>Jake set the example, Krys. I must leave you for a time. Let me go to him.<
Krys did not respond.
>Krys!< Maelia demanded, >I can’t do this by myself. You must be in contact with him.<
Krys reached out, and Washburn guided her hands to Tarn’s face. She felt around, then seemed to gather strength. Her hands went to his back, sliding through blood, and reached into the wound.
Jacobs reached gently for her hands to remove them, but she fought him.
“My Rider is going to him. I don’t know how long it will take. Send for help. Make certain the doctors know he has a Rider.”
Tears streamed from her eyes as she held her hands inside the horrible wound, but Maelia had given her hope, and she would not let that hope die.
The doors to the operations center opened, and Korban entered the room flanked by a squad of Imperial Marines. His eyes surveyed the carnage and settled on Krys.
Washburn intercepted him and pulled him aside. “Is medical help on the way?”
“It is. Who are you?”
“Terry Washburn, Queen’s Protector.”
Korban’s eyebrows rose. “Indeed. Is it over?”
“Lady Krys tells me it is.”
“Lady Krys? She was a Friend of the Family when I last saw her.”
“She’s a Knight now, sir. So is Tarn Lukes. I don’t know if he’s going to make it. Did you get the rest of the life boats?”
“I believe so. Most never reached the ground.”
“The gleasons are elusive, sir. If any slipped away, they’ll come after you. Don’t let your guard down.”
Korban walked to the body of a gleason and studied it. “Hideous creatures. I thought their planet was blockaded.”
“Not my problem, Admiral. We’re going to focus on our wounded now.”
“We’ll do what we can for them, I promise. And thank you.” He ran a hand through his hair. “We have a fleet of Rebels inbound. It’ll take three weeks for them to get here.”
“Maybe they’ll turn back now.”
“I hope not. My replacement is probably with them, and I won’t let him take over as long as I’m alive. I expect Chandrajuski will be here soon with some fast ships.”
Four Terrans and one more Great Cat had been wounded, but all were capable of walking. The whole team went to the hospital, some for care and the others to protect. Borg came around long enough to order two Great Cats back to sector headquarters to guard Korban, then he was ushered into surgery.
Stven was brought to the emergency room on a flatbed truck. He walked in, but only on three legs, and his right wing dragged on the floor, again.
Washburn leapt to his feet when Stven entered the emergency room. “Captain! I forgot all about you. What happened?”
“The landing was a little hard, Terry. Nothing serious. The wing is broken again. I heard Tarn is in a bad way.”
Washburn nodded, still mortified. “Krys sent her Rider to him.”
“Hmm. How is she?”
“About like you’d expect.”
“If he doesn’t make it, her Rider won’t either. She’ll be devastated.”
Hours later, Tarn came out of surgery and was immediately ensconced in a tank. To everyone’s surprise, his prognosis was fair, particularly in view of the fact that he had a Rider. His recovery would be long, however. When Krys went to him, he was completely sealed within the tank. She settled into a bed next to him and was soon fast asleep.
A doctor came to her bedside with a portable scanner. “She’s next,” he said to Washburn.
“Uh, she’s not wounded.”
“She most certainly is. She’s blind. We were told it’s not a recent injury, so we’ve left her to last.”
“Have you dealt with injuries from the scree before?”
“Many. I’ve suffered through it myself. It was a long battle here.”
“Her Rider has things under control. I think it might be best to wait.”
“Her Rider is no longer with her, sir. Who knows what it left undone?”
“Hmm. I see what you mean. I’m told it will return to her eventually.”
“Let’s just make sure there is an eventually.” The doctor ran the scanner and frowned at the results. “I’m going to call a specialist. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I have a basis point now, and we’ll run more scans later to see if there’s any change.”
“No surgery, Doc.”
“The damage is deep within her brain. Surgery is not likely to help.”
When she awoke, Washburn was there. So, too, were a Great Cat and Sergeant Jacobs. “How is he?” she asked.
“It hasn’t been all that long, Krys,” Washburn said gently. “Will you eat something? Then the doctors want to put you in an analyzer to see if they can do something about your vision.”
