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  “Were those your orders?”

  “Not precisely, sir.” She squared her shoulders. “You ordered mitigation. I mitigated. It worked.” She heard Boker, beside her, exhale audibly and sink lower in his seat.

  “So it did,” Dakad said. His violet eyes moved over the other pilots. “By risking another pilot and another plane in deciding to land a Kite on unknown terrain in rebel-held territory for which you knew we had faulty intel. Is that your idea of mitigation?”

  “As I said, there was enough time before the skimmers reached the site. My intent, until I saw the damage, was to switch planes with Lieutenant Tonda.”

  “Really,” the captain said. “And why is that? Because you’re so much better a pilot than he is?”

  She frowned briefly. All of them knew that she was the better pilot. “Well, yes. Sir.” She noted a dangerous twitch in his eye. “And he was injured, sir. It seemed a good idea at the time.”

  “A good idea is for you to stick to SOP.”

  “Yessir.”

  “Why are we here, Whiteside?”

  “On Bellac, sir?”

  “Are you someplace else?”

  Nova felt herself begin to sweat, wondering what point the captain had to make in front of her squad. “No, sir.” She glanced at the other pilots. “Air Command’s mission on Bellac Tau is to remove the Shri-Lan rebels from the rim towns and provide security while the elevator to the new orbiter is constructed.”

  “And why do we give a damn about a bunch of cattle herders on the other end of this godforsaken desert?”

  “We need Bellac Tau to join the Union,” she began by rote. “The new jumpsite we just mapped will cut interstellar travel to Magra by half but it’s situated inside Bellac air space. Taking stewardship of the site will let us control rebel activity in this sub-sector. Bellac won’t let us post a manned relay near the gate until the rebel is neutralized on the surface and the skyranch is complete.”

  Dakad nodded. “And what problem do we have here, Whiteside?”

  She suppressed a sigh. “We’re shorthanded, under-equipped, under-supplied and outnumbered by Rhuwacs,” she said, echoing a complaint he voiced at every opportunity but leaving out the expletives that usually accompanied it.

  He raised his arms and addressed the rest of the group. “And so you decide to be a hero and gamble another pilot and another plane because you think you know how long it takes to extract an injured pilot from a crash site.”

  “Given the option…” she began.

  “Yes, Whiteside? What were the options?”

  She winced. “Mitigation. Destroying the plane on the ground. With Tonda in it.”

  “Which you refused to consider.”

  “You told me to handle it,” she said, irritated now. “So I did.”

  “By risking your life and plane over a rookie pilot. A greenie,” he added, referring to the green uniforms issued at the flight academies. His eyes narrowed. “Because you don’t have the nerve to make that call when it gets down to it.”

  She took a deep breath, now only moments from losing her temper. Before she could voice her views on teamwork and duty to one’s squadron she felt a tap on her foot. When she glanced down at Boker she saw him shake his head in a minute gesture. She remained silent.

  “You’re escorting the Yasser transport for the next five days,” Dakad said. “Dismissed. All of you.” He stomped from the shed without looking at any of them again.

  Nova dropped into her seat with a groan and a curse while the other six pilots slowly moved to the exit.

  One of the Centauri, Lieutenant Sulean, turned back. “Thanks for getting him out, Whiteside,” he said. “We’ll go check on him.”

  She nodded and watched them leave. Their Caspian wingman shuffled by and slowed to tap her shoulder, as did Lieutenant Sulean. Finally only Boker and the other Human, Rolyn, remained.

  Boker turned to her. “You took that beating well, Whiteside,” he said.

  She closed her eyes for a moment. “What the hell was that about?”

  “The man’s an ass,” he shrugged. “He’s wrong and that’s his way of making sure we get our story straight. He couldn’t hold it together trying to run the scramble in town and manage you out there as well. You called in just after Avlin went down. Easier to just pull the plug on your problem. If you had actually followed procedure we’d be short one Tonda now and it would have been Dakad’s fault for losing his wad.”

