I managed to take out three of them before they reacted. I would have got more if Jameson hadn’t given me away to Archibald. The psycho-douchecanoe might have let his men do all the killing, but he wasn’t one to go unarmed.

He drew a plasma gun and fired. Quickdraw. Slamming the bolt straight into my thigh.

The fact he hadn’t shot to kill like the mercs meant only that he wanted me alive to use against Aunt Mara. Or the captain. I wasn’t sure. He couldn’t be aware of what I meant to Jameson, but he had to know I meant something to Pavo.

Even my auntie could fight his willpower for only so long. She would have told him of our conversations, at the very least. He could have filled in the gaps afterwards.

I made a grunting sound as my thigh gave out beneath me, but I still managed to clip another merc before I slid behind the ops table and took cover.

The smell of plasma fire filled the bridge. Smoke wafted out of the tactical console. I’d taken that merc, the one sitting at the helm and the one next to him at navigation. I’d clipped the one standing nearest the captain.

When I peered out from behind the ops table, each of the remaining mercs - five including the injured one beside the captain - held a hostage. That left Lieutenant Taylor on the ground, still unconscious. But the numbers were now more even.

Our guys, though, were all cuffed, except the captain. And Archibald held his plasma gun muzzle under Jameson’s chin. He might as well have been chained to the bulkhead.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Archibald sang softly.

“Go fuck yourself,” I muttered.

“I can hear you, Ms Kereama.”

I shook my head. Antagonising the man wouldn’t get us anywhere. Jameson had proven that. Archibald held all the cards. I might have been armed and ready to fire, but every single Anderson Universal crew member on this bridge had a gun pressed to their head.

I’d already seen how free and easy Archibald was with taking lives.

I stood up, hands out, plasma gun hanging loosely from my fingers.

“Fucking hell, Ana,” Jameson snapped.

“Drop the gun, or I kill him,” Archibald said mildly.

I held Jameson’s eyes. I willed him to understand that I had to have at least tried.

Then I placed the gun on the floor.

“Kick it away,” Archibald said.

I did as he asked. Jameson looked fit to strangle me.

I shook my head. His life was worth just as much as Pavo’s.

“You Kereamas can’t seem to stay out of trouble,” Archibald offered.

“What have you done with my aunt?” I snarled.

“She’s safe. For now.”

“Locked up in your creepy interrogation room?” I pressed.

Archibald smirked. “It didn’t work so well for you, did it, Ana? I owe you for that, by the way.” He rubbed his nose, which didn’t look any worse for wear. I should have headbutted him harder. “But I’m not in the habit of making the same mistake twice.”

“What have you done with her?” I demanded.

“I have her under guard. The guards have strict orders to kill her should anyone attempt to breach the room’s walls. And my guards are very obedient.”

“Unlike you, Lieutenant,” Jameson snapped.

I blinked. He didn’t want Archibald to know I was second in command. I still wore only one pip. There was no way for Archibald to know I’d been promoted. That I held sway with the AU crew and, more importantly, the AI.

“I’m intrigued,” Archibald drawled. “What orders did you give her?”

“Like I’d tell you,” Jameson growled.

“He told me to run and hide, but I’m no coward,” I said.

“Disobedient and a big mouth,” Jameson barked.

“No, you’re not,” Archibald said, studying me. “You didn't run when your lover was shot in the Sinai, did you, Ana?”

My heart started to beat a little faster. I offered Archibald a glare, but he just smiled. A cunning, devious kind of smile. A smile that said he knew something. Or he had put it all together and liked what he’d come up with.

He pressed the plasma gun harder into Jameson’s chin. The captain didn’t make a sound and pressed his head down against the muzzle, making Archibald have to fight for every inch.

“What will you do, Lieutenant, if I shoot this man?” Archibald asked. “Will you risk the entire bridge crew to save his life?”

“Fuck you, Archibald,” I said.

“I think you would,” he replied, conversationally. “I think you’d rush over here, ignoring orders and disregarding protocols, and you’d risk everything, everyone, just to reach his side.”

I said nothing.

“You are a creature of habit, I’d wager. Keep making the same mistakes again and again and expect to get a different outcome.”

“And you, Damon?” I asked, trying to get the words out between clenched teeth. “Are you a creature of habit? Will you destroy everything you come in contact with so that you can climb a little higher? So that you can breathe a little easier in that rarified air you so desire?”

“I don’t see a problem with that,” he said, smiling.

“Go on,” I said. “Kill him.” I nodded toward the captain. “The moment the bullet enters his head, Pavo will wipe himself out of our lives.”

Jameson glared at me. Archibald just watched me with narrowed eyes.

“Who do you think the AI identifies with the most?” I asked. “I’d place my money on the captain of the ship if I were you. Followed closely by the second in command. Oh, but you already had the commander killed, didn’t you? Part of that destructive personality you’ve got going on. Didn’t think that one through, did you, Damon? And now you’re doing it all over again. Just like you did with your dad.”

Archibald took a step closer, dragging the captain with him.

“What did you say?” he demanded.

“Isn’t that what you told Aunt Mara? When you curled up in her lap and cried as a little boy? That you were responsible for your father’s death?”

Aunt Mara had never told me this, of course. She wouldn’t have broken Archibald’s trust back on Earth. But all bets were off when he chose his own goals over the saving of ten thousand lives. Aunt Mara had been disappointed in him, and according to Pavo, she had tried to think of some other way to reach her former charge. To get him to allow Jameson to halt our fleet and wait for the Sector One ships to arrive.

But in the end, she’d had no choice but to provide Pavo with as much ammunition as possible. Ten thousand lives were worth the breach of trust. It would have pained her. No doubt she’d agreed to meet with Stefan Archibald, hoping an opportunity to redeem herself would occur. But he’d organised her capture instead, and then Auntie would have had to face Archibald at his worst. Knowing that she had betrayed him and wanting to apologise, even as he did God knows what to her.

I knew my aunt. This would have hurt her more than Archibald ever could. But she’d had no choice. As Jameson had no choice, but to find a way to break the lease and stop the fleet for the remaining Sector One ships.

Ten thousand lives.

And not a single one of them meant a damn thing to Archibald.

“She wouldn’t…” Archibald said.

“Do you honestly think she cared about you?” I felt sick saying it. But I damn well did not show an ounce of that emotion on my face.

He studied me, and then he threw back his head and laughed.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, suddenly smiling as if everything was right in his world. “She did what she had to do. I can understand that. I can even understand your pitiful attempt to make the captain seem like the best chance of finding Pavo. And you almost had me. Both of you did. Brilliant acting. I was about to chuck him aside and shoot you instead. Wouldn’t that have been bad?”

My heart thundered at his words. The man didn’t think like a normal person. He didn’t value what a normal person would value. I’d fucked up. I’d miscalculated. I was finding it difficult to look Jameson in the eyes.

“Nice try, Ana,” Archibald said. He placed the muzzle against Jameson’s stomach instead of his head. “It won’t kill him immediately, of course,” he explained. “But this way, you get to watch him suffer. I think that will mess you up far more than the death of your sergeant ever did.”

Oh, stars.

Archibald smiled.

I took a step forward; my injured thigh gave out as I placed more weight on it. I fell as Archibald fired.

And the datapad slipped out of my uniform top as the wind was pushed out of my body on impact.