Chapter 42
“You need to move away.” Eazi’s voice was urgent in her ear. “When the Unhil impacts the ground, it could cause the amphitheater to collapse.”
Fee held out a hand for the grahudi as she turned, but it didn’t take it, although it did move with her.
She ran down the dune, and then out toward the downed runner, and the grahudi kept up with her easily.
The boom as the Unhil smashed into the ground deafened her, and she was lifted off her feet and thrown.
She landed hard and rolled, grateful that it was sand and not a less giving surface, and when she sat up, she checked for the grahudi, and found it crouched beside her, gaze on the fireworks on the horizon.
The sun had almost set, and the explosion was long and ongoing, probably numerous smaller ones detonating one after the other.
Fee got carefully to her feet, wincing a little as she straightened up.
She hoped the crew of the Unhil had been able to get out before the ship went down, because she couldn’t see how there would be any survivors after the impact.
Something moved high above her, and she saw two massive ships arrive.
She knew the Illium, but the other one looked like the Garmman ship that had just crashed.
She held her breath, eyes straining in the growing darkness to see what was going on.
There was something about the way the two ships moved around each other that made her hold her breath.
Violence was a possibility at any moment, and then suddenly, two other Grihan ships shot forward and bracketed the Illium.
Finally, Hal had some support.
“Hal’s coming down to you,” Eazi told her.
“Tell him to land beside the Grihan runner. It was hit and I don’t know how many are injured, but Baruke’s onboard as well, and in need of medical help.
” She turned and headed toward the runner herself.
“You’ll have to trust me,” she told the grahudi.
“I’m going to take you up to that ship with me.
” She crouched beside it and pointed up to the Illium.
“I will keep you with me, if you want that, and no one will touch you. And I’ll get the Fitali to come for you, and take you back home. ”
She turned to look at it, and had to force herself to keep a steady, calm expression, because it had the face of a deadly predator.
Bunny ran down her arm and leaned toward it, and the grahudi switched its gaze from her to him.
They stared at each other for a long beat, and then Bunny ran back up to her shoulder again.
“I hope that means everyone’s on the same page.” Fee stood and started walking again, and the grahudi seemed to move closer to her as it kept pace.
She saw the flare of an engine above and in front of her, and began to hurry.
“Hal?” she asked.
“He’s landed near the runner,” Eazi confirmed. “He’s headed toward you while the med team deal with everyone.”
She was glad about that. It would be good to have a few moments alone with him.
“What’s the condition of the others? How badly are they hurt?”
“It looks like they’re all injured, but nothing serious. Even Baruke is still all right.”
Fee breathed a sigh of relief, and quickened her pace.
When she finally saw Hal, striding toward her, the sun had set completely and the only light was the burning battleship behind her.
They said nothing, just walked into each other’s arms.
She rested her head on his chest and he tightened his grip as Bunny dropped off her shoulder onto the ground.
“I see you’ve brought a few friends,” he said. “Bunny I knew about, but the grahudi was a surprise.”
“It was injured when Eazi blew up the base, but it’s managed to survive all this time. It’s not doing well though.” She turned her head to look at it, crouched beside Bunny. “It needs to go home. It can’t stay down here.”
“We’re taking it up with us?” Hal asked, and his tone was neutral.
“Bunny’s told it what to expect, I think.” She lifted her face to his. “I tried to as well, but Bunny and it have some kind of understanding between them.”
His face was still for a moment, and then he shook his head and she realized he was laughing.
“That’s fine,” he said. “Let’s get everyone up to the Illium.”
“I don’t know where to start,” Admiral Hoke said. She was pacing back and forth in front of her screen. “I should be there by tomorrow afternoon. But I need to know as much as you can tell me, because the shouts and screams from the UC have not stopped.”
“You know most of it. The Garmman tried to lift the Class 5 frame built by a group of rogue Balcoans up into nearspace. Apparently the Tecran had done it for the other Class 5s but with their Levron-class ships. The Garmman don’t have the same capacity, and although it seems like they made some additions to their battleships, they miscalculated the power needed.