  She sat up. “Did he really expect me to give Tonda up just like that? Is that what you do here?”

  He shook his head. “Any pilot worth his plane would have tried to extract Tonda. You did right. You had enough time but Dakad’ll never admit it. But this isn’t Targon or Magra or wherever you came from. Best to just shut up and let it happen. It’s only a six month tour.”

  The pilots gathered up their gear and left the building. A hot breeze pushed dust across the tarmac and the sun glared red over the horizon, about to drop off the plateau on which the base was built. The ground crew, nearing the end of their shift, seemed less energetic now in preparing for the last of the returning squads.

  “Do you think I’ll have to hear more about this?” Nova asked.

  “Nah,” Rolyn said. “He doesn’t want any attention on this or he’d have given you more than babysitting chores as punishment. But watch him take the credit for saving the pilot, if not the plane. By tonight what you did will be what he meant by ‘mitigate’ all along.”

  “And no mention made about the bunker you took out by yourself,” Boker added.

  “That flight better count!”

  “Has to,” Rolyn assured her. “We saw the video. How short are you now?”

  Nova pretended to calculate the numbers she carried engraved in her heart and mind. “If I get proper credit for this sortie, I’ll need sixty more hours to qualify.”

  Boker whistled. “Almost there, then. We’ll have a bona fide Hunter Class pilot in our midst. Don’t get hard to talk to.”

  “Well, that’s just to qualify. I still have to get through the tests.”

  He waved his hands in a dismissive gesture that nearly caught Rolyn across the forehead. “Bah, can’t be harder than pulling a greenie out of a downed plane on the side of a hill. Been a long day, Whiteside. How about you join me and Rolie for a bottle of the rotgut after chow?”

  Nova smiled at the officer. This was the first time she was so casually included in their downtime since she had arrived here. She felt like something had changed here today, finally. And if it meant taking a dressing down from the captain it had been worth it. But she had long ago decided to keep a careful distance between herself and some of the male pilots’ afterhours entertainment. Unfortunately, other than a few mechanics and some base staff, there were few women here, none of them pilots, with whom she could share her free time. Something else she had to get used to out here, she supposed. “Thanks, but I think I’ll go hug my pillow. If I have to shuttle to Yassar and back all day I’ll need to stay awake.” She waved and jumped onto a runabout heading to the hangars.

  Chapter Two

  The smile still hadn’t left Nova’s face when the service cart turned toward one of the outbuildings, leaving her at the main hangar. Cutting through the repair bays would take her straight to the pilots’ dorms before the others beat her to the decon facilities. A quick bite of whatever was to be found in the mess hall followed by a long sleep was the only thing on her mind now. Despite the captain’s tirade, this had been a remarkable day, indeed.

  The main work shift was winding down in the bays, too. No night flights had been scheduled and the techs had put away their tools until the morning. Bellac’s swift rotation made for short nights and all species used to longer rests tried to manage as much of that as possible.

  She ducked through a row of planes waiting for their service and then scaled an elevated catwalk. The heavy tread of several pairs of boots on metal stairs made it clear that she was not the only one taking this
shortcut. Ahead of her another catwalk met the one she was using and she saw a ground combat squad ambling toward her. The shadowless glare of the overhead lights revealed five Centauri and three Human soldiers, likely just now returning from one of the Rim towns for downtime. One of them grabbed another’s arm as if to shove him over the low railing and into the repair pits below. The others laughed raucously when he pulled the smaller man back just in time, earning a barrage of insults involving his dubious parentage.

  Nova smiled to herself but kept walking, hoping to reach the doors at the far end of the walkway before one of these louts decided to give her a fright, too. But she had most definitely used up her allotment of good luck for the day. The men reached the intersection before she did and there were a few elbow nudges when they discovered her walking toward them. Most of them nodded to her, the two sergeants among them saluted casually, and they kept walking.

