Katie watched Zakota tuck his shark teeth, or whatever they were, back under his fatigue jacket. She itched to do something useful, and had barely been able to keep from jumping about in excitement at the idea of flying one of the shuttles. Since stepping onto the bridge, she’d done nothing but twiddle her fingers while Zakota piloted, Orion monitored scanners, and Arkyn fired weapons.

Oh, wait—she’d gotten to wave her hand over a console to answer a call. She had such a crucial role to play on the bridge.

If she got to pilot one of the shuttles, that would be amazing.

If it got her killed, that would be less amazing, but she’d always wanted to die doing something incredible rather than croaking of some lame disease in a hospital bed.

“Do we have footage of Hierax’s weapon disintegrating the warship?” Zakota asked, turning toward Orion.

“Let me check.”

“The Falcon records everything for its logs, but who knows what’s standard for the Zi’i?” Zakota piloted through the asteroid field as he spoke, trying to keep them behind cover as long as possible before heading out into the system, toward the cube and the battle raging near Dethocoles.

“I think I’ve found some kind of recordings,” Orion said. “Could be of today’s events. Could be Zi’i porn.”

“I’m going to let you do the watching and checking on that,” Zakota said.

A few minutes passed as Zakota continued through the field and Orion hunted for footage. Arkyn's fingers hovered over the weapons controls.

“Are we going to use the other torpedo?” Katie asked. Maybe she should keep her mouth shut, since she wasn’t contributing anything, but she wanted to contribute. Should she go down and get the shuttles ready to fly?

“I’d rather not,” Zakota said. “Not yet. Better to save it for the cube or a warship that might stand between us and the cube.”

“Found it,” Orion said. “How much do you want of it?”

“Just snip out the chunk that shows our weapon flying away and destroying the warship. Then put the file into a transmission and send it to the Zi’i warship, the one svenkaring us. Let them know that we’ll be doing it to them if they don’t back off.”

“The Zi’i aren’t known for falling for bluffs,” Arkyn said.

“Then it’s a good thing it won’t be a bluff.”

“Ah.”

“I’m taking us out of the asteroids,” Zakota said.

Orion jogged to the communications station. “Sending your transmission.”

“Thanks.”

Orion paused before touching the console. “There it is. It’s a good thing Coric labeled everything.”

Katie thought Zakota looked tense as he guided the warship around the last few asteroids. She probably should be too. So far, none of this seemed real. It hadn’t sunken in that she could die out here. She was in a star system halfway across the galaxy from home, fighting a war that nobody on her planet knew was going on. Nobody back home had any idea that humanity had fought numerous wars out here over the centuries these people had been in space. Nobody knew it was blind luck that Earth hadn’t been targeted earlier by the Zi’i or some other hostile aliens.

“They received the transmission,” Orion said. “They haven’t barked or yipped back at me yet.”

“Let’s hope it’s because they’re busy looking at the video and being horrified.” Zakota shifted his fingers deeper into the navigation gel. “We’ve cleared the asteroids, and I’m taking us to full speed. Arkyn—”

Arkyn fired, and energy beams streaked out behind them. The warship was flying through the edge of the field to try and cut them off. Katie thought Arkyn was targeting it as it sped between two asteroids, but his shots hit one of the hulking rocks, clipping it on the far side. It had the effect of one billiards ball striking a stationary one, sending it careening off at top speed. The asteroid tumbled into the warship’s path.

Since the Zi’i vessel had shields up, the asteroid didn’t do any damage, but maybe it alarmed the helm officer when it bounced off the nose.

“What are you doing, Arkyn?” Zakota asked.

“Practicing my marksmanship. And vexing the enemy.” Arkyn offered a tight smile, the first Katie had seen from him.

“As I was saying,” Zakota said, “fire at will if they stick with us, but hold back on the torpedo.”

“Understood.”

Zakota lowered his voice and nodded for Katie to join him. “You’ve convinced me. You’ll fly one of the shuttles. I’ll pilot the other. You’ll stick right behind me, doing as I do, and avoiding getting shot.”

Normally, she would object to being ordered around—she wasn’t in the military anymore and shouldn’t have to put up with that—but not this time, not when he was giving her what she wanted.

“Are you also going to avoid getting shot?” Katie asked.

“I’ll do my best. Especially since I’m not sure how stable Hierax’s weapons are.”

Katie grimaced. She hadn’t thought of that, of flying into battle with a warhead buckled into the back seat. No, it wouldn’t even be buckled in, since the Zi’i didn’t have seats. Or straps that she had noticed. She envisioned a rocket rolling around on the deck behind her as she flew.

“I have some updates,” Orion said. “On the positive front, the warship that was chasing us is heading back toward the gate.”

“Our not-a-bluff worked?” Zakota asked, sounding surprised.

“That, or they were called back to the barricade. A few civilian ships are flying toward the gate now. Maybe they’re trying to take advantage of only one Zi’i ship standing guard. I suppose it’s not a good sign that people are desperate to flee the system.”

“What else?” Zakota asked. “You implied multiple updates.”

“Yes, I’m looking at the long-range scanners, and more Zi’i ships are leaving the battlefront, the area around Dethocoles where a lot of the fighting has been going on, and they’re heading toward the cube.”

“Any chance we’ll get there first?”

“No.”

Zakota looked at Katie again. “Go get the shuttles ready, please. I’m going to wait until the last minute to turn the helm here over to Arkyn.”

“I’ll fire them up, and I’ll turn the deck warmers on for you.”

“Considerate. You take the one that wasn’t damaged on the station.”

