“She’s right. We aren’t in a position to judge her. Anitra, could you finish the cleanup of the base?”

Anitra punched a code into her wrist comm. Explosions erupted all around the compound. Ellis’s troops climbed down from the desert basin, guided by the light from the pyres of machinery. The cloaked figures scurried quickly, not wanting to be caught exposed in the open and sensing that their journey neared its end. Mothers clutched their young to them, stilling the scared mewls as much as possible. Mzisoh soldiers stripped the bodies of the fallen Interstellar Alliance soldiers of any weapons and gear.

“Let’s pull out. We have a ship to commandeer,” Epyc Ro said. “Ellis, get your people somewhere safe. The CO/IN may be gone for now, but they may regroup and return in force. I don’t want your people nearby when they do.”

“Captain?” Ellis wiped caked dirt from their forehead, leaving a thick gray grime. “I don’t have a patch, but if you’ll have me, I will go where you go.”

“We have no idea where we’re going.” Epyc Ro sensed a lingering hesitation, which filled her with caution.

“Yes, but your travels will take you out there.” Ellis pointed to the stars. “I want to be a part of that.”

“Are you sure?”

“No.” Ellis gestured to his people. “My home is here. But my heart, my heart wants to explore.”

“All right, come on, then,” Anitra said. “That’s as sure as any of us ever get anyway.”

“What about her?” Robin pointed toward Car’Annie.

A group of Mzisoh soldiers neared. Their hoods lowered over their foreheads, leaving little more than slits exposing their eyes. The stained cloaks made dark under the glow of the moon. For the first time, Car’Annie’s face lost its veneer of calm control. Each Mzisoh face bored into her, their hate and anger a near tangible thing buffeting her. She backed away from them, stopping once she bumped into the captain.

Epyc Ro shoved Car’Annie out and slammed the door behind her. “Let’s go.”

Epyc Ro and Robin took the flight seats and strapped themselves in. Epyc Ro’s eyes adjusted to the faint green illumination of the instrument panel. After a moment of study, she intuited a feel for the layout of the instrumentation. Not too different from the ships she trained in as a part of the HOVA’s joint military exercises with the O.E.

“Not a lot of room in the cockpit,” Epyc Ro said.

“Ain’t we got a better name for this than that by now?”

“It’s too small to be any use, though I bet the designers thought it was huge in their hands.”

“Cockpit it is.” Robin scanned the motherboard. “Controls look standard.”

“It does,” Epyc Ro hunched over them. “Go through prelaunch sequence.”