"Where did you get those?"
"Hrothgar is accident prone." Her voice cracked as she said it. Her face was covered with spatters of blood though which her tears had made little clean tracks. "Is it over?"
Tonya felt with her mind, but sensed nothing except her and Ghost's pain. "I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm too weak right now to tell."
They're all dead, Hunter thought.
"Lyra and David?" Ana asked.
Alive. Wounded badly, but alive.
"What about that bomb?" said Ana.
Tonya had forgotten about it. "I don't know, maybe it was a dud."
"I don't think so," Ana said. "I think something terrible has happened.
Θ
"Admiral, there may be a way," said Isadora.
"What?" Mandor replied, shaken out of his despair by the MI's remark. "What do you mean?"
"Given the speed of the Jotnar when it imploded, its trajectory, and the acceleration due to gravity, I think the singularity will exit the planet in just under two minutes. It should reach approximately three hundred kilometers above the planet before it begins to fall again."
"So?"
"We can intercept it, Admiral."
"She's right, Mandor," Torenth said. "There may be a way."
"Illuminate me."
"If we jump to the other side of the planet, we can intercept it."
"What good would that do?" Mandor asked. "We'd just be destroyed.
"The singularity would take almost twenty seconds to destroy us," said Isadora. "I would have time to initiate a jump before then."
Mandor locked eyes with Torenth. "We don't have time to get anybody off the ship."
"You could apport away," Torenth said quietly.
"You know I won't."
Torenth nodded. "We're with you, sir."
The other bridge crew murmured agreement.
Mandor was moved to tears. Damn, these are good people, he thought.
"Isadora, have you calculated the jump?"
"I have."
"Then jump."
That close to the planet, the jump was rough. A small merchant ship collided with them as they came out. Alarms rang throughout the ship.
"Where is it?" Mandor shouted.
"There." Isadora outlined it on his screen. They were right on target. "It should strike us amidships in five seconds."
"Jump us as soon as it hits."
"I will."
Those five seconds seemed like an eternity. Mandor wasn't a religious man, but he found himself hoping that there was an afterlife; he really wanted to see his dead wife and daughter again.
The impact, when it came, was almost gentle. The ship lurched and was suddenly flooded with lethal amounts of radiation. Mandor felt the engines engage. Just hold out for a few seconds, he thought.
I'm sorry, Admiral. I should have let you fire the primaries, Isadora sent over his link.
You did the right thing. It would have set a bad precedent.
They made it six hundred light-minutes from Dawn before the engine gave out and the ship tried to fall back into normal space. The ship was too damaged, though, and for a moment a new star shone in the system as the energy of the singularly and the mass of the Arcadia were converted into energy and exploded into space.
All crew were lost.
Chapter Forty-Five
Tilda met Drake as he was riding his horse down the muddy lane outside Anglin. Drake had said his goodbyes and acquired his horse, and now he was ready to be on his way. He could only stand to be among humans for so long. No, that was unfair. It wasn't the humans; it was him. He was accustomed to being alone. He'd been alone most of his long life, and he wasn't comfortable around groups of people. Any people.
"You're really going to ride across half a continent?"
"Why not?" Drake said.
"You're insane."
"That isn't the first time I've heard that," he replied. "I want to see what has happened to this world. I also think I need a chance to discover who I have become."
"I think that answer is rather clear," said Tilda. She rested her hand on his leg. "I'm sure we'll meet again soon, but even if fate conspires to keep us apart, I feel that I am enriched by having known you." She patted his horse with her other hand. "I've never seen a creature quite like this one. It is ungainly, and yet somehow graceful and beautiful." She met his eyes. "Take care of yourself, out there in the wilds. If you get lonely, I'm sure Hephaestus can patch through a link. I'd be happy to talk to you anytime."
