Of course, getting docked was a bit more complicated than Kalan would have liked. While the station could dock a ship like the Zeran cutter, Kalan had to do a lot more explaining than usual to make it happen. The station crew had a seemingly endless number of questions about just why it was that a cargo freighter captain and private citizen was trying to dock a foreign navy vessel. Kalan answered the questions as patiently as he could, while Cera kept shooting him nervous glances. He was glad that he’d kept the communication channel to audio-only. Anyone seeing her nervousness would have been increasingly suspicious. Given that it was all above board, he didn’t need anyone trying to find reasons to deny them entry. The station eventually, grudgingly gave him permission to dock. The Ankala Rising, by contrast, had casually passed through the process and docked nearly an hour earlier. Once the cutter was finally secured, Kalan led Cera out onto the docking ring.

“This is where we part ways,” he said.

Now that she was standing where she’d said she wanted to go, the young woman looked incredibly nervous. Not your problem, Kalan told himself. She’s in better circumstances than you were when you landed here. He just wished that those words didn’t ring so hollow in his own head. She wasn’t really in better circumstances, just different circumstances. Kalan had been an outcast, not a fugitive. Cera put on a brave face and nodded.

“Thank you, captain. I didn’t actually think you’d hold up your end of the deal, but you did.”

“You’re welcome. I appreciate that you didn’t try to kill us all by blowing up the ship in the wormhole.”

Cera’s eyes went wide. “What? Is that what you thought I’d do.”

Kalan shrugged. “It crossed my mind. Good luck to you, Ceramilla.”

“And to you,” she said before she started to walk away.

Kalan watched her start walking, hesitate, stop, look around, and start walking again about three times before he shook his head. She’ll be fine, he reassured himself. You took her where she wanted to go, just like any other passenger. Yet, almost against his own will, he found himself walking up next to her and giving her a look.

“You have no idea what to do now, do you?”

Cera sighed. “No. We all dream about escaping, but it never actually happens.”

“Didn’t you people ever get shore leave?”

“Sure, but we all just went to bars and restaurants.”

“Do you even know how to book passage on a ship?”

“Yes?”

“Listen to me. The first thing you need to do is go withdraw all of the money from whatever Zeren-controlled bank you use.”

“What? Why?”

“The first thing they’re going to do when they realize that nobody knows what happened to you is either lock you out of that account or start monitoring it. After you do that, you need to get yourself a new identity. That will let you open a new bank account and,” Kalan could see the young woman getting increasingly flustered, “you have no idea how to do any of that.”

Seeing the obvious frustration on Kalan’s face, Cera spoke up. “It’s fine. I’ll figure it out.”

“No, you’ll get robbed or killed. Probably both.”

Anger flashed across Cera’s face. “I’m not an idiot.”

Unperturbed, Kalan answered, “You don’t need to be an idiot to get killed in situations you don’t understand. It’s probably the easiest way to get killed. Go back to the ship. Give me an hour, and then I’ll help you get things sorted enough that you can go.”

She eyed him askance. “Where are you going?”

Kalan let out a mirthless little chuckle. “Believe it or not, I have to go deal with people I trust even less than I trust you.”

Cera wavered for a moment before she reluctantly headed back to the ship. Kalan wasn’t convinced she’d still be there when he got back, but that was her choice. He’d done what he could to assuage his overblown sense of responsibility. Plus, if she actually was on the level, he wanted to help her get clear of Zerens. More importantly, though, he wanted her to have an even chance of staying clear of them. That simply wasn’t going to happen if she was as inexperienced as she appeared to be. If she was playing him, he’d locked down all of the cutter’s functions. She wouldn’t have enough time to do any real damage before he got back. Pushing that problem out of his head for the moment, he strode through the ring to where the Ankala Rising was docked. He did allow himself a moment or two of dark humor. He’d told Kala to lock the ship down once they docked. He didn’t want any of his “guests” slipping away before he had a chance to talk to them. He didn’t think that Temera was going anywhere, but Tessan and Estra were another story.

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He expected that they would like to get away from Kalan as fast as they possibly could. Now that they’d served their purposes, he imagined that they expected him to kill them. After all, it’s likely what they would do in his situation. As he walked up the ramp to the hatch, it opened by itself, letting him continue in without breaking stride. He heard it slide shut and seal behind him. He felt a mountain of tension slide out of his body once he was back aboard his own ship. The cutter had a lot of small amenities he appreciated, but the Ankala rising was home. Kala immediately started talking to him.

“Welcome back, captain.”

“Thanks. What’s the situation?”

“Tense. Temera is all but climbing the walls in frustration. Tessan and Estra aren’t much better. Fresia is holed up with Petronan in engineering with a pile of blasters. They sealed the doors from the inside.”

That brought Kalan to a stop. “Why? Did something happen?”

“Nothing specific, but Tessan wandered down there earlier and asked some dubious questions. Petronan decided he wasn’t taking any chances.”

