Jordan (39 page)

“He hit me on the head. I blacked out.”

“Let me take a look.” He gently pulled back her hair to reveal a jagged cut that oozed with congealing blood.

“I’m fine.” She jerked back, eyes wide with horror. “Jordan. He said, ‘Earth is no more.’ What does that mean?”

Jordan took her hand and helped her to her feet. “Let’s see what we can find out.”

Her hand tucked in his, they headed over to the command console. With a squeeze, Vivianne released his hand and headed to
the navigation center, where she tried to find the
Draco.

Jordan pulled up the last commands Trendonis had sent out. He went icy-hot with renewed anger. Trendonis’s last order personified
the man himself. Pure evil.

“I’ve located the
Draco.
” Vivianne lifted her head from the data stream, her eyes wide. “And there’s a baffling communication in Trendonis’s log.”

Jordan put off telling her his bad news. “What did you find?”

“Trendonis sent a communication to Arcturus. To Arthur.”

To Arthur? Jordan’s mind raced. “And what was the message?”

“His exact words were, ‘You’ve lost Earth, my son.’ ”

“
My son?
” Jordan repeated, his forehead wrinkling. Had she misheard? Was this a code?

“And he signed it ‘Uther.’ ” Her words flowed with excitement. “Remember I told you that I’d read medieval history about this
coat of arms?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it was Uther’s coat of arms. No wonder he and Arthur used the same family symbol. Trendonis is Uther—he’s King Arthur’s
father.”

Stunned, Jordan rocked back on his heels. Uther was Arthur’s sire? Uther had stood for everything Arthur was against. Uther
was a man of darkness and destruction. Arthur loved everything good and honorable. No wonder Arthur had hated the man. And
he must have been ashamed, or he wouldn’t have kept the secret. “Arthur has a lot of explaining to do.” Jordan couldn’t delay
the bad news any longer. “But we have to leave. Right now. Trendonis just ordered his fleet to prepare planetbusters and lob
them at Earth.”

Vivianne squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “We’ll stop them. Can we send another message? Cancel his order?”

Jordan tried to hack into the weapons system, wasting precious seconds. But Trendonis had fail-safes in the system. “We don’t
have the code.”

“Maybe Arthur…”

“All his life Arthur fought his father. I assure you, he may have kept secrets from me, but Arthur won’t have the code. Our
only shot is flying the
Draco
back to Earth. Maybe after the Tribe fleet commanders realize Trendonis is dead, they’ll change their minds about destroying
Earth.” Jordan hefted Trendonis onto his shoulders. “We’ll need his body to prove he’s dead.”

Pain and desperation in her eyes, she asked, “And will that be enough?”

“I don’t know.” He wished he had a better answer.

Love is like a fine wine, born with the bloom of ripe fruit, made with gentle care, sipped slowly to make it last.

—L
ADY
G
UINEVERE

V
ivianne humanshaped and pulled the
Draco’
s airlock handle.
Nothing’s happening.

When Gray feared the Tribes would board, he must have locked it from the bridge.

Vivianne peered through the tiny airlock window.
I see Knox lying on the floor in the corridor. She’s either unconscious… or dead.
She didn’t like even thinking the words.

Jordan slung Trendonis under one arm, shoved around the hull, and headed toward the stern.
Let’s try the engine compartment.

She’d forgotten they’d blasted out of the engine room to leave the
Draco.
Hopes rising, Vivianne followed him.

But Gray had repaired the giant hole. He and the crew had patched the opening with metal plating, then rough-welded it.

Company’s coming,
Jordan warned, and she peered out to see two ships growing in size on the port-side horizon.

They had to get inside the
Draco
before those ships reached them. But how?

The crew couldn’t hear their telepathy. As a last-ditch effort, she placed her mouth to her handheld. “Gray, Knox. Tennison.
Lyle. Darren. Anybody in there?”

No one answered. And she feared the worst.

Without atmosphere to carry your voice, it’s doubtful they can hear anything.

She scrambled around the
Draco’
s hull, looking for an opening. But they couldn’t even see onto the bridge, not with the force field sealing it off.

Vivianne tried banging her hand on the hull.

Jordan shook his head.
I’ll fly back to the warship and bring back a cutting tool.

Vivianne kept banging but looked up to check the oncoming ships.
No time.

We have no—

There’s George.
The dog raised up on his hind legs and scratched at the lock.
He must have heard me banging. Maybe he can pull the handle and engage the airlock.

He’s a dog.

A smart dog. And the end of the handle has a ball on it, not too different from his Ping-Pong balls.
She sent a mental order,
Fetch.

He’s not telepathic. He can’t hear you.

Perhaps he can. The wave that evolved us hit him, too.

But Jordan appeared to be correct. George kept scratching. Vivianne spoke right against the metal door. “Fetch, George. Fetch.”

Suddenly, Jordan pounded the window. George looked straight at him. Jordan motioned with his hand as if he’d just thrown a
ball. George turned around to look for the ball.

The dog jumped excitedly at the door handle.
Oh, my… God. He grabbed the end with his mouth.
She heard a hiss.
He did it.
George did it. She was going to buy him steak dinners for a month, for a year. Hell—for life.

