"I think we need to postpone the homecoming party until next week and combine it with an early Harvest Festival," Alicia addressed the committee consisting of four women and three men. With Casey being one of the planners, she moved the meeting to his booth. She and Jim agreed to not interrogate any Sixers that afternoon and Ayani was tagging along her, freeing Debora to have an impromptu date with Guzman. When Debora went home to make lunch, he showed up with a packed lunch and offered to take her OTG to Arrowhead Lake, a favorite spot for picnickers. So much so, that Nathaniel ordered tables and fire pits erected near a spot for little kids to learn how to swim. Guz called in that he was not returning from lunch and OTG. Soon, he was spotted driving off with Debora and the market rumor mill was in full swing, spreading through the colony like wildfire.
There was a general discussion while Alicia looked around, her eyes falling on new clothes Cami had for sale in the market that day. She drifted over to the pile and Ayani followed. "I see Cami is getting her winter line in." She looked up as Cami joined them.
"Mrs. Taylor," she greeted Alicia.
"I'm going to ask the Commander for a raise just to keep our daughter dressed," she picked up a pair of jeans for about a four month old. They were sky blue and could go for either a boy or girl.
"If you want, you and I can get together and design several sets of clothes for Jade as she grows," Cami offered.
"And deprive me of the fun of shopping here for her, no way. Whatever you create will be fine. Maybe when she's a teenager we'll have to go that route."
Cami smiled her understanding.
"Alright, Mrs. T," Tom Boylan joined them and spoke, "we'll hold off one week and combine the party. Any special reason you can share with the committee?"
"Our guests will leave next weekend and we'll have a going away party for them also and we'll know what we'll be doing with the Sixers by then and maybe have many reasons to celebrate."
"I hear you have a couple holed up in one of the empty houses under heavy guard?" Tom knew all the news.
"We're not letting them back with the others as we pick their brains," she acknowledged and knew that was common knowledge.
"I'll pass your comments on," Tom went back to his committee.
"How about this?" Ayani was holding a small knitted top with long sleeves. It was for the same sized child as the jeans and would make a cute outfit as it had mixed light blues, pinks and whites.
"Where did the knitted top come from?" Alicia hadn't seen much knitted clothing in the colony that wasn't brought through the portal.
"Dinah Powers owns a knitting machine and I told her I'd work the market today and sell our items together."
"I'll just take the jeans," Alicia thought the top adorable, but wasn't ready to do business with that woman.
Ayani looked surprised and set the item down. She thought it was because she noticed it first and had no idea of the animosity between the women. They left the clothing booth and Alicia had decided to cook for them that night and invited Ayani and Elliot to their home as her gesture of friendship. During lunch, it was obvious to Alicia that Ayani had directed her focus from Nathaniel to Elliot.
"I want to invite you and Elliot to supper at our place."
Once again her capriciousness threw Ayani off and she had to know about the baby top, "Wash, was I the reason you didn't buy the top?"
"No," Alicia responded sharply then mellowed, "I'm sorry if I gave that impression. The woman who made it isn't someone I care for," she left it at that.
Elliot and Ayani filled each other in as they walked across the colony using the direct route that was lit with lights making it look like a landing field. Earlier, Nathaniel gave him a walking tour and they stopped by many shops and factories. Only shingles and placards denoted the difference between a home or shop, and most served a dual purpose with private residences in the back.
Earlier that day Nathaniel entered one such place and looked around. "Ben," he called out.
A middle-aged man with bright blue eyes entered from the back with a huge grin and his hand outstretched, "Commander, happy to have you back. What brings you to my establishment?"
Taking the offered hand, Nathaniel looked to Elliot and made introductions. "I'm showing Elliot around while Wash and Ayani are doing something together. She took over from Debora for the afternoon."
"Debora and Ayani were here this morning. What's this I hear about Guzman taking Debora OTG?"
"Ben, you know I'm not getting involved in their business. It might be nothing but friendship and they deserve anonymity like Wash and I deserved and didn't get."
"That's the problem with being in charge, you're the closest we have to celebrities and Guzman is right up there with you."
