TO TREAD OBSIDIAN SHORES — Snippet 11

/ Jason Cordova
Coming January 2026 from Baen Books

(Blue earned her mama bear status for a reason)

“Stand up,” she ordered with an impatient gesture.

His expression remained impassive, but a hint of wariness touched his eyes as he swiftly unbuckled his harness. Blue backed into the aisle to give him room to stand. When he rose to his full height, she didn’t even have to tilt her head back to meet his inquisitive stare. They were nearly the same height, though she wagered he had at least one growth spurt to go before he was done growing.

“Permission to touch?” Her request came out as more of an impatient demand than a question, and Tavi frowned at her.

“Ma’am?”

Blue took that as permission. Brusquely, she properly angled his rank pins and straightened out his stupid dress uniform until everything fell into crisp lines again.

“Um, what are you doing, ma’am?”

Blue gritted her teeth at the carefully hidden alarm in his tone, more irritated with herself than anything else. She’d clearly spent far too much time around her mother if she was babying this kid. No, this legionnaire. Despite his relatively small size, his frame was packed with lean muscle that her little brother absolutely did not have.

She gave his uniform one last, narrow-eyed glare and nodded. “Now you’re squared away.”

“Thank you, ma’am?” Tavi cleared his throat. “Can I ask you a question?”

Blue bit back her urge to tell him he just did and nodded permission.

“Is there a spot on the ship where I can see the stars?” A faint wash of color swept across his face as he glanced around the bare-bones passenger compartment. The narrow, elongated space was nothing more than gray metal bulkheads and battered old seats. The designers hadn’t seen the need to give troops a view portal or even a screen. “I’m still getting used to seeing the sky.”

Blue stared, completely taken aback by the odd statement. “Where the hell did you grow up that you’re not used to seeing the sky?”

“Overdark . . . er, Syngaard, ma’am.”

A frown marred her brow as she struggled to place the name. Something about poisonous rain?

“On Myrkyma,” he added helpfully.

Her expression brightened as the knowledge slid to the forefront of her memory. One of her atmospheric science classes had covered that planet in detail, as the professor had used the unique composition of the atmosphere for his doctorate dissertation. They hadn’t spent a great deal of time on the planet’s cities, by necessity all situated underground, instead focusing on the excruciatingly slow terraforming process that would one day enable humanity to colonize the surface. They weren’t part of the Protectorate and, from what she could recall, had no interest in ever joining. Something about overzealous revolutionaries . . . 

“Huh, I suppose you wouldn’t be used to it yet, would you?” The rear hatch of the passenger compartment clanged open, and Blue snagged the loadmaster’s attention as he ducked through. Her gaze dipped to the name tape on the upper right breast pocket.

“Hey, Sergeant Murphy, can you check with the flight crew and see if there’s room for two jump-seaters up front?”

The stocky man gave her a friendly grin. “Plenty of room, LT.”

Blue tilted her head toward the front hatch. “Let’s go, kid.”

She gestured for Tavi to go first, and he froze for half a heartbeat before his expression firmed. He marched down the aisle, chin up, back straight, and she followed at a more leisurely pace. As she walked past Campbell, she put a little extra sway in her hips. She glanced back in time to see his eyes focused considerably lower than her face. He slowly dragged his gaze up to hers with a lazy grin, completely unashamed to have been caught looking. Considering the fact that Blue had wanted him to look, she didn’t mind in the least. She winked and caught up to Tavi.

Something strange caught her attention before she ducked through the forward hatch. At the very front of the passenger compartment, partially hidden thanks to a pair of massive legionnaires, was a gaggle of civilians. One older gentleman with gray-streaked black hair, deep wrinkle lines along his brow, and a haughty tilt to his chin was holding court, three of the younger civvies hanging on his every pompous word. A fourth young woman sat slightly apart, her expression a polite mask that mostly hid her annoyance.

Blue glanced back at Campbell and tilted her chin toward the civilians in silent question. His lips curved into a smug, knowing little smirk. She made finding him after they docked at the orbital shipyard a priority. He knew things, and she wanted to know the things.

The fact that he was hot and appreciated her ass was a bonus.

With one final, puzzled glance at the civilians, she ducked through the hatch and nearly ran into Tavi. He’d frozen one step into the cockpit, his gaze riveted to the vast sweep of stars shining bright against the infinite black of the void. Blue took a moment to appreciate the view as well. It had been a few weeks since she’d last seen the stars without the wavering interference of atmo, and Tavi’s awe reminded her of her own.

No matter how many times she experienced it, she never got tired of seeing just how big the universe really was. It didn’t make her feel small or insignificant. It filled her with a wild longing to see everything she possibly could, to get out there and explore it all.

One of the Mule’s pilots, a grizzled older man, twisted around and nodded a greeting. “Have a seat. We’re only ten mikes out.”

“Appreciate you letting us come up front,” Blue said with a friendly grin.

“Anything for a Raven.” As he twisted back around, the sleeve of his black flightsuit pulled up slightly, revealing the tattoo on his inner wrist. The bronze outline of a skull and crossbones still stood out sharply against the black spade. He’d served as a legionnaire in the Bronze before he’d retrained as a Navy pilot. Blue wasn’t surprised. Many legionnaires who completed their ten years of service stayed in the Legion in a support function or cross-trained into the Navy.

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