Lost Alliance (Dragonfire Station Books 1-3): A Galactic Empire series

by Zen DiPietro

  “Yes. It was kind of you to give me time to get my bearings. But it’s been over a week, and we can’t lose any more time.”

  “Of course. So say whatever it is you so clearly do not want to say.”

  Fallon considered leading into it gradually, but doubted Nevitt would appreciate the evasiveness. So she dove right in. “I want to set up a rebel headquarters here on Dragonfire.”

  Nevitt’s eyebrows moved toward her hairline. “Is that all?” Her quiet words blistered with sarcasm.

  “Before I left here, you said you wanted to join the upper echelons of the PAC, so you could make changes for the greater good. This is your chance.”

  Despite the bombshell, Nevitt remained composed. The time she took to respond was the only indication of the magnitude of what Fallon had laid on her.

  “And you have a plan to do that?” Nevitt sounded skeptical.

  “Not a precise plan. More like an agenda of potential tactics, each of which will require their own contingencies. But I need to get your approval before we go deep into the logistics.”

  “What if I say no?” Nevitt’s gaze didn’t waver.

  Fallon met her eyes. “Then we select another, less ideal site. Someplace less protected, where we have fewer assets and allies. But we’ll still go after Blackout.”

  “And if I say yes?”

  “Then you’ll be putting the lives of everyone on this station in jeopardy. You’ll become an enemy of the state. And you might just save the PAC from intergalactic war.”

  The quiet of Nevitt’s quarters roared in Fallon’s ears as she waited for a reply.

  “Agreed.” Nevitt snapped the word out like a stinger blast. “But I have some conditions.”

  “State your terms.”

  “Protecting this station and the people on it will be among your top priorities. You will remain security chief here.” She ticked off the points on her fingers as she went. “You will not fail to fix whatever’s wrong with Blackout. And, finally, I will be consulted on all matters regarding the safety of Dragonfire and the progress of your mission—” she broke off and corrected herself, “—our mission.”

  Fallon opened her mouth to speak but Nevitt cut her off. “Don’t give me a bunch of scrap about top secret protocols or giving me plausible deniability. If you want to operate on my station, I’m going to be part of the team. That’s not negotiable.”

  Fallon met her captain’s narrowed eyes. “Agreed.”

  Nevitt’s brow furrowed in puzzlement. Or surprise, perhaps. Fallon had never seen such an uncertain expression on Nevitt, so she wasn’t entirely sure.

  Nevitt’s brow smoothed, and her lips curved into a smirk. “I can’t believe you agreed to that.”

  The absurdity of it all struck Fallon, and she laughed. To her even-greater surprise, Nevitt chuckled.

  “Considering that my team has stolen data, broken into a PAC base, and taken down an illegal research lab manufacturing treaty-prohibited items, I’d say your lack of proper security clearance is a minor offense. And it makes sense that you should be informed.”

  Nevitt’s amusement faded to seriousness. “It sounds like you need to fill me in on some things before we proceed.”

  For the next two hours, Fallon did her best to bring Nevitt into the loop on all of Avian Unit’s activities and intentions. Nevitt’s expression grew increasingly grave.

  When Fallon finished, Nevitt said, “There’s one more condition I want to add.”

  “If it’s one I can’t agree to, it would put me in a very tricky position, given all that you now know.”

  Nevitt ignored her. “When you’ve taken control of Blackout and gotten things sorted, I will be part of the new administration.”

  Fallon wouldn’t have had it any other way. “Agreed.”

  Getting things hammered out with Nevitt left Fallon feeling energized. She decided that while she was riding high on that success, she’d handle something she’d already put off for too long. She’d made excuses for herself, mainly that she was supposed to avoid excessive stress while her head healed or that she was too busy, but the truth was that she just didn’t know how to approach such a dicey situation that involved…feelings. Ugh. Not her forte.

  When she walked into the maintenance bay—or the “shop,” as the mechanics called it—she saw Wren sliding beneath a propulsion chamber, which must have been removed from some ship. That would be one heck of a repair. Fallon felt a slight chill. The shop was always just a couple degrees below comfortable, for the benefit of all the expensive technology within.

