Ilana had no idea what the Admiral could still want with her. Shortly after Gabriel had left, she’d gotten a message from Aria asking her to appear on the top deck at her “earliest convenience” – a phrase Ilana could never quite figure out. Did it mean urgently or not?
She decided to make it a priority since delaying an admiral didn’t feel like the best choice. For breakfast, she ordered from one of the replicators along the wall of the food court – an ice cream sundae bowl with waffle chips because why not? Whatever nuance of flavors replicators lost, the tech made up for with nutrient optimization.
The ship was bustling with morning activity as Ilana scooped up the sundae, the cool cream a balm to her delightfully chafed lips. Her entire body was sore in the best way, every ache a reminder of the night’s extracurriculars. She’d even discovered a few small bruises on her arm, hip, and thigh, echoes of a grip that had given her endless amounts of pleasure.
Personnel wearing navy in varying styles mingled with civilians in a colorful array of cultural attire. The elevator scanned Ilana’s identity when she keyed in her destination, clearing her for the top deck, the concourse shrinking below her feet.
She finished her sundae before she reached the top and threw the container into the recycler. The elevator doors opened to a busy command center lit with multiple holo workstations manned by at least two dozen personnel.
Aria must’ve been alerted to Ilana’s arrival when she entered the elevator because she was waiting for her. Today she wore a colorful floral scarf over a navy ankle-length dress. “Thank you for coming, Mx. Travers. Please, this way.”
She led Ilana to where Admiral Nguyen stood consulting an arc of holographs with staff. The Admiral wore a mauve suit with a tall collar and knee-length boots, her white hair pulled back into a long ponytail. She nodded and stepped away towards them as they approached.
“Mx. Travers, excellent. Is it all right if I call you Ilana?”
Ilana wasn’t used to the formal use of her last name so this was a relief. “Sure.”
“Walk with me.” The Admiral strode ahead and Ilana fell into step next to her, Aria trailing behind. They left the command room into a corridor. “Part of our investigation into yesterday’s events has hit a wall and I believe you can help. Would you be willing to consult on the matter?”
They must’ve still had questions about the logistics of the rescue. Ilana was happy to help while she could. “Absolutely.”
The Admiral stopped at a door and turned to smile warmly at her. “Fantastic. You will receive the regular consultant stipend of 100 credits per hour.”
Ilana nearly choked but covered it up with a cough. That came out to three times the rate of her contract. Aria presented her with a holographic confidentiality agreement over her tablet, which Ilana signed with her palmprint.
The Admiral led her into a small room with a single staff member at a desk in the back corner, surrounded by holographs. On one wall was a door and window panel looking into another room set up with a bed, couch, and holo station. The kid they’d found outside the shuttle cryo-chamber sat cross-legged on the floor, scrolling through holographic news feeds, videos, and articles spread out in an arc in the air around them.
The Admiral activated a menu next to the window. She spoke through to the other side in a gentle, lilting voice Ilana had never heard from her before. “Hello, this is Admiral Nguyen again.” The kid ignored them. “We hope you’re staying comfortable.”
The Admiral deactivated the menu and turned to Ilana. “Our young friend is awake and conscious but refuses to say more than a few words to anyone on my staff. None of their biometrics are on Alliance record which makes them an undocumented citizen. We analyzed what we could of their dialect and it matches yours.”
“My dialect?” Ilana had never thought of herself as having an accent. The spacers she’d met so far had sounded neutral to her and she figured she didn’t sound any different.
Aria expanded a holographic globe and zoomed into the Appalachian mountain range where Cherokee land met Shawnee. A wiggly shape highlighted parts of the map. “Based on the few sentences they’ve spoken, we anticipate they’re from somewhere in this region.”
The area stretched northeast from and over Cowee, Ilana’s hometown.
“We thought they might open up to someone who sounds a little more like home.” The Admiral watched the kid through the window. “I have no doubt they’ve been through tremendous trauma and while I don’t like subjecting them to observation I’m doing so only out of concern for their safety. We know very little about their mental state.”
Ilana was disappointed that they hadn’t asked her to consult on her actual professional skills. Although, admittedly she was skilled at teenagers, seeing as she was the oldest of eleven kids in her family. “How old are they?”
