by K. B. Wagers
“Wrong move,” he said with a sharp laugh as he disarmed her. “Ian, get her up and cuff her.”
The lieutenant commander of ST-1, who’d arrived with Nika, nodded sharply and with D’Arcy’s help hoisted Julia to her feet. “Where do you want me to take her?”
“To the Laika. Get with Scott. Quickly and quietly. And I want one of your team on guard at all times, no one else.”
“You can’t do this! I’m a civilian!” Julia protested.
Chae swallowed as Nika took two steps forward and got in her face. “You are under arrest.”
“On what charges?”
“Terrorism.” Nika fisted his right hand but kept it at his side. “And murder. And I’m sure many other things.
“Get her out of here.”
Ian dragged Julia off and Chae sagged a little in relief.
“Did she hurt you?” Nika’s demand was met with laughter from D’Arcy.
“She didn’t have a chance, Chae was kicking the shit out of her. They whacked her with pliers.”
“I wasn’t really thinking,” Chae whispered. “She was cruel. Delighted.”
“It’s all right.” Nika reached out and touched Chae’s face. “Still would like an answer, Neo. Are you hurt?”
“No.” Just my heart, sir.
“Good.” Nika smiled, and then it faded. “I talked to Earth,” Nika said. “HQ got hit also. Stephan and Luis are dead—I don’t know how many others.”
We hit the people we meant to hit.
Julia’s words slammed into Chae a second after Nika’s, drowning out D’Arcy’s whispered curse.
“Admiral Christin is in charge of the station for the moment. D’Arcy, you’re the senior Interceptor commander and Neo on board. Admiral Chen says you’re in charge of us until they get some staff headed our way.”
Chae watched in stunned silence as D’Arcy somehow packed his grief away. The big man straightened immediately, shoulders pulling back, and he took a deep breath.
“All right. I’m going to need a roster list—not just Interceptor crews, but who was working in the bay and Coms and everywhere else. Since we don’t have solid DD access at the moment, we’ll have to do this old-school to make sure everyone is accounted for.” D’Arcy rubbed a hand over his head. “Akane’s dead. Someone should probably tell Sapphi.”
“I can do it,” Nika replied. “She went to Coms to see what she could do to help Sully after she let me and Max in. We checked on Jenks, by the way. She came through surgery fine.”
“That’s something, at least,” D’Arcy murmured, putting a hand on Nika’s shoulder.
Chae suddenly remembered the lump in their pocket. “Nika, I found something I think was part of a detonator in the wreckage.”
“A detonator?” D’Arcy started to hold his hand out and then shook his head. “We need to take care of this first. There’s still wounded in the wreckage. I’m going to go help.”
Chae rubbed a hand over their face.
Nika looked at D’Arcy’s retreating back, his mouth pulled into a tight line. “Julia wasn’t working alone, Chae. We need to find out who else was involved. Hold on to whatever you found for now. We need to focus on our people—the answers can wait.”
“I can go tell Sapphi about Akane,” Chae offered, and Nika looked at them in surprise, then he nodded.
“Thanks, Chae. I’m going to stay here and help D’Arcy. You stick with Sapphi for now. I don’t want you going anywhere alone. Hey, Lupe.” He flagged down Spacer Lupe Garcia from Dread Treasure. “What are you doing right now?”
“Helping with wounded, sir.”
“Go with Chae to Coms. Sapphi’s up there and she could use your help.”
Lupe nodded and held a hand out to Chae. They took it, finding some relief and solace in the feel of another hand in theirs.
When the world is ending, look to those who will hold out their hands.
Their father’s words filled their head as they made their way out of the bay.
Twenty-Eight
Two days later Max sat in the corner of ST-1’s quarters as she cross-referenced the list of Jupiter Station suspects with the list of the dead and injured they’d pieced together. She recognized the irony that the only places she felt safe right now were in her own quarters or on a Navy ship.
