“Fadeer, don’t be so quick to get killed.” She turned to Tann, eyeing him warily. “It’s a non-offer.”
Irida shot her a sneer. “Meaning what?”
Sloane could see it in Tann’s face. The game he was playing. “Meaning he knows we won’t agree,” she said, never taking her eyes off his. “It makes him look generous and fair, all the while knowing we won’t go.”
“Why not?” Irida asked, still too consumed with anger to see it.
“Because it will be no small thing,” Kesh interjected, “to be exiled to the wastes of the Scourge. You heard it already. The nearest planets are inhospitable.”
That quieted things.
“There is a second option,” Tann added.
“Spit it out.” Sloane was losing patience. Fast. Tann, for all his smug superiority, seemed to know his time was limited. He clapped his long, knobbly hands and spoke with a bit of a flourish.
“Return to cryostasis,” he said, “until the Nexus is repaired and fully operational.”
“What?”
“No way…”
Some of the rebels stirred, forcing firearms to lift with renewed aim in the hands of the security team. Sloane shot Talini a hard look. The asari’s reassuring nod was so slight, she wasn’t sure it meant anything at all. But nobody opened fire, and that was something.
“There’s no way,” Nnebron said, his voice rising an octave. He took a step forward that put him within reach of Sloane. She braced, just in case. “You’ve been trying to get us to sleep since you first decided we were too much trouble!”
“How do we know you’d even let us out,” Irida added hotly. “We’re easier to handle cold, right?”
“He won’t,” a woman said. “They’ll never let us out.”
“No way.”
Sloane let out a long, slow breath. It didn’t do anything to ease the thunder of her heartbeat in her chest.
Tann studied them all. “So,” he said slowly, drawing the word out. “You’re choosing exile?”
“Hell, yes!” Nnebron shouted, fist in the air.
Sloane closed her eyes.
“It’s better than a frozen eternity, forgotten in the Nexus’s logs,” Irida added.
“We can take care of ourselves!”
“At least we can trust each other.”
Addison’s gaze sought Sloane. She couldn’t avoid the other woman’s stare when she opened her eyes, and in that stare, she found apology. Worry.
Anger.
Yeah, well… Sloane only had to deal with one of those.
The salarian shrugged, and turned his attention to her. “Amazing,” he said, sounding genuinely bemused. “You’re going to lose everything for a bunch of exiles.”
“Tann!” Addison’s shocked cry of warning came just a hair too late.
Sloane’s smile was as toothy as Morda’s. Ignoring her team, ignoring Talini’s sudden hiss of her name, Sloane closed the gap and let loose a right hook that she’d been dying to deliver for weeks.
Salarian bones were fine, but tough. The impact jarred her arm to the shoulder, but only because it caused Tann to spin with the momentum. The salarian squawked in a mixed-up bag of pain and alarm, and lost his breath when his ribs collided with the edge of the console.
Kesh’s broad palm slapped her own face. It was almost as loud as the cheers and jeers from the rebels.
Miraculously, not one security member opened fire.
Addison swore fluently—an act that earned a bit of Sloane’s grudging respect—and bent to keep Tann from falling over entirely.
“Fuck you,” Sloane growled from between gritted teeth. She shook out her hand. “And fuck this station and fuck your classist bullshit. You get the grim little hell you’ve turned this into. We choose exile.”
There was a moment of silence. A breath held.
Tann’s fingers cradled his jaw, eyes wide and furious and—yes, Sloane noted, a little afraid. Good. But it was Addison who made the final call.
“Fine.” She glared up at Sloane. “You’ll have your shuttles. Spender will see to the supplies.” The briefest pause. A beat. “I wish you the best. I really do.”
“Yeah. Well…” Sloane turned, caught Talini’s eye and tipped her head in thanks. “Bet we’ll find somewhere to shack up long before you all get your heads out of somebody’s cloaca.”
Nobody had anything to say as she stormed for the door, the rebels—no, the exiles—following without hesitation. Enough was enough. She’d take her chances with the ones who believed in this new galaxy. Believed enough to shed blood for it.
When she met Calix in hell one day, she’d be damned if she’d tell him she’d abandoned them all.
Talini and her security flanked them on the way out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Things had barely settled when trouble sought Tann out in hydroponics. The salarian wanted someplace warm and isolated to sit and nurse his wounded pride without something requiring his attention. Watching the determined seeds, struggling to grow, was soothing in a way.
Four krogan, led by the clan leader, thundered their way into the chamber. Tann stood, unwilling to be caught sitting by the much taller grunt force. Morda’s stare fixed on him with such intensity that Tann knew something was brewing. It didn’t help when his omni-tool flashed, porting Spender’s image.
“Sir, the Nakmor leader is searching for you.”
“She found me,” Tann said, keeping his gaze on the oncoming storm. “Send Kesh to hydroponics. Do it quickly.”
The comm went dark. Tann’s head tilted when the crusty-hided brutes came to a wedge standstill in front of him. He decided diplomacy wouldn’t hurt.
Or at least it will hurt less than another punch.
“Clan leader. If you wish to discuss something we can convene in—”
Morda glared down at him. “Now that you have laid judgment on the exiles, are things proceeding to whatever passes for normal on this station?” Her thick, heavily muscled arms folded across her chest.
Blinking, he managed a surprised, “Why, yes. Yes, they are. The shuttles are being outfitted as we speak, and the exiles and sympathizers are gathered for departure. We expect them to leave in a few hours.”
“And Kesh?”
Tann hesitated. “And Kesh what?”
“Is she serving her function as expected of her experience?”
This seemed oddly formal for a krogan. Doubly so coming from Morda. Tann felt a queer sense of unbalance. Something wasn’t right here.
“Yes,” he said carefully. “She and her crew have been serving capably, save the recent betrayal by one of her teams.”
Morda’s eyes narrowed. “That’s between you and her. I have no sway in the discipline of your officers. But,” she added dourly, “Kesh should have not been so trusting.”
“I agree,” Tann said, surprised again. Still. Where was this going? “However, what is done is done, and—” He glanced beyond the formation of krogan as Kesh strode through the same doors. An ancient krogan followed behind her. Nakmor Drack, Tann recalled. Kesh’s grandfather, woken with Morda. The old one seemed entirely unimpressed with the state of things, but as of yet had spoken little.
Relieved to have backup, he continued more confidently, “—and we are looking forward to putting this behind us. Forging the Nexus into a brilliant symbol of cross-species friendship and cooperation.”
“Good to hear,” Morda grunted. “Kesh.” A greeting. “Stand witness as the Nakmor Clan’s Nexus representative.”
Kesh shot Tann a quizzical glance, but nodded once. “As you say.”