Lacuna: Demons of the Void (27 page)

Liao took Sabeen’s hand, squeezing it very gently – but even this light touch sent a visible wince over the woman’s features.   “It’s good to be here.”

Sabeen gave a relieved chuckle, her smile a thousand miles wide. “We’re very glad to see you…”

Liao ended the handshake and retracted her hand, subtly wiping the blood off on her pants. She turned and gave a nod to her crew; almost immediately, marines, doctors and engineers rushed through the cramped docking umbilical. To clear the room and make way for the surge of assistance coming from the
Beijing
, Liao and Sabeen stepped into the corridor, casually stepping over fallen debris as they did so. The lighting was poor and Liao had to constantly watch her footing.

“The feeling is mutual, believe me, Commander Sabeen... When you didn’t jump back with us we thought you hadn’t made it. What happened?”

Farah glanced towards Melissa, casually stepping over a pile of exposed wires, her expression grave. “We almost
didn’t
. Although things started out well, pretty rapidly the Toralii picked up their game and knocked out our railguns. Not wanting to push our luck, we recalled our strike fighters and moved out of the jump point to try and evade their fire while we waited for them, but... then we received your signal to withdraw. We began moving back into the point, but as we got close – still charging our jump drive, mind you – a Toralii scout ship appeared right in the middle of the point... just as we were about to enter it.”

Liao nodded. “So you couldn’t jump because there was already a ship there.”

Farah gave a crooked grin, stepping over a hunk of dislodged bulkhead. “Correct. We nearly smashed right into it, but some clever piloting got us out of the way. When we were clear we nuked the hell out of it, of course, but the debris was still in one large hunk of metal... so we
still
couldn’t jump. At that point we could see way,
way
too many Toralii long-range missiles coming in, so we knew we were short on time… and we didn’t have many options left.”

“Sounds dire. What did you do?”

Farah had to stop her story to give some instructions to one of the engineers from the
Beijing
, then she and Liao resumed walking. “I ordered the ship to about face and steam away at sub-light to the nearest jump point... which, as you know, was some distance away. We used the point-defence cannons to shoot down the incoming missiles as best we could, but those bastards are tenacious... No matter how many we hit, they just kept shooting right up until we limped into the Lagrange point.”

“And then you jumped?”

Farah shook her head. “We were going to, but the lead ship, the biggest one, it let loose with this
thing
... a wave of light so bright and so hot it overloaded our thermal sensors. The whole ship shook and, apparently, Engineering tells me they sliced a nice little piece out of my girl’s hide. You probably saw that giant hole on the way in.”

“We did, yes. One of our engineers, Rowe, had a theory that it was the same weapon that the Toralii used to bombard Earth with.”

Sabeen flashed a wry grin. “We’ve been thinking the same, actually.” She paused a moment to step over some debris. “So, we very nearly didn’t make it out. The Toralii were pretty far away when they fired that thing... if they’d used it sooner, we would have been toast. We jumped before they got a chance to fire again.”

Melissa was heartened by the use of the term
we
, figuring the first officer was speaking of James, but quickly realized her turn of phrase was not itself confirmation of his survival. The First Office was referring to the ship and crew as a whole...

So, steeling herself, Liao took a breath and asked the million dollar question. “How is J-… the Captain?”

A shadow fell across Farah’s face and Liao felt a clenching in her chest.

“...Well, I
honestly
can’t say. He received a severe concussion when the Toralii fired their energy weapon at us. The weapon sent a huge shudder through the ship and he cracked his head on the jump console. Blood everywhere, I’ve never seen anything like it. I had him stretchered out as we were making our run for the jump point. He was admitted three days ago and to be honest, I just haven’t had time to check in on him. Between the jump, our reactors nearly overloading, severe decompressions scattered across all decks, the irradiation of our food and perishables when reactor four broke containment… we’ve been living from crisis to crisis. I haven’t slept since the battle.”

Liao gave her a nod. “I know the feeling. We’re here now, though, and we’re going to render whatever assistance we can. And... that leads me to my next point.” She straightened her back, giving the other woman a determined look. “With James out of action the
Tehran
needs her Commanding Officer, which at this point in time is
you
... and all CO’s need their rest.” She extended a hand, putting it on the Arabic woman’s shoulder and giving a comradely squeeze. “Our lead engineer will direct the repair teams and take over for your boys, who no-doubt will need some rack time as well. There’s nothing more you can do here, so go get some shut-eye before I get my doctor to
order
you to.”

Sabeen seemed, for a moment, to be ready to fight Liao on her suggestion but then just gave a tired salute, grinning impishly despite it all. “...Doctor’s orders, huh? How could I refuse?”

Liao walked the exhausted woman to the
Tehran
’s first officer’s quarters, only to find upon arrival that they had been breached during the fighting and had decompressed. A ragged looking engineer, his face smeared with grease and thick bags under his eyes, informed them that the contents of the room were gone; every possession smaller than a basketball had almost certainly been sucked out of the breach and was at this moment floating in space somewhere near the solar L4 point in the Hades system. That, or being picked over for intelligence by the Toralii survivors.

So rather than bother the extraordinarily overworked Chief of Operations for new quarters, Liao simply gave her permission to uses James’. After all, Liao mused, the man was still in the infirmary and Liao was not about to let him get back to those quarters any time soon. The moment he was well enough to move she was going to drag him back to the
Beijing
to... “recover”.

