The wire-and-metal cabin in ARC10 would be a depressing homecoming backdrop if it wasn't for the glow that haloed Coodi's face. I bask in ten seconds of its brilliance before it disappears behind the quick step to her familiar formation. She salutes me in a sharp, swift jolt.

The motion, despite seeing it literally thousands of times in my life, startles me. After everything I've done to her, to the people, and especially as I hold the message that will deliver her to her death, the urge to grab her wrist and yank it away from her eyes overcomes me. I squeeze my arms to my sides.

But I see the crack in her stance. What has always been stone-still suddenly quivers. It starts at her full lips and trembles down her shoulders and arms.

I step forward. "Coodi. What's wrong—"

My right-hand woman breaks formation, wraps her arms around my neck, and squeezes me tight enough to burst an artery.

"Holy Heap. I missed you so much," she blubbers. "I tried to keep positive for the others, but, but we hadn't heard a word, and we had no idea who that man was, and no one had access to ARC10's navigation, so we've been stuck here. We tried to gather intel on embarking the HMS Valediction but—"

I grab her shoulders and hold her at arm's length. "Woah, Coodi. Breathe. It's okay. You had it all under control. I never doubted for a second."

Black streaks fall from the rims around her eyes. Her hair, usually a tidy knot behind her head, is a black terrain of short hair flopping over her ears. Besides the dark, puffy look of the sleep-deprived, she's no worse for wear.

Coodi steps back and rights herself, smearing the lines of wet kohl with the back of her hand. Returning to the business-end of Warrant Officer Coodi that I've loved since launch, she shakes out the remainder of her fear and straightens. "Would you like to visit your quarters, Commander?"

"Lady Almighty, that sounds nice. But not now. Call a meeting. Let's meet in the Nest and then debrief in a secured location. This is top-secret clearance only."

"Is Medic Knuckles—"

"Yeah, bring Knuckles. I'm sure he'll have an opinion on this too. I'm giving him active TS clearance too."

"Aye-Aye, Commander." She salutes and spins around.

"Coodi—" I reach out to hold her back.

"Yes, Commander?"

Adrenaline rushes under my skin. The need to say something more pummels my insides. Do it. Do it now. Tell her so someone will share this burden with you. Don't carry this by yourself. "I—"

She raises her chin and steps toward me again, ready to jump into action at my word.

I can't. "I'm really glad to be back."

"We knew you'd return." She smiles. "Your sister took a little more convincing."

"She thought I was a goner?"

"No." Her smile falters. "She wouldn't tell me, but that wasn't it. She was worried."

"That's really cryptic, Coodi."

"She'll be glad to know you're back. But she'll be less pleased that I was right and she was wrong."

She steps into the unlit passageway beyond the door and disappears.

Left alone in the empty cabin, I wrestle with myself to remember my can-do spirit, but the hole in my stomach is too deep to fill with happy thoughts.

Moyra knew something. She doubted I'd return.

What the hell does that mean?

Does she know the plan for ARC10? Did Hayomo tell her?

I remember the moments they shared in quiet together, the good little lackey following our imposing leader as she clicked her way across the ARC harbors while back on Earth. Moyra the statue. Moyra the gargoyle. Moyra the vault. 

Was this what kept her silent?

Has she been part of Hayomo's scheming all along?

"Fuck," I growl out through clenched teeth. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." I pound the wall at my side with my fist.

The familiar tik tik tik tik tik of John's patter in the ceiling doesn't disrupt my concentration on the floor. I feel him sidle up to me.

"If you tell me you've been in on this too, I'm going to lose my shit."

John's gears tick an octave higher.

Lifting my heated glare from the grated floor, I place my hand on his neck. A few flakes of thin phyllo skin fall to the floor. "Maybe it's better that I don't know what the hell you're saying. Last time we talked, I distinctly remember you being an asshole."

He rises we become our old, familiar imposing duo. We face the open passageway before us, the echoes of Coodi's footsteps long dead.

"I couldn't trust you to break the news for me, could I?"

