“Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate–and quickly.”

–Robert A. Heinlein

“You can unshackle her,” Navarchos Bass said, as the tall young woman was led into the brig. “She’s my niece.”

“Sir, she took out four peacekeepers and injured a fifth.”

“I’m aware of that, Decanus. Unshackle her. Now, Sorcha….”

Sorcha had affixed a stare that was meant to burn a hole in her uncle; she was beyond fury at this point, and while it may have behooved her to take a deep breath and calm down, she instead thanked her uncle for turning her loose by hitting him with a vicious left jab the second he came into range.

Aertimus staggered backward from the blow, blinking hard to try to clear his vision. “Stand down!” he called, as he heard the peacekeepers once again trying to wrestle Sorcha to the ground.

Rubbing his eyes, he said, “Sorcha, if you think striking a flag officer is going to make this better for you, you’re wrong. You’re already facing felony charges; if you mind your manners, I might be able to end this without you going to Rura Penthe. If you want to keep hitting me, though, by all means.”

Sorcha continued to look on angrily. “How could you turn on Earth like this? How?”

“I haven’t ‘turned’ on anyone, Sorcha.”

“I saw them – you’ve got the whole crew under arrest. That’s not turning on them?”

Aertimus shook his head once more, trying to clear out the cobwebs. “Look, Sorcha, I understand your frustration, and your parents’, too. But I am doing my best to keep an explosive situation from actually exploding and you are not helping.”

Sorcha blinked at that; her Uncle Captain had never been as angry with her as he appeared right now.

“This Is a gorram terrible situation, Sorcha, and nobody knows that better than I do. But you coming onto this station and beating down five guards in my chain of command? That doesn’t make the situation less terrible. It makes it more. Your parents are in helping Eyrn and the crew of the Lem. I was hoping you would be able to help them.”

“I’d be happy….”

“Tough. You’re going to be stuck in a cell by yourself until this is all over, and I’m just hoping that you won’t be stuck there longer. No promises. Peacekeepers, process her in. I’m heading to the command center.”

“They called animal control on Lessy, Uncle Aerti.”

Aertimus paused halfway out of the watch room, turned and looked at his niece. He gave her a half-smile.

“Sorcha, there’s nothing wrong with being mad about that. But you’ve gotta figure out someday that it’s not up to you to be judge, jury, and executioner. If you’d come down here and told me that, this would be playing out a lot better for you – and a lot worse for the arresting officer. Okay?”

Sorcha nodded, just a bit. The fight had gone out of her. She was led into the cell without incident, and curled up in a ball on the lone cot, wishing she was anywhere but there.

* * *

“So why are you wearing a toga? What happened to your suit?”

“I…don’t really want to talk about it,” Ted said. He was truly glad to see Hala, and Alex was at least not trying to hit him or Tigoni anymore, but he couldn’t help feeling that he wouldn’t have minded another hour or two alone with Tig.

“I’m not saying it’s not a good look, but seriously, how’d you lose it?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” Ted got up and walked away, pacing.

“I don’t get it. What happened?”

“It’s…I got found by a couple giants….”

Alex was sitting sullenly on the end of the bed, while Tig watched over Ted and Hala, who were closer to her. He heard the conversation, though, and couldn’t help but hear the quaver in Ted’s voice. He turned, and even from a good twenty meters, he could read Ted’s face. He’d seen that look before.

“It’s okay,” Alex said, standing up. “You don’t have to talk about it. He doesn’t have to talk about it, Major.”

“But….”

Alex did his best imitation of the look Rixie gave him when he was being particularly ridiculous, which he only got seven or eight times a day. “He doesn’t need to talk about it!” Then quietly, he said to Ted, “If you want to, ever, when you do…you let me know, okay? If not me, let someone know. I know that…it happens. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I know,” Ted said. “Just not quite ready. I…Tig saw. She stunned them. It wasn’t pretty.”

“I should’ve killed them,” she said, bitterly.

“You’re in enough trouble,” Ted replied with a smile.

The door chimed.

Tigoni sighed. She looked briefly at the stun-prod, but decided against picking it up. “Well…sorry, but this is probably security. You guys, hide in the pillow. I’ll make sure they don’t find you.”

“Tig….”

“Ted…I’ll find a way to get back to you. I promise.” She bent down, quickly, and kissed him full on the head; he returned it as best he could. She pulled back, and said, “Now, hurry!”

She straightened her flight suit, opened the door, and came to parade rest.

The black-haired woman took one look at her, and she was upon her.

* * *

“So…now what?”

Alesia looked out from the vent in which they’d ensconced themselves. “Honestly, I don’t know. I keep trying to think through brilliant plans to save your crew and get them back to the Lem, and keep realizing that there’s really no way to make that happen. I’m sorry; I feel like at this point I can’t offer anything but scavenging, or maybe smuggling you off the base.”

