Authors: Gun Brooke
“I thought you were dead. That you and Leanne were caught in the explosion…” Rae pulled away a little and stared up at Kellen. “Leanne?”
“She saved my life. There she is.” Kellen motioned with her chin toward the small woman throwing herself into Owena’s arms. Owena merely lifted her and carried her out the door, which reminded Rae that they themselves were embracing in front of the entire shuttle bay crew.
“Kellen. Let’s go. Come on.” Not about to let go entirely, Rae took Kellen by the hand and began to walk back to the elevator. “We have more work to do,” she said as they entered it with their friends, who now included Paladin and O’Daybo. “But before that, we need to get you checked out at the infirmary.”
“I’m fine—” Kellen began, but Rae stopped her with a glance. She nodded. “But if you think it’s best, of course.” She turned to Paladin. “Would you come with us? And you too, O’Daybo. We need to make sure that we’re all in good shape before we finish this.”
Paladin looked at them with apparent surprise, raising her eyebrows. “We have our own physician onboard the
Iktysos
,” she reminded them. “I don’t think it’s necessary to—”
“But I do,” Rae insisted. She had to take Paladin to the infirmary. Now that Kellen was safely back aboard the
Gallant
, this was all she could think of. She and Paladin had shared so much while waiting for the Kovos and Vaksses teams to get in touch. Rae felt a special connection, and she admitted to herself this might also be because Paladin reminded her of an older Kellen.
“All right, then.” Paladin shrugged. “A joint venture to the doctor it is.” She looked inquisitively at O’Daybo, who merely nodded and walked along with them.
The infirmary was overflowing all the way out into the corridor. Paladin stopped when she saw how many injured people waited for treatment. “You can’t possibly expect your physician to pay any attention to me or O’Daybo, when seriously injured people need him.”
“No, I wouldn’t want to waste any of his time,” Rae agreed, exchanging a look with Kellen. “But we still need to go inside. Trust me.”
Don’t argue, Paladin, just do it.
Paladin shook her head, obviously impatient, and with an exasperated sigh she followed Kellen.
*
Roshan wasn’t amused. She had so much to do, and Jacelon and Kellen were acting strange, to say the least. She walked behind the Protector into the infirmary, prepared to do the right thing, visit with the rebels and reassure them, which was most likely why they wanted her and O’Daybo to join them.
Stretchers and medical beds were lined up in long rows in the fairly spacious infirmary. Two physicians and eight assistants worked with the wounded, and Roshan saw people of all ages, seated or lying down, looking pale. She walked up to a young woman on a stretcher, who held a small bundle. “Oh, Gods! A baby?”
“My son. His name is Kellon.” She pointed to Kellen. “The male version of your name, Protector. I named him after you.”
“I’m deeply honored. How is your baby now, Illina?” Kellen asked, and Roshan realized Kellen had rescued this woman herself.
“The doctor says he’ll need nutritional infusions and medication to calibrate his blood-balance. Other than that, he’ll be fine.”
She burst into tears and Kellen patted her shoulder. “We’ll try to reunite you with your spouse as soon as possible. In the meantime, I believe you have a lot in common with the young girl over there. Her name is Sarambol. She’s pregnant and was close to losing her child. She’s doing much better, but she may need someone to talk to, if you think you have the strength?”
Illina looked over at Sarambol. “Do you think she’d like to sit here with me? I mean, there’s even room to lie down if she’s tired. I’d like the company.”
“I’ll ask her in a bit.” Kellen smiled gently and pushed sweat-soaked tresses from Illina’s face. “Just rest now.”
They walked from bed to bed, moving toward the far corner where the patients requiring nutritional infusions were hooked up to different units. An older man sat sideways on his stretcher, a little slumped. His white hair reached his shoulders, and he sported an impressive beard. Painfully thin, he needed all the nutrition they could pump into him, Roshan thought. She was going to smile politely, but when he looked up something inside her completely halted.
Roshan stopped, making Andreia bump into her from behind and say, “Paladin, what—?”