"Thank you," said Drake, and not just for her words. He still didn't quite trust her, but his trust was growing. There were parts of her story that didn't quite match what he thought was true. Unfortunately, her synthetic body was impossible to read. He also suspected that part of her wanted to ride with him, explore this world. He wasn't ready for that, and – not that he would ever tell her, because it would be cruel – if he were to travel with a companion, he wanted it to be with a real flesh-and-blood woman, not... whatever she had become.
"I'll help get these people on their feet. You, go find your daughter."
Drake gave her hand a squeeze and rode slowly away. He hadn't told her that his destination was different. Let her believe him to be on his way to Santa Fe. His daughter was long gone from that place. He needed to travel to the north, into the cold and ice. There was one artifact he hadn't taken care of yet, the Waypoint. He had to make sure it was safe and secure before he did anything else.
Θ
The Vigilant returned to Concord space in record time.
Not that it had done any good, Tebrey thought. The damage had already been done. The Empire had struck at their heart. They had failed to destroy Dawn, but the loss of the Arcadia with all five thousand crew aboard was devastating. Six hundred thousand civilians had also died, or were dying of extreme radiation poisoning. The singularity had released intense bursts of radiation as it swallowed up mass from the planet. It had passed through two cities on its way. A hundred thousand people were still unaccounted for, Tebrey's friend Jane one of them.
The people had been torn into their component atoms by the intense gravity or vaporized near the entrance and exit points of the singularity. The path the singularity had taken through Dawn had passed through the mantle. The tectonic effects were small, but significant. There would be quakes for years to come.
It was almost too much for the people of the Concord to bear. They had just started to recover from the missile strikes last year, and now this. Both of the affected cities had to be evacuated because of the lingering radiation. There was a sense of hysteria on the planet; people were on the verge of panic. At least the Theta attack against Tebrey's family had been kept a secret. The last thing the government needed was to have people think they weren't safe from those kinds of attacks. Not that Thetas were general knowledge, but word got around. There had been too many attacks against ships for it not to. It was one more thing for people to worry about.
For Tebrey, it was much more personal than that. Admiral Shadovsky had been a mentor and a friend in the brief time Tebrey had known him. Now he was gone. There were so many things Tebrey had wanted to say to the man, but he couldn't say them now. Mandor was dead. Jane was dead. Jane had been one of the few survivors from the Cedeforthy expedition. One of the few that had survived the horrors there.
It hadn't really sunk in yet. Tebrey was sure that when it did, he would be unable to contain his rage. The Empire has taken much from him over the years: his mother, his first lover Jessica, and now his friends Mandor and Jane. No more.
He was going to strike the Empire down, cripple them, destroy them, whether the Concord approved of his actions or not.
Deegan had left them at Vesuvius, apporting ahead as soon as he had heard about the attack. He was with Lyra and David now. Tebrey would have preferred to go with him. He ached to see his wife and daughter, to hold them in his arms so he would know they were safe. He had responsibilities, though. He couldn't leave Mee
ks or Pt'kar alone on the Vigilant. They were all he had left of his team. Meeks was new, but he'd proven himself. He was one of Tebrey's people now.
They met him in the shuttle bay. All of the information they'd acquired was in the small data cube Tebrey carried. He didn't know who he'd give it to now. With Mandor gone, internal security for the Concord was crippled. Ana had been working with Mandor, but she was a civilian. She couldn't take over. Tebrey was afraid they would ask him. He didn't want the job. There was no way he'd ever be able to replace the admiral.
"We're ready, sir," said Pt'kar.
All of them were wearing regular spacesuits. They hadn't had the time to repair or replace their damaged powered armor. Geoffrey and Pt'kar's suits bulged with the bulky medical nanopacks they wore underneath. Tebrey had removed his. He still felt terrible, but truthfully, he didn't want to feel good. It felt… indecent.
The shuttle felt achingly empty with just the three of them aboard. All leave had been canceled. All civilian ships in the system had been seized and searched, then grounded. Only military ships could move about freely. Tebrey and his team had been granted special dispensation, given the nature of the attack his family and friends had endured.
