Page 42 of Carousel

But…

Cosmer.

He didn’t even have a weapon.

I jump up off the floor, following in his footsteps. I keep my back to the door, using it as a shield.

I peer around it – and see Drake and Riss entering the hallway from their cabin. Drake has a blonde, bearded man in a chokehold.

Riss, in a silk sleep set, has a gun pointed at the man. Cosmer, in the clothes he was wearing earlier, is running to her side.

Relief is instant. Cosmer. Drake. Everyone is safe, and alive. I step out, into the hallway. More soldiers in sleepwear are also opening their cabin doors.

The man in Drake’s arms is still. Just observing us all.

“Let me go,” he spits.

And I realise I recognise him. He was one of the men in the Mess Hall.

Riss gives Cosmer the gun. “He had this.”

Cosmer briefly looks it over. “Forget to sign this back in, Chapp?”

“I was trying to do you all a favour.” The man sees me, hovering just beyond them all. Seems to speak directly to me, venom in his voice, when he says, “Just look at them. So different to us. You have no idea what’s coming if these prisoners of war stay alive. No idea at all.”

“The fate of our prisoners isn’t up to you,” Cosmer says.

“It’s not up to any of us, is it? And therein lies the problem. Dezeeves is going to be the end of the war, for Hevalla. And the end of all of us⁠—”

“The charges, Riss?”

“Unapproved Use of a weapon. Attempted murder of a crew member. Out of Bed Out of Hours.” She shrugs. “Take your pick.”

Cosmer smirks. “Attempted murder seems to be the most pressing, I think?”

She smiles back. “I’ll tell Dezeeves he has an execution to plan.”

The man, Chapp, is spurred to action. “It’s a lie!” he shouts. “There are no ‘Integrated Rhavnans.’ Only Rhavnans! And you’re all too blind to see it!”

He hates us. Even those who have supposedly Integrated. We will never be accepted. Even if we wanted to be.

It makes me even more certain that I don’t.

Riss rounds on him, punching him square in the jaw. It shuts him up.

She speaks over his head, directly to Drake.

“Nice work, disarming him.”

Cosmer squints. “Drake disarmed him?”

Drake looks so calm, so above it all. I wouldn’t have known he’d had such a role in this.

Riss nods. “He was great. I could hear Chapp coming, but he was moving so fast, and it was so dark – and Drake got there first. I didn’t even see it when he got the weapon off him.”

Cosmer looks at him. “What a hero,” he bites.

“Someone had to be,” Drake bites back, as if what he really means is, since it wasn’t you.