The Key (20 page)

“Until we meet again, Captain.”

Apparently not.

With Fyn by her side, she walked out, still ignoring Kilburn.

“He’s interested in you,” Fyn said.

“Just my face.”

Fyn stopped and looked at her, his eyes serious. “Not just your face.”

“Maybe not, but it’s not
me
he wants. I don’t think he even sees me when he looks at me. He reminds me of someone I once…knew. No one was real to him. We were all just…things.” Sara hadn’t thought about him in a long time. Almost without thinking she rubbed her cheek.

“He hit you?”

He’d picked up on that pretty fast. Sara stared at him for a long count, then shrugged.

“Just once.” That wasn’t the worst he’d tried to do. The hit was because he couldn’t—a fair trade in her opinion.

“How old were you?”

“Thirteen. Social Services moved me out right after. Memo to jerks: don’t bruise the foster kid where it can be seen.” Even she hadn’t healed fast enough to hide it. The next couple was better. They were totally indifferent.

“Evie?”

“Evie came later.” Sara smiled. Thinking about Evie always made her smile. A yawn erased the smile. “Sorry.”

“Come on.” Fyn slid his arm around her waist and pointed them toward her quarters. When they got there, she turned to face him.

“We seem to play this scene a lot.”

Maybe one day it would have a different ending, she thought, as he kissed her good night and left.

* * * *

Sara wasn’t surprised to be summoned for a chat with Halliwell the next morning. Lucky for all of them, Kilburn wasn’t there. She came to attention and saluted.

He continued working for a few minutes, letting her sweat. Finally he looked up and sighed.

“At ease, Captain.”

Sara “at eased.”

A long silence. A really long one.

“Kilburn says you won’t talk to him.”

She set her chin. “He’s dead to me.”

It seemed like he had to hold back a grin.

“He’s concerned about this situation with Xever.”

“Concerned…how?”

“He feels you’re being…rude to the Supreme Leader.”

“If Mr. Kilburn wants to pimp for ET, he’ll have to do it with someone else, sir.”

His gaze narrowed. “Xever apologized for—” He stopped.

“Propositioning me? Yes, he did, sir.”

It sounded…arrogant to say the Gadi leader wasn’t done with her. Maybe he was. Maybe it was her imagination running wild. Delusions of Helen of Troy-ness. Only it wasn’t any of those things.

“I don’t think any of this is about
me
, sir. I think it’s about Miri, that woman he says I look like.” What if he thought she had the key, too? She was going to be a disappointment all around. She had nothing even slightly key-like.

The Old Man’s lips twitched. “You seem to be…garnering quite a bit of…alien attention, Captain.”

That put color in her face, big time.

“It’s not like I listed my name on alien eharmony.com, sir.”

Halliwell stood up. He paced away from her, then turned and looked. “How come I never noticed you were this much trouble before?”

Sara would have hung her head if she weren’t a soldier. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“Don’t look so glum, Donovan. I’ve never known a woman who wasn’t trouble at least once in her life.” He walked back to his desk. “Sit down.”

Sara perched on the edge of the chair. He sat down, his hands clasped on the top of the desk.

“Xever doesn’t seem the type to believe in legends.”

“I agree, sir, but we know nothing of their political situation. What if he were involved in a power struggle of some kind? It’s kind of odd for a Supreme Leader to come out here when he knew nothing about us except we kicked some Dusan…trash.”

Halliwell looked thoughtful. “A…legend could be a useful card to play for the masses—who might believe legends. How come Kilburn can’t think like that? He’s buying everything the guy tells him.”

Sara wondered what he was telling Adin about them. Did he know enough to be a security risk?

“They seem awfully…chummy.”

Halliwell shot her a keen look. As if she’d asked the question, he said, “He doesn’t know that much, but a smart man might be able to draw some conclusions. Maybe we should have a drill. Force the supreme leader to stay on his own, damn ship for a few days.”

Sara grinned. “I wouldn’t be opposed to that, sir.” Not that her opinion mattered.

There was a beep of the Old Man’s intercom. It was Fyn. He needed to see the colonel.

“Send him in.”

Fyn came in, checking slightly when he saw Sara.

“You said it was urgent?”

