Like I was going to let that happen.

“If you’re going, I’m coming with you.”

Eris and Conner had left, taking their terrifying AI with them, to talk over their new family status. Part of me envied him, but Nadira was right. Not now. Not until we’d settled once and for all which whoever-the-hell had decided to ‘terminate’ us.

“Eris can take me. We’ll pass easier than any of you.”

“You’re going to need to give Connor a little more time to come to terms with things.” I held my hands up. “She’ll get her way, I’m sure, but maybe not this trip. Besides, we have the Legacy now.”

“What about the others? You can’t just abandon them here.”

“If we leave tomorrow, we’ll be back in plenty of time before the Star heats up. Even if we’re detained, the others can go on the Seeker.”

She gnawed her lower lip, a sure sign that something worried her.

“If we can’t get in, no harm. We might lose information, but no one dies. That’s a nice change of pace, right?”

Her shoulders unbunched. Not much, but a start. I’d find out what the problem was on the trip. We’d have two days of travel time.

“Besides, it’ll be nice to find out what it’s like to spend some alone time with no one trying to kill us, right?”

Nadira laughed and I knew I had her.

“Now, let’s talk about how I can ‘pass’ better.”

* * *

“I don’t like this,” Nadira said.

“Well, not sure I do, either.”

She ran a fingertip outside the edge of my ear, and I gripped the table edge to keep from grabbing her. Normally, something I enjoyed doing. Today, she held a primed laser scalpel.

I’d never really thought about the shape of my ears. Seemed stupid.

But if we were planning to visit a Hub station, it’d be wise to blend as much as possible. I couldn’t do anything about my size, but my ears were a dead giveaway. We wanted in and out, no questions.

“It’s not going to be pretty. I’m not a body modification specialist. Yet,” she added in an undertone.

Nixie piped up on the earcomms. “You're lucky, actually. Humans like looking like you, or like lots of things they’re not. You have a head start.”

The tablet nearest us flipped on, and I caught Nadira rolling her eyes.

“Nixie, is this part of eavesdropping?”

“I don’t think so, do you?”

Nadira put down the scalpel to rub her temples. “I’ll start a list of examples for you to study later. For now, show us what you mean.”

“Connor asked me to monitor all channels for references to wolves. There’s nothing really interesting, not to him, but look at what people have been doing. If I was stuck in a body, I think I’d do something like that.”

A stream of images flowed across the screen. People with scales for skin, or tiny horns budding through their hair, or luminescent tattoos. Or looking remarkably like Wolves.

“I showed them to Connor before. He said they were just playing. So couldn’t you be a non-enhanced human playing, too?”

“Because I’m not.”

“But I can make the record that says you are. I thought I could do it while changing the registration for the Legacy. Quinn thought of that. He’s got good ideas. You should keep him.”

“Planning to. Thanks for the recommendation, though.” I caught Nadira’s eye, tilted my head in silent question.

“How far back can you make his identification record look solid?” she asked.

“It wouldn’t be official official, but I can put enough breadcrumbs around that’ll show he has a history that goes back a decade or two.”

I nodded. “Let’s do it.” A thought struck me. “Nixie, this extension of yours that we’re taking with us. Does it talk, or have the ability to listen in?”

“No, I’m sorry, it won’t be nearly as helpful as I am.”

Nadira muffled her laugh with her hands, and I had to look away before I burst out. “We’ll manage to survive. Somehow.”

* * *

By the time we’d spoken with the non-mechanical members of the Pack, Nixie had finished her records adjustments.

Which left one more thing to decide.

“Should we take Norman and his crew along? Turn them over?”

Nadira stopped packing. She and Eris had found clothes from the cargo bay that wouldn’t attract attention for being too out of date or fall apart as she walked.

Which distracted me again, imagining her moving through our quarters, one garment dropping from her at a time.

“Can’t we just leave them to burn?”

Wait, what? Right, slavers, not her clothes.

“No. And you’d never let it happen, anyway.”

“I might,” she shoved another folded shirt into a bag. “Little lady, my ass.”

