Jordan led them directly to General Ito’s quarters. Ciro Vas was pacing the floor, while the general, still in her bathrobe, sat in her chair, staring at the chess board without seeing it. She looked up when her other late-night guests arrived. She let out a choked noise when she saw that Alix was in the tank top and shorts she favored when sleeping.

“Really, General,” Ito said. “You didn’t let her get dressed?”

Jordan motioned to her weapons. “She took the time to grab what she thought was important.”

Ito turned to Vas. “Captain! I would have thought better of you.”

Adan blushed.

“Give him a break, Ito,” Alix said. “He did just save my life.”

This bare statement did not help with Adan’s blushing. He took off his jacket and walked up to Reyer’s side. “All the same, it wouldn’t do for the general to be mad at me.”

“I’m not cold.”

Adan looked her up and down. “I think you are,” he muttered.

Reyer took the jacket. When it was settled on her shoulders, she remembered to thank him.

Vas waved one hand in dismissal.

General Jordan was already barking at the fidgety Ciro Vas. “All right, Mr. Vas, tell us about the message.”

“What message?” Adan asked.

Ciro stopped pacing. “Bray hacked through my security system.”

“What?”

“Hey! No security system is perfect!” Ciro cried. “I knew that, so I set up a final layer—an invisible layer—in case anyone got through the rest. It was set to automatically record what was said.”

“If you couldn’t stop them from saying it, you at least wanted to know what they said?” Ito nodded. “Nicely done, Ciro.”

The young man smiled with jittery relief.

“He notified someone that I was here before he attacked me?” Reyer asked. Her voice was tight.

“I’m sorry, Miss Reyer. The plan was for him to take you at night, while you were asleep.” Ciro grinned. “I don’t know if you care, but he was also warned it would be hazardous to try when you were awake.”

Reyer found that rather pleasing.

Ciro went on, “He was going to kidnap you—they were explicit that you weren’t to be killed—then he was going to take you off base somewhere until backup arrived.”

The warm glow of pride was engulfed by cold dread. Reyer paled.

“How long?” Adan demanded.

“Twenty-eight hours or less. They’ll move fast on this one.”

“What will this backup look like?” General Jordan asked.

Ciro squirmed his whole body in a helpless shrug. “They didn’t say! It could be nothing more than one stealth pick-up ship to get them off planet, or it could be…more.”

“I’ve put you in danger,” Alix said.

The statement was so abrupt, no one had a response.

She looked at Ito.

When Ito saw her face, the general stood up and walked over to her. “No. Alix, this was my doing. If any one’s to blame, it’ll be me.”

“You should have let me die back on P48.”

“You’re not some useless piece to be sacrificed! Don’t you understand, Alix? We owe you.” Ito lowered her voice. “And we’re going to save you.” She turned to Jordan. “General?”

Jordan inclined his head in one brief nod. “Turn and burn.”

“Leave a squad of fighters?” Ito asked.

“At least one. More might be willing to volunteer. I’ll get the order out as soon as possible and begin evacuating all non-essential personnel.” Jordan looked at Ciro. “And that includes you, Mr. Vas.”

Ciro put a hand to his chest. “Me? But, sir!”

“You are a civilian. I won’t have you in the middle of a battle.”

The young man tried his best to stand tall and look tough. He came up to the general’s shoulder. “You need me, General.”

“Did you train those soldiers I sent to you?”

Ciro was so loath to say yes, it almost got stuck behind his teeth.

“Then we’ll make do, Mr. Vas. You’re to be off planet with the first evacuating ship.”

“Sir—”

“You’ll find your way back to us. I know you know how.” The general, remembering who he was talking to, added, “And you’re to wait until the battle is over! Is that clear?” He waited until Ciro nodded, then said, “Once you’re back, you’ll help find everyone else. Those are your orders, Mr. Vas.”

Looking like he swallowed a bottle of lemon juice, Ciro said, “Yes, sir.”

Jordan turned to Captain Vas. “Take Reyer and run. Once this is all over, try to find a way to contact us if you can do so without compromising her safety. Go through the buried channels.”

“Yes, sir,” Vas said.

Ito took Reyer’s hand. “Alix—”

“I wish we had a few more chess matches, General,” Reyer said. “Will you be on board one of those evacuation ships?”

“I have to be. Not even Jordan gets to stay.”

“Good.”

“Let’s meet again, Alix.”

“But life is short, and we’re all impermanent.”