John's stump of a neck twists toward my voice. A fresh bubble of ooze emerges from a deep pore.

Enough stalling. It's time. I hold the frame of the cabin's hatch and step through.

"Nika, what do you think I should—"

I jump, holding my heart that nearly exploded from my chest. I spin around to Ledi emerging from the hatch in the ground with Dean's serious face.

"Holy fucking Heap, Ledi. You can't just pop in with Dean's voice like that. Not when I'm this strung out."

He furrows his brow. "Oh. Sorry. I figured—"

"No. Whatever you were thinking, don't. No one on ARC10 can see you. It would be too confusing. Stay in the ship and wait for me. I'll call you when I need your help."

He nods toward the open hatch. "Go get 'em, Commander."

The echoes of my boots on the perforated flooring is an old song I remember with nostalgic glee. The way my body slices the thick, moist air as I bee-line to the marketplace has such familiarity, I welcome the suffocating stench of humanity as it infiltrates my senses again. John and I take the passageways quickly and emerge in the brika-brack marketplace.

What used to be a perfect replica of the URE's most popular thoroughfare is no longer a streamlined grid of matching canvas and metal booths. What was left of the canvas was shredded to keep the partially-functional, jerry-rigged structures upright. Tied, welded, or propped together, the marketplace is a deformed shadow of its former magnificence.

The few civilians who meander through the jagged structures gaze with weariness in their sallow faces when I enter. They whisper my name.

They run toward me.

I wait for them to strike. I deserve it.

Smiling. Laughing. They reach out to shake my hand, touch my shaggy head, grab my shoulders, my arms, my fingertips. They stretch to graze my skin like I've seen the congregants at the chapel of Our Lady of the Impenetrable Heap do when they pass her holy marble hand. Tears well in some of their eyes.

"You're back!" a woman shrieks.

"Thank the Lady!"

"Hey! Someone grab the others. Commander Lorn returned."

"Thank you. For saving us."

I hear their words, but they don't register.

"Thank the Lady you're back."

John is motionless at my side. They pat his flaky belly like he's a lazy dog.

Still wide-eyed and speechless, I return their handshakes. "I need to get to the Nest," I say loud enough for the three closest to my face to hear. The rest surround me, pinching my silver buttons and caressing the delicate fabric of my borrowed garb.

The three closest face away and begin shooing the crowd to the side. "Get out of the way!"

"Our hero!"

"Thank you, dear Lady. Thank you for her safe return."

I want to vomit. If I open my mouth to respond, I will spew my breakfast and my soul. Their joy at being saved twists my insides into knots. I feel like I'm viewing the whole parade from a pedestal above my body. From this vantage point, I can see the obvious discomfort in my rigid body, the way they grab at me like I'm a piece of ripe produce after a drought.

They think I'm their savior.

No, I want to say. Don't believe me. I'm your executioner in disguise. You're all dead meat soon. Literally.

But part of me can't raise my arms to stop this nonsense. Part of me glows. Part of me feels warmth in the chilled granite crevices this trip has carved in my body.

"Thanks, you don't need—"

"Commander Lorn! Our savior!"

I shake my head and raise my hands. "No. No, I didn't—"

"We shouldn't have doubted you!"

John must sense my discomfort. He rises on his legs until he's large enough to cover me with his body. The people, back away. With him as my protective shell, we move on, the crowd hovering just out of John's reach.

"What happened while I was gone?" I raise my gaze to his underbelly.

As usual, my questions are met with the clink of gears and no answers.

The people usher me farther into the marketplace, making a parade of my arrival. Others join the procession, trailing behind as we travel to the Nest's lift.

Finally disentangling myself from under John, I step onto the platform and rise.

The lift is slower than I remember. I peer over the edge at the enthusiastically cheering crowd. Maybe ARC10 wants me to relish this praise. It doesn't know I have to break their hearts. I don't think it knows I have to tell them they were never included in Earth's survival story.

When the lift jiggles to a stop, the Nest door swooshes open.

