Ancestor's World (41 page)

She nuzzled closer to him, her breath warm against his chest. "How?

Because I love Rob also. He is the father of my child. And... I love Claire, and miss her so very much!" She choked, almost breaking down. "Gordon, I didn't plan for this to happen. I didn't expect it. But I found in you something I'd yearned for as a young girl, found with Rob, then lost. Now, I must try to refind it. I owe that to my family."

Echoes. The words echoed in his ears, the meaning came to his mind, but the sense of them, ah, that was too painful to grasp. "But I... I'm afraid I'll go back to drinking hard

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again. You were my support. You were the one who made me see I could move away from being bitter about the past. Stay with me. I need you."

Mahree reached out, hugging him close, so close her lips rested beside his ear. "I can't be your crutch." She held him as he flinched, trying to pull away.

Her comforting touch held him close. "You're a strong man, Gordon. You don't need me, or anyone, to be your crutch. But you do need one other thing, besides the memory of our love." Bitterness filled his mouth. She was going. Of that he had no doubt. But... at least she cherished the memory of their love. He kissed the top of her head, her forehead, then reached to cup her chin in his hand, pushing her face back enough so he could look deep into her tear-filled eyes. "For me, our love will never be just a memory." She flinched, but he held her chin, keeping their gazes locked. "What else do I need, Mahree, other than you?"

She smiled softly, leaned forward to kiss lightly his lips, then withdrew, though she rested her face in the cup of his hands. "You need your daughters here, Gordon. You need the family you once thought lost to you.

Call them! Use the FTL holo-tank at the embassy! Call them, tell them you love them, and I am certain as I am a mother to my own daughter, your Moira and Casey will come to you. They're old enough to travel on their own. Call them, Gordon. Call them!"

The pain in his chest receded a bit. He smiled at Mahree. "You are so wise.

Yes. I'll call them. And perhaps, perhaps they will find their old dad is not such a bore."

"Never that!" Mahree said, showing joy through her tears. "You've taught me so much, too. From you I've learned that I can still fall in love, that romance doesn't have to fade away and die when you grow up. Even though I can never give up what I do, to stay on one planet, you taught me to enjoy the blessings I have now." Mahree sighed, lying back down to rest her head in the crook of his shoulder. "For that alone, I will love you until the day I die'"

Gordon held her for the last time, lying there on his field

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cot, their skin bare, their senses attuned to one another and to the night air.

And in that holding, he realized this was not another failure. In their joining, in their love shared, he had regained his self-respect.

Yes, the night held many blessings.

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Mahree sat alone in the viewing lounge of the S.V. Emerald Scales, treasuring a last look at the browns, whites, and rust reds of Ancestor's World. She was leaving behind the ancient Na-Dina, leaving behind Gordon and the love they'd shared, and beginning her journey home. Though the ship was crowded with the freed captives, at the moment she had the entire lounge to herself. By the Ambassador's order.

She stared at space with no one to watch her as she drank it all in. The vid-windows showed her the black, gleaming robe of Mother Sky. They showed the high peaks, valleys, and rivers of Father Earth. And they showed, far across the Arm of Orion, the distant yellow star that was Sol.

She would journey first to StarBridge, to spend a long family vacation with Claire and Rob. And then...

And then she would go back to work. She had a duty to herself, and to the CLS. The hydra-monster of slavery, which they had thought dead forever, had returned. Somewhere in the backwaters of Sorrow Sector, slavers were plying their trade, buying and selling intelligent beings. She had to try to stop it, to alert the Security Council to what she had seen and experienced on Ancestor's World. They would need more Irenics, more patrols ...

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It was a daunting task.

Mahree looked out through another viewport, the one facing down the length of Orion Arm. According to Etsane's translations, and the star map painted onto the domed ceiling lying above the sarcophagus of A-Um Rakt, the Mizari Lost Colony had gone in that direction. Which star were they heading for? Had they even known themselves?

But at least it was a clue. After six thousand years of not knowing, it was something.

Mahree smiled to herself. Not for nothing had the Great King been named a Reader of the Stars.

Looking down at her feet, she rested her eyes on the squarish box that had been entrusted to her. It held a gift from the People of Ancestor's World to the people of Shassiszss. Inside that box, preserved under a stasis field, rested the Mizari relics that Gordon and Khuharkk' had found lying at the foot of the King's bier. The Star Shrine, the Sacred Shriszz, and the Constellation Globe lay inside. The dark brown box was carved from the scented wood of one of the giant trees that grew tall on the slopes of the Mountains of Faith.

The Council of Elders had sent the box as a gesture to respresent their formal acceptance of the offer of protected status from the Council of the CLS. As the founders of the CLS, the Mizari would surely accept this gift in the spirit in which it had been given.

Reaching down to the travel bag that lay beside her seat, Mahree pulled out the holo-cube of Claire.

Her daughter was tall and slim. Wavy chestnut hair reached to her narrow shoulders. But it was Claire's eyes that held her, that spoke to her in words from memory.

"I don't understand why you have to go! Mom, you could get killed out there!"

She took a deep, cleansing breath, thinking of all that had happened.

"Claire, I kept my promise to you. I didn't die. I was smart, and I stayed alive."

That last wasn't completely true. Had she been smart to fall in love with Gordon?

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The CLS Ambassador-at-Large didn't know. She just knew that she would never give up the experience, the pain, the joy, even if offered a trip back in time to redo her choices.

Mahree smiled at her daughter's image. "Claire, I'm coming home. Home to you." She cradled the cube in her hands, then, impulsively, hugged it to her breast, thinking that soon she'd be able to hold her child in the flesh.

She sensed that the Revered Ancestors were smiling upon her, and she turned back to the viewport for a last look at Ancestor's World. "Good-bye,"

she whispered softly.

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Afterword

Hello again! It's nice to see you after more than a year away.

I hope you enjoyed this further StarBridge adventure, and I'm glad to tell you that StarBridge #7 is already well underway. Ru Emerson is writing an exciting book that we've entitled Voices of Chaos. It tells the story of two young StarBridge graduates who find themselves trapped on a planet on the brink of civil war--and genocide.

Will Prince Khyriz be able to save the Interrelators from the ravages of war?

Will Magdalena and Alexis be able to negotiate with the CLS to save the Asha from extermination?

Find out in StarBridge #7, Voices of Chaos, which should be out in mid 1997.

And, as always, thanks for reading this series. I still enjoy getting mail from readers c/o Berkley (and I answer all of it, though sometimes I run very behind, because my first job, after all, is writing books, not answering mail), but I've now entered the electronic age. Readers wishing to send me e-mail can also reach me at: [email protected].

See you next book!

--Ann C. Crispin

March, 1996

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DAVID DRAKE

_IGNITING THE REACHES
(W41-00179-3/$4.99

After the collapse of the human empire, government factions fight for trading rights, and renegade pirates fly to the Reaches to trade with the star colonies. Colonel Stephen Gregg and space-sailor Piet Ricimer set off to reap the rewards of this new age of exploration--if they can survive.

_THROUGH THE BREACH
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Space pirates Gregg and Ricimer traverse the galaxy attempting to liberate trade to the outer worlds from the grip of Earth's Federation Government.

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_FIRESHIPS
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Captain Sarah Blythe will do anything for revenge against the Federation--

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An Ace Hardcover

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