Damage Control (Valiant Knox)

by Jess Anastasi

  They arrived at port level alpha, and while he assigned each recruit to a jet with the help of the deck crew, he kept Mia at his side, leaving her until last. He walked around the far side of the ship, putting them mostly out of sight.

  Mia crossed her arms as she stared up at him. “Leigh, what are we going to do? Everyone knows.”

  He helped her into her flight jacket, though her movements were hesitant.

  “Right now, you are going to take your maiden flight.”

  “I’m serious. Maybe I shouldn’t go.”

  He shook his head. “Why? There’s nothing you can do here. Take the flight and no matter what happens, you get through the next four days and graduate, okay?”

  She latched onto his arm. “Don’t talk like I’m never going to see you again.”

  He slid an arm around her waist. “Like I keep telling you, Mia, things will be okay. I’m going up to see Commander Yang to sort it out.”

  “But what about the training flight?”

  He smoothed a hand along the side of her face and cupped her chin, tilting her head up a little. “This is more important.”

  “Alpha?”

  Leigh glanced over his shoulder to see Bren standing behind him, a hard expression on her face.

  “Just one second, XO.”

  He turned back to Mia. “Just remember everything you’ve learned and don’t think about what’s going on back here.”

  She nodded, though her gaze was still troubled. He pulled her in, grabbing her up for a swift, hard kiss. What did it matter who saw them now? The truth was out and would be all over the ship by evening messdeck.

  He pulled back and stared down into her soulful brown eyes. “Fly safe and come home to me.”

  Her grip tightened on him. “Good luck with Commander Yang.”

  He nodded and then let her go, watching as she climbed up the side of the jet and disappeared into the cockpit.

  “Alpha, what the hell is going on?”

  Leigh turned to Bren, slowly reaching up to unpin the insignia on his collar that singled him out as the CAFF. “I need you to take the recruits on their maiden training flight.”

  He reached out and took Bren’s hand, setting the pins in her palm. She glanced down at them, appearing confused for a moment. But when she looked back up at him, her expression was downright horrified.

  “Leigh, no—”

  “Apparently I wasn’t as smart as you thought I was, Bren.” He shot her the ghost of a smile. “Though, where Mia was concerned, I never stood a chance. Take care of the kids for me. I’ve got to go face up to my choices.”

  He went to walk past her, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. “You’re serious about her, right? I mean, this isn’t just some sordid affair?”

  He cared deeply for Mia, but everything was happening so fast, he hadn’t stopped to exactly define what it was he felt for her. All he knew was that he needed her in a way he’d never needed anyone else.

  “They can take my post, and they can throw whatever kind of punishment they want at me, but I’m not giving up Mia. Not without one hell of a fight.”

  Bren’s expression softened. “Then you’re doing the right thing. Good luck, Leigh.”

  He sent her one last nod and left the flight deck.

  The walk up to the command center was the longest and loneliest trek he’d ever taken in his life. A quiet sense of doom clawed into the back of his neck, along with a definite sense of paranoia, because he could have sworn people were looking at him differently and whispering between themselves as he passed. Surely the story couldn’t have gotten this far already? If it had, he was royally screwed.

  In the command center, Leigh got waylaid by Olivia.

  “What can I do for you, Captain?”

  “I need to speak with Commander Yang right away.” Before Yang heard God-knew-what version of events from somebody else.

  Olivia glanced down to look at the datapad on the pristine desk in front of her. “You’ll need to make an appointment. The Commander is still catching up after his absence. How about the day after tomorrow at—”

  Leigh braced a hand against the edge of the desk. “No, I need to speak with him now. It’s important and it definitely can’t wait.”

  Olivia glanced up at him and then sat back in her chair. “Well, you’ll at least have to come back later. The commander is currently in a subspace conference with Admiral Watson.”

  Frustration simmered through him and he rubbed his nape, where that sense of impending doom dug deeper. “How long will it be before he’s finished?”

