“Jesus.” Izzy breathed, stumbled, laughed. “Athena Squadron!” She turned, beamed at Tess, grinning even as the other woman’s eyes faltered, fell away. “Holy shit. Wow.”
“Yeah.” Tessa looked up, pulled in a deep breath, forced herself to meet Izzy’s happy eyes. “It’s a lot of responsibility leading a squadron.” She managed, hesitated, looked away again. “Nothing you can’t handle.”
“Hey.” Izzy stopped, grin softening into something more caring, more concerned. “Look, it’s not like this changes anything.” She gestured, let the edge of her smile rise, sharpen. “We’re still going to be flying squadrons from the same ship, running sister squadrons even.”
“I know, it’s just...” Tessa swallowed, shook her head, forced steel into her eyes, forced herself to meet Izzy’s stare. “I guess I just feel more comfortable having you there just off my wing, knowing you’re always close enough for either of us to save the other’s ass if things get hot.”
“Yeah.” Izzy’s eyes wavered for an instant, locked again as the smile spread a little across her lips. “I think you just get a special kick out of being able to give me orders,” She laughed, and the sound was almost genuine. “That’s it, isn’t it? You know that’s it.” Even as the edges of a smile pulled at her lips, Tessa looked away again, tried to hide the creases, the curves of a grin.
“Well, maybe.”
“Maybe?” Izzy grinned full on at Tessa, “Come on...”
“Look, Iz...” Tessa looked up again, eyes colder now, smile collapsing suddenly under a blank mask of quiet seriousness, of pain and uncertainty bound under immovable iron, iced cobalt. Izzy blinked under the intensity of the look but held her ground, refused to turn away.
“It’s just... I worry about you. I worry about us.” Tessa hesitated, eyes wavering for only a split second, wetting at the edges with the beads of unwanted tears. “It’s not that I don’t want you to succeed, that I don’t want you to get promoted as far as you can, I just...” She shook her head. “It’s the distance, Iz. Every time you get further and further away... I...”
“Hey...” Izzy smiled softly, reached out and squeezed Tessa’s arm gently. “Don’t worry.” Her thoughts came through the touch like a torrent, a river of lightning and sweet rain that washed over hard plains of nameless emotion and tore down the walls between them. Tessa swallowed, heard the words as they echoed in her mind. This isn’t like you. You’re supposed to be the strong one. When this is all over, we’ll take our vacation leave and go somewhere together, I promise. Tessa nodded, swallowed. Just the two of us. No one else.
“No one else.” The edge of a smile worked its way across Tessa’s lips as she whispered Izzy’s words. “Yeah,” The smile spread, softened. “I... I’d like that.”
Izzy nodded, grinned, lips parting on the first sounds of sweet words, but her voice was lost in an assault of sound as the sudden wail of emergency klaxons blared to life around them. Lights flared to full brightness, emergency flickerlights came alive, and in an instant, the computer voice of the announcement system dropped into the mix, overpowered the siren blare of the alarm.
“All hands, all hands, procedures and protocols for a full orange alert are now in effect.” Tessa looked to her wingmen, caught Phoebe’s eyes in the pause. “Anticipated breech locations have been forwarded to team leaders of internal security. Boarding armories are now unlocked. Coordinate and deploy. All pilots to the hangar bay. Estimate ninety-eight seconds to impact.”
“Go ahead and take our squadrons to the bay, I’ll be right there–” Izzy yelled over the sound of the klaxon. She half turned in the pause, but before she could look away, Tessa’s eyes snared her, and she gave the other woman a deep, meaningful look in response. “Mac’s a part of Athena now.” She offered. “I can’t leave him.”
“You’re right, we can’t.” Tessa’s face cracked at the edges with the traces of another smile. Confusion streaked across Izzy’s features, didn’t hold as Tessa finished. “I’m going with you.”
“Don’t worry about me, Tess.” Izzy shook her head. “I can handle it.”
“We’re being boarded, Iz.” Tessa reasoned. “If we don’t stick together, we risk the Coralate picking us off one by one.” And I couldn’t... if you...
“As opposed to just slaughtering us in groups.” Izzy said flatly. “Look, we hardly know what the Coralate look like, never mind what kind of weapons they’ll deploy with a boarding party.” She shook her head again. “The fact is, one person moves faster and quieter than two. If something happens, if I run across something...” She paused, fought with the terror in her throat. “I’ll just bug out. I’m not going to stick around or pick a fight, okay?”
“Izzy...”
“You can’t pull rank on me anymore, Tess. I’m going.” She gestured, features hardening. “Take our people and get the hell out.”
“Last time I checked, you were only an acting LC, Iz, not some Captain or Admiral who gets to stay behind and play hero while everyone else runs away.” Tessa shot back. “Look, we don’t have time to argue this. Things are only going to get worse from here, and Admiral Minear’s orders to get the hell out together still stand.” She took a step forward, icy eyes spearing Izzy’s gaze, seizing it, holding it. “I’m going with you, and then we’re gonna grab Mac and get the hell out of here, got it?” Izzy looked away, tore her eyes from Tessa’s impaling stare. “Don’t fight me on this, okay?”
Izzy hesitated, pulled in a deep breath, let her eyes lift to find Tessa’s again. In the pause, she nodded, bit her lip. “If we’re gonna do this, we’d better hurry.”
“LC?”
Tessa glanced back, saw Phoebe’s eyes, the eyes of Cordova, Stone, Moore, Mondego, Beauman and Currie staring back. She cleared her throat, nodded authoritatively.
“Go on ahead, be ready to fly the instant things get hairy.” The barest fragment of a smile crossed her face, the soft crease of a veteran, something meant to encourage, to strengthen resolve. Cordova nodded once, firmly, a stiff sentiment that came paired with a casual salute from Stone. Tessa’s smile spread, turned grateful.
“We’ll be right behind you,” Tessa managed. “I promise.”
