Bryce

“Executive! Tell me what's going on this instant!” Ashaiya stood and adjusted her glasses. “I just received a message saying our weapon systems are offline! I’m assuming you know something about this?”

I minimized my feed, keeping it open enough to still send messages, but allowing myself to focus on the irate ex-celestial. I wasn’t sure exactly what or how to explain. But I figured we needed an ally right now, so I took a gamble and told the truth.

“I'm the one who disabled your weapons,” I explained. “It’ll take a few days for you to repair them without my help, but your subspace transmitter will need parts you won’t be able to find in this system.”

Ashaiya looked stunned. “My subspace transmitter... Excuse me? Why would you do that?”

“Originally,” I sighed. “I thought it was to force you to leave Zephili and seek a more official channel to appeal the deal.”

“We’ve only ever used official channels!” Ashaiya argued. “We’re here because the admiral kept screening our calls.”

“I realize that now,” I explained. “Varlin told me you were spreading unrest on the planet’s surface, and that if he couldn’t get things under control, then the population would be wiped out.”

“You can't seriously think the Theocracy would try something like that.” Ashaiya seemed genuinely offended. “Executive, I’m a celestial of Inim. We believe in truth and healing and protecting people. We don’t threaten the lives of billions of innocents just because we made a bad deal!”

“But you’re not!” I shouted. Maybe a little too loudly. I was starting to get overwhelmed with everything. So, I closed my eyes and exhaled to try and settle myself. “You’re not a celestial, not anymore. Not since Inim died.”

Ashaiya was taken aback. She stumbled and nearly fell as she sat on the couch. “Where did you hear that from?”

I sighed and sat across from her. “Thea told me.”

“Thea?” Ashaiya furrowed her brows, but then shot up from the couch again. “You mean little Salinthea!? She’s alive? Where is she?!”

“She’s alive,” I explained. “But I have no idea-” A message from Sora interrupted my explanation.

“Captain, Thea just appeared back on the ship with what looks like a very drunk djinn. Yep, she just puked all over the med-lab. The djinn, not Thea.”

“I need to get back to my ship.” It was my turn to shoot up from the couch, and I did it as I sent a reply to tell Sora we were leaving.

Ashaiya grabbed my upper arm in a crushing grip before I could turn to leave. “I think what you need to do is take me to my little sister, who I haven’t seen in three-and-a-half centuries.”

A few methods of escape came to mind, but I dismissed them. I hadn’t seen Thea in a bit over a week, and I had been worried sick the entire time, despite knowing she was still alive. Ashaiya hadn’t seen her in more than 350 years, and had no way of knowing if she was okay.

“Thea appeared on my ship a few moments ago after being missing for over a week,” I explained. “This favor I was doing for Varlin was in exchange for information that I had hoped would get her back.”

“But she’s here now? On your ship?” She asked.

“That’s what I’ve been told,” I answered impatiently. “Look, I’m going to go see her, and you’re welcome to come, but you’re not stopping me.”

Ashaiya nodded before letting go of my arm. “Alright, let’s go.”

She led the way out of her office and through the halls to the hangar where Sora had remotely docked the Fury after picking up Samira. Several aides tried to stop us along the way, but Ashaiya dismissed them each time, claiming that we were handling things. I’m not sure how truthful that was, but it seemed to do the trick.

The ramp was already lowered when we stepped into the hangar, and it lifted behind us shortly after we boarded the ship.

“What is this?” Ashaiya asked, apparently startled by suddenly being trapped. “Where's Thea?”

I was about to respond when Sora appeared behind her and did it for me. “Thea is upstairs, cleaning the kitchen. Captain, what’s she doing here? Are we kidnapping her?”

“Kidnapping? Executive, who is this? What’s going on?” She was clearly getting upset.

“We’re not kidnapping anyone,” I told Sora, before beckoning towards Ashaiya. “Follow me. I’ll take you to her.”

