"What about her?"

Red's eyes narrowed as she turned to face Ember's brother. He tried remembering that this man and Ember were twins. He could see the physical resemblance, the same auburn hair, even her augmented eyes were the same color blue as Jack's, but that was it.  Ember was short, the weaker twin apparently, Jack was tall and lanky. The black and blue uniform Jack wore looked comical to Red as Jack certainly didn't fill it out. 

Their personalities were night and day. Ember was a fighter, and too honest, too ready to sacrifice herself to save others. Jack was cunning, not someone you'd turn your back on if you were his enemy. He didn't put himself in the heat of battle but moved pieces around as if he was playing chess. Everything was done from a distance and other people got their hands dirty.

Red wasn't sure whether he and Jack were enemies.

"Stop seeing her." Jack crossed his arms and his eyes narrowed in return. A flush creeped up his face as he tried to stare Red down. Red tried to remember that this man, a brilliant scientist, was in charge of New Elysium and had orchestrated its construction. If he did anything else, he was going to laugh in his face.

"No," Red uttered the word through clenched teeth knowing what would come after. He wasn't listening, he wasn't obeying as he should have been. Not playing the good Captain, as he had for Jack before. 

"No? Look, Red, it's not what you think." The flush went away and Jack relaxed his arms as he turned to look out the open view into the infinity of space. A new argument forming in his mind, Red remembered how Jack operated. Dag had kept things in perspective for both of them. He was still the most humane amongst the three of them. Red and Jack would have killed each other off at some point if not for his intervention. Dag should be up here now. 

"Then tell me what it is," Red's voice lowered an octave, his body tensed. The threat to Jack was implicit if not actually stated. 

"I need you focused. On the task at hand. Not thinking about Ember," Jack's voice rose a little higher, he cracked his knuckles against each other. Red remembered that habit, Red tugged on his hair when he was nervous or agitated. Jack cracked his knuckles.

"Wow, and here I thought I was going to get the big brother talk, maybe you were concerned about her..." Red shrugged as his eye began to tick. He rubbed it with his hand, he should probaby get out of here. 

"Of course I am. But there are bigger things at stake here and sacrifices must—"

"Be made. Yeah, I get it," Red rubbed his temple. Jack was always hyperfocused on the mission at hand, he should have remembered this part.

"Look I think you are terrible for her, you were hot-headed, almost suicidal on your missions. Its what made you so good at them. You did everything I told you, even if I didn't think you were coming back." 

Red let that roll around his mind for a second. He no longer moved like a fully obedient soldier. "And I don't do that anymore," Red snapped. "And that's the problem isn't it?" He moved closer, Red wasn't tall but he could be intimidating when he wanted to be. There was no one else in this room but the two of them, and he knew Jack was fully aware of what he was capable of. "I don't do that anymore," he repeated through clenched teeth. "I gave that kind of loyalty to Neo-Tokyo, and they took everything. You're Neo-Tokyan and you are still playing the same game."

"Re—"

"Fuck you," Red turned around and went back to the console looking down at its smooth surface. He placed his hands on top of it as he put his weight on them. "You fooled all of us. We didn't know you were from Neo-Tokyo, does anyone know here?"

"A few," Jack admitted, he crossed his arms as he looked over at Red. "How did you run into her?"

"Your father put her in prison." Red stared out of the window into space as he spoke, remembering that it was maybe a month or so that he'd met Ember. 

Jack's face paled. "Father would nev--She still managed to keep her augments?"

"Apparently she was supposed to choose to remove them," Red banged a fist at the memory of Ember lying lifelessly on the table as Karik kicked her in the stomach repeatedly. "She tried to sacrifice herself so we could escape."

"So, she understands where I'm coming from." Red's gaze snapped back to Jack, as his eyes narrowed, he sucked in his breath. If there was one person he was not willing to sacrifice... 

"No, Jack," Red rubbed his forehead as he shifted to focus on the interface again. "You've never sacrificed anything, all you have ever done is sacrifice other people. Ember at least puts her money where her mouth is." Again the memory of her laying on that table shook Red. Tell them what I am, they'll come for me, Red...

There was a moment of silence as both men stared at each other, their bodies tensed, eyes narrowed. If they hadn't needed each other to run things, one of them wouldn't have walked out of the bridge.

"Look what would you have done then if you knew?" Jack shrugged and turned to the console he was next to, his hands touching the console so he could read the information the vessel fed him.  

Red was silent for a moment. He nodded, the point had been made. He probably would have taken Jack out himself. They both knew it, his hatred had run that deep back then.

"I need a break," Red's hands slid off the table as he pulled away. Red turned to leave when Jack asked one last question. 

"You didn't have the LR put back in. Why not?"

Red turned to Jack lifting an eyebrow. "Why would you ask me to put that back in? In a world where we can be hacked, seriously? Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't risk it. You'd love that, wouldn't you? To not only control how people live, but how we die. "

A strange look crossed Jack's face, Red caught and focused on it, but it was gone just as quickly. Red tried to believe he had imagined it, but he knew otherwise. Something had struck close to home, too close.  

