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7
"This might bea good time to let them know we don't have any nanobots on board," Brinley said.
E'rel and J'avet both turned and scowled at me, as though it was my fault for making the suggestion in the first place.
I scowled back. "You didn't have to tell them that. You could have ignored me like you usually do."
The side of J'avet's mouth twitched upward. I couldn't tell if he was apologetic or thinking he should stick to ignoring me.
Either way, he turned away and opened the comms again.
"Gamma, this is Commander J'avet. We were mistaken about the presence of nanobots on board. My apologies. Stand down."
He sounded so firm I would have done what he told me to do. Maybe. Depending on what it was.
The Gamma took a while to respond. When they did, it was a female voice which spoke.
"Commander J'avet, that is what I would expect the Iritauri to say."
I suppressed a snort, which ended up as a cough. She had us there.
"I'll turn on the vidscreen," J'avet said. "You'll see two humans and two Parvorans." He pressed a button and a light turned on, right in my eyes.
I waved and smiled at the camera. It didn't hurt to look friendly.
"Captain Vaw has ordered your return to the station." The vidscreen went both ways. The woman who spoke was also human, to my surprise, with an insignia which marked her as captain of the Gamma.
J'avet nodded curtly. "I'm fine," he said. "We have an important mission to carry out. We can't delay any longer, not even for my health."
I'm pretty sure Gamma's captain matched my eyebrow rise at the arrogance in his tone. He was right though. Not even for him could we turn back.
"If you think the whole station doesn't know you're headed back to Iritauri space, then think again," she said dryly. "Your organisation didn't go unnoticed."
J'avet swore under his breath.
I moved to stand behind him. "Why let us go then?" I asked.
"Because we need you to go," she replied. "This way, it doesn't involve Captain Vaw, or anyone else in the IF. We can all turn a blind eye, having made an effort to order you to turn back."
"Should you be telling us this?" I asked.
She smiled. "Probably not, but I'll have this recording deleted when we're finished. Officially, we fired a warning shot, but you evaded us."
"Warning shot?" Brinley asked.
Light flashed from the front of Gamma and something blasted over our heads, close enough to rock the whole pod.
The only one standing, I was knocked off my feet and thrown hard into the far wall. Tears of pain sprang to my eyes.
"Edie!" Brinley called out.
I struggled to my feet and rubbed my shoulder where I'd hit. Nothing was broken, but I would have a nasty bruise to show for it.
"I'm okay," I said, glaring at the screen where Gamma's captain looked unapologetic.
"Lucky for you, it was only a warning," she said coolly.
I was tempted to tell her to fuck right off, but she might change her mind about letting us go.