“Who’s that man?” Roshan asked, her voice barely carrying. “That old man, over there on the stretcher. Who is he?”
“Why don’t you go over to him?” Kellen suggested, her voice low. “Just talk to him, Roshan.”
The use of her own name should’ve sparked some sort of reaction, but all Roshan could think about was how the man’s eyes never left her face. He even raised his hand halfway, hesitant and trembling. It was the same hand she’d held so many times. Older, wrinkled, with age spots and awful nails, but nevertheless the same hand that had caressed her long braid before her father went off to work at the hospital every morning.
“
Pappa…
” The old Earth word slipped over her lips. “Oh, Gods of Gantharat!”
“It’s him, Roshan. He’s recognized you.” Rae placed a hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t you go over to him? He’s waited so long for this day.”
“I…Yes. Of course.” Roshan felt like she was moving in suspended animation as she rushed among the stretchers. She didn’t take her eyes off Mikael O’Landha where he sat, shivering under a blanket. His broad face now consisted of hollow cheeks and deep-set eyes with blue-black circles underneath. But the eyes were the same, clear blue in a completely different shade than any Gantharian eyes. His teeth had seen better days, but his smile was the same—warm, if a bit tremulous.
“Child.” His voice shook as much as his hand, but it was his voice.
“Pappa, I thought you were dead.” It was hardly the most appropriate way to start a reunion of this magnitude, but it was the truth. “They…the Onotharians, said you died during transport. They said…” Roshan couldn’t go on, couldn’t find the words to explain any more. She took the last step forward and wrapped her strong arms around the mere shell of a man that was her father. “Oh, I’ve missed you all these years. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“Whatever for, child?” Mikael asked, his face buried in her shoulder.
“I believed them. I gave up on you, didn’t try to find you. I believed
them
.”
“Then I’m sorry too, for my crime is worse.” Mikael pulled back, and his eyes were tormented. “When prisoners arrived and called you a collaborator…there were moments when I believed them.”
His words stung, but she could hardly blame him. She gazed down at the man who’d loved her mother with an undying passion, and who had worshipped Roshan and supported her in anything she wanted. He’d always told people how proud he was that she wanted to be a doctor, like him.
“Everyone was supposed to buy into their lies, which was the point,” she said. She looked Mikael over once more, stroking the white hair, smoothing it down. “We’ve lost so many years, and I…I just want to hold you, Pappa, and never let go.”
“I can’t believe I’m seeing you again, that I’m out of that hellish place and that I have, perhaps, a few more years with you.” Mikael slumped more over to the side, and Roshan caught him in her arms. “Doctor!”
“No, no, I’m all right, Roshan. Just a little tired.”
The SC military physician walked up to them, scanned Mikael, and frowned slightly. “Mr. O’Landha, I think you need to lie down for a bit. All this excitement has become a bit too much for you. Your…friend, here, can perhaps—”
“My daughter,” Mikael whispered, then cleared his throat. “She’s my daughter,” he repeated in a stronger voice. “Though I hope my daughter is also my friend.”
Roshan’s tears spilled over and streamed down her cheeks, where they soaked the tall collar of her shirt. “Pappa, yes, yes, I am. I’m both those things.” She helped Mikael get comfortable on the stretcher and bent down to kiss his wrinkled cheek. “Rest, now. I’ll be back later, once we’ve completed our mission.” It tore her apart to have to leave him, but she was immensely grateful to Rae for not keeping him from her. If something happened to her now, at least she’d held her father close and felt his loving arms around her once again.
“You’ll be careful?” Mikael asked as his eyes began to close.
“I promise I’ll be very careful. I’ll be back soon.”
As Roshan dried her tears with the back of her hand, she sensed, rather than felt, Andreia’s presence just behind her. Gazing down at Mikael, she reached for Andreia’s hand and vowed on everything she held sacred in life that “soon” wouldn’t mean another two decades, this time.
*
Andreia saw Roshan straighten her back as she spoke to Jubinor over the comm channel. “What’s going on?”
