“How sure can we be that there aren’t any other Aleal on board?” Keep asked.

  “Not very,” I replied, pointing at Volker. “I’m not a hundred percent sure he’s not compromised.”

  “Me?” Volker said. “I’m human, Your Honor. I swear.”

  “Which is exactly what an Aleal would say,” I pointed out.

  “Did you give him a prick test?” Keep asked.

  “There’s no point. They’ve figured out how to duplicate a person’s blood, too. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they’ve evolved.”

  “In practice if nothing else, apparently. Badabing badaboom!”

  It came out so loud and at such an awkward moment I could feel how hard it had been for him to keep up appearances around the military brass and nobility he was interfacing with every day.

  “Anyway,” I said. “I’m on Prestige, and we’re only…Zar, how far are we from Gloin now?”

  “Seventeen hours,” she replied.

  “We’re only seventeen hours away from David. I’m going there to pick him up. You can make that quest a lot easier for me to complete or you can tell Commander Volker here to throw me in the brig for real this time.”

  “And if I help you rescue David, then you’ll come back to Atlas?”

  “No. I told you, I need three days.”

  “People are dying here, kid.”

  “I know it. I’m not asking for the time to take a detour to Paradise for a fling. I told you, I’m working a different angle. But it’ll intersect with yours back on Atlas. Capiche?”

  “The Chiefs will ask a lot of questions about your whereabouts.”

  “Are you Regent, or are they?”

  He smirked. “You got me there, Bennie. I’m on your side. I just don’t want you going off and getting killed. And not only because you’re the only one who stands a chance against Dominator.”

  “We can’t control when we die, Keep. We can only control how we live.”

  “That’s deep. Let me guess, Yoda?”

  “That would be more like, control when we die, we cannot. Control how we live, only. Mmmmmm.” My Yoda impression was terrible, but it got a laugh out of Shaq based on the pure silliness of it.”You either trust me or not. You can’t have it both ways.”

  His heavy sigh and sudden look of exhaustion really brought home how hard the job he had taken was on him. I felt bad for giving him such a hard time. But to me, rescuing David was no longer optional. Same for Grizz’s family.

  “I won’t let you down,” I added with all the confidence I could muster. “Not with this crew.” I patted Head Case between its ears. “And not with this awesome guitar. Which doesn’t sound like a violin, but I suppose it could stand in for one in a pinch.”

  Keep’s eyes locked on mine as he grinned and nodded. “I still like your moxy, kid.” He shifted his attention to Volker. “Commander, your orders are to take Captain Murdock to the planet Gloin. You’re to provide him unlimited access to the ship’s resources, including any surplus equipment, the entire detachment of Marines, as well as yourself and your ship. You’re to do whatever he says for as long as he’s with you. Is that understood?”

  Volker didn’t miss a beat. “Yes, Your Honor.”

  “I also want it made crystal clear to your crew that mission data was recovered from Privilege in the moments before its destruction. Commander Rickard is solely at fault for the loss of the Sentry, and nearly the entire battle. If not for Captain Murdock, this war might already be over, and we wouldn’t be on the winning side.”

  “Yes, Your Honor,” Volker repeated. When he glanced at me, I sensed a newfound respect in his gaze. “I will do everything within my power to ensure his mission is a success.”

  “Thank you, Commander. I know you won’t let the Hegemony down.”

  “Captain?” I challenged, glowering at Keep. “I don’t want to be in the military.”

  “Consider it a temporary enlistment,” Keep replied. “It will end as soon as David is back in our hands, safe and sound.”

  “I can do that, I guess.” Still, I made a disgruntled face.

  “Good hunting out there, both of you. And good talking to you, Bennie. We’ll talk again soon.” The star map replaced his projection when he disconnected the comm.

  Volker stared at the map for a moment before turning to me. “So, Captain. What are your orders?”

