Caledonia’s heart was still beating rapidly in her throat, but the crowd listened to their second-in-command even if they didn’t like what she had to say.

“Back to work!” Heron moved across the deck with angry steps, directing traffic with the firm set of his brow.

With a nod for Caledonia and a separate one for Pisces, Cepheus followed, leaving only Caledonia and her crew still clustered near the rail. Sledge had his arm around Nettle’s small shoulders, and it seemed like he might never let her go again.

And in spite of the blood now clotting in her nose and the bruise clouding her eye, Nettle had a look of satisfaction about her.

“Nettle?” Caledonia asked.

“Captain,” the girl said, sure to keep her voice low. “I got it.”

>><<

After the fight, Caledonia expected Tassos to pounce on her at any second, but he remained conspicuously absent until midday, when she spotted him crossing onto the megaship from the bridge of the adjacent ship.

In the full sun, sweat gleamed on his broad shoulders. His brow was furrowed, his fists clenched, and there was a splatter of fresh blood across the front of his shirt. He glared as Caledonia stopped in front of him. She dropped her eyes to the blood, and just below to where that remote trigger was always clipped next to the hilt of a knife.

“Do we have a problem?” she asked.

“Not anymore,” he said. Anger simmered beneath every word.

“We sail at first light, Tassos. If we have a problem, I need to know. Now.”

Tassos bared his teeth and flared his nostrils. “Follow me.”

Tassos strode into the megaship, charting a swift course to his quarters. After a brief moment to acknowledge that following this man into a small room was surprisingly not the worst idea she’d ever had, Caledonia trailed him inside and shut the door.

When Tassos spoke next, his voice was thick with distaste. “Sedition.” The word was as much a mark against him as it was those who’d committed the act. “I’ve had to make a few changes to our Silt rations to stretch our supply and keep as many of my Bullets in fighting form as possible. Some get their usual dose; others get less. When Bullets don’t get their Silt from me, they start looking elsewhere. Five Bullets were caught attempting to defect. And when a limb is sliced and there is blood in the water there is only one way to save the body.”

Caledonia frowned, unsure that she liked where this particular metaphor was leading.

Tassos leaned in again, his hands thumping against the blood darkening his chest. “Take the limb.”

Bullets had died today. There was no doubt about that, but Caledonia suspected more than those five had suffered from this mood of Fiveson Tassos.

“You said you had enough Silt to make this work,” Caledonia said. “Was that a lie?”