“Apparently the entire Onotharian government is in an uproar, and they’re conducting a planet-wide search for Andreia M’Aldovar,” Roshan whispered to her. “Their propaganda machine is saying that the Supreme Constellations and the rebels have kidnapped you.”
Andreia’s heart began to race. “What else can you tell us?” she asked Jubinor, amazed at how calm she sounded.
“The news of Kovos and Vaksses is crossing the planet quickly. One of our junior rebels has listened into unauthorized civilian transmissions, and the Gantharians have new hope for the first time in years. People are also praying that their loved ones are among the prisoners saved.”
Roshan placed a hand on Andreia’s shoulder, squeezing it tight. “And the Onotharian government?”
“They’re in session more or less around the clock. M’Isitor has broadcast twice and managed to turn this into a personal vendetta, calling it ‘an act of cowards and misguided fools,’ which is a total insult, and he knows it. He isn’t trying to convince the Gantharians, because he knows that’s a lost cause, but he’s probably trying his best to keep the Onotharian civilian citizens in check.”
“You mean there’s been trouble in paradise when it comes to his own people?” Roshan squeezed Andreia’s shoulder again. “I’d think they’re as sick and tired of this situation as we are.”
“Perhaps.”
“How are you doing?” Andreia asked. “Is the camp secure? The first prisoners should be arriving any minute.”
“We’re as secure as we’ll ever be.”
“And more,” Roshan said. “Our physicians have found that many of the prisoners, especially the ones at the Vaksses facility, have been tagged. Jacelon’s engineers decoded the nano-tags, and for some reason, they’ve been divided into four different groups. The Onotharians evidently managed to get some information out of them about their expertise and so on, and tagged them for future reference. Fortunately the SC tech people showed our doctors how to neutralize the nano-tags fairly easily by merely setting the new medical scanners they gave us to a corrupting frequency.”
“They won’t have the time to check every person on the ships. Will we get more scanners to use planet-side?”
“Yes, they’ll include more with every shipment of rebels, and also, SC marines will stay in the camp until we know who can go home and who can’t.”
“I just hope that most of them can rejoin the fight,” Jubinor sighed. “You can’t blame them if they’ve had it, though.”
“From what I understood on Vaksses,” Andreia said, “there’s a lot of fighting spirit left. The morale’s high among many of the ones from Kovos too.”
“Sounds good.” Jubinor seemed to hesitate. “When are you two returning?”
“As soon as we can.” Roshan looked into Andreia’s eyes. “Something’s come up that we need to take care of.”
“All right. I’ll keep the soup warm for you.”
Roshan smiled faintly. “And, Jubinor, I made sure that Berentar is on the first transport. He needs medical attention, but should be all right, according to Doc and the SC physician.”
There was a brief silence. “Thank you.”
The simple words, uttered with such softness, stirred something in Andreia, and she leaned against Roshan. The many reunions were wonderful, but also emotionally draining. She knew Roshan couldn’t stop thinking about Mikael, and that it was hurting her that she had to be away from her father so soon after they’d found each other again. It was somehow so right that Kellen had returned Roshan’s father to her, since Roshan had done the same for Kellen, years earlier.
“Good job keeping the base camp safe, Jubinor. Over and out.”
Roshan leaned her hip against the communication console. They’d borrowed the captain’s quarters to talk to Jubinor, and now Andreia tried to wrap her brain around the fact that she was listed not only as missing, but also as a “victim” of the rebels’ and the SC’s actions.
“I need to go back. I have to make an appearance and—” She spoke quickly, but stopped when Roshan put a hand up.
“Wait! Not so fast. If you go back, as things are now, you’ll of course show the world that the Onotharian leadership is way off base. But you’ll be stuck there. They’ll want to use every single bit of your goodwill to further their agenda. And let’s face it, sweetheart, you’re popular among your own people, but many younger Gantharians also think pretty highly of you.” Roshan spoke passionately. “They’ll use you, from the time you get up in the morning until you fall asleep at night, as their prize possession. Their salvation, even.”