  “First, I want the bridge crew back on the bridge, and I want Ensign Yung to get us moving toward Gloin.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  I froze at the appellation. “Sir? No. Please, no. Captain will do. Or Cap. Cappie. Capo. Ben. I just don’t want to be addressed as sir. It makes my skin crawl.”

  He seemed confused by my reluctance to be spoken to with that level of respect, but he did as I asked. “Aye, Captain.”

  “Second, I want space cleared in the hangar so Head Case can scale back up to its full size. Then I just want to get the hell out of this armor.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Finally able to roast me in person, Matt cat-called me as soon as I scaled the ramp into Head Case, where he waited with the rest of the crew. Of course, Emerald joined him, and Sheri got in on the action too. All of them either cackling or whistling at me.

  “Go ahead,” I said, smiling. “Laugh it up.”

  “I’d take the misgendered armor over your scrawny ass any day, and twice on Sunday.” George added to the whistling.

  “I definitely did not need to see your butt,” Sheri grumbled.

  “I think you have a cute heinie, Boo,” Emerald said.

  My face flushed, turning a deep red because Commander Volker and his two lieutenants were on the ramp right behind me. The teasing came to a quick stop when the crew saw them. Falling silent, they did their best imitation of coming to attention. Trying to ignore their attempts to hide their grins, I quickly introduced the three officers to everyone.

  “Meg, Leo, I want you to work closely with Lieutenant Gonzalez,” I said. “He’ll provide you with whatever he can spare from ship’s stores to repair Head Case.”

  “Really?” Meg asked, her eyes lighting up.

  “Yes ma’am,” Gonzalez replied. “Including additional techs if you can use them. Though, judging by the interior of your hangar, we might not have anyone with experience working on systems this old.”

  “I’m sure we can find a use for them,” Leo said. “The shields are the newest equipment on Head Case, and we lost over sixty percent of our nodes during the last fight.”

  “And you probably noticed,” Meg picked, “we’ve lost three of our four gun batteries. We can integrate anything you can provide.”

  “We have an autocannon we pulled from a Niflin gunship,” Leo said. “If you have ammo that will fit it, we can slap that into one of the placements.”

  “Sentries don’t mount any unguided projectile weapons systems,” Gonzalez said. “But I’m sure you noticed the collection of ships in the primary hangar when you arrived. Kritchek had us confiscate them from private owners in the outworlds. Usually by force, since that’s how the outworlders generally settle differences. We haven’t done a full inventory of the ships yet, but I’m willing to bet at least a few of them are carrying compatible ordnance.”

  “We can get a few teams working on that immediately,” Volker said, breaking off a conversation with Dryka to jump into the discussion.

  “Justus and I can help your crew with that,” Dryka offered. “We have a lot of experience with similar vessels. We can probably help accelerate the process.”

  “We’d be happy to have you,” Cox said. “I can make introductions.”

  “There’s one other thing we need more than shields or guns,” Meg said. “Our reactor is underpowered for the energy draw of the sigibellum. We’re at four percent now. At worst, we need to replace the fuel rods. At best, we could use a second power supply that’s at least double the size.”

  “I’m sure we can work something out,” Gonzalez said. “But you’ll need to pass specifications to our lead technical officer so we can select the best option based on power requirements, available space and compatibility.”

  “We don’t have days to do an install,” I added. “We’ll reach Gloin in fifteen hours.”

  “I know we’re time limited,” Leo agreed. “Maybe we can just do the fuel rods for now, and worry about a full upgrade afterward.”

  “I think the options will become clearer once you’ve discussed the specifics of your requests with our teams,” Gonzalez said.

  “I’m ready when you are, Lieutenant,” Meg said.

  “Us too,” Dryka said for herself and Justus, who’d been standing silently beside her.

  Cox turned to Volker. “By your leave, sir.”

  “Granted,” he said. Gonzalez led Meg and Leo out of Head Case while Cox did the same with Dryka and Justus.

  “Commander Volker,” I said, turning to him. “I’m not sure what else my crew might need at the moment, but consider the Regent’s orders to apply to them, too. Get them anything they ask for.”