"It was part of your arsenal," Jack spoke, his voice shaking, as he kept his gaze away from Red, focusing on the clear windows once again. Red stared at the side of his face, heat building up inside of him. Screw this, maybe I should kill him. Jack wanted a backdoor to control him or kill him. He wasn't sure, but it didn't matter. The disappointment was evident. Definitely enemies then. 

"We need an augur," Jack changed the subject, completely ignoring the fact that Red just said he needed a break. "Linking the ships is one thing. But I also need to link the AI and Augments together so they can act as one. It's the fastest way to get a cohesive unit going since we don't have the time for training them."

"Jack!" Larsson ran into the room. Red could tell by the way she moved that Lars was speaking now, his voice tinged with worry. "They've broken through." Null would have sauntered in here and given Jack the middle finger. At least they agreed on that much.

Red looked at Jack and then back at Larsson. Sorry, Lars.

"Lars could do it." If he could die a slow painful death, he knew Null would give it to him. The way her eyes shifted, her posture changed, Null was now in charge of the body. Lars probably hadn't had a chance against her sudden takeover. She certainly would never forgive him for exposing their secret. He glanced at her again, no mercy there. He was a walking dead man.

The console in front of him exploded with images of the fleet breaking through. Red plugged in and began to assess exactly where every ship was located. Working fast he threw the images up into the air in front of him so both Jack and Lars could see what was usually only in his mind.

"Who is Lars?" Jack asked, glancing between Larsson and Red.

"Lars is an advanced autonomous AI," Red shrugged. "He was my second on the Aphelion, so he knows the ship."

"So where is he?" Jack rubbed his hands together.  He was already calculating how he could use Lars, Red recognized the gesture. He ignored Larsson for the moment, she was sweating, he'd never seen that before.

"Right there," Red inclined his head towards Larsson. I'm going to die after today.

Jack stared at Larsson not getting it. "Amy Larsson was your second?"

She straightened, the angry expression grew placid and Red knew Lars was in command. "I am Lars, sir."

Jack's jaw dropped as he finally connected the dots. "There are two of you in there..."

"Yes, Sir," Lars was polite so completely out of character from what Jack was used to.

"How—"

"We don't really have time," Red snapped. "Lars, I need you get me numbers on what it will take to move this shit ton of metal."

Lars hesitated a moment flicking his gaze between Jack, who looked thoughtful and Red who was at the controls.

"On it, Captain," Lars lifted a hand to salute Red. Red's lips quirked as he forced back a smile.   Jack wasn't just surprised he was livid, and getting the upper hand on a man who was a calculating as Jack was going to make Red's day.

Red could see that Amy Larsson wore a smile on her face. It was an odd picture, knowing it was Lars in someone else's body but it felt like old times when he and Lars had done this very thing before. Parts of him were waking up again, the parts that once enjoyed this job.

Red shifted his attention to the Aphelion herself. He could see all the ships, shuttles, all manner of space crafts, they looked like pinpoints in space to him, conveniently labeled so he'd know who they were and what they were capable of.

"Pilots? Weapons?" This was directed at Jack, who came to the data interface next to Red and started pushing information at Red.

Red connected to the ship's mainframe and pulled his hands away. He no longer needed the physical connection to the ship itself. Instead, he used his hands to shift around what he could see projected out in front of him but no one else could; Ehring station, with its small unit of patrol ships. Then there was the much larger Aphelion docked next to it, appearing like a behemoth out of an ancient ocean. There were many pinpricks inside, close together so he had to zoom into to see them.

He didn't have the pilots. Now that he thought about it, New Elysium didn't even have enough inhabitants to maintain the skeleton crew.

Ember, the shits hit the fan.

I heard. My ship isn't finished.

Just get on the Aphelion, we'll fix her later.

But—

Ember, please. I'm going to need every hand I can get to maneuver this thing.

I'll see you there, Red.

He wanted to add more but information started pouring in. It would take time to decipher.

"Lars, I need those numbers."

His field of vision shifted as Lars connected in, dots shot to life on every corner of the ship. "What the—"

"3,000, Sir," Null managed to make the "sir" sound like an insult as usual. Red glanced back at her, unable to hide his surprise. "Meet Legion," she sounded smug. "3,000 semi-autonomous AIs that can operate a ship's core functions in the absence of the crew."

Red gaped at her. Relief flooded him as he felt the ship respond. Lars had linked him directly into the crew and he realized that he was very much in control of the ship even if it was Lars who controlled the link.

"What?" Null said from behind him. "Did you think we hot-wired her with a rubber band and a bobby pin when we stole it?"

"How--?" Jack started.

"Not now Jack, it doesn't matter," Red dismissed Jack, hoping he'd take the hint and nodded at Null. "We have 10 hours before they are here, which they could do at a hard burn. Let's do this. We need all hands."