  An annoyed expression flitted over Olivia’s face. “I don’t know. Five minutes or five hours. Take your pick.”

  Leigh blew out a long breath. “Do you mind if I wait?” Because he sure as hell wasn’t going to head back out into the ship and pretend like he wasn’t the subject of everyone’s conversations.

  Olivia shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  Leigh walked over to the far bulkhead, where a cushy couch had been arranged next to a slim table, both a lot fancier than the furniture he usually sat on down on squadron level. He took his personal comm out of his pocket and started going through the messages and emails he’d neglected since FP training had started.

  Nearly an hour went by, before Olivia took a comm call.

  “Captain Alphin, Commander Yang wants to see you now.”

  Leigh stood, cold apprehension slicing through him. Not Commander Yang will see you now, but Commander Yang wants to see you now. He swallowed down his trepidation and nodded to Olivia, then made his way past the desk and through the doors into the commander’s wardroom.

  Commander Yang stood behind his desk, personal comm up against his ear. His expression was blank—scary blank—as Leigh walked in and saluted him, then fell into parade stance in front of the desk.

  Yang ended the call and slowly lowered the comm to his desk.

  “Captain Alphin, I’ve just taken a very interesting call from Captain Phillips. I assume there’s something you want to tell me?” Yang crossed his arms, expression formidable.

  Leigh swallowed and nodded. “Yes, sir. I’d appreciate it if you could possibly disregard whatever it is you’ve heard until after I’ve spoken my piece.”

  Yang gave a single nod, but his impassive expression didn’t alter.

  Leigh explained his relationship with Mia, right from day one, including the fact that she’d been the one to find the traitor. He left almost nothing out, apart from his most private moments with her. When he was done, Yang stared at him for a long moment then sighed.

  “You’ve made a real mess of this, Alpha.”

  He nodded. “I am aware of that, sir, and I won’t make excuses for myself. I don’t regret the methods Wolfe and I employed to find the traitor, but when it came to my personal feelings, my judgment in this matter obviously failed me.”

  Yang’s posture relaxed a little and he moved around the desk to lean against the front of it. “And this morning in the squadron officer’s wardroom, was that a matter of you not thinking straight?”

  A wave of chagrin rose within him, and incredibly, heat blazed along his cheeks. God, was he actually blushing like a damn schoolgirl?

  “I can’t explain what happens when I’m with her. I tried to hold out, but then I saw her this morning and… I don’t know. It’s like any ideas about staying in control are just obliterated.”

  The commander sighed. “You know, at the very least I’m going to have to demote you. You can’t remain the CAFF after this.”

  He clenched his clasped hands tighter at his lower back. “I understand, sir. And I agree with your decision.”

  Yang raised a brow at him. “Just like that, you’re going to give up your position, piss fourteen years of exemplary service out the hatch, and accept a black mark against your name, all without a fight?”

  Leigh shrugged. “What am I really fighting for? I’m not losing out, because at the end of the day I’ll still have Mia
, and that’s the important thing.”

  “Uh-huh.” Yang sent him an exasperated look. “You want to tell me again how you can’t explain what it is about her that obliterates your judgment?”

  Before he could answer, the door to the wardroom opened and Captain Phillips strode in. Had Yang called him in here so the two of them could decide his final fate? Despite his insistence that none of it mattered, a quiver of anxiety shook him.

  “Sir, sorry to interrupt you.” Phillips stopped a few steps away and saluted. “But I’ve just received a report that you need to hear right away, both of you.”

  Yang nodded. “Go ahead, Captain.”

  Phillips glanced at him, and in that one expression, Leigh felt the solid floor drop out from beneath his feet.

  “It’s the recruits’ training flight, sir.”

  Leigh latched a hand onto the captain’s arm. “What happened?”

  “The CSS infiltrated the safe zone and cut the group in half. Lieutenant Brenner ordered the orphaned recruits to head for the secondary base on Ilari, but they didn’t make it. Four planes down behind enemy lines.”

  “Who?” The word came out at not much more than a hoarse croak, because he already knew.