  “Of course, Captain,” Volker agreed.

  “You called him Captain,” Emerald said to Volker. “Are you part of Team Hondo now, too?”

  “Keep made me a temporary Royal Guard captain,” I explained. “It’s purely informal, but it helps smooth out the wrinkles in our cooperation with the real Guard.”

  “So I can ask you for, say, an MRG-112 and you’ll get one for me?”

  “If we have an extra one in supply, yes,” Volker said.

  “What’s an MRG-112?” I asked.

  “It’s a handheld railgun,” Emerald answered. “One of the newest and funnest toys in the Royal Marine arsenal. When I was with the nerd group, we ran a cost-benefit analysis on the weapon. It’s expensive, but so awesome.”

  “I’ll pass your request on to Major Nori. He has command of the Marine detachment. He’ll be more familiar with their inventories.”

  “We’ll have to release Nori from the brig before we can talk about weapons requisitions or our plan of attack,” I said to Volker.

  “Why is Major Nori in the brig?”

  “I was worried he might be an Aleal. To be honest, we still don’t know who may or may not be the enemy among your ranks. And at this point, I don’t know how to figure that out short of running every person on this ship through an x-ray to see if they have human guts.”

  “That would take days,” Volker agreed. “But it might be wise to at least submit the lead officers to deeper scrutiny. I’ll be the first to submit to any tests you think would be worthwhile to prove myself.”

  “I appreciate that,” I replied. “I’ll keep you posted on that. Right now, I want to get our assembler to make me a new uniform. We can head down to the brig when I get back. Ixy, I’d like you to come with us.”

  “Meesss?” she asked.

  “Yes, yousss,” I said. “I need your help to keep Kritchek contained.

  “Of courssse.”

  “I’ve never seen a xixitl on a starship crew before,” Volker said. “I’d love to know how you two met.”

  “Quasar and Ixy can tell you that story while I change.”

  I left Volker with the rest of the crew while Shaq and I made our way to Deck Two. I ordered Asshole to make me another uniform, swapping out red for blue since I was now part of the Royal Guard. Sort of anyway. I stripped back out of Tsu’s combat armor in my bedroom. Carrying the armor back to the assembler, I put on the new uniform, slipped my guitar over my shoulder, and returned to the hangar, where Zar was just finishing up her recounting of our adventure on Windfall Station.

  “That’s an incredible tale,” Volker said, bowing his head to me as I approached. “Captain Murdock.”

  “The uniform looks better on you in blue,” Emerald said. “Red isn’t your color.”

  “I like the red better,” Sheri said.

  “That’s because you’re his sister. You don’t see him the same way I do. Blue is better.”

  Sheri shrugged. “If you say so.”

  “I still think the whole thing’s ridiculous,” Matt chimed in, looking bored with the whole wardrobe argument.

  “Ixy, you’re with me,” I said. “Matt, you have the ship. We’ll be back in a bit.”

  “Aye, Captain,” he replied.

  I turned to Commander Volker. “Lead the way.”

  He guided Ixy and me out of Head Case and into the larger of two starfighter hangars, this one positioned on the port side of the Sentry on Deck twelve. The cavernous space barely had the height to contain Head Case at its normal size, while the launch shaft was too small for it to traverse at full size. Of course, that wasn’t a problem now that the scaler was fixed.

  We made our way past sleek, deadly looking starfighters, each mounted on automated launchers that would slide them into position in a quick, orderly fashion. As Volker explained while we walked, the Sentry could spew out nearly a hundred fighters in less than a minute during a red alert. Having watched them launch from both sides of the fight, I already knew how quickly they could fill the black and how impressive it was to see.

  The brig was much closer to the starfighter hangar than it had been to the main hangar near the bow, and we made the trip on foot in less than five minutes. The door scanned Volker when he reached it. The thick hatch slowly swung open to allow us entry.