Aria pulled out their tablet. “We believe 21, though their biometrics read as low as sixteen. Some of their genetic and cellular functions have been altered, hence the wide range. But 21 is the oldest cellular age we’ve recorded.”
Ilana would’ve never guessed 21. They definitely appeared on the younger side of that estimate. The kid had several windows open displaying galactic news. At least three separate windows showed footage from the shuttle explosion from the day before. Another covered a hurricane that had weakened the Atlantic wall, locking down several coastal cities. The floating city of Venice had lost some altitude. A new amusement park was opening in Titan.
“I’d like to help them before I must release them to citizens’ services in ten hours. After that, they’re legally beyond my reach unless I cite them for an offense, which I’d rather not do.”
The furious concentration on the kids’ brow reminded Ilana of her sister Caro and she imagined her out here, all alone. Acting tough but scared shitless on the inside. Except Caro was actually sixteen. “I’ll talk to them but only if you turn off your observation.” The Admiral raised a brow but Ilana dared her to disagree. “If they don’t want to talk to you now, sending me in there won’t change anything unless you stop listening.”
“Fine.” The Admiral crossed her arms and nodded at Aria, who turned the window opaque. “You have fifteen minutes.”
“Wait.” Ilana held up a hand. “What’s even my objective here?”
The Admiral sized her up as if seeing her anew. “Find out who they are, where they came from, and where they were going. And if you can, get them to trust us.”
Ilana wondered what the hell she was going to say as she knocked and entered the room, closing the door behind her. The kid watched her, their face inscrutable.
“Hi,” Ilana started, figuring that was a good enough place. Her siblings had never been ones to tolerate bullshit. “My name’s Ilana. Admiral Nguyen sent me in here to talk to you.”
The kid’s eyes narrowed as she spoke. “I see. Are you here to take me back? Because you can’t. I know my rights as an Alliance citizen.”
“Oh, no. Nothing like that.” Ilana kept her distance, leaning against the wall and putting her hands in her pockets. “I’m supposed to find out who you are, where you came from, and where you were going. Oh, and to make you trust the Admiral.”
The kid’s lips twitched, a smile almost breaking their glare. They shot a look at the window. “Who I assume is watching us now?”
Ilana waved her hands in front of the Admiral’s face and yelled. The Admiral didn’t react, turning instead to speak to Aria. “Nope. It’s just you and me.”
The kid looked dubious but Ilana had their full attention now, the holos fading as they sat up. They seemed to debate how to proceed.
“You can call me… Jaden.”
Ilana slid down along the wall until she sat on the ground with her knees bent in front of her. “Great. First objective complete. Did I mention we only had fifteen minutes?”
Jaden smirked at that. “Is the Admiral your boss or something?”
“As of five minutes ago, kind of.”
That seemed to confound them and they frowned. “So who the hell are you, then?”
Ilana rested her elbows on her knees. “You and I first met on the shuttle… where I and another passenger found you. I heard your S.O.S.”
Jaden tipped their head over their shoulder at one of the holos covering the shuttle disaster. “You were there?”
Ilana nodded.
For a minute neither of them spoke. The furrow was back in Jaden’s brow as they stewed over this new information.
“Can I give you my take?” Ilana asked. Jaden didn’t answer right away and she waited as the silence stretched. She figured their curiosity would win, eventually. And it did.
“Ugh,” Jaden groaned. “Fine. What is it?”
“I have no idea what you’ve been through and it’s only been a day since I’ve personally met the Admiral, but I think she genuinely wants to help. I know for sure she doesn’t want to send you back to wherever you were before, if you’re worried about that. You don’t have to accept her help but having an Alliance Admiral as a friend ain’t so bad.”
Jaden scoffed. “Whatever. ‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ The ones at the top are always the worst abusers.”
Ilana blinked. “I… don’t think the Admiral’s power is absolute.”
“Look, I don’t need any help. Okay?” Jaden turned back to the holos. “I’ve got a plan.”
Ilana wasn’t sure how much time had passed but Aria had left when she returned to the observation room. Only the Admiral stood next to the technician at the desk, the window still opaque. She lifted her hand, lifting the opacity of the window until it became transparent again.