The ground crew at the spaceport were quiet, the usual chatter silenced. The whole planet had that feeling. People were waiting to find out what the Concord would do about the latest atrocity against them. There was rage, certainly, but there was also fear that the military might go too far in its retaliation. The union with the Rhyrhan Combine was still recent and delicate. Rhyrhans would tolerate no attacks on civilian populations. If the military were overzealous, they might alienate their one ally against the Federation.
Tebrey's team quickly changed into uniform in the spaceport and then went out onto the pad. Tebrey and Pt'kar still carried their personal sidearms, and Tebrey had authorized Meeks to carry his small quantum pistol, which he had named Cricket for reasons known only to himself. It was normally against regulations for them to carry weapons into civilian areas, but Tebrey didn't care. He didn't think they were going to court-martial him. They needed him too badly.
An aircar was waiting for them, and they were quickly transported to the hospital where Tebrey's family and friends were being cared for. The scientists said the effect of the singularity on the gravity of the planet was negligible, but Tebrey thought the planet felt different.
Everything was different now.
Chapter Forty-Six
The hospital was packed to overflowing with wounded personnel. All of the hospitals on the planet were like that. Their pain washed across Tebrey as he entered the building. He tried his best to block it out, but there was so much... It was all he could do to walk past them.
"Are you all right?" Geoffrey asked.
"He's fine, Geoffrey," said Pt'kar. "Leave him be."
Most of the people at the hospital were either military personnel who had been burned while trying to get people into the underground shelters, or the grieving families of said personnel. The civilians injured in orbit when the Arcadia had tried to stop the Jotnar were also here. There was much fear and confusion from everyone. People knew the Empire had smuggled some new weapon in and used it against them, but they didn't know what that weapon had been. Tebrey doubted if there were more than a dozen people in the Concord who knew what had actually happened.
"Excuse me," he said to the nurse at the reception desk. "I'm trying to find some people."
"Good luck with that," the man replied.
"They're patients," said Tebrey.
"There are a lot of a patients here," the man said. He looked up and met Tebrey's eyes. He must not have liked what he saw there, because he looked away quickly. "This a military matter?"
"What do you think?"
"Names?"
"Ana Tebrey, Lyra, David, Tonya Harris."
"I've got a Tonya Harris here, and a... Is this a joke? A Ghost. No Ana Tebrey. I'll need full names to be able to find the other two."
"Where is Harris?"
"I'm sorry, but that's restricted."
"Pt'kar."
The huge Rhyrhan reached over the counter and lifted the man into the air. Tebrey walked around and jotted down the room number on the pad the nurse had been doodling on. A quick search revealed that a whole suite of rooms had been blocked off; Tonya's was part of that. Tebrey was certain that was where the Aurorans were, and his wife, his daughter, and his companion, Hunter. They would be where Tonya was, he was certain.
He nodded to Pt'kar to set the man back down. Tebrey could hear him calling security as they made their way to the lift. He didn't care. Meeks kept looking back over his shoulder. Tebrey wanted to tell him to relax, but he was having enough trouble keep himself from exploding.
Security met them on the level of the secure rooms.
"I'm sorry, sir," the security guard said. "You can't be here."
"Do I look like I care about what you have to say?" Tebrey asked.
The man looked taken aback. "Sir, you need to go back into the lift and leave."
"Look, I'm a reasonable man," Tebrey said in a low voice. "I'll give you to the count of three to get out of our way, or I'll make you regret it. Do I make myself clear?"
The security guards all drew their stunners.
"Sir, we won't ask you again."
"Good. I heard you the first time," he said. "I get bored when people talk when they don't have to. One."
Some of the guards looked nervous.
"Two," said Tebrey.
Meeks put his hand on Tebrey's shoulder and stepped forward.
"You need to ask yourself why he's here," Geoffrey said to the first security guard. "I assume you've heard about the battle at Steinway last year?"
