“Not everyone gives it much thought. They assume their struggles are a necessary part of life, but I think we can do better, and I think you can help us. I know you don’t approve of our methods. Stay here. Become dakini. Guide us. Show us a path to peaceful revolution, and we’ll follow it.”

Welga floundered for a response. Did Ao Tara really believe that she could recruit Welga? It fit with the offer to become dakini, but the rest of it… I’m an intelligence specialist, she wanted to say. I’m not a politician or a social strategist. What the hell do I know about revolutions except to prevent them? Was Ao Tara setting her up? Would the dakini transformation come with other changes that let the station have power over her?

“You need to meditate on this. I understand, but you don’t have a great luxury of time. Would it help to talk to Clemence?”

“No.” She couldn’t trust anyone here to tell the truth.

Ao Tara blanked for a few seconds, then nodded. “You’ll have to stay restrained for your own safety. The medics want you to know that the longer you wait, the more damage you’ll take. In the meantime, your agent can reach out to us if you need anything.”

The monk left the room. Swarms danced in her wake.

Welga stared at the surgical center. No more tremors or losing consciousness. Healthy enough to fight. All she had to do was betray the people of Earth, join the movement she had worked to end. Or she could leave it all behind and go back, hope that she survived the flight and the aftermath, abandon her mission to stop the Machinehood. Bullshit. That’s not a real choice. After everything she’d sacrificed to get to Eko-Yi, she couldn’t turn tail and run home because she was afraid to become a dakini. But maybe becoming one of them doesn’t mean I have to follow their rules. Maybe I can work against them from the inside.

She needed to gain their trust, and fast. Ao Tara wanted her to take the role that Captain Travis had played in her life, to guide younger soldiers. Her commanding officer hadn’t settled for being a military leader. He’d also taught them right from wrong. Maybe she could save the next generation of dakini, end the stalemate and fear that Ao Tara had created. And if not… then she could still blow their operation to hell.

Always faithful, always forward.

Her squad taught her the meaning of the MARSOC motto, and they paid for it with their lives. Fuck that. I’m not some twenty-two-year-old basic following orders. She was a fighter, and she didn’t work for the US government anymore, but she’d come here with a mission and she was damn well going to complete it.