The ship doing the lifting crashed just north of the base.
” He decided not to mention Bunny. He had no direct knowledge of what Bunny had done, and he wasn’t likely to ever get that information out of Eazi or Paxe, so there was no point in causing trouble over it.
“What about the Ciolla?” Hoke asked.
“The Ciolla came straight to our position from where they were hiding. I don’t know if Hunner thought he could shoot us down while being invisible, whether that would mean there would be no consequences, or what he was thinking.
I was on my way to the launch bay to take a runner down when the Ciolla appeared, but Gerbardi patched me through to the Ciolla’s bridge.
Hunner sounded shocked we could see him.
Even then, I honestly think he was contemplating getting into a fight with us, but fortunately the backup you sent our way arrived in time to prevent him from doing something he would most likely have regretted. ” Hal grimaced.
“And Baruke was there? At the base?” Hoke asked.
“Baruke was in the med bay, unconscious, and Fiona found him, met the rescue team you’d sent her, and they went back in to the base and got him. Only Lieutenant Crin turned out to be one of the major leaks we were worried about from Balco HQ. She tried to stop them leaving.”
“Crin.” Hoke threw herself into her chair and put her hands on either side of her head. “How did they stop her?”
“This is where it gets delicate.” Hal paused, and Hoke narrowed her eyes and hissed.
“More delicate than it already is?” she asked carefully.
“I’m afraid so. You remember the grahudi?” Hal asked.
“The creature from the Fitalian planet Huy?” Hoke dropped her hands to stare at him. “The one that died when Eazi blew up the Tecran base?”
“Turns out it didn’t die.” Hal shrugged.
“It was badly injured, lost a limb, and has been barely surviving since then. It clearly remembered Fiona—she actually helped it when we were down there a year ago. Anyway, the grahudi attacked Crin before she could shoot them all. Fiona has brought it up to the Illium with us. She wants you to contact the Fitali to come fetch it and take it back home.”
“That’ll be a conversation.” Hoke suddenly laughed. “Well, I’ll say this, Fiona certainly brings excitement into my life.”
Hal was glad someone saw things in such a positive way. Especially as Hoke was his boss.
“We’ll be arriving in Larga Ways in a few minutes,” he said, pushing back in his chair.
“General Olna is coordinating with Balcoan authorities to do a sweep of the base and arrest those who are there. The Unhil didn’t crash into the base, it landed to the north, but the impact caused the amphitheatre to partially collapse and did massive structural damage to the rest of the base.
General Olna’s leaving the arrests to the Balcoans but recording everything so we don’t get blindsided again. ”
Hoke nodded. “And Baruke, how’s he doing?”
“Apparently he’s out of danger, and should make a full recovery, but he’s still unconscious, although he should wake up naturally soon,” Hal said.
“He was sedated and they think whatever they gave him reacted badly to the medication he’d been given to get over the poisoning before.
It probably freaked the Balcoans out when he suddenly collapsed. ”
“Ha.” Hoke shook her head. “Well, I’m glad he’s going to be all right. If he died, this would be even more of a disaster than it already is. I’ve got another Battle Center call coming. I’ll see you tomorrow.” The screen went black, and Hal got to his feet.
When he stepped out of his office, he came to a sudden stop at the sight of Chel and Gerbardi standing in the passage, waiting for him.
“Yes?” He kept his voice even, but he realized if this was going to be another complaint about Fee, he didn’t know how he was going to react to it.
“I wanted to apologize.” Gerbardi’s hands fluttered. “I didn’t mean to insult you or Fiona when I said what I said earlier.”
Hal studied him. He looked upset and unhappy.
“What did you mean, then?” Hal asked.
“I mean, she does attract monsters. The thinking systems, that creature that we’re not supposed to have seen, that .
