can fill me in on what’s happened while I was gone.”
Thalcorr shook his head as we crossed the docking bay to the lift, stiff posture cracking just a bit. “As I said when I last saw you, Captain Lisi had other plans to remove me safely from Station 112. By the time I was certain there was no peaceful solution possible, she’d sent a small shuttle to retrieve us.” He shot a pointed glare in my direction. “I wasn’t pleased to report that I had no idea where you were. Serrup was frantic to leave with me, but Alcyon convinced him his place was with his station.” A shadow passed over his eyes. “At the time, I agreed.”
We stepped out of the lift and onto the bridge.
“Try it again,” Lisi told her comms officer, then seeing us, shook her head. “They’re still refusing our hails.”
“The attacking ships, or the station?” I asked.
“Both. Other than a single transmission, they’ve gone totally dark.”
I punched up a bowl of noodles from the replicator, leaned back, ignoring Thalcorr’s grimaces at my slurps, and thought.
“Has Desyk sent any of their own ships to try to relieve the station?”
Thalcorr shook his head. “Not to our knowledge. And I’ve been unable to reach our original contact at their corporate headquarters.”
I finished my noodles, tossed the bowl back in the recycler to be broken down. “There’re too many things going on here. And no one is telling us what’s happening.”
Thalcorr was about to say more, but the door slid back and Yasmin entered the room.
Even knowing she must have rushed, she looked amazing. A tunic of the same shade of blue she’d worn when we met in the hub, but less flowy. Fitted dark pants that drew the eye to her curves, tucked into practical boots. She’d changed the tattered bag made from her coveralls for a slim satchel, probably with the fragments of the uniforms still inside.
I stepped towards her, but she didn’t look my way, moving straight to Captain Lisi. “Have you contacted my uncle yet?”
Lisi gestured towards the comms station. “Both the station and the ships are ignoring us, I’m afraid.”
Yasmin rubbed her hip, and I assumed that’s where the damn datachip that had started this whole thing was. “Try frequency 364b, please,” she said.
At the captain’s nod, the communication officer tried again.
Yasmin’s lips pressed tight as we waited, a strained white line.
Every instinct I had demanded that I go to her.
But this was something I couldn’t protect her from. She wouldn’t let me.
“Still nothing, I’m afraid,” the officer reported back. “I can keep trying, if you’d like.”
Lisi waited expectantly, but Yasmin stepped back and shook her head. “Thank you for your courtesy,” she said, nodding to Thalcorr and Lisi. “But if we’re not able to establish contact, I must leave and rejoin my uncle.”
Thalcorr coughed slightly. “Miss Denau, I really must advise against that.”
Yasmin’s expression turned to ice. “Are you saying that you won’t permit me to leave? An excessive sort of hospitality, I’d say.”
“Not at all!” Thalcorr’s hands fluttered.
“Just that things on Station 112 seem to be terribly unsettled right now and you possibly don’t have all the information. We don’t have much more than you do, however.” He swallowed tightly and glanced at me. “There’s a broadcast you should see, though, before you decide what your next action should be.”
Yasmin nodded slowly, eyes still narrowed with suspicion. “That sounds reasonable.”
“Captain, may we use your ready room?” Thalcorr asked, then waited for Yasmin to join him.
I followed closely. Whatever this video was that had Thalcorr so unbalanced, it was information. And Yasmin wasn’t the only one that needed to know it.
Lisi joined us in the small room that opened off the bridge, and called up a screen that covered one wall.
Before letting the vid play, she paused. “Him, I’m not worried about,” Lisi said, pointing to me. “I’ve never worked with one of his family before, but the fleet knows enough to know they’re not delicate flowers. But, miss? This isn’t very nice to watch. Are you certain you won’t just trust us?”
Yasmin straightened in her chair, her chin held high. “I haven’t been a delicate flower for a very long time.” Her face softened with a smile. “But thank you. I appreciate the concern.”
Thalcorr sat, back to the screen. “I’ve seen it once. That was enough.”
I moved to stand behind Yasmin’s chair. She didn’t glance at me, didn’t acknowledge me.
But I stood there anyway, just in case.
The vid started, the field of