Angela was incensed! Who did Jack think he was, ordering her about like she was some kind of subordinate? He had no right to treat her that way!

Well, he technically had the right, as determined by the human/AI treaty. Technically, he was the ship captain, and even though she was the ship, she was considered his subordinate. True, there were avenues available through which she could challenge his rulings and authority, but most of those would involve getting the law or an arbitrator involved, which simply wasn't available, even if she was willing to go that route, or worse, dissolving their partnership, one way or another.

She mentally sighed. Besides, it's not like he was ordering her about in some kind of twisted power trip the way some captains tried to do to their AIs. Jack just wasn't like that. In fact, this was the first time he'd ever really given her a serious order she'd disagreed with. Instead, they usually talked things out like the siblings they were most of the time. She just wished he'd done so this time.

Still, she wasn't willing to forgive him that quickly or easily. Regardless of his intentions, being ordered about like this hurt. She was Jack's big sister. It was her job to look out for him and always had been. But this...this felt like there was suddenly a wall between them. It left her feeling...raw, as if her wires were exposed to the elements.

She shook her head as Em'brel came back in for her last load. The younger woman looked at her friend in pity. "So, what will happen to the ship once we're gone? What's going to happen to you?"

Angela sighed again. "Well, for one thing, it'll actually get a lot warmer in here than it currently is. Believe it or not, I put more energy into shunting heat out of the ship than almost anything else. Running a supercomputer produces a lot of heat, and even if I shut down a lot of unnecessary processes, this place will probably be dangerous for you to be in for more than a dozen minutes at a time. Since Jack doesn't have the same issues regulating his body heat, he'd be a bit safer, but even he would be extremely uncomfortable for any significant amount of time.

Angela tilted her head to the side. "It'll also be completely dark. Not that that'll make a huge difference to me, but I wouldn't recommend coming in here without some light source to help you get around."

Em'brel smiled a little. "Well, that doesn't sound so bad. I mean, it would be bad for me, but none of that should cause you any issues."

Angela nodded. "Yeah, what I'm apprehensive about is whether or not everything will start up again once we do have more power to work with. This ship sustained considerable damage when we crashed into this mountain, and while I patched things up as well as I could with the supplies I had on hand, there is a big difference between leaving systems running and stopping then restarting them."

The AI seemed to shrink in on herself. "The other problem is going to be the isolation. I'm going to stay connected to your headset, but that is a much more limited amount of input than what I can see and feel with the ship. So I'm going to feel...smaller."

Em'brel raised an eye ridge. "You sure staying connected to the headset is ok?"

Angela nodded. "Absolutely! Jack said, 'anything reasonable.' I don't think completely cutting me off from the outside world and having me go insane in isolation is reasonable! Besides, you getting that windmill up is a large part of stabilizing my power, and you still need my help for that."

Em'brel smiled and nodded. "I guess you're right!"

The girl then seemed to wilt a little. "Besides, without Jack or S'haar here, and me no longer being safe behind your walls, I'm afraid of what my nightmares will turn into..."

Angela felt a fresh wave of anger toward Jack. She knew she was being unreasonable, especially since Em'brel had explicitly hidden how bad things had gotten for her, but still, how dare Jack carelessly hurt Em'brel?

Something of her thoughts must have accidentally bled through the avatar's face because Em'brel quickly switched to a more gentle approach. "But I'm sure I'll be fine! I can't stay locked up forever! Ger'ron will be just one room over, if I need anything."

Angela let her temper cool a little. "I suppose. But if things get unbearable, you let me know, and I'll have words with Jack!"

Em'brel smiled at her friend. "Thank you, but I have to move on sooner or later. It's time I faced my fears. I just might need you to tell me a story to distract me once in a while."

Angela smiled comfortingly. "Of course. Any time you need me, I'm only a whisper away!"

Still, it was excruciating to watch Em'brel grab the last bit of cooking supplies, take one last look around the ship, then walk out the door. As the lights went dark and many systems shut off for the first time since the crash, Angela couldn't help but feel more alone and afraid than she'd ever felt in her life.

