“Why didn’t you signal? We were in-system for a week after the battle.”
“I know what it is,” Elara said. “I wrote the damn protocol. Ccg: Command Contingency Group. 8.1.4: Abandon all protocols. Return to point of origin. The dead are not dead. ”
Elara went alone. Mercer argued. She went anyway. Ccg 8.1.4
“You stupid, stubborn bastard,” she whispered.
Elara stayed until the whine stopped. Then she took the chip, sealed Jin’s pod, and walked back to the Vindicator . “Why didn’t you signal
He looked like a corpse that had refused to lie down. His skin was gray. His left arm ended in a cauterized stump. But his eyes—those sharp, dark eyes—were alive. And they were smiling.
“I’m not leaving you again.”
“Because I saw who shot us down.” Jin’s eyes hardened. “It wasn’t the Tarrans, Elara. The torpedo that killed the Orion had Colonial Guard markings. Ccg 8.1.4 wasn’t a distress code. It was an execution code. Someone in command wanted Unit 8 dead. All of us. I didn’t know who to trust. So I waited. And I fixed the beacon only when I heard your transponder three days ago.”
“Captain—”