“The Osiris again?” Jace curled up an eyebrow.
“Yes and no. It was Flight-Commander Thammah’s orders about the training. Seems like the Osiris decided to keep her title,” his father said with a grin. He was clearly loving this.
I’m glad someone is, Jace thought with a sigh.
His father turned to Khoth, his expression serious. “You saved peoples’ lives today, Khoth. Your actions--”
“The Pilot is responsible for saving any lives,” Khoth interrupted smoothly. “I just choose to be on the side that would do so.”
His father nodded after a moment’s hesitation. “Still. Thank you.”
Khoth bowed again, but said nothing. Jace worried that his Commander was wearing down under all the emotional check-ins he was being forced to do with humans. But his concern about Khoth had to be left unexamined further.
Nova was now in the hallway that the meeting room was on.
“It’s time,” Jace said as he turned towards the table.
Khoth was already holding out a chair for him. Jace sat down and allowed his Commander to tuck him in before seating himself by Jace’s side. Jace would not rise when Nova entered. Her actions meant she did not deserve respect. He wanted her to know that she had entered his house now. In fact, she’d always been in his house since he had become the Pilot.
All of the Alliance had and he had to make them fully believe it.
The doors whisked open. Thammah was the first to enter. She was also wearing a new black uniform. It was similar to Khoth’s but had a high collar that was zipped up to her chin. It was a stunning look on her with her scars and shorn silver locks. Jace saw her eyes go to Khoth’s hair. She knew immediately what he had done. She gave his Commander an almost imperceptible nod before marching over to the third, still empty table in the room. She positioned herself in the corner.
Nova was next. She was accompanied by two other Thaf’ell officers, one female and one male. Neither was the officers that had defied her on the bridge. They looked hard. Like warriors. Not that it mattered even if they did think to attempt some kind of coup aboard the ship. Things just didn’t work that way.
Finally, Gehenna clanked into the space last. She sent a warm greeting to Jace even as her demonic red eyes gleamed and she stalked across the room to hang with Thammah. The two of them were watching the Alliance coalition closely. The door shut. Everyone sat down.
Jace met Nova’s steely blue on blue eyed gaze. “No one can see us. No one can hear us. The Osiris is recording this, but it is not sending it out.”
“Aren’t you pronouncing judgment on me?” she asked.
“You deserve far worse than simple judgment!” General Intoshkin growled. “You acted with no honor and--”
“As if everything you’ve done is by the book? Or do you act to get to the ends you want?” Nova challenged. “We both know the answer to that, general.”
“You were going to kill civilians!” General Intoshkin reminded her.
“I was going to make a hole in the desert. No one would have gotten hurt,” she countered.
“You were out of control!”
“You wouldn’t know what control is if--”
“Enough!” Jace’s voice rose up and cut off the bickering. Both looked at him and ignored the other. “I am not streaming this because we need to talk seriously.”
“Is that supposed to make me more comfortable to share secrets with you?” Nova asked, leaning forward on the table.
She had not looked at her son. Not once. But he was pretty damned sure she saw the missing selchilite. Jace felt a rising anger in him. But he stuffed it down. Hurting her would only hurt Khoth. He could allow her to continue to destroy herself or… or he could stop it and help her and help himself and… help everybody. But mostly he cared about Khoth. He wanted the Commander to be able to walk away from this and have as little regret and guilt as possible and he could do it without compromising his goals. He was pretty sure he could do that anyways. Well, he was going to give it a shot!
“You still don’t understand,” Jace said and shook his head.
“What don’t I understand?” she asked, her lips thinning.
“There are no secrets,” Jace told her. “Everything you keep in your databases, every message you’ve sent, every report that’s been written up, all of it… the Osiris knows and I know. There are no secrets, High Councillor Nova.”
She stared at him with no expression on her face, which indicated to him that she was starting to get it.
“Now, we can work together to come to solutions for the Alliance’s many problems and how to address the Khul,” Jace said. “Or we can just wait until Councillor Ardath Ulgex finishes convincing the Council to find you unfit and replace you. With herself, of course.”