The general shook her head. “I can see teaching you philosophy was a mistake. Will you at least try, my girl?”

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

“Yes, Yuuna.”

“Good.” She gave Alix’s hand one more squeeze before letting go.

Jordan said, “Vas, you and Miss Reyer have enough time to pack a kit and raid the infirmary for some painkillers. I want you off planet in under an hour.”

“Yes, sir.” Vas tapped Reyer’s arm. “Let’s go, Miss Reyer.”

As Alix was leaving, she said, “I’ll miss you too, General Jordan.”

Ciro left with them.

When they were gone, Jordan shook his head. “Damn that girl.”

Ito hid her faint smile by bending down to remove the chess pieces from the board. “You know you’re her grumpy uncle who refuses to admit how much he likes her.”

“I know. I wish she didn’t know.” Jordan watched Ito working. “What are you doing?”

Ito folded up the wooden board. “I’ll have to see if I can find the box the pieces are supposed to go in.”

Jordan’s com beeped. He pulled it from his pocket. “Yes?” he demanded.

“Sir,” the com buzzed. It was Kassia’s voice. “Private Bray is dead.”

Ito stopped what she was doing to listen.

“What?” Jordan said. “I told you to—”

“We did, sir. We did a full search. There was nothing. He’s just dead.”

“That’s not possible, Lieutenant.”

“Sir, I have a body here that says otherwise.”

“None of your men did anything to him, did they?”

“No, sir. I left Ormond as a guard. The other three went back to their duties, and there are no signs of trauma.”

Jordan growled for a second, then said, “Never mind that, Lieutenant. We have bigger things to deal with at the moment. Are you still the officer on watch?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Put the station on alert. The Supremacy is coming.”

[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]

Since Adan had to pack his own kit and prep the ship, he had Ciro fetch Lynx to guard Reyer. He was almost done checking the ship when a voice said from behind him, “Are we almost ready to go?”

Adan turned around. “What do you think you’re doing, Ciro?”

His brother had a kit bag slung across his chest and was carrying a hard-sided case that was large enough and heavy enough to make him lean to one side. The young man grinned, then waved his free hand around and brought it up in the sloppiest salute ever seen. “I’m reporting as a passenger, Captain.”

Adan came down from the step ladder. “I don’t think so.” He pushed the ladder down the length of the ship with his foot, then climbed it again.

“But you heard the general—”

“I did hear the general, Ciro. And I know all your tricks. You’re not going to get away with it.”

“He said I was to be on the first evacuating ship. That appears to be your ship by at least three hours.”

“We’re not evacuating. I’m taking Miss Reyer, and we’re running.”

The younger Vas took a few steps forward so he’d be right next to the ladder. “How is that not an evacuation?”

Adan stepped down, picked up the ladder, and folded it. “We’re the ones being hunted, Ciro.” He went to put the ladder away at the edge of the hangar. “The general wanted you someplace safe because you’re a civilian.”

His brother trailed after him. “Sure, rub it in, why don’t you?”

“I will. You need reminding.”

“Come on, Adan! You need me.”

“Last time I checked, I’ve survived every mission I’ve been on without the benefit of your company—as lonely as I might be for your calm and sensible nature.”

“But this isn’t about you! It’s about her.”

Adan stopped and turned. From the look on his face, Ciro knew he had only seconds to prove that he hadn’t gone too far.

He put down the hard case. “Look,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper, “you’re great with the fighting and the being brave and the whole hero-type thing—”

Vas rolled his eyes. It wasn’t as endearing coming from his little brother.

“—and you can fly circles around the Supremacy. Everyone knows that. But I’m the one that can tell you when they’re coming and find them only seconds after we’ve left velox. I can monitor locked coms. I know how to hide our digital signature, and once this whole debacle is over, I can get you back to wherever Home Base is without having to use buried channels and risk exposing her position to the enemy.” Ciro could see his brother hesitating, so he smiled and braved, “Hell, if you get me close enough, I’ll get you the entire Supremacy ship roster and a list of current deployments.”

“We aren’t getting that close.” Vas walked back toward his vessel.

Ciro picked up the case and caught up with him. “I can fix your ship!”

“I can fix my own ship. And there’s nothing wrong with it!”

“Please?”

“Get on board before someone sees you,” Vas growled. “Remember, I’m the captain of this mission. If you give me enough reason, I’ll make an executive decision to throw you off the ship. If you’re really annoying, I might not land before I do it.”

Ciro had to grin because the weight of the case prevented him from skipping. “Yes, sir.”

