Reza nodded sadly, his fingers caressing the eyestone on his collar, on which was engraved the rune of the Desh-Ka. He bit back the tears that burned his eyes, for he knew how uncomfortable it would make his guest, bearer of bad tidings though he was. “Please do not wish Her dead,” he whispered. “Wish the Empire all the ill will your heart may conceive, but do not wish my Empress dead.”
Zhukovski leaned back in his chair. “Reza, I know Empress is leader of your religion and government, as it were, but–”
“She is also my wife,” Reza rasped, his green eyes burning with fearful longing. “She was to ascend to the throne. If the Empress lies dead, so, too, does she.”
The admiral felt a sudden pang of shame and guilt for his words. “I am sorry, Reza,” he said sincerely. “I… I did not know. Please, forgive me.”
Reza nodded slowly, his eyes falling closed, his mind turning inward to wonder about Esah-Zhurah’s fate, his heart calling out to her. In vain.
Evgeni Zhukovski laid his hand on Reza’s shoulder for a moment before he got up and left the room, quietly closing the door behind him.
***
Nicole awoke from her nap with a start. Her chest felt as if it was being held in a giant vice, making her heart thunder in her ears and her lungs heave against air that had suddenly become as thick as water. She was not in physical pain, but she sensed a hurt far deeper than any lance could make, an echo in her brain from someone calling her from far away.
“Reza,” she said aloud.
“Nikki?” she heard from the other room. “Are you okay?” Jodi’s concerned face peered through the door.
“Oui,” she said with more energy than she felt. “I am all right.”
Jodi was not convinced. She came in and put her hand on Nicole’s forehead. “And I think you’re a lying sack of shit. You look terrible.”
“Complimentary, as always,” Nicole murmured, trying to brush Jodi’s hand away. “Please, Jodi, do not pester me.”
“Pester, my ass, woman,” Jodi said, straightening up. She had been staying with Nicole and Tony while she completed some of the non-resident courses for the Command and General Staff College. She was still on flying status, occasionally going to the Fighter Weapons School for refresher training and to help beat the new crop of fighter jocks into shape for the real thing, but she spent most of her time with Nicole, who was still on medical leave. She knew that Nicole resented someone keeping an eye on her, but that was just too bad. “You just don’t know how good you’ve got it. There are a lot of people who’d pay to have me telling them they’re full of shit. Now that I think of it, that’s what the Navy does.”
“You are impossible,” Nicole said, managing a weak smile. “Now, get yourself out of my way. I need to visit Reza.”
“Need to?”
Nicole sighed. “I wish to. Is that good enough?” Jodi was still frowning. “Merde, commander, get out of my way!”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Jodi saluted as Nicole made her way past her to the bathroom. “Mind if I tag along? Maybe those stupid jarheads guarding him will let me through this time…”
The trip into the city did not take long. Someone from the twentieth century would not have recognized New York City, or any other major city of that time, for a very simple reason: they no longer existed as they once had. Earth had largely been depopulated in the twenty-second and twenty-third centuries through a combination of famine, regional warfare, and then mass exodus soon after interstellar travel had finally been made practicable. It was only after humans had finally begun to explore the worlds in their galaxy up close, discovering just how inhospitable most of them were, that they realized what a priceless treasure their own birthplace had been. In the twenty-fourth century a program was begun to revitalize Earth as something more than a breeding ground for homo sapiens. While much of what had been done in centuries past could never be undone, the new caretakers did the best they could, and in their hands Earth had been reborn. Humans still lived here in great numbers, but with swift and clean transportation available to go anywhere on the globe, they were able to widely disperse themselves, minimizing their impact on the again thriving world. The great cities, which had been so instrumental both in humanity’s early development and in the catastrophic consumption of its resources, had gradually been dismantled into smaller townships and villages, and much of the land returned to a natural state that had brought back the luster to planet Earth.