“Hey, Max, do you read me?”
“Yeah, Sapphi.”
“Oh, I can see you on the grid now! You’re on the Laika, right?”
“I am. What’s going on, Sapphi?”
“It’s about fu—sorry, LT—it’s about time, we finally have coms and everything else back up.” The relief in Sapphi’s voice was evident. She’d been working in Secondary Coms nonstop since the explosion to fix the damage caused by both the specialized EMP and the destruction of the station’s main operations center. “There will be an incoming stationwide announcement shortly.”
“Thanks for the preview, Sapphi. Good job.”
Max went back to her work, barely acknowledging the announcement that came over her DD five minutes later. With the system back up, Max could now see the location of several of their suspects.
But three were missing.
“Did you get caught in the blasts you set?” she murmured. “Or did you have a way off the station before it happened?”
They’d locked down all traffic—military and civilian—for the last two days, but Max knew that wasn’t a foolproof plan. Someone with a shuttle could have escaped in the chaos and been picked up outside of Jupiter Station. Especially since all their sensors had been down.
The news was already screaming about the attack, rumors and worse swirling both on the station and out of it that Free Mars had been responsible. The first time she’d heard it, Max’s heart had dropped into the pit of her stomach.
It was what Tieg had planned all along. Pit the NeoG—no, not just the NeoG but the whole CHN military—against the people on Mars as a way to distract from what was happening on Trappist. Sow chaos and reap the unjust rewards. Yet something still seemed off.
“What is your real aim here?” Max wondered. “Is it just about the money, or are you after something bigger?”
“Lieutenant Carmichael?”
Max snapped back to the present, blinking at the petty officer standing in the doorway with a tray in her hands. The handshake over her head was active again and said Petty Officer Allison Mayon, she/her. “Yes?”
“The commodore said you hadn’t eaten. I brought food in case you were hungry.” The young woman had wide dark eyes set in a round face, and looked barely old enough to be in uniform.
“Of course he did.” Max smiled and waved the woman in, getting to her feet to take the tray. “Thank you, Petty Officer Mayon, I appreciate it.”
“Of course, ma’am.” She turned back to the door, hesitated, and looked over her shoulder. “I know the Navy and the NeoG don’t always get along, but I want you to know we’re all very sorry about what has happened.”
Max nodded, the sudden lump in her throat making words impossible. They still had to tell Jenks about Luis and she wasn’t sure she could hold it together. The tray clattered loudly in the stillness as she set it on the table and pressed a hand to her eyes, trying to will the tears back down beneath the layer of duty she’d buried them under.
“Hey, Scott? Oh. Max.”
Max dropped her hand and turned around to face Commander Laron Chau with a forced smile. “My brother is on the station.”
“Sorry, just saw Carmichael on the locator and didn’t think about the fact that you’d be here.” He lapsed into silence for a moment. “You have my condolences, Max.”
The sympathy surprised her. Max’s first run-in with the combined SEAL teams at the Games two years ago had been full of veiled insults and thrown punches—plus one bar fight she was still getting teased about. Their interactions had mellowed out some since Max’s reunion with her brother, but there was genuine sympathy in Chau’s dark eyes.
Because, at the end o
f the day, we’re about the mission, and not petty rivalries.
“We appreciate it,” she said.
There was a moment of awkward silence, then Chau cleared his throat. “I’ll leave you to eat, and then maybe get some rest? You look terrible.”
He was gone before she could think of something to say in response. Max sighed and sat down to eat.
She was just finishing up when Nika came through the door. “Good, you got some food.”
“Everyone’s suddenly concerned with my eating habits?”
He smiled and sat. “You’ve been going for fifty-three hours straight with a short nap in the middle of it. I know you well enough to know that you’ve only eaten when someone has handed food to you.”
“Maybe. What about you?”
“An hour ago,” he replied with a soft smile. “I know I’m tired of being asked, but how are you holding up?”
