May 25, 2361 AIA

Rising’s Home Base

There was a small crowd waiting when they finally touched ground. Vas and Reyer went to greet their welcoming party while Lynx powered down the ship.

Vas gave his name, number, and ship information to the waiting dockhand. Next a bot came forward to draw his blood. Behind the bot, an officer, in one of the rare official uniforms of the Rising, waited with growing impatience.

“Don’t worry, General,” the captain said as the bot finished scanning his retinas and moved on to Reyer. “Ah, see? Now it’s your turn.” Vas held his arms out in front of him, wrists together.

“Welcome home, Captain Vas.” The general locked the security cuffs around Adan’s wrists.

Vas smiled at him. “Did everything go well while I was gone, sir?”

“You’d be amazed how smoothly things go when you’re gone, Captain.” The older man turned to Alix. “Sergeant Reyer.”

“It’s Miss Reyer, General Jordan. Did you miss me?”

The older man considered the question. “I think I might have.”

“Is Captain Vas often in handcuffs?”

The general gave Vas a look which clearly said, “not often enough,” but he chose to say, “He left base on an unauthorized mission.”

“Did he know it was unauthorized?”

Now Jordan glared at Vas until he couldn’t stand the impish smile any longer. “I’ll have a hard time proving that.”

Lynx came down to join them as the other bot gave his report.

“The identity of Captain Adan Vas, Special Reserve Officer of the Uprising, confirmed. Second identity, unknown.”

Jordan nodded. “Understood, bot. Is she a xeno?”

“Without a DNA match to confirm, there is an increased risk of misidentification.”

Vas motioned over his shoulder with his cuffed hands. “Lynx still has her on file.”

Jordan ignored the generous offer. “What’s the chance she’s a xeno?”

“Less than twelve percent, sir,” the bot answered.

“That’s good enough.”

A new voice called out over the crowd. “Adan!”

The general stepped aside so they could see the young man running toward them, waving.

“Hello, Ciro!” Vas yelled, raising both hands to wave back.

As the young man arrived, he glanced down at the security cuffs. “Nice bracelets. You all right?”

“I’m fine.”

Almost before Vas had finished answering, Ciro stepped between him and Reyer, shoving them aside to get to Lynx. He reached up to hold the bot’s head between his hands. “Lynx! Oh, good. He hasn’t damaged you.”

“I detect no malfunction or wear on my hardware, nor any problems in my software programs, sir,” the bot said.

“Glad to hear it.” Ciro turned back to Vas. “You took him without telling me!”

“He’s my copilot. I don’t need your permission.”

“Yeah, but I was getting him ready for an update.”

“He worked fine.”

The young man—who, from his sheer excitability and random nature, Reyer was beginning to think of as a boy—raised his arms and shook them wildly over his head. The general had to take a step back or risk getting hit. “Idiots! You’re all alike. How many times do I have to tell you to update? You don’t wait until something goes wrong!”

The general said loudly, “Mr. Vas! You can finish yelling at your brother later. Right now he and Miss Reyer are needed for questioning.”

“Reyer?”

There was a moment where no one spoke.

Ciro Vas turned to the woman beside Lynx. “Sergeant Major Alix Reyer?”

She shook her head. “I’m no longer a sergeant.”

“I’ve heard of you.”

Adan grabbed his brother’s arm and jerked him up so he could hiss in his ear. “Listen, Ciro. You didn’t see her. She’s not here. If you tell anyone what you didn’t see, I will personally set an emp bomb off in your lab.”

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The general removed his cover to rub his forehead. “It’s all right, Captain,” he said, replacing his hat. “I doubt we’ll be able to keep this quiet. It’s not as though she won’t be recognized.”

When his brother let him go, Ciro put his hands together in front of him and offered her a brief bow. Then he extended his hand while saying, “Wow. Well, ma’am, it was an honor not to meet you.”

“Likewise,” she said as they shook, “Mister Ciro Vas?”

The boy sighed. “Yes. Just Mister.” He reached out and thumped three times on Lynx’s chest plate. “Come on, Lynx. Let’s get you that update.”

As the general led them through the base, Reyer said to Vas, “Your little brother, I presume?”

“Yes.”

“But he’s not a soldier?”

“He couldn’t handle the physical training.”

“He seems like the type who’d be handy to have around though. Good with tech?”

Vas smiled. “He’s a genius.”

“And a smart-ass?”

“That too.”

The halls of the new Home Base were more sprawling than the ones that Reyer had known. She stared out of the huge windows at the landscape of rolling hills and low mountains. The carpet of green that hid most of the red earth was speckled with patches of wildflowers. There were a few vents along the crags, sending out curling white steam clouds. It was a wide, almost untouched world.

“It’s beautiful here,” Alix murmured.

Jordan glanced out the window. “It’s practical. The geothermic energy is more than enough for our needs.”

She laughed. “You haven’t changed at all, General.”

“Huh!” In a loud voice, he demanded to know, “And did you miss me, Reyer?”

“Yes, sir.”

Jordan looked back at her when she said that. His skepticism was obvious, but Captain Vas thought he also glimpsed the flicker of a repressed smile.

“We’re almost to Ito’s quarters,” the general announced, turning back to face front.