“Remind me to give him a raise.”

“Yes, captain.”

“Where’s Temera?” he asked.

“She’s on the bridge. Pacing.”

“Then, I guess I’ll start with her.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Kalan admitted.

“It’s not like you to put decisions off until the last minute.”

“I know. The problem is that we still need her. If I do what I want to do, she’ll be too dead to fill that role.”

“I see your quandary.”

Kalan made his way up to the bridge where Temera was, indeed, pacing. She saw him standing in the hatch and started to say something, only to stop when she got a good look at his face.

“I can explain,” she said weakly.

“What would the point be?” asked Kalan.

Temera’s eyes were fixed on his hand, which was wrapped around the grip of a blaster.

“That isn’t necessary,” she said, trying to use a placating tone.

“I’m starting to think it is. Force didn’t work. Isolating you didn’t work. Reasoning with you didn’t work. Cooperating with you didn’t work. What’s left?”

“I needed to know who I was dealing with,” she said.

Kalan pulled the blaster out of the holster and started advancing on Temera. “You know who you’re dealing with. Or, you should have. I don’t know what secrets you thought you were going to find, but my patience with you has run out.”

Temera started backing away, but they both knew she was going to run out of room very quickly. They also both knew that nothing short of a miracle could save her in personal combat with him under these conditions.

“You need me!” she shouted.

“Not badly enough to put up with your behavior all the way to Ikaren space. Somehow, I think they’ll negotiate with me anyway, whether you’re there or not. World-ending threats have a way of cutting through bureaucracy.”

The cold truth in those words seemed to break whatever bravado Temera had been running on. Or maybe it was just the icy certainty that Kalan could and would kill her and then move on with his day. He didn’t know and, in the end, he supposed it didn’t make that much difference.

“Please,” she said. “I don’t want to die.”

Kalan paused, then shook his head. “I think you do.”

“What?” asked a stunned and terrified Temera.

“I think you must. I made it perfectly clear that I’d help you, and you tried to interfere with my ship’s systems anyway. You knew my tolerance was limited. So, I think that you do, in fact, want to die.”

“I, I, I,” she stuttered.

“Be silent,” he ordered. “I am not a man prone to giving people second chances. You’ve already burned through your third, fourth, and fifth chances. From this second forward, your life expectancy is zero. If you act out in any way, or if I even suspect that you might be about to act out, you die. No talking. No explanations. Dead. Now, if you actually care about saving your queen and her world, I suggest you return to your room and stay there, quietly, until we arrive. What’s it going to be?”

The spy just stared at Kalan for a long moment, before she seemed to pull the shredded remains of her confidence and dignity around her.

“I’ll be in my room,” she said, and walked off the bridge with her head bowed.

Kala appeared in hologram form next to the still-fuming captain. “You know, I thought you were going to do it.”

Kalan slid the blaster back into its holster. “So did I.”

“Why didn’t you? Is she really that important to communicating with the Ikaren government? You said it yourself, world-ending threats cut through bureaucracy.”

“She’ll smooth the way. At least, I hope she will.”

“Is that why you didn’t kill her?”

“No.”

“Do you even know why you didn’t kill her?”

Kalan thought it over before he finally answered. “No.”

“That seems like something you should know,” observed the AI.

“Yeah, it does seem that way. Where are Tessan and Estra? I can’t get rid of Temera, yet, but I want to be rid of that untrustworthy company as soon as possible.”

“They’re in the room they were assigned.”

Kalan nodded and, clamping down on his anger and frustrations, made his way to their room. He walked in without announcing himself, which startled both the big man and his wife. They wore identical looks of deep suspicion. Kalan just looked at the two of them before he shook his head a little.

“Get out,” he ordered. “Now.”

“That’s it?” asked Tessan.

“Do you want the other option?” said Kalan through clenched teeth.

“Kalan-,” Estra started to say before he cut her off with a look.

“Whatever you’re about to say, Estra, I don’t care. I’ve got bigger problems to deal with than you two. And, frankly, I imagine that you two have bigger problems than me to deal with. So,” he said, gesturing at the hatch, “just go.”

Estra glanced at her husband and then back to Kalan. “Thank you.”

The two ex-spies quietly left to, no doubt, activate whatever contingency plan they had in place for when they were exposed. Kalan just leaned against the wall for a moment, feeling terribly tired. Then, after giving himself those few seconds of self-indulgence, he went and told Petronan and Fresia that they could stand down. When the doors to engineering opened, a slight young woman slammed into him and wrapped her arms around him. Kalan looked at Petronan, but the engineer just shrugged in a way that said, that looks like a you problem. Sighing a little, Kalan awkwardly patted Fresia’s back. When Fresia finally got tired of hugging her very uncomfortable captain, she looked up at him with big eyes.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“You two, go get some food and sleep. I have to go deal with a troublesome task.”