sport.
'This is the second time you've rescheduled the meeting,' Torine said, having arrived a little after coming off duty. 'Can't we just sort this out when we do our normal five on five game at the weekend? Don't you think some of us have other concerns?'
'Of course he doesn't,' Dietmar said, looming his blond self up from behind the bar. 'In his own mind, we are all as conscientious and duty-struck as our little Gabe.'
The others made various disgusting choking noises. Gabriel rolled his eyes. 'All right, all right, all of you, it can wait until the weekend! But don't you want to beat the Starfies?' 'Depends on how the money goes,' someone muttered.
From around them, applause started. The group looked up and saw Delvecchio standing in the doorway- a little hesitant, almost shy. She wore a loose wine-colored robe of simple cut rather than the elegant attire she favored during the delegations. She came in, and the applause got louder. The marines and Star Force people assembled all clapped and cheered for her as they would have for a victorious captain newly returned from a successful campaign.
She took it graciously then went to sit down. A Star Force officer brought her a drink, and the partying started to get back into its normal mode. Gabriel, though, looked at Delvecchio, looked at her face, and was not entirely sure he liked what he saw.
Somebody tapped Gabriel on the shoulder. He turned, surprised. It was just Mil. He held out his hand.
'What?'
'Here.'
Confused, Gabriel put his hand out. Mil dropped something black into it. 'It's your luck thing,' Gabriel said. 'I know. I want you to have it.' 'Huh?'
'No, seriously, take it. I saw you were interested in it yesterday.' 'I can't take that; it's yours! Mil, really, don't. Tomorrow you'll be sorry.'
'No, I won't. Oh, go on! I'm getting tired of the thing. It keeps getting in my way, and I've almost lost it a couple times this month anyway. Doesn't matter.' He grinned. 'The news just came through. I'm being discharged in a month. Back to home sweet Damrak. Gonna go home and pile me up some cash. No, really, Gabriel! Take it. Every ounce I have to ship home is going to cost me big credits. I'm letting almost everything go but my discharge clothes and a sack to carry home my back pay.'
'But-'
Mil just shook his head, closed Gabriel's hand around the black stone, grinned at him, and walked off. Gabriel looked after him, opened his mouth to say something, and then was surprised and distracted by the flush of heat coming from the little thing. The faint glow was coming from inside the stone again, pulsing gently, and as he opened his hand again he saw that the warmth kept time with the light. 'Isn't that pretty,' said the little soft voice from off to one side. He looked up in surprise to see the ambassador standing beside him, looking curiously at what he held. 'It's a life crystal of some kind, isn't it? I've heard of them, but I've never actually seen one.' She poked it gently. He offered it to her, and Del-vecchio took it and cupped it in her hand, looking at the way it echoed her pulse. 'Where did you get it?'
'Another of the marines gave it to me. Mil, over there. The big red-headed guy.' Delvecchio nodded. 'A few of the Verge worlds have these,' the ambassador said. 'It's some kind of slightly electroactive silicate, a natural 'chip,' apparently. There are beaches where you can pick them up by the thousands. Must be lovely at night.' 'But it only glows when you hold it.'
'So it does,' Delvecchio said and glanced around, handing the stone back to Gabriel without really looking. 'Well, isn't everyone having a good time?'
Except you, Gabriel thought, but kept his peace as regarded that, even though the ambassador herself was obviously making no particular attempt to look cheerful. 'Yes, ma'am,' Gabriel said.
She gave him a slightly sharp look. 'You know,' she said, 'sometimes it's possible to be more observant than is good for you. Well, not that I haven't been tempting you to that blessed state as it is,' she sighed.
'I still wish I knew why this has happened now,' Delvecchio said, very softly.
'What?' Gabriel said after a moment. He was still recovering from the odd little episode with Mil.
'Collusion,' she said. 'I said they had been talking to each other.'
'You didn't tell me that.'
'I wanted to see if you might pick it up yourself.' Gabriel looked away in embarrassment.
'No,' she said, very lightly touching his arm, 'don't feel bad that you didn't. I wasn't too sure myself until someone very fortuitously brought me proof. It would have been a lucky guess, no more, until about an hour before we started. And there were other pieces of information that helped me.' Her eyes glinted at him. 'Anyway, you did very well today. Don't stop tomorrow when they have to go back.'
iit t, ii I wont.
'And as for me,' Delvecchio said, 'very early this morning we'll be returning for the signing ceremony.' She sighed. 'I'm sorry you won't be able to be there. It is likely to be too high-powered an event for me to indulge myself with your presence. Notice would be taken, which at the moment would be unwise. But after it's all over, I'll be coming back aboard to be ferried home again, and we'll have time to achieve closure on all this. I'll want to give you contact information for some people who'll be interested in, shall we say, this informal training period, when you get out of the service at last.'
Gabriel shook his head, a little in disbelief, a little in gratitude. 'Ma'am, you've gone to a lot of trouble for me.'
'It's been mutual,' Delvecchio said. 'And people took this same kind of trouble for me once upon a time, when my career was new. This is my chance to pay the favor forward. I'll talk to you later in the week, then.'
She walked away.
The rest of the party was not much different from the one that had preceded it. Gabriel left about midnight, headed for his quarters, stripped off, took a sober pill just in case-even though he had had very little to drink-and went to sleep.
Then there was thunder. The bombs falling, ending in a sudden flash of light. But they were not the usual bombs. Or rather, there was only one explosion instead of what had become almost a monotony of crashes and rumbles, and only one light. The screams he knew, but the voices were different, and the sound faded away almost immediately so that one irrationally calm and detached part of his mind said, air first, then vacuum: explosive decompression-One voice he heard that he recognized, though not from Epsedra. As the vacuum swallowed it he thought how strange it was to hear that serene, sedate voice cry out at something that, for once, for just this once, had surprised it. But that was wrong, that was impossible. A growing feeling of how wrong all this was, the wrongness shifting swiftly into horror, It wasn't like this, it wasn't-! And the light was all wrong too. Not the repeated flashes, but just one-fading, swiftly gone like the sound, with only the burning of ice and dying fire left. Gabriel fought for breath, but there was none, only ice in his lungs. Ice sheeting over burnt skin, ice clouding and clotting eyes that could no longer blink or see. He struggled, couldn't move, couldn't-
Gabriel flailed around among the bedclothes for a moment and found that there were no bombs, no ice, no fire, only someone pounding furiously on his door. And no light. He waved for it, staggered to his feet, opened the door.
There were two other marines there, people whom he knew slightly-security staff with sidearms. He stared at them.
'What?'
'Get dressed, sir,' one of them said, as if the word 'sir' left a bad taste in his mouth, 'and come with us.' As quickly as he could Gabriel threw on his uniform, the everyday duty fatigues rather than the now wrinkled dress blues that he had tossed across the desk. He was slightly annoyed and more than a little uneasy that the two security soldiers stood in the doorway watching him the entire time. When he was ready, they took him by the arms, one on each side, and marched him to the Bridge. It was not a place where marines went all that often-even Gabriel, in his slightly privileged position, did not make a habit of going there. It was very much Star Force territory, and the two services were careful not to trespass on one another's preserves aboard ship. It was a long narrow room, heavily shielded, since it would be the first part of the ship that an enemy would fire at in combat. A dozen or more officers monitored various screens and holodisplays, occasionally entering commands by datapad or voice relay. Despite the buzz of activity, the entire Bridge was unusually silent, subdued. The few who spoke among