“Teetering between wishing this was a dream and burying myself in the data because it at least makes sense. Except then I inevitably come across a name I recognize and start crying.” Her stomach flopped in protest at the food in it when Nika glanced at the doorway and laid one of Sapphi’s jammers on the table.
“I get it—I do. But . . . we need to talk about something else,” he said in a low voice.
“What?”
“D’Arcy and Tivo were both on the station when the explosions happened, but I don’t know where.”
“There’s a lot of people we don’t know the location of, Nika, I don’t—”
“Not with explosives experience. Not who knew about what we’d come back here to do.”
“Oh, Nika, no.” Max wondered if everything she’d just eaten was about to come up.
“I don’t like it, either. The idea that our friends would do this cuts me to the quick. But we have to consider it, if for no other reason than to clear their names.”
Max nodded slowly and traced a finger over the tabletop. “I know one person who may be able to tell us. I just don’t know if you’ll let me talk to her.”
“Who?”
She looked up at him. “Julia. I can get her to talk, if you’ll let me handle it.”
Nika considered the suggestion, really considered it, and Max felt some of her painful tension release when he nodded. “I trust you,” he said. “We need to go talk to Jenks first and then we’ll go see what we can get out of Julia.”
Max reached out and put her hand over his. “We’ll get through this, somehow.”
Nika blinked back the tears gathering in his eyes. “I hope so, Max. This is going to destroy her and I wish I didn’t have to tell her.”
Jenks knew something was wrong, something beyond the numerous dead and the massive holes dotting Jupiter Station, but she couldn’t get anyone to tell her what it was.
It didn’t help that she still couldn’t remember the last few hours before the attack, and that gaping hole hurt the same as the one in her side. It felt like there was something important she was missing.
Tivo hadn’t come back to see her since he’d found her on the floor, and she’d only just kept herself from messaging him. She wanted to talk to Luis first. She’d found the email from him—the date was the same day as the explosion—but there hadn’t been a reply from her.
Did I talk to him? The vague memory of a conversation with Max filtered into her brain, but Jenks didn’t let herself chase it. She was afraid. Afraid that she hadn’t talked to Luis and also afraid that she had and had carried through with breaking things off permanently.
Though chat and the coms were supposedly up and working, she couldn’t get Luis to answer her. And for some reason no one would give her access to a tablet to call him directly.
Jenks: Hey, I’m sure someone has told you by now what happened. I’m fine, though. Just bored out of my mind because they won’t let me get up. Please message me. I need entertainment.
Jenks: I guess I should have started that with “I accept your apology email and I want to talk about it.” Maybe this isn’t going through. Sapphi claims coms are fixed but I can’t get anything on my DD.
Jenks: I know you’re not ignoring me, but now I feel like an asshole for ignoring you. Because not getting a reply really sucks.
Jenks: I love you. I hope we can talk soon.
“Hey, Jenks.”
She looked up and smiled at Max. “Hey, LT. Have you come to spring me from this prison?”
“You’re not cleared yet,” Max replied with a tight smile, stepping aside so Nika could follow her into the room. Jenks frowned.
“I feel fine, though. Everything’s healing up good, doc said so this morning when she put the patch on.” She looked around, frowned again as her heart rate kicked up a notch. “What is it?”
“Jenks.” Nika cleared his throat as he crossed the room to the bed. “I want you to know the only reason we waited was because the doctor thought it would be better for your recovery.”
She let him take her hand even though her first instinct was to pull away.
You don’t have to close yourself off, Dai.
She didn’t know where those words came from or why they were in Luis’s voice in her memory.
“I mean, this whole thing has sucked.” She squeezed Nika’s hand and attempted a smile. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it.”
Max made a noise like she’d been punched in the gut, but Jenks kept her eyes on Nika.
He looked down at their joined hands and when he lifted his head there were tears in his eyes. “Jenks. When the explosions happened here . . . Earth also got hit. Luis is dead.”