“It’s not your fault,” Tatenda Marechera said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “You have done your best to handle an impossible task. We all have. Now, it’s time to surrender.”

“Surrender? Who’s surrenderin’?”

Alesia turned, and sighed with relief. “Darren, it’s good to see you.”

“You too, bright-eyes. Gentlemen,” he said, executing a perfect salute, “Master Sergeant Darren Avery Xanthopolous, United States Army, retired, at your service.”

“United States…you’re American?”

“I’m a Texan,” Darren said with a smile. “And I s’pose that makes me an American too.”

“So…you came from Earth? There are humans from Earth out here?”

“There are,” Darren said, quietly. “Not a lot of us, but some. I got picked up by accident when the Titans came to pick up one of their people who’d been stranded on Earth. Army was holding her at Area 51, I was her minder. They didn’t notice that there were a couple of us with her when they grabbed her.”

“There…one of their people was on Earth?”

“Yup. Long story, she’d been there since she was a kid. Not sure anyone on the planet had put together that she was an alien, and not sure it would’ve mattered much if we had. Now, I heard something about y’all surrendering; just wonderin’ what your thinking is?”

“I don’t relish the idea of surrender, Sergeant,” said Marechera. “I just don’t think there’s much more we can do. My place is with my crew. I am executive officer of the Lem; I can’t let them rot in jail while I roam free.”

Darren listened, and nodded. “Well, I assume Alesia told you we can get you off-world.”

“And my crew?”

“Much tougher. Especially at this point.”

“As I said…my place is with my crew. Can you get us to the detention level?”

Darren looked at Alesia, who looked back at him. He sighed; if there was one thing he could understand, it was loyalty. “Yeah,” he said. “I can. Come on.”

* * *

Tig staggered backward and hit the bed, dropping to the ground; Rixie moved forward, and prepared to defend against the woman who’d already robbed her of her voice; she stood over her, waiting, waiting, waiting.

As Tig continued not to mount any defense, Rixie grew frustrated. She’d really hoped the woman would put up a good fight when she found her; as annoyed as she was at getting stunned, she wasn’t going to beat someone who wasn’t trying to beat on her.

“I’m sorry,” Tig groaned, as she struggled to a sitting position. “I didn’t know you were trying to help Maj. Nejem.”

Rixie raised an eyebrow, but stayed on guard.

“I was trying to free her. I know, I’m probably going to the brig for it, but we shouldn’t have been holding her. Oh, and Alex is safe. Guys? It’s Rixie. You can come out.”

Alex peeked around the pillow, and fairly ran to the edge of the bed. “Don’t scare me like that!” he yelled. “It’s not good for my heart!”

Rixie sighed, and shrugged. She grabbed the pad, and typed in, I’ll remember that next time.

“Oh, great. Tigoni, you shorted out her voice box, god damn it.”

“Huh?” Ted asked, as he rounded the corner.

“Oh, hey, Rixie, this is Col. Ted Martínez. Colonel, Rixie has an artificial voice box. She traded her real one for magic beans.”

Rixie knew Alex better than anyone alive, better than she knew herself. He was calm and at ease, if worried about her. This woman may have stunned her…but Alex didn’t see her as a threat.

Relaxing just a bit, Rixie rolled her eyes. I got shot in the throat. Alex, I can trade you in at any time.

“Oh, come on. You wouldn’t trade in the guy who’s gonna fix your voice for you, would you? Do you have my pack?”

Rixie fished his bag out of her pocket and handed it to him; Alex grabbed a pad that secured to one wrist and a flashlight that secured to another, and picked up a couple small tools, shoving them in his pocket. “It’s gotta be some bad chips in the master control unit. It’s an easy fix. Won’t take more than ten minutes.”

And since when do you know how to fix my voice box?

“Have you forgotten about Dhan?”

Rixie shuddered, but continued on. Dhan showed you how to break my voice box. When did you learn how to fix it?

“Well, you human-proofed your remote modulator, so I decided to read up on the schematics so I could mess with your vocal register…and perhaps I’ve said too much,” Alex said, grinning, as Rixie closed her eyes and shook her head, slightly.

And when were you going to try this?

“Remember that time a few years ago when you were having trouble sleeping and I recommended you take those sleeping pills that put you right out, and you said you didn’t think you needed them and I started swearing? Definitely not then.”

Just fix the damn voice box, Rixie typed, frowning at Alex. If you’d known her as long as Alex had, though, you would have caught the crinkle around her eyes that betrayed her amusement.

“All right, open wide…did you have the last cookie? You’ve got cookie breath,” Alex said, as Rixie set him gently on her tongue.