  Two of the Marines who had brought Kritchek down stood guard outside his cell. They came to attention when Volker and I approached them. Their gazes however were locked on Ixy, revulsion and fear evident in their twitching expressions, they fought to hide their Arachnophobia. Corporal Sevra stood at the guard station with four additional Marines. They too came to attention at our approach. They too displayed a similar reaction to Ixy when she made her way in behind us.

  “Lieutenant Commander Volker,” Sevra said in greeting.

  “At ease, Corporal,” Volker said. “And it’s Commander now. I’ve been promoted.”

  Sevra and the Marines shifted to a parade rest. “Congratulations, sir. The prisoners are secure. Though I wasn’t sure about Corporal Tsu. Is she supposed to be locked up?”

  I turned my attention to my former cell. Tsu sat on the cot in her armor’s underlayment, looking more than a little pissed. “You can let her out, Corporal,” I said, raising my voice. “As long as she doesn’t kill me for knocking her out and stealing her armor.”

  Tsu’s eyes lit up with amusement as Sevra hit the control to open the cell. “I’m just sorry I missed seeing you wearing my armor,” she said, stepping out of the cell. “I take it you aren’t under arrest anymore?”

  “No. I’m actually an honorary Royal Guard now. A Captain.”

  She laughed. “Honestly, I’m glad to hear that. I didn’t want to believe you were a bad guy.”

  “I’m not. Sergeant Batten was, though. He was an Aleal, like Kritchek there.”

  The former Commander stood in the back of his cell, leaning against the bulkhead with his arms behind him. His eyes were closed, his expression flat.

  “Commander Volker,” Major Nori said from his cell next to Kritchek’s. “I’m happy to see things worked out. Would it be reasonable for me to be released now?”

  “You’ll be required to submit to a full autodoc scan and diagnostic,” Volker replied. “If you have a problem with that, you can stay there.”

  “I’m eager to do anything that proves my humanity, Commander,” Nori said.

  “Good. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until we’re done with the creature. We don’t have resources present to escort you and handle the enemy.”

  “Understood, Commander. I’d like to be present for his interrogation anyway. It doesn’t matter which side of the bars I’m on.”

  Ixy and I approached Kritchek’s cell. “How long has he been standing like that?” I asked.

  “Since we threw him in there,” Sevra replied with a shrug.

  “Open the cell immediately,” I ordered.

  “Commander?” Sevra asked, looking for permission.

  “By decree of the Regent, Benjamin Murdock holds the rank of Captain, Corporal Sevra. He outranks me.”

  Sevra nodded and opened the cell. I strummed the first few chords of Crazy Train, nearly instantly picking up on the subtle presence of chaos energy behind the notes. Activating my construct, I pulled Kritchek away from the wall, finding it more difficult than I expected. I had to increase my effort to drag him away from the metal, his feet sliding along the deck until he was in the doorway of his cell. The bulkhead behind him was punctured, the beginnings of an escape route visible in the metal.

  “Wow,” Tsu said in response to the strength and effort needed to make the starter hole.

  Kritchek’s eyes snapped open, and he threw himself at me.

  He barely made it an inch before I pushed him back into his cell, slamming him against the bulkhead. I immediately pulled him forward again, this time all the way out of his cell. “Ixy, wrap him up.”

  “Yesss,” she agreed, quickly skittering around Kritchek, casting her webbing across his body. I held him in place while she circled him, needing less than a minute to bind him head to toe.

  “Let’s see you push your way through that,” I said. “Her webbing is stronger than steel.”

  “I won’t tell you anything, Murdock,” the Aleal replied. “No matter what you do to me.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. I hit the next chord harder than the others, pulling in more chaos energy. The sound reverberated and echoed off the brig walls as I reached out and put my hand on Kritchek’s shoulder while activating calmed-to-death. He immediately convulsed, screaming, shaking, and losing his ability to maintain his essence. His form lost definition, turning him into a humanoid blob. When his head slumped, I nearly lost my nerve. The idea of torturing anything didn’t sit well with me, but I also understood the necessity. I let him go, and he slowly regained his human form. “How about now?”