"I'll be sure and tell him, and he'll pay you a visit in the middle of the night." Nathaniel stopped joking got down to business, "I understand you're making clothing with dino hides now?"
"Aye, Commander. We got the formula down for tanning the hides. They'll outlast cowhides by years. I've gotten a backlog of requests starting with your wife wanting holsters and jackets for the army. I showed her a line of civilian clothing I'm working on and she ordered a pair of black pants."
"She's wore them for me and I approve. Actually I was hoping to get a bikini for her out of the same material," Nathaniel couldn't keep the grin off his face. "With it being hot, I know she'll want to go swimming."
"Public or private version?" Ben had just the pattern in mind.
"Private, I'm not letting her wear a bikini in front of anyone except me."
"You know the less the material used, the higher the price?"
"Then make it very expensive." Nathaniel matched his tone.
Ben went to his table and pushed leather aside until he found his plexpad and returned. He made a notation and handed the pad to the Commander. Nathaniel looked at the available designs, with Elliot peering over his shoulder.
"That one," Nathaniel stabbed the screen with his finger. It was a skimpy design with the top strap looping around the neck and the bottom nothing more than two patches with a narrow band.
"I happen to have your wife's measurements from her last fitting," Ben marked the item.
"She gave you her upper measurements?" Nathaniel was curious why.
"She's kicking around a new jacket so I took all her measurements."
"Well, put my gift on the top of your list. What are you working on anyway?"
"Shoulder holsters, like yours."
"Bikinis are much more important this time of year." He had Ben describe the service he provided for the colony to Elliot, which was all things leather. Originally, he fabricated with hides shipped from the future and now that future material was precious, he used it sparingly.
"I'm training an apprentice to make nothing but footwear," Ben added.
"Who is doing that job?" Nathaniel was curious.
"Your soldier, Curran."
Nathaniel was surprised, "How's he working out?"
"He's doing an excellent job. Right now he's moonlighting, getting up the nerve to approach you to quit, so you didn't hear it from me."
"He's had a hard time with the troops after what happened," he looked at Elliot. "Curran has a gambling problem and got in too deep with another soldier, so killed him indirectly, then decided to take a shot at me. I let him reprieve himself after several weeks living OTG with nothing but a knife for defense, but the soldiers don't really trust him anymore. Can't say I'm surprised he's looking for a career change."
"How do you kill indirectly?" Elliot asked.
"By putting a nycoraptor inside an outpost to wait for the victim."
"You didn't tell me that story."
"I will over supper tonight. You and Ayani are invited for supper away from the market at my place."
"In that case, I accept and I'm sure Ayani will like it also."
His next stop was to Boylan's for a few bottles of wine. Tom was still at the market, but Josh was working.
"Josh, how are the three jobs coming along?"
"Commander, Sir," Josh greeted them. "It's hard, but I'm achieving my goals faster."
"And what's your goal, young man?"
"Well, Max is thinking about asking Tasha to marry him."
"Is he now," Nathaniel wondered if Guzman was aware of current developments. He hadn't heard anything so doubted it.
"Yes, Sir, and Hunter and I don't want to be around newlyweds, so I'm looking at buying a house if I can come up with the down payment and Hunter already said he'd rent from me. All I need is one other person and I can swing the payments."
"Jim hasn't mentioned this to me," Nathaniel wondered if he knew.
"I haven't seen dad since he got back. Between him being busy with the portal and me working three jobs, we haven't had time to visit. Mom wants me to come for supper, but I'm working seven days a week right now."
Nathaniel laughed, "You're young; you can do it. How's the battle going in getting over Kara?"
Josh sobered, "I still harbor a mountain of guilt. Time has helped and someday soon I'll move on."
Nathaniel nodded, "It took me years to get over Ayani and I know all about the guilt."
"How are you doing now with her here?" Josh blurted out. The entire colony wondered how Wash was taking this strange event.
Again, Nathaniel chuckled, "I got over the one I was married to. This Ayani is a good friend, but nothing more. It's more on line if we'd gotten divorced and remained friends where she has someone else and so do I." He gave extra detail to Josh, hoping to help him move on with his young life. "Don't wait too long to play the field again. At your age, you should be looking for someone besides Hunter to share your home. How about Skye?" Nathaniel fished.
