“Sorry, let's get back to what you were saying, the Vice-President showed up?” Rekki-Ricky said, changing the topic back to our original focus.

  I noticed the girls were both staring at him, while sharing glances between themselves.

  “You girls okay?” I asked.

  “Just weirded out. The big three factions are all fucking weird, but hearing about it from someone who lived in one is... It makes it real, and all the more terrifying. Fuck what if she messed with our heads, I mean she could've...” Megan began.

  “She did.” Rekki-Ricky interrupted.

  The girls stared at him.

  “We were in her effect radius long enough to for her to effect us, and I know at least Megan is smart enough to have a bottom of the barrel C.R.V.” Rekki-Ricky began, looking dour.

  “Hwang, not as much.” He continued, a shit eating grin crawling across his face, lightening the current dark mood.

  “Hey!” Hwang started.

  “Regardless, the proof is all around us.” Rekki-Ricky began.

  “What do you mean?” Megan asked. She had looked scared when Rekki-Ricky talked about her C.R.V and the fact she had probably been affected.

  “Look how easily we are adapting to all of this, how easily we all are following Captain Cofey's lead. The deaconess revered him for being from earth, and I definitely feel.... more inclined to trust him than I would. As a general rule I don't trust anyone, so the fact that I am taking to being on his ship and, excuse me Captain, being under his thumb so well is, in itself, making me anxious as fuck. Sorry to say captain but the me from before the robot stuff probably would have tried to shoot you for shooting the LT. I liked him. Even if his name was stupid.” Rekki-Ricky said, looking miserable.

  Megan opened her mouth and closed it a few times.

  Hwang's eyes were going back and forth, like she was thinking and reviewing everything that had happened.

  Rekki-Ricky pointed at Hwang. “That. That's why Deacon's aren't allowed in Alliance space. As soon as you come in contact with one you can't trust your own mind, and you have to review every action you've made to make sure it actually came from you and not from the deacon.”

  “Huh... I wonder why I wasn't affected.” I said over the P.A.

  “Bullshit you weren't.” Came Carolina's voice from behind the wall.

  Everyone jumped. Including me. Metaphorically speaking. I swear the drives didn't flutter at all.

  “The fuck!” Hwang shouted in unison with Megan. Rekki-Ricky had frozen and was looking around.

  “The hell Carolina... where are you?” I asked.

  “Maintenance space, heard a weird noise so I crawled in, found out it was you guys having a pow-wow. Without me.” Her voice, though muffled through the bulkhead, conjured an image of her pouting.

  “I would've invited you but you were snoring loud enough to wake the dead. Think you would have shaken apart a repair drone if I had sent it in to pinch you awake.” I said, perhaps a bit petulantly.

  There was an audible sniff through the bulkhead. “I don't snore.” Was the only reply.

  “Sure.” I acknowledged, to the snickering of Rekki-Ricky.

  “Okay, what was the bullshit to?”Megan asked.

  “That she wasn't affecting him. He was getting more and more... overzealous? Cavalier with his own safety the longer we were down there. I originally thought he just wanted to get the fuck off that shithole of a planet, no offense, but if there was a brain fucker down there making him think of himself as the messiah or some shit that makes sense.” Carolina said.

  “Do you... Do you want to come inside maybe? It's weird talking to a wall.” Hwang said, still looking at the bulkhead trying to find where Carolina's voice was coming from.

  Even my own sensors couldn't really locate the echo.

  “Nah, it's comfy in here, plus I found a whole set of conduit that was loose and I am currently fixing it.” Carolina said.

  I quickly looked through my available feeds, and I found four repair bots clustered behind the wall where Carolina's voice was coming from. I looked through it's camera and saw it itself was screwing in a tiny screw meant to hold the conduit Carolina was talking about in place, while perched on Carolina's shoulder, who was in turn holding the conduit flush with the bulkhead.

  “You know that bot is using you as a stepladder right?” I asked, again through the PA in Hwang's room.

  “I am aware.” Carolina said.

  “And you are okay with it?” I continued.

  “It's cute. I like your repair bots.” Carolina returned.

  “Okay, we keep getting off track, um... Vice president arrived.” I started.

  “You got attacked by that Deaconesses... fuckboy you called him?” Carolina said.