  “Snyder, Dawson, Robinson, and Wolfe.”

  His grip slipped free from where he’d been holding Phillips as he turned to brace both hands against the edge of the desk, sucking air like there was no oxygen in the atmosphere any longer. Mia. Down behind enemy lines. God help him. He should have taken the flight this morning like he did every other year. But he’d been so fixated on doing the right thing. And now…now… His ribs felt like they were banding around his vital organs, choking him, one besieged heartbeat at a time.

  Someone grabbed his shoulder. “Alpha—”

  “I’m fine.” He shut down his emotions and shrugged out of the hold, turning to find Yang staring at him with concern. “I’ll be fine. But I need to get on the ground, now.”

  “Sub-Lieutenant Rayne is already on deck organizing a response party,” Phillips reported.

  “I thought Seb was off duty.”

  Phillips shrugged. “He was until he heard about what happened.”

  Seb probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be involved in a situation like this, but selfishly, he wasn’t going to pull the guy out, not when he needed every resource available to get Mia back in one piece.

  “Clear the air space and shut down the other ports for immediate emergency launch,” Leigh told Phillips. But as he went to step by the captain to run like hell for the launch deck, Yang stopped him.

  “Alpha, technically, I can’t let you leave the ship.”

  He swung around and speared the commander with a disbelieving stare. “Sir?”

  “You’re no longer the CAFF. As of this minute, you don’t even officially have a posting until I work out what we’re going to do with you. You know as well as I do that no one except members of the FP squadron can take out a V-29.”

  Leigh swore. “Then I’ll take a goddamn shuttle. I don’t care, as long as it’ll fly between here and Ilari.”

  “Leigh, you’re not hearing what I’m telling you. Without any kind of clearance, you cannot leave this ship. My hands are tied. You know the protocols as well as I do.”

  “Sir, it’s Mia. I can’t just stay up here while she’s out there—”

  Yang’s expression hardened. “You think I want this for you? There’s nothing I can—”

  Leigh pointed an unsteady finger at him. “Don’t tell me there’s nothing you can do, Yang. What exactly would you be doing right now if it was Sacha down there?”

  Yang’s posture tensed. “Sacha is the mother of my baby. I love her more than life itself.”

  “Then I’ll ask you again,” Leigh replied quietly. “What would you do if it was Sacha down there?”

  Yang glanced away from him, a muscle pulsing in his jaw.

  “You better have found me a new posting and given me clearance by the time I make it to alpha level; otherwise you’ll have to add defying a direct order and ship theft to that charge sheet you’ll be writing later.”

  Leigh didn’t wait for Yang or Phillips to say anything else before leaving the room and sprinting for port level alpha like his very existence depended on it. It was apt, because if anything happened to Mia, his life would never be the same.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Mia scrunched down behind the half-collapsed wall of the church. Her first flight was a catastrophe—enemy ships had invaded the safe zone, forcing her and three other recruits to make a run on the Ilari base. They’d been within sight, when some kind of ground-to-air weapons system had taken them out. She, Kayla, and Steve had all ejected, but Snyder had gone down with his plane.

  Mia took another quick peek over the crumbling stones out to the ruined graveyard. Four CS Soldiers stood around Steve, who sat on a toppled gravestone. For some reason, she found it hilariously ironic that she was hiding from a bunch of religious fanatics in a destroyed church. Or maybe that was the near-hysterical panic talking. She braced her shaking hands against the dusty flagstones beneath her, trying to subdue the tremors.

  She didn’t know how she’d ever get her fingers to remain steady again. Since the torture test had brought the reality of this war crashing down on her, she knew exactly the level of terror she’d experience if the CSS captured her. This wasn’t another test with a safety net she couldn’t see.

  The front lines were only a few clicks east of their position but Steve hadn’t wanted to hunker down, make sure their encoded GPS trackers were on, and wait for a rescue party like they’d been trained. Instead he’d dashed out from the meager cover they’d found, right into a CSS patrol. From what she’d overheard, they were waiting for a transport to take Steve to the nearest Enlightening Camp.

