"Next time you see her you can ask her."
Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too long now.
"Why would Centcom have a stronghold so close to Rothchild?" Brie asked with some confusion. "Our planet and this section of space doesn't have any known strategic value."
"It's Himoto's secret base," Kira answered.
Sometimes it was scary how prescient her former mentor had been.
"I have the coordinates," Lathan said, speaking up. "Should I plot a course?"
Pallas twisted his chair to face Kira. "I don't know. Should we?"
"They did just save our asses," Kira said mildly, ignoring the challenge on his face.
Pallas reclined in his seat. "Yes, because walking into another den of humans after barely escaping the last one with our lives seems like such a great idea."
"You were in danger? It looked to me like you cleared out when you caught wind of something going down."
Then returned at the most opportune moment for him.
"I thought it best to move the ship out of harm’s way. Good thing too. Or it may have been the one targeted by that city breaker."
Kira bit back her words, settling for glaring at him instead.
Pallas swiveled his chair to face front, saying over his shoulder, "Seeing as I've agreed to follow your lead, I can be magnanimous this once."
"How kind of you.”
"I'm aware. Just don't get used to it. Next time we're going with my plan."
"You mean the one where you kill everyone involved?"
His smile was slow and wicked. "Exactly."
Elena - Tsavitee Planet
"Nothing to say to me?" Elise asked, fiddling with one of the utensils Elena had sharpened into a fine point. "That's fine; I have plenty."
Elena was quiet, watching her egg donor carefully. The sleeve of her shirt shifted as Uncle Jin unwrapped himself from around Elena's bicep before working his way up to her shoulder.
Elise's face hardened as her gaze shifted to him. "I entrusted her safety to you. How could you let her be so reckless?"
"You don't get to talk to him like that!" Elena flared up.
Uncle Jin was one of the three people who had helped raise her in the egg donor's absence, contributing both time and attention to her development. He'd earned his place as Elena's guardian through countless hours spent at her side. Teaching her. Caring for her. Just being there when she needed it.
Who was Elise to her? A stranger. Someone who'd abandoned her at birth.
"I'm your mother."
"You're an egg donor. Aunt Kira and Aunt Selene are my mothers. They were there when I needed them. You weren't."
Elise's face went blank.
Elena tried not to feel bad, sensing her words must have hurt the other woman on some level. That reaction, the way Elise's face emptied of all emotion, was a self-defense mechanism that Elena had noticed a lot of the forty three shared.
Aunt Kira and Aunt Selene were the same. The stronger their emotions, the more expressionless they became. As if they were afraid the things they felt would be used against them.
