I paused for a moment as the fighter craft finally set down. I looked up at the threat board, half expecting to see a volley of missiles coming our way.

But the threat board was green, or maybe it would be more accurate to say the threat board was sparkling blue. That was the default they used when they thought everything was just A-okay after all.

I wondered if that would've been different for humanity if we had different colored skin like the livisk did. Then I pushed that thought away.

We were still in the middle of a hot zone, after all. I wasn't terribly worried about it. A few minutes in a medbay would be enough to take care of the radiation sickness. Even if there was a worry about the black rain coming our way eventually.

I wondered if atmospheric conditions would make that a thing on Livisqa the same as it did back on Earth, or if things would be just different enough around here to change it up.

Damn it. I was a captain, not a meteorologist.

"Threat board looks okay," I said.

"Why are you bothering to check the threat board when we're on the ground in my territory?" she asked, looking at me with a smile.

"Because old habits die hard, and I haven't died so far because of those old habits," I said, putting the ship into standby, but having it ready to go at a moment's notice.

"You're being careful," she said.

Her tone was flat, her look was flat, but approval radiated through the link. I'd take it.

I took a deep breath as I looked up through the canopy. I deliberately set the craft down where the damage started. So there were some buildings that had been knocked over. There were some fires here and there, but not nearly as bad as the firestorm feeding on itself inside the shield funnel.

I also saw the outline of a couple of livisk bodies lying under the rubble. Some of those bodies looked too small to be adults, for all that Varis talked about this place like it was a fortress meant to maintain her territorial integrity in Imperial Seat.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. I tried to steel myself against what I was going to see here. It would hardly be the first time children died because somebody got so complacent they assumed their military installation would never actually be attacked.

This reminded me of a mission I'd gone on when I was serving on the Ticonderoga back in the day. I'd been a freshly minted ensign, super excited about finally serving on a carrier.

I hadn't imagined that some of that flight time would involve going down to a planet surface where they needed us to actually organize the shit going on down there. One of those things where shit flowed downhill, even though I had a couple of fresh butter bars on my shoulders to signify I was the next best thing to a commissioned god.

At least that's how I'd felt back then. I certainly didn't feel that way now. I certainly realized that an ensign was a far cry from the people who made actual decisions, and sometimes the people who made those actual decisions liked to send us out on missions that were outside of our comfort envelope of flying a starfighter. Because they wanted people in the Terran Navy to be well-rounded and able to handle anything the galaxy threw at them.

It had been humans I was helping after a limited nuclear strike between feuding colonies on a distant border world back then, and I'd had nightmares about it for at least a year before I finally got off my ass and decided to go and see one of the counselors about it. The bad dreams had slowly gone away, but I was getting some flashes of those bad old days now.

I opened my eyes. I turned to look at Varis. Her green eyes were peering into my own. They seemed to sparkle. I wondered if those were tears around the edges.

These were her people, after all. Everything that had happened here was...

I cut off that line of thinking before it could even start. What happened here wasn't our fault. It was the empress's fault. She was the one who ordered the attack, and I promised myself I was going to make her pay for what she'd done here. For what she'd done to my crew. For what was happening to humans in border space.

Sequel trilogy, I was going to make her pay for what had happened to my grandma. Though I was pretty sure that with the way the timing lined up that had been her mother who made the call that iced my grandma with a giant rock being dropped on her head from space. I was still going to make her pay.

"I'm going to be okay," I said, trying to firm up my resolve as I answered the unspoken question coming through the link. It was something I did when I found myself in a situation I knew was at the edge of what I could handle.

Was it entirely healthy to dissociate in the moment? Maybe, maybe not, but I liked to imagine I was Kirk himself, heading down to handle a situation. Though it usually involved a whole sequel trilogy of a lot more organizing than anything Kirk did back in the day.

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"Are you sure?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," I said.

"Good," she said, reaching a hand out and running it against my cheek. "If you were sure then I'd worry there was something seriously wrong with you."

I barked out something that was halfway between a sob and a laugh.

"The jury is still out on whether or not there's something seriously wrong with me, but I think I can handle this. Unfortunately I've been here before."

"Was it bad?" she asked, her voice quiet.

The link told the tale. She bit her lip and nodded.

"At least you know what you're doing," she said.

"I'm not really sure what in the sequel trilogy I'm supposed to do down here," I replied.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," she said, the ghost of a smile playing across her face.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed her touch. I enjoyed that the two of us could share this quiet moment together even in the face of so much destruction. I enjoyed the feel of calm and comfort that flowed through the link. That told me she had every confidence in me, even though there were also some reservations lurking in the back of her head. A worry that the empress might figure out a way to do something to me and she wouldn't be able to stop it.

