Jessica said, “I don’t want this. I know everyone thinks I am so hardened and so willing to war that I would be reveling in the chance, but this I don’t want.”
That made Margie pause. “Talon isn’t going?”
Jessica’s smile held sorrow. “Of course he is. He is the best captain in the universe, and everyone knows it. Where he goes, I go. I don’t want to die but…but if he dies, I will die from a broken heart or some such silly thing. I can’t believe I am even saying that. I am not at all that sentimental.”
Only she was, and she was that loyal to the being she had mated as well. Margie hurt for her, for all of them because she knew right then that they would all go.
I can’t go. I have this child to consider, and I can’t let it die. I just can’t.
Jenny said, “I will go too. I can heal—and I can kill. I can use the weapon Marik opened in me to help save them, if at all possible.”
Jessica said, “I’ll fight for them, and for us.”
Clare whispered, “I can’t go. I can’t. My child comes any day, and Renall has refused to allow it. He has refused to consider it even. He says we must survive and lead this planet. There will be those from our sister planet who come to help, but we must stay.”
Just then, someone stood. It was a young woman, and her voice shook as she cried out, “Are we not to know what goes on here?”
Renall and his siblings stood. Margie’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at the four of them. They were all so brave, and they would give their very lives for this place and these beings upon it, for a chance at real freedom, and she was stricken by the beauty of that, by the selflessness of it, so hard it was like a punch to the heart.
Renall spoke slowly. “Old Earth is no more. It has been destroyed by The Federation. We are to stop sending people back there and to cease our attempts to aid there at once as there is no further need. All who are on the way here from there will be welcomed with open arms. Any ships that were headed there have turned back toward here. That is all.”
The shock wave that went through the crowd was palpable. Jenny whispered, “He could hardly tell them the rest of it, I suppose, and I know that, but all he has done is make them even more afraid of The Federation.”
Jessica said, “With good reason. They can’t know the truth. It is not something they need or want to know and if they do know, they may talk, even if it is just amongst themselves. They cannot communicate beyond this planet but if they were to be questioned, not knowing would be a blessing.”
Margie toyed with the food. Hunger came back, and she felt a hard and powerful thrust in her midsection, a demand for food. She began to eat. The fish came away from the bone in succulent bits of pink flesh and oil that satisfied hunger in a way nothing she had ever had before coming to that planet ever had.
This was her home, and she had to do whatever was necessary to save it.
I can help. I must go. I can see far, and I know things. You must take me with them.
That voice came from within her skull. Margie wanted badly to believe it was her daughter speaking, but she was horribly afraid that it was not, that it was her own mind speaking and pretending away the grave danger that would face her child if she went.
Clare broke into her thoughts by saying, “Margie, will you go?”
Will I?
Her fork trembled in her fingers. She would not be able to hide her pregnancy much longer, especially not from Jeval, who would see her naked. She said, “I will but…but all of you must swear to say nothing about the child that I carry.”
Jenny asked, “Are you sure you want to hide that from him?”
She wasn’t, not at all, but she knew that if she told him, if anyone told him, he would not only refuse to allow her to go, but he would leave there angry at her. “I can’t tell him now. Not with this happening. I will tell him, but I want to do it when the time is right.”
Time.
There might not be any time, but she had to do whatever she could do to help save not just him, but the universe.
