been years since they'd seen any action. Maybe they were getting their signals crossed after the earlier excitement.
The bulbous shape of the Wanderer appeared out the window port. Relief filled Kira. She was nearly home. Another hundred meters and she'd be there.
Once in the ship, no one would be able to touch her. She hadn't skimped on its security. Not even the best forced boarding specialist in the space force would be able to get on board.
Of course, that left the possibility of aerial attack, but she had a couple of tricks up her sleeve for those too.
She rounded another set of crates, the ship’s airlock in sight. She came to an abrupt stop. A man stood in front of a window with a full view of the Wanderer, his head tilted as he studied it, his hands clasped behind him. His posture was military straight, as if someone had taken a straight rod and welded it to his spine. It made him seem much taller and more imposing than he already was.
"So, this is what you're calling home these days?" he called.
Kira didn't answer, her gaze moving to the shadows of the bay. Despite appearances, the man wasn't alone. There were others here, watching, waiting. For what, she didn't know.
The station security's interest in her suddenly made sense. She might want nothing to do with Centcom these days, but that didn't mean it didn't want something from her. And this man—he was the personification of Centcom.
"Have to say, it's not where I pictured you," he continued.
"What do you want?" Kira asked, her voice hard, not letting the conversational tone lull her into dropping her guard.
"Many, many things," he said, an ache in his voice.
There was sadness there, something Kira ignored. Himoto might regret having taken certain actions, but that didn't mean he wouldn't do them again if he felt it benefited humanity. No matter who got hurt along the way.
"I'm a full admiral now, did you know?" he asked, his mood shifting with lightning quickness.
Kira took a few steps closer. "I had heard."
"Your congratulations must have gotten lost in the void," he said, giving her a friendly smile. It created a spiderweb of lines around the corners of his eyes. The dark hair she remembered was mostly gray now, making him seem distinguished. The cut of it was familiar, short on the sides and a little longer on top.
"Something like that," Kira murmured, still on the lookout.
"They'll give us time to talk," he said, reading her caution.
She lifted an eyebrow at him. Somehow that wasn't really reassuring. The hidden message being, when they were done talking things would change and her time would have run out.
"You look good," he said, his eyes warm and soft.
"You've gotten old," she said, the words a bit more abrupt than she intended. Her social skills had grown rusty from disuse. To be honest, they'd never been that great in the first place.
Himoto didn't let the comment bother him, throwing his head back on a laugh, his teeth flashing.
His laughter died and his eyes danced with mirth. "I have indeed, despite my best efforts." He studied her. "Not you. You look exactly the same."
Kira didn't show a reaction to that, at least not outwardly. Inside, she fought against a thread of sadness and discomfort. It seemed that was to be her fate, never aging or dying, while the friends around her did both.
It was one of many reasons for her self-imposed isolation. Her oddities were a little easier to take when they weren't thrown in her face on a regular basis. She might look human, but she wasn't. That fact had been made clear to her a long time ago.
"First Spitzy, then Jace, now you; it seems like today is the day for reunions," she observed.
He snorted at the name she'd given Spatz, even as he watched her with fondness.
The shadows stirred and Kira felt a small loosening in her chest. Relief coursed through her. Jin had returned. She wasn't facing Himoto and the entire might of Centcom alone.
"What are you doing here?" she asked Himoto.
O'Riley was an important waypoint, pivotal because of its closeness to both the Tuann and the Haldeel, another alien race humanity had stumbled across in the course of their war. The Haldeel were slightly friendlier than the Tuann, though they were equally convinced humanity was a young race in need of guidance and restrictions.
"Jace and I have been trying to broker an extension of our treaty with the Tuann,"