A few evenings later, right after they finally landed on Revant again, Margie stood in the doorway of her hut, trying to breathe. The intel they’d brought back was vital, but they had gotten there just a little too late!
Federation ships cruised overhead, and the citizenry stood below, many of them with hands raised to shield their eyes from the bright sun, which was rapidly being blotted out by the bodies of those ships.
Oh, God. She staggered backward. All the courage she thought she had deserted her then. Her body shook all over, and she staggered back a step. There was no safety in that hut, and she knew it, but she still had the craziest urge to run inside, throw the covers over her head, and huddle below them until the world either ended or started over again.
Jeval came toward her, his large and lustrous eyes alight with both sunlight and courage. Margie sucked in a hard breath and then, as he reached the door of her hut, she said, “The Federation! Why are they here? What is going to happen now?”
His gaze didn’t flinch away from hers. His voice was calm. “War, most likely.”
No! There was no way she could go through a war. Everything she had seen, all the blood and all the battle, was too much. Those things had already taken such a large toll on her. She could tolerate being on the wrecking ship. Watching the nightly fights and often deaths that were caused by the rowdiest of beings and people in the gambling halls on the pleasure planet had been hard, but it was something she could bear. But war?
Everything in her cried out against such a horrible thing. Death and devastation; that was what war brought in its wake. Her eyes traveled from his face to the people gathered there, all of them wearing similar expressions of fear and confusion. She understood exactly how they felt because she felt the same way.
This could not be happening. There was absolutely no way at all that they were prepared for war. They were too few, and they had far too few ships. Their new lives had barely begun, and they were about to be destroyed by the greed of The Federation.
That thought gave her a small measure of courage. She had had everything ripped away from her by those people, by The Federation and its power-mad elite. If this was war, how could she hide from it? How could she not make a stand and fight for the life that she wanted so badly?
She whispered, “What do we do now?”
His hand came out and rested on her upper arm. The strength and warmth of his fingers seeped into her skin but could not halt the chill creeping through her. His voice was no less calm. “We fight.”
“We're all going to die, you have to know that.”
“Of course I know that. But every fight could mean death. We faced death before. You and me. We faced it on the pleasure planet that we had to go to together. We faced it on the wrecking ship. You faced it on your own planet, and not just once.”
He was right but each time she had escaped death unscathed for the most part. This time she would not be so lucky. The thought of losing her life, now, when she carried a life within her that was so precious, made her desire to live too large to deny.
She should tell him. He should know that she was pregnant with his child. She looked over at his face, and her heart nearly stopped. For all the calm tone of his voice, there was a haunted look on his face, a look that said he wanted this no more than she did.
Her hand fell toward her belly and rested there. If she was going to die, and if he was going to die as well, there was no sense in telling him about the baby. It would only serve to make his death seem even worse and harder. If he did not know, it would be easier for him to bear if she died right before him. Her fingers pressed into her flat abdomen and a pulse of sheer primal rage began in her stomach. It wasn’t fair.
She whispered, silently, to her unborn child. “I will fight for you. I will die for you. My death will mean yours, but I will not die lightly or let them kill you without a battle. I swear that to you, little one. You will know; it seems to me that you will have to know that we fought for you.”
Her eyes went back to Jeval’s face. She had seen what he was capable of. That power that rested within him was enough to destroy an entire ship. It was enough to send men screaming to their own deaths, deaths that they created with their own hands. He had refused to use that power again even when they were facing the gravest danger. Would he refuse to use it now even knowing that she had within her his child?
Her eyes went back to the skies. The Federation ships began to lower, the heavily armored bodies sinking toward the only accessible landing place on the planet: the short docks that had been built to jut out over one side of the sea.
There were far too many ships in The Federation’s armada for them all to land. Maybe that would be their chance to halt whatever was happening immediately. Perhaps they would have the chance to destroy the ones that were on the ground, or take over them. They had captains with great skill there on the planet surface.
Talon alone could fly like the devil himself, and he was skilled in combat both in the air and on the ground. He was not the only one either. Surely there must be some way for them to survive this. If they could not survive it, they would take as many of The Federation down with them as possible.
Her breath sucked in and held as she watched the bay doors on The Federation ships begin to open and officers wearing Federation insignia begin to step out. Behind them came soldiers, heavily armed.
Talon and Jessica appeared, both of them bearing arms. Marik and Jenny, as well as Renall and Clare, also came into sight. The people they led took cautious steps back, huddling behind their leaders.
The crew of the ships that Talon and others piloted came running, bearing arms and with expressions that said they were ready to begin whatever war The Federation intended to bring upon them.
One of The Federation officers held up a hand. He wore five gold stars on the chest of his olive-green tailored tunic, marking him as one of the highest ranking there. His voice was smooth and full, rolling across the distance with ease.
Jeval started forward. Margie gathered her courage, wrapping its tattered ends around herself as she followed him, determined to always be right there at his side no matter what. This was the creature that she loved. She did love him. She loved that stubborn and prideful Revant who was also the kindest and gentlest and sweetest thing she had ever known in her life.
The Federation officer was still speaking. He said, “There is no need for war between us. We do not come here on a mission to govern your planet. Nor the sister planet that lays slightly to the east. We have no interest in your planet, to be truthful…”
Jessica retorted, “When has The Federation ever been known for truthfulness?”
A large and angry mutter rose from the crowd. That sound made Margie’s hands wrap around her body and draw herself inward. It reminded her of that day that she had gotten into an argument with that woman and man inside the greenery house and the dreadful consequences of her actions then.
Talon stepped forward. “She speaks the truth. The Federation is not known for keeping its promises or for giving honest words to those it means to rule.”