Jaden continued to watch the holos but spared a glance at the window to glare at them.
“That seems to have gone well,” the Admiral quipped.
“Their name is Jaden but that’s all I got.”
The Admiral nodded thoughtfully. “Well, that’s more than our team managed in nearly a day, so I appreciate your efforts.”
Ilana watched Jaden from the window. “What’s going to happen to them?”
“They will receive their citizenship documentation, housing, and first stipend. My office will continue to reach out to them but,” the Admiral sighed, “they are free to do as they will. In the meantime, we’ll talk to some of the other survivors once they’ve thawed from their cryo-sleep.” She turned to Ilana, her affect shifting in a blink as she moved on. “Ilana, I would like you to work for me.”
For a moment Ilana was stunned into silence. “Doing… what?”
Ilana followed as the Admiral pulled away from the technician at the desk, who didn’t appear to be listening. “I suspect your aptitude scores would fit several open spots under my command, but I would like you to work specifically with my team on this investigation. I’m impressed by your performance under pressure and your intimate background in this Terran region could help give us the edge we need to make some real progress. You would enroll as an agent under Aria’s direct supervision, with all of the pay and benefits.”
Admiral Nguyen’s words threatened to sweep Ilana out like a current at sea, overwhelming her in their wake. She hadn’t even begun processing the dizzying new information while the Admiral spoke as if her agreement was a done deal.
And why wouldn’t it be? Anyone in their right mind could see that working for a Frontier Admiral on a news-worthy case was obviously better than shuffling disk drives on an old data cube in the far reaches of the system. Not to mention the difference in pay and benefits. The Admiral hadn’t mentioned a rate but it probably eclipsed Ilana’s current contract.
“Wait.” Ilana shook her head as she met the Admiral at the door. “Where would I be working if I took the position?”
The Admiral raised an eyebrow, stopping to regard Ilana over her shoulder. “You can complete your training on board Frontier One. After that, where the investigation goes, you go.”
“So that could mean back to Earth.”
The Admiral pursed her lips. “Yes.”
Ilana had the Admiral’s full attention now and she really wished she didn’t. Her gaze was sharp, shearing her through.
“I’m sorry. I… have my other contract.”
The Admiral turned to face Ilana and tilted her head with a look between incredulous and affronted. “My office has the power to reassign you. Easily.”
Sweat plucked at the fabric on Ilana’s back. Her fancy new suit’s biofeedback response could barely keep up with her body’s fight or flight hackles. She didn’t want to disappoint the Admiral but she bristled at the way the superior officer was attempting to commandeer her life.
The Admiral narrowed her eyes on Ilana. “Are you… turning down my offer?” She genuinely looked puzzled as the realization sank in. “Why?”
Ilana had no reason to hold in her truth. “I’ve spent my entire life trying to get off Earth to space. I’m not going to turn around and go back now that I’ve finally made it out here.”
“I see.” The Admiral considered this as she stood blocking Ilana from the exit and her only way out of this excruciatingly uncomfortable conversation.
“How about this,” the Admiral started. “My offer stands for 24 hours. If you don’t accept within that time, you can continue on to your original contract.” She waved open the door and Ilana internally rejoiced that the encounter was ending. “In the meantime, I’ll send you a file on the case.” She stepped out of the room and Ilana paused with her beyond the threshold. ”I can’t guarantee you won’t return to Earth during the investigation. But the operation we’re tracking runs all throughout the solar system – maybe even beyond. I can promise you that your base of operations will be spaceside and that if you perform well, you’ll get your pick of contracts afterward with a recommendation from my office.”
Ilana was still reconciling the new information with her turbulent emotions when the Admiral turned and walked away from her. “Ah, Gabriel. Thank you for coming.”
She looked up to see the Admiral shake hands with the man who had been naked in her bed not two hours ago, his mouth and hands milking unspeakable pleasures from her body. He didn’t see her right away but when they made eye contact across the room her pussy practically jumped to attention, jolting her with a visceral aftershock of the ecstasy they’d shared.
Except Ilana’s brain was currently in work mode and she did not mix work with pleasure.
The combination was too much. Frayed and disturbed, Ilana scanned the room for the nearest exit and left, ignoring the feeling of Gabriel’s gaze at her back.
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