“But wouldn’t they tell their superiors?” The same N’Akron apparently couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
Squire chuckled again. “No, because then they would have to admit their failure in front of all of their people. No, their lips will remain quiet.”
I stared at him, then turned my attention to Dana, who was looking at me with that secret smile of hers on her face. She could tell I finally saw what she had seen all along, that Squire wasn’t a risk, he was someone who would help us. I didn’t know what made him different from the rest, but if this all went well, he would have an advisory position on the war council, if I had anything to say about it.
“Well, then,” Dana said cheerfully and clapped her hands together. “Boy squads, come with me.” She paused. “And N’Ashtar,” she added, less enthusiastically. It took me a second, but I winced. Both of us had forgotten that translation would be needed. That made Jackie even more important, especially if she could get more of the translators we all benefited from.
I reached out and squeezed my mate’s shoulder, careful to give her some of her space and to not hover over her. I knew she wouldn’t appreciate that and I didn’t want her to be distracted, not now.
Before we made it to the gate, my father grabbed my arm and stopped me. His pupils were dilated from the stress, his claws biting into my skin a small amount. His gaze searched mine, and I was surprised to see some respect and understanding there. “You did good,” my father finally said, giving my wrist another squeeze before letting go. “Now go take care of our people.”
I gave myself two moments to gape at him in astonishment before I dragged my attention back to the now. I had things to do, Dana at my side. We were going to win, no matter what.
22
Dana
“I can’t believe we never figured out why.” Erica’s voice was soft, the pain in it lancing my heart. No doubt there was a mixed bag of emotions between the four of us, standing in front of the wreckage of the ship that had brought us there in the first place. It had been a month since the battle, since Squire and I had become accepted and trusted members of N’Akkar. Sometimes I couldn’t believe how much my life had changed since I had left Earth.
“Maybe when we’re dismantling the ship,” I said, but I wasn’t entirely convinced. If our engineer couldn’t figure it out, I didn’t think there was a chance in hell I would be able to, but I wouldn’t stop trying.
No, we’d come all the way out to the remains of the Ambassador Twelve to bury the bodies and pay a final tribute to the crew that had perished. It hadn’t exactly been a pleasant task, but with our men with us, it had been easy enough. To start our tribute off, we had gathered a set of rocks to represent the seven men and Rachel. Although her body had never been found, we still counted her and gave her the best approximation of a headstone we could.
“Should we say something for each of them?” Jackie asked, glancing at me. I was the unofficial leader of us, which made sense since I was N’Ashtar’s mate. Although I hadn’t told him, I was pregnant, and I was looking forward to being Thoheria’s version of barefoot and pregnant. He was going to go nuts.
“I’ll start,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. I knew Hetta especially was nervous, because her social anxiety had meant that she spent most of her time dodging the other travelers so she didn’t know a ton about them. “Keith was the pilot, and he was thirty-two when he died. He spent way too much time reading books on aviation…”
And so it went on. I did most of the talking—as the diplomat, I had made it my job to get to know all the staff—but Jackie and Erica and even Hetta had a few things to say. Except then there was a surprise.
“Hendricks was—”
A loud beep cut Jackie off, which made all of us jerk. When I whipped my head around to look at our surroundings, I saw N’Ashtar and the others stand, hands going to their spears when they saw us come alert. When nothing happened, I shook my head for them to stand down. I wasn’t certain they were going to listen, but I did what I could.
The tension hung in the air as we took a few moments to breathe. While we’d had no problems with the Caterri and hadn’t anticipated any, it was still easy to be jumpy, especially this close to Kohta.
A loud click made us turn back towards the ship as a small compartment opened, a camera of some sort extending like we were in a Star Wars movie. To make it even weirder, a hologram appeared—and it was someone we recognized. Keith, the pilot, was standing and seeming to stare straight into the camera.
“Tomorrow, we will trigger the final plans,” he said, his voice eerily calm in a way it had never been in real life. “The women will be sent to the pods, and the men will gather in the bridge for a final briefing. Once the women have landed, we will activate the trackers and ascertain if they are compatible with the locals, and whether or not they are good candidates for pirates and slavers.”
My heart was beating so fast, I was pretty sure it echoed in my ears, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It felt like most of the blood had drained from my face and my hands and feet were starting to tingle.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on Tonar,” the hologram continued. Tonar was the caterer, the one who had been responsible for providing food for us on the
