When sunbeams peered through the cracks in the curtains, Reya knew for a fact there was no chance she’d fall asleep. It was time to get up. Adrian’s head lay on her chest as he slept while holding her, which made extricating herself without waking him a delicate task.

  She got out of bed, taking great care not to make any noise as she clicked the door shut behind her. Ghosting down the stairs and into the kitchen, Reya was met by Rann, who was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast, her eyes were glued to her data slate.

  Reya’s muffled footsteps caught Rann’s attention, and she lifted her gaze. Reya gave a quiet wave and pulled up a chair opposite Rann, who gave her an assessing look.

  “You look terrible,” Rann stated. “Did you get any sleep at all last night?”

  Reya shook her head. “None whatsoever,” she said, her exhaustion creeping into her voice.

  “Are the sleeping pills not working again?” Rann hoped that Reya wouldn’t need to try yet another medication to help her sleep. Reya had gone through so many already and what she was currently using was very promising so far.

  “I had too much on my mind last night to be able to sleep,” Reya replied.

  “Does it have anything to do with why you were out so late with Adrian last night?” Rann asked.

  Reya hesitated before speaking. “Was it that obvious?” she said.

  Rann nodded. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked. The deep-seated worry in Reya’s eyes alarmed her.

  “No.” Reya shook her head. Her gaze was heavy as she met Rann’s eyes. “This one I’m not going to talk about. Ever. Please don’t ask me again.”

  Rann blinked, taken aback by Reya’s staunch refusal to speak of the matter. She put together what she knew of the situation. There was only one topic Reya never talked about with anyone and that was anything she learned from Adrian regarding the experiments performed on him. “He told you,” Rann realized, her eyes widening. “You know what happened to him.”

  Reya faltered, her expression cracking. “Yes,” she whispered.

  Rann sucked in a breath. She’d seen Adrian’s scars and wondered, like the others, what had happened to him. It was hard not to, with how many there were. Yet everybody had the sense not to ask after seeing them, with the exception of Jyn. “Can you at least tell me how bad it was?” she asked. With her role in the military, she knew that pushing Reya for details would sour their relationship since anything she learned would inevitably find itself on the General’s desk.

  At first, his scars were something important to note. The ones she could see peeking through his clothing and on his arms when they’d found him had been cause for alarm, but Adrian was simply part of the mission at that point, nothing more. While they’d been shocking, she hadn’t put much thought into what might have caused them.

  With every new discovery made that pointed back to him and the multitude of them all over his body, her curiosity grew. Given that he now played a bigger role in Reya’s life, Rann could no longer view Adrian as a thing to secure and obtain information from. She would respect his need for privacy without pushing it, in the hopes that one day he’d open up to the rest of them and talk about the horrors he faced.

  “It’s. . .” Reya trailed off, her gaze turning distant. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she recalled the previous night. The look she gave Rann unsettled her greatly. “Horrific doesn’t even begin to describe it. The things they did to him.” Reya shuddered. “I can hardly believe what he survived.” She brushed her eyes to clear her tears. “What was done to him was beyond cruel. It’s sickening. The strength he had to endure that and live is something I will forever be amazed by. Words will never be enough to describe the pain he suffered.”

  “Is that why you won’t share anything with us regarding him?” Rann said.

  “It’s not my place to tell,” Reya replied. “Adrian asked that I keep it between the two of us and that’s something I’m going to respect. I won’t tell you anything on the topic without his explicit permission.”

  Rann gave her friend a long, assessing look. “And it’s whatever he told you that made you unable to sleep last night?” While she was sure that whatever Reya had learned weighed heavily on her, she had trouble coming to terms with that it would affect her so. Just what had Adrian said that warranted Reya being in such a state that early in the morning?

  “Yes.” Reya shrunk back into herself. “What do I do?” she asked in a small voice. “I don’t know how to make this better. Not this. I’ve seen some of what he went through. Lived it, even. But this?” Her tears fell freely from her eyes. “Nothing will ever be able to make this alright.”

  “I think,” Rann started slowly, “that you should keep on doing as you’ve been. We’ve all noticed a big change in Adrian’s behaviour since getting to know you. He’s less closed off than when he first arrived.”

  “I never knew,” Reya said quietly with downturned eyes. “All this time, I never knew. And to think I dared to compare our experiences at the hands of the gru’ul, as though they were remotely relatable.”

  “I think they are, to a certain extent. Remember when you first met Adrian?” Rann said. “You both ate the same food at the facility. Maybe not all the experiences are something you can relate to, but I’d wager to say there’s still a fair share you can.”