Katie frowned at him. “Even though I’d prefer to pilot a gem of a shuttle, if you’ll be leading, you need the more reliable one.”

“Hierax got a chance to fix it somewhat. It should be fine.” He smiled at her, though it was a quick smile. His gaze returned to the sensor display and the ships they would have to fly past to reach the cube. Enemy ships.

“If it was fine, you wouldn’t be making a point of giving me the other one.”

“I’m going to take Renshu, Menekrates, and Hammer on my team. You take Orion, Mikolos, and Bystrom. They’re good men and won’t give you too much crap.”

“Will your men give you crap?”

“Menekrates and Hammer, most definitely.” There was that quick distracted smile again. “They always have piloting advice for me, even though they can barely back a flo-ped out of the cargo bay without knocking over crates. And people.”

“Do I get to be in charge of the mission?” Katie asked.

“No. Bystrom is the ranking officer on your team. Orion is like you, a civilian… specialist.”

“Such a flattering term. What does he specialize in?”

“Bounty hunting.”

“That’s right,” Orion said from the sensor station as he patted a foot-long knife sheathed on his belt. “If any of those Zi’i look like shifty criminals, I’ll stop to tie them up so I can turn them in later.”

“Bystrom is a good fighter,” Zakota told her, ignoring Orion, “and Mikolos is a sniper. That might come in handy if there are any firefights in long corridors. He’s good at hand-to-hand too. We all are. After we get into the cube and find a place to land, let the team go in, take out any Zi’i in the way, and set the explosives. They’ll have combat armor, so they can go out into environments without gravity or air. You can’t obviously, which I’m hoping means you’ll be motivated to stay in the shuttle while they’re gone. With the door locked.”

“Fine by me. As long as I get to fly, I don’t have to be a hero.” Katie hadn’t truly imagined herself leaping into combat with giant furred and fanged aliens that made grizzly bears look like pansies.

“Good. Listen to Bystrom. He’ll keep you alive. That goes for you, too, Orion,” Zakota added over his shoulder. “Sagitta would tie my balls into a knot if I let you die.”

“It’s really our mother you have to worry about since we’re in her system.” Orion waved in the direction of Dethocoles.

“Because she ties people’s balls into knots?”

“No, but she’s been known to beat manners into mouthy young men with her trekking poles.”

“I’m not mouthy,” Zakota said.

“Please, you, Ku, and Hierax should enter a competition together.”

“A mouthiness competition?”

“It’s a big galaxy,” Orion said. “Such things must exist somewhere.”

“What does the winner get?”

“A punch in the nose, I hope.”

“Appealing. Sign me up promptly.”

“A warship is veering toward us,” Arkyn reported. “Some fleet ships are flying this way too. Let’s hope their plan is to clear the path for us.”

“Given that we look like the enemy, their plan may be to help the Zi’i mow us down.”

Katie slapped Zakota on the chest. “Don’t be pessimistic. Your troops need optimism.”

“One of my troops just threatened me with a punch in the nose.”

“Actually, I think he threatened you with his mother.”

“Yeah, yeah. Time for you all to get to the shuttles. Orion, brief Renshu and Bystrom about our infiltration. They’ve missed out on a lot by playing dice down in the airlock room.”

“I wish I’d missed more,” Orion said, heading for the doors.

“That’ll teach you to take naps on the bridge.”

Katie turned to follow Orion, but paused, taking one more look at Zakota’s tense face and wishing they’d had a few more private moments together before the others had shown up. Since he wasn’t actively tapping any buttons or squishing any gel, she reached up, catching the sides of his face with both hands. She stood on tiptoe to kiss him soundly on the mouth.

At first, he merely stood there, surprised. Then he hugged her and kissed her back.

She wished there was time for more, but they were heading into trouble, and she didn’t object when he lowered his arms and drew back.

He did give her a longer and more sincere smile before saying, “I’ll see you shortly,” and turning back to the helm.

“Don’t get us blown up before I get to launch my shuttle,” Katie said, patting him on the waist before releasing him completely. “You know I’ll be pissed if I don’t get to fly.”

“I do want to keep you happy.”

Katie headed toward the lift, where Orion was holding the doors open.

Arkyn looked over at her as she passed.

“I don’t get a kiss? I’m the one who’ll be staying on this hulk all alone and flying it. With initiative.”

Katie smiled. It was the closest thing to humor she’d seen from him.

“Do a good job, and I’ll set you up with Bethany when we get back,” she said as she stepped into the lift.

“Is she the one who greets men with a kiss and a crotch squeeze?”

“I see you’ve already met.”

“I think she’s met everyone.”

“I know a nice professor too,” Katie offered as the doors closed.

Orion looked at her curiously.

“Yulia is quiet, but she’s quite interested in learning more about all of you,” Katie explained. “Her specialty is anthropology.”

“So naturally she’ll want to study Arkyn?”

“I’m sure she’d be curious to know about his people and where they originally came from on Earth.”

Orion stared at the doors as the lift descended. “I hope Juanita is all right,” he said quietly. “She should have stayed on the station.”

“You don’t think she’d like to fight to help protect your trekking-pole-wielding mother from certain annihilation?”

“She’s a writer, not a warrior.”

“I don’t know—she wields a branch with authority. And didn’t she shoot more slavers and wild beasts on that marsh planet than you did?”

Orion frowned over at her. “Is there anyone who doesn’t know about and remember that?”

“I think the ship’s AI wrote a post about it on his blog. I understand he has thousands of followers.”

“Great.”

The doors slid open, and nerves danced in Katie’s belly for the first time.

“Let’s do this,” she whispered.