Page 63 of Honor Bound

Roan’s fingers stilled, his knuckles turning white around the tool in his hand. “Good thing you didn’t make it back.”

Sergi nodded. “It’s a very good thing. But not for the reason you think.”

He pushed away from the bulkhead, his voice softening. “I made the decision long before things went sideways that I wasn’t going to follow my orders. Julia changed that. All of them did. I started to see the mission differently—bigger than my government or any thirst for power. In space, there wasn’t one government or one world. There was just… us. Humans. Trying to survive. Together.”

He exhaled slowly, his gaze sharpening. “Julia knew who I was, what I was sent to do, and yet… she never judged me. She never betrayed me. She gave me her trust, even when she had every reason not to.” His voice softened. “That trust changed me. She gave me back my humanity. The crew became the family I never had. And for that, I’ll fight and die to protect them. To protect her.”

The air grew heavier between them. Roan could feel the unspoken warning in Sergi’s words. This wasn’t about physical protection; it was about something deeper. He was telling Roan not to hurt Julia, his family.

Roan set the tool down and rose to his feet, standing face-to-face with Sergi. For several seconds, neither man spoke.

Finally, Roan dipped his head in understanding. “I’ll protect her with my life,” he said quietly. “I’m not blind to how special she is. I know what you’re saying.”

Sergi studied him for a heartbeat longer before nodding, a hint of approval in his eyes. “Good.” He smiled faintly, his old humor returning. “Now let’s see if we’re about to become space dust.”

* * *

Roan followed Sergi to the front of the shuttle. La’Rue sat at the controls, her eyes scanning the instruments. The tension in the air was palpable, a mix of anticipation and controlled anxiety.

“We’re ready,” Roan said. “Activate the system.”

La’Rue nodded, her fingers dancing across the console. “Activating reflective coating now. Shutting down all non-essential systems. Environmental support and forward thrusters only. H, I need feedback. How does it look to you?”

The little service bot beeped out in response, drawing a chuckle from those inside. Outside the viewport, the stars shimmered and blurred as the reflective paint took effect. The shuttle seemed to dissolve into the fabric of space, fading from sight.

Sergi whistled low. “Well, I’ll be damned. It works.”

In the distance, the Legion fleet loomed like a wall of death, a line of massive Battle Cruisers flanking the ominous bulk of the space lab. Their dark hulls gleamed in the reflective light of the nearby sun, their weapon systems ominously quiet—for now.

Roan’s focus locked on the space lab. His chest tightened with a surge of determination and dread. This was it.

The shuttle floated silently in the shadows, invisible to the world around it.

Roan exhaled slowly, his voice steady. “La’Rue, get us into position. Once the first battle cruisers past, follow the fleet’s wake. Let’s not draw attention if we can help it.”

La’Rue’s eyes sparkled with defiant energy. “Roger that, General. Time to give them hell. H, I need you inside, bud. Things are about to get serious.”

The shuttle moved forward, slipping silently into position, its engines fading as La’Rue shut them down. In the distance, the space lab loomed larger, its dark structure filled with deadly secrets waiting to be exposed.

Roan felt Julia’s hand against his lower back, grounding him in the moment. He reached down and wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing strength from her presence. This was their chance. One shot to destroy the weapon and stop the Legion’s madness.

Failure wasn’t an option.

* * *

The shuttle floated in space above the planet. The only sound was the low hum of the life support system. The cockpit was bathed in dim red light, signaling that their systems were on standby, running silent to avoid detection.

Roan sat in the co-pilot’s seat, his eyes locked on the holographic display in front of him. The blue outline of the space lab hovered like a ghost, its labyrinth of corridors and containment chambers glowing faintly.

His jaw tightened as the memories of his time inside that monstrous creation resurfaced—the cold sterility, the eerie glow of the containment units, and the suffocating sense that something had gone horribly wrong from the start.

“This is where the weapon is contained,” Roan said, tapping the hologram. A cluster of rooms lit up in red. “Each containment unit is designed to hold the parasite samples. If there’s even the slightest breach, the labs will lock down first. As a last resort, if the internal security measures fail, the system will vent everything through the conduits and out into space.

“Dr. Mella didn’t like that idea,” he added grimly. “He didn’t want to lose the parasites he had grown, but he also didn’t want to chance being stuck in the lab or sucked out into space with the parasites.”

Julia leaned forward, her focus sharpening as she studied the layout. Her mind worked through the problem with the precision of someone used to solving impossible puzzles.

“I’m positive he has another way to neutralize the parasite,” she said in a contemplative tone. “It would be too risky to develop something like this and not have a way to stop it in case it fell into the wrong hands. He would want an antidote. I learned during my years teaching at the university that scientists who work in Parasitology have a special code of survival… them first then everyone else. I swear they are closely related to the parasites they study,” she joked.

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