The automated shuttle dropped them off at the central entrance to Kennedy Memorial Hospital before speeding off to fetch more passengers. They made their way through the warmly lit corridors and elevators to the penthouse level: the isolation ward.
“Captain,” the Marine in charge of the security detachment said politely as Nicole showed him her ID. “I hope you didn’t come for a smile, ma’am. He hasn’t been very happy since Admiral Zhukovski left this morning.”
“Admiral Zhukovski was here?” she asked, looking at Jodi, who only raised her eyebrows. “Do you know what about?”
The Marine, a first lieutenant, laughed. “No, ma’am,” he said. “Admirals usually don’t confide their business to the likes of us. We’re just the hired help around here.”
Jodi took the opportunity to thrust her ID forward. The Marine verified with a quick retinal scan that she was who she was supposed to be, then checked his approved visitors list, which was very, very short. “Sorry, commander, but I can’t let you in. You’re not on my list.”
“Oh, come on–”
She shut up as Nicole gestured for her to be silent. “Lieutenant,” Nicole said, “Commander Mackenzie is a very close friend of Captain Gard.” The Marine started to shake his head, but Nicole persisted. “I know it is against the rules to let her in, but the last time she saw him was in sickbay on board the Gneisenau when we all thought he was going to die. I would appreciate it if you would consider letting her in long enough just to greet him. I will vouch for her conduct.”
Jodi could see that he was hesitating. “Please,” she said. “Just for a minute.”
The lieutenant looked at the other five Marines, all enlisted, who made up the guard detail. They were astutely looking in any other direction but at him and the two Navy officers. Why is it, he asked himself, that this always seems to happen on my watch? “All right,” he relented, “but so help me God, commander, if you–”
“I’ll be a perfect angel, lieutenant,” she said. “I promise.”
“All right,” he went on, “I’m sure I’ll live to regret this. Step into the lock, please.” The two women stepped into the security lock that was both a physical safeguard against escape and a scanner that looked for concealed weapons or other contraband. Satisfied, the lieutenant passed them through. “Five minutes,” he said pointedly Mackenzie.
She nodded, then opened the inner door.
Reza stood before them, bathed in sweat from the exercises he had been doing to focus his mind. Other than his collar, he was again naked.
“So much for modesty,” Jodi said lightly. “At least you know how to greet a girl in style.” Without hesitating, Jodi embraced him, sweat and all. “I’m so glad to see you. That you’re all right,” she said, kissing him on the neck, on the lips.
“And you, my friend,” he said, returning her embrace with moderate pressure, his effort rewarded with a light popping sound from her ribcage.
“Your Marine friend out there gave me a few minutes with you,” she told him, surprised that his strength had grown so quickly. “Nicole sweet talked him for me. But I can’t stay long.”
“So true,” Colonel Markus Thorella said as he stepped through the security lock. “I just had a little discussion with our Marine lieutenant outside. I don’t think he’ll be making any other security breaches again for quite some time.”
“I take full responsibility for Commander Mackenzie’s presence, colonel,” Nicole said, cutting toward him like a destroyer. “The lieutenant–”
“Spare me, please, Ca
rré,” he snorted. “The lieutenant is my concern, not yours. He was negligent, and he’ll pay the price.”
Jodi felt the muscles in Reza’s back flex like steel springs. With feline grace he separated himself from her embrace. “You should not have come here,” he hissed, his blood singing in his veins as he prepared to attack.
“Reza, no!” Nicole shouted as she tried to get between him and Thorella, bracing herself to protect someone she hated so much from someone she so loved.
But she need not have bothered. As Reza’s fury peaked, something inside him seemed to break, as if his brain was no longer able to command his body. His eyes wide with surprise, he collapsed in a heap on the floor, completely paralyzed.
“What the fuck did you do to him, Thorella?” Jodi snapped as she knelt next to Reza, feeling for his pulse. It was there, his heart beating rapidly to clear the adrenaline from his system. His eyes were still open, but they stared straight ahead, unblinking. “What did you do?”