"She isn't coming on to me like she used to after…you know, but she's my first choice when I start dating again."
"I approve if that's your way of asking my permission." He saw Josh smile and give a swift one jerk of his head. "Has she said anything to you about the assault?"
Josh shook his head, "No, Tasha told us what really happened, but Skye's been silent. I want to bring it up and did once."
"What happened?"
"She said she had to go home and I didn't see her for a week."
"But Tasha is willing to discuss it?"
"Yeah, I know all the details because of her."
"Do you think she told anyone but you guys?" Everyone spun to the new questioner, papa Jim had joined them and overheard enough to ask.
"I never mentioned it, even to Mom, and I'm sure Max and Hunter have been silent as well. We're Tasha and Skye's friends. We'll never gossip about something like that."
"Well someone did. Details are all over the colony as of this week."
"Any clues on who to blame?" Nathaniel was all business.
"Elizabeth just told me that Zoe told her and that she heard it from Molly Thomas who eavesdropped on her parents discussing it. Because he's one of yours and not a civilian, I figured you'd want to handle it."
Nathaniel sighed, "I should have known we couldn't keep it silent forever. Has Tasha and Skye been informed word of what really happened is out?"
"Not that I know," Jim looked at Josh, "How long have you known?"
"Since about the time you left. Tasha told me, Max and Hunter. She felt she had to talk to someone and Skye is being unapproachable to any form of bringing it up."
Elliot listened to their conversation. It was another incident in Taylor's colony that he didn't tell him the entire truth. Taylor told him the girls were beat up by the Phoenix, but he gathered it was much more and the Commander was trying to protect the girls from word leaking.
"They'll have to be told and today," Nathaniel reached for his radio. "Taylor to Wash."
"Yes, Sir?"
"I need you to meet me at the Command Center immediately."
"On my way."
Nathaniel turned back to Josh, "Three bottles of Boylan's best wine." He sat thirty terras on the counter. Each man took a bottle and they left in a hurry.
Nathaniel found Alicia putting a bag of food in the rover and wedged the bottles between the cloth sack and back of the seat. She waited for him to fuss with the bottles before he turned to her. She saw Jim and Elliot waiting and not bantering and knew something serious was afoot. Ayani also picked up on the soberness of the moment and Nathaniel's tone when he called his wife.
With one last sigh, trying to figure out what to do, he took Wash's hand, "We have to gather Skye and Tasha up for a talk. Take the food home so it doesn't spoil and go get the girls. I need to talk to Thomas, but what we feared, has happened."
Alicia felt herself go pale, "I left Jade with Skye. She stopped by and asked if she could help with her as Dr. Shannon cut her loose early. She's in the Command Center. Nathaniel glanced up to the upper floor and let his breath out with a whoosh.
"Okay," he got on his radio, "Taylor to Thomas."
"Thomas here, Sir."
"Sergeant, I need you to collect Tasha Guzman and bring her to the Command Center. Don't stop to talk to anyone."
"On my way, Sir."
Alicia turned to Ayani, "Ride with me and I'll fill you in."
For the first time, Ayani got to see the inside of their home. She was quite impressed with the outside when Jim Shannon gave them the impressive colony tour. She saw an open floor plan with the kitchen to the left as you went in and the dining room straight ahead with a living room further back and to the right. A small hallway was by the living room to the right and another opening to the left. Alicia showed her the layout and master bedroom with its own bathroom.
"This is the only house in the colony with two bathrooms. It was built last for a certain family that was supposed to come through on the eleventh. When Nathaniel and I were fighting after he came back to the colony, I bought this place to get as far away from him as I could." As she talked, she put the wine and food in the crisper.
"Nathaniel never mentioned any details between the two of you, only your relationship had a rocky start."
Alicia let out a laugh, "He would downplay what he did to me."
"What happened?" Ayani asked as they got back in the rover.
"He didn't approve of my handling the occupation and demoted and suspended me within three days of returning."
