He stepped into Smith's office, alone.

This was no ordinary debrief. No other operatives accompanied him into the lion's mouth, no back up, no support. Darien tried to keep himself calm, bracing for the avalanche that was about to come crashing down on his head. One by one the others had been summoned before him, escorted by marines to confront the head of Blink operations.

The moment he'd thrown his career as a Blink operative under the bus replayed itself over and over in his mind. He could see Theodore Logan's panicked, disbelieving face. He felt the kick of the Compac against his shoulder as he fired, ending a life in cold blood.

But he still stood by his decision. The long flight home from the dead, empty volume of space Logan had been using as a staging point had given Darien plenty of time to second guess his actions. He re-ran every decision, every step they'd taken aboard that ship and every single time his mind came to the same conclusion. The only way to ensure such a barbaric thing never happened again was to destroy the evidence.

All of it.

The door slid shut and Darien forced himself to look up.

At a glance Smith looked as calm and collected as ever. The all-too-familiar pen of filing cabinets lined the walls – to this day he still hadn't figured out why the man had such an archaic means of data storage clogging up his office. In the centre lay the arc of screens, Smith swivelling back and forth between them, his eyes flickering.

Darien wondered how the others had fared. This individual debriefing was unprecedented – Blink squads always gave their after-action reports as a group. Then again, he'd never disobeyed a direct order before. Had they spoken out against him? Had they blamed him for everything? His mind twisted at the thought, but he knew as a squad leader that the consequences of their actions, wrong or right, rested with him.

Niamh and Idas would back him to the hilt over anything, loyal, almost to a fault. Uther was a pragmatist, not prone to outbursts of emotion, and he'd raised no real objections either on board the ship or on their long trip home.

That left Amber and Hekket. Darien didn't need to be a mind reader to know that both of them seethed with resentment over his actions. He couldn't even blame them, really. All of them had been given the same pitch when they'd been recruited: being in Blink didn't make you a soldier, and it definitely didn't make you a killer. The situation they found themselves in had forced Darien's hand – made him overrule that promise – and he hated Logan even more for that.

"I believe you know why you're here," Smith said quietly, snapping Darien out of his thoughts. He swallowed hard and looked the head of Blink operations in the eye, jaw clenched tightly. He knew this would end badly – just how badly depended on his responses.

So he nodded once.

"I've spoken to the other members of Hammerhead Squad," Smith continued. "You received a somewhat...mixed review."

"They're individuals," Darien answered. "They have opinions. I'm not hiding from that."

"So I see." Smith leaned back in his seat pouring himself a drink of the clear, gleaming spirit from a crystalline decanter. "Before we go further, I will put your mind at rest over one thing I'm sure is troubling you. You were in command – you gave the orders and your team members followed them. That is what is expected of them. The consequences, therefore, however severe they may be, will fall solely on your head. The rest of your team will face no punitive measures."

He nodded again. "Good."

"So, perhaps you would like to explain why you thought killing Theodore Logan and destroying the ship he built was the most prudent course of action?"

Darien waited for a moment collecting his thoughts. Emotion wouldn't get him out of this. He needed Smith to understand why.

"I believed it was the safest thing to do."

"For whom? For you?"

"For anyone with the potential to Blink."

"And imprisoning Logan; confiscating his research – that wouldn't have had the same outcome?"

"No."

Smith's eyes narrowed. "And why not?"

"Because I believe that if he or his research had survived people would have been tempted to try again. No matter what I, or any of my team told you about what happened on that ship, sooner or later you would have come back to the data, to what you salvaged, and used it. I couldn't let that happen."

"So you think you understand my motivations?"

"Maybe not yours," Darien said. "But you have to take orders as well, remember? What happens if a year from now someone from on high tells you to start recreating those experiments, wants you to give them a ship that can Blink?"

"You're engaging in nothing but speculation, Darien."

"That was enough for me. It might be speculation now, but it could become a reality easily."

"So you destroyed Logan and all his research because of a fear of what might happen."

Darien shrugged. "If that's how you want the transcript to read, that's your business, Smith. I didn't come into this room to apologise for what I did. I didn't come here to try and save my own skin, because this wasn't about me."

A long, heavy silence hung in the air. Smith stared at him, fingers poised on the rim of his glass. Darien held his gaze, unflinching. The knowledge that no matter what happened he was heading for severe disciplinary action gave him a measure of calm. There was only so much damage he could do.

Eventually Smith spoke. "Because of your actions, we have learned nothing." He took a sip of his drink, sucking in a breath through clenched teeth. "Because of your actions nothing good will ever come of Logan's madness."

"Nothing good was ever going to come of it," Darien growled back, his control beginning to give way to anger. "That place was an abomination. They were torturing people just like me – just like the people in my squad. They murdered them; treated them like cattle. There's nothing that justifies those means."

"Nothing?" With a slow, deliberate motion, Smith turned the glass between his forefinger and thumb, staring at the liquid sloshing inside it. "I have to say, I'm disappointed in you, Darien. You normally have a gift for snap judgements. Until today, you've made the right calls. Now you've lost sight of the big picture. The colonial world is changing and without information, without knowledge we won't keep up."

