Something engraved in the metal next to the hole caught her eye.
The words "Never Forget" had been etched so deeply into the side of the ship that it would take a thousand years or more for the elements to erode them away.
Kira's smile was faint as she traced the characters. "You're right about that. I will never forget."
She'd carry them with her. A welcome weight. And when she finally located the Tsavitee's home world and their masters, she'd make sure to exact a little vengeance in their name.
Because she was the Phoenix. And that was what she was best at.
Kira stepped inside the ship, locating Brie in the gloom through the greenish glow her goggles emitted.
"Good of you to join me," Brie said, crouching just out of reach of the moonlight filtering in through the gap.
"This place brings back a lot of memories for me. It's not easy."
Brie’s goggles were strangely sinister looking in the dim light, lending her a mysterious aura.
The J1N stuttered, its altitude dropping sharply before it recovered.
Brie rose, the moment broken. "Follow me."
"As you wish," Kira murmured, waiting until the woman's back was to them before giving the J1N a glare. Was it too much to ask for the drone to go more than two seconds without drawing attention to itself?
Kira stomped after Brie, following her deeper into the ship.
It wasn't long before she recognized the area where they were heading. A place the crew had affectionately referred to as the ship's brain.
It was located in the center of the ship behind several bulkheads made from some of the strongest alloys in the Consortium's arsenal. The reason being that in the event of attack the ship could remain active as long as its brain was somewhat intact. And if it did go down, the information contained there had some chance of making it back into the hands of the military's leaders.
Personally, Kira thought the Tsavitee had the right of it by destroying all crucial systems when a ship went down to prevent their technology from falling into the hands of the enemy. The higher ups hadn't agreed.
Brie and Kira meandered through the ship in a roundabout manner. The Vega's state didn't allow for a straight shot from point A to point B, forcing them to take detours to bypass the damaged sections.
"You're different than I was expecting," Brie commented as Kira crouched to crawl through a section where the ceiling had partially caved in. Before Kira could respond, she set off again. "Stay close. The All Father placed traps in the interior of the ship to prevent unwelcome visitors."
"That’s not surprising," Kira said.
Odin had always been even more paranoid than her.
Brie moved with a competence and efficiency that spoke of training. She'd gotten the drop on Pallas, even if it was only for a moment. That was no easy feat.
If this had still been during the war, Kira would have tried to recruit her.
It made her wonder what a person with Brie’s skills was doing here. Guarding a derelict ship. Prestigious as it may have once been.
"Did Diesel train you?" Kira asked, stepping over a pile of debris.
"He had a hand in it. Though Rothchild is primarily responsible. Our government requires every able bodied citizen to undergo military training upon reaching adulthood. Insurance for if we're ever attacked again."
"Smart of them."
Kira wished more planets had done that. It would have made them less of an easy target for the Tsavitee. Maybe so many wouldn't have died before Centcom's reinforcements had arrived.
"I agree." Brie's smile looked strange with her goggles covering the upper half of her face. "Especially given the predicament the Consortium has just put us in by breaking the treaty."
Though there wasn’t any detectable bitterness in Brie’s words, there was something. A note of sharpness that made sense when you considered where they were standing. A ship whose crew’s lives had bought an alliance that led to peace. Not to mention the civilian population Rothchild had lost in the same encounter.
Kira was still dealing with her own sense of betrayal over the Consortium’s shortsightedness. She couldn't imagine how much worse it was for Rothchild's citizens whose moon was a reminder every time they looked up at the sky.
"My father was one of the miners stationed on the moon during the blast."
Kira slowed and then stopped; her gaze trained on the back of Brie’s head.
"He was my hero," Brie said into the silence. "Every day he would call home and tell me a story to put me to bed."
The love Brie had for her father was perceptible even all these years later.