Ayani couldn't imagine him doing that by the way he affectionately touched his wife all the time. Several times a day he would caress and kiss his wife, that Ayani was able to ascertain by watching them together, "You'll have to forgive me if I have trouble getting a mental picture of him doing that. He's so devoted to you."
"We're coming up on one year in a few weeks of the occupation," Alicia responded quietly. "I wasn't the one who mounted the resistance, Jim Shannon took the lead while I sat on a bar stool feeling sorry for myself. Nathaniel ordered me to escape the colony and join him. I learned later, it was because he loved me and was terrified something would happen to me that he ordered me OTG with the Shannon's. The suspension wasn't because I defied his orders. He said it was to keep the soldiers from mutinying, but to this day I don't believe it. I think it was because I disappointed him."
"How did you two ever get together after he did that to you?"
"Well, Lucas had shot me and I lost my recent memories of what happened and only had his word I acted like he said. I was in no condition to work and that was part of my suspension. The only way he could get me to rest at all was to keep me away from the Command Center."
"You remember now?"
"The memories came back after a few weeks. Nathaniel wouldn't leave me alone. Every night he'd show up for supper and slowly I forgave him. It really helped that I couldn't remember or I'd still probably not be talking to him."
"It looks like everything worked out in the end," Ayani observed.
Alicia parked in what was becoming her space in front of the Command Center on their return jaunt, "He can be quite charming when he wants to."
They got out and Ayani laughed, "Oh, I know all about his charm."
Nathaniel's charm was not what they walked into. "Goddamn it, Thomas, I gave a direct order and you violated it."
"Yes, Sir. Marilyn didn't buy my story and badgered me until I caved. I know she never breathed a word of it to anyone."
"No, it was your daughter who overheard," Nathaniel snarled.
"Shit," Mike Thomas felt his stomach drop. "I had no idea she heard anything. She was supposed to be in bed."
"You are going to have a talk with your child and explain it was wrong to repeat what her parents say in confidence."
"I will, Commander."
"You're on night watch for a month starting tonight, dismissed." Nobody moved or talked as Sergeant Thomas hurried out.
Nathaniel looked at Elliot and Ayani, "I supposed you can figure out what I'm trying to cover up here."
"Wash told me," Ayani moved to stand next to Elliot and murmured so only he could hear, "the girls were raped."
He took her hand, "I guessed that much."
"Where are they?" Alicia looked around.
"Shannon has them in the back. He hasn't said anything. I think you should be the one to tell them, Wash."
"It's time to feed Jade again anyway," she went alone to the back.
"I got this, Shannon," Alicia let him know she was present.
"I'll be in the front if you need anything," Jim left her alone with the girls. All he would tell them was Lieutenant Taylor would be in to talk to them when she got back. He asked about their lives and jobs trying to put them ease, but could see a soberness about them that belied their young age.
Alicia went to the crib first, "How was your first time babysitting the Commander's baby, Skye?"
Skye knew something was up and figured it had something to do with her and Tasha's ordeal, but played along, "I didn't have to take her to the Infirmary for milk you keep in the cooler. I did have to change a poopy diaper though. Other than that, she's been sleeping and I've been catching up on studies. There's a lot to learn to be a lab tech."
"How's it going?" Alicia sat on a chair and opened her bra to feed Jade, who woke when her mother picked her up. The baby woke hungry and latched on, sucking hard.
"Slow, but I'm retaining most of it."
She'd stalled long enough, "Word of your rape is circulating around the colony." She spoke to the room, but kept her eyes on Skye.
"Who talked?" Tasha asked while Skye went very quiet and pale.
"A soldier, who was instructed not to mention a word, told his wife and a child overheard. The soldier is being punished."
So what happens now?" Tasha looked at Skye, who was looking down.
"It's up to you. If someone asks, you can tell them or if you don't want to talk about it and if they have a problem with that, they can talk to me or the Commander or Jim Shannon or your father. That will shut ninety nine percent of them up and nothing will take care of the one percent."
"I don't want pity," Skye finally spoke, but kept her eyes directed at the floor. "I know I've made a lot of mistakes and some will say I got what I deserved."
"They better never say it to your face and let me hear about it," Alicia spoke in a firm tone and Skye raised her eyes to look at her.
