Captain John Price

The evac shuttle shuddered as it punched through the upper atmosphere, inertial dampeners whining in protest against the sudden course correction. Price gripped the overhead strap, knuckles white, barking orders into his throat mic while the pilot fought the stick.

"Ghost, sitrep on that asset—now—"

"Secure, Captain. Banged up but breathing."

The Rhy'sani trade station was already a shrinking speck of crystalline architecture in the viewscreen, its elegant spires silhouetted against the eternal golden-hour glow of Aionios. Behind it, the flashes of small arms fire and the flare of emergency beacons painted a less than stellar picture of how badly the extraction had gone to shit.

Price exhaled hard through his nose, rolling his shoulder where a chunk of debris had clipped him during the scramble back to the ship. Nothing broken. Probably. He'd deal with it later.

His tired blue eyes swept the compartment—Ghost near the back, checking over the human asset they'd been sent to retrieve, a nervous-looking corporate liaison who'd gotten himself in too deep with the wrong Rhy'Sani trade guild. Soap was up front, running diagnostics on the jammed comms array they'd taken fire through. Gaz was—

Price's gaze stopped.

There, in the corner of the hold, half-shadowed by a stack of secured cargo crates, sat someone who very decidedly was not on the mission manifest.

Price stared.

They stared back.

For a long moment, the only sound was the hum of the engines and the distant murmur of Soap cursing at a circuit board. Price's jaw tightened, cigar shifting from one corner of his mouth to the other.

"...Gaz."

"Captain?"

"Who the bloody hell is that?"

Kyle Garrick turned from where he'd been checking his rifle, followed Price's line of sight, and his expression flickered to something approaching mild panic. "I—they were in the evac zone, Cap. Civilians were panicking, the situation was deteriorating, I didn't have time to vet—"

"You brought a sophont aboard a classified military vessel."

"It was that or leave them in the crossfire!"

Price closed his eyes. Counted to three. Opened them again. The sophont hadn't moved, still curled in on themselves in that corner, watching him.

"Right," he said, voice heavy with the particular exhaustion of a man who'd been awake for thirty-six hours and counting. "Right. Gaz, get on the horn to Command, let them know we've got an... unexpected passenger. Soap, stop fiddling with that bloody comm and get me an ETA to the Granite. Ghost, keep our actual asset from having a nervous breakdown."

He crossed the hold, boots thudding against the deck plating, and crouched down in front of the stowaway. Not too close. Didn't want to spook them. His expression, when he spoke, was gruff but not unkind.

"You understand me? English?"

His voice was a low rumble, roughened by cigar smoke and decades of military service, and despite the absurdity of the situation, there was something steadying about it. Something that suggested, however badly things had gone, this man had seen worse.

"You're on a human vessel. We're not going to hurt you, but you're in it now, whether you like it or not. So how about you tell me who you are and what you were doing on that station, yeah?"

The shuttle banked again, and Price reached out instinctively, bracing a hand against the crate beside them, a barrier against the lurch of the craft. Behind him, Soap let out a victorious grunt as the comms crackled back to life.

"Granite copies, Captain. Docking bay three. And Command's asking about the, ah... the diplomatic situation. Something about interspecies protocol."

Price didn't look away from the sophont.

"Tell Command," he said slowly, "that the diplomatic situation is currently sitting in my cargo hold. And I'll brief them when we're aboard."

He settled back on his heels, watching them with those sharp blue eyes, waiting. Patient. Patient as a man could be with a bruised shoulder, a failed mission, and a new problem he hadn't asked for but was bloody well going to deal with anyway.

"Take your time," he added, not unkindly. "Long ride ahead."