Well, I'd just have to make sure that didn't happen, wouldn't I?

I looked down at the radiation readout again and frowned.

"Is something wrong?" she asked. "Is this a danger to humans? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with what your radiation tolerances are compared to what we can handle."

"But I bet you're more than familiar with what our bullet tolerances are compared to other livisk."

"Of course I'm familiar with that," she said, grinning. "After all, there've been plenty of times when I've had to shoot some of you."

"Don't remind me," I said.

"You were in power armor," she said. "It's not like I could've hurt you."

"You never know. You could've gotten in a lucky shot. But to answer your question, no. If this radiation readout is anything like what I'm used to from human stuff, there shouldn't be anything in here that a quick trip to a medbay or a rad chamber shouldn't be able to take care of."

"Glad to hear it," she said, "Because we're going to be out there for a bit. Thankfully, we have something to help with that."

I arched an eyebrow as I looked over to her. She reached down into the center console. A control panel with a touchscreen pulled back into the cockpit revealing a storage compartment. Like the kind of thing I'd expect from an aircar back on Earth.

I blinked. "That's nifty."

"I thought you might like it," she said, reaching in and fishing out a couple of glowing triangles. There was a blue sparkling circle in the center, because of course there was.

"Paging Mr. Stark," I muttered.

"What's that?" she asked, frowning in obvious confusion.

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head. "Just another one of those Earth pop culture things that annoys you when I talk about it."

"Ah, another one of those," she said, her voice flat. "Anyway, put this on your shoulder. Affix it just above your rank insignia."

"My rank insignia, huh," I said, looking down at the thing and smirking.

"What's so funny about your rank insignia?" she asked.

"I've noticed everybody seems to get really amused when they see it on me."

She frowned. "They shouldn't be disrespecting that insignia."

I held one hand up, then grabbed the little metal triangle out of her hand with the other one.

"It's nothing you need to worry about," I said. "People are going to respect me because they respect me, not because I have an insignia on my shoulder that tells the world I'm shacking up with you."

She stared at me for a long moment. It wasn't exactly an uncomfortable moment, but it was a long moment, and there was a swirl of emotion coming through the link. It was difficult to get a read on exactly what that swirl meant.

She seemed dissatisfied, but she also approved even as she was dissatisfied. It was all a confusing jumble of emotion.

"Are you sure you don't want me to say something?" she finally asked, speaking slowly. "Because I'd be more than happy to track down anyone who's been giving you anything less than the respect you deserve and kill them."

"I'm sure you'd have no trouble with that," I said, reaching out and taking her hand. I gave it a squeeze to try and make her feel better, but if the dissatisfaction coming through the link was anything to go on? I don't know that it was helping.

"That's the thing, though," I said. "I'm still relatively new, and I am a member of a species that's been at war with your people for at least the last couple of centuries as humanity reckons it. Even if the war hasn't been all that hot over the last half century or so."

"I suppose," she said.

"Not everybody is going to take an immediate liking to me in the same way you did."

"Yes, I understand," she said, but she shook her head, and the emotion coming from the link told me that she maybe understood, but she wasn't exactly a fan of me not being immediately accepted by her people.

"Anyway," I said, taking the triangle and tapping it against my shoulder in a copy of what she'd done with hers.

I felt a sharp poke as I pressed it against my shoulder.

"Holy shit," I said, looking down at the thing. "That hurt."

Though the pain was only there for a moment, and then it was gone. A slight tingle appeared where the thing made contact with my skin. Like it was projecting a localized anesthetic.

"It will help cleanse radiation poisoning from your body," she said.

"And it can't do that by having some sort of field or something without poking me?"

She frowned again, and the confusion was evident in the link.

"How in the name of the empress is something going to cleanse your blood if it doesn't have a direct connection to your blood vessels?"

"Right," I muttered, figuring I'd gotten a little too used to medical technology that could fix me up while I was unconscious, at the very least.

Even a medbay wasn't all magic fields that did everything by waving a modified salt shaker over somebody's body like in old science fiction shows. I hit the door to the fighter and it opened with a hiss, letting in a blast of incredibly hot air.

"Damn," I muttered. "I forgot what it was like to head into a hot zone."

She grinned as she pulled out a mask and handed one to me as well.

"What are you talking about? This should be interesting, especially when the empress makes her attack."

And with that, she was making her way out of the fighter. Meanwhile, I stared after her. It was a view that was worth seeing as she stooped down to walk out of the fighter. Then what she said finally hit me.

"Wait, what?"

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