My VIPERs and SCOPE team crowd the entrance and pull me in.

Love is the first to tackle me, stooping down to grab my shoulders in a quick squeeze before a few of the SCOPE operators nudge their way through too.

McCroy stands between them, allowing the small group to shove him around. His eyes blink through thick tears threatening to fall.

I reach out and hold his wrist. His tears drop as he wipes them away with the sleeve of his black battle dress uniform.

"It's good to have you back, Reaper Boss," Grant tackles us from the side, sweeping me up in his expansive grasp with McCroy.

From another corner of the room, a familiar, raspy voice accosts me as snide and haughty as ever. "Right on schedule, then. You wait until everyone believes you've perished and, suddenly, you arrive in this prim regalia and parade through here with all the pomp of the Queen's peacocks."

"Shut up and hug me, Knuckles." I grab his URE grays and pull him toward our mushy huddle.

I'm not usually a sap, but the closer I can hold my family to me, maybe I can absorb them so they won't have to suffer anymore. I'll take it for them.

The Nest door opens behind me. Moyra and Coodi enter.

"Oh, thank the Lady." Moyra shoves the rest away as she takes my face in her hands. "Did they hurt you?"

"Obviously not, Mo." I pull away to evaluate the possible traitor lurking behind my sister, but when I gaze into her deep brown eyes, the same that cried every time she visited me in the Medic Ward, the same that pleaded to hear another Topside story before bed, the same that radiated love when she smiled, I suddenly know.

She's my sister.

At the end of all this bullshit, if she knew, she'd tell me. She wouldn't have tried so hard to free us from the raid. She would have turned our escape party around to parcel us off so the rest of our society could live.

I grab her wrists and sling her in for a spectacular embrace. If we were to tighten our hold anymore, we might snap our own necks.

She pulls back to run her hand through my hair. "Did you find my nephew?"

"I have news." If I dive into that topic now, I'll never find the heart to let them know how far I've fallen from saving him.

"Sister, if you waited all this time to come back once you had some news, this better be something pretty good."

It feels as if there are pins in my stomach. "I need everyone with top-secret clearance to meet in briefing room two."

Moyra's joy darkens. "Not good news, then?"

With an imploring gaze, I try to silence her. "Please. Head out. Debriefing in ten sond... Minutes. Ten minutes."

McCroy grins.

My VIPERs, Norbit and Avant included, exit. I watch "the twins". They pause to look over their shoulders, their matching blue eyes, nearly invisible platinum hair, and frowns of remorse make it impossible to tell them apart.

I nod. I need all hands on deck for this mess. There's only one side to be on now.

Knuckles turns to leave, but I stop him with a hand on his arm. "Meet me there. I'm giving you clearance."

"Where is he?"

Right to the punch. "I have his whereabouts. From the little intel I've been able to pick up, he's on a nearby ship."

Knuckles nods as if this is all unsurprising.

"Kai is on the same ship, but he doesn't know our baby is there." I bite down on my thumbnail as I think about Kai and my son in close proximity.

Knuckles' thin hands dive into his pants pockets. His body is lanky and awkward without his billowing, white lab coat. "Do you think he is safe?"

"Probably. Unless the heartless bitch who stole my son plans on eating him. Now if it was Kai, she'd be eating, she'd be doing me a favor."

Knuckles squeezes my shoulder. "The ARC10 has been quite peaceful lately. I've enjoyed it."

I shove him off. "You missed me. Be ready in eight."

"You're not the boss of me."

"I am now."

He leaves me in the room with the SCOPE operators who have returned to their terminals. John hovers over my shoulder as I take one last look out the window from our view in the Nest. Holding the rail where I'd spent hours with Hayomo, the traitorous bitch, I steady myself. They need to hear the facts. They need to make a clear decision with me even if I already know what decision they'd make.

But they should know. They have a right.

I squeeze the rail and spin around to follow them out, stopping only to say a quick apology to the deep Maroon stains where Flatts' blood still stencils her last moments.