I had a few things I needed to get off my chest, things I couldn’t say on the bridge. And from the look on Mum’s face when she opened her door, she had a fair to middling idea of what was coming. ‘What choice did I have, Nathan?’ ‘You had the choice not to try and take Vee’s ship away from her,’ I replied at once. ‘You had the choice to act like a decent human being.’ ‘Too much was at stake to leave to the whim of that girl,’ Mum retorted. ‘That girl?’ I bristled. ‘What does that mean exactly?’ ‘It means she’s not one of us, Nathan. It means loyalty begins at home.’ Not one of us? What the hell . . .? ‘You were once an elite too, Mum, or have you forgotten that? And charity begins at home, not loyalty,’ I corrected, ice in my voice. ‘Well, if loyalty doesn’t, then it should,’ said Mum. ‘I heard about what you did. You had no right to tell her who we really are.’ ‘And what are we, Mum? Escaped drones who need help – or space pirates with no morals and no conscience, ready to take her ship if she won’t do as we say?