  At first they’d started to make a run for it. But guilt at leaving Steve behind had pulled her up short. Kayla wanted to keep going and find somewhere farther from the patrol, stating Steve was the idiot who’d dismissed their training and gone off on his own, so he could live with the consequences. But for whatever stupid, stupid reason, despite how much she loathed the man, she couldn’t leave him. He’d be consigned to a cell at one of those facilities where the CSS broke a person down until they either joined their cause or died.

  So she’d convinced Kayla to go back with her. However, it had turned out they’d been lucky to leave the church when they had. The patrol had been searching the old ruins, because no doubt Steve had broken in two seconds flat and told the CSS where they’d been hiding. She had no idea how he’d survived the torture test earlier in the week.

  Once the patrol finished, they found a new hiding spot in the building and tried to figure out a plan.

  “We’re not actually considering this, are we?” Kayla whispered from beside her. “I mean, for a start, this is Steve we’re talking about, the guy who outed you and Captain Alphin this morning. Plus, we don’t have any weapons, and we’re not battle-trained.”

  She focused on Kayla, who was drinking some of their emergency water supply. “He’s one of us. If it was you out there and Steve wanted me to leave you, I know what you’d be saying about that.”

  Kayla shot her a dry look. “It wouldn’t be me out there, because I’m not dumb enough to disregard basic training.”

  Mia huffed a short sigh and held a hand out for the bladder of water. “Fine, you and I both wouldn’t be dumb enough. That still doesn’t change the facts. We can’t just walk off and leave him.”

  Kayla sighed and pushed a hand through her tangled hair. “Okay, okay. You’re right. I’d never forgive myself if we just gave up on him. But that still doesn’t help the little detail of us having no weapons and no clue how to rescue a moron.”

  “I think our only option is distraction. One of us makes a lot of noise, while the other goes in for Steve.”

  Kayla shook her head. “They’ll just split their party. Two will stay behind to watch him.”
>
  “You’re probably right. But there’s got to be some way to distract all of them.”

  They spent a few minutes discussing the pros and cons and then settled on a plan.

  They moved to the opposite end of the church, hiding on either side of the splintered doors. A bit of noise brought two of the soldiers over, just as they’d hoped.

  Mia stared at Kayla as the crunching of boot steps over gravel came closer. Her heart pummeled the inside of her chest, making it hard to draw a full breath.

  The barrel of a gun appeared through the door. The owner of the weapon followed and turned as he got inside, coming face to face with her. But, before he’d even met her gaze, she’d gone in under his gun arm, forcing it up as she propelled him back toward Kayla. Her friend swung a thick chunk of wood they’d found into the back of the man’s head, knocking him face-first to the floor.

  Mia didn’t wait to see if he was conscious or not. She fell to her knees and grabbed the gun, pivoting in a crouch to line up the other soldier stepping through the doorway.

  Her shot found its mark in the dead center of his chest—all that target practice at pre-mil training had paid off. As he fell, his finger on the trigger of his own gun let off a round, but it went into the exposed rafters above them.

  Kayla scrambled for the gun. Then they both sprinted back to their original hiding spot to regroup.

  “Okay. Now we have weapons,” Kayla panted in a whisper.

  Mia glanced over the wall. One soldier had remained behind to watch Steve, while the other had set off toward the source of the shots. Overhead, the rumbling whine of a ship closing in sent a spurt of cold fear shooting through her. Well, more fear than she’d already been feeling. Ever since she’d realized she was going to crash behind enemy lines, she’d held a surreal kind of hyperawareness that any second now her life could be over. Which begged the question, why the hell was she risking it for a complete jerk like Steve Robinson?

  Once that ship landed there’d be reinforcements. And when that solider found his possibly dead buddies… Well, if she didn’t want someone she hated to end up in a POW prison, then it would be an understatement to say she didn’t want to end up there herself.