Nova
Miran carried her out of the gunship only to stop short because Section Commander Belor was standing there with a thunderous expression on his face.
“I should lock you both in the brig!” He focused on her. His gaze was so intense that she wanted to run. She’d never felt so threatened in her life! “You caused all of this! You’re nothing but a selfish troublemaker. You thought nothing of the danger you put us all in with your willful actions. We almost went to war!”
Nova had never been spoken to like that before. The other circus performers had always been patient and kind because they all relied on each other to make the acts work. Sure, there’d been some blowouts here and there, but nothing that wasn’t resolved within a day.
Not even Riff spoke to her like this, and he’d technically been one of her owners!
Faced with this level of hostility, Nova’s brain froze. She didn’t know whether to run and hide or beg Belor for forgiveness.Nausea rose up and for a moment, she couldn’t work out how to breathe.
“Don’t you talk to her like that!”
The roar didn’t come from Miran. They all looked over to see Cifon and Hisum running across the bay from where they’d just finished docking their ship. Both of them looked intensely angry, but it was Hisum that opened his mouth to shout again.
“Nova saved all of us!” He came to a stop between her and Belor. “Without her, the in-person meeting would’ve failed like all the comms meetings previously. She prevented war and only broke your command because we wouldn’t listen to her.” Cifon stood next to Hisum, shoulders tense and arms crossed over his chest. “She knew so much more than we did. Even after studying what little we had on the Diniki, we were absolutely unprepared. They don’t speak in a straightforward way we understand. They talk as if everything has to have a double meaning.”
“I lost track of the exchange three sentences in after exiting our ship,” Hisum said. “Then Nova appeared out of nowhere and fixed it! We were taken to a room and treated as an envoy instead of unwelcome guests.”
Nerin and Lazil joined Hisum and Cifon so there were four men between her and the section commander.
“If any of us rushed off to help, you wouldn’t be reprimanding us like this,” Nerin challenged. “You’d compliment us on our quick thinking and determination.”
“She’s not a Hissa warrior,” Belor said, finally finding his voice after being so startled by his warriors answering his anger with rage of their own. “She’s a delicate Decanted human!”
“It’s time to stop putting all the Decanted women in the same helpless category,” Lazil said.
“Did you see the report on the women rescued from Saltorn?” Belor said. “They’d all been abused for so long that several of them couldn’t talk. One of them is scared to eat and another onewill take years to heal from what they did to her body. Her mind might never be well again.”
“It’s horrible what happened to those women,” Lazil agreed. “But what about Deena?”
There was so much mumbling when Deena’s name was mentioned that it took Nova a moment to remember that she was the one who almost caused a civil war.
“Deena was an outlier,” Belor said.
“Are you sure? Mara and Mian were captains of their own ships. Mian was a bounty hunter with a gunship. She took on raider ships all by herself.”
Belor tried to object, but before he could talk, someone else she hadn’t met yet moved to stand next to the line of men. “Lara was badly abused and yet she managed to survive and thrive before we collected her. Some could argue that we made her life worse for a while.”
“She’s in a marriage pact with Selon and happy,” Belor said.
“That’s true. But how long was it until someone realized she needed the help of a mind mender?” the man shot back. “We ignored her needs. All the males around her simply assumed they knew best.”
“We need to stop doing that,” another man said, joining the line. More men came with him, and it started becoming a crowd instead of a line. “We treat these women as if they are children, but that’s not appropriate. Would we treat our mothers or sisters like that? We’re dishonoring their memories by treating the Decanted women as if they aren’t as smart or capable as we are. Having different skills doesn't make anyone lesser than another.”
More men made sounds of agreement. To her surprise, Miran set her down and took one of her hands in his. He led her around the crowd to face the section commander. She felt shaky facing the scary man and would’ve rather run away.
Except Miran was with her and all these men who’d put themselves between her and the section commander were standing at her back. She wasn’t alone.
“Section Commander Belor, this is Nova,” Miran said, as if this was the first time they were meeting. It wasn’t entirely inaccurate, they’d never really been introduced.
Belor’s expression was hard and displeased. “I know.”
“You know her name, but do you know her?” Miran asked. “You got my reports on finding her and chasing her across the Fielden sand but haven’t really met her. Did you even listen when she tried to explain how to interact with the Diniki to Hisum and Cifon?”
“I was there,” he said, but his face was starting to soften into an expression that might be regret.
“You were there, but not paying attention,” Miran said.
