Jaiya smirked at the memory of the last time she’d gone against him. He had spent his time harassing her in battle, taunting her as he prevented her from doing any damage to his fleet. After a few occurrences, it became a game to her as she focused on distracting him with fancy flight maneuvers to try to shake him.
Their last battle was different, though. Instead of aiming to kill, the Daextru disabled their ships instead. She had repaid his generosity by damaging his engines, leaving him stranded in the midst of battle. His reaction had been priceless, the way his bright aqua slitted eyes widened in shock at being bested. The once undefeated male met his first defeat—atherhands.
Jaiya had a feeling they were going to request peace talks but didn’t think it would be this soon.
She reached for her brother’s mission holodisk and activated it. A request for a password filled the small projection. Jaiya smiled at her good fortune. A DNA scan would have complicated things, but the security program was asking for something she already had access to.
Jaiya and Aydin always exchanged passwords. It made trading knowledge easier, and she wanted her brother to have access to all of her private belongings if she ever died on duty. Their father was on Gaia, living a lonely lifestyle as a fisherman. He wasn’t easy to get a hold of—whether it was due to his intentional avoidance of human contact or the unstable communication connection within the Azophi star system, between Azophi-2-Gaia and Azophi-5’s moon base. Jaiya wanted to believe the latter, but she had a feeling he was too ashamed of himself to keep in contact. What few conversations they did have were complicated by his conviction that his children were following the wrong careers.
Her mother had been an assistant to the lead diplomat sent on the original peace treaty mission. She had died, along with the fifteen others on their transport ship, which exploded upon their return. Jaiya hardly knew their mother, because just like their father before the war started, she was rarely around. When her mother died, her father’s career was ruined, and he’d spiraled into a state of isolated depression. Aydin and Jaiya had been raised by nannies and placed in special academies while growing up. Once they had graduated, Father couldn’t take life in space any longer and left for Gaia, never to fly again.
Aydin and Jaiya only had each other—no lovers, no children, and no close friends. Aydin was an outcast among his coworkers, and even though Jaiya was the captain of her own fight wing, she never hung out with them outside of their duties. All of her time was spent training or studying with her brother.
She typed in Aydin’s favorite password, unlocking the holodisk and did a quick scan of the mission’s details. It mirrored the document she’d received. He was directed to go alone to the Daextru’s nearest starbase and discuss establishing a peace treaty, with her being his escort. They wanted him to make certain demands, including giving new technology to the Cosmic Trinity Alliance, the CTA, as reparation for war damages. There was a ranking of what type of technology they wanted him to request and a list of concessions they weren’t willing to make.
She could do this.
In fact, I can do this better than Aydin can.
A loud snore erupted in the room, startling Jaiya. She glanced at her brother as she scrambled to shut down the holodisk, nearly dropping it. She hoped he wasn’t waking up. Another snore erupted from his mouth.
She let out a deep breath that she didn’t know she’d been holding. He was still asleep. Her secret was safe.
Pocketing the mission holodisk and his ID badge, she searched for the container where she’d seen Aydin pack his office supplies. She found it along the far wall and dug out his tablet. Pulling the stylus out, she left a quick note with a coded phrase only they knew.
Gone fishing. Meet me by the fruit tree.
She placed the tablet on the table, where his holodisk and ID used to lie, making it obvious that she was the one who had taken his items. Jaiya quietly walked to her sleeping twin brother and leaned over him, planting a gentle kiss on his cheek. This may be the last time she ever saw him, even with him in such an embarrassing state of undress.
She sighed and pulled her gaze away, refusing to linger any longer than necessary. She still had much to do. She needed to cut her hair, change into one of his dress robes, and find a way to leave the base without getting caught.
Grabbing his two packed travel bags, she left his apartment. The sound of his door sliding shut and locking followed her out.
It would be up to her brother to stay hidden until she returned. If he couldn’t accomplish such a simple task, it would only complicate her life when she returned.
That is—ifI return.
She shook her head, clearing the sudden doubt. There was no room for any negativity in her personal mission. Jaiya wasn’t going to allow herself to fall into the hole her brother was in.
She was one of the fleet’s only female Captains—and she was going to bring honor back to her family’s name. She would end the war.
