Establishing where exactly Aquila could see and not see took some time. We knew he could see in the central hubs. But not all of the passenger quarters. We also knew he’d take note of anyone missing work. So, communicating with our rebel army and organising them into something that resembled less pitchfork wielding villagers, and more elite level forces was asking a lot.

And then there were the weapons. Steak knives were the least of our worries. We had industrial kitchen utensils, and broom handles with forks attached. Several people wielded walking sticks. They were armed of a fashion, but they needed some basic training and the only place to do that was the observation deck. In the middle of the night.

Aquila’s speakers worked in there, but we’d established he couldn’t hear anything, nor could he see. That’s why Price had his mercs dressed in civvies and dotted throughout the daytime population. Although curfew was over, it was expected that everyone would be in their quarters by midnight and they would not venture out until six the next morning. There were still mercs about, but these were dressed in their armour and easy to spot. They were also light on numbers. Even mercs needed downtime, and it made sense to stand them down when the passengers were asleep.

So, we crept through tunnels and congregated in the observation deck, and had lookouts keeping an eye on the armoured guards. And we did it all in small numbers.

I would have liked to have been able to use the computer room, but although Aquila still couldn’t see in there, he could hear. And the snap of a walking stick against a broom handle makes a distinctive noise. As it was, we were pushing ourselves with the skeleton crew of mercs each night.

Thankfully, they had several decks to walk and gave us a twenty-minute window every hour.

So, slow going was an understatement. But we’d needed the time to design a plan of attack.

What we came up with was severely lacking.

“Once we start,” I said quietly to those in the pit with me. We’d discovered we could talk quietly and Aquila wouldn’t hear us in here. You had to raise your voice to get his attention. Clearly, his repair of the gel walls hadn’t been perfect, and I was thankful for that.

Mandy glanced at Adi, garnering my attention. I’d noticed that Adi turned away every time Mandy tried to talk to her. My girl was smarting, but she was staying strong. Giving the spook the cold shoulder. Making her work for it. But that didn’t mean Adi wasn’t preparing herself for this war.

She had the fillet knife on one hip and a steak knife on the other. She was practically a warrior princess now. I tried not to smirk at that imagery, but…well, I’d been a fan of old reruns of Xena back on Earth.

“Once we start,” I repeated, having lost my train of thought. Not exactly stellar leadership skills, “they’ll be on to us. So, timing is everything. We can’t do this at night; too few mercs and we need to hit them hard. So, we’ll have to act as one and do that in and around normal civilians.”

“It’ll be confusing,” López added. “But we might be able to use that confusion against them.”

“It doesn’t matter if we don’t get them all,” I added. “But we do need to get a lot of them to make this worth our while.”

The officers all nodded their heads.

“Get some sleep,” I said. “Nova replaces Flux on watch in two hours. Pass on the orders at changeover. You each know which group of civilians you’re in charge of. Let’s make this work.”

“Yes, sir,” López said. The others joined in with their agreement.

Everyone scattered to their respective corners, some grabbing something to eat from the synthesiser. That left Adi, Mandy and me at the pit. With a sleeping Ratbag.

I watched Adi’s fingers idly scratch the dog’s ears. She was almost always in touch with that dog when in here. It worried me slightly. If something happened to Ratbag, Adi would suffer. I pushed Ratbag up near the top of my Keep Alive list and turned my attention to Mandy.

She was staring at one of Aquila’s towers.

“Why can’t we simply hack at these things?” she asked. “Chop them up into little pieces and be done with the bastard.”

“We don’t know which ones might affect essential systems,” I said. “Life support. Air filtration. Recycling. We can’t take the risk without an engineer to guide us.”

“You’d think there’d be someone with enough know-how in the pay-for-passages,” she muttered, well aware that we couldn’t get to our crew without lethal reprisal.

I hoped that with the merc numbers culled tomorrow we’d be able to address that problem. But we needed to take baby steps first. Mercs. Then leaseholder and mayor. Then Aquila. In that order.

It was a damn weak plan, and as a tactical officer, it gnawed at me.

“Well,” Mandy said, looking at Adi again and finding the usual; no eye contact, head turned away, cold shoulder. “I’m going to get some sleep. I’ll…ah…head over there.” She nodded down one of the tower corridors.

I nodded back at her and said nothing. There was no way I was going to encourage her to stay around Adi.

That left Adi and me at the pit. I watched her for a while and then took a seat beside her. Big wide eyes stared at me.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” she softly replied.

“You ready for this?” I’d tried to get her to agree to stay in the core room. But we were all going and leaving her here alone with Crazy Aquila was not a good idea. I hadn’t tried hard in the end.

“Not really,” she said, offering me a small smile.

“Me neither,” I offered back, making her laugh.

It was a tiny laugh. A quasi-laugh. But I’d take it.

“Just stick close,” I said. “Keep your back to mine if we get cornered. We’ll cover each other.”

“OK,” she said. So simple. So trusting.

It hit me like a sledgehammer.

Adi trusted me.

For a moment I just stared into her eyes. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t move.

And then her eyes darted down to my lips.

It was the first time she’d done that since that moment in the emergency tube. We were rarely ever alone. Someone was always here in the pit with us or out in the tunnels. That one time when the ladder had disappeared, and we’d been separated from Johnson and Armstrong, and now this. Pre-battle, when everyone needed a moment to themselves and a decent sleep.

Twice we’d been absolutely alone with each other.

And twice she’d looked at me as if she wanted me to eat her. Kiss her. She wanted me to kiss her. But now I was thinking all manner of things.

I’d kept my distance. I’d tried to be a friend and nothing more. The captain who cared for his charges, including the civilian woman who was now included in his command group. Adi had long been a part of my team. One of my officers if only in theory.

So, I’d kept my distance. But if I were honest with myself, I’d kept my distance for more reasons than just that. I’d kept my distance because Adi was so sweet. So innocent. So removed from the grubby AU uniforms we had all worn. From the plasma pistols some of us had on our hips. From a rank that demanded our sacrifice.

Adi was gentle and kind and wore her heart on her sleeve. And she’d been through hell and survived it. God knows how she’d survived it. But Adi had, and she hadn’t lost that sweetness. That innocence.

Far be it for me to steal it now.

But the way she looked at me. The way I sometimes caught her glancing in my direction. The way she ate my lips up with those big, beautiful eyes. It could go to a man’s head. It was going to both of mine.

I swallowed. Fuck. I was nervous. I could feel a slight tremor in my fingers. I licked my lips. She let out a little sigh. Oh, God, stop me now. I couldn’t do this. Not to Adi.

Adi was every reason I had to keep fighting. To get us out of this mess. To save what was left of humanity. There were other valid reasons, but I realised right then, it was for Adi that I did this. Nothing else came even close to my urge, my compulsion, to save her.

Some women wear their strength on the outside for all to see. You can’t miss it. It’s a beautiful thing. And then there are some women who wear it quietly. Secretly. Internally. You might think them weak. You’d be wrong. So wrong.

Adi wore her strength privately. And my God, I was attracted to that.

“It’s all right,” she said softly. “I won’t break.”

I might, I thought.

“It’s just a kiss,” she added. She could see right through me. “I’ve kissed boys before, you know.”

I wanted to laugh. I wanted to scream. Boys. I was no boy. She had no idea what she was asking of me. Such sweet innocence.

The tension ratcheted up several degrees. Both of us poised on a precipice. At any moment one of my men could have walked back into the pit area. I hesitated. Adi waited me out.

One kiss, I thought. Just one for luck.

Ah, who was I kidding?