  Fallon imagined polymechrine filling her spine. She’d avoided Wren since returning to the station, not knowing how to deal with the mountains that stood between them. But now that she was about to become deeply entrenched in everyday life aboard Dragonfire, she needed to deal with the issue.

  She’d rather face a deep-space pirate attack.

  She picked up an axial microtuner from a tool tray and squatted next to Wren’s feet, which protruded from beneath the hulking propulsion system.

  “Here.” She extended the tool beneath it, toward Wren.

  Her former wife glided out from under the machinery on an anti-grav creeper, her expression guarded. She lay there, wordless.

  “Thought I’d give you the one you asked for this time. Better late than never, right?”

  Fallon and Wren had first met in this very spot. Wren had called out to her colleague for an axial tuner, but Fallon had mistakenly given her a radial one instead.

  Wren’s face stayed unnaturally still as she sat up, then pulled herself to her feet. “You remember that?”

  “I remember everything. Want to have lunch?”

  Fallon sat across from her not-wife at the Bennite restaurant as they sized each other up.

  “You remember everything?” Wren’s pale cheeks had an attractive pink glow, but otherwise, she kept her expression carefully guarded. Fallon was glad for that.

  “Yes,” Fallon confirmed. “I imagine that you have a lot of questions for me.”

  “You could say that. I’ll come back to the ‘how’ part of regaining your memory later. What I really want to know is why you married me. Was it some tactic, from your…employers?”

  Fallon appreciated Wren’s caution. Privacy or no, there was no good reason to mention Blackout in public. Most people still thought the organization was a myth.

  “No. I married you for all the normal reasons that people get married.”

  “Why?” Wren’s fingers drummed on the otherwise-forgotten menuboard. “You made it clear that getting married is just not done in your profession.”

  “Believe me, I’ve gotten a lot of shit about it from my teammates. But you pursued me, remember. Relentlessly. And when we started dating, I found that our relationship was something I’d never had before. Nurturing. Caring.” Fallon fought the urge to squirm at saying such touchy-feely stuff. “I never thought I’d be interested in a domestic situation, but with you it felt…right.” Fallon shrugged, fighting down a swell of remembered feeling. She had no room for that in her life.

  “You loved me,” Wren translated.

  “Yes.” Fallon didn’t care to put so fine a point on it, but she knew it was the answer Wren needed. And Wren wouldn’t stop asking until she got it.

  “And no other reason? No ulterior motive?”

  “I was sent to investigate you for smuggling, but it was a bogus assignment. I knew that before I even came to Dragonfire. I knew something was wrong in—” she caught herself and adjusted her words, “—the upper levels. That’s probably why my team was split up on different assignments, to get us out of the way while they decided what to do with us. Or it might also have had something to do with this.” She tapped her temple.

  “Right.” Wren’s mouth squinched up as if she’d eaten a lemon. “I won’t ask about your team, or any of that. Clearly, it’s not for my ears.”

  Fallon must have let a hint of surprise escape because Wren smiled wryly
. “I was a security chief’s wife for six months. I’d gotten quite used to knowing there were things you couldn’t discuss with me.”

  “Makes sense. Do you have any other questions?”

  Wren’s eyes lit with the irreverent gleam that Fallon knew so well. “Sure. I’d love to know where you’ve been for the last six months and your history with those four you brought back with you. And yeah, I know it’s four. I hear things. But,” she continued, “like I said, I’m not going to ask about all that. I guess my only question now is, where does all this leave us? You and me?”

  “Where do you want it to leave us?”

  Wren tucked a stray pink tendril of hair behind her ear. “I’m not sure. I still have feelings. But I don’t know about dealing with all the baggage you bring. And, knowing you, you have some strong feelings about how I reacted to the things that happened.”

  The reminder sent a streak of resentment through Fallon, though it faded as quickly as it came. “Yeah, you could say that. That was some pretty poor shit.”

