Page 324 of Every Almost

It was clear Vondra hadn’t expected that answer.

"Excuse me?"

"My Chief Engineer did not follow an order," Reyna repeated. "She had located the colonists. They were under a massive pile of debris and had been for a long time, through all the tremors from the shelf. She understood that if she left them to bring the shuttle back around with the Palus, who were already 20% into their rated time aboard the shuttle, the structure would finish collapsing before she returned." Reyna took a subtle steading breath, reminding herself Charlie was okay now, down in Engineering.

"She refused, Admiral. She cut her own comms so I could not order her again. And she stayed, alone, on a planet that would not stop shaking, and pulled three people out of debris of a building with her bare, human hands, might I add. The last one nearly killed her doing it." Reyna paused. "She is in my Med Bay's records this morning as having received a head wound. Gratefully, Dr. Pheras discovered the lesion wasn't as deep as had been anticipated and was easy to treat."

Reyna actually thought she saw a bubble appear in the water.

"All three colonists are alive, Admiral." Reyna stared at the screen. "Oh, and the Palus."

The water was very still now.

"The engineer," Vondra said. "It was the human? Wickett?"

"Charlie Wickett, sir. The one your directive instructs me to remove from this ship and return to Coalition custody."

Complete silence came from the dark water.

"You understand," Vondra said slowly, "that the objection to her appointment was not mine, Captain. It was filed under Protected World protocol, completely procedural, not personal. I hear what you are telling me, and I will admit that is an incredibly persuading story in Ms. Wickett's favor. But it is not strictly within my power to simply?—"

"I understand exactly what it is." Reyna leaned forward. "And I am telling you what she is. She has been aboard this vessel mere months. Yet in that time she has rebuilt half my engine systems without being asked, integrated into this crew so completely that I could not extract her from it if I tried, and yesterday she gave her own life expectancy to save three colonists this ship was not even sent to find. That is not a security risk from a non-contact world, Admiral. That is the best officer on my ship. And the Coalition wants me to hand her back through the same channel that told me she doesn't belong here?"

"Reyna—"

"If she goes, I go."

The words came out flat and even, but Reyna knew what she was doing and didn't take them back. Because Reyna Solas had decided on those words somewhere over Korallis Minor with a headset crushed in her fist and had only been waiting for this call to deliver them.

The water did not move at all.

"You would resign your command," Vondra said, not as a question.

"I would," Reyna confirmed. "The day she is removed. I have given this ship years, Admiral, and I would give it up before I'd captain it as the vessel that delivered Charlie Wickett to a cell for the crime of being from the wrong planet and an accident a Coalition device caused." Reyna sat back. "You helped build the Emberkind into what it is so it could go where nothing else would and save what nothing else could. That is exactly what it did on Korallis Minor, but it only did so because of her. I am asking you, Admiral, to let me keep the only reason that mission didn't end in three dead colonists."

For a long moment, the Admiral said nothing. The water settled around her, the geode eyes turned slowly, considering, and Reyna made herself wait in silence.

"You have always been my most difficult captain," Vondra said at last.

"I'm aware."

"It was not a complaint." Something moved through the water, and the Voxlink caught it. It came back rendered as warmth. "It is why I have never let them take this ship from you. Difficult captains are the ones who go back for the three they were not sent to find."

Reyna said nothing.

"Send me the full account," Vondra said. "The mission log, the medical record, the engineer's conduct, all of it. Unedited. The clean version does me no good. I need the true account with the disobedience in it, because the disobedience is the argument." The water stilled. "A commendable rescue conducted by an officer whose removal is pending looks very foolish in a record, Captain. Foolish enough, I think, to reopen a procedural objection. Especially with her captain's resignation attached to the outcome."

Reyna's heart sped up. "You'll make it happen?”

"I'll do my best." The geode eyes caught the light one last time. "You will hear from me before the start of the next morning shift."

"Understood, Admiral."

"It seems congratulations are also in order, Captain," Vondra said, the warmth returning deep in the dark water. "The color suits you."

And the display went dark before Reyna could say another word.

CHARLIE