  “Ah, yeah... at least my jaw stopped hurting pretty quick.” I replied.

  “I carved him up good for that. Freaked me out when I saw him walking around like nothing happened later.” Carolina continued.

  “A regenerator. I'm betting the Deaconesses bodyguard or one of her original handler's.” Rekki-Ricky replied, explaining.

  “Doubt the second, he looked pretty young.” I said.

  “Regenerator's don't age.” Rekki-Ricky said offhandedly.

  Well shit.

  There was a pause.

  “That's plain bullshit right there.” Hwang said in response.

  “I believe the common saying for what the alliance pulls is 'bullshit space magic' so that tracks.” Megan said, taking this all really rather calmly now that she had had a chance to, or was in the middle of, processing it.

  “Okay, well then I was … huh, I feel like I meant to go back into the starport and finish clearing it out... I don't really remember what happened after that.” I said.

  “I do, and you didn't. ” Carolina's voice came from behind the bulkhead again.

  “Well, care to enlighten us.” I asked.

  “I dunno, still kinda mad you didn't wake up your chief engineer for this debrief, brief, whatever this is.” Carolina said with a sniff.

  Hwang was trying to cover a smile, and Rekki-Ricky was openly chuckling at this exchange. Megan was looking a little weirded out by the blatant refusal to join in, she really was a stickler for military hierarchy and chain of command it looked like.

  “Look, I'm sorry, I thought you could use some more sleep after everything we've been through, next time I'll wake you up as soon as something important crops up.” I said. She was right. I had just made her my chief engineer, I should probably treat her like it.

  “Apology accepted, now, You were about to get back into the starport's systems, but I yelled at you cause you were about to stroke out and everyone in the room, even the Vice-President lady who had literally just met you could see it. I eventually convinced you to take a little nap while the v... Ivanova, I am getting tired of saying Vice-President, called for a doctor. What she didn't tell us was she was also calling the military.”

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  I blinked.

  “Huh... I really don't remember that. Honestly I kindof remember coming to... then a conversation with the doctor.” I really didn't like the idea that some of my memories were getting scrambled.

  “Probably the brain damage the doc was talking about.” Carolina said.

  “That's... That's great. Thanks for putting that in my brain. I love thinking about that.” I said flatly.

  “Look on the bright side, if you disconnect without your meds again you might forget all about it and you won't have to think about it anymore!” Carolina said in a sing songy voice, both teasing me and reminding me that I needed to take my meds before disconnecting. I was getting a little used to her casual... threats? Dark humor? But everyone else in Hwang's room just looked uncomfortable.

  “And then I woke up twelve hours later, You saw most of what was going on so I'll skip it, but needless to say, me and Carolina did not trust Ivanova one bit and started making plans to make space tracks as soon as we could.” I continued.

  “Not soon enough. Hero-complex here still wanted to save the planet.” Carolina interrupted.

  “The whole planet isn't to blame for the actions of one elected official, even if they do often get punished for said official's actions.” I replied to Carolina. I had had this debate often before I had gone on ice, and it looked like I would continue to have this debate now.

  Carolina's muffled huff was the only reply.

  “So I tried to weasel my way onto the ship alone, Ivanova was not having it though, and stuck you guys with me, with apparently extra orders to your Lt. About me leaving the planet.” I said.

  “Wasn't just the Lt. I got a sealed packet with orders inside it and was told 'open in the event of Lt. Kernel's death. I of course said fuck that shit and opened it immediately.”Hwang said.

  I paused.

  “What did they say?” I asked.

  “It said to take command if Lt. Kernel should die, fail, or refuse the orders to incapacitate you by any means necessary in order to keep you, and your ship, on planet 'for Captain Cofey's protection and the welfare of Hou Ji.'” Hwang said, sarcastically adding air quotes to the end.

  I paused again, I was doing that a lot.

  “Okay. So why didn't you.” I asked.

  “Because the orders were stupid, suicidal, and considering you were our only chance of clearing the planet of the Berzerker virus, ungrateful. Also SUPER illegal, seizing a ship belonging to any of the factions without them having commited a verifiable felony is a big no-no. Also if someone gives you an illegal order you either ignore it or shoot em. And Carolina beat me to the whole shooting him thing.” Hwang said with venom.

