trial, where dead men sit in judgment, and their families wait beyond the doors, endlessly sharpening their knives.
At 0600, the AI rings me awake, and I dress in a clean uniform. Likely, I don’t have the right to wear it anymore, but I don’t have anything else, so they can take it from me after I’m court-martialed. I pull my wild, damp hair back, so I’m ready when the guard signals; it’s a clansman I don’t know by name, though I’ve seen him around. He snaps a salute as if I haven’t, in fact, betrayed them all.
“Hell of a thing,” he says, shaking his head. “You saved so many lives, and they’re taking you to task for it. That’s the sort of thing we wanted to get away from. It’s why we colonized Lachion.”
But I’m not a victim. I went into this with my eyes open, so I answer, “I went about it the wrong way. Shall we?”
It’s early enough in the shift that there aren’t tons of soldiers standing around. I don’t think I could stand that. My progress to the cockpit passes unremarked, and there, I find March waiting for us to make the jump that will deliver me to New Terra.
He doesn’t look like he slept, though. Dark shadows frame his eyes, and his jaw bristles. So maintaining that icy distance wasn’t easy, and he paid for it. That offers me some comfort as I sit down to check the nav chair. I half expect to find Hon supervising our use of his ship, but I guess he doesn’t want to be a part of this. Or it might just be the hour.
Hon’s an old rival of March’s; we first ran afoul of him on Emry Station, where Hon tried to establish his own space station. Farwan took care of his pretensions to grandeur, and he went back to raiding. Later, he took March up on his offer of amnesty and went to work as an Armada officer for the Conglomerate. I wasn’t too sure how that would work out at first, but he’s been steady, as far as I can tell. It’s a mark of his smuggler’s luck that his ship—the Dauntless —is the one that survived the blitz at Venice Minor. March, on the other hand, has a history of wrecking his vessels, though not through any fault in his piloting.
Silently, we prep for jump. I check the star charts, though it doesn’t matter where we are. Combined with my implants, my natural ability, and the tweak to the phase drive, I can jump from anywhere. It’s a huge stride forward, and it came as a result of numerous factors. Nothing will ever be the same again.
I jack in, and the world winks out. For the first time, blindness is a comfort. I don’t have to see that beside me, March is grieving. His mind touches mine in the nav computer, and only here does he let me see the full scope of it. I appreciate that he doesn’t block me; he has the skill. There are stolen, precious moments, where he’s decided to allow himself this secret intimacy.
I thought I’d lost you. That’s not my commander. That thought belongs to my anguished lover, who believed I was gone for good.
In this neutral space, I admit, I wasn’t sure I could come back. I fought for it, though. For us. For you. And to carry word of the shift in grimspace, so I could save as many lives as possible.
Silence, but warmth purls through me. His love doesn’t waver, regardless of what I put him through this past week. Then he replies, I’ll be waiting.
At last, here’s the answer to the question I asked last night. Knowing helps, even if he can’t speak of his feelings out loud. It’ll help me deal with the difficult days to come. And there’s no question it will be tough, maybe the worst thing I’ve ever faced.
Argus arrives shortly thereafter, and he jacks in using a patch cord. It’s not a suitable solution for training, but it will be enough for me to show him what I need to. The rumble of the phase drive tells me we’re almost ready, and rising heat spills through me. That’s the cations kindling for the jump. The corridor opens; the ship spirals through, then my mind’s full of
At 0600, the AI rings me awake, and I dress in a clean uniform. Likely, I don’t have the right to wear it anymore, but I don’t have anything else, so they can take it from me after I’m court-martialed. I pull my wild, damp hair back, so I’m ready when the guard signals; it’s a clansman I don’t know by name, though I’ve seen him around. He snaps a salute as if I haven’t, in fact, betrayed them all.
“Hell of a thing,” he says, shaking his head. “You saved so many lives, and they’re taking you to task for it. That’s the sort of thing we wanted to get away from. It’s why we colonized Lachion.”
But I’m not a victim. I went into this with my eyes open, so I answer, “I went about it the wrong way. Shall we?”
It’s early enough in the shift that there aren’t tons of soldiers standing around. I don’t think I could stand that. My progress to the cockpit passes unremarked, and there, I find March waiting for us to make the jump that will deliver me to New Terra.
He doesn’t look like he slept, though. Dark shadows frame his eyes, and his jaw bristles. So maintaining that icy distance wasn’t easy, and he paid for it. That offers me some comfort as I sit down to check the nav chair. I half expect to find Hon supervising our use of his ship, but I guess he doesn’t want to be a part of this. Or it might just be the hour.
Hon’s an old rival of March’s; we first ran afoul of him on Emry Station, where Hon tried to establish his own space station. Farwan took care of his pretensions to grandeur, and he went back to raiding. Later, he took March up on his offer of amnesty and went to work as an Armada officer for the Conglomerate. I wasn’t too sure how that would work out at first, but he’s been steady, as far as I can tell. It’s a mark of his smuggler’s luck that his ship—the Dauntless —is the one that survived the blitz at Venice Minor. March, on the other hand, has a history of wrecking his vessels, though not through any fault in his piloting.
Silently, we prep for jump. I check the star charts, though it doesn’t matter where we are. Combined with my implants, my natural ability, and the tweak to the phase drive, I can jump from anywhere. It’s a huge stride forward, and it came as a result of numerous factors. Nothing will ever be the same again.
I jack in, and the world winks out. For the first time, blindness is a comfort. I don’t have to see that beside me, March is grieving. His mind touches mine in the nav computer, and only here does he let me see the full scope of it. I appreciate that he doesn’t block me; he has the skill. There are stolen, precious moments, where he’s decided to allow himself this secret intimacy.
I thought I’d lost you. That’s not my commander. That thought belongs to my anguished lover, who believed I was gone for good.
In this neutral space, I admit, I wasn’t sure I could come back. I fought for it, though. For us. For you. And to carry word of the shift in grimspace, so I could save as many lives as possible.
Silence, but warmth purls through me. His love doesn’t waver, regardless of what I put him through this past week. Then he replies, I’ll be waiting.
At last, here’s the answer to the question I asked last night. Knowing helps, even if he can’t speak of his feelings out loud. It’ll help me deal with the difficult days to come. And there’s no question it will be tough, maybe the worst thing I’ve ever faced.
Argus arrives shortly thereafter, and he jacks in using a patch cord. It’s not a suitable solution for training, but it will be enough for me to show him what I need to. The rumble of the phase drive tells me we’re almost ready, and rising heat spills through me. That’s the cations kindling for the jump. The corridor opens; the ship spirals through, then my mind’s full of
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