  Rather than being stricken, Wren smiled. Fallon had always liked how resilient Wren was. She had a way of finding the humor in things that would shock or crush other people. It was one of the things about Wren that Fallon had fallen for.

  “You swear a lot more now,” Wren observed.

  Fallon hadn’t thought about it, but she suspected Wren was right. She blamed Hawk and Peregrine’s influence for that. “Things change.”

  Wistfulness filled Wren’s eyes. “Yeah. They do.” She studied Fallon. “But what does it all mean for us? What are we to each other?”

  “I don’t know. Some sort of friends?”

  “The kind of friends that used to be lovers? Or the kind that sometimes still are?”

  She should have been able to answer that question, but she could only shrug.

  “Sarkavians are good with letting relationships be whatever they are at the moment, but would that kind of ambiguity work for you?” Wren didn’t look doubtful, merely curious.

  “I guess we’ll see.”

  Wren studied Fallon. “I guess so. Does it make any difference that I’ve started seeing someone? Just a casual thing. I wouldn’t even mention it, but since you wanted monogamy before…” She trailed off.

  That had been before Raptor returned to her life, and their relationship had changed. He hadn’t mentioned exclusivity, but Fallon had grown up in a very traditional Japanese family, with a strong foundation in loyalty, devotion, honor, and yes, monogamy. She always thought others should do whatever worked for them, but could she feel honorable in that situation herself?

  She wasn’t prepared to discuss Raptor with Wren, so she only said, “I don’t know.”

  Wren gave a tiny nod, her expression full of understanding. She checked the time on the menuboard. “We should order. I’ll need to get back to the shop. I’m on a deadline to get that chamber ready.”

  “Right. So we’ll have lunch. Like friends.”

  Wren gave her a sunny smile. “Let’s give it a go.”

  As Fallon punched in her order for Bennite stew and bread, she wondered if she could actually manage a friendship with her former wife. Platonic or otherwise.

  Some missions were harder than others.

  After lunch, Wren went back to work and Fallon lingered on the boardwalk. This had always been her favorite part of the station. The boardwalk teemed with life like no other place on Dragonfire, serving as a mixing bowl of everything the station had to offer. She could observe the commotion of travelers coming and going through the docking bays, and people doing their shopping. Fashion choices ranged from the flamboyantly eccentric to the deeply conservative. Yet all of these elements meshed and interacted in this space, forming a community of variety that Fallon found deeply satisfying.

  She loved the smells as much as the sights. A deep breath drew in aromas from the delicious foods belonging to a wide variety of cultures. As she enjoyed it, she wandered from one storefront to the next, admiring the array of offerings.

  More than anything else, it was the feeling of vibrancy and activity that brought Fallon back to the boardwalk day after day. Here, she had the opportunity to watch the people she protected. They shared meals with friends and colleagues, laughed with the shopkeeps, and created a sense of community that she’d found herself unable to resist. Despite her crazy life, she’d found a home here on Dragonfire. Being a part of a community had changed her. Opened her up to the idea of belonging somewhere.

  The window-shopping and people watching recharged her for her next meeting. Fortunately, this one would not be fraught with emotional landmines.

  She joined Arin Triss in the security office, where he had been the acting chief of security up to this point. Captain Nevitt had commanded that Fallon continue as the chief, so now Fallon had to reassert herself.

  “Let me guess,” he said, smiling, as they settled on the two facing couches. “You’re here to return me to my life of leisure as your legate.”

  They both knew that Arin worked hard every day, regardless of his title. He’d always been an above-and-beyond kind of guy. “Yes and no.”

  “Oh?” He tilted his head slightly to the side.

  “The captain does want me to remain chief. But I’m involved with other issues at the moment, and I’ll need you to continue to handle more of the day-to-day operations than you did in the past as my legate. So you’ll get a lot of the chief’s work, but not the title. How do you feel about that?”

  He shrugged. “Great. It’ll be less than I’ve been doing, and it’ll be a heck of a boost to my duty record for my next evaluation. Besides, I’m glad you’re back.”

