Hope churned nauseatingly in my stomach as we pulled away from Romikhi-Eight. The ship shook as we fought to escape the atmosphere, jolting as a spray of bullets from behind hit our ship.

I almost wished I was religious like Gem just so that I had someone to pray to, someone to put my faith in that things would work out well for us but I didn’t. Instead, I was just stuck staring at the sky beyond us, my eyes bouncing from the window, to the scanner and back again.

My hand sporadically squeezed Peggy’s. I needed reassurance that she was okay and that she was with me and, even through my gloves, I could feel her doing the same.

How’s it looking up there? I asked my crew anxiously.

Pretty clear. Got a couple of patrol ships nearby but they haven’t engaged, Gem thought back.

Good, keep me posted?

Got it.

I squeezed Peggy’s hand again, wishing that she still had her mods so that I could let her know that what was going on before realising that she didn’t need mods for me to speak to her.

“Tuc, does Peggy’s suit have comms?” I asked loudly, hoping that my microphone would pick up my voice and that he’d be able to hear it over the constant noise and clatter of bullets that my mods made far too clear.

“Yeah, should do. Report’s come back from Chal, she doesn’t appear to have any trackers so you should be able to speak freely. Just… be careful,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said quickly before clenching my hand twice. “Open private comms link to Pegasus.”

I waited anxiously as the red flashing light at the corner of my vision indicated it was connecting before a speaker icon appeared.

“I’m with my crew, I’m okay. I’m with my crew, I’m okay. I’m with my crew, I’m okay,” Peggy repeated under her breath again and again.

My heart broke and I felt tears prickle my eyes.

“Peg? I’ve opened a comms link,” I said loudly but gently.

She gasped.

“Aries? Can you hear me?” her panicked voice said.

“Yeah, I can hear you!”

Tears escaped my eyes and slipped down my cheek but my helmet stopped me from being able to wipe them away.

“Is it really you? Prove it,” she demanded hoarsely.

I bit my lip, remembering the uncertainty and fear I’d felt when I’d just returned from the Council.

“I don’t really know how to prove it to you, Peg, but I’m squeezing your hand now,” I said, squeezing her hand as hard as I could risk, scared of hurting her.

A snuffling sob came through the comms.

“This could all be a trick,” she whispered finally.

“How can I prove it to you?” I asked, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.

“I… I don’t know. The Council know everything. There’s nothing you could say that they don’t know.”

I wracked my brain, trying to think of anything I could say to prove that it was me. It needed to be something that the Council never would have asked her or wouldn’t have cared about. I knew everything about Peg, she’s been one of my best friends for years but in that moment, my mind was blank. I felt like a failure until it hit me.

There was something she wouldn’t have told them about because they never would have asked.

“You were going to run away to join the Space Corps!” I almost shouted. “You didn’t have to but you’d been researching bus routes in and out of Shora for years. You were going to run away and just turn up at the door of the base and demand they test you for admission.”

A sob came over the comms.

“I don’t think I told them that,” she breathed finally.

“It’s me, Peg. I promise,” I whispered. “Everyone’s waiting for you just up there. Do you see them on the scanner? That ship right there has the rest of the crew in it. Andy’s there too!”

She leant forwards, fighting desperately against the pressure pushing against us to see the scanner.

“The whole crew’s there? And Andy?” she sobbed, sounding so hopeful it broke my heart.

“Yeah! I can’t wait for you to see where we’ve been staying. It’s so cool, it’s like a combination of a pleasure ship and a base. You’re going to love it. And everyone’s so nice there!”

Her hand tightened on mine.

“It… I thought you were dead. They told me you were dead. The rest of the crew and Andy too. They said they killed everyone after the attack on the headquarters. They… I saw Doctor Suel. I don’t know when it was but they showed me her body.”

My heartache strengthened. I knew Doctor Suel was dead, most likely at the hands of the Council but hearing it from Peggy broke something in me. I wanted to say something, anything really, but I couldn’t stop crying.

“I’m so sorry, Peggy. I wish we could have rescued you sooner,” was all I could say.

She sniffed loudly again.

“That’s okay. No matter what Harvey said, I still had hope. I knew you’d come back for me if you could.”

That didn’t help my guilt and heartbreak. She trusted me so much and I felt like I failed her. I still do feel that way. I wish I could have done more or acted sooner. She was with the Council for too long and she suffered so much. It still feels like my fault, no matter what she says.

The world fell still and silent apart from our cries as we burst out of the atmosphere. I could see Andy’s warship just in front of us and, on the scanner, a couple of smaller single-person jets zipped around them.

The Guardian ship behind us had stopped firing, or at least they’d stopped hitting us. The small, ill-fated bud of hope in my chest started to bloom, filling me with warmth and then, a red light started flashing on my ocular mods.

“Wait a sec,” I said to Peggy quickly, feeling icy fear harden in my stomach as I switched the comms over to the Freo channel. “What’s going on?”

“Fuck,” a whispered swear came over the comms but I wasn’t sure who it came from.

“What’s happening?” I asked, panic pounding in my chest.

“We’re not sure,” Tuc said. “One of our ships tried to come back to us through one of the gates unguarded by Council ships and they ended up far outside the Nova district.”

Concern slowly built within me.

“Why? Was there some kind of glitch?” I asked.

I’d heard rumours of that happening before but the gates were hundred of years old. They’d been programmed before the current Council members were even born. It was an interplanetary crime to tinker with them, much less reroute them. There was a treaty in place with the larger planets not ruled by the Council and the Council that they wouldn’t touch them apart from for maintenance.

Surely, they wouldn’t have reprogrammed them, would they?

I didn’t have enough time to finish that thought because a swarm of Guardian and IA ships burst out of the gates before us.

“Fuck.”