Kira had declined. She couldn't chance being left behind. The Tuann didn't often journey to human space. If she missed this shuttle, it could be a long while before she found anyone willing to give her a ride to O'Riley.
She wouldn't put it past Graydon to bribe Jace with more ships to get him to leave.
That left her schlepping her own gear to the shuttle landing zone, even though she felt like she was experiencing the most extreme form of the dreaded hangover humans so often complained of.
A glimpse of forest appeared through a doorway, and Kira made for it, spotting Raider and the rest. She pulled her duffel next to theirs and let it drop.
She was in the act of collapsing beside it when she spotted two small figures watching her through one of the arched windows on the second floor.
Joule and Ziva stared down at her with morose faces, looking like they thought she was abandoning them.
Kira struggled to shrug off her guilt. She’d told them she wasn’t staying. She’d warned them over and over. It wasn’t her fault if they hadn’t listened.
“Perhaps you should talk to them,” Jin suggested.
“It would just prolong the inevitable.”
He made a small hmm. “The Luatha canceled the rest of the tests to search for you when you went missing that night. It could be a while until they’re rescheduled given the current state of their House. The children will be in limbo until their status is settled.”
“They’ll be fine. I asked Liara to intervene on their behalf. She’s promised to get Joule the training he needs to become an overlord. She won’t let anyone in her House stand in the way of his goal,” Kira said waspishly.
Her cousin owed her and she knew it. It had taken some convincing, but Liara had agreed to Kira’s request. She’d even volunteered to take in the rest of Joule’s surviving House until such time as he became an overlord.
“Somehow neither of them looks particularly satisfied with that outcome,” Jin observed.
“I can’t help it if they got attached,” Kira snapped.
“I think they’re not the only ones,” Jin murmured as Kira collapsed beside her duffel bag. She was done with this conversation.
"Wake me when the transport gets here," Kira mumbled before sticking her face into the crevasse between the bag and ground.
An answer came, the words garbled.
She drifted, half-asleep until someone kicked her foot.
She lifted her head, staring bleary-eyed up at Raider. "Transport here?"
"They said it's not coming," he said, gesturing at two Luathans, their faces apologetic.
"What?"
"Apologies, lady, but the human shuttle was waved off," one of them said.
Awareness filtered in and Kira felt a little more alert. "That's not right. Liara gave her word we could leave."
"The Overlord is the one who refused its landing," he said.
Kira stared at him, unable to form intelligent words.
Raider was not so constrained, letting a few choice words slip loose.
"Language," Jace snapped, striding out of the Citadel.
"They yanked our window," Raider said, hands on his hips as he glared at the Tuann.
"I'm sure there's a good reason," Jace said. He turned to the two messengers. "Can we speak to your lady?"
They spared a glance to where Kira had flopped down, curling into her duffel as she judged being upright too difficult. Finn watched with an impassive face.