He placed the glass down on the table. "I am not defending Logan's actions. And chances are he would have been tried and executed for his crimes anyway. That being said, you denied us the chance to understand his perspective, to know what he knew. What if someone else comes along with the same technology? What if another misguided individual manages to replicate a ship that can Blink? We have nothing to use against them. We will be swinging in the dark again, all because you let your emotions override your logic."

"That's easy for you to say sitting here behind your desk," Darien snarled, making a dismissive gesture to the cabinets around the room. "You didn't see what they did to those children. And they were children! Taken from their homes and families, turned into lab rats and slaughtered."

"It's not just Logan," Smith continued. "His death was one side of a coin. The ship itself was the other. You took that away too."

"It was the right thing to do."

"I'm afraid I don't see that at all."

"Logan was a single-minded lunatic!" Darien shouted suddenly, unable to contain himself any longer. "He was unique, an ex-Blink operative who couldn't handle losing the one thing that made him special. So he devoted the rest of his life to getting back what he lost. What he did was wrong, on every level and I did not want that poison getting out into the galaxy. So I made a choice and I stand by it!"

"It wasn't your decision to make, Darien," Smith said coldly. "And I believe I've heard enough. You disobeyed orders, killed a high-value asset and destroyed all the evidence we needed to put this matter to rest."

He ground his teeth together in frustration but didn't say anything more. There was no point. All he could do now was wait for the hammer to fall, and take the blow with as much dignity as he could muster.

Smith shook his head in disappointment. "You're suspended. Indefinitely. Now get out of my sight and get off of this station. Take your comm bracelet: I'll be in touch once I figure out what to do with you."

So there it was: a suspension he might never come back from. Darien stood for a moment, fighting down his anger, resisting the urge to jam a boot through the nearest computer screen. He reminded himself that no-one had forced him to make that choice. He needed to accept the consequences.

So, with his shoulders slumping in resignation, Darien turned and walked from the room, hands balled into fists by his sides.

He couldn't face the others, not now. With his emotions tearing through his body he knew he'd say something he'd regret. It was better for them all if he followed his new orders and got off the station as fast as possible. With no notion of where to go, he stomped to his cabin, flung an assortment of personal possessions into a backpack, grabbed his comm bracelet, and then set off for the shuttle bay.

None of the guards challenged him. Evidently Smith had passed the word that he was to be allowed off the station. However, he came across Corporal Barker on the way to the main hanger. Unable to leave his post, Barker couldn't offer much.

"I heard about what happened," he said, regret clear in his voice. "Tough call to make, kid."

"Yeah." Darien shrugged. "Might be the last one I ever make."

"You'll be back," the marine told him. "You know Smith. He just needs everyone else to know where the lines are. You're too good an operative for him to kick you out."

He smiled. "Thanks, Barker."

"Any time. Stay out of trouble." Barker clapped him good-naturedly on the shoulder. "See you when I see you."

Darien nodded and hurried off. He kept his head down, avoiding any other operatives. He caught more than one curious glance and wondered how far the word had spread of their disastrous operation. Right now he wanted to be off the station. Being here made him feel like a part of something not quite right, like the whole of Blink had somehow been tainted by Theodore Logan's actions.

But when he reached the hanger bay there was someone waiting for him.

Niamh stood by the door in her casual black fatigues, arms folded and hair tied back in a ponytail. When she saw him she straightened up and her mouth opened, but no words came out. The empty feeling in his gut faded slightly at the sight of her. He couldn't think of anything to say either but he kept walking.

When he reached her she grabbed him and hugged him tightly, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face against the side of his neck. Darien hugged her back, pulling close and closing his eyes, breathing her in. She'd stuck by him through every minute of the mission, never backing down, always supporting him. And here she was again, right when everything had gone to hell.

He didn't know how long they stood there. It felt like minutes but he could have stayed in her embrace forever.

"I know it might not feel like it right now," Niamh whispered eventually. "But you made a difference out there. A big one. Never forget it."

Reluctantly releasing his hold, he stepped back. "Did Smith tell you...?"

"I can guess. You're being suspended, aren't you?"

"Indefinitely."

"I'm sorry." She bit her lip. "So what are you going to do?"

"Hadn't thought about it." He sighed. "Do me a favour and look after the others, will you? Let them know that, I'm sorry for what happened." Darien looked ruefully back down the passage into the station. "I'd do it myself but Smith wants me off the station, now, and I don't know how long I'll be gone."

Niamh bit her lip, her eye welling up. "Darien, you were right. I tried to..." her hoarse whisper trailed off into nothingness and she swallowed down the lump in her throat. Eventually she nodded. "Yeah, I'll tell them."

"It's okay, Niamh." He cupped her cheek in one hand, feeling the familiar cold of her augmented eye and forced a smile. "Maybe it's time I took a real holiday."