  All but three. Nova groaned inwardly when they stopped to wait for her approach. Base grunts, from the looks of them. Shaved heads, sweat-stained shirts and ill-used fatigues. Neckless blocks of muscle designed for close combat of which, judging by the mass of scars covering one of the soldiers’ neck and arm, they had seen plenty.

  “Lieutenant,” the towering Centauri greeted her. The two Humans with him casually stepped into the middle of the walkway.

  “Evening,” she said with a glance over the railing. There was no one down there now. The other soldiers had neared the doors and did not look back. Nova continued her brisk pace as if the two Humans were not in her way. They had little choice but to step aside or risk colliding with her. As she passed, she felt a large hand on her rump, tightening to squeeze her almost painfully. She whirled around to glare at the man.

  “You got a problem, soldier?” she said angrily.

  He grinned and raised his hands in mocking defense. “No harm intended. Just hard to pass up such a nice ass, is all. Not many of those around here.”

  She scowled at him. “Who’s your CO?”

  The men stared at her for a moment before laughing in unison. “Got a complaint, do you?” the Centauri said. “Complain about this.” He grabbed her upper arm to draw her close but he did not pursue the matter when she pushed away from him.

  “I don’t think she likes you,” his Human companion said.

  “I don’t think I like any of you,” she said. “I don’t suggest you try that again.”

  The easy grin on the Centauri’s face disappeared. “Or what?” He gripped her arm again only to find her pistol jammed under his nose. He froze when he heard the quiet whine of the charge in the sudden silence.

  “Don’t be looking for trouble, girl,” the scarred Lieutenant said after a stunned moment.

  “Back,” she said evenly to the Centauri who obeyed her command. “I am looking for dinner, not to entertain a bunch of Rhuwac-brained grunts.”

  A door below them screeched on its metal track and some sort of cart trundled into the space. Nova took that startled moment to turn and rush toward the door into the main base, not quite willing to give the men the satisfaction of seeing her run, but not wasting any time reaching the more populated hallways beyond.

  * * *

  Finally! Nova thought when, an hour later, she returned to her small room. After a visit to the floor’s decon station for a clean-up and a hurried stop for dinner she was ready to fall into her cot. Her quarters, like those of the other junior officers, offered little in the way of luxury or comfort but luckily, as the only female pilot on this small base, she had no roommate.

  “Yes, yes, time for bed,” she said to a picture of a grush cat someone had sketched for her after hearing that she had never owned a pet. An Air Command military base on one planet or another was all she had ever known as home and neither the lack of amenities nor pets had ever bothered her. An army brat from birth, the frugal soldier’s accommodations were all the homey comforts she needed.

  She slipped into a robe and took a few moments to comb her thick mane of copper hair, more than ready for sleep.

  A knock on her door forced a tired groan from her lips. “I’m asleep. Go away!”

  “It’s Captain Beryl, Lieutenant. A word, please.”

  She frowned and went to the door to open it for the officer. “Is there an emergency, sir?” she asked, surprised when the man stepped into her room without invitation. He was not her commanding officer and his late-night visit was certainly out of the ordinary. She had seen him on the base many times; his prime function was to oversee the movement of troops between the home base and their various combat missions into the Rim towns. Like his men, he was a hulking, scarred tank, distinguishable from them only by his insignia.

  He looked around the room before turning to her. “I hear you met some of my boys today,” he said.

  Her brow furrowed. “Yes, they were definitely behaving like boys. It’s a shame, seeing how two of them were officers.”

  He nodded. “The ones you assaulted.”

  “What?” she exclaimed. Had she heard that wrong?

  “You drew your gun on one of my men. What were you thinking?”

  “Look, Captain,” she said, feeling anger rise to where it would soon cause her to say something unbecoming an officer. She pointed at the door to show him out. “Take your grievances to my CO. It’s late and this is not the time for this conversation. Or the place.”

  “Last time I checked I’m the one who says what it’s time for,” he said. “You pilots seem to think that rank and file doesn’t matter out here. Well it does, Lieutenant. On this mission your fucking arrogance will get you killed. So stand at attention when addressing a superior.”