I sprinted up the stairs with Ashaiya in tow, while Sora trailed behind us at a sedate pace. When we got up to the living area, it was notably cleaner. All the throw blankets had been folded, with the couch pillows resting neatly on top of them. There weren't even any dirty dishes left on the dining room table.

Thea had only been back for at most 25 minutes, and already the place looked like an entirely different ship.

“Thea, are you back there?” I shouted once we got to the bar. Thea walked out of the kitchen with a hand towel draped over her shoulder, wearing her pink apron, and grinning ear-to-ear.

“Hey princess, back so soon?” She leapt over the bar and into my arms. “I wanted to surprise you with a clean ship.”

“Sorry, Sora gave you away.” I held her tight and inhaled the scent of cherry wood smoke. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“Hey, I wasn’t gone for that long.” Thea kissed me lightly before breaking our embrace. “Besides, it looks like you’ve already replaced me with an older model. Hey Ash, it’s been a while.”

“Salinthea, I thought you were dead.” Ashaiya stared dumbly. Thea snorted before walking over to the Theocran captain and hugging her tightly.

“I missed you too, you big nerd.” Thea tightened her grip around Ashaiya, and she finally returned the hug before pushing her away.

“It’s good to see you again little sister,” she said. “But the executive has a lot of explaining to do, and I suspect some of it may be time sensitive.”

“Fine,” Thea sighed. “You guys get comfortable and start without me. I’ll grab us something to eat.”

“Thea, wait,” Sora called after her. “Where’s Sami? I can’t feel her anywhere on the ship.”

Thea rested her hands on her hips. “She was spreading grease and dirt all over my kitchen, so I sent her to go take a bath in the captain’s quarters while I cleaned up her mess.”

Sora must have had a harder time sneaking around the Flaming Talon than I thought if they hadn’t noticed Sami go into the captain’s quarters. Navigators had full knowledge and control over a ship once they were attuned to it by installing a fragment of their soul aboard. At least that was usually the case, but the Fury was a luxury yacht and all the bedrooms were isolated from the hull for privacy purposes.

“Did I mention how much I’ve missed having you around, Thea?” Sora laughed.

“It was implied.” Thea leapt over the bar to retreat to the kitchen. “Now go make some drinks, or seduce my sister, or whatever it is you usually do around here.”

“Excuse me?” Ashaiya asked, but Thea was already long gone.

“Well Captain Ashaiya, you heard her.” Sora shrugged. “Do you have any preferences?”

“Preferences? What's that supposed to mean?” Ashaiya asked.

“They mean drink preferences.” I sighed, and Sora smirked. “Just get the captain some ice water and then join us on the couch.”

“No ice, please, just water.” Ashaiya followed me to the couches, but stopped just short of sitting down. “Now, executive, what exactly is going on?”

“Right, I guess ice is too spicy for our new devil friend.” Sora walked around to the backside of the bar. “I’m assuming you want your usual, Bryce?”

“I don’t like the sensation-wait, devil?” Ashaiya turned back towards me. “Executive. Just how many people have you told?”

“Just my crew.” I motioned to the couch across from me. “Please, Ashaiya, sit down and I’ll explain everything. We aren’t your enemies.”

“I’m sure you say that to everybody whose ship you crippled,” Ashaiya huffed, but she finally sat down. “Why did you disable my systems, and how did you do it without my navigator noticing?”

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know the specifics of the how, but-”

“We routed your electrical through a loop that returns an 'all okay’ signal after a short delay,” Samira explained as she came down the stairs from the captain’s quarters. Her hair was still dripping wet. “After that, we just moved a few essential parts to non-essential areas, and broke a few others. Your navigator is going to feel a bit of numbness in the affected areas, but only after she wakes up. Hey, is Thea done cooking yet?”

“Wakes up? What did you do to Jaessa?” Ashaiya asked.

