Dan wasn’t sure what was worse, the fact he wasn’t alone anymore or that none of them were awake to talk to him. Waven had strung them up with the same orbs as him, with their License in front of them. That bastard of an E.T. had to be loving thing. Hanging beside him, Ace finally started to stir. “God, what hit me?”
“Pretty much the same thing as me,” he told her. He watched her try to shake the cobwebs from her head. When it looked like she was going to put her hand to her forehead he warned her, “You might want to think twice about that.” With his head he gestured at the guns in front of them.
“Can my first time in command get any worse,” she said, almost whispering.
“Everybody’s alive, that what counts.”
“Everybody captured too if you haven’t noticed.” She looked around the room, “Well, almost everybody. You could not have done this bad your first time in command.”
“Nearly got half my unit killed,” he told her. “So far you’re doing better than I did.”
“You call this better?”, she asked in disbelief. “We got our butts kicked.”
“I saw,” Dan informed her. “Our decided to filter in an image in here to let me see what happened. Your plan was good Ace, you put the hurt on them. More than we did the first time we faced them.”
“It wasn’t good enough,” she said darkly.
“I didn’t see the coil upgrade coming either. And I’ve been here for the past couple of days. Just like I didn’t know you could fly the Shepard with the remote pad like that.”
Ace smiled slightly, “I didn’t either until just then. It seemed like a good idea at the time.” She went quiet for a few more moments. Dan saw the uncertainty in her eyes as she studied the gun in front of her.
“You know,” he said after a bit, “there are times I forget you’re the youngest person on the team. You have your stuff together way more than I did when I was 20. I couldn’t even imagine being in charge of anything. Hell, I was more like Boomer back then, which isn’t a good thing”
“I heard that,” Boomer said weakly.
“Just making sure you’re awake kid. Rev what about you?”
“I am present Captain,” he answered, “although not knowing exactly where is a bit bothersome at the moment.”
“Join the club,” Boomer said. “What about you Cap, how you holding up?”
“Outside of waiting for you goldbricks to show up, terrible. And could you not use the words ‘holding up’ while we’re like this?”
“Ah,” Waven said as he entered, “I wonder how you acted around your subordinates.” He walked in front of each one, starting with Ace. “I took you for the means to an end type of commander. That they were just tools to you and not people with their own wants and needs.”
“All you had to say was that I reminded you of yourself, that would be insult enough,” Dan said not taking his eyes off of him. He notice the way he would glance over to him briefly as he studied the others. What was he looking for?
“And what are these people but tools to be used?”, he said almost casually. “Surely you must see that at times out there in the field. The right tool for the job as it were.”
“You didn’t go mad after all this time listening to this guy Cap?”, Ace asked. “I’m impressed.”
Waven gripped her face, “Adults are speaking child.”
“And that’s my second in command you’re talking to,” Dan informed him. For the first time Waven looked caught off guard as he let her go and took a moment to get back control.
“Well after tonight’s performance I assume you are reconsidering that position.”
“Not for a second. She hasn’t disappointed me for a second since I picked her for the job. Hell, after seeing what she came up with I’m glad she’s on my side.”
Their “host” snorted, “If being captured so easily impresses you then I am wasting my here.”
“Were you watching the same battle I was or is your head that far up your own ass?”, Dan taunted. Waven snorted again and left. It felt damn good to get into his head for a change, even if it was only a little.
Rev was the first one to speak, “He has been doing this to you the entire time?”
“I got to go with Ace,” Boomer added, “I’m impressed.”
“I’m sure being around us helped,” Ace tried to joke.
“Remind me to tell you about some of the jokers I used to hang around with back in the day when we get out of this.”
It wasn’t long before Waven returned, looking more like his usual smug self. “We appear to have company coming.” He tapped a few keys on a panel beside the door. Dan knew what was going to happen before a holo image from the ship’s scanner appeared in the air. A black and white shuttle type craft landed within sensor range. “So how many SPD operatives to you have on standby?” Dan said nothing but two popped into his heard right away.
***
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