“I’ll eat, but no analyzer. I don’t want my vision back just yet.”
“What?”
“Don’t you see? My visions have moved to a new level. I think it’s because of my blindness.”
“They’re concerned that you might get worse without Maelia fixing things up.”
“Well . . . they can check, but unless I’m getting worse, they’re not going to touch me.”
When the analysis was complete, the specialist briefed her. “We see no change, nor do we believe we could do much if we did. Your Rider might be able to effect repairs, but the longer she waits, the harder it will be. Neurological pathways are damaged, and the longer they remain damaged, the more they atrophy. You need her back as soon as Sir Tarn is done with her.”
* * * * *
O’Brien found Akurea hard at work in her quarters with the door open again. Two computers were on her desk now, and they had been for days. “Don’t you ever close the door?” he asked, poking his head in.
She looked up and smiled, then stretched. “I don’t like feeling confined. Come in.”
“How’s it going?”
“I’m transposing circuits from the Chessori computer to my own, but I’m stuck. I have a circuit here that I just can’t figure out. How’s it going for you?”
“For me, good. For the crew, not so good. They’re pretty banged up.”
She frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You don’t know?”
“No. I’ve been heads-down.”
“When’s the last time you ate?”
“Uh, yesterday, I think.”
He frowned. “We keep forgetting about you. I’m sorry. Most of the crew just fought a battle at Korban’s headquarters, and it was bad. Tarn and Stven are in a hospital, and so are a few others.”
She sat back, stunned. “I knew there was some commotion going on, but I didn’t know what it was all about. Krys must be a wreck.” She glanced at the Empire screen in front of her, did a double-take, and jumped up from her chair. “Agh!”
“What’s the problem?”
She motioned him over, pointing a shaking hand at the screen. “I’ve been struggling with this circuit for hours. It’s suddenly there, and I didn’t put it there.”
O’Brien looked up at the ceiling with a grin. “George, are you helping out?”
“Maybe a little.”
O’Brien took her arm. “I’m taking you to dinner. Come on.”
“Uh, who’s buying?”
“I only go Dutch.”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
She stared at him as they headed toward the central shaft. “It’s just a small ship. How is it that I don’t know what’s going on?”
“It’s not that small of a ship, Akurea,” he corrected her, “at least not where I come from. You tend to keep to yourself, and we threw the operation together pretty quickly.”
“An operation that required the participation of two Knights?”
“They’re special. They took out a bunch of gleasons this time.”
“Gleasons! We’re fighting gleasons now?”
“Looks like i
t.”
“Well, look, part of fixing ships is to test them out. I’m a pilot, and I can work the guns. I’ve heard a lot of shooting going on. Do you need any help?”
He rubbed his jaw. “With Stven out of the picture for a while, we might, but Krys gave you another assignment, and it’s important.”
“I need to be alive to complete it.”
“I’ll keep you in mind. I don’t know where we’re going next, and you might be able to fill in gaps in the bridge rotation.”
“You said this is not a small ship where you come from. Where, exactly, is that?”
“You’ll have to check with Captain Stven on that one.”
“He’s in a tank.”
“Oh . . . well, someone else then.”
Notes From the Author
If you liked the book, or even if you did not like the book, I am asking you to take a moment to write a review on Amazon.com. Writing reviews on Amazon is easy, just one or two sentences is adequate, and they are important to authors and readers alike.
Writing is a very personal business. I’m always trying to improve, and I welcome any feedback you would like to give. Check out my web site:
www.spiritofempire.com
On that website you will find a link to my books and a link to my private email. I enjoy hearing from my readers, whether the comments are positive or negative. I will do my very best to respond to every email.
The next book in the series, Voice of the Chosen, is planned for release around Christmas 2011. I will do my best, but I make no promises. Both the release date and the title are subject to change.
It’s been a lot of fun to write this series. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Please, Please, Please, send in those reviews, and don’t hesitate to email me.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Knights of the Chosen (Spirit of Empire, Book Two) Page 53