"I know the Commander demoted you for nothing of an offense and you were injured to boot. I try, but I've failed him so badly, he'll never really forgive me," tears started rolling down Skye's cheeks.
"You remember back to that night when he held you. He loves and wants to protect you. You put on one outstanding performance during the occupation and shooting Lucas off him evened any score that was uneven. What you're doing now, Skye, is remembering and it's all you, beating yourself up over and over. Everything is in the past and forgiven. You're mixing apples and oranges anyway. The occupation has nothing to do with what came later. For your sake, you need to get over it and move on."
"Does Josh know?" Skye asked quietly.
"I told him months ago," Tasha told her and Skye gave her a shocked look.
"You didn't have a right to tell them without asking my permission."
"I'm not like you, Skye. I can't keep things like that in. My healing involved talking to friends. So, the colony found out the truth. Half the soldiers already knew. Did they treat us any differently? No, they don't hold what happened against us and neither has the guys."
"I feel so unclean," Skye whispered.
"Have you talked with your mother?" Alicia asked.
Skye shook her head, "I've had to be the strong one for so long, I can't burden her."
"I've talked at length with my dad," Tasha confessed. "He's been wonderful, not condemning or anything like that. Maybe talking with your mom might help."
"Debora will understand, Skye. I'm open if you need to talk or even the Commander or Shannon. You'll find we understand better than you realize and nobody is going to condemn you or think any worse of you."
"Josh never let on all these months." Skye was absorbing this new information. He was the one she feared the most and what he'd think of her after being raped.
"You can even talk to Josh," Alicia said gently, "but I think you do need to talk to someone, especially now that rumors are flying. You're going to need a support system and whether you like it or not we are it. When you walk out of this Command Center, I want your head up high. You're the foster daughter of the Commander, act like it," Alicia gave her a small pep talk.
Skye gave a swift smile that didn't linger, "Looks like I don't have a choice." She and Tasha went to the other room.
"Are you girls okay with what happened?" Nathaniel asked. He was standing with Jim, Elliot and Ayani talking quietly.
"I'll be fine," Tasha's alacritous smile was returned by him and Shannon.
"Skye?" Nathaniel's voice was soft and gentle.
She shrugged, "Nothing I can't handle. The colony can't think any worse of me."
"Has anyone given you a hard time?" Nathaniel's tone hardened.
"No, and that's the problem. I've done horrible things that led to the killing of people. I deserve to be punished, not given a chance at a career and friends." Tears flowed down her cheeks, "I don't deserve anything." She started to leave and felt a pair of strong arms encircle her.
Jim motioned for Ayani and Elliot to join him and they left the Command Center.
"Skye," Nathaniel spoke gently, "I'm sorry I left for so many months with you feeling like this. I thought you were over beating yourself up."
"I was doing good until the assault and then you left. I felt like I was contributing to make up for my mistakes. Now I am an apprentice and don't have anything to offer."
"Does Dr. Shannon make you feel that way?"
"No, she's been wonderful," Skye spoke into his T-shirt. "It's more a feeling than anything. It's how I feel, nothing I can rationalize."
"The heart can be deceptive. I know a young man who would like to be more than friends with you. Why don't you go and visit Josh Shannon."
"Josh wouldn't want me after what happened, neither would Hunter." She stepped back from his arms.
"Has either indicated that to you?"
"Nooo."
"Hmmm, again you are jumping to conclusions. Josh is worried about you."
"I'm not a virgin," there she voiced was her secret fear. Josh wouldn't be the first for her.
"Uhhh, I have news for you, Skye. Unless you're some type of saint and I don't believe you are, you wouldn't be a virgin for long anyway. Hormones override that around here. I know who's doing whom at your age."
"You do?"
He smiled, "It's a very small community."
"You've never, ever said anything, why?"
"Freedom. I'm not here to tell people what they can and cannot do in their private lives as long as it's not illegal."
"So if I were to have a relationship with a man, you'd not interfere?"
"As long as he's not married, no."
Skye thought about what he said, "But Mr. Shannon is so strict with Maddy."