  Reluctantly, Nova complied.

  “That’s better,” he said. “You’re new here, Whiteside. You don’t know how this base is run. Pissing off those men can be a very dangerous way to spend your time here.”

  Nova said nothing. Beryl wasn’t here to get her side of the story.

  He turned in the small space and perched on the edge of her storage cabinet. “This place is hard on a man,” he said. “Long deployments, hot weather, crap food, snipers, fucking rebels using every trick never taught in basic training.”

  She wondered if she was expected to sympathize with him at this point. He looked like he’d never had a comfortable tour of duty in his life. Why was he complaining to her?

  “So the boys have to cut loose once in a while. You know there aren’t a lot of women on the base. A man gets tired of the Bellac whores here. Getting your ass grabbed once in a while isn’t exactly worth shooting people over.”

  “If you value discipline so much you should be instilling that into your men. I’m not here for their amusement.”

  “You don’t get it, do you, Whiteside?” His eyes had settled on her chest and seemed content to stay there. “If you can’t handle that sort of prank you should not have come here. You could have taken another assignment instead of front line. So now you’re going to have to fit in.”

  “This is outrageous!” she hissed. “I’m an Air Command officer. Your men were out of line.”

  “I know,” he said and rose to his full height. “I can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  “Good,” she said. “No apologies needed. Just tell them to stay out of my way.”

  He took a step closer to her. She flinched when he raised a massive hand to cup her chin. “They will stay away from you if they knew you were... under my personal protection.”

  She blinked, not sure if she understood what he was proposing. “What?”

  His hand came to rest on her shoulder. “No one will touch you again as long as you show me a little appreciation for that.”

  Nova laughed harshly. “You’re out of your mind. Get out of my room.”

  A terrible darkness moved over his already severe features. Before she could react he tore her loosely tied robe open and reached around her to pin her arms behind her back. She gasped when he forced her bare chest to press against his. �
��Then how about I show you what you can expect from my boys,” he growled.

  She struggled to escape his grip, overwhelmed by his size and strength.

  “Go ahead, yell. Digger’s in the hallway. Just don’t think he’ll be rescuing you if he comes in here.”

  She snapped her head forward and sunk her teeth into the skin of his jaw.

  He reeled back, releasing her to clutch his face, checking for blood. “Little bitch!” He grabbed her arm when she turned to run to the door. Nova suddenly found herself airborne when he flung her across the room, over her bunk, to careen into the wall. A sickening bolt of pain shot through her shoulder when she crashed to the floor.

  Beryl lurched over her bunk to haul her up again. “Looks like you popped a joint there, Whiteside,” he said and pushed her down onto the bed.

  Nova struggled weakly, fighting an urge to either throw up or faint, aware of little more than the pain from her dislocated shoulder. She stared in disbelief when he reached down to unbuckle his fatigues. She had to get out of here, get away from this monster now clutching her legs.

  “Could have done this friendly.” The captain leaned over her when she tried to roll away. He pressed one hand over her mouth and the other onto the grotesque lump distending her shoulder. She screamed into his hand until, almost gratefully, she passed out.

  * * *

  She was alone now. Alone with pain that flared up the moment she stirred on her bed. She groaned loudly and then pinched her lips tight when, little by little, she shifted her body until she finally sat on the edge of her bed.

  Nova looked around her room as if her assailant might still be lurking in one of its corners. How long has she been unconscious?

  Painfully, she pushed herself off the bed and fought a wave of dizziness before she could see again. It seemed to take forever to pull on a pair of loose-fitting trousers and fasten her robe. Tears of pain and anger spilled over her face and she wiped at them away, annoyed with herself to have fallen into Beryl’s trap. This wasn’t the academy and this wasn’t Targon. She had already seen enough here to realize the difference between the stringently ruled airfields where she had trained and worked and this backwater outpost. She had hoped to learn much during a tour under rougher conditions but this lesson was not one she had prepared for.