Spectator

Chapter Twenty-Six: Then

They didn't learn until the exercise had finished and they had docked at the Academy that Fayla hadn't been the only one left stranded. The other had been Dom, Inno's twin brother, and he wasn't so lucky. Only a few shuttles had picked up his emergency transmission, and they hadn't made the detour, and so Dom had kept drifting, drifting, drifting. Apparently there had been an unexpected malfunction in his suit; by the time the Academy had sent a probe to retrieve him, it was gone. Kali suspected that it was just a cover story. They didn't want to admit this was negligence on their part, but an unfortunate consequence. People would be lost, some that were inevitable, and some that could have been prevented.

Inno resigned almost immediately upon the news, and in a few days, she would be flying back with Dom's body to Mars. Ainsley was distraught. Dom had been on her ship. Something had gone wrong with the cable system, much in the same way that had happened with Fayla. They, unlike Nevea's shuttle, had attempted a rescue, but they'd been caught in a battle with Nari and Gasquet's shuttles and been heavily damaged by Ainsley's refusal to leave Dom, until she hadn't had a choice. By then, she hadn't been able to pick up the signal.

"If I had just," Ainsley murmured mournfully during their after Game mealtime. She was rubbing her temple again. Ainsley's team had come in sixth, but Kali didn't think she really cared too much about that. The guilt over losing Dom was immense. It wasn't just having someone be lost in a game exercise to be revived for the next one: this was real. Kali wondered if that's why they did it, to see which leaders could bounce back from such a loss, and which couldn't.

"You did all you could," Kali replied, but the words sounded hollow, even to her. Her team had come in third, after Gasquet's and in front of Zakariah's, but there wasn't much cause for celebration. It was a quiet dinner. Afterwards, they would all be called away for a counselling session, one by one, until it was time for lights out.

Ainsley was one of the first to be called, so Kali languished in the rec room as she waited for her turn, lying on the exercise machine. Fitness wasn't exactly on her right now, so she sprawled across the bench, the bar above her head. Every minute or so it would chime with a reminder that she hadn't selected a weight yet, or begun any reps. She was relieved to be back in the station, and she had a feeling there would be a reprieve before they had more space missions. Thank the stars. She did wonder, however, if it really wasn't an accident as she suspected it wasn't, why hadn't she been chosen to get cut loose? General Grouch clearly knew about her phobia, and that was why he had picked her to be the space-walker, but she would have had a lot more terror to contend with if she had been one of those floating around, abandoned. Some standing order from her mother, maybe?

Weight to be selected, the machine chimed helpfully again. Kali was considering that she had perhaps picked a terrible spot to lounge when a shadow fell across her.

"I don't think that's how you're supposed to use the equipment," Jae said cheerfully. Without waiting for an invitation, he settled down on the bench, giving her hardly any time to split her knees and hang them over the side or he would have plopped right on top of her. His silver bangs fell in front of his face as he leaned over her.

"Don't tell me you're also despondent. Everyone is being very dreary."

Kali cocked an eyebrow at him. He was right, she didn't really do morose. "Someone did die," she pointed out.

"Yes, tragic. Very sad. We, however, are the intrepid heroes, and I think we're still allotted some triumph in that situation." He crossed his elbows and leaned his chin on his arm, peering at her. He was much closer this way, and she didn't miss how near their bodies were, or the flush that ran up her stomach to her cheeks.

Jae seemed not to notice her discomfort—or didn't care—and the impish expression made it easier for her to respond wryly. "I seem to remember me doing the rescuing, and nearly being run over by the shuttle for my troubles."