“Not a thing, commander,” he said, a surprised smile on his face. “And I would remind you not to address me like that ever again. I don’t care if you like me or not, but I am a superior officer.”
“Then let me say it, Markus,” Nicole growled like a leopard, her nose not an inch away from his, “what the fuck did you do?”
“I already told you,” Thorella said, obviously pleased with whatever had happened. “While I know you won’t believe me, I did absolutely nothing. It just appears to me that your traitorous friend there has not fully recovered. Such a pity.”
“Reza, can you hear me?” Jodi said urgently, looking into Reza’s glazed eyes. The pupils were dilated wide open. “Nicole, I think you’d better get the doctor in here. There’s something–”
As she watched, Reza’s pupils suddenly began to contract to something close to normal for the light in the room. He blinked and tried to speak.
“Well,” Thorella said merrily, “I do have to leave now. I just wanted to check on our temporary guest, pending his trial and execution.” He stepped back toward the door, then turned around as an afterthought. “And Commander Mackenzie, please don’t stay more than sixty seconds after this door closes behind me, or I’m afraid I’ll have to have you arrested.” He smiled, and was gone.
“Nicole–”
“I know, Jodi,” she said, kneeling down beside her as Reza began to recover from whatever had happened to him. “You had better do as he says. I will take care of Reza.”
“But–”
“Go,” she said. “He means it. We can ill afford more trouble now.”
Furious, Jodi did as she was told. As she stepped through the outer lock of the holding cell, she noticed the Marine lieutenant standing at stiff attention, eyes boring a hole in the far end of the corridor, staring after the retreating Marine colonel who had just promised to destroy the younger man’s life in the military. “Lieutenant,” she said to his pale, emotionless face, “I’m terribly sorry. I’ll see… I’ll see if there’s anything I can do…”
He said nothing, did not even acknowledge her presence.
Feeling like a fool and plagued with guilt, Jodi turned and walked away, the sound of her boots on the marble floor echoing hollowly in her ears.
Forty
Commodore Denise Marchand was quietly elated but openly confused. Her tiny scouting squadron, consisting of the heavy cruiser Furious – her flagship – and three destroyers, had stumbled upon a much superior Kreelan force of three heavy cruisers forty-three hours earlier. Much to her surprise, the Kreelan ships had not only failed to engage her, but had split up and run without making anything more than half-hearted attempts at defending themselves. Not by nature a cautious sort, Marchand had split her force, sending two destroyers after one cruiser, the Furious and the remaining destroyer after another, while temporarily ignoring the third enemy vessel. That was as much prudence as she was able to muster at the time.
In a matter of minutes, the first Kreelan cruiser had been reduced to a flaming hulk by torpedoes from the two pursuing destroyers, which immediately wheeled about to rejoin the flagship and her escort, which were still racing after the second fleeing Kreelan vessel. Not long thereafter, that ship finally came within range of the guns of the pursuing Furious, which wasted no time in breaching the enemy’s hull with a series of accurately placed salvos. The enemy cruiser exploded in a swirling fireball.
Then Marchand turned her attention to the surviving Kreelan cruiser, which had wisely used the time bought by its companions to try and escape, for now it was completely outnumbered and outgunned.
But this ship, or its commander, was different. While it hardly showed the fearless courage normally shown by Kreelan warships, its captain fired back, keeping both the Furious and the darting destroyers from nipping too closely at her heels as she fled deeper into Kreelan space.
Marchand was still wary of some sort of elaborate trap, but that would be totally out of character for the enemy. The Kreelans did not run, nor did they normally play games of cat and mouse. At least, not until now. Besides, she thought, why would anyone sacrifice two cruisers – three, if she caught up to this one – in exchange for a cruiser and three destroyers?
