Yeah, well, I don’t think we’ll have the option of anymore Thaf’ell crew members than we already have, Jace told her.
“Oh! Thammah is at the door! Should we let her in? She’s banging quite loudly and yelling,” Gehenna informed them.
“I bet she is. She watched the whole thing in her ship. Let’s see what she has to say.” Jace released the door lock and Thammah’s voice could be heard then.
“Is this what you were hiding, Khoth? You big idiot?!” Thammah’s voice preceded her into the room.
“She’s mad at you? Wait, of course, she is. You were mean to her. You’ve got to make it up,” Jace told Khoth, even as he winced a little. Khoth had gone through a lot.
She stormed in, put her hands on her hips, and glared at Khoth. “Tell me that you didn’t insult me in order to protect me from your determination to get yourself exiled?! Oh, by the gods, what is that?”
She had just got sight of Gehenna in her new body.
Gehenna brought her fists up to her grinning skull mouth and said, “Oh, dear, this form is really not working out the way I’d hoped!”
“Gehenna?!” Thammah laughed. “Well, look at you! All gussied up, ready for a war.”
“I’m a protector!” Gehenna said, striking a pose that made her look like some kind of demonic presence that those she would protect would flee from along with her enemies.
“That you are. And considering High Councillor Nova Voor losing control of her Xi and Xa…” Thammah shook her head as if she couldn’t quite believe what she had seen. “You Voors feel deeply. You should have been poets, Khoth. Now back to what I was saying!”
“I did what was prudent.” Khoth straightened again and said, “If you were thought to be my friend you would be suspect of harboring anti-Alliance thoughts and--”
“Something must be pretty damned bad for you to consider exiling yourself, Khoth!” she snapped. “Something dishonorable. Something like we just saw. That everybody just saw! I’m surprised the general and your parents aren’t in here, Jace--”
“The Osiris has kept them in a meeting room for now,” Jace said. Dealing with Khoth’s understandable emotional distress had been hard enough. The general’s glee and his parents’ fears would have been too much to handle.
“They’ll all be mad as a nest of hornets,” she said with a slight laugh. “But I understand why you did it.” Her head snapped back to Khoth then. “But what you did made no sense at all! Do you think I would remain in the Alliance after your mother’s actions? Threatening to fire on civilians?”
“It’s actually worse,” Jace murmured, thinking of Nova’s grand plan to make them fall in love.
“What? How?” Thammah cried.
“It doesn’t matter.” Jace would not be telling her about the love plot. “What does is what you want to do now, Thammah.”
“I want to join your damned crew! I’m done with the Alliance,” she said. “I think you’re the best shot we’ve got of ending this war with the Khul. So tell me where to sign up!”
“Well, great, because I want you to be part of the crew,” Jace said. “You and my dad are going to have a blast together.”
“Jack has left the US military?” At first Thammah’s eyebrows were lifted in surprise, but then she shook herself. “Actually that makes total sense. Of course he would be with you.”
“You’ll get to really teach him how to fly,” Jace told her.
“Can’t wait! What about your mom though?” she asked.
“She’s staying on representing humanity, which I think is a good thing. She’s a moderating force on General Intoshkin,” Jace said. Here he had criticized the Osiris for having a personality profile on Khoth, but he definitely had one on the general. “This is going to be hard. Even harder than what we just saw. Khoth, you don’t have to be a part of this--”
“I am the Commander of the Osiris, am I not?” Khoth’s chin was tilted up.
“Of course!”
“You will be dealing with my mother. I know her better than anyone.” Khoth paused, and Jace guessed that he was wondering if that was really true after what they had witnessed her do that day.
But, on the other hand, he was the one to recognize that she was emotionally compromised before anyone else did, Jace thought.
“I wish to be a part of this process. My… former relationship with her will not cause me to perform with anything less than optimally,” Khoth answered with a stiff bow.
“Ah, didn’t we just establish that Thaf’ell, even very superior ones, can have understandable emotional breaks?” Jace asked quietly. “You’ve gone through many of the same things your mother has and a lot more.”
