I set the alarm for early. Oh five hundred seemed about right, but I couldn’t be sure, so put it back another hour.
Mack woke me up at three.
He just waltzed into my cabin, turning on the lights as he came.
“Up,” came through the implant, as he pulled back the covers, and took two steps back.
I came out of the bed like a shot, hitting the floor in my bare feet, and going in swinging, before I’d registered who it was.
“Do you bloody mind?” he asked, after the first hit connected, and he’d blocked the next three, by which point I really was awake.
I blinked. “Sorry. I’ll go get dressed.”
And he’d raised his eyebrows, folded his arms, and leant back against the wall.
“Move your ass.”
I don’t know why I felt guilty. He’d been the one to set a meeting without telling me, and without giving me the time. Ass.
“And mind your manners.”
Sure thing, boss, I thought, grabbing a uniform hanging in the closet, snagging some underwear, and vanishing into the san. All I could think was that it was a good thing I didn’t sleep in the nude.
“As if that would change anything.”
There was just no answer for that, so I showered in silence, trying to work out a way to get some privacy back. I wondered if it would do any good to ask Mack, and then discarded the idea. I doubted he’d understand.
“Coffee?” he asked, when I emerged.
“Sure,” I said, and he pushed off the wall and led the way out.
Once we hit the corridor, though, he surprised me by heading towards the control center, instead of the caf.
“I’ve got a call to make,” he said, catching my curiosity. “You’re invited.”
Funny how it didn’t sound like I had an option to decline.
“You don’t.”
“About that,” I said, meaning him in my head, and not the option to decline.
“No,” he said.
I wanted to ask why, but didn’t want to sound like a whiny kid, and, for some reason, Mack chose not to comment. As we hit the control center, I wondered who Mack wanted to call at this time of the morning.
“Skymander,” he said, and, as we entered, I saw why.
Melari Hazerna was waiting, Tens by her side. She smiled at Mack as he entered, sparing the briefest flicker of a glance for me, before giving Mack her full attention.
“Thank you,” she said. “Tens has told me how you saved me.”
Way to make a girl feel invisible.
I followed Mack across the room, letting him stand on Melari’s other side, as I took up station beside him. I couldn’t work out why he’d want me with him, given I hadn’t been there when they’d pulled Melari’s fat out of the fire.
“No, but you made sure I was able to reach her in time,” Mack said. “If you hadn’t stopped the arach...”
It was the closest he’d come to saying thank you, and I didn’t know how to respond. Having my ass kicked, even when I was right? That I could handle. Being thanked? Even when I’d earned it? Not such an easy ride.
“You are sooo messed up,” Tens said, and I felt my face flush with embarrassment.
“Enough,” Mack said, and the forward screen revealed the lounge room in which we’d first met Skymander and Treivani.
Their faces lit as soon as they caught sight of Melari, and her face reflected their joy. It made me wonder exactly when they’d formed their happy little triumvirate. Mack nudged me in the ribs, and I focused on the screen.
I watched the smile fade from Skymander’s handsome face, as he turned to Mack.
“I see you completed your end of our bargain,” he said. “Does Odyssey know?”
“Odyssey are aware.”
“And do they approve?”
“They are happy we have rescued your betrothed, and the Lady Treivani’s sister,” Mack replied.
“But?”
“They do not approve of your methods of choosing a partner.”
Skymander’s face darkened, and Treivani moved swiftly to his side, slipping her arm through his and gazing up at him. The change was instantaneous, as though she reminded him that Odyssey’s attitudes were not necessarily ours, and were certainly not hers. I saw the tension leak out of Skymander’s shoulders, as he guided his wife to a seat beside him on the couch.
“Tell me of the mission,” he said, and Mack baulked.
“That is not standard procedure.”
Skymander named a figure, and Mack sighed.
“We reached Costral orbit at oh-nine-hundred,” he said, “and entered High Costral Station. Cutter and the Odyssey agent, Delight, infiltrated the station arm housing Corovan Chemical at eleven-hundred. By this stage, Andreus Corovan had enacted his plan to infect High Costral with the virus, and all ships on station air were also infected.”
Treivani’s jaw dropped, but Skymander’s expression turned to stone.
“We called for Odyssey assistance, and Cutter and Delight were able to resolve the situation in the laboratories, using the delivery system that had been utilized to deliver the virus to deliver the cure. We apologize, but the cure is now publicly available, due to the need to save the station, so that we could proceed with the mission.”
Skymander moved his hand, as though signaling that it didn’t matter, and Mack paused. Skymander’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but in the end, all he said was, “Continue.”
“There was a short delay before we ported in to Costral,” Mack continued, and then went on to describe the mission to Andreus Corovan’s isolated stronghold. “We sent the Lady Melari straight up to the ship, and followed some time later.”
Skymander’s interest sharpened.
“Why the delay?”
“We were captured by an arach expeditionary force.”
“Arach? On Costral?” Lady Treivani had quite forgotten her husband, and was out of her seat and approaching the screen.
“Yes, Lady Treivani.”
“How many? And where?”
“We don’t know how many. The ones we encountered were at the Corovan stronghold, and on a ship heading out of the system. We were fortunate to escape with our lives.”
“And the planet?”
“Costral is safe for the moment. Odyssey are conducting an investigation into the depth of the compromise.”
Lady Treivani subsided, and I watched as she pulled her courtier’s