  “You’ve done a great job in my absence.”

  “Your security system and protocols made it almost easy.” He waved his hands in an all-encompassing gesture.

  She knew that wasn’t true. It took more than protocols to handle altercations, smuggling attempts, potentially hazardous cargo, and unsavory traders. She’d already reviewed the records and knew that Arin had done tremendously well. If she were a normal officer, she’d have recommended him for a promotion and his own duty post right away, without waiting for his next evaluation. But she was far from a normal officer, and she needed his help.

  He knew that she was involved in some variety of intrigue, but he didn’t know about Blackout. If all went as planned, she’d want to bring him in, but for the moment, it was safer for him to be on the outside.

  “Well, for now, we can split the duty schedule between us, as before. I’ll want you to continue handling the security personnel and reports to PAC command. But I’ll be prone to missing shifts unexpectedly, or even being away from the station for days at a time. So I’ll need you to be ready to take over at any given moment.”

  He nodded. “No problem. I’ve tapped Jenson as my unofficial second, and he’s really stepped into the role.”

  Lieutenant Mat Jenson. Zerellian male, stationed on Dragonfire for the past two years. The information popped into Fallon’s brain along with an image of his face. “Glad to hear it. I’ve always liked him.”

  An awkward pause formed between them. Arin looked uncertain. “What about you and Wren?”

  Ah. Well, naturally, he’d want to know about that. Both as a friend, and as the legate of security. “We’ve agreed to give friendship a whirl. See how it goes.”

  Sadness and sympathy showed clearly on his face, but he only said, “I hope that works out.”

  “Me too.” She snapped back to business. “I’d like you to get to know my teammates. They’ll be on the station indefinitely. How about dinner this evening on the boardwalk?”

  “I have a date, but I’ll cancel. I’d love to meet these people you’ve been working with.”

  “A date?” She shouldn’t have been surprised. Arin was gorgeous in a way that only Atalans could be, and Dragonfire had relatively few eligible men.

  “Nothing serious. You’re probably thinking about Kellis. I thought that might go
somewhere, but before she left last week, she was pretty clear that she isn’t interested in more than friendship right now.”

  Since the Onari’s mech engineer seemed to have an interest in joining a certain clandestine spy establishment, Fallon could see why Kellis had put Arin in the friend zone.

  “They’re due back in a couple days. If that’s going to be awkward for you, let me know. You don’t have to greet the ship with me.”

  “No. It’s fine, but thanks.”

  “Good. Would you rather take day shift, or night?”

  Arin shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, really. Whichever you’d rather not have, I guess.”

  “I’ll take day. My team likes to have their nights free.”

  “Why’s that?” he asked.

  “You’ll see when you meet them.”

  Fallon kept an eye on Arin throughout the evening, gauging his reaction to Avian Unit. Though her teammates wore casual clothes on Dragonfire, Fallon couldn’t help noticing a certain stealth in their movements, or the way they always remained aware of their surroundings. Fallon saw an edge to them that she didn’t see in other people, and wondered if outsiders like Arin could see it too.

  After dinner, they all went for a walk in the arboretum. She trailed behind so she could observe.

  “Do you visit Sarkan often? It’s got to be great being stationed so close to such a beautiful planet,” Hawk asked Arin as they led the group along a path that took them deeper into the carefully cultivated greenery. Fallon paused a moment to admire a purple leaf with almost iridescent veins in it. Or whatever those were called. Botany was not her strong suit.

  “I take most of my leave time there.” To his credit, Arin didn’t seem overwhelmed by Hawk’s attentions. “The beaches are beautiful, and I love boating.”

  “Doesn’t hurt that Sarkavians are particularly friendly, does it?” The wicked gleam in Hawk’s eye was evident even from where Fallon stood.

  Hawk had not disappointed Fallon by toning down his big personality for Arin’s benefit. If anything, Hawk had been more suggestive than usual. He also always ended up next to Arin. Fallon was fairly certain that her legate had no interest in dating men, but it was fun to watch Hawk try.