Ali wasn't surprised to see two men in Security Core uniforms waiting in the bay outside her ship as the hatch opened. She had to request clearance to dock after all. "Captain Turner?" Ali raised an eyebrow as if to ask who else she might be. "Will you please come with us?"

Ali folded her arms as she scrutinised them. "Are you pretending that you're not arresting me?"

One of them - the junior officer - blanched, the other looked mildly surprised but unfazed. "No," he decided. "I thought you would prefer to do this on your terms."

Ali could respect that. "Then let's get this over with and lead on," she said with a sweeping gesture to indicate that she was relinquishing control to them.

The senior officer took a step closer. "Captain Turner, you are under arrest for disobeying orders. Please accompany us to the brig where you will remain until -"

"I know what comes next," Ali interrupted.

He waited a moment before nodding. He turned to lead the way to the brig but paused next to his partner and said, "watch her." Ali rolled her eyes. If she made an escape attempt, they wouldn't catch her. The junior one turned back to her nervously but she followed obediently enough. She had made her choice knowing full well what would happen next, if she was going to try and avoid the consequences, she wouldn't have returned.

As she followed the man through the corridors of the Forum toward the brig, it occurred to her that she probably shouldn't find the confused stares as amusing as she did. A USEP officer following a Security Core officer and in turn being followed by another was obviously a misdemeanour at a minimum. She probably should have been taking the whole situation more seriously than she was, but then again, when she took into account the sum of events in her life, getting arrested wasn't anywhere near the top of the list.

Ali wasn't sure how near to the brig they were when her comm beeped. "Can I get that?"

The security officers shared a look before the older one nodded. "Fine, just don't do anything stupid."

Ali could hear the combined voices of her friends and people who knew her too well to know that she would, if she thought it best, do something incredibly stupid. She was in the process of being arrested after all. She tapped the comm line open. "Ali, it's Rila, we're getting some more reports that you will want to see."

"What kind of reports?"

"There's been another attack. The Endeavour is going to investigate and I wanted to check if we'd be offering assistance?"

Ali gave the two men escorting her a specific look, and they shared a guilty look. "I'll get right back to you," she said to Rila before cutting the connection and whirling on the two security men. "Okay, decision time," Ali said, using her most authoritative voice as her entire attitude shifted to warn anyone against messing around right now. "Are you going to arrest me for stealing a ship to go to a funeral, or are you going to let me go do my damn job?"

She wasn't surprised it was the junior officer who cracked into confusion first. Though the senior one didn't look like he'd been privy to that either, he was just better at hiding it. "You stole a ship to go to a funeral?"

"It doesn't matter, you stole a ship and disobeyed orders."

"I don't deny it, but is that more important than allowing me to help catch a group of terrorists?"

"We have orders -"

"If you want to protect your reputations I am more than willing to fight my way out of your custody." Ali cut straight to the chase because they didn't have time to waste on this. "But I'd rather not." They shared another look. "Don't doubt that I can, for your sakes."

"I was actually wondering how that would help our reputation," the senior officer admitted, before hastily adding as Ali raised an eyebrow, "one prisoner versus two guards doesn't look good."

"Then make your choice now, because I'm going in ten seconds."

There was the briefest of hesitations as the senior one turned to the junior one, who nodded his agreement. "Go catch the bad guys." Ali barely hung around long enough to thank them before she spun on her heel and sprinted to the nearest beamer as she returned Rila's call.

~-x-~

The Faraday had set off before Ali had even returned to the bridge. "What do we know?"

"So far not much," Rila reported as she got up from the captain's chair. "An embassy on Yerta has been attacked and a similar message has followed. It mostly reiterates the same message as last time but they've asked if this latest attack proves that they're serious with their intentions." She relieved her deputy as she tapped away at the comm station before sliding into her seat.

"I'd have said the first did that," Ali muttered to herself. "Okay, let's use this time to review everything we know about both attacks and the pricks running this show."