-

Lon'thul was looking at Jack in surprise. "I thought you'd just shoot the things and be done with it. Why come up with such a complicated plan?"

Jack shook his head, and Sare'en interpreted. "First of all, the plan is actually quite simple. The complicated parts are all prep work. The execution itself needs to be as simple as possible to reduce the chances of something going wrong and be easily adaptable when it inevitably does."

The hunter looked nonplussed. "Already planning things going badly?"

In response, Jack simply tapped on his eyepatch. "Yes, I find it's best to assume something will go wrong and have plans B, C, D, and E ready to go. Minimum. In an ideal world, I'll be able to gun them both down as they charge in and call it a day, but I'm assuming I'll only succeed in pissing them off, then going from there."

Lon'thul scratched the back of his head. "But what are these extra-large spears going to do? They're way too unwieldy for anyone to use!"

S'haar shook her head, clearly exasperated with the hunter's inability to follow along. "The spikes don't need to be wielded. We're planting them in the ground. Far enough apart we can get through them, but close enough together that the wolgen can't."

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The hunter shook his head. "I don't know. You might be underestimating your prey. I don't think these will hold them at bay, not for long anyway, especially not if they're 'pissed off.'"

Jack nodded. "They don't have to. They are there for two reasons. First, to keep them separated so we can fight them independently of each other. We can more easily capitalize on our greater numbers if they can't guard each other's backs while fighting. Second, you can buy yourself a little time and distance by running through them in a pinch. Ideally, we'd have pits filled with spikes to make quicker work of them, especially as massive as they are, but I think having ourselves trapped in the confining holes while we dug would just be asking for them to show up at the wrong time and end our endeavor before it ever began."

Lon'thul nodded sadly. "Yeah, with their sense of hearing, you'd be asking for visitors right quick."

Jack sat back and sighed. "Which could also be a problem while setting up the spikes, but at least it won't take as long to set up and will be easier to retreat from if it comes to that."

The guard captain frowned. "Alright, I understand all that, but what do you need all this pitch for?"

Jack grinned, looking almost like an argu'n as he did so. "Oh, that's the best part. Let me tell you about the second phase of my plan..."

As she interpreted, Sare'en couldn't help but find it hard to believe that the kind and gentle Jack she'd come to know and this brilliant yet twisted monster were one and the same. Of course, she knew all about Jack's one-man war back when he'd saved Em'brel from the raiders, but it was something else to actually hear him describe his plans in greater detail. This was a mind capable of great and terrible things. Sare'en now understood why someone as strong as S'haar was always the first to listen when Jack spoke.

-

Over the next day, everyone did as much prep work as possible while still safe behind the village walls. They had a large pile of sharpened stakes ranging from three inches in diameter to nearly half a foot thick by dawn. There was also a sizable collection of fragile jars filled with pitch. Jack checked and rechecked his gear while everyone worked. Then, when everything else seemed to be in order, he activated his headset. "Angela, you there?"

The voice that came back over the radio was clearly not happy. Jack would have almost called it petulant. "What, did you expect me to sulk and hide while you were in mortal peril? Or were you going to say that keeping an eye out for all of you while you did something so monumentally dangerous consumed too much energy?"

Jack felt guilty about what he'd done, but he had to bite his tongue to keep from lashing out this time. Pinching the bridge of his nose, as was quickly becoming a habit, he tried to remind himself how hard this must be on his sister. Her reaction was probably derived more out of fear and anxiety than actual anger. After reminding himself he'd done similar things to her in the past, he finally responded. "No, I wouldn't say or think either of those things. But, listen, we'll talk about this more later. I'm sure we both have a lot on our minds and things that need to be said, but for now, I need my sister to be our eyes in the sky. If everyone gets out of this alive, we can talk more, ok?"

Angela couldn't resist getting one last dig in. "As long as it's your sister you need and not your subordinate!"

Jack closed his eyes and silently sighed. "Yes, I need my big sister watching my back. Watching all our backs. So let's call a truce for now, ok?"

