struggle continued, but inside, here in the crow’s nest, Mono felt almost at ease.
A door opened on the side of the Formic ship, and a large mechanism extended. Mono couldn’t begin to guess what it was for or how it operated. Vico would probably know. Vico could look at anything and know exactly how to fix it or what it was good for.
The mechanism rotated and pointed its many shafts at El Cavador. There was a flash of light, and then a wall of hot glowing globules of radiant plasma shot forth from the shafts, rocketing toward Mono like ten thousand balls of light.
Segundo tumbled through space, struggling desperately, fighting off the last two Formics clinging to his body. One of them crawled onto his back, opened its maw, and reared back its head, ready to bite and tear and puncture his suit. Segundo thumbed the propulsion trigger and hit the Formic with a blast of compressed air, startling it and knocking it away.
The last Formic was kicking at him, swatting, biting. Segundo spun it around, grabbed it below the jaw, and twisted its head until he heard things break inside. The Formic thrashed and kicked and then went still. Segundo released it and hit his thumb trigger, shooting away from it. His breathing was labored. He had little air. He was bleeding. There were holes in his suit. Several alarms were going off on his HUD. One showed a silhouette of his suit dotted with flashing lights, indicating where there was a rip or tear. The worst was on his leg where the Formic had bitten through. The emergency system had cinched his leg’s strap tight, sealing off the escape of air in the tear, but it wouldn’t hold for long. He fumbled for the emergency tape in his pouch. He pulled a strip free and placed it across a hissing puncture on his arm. He tapped the tape mechanism to release another strip. Then another. His gloved fingers were big and cumbersome and kept sticking to the corners of the tape strips before he could apply them. Twice he had to throw bent, twisted strips to the side, which was maddening since he knew he would need every strip. He covered as many holes as he could, but then the tape ran out. There were still a few torn seams, nothing big, tiny holes, but his HUD continued to sound its alarm.
Segundo blinked a command to shut off the alarm. The computer asked if he was sure since life-threatening damage to his suit was still unrepaired. He blinked the affirmative, and the alarm went silent.
His oxygen tank was nearly empty. He was desperate for air. He had a spare tank in his pouch with fifteen more minutes of oxygen, but he knew it probably wouldn’t last him five. He ditched the spent tank and screwed in the spare. Cool oxygen came into his helmet. He’d enjoy it while it lasted.
He turned back toward the direction of the ships and saw nothing but empty space. He knew he was still moving incredibly fast in that direction, but he would never see the ships again. The WU-HU ship would have passed him a long time ago, trailing behind the Formic ship, recording everything. They wouldn’t see him. He was a speck in a sea of black.
Rena.
She was safe at least. She would take this hard, but she was with others. They would comfort each other, strengthen each other. They would survive. He wanted her to know that she was the last thing on his mind, and that he hadn’t died in agony. Well, not total agony; the wound in his leg had settled to a burning numbness. Some of the others had suffered much worse. He focused on the spot in space where he assumed the WU-HU ship would be and told his HUD to give the remaining power to the radio transmitter to boost the signal.
“Rena. I don’t know if you’ll receive this, but my suit is punctured and leaking air. Even if the WU-HU ship decelerated now and you knew exactly where I was, you’d still never reach me in time. So don’t stop. Keep going. I don’t know if El Cavador got out, but I don’t think so. Tell Abbi that Mono was sorry for lying to her. Tell her he loves her. Tell her we couldn’t have done this without him. It’s the truth.
“The women will be looking for a leader, Rena, someone to help them navigate all this. Don’t be modest. We both know they’d appreciate you guiding them. Work with the captain. He strikes me as a good man. Don’t rush to Earth. I don’t know what will come of this, but I’d prefer you stay away from it and survive. Do that for me, mi amor. I’m sorry we won’t share a hammock when you read my letter, but know that I mean every word. Te amo, Rena. Para siempre jamas, te amo.”
The air in his helmet was getting thin, and he didn’t want her hearing him gasping for breath. He shut off the transmitter. He turned off his HUD. All was silent except for the weak rasp of the regulator, pumping in the last of the air. Segundo let his body go loose. He was cold and tired, but he ignored the cold. Around him stars shone. Some bright, some dim, the most constant things in life. Segundo smiled up at them, happy at least to be dying among friends.
CHAPTER 19
Interference
Rena listened to the transmission on the helm of the WU-HU ship. Static crackled throughout much of the message, and for several seconds Segundo’s words were lost entirely. Rena got the gist of it, though. She knew Segundo well enough to fill in the blanks.
Captain Doashang apologized that they didn’t get the complete transmission, explaining that the alien emissions interfered with the signal quality. He assured Rena, however, that the ship had decelerated as quickly as it could upon receiving the transmission, but that, sadly, they were unable to locate Segundo or any of the other men. “Thank you for trying,” said Rena. “I appreciate you being considerate enough to play the transmission for me. It means more than you know.”
“We took the liberty of making you a copy,” said Doashang, offering her a small memory disc. “We thought you would want it for your personal records.”
It was that act of kindness that pushed her over the edge. She broke down briefly and cried silent tears, covering her face with her hands. A female member of the crew consoled her with a gentle arm around her shoulders, and it was that touch that steeled Rena again. She stood erect and wiped at her eyes. “Forgive me,” she said to the captain.
“There is nothing to forgive, Mrs. Delgado. You have my most sincere condolences. I will provide grief counselors from my crew for you and those from your ship.”
“That is very kind. Thank you.”
“I have prepared a few statements for your people to explain the events of the battle. I think it necessary to give the families an account of the bravery demonstrated by their husbands and fathers.”
Doashang had politely asked the women and children to stay in their rooms for the duration of the attack so that he and his crew could perform their duties without interruption. Rena, pulled from her room moments ago, was the only person from El Cavador who knew it had been destroyed.
“Everyone is eager to hear news,” said Rena. “Thank you.”
Captain Doashang looked at her with compassion. “I want to be as sensitive as I can with the families, Mrs. Delgado. Now that I’ve met you and heard your husband’s transmission, I wonder if the report of the battle would be better delivered by you.”
“Me?”
“I will accompany you, if you agree. But you know these families best, and I wonder if such news is better delivered by a friend instead of a stranger.”
It took Rena a moment to find her voice. “With all due respect, Captain, I don’t know if I’m in the right emotional state to do that.”
He nodded, blushing. “Of course. It was inconsiderate of me to ask, particularly in your own time of grief. Forgive me.”
But before Rena excused herself, she reconsidered. If she could choose someone to tell her such devastating news, she would want it to be someone she loved, a friend, a fellow sufferer even, someone who could take her in her arms and weep with her.
“On second thought, Captain, I think you may be right. I will meet with the families individually. But first, I must hear the full account myself.”
He showed her everything. She watched the vids and listened to the transmissions. She seethed when Lem Jukes’s ship pulled away and fled. Her heart broke when El Cavador disintegrated before her eyes. Her home, the