"What goes on in his home is his business. I'm not as strict as he is. If you had a relationship with Josh, I wouldn't stop you. But I would have a long talk with him about his intentions and if I didn't like the answers, he'd be OTG an awful lot." He was relieved to see a hint of smile play around her lips.
"You know, when Jade is my age, I'm passing all this on to her." She actually laughed when his hands gripped her throat in a mock strangling.
Dropping his hands he continued, "Actually what I'm telling you came from your father. We talked at length about courtship rules and human nature among the youth that were arriving. We'd caught several in compromising situations and decided the best action, depending on their ages, was to point out places where they wouldn't be caught." He chuckled, "Most of them are now married to each other with kids running around. I do have a different set of rules for my young soldiers. They are the example setters and must be looked up to among the youth."
"So my Dad was okay with experimenting?"
"No, he was okay with two people committed to each other and headed towards marriage, experimenting."
"Something tells me, he and Mom didn't wait."
Nathaniel spontaneously laughed, "We were in the field when they were courting and went home after about three months. He didn't make it off the tarmac, I'm sure. They were married the next week, though. I was best man and remember your parents, uhh, but you'll have to ask your mother for details."
"I'm not doing that. That's what you're around for."
He grinned, "I could shut your father down fast with the dirt I had on him."
"He have the low down on you also?"
"No, I was married before we met."
"How about General Simmonds. I bet he knew you back then, or your counterpart."
"I think it's time for you to disappear so I can pretend to do a little work," he hugged her hard and kissed her brow.
Satisfied she was doing better, he went looking for his wife.
They had an enjoyable evening with their guests and Nathaniel was relieved to see his wife and Ayani getting along.
Two days later, Jim and Alicia were still working through the Sixers. It was Drake's turn at the table. He was the young man who allowed the wayward kids into the transport when the Slashers attacked over a year before.
He asked nervously, "Nobody's come back to the jail. What's going to happen to me?"
Alicia smiled coldly, "We ask questions. If we think you're withholding, we'll start taking nails out starting with your fingers."
"Then what?"
"Don't worry about your final fate," Jim told him, "Now, how did you treat Mrs. Tate while she was in your care?"
That afternoon, the Sixer, Jim dreaded was being escorted up the steps. He ordered two soldiers to stand guard inside the doors and wished Taylor was present, but he was OTG with Elliot and Ayani again. The man was easily six eight and went close to three hundred, all muscle. He'd seen him in the Sixer crowd and knew he could be a handful.
The man stood defiantly at the table while Jim and Alicia took their seats. "Sit down, Travis," Alicia ordered the Sixer identified as Travis Molere.
"No."
"Alright, stand. Tell us how you came to be with Mira?"
"Why don't you and I go someplace and I'll show you what a real man is like," he kept his gaze focused on Wash, ignoring Jim.
Alicia looked directly at him, "You realize nobody's returned to your cell."
"Don't care about them. I'm not answering your questions and then letting you kill me." Without warning, he jumped to the doorway in a single long leap, smashed his bound fist into the first guard and threw him into the second. He snagged a pistol from the falling second soldier and put a bullet into each downed man. Leaving them in a heap in the doorway, he jumped over them and off the balcony, landing on his feet in front of Alicia's rover. Skye, at that moment was walking by on her way home. Travis grabbed her and snarled, "Open the door." In shock, Skye obeyed. Of all the Sixers, he scared her the most and on her trips to Mira's camp and she tried to avoid the towering monster. "Get in, move over to the driver's side and get me out of here."
Skye started the rover and backed up. Starting towards the gate that was descending, he raised his pistol to Skye's head, "Tell them to lift the gate."
With a shaking hand, Skye motioned with her hand out the window for the gate to rise. Soldiers were gathering and she was sure it was all over for her. "Travis, don't do this."
"What did they do with the others?"
"They're holding them in the houses until the Commander decides your fate."
"None were killed?"
"No."
"I'm not staying around for an execution at the hands of Taylor, now move it."
"The gate's still down."
Travis fired a warning shot in front of Skye's nose. She gasped and motioned with her hand again. The gate started rising. Parked in his rover on the other side was Nathaniel Taylor. The two rovers stayed put. "You're going to be the first to die, Girlie," Travis put the gun to Skye's temple.
