"How long until everything gets voided?" I asked.

  "It already is," the Knife replied.

  "People are pushing each other off the cliffs," Hao said. "The bottom is covered with corpses."

  "We've got to stop that," I said.

  "Can't," the Knife said.

  My hands balled into fists of their own accord. I forced them to unclench, pushed them against my sides.

  "What do you mean ‘can't?’" I said.

  "There are bloods here," the Knife said. "The gangs, the cannibals, the thieves. They've all come."

  I stared. I'd been thinking of bloods as the Knife, dangerous but basically decent. But Widen had been scared of them. I'd thought her hysteric, but she'd been right. There were cannibals on Remba.

  "How do you tell who is who?" I said.

  "You don't," the Knife said. "Unless you live in a hidden with them, in which case you learn who to avoid."

  "Why are they here?" I said. "They can't believe we'd put them on a ship with innocent people."

  "You didn't put any qualifiers on it," the Knife said. "Neither did Ade. There is a way off Remba. Everyone is coming."

  I slipped, stumbled into the cold wall. The world spun before me. Everyone was coming. The Syndics were going to burn the Gash from orbit once they realized. We couldn't leave the people here, or they'd starve and die. We couldn't take them with us, or the Syndics would kill them. And even if we marched up to the port and got that hauler handed to us on a silver platter, we'd get a hold full of cannibals and murderers.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Everything had truly been voided.

  I wanted to kick myself. I wanted to kick the Knife, punch Hao, even kick the kid. She should have kept her mouth shut. Except that everyone would have come anyhow, because they had nothing, and now they had the hope of getting out.

  I couldn't destroy that hope. I had to work with it, make it come true somehow.

  Think. What was I good at?

  Warding. Piloting. Shooting.

  Didn't have the time to ward. Had nothing to pilot. Couldn't shoot enough.

  Wrong bearing. What would Riina do?

  Organize everything. Shout at people and they'd obey her. I could do that. Except I couldn't shout at people because I needed to be somewhere else. I needed to pave the way for the horde of refugees to reach the ship, and get off the planet.

  I couldn't do it alone.

  Hao would help, but she was only one person. I needed a team. Three teams, really. One to clear the path, disable the Syndics in City. One to keep the mass of people heading in the right direction. One to weed out the bad bloods, the cannibals and killers, and prevent them from getting on board, or we'd have a civil war inside a hull, and everyone would die anyhow.

  And one team to jump into their void fighters and blow those cruisers out of orbit.

  Crud. Voidmunging crud. I wiped my forehead with an unsteady hand.

  Great, now my hands were shaking, too.

  This wouldn't do. I'd led people before, a long time ago. How had I done it?

  I'd gone ice cold with rage, and destroyed everything around me. That wouldn't work. I needed Riina's calm, the Knife's knowledge, Widen's paranoia.

  I could get two of those.

  "You," I said, pointing to the Knife, "are hereby nominated as chief recruiter. Find me ten people like you. No, find me a hundred people like you. Killers with kind hearts. We need a police department, and you're it."

  "You," I turned, pointing at Ade, "get me your mother."

  "And you-" I turned to Hao "-figure out how to hijack twenty missile packs and repair a long hauler in space, while running for our lives."

  Hao raised an eyebrow.

  "That all?" she said.

  "No," I said. "Take your spare time and learn to cook."

  She snorted.

  "I cannot change the laws of physics, captain," she said. "Push me too much and I'm gonna blow."

  It was good to see her animated again, something like her usual self.

  "Don't," I said. "But if you find me a cup of tea, I'll be eternally grateful."

  To my surprise, she did.