Cortes slipped gradually into consciousness. First, he became aware that all he could see was darkness. Then he began to hear voices; familiar voices. Then it all came back to him in a rush. He remembered what had happened, realised it was dark because he had his eyes closed and was lying down, and sat up with a gasp. It was a bad idea, because his vision went dark again, though his eyes were wide open. His head throbbed so that for a moment he almost couldn’t tell which way was up.

“Vector, he’s awake…”

Cortes just made out the voice as Dahlia’s. He blinked, and the spots in front of his eyes began to clear as the blood made its way back into his head at a more stable rate.

“Cortes…”

The first person he was able to focus on was the Vector as he came and sat down beside him, and put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. Cortes could now see he was in the Saint Nazaire, up the back of the bridge on one of the bench seats there.

“Are you alright?” the Vector asked. “You were out for quite awhile…”

Cortes looked around, trying to pinpoint the rest of his crew. Besides the Vector, he could see Lena and Dahlia. Both of them were hovering and looking worried. “What happened…” he asked.

“Don’t you remember?” asked the Vector. “Oslo…”

“I remember that!” Cortes snapped, and then felt his head spin again. He ignored it. “What happened afterwards? What happened to Puerto Angel?”

“It’s gone, Cortes. I’m sorry. The Sphere was blasting the village as we left… I doubt they left much…”

Cortes drew in a breath. “What about all the ships?”

“They’re okay…”

“Don’t lie to me, Vector!”

“I’m not, Cortes…”

“But the Sphere was right on us…”

“I know. But we were able to load and activate Blue Sky on the Saint Nazaire’s computers. Then we boosted it through the other ships’ systems. There Sphere don’t know where we went.”

Cortes exhaled, and felt himself shudder. Somehow, he’d thought it would be much worse. It should have been much worse. He didn’t know whether he should be grateful, how could he be? They had still lost so much. “Everyone still lost their homes… where are they all supposed to go!?” He looked down at his arms. A prickling sensation in them had started to bother him, and when he felt his sleeves he could feel bandages beneath them.

“You practically got caught in an explosion,” the Vector explained. “You got a bit of shrapnel in them. It’s okay, it’s out now. But you probably have a concussion too, so you should take it easy…”

“Doesn’t matter…” Cortes muttered. His arms were now bothering him more because he knew they were hurt, but his headache was still worse. It was just something else he’d have to ignore.

“And also… Cortes, there’s something I have to tell you. That explosion…”

“Cortes!” Cheng had just now walked onto the bridge, followed by Mila and Mahad. He dashed across to Cortes, and threw his arms around his neck.

“Cheng, are you alright?”

Cheng gripped onto Cortes tighter, his face hidden against the Captain’s shoulder. “… yeah…” he got out eventually, his voice choked. “I didn’t know if you were going to get on a ship…” he trailed off, still clinging to Cortes.

Cortes closed his eyes, and gripped Cheng back tightly. “I’m sorry, lad. It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.”

Cheng finally released him, sitting down quietly beside him.

“We need to…” Cortes was having trouble thinking. His head ached. Again, he tried to ignore it. “We can’t just float around. These people need a place to stay. They need water…” He tried to push himself up, but the room spun, and he had to sit down again, afraid he would loose his balance.

“Careful, Cortes,” said the Vector, again resting his hand on the Captain’s shoulder. “You don’t need to do that. We’re taking care of it…”

Cortes nodded. Then he looked around the bridge, again checking his crew. Everyone else was now here, but… “Vector… where’s Wayan?”

The rest of the crew stayed silent, but now looked down at various places on the floor. Dahlia chewed her lip and her eyes had gotten teary. None of them could look at him. Cortes guessed before the Vector spoke.

“He’s dead, Cortes. He got caught in the same explosion you did. But he got so much shrapnel in him it killed him in minutes. I’m sorry…”

Cortes just nodded. He remembered he had been thrown to the deck before the blast wave hit. Wayan had thrown him down, and taken the brunt of the explosion in his own body. Cortes tensed his fists, causing the cuts and slices in his arms to sting; the only part of him that Wayan had failed to shield.

He was supposed to protect Puerto Angel and its people. But he had let Wayan die.

Cortes’ head dropped, and he let out a single, ragged sob before he pulled himself back under some semblance control. He felt pressure around his upper arm and back; Cheng was hugging him again.

“We’ll take care of things for now, Cortes,” said the Vector gently. “We’ve already sent a transmission to some of our affiliated blocs. Both Torquay and Urangan have responded and agreed to offer help. It’ll be alright. I promise you.” The Vector squeezed Cortes’ shoulder one last time, before getting up and leaving him with Cheng.

Cortes stayed with his head bowed. He was too tired now to try and force himself to help, and the grief made him loose all will to fight against the pain in his head. He just hoped the Sphere would leave them alone.

Even if they did, it was already too late for Wayan.