For a moment, I thought Odyssey had been able to catch the arach ship, and blow it apart, but the queen set me straight.
“We could not stop the arach ship. Your Odyssey tried, but it was not enough.”
She paused, and I felt a reflection of her sadness rising inside me. I knew what awaited Askavor’s family… I wished….
“We could not save them,” the queen said. “It is not your shame, but my own. We should have uncovered the incursion long before they were taken.”
And I remembered something Mack had said to me some time back.
“Your Majesty, you cannot save them all.”
She stilled, and I could see her studying the tank. For a moment, I thought I might have spoken out of turn, but then she responded.
“No, but we save as many as we can—and you have helped us do that. For those we could not save, we will take vengeance.”
And I remembered that there had been prisoners taken. For a moment I wanted to know what justice would be done—and then, just as quickly, I didn’t. I think the queen thought of showing me exactly what had been done to exact justice, and then she changed her mind.
Unfortunately, she didn’t change it quickly enough, and I still caught a glimpse of what had been carried out, or was about to be. The wasps of K’Kavor really did share traits with those of my home world. There really were arach and human-sized cells suspended in the air, or set inside buildings, and wasp larvae…
I swallowed, wanting to curl into a ball, to escape the image in any way possible. I had known it, but it was not a memory I had wanted to carry. The queen approached the tank, and laid a long-clawed forehand against the glass.
“I am sorry, Cutter. It was not my intention to share that image with you. I came only to give you my thanks and the thanks of my world, and to say goodbye.”
I wanted to tell her that it was okay, that I was happy that justice had been done, that her people would be better equipped to face the arach threat…and that I wished I didn’t have to say goodbye. I wanted to say a lot of things, so many images passing through my head that I couldn’t get a word out. She came closer and rested her head against the glass.
For a moment, I wanted to run, and then I wanted to weep, but that last urge was not mine alone, and I had a sense of the loneliness of being a queen. Before I could quite grasp it, however, she tapped the glass, and her mind gave this curious twist inside me.
“Goodbye, Cutter. We will welcome you, if you come, again.”
“Your Majesty,” I replied, and could find no more words.
She was gone, and her entourage followed without a word. I felt the briefest touch of T’Kit’s mind, and then I was, once again, alone. I drifted there, trying to process what had happened, trying very hard to process that we were leaving, and that I did not know if I would ever see them, again.
Usually that did not bother me. I had visited enough worlds to know my chances of returning to any of them were extremely small. Why that should affect me, now, I did not know.
“Because the vespis are psi.” Mack’s voice came through the glass, and I opened my eyes.
Weird. I hadn’t realized I’d closed them.
“Mack.”
“How you feeling, girl?”
“Like I’ve gone ten rounds with a freighter.”
“Not even close.”
“Damn. How about you?”
Last I remembered, he hadn’t sounded so crash hot.
“Me? I’m fine,” and I wondered why he was trying to hide the fact Doc wanted to throw him in a tank, too.
“Because, Doc knows that ain’t gonna happen. Not yet.”
Not until I was back on deck? What the…
And I felt a sudden moment of disorientation, as Mack shoved me out of his head.
“Stay the fuck out of my skull!”
I hadn’t even known I’d been in there. Well. That was embarrassing!
I decided maybe a change of subject was needed.
“So, boss, what’s next?”
And he gave a short bark of laughter.
“Next? What’s next is you’re having a nap until Doc says you’re well enough to come out of there, and while you do that, we’re taking a trip to one of the inner systems for some down-time on Odyssey’s orders, because they think we need some, and refuse to give us another contract, until we’ve taken some R&R.”
“They paying?”
And Mack smiled loud enough for me to hear it in my head.
“Oh, Hells yes.”
Well, that was nice.
“Don’t worry, girl, you’ll be back on deck by then.”
That was good news.
“So, I’ll get some downtime, too?”
“You will.”
“And can it be anywhere I like?”
“As in away from the ship, you mean?”
Actually, I’d meant as in away from him and Tens and anyone else on board the Shady Marie, boys and dogs included. I was still trying to work out a diplomatic way of saying it, when Mack plucked it right out of my head.
“You want to leave me already? We only did one mission.”
Funny how he forgot about having to cancel that mission, and then all the little missions that followed.
“Don’t forget the not-so-little ones,” he muttered. “What happened on K’Kavor was not exactly a small deal.”
“Yeah, well, those, too. I need a break.”
“You don’t need a break, girl. You need some sleep, and time to heal.”
And there he went again, telling me what I needed.
“You’re my crew. I need you back on deck so I can bid on the next contract.”
Well, what if I needed a holiday, some down time. What about that? I thought, but I didn’t say it.
“Let me think about it.”
Of course, not saying it, and not having Mack fish it straight out of my skull? Two completely different things.
“Go to sleep, Cutter,” and it sounded like I wasn’t the only one who needed to catch some zees.
Mack was sounding pretty shot, himself.
“Cutter….”
“What Mack? You
