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She felt strangely rested For the first time in weeks, her body wasn&039;t full of nervous tension But her sight was blurred, and all that she could cos were a few pastel planes, the restful hues of sickbav
Hobbes tried to move
Medically restrained, said a
"Shit," she said, reuth of her prone body
Standing at the foot of her bed was a figure whose stance she recognized even through the haze Laurent Zai, "They said you&039;d be co, sir?" Her voice was dry and frail
"Ten hours Five hypersleep cycles"
A whole day, Hobbes thought And she couldn&039;t rele dreaht hours had been before the hostage-taking It was strange to reo on while she was asleep Despite this disorienting news, however, Hobbes&039;s mind felt clearer than it had in days
"Who cut out the drive, sir?"
He smiled "Frick"
Of course The first engineer could operate any aspect of the ship from his synesthesia interface It was lucky he&039;d been on the bridge, and not knocked unconscious on one of the wildly spinning aft-decks of engineering
"But you lanced down at her left knee Hobbes lifted her neck, straining to see her legs, but all she could see was a network of traction bars and a few glistening nano drips traveling down into shrouded flesh
"Looks pretty ugly, sir"
"Nothing permanent, Hobbes The Al doubts you&039;ll even need a servo-prosthetic But you&039;ll be liaeed from Rix space to threaten theaments?" she wondered It had felt as if the kneecap had been shattered She hed more than three hundred kilos when she&039;d fallen
"Well," Zai ada any et a pair of those"
She ses returned to her mind from the fiery moe Blood in the air
"How hty-one of us died," he said "All three bridge pilots, and Gunner Wilson" Eighty-one A bloodbath Between her three engagee rescue, the first pass of the battlecruiser, and the blackbod-ies--the crew of the frigate was one
"I should have listened to you, Hobbes," Zai said "Ree almost cost us the Lynx entire"
"No, sir It was ees That was toothe ees, the AG ht have held
"You couldn&039;t have foreseen that, Hobbes," the captain assured her "The Rix plan was brilliant--mutual destruction The battle-cruiser released a hundred and twenty-eight drones just before they self-destructed Full blackbody types Enough to tear the Lynx to pieces We were saved by Data Master Kax, who stayed alert while the rest of us were celebrating He spotted them and warned Tyre"
Hobbes furrowed her brow Hadn&039;t Kax been blinded?
"And you too, Hobbes," Zai continued "You got us out before the drones could cut us to pieces Every kilometer between Lynx and the blackbodies saved lives No one died from the acceleration"
Hobbes felt a moment of relief At least her rashness hadn&039;t killed anyone "But there were a few injuries, I&039;ll bet, sir"
"Purely from the acceleration? Only a hundred or so Your knee&039;s just about the worst, though Every other ravities"
She s Hobbes&039;s hts was hazy The fierce conflict that had raged within her seemed now like a phantasm, a stress reaction rather than a true failure of will
"And we&039;ve captured it," Zai said
It took Hobbes&039;s rasp this "The object, sir?"
Captain Zai nodded "We&039;ve got artificial gravity again, as youunder tow"
Her eyebrows rose Easy gravitons were swamped in the proxi like the Rix object, which et purchase, she supposed But the ship would be straining like the devil to , sir?"
"Practically nothing But four heavy cargo tugs are under construction on Legis," he said "Between them and the Lynx, we&039;ll be able to accelerate the object at alate&039;s powerful drive was her ility of humans and equip high gravities, the Lynx could accelerate like a res thrown in, and additional darkate couldtwo thousand klicks per second into I a tactical display into the air before her "We should be able to get it up to point-nine constant in under a year"
Zai smiled at her enthusiasm "It&039;ll take a hell of a lot of reaction ht want to include dark her, sir? Trentor Base?"
"We&039;re going Hoain She could see the quiet happiness in Laurent&039;s eyes Whoever his secret lover was, she was back on the Imperial capital
A trip to Hoht well be over for the crew of the Lynx
Of course, for many of them, the as over already Katherie wondered how many of the honored dead were suitable for reanione forever
She suddenly felt exhausted again, despite her five cycles of hyper-sleep Her mind couldn&039;t take in any h The Lynx had survived, accoht well change Iy forever Laurent Zai was still alive, still an elevated hero, and Katherie Hobbes, it sees were better than she would have been expected
But Hobbes knew the next time she woke, she would have to face the details of the situation: endless co trip hois&039;s infostructure Learning hoalk again
And she would have to read the naues, and crew not to call up the casualty list yet That could wait
"I&039;m sorry to have disturbed you, Hobbes," Zai said "Youme"
"Thank you, Hobbes"
"For what, sir?"
"For never doubting h all this ain
Marine Private
The prisoner offered no resistance as she was led onto the Lynx
She erace, her step like a courtesan&039;s from a storydream back on Private Bassiritz&039;s home world But the marine realized after a n of humility, but the result of shackles The woman&039;s 245 ankles were bound with two interwoven sheaths of hypercarbon fiber Her hands were concealed by a garhtjacket, as if she were hugging herself to keep out the cold A stun collar was clasped around her neck The Legis Militia guard who escorted her carried the collar&039;s remote outstretched before hih soht, Bassiritz could see Her head was mostly bald, and her red, diested she&039;d lost her hair to fire Her face was hatched with cuts and scars
But the woaze, her stunning violet eyes bright with curiosity
He sed He had never seen a Rixwoman without a helmet on Since the battle in the palace, Bassiritz had read many books about the members of the Cult, the first people he&039;d ever seen who moved as fast as he, who reacted as quickly They seemed to share the accelerated time frame that had until now been Bassiritz&039;s private domain
But that didn&039;t make them friends, he reminded himself This woman had killed dozens of Imperial soldiers, even a few Lynx marines, maybe even Saerous enough to warrant three guards Still, she fascinated him
The militiaman handed over the stun collar&039;s remote, and the three dirtsiders disappeared back into the airlock with evident relief The eant stayed a fewfor Privates Bassiritz and Ana Wellcome to take hold of her arth of the Rixwohtjacket&039;s o on a gee-balanced lifting surface, her tiny footsteps utterly silent Her head darted about like a seways of the ship in a way that made Bassiritz nervous Her movements had the sudden leaured for the Rixwoman It was constructed of six bare surfaces of hypercarbon The substance was not as strong as hullalloy, Bassiritz knew, but it was less susceptible toviruses and other tricks It was hard, sih the cell&039;s door, which was a les, and saw the danger here Even with her arms ie her powerful leg muscles A simple bend at the knees, and she could push off like a rocket in any direction, butting her head against one of the guards with devastating force
Private Wellcoh and held out his hand for the prisoner
Bassiritz hesitated
"Sergeant?" he said
"What is it, Bassiritz?"
He struggled to fore here, sir," he said haltingly "The seant scowled He looked the woman up and down, then turned to Bassiritz
"Are you sure?"