. . other thing. But what I would have said afterward if we didn’t suddenly have the Ciolla facing off with us was that it’s probably because she doesn’t know what’s a monster and what’s not, because this isn’t her world.
So she treats everything with friendliness and grace, which draws them to her.
It’s a lesson to me, and I’m grateful for it. ”
Hal gave a nod. “Fair enough.”
Gerbardi blew out a breath. “I also want to say that we don’t know what to feed the thing that we’re not supposed to know about.”
“Fee can find out. Have you asked her?” Hal leaned against his office door.
Gerbardi shook his head. “I didn’t want to disturb her. And it.”
“I’ll ask her.” Chel patted Gerbardi’s shoulder then glanced at Hal. “Are you going back to your suite?”
“Yes.” Hal moved out into the passage and he and Chel walked along to his quarters, which were now occupied by Fiona, Bunny and the grahudi.
“What did the admiral say?” Chel asked.
“She’ll be here tomorrow. We’ll hold ourselves ready in case the Garmman lose their minds completely and try to attack. I’m keeping Fee onboard until Eazi is sure it’s safe to go back down to the way station.”
“With three Grihan battleships here, the Garmman should be firmly on their side of the boundary,” Chel said.
“Should isn’t working right now,” Hal said.
Chel coughed out a laugh. “No.”
Then he went quiet.
“Do you know what that metal thing is, Hal?”
“It’s a drone Paxe uses for his build. He managed to sneak it onto the runner the Balcoans were using to abduct Fee at the way station and sent it down to help her.
It got her out of the cell they were keeping her in.
” Hal didn’t say what else Bunny had been there to do, but he was telling the truth.
Chel blew out a breath. “A drone? One of Paxe’s drones?”
Hal nodded.
“That makes sense. I’ll calm the waters because there are a few crew who are a bit wound up about it.”
There was definitely something about the shape and movement of Bunny that affected the Grihan hind brain. Hal was aware of it himself. Either Fiona’s species didn’t have the same ancient enemy, or she’d managed to overcome her reaction to it.
Hal kept his voice level. “I wouldn’t bring anything onboard that was a danger to crew.”
Technically, they were dangerous. But not to his crew.
They reached his suite and Hal opened the door.
Fee was coming out of his room, freshly showered and drying her hair with a towel. She was in one of his shirts, which she wore like a dress, and her cheeks were flushed pink.
The grahudi was curled up on the couch, and he saw Fee had made a bed for it with a blanket.
Bunny was nowhere to be seen.
“Hey.” She smiled at them.
“Chel wants to know what the grahudi eats,” Hal said, wanting to get rid of his second-in-command as quickly as possible.
“Oh. One moment.” She lifted a finger to her ear. “Paxe says any kind of meat and fruit that’s available. It’s an omnivore.”
Hal was glad she was careful not to mention that Bunny would have given Paxe that information. Chel was no fool, and he would have picked up that the drone was a little more than just a drone.
Chel nodded. “I’ll send someone with a tray right away.”
He was trying to avoid looking directly at the grahudi, Hal saw with amusement. He backed away, giving Hal a salute as the doors closed between them.
“You talked to the admiral?” Fee asked.
“She’s coming, light jumping all the way.”
Fee nodded. “This is a major event. I’m just glad Baruke’s going to recover. Him dying would have made this so much more complicated.”
“You’d have had to fight to keep your way station, you mean.” He looped a strand of hair behind her ear as he teased her.
“Oh, I’d have kept it,” she grinned up at him. “But I’d rather be nice about it than have to get mean.”
“I’d be interested to see you in mean mode,” Hal said as there was a ping at the door.
He walked over, fetched the tray Chel had sent and set it down on the coffee table.
The grahudi had moved, crouching at the ready when the door chime had sounded, and it looked at the food with big eyes.
“Enjoy,” Fee told it, and then walked back into his room. “I can show you mean,” she told him over her shoulder. “Ish.” She wobbled her hand.
He laughed as he followed her in.