No, she told herself, this was something else, and it fit with the recent intelligence reports of sharply decreased resistance on the part of Kreelan forces everywhere.
“Commodore,” the flag communications officer reported, “we have an answer from Fleet.”
Eager to see what headquarters had to say in response to her request to follow the enemy cruiser into what was, except for the silent scoutship patrols, unknown space to human ships, Marchand called up the message on her console: Pursue enemy at own discretion. No supporting forces available. Godspeed.
It was just what she wanted to hear. She had been in the Navy – and had survived – for nearly twenty years. She was tired of always being on the run, turning her stern to run away from what always seemed to be a superior enemy force, or rushing to save some colony from destruction, only to arrive a little too late. While her squadron hardly constituted a major battle fleet, they were good ships with good crews, and this time she was determined to take the fight to the enemy.
“Captain Hezerah,” she asked of the Furious’s captain, “what’s the range to target?”
“One-hundred fifty thousand kilometers and steady,” he said instantly. “Zero closure rate.” At flank speed, the human squadron was making only enough speed to keep up with the Kreelan, not enough to overtake her. “Commodore,” he said quietly, “we won’t be able to keep this up much longer. Tai Mo Shan’s main drive is near the breaking point, and our own core passed the red line three hours ago. If we don’t slow down soon, we may never get home.”
Marchand frowned. She had known this was the case since Hotspur, one of the other destroyers, had blown a deridium converter over twelve hours before. Somehow, her engineers had kept her going, but that would not last for much longer.
She looked at the red icon that was the Kreelan ship they were hunting, wondering for the thousandth time why it had not jumped into hyperspace. The only reason she could imagine was that there was something wrong with the enemy ship’s hyperdrive. For the pursuing human squadron, that was both a blessing and a curse. Had the ship jumped, Marchand would have been forced to turn back. It was impossible to actively track a ship in hyperspace, and this entire area of space was uncharted. Marchand could not afford a jump that might drop her squadron back into normal space in the center of a star. On the other hand, drawn out, high-speed chases through normal space were hard on ships and their crews. And in Marchand’s grim estimation, any ship losing its main drive this far into enemy territory would have to be written off the naval registry as another casualty, for they could hardly expect to return home.
“We’re so close,” she whispered angrily through her teeth. “Are they still headed for that nebular formation?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Captain Hezerah replied uneasily. “Right for it.
” In all his years in the service, he had seen nothing quite like it. Like a giant fog bank in space, or some gigantic ball of wispy cotton, it hung before the racing ships like a siren’s lair on the seas of old. Much sensor probing and more discussion had not given them any more understanding of it than that it appeared to exist; it was real. He dearly would like to chalk up the remaining cruiser to the squadron’s score, but there was something unsettling about the cloud toward which they were heading, something unnatural that sent a shiver up his spine. He silently wished that Marchand would call an end to the chase. He did not want to take Furious in there.
In the main viewer there was a sudden flare where the Kreelan ship – otherwise invisible to direct observation – raced in front of them.
“Captain!” shouted the chief gunnery officer. “Looks like they had a core breach! She’s losing way!”
“Thank the Lord of All,” Hezerah breathed. “How long till she comes in range?”
“If their projected deceleration curve holds up, thirteen minutes, sir,” the navigator replied.
“Will she have reached the nebula?” Marchand asked quickly, her eyes fixed on the little red icon in the holo display that was now ever so slowly losing ground to her own pursuing hounds.
“On the current velocity curve, she’ll come within about three-hundred thousand kilometers of it by the time we’re in range.”
“Close,” Hezerah muttered.
“Order the destroyers to flank her at their best speed,” Marchand ordered her operations officer. The destroyers could make slightly better speed than the larger cruiser, and Marchand felt it worth the risk of pushing their drives past their already strained limits. “They are not to get within range, just keep her penned in. I don’t want her to get away from us now. Captain,” she said to Hezerah, “you are to commence firing as soon as we are in range.”
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