Page 27 of Commander’s Mate

“Two hours.”

Two hours with more than one hundred rescued people packed into rooms never designed for them.

“Open gymnasium two.”

“It contains—”

“Move whatever it contains.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Also open training rooms six and seven. Strip the weapons lockers first.”

“Understood.”

Harper had not moved.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re making more room.”

“Yes.”

“For us.”

“For everyone aboard.”

“That isn’t what I meant.”

I knew.

I looked past her toward the corridor full of people we had taken from Ursaga.

At the auction house, the decision had been simple.

Break the doors.

Shoot the guards.

Take everyone we could reach.

Freedom had looked like an open shuttle ramp.

Now it looked like blankets, working toilets, food that did not frighten unfamiliar stomachs, doors that did not lock unexpectedly, translators that functioned, and enough space for a terrified woman to breathe.

Warriors were trained to seize ground.

No one had trained us to make frightened people believe the ground beneath them was theirs.

Degatu stepped beside me.

“Extraction is an event,” he said quietly.

I knew what he meant before he finished.

“Freedom is logistics.”

Harper heard him.