I ran a hand over said tempting ass, dug my fingers into her curves as I pulled her to me. “Pack a few things you won’t mind having shredded.” Nipping down the curve of her neck, she moaned softly, making my cock rock hard between one delicate breath and the next.

She pushed away, face flushed and eyes dark. “Not unless you’re willing to have a certain someone listen in.”

We were going to have to have a talk with Eris when we got back. Only the knowledge that we’d be away, in relative privacy in a few short hours, kept my frustrated growl from erupting.

“Back to your question. Once we’ve returned to the Star, we can drop them off. Taking them with us to Sagav would just add a complication.”

There was that flicker of worry again. “Babe, are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes.” She sighed, leaning back against the desk, eyes closed. "It's just, I don't know how to explain. In my head, I've always divided my life into before I left the capital, and after. Going back to a Hub-controlled station somehow blurs things between those two worlds. It makes me feel uncomfortable, like anything could happen.”

I lifted her and coaxed her legs to wrap around my waist so I could press her against me while I whispered in her ear.

“That's easily taking care of.” I nipped at the soft skin of her neck. “I'll just make very certain to keep reminding you of which part of your life you’re living in now.”

* * *

Once I'd been able to leave on missions with no more than ten minutes’ warning. Get up, grab my gear, roll out, get done.

Now, though the Pack was decimated, somehow that just meant there were more things that could go wrong.

Hakon had questions about where in the Star's flight path they should abandon ship if we hadn't returned by then.

Aeden wanted to know the rendezvous point.

Xander still wasn't speaking to anyone, just had taken the case of fancy liquor from the cargo bay down to where Loree’s tank was.

We'd easily be able to get her onto Eris and Connor's Seeker when the time came, but no one wanted to deal with his surly ass.

Eris and Nixie squabbled about the best way to implement the small extension that would stealthily stream data back to Nixie. Would. Should.

Everyone needed something. And I just needed to get the hell gone.

* * *

“I thought we’d never get out of there.” Nadira sprawled in the navigator's chair while I laid in our course. The Legacy might be ugly, but it was fairly new and could make the trip to Sagav in a single long jump.

I settled back in my chair, uncomfortably aware that, in the recent past, the ship had been filled with victims of Norman and his crew’s greed. I didn’t like that we were at an advantage because of those women’s suffering, but I didn’t know what to do about it.

Nadira’s voice startled me from my musing. “Do you realize, we’ve skipped right over all the getting-to-know-you type of conversations that couples usually start out with?”

“Oddly, I hadn’t thought about it.”

“Neither had I, until just now. I guess that’s what happens when all of our conversations have been more of the how-do-we-not-die-today variety.” Nadira drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair. “What’s your favorite meal?”

“Right now, anything that isn’t decades-expired mealpacks.”

“No, really!”

“Fine, wait a minute.” I had to think. Remembering anything before the attack on the Daedalus was like looking in a fogged mirror. Maybe that’s what Nadira had meant about thinking about her past before she moved to Orem.

“Zeen doy.” Just thinking about the crispy, chewy balls of rice flour, coated with seeds and filled with bean paste, made me crave them.

“That’s not a meal,” Nadira insisted.

“What can I say?” I shrugged. “I’ve got a sweet tooth. Your turn.”

“My grandmother’s noodles and cheese.” Her voice was soft, tangled with memory. “It wasn’t until I tried making it on my own that she told me her cheese sauce was about half blended vegetables. Apparently, when I was little I wouldn’t eat them. Then I thought that was the way the dish was supposed to taste, and everyone else made it wrong.”

“Sounds like a smart lady. Did she teach you how to make it her way?”

“Yup, and she was. I have ambitions to grow up just like her. Your turn.”

“For what?”

“To pick a question.”

Her tone made it clear that should have been obvious. And she was right. But my mind stayed resolutely blank. Something else Doc neglected in our education, casual conversation with the woman who had rapidly claimed my heart.

“Um. What’s the favorite place that you’ve traveled to?”

Question by question, the trip flew by in small discoveries.

Red lights flashed and Nadira jumped.

“What’s that?”

“We’re here.” I dropped us into regular space and a long column, topped by a wheel with silver spokes, slowly rotated in front of us. “Sagav Station.”