“You said to come talk to you if anything struck me as odd, sir.”

“And something has?”

He nodded. He looked at Sara again. “I’ve been thinking about Xever and how odd it is that he’d show up in this sector so quickly after the battle with the Dusan.”

Halliwell looked at Sara. “We were thinking the same thing.”

Sara frowned. “You know, we only have his word for it that he is a Supreme Leader. Be kind of cool if he turned out to be a Supreme Fraud.”

Fyn looked grim. “That’s the other thing. I don’t remember the Gadi leader being called Supreme. The only thing I know for sure is that the
ship
is Gadi.”

Halliwell’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “After attacking us twice, they couldn’t come back and say, let’s be friends now so we can figure out how to make you go away. But, why couldn’t you tell?”

“The men I killed down on the planet looked like us.” Sara smiled wryly. “Be easier if ET looked more like ET.”

“Yes, it would.” He was quiet for a moment. “What set you off, Fyn?”

“The uniform is Gadi, but it…isn’t right. It was just a comment someone made to me once, about them. But I realized it isn’t enough. Their uniforms usually have more—”

“Decoration?” Sara prompted him. He nodded. “The Dusan uniform seemed pretty…spare. Maybe it’s a thing with them?”

“Like the ship on the planet. It was spare, too,” Fyn said.

“And the story about Miri being taken by the Dusan?”

The Old Man looked at her, like she had an answer. How had that happened?

“I don’t know, sir, but I do know that Adin Xever isn’t that… sentimental. I don’t sense a lot of…respect…for women in any of them. So why would they believe one could defeat anyone?”

Fyn nodded agreement.

“You’ve got a good brain, Donovan. Wish Kilburn was a bit brighter.”

Sara grinned. “Well, if he was, he wouldn’t be out here. It’s only us military pukes who think its good fun to push the envelope.”

Halliwell smiled. “See new places, meet new people and kill them.” He chuckled. “I thought Kilburn was going to choke to death.”

Sara smiled, then had another thought. “Kilburn wouldn’t tell him about the outpost, would he?”

“Mr. Kilburn doesn’t know about it. I’ve never trusted diplomats with military secrets.”

He stood up and she jumped to her feet.

“Thank you, Fyn. You’ve given me a lot to think about.” He looked at her for a long moment. “You’re both dismissed.”

“Yes, sir.”

Outside his wardroom, she looked up at Fyn. Delight did a shivering run through her body.

“I was going to go get something to eat, thought you might be hungry, too.”

She took the hand he held out, feeling a tiny click in her head as the palms came together. It was crazy and she couldn’t see a neat ending, but it didn’t seem to matter. Clicking was clicking.

They were almost to the cafeteria when she felt it. She stopped. Something was incoming. It was a reflex to raise the ship’s shields.

“Crap.”

As a period to her sentence, the alarm began to shrill. A few seconds after that, the ship shuddered as it took a hit. Sara staggered and almost fell. Fyn caught her, then they both staggered as they took another hit.

“It’s some kind of energy burst.” Her mind was already sorting through data on the ship’s computer. “It’s the Gadi ship. What the hell do they think they’re doing?”

Fyn braced his arm against the wall to keep them both from falling as the hits got closer together. They managed to get to the end of the corridor, but it was like trying to walk during an earthquake.

“This is nuts—
crap
. They’re trying to deplete our shields. So they can take the ship intact.” Sara grabbed onto an arch, trying to keep on her feet. Suddenly it was making more sense. Had cozying up to Fyn precipitated the attack? Was this Adin’s way of getting what he wanted?

“If we can make it to our ships, you could head for Kikk—”

“No ships are launching. They can’t get out of the bays. Something about the energy from the Gadi ship is messing with the fighter bay shield. It’s hinky. I don’t—”

The beam was messing with the computers, too. She closed her eyes, trying to concentrate, trying to help, even as she was worked her way through the systems to ship’s shield controls.

They were down to thirty percent.

At this rate, they’d be completely down in another ten minutes. Or less. And then Adin would come looking for her.

On the heels of panic, Sara felt an odd…tingling in her body. It was if energy were flowing through her and into her…hands.

