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He closed the panel door in her face and locked it with a silver key. His manners remained subdued, yet she spotted the victory blazing in his eyes.
“Of course I had it dealt with,” he said tersely. “Now, would you step into my office so we can talk?”
One of the officers held out his hand. “Your weapon, miss.”
Releasing a breath, she handed the firearm over and let them shoulder her through the door.
* * *
Lucca was in the commander’s office—eyes swollen and red with tears, sinuses stuffed, head hurting fiercely. She would have loved to be a badass, but she simply wasn’t. She wasweeping uncontrollably.
Commander Collins had spent the past several minutes calmly explaining what was to be her fate and what had become of Caligher.
Caligher was on a screen, tethered to a table and hooked to so many different tubes and needles, unconscious and so weakened that she wanted to scream.
She wanted to tear this room, this ship, this whole goddamn universe apart. She felt unfathomably impotent.
Lucca got it now—why Caligher had retaliated.
As for the bio-weapon they were about to drop on a planet—she hadn’t made a dent in it. Erulea waited beyond the window, bright, gleaming, its hours numbered.
She’d failed in every way imaginable.
Collins’s words streamed in and out of her ears, long past mattering. A glass of rum sat untouched before her, an offering of civility that she took as an insult.
“What we’re offering is extremely generous,” he summarized. “You will have your cabin back. You will return to work in a limited capacity, under close supervision, of course. Eventually you will stand trial for your actions which I’ve listed and documented. Depending on your behavior, I could argue that you acted under duress. Forced by aliens to violent actions which you previously showed no inclination for. I’m told that they put off certain… pheromones. It can influence women, I understand.”
A chuckle rumbled from the other men in the room at his implication. She flinched.
“What I’m asking is easy,” he continued. “Stop trying to radicalize my fleet. Stop causing problems where you don’t belong. You’re a civilian. This isn’t your fight.”
The words burst out of her, mottled with uncertainty and emotion. “But itismy fight. It’s everyone’s. You’re here to destroy a planet.”
“Pardon?” he asked, wide-eyed and blank.
“Erulea.”
He didn’t so much as blink.
She pointed out the window. “You’re here to nuke it like the Crescent Rim.” She packed more sharp volume into her voice, desperate to disturb the eerie calm. The men were just as straight-faced as the commander.
“Miss Watts, that is a serious allegation. And also impossible.”
It was her turn to stare at him.
He knew exactly what she was talking about. He was about to command it.Everyonein this room knew. They just wouldn’tsayit.
She felt as if she’d hit a brick wall in a maze and found herself boxed in. Her eyes returned to Caligher and something in her heart flickered.
Collins followed her stare to the screen. “If you agree to stop your violent campaign, you will have your life back. Not only that, but your companion will return to Earth with you.”
Her eyes snapped to his, only to find him staring at Caligher’s image with an obsessive sort of fascination.
“Excuse me.What?”
Collins gestured at the screen. “You will have visitation rights. I understand something has developed between you and the Ternetzi. If you two produce offspring…”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