A shot rang out and blood splattered on the inside of the windshield. It took Skye a moment to realize the blood didn't come from her and she was still breathing. She looked over and Travis was slumped in his seat with a massive hole in his forehead. Her door swiftly opened and Guzman pulled her to safety, a pistol in his hand. Skye looked around in a daze. She saw the Commander and his guests get out of his vehicle and head in her direction. Moving in a circle, she saw people rushing as if in slow motion and her eyes stopped on Lieutenant Taylor. The woman was on the balcony with a rifle in her hands. Skye recognized the weapon. It was a sniper rifle. That was the last thing she saw before she fainted.
Nathaniel was almost home when he saw the gate being lowered and looked under the poles to see a Sixer with a hostage. He parked and looked through the slats without speaking. He knew Elliot and Ayani could see as well as him the situation. He saw a female hand out the window of the driver's side wanting the gate up. He couldn't see what was happening inside and looked up to the balcony. He had a good view of his wife and her sniper rifle and pitied the soul inside the vehicle. She lined up and fired just as fast. He finally could see something inside the rover, blood and matter running down the windshield and the gate raising. By the time he got out, his soldiers had mobbed the area and he saw two people carried off the balcony. He pushed through the throng just as Skye collapsed. Jim, he saw, caught her and lifted her up.
"Is she injured?" he reached Shannon's side, looking for blood.
"I don't think so. I think she fainted."
"Let me have her." Nathaniel carried her to the Infirmary while Guzman issued orders to take the rover and body away.
Alicia beat Jim to the door and jumped over her people. She saw Travis take a hostage and motioned with her hand to lower the gate. Jim was kneeling over the shot men when she turned around. "Out of the way," he moved as she leaped over the men again and ran to the gun cabinet. She ran back with her personal sniper rifle that had been crafted for her. Jim put pressure on a wound to the lung on a soldier he now had supine on the balcony. He looked at Wash as she raised her rifle. It seemed that she froze and fired at the same time.
Elliot held Ayani's hand as they stood at the edge of the crowd. They saw Nathaniel take a young woman who looked like the girl called Skye. He hoped she wasn't injured. He gaze kept returning to the balcony and the impressive shooting he just witnessed.
Alicia waited for the men to be rushed to the Infirmary before she stepped over the blood-stained spot and put her rifle away. Skye had fainted so she needed to check on her, but first she wanted to check her shot. Doing a quick inspection of Jade, who slept through it all, she hurried to the rover just in time to counter Guzman's orders. "Hold on, I need to examine the scene." Her soldiers parted and she started looking at the shot she'd made. It went through the open side window and hit him in the inch of skull he left exposed to her shot. The bullet angled through his brain and out near the right temple. She saw Reynolds pushing in to look for himself. "See the small entrance hole," she pointed to the back of the head. He nodded. "Now look at the exit hole," she pushed the head to the back of the seat so he could see a good part of the forehead missing.
"I've never seen your rifle in action. The Commander told us you had a special rifle shipped through the portal that wasn't like ours." Mark was impressed.
"Mine is based on powder bullets and is much more powerful than your air versions."
"How come you never shoot with it when we're at the range?"
"I only have a few thousand rounds and just used one. I plan that rifle being in use for generations. Get him to the morgue and take my rover to the garage. Have them strip the window and dash to get every speck of blood and brain removed. Bring me another vehicle, Reynolds while you're at it."
"Yes, Ma'am," he moved to let a large private pull the body out.
Alicia looked at remaining soldiers just standing around, "Armstrong, Hatz," she waited for them to join her. "I need you both to volunteer to clean the blood in the Command Center."
"We're on it, Lieutenant," Hatz spoke for them and they went to get cleaning supplies.
Alicia looked around and spotted Elliot and Ayani and joined them.
"Impressive shooting, Wash," Elliot commented when she walked up.
"I used that rifle and killed a dozen Phoenix before they started shelling us. When it was clear I had to surrender, I had a soldier take it to the caverns to a secret spot where the ammo is stored. Otherwise, that rifle would have disappeared. Let's go see how the injured are doing."