She looked down and saw the tiny beads of light
leaving
her and going into the ship.

“Holy crap.”

“What the—” Fyn stopped, his eyes wide with shock.

For a minute nothing happened. The…transfer got faster. It felt…so strange, almost like life leaving her. Her knees buckled. She dropped to the deck, but managed to keep her hands against the metal frame.

In her mind, she saw the shield readouts begin to change, moving in the other direction. As she watched, it crept up…moving past normal.

Don’t over load it.

A feeling of reassurance.

A bad hit almost tore her hands free from the jamb.

Fyn’s hands closed over hers, helping to maintain the contact. She closed her eyes and concentrated harder, trying to help…them…do whatever it was they were doing.

The Gadi increased their rate of fire, but now it seemed as if the
Doolittle
was absorbing the energy into the shields. The levels rose higher and higher. If they didn’t discharge soon, the ship would explode—

There was a flash of bright, white light. It flashed through Sara, too. It hurt like hell—and her heart just…stopped.

That couldn’t be good.

Seven

       Sara lit up with a bright flash of light, then slumped against him. He lowered her to the deck, grateful the ship was no longer shuddering and bouncing. The alarm was still sounding and crew members ran past, but there was no sense of panic. Everyone seemed to know what they needed to do.

He smoothed her hair back, as those strange sparks of light winked out on the palms of her hands. He frowned. And then he noticed how still she was.

Someone knelt by him. He looked up. Carey.

“What’s wrong with her?”

He didn’t even know how to explain what just happened.

“I don’t think she’s breathing.”

Carey laid his head on her chest.

“Her heart’s not beating either.”

He placed his hands over her heart and pumped twice, a short break between.

He listened again, then covered his mouth with hers, blowing his air into her lungs. He looked at Fyn.

“You give her mouth to mouth, while I do the CPR.”

Fyn nodded. They alternated mouth to mouth with CPR for what seemed a long time. Finally, she inhaled, then her chest began to rise and fall on its own.

Carey sat back. “Can you get her to the infirmary? I need to get to my bird.”

Fyn nodded. Abruptly the alarm shut off. The silence was almost eerie as Fyn bent and picked her up, cradling her against his chest. He headed for the infirmary, wondering what to say to the doctor, but when he got there, he found he didn’t have to.

Injured were coming in from all over the ship, though most seemed to be minor. When the doc found out her heart had stopped, she became a priority. And Fyn found himself shut out. When it became clear no one was coming to give him an update, he gave up and headed down to the hanger bay. Maybe Carey could find out something.

The wing hadn’t deployed. Fyn found Carey standing in a knot of men, but before he could ask, he heard the colonel speaking over the ship’s intercom.

“Attention please. I’m sure you’re all aware by now that the Gadi ship attacked us. They have been repulsed and have left the system. I want a report on damage and injured a-sap. If you haven’t reported to your duty station, do so now. Halliwell out.”

“Why the hell did the gomers attack us?” Carey was white with anger.

The attack was crazy and reckless, not like the Dusan or the Gadi. Fyn knew it had to be about Sara, but it still made no sense. There was something more going on, and somehow it was all linked to her unusual abilities and her likeness to Miri.

He could still see the light flowing from her and into the ship. It had weakened her. He could feel strength and life leaving her as he supported her. And then that flash. Where had that come from?

“How’s Donovan?”

Fyn frowned. “They wouldn’t tell me anything.”

Carey looked around. “This area is secure. Let’s go see what we can find out. I’ll need to report to the colonel.”

The infirmary was calming down by the time they got there. Carey had the pull to get a report from the doc.

He rubbed his face. “She must have got hit by some kind of electrical discharge. Her heart got a hell of a jolt.”

“But she’ll be all right?” Carey asked.

They looked at Sara. She lay in the bed, her face as white as her bedding, her body motionless. Fyn remembered the last time he’d watched her and waited for her to open her eyes. This time, everything about her seemed…dimmed…as if most of the light had gone out of her in that big flash.

The doctor was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t know. We’ve got her stabilized, but she’s very weak. I’ve done all I can. She’ll pull through or—”

Fyn didn’t understand. He’d seen her heal. Unless…what if she’d used all she had to…heal the ship?