Free Damage Control (Valiant Knox) by Jess Anastasi

statistics, not about the actual lives of the people on the ground.
    “So they gave you back command, but now they want to make sure you’re fit for duty?”
    “I knew there were conditions when I agreed to take back my post.” Yang glanced over his shoulder, down the hall toward the apartment he shared with Sacha. “I just didn’t tell Sacha about it. She needs to concentrate on herself and the baby, not worrying about whether or not the UEF are going to pull my posting any day now.”
    The irritation smoldered into anger on Yang’s behalf. “They can’t, sir. No one knows or cares about the Knox as much as you do. Commander Emmanuel did his best this past year and a half, but things didn’t run the same without you. If they put someone else in charge of this battleship again, we might as well fly off in surrender right now.”
    Yang sent him the ghost of a smile. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
    “I’m not blowing smoke, Yang, I’m telling it like it is.”
    Yang reached out and clasped his shoulder for a moment. “When the lieutenant shows up, I’ll be sure to send him your way so you can tell him that.”
    “Go ahead. Have him talk to every single person on board this ship. The only thing he’s going to find is dedicated support for you.”
    “If it were a matter of the crew’s opinion, it’d be much simpler. But I get the feeling it’s going to be more about how my PTSD has manifested and whether or not it’s impacting my ability to command.”
    Leigh crossed his arms, feeling cold at the idea of Yang under such scrutiny. There probably wasn’t a solider on this ship who didn’t have some small symptom of PTSD; even he struggled with nightmares occasionally. They’d all seen action, and this war had been dragging on for too many years. It made him wonder if this review wasn’t about something other than Yang’s ability to command.
    “If there’s anything I can do—” The words rang hollow, because they both knew he had no part in this situation.
    Yang smiled briefly anyway. “I’ll let you know. Thanks, Alpha.”
    The commander turned and strode away, his bearing tall, straight, and still radiating authority, despite the slight limp from an injury sustained while he’d been a POW.
    Leigh sighed and stepped onto the transit. If he’d wanted a distraction from thoughts of Recruit Wolfe, he’d definitely found one. Whatever the UEF were thinking in this review of Yang’s position, he got the feeling it didn’t bode well for the rest of the Valiant Knox’s crew.

Chapter Six
    O h four hundred. More like oh God, kill me now .
    Mia stifled the third yawn in as many minutes as she dragged her sleep-deprived body out of her bunk and crept out of the dorm. At the UEF academy, she’d often gotten up around oh six hundred to exercise before classes at eight. Or get some extra study time in. She’d never had to get up and be at a class by oh six hundred before. So not a morning person . It always took her at least two hours to wake up properly, so if she wanted to be functioning on all levels by the time her first class started, oh four hundred was her new alarm time.
    She grabbed a change of clothes and headed for the transit-porter, planning to hit the lap pools in the gym. There were only two of the small hydro pools on FP level, and she’d heard getting into one could be hard at peak times, because swimming was a good way to keep up muscle mass and lung capacity, especially for people who spent so much time in space. Hopefully because it was early there wouldn’t be anyone else in the pools, and she could swim out her self-recriminations in peace. She’d already spent half the night agonizing over the fact that she’d imagined kissing her CO.
    Shock had washed through her on the heels of a deep-seated need to feel his mouth closing over hers. Would he be reserved and keep his passions frustratingly locked-down, or would he burn so hot underneath that reserved facade that