The lone soldier stranded in the long hallway came to attention as they approached. The general put him at ease, then knocked on the door.

“Why the guard?” Vas asked. “Is there a threat?”

“No” was Jordan’s curt reply. He knocked again.

From inside someone called, “Come in!”

At the sound of Ito Yuuna’s voice, Reyer felt a rush of anxious joy.

Jordan opened the door but motioned for Alix to go in first.

When Ito saw Reyer, she rose immediately to her feet. She had been sitting in front of a small table where a chess board was laid out with one piece missing. Alix stood across from the general with the table between them. Vas, who had been escorted in by General Jordan, watched the two women talking with a slight smile.

“Alix.” Ito sounded almost faint with relief. She had always been a small woman, but she seemed even smaller and somehow older than Reyer remembered her.

“Ito.” Reyer’s own voice was tight with controlled emotion. “General.”

“Alix, I’m so glad you made it.”

Grinning, Reyer pulled the knight from her vest pocket and thumped it down on the board. “I’d hate to think your chess set was incomplete.”

Ito’s smile was straight and subtle as she looked down at the pieces. “Thank you, my girl. I was finding it difficult to play mental chess without it. Don’t ask me why.” She turned. “Captain Vas, thank you for bringing her back.”

“My pleasure, General,” he said with a gracious nod.

“Are those security cuffs?”

“Yes. Please forgive me for not saluting.”

Ito shook her head. “Really, Jordan. I told you the boy was only obeying my orders.”

“Indeed, it was amazing how quickly he obeyed them,” Jordan grumbled in his deep, heavy voice. “So quickly, in fact, the border guards weren’t able to finish logging his flight number before he was off planet.”

“You’re always saying how you wish he’d stop questioning orders. Why don’t you assume he’s getting better at it?”

“I think we all know that Captain Vas knew it was an unauthorized mission when he instantly rushed to execute it.”

“I told him that time was of the essence.”

“Then why did he use such creative and convoluted route to get to his ship? It looked as if he was trying to avoid running into someone who might ask him what he was doing.”

“I got lost?” Vas suggested.

Ito shot him a look to let him know he wasn’t helping matters, then she looked back at the general. “You have a ready mind and a good understanding of character, Jordan—”

The general grunted.

“—but what you think you know isn’t as relevant as what I’ve already admitted on record. He was acting under my orders. If confinement to my quarters isn’t enough, I’ll be happy to relocate to one of the detention cells, but Captain Vas should not be wearing security cuffs.”

Jordan pulled out the chip and key required to remove the cuffs. “Yes, I could relocate you—if I felt like walking even further when I need to consult you.”

There was a clattering of metal, and Adan rubbed his wrists. “Thank you, General Jordan.”

A large finger was pointed at him, only centimeters away from his face. “Watch yourself, Captain Vas.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, sit down and report, Captain.”

“Yes, sir.”

Since both of the generals wanted to hear Vas’s report, Reyer made tea for all of them. It took her a while to find everything in the unfamiliar quarters. By the time she returned to the group, Adan had almost finished.

“Why did you stop at P31, Captain?” General Jordan barked.

Vas opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Reyer said, “It was my fault, General.”

Jordan watched as Alix flipped the four small cups upright and poured from the pot.

“We had to leave so quickly,” she said, “I wasn’t able to grab anything.” She handed Jordan a cup. “That includes any painkillers.”

“I see.” He turned back to the captain. “Did you get any new information before you fled?”

Vas shook his head.

Reyer sat down in her chair. “I’m concerned that they were distributing my picture. I know the Supremacy wants to find and detain as many Rising soldiers as they can, but they used to take them as they found them. Is this a new procedure?” When no one spoke, she added, “Or does this have something to do with what Captain Vas said about someone in the Supremacy searching the whole arm of the galaxy for me?”

Still no one answered her.

“How long have they been looking for me?” she asked.

Jordan stopped twisting the teacup in his hands. He threw back his head and drank it all in a matter of seconds. “I have to go. I have duties.” When he stood up, Captain Vas stood to acknowledge him. “Miss Reyer, I’ll have quarters set up for you, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow about…what you can do to help the Uprising.”

The general nodded to Vas and Ito before letting himself out.

Reyer turned to the general. “Are you going to tell me what’s going now, or do we have to wait until Captain Vas leaves too?”

Ito shook her head. “Captain Vas isn’t going anywhere. He’s still under orders.”

“How so?” Alix said.

The general addressed Vas: “You didn’t tell her?”

He grimaced. “I told her, ma’am…but there’s a chance she may not have completely understood what I meant.”

“Uh-huh.” Ito was used to the captain’s willingness to use ambiguity to his advantage. To Reyer, she said, “He’s not your courier, Alix. He’s your bodyguard.”

Reyer could only stare.

“Ever since Geonon One, the Supremacy has been hunting you. It was so tight we didn’t dare send a warning to your hiding place. Something happened that day that we don’t understand. There are people in the Supremacy who’d give anything to get their hands on you. Captain Vas is going to protect you until we can figure out why.” General Ito leaned forward. “I’m sorry, Alix, but tomorrow we’re going to have to ask you some questions.”