All the air left her lungs.
“No.”
“I’m sorry, sis. I’m so sorry.”
You promised me tomorrow.
Max had covered her mouth with her hand, but Jenks met her anguished gaze past Nika’s shoulder. There were unshed tears in Max’s brown eyes and a depth of sadness she could feel in her own heart.
But she kept the tears in, slipping easily back into the protective mode that had served her well for so many years.
Everyone leaves. Always.
Jenks packed it all back into the box in the corner of her heart and looked at Nika. “Do we know who’s responsible for this?”
Nika fumbled at the pointed question. “It doesn’t matter right now, Jenks. How can we support you?”
“The fuck it doesn’t matter.” She didn’t raise her voice but he flinched anyway. “Who did this?”
“They’re saying it was Free Mars, but there hasn’t been an official statement,” Max replied.
That was a lie, and looking into Max’s eyes she knew the LT didn’t believe Free Mars was responsible, either. She knew it as well as the beating of her broken heart. Free Mars had no reason to attack the NeoG like this. No reason to restart a conflict that had hurt both sides so badly after nearly three decades of peace.
“Was it them?” she whispered.
“We think so,” Nika replied.
“Okay.” She nodded. “Well, if you need me, you know where to find me.” She gestured at the bed with a bitter smile and saw the confusion flash across their faces.
“Jenks—”
“I’m fine. I’m sure you all have things to do.” She squeezed Nika’s hand and then let it go, leaning back and closing her eyes.
They left and as soon as she was alone, Jenks pressed both hands to her face, curling into a ball and letting the silent tears come.
A cold metal nose poked her and she wrapped her arms around Doge’s neck, ignoring the pain of her wound. “Am I awake, Doge?”
“Of course you are. Why?”
“I’m hoping for a nightmare.”
“You are sad.”
“Very. Luis is dead.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Switched off, for good.” She pressed her forehead to Doge’s as a fresh wave of tears started. “Oh god, Riz and Elliot. His mothers. How am I going to tell them?”
“This does not make sen
se. He is not off.”
“I know, Doge.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s so much worse than that.”
“Oh, I rated the famous Lieutenant Carmichael,” Julia said, sitting up in her bunk as Max and Nika approached her cell. “Savior of LifeEx, darling of the NeoG.”
“Diego, open it up,” Nika said. The petty officer nodded and hit unlock, disabling the field. “Get up, Julia, we’re going to have a conversation.” He watched her green eyes narrow, but she got to her feet and sauntered forward.
“Chae said you were thinking about getting out, but looking at you now I’m quite sure they were trying to play me. How long have you known they were working for us?”
“You mean, how long have we known you were blackmailing them with threats against their family?” Nika replied, leading her to the interrogation room on the other side of the brig. “Long enough. Sit down.” He pointed at the chair.
“This is a waste of your time. I’m out as soon as my boss hears of it.” Julia sat. She crossed her legs, hooking one arm over the back of the chair and smiling at him.
Nika felt his anger swell, but before he could snap a reply, Max stepped in.
“Bold of you to assume she will hear of it. Is Julia your real name? Or did you steal that along with the job from the Off-Earth woman you killed?” She sat in one of the chairs on the opposite side of the table.
“It is my name. I didn’t kill anybody.” She shrugged. “And my boss hears about everything. People get chatty when they’re comfortable, when they think they’re alone.” She smiled at Max. “How’s your friend Jeanie?”
“Still alive. She said you’re all welcome to try again.”
“Oh, my boss will. If you don’t let me go, you’re painting a big target on the backs of everyone you care about.”
Nika’s stomach twisted at the easy threat, but Max seemed unmoved.
“Here’s my offer: you answer my questions, help us take your boss down, and maybe I’ll turn you over to the CHN for trial with a recommendation for a reduced sentence. If you choose not to cooperate, well, we did just have a terrible attack on the station.”
