Pearl & Quasit (Pt. 9)

Under the Mantidae class ship's ephemeral protection did nothing to ease Pearl's discomfiting queasiness. She had no need of anyone's protection.

A sudden memory, unbidden, sparked through her consciousness. Back home on Turri IV. The ranch. Her father teaching her to shoot a Gauzia Class 3 . Her mother chiding them. She doesn't need to learn how to be a boy. She is a girl. Treat her like a girl. But her father never could. And never did much to protect her, either.

They're not protecting me. They're protecting our cargo. Didn't matter either way.

When the cannon-fire began.