Ali smashed her hands onto the table in the meeting room. The table, unused to being hit by a Doyen Princess who was capable of telekinetically enhancing her strength, shattered in half. It was a cheap plastic table, after all. Everything in the human ship was cheap. Ally had told her that this was because, well, the humans had been funding this project in secret, to keep mass human hysteria on their homeworld from sending out a wave of psychic energy that would attract her people.
Right now, she was rather happy about how cheap the table was because she wanted to smash something.
"Abby. Is. Not. DEAD!"
Sergeant Barry and Lt. Kerensky both looked unfazed. However, they didn't speak. The real bigwig at the table was Commander Delacroix. She was a woman, which did give her a step up in Ali's head, but she was also a fool, a moron, an idiot, a wretched degenerate who deserved to be horsewhipped throughout the entirety of the PsiCom Headquarters, and...just...what was the phrase that Ally had used?
Ah.
Yes.
"THE WORST!" Ali shouted.
Commander Delacroix brushed a tiny bit of plastic from her shoulder. "Are you
quite
done, Princess Tzali?"
Ali felt a tiny chink in the hardened crystal armor she had thrown around her heart. But hearing those two words, Princess and Tzali, merged together. It wasn't using the same tone of voice Abby had used. It was cold and clinical and tightly controlled. But it was still what he had called her. The first time she had met him, he had called her
Princess
. The bleedoff from his mind had filled that single word with a complex haze of complexity that had flavored it like the finest nostalgia. Tasting that thought had been like sniffing a rose for the first time, and it had been calling her that that...that had really started to open Ali to the stranger from the stars.
And now he was...
She closed her eyes. "No," she said. "I'm going to take Beta Squad, and the League, and I'm going after my father and I will bring my Abby back."
"You will
not
," Delacroix said, her voice firm. "Squaddie Hatem died a hero. But he wasn't the only one." She pulled out a dead thing - one of those tablets that humans loved so much. "We lost eleven pilots and fifty two personal on our headquarters. They all died heroically, and they
all
died to give us this
chance
." She stood up, her lips pursed. "A chance that requires you to stop thinking with your heart and to start thinking with your
head
, Princess."
Ali started to pace in the room. Delacroix watched her and Ali started to feel a faint squirming uncertainty in her belly. A fear. There was something about talking to someone who wore clothes that made her feel deeply ill at ease. Delacroix wasn't psychic. Neither was Lt. Kerensky. But he didn't matter as much. He wasn't
in charge
of PsiCom. And despite her lack of psionic talent, Delacroix showed zero fear at being in the same room as Ali in a rage. And Ali would have said that was due to Barry's presence. But she could see that Delacroix didn't even seem to regard him.
She only had eyes for Ali.
I have to save Abby,
she thought.
He has to be alive. He has to be still alive. He cannot have died, he couldn't have been snuffed out just like that.
She paused.
But Delacroix is right...
They had a chance here. Several Doyen worlds were entirely undefended, due to the massive numbers of Paladins who had been slain in this battle. With PsiCom and the League, they could liberate each one, calling the serfs there and granting them freedom. Smashing the Angst gate network and installing orbital defenses using a combination of Omniack and human technologies, they would be able to essentially choke off a massive amount of Doyen psychic chattel.
The nobles would grow weaker.
PsiCom could strike bolder attacks.
"But what of Doctor Oblivion?"
"We have the League," Delacroix said, nodding. "They said that they can handle him. Paragon seems to be
exceptionally
motivated."
Ali sighed, quietly. She brushed her fingers through her hair, frowning as she did so. "Fine. I will lead the attacks on these worlds." She paused. "Well, the diplomatic part of the attacks." She said, quickly, before Lt. Kerensky could complain. He had a squinty, narrow face. The kind of face that was full of complaints and ugliness. He scowled a bit at her, but Delacroix nodded. "And then!" Ali added. "We go and hunt for Abby and free him."
The three of them exchanged glances.
"Kid," Barry said. "Paragon said that Doctor Oblivion's weapon puts out the same energy as a coronal mass ejection, focused into a point only a meter wide." He shook his head. "There's no way that Squaddie Hatem could have
possibly
survived."
Ali clenched her fists. She shook her head, then turned and started out of the room without even dignifying that with a response. She knew it was not proper military protocol, but they didn't want her to be a member of their military. They wanted her to be a
Princess
. Well. Then. She'd flounce like a princess. When she emerged, she came into the knot of Beta Squad, who had all been sitting on chairs that were lined up near the wall. Beli, Tasmin, Victory and Diamond all stood around her. Diamond was the one who looked hit hardest, followed closely by Beli, which was not a shock, considering how hard Diamond had been hit by Fang's death and by how many incredible orgasms Abby had given Beli.
What if he never gives anyone orgasms again?
Ali thought. The very idea felt like a toxic sludge in her brain, searing through her soul. She twisted away from the very idea and tossed her head. Her crystalline hair clattered and clinked as she said: "Commander Delacroix has declared that we're going to retake several Doyen worlds, to give the PsiCom a platform to continue to dismantle the Doyen Empire."
Diamond nodded, then slammed her black knuckles into her pale palm. "Good."
Beli sniffed. "You said you were going to get them to look for Abby."
Tasmin sighed. "Beli, Diamond and Vicky and I all agree. Abby is
dead.
We can't change that. All we can do is accept it and go on."
"Oh, no, they're going to look for him after we're done," Ali said, crossing her arms over her chest. She smirked ever so slightly. "I convinced them of that. But I also accepted...that..." Her face fell slightly as the confidence she tried to project to Beta Squad faltered. Her own heart knew the falsehood of her hopes. "But I also accepted that this makes the most strategic sense. The Doyen are weak. Now, we must make their weakness
permanent
."
They nodded.
Vicky frowned. "So, wake?"