With the
Tehran
’s first officer safely tucked into bed, the memories of her last argument with James – and the termination of their ‘arrangement’ – weighed heavily on Liao’s conscience. For a moment she almost reconsidered even seeing him, but that was a passing weakness; she forced down those thoughts as she walked towards the
Tehran
’s infirmary. Yes, she had broken it off with him, and yes she was still angry at him for the way he had interfered with her career, interfered with her judgement, and compromised his own tactical reasoning because of her... And she told herself, over and over again, that it would take more than one of his infamous post-playtime back rubs to make things completely better in that regard...

…But the thought of losing James permanently significantly outweighed the anger she felt at his noble but misguided gesture. He had merely been attempting to do the right thing by her and, while she despised this kind of interference in her life, she understood why he had done it. After all, in the aftermath of the battle she herself had tried to jump her ship back to save James. And while Iraj had eventually agreed with her assessment, she knew in her heart that she was doing the right thing but for the wrong reasons.

As her boots clicked along the hallway, she tried over and over again to convince herself that this was only a temporary lack of judgement and that she would not make the same mistake again.

Stopping outside the infirmary, Liao mulled over her course of action in her mind. She would have to talk to James, yes, but she should have a plan. The Chinese woman spent some time playing through the various hypothetical possibilities until she settled on one she found appealing. She decided that she would appear initially professional, but a little angry, then – after a small amount of time had passed – would broach the subject of forgiveness... which she would make him earn. Her dignity would be satisfied. Her point – that both she and James had to keep their professionalism despite everything – would come across loud and clear, and they could resume where they had left off...

…But the moment she stepped into the sickbay and saw James laying flat on a surgical bed, the plan she’d carefully formulated in her mind flew away like a flock of chickens bursting free of an open coop.

“James?”

She fought hard to keep her emotions in check but it was basically useless; already she could feel thin trails of tears spilling down her cheeks, tumbling towards her chin like little raindrops. Unable to keep her fingers from trembling Melissa reached out for his hand, taking it and giving a squeeze.

James’ forehead was bandaged and it was clear from the dull, dopey look in his eyes that he was heavily medicated. The man turned towards her, cracking a smile, blinking groggily.

“Weeell, now... heh. Now I
know
I’m dead, because there’s an angel by my bed poised to take me away.”

Liao gave a childish, happy snort, her lips curling up in a relieved smile, casually dabbing her cheeks with her sleeve to dry it. “I thought you didn’t believe in God.”

“Well, I certainly didn’t before, but... I’m very glad to see you. Regarding the presence or absence of divine beings who may or may not watch over us and protect us... after that last battle, I might change my mind. Only divine intervention could have gotten us out of
that
mess.”

Liao gave a relieved sigh, even managing the beginnings of a playful chuckle despite the tears trickling down her face. “Well, it’s good to see that at least your sense of humour managed to make it back to the jump point with the rest of you.” A light smile formed on her face, and Liao let it play over her lips for a bit. “Additionally, despite any angelic qualities I may possesses, and despite the fact I may, on occasion, have made you shout ‘Oh God!’... I’m
no
angel.”

“No angel, huh? Well… I dunno. See, I have a theory that heaven is meant to be a paradise... However, it wouldn’t be a paradise if you
weren’t
there with me. So, well, no matter what
you
do, you’re coming along with me when I croak. Although…” the man indicated towards her hip. “…I kind of expected a ‘naughty schoolgirl’ uniform, or cheerleader’s outfit, or maybe something in black with a riding crop…”

“Well, if things aren’t perfect for you, maybe this isn’t a paradise after all. Maybe you’re in hell and I’m here to torture you.”

James chuckled, closing his eyes for a moment and slowly shaking his head. “Well, you’d just have a bigger riding crop if that were the case. But to be honest... I’m not sure if that’s as terrible as I make it out to be. Maybe I might
like
that. Riding crop, huh...”

Melissa repressed an extremely inappropriate giggle, instead choosing to dab at her cheeks and the corners of her eyes again. “I’ll remember that. Next resupply run, I promise. I’ll slip something into the CO2 scrubbers...”

There was a long silence, broken only by the soft beeping of the various machines, as the two regarded each other, her hand holding his and saying nothing. The two enjoyed a moment in time where words were mutually, silently, declared to be unnecessary.

When finally it ended, Liao struggled to keep the tremor out of her voice.

“...Dammit James, I thought you’d gone and gotten yourself killed back there. You fucking
dick
. Do you know how frightened I was?”

He smiled warmly, giving the woman’s hand a squeeze. “Oh, don’t worry.
I
thought I was fucked, too, especially when Sabeen had me stretchered away. But it turns out we made it after all... I was wrong.” James’ smile faded, although the squeeze on her hand did not. “…I’ve been wrong about a
few
things lately.”

Liao shook her head, firmly and resolutely, her fingers gripping his and returning the squeeze in earnest. “James… don’t. Just don’t say it... You don’t need to-”

“No, it’s important. It’s important to
me
. I’m sorry I tried to... interfere with your career. I know, I know... well intentioned and all, but those are the pavings on the road to hell. I mean... I know that- well, at least, I
imagine
that... that you’ve had it a little rough in the love and romance department. You must have had it up to your neck with people fawning over you, doing you favours... sycophants, suck-ups and arse-kisses everywhere you turn. I know that the situation in China for pretty, smart, upwardly mobile young women is one part awesome, one part terrifying, but
believe
me... it was never my intention to hurt you or to offend you in any wa-”

Liao leaned down and put her lips to his, closing her eyes and cutting off the words she didn’t need to hear. It was some time before their lips finally parted. When she finally, after some time, broke the kiss, Melissa straightened her back and brushed down her uniform. A glance around sickbay revealed a small group of doctors and nurses clustered around their patients or noses buried in their charts, all trying their best – with limited success – to pretend they hadn’t seen anything.