“Always.”
Fieri grumbles. “I don’t know why you picked him.”
She snorts a laugh. “Someone had to draw the short straw.”
I gasp in mock offense. “Ouch.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, come on. You know it’s a joke. You’re anything butshort.”
Blaize whistles suggestively.
“Can I prove it to you?” I’m already getting worked up and wanting to give Jovie my own check-up.
She winks. “In a moment.”
“Where are Tal and Eluni?” Blaize asks. “I thought they were escorting you.”
Jovie purses her lips.
“What?” I ask.
She shrugs and sways. “Tal is playing doctor.”
Blaize pumps a fist. “I’ll have to high-five that bastard later. She is terrifying when she’s mad. He’s got to have some serious…”
“We could use some help,” Jovie loudly interjects with a grimace. She shivers like she’s grossed out and twists a finger in her ear. “As I was walking here, I overheard an argument. It sounds like the crew isn’t sure what to do about Amphir.”
Blaize, Fieri, and I follow her to the core commons ofGravion,where a large crowd has gathered. It’s a mix of people from pilots to merchants, soldiers, and previous Royals now in Rogue armor painted with a green stripe.
“We can’t just go to Amphir. To the best of our knowledge, it’s abandoned,” a pilot remarks. “There’s nothing there.”
“I don’t really feel like running the risk of getting my Storm ripped out like Pronkus. I mean, I’m loyal, but I also obeyed for a long time,” someone else adds.
“It’s not entirely abandoned,” my mother says. She wears a long gray cloak covered in ashen symbols unfamiliar to me. “But we will need supplies, Terran survival gear.”
Many years have passed that I should’ve been learning from her. I have a lot of catching up to do. “I have a contact who can help us with that.”
“You do?” another officer asks. “We haven’t done many Terran missions with motherships. It’s a lot of bodies to feed, clothe, and protect.”
“I have contacts in the colonization and refugee fields. I can get us gear.”Allele, can you contact Elix and Zariah and let them know the situation?
Yes, Aura.
My mother smiles. “There are still the familial castles and caves. I remember going there as a child.”
“But it’s so far away. We’re not even sure how to navigate the nebula.”
“Allele can do it,” I say. “It’s where I found her.”
Everyone looks at me like I’ve sprouted an arm from my head, everyone except my mother. Ephinium beams at me with such admiration that I know she’s proud of me. I just wish I felt like I had earned it.
“This isn’t something many are ready for,” a Royal-turned-Rogue remarks.
“That is your homeworld,” Jovie cuts in. “It deserves to be protected just like any of your ships. And you should hang onto it for as long as you can. I might hate Earth because of a few shitty people, but I still helped protect it from Denarso because the last thing I want is someone taking and ruining something that doesn’t belong to them. We cannot hesitate. We must move on this before New Order attempts it in case they manage to get through.”
I look down at her. “Already taking to a position of command.”
“No. I just want to see your people get what they need and want.”