  “Wow, did you hate Lt. Kernel or something?” I asked.

  “Any asshole stupid enough to go in for those kinds of orders does not deserve to live. That law is in place for a reason, and that reason is keeping us from getting shelled from orbit. Not like it's the first time I've defied orders that were bullshit either, it's why I'm still so low on the totem pole. I used to be a sergeant.” Hwang said.

  Huh, Hwang was a little rebel.

  “So, okay. I think we're all up to date, we had a bit of an aside on the alliance, thank you for that, Rekki-Ricky, but I did have a point to talking to all of you.” I started.

  “Wait what about that thing that hit us and almost killed Ricky?” Megan asked, sharp as ever.

  “Rekki, it KILLED Rekki.” Rekki-Ricky said.

  This statement didn't really cause me pain but it kindof felt like popping the clutch on my brain, and I swear Rekki-Ricky... changed a little. But I couldn't honestly tell you what was different. His power was weird as hell.

  “Ah, yeah, I think that was a hail mary by Ivanova. Pretty sure they were reinforcement to secure the ship. What my camera's showed coming out looked like battlebots or something, but considering how hard clearing out the virus from the robots was I don't think that's the case.” I said.

  Hwang replied. “Show me.”

  I looked at the information on her room, and found there was a panel that could be used as a display across from the bunk. I threw up some camera images of the cloaked APC that rammed us.

  “Fuck... Those are ours.” Megan said out loud.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Our power armor. The ones that opened fire on our ammo depot. The guys we left behind must have gotten them working again. The markings are scorched off but I bet that was one of our APC's too. It must have been the guys we left behind.”

  Hwang and Rekki-Ricky looked dour at this, but Megan's reaction was... intense.

  “Andy...” She said under her breath, as tears began to fall.

  “Oh... shit.” Hwang said, before standing up and wrapping Megan in a hug.

  Rekki-Ricky was covering his face with his hand.

  While Hwang comforted Megan, I surreptitiously took control of one of the repair drones that were helping Carolina and slipped it through a hatch and onto the bunk next to Rekki-Ricky, who was just staring on with sad eyes.

  “Who was Andy?” I whispered through the repair bot when it was hanging from the wall next to Rekki-Ricky's head.

  He started, but then looked over at me in the little bot and leaned in.

  “Andy was her little brother.” He whispered.

  Oh shit.

  I... withdrew for a moment. I still monitored the room but I let them grieve.

  I had intellectually known they had probably lost people in that whole endeavor, but I hadn't thought... or let myself thing that any of the people aboard that suicidal APC had been particularly important to any of them.

  To be honest I had been avoiding thinking of any of the deaths that occurred on Hou Ji, either the soldiers who died trying to take me or...

  Or those poor civilians trapped in those aircars the virus sent hurtling at me.

  “Captain, are you alright?” Hook asked.

  Hook's voice pulled me out before I could spiral.

  “Why do you ask?” I replied.

  “Carolina sent me a message to check on you.” Hook said.

  “Why didn't she just ask me herself.” I asked.

  “Her message stated 'if I ask he'll tell me he's fine, so you need to ask.'” Hook said.

  “How does she know me this well already.” I asked rhetorically.

  “She does appear to have figured you out quite quickly sir.” Hook replied.

  “Don't tell me she has some weird Alliance super power now.” I fired back.

  “No, just a finely honed sense of people and personalities most likely. Possibly one of the traits which made her progenitor into a noble if I were to guess.” Hook responded.

  That... made sense. A Noble would have to be able to see through the surface level portrayal anyone displayed in order to survive, since the Empire sounded very backstabby. Only someone able to sense that kind of information and act on it would thrive.

  “I'm... remembering the people we had to kill on Hou Ji.” I said.

  “The soldiers? The Lieutenant?” Hook asked.

  “Them too, but the people in the aircars the virus threw at us.” I replied.

  “Ah. I see. I admit I did not monitor that footage closely.” Hook said.

  I sent hook a video recording of a charred skull hitting the deck after one of the PDT's intercepted an airship.

  “Oh.” Hook said.

  “Yeah. It's a lot to process.” I said.

  At that moment the ship began to rumble.