday,” when Scott shot him a look.
“As soon as we’re done here you’re going to lie down.”
“You’re not the boss of me.”
Nika swallowed his amusement at how much Max sounded like his sister in that moment. “He’s right, Max. You need some rest. And a reminder that I am actually the boss of you, so I’ll make it an order if I have to.”
She grumbled but didn’t protest and they walked the rest of the way to the conference room in silence.
Nika pulled his sword off his belt as he hit the doorway. They’d all been armed for the last week, unsure whether another attack was coming. Max and Scott had agreed they probably should stay armed for this confrontation with Tivo, just in case.
Scott put his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Lieutenant, take a seat.”
“What’s going on?” Tivo looked away from Max as Nika laid his sword down on the table and leaned both hands on the top.
“Sit down,” Nika repeated. “I’d like you to tell us where you were when the explosion happened.”
Tivo stared at him and then looked to Scott. Nika watched as the realization dawned in Tivo’s eyes. There wasn’t any anger on the heels of it, just grief as the man sank into the nearest chair. “You think I was involved?”
“I think I want you to tell me otherwise,” Nika replied. Please, for my sister’s sake at the very least.
“You took off as soon as the ship hit the docks, Tivo,” Scott said. “Why?”
Tivo rubbed the back of a hand against his jaw. “I was looking for Jenks,” he whispered. “Luis had sent me a message that he’d apologized to her and they’d talked. He said she’d promised to at least hear me out. I went straight from the ship to the Interceptor quarters, but missed her.” He looked up at Nika. “I ran into Tamago, who said she was with Admiral Hoboins, so I thought I’d just head up there and wait. I was in the low-g tube when the explosion happened. At that point I just started gathering up injured. I met up with a few others who were doing the same thing and we worked our way toward the admiral’s office, where we found Jenks.
“I’ve never been so relieved in my life,” he whispered, dropping his head into his hands. He lifted it, looking at Nika. “I swear to you I wasn’t involved in this. Whatever you need from me to prove it, just tell me.”
“Tamago confirms seeing him,” Max said. “I’m having Sapphi pull the surveillance for the quarters and the transfer tubes.”
Nika nodded. “You saw what happened in the Interceptor bay with some of the crews, Lieutenant. You’re a demolition expert who knew about our operation. You understand we have to investigate every possible avenue here.”
“I get it.” Tivo glanced Scott’s way. “I don’t like thinking that my friends don’t trust me, but I get it. This is why you didn’t put me on rotation for guarding the prisoner, isn’t it, Commodore?”
“At Commander Vagin’s insistence, yes.” Scott nodded.
“If it makes you feel better, he argued with me,” Nika said. “He trusts you.”
“You still don’t.” Tivo’s declaration was flat and Nika couldn’t argue with him. “I cared about Luis. I care about your sister. I wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt them.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Nika replied, but he didn’t have time for Tivo’s indignation. “Chae also cared about us and they still put us in danger to keep other people they loved safe. These people we are chasing are ruthless. I won’t apologize for being cautious about who I trust.” He held his hand out. “For what it’s worth, I want you to be telling me the truth.”
Tivo took his hand. “Just tell me what I need to do to get you to believe me.”
Jenks lay in her bunk in the dark, the sounds of her crew sleeping around her. She’d been awake for an hour, her mind insisting on replaying the fight she’d had with Luis and Tivo back on Trappist-1d in a loop.
She slipped out of bed, wincing at the movement. Her temporary release the day of the memorial had turned into a permanent one, but the doctor had warned her to take it easy.
She’d managed it for a day, but lying around seeing Luis’s face in her head was killing her.
Messages of condolence were piling up in her DD. There’d even been one from Asabi Han, though Jenks had shuffled it off with all the others into a folder marked No without even opening it.
“Where are you going?” Doge’s question was over their personal com so no one else could hear them, but Jenks still froze, almost laughing at the instinctual feeling of being in trouble.
“Out. You stay there and be quiet.”
“You should not be up.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m going for a walk. Don’t argue with me.” Jenks finished pulling a hoodie on over her tank top and pointed. “Do what I say, you damn dog.” The ROVER dropped his head back down onto his bed and she ignored the guilt clawing at her as she slipped out of the Interceptor quarters.
Jenks took a deep breath and continued through the mostly deserted corridors, making her way toward Corbin’s as she tried to stay afloat through the endless waves of memories washing over her.
She stopped at the door. The place wasn’t crowded and there was a hushed, almost churchlike quality she’d never in her life seen there before. Jenks rolled her shoulders and stalked to the bar, shoving aside the Navy captain who had the bad luck to be in her way.
“Hey! You—” His protest cut
off, his eyes widened, and he took a step back.
“Did you have a problem, Captain?” She felt her blood sing at the prospect of a fight, drowning out the grief in her chest.
But he shook his head and took a step back with his hands raised. “No, Chief, not at all.”
“Chief, should you be up?” Tussin asked with a frown.
“I’m going to be sitting down right now. I’m here for a drink,” Jenks replied, slapping her hand on the bar, wincing as pain shot through her at the motion. “Vodka. Right here.”
The owner of Corbin’s studied her for so long Jenks contemplated climbing over the bar to get it herself, even though she knew it would probably rip open the heal patch on her side. Then the man nodded and grabbed for a bottle, pouring out a shot and sliding it across the bar to her.
Jenks held it up with a bitter smile. “To the honored dead and all that.” She knocked it back, closed her eyes against the burn of it, and set the glass down. She gestured to Tussin and was surprised when he poured her a second without protest.
“Life fucking sucks, doesn’t it?” She drank it and held out the glass.
“Hey, Chief, that’s probably enough. Let’s get you back to quarters.”
Jenks spun on Petty Officer Piper just before he could put his hand on her shoulder, and she would have laughed at the collective indrawn breath of everyone in the bar if she hadn’t been trying to keep from screaming. “I like you, Piper, but unless you want to fight, don’t touch me right now.”
“Chief, don’t do this. I know how you feel.”
“How I feel? I feel like I want another drink.” She raised her voice. “And then I want at least one of you to find some fucking courage and take a swing at me.”
Thirty
“Max, Jenks left.”
Max rolled over and blinked groggily, jerking in surprise when she realized Doge’s muzzle was right in her face.
“I disobeyed,” the ROVER said. “She told me to stay and be quiet. But she needs you.”