She knew theIllium, but the other one looked like the Garmman ship that had just crashed.
She held her breath, eyes straining in the growing darkness to see what was going on.
There was something about the way the two ships moved around each other that made her hold her breath.
Violence was a possibility at any moment, and then suddenly, two other Grihan ships shot forward and bracketed theIllium.
Finally, Hal had some support.
“Hal’s coming down to you,” Eazi told her.
“Tell him to land beside the Grihan runner. It was hit and I don’t know how many are injured, but Baruke’s onboard as well, and in need of medical help.” She turned and headed toward the runner herself. “You’ll have to trust me,” she told the grahudi. “I’m going to take you up to that ship with me.” She crouched beside it and pointed up to theIllium. “I will keep you with me, if you want that, and no one will touch you. And I’ll get the Fitali to come for you, and take you back home.”
She turned to look at it, and had to force herself to keep a steady, calm expression, because it had the face of a deadly predator.
Bunny ran down her arm and leaned toward it, and the grahudi switched its gaze from her to him.
They stared at each other for a long beat, and then Bunny ran back up to her shoulder again.
“I hope that means everyone’s on the same page.” Fee stood and started walking again, and the grahudi seemed to move closer to her as it kept pace.
She saw the flare of an engine above and in front of her, and began to hurry.
“Hal?” she asked.
“He’s landed near the runner,” Eazi confirmed. “He’s headed toward you while the med team deal with everyone.”
She was glad about that. It would be good to have a few moments alone with him.
“What’s the condition of the others? How badly are they hurt?”
“It looks like they’re all injured, but nothing serious. Even Baruke is still all right.”
Fee breathed a sigh of relief, and quickened her pace.
When she finally saw Hal, striding toward her, the sun had set completely and the only light was the burning battleship behind her.
They said nothing, just walked into each other’s arms.
She rested her head on his chest and he tightened his grip as Bunny dropped off her shoulder onto the ground.
“I see you’ve brought a few friends,” he said. “Bunny I knew about, but the grahudi was a surprise.”
“It was injured when Eazi blew up the base, but it’s managed to survive all this time. It’s not doing well though.” She turned her head to look at it, crouched beside Bunny. “It needs to go home. It can’t stay down here.”
“We’re taking it up with us?” Hal asked, and his tone was neutral.
“Bunny’s told it what to expect, I think.” She lifted her face to his. “I tried to as well, but Bunny and it have some kind of understanding between them.”
His face was still for a moment, and then he shook his head and she realized he was laughing.
“That’s fine,” he said. “Let’s get everyone up to theIllium.”
“I don’t knowwhere to start,” Admiral Hoke said. She was pacing back and forth in front of her screen. “I should be there by tomorrow afternoon. But I need to know as much as you can tell me, because the shouts and screams from the UC have not stopped.”
“You know most of it. The Garmman tried to lift the Class 5 frame built by a group of rogue Balcoans up into nearspace. Apparently the Tecran had done it for the other Class 5s but with their Levron-class ships. The Garmman don’t have the same capacity, and although it seems like they made some additions to their battleships, they miscalculated the power needed. The ship doing the lifting crashed just north of the base.” He decided not to mention Bunny. He had no direct knowledge of what Bunny had done, and he wasn’t likely to ever get that information out of Eazi or Paxe, so there was no point in causing trouble over it.
“What about theCiolla?” Hoke asked.
