Jessica said, “Of course.”
Jenny asked, “How do you plan on keeping us safe? I assume you will since what good will we be if we’re dead?”
Marik could’ve told her the answer to that question long before she asked it. He gave Jessica an imploring stare, hoping that, for once, Jessica would soften just a bit. She was a hard woman, strong and often furious. Her eyes went to Jenny, and he saw something like sympathy on her face.
Jessica said, “We shall, of course, do all we can to protect you.”
Jessica walked away. Jenny and Marik stood there watching it as Old Earth slowly came into view. Jenny said, “I have never seen it from up here. I was already locked into a chamber when the ship took off the last time I was near here. Somehow I thought it would be far prettier. More like home.”
Her face flushed and she looked down at her feet. His heart picked up a few beats per minute. Home? She thought of the planet Revant Two as Home?
He said, “I hear it was very beautiful before the wars started. It could be beautiful again. So much of it is unusable now because of the war, but maybe eventually it will heal.”
They stood there in silence as the ship slowly descended through the atmosphere and the planet became clearer and clearer. Marik said, “I believe these are the docking stations.”
She nodded, but didn’t speak. The ship began to take on a more active atmosphere. Crewmembers rushed around readying the ship for landing. Marik said, “I think that’s our cue to get our things ready for disembarkation.”
She said, “I only brought what I have on.”
He nodded. “I brought medicines, but Talon has stopped at several outlier planets where medications and things are more plentiful so we will have supplies.”
Her brow puckered as she looked over at him. “Do you think we will be able to save quite a few?”
He was hoping so. Deep down in his heart, he really was sick of death and blood, of war and violence. The part of him that had always been a healer cried out in protest against those things now. His quest for blood and revenge had ended long ago even if that quest had not ended for several of his brothers.
He said, “I do. I think we are needed here and that what we will do here will have very real and lasting consequences. My largest hope is that those that we will help may actually be able to learn from us as well in order to become healers themselves.”
She said, “I… I hope I can find Ben.”
Ben? He asked, “Is that your family?”
Her fingers went to her tightly pulled back hair. “No. My entire family is dead; I told you that. I was engaged to him. Before I was taken away to be a bride. Or at least that’s what they told me I would be as they dragged me out of the Below.”
His heart let off a painful throb. He ignored that. Now was not the time to tell her how he felt about her. “I am sure that if he is still anywhere near the place you saw him last, you will find him again.”
She swallowed hard. Her face wrinkled in thought. “The city has been mostly destroyed from what Jessica said.”
Marik said, “Unfortunately that is usually what happens when there is war.”
She flinched a little. “Well, perhaps I shall see somebody that I know, and they will be able to tell me where he is, and if… And if he still lives.”
Just then the ship docked. A hard lurch ran through the floor, causing her to stumble forward again. That time when her hands came up and met his chest, they did not help her to maintain her balance. She landed against him just as the ship gave another hard jolt and shudder. Her body, soft and warm, lay against his. She was small and perfectly built, and he had the oddest urge to just pick her up and carry her like a prize.
She stepped back hastily, her face going red with blood. “I’m sorry. I lost my balance.”
He said, “It’s all right.”
It wasn’t. His body ached for hers. He wanted to reach back out and hold her again, but the mention of a man, a human man that she had left behind but not by choice, had given him every reason to stay silent.
The whirr of activity continued all around them and, eventually, they found themselves joining in with several dozen others as they made their way toward the exit doors. The bay door slid open, and Marik caught his first glimpse of Old Earth from the ground.
It was awful.
Everything was a mess. Buildings had been shattered and crumbled, and the debris lay all over the streets, which were pockmarked and also broken by weapon fire. A thick cloud of dust, probably from the buildings in the street, hung over everything. The air was thick, and he wasn’t sure if he could breathe it. Several of the crew members began passing out masks that would go over their noses and mouths. He took one gratefully, as did Jenny.
Talon appeared. “Marik, I know that you know how to use this. Jenny, you probably don’t. I would advise you to learn very fast.”
Marik looked down at the weapons in Talon’s hands. The last thing he wanted to do was touch another weapon, but he knew that he had to take it. Things were volatile there on the surface of that planet, and there was no telling who might be an enemy and who might be a friend. Jenny stepped backward, her head shaking from side to side. “No, I won’t.”