  Rann was glad that nobody else was there to witness their friend’s distraught state. The thought of Jyn being the one to find Reya made her shudder. Adrian would know no peace until the Jyn wrung every last drop of information from him now that he’d finally chosen to share his story.

  A creaking step made both women jolt. Reya quickly dabbed away the rest of her tears with her sleeve and adopted a smooth mask that showed nothing wrong. Tassie joined them at the table and immediately sensed the tense atmosphere. While Reya’s expression betrayed nothing, she could do little to hide her puffy eyes from her crying.

  “I was going to say good morning,” Tassie said, “but from the looks of it that’s not the case. Did something happen?”

  Reya shot Rann a warning glare. She didn’t want the others to know that she’d learned about Adrian yet. “It’s nothing,” Rann said quickly. While she understood Reya’s need to keep silent about the matter, Tassie was at the heart of the mystery as well with her research. Perhaps she could shed some light on what disturbed Reya to the point of no sleep. She would fill Tassie in on the details later, when they were alone.

  “If you say so,” Tassie said, eyeing her two friends suspiciously. Ultimately, she chose not to make a big deal out of it. “I’m going to grab a ration bar and head back to the ship to do some work.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “This early in the morning?” Reya asked, surprised. “Why not take the time to eat a proper breakfast?” She was more than willing to whip up a hearty meal for her friend, who was looking more and more haggard by the day. While she didn’t know what it was exactly that Tassie had uncovered during her research, she could tell it was weighing on her. A good breakfast would at least give her the energy she needed to tackle her work.

  “I simply don’t have the time,” Tassie replied. “I can take a few minutes here to chat, but that’s about it. Irric’s waiting for me, and we have a lot of ground to cover today. Speaking of, Kell wants to talk to you later.”

  Reya nodded. “I can make some time for him. It’s not like I have much to do during the day since I’m not part of the team anymore.” A sense of loss panged in her chest as she imagined the mission ending and her no longer being able to be with her team. Her family. She knew the day was coming and that she would one day have to accept the fact.

  That was a problem for future her.

  Today, she could still enjoy being with them.

  While her thoughts and worries turned to what Kell might want from her, Tassie struck up a brief conversation with Rann. Before Reya knew it, her friend was getting up from her seat and was out the door, off to bury her nose in her research.

  Rann turned back to Reya. “I might not know all of what’s going on,” she said, “but promise me that if it becomes too much you’ll talk to me about it. I don’t want you keeping everything bottled up like you did with your scars.”

  “This isn’t the same as the time with my scars,” Reya replied. “But thank you. I know you’ll be there for me when I need it.”

  The pair lapsed into a comfortable silence, both coming to an unspoken agreement to let the matter drop for the time being. While they finished their breakfast, the others roused from their slumber. Eimir came to join them, soon followed by Beor. The mood at the table turned lighthearted as the previous topics were buried until further notice.

  Adrian remained fast asleep, unaware of the events that had transpired.

  “I’m going to what?” Tassie asked incredulously. Contrary to her expectations of working alongside Irric and Ava that morning, her arrival at her workstation triggered a call directly from General Nessah.

  “You heard correctly,” Nessah replied. She’d been expecting this reaction and wasn’t at all surprised that her soldier needed some clarification. “You’ve been chosen by the Tribunal to test pilot a new form of space travel we’ve reverse engineered from gru’ul technology.”

  Tassie was at a loss. She knew, distantly, that there were other researchers studying the technology they’d found at the gru’ul facility. What she was not expecting was for there to enough progress made that the military was prototyping their findings. “Is this even safe?” she asked. “How do you know it’ll work?”

  “Our engineers are reasonably certain that everything will work as intended,” Nessah said smoothly. “They’ve done extensive testing. All that’s left to do is to put it into practice. In theory, everything should go just fine.”

  Somehow, that did little to reassure Tassie.

  “How do the new engines work?” Tassie asked. The barebones explanation she got from Nessah left her incredibly excited. If the theories were true, then what they’d discovered was beyond revolutionary. It would be a massive advantage over the other factions. One which would be closely guarded and viciously defended.

  “You’ll need to bring your ship in to be retrofitted with the new technology,” Nessah said. “The process shouldn’t take too long. Since you just made a supply run, I’ll be having you wait on-site until the modifications are done. You’ll be supervising the workers to ensure that there’s no unauthorized access to the bridge and your workstation. This means you won’t be able to work with Irric for a little bit.”

  “Is that going to be alright? Don’t we need to make as much progress as possible in our research?” Tassie said.

