Kyso barked a laugh. His reflection in the glass looked positively mirthful. Traejan turned back to him, furious, but was stopped by the man’s sudden calm, sudden intensity.

“So… if there were an army of Legionnaires with plasma projectors, a fleet of space ships bombarding the mechs from orbit, blowing them all to shrapnel and dust – would that be enough to satisfy you? Eh? Boy, this isn’t one of your games!” Kyso shook his head. “She’s Consortia. That’s what we have to believe in.”

He offered a brief smirk; hit Traejan on the shoulder with an open palm. “And, hey,” he finished on a more playful, gentler tone. “It didn’t always go wrong.”

No, not always.

Traejan turned back out at the stars. He missed Kaelin so much, more than all the rest put together. They’d spent many hours staring out of this window, at the night sky, at their own reflections.

He looked back at Kyso.

“You really believe she can do what she says.”

“I’m saying we need to see this through,” his friend countered. “I want you – I need you to be there with me. Look, in all honesty Trae, I would rather be dead than believe there was nothing left–”

He spread his arms wide.

“–but this. Can’t you understand how that feels?”

“I just wish Kaelin was here,” Traejan said, trying to picture her, standing with them, a ghost in the night. “You still remember her, don’t you?”

“Of course I remember her!” Kyso protested.

“I remember the first time we met her, the little boot thief.”

He couldn’t suppress a grin, recalling…

“I remember when she arrived, uninvited, at our door, demanding to be let in.”

She’d come alone, three days through the ice, to join them, learned as he did – to operate, repair; weapons, tech – do the what men and women did on the old vids, in life. Then he lost her.

Kyso’s voice echoed the emptiness, the grief Traejan still felt.

“Do you think I’ve forgotten them all, boy?! Don’t you think this is what they’d all want – what she’d want? She hated those mechs as much as any of us.”

“She would…” Traejan sighed.

“But… that wasn’t all she wanted,” he added inadequately. “That wasn’t all she was.”

The woman that he loved: flowing black hair, skin almost as white as the snow, a smile, an infectious laugh. She’d teased him relentlessly. She loved him.

He focused back on the present, on their reflections. Kyso was nodding a ghostly nod.

“Yes,” Kyso agreed. “Of course… Traejan, this is our opportunity to get the things that killed her. Don’t you want that?”

“Of course.” He couldn’t say no. He wanted to see all of the mechs destroyed! Each and every one.

“Good,” Kyso continued, his tone abrupt, harsh and commanding. “Now, when you get the chance, do you think you could please tell our Consortian guest you will do what she asks of you, as best you can, and not be such a strecking pain in the ass?!”