Vas was watching his brother limp his way up the ramp when he felt a nudge on his folded arms.

“Your jacket,” Reyer said.

“Thank you.” He put it back on. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Do you have enough Tranomine?”

“Yes, Captain,” she repeated, this time in the same tone an exasperated teenager might say, “Yes, Mother.”

Adan jerked down on his jacket to make it lay straight, then looked behind her. “Lynx, are you ready?”

“Except for routine maintenance or malfunction, I’m always in a state of readiness, Captain.”

All three of them started toward the ship.

“So Ciro managed to talk his way into coming with us?” Alix asked, trying to sound innocent.

“No, I decided to let him come.” Vas also decided to ignore Reyer’s knowing smile. “Besides, General Jordan ordered him to be on the first evacuating ship. Who am I to disobey orders?”

“I haven’t figured that one out yet, Captain Vas. But you seem to know the answer.”

Vas and Lynx took their positions in the cockpit. Reyer stowed her kit under her seat. Ciro had already rigged together a working console and two monitors from three tablets. She pushed his shoulder as she walked by him.

“Miss Reyer?”

“Ciro, does this ship send out general message when it leaves the station?”

“No. That would mean that any listening Supremacy ships or stations could pick it up. We always send broken and encrypted waves to targeted receptors.”

“Could it send general messages?”

Ciro’s brow furrowed. “Of course. Every ship has to be able to do that.”

Reyer mounted the three steps up to the cockpit and stood behind Vas and Lynx. The ship was powered up and already off the ground. When Vas reached for the on-board com, Alix grabbed his hand.

He looked up at her.

“Could you please use general message to check in?”

From beside her, Lynx said, “That would be a dangerous and potentially costly mistake.”

Without turning to the robot, Reyer said, “Lynx, I can promise you it won’t be a costly mistake because we’ll be doing it on purpose.”

The captain whispered, “Miss Reyer—”

“Come on, Adan. What would you do if you were me?”

It was her eyes that cinched it.

[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]

General Jordan was in Base Center. One of the many stubborn parts of his soul insisted on him being there to see the ship get off safely.

Through the open hangar, he saw it aligning itself on the launch area.

“Has Captain Vas checked in yet?”

“Not yet, si—”

A voice rang out over every speaker in the room: “This is Captain Adan Vas of the Golondrina.”

“What the hell?” Jordan roared.

“He’s broadcasting general message, sir!”

“He’s what?”

“Sergeant Alix Reyer and I are ready to leave planet. Are we cleared?”

The crew all looked up at the general.

“No, he’s not cleared!” Jordan yelled. “Get him back here so I can kick his ass!”

The poor, confused woman at the console didn’t even have time to reach for the screen.

“Sorry, Base Center, something’s wrong with my com. I didn’t receive your answer. My hour is almost up. Departing now. Good luck, Home Base.”

There was a roar and a blaze of white light as the ship took off at a speed that blistered the surface below it.

In the settling chaos, the crew were in for yet another shock. Rolls of low laughter were coming from the general. They were quiet, but they shook his massive chest.

“Damn you, Captain Vas!” Under his breath, Jordan grumbled, “And good luck.”

He realized that everyone was staring at him.

“Business as usual, people!”

They all turned away.

“Um, sir, should we order repairs for the launch pad?”

“Let’s wait to see what needs repairing after the fight.”

A nervous voice said, “General, sir, he didn’t give us his number, and I can’t find any ship named Golondrina.”

“His ship is 781014. We don’t name ships that are that puny.”

“But…then—”

“We don’t give out official Uprising call numbers to our enemies either.”

The young woman looked down at her console, then back up at Jordan. “Should I make a note of the name in the vessel’s file, general?”

There was a pause.

“Oh, why the hell not?” Jordan looked at her. “Do it, Corporal.”

Someone came up behind his shoulder. “General Jordan, I have the manifests you asked for.”

“Which one’s leaving first?”

A paper was put into his hands. A minute later, he barked, “Why isn’t Ciro Vas’s name on this list?”

“Possibly because it’s on this one, sir.” Another paper was put into his hands. It only had three lines of text below the heading.

He threw it over his shoulder. “Of course. Corporal Chaudhary!”

The young woman turned. “Yes, General?”

“Can you open the personnel files for Adan and Ciro Vas and read their lists of relatives and siblings?”

She turned back to her console. “Yes, sir. What do you want to know?”

“I want to know that there are only two of them.”