Everyone nodded their assent to the order. Ali was about to take her seat again but she could feel Rila's stare. She turned to her second in command and stepped up to the comm station. There was a pause as both women scrutinised each other. "Where have you been?" Rila asked.

"You don't want to know," Ali replied honestly, then turned to move to take her seat.

"Captain -" Rila fell silent as Ali gave her a withering glare, her tentacles flattened against her body in a similar way to a cat bristles. She backed down, but the look she gave her captain let Ali know that this wasn't over.

Ali resisted letting her own guard down, she knew that she owed Rila a proper explanation for asking her to cover for a couple of days. However, she also knew that the less Rila knew the better for both of them, but especially Rila.

~-x--

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Yerta had a very moderate climate, and was covered in luscious forests broken up by swamps and coastlines. However, despite how warm it was, it rained. A lot. In fact, Ali didn't think she'd ever visited the planet and not got drenched within moments.

The towns and cities on Yerta were built in harmony with the forests, usually on the outskirts, and it was common for the vegetation to grow around the buildings - in fact the yertans often encouraged it when designing new buildings. The humid environment had encouraged the evolution of invertebrate fauna that was usually much larger than what was found on earth, though not the size of some dodgy horror films. Behind the repetitive pounding of the rain there was a constant chirping of insects.

Given all that, the destruction of the embassy was particularly stark in such a live setting. The rain had quickly tempered any flames, but the ruins of the building were still smoking and occasionally they found bits of debris that had been protected enough to still be smouldering.

"This is… what is the point of this?" Claire asked as they picked through the rubble.

"Fear," Ali said as she methodically turned with her scanner. She could see Rila and Wood in her peripheral vision doing the same. Lartyne and Olkant were also nearby working on their own grid. Lartyne had insisted on going down with them, this was her home.

"But Yerta is a neutral planet - "

"Which is exactly why it was targeted," Rila interrupted as if it were perfectly obvious. Ali glared a warning at her. "We can't keep wearing kid gloves."

"Yet we can choose how we deliver a message."

Wood couldn't help his laugh, no matter how inappropriate it felt to be laughing in such devastation. "It says something when Ali is lecturing others on tone."

"Just means I know what I'm talking about," Ali quipped with her usual cheeky innocence.

They continued with their work for a moment, getting a whole lot of nothing before Claire squealed and jumped as she accidentally caused a small rock slide. "I'm okay!" She called once she regained her footing. By which time they'd all turned to her in various states of readiness. Ali couldn't help her sigh of relief when all she was confronted with was a blushing, sodden Claire. Claire's normally bouncy hair plastered to her head with the water, though she wasn't the only one. Ali was rather jealous of all her crew mates who didn't have to deal with hair in this weather. Her ponytail seemed to be channelling water down her neck. Anyone who had ever been on Yerta knew the futility of trying to wear a waterproof with a hood.

There had been multiple detonation sites, so Ali sent Rila and Claire to investigate one of the ones on the north side whilst she went with Wood to one of the east. It gave them as much nothing as the previous ones and Ali had to resist kicking something as she made a frustrated noise and whacked the side of her scanner instead. "The rain's done a number on any evidence," she grumbled. She was only detecting generic traces of explosives. Though, if she were honest, if she was going to blow something up and didn't want to get caught, she wouldn't use anything special. That just meant they were smart enough to know not to leave a trail. She turned to find Wood looking at her. "What?"

He hesitated for a moment before lowering his own scanner. "Are you okay? This can't be easy for you."

A flash of hot, indignant anger surged through Ali before she reigned it back in. "I'm fine. It's not my first bomb scene," she reminded him, unnecessarily harshly. He hadn't been there when they'd been chasing down Barker. He hadn't been there when she had to deal with the fact that her boyfriend had started blowing people and things up. He hadn't been there when she had to cope with all that whilst Barker was still in her head and her heart. "I'm not made of glass."

He held her gaze, concern meeting her defensive fire. "No, but you're not invincible either." Ali opened her mouth to object but he didn't let her. "You don't have to prove your strength to some of us." Her retort died on her lips as she felt a familiar comfort in her mind, finally recognising the one that had helped her sleep during the initial shock. A pit formed in her stomach as she didn't know how to process that.

