Page 32 of Desperate Measures

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“The spyship can’t accommodate the staff and children,” Piras explained to Nobek Besral, his two aides, and his Matara, a lovely older woman named Cheryl. “We won’t be able to take them off the moon before the Galactic Council squadron shows up.”

“Then we’ll have to fight and try to hold them off until more help arrives,” the elder man said. “If it weren’t for the children, I’d welcome the opportunity.”

“There’s another option—”

“We Nobeks won’t leave. We won’t hide on your ship or in the woods or anything that means abandoning the women and children. They need our protection against the Darks.” Besral glowered.

“I wouldn’t have suggested it. I’ve fought at the sides of too many Nobeks for me to believe you’d allow us to separate you from the orphanage. However, if you were to hide somewhere within easy access of your charges? A place you can rush from and fight the enemy, if needed?”

Besral grinned, and Piras was pleased the old warrior had already anticipated such a need. “We’re way ahead of you, Admiral. Let me show you what we’ve accomplished so far.”

* * * *

Kila’s spyship, orbiting Mymah

Hope pretended she didn’t notice Kila hovering nearby, waiting for an opportunity to start an argument. It would be easy to do since she was working on her own in her personal corner of Engineering.

Lokmi was too busy to help her. The spyship’s chief engineer was currently running his crew ragged in preparation for the looming battle against the GC warships.

She doublechecked the power signatures of the drones and the ten nanospies each carried. She was astounded she’d managed to wheedle Piras into giving her the large number of devices, but the test runs she’d performed along the way to Mymah had been successful. The devices’ first actual mission was a go.

Satisfied her drones and nanospies were as ready as they could be, she sent them to the Darks’ home dimension. The first mission would be a mere ten minutes, during which they’d record vid footage of their surrounding space. Her hope was they’d emerge in the vicinity of celestial objects. If so, her next project, if the emergency they were under allowed for it, would be to collect physical samples.

Kila cleared his throat. Since all she had left to do for the next few minutes was to wait, she couldn’t ignore him any longer. She gazed at him with a mixture of love and exasperation.

“I’m fully trained on many of your ship’s functions, particularly as a staff member of Engineering. You need me if a key crewmember is taken out of the fight,” she said.

“You’ll be safer on the moon.”

“You don’t know that. What if they send down a shit-ton of ships to confront the managers of the orphanage?”

“If they try to land more than one shuttle during the initial confrontation, I’ll blast them to pieces. Then they’ll be too busy fighting me to bother the orphanage.”

“Kila, if they’re ridden by Darks, the spyship’s phase ability won’t hide your presence. They’ll realize we’re sitting here as soon as they reach visual range.”

“I’ll be hiding beyond their sight until it’s time to swoop in and send them to whatever misbegotten ancestors they claim,” he growled. “Scanners don’t detect us when we’re phased, so I’ll have the element of surprise.”

“It’ll only get you so far faced by six prime defenders.”

“Right. Which is why you won’t be on board. Thanks for making my argument for me.”

She huffed and threw her hands in the air. “You’re being ridiculous. I’ll be useless on the moon. Here, I can make a difference.”

“Here, you can be killed alongside me and Lokmi. Then what happens to your research that might win the bigger war against the Darks?”

“Jerk,” she snarled, but insulting him by calling him a name underlined how she’d run out of arguments.

“I love you too.” He grinned in triumph, knowing he’d won.

The drones re-appearing above the desk kept her from continuing the pointless sparring. They sank to the surface and opened tiny ports. Specks swarmed from them and rested on a relay pad configured to communicate with the computer.

“Nano A, display vid footage.”

A holoscreen shimmered into view. She’d expected to see vast space recorded. A moon or planet was what she’d prayed for. What she saw instead stunned her. Kila made a startled sound and moved closer to her.

“My Matara?”

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