"He's Kira's friend," Raider said in explanation. "I wouldn't try to hurt him. He's far more dangerous than he looks. Not to mention if you're successful, Kira will likely kill you when she wakes."
"Aw, you say the sweetest things, meat sack," Jin crooned.
"I hate you so much, Tin Can," Raider said without heat.
"Enough," Makon said, his voice holding a bite.
Raider and Jin fell silent, neither seeming afraid. Impressive, since Graydon knew how intimidating the marshal could be.
"What is that thing doing in our home?" Makon asked.
"Where Kira goes; I go. The end," Jin said. "Now, can we get back to saving her?"
Graydon stifled his smile, for once in agreement with the machine.
Jin spun toward him, his voice turning serious. "I practically forced her to come here with the understanding you would protect her. I had to endure her feelings of betrayal. If you can't keep her safe, I'll be more than happy to take her back."
Any common ground Graydon had found with Jin vanished at those words, leaving Graydon to bare his teeth at the pest. He'd like to see him try.
Jin chortled, unintimidated.
Harlow shifted, the small gesture calling their attention like a magnet. "No one is taking her anywhere, and his presence can be addressed at a better time. Right now, extricating her from her own mind takes priority."
Graydon agreed whole-heartedly.
"Tell me about this memory," Graydon said, buying himself time to think.
Raider glanced at Jin. "I don't know why she would be lost in it. This was an early battle. One of the few we won."
Jin floated next to Kira's bubble, seemingly ignoring the rest of them. An illusion, Graydon knew. The drone was a threat. Sooner or later he would need to be addressed. But not now.
"And you?" Graydon asked.
The drone was too quiet. There was more to this story.
"Kira's right," Jin grumbled. "You see too much. It makes you dangerous."
"I suspect the same could be said of you."
Jin might play at the fool. His utter ridiculousness was a shield used to keep others underestimating the drone. The façade hid a deceptively dangerous being.
"What happened there?" Harlow asked.
"We were tasked with safeguarding a planet evacuation," Jin started.
"By the time we arrived, the Tsavitee were already on the ground. They had set up an angel class destroyer in orbit and were picking off any ship that made it into the air. Kira led a strike team to take it down. Successfully, I might add," Raider said with a glance at Jin.
"But not before we lost over a dozen ships," Jin said calmly. "She'd spent time on Atlas. It was her home for a short time after the camp. She knew people there, and she had a lot of friends on those ships."
Dismay crossed Raider's expression. "I didn't know that."
"You wouldn't; she never told you. It was our first engagement as a team. She wanted you to focus on the success of the mission rather than what had been lost. It doesn't mean she didn't feel every one of those losses," Jin said.
"Our family has always been protectors," Harlow mused, staring up at his niece. "Our sense of responsibility is overdeveloped. It's why we've long been tasked with the leadership of this House."
"Kira is a chip off the old block then," Jin said.
"How do we get her out? As memories go, this is a gentle one," Raider said.