Alex turned on the flashlight, and moved to the very back of her throat. He saw the access panel and opened it; sure enough, a few of the solid-state memory chips had been fried. Pulling the bad ones and moving the good chips around wouldn’t give Rixie a perfect voice, but at least she’d be able to talk. Carefully, trying not to go so far back as to choke her, he set to work.

“I swear, Rix, you had the last cookie,” he said, pulling the first chip.

Did not, Rixie typed.

“Did too,” Alex said, continuing to work.

Checking first to make sure she was well clear of the Terran astronauts, Rixie sat down on the bed. She did her best to ignore the nervous twitch that was telling her to either swallow or gag; instead, she picked up the pad, and typed, So what the hell am I supposed to do with you?

“Me?” Tig asked.

I doubt anyone else struck a flag officer today.

“You’re a flag officer?”

Yup. Magister-Imperator.

“An Imperator too. Great. Well, I guess I really have booked my ticket to Rura Penthe.”

You really have. What were you thinking?

Tig looked down at Ted, and gave him a smile. “I found Col. Martínez last night. After talking to him, I decided that someone had to try to free Maj. Nejem. I…they’re people. Like you, like me. Smaller, but so what? Our holding her is a crime; our refusing to let her return to her ship is a crime. I know I committed more than a few crimes, but I did so in an attempt to end one even greater. I would do it again.”

Rixie looked at Tig, and gave her the slightest of smiles. It may not have been the most effective way to help.

“Maybe not, but I was on the ship that hit theirs. This is my fault. I have to look myself in the mirror; I have to look Ted in the eye. I’d rather go to a penal colony than know that I could have done the right thing, but didn’t.”

“Rixie – ma’am – that’s not true. She’s lying!” Ted said, finding his voice.

I was on the other end of her stun-prod. I think she’s telling the truth.

“I’m not saying she wasn’t there. Just…I put her up to it. I…um…threatened to destroy the station. She was just trying to protect it. It’s…if I hadn’t….”

Ted sighed. “Look, Tig was trying to help us. And it’s my fault I got her caught up in it. I will plead to anything you ask me to.”

Rixie smiled at him, then jerked as Alex accidentally hit a nerve, then smiled again. Well, this is interesting testimony. If true, I have to detain you.

“Hala told me the entire crew of the Lem has been captured. They’re already detained. I’ll go with them. I’ll take whatever punishment you want to give me.”

Rixie looked over at Tig, who was staring, open-mouthed at Ted. “You don’t…Ted, you don’t have to….”

“My own free will, Tig,” he said, quietly.

Tig reached out and stroked his back, gently. “Maybe we’ll both end up on Rura Penthe together.”

“I could live with that,” he said.

Rixie did her best to suppress her smile; she caught Hala out of the corner of her eye, who was staring at the other two in near awe. This explained pretty much everything, Rixie thought.

All right. May end up having to arrest you both. May not. In no rush. We’ll see in a few hours. For now, just don’t stun me again.

Tigoni grinned sheepishly. “I really am sorry.”

Apology accepted. So it’s Tig?

“Decanus Tigoni Belfsec, second class, ma’am.”

Rixie Tam, Rixie said, reaching out a hand. Tig took her wrist primarily out of surprise. She had envisioned many possible outcomes from her actions; this was not on the list.

“Rix?”

Yes, Alex?

“Try and say ‘ah.’”

Doing her best not to dislodge Alex, Rixie said “Ah,” and sound came out. Of course, it was tinny, and about four octaves above her usual voice, but it was sound nonetheless.

“All right, step one’s complete. Now, let me just….”

Alex slid just a little bit forward, closing the first miniature access panel, and trying to reach the manual pitch regulator; he could swing it as low as it could go, and Rixie would stop sounding like she’d been sped up. Unfortunately, Rixie’s tongue was slick with saliva, as tongues tend to be, and Alex wasn’t quite aware of where his center of gravity was. Which meant before he knew it, he was sliding into Rixie’s throat.

“Gah! Rixie! A little help!” he called out.

Rixie, for her part, was dealing with having a three-inch tall man suddenly fall into her throat the way most everyone would – by choking. Alex had slid just into her esophagus, and had managed to push her epiglottis shut; he was so far in that Rixie could not pull him up. On instinct, more than anything, she swallowed.

“Wrong way wrong way wrong way!” Alex cried, as smooth muscles pulled him downward, head-first, dumping him unceremoniously in her stomach.

“Oh, Gods, Alex! Are you okay?” Rixie’s voice rang out. It still had the basic pitch and timbre of a chipmunk, but at least it was comprehensible.

Alex fired up his pad, and quickly connected it to hers. Rixie swallowed hard as she heard him say, “Yup. I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Seriously, Alex!” Rixie said, trying to ignore her mounting panic. “Are you hurt? I can…what can I….”