“I drugged her with a mild sedative. She’ll be fine,” Sora answered as they handed out drinks and then sat down near Ashaiya. “Just make sure she gets plenty of water after she wakes up, or she’ll get a major headache.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Ashaiya asked.

“Because we were wrong,” I explained. “Originally, I thought we were doing an old friend a favor and saving billions of people at the same time.”

“But now you realize that the admiral was lying to you?” She asked, and I nodded. “I believe I understand the extent of things. Can you undo all the damage you’ve caused?”

I looked to Samira, and she shrugged before answering. “Your weapons should be easy. It’ll take me a few hours at the most, but your subspace communications are another matter,” Samira seemed to do a few mental calculations before shaking her head. “Depending on how closely Sora followed my instructions, we should have cracked your primary oscillator. It’s not something that can just be patched back together, or at least I wouldn’t recommend trying. The compact subspace transmitters that are installed on capital ships are notoriously volatile. You’d likely blow something actually important if you fussed with it.”

“Which means if we want to get a message to somebody in the Theocracy,” Ashaiya sighed. “Then we’d have to leave the system.”

“That was our plan,” Samira shrugged and joined me on the couch. “But like I said, that all depends on how closely Sora followed my instructions, and they’re usually pretty terrible at listening. Even when I'm not talking about complicated electrical engineering.”

“You’ll understand if that doesn’t reassure me.” Ashaiya took a sip from her water before continuing. “What was your plan after disabling my ship?”

“To negotiate your exit from the system,” I explained. “But I now realize that was never in the cards.”

“Then what was the admiral’s plan?” She asked.

“I think he was planning to destroy your ship with me aboard once he got the signal that your weapons had been disabled.” I took a drink of my wine and Ashaiya scoffed.

“He wouldn’t dare,” she said. “Even if he could find some excuse to attack us, then he would have to explain your death to EVI corporation. They wouldn’t overlook the loss of one of their high-ranking executives during an impromptu negotiation.”

“They probably wouldn’t, if Bryce was still a high-ranking executive,” Sora said. “But now they’d probably pay good credits for her death.”

Ashaiya closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. “I lack the energy to even be surprised anymore. Please explain exactly what you mean by that?”

I had honestly been hoping to maintain some level of credibility, and not have to explain my fall from corporate grace. Thankfully, Thea came to my rescue with an explanation and a much too large plate of synth-chicken nachos as she sat down almost on top of me.

“Bryce didn’t feel safe working for evil corp,” Thea explained. “So she blew up her expensive research station with my really expensive heels still on it, and then we traded a cheesy dragon crime lord for his ship. Oh, Sami and Softie were there too.”

“In my defense, I didn’t know about the heels,” Sora added as they wiped nacho cheese from their chin. “If I had, then I never would have agreed to come.”

“Other than calling them evil corporation, and the gross oversimplification,” I said as I reached for a nacho. “Thea is essentially correct. I was performing confidential spell research for EVI corp and there was a security breach that left me near death. I thought there was a decent chance they’d suspect an information leak if they knew the details. So I faked my death and destroyed any evidence of the breach.”

“And where do you come into all of this, Salinthea?” Ashaiya asked. “The last I heard, you ran off to the hells to get away from father without so much as a goodbye for the rest of us.”

Thea stopped chewing mid-bite to glare at her sister. “You know that’s not what happened,” she said through a mouthful of food. “Aris overreacted and dad refused to do anything about it, so I left. You could have visited me at any point in the last four centuries, but you didn’t. So, don’t sit here and pretend like I’m the one to blame for not staying in contact.”

“Aris overreacted?” Ashaiya asked. “Salinthea, he still walks with a limp, and all he did was ask for an apology.”

“Oh, that’s complete bullshit.” Thea crossed her arms, but then she just looked confused. “Wait, when was the last time you saw Aris? Last I heard, he was locked up in Tartarus being hunted by the local lords. Also, why the fuck aren’t you fallen?”