  “Right now your priority is learning more about Adrian’s new organs and how they tie into the gru’ul’s experimentation goals. Once you’ve learned more, search for anything relating to them. The Tribunal wants to know more information on just what the gru’ul were turning Adrian into,” Nessah replied.

  The pair continued to discuss research goals and soon Tassie found herself alone on the bridge, contemplating her newest mission as a test subject. Excitement and fear fought one another for dominance. She knew full-well that the testing could prove to be deadly. Even the slightest problem with the equipment or their calculations for the test flight could result in her death.

  She didn’t know how she felt about that.

  The reality of how dangerous her mission was going to be terrified her. Yet, if she was successful her name would be written in history books for years to come. She sent a quick prayer to the gods, hoping that everything would turn out alright.

  After taking a moment to collect herself, she contacted Irric and got to work following Nessah’s directives. Alongside Ava, the group continued their research into just how Adrian’s body worked. They made some headway, but the documentation was so thorough and lengthy that it would be a while still until they fully understood just what it was they’d found.

  Finally, after several hours of work, her nerves got to her. Tassie needed a break, and she soon found herself back in an empty house, save Rann. The others were out on patrols or maintaining the ship. She joined Rann in the living room and sat in the single seat recliner.

  They sat in silence for several seconds until Tassie spoke up. “Do you want to tell me what this morning was about? Reya looked awful, sitting at the table with you. Is there something wrong with her medication?” Fully aware of the problems Reya had with finding medication that worked for her, she concluded that it was the most likely cause for her friend’s state earlier that morning.

  Rann shook her head. “For once, no,” she said. She launched into a brief recounting of how Reya had been upon joining her at the table. When she finally got to the root cause of their friend’s distress, she paused. “I’m really not sure if I should tell you this. Please promise you won’t go around telling the others. Especially Jyn.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Tassie asked, her eyes narrowing. “What could she possibly have told you that would require the secrecy?”

  Rann took a deep breath. “She found out what happened to Adrian during his time at the facility. All of it.”

  Tassie sucked in a breath. “She knows?” She immediately paled, knowing that what she’d found thus far was only a small fraction of what truly happened to Adrian during his time there. She feared for just how bad the reality was. “By the gods. How bad is it?”

  “Bad enough that she was crying at just the thought of it. She didn’t sleep at all because of how awful it was,” Rann said. Tassie grew ill, trying to imagine what the full story entailed. Rann caught the change in her friend’s expression. “You’ve seen some of what happened to Adrian. Have you learned more since the last time I asked?”

  “Yes,” Tassie whispered.

  “And it was bad?” Rann pushed.

  “It’s more than that,” Tassie said sadly. “We’ve found documents about the experiments, explaining them. The worst part is that the gru’ul documented everything. They recorded all of their experiments, based on what we’ve found so far. It’s disgusting. Horrifying isn’t a strong enough word for the pain Adrian must have gone through.”

  Rann went very quiet as she digested her friend’s words. “We’ve all seen the scars. You’ve seen what caused them?”

  “Only some of them. They did so many more things that didn’t leave any scarring, Rann. The scars only tell part of the story,” Tassie said.

  “And now Reya knows the full extent of it. What would the Tribunal do if they found out?” Rann asked.

  “I don’t know,” Tassie said, her voice full of worry. “They know they can’t force Reya to tell them anything, but something’s been off about them lately. They’ve taken a much more forceful approach towards the situation. Just ask Kell.”

  Rann drummed her fingers on the arm of the couch, deep in thought. “We definitely can’t let Jyn know about this. He’d immediately tell the Tribunal and then shit will hit the fan. Do you think they’d do anything to Adrian for this information?”

  “They’ve made deals with Adrian about this kind of thing. I think he’d be safe, but I have no guarantee anymore. Speaking of safe, there’s something you need to know.” Tassie launched into an explanation about her newest mission as a test pilot for new technology derived from the gru’ul ships’ engines. The result left Rann utterly floored.

  “Couldn’t they choose anyone else?” Rann croaked, imagining the worst-case scenario. Losing Reya when they’d all thought she was dead had been hard enough. The very real possibility of losing Tassie to untested technology terrified her.

  Tassie’s fear cracked through her excitement, plainly visible for Rann to see. “They still want the details of the technology to be kept under wraps and I’m the best pilot they have available that has the clearance to know about it.” She swallowed hard. “I wish they’d picked someone else,” she whispered, tears brimming in her eyes. “I don’t want to die.”

  Rann stood up and collected Tassie into a long hug, slowly stroking her hair. “Just come back to us. That’s all I want. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you for good.”

  Tassie could only nod silently, praying that everything would turn out fine.