The lift ascended through the narrow shaft of emergency lights and vibrating metal. Beneath their feet, the pulsing hum of the outpost’s core reverberated through the station’s spine, a thudding heartbeat of engineering that made Rosewood’s teeth itch. Beside him, Ranicus checked her weapon with mechanical precision, jaw set, expression unreadable.

‘Guess this is it,’ said Rosewood, the silence at last too much. ‘Win or die.’

‘I prefer to win.’ She didn’t look up from her rifle.

‘Are we the ones who make the choice?’

Her brow furrowed. ‘You’re thinking too much.’

‘Oh yeah.’ He rocked on his heels. ‘That’s your job.’

She turned to him, exasperated. ‘Rosewood -’

‘Two,’ he corrected, unable to smother a smirk. ‘Out here, I’m Two. You’re Six.’

‘Yes, because what’ll really bring this operation down is the Vaadwaur knowing our names.’

The lift slowed. Rosewood sobered and hefted his rifle. ‘What might really bring this operation down is the warm welcome we’re about to get.’

A moment later, the doors snapped open.

Inside, the control centre stretched wide and low, built around a central console ring, banks of processors gleaming with dull light. Four Vaadwaur officers stood at workstations, with two more in guard positions by the far door, weapons slung lazily. None were looking at the lift.

Rosewood moved first, sweeping into the room with phaser already raised. The first shot dropped a technician with surgical precision, and by the time the body hit the floor, Ranicus was a step behind, putting a clean burst in the chest of a guard who turned too slowly. The Vaadwaur scrambled for weapons and cover, but it was already too late.

Diving for the nearest bank of consoles, Rosewood rolled into cover and fired low around the corner. One soldier fell screaming, knees blown out. The second got a shot off, wild and high. Ranicus returned fire from her flanking angle, her shots crisp and precise. One to the gut. One to the head.

In less than six seconds, the firefight was over. The air stank of scorched metal, smoke curling lazily from the cracked panelling where a Vaadwaur shot had gone wide.

Ranicus stood, swept her rifle around the room. ‘Clear.’

‘Didn’t even see us coming,’ said Rosewood with satisfaction. ‘No alarms raised.’

The control centre still hummed with life around them. Lights flickered overhead as Ranicus bent over the central controls, fingers working quickly across the Vaadwaur interface, the screen dancing with alien glyphs.

‘They didn’t lock anything down. We’ve got full access to the security systems. We can give Team One clean access to the core.’

Rosewood nodded and moved to another console showing life-signs aboard the station. All it gave were small beacons of life, though his throat tensed as he realised just how many Vaadwaur soldiers were aboard. He could still make out the trio making steady progress through the maintenance shafts: Team One. Any longer, and a Vaadwaur technician at this post might have noticed something was wrong.

But this wasn’t the only control room. Somewhere else aboard, someone else might notice.

‘I’ve got Team One,’ he said. ‘They’re moving fast.’

‘Diverting patrols,’ Ranicus announced. ‘They’re rerouting toward the outer maintenance loop. Can’t clear the path entirely, but that’s just one set of guards between Team One and the chamber.’

On the screen minutes later, tiny figures paused outside the chamber. Then disappeared. Rosewood exhaled. ‘They’re in.’ Seconds ticked by before there was movement again. Minutes. Perhaps aeons, before they showed back up again. ‘And out. Charges must be set. They’re heading back.’

Ranicus gave a hiss of frustration. ‘Someone’s noticing this. Got guards headed their way, direct interception – I’m bringing down blast doors.’

‘Yeah, that’s movement,’ Rosewood confirmed. ‘Signatures converging on Team One’s location. A lot.’

‘Blockading them.’

Rosewood watched as bubbles of Vaadwaur soldiers slowed, then stopped, halted and cut off by Ranicus’s command of the outpost’s systems. His lips curled faintly. ‘That’s a clear route out for them.’

‘Then we should go, too,’ said Ranicus, and stepped away from the console.

He took a moment. Looked at the soldiers on the internal sensors, looked at the barrage of locked doors between them and Cassidy and the others. Then his eyes swept over where, at the instruction of someone else, some other security protocol, doors were opening again. Not fast enough to intercept the team, not fast enough to stop any of the Rooks from getting back to the extraction zone. Not if they moved quick.

Rosewood swallowed and straightened. ‘Right behind you.’

The lift doors slid open, and Ranicus stepped back aboard. She turned, only to find him still at the console, and her brow furrowed. ‘Two?’

And his curled fist smashed a command on the console to bring the lift doors slamming shut. A second later, her face was at the narrow window of the lift, indignant, outraged – then it was gone. With one press of the button, he’d banished her and the lift, sending them both back down to their point of origin, within transporter range of the Blackbird.

Alone in the room, he gave himself a second, muting his comms. Breathed slowly. And when he reactivated his comms, it was to hail the Blackbird. ‘Six is on a lift,’ he said, voice grating. ‘Should get her close enough for you to beam-out. And once she’s aboard, you have to get the hell out of there. And finish the mission.’

There was a beat. Then came Cassidy’s voice. ‘John, what the hell?’

Maybe they will know my name. He swallowed. ‘There’s more soldiers aboard than we expected. They figured where you went. Probably figured what you did.’ He was already stepping to the console Ranicus had abandoned, pressing buttons, bringing blast doors slamming back down to block the way. ‘Someone’s got to stop them from getting to the charges before they detonate. And you need a few minutes to get the ship out of the blast radius.’

‘This isn’t –’

‘I’m adapting the plan. Arguing just wastes time.’ Rosewood paused and stared at nothing for a moment. ‘You know I’m right.’ And he killed the line.

But a second later, his comms were chirping again. Not the link to the Blackbird. Team comms.

