“What about my ship?”
“We pulled her into the hangar. She’s being refueled. You can get her back when we’re clear.”
That brought him back. “Clear?”
“Those gentlemen who were taking potshots at you? Our escort’s back making sure they don’t get too happy about following us. Once the relief ships actually get here, I expect you’ll be on your way.”
“You got some coming, then?”
“Oh my, yes,” the doctor said, with a sigh. “Half a dozen of our finest. Probably more than we need, but we’re not in a place where anyone wants to take risks.”
“I’m right there with ’em on that,” Alex said, closing his eyes. The silence felt weird. He opened them again. The doctor stood where she had been before, her smile as it had been, her hands clasped lightly in front of her. There were tears in her eyes.
“Some things happened while you were out,” she said. “You should probably know about them.”
Bobbie stood up and hugged him hard as soon as he walked into the debriefing room. She wore a flight jumpsuit just like the one they’d provided him. They didn’t say anything at first. It felt strange, being enveloped in her arms. She was much larger than him and stronger besides. He would have imagined that being held like that by an attractive woman would have had some erotic element, but all he felt was a deep sense of their shared vulnerability.
He’d never been on Earth. He didn’t know it there. Until now, he wouldn’t have said he had any particular connection to the place. That he was wrong about that was a revelation. A quarter billion dead between the strikes and the tsunamis. And many more soon. Already the newsfeeds were reporting failures of infrastructure, and surface temperatures were dropping toward freezing in the springtime northern hemisphere under the vast clouds of dust and water and debris. The major cities had fusion reactors for power, but everywhere that still relied on distributed solar was running out of battery reserves. Billions more lights going dark. The secretary-general was dead, as were an unknown number of assembly representatives. The military was calling back ships from all parts of the solar system, making a cordon around the planet in fear of further strikes. The failed coup on Tycho and the dark fleet that they’d stumbled into, it all felt like a footnote to what had happened to humanity’s home world.
And the worst thing was no one knew who’d done it all. Or why.
Bobbie let him go and stepped back. He saw the same hollowness he felt reflected in her eyes.
“Holy shit,” he said.
“Yeah.”
Everything about the debriefing room expressed safety, comfort. The lights were indirect and shadowless. The walls had the same warm brown as the medical bay. Crash couches surrounded a small, built-in table instead of a desk. It was the kind of space Alex associated with psychiatrists’ offices in films. Bobbie looked around too, seeming to see the place anew now that Alex was there. She nodded to a small alcove opposite the door.
“You want some tea? They have tea.”
“Sure,” Alex said. “Okay. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. I mean, I’m a little shook, but they didn’t put me in the med bay,” she said. “What kind do you want? They’ve got orange pekoe, oolong, chamomile—”
“I don’t know what any of those are.”
“Me either. So. Okay, you get oolong.”
The machine hissed. She handed him a bulb. It felt warm in his hand and had a subtle smell of smoke and water. Alex sat at the table and tried a sip, but it was too hot. Bobbie sat beside him.
“That was some pretty amazing flying,” she said. “I’m almost sorry I wasn’t there to see it.”
“I would have warned you, but, you know. Heat of the moment.”
She shook her head. “No objections. If I’d been tensed up, I’d have probably popped open an old wound or stroked out or something. I watched the flight data. Seriously, I was in this room wearing a fresh suit and looking at recordings, and there were still a few seconds there I didn’t think we were going to make it.”
The admiration in her voice felt warmer than the tea. He was pretty sure he was blushing, and hoped it didn’t show. “Yeah, it was a squeaker. Good damned thing you remembered the convoy here too. I wasn’t coming up with anything. Do we know who the hell those ships are?”
“No. Most of the escort’s pulled off to cover us, and so far it looks like it’s working. But no transponder signals from the bad guys. No demands or threats or anything.”
“Creepy.” The tea had cooled enough now. “Any chance they’ll let me send a message back to the captain?”
Bobbie sighed and spread her hands. “Eventually, yeah. They’ve been treating us like friendlies, but it may be a while before they hand us access to the comm arrays. We’re still in a fight, even if we’re not at the middle of it.”
“What did you tell them?”
Bobbie’s brow furrowed. “The truth, only it doesn’t come out real well.”
“Meaning?”
“I said we were out there looking for missing ships hiding under new transponder signals because of a tip from James Holden.”
“Huh. Yeah, that does sound a little ominous when you say it out loud, doesn’t it?”
“They wanted to know how he knew to look there, and what my relationship was to Holden. I mean, they kind of knew about you, so it was more about why I was shipping with you.”
“What was the answer for that?”
“Old friends, and the fact that you were Navy. You know ships. I’m just a ground-pounder. But that got me into talking about looking at black market issues back at home, and you asking around on Hecate for me and the dead guy and the guys who attacked me.”
“So the other dead guys.”
“Well, yeah. And after that, it seemed like they were a little suspicious when I said I didn’t know anything.”
Alex leaned forward. His body still felt weak and shaky. “At least they don’t think we’re part of… you know. That.”
The door opened softly, almost apologetically. The man who came in was older, his hair a well-crafted white. He wore a suit instead of a uniform or jumpsuit. He looked like a particularly avuncular lawyer. Two marines came in behind him in full armor. They didn’t acknowledge Alex or Bobbie, just took positions at either side of the door. The white-haired man beamed at Alex and then Bobbie and then back at Alex again.
“Mr. Kamal!” he said. His voice matched his appearance. “I’m so glad to see that you’re up and around. I was hoping to have a word with you about this present unpleasantness, yes?”
Alex shot a glance at Bobbie. Her shrug was almost invisible. This wasn’t someone she knew.
“Of course,” Alex said. “Anything I can do to help.”
“Good, good, good,” the man said, then lifted a finger. “But first.”
He sat down at the table, and an oddly mild scowl came over his face. Alex felt like they were about to be gently chided by the head of school. “Sergeant Draper, I was wanting to ask you why the government of Earth is demanding to speak with you. Have you been in contact with them?”
Bobbie’s face went gray and pale. Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh, I am so sorry,” she said. “You look so different on video. I didn’t recognize you, sir. Alex, this is Prime Minister Smith.”
Alex hopped to his feet. “Oh! I’m sorry, sir. With everything going on out on Ilus and such, I didn’t follow the elections last time.”
One of the guards coughed in a way that might have hidden laughter. Prime Minister Smith’s scowl shifted to something slightly more authentic and nonplussed. He motioned Alex to sit back down. “Yes, well. No harm, of course. But, to the question. Have you been working with the government of Earth?”