“So the odds are against us.” Brook gave him a cocky smile. “So what? The Hareema have never faced the team of Ontarii and Brook. They’ll rue the day they ever fucked with us.”
His smile was small and it soon faded. “I appreciate your attempt at levity, my dear, but I’m afraid I don’t share your optimism.”
Brook felt his sadness like a physical weight on her shoulders.
“We have to try,” she pleaded. “We can’t just give up.”
Ontarii continued to stare at her, saying nothing.
Brook felt a sudden overwhelming urge to cry. She hadn’t cried in years, since she’d been in flight school and was sure she’d never be good enough to be selected for an interstellar mission. But seeing the man she loved so broken filled her with such despair that she couldn’t help herself.
Her tears fell into the cell below her. She watched as one hit Ontarii’s shoulder. He peered up at her, his expression one of deep regret.
“I’m sorry, little one,” he murmured. “I never wanted this to happen.”
“I’m sorry too,” she said. “It seems so unfair. To meet you, to connect in this way I’ve never experienced, and now I have to watch you die and can’t do anything about it. I feel so helpless. So fucking frustrated and impotent.”
“Hush, baby.” One of her tears hit his cheek and he collected it with his fingertip. He examined his finger, a slight smile crossing his full lips. Then he popped the finger in his mouth.
The display moved her. It also made her cry harder.
“Ontarii,” she moaned, her voice breaking on his name.
“Jennifer, get ahold of yourself. I don’t want to see you this way. Not with the little time we have left together. I need you to be strong.”
“I’m tired of being strong,” she yelled. “I’ve been strong for so long!”
“And you’ll be strong for a little while longer. For me.”
His words were full of feeling.
She knew then that her love wasn’t one-sided. The outpouring of emotion washed over her, calming her. The tears that had been falling from her cell to his started to taper off.
Suddenly there was the sound of an alarm. It was a loud, high-pitched sound that had Brook covering her ears once again. She rose to her knees and scrambled to the side of her cell, looking out at the hubbub around her.