‘John, what are you doing?’ Ranicus’s voice thundered in his ear.

He gave a gentle scoff. Closed another blast door. ‘You heard all that. Do you have another way? Maybe it does exist, but we don’t have time to figure it out.’

‘You’re going to get yourself blown up –’

‘For my home. For the team. Like you said.’ His lips curled. ‘I just have to blow up one more thing.’

‘I know these systems better than you -’

‘It’s locking doors,’ he said, locking another one. ‘I’ve got it figured out. Besides. Better you get out than me. You deserve what’s next. You’ve earned what’s next. You got thrown in a hole and you’ve fought and clawed your way out of it. Me?’ Rosewood scoffed. ‘I threw myself in here. And maybe this was why. To be the right guy, in the right place, at the right time. To save my home.’

‘You don’t have to do this…’

She said more, but his gaze drifted. Movement on the sensors, not towards the charges, but on this deck. Towards him.

‘I’m gonna have to be rude and cut this one short, Tiarith,’ he said apologetically. ‘Looks like I’ve got company.’ The corners of his eyes creased. ‘Thanks for being here ‘til the end.

‘John –’

‘Goodbye.’

With comms dead, in the silence it was just him. That suited Rosewood fine. It was how his life had been for a while, but now he was embracing it. Understanding it.

If there was a destiny, he was fulfilling it, every decision he’d made to hamper himself and his career, to cut himself off, to choke himself in the dark, leading him to this moment. If there wasn’t a destiny…

…well, he’d still made those choices anyway.

The dots began to converge right outside the chamber. A door blatted as a Vaadwaur soldier tried to crack it open, to no avail. Then came the thudding.

Rosewood kept one hand on the controls, keeping the door locked tight, keeping blast doors locked tight to bar the way of other soldiers to the charges. His other hand drew his pistol.

And on his screen, he saw the USS Blackbird undock.

Ranicus burst onto the Blackbird’s bridge, wild-eyed, and found the view beyond the canopy moving. She’d all but sprinted from the transporter room. ‘We’re leaving?’

Cassidy stood before the command chair, arms folded across his chest. ‘Mission comes first. We have to clear the blast radius. Then detonate.’

‘We’re leaving him behind -’

‘John’s made his choice,’ Cassidy rumbled, eyes fixed on the canopy. ‘He’s buying us the time we need. Like I told him to. Let’s respect that.’

She flew to his side, heart thudding deafeningly in her chest. ‘I thought you didn’t leave your people behind. I thought you didn’t give up on your people –’

‘Mac!’ Cassidy’s voice was a whip-crack, and for a second she thought he was simply ignoring her as he turned to Aryn. ‘How’s it looking?’

Aryn was at the auxiliary science console, fingers almost a blur as they danced over the controls. ‘Boosting power to the lateral array helped; I can pick him out on sensors, but it’s still not enough for a beam-out.’

‘I’m picking him up about four times,’ Falaris confirmed, and Ranicus turned to see her hard at work, too.

Ranicus’s breath caught. ‘You’ve not given up.’

‘Finish the mission,’ said Cassidy, looking at her, ‘but have contingencies. We’re not giving up. Yang!’

‘Trying to fly casual, Boss,’ Ensign Yang said at helm. ‘Getting us casually out of immediate weapons range before we hot-foot it…’

Aryn gritted his teeth. ‘If I try to isolate his bio-signature, maybe I can pick him up out of the Vaadwaur noise -’

Falaris shook her head at the system’s angry chirp. ‘No good!’

The deck rumbled as the Blackbird accelerated. ‘Forty seconds til we’re out of the blast radius!’ Yang called.

Cassidy looked at Nallera, who stood by the lift door, her back to the bulkhead. ‘The moment he says we’re clear, you detonate. Got it?’

Nallera hissed. ‘Screw you, Boss.’ But she raised her PADD with a grim nod, her swearing not a refusal, but a protest at being given this responsibility.

Aryn half-turned in his chair to Falaris. ‘The tetryon emissions…’

‘Are what’s blocking our transporter lock!’ she said. Ranicus heard an edge of hysteria in her voice.

‘No. We can use it. The outpost produces the Blackout through controlled bursts of tachyons at regular intervals.’ Aryn’s eyes lit up. ‘We do know where he is, because he’s in that room. The problem is the tachyons will disrupt the beam and scatter him on the extraction. But not if we match the beam to resonate with this pulse frequency.’

Falaris stared at him for a moment. ‘The transporter beam doesn’t get dispersed by the tachyon pulse, it rides it out -’

Ranicus’s lip curled. ‘Aryn, are you sure.’

‘I’ve spent the last months studying the Blackout and then the Vaadwaur tech. I’m sure as I can be.’

‘Time’s up,’ snapped Cassidy. ‘It’s now or never. Do it.’

‘Ten seconds!’ Yang barked.

Nallera sucked her teeth. ‘I fucking hate this…’

Ranicus extended her hand. ‘Give me the detonator.’

Nallera stared at her for a moment. Then, with guilty reluctance, passed over the PADD.

‘Got a lock!’ yelled Aryn.

‘Transporting now!’ confirmed Falaris.

Jakorr stood at tactical, eyes locked on the console. ‘Three… two… one… we’re out of range.’

Cassidy’s gaze flickered to Falaris and Aryn for a heartbeat, then he turned to Ranicus. ‘Detonate.’

Her thumb had never felt so heavy. But pressing down on the PADD felt anticlimactic, like she’d pressed pause on a video, or sent a quick message to a colleague and, for a moment, nothing happened.

‘We’ve got him -’

‘Outpost is detonating!’ Jakorr paused. ‘Oh, that’s a big shockwave…’

Cassidy rounded back on the helm. ‘Get us out of here -’

And three seconds later, the wave hit the Blackbird.