Angela sighed as well. Jack couldn't help but smile at the sound since he was well aware she didn't have to breathe, and she was obviously doing it to be dramatic. "Way to pull the big sis guilt card. Alright, truce. But just so we're clear, I haven't forgiven you yet, and this isn't over. You owe me better than this!"

Jack nodded his smile, a little sadder this time. "Yeah, I do. And I intend to pay my debt, but first, we've got a village to save."

Temporarily mollified, Angela changed her tone to all business for the time being. "Alright, you seem to be as prepared as you can get inside the walls, and I can't get a reading on any large predators in your immediate vicinity, so either they're in a cave or far enough away to not be an issue."

Jack walked over to S'haar, who was activating her own headset after completing her gear inspection. "For the record, I'm not taking sides in this dispute, but I want to thank you for the swords. After practicing with them for a while yesterday, it's like they were crafted specifically for my hands. They might just mean the difference between life and death, so thank you."

Angela couldn't help but sound a little smug. "Well, they were crafted specifically for your hands. I've got a ton of detailed footage of how you move your hands and weapons as you fight, and I weighted the blades and shaped the handles to compliment your style. It's a subtle difference, really; I doubt anyone but yourself would even notice anything was different about them, but I hope it helps!"

Jack allowed his sister her moment before turning to S'haar. "Angela says there's no sign of wolgen now, so now is as good a time as any to get going."

Sare'en stood close but off to the side, practically bursting at the seams, wanting to speak but not daring to. Finally, Lon'thul slapped her on the back in a manner he probably thought was gentle before verbally prodding her. "C'mon, out with it!"

Before she had time to think or react, the girl blurted out what was on her mind. "I don't have to go out there with you all, do I?"

Immediately her eyes grew wide, and she covered her mouth before rapidly trying to explain. "ImeanIwouldn'tbemuchhelp, Ican'tevenholdaspearproperly, I..."

She only grew quiet when Lon'thul's laughter drowned out her words. Once she grew silent, he winked at her. "Relax, I doubt S'haar would have let you come, even if you wanted to!"

He softened his tone, realizing that what he said could be belittling. "Listen, even if everything goes perfectly, and we come back completely unscathed, we'll all be exhausted and hungry. Someone needs to keep an eye on our stuff, keep the house nice and warm, and be ready to cook a feast at a moment's notice. Not everyone has to wield a blade or a spear. So do what you came here to do, and we'll do the same. Sound good?" He winked at her at the end.

Calming down, Sare'en nodded. "Ummm, yeah, I can do that..."

S'haar laid a hand on the girl's shoulders in an uncommonly gentle manner. Jack couldn't help but notice she was even more gentle with Sare'en than with himself most days, though he couldn’t entirely blame her.

When Sare'en looked up, S'haar smiled. "There's no shame in picking your fights. This one isn't yours."

Sare'en nodded and walked back inside the house. She didn't look thrilled with the way things turned out. Jack was familiar with choices that seemed to have no "right answer," but he knew this was probably best for everyone.

S'haar nodded before turning around and shouting at everyone gathered who was part of the plan. Almost everyone in their small group was headed out except Sare'en, and there was also a collection of workers and guards from the village who were still in good enough condition to volunteer. "Workers, remember, you aren't here to fight! If the wolgen show up, you run. If you try anything else, you're not just endangering yourself, you're endangering the guards who are already risking their lives tonight. Guards, if the wolgen show up early, your first job is to slow them down long enough for the workers to get away. Your second job is to keep yourselves alive. You all know the plan. Now before we leave, are they any questions?"

There was definitely some mumbling from the crowd, but it soon died down as everyone turned to S'haar expectantly. She took a breath. "Hopefully, this will be a long day for all of us, so pace yourself and trust each other. Then, maybe, we'll all get to go home when this is over."

With that, the workers began pulling piles of stakes with leather harnesses similar to the one Jack had designed last winter. The guards, needing to stay fresh in case things didn't go well, carried the jars. The hunters scouted in front of the group, led by Lon'thul, who'd been given Sare'en's headset to stay in touch with Angela. Walking safely in the middle, for now, were Jack and S'haar.