Rechs lowered the boarding ramp and found a full trauma team of med bots and navy docs running toward him across the pristinely polished deck with a pair of repulsor gurneys. These men and women couldn’t have cared less for any warrants or bounties. They were here to save lives. And that was what drove them in their race to reach Lopez and Almond.
General Sheehan and two unarmed staff officers followed quickly behind.
Rechs led the medical team up the boarding ramp and showed them where Lopez was. Sergeant Almond had to be moved aside, nurses assuring her they would take over now. When she didn’t move, Rechs helped her away, leading her down the ramp as the medical team made ready to secure Lopez.
The autodoc had put Lopez into a medical coma. He would never remember what had happened aboard the bounty hunter’s ship, or how he’d gotten off it and aboard a Republic destroyer. But he would make it. He would live.
Sheehan met Rechs and Almond at the bottom of the ramp. Puncher hovered nearby.
“Well… I’ll be damned,” said the general, removing the ruined cigar from his mouth. “Legends do exist.”
Rechs stepped forward, and the general stuck out his paw.
Rechs shook. “Thank you, General.”
“No… no, no. Thank you… Tyrus… or Rechs… wow. That sure feels weird to actually say. No. Hell. Thank you. You did the right thing here. We let those damned bookkeepers in the House prevent us from getting ours back. Shouldn’t have done…”
Rechs held up a hand. Signaling that he understood. And that it didn’t matter. Things had been made right.
“Never mind, General. I’m familiar with the House and their… priorities. Favor to ask, if I could?”
The general nodded without hesitation. But then added, “Don’t know what I can do. But if I can… I will.”
“Make sure these two don’t hang,” asked Rechs.
He indicated Puncher and Sergeant Almond.
The general frowned and then looked from Almond to the bounty hunter. “That’s a tall order. They’re already baying for her blood. Blame her for escalating things. Probably want to put the whole damned mess on her.” He turned to face Puncher. “And you… you flat out went AWOL. Not much anyone can do about that.”
The legionnaire shrugged. “I answer to the Legion, not the marines.”
The general clucked his tongue and shook his head knowingly. Almost tiredly. He looked back at his two staff officers.
The three had a conversation with their eyes, not speaking a word. One that said to Rechs that certain games could be played.
“Well,” the general said, returning his focus to Rechs. “I think I can pull some strings and lay down a little administrative black magic to cover what can be covered and confuse the issues. Hell, I might have even told this leej here to do whatever it takes. And he just… well, he just ran with the ball. Give him a medal and it kinda makes it legal. Know what I mean? Did that once to a squad leader I had when I was a shavetail. My first platoon sergeant told me it was the right thing to do. So… I guess I can do it again. One last trick before they show me the door.”
“Thank you, General.”
The medical team was bringing the unconscious Lopez out. Both parties cleared a path.
Puncher hitched a thumb to point back into the Crow. “Gotta get my dog… uh, Mr. Rechs. Mind?”
The bounty hunter nodded. “Go ahead.”
Then he stepped over to the marine. Sergeant Almond. A med bot was trying to get her to lie down on a gurney for transport to sick bay. She wasn’t having it. “I’ll walk there on my own,” she said.
“Hang on a sec,” Rechs said. “Need to do something first.”
The med bot protested, but the marine pushed herself away and moved to the bounty hunter.
“C’mon,” Rechs said as he led her back aboard.
She followed him, still covered in the gray dust of the collapsed building. Thin and barely there like some ghost fading forever from this waking world. Rechs led her to his weapons shop, removed his bucket, and dropped it on a bench cluttered with blaster parts.
Sergeant Almond looked around in amazement. Rechs watched her take in all his weapons. Some hadn’t been seen in the galaxy for years. Others weren’t even known. Rechs saw the fatigue in her face writ large. The hollow sunken eyes. The fading ghost just asking for a darkness to disappear into.
Yeah, they would try to blame her for everything. Rechs had seen that before. Careers had to be saved. And a marine sergeant was expendable—to certain people. The general would fight for her as best he could, but the media would never take up her cause. Not most of them.
They were for Syl whatever-her-name-was. They were for the people who needed to burn down the Republic, and the galaxy, in order to remake it in their image.
He rummaged around in his tools. Opened a small drawer he hadn’t opened in years. Finally found what he was looking for.
He turned back to her.
“You did the right thing, Sergeant. You saved one of my legionnaires’ lives with complete disregard for your own. I want you to know… I’m grateful for that.”
She listened, feeling as though she was listening to a man who didn’t speak much, or often. Wondering what he meant by “my legionnaires.”
Tyrus Rechs cut into all that. “You’re gonna doubt yourself,” he continued. “Everyone does. Especially the heroes, in my experience. But right now, from me, I want you to know for the rest of your life that when others hesitated… you didn’t. You ran toward the fire. You helped when someone needed it badly.”
Silence.
He could see she was already thinking all those things. The things about how the politicians and careerists would crucify her.
“They’re gonna end me,” she said softly. “I know that. And… it’s okay. Commendations and anything else… they don’t matter. I just…”
She stopped.
He could see something inside her trying to
