She’d bared her soul for us. I’d never forget her sacrifice. I’d never be able to thank her enough. No one would have reached Pavo as quickly as she had. No one. Ana Kereama was essential to this ship’s health. I wanted to give her a pay rise. Push her up the tiers on the berth scale. Change her rank to First Lieutenant.

For now, all I could do was place my hand on her shoulder as I walked past, and squeeze it lightly.

She offered me a small smile, but I could tell confessing her sins had taken it out of her. I couldn’t let her stand down, though; Pavo was still brooding; processing all that she’d said.

I walked around the circumference of the bridge, checking on each station, making sure we were completely back online. Torrence had called in, saying he’d rendezvoused with the security team, and was nearly at the Habitat Two central hub. Chan had the brig secured and would return to the bridge shortly.

Archibald was still a concern, though, despite my epiphany. And until we had Marama Kereama safely tucked away, he was also a potential threat to Ana’s wellbeing. I needed her functioning at 100%. Pavo needed her. We all did.

Which led me to Pavo himself. Ana had made him sound human. AIs don’t make mistakes. But Pavo was no longer a stock standard AI. He’d evolved. Just as we had expected him too; he’d received new input, assimilated it, and changed to accommodate it.

Just not in the way we’d predicted. Or in any way that we could control.

Ana would have us believe he was now the equivalent of a person. With all the rights of a human being.

He wasn’t. He could still take over this ship and doom us all to catastrophic failure. Childs had pinpointed where the solar flare had hit us, but it was taking longer to determine how that had affected Pavo’s systems. If it had at all. The alternative to that was unacceptable.

I now had a bridge crew with separate, opposing, assignments. Lieutenant Childs needed to pin down how Pavo was injured, if he was injured, and how we could rectify it. Reverse it. And Lieutenant Kereama had to help Pavo to believe that his evolution was perfectly normal and tolerable.

I scratched my head and ran a hand through my hair. None of this sat comfortably with me.

I glanced across the bridge and watched Marshal talking to Kereama. I’d caught part of their conversation as I’d passed. Marshal had been telling Ana how sorry she was. For Ana’s loss. For all that she’d suffered. For…Sam.

Sam had been more than Medic Kereama’s sergeant. That was strangely an unsatisfactory thought.

“Captain,” my wrist comm chimed with Torrence’s call.

“Go ahead, Commander.”

“Marama Kereama is not where Pavo said she was.”

I spun and met Ana’s worried look.

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Her wrist comm is here,” he said. “As well as a datapad.”

“Datapad?”

“It’s sending out a biosignature.”

Well, that was new.

“Pavo,” I said. “Can you confirm the datapad Commander Torrence has in his possession is Marama Kereama on our scans?”

“It is, Captain. It is an exact replica of Marama Kereama’s biosignature and the only one appearing in our systems.”

“And I gather you can’t locate her anywhere else?”

“No, Captain. Might I suggest the blank spot?”

“Same page, Pavo,” I agreed.

Archibald was getting above himself. This had to stop.

“Lieutenant Chan,” I said into my comms unit.

“Yes, sir?”

“Send a security detail to Damon Archibald’s section of the main deck. No one goes in or out, understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Pavo, cut off fleet-wide comms from that section of the ship.”

“Yes, Captain. Although I cannot control their earpieces.”

“They only have ship-wide communication abilities, correct?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“That’ll have to do for now.”

I met Ana’s eyes.

“Lieutenant, a word in my ready room, please.”

I crossed the deck and stepped into my private chamber without a backward glance. Ana walked in behind me, and the door slid shut at her back.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“Worried,” she said. “Panicked, actually.”

“You don’t look panicked,” I pointed out. She looked angry, in fact.

“I wear my hysteria on the inside.”

“As good a place as any,” I said matching her smile.

She had a nice smile.

“The bottom line is this, Ana,” I said, refocusing. “We need you. Pavo needs you. Can you hold it together and trust me to get Mara out?”

She looked into my eyes in that way she had; almost a challenge. Daring me to judge. Or judging me on a dare. I couldn’t tell. But she was stronger than she had any right to be, considering her history. And damn if that didn’t make me feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside.

“What’s your plan, sir?” she asked.

For a moment, I inappropriately thought of her calling me that in an entirely different setting. It was so good; it took me a few seconds to answer her back.

“Ah. Not much of one, I’ll admit. Contain them in their section of the ship. Open up a dialogue. Negotiate.”

“He’s a terrorist.”

I let out a laugh. Who would have thought? “The leaseholder is a terrorist; I’m not sure we have procedures in place for that.”

“Is he still the leaseholder, sir? I thought you’d found a loophole.”

I scratched my jaw.

“A very tenuous loophole and if I do use it, I need everything to be above board from here on out. We have to have acted in the best interest of the ship and its passengers. If Archibald can challenge that, then we’re screwed.”

She smiled at my choice of words, clearly not expecting that.

Then the smile faded.

“Aunt Mara’s sick,” she said.

Oh. “How bad?”

She shook her head and bit her bottom lip, and then said, “She’s been hiding it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.” Not yours either, I wanted to say.

This woman carried so much weight on her shoulders. She was strong. But sooner or later, her legs would fail.

“Lieutenant,” I said. “Ana.”

She looked up at me with expectant eyes. Beautiful eyes, I realised. I could see so many different shades of brown in them. Such richness to the many hues. Her skin, I noted, was smooth and perfect. Her cheekbones, delicate but precisely where they needed to be. Her neck, long and supple. I wanted to touch right where her pulse fluttered at its base. My fingers itched to feel her warmth. Her heat.

“Captain?” she pressed.

I cleared my throat. Attempted to smile.

“I’ll get your aunt back,” I said. “I promise.”

Her smile turned indulging. “That’s not a promise you can keep, sir.”

Like hell, it wasn’t.

“Pavo?” I called, unable to look away from the woman before me who somehow managed to challenge me even when she didn’t mean to. “Has Archibald replied to my comms?”

“No, Captain.”

“Then it’s time I paid him a visit.”