"Captain!" They were shaken out of their headspace by Olkant's voice on the comm. Ali instantly tapped it open to ask what was up. "We're being watched, I'm transferring the data to you now."

Their scanners lit up with the information a moment later. "Rila can you -"

"I've got him in my sight now," Rila whispered as she stealthily made her way to a vantage point. "Scratch that! He's on the move! Anti-scanner tech."

Neither Ali nor Wood waited before they ran off in the same direction the blip on the scanners was moving. They scrambled over boulders and slid with loose rubble, each movement accompanied by the crinkling of their light waterproof clothing. "He's got a vehicle," Olkant reported.

"Okay, Rila, Lartyne, finish up here. The rest of you meet us at the hovercraft," Ali ordered between breaths, following Wood's lead to leap over one of the rougher patches of terrain in their way.

"But -"

"Rila, I need you here in case they come back!" Ali tried to explain on the move. Normally she didn't mind her crew questioning her decisions, but normally that was at a less critical time.

"Yes, captain."

Ali could hear the tension in Rila, which meant that they needed to talk about that when they got back to the Faraday. Ali pushed it aside, they didn't have time to deal with it right now. "Olkant, Claire, you're driving!" She ordered as they came into sight of the vehicles. As they all instinctively climbed into the nearest ones Ali ended up with Claire, who barely waited till she was strapped in before setting off in pursuit.

As Claire focused on avoiding the obstacles presented by both buildings and flora, Ali had accessed the craft's sensor console in an effort to help. She was secured in her seat with a seatbelt, but she still had to brace herself with one arm to avoid any bumps with the bulkhead. "He's got weapons!"

"On it!" Claire quickly flicked her wrists and the craft executed a sharp shift out of the way. "So much for low key!" Claire observed as she frantically steered between obstacles and incoming fire.

"I really wish this thing had weapons right about now!" Ali agreed as she was busy weighing up the pros and cons of attempting to use her pistol for ranges beyond its recommendation from the window of a vehicle moving at breakneck speeds.

"Check under your seat! I left a surprise in case something like this happened!" Wood chimed in over their comm.

Ali twisted to rummage under her seat whilst trying not to bounce around like a rag doll. Eventually pulling out a modified rifle. "You sure know how to please a woman, Wood!" She smirked in triumph. Anyone else and Ali would've been convinced that he had known her too long to be this well prepared for a fire-fight. Though Ali knew that he was that paranoid long before he met her and with good reason.

"Only the best toys for my girls," he replied in kind.

Claire turned sharply towards Ali as she laughed as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Did he just -?"

"Eyes on the road!" Ali ordered with wide, terrified eyes as she glanced out of the windscreen. Claire turned back and veered expertly out of the way. "Or I'll start making jokes about his ability to distract you!" Claire smiled but rather than retorting focused on their objective as Ali manoeuvred herself into a position that she could start shooting.

"You're both terrible shots!" Olkant scolded over the comm as they struggled to get a lock on the fleeing vehicle.

"Hear that, Wood? I think he just insulted your weapon!"

"I thought he was saying you didn't know how to handle it, Ali!"

"You two are officially nuts!" Claire cut in, emphasised by the cheer that Ali let off as she finally landed a shot that clipped the propulsion systems. The vehicle started losing altitude. "Crap!" Claire shouted a moment later as she realised that Ali had accidentally set them on a collision course. "Seat, now!" Ali didn't need to be told twice as she braced herself in her seat as Claire did everything she could to avoid the crash. In the end they skimmed over the vehicle only to careen into the flora before finally coming to a stop tangled up in vines and trunks.

For a moment everything was quiet other than heavy breathing and the low hum of the instruments, punctuated by the occasional spark. Ali and Claire turned to each other where their seat belts were securing them to their seats as they hung upside down. Both nodded warily before the adrenaline caught up with them and they both laughed in relief. "Just like Entechor," Ali observed, causing both of their laughter to set off again.