“Settle down, Rix. Remember Dhan? It’s not urgent. Not fun, but I’ll be okay. Seriously.”

Rixie took a deep breath. “All right,” she squeaked. “All right.”

“This is the thanks I get for trying to make your voice work.”

Rixie chuckled. He really was okay. “Don’t dive into my throat next time,” she said.

Alex looked around. “Hey! You said you didn’t eat the last cookie!”

Rixie rolled her eyes. “Well, I was hungry, and busy looking for you.”

“Must have been. You ate me.”

“Not on purpose.”

“Whatever, Alpha.”

“Alpha?”

“You know, from….”

“Up. Right. You’ve only made me watch it 84 times.”

“Well, that opening scene makes me feel all the feels.”

“Don’t try to distract me from the fact you just called me Alpha.”

“…it’s because you’re so tough?”

“Ha ha. Anyhow, you’re down there. If you want some of the cookie, feel free to share.”

“Ew, it’s all chewed on.”

“Then don’t eat it if you don’t want to.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Rixie looked over to the bed, which Tig leaned against. Ted and Hala were leaning against each other for support, looking very much as if they had seen a ghost. Tig looked less stunned and more confused.

“You ate him!” Hala finally said, as her voice found its way back to her. “And you’re joking about it?”

“I know, but…It’s not as bad as you think,” Rixie said, in a voice that did, quite frankly, sound exactly like Alpha’s.

“Not as bad…you ate him!”

“It wasn’t on purpose! And don’t worry, he’ll be okay. Titans don’t digest food as quickly as humans, our stomachs aren’t as acidic. Alex is safe for the next 24 hours or so, though I don’t really know if I can trust him down there that long.”

“I…have you brainwashed him? How on Archavia do you swallow him and have him chattering away?” Tig asked.

“Alex would be chattering away if someone sawed off his arms. It’s one of his most endearing qualities.”

“Ha! You said I was endearing.”

“It’s the only thing that saves you,” Rixie said.

“You two have an interesting relationship, don’t you?” Ted mused.

“Just make sure you get him out safe,” Tig said. “You know, he attacked me when he saw me, because he saw me fighting you? I might actually have a small bruise on my knee from it.”

“Look, Ms. Belfsec, Major Nejem, Col. Martínez – I appreciate your concern, but I’ve been working for human rights probably longer than you’ve been alive. I’ve stabbed a woman in the leg to get her to vomit up a human who she’d swallowed, and my only regret is that I didn’t slit her throat while I was at it. If I think for one second that Alex is in danger, I will cut myself open to get him out, without hesitation. However, I’m thinking if we can find a standard emetic, that won’t be necessary.”

Tigoni gave Rixie a shy smile. “Sorry,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure.”

Rixie returned it, warmly. “I know.”

Hala sighed. “Well, he sounds okay. It just…you’ve gotta admit….”

“I’d be terrified too. But I mean it. He’ll make it out safely. I promise.”

It was an odd feeling, having Alex inside her; it wasn’t altogether unpleasant. Not that she intended to do it ever again, mind you. She was just glad Alex had enough savoir-faire to roll with it, and more important, that she knew he was there.

“Hey, Rix?”

“Yes, Alex?”

“You do owe me one, you know. When we get home, I’m gonna…well, I’ll think of something.”

“I’m sure you will. You usually do.”

“Oh, one more thing,” Alex said.

“Hm?”

“This cookie’s really good.”

Rixie’s stomach turned, and not just because of the human inside her. “You know what? You keep being that disgusting, I won’t need an emetic.”

* * *

“Are we ready, Centurium Oden?”

Kir swallowed. He hated this. Hated it with a passion.

It didn’t matter who was on the other end of the line. He was doing an end run around his commanding officer. He was violating the chain of command.

That he was doing so on direct orders from the supreme commander of the military was beside the point.

“We’re almost ready, Navarchos Imperii. We have all but four of the crew in custody in the detention wing; everything is rigged up.”

“Good. And you’ve transmitted the codes to me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Excellent. I certainly hope I do not have to use this, but I am grateful that you helped me create this little insurance policy.”

“Of course, sir.”

“And don’t worry about the reports that come down after this sorry incident is through. In fact, there will be a position opening up at Archavia Bata Station. It’s lovely, have you been? I’ll need a base commander there. You’re my man, Centurium Oden.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Remember, we never talked.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kir switched off the feed. He hated this, but given that the Narvarchos Imperii had contacted him directly, warning him that he’d be demoted if he did not comply…well, the loss of rank hadn’t bothered him. But the news that his niece’s application to the academy would be summarily denied…he didn’t have a choice.

Not that it made him feel better. In a lot of ways, it made him feel worse.