but likely everything else he had organized from before the fleet left Earth. He has an army, and he has the rest of the Council eating out of his hands. He’s also got the Church of Everlasting Life on his side. He’s ruthless and he’s willing to kill to get what he wants, or just to make a point. Plus, he’s got an arsenal of weapons under his castle including enough nukes to blow up a planet.”
That did sound bad.
“Dios, you’re right,” Rico said. “That’s a lot of shit. And it also makes sense of something else he said—that we needn’t think we were safe just because we were on a different planet. The bastard. So what are you going to do about it?”
Destiny held her breath while she waited for Milo’s answer.
“You’re the captain,” Milo muttered. “You tell us.”
“This was much easier when everyone was asleep.” Rico thought for a minute, a frown forming between his eyes. “Hey, how are you making this call if the shuttle is gone? For that matter, it came up as caller unknown.”
“We found an alien spaceship,” Milo said. “And Destiny got the comm unit working.”
Rico glanced toward her, and she shivered.
“Cool,” he said. “Any aliens?”
“Nope.”
“Can’t you fly back on that?”
“It’s a fucking alien spaceship. We don’t actually know how to fly it.”
“You got the comms system working. How much harder can it be to fly the thing?”
Destiny could feel the muscles of Milo’s shoulders bunching. Then he took a deep breath. “What are the alternatives?”
“Sardi is working on extending the distance of the other shuttle. We might be able to get there and back. If not, we’re going to have to come and get you on the Trakis Two. And that will be a pain in the arse. So tell me you have a better plan.”
“We could steal a shuttle, but we might have problems with the verification system—they work on biometrics.”
“I’ll get Sardi looking into overrides,” Rico said. “In the meantime, you need to find a way to remove those nukes from the picture. My suggestion would be to set them to blow once you’re safely away and solve the Kinross problem once and for all.”
Destiny frowned. He couldn’t mean that. It would kill everyone on the planet. That was hardly fair. “What about all the people?” she said.
Rico ignored her question and asked one of his own. “Who’s the woman?”
“This is Milo’s new girlfriend,” Dylan said, and Milo tensed beneath her hand.
“Pretty. How much does she know?”
“Everything,” Milo said.
Rico sighed. “Have I taught you nothing?”
“She did just save Milo’s life,” Dylan put in. “And she got the comms unit working.”
“Is she going to be a problem?” Rico asked.
Destiny opened her mouth to answer that yes, she was going to be a problem if they decided to blow up the whole planet. That would make them as bad or worse than Kinross. But Dylan grabbed her hand and squeezed. She looked into his face and he gave a little shake of his head, so she clamped her lips shut on her instinctive response.
“No, she’s not going to be a problem,” Milo said.
“Make sure she’s not.” On the screen she could see Rico get up, pace a little, come back, sit down. “So we have a plan?”
“We neutralize the nuclear bombs,” Milo said, “and we get the hell off this planet.”
“And at the very least, we need to take Kinross out,” Dylan added. “He’s a dickhead.”
“Might not be easy if he has an army,” Rico said. “I still think that setting the nukes to blow once you’re safely away is the best bet.”
This time Destiny could not keep quiet. “You can’t do that. You can’t kill all those innocent people. It’s…inhumane.”
For a moment everyone was quiet. Then Rico laughed. It was a sound of genuine amusement. “I thought you said she knew everything.” His gaze rose to where she stood behind Milo, and he grinned at her. Then the smile bled from his face. He snarled, lifting the corner of his lip to reveal one sharp, white fang. She swallowed and another shiver ran through her. “You really expect humanity from us?” Then the coldness left his face and he grinned again. “Never going to happen. Besides, most humans I know are total tossers.” He studied her for a moment, and she forced herself to hold his gaze, not back down. Finally, Rico nodded and looked away, his attention back on Milo. “Where did you find her? I like her. Makes no difference,