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“No, thank you, Osiris. I intend on flying myself down to Haseon,” Jack answered briskly and started the check and he and Thammah had gone over countless times.

But that is illogical, was typed across the screen.

“I’m a pilot, Osiris, so hardly illogical that I want to get some flight time in,” Jack reminded the AI even as he continued his preparation unabated.

You are a pilot-in-training, the Osiris correctly, a little sniffily if Jack interpreted the “tone” right.

“I was enough of a pilot to fly you,” Jack said, and suppressed an inappropriate grin at how that sounded.

The cursor blinked.

“Yeah, so I think I can handle this dropship,” Jack continued and finished with final checks before hitting the ignition.

The dropship rose up ten feet into the air. The outer door to the hangar bay slid silently to the side, showing only the blue glow of the force field in place. He could exit without that coming down. If that wasn’t the case, anything not nailed down would have been sucked out into the vacuum of space including crew who were logging in fresh fruits and vegetables, along with proteins from Haseon. He pushed forward slightly on the throttle and kept another hand on the steering yoke. The ship began to fly forward at a sedate and safe pace. The way the dropship had been parked allowed him to simply go straight forward to exit the Osiris and soon he pushed out into space.

Jack allowed himself to marvel at the fact that he was in space in a ship that allowed him to feel much more in tune with the elements–or lack of elements–around him. There were so many stars that it looked like someone had overturned a bag of diamonds onto a black velvet background. He caught sight of the gate that silently spun. He found himself, rather like Dai Suzuki, staring at it too long and too hard, worried that a Khul Hive would emerge. But nothing did. They were safe.

Will we ever be truly safe until the Khul are destroyed? I think not.

Jack rolled his shoulders back to loosen them and turned back towards the planet. Haseon hung below him like a green-gold jewel. She was different from Earth, but he felt a tug of almost memory when he saw the planet. Almost as if Haseon were familiar to him. But that likely had to do with his studies. Still, it was odd to feel this sense of connection to a place he’d never been.

An alien world just waiting to be explored.

But the truth was that it felt more like coming home. He wondered if Jace or Diane had experienced this strange sensation. He started to pilot the ship down to the planet. The dropship was not as sleek as the paladin-class fighters he’d been in, but it was responsive to his gentle nudges and increases of speed on the throttle. He’d practiced landing tons of times as takeoffs and landings were usually when costly errors could occur, because that was when there was less room to move. Yet he found himself enjoying the experience without any feelings of stress.

Why did you choose to separate yourself from Colonel Parker? The Osiris’ question burst across the screen.

“Separate? You mean have her work with Earth and me go with Jace? Surely, you heard what explanations we gave our son so–”

But you did not tell him all, the Osiris interrupted. There was a kind of desperation to its questions.

“What don’t you think we told him?” Jack asked evenly back.

The Osiris couldn’t read his mind, right? Only Jace’s. But he’d had conversations with Diane both in and outside of the ship so…

“Were you eavesdropping on Diane and I?” Jack added before the Osiris said anything further.

I do not eavesdrop, the Osiris answered curtly. Or tartly as Jace would say. I monitor.

“Oh, you monitor. So that’s different than listening in on private conversations that do not concern you?” Jack clarified with a tight smile.

He wasn’t exactly happy knowing that the Osiris had listened to his and Diane’s private concerns, because, in truth, he didn’t want Jace burdened with them.

They concern you, which concerns Jace which concerns me, the Osiris answered.

“Have you told Jace about these private conversations you monitored?”

I have provided him with recordings, the Osiris replied primly, but then added, almost as if confused by this, But he has not reviewed them. Most of them he simply deletes…

Good boy, Jace, Jack thought and smiled.

“Because he understands the value of privacy, Osiris. He knows that we tell him what we need him and want him to know. The rest is private,” Jack explained.

That is illogical. The things you consider private are the things that he should definitely know to make an informed decision, the Osiris argued back.

“What we told Jace is what we believe to be true after careful consideration of those private things. We don’t need to convince him of our decisions that way,” Jack answered.

But you admit that this private information was necessary in order to make your own decision? But you would not give Jace all of that information in order to make his, the Osiris pushed.