After the inner airlock opened, they tumbled inside. With Trendonis’s body it had been a tight fit, but Vivianne was too excited
to care. “You did it, George. Good boy.”

Jordan closed the lock, leaving Trendonis inside the airlock. “The cold should preserve him until we get back.” Squeezing
past Vivianne, he kneeled next to Knox.
Her hearts have stopped. But she doesn’t need air. And a pressure change or cold or radiation couldn’t have done this.

“What was in those Tribe weapons?”

“Maybe an electrical charge? Although why it didn’t knock out George I’m not sure.”

Maybe he’d been in midair when the strike hit. Vivianne set George down and ran down the hall for the defibrillator. She rushed
back and they placed it on Knox. “Get back.”

Jordan zapped Knox. Vivianne felt for a pulse. “It’s beating.”

Knox moaned and opened her eyes. “What happened?”

There was no time to answer. Vivianne patted her shoulder. “Stay here. We have to go help the others.” Then she followed Jordan.

Ten minutes later, they’d revived the entire crew. And jumped into hyperspace. Heading for Earth.

Praying that Trendonis’s orders to blow up the planet hadn’t arrived before they would, she watched the
Draco
burst from hyperspace. The Tribe fleet surrounded Earth. The hundreds of thousands of ships that Maggie had told her about
still blanketed the planet.

“Open a channel to the Tribe ships,” Jordan ordered.

Gray frowned in frustration. “I’ve used every channel we’ve got. No answer.”

“Send this message anyway, along with a picture of Trendonis’s body,” Jordan ordered, then composed his message. “Your leader,
Trendonis, is dead, and the Tribes no longer possess the Grail. That means in battle, you can die. But Earth doesn’t want
war with you. Go home. This confrontation is over.”

“I’ve set your message to repeat in a loop, but there’s still no answer.” Gray moved over to help Darren monitor weapons.

Vivianne looked out the viewscreen. Dozens of ships simultaneously opened their weapon ports, and her stomach tightened. “What’s
going on?”

“They’re preparing to fire,” Jordan told her, his voice grim.

She closed her hands into fists. She couldn’t let them fire and destroy her world. “We’ve got to stop them.”

But how? They were one tiny ship against thousands.

Lyle paced on the bridge. Tears streamed down his face. “They’re going to kill our world and everyone on it, and there’s not
a damn thing we can do.”

The best defense against a planetbuster is not to be there when it goes off.

—T
RENDONIS

T
here had to be something they could do. Vivianne searched Jordan’s memory for information on the planetbuster that had destroyed
Dominus. To break up a planet required thousands of bombs. And while all of them didn’t have to land to destroy a world, most
of them had to hit their target.

“What about Earth’s antimissile defense system?” she asked.

Jordan shook his head. “It’s not aimed to defend a threat from space.”

“Suppose we fly out there and stop the missiles?” she suggested.

“This ship can’t—”

“I’m not talking about the ship. I’m talking about flying out there as dragons, and manhandling those weapons like we did
that shuttle. We don’t need to breathe. We can stop those bombs in space before they hit the atmosphere.”

“There’s too many bombs. We can’t do it alone.” Jordan hurried after her.

Vivianne spoke on her handheld. “Gray, send the word to Earth. Let the dragonshapers spread the message telepathically. Tell
them that to save Earth, they need to fly up here and stop those bombs.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Even as Vivianne raced toward the airlock with Jordan close on her heels, she was praying she was right, praying that if enough
dragonshapers got the word, they could divert enough bombs to save the planet.

Inside the airlock, Jordan embraced and kissed her. “
Shari-ki,
I adore the way you never give up.”

“Being with you makes me braver. Smarter.” She kissed him with fervor, knowing it was true. And to think she’d feared love
would make her less independent. Instead, sharing her life and knowledge with Jordan had made her more confident, more of
a risk taker.

The airlock opened, and she and Jordan dragonshaped, then flew straight at the newly released bombs. With a swat of her wing,
she sent a bomb back the way it had come, directly into the Tribe ship. The hull collapsed and elation filled her. They could
save Earth.

Help came, and it was the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen. Tens of thousands of dragons rose en masse from Earth’s upper
atmosphere into the heavens. Together the dragonshapers rounded up the bombs, telepathically coordinating the attack.

Dragons from every nation patrolled the skies, and whenever they found a bomb, they flung it spinning toward the Tribe ships.
It didn’t take long for the Tribes to retreat.

Only two bombs broke through Earth’s atmosphere, one landing harmlessly in the ocean, the other doing little damage at the
South Pole.

Finally, Earth was safe.

Vivianne flew beside Jordan, speculating on a wonderful future. A future where people could survive in space without suits
or ships, where they could communicate with their minds. As she soared toward Earth, the possibilities seemed infinite. As
did her love.

She had no doubt Jordan would achieve hero status. And he deserved Earth’s thanks. But even better, they were linked forever.
He was her
shari-ki
—for all time.

In your thoughts be kind, in your life be honorable, in your heart be true.

—L
ADY OF THE
L
AKE