They talked for a long time. I couldn’t hear them from where Lieutenant Garner and I were standing. But I could see them. Hugo had lowered his rifle a while ago, and the two suits that had boarded had stowed theirs completely. They appeared to be non-aggressive, but it might have been a ploy to gain our trust.

I was pleased to see Hugo hadn’t holstered his weapon yet.

Finally, they came to some agreement, and Hugo signalled for the boarders to walk ahead of him. I checked over their LSUs; they were Anderson Universal, not private security. I wondered what they thought when they looked at our armoured units.

Lieutenant Armstrong fell back to the opposite side of the corridor to us. He didn’t say anything, but he kept his weapon hot. Garner, I noticed, was doing the same thing. Neither of them trusted our new friends completely.

My eyes searched out Hugo’s. Behind the faceplate, it was harder to see what he was thinking, but the fact that he was looking directly at me made me feel a little better. I turned my attention to the two LSUs that had boarded us. I couldn’t see any identifying marks, so I couldn’t tell which ships they were from. Probably Corvus, although Pavo had been out there too.

I shook my head. If Pavo had caught up to Corvus, then we had three sector fleets out there somewhere. I dreaded to think what my father could do with that.

The boarders noticed me with a flick of their eyes behind their faceplates, but they dismissed me in the next moment and kept on walking past. I was rather glad of that. But I was intrigued to note the faces were of a man and a woman. Ethnicity-wise, one could assume the guy was Asian and the girl Polynesian. But I didn’t want to restrict my assessment along those lines. They could be from anywhere and not necessarily the sectors that dominated those gene lines.

Hugo caught up to me and stopped, letting the others escort the boarders toward the central hub.

“Are you all right?” he asked, trying to keep his voice low, but that was hard to do with helmet speakers.

I nodded my head. “Who are they?”

“They say they’re from Pavo and Corvus,” he offered. I liked that he wasn’t just taking their word for it. “Lieutenant Commander Saitō is ex AU Tech Development. He might be able to help us.”

He looked after the two LSU clad forms and then sighed.

“Come on,” he said and started walking.

I fell into step beside him. Aquila had calmed somewhat. The gel walls were all emergency red, but the buckling had eased and it no longer felt like we were in a washing machine. Whatever had hit us that last time had done a number, but the repair bots had obviously got to work and stabilised matters.

The red gel was a worry. Aquila hadn’t said a word of warning to us. That was out of character for the Rogue AI. I gnawed on my bottom lip as we approached the lifts.

“How do you want to do this, sir?” Wilson asked.

“Any sign of the others?” Hugo said.

“Not on this floor,” Wilson offered. “But the lifts are functional again, so we can assume they got out.”

“Up on Deck A or back on Deck C, though?”

Wilson shook his head inside his helmet.

“All right, our best bet is the computer core,” Hugo announced.

“You have access to the core?” the male boarder said just as the female one asked, “Why not the bridge?”

Hugo answered the woman first. I thought perhaps she held the higher rank.

“The bridge is leaseholder territory, and we haven’t been able to get to him yet.”

“And the core would work better for what I need to do,” the male boarder said.

I wanted to ask what the guy thought he could do, but everyone seemed uptight and on edge, and the red emergency lighting wasn’t helping to ease the tension. I decided staying quiet and unobtrusive was the best plan for now.

“All right,” Hugo said. “Johnson, Wilson, you’re with us. Garner and Armstrong take the second lift and hope Aquila is actually distracted this time.”

“Aye-aye, sir,” the two lieutenants said and stepped over to the second lift.

The doors opened, and everyone started piling in. I presumed Hugo wanted me with him and when he placed a gloved hand on my shoulder and pulled me in close to his side out of harm’s way, I relaxed a little. I really did feel like I was a kid playing in the grownups area.

And when the female boarder looked down at me with an arched brow and wide eyes, I felt even more like an imposter.

“Who’s this?” she asked as Hugo swiped the wrist comm over the lift panel.

“Hi,” I said. “I’m Adi.”

“Ana,” she replied, but I think it was automatic. She looked back up at Hugo expectantly.

“Adi’s with me,” he replied smoothly.

Ana got a look on her face that seemed to say, “Ah.”

The lift disgorged us onto Deck C, and thankfully Garner and Armstrong stepped out beside us. Clearly, Aquila was distracted. And better yet, Mandy and Commander López were waiting for us.

“Sir,” López said, eyeing the boarders warily. “Thought we’d lost you.”

Such simple words that held a hell of a lot of pain.

Hugo paused. “Did you make it to Deck A?”

“Yes, sir.” This time López looked at me warily. “Torpedo hit it hard, Captain.”

The boarders shifted uneasily, which would have been amusing to watch in their LSUs. But something about López’s words held weight, and I felt like I was rooted to the floor, unable to move.

“Where on Deck A?” I asked.

Hugo shifted closer as if he could protect me. But not from this. I already knew.

“Sorry, Adi,” López said. “The leaseholder quarters have gone.”

I was aware of the boarders watching us keenly and of Hugo saying something. I thought perhaps Mandy did too, but I couldn’t hear a word being spoken. It was likely my father was on the bridge and not in our quarters at all. But our quarters had been my home, and I could have been there. I could have been killed by that torpedo.

But I wasn’t. I was still standing. Still breathing. I sucked in a breath of air.

“Can you confirm his death?” I asked, sound rushing back in as soon as I’d opened my mouth to speak.

I thought I might have cut a few people off, they all looked a little startled. Well, our guys did, the boarders looked puzzled.

“No, Adi,” Mandy said. “There’s a containment field across the mayoral hub. The leaseholder section of the deck has disappeared completely.”

“He’ll be on the bridge,” I said, straightening my back and starting to walk.

No one moved, and then Hugo was there beside me. He reached out his oversized, gloved hand and clasped mine carefully.

“I’m right here with you, Adi,” he said as quietly as the speakers would allow.

“I know,” I whispered back and put one foot in front of the other and kept walking.

That’s how I’d do it, I realised. That’s how I’d face the end. Because the end was coming for my father. There was no doubt about that. He’d harmed too many people. He’d killed for his own gain. He’d placed our entire fleet in jeopardy, and God alone knows what he had planned for the other sectors.

No. The end was coming. But I would keep putting one foot in front of the other until it was behind me. I could do that.

I could do that.