The security guards reluctantly nodded.
"So you've heard of Commander Tebrey?"
"What's your point?" the security sergeant asked.
"This is Commander Tebrey," said Geoffrey. "His wife, his friends, and his neo-panther companion are in those rooms. Now, if I were you, I'd be thinking about what it would take to stop a man who could do what he does, much less when he has two of his people with him."
"We have orders."
"So get new ones," Geoffrey said reasonably.
The man turned away for a minute; he was obviously having a datalink conversation. After a moment, his shoulders sagged, and he turned back around. "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding," the man said.
"Just get out of my way," Tebrey growled.
They moved quickly. Geoffrey and Pt'kar took up positions guarding the doorway.
Ana met Tebrey as he entered the suite of rooms, and he swept her up in a breathless embrace. "Where are Amanda and Hunter?" he asked when he could.
Ana held his hand. She was crying tears of joy. "Amanda is with Tonya. Hunter is in the next room over."
"Take me to him?"
She led him into a room that had been completely disarranged. The furniture was pushed against the walls, and mattresses had been piled on the floor. Hunter and Ghost lay side by side. Both of the huge cats showed signs of having been badly burned. Large patches of their fur had been shaved off, and medical nanotech packages covered them. Ghost was heavily bandaged, as well.
Tebrey knelt down and caressed Hunter until he awoke.
About time you got here, grumbled Hunter.
Are you okay?
I will be, Hunter replied. That was one hell of a fight.
I'm just glad everyone is all right. You heard what happened?
With the singularity, and the admiral? Yes, I heard.
Is Ghost okay?
Thetas hurt her pretty bad, Hunter replied, but she made it through all right. Um, there's something we should probably talk about.
I felt it when it happened, Tebrey said. I'm happy for you.
Good, thought Hunter. You're not angry with Ana? She couldn't really help herself. I don't think I kept myself shielded very well.
I'm not angry. I'm not even u
pset. I'm just glad you're all still alive. How many of them were there?
Hunter shuddered. Five, he responded. Big, mean ones, too.
Rest for now, Tebrey said. I'll be around. You can tell me about it later.
Go easy on Tonya.
Don't worry yourself about it.
Tebrey stood up, and Ana took his hand again.
"You know?" she asked.
He nodded. "I told you before, it's fine." He gave her a long kiss. "Doubly so now that my brother is with her sister."
Ana laughed. "Come and see her and Amanda."
Tonya was bandaged even more than Ghost had been. Both of her legs were in splints, covered with medical packages. Tebrey knew from the report that she'd been badly burned, and her spine was broken in the three places. It would be weeks before she was up and moving again. Amanda was curled sleeping in the crook of her arm. Tonya looked up and met his eyes as they walked in.
Tebrey could see the worry there, the regret. He smiled in what he hoped was a friendly way. "You look like hell, Commander."
"You don't look any better, yourself," Tonya replied.
He walked around the bed and sat carefully so as not to disturb Amanda or hurt Tonya. Ana stood behind him with her hands on his shoulders. Tonya looked as if she wanted to be anywhere but where she was.
He studied her without saying anything. This woman loved his wife; that much was obvious. She had also put Ana's life before her own. Tonya had almost died protecting Ana and Amanda. Her companion Ghost had almost died. Any hint of jealousy he may have felt was washed away by her sacrifice. How could he possibly be angry with her?
He took her hand in his and grinned as her eyes widened in shock.
"Doesn't seem right, just calling you Harris," he said.
"Yeah? Well, I guess Tonya will have to do. Better than Hrothgar."
He laughed softly. "No one calls me that but Ana. You can if you want."
She looked away and then back. "We need to talk."
"I know," Tebrey said. "I just wanted you to know that, one way or the other, we're family now. Hunter and Ghost are together, and you've been sleeping with my wife. I don't expect anything from you, physically. I'm not saying we have to have any relationship beyond mutual friendship and respect, but we are family now. That will never change."
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