The Cause of Death (49 page)

Jamie kept his mouth shut, and let Hannah be the one to answer. "Good points all," she said. "I wish you well," and left it at that.

"Thank you," she said. "And don't waste time feeling sorry for me. I am going to do very, very, very well out of this bargain."

Jamie had to smile at that. He glanced over at Zahida, and wondered if the Thelek knew exactly what he was getting himself into.

"The one
I
really feel sorry for is Brox," said Zahida, obviously trying to change the subject. "He behaved with perfect honor in all this. He had the good sense to watch out for the Kendari's long-term interests, instead of the quick win that would turn into a permanent headache. I just hope his government has the sense to see it that way, once he goes home empty-handed."

"Who says he's going home empty-handed?" Hannah growled. "Thelm Georg is already thinking like a Reqwar Pavlat instead of a human. He figures the planet is going to need all the help it can get, all the contacts, all the investment. And maybe a little healthy competition will keep the prices down. Brox has hired some off-planet Pavlat named Nostawniek as his local rep, and he's going home with a stack of contracts taller than he is."

"Good," said Zahida. "Good for us--and I'll bet it's good for you Younger Race types too, in the long run. Both of you. Get you working together--or at least, working next to each other, without trying to kill each other."

"I suppose," Hannah said. "I'd have to admit I'd vouch for Brox a lot sooner than I'd vouch for a lot of humans I could think of."

There wasn't much else to say after that, and they walked in silence through the weary, worn-out grounds of the Keep. But if the Keep could be repaired, then, with a little luck, so too could the landscape, the whole ecology, be renewed, reborn, reset.
And we're the ones who gave it the chance for that to happen
, Hannah told herself. That was worth taking pride in.

Night was coming on. The stars were coming out. In the morning, a Pavlat ship would take Jamie and Hannah back to the
Hastings
, and they would begin the journey back to Center, and home. "Well," said Hannah, "mission accomplished. Assuming the
Hastings
doesn't blow up when we light the engines--but that's not going to happen."

"What do you mean, 'mission accomplished'?" Jamie asked.

"Commandant Kelly gave me strict orders to get you home alive," she said. "I came pretty close to disobeying that one."

"Yeah, but you didn't," said Jamie. He looked up at the stars, bright and clear, shining points of hope and promise in the nighttime. It was a sky, a galaxy, a universe full of possibilities.

"I wonder," Jamie said, "where they're going to send us next."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roger MacBride Allen was born September 26, 1957, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is the author of twenty science fiction novels, a modest number of short stories, and two nonfiction books.

His wife, Eleanore Fox, is a member of the United States Foreign Service. After a long-distance courtship, they married in 1994, when Eleanore returned from London, England. They were posted to Brasilia, Brazil, from 1995 to 1997, and to Washington, D.C., from 1997 to 2002. Their first son, Matthew Thomas Allen, was born November 12, 1998. In September 2002 they began a three-year posting to Leipzig, Germany, where their second son, James Maury Allen, was born on April 27, 2004. They returned to the Washington area in the summer of 2005, and live in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Learn more about the author at
www.rmallen.net
, or visit
www.bsi-starside.com
for the latest on the BSI Starside series.

NOVELS BY

Roger MacBride Allen

The Torch of Honor

Rogue Powers

Orphan of Creation

The Modular Man*

The War Machine (with David Drake)

Supernova (with Eric Kotani)

Farside Cannon

The Ring of Charon

The Shattered Sphere

Caliban

Inferno

Utopia

Ambush at Corellia*

Assault at Selonia*

Showdown at Centerpoint*

The Game of Worlds

The Depths of Time*

The Ocean of Years*

The Shores of Tomorrow*

NONFICTION

A Quick Guide to

Book-on-Demand Printing

A Quick Guide to the
Hazel Internet Merchandizing System

*
Published by Bantam Books

Don't miss the next exciting
mission!

Coming in 2007

BSI: STARSIDE: THE CAUSE OF DEATH

A Bantam Spectra Book / March 2006

Published by

Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved

Copyright (c) 2006 by Roger MacBride Allen

Bantam Books, the rooster colophon, Spectra, and the portayal of a boxed "s" are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

eISBN-13: 978-0-553-90138-2
eISBN-10: 0-553-90138-9

www.bantamdell.com

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