The Stars Blue Yonder (15 page)

Her eyes were wide and dark.

“Billy Lawrence.” “Billy Lawrence,” Myell repeated. “And I'm going to see you at the academy, all prim and proper in your uniform, marching back and forth across the parade field fifty times because you refused to rat out your roommate for pulling a prank on the company commander. Later you go to a birthday party for Richi Miller and make out with him in the alley. You come back all smiles with your blouse buttoned wrong.”

She used her free hand to cover her face, then peeked between her fingers at him. “You see too much.”

He kissed her softly. “I'm going to see you marry Sam when he's whole and healthy again, and you're going to dance at your wedding with Lisa beside you. I'm going to see your daughters when they're all grown up and doing their best every day, because that's what you teach them. To be strong and keep trying and never look back.”

Her eyes were watering now. His own eyes were damp, but he wouldn't weep. Not in front of her.

“I'm going to see you stay here while I walk away into the woods, because it's time for me to go now. You're going to forget I was here, but you'll never forget I love you.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. Myell wanted to spare her that, wanted to spare himself, but how could he? Not with the ouroboros and the universe pitted against them. He kissed her once more and then rose up, determined to go.

“Come on, kids,” he said. “Time to get out of the—”

All the air sucked out of his lungs.

The world tilted.

“Terry!” Jodenny reached for him, alarmed, and he didn't have the breath to tell her to stay back.

Too soon. The ouroboros was hours too soon. Myell shook off her arms and lurched away. The blue light was filling his vision. She must have thought he was choking, or having a fit, or maybe he'd swallowed his tongue. The ground slid out beneath him despite his best efforts to stay upright. He tumbled into the pool just below the waterfall. On his way into the blue rushing water he saw Jodenny reach for him, and now here was Osherman making a grab, but the kids were too far away, too far—

“Kyle!” Myell managed. “Hurry!”

He saw Kyle hold tight to Twig and retreat. Shaking his head. Choosing this eddy and the chance of evaporation over anything Myell could offer him.

Too late now. The blue ring had arrived. It swept away Myell, Osherman, and Jodenny. And Junior, defenseless in Jodenny's womb.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Sub-lieutenant Adryn Ling reached for her third coffee of the midwatch and grimaced at the bitter taste. She hated coffee but tea was even worse. At oh-four-thirty she'd drink raw sewage if it contained enough stimulants to keep her going for another four hours. Not that there was much chance of raw sewage on the flight deck of the UAC
Confident
. Just row after row of Eagle A7-40s ready to launch as needed to defeat the Roon.

“You're daydreaming again,” said Chief Cappaletto, in his odd American accent. “Concentrate on the game.”

“Sorry,” she said. “I'm contemplating.”

Silence for a long moment. Rows of chess pieces awaited her decision.

“We're off duty in three hours,” Cappaletto said.

Adryn reached for her only remaining knight, moved it forward carefully, and released her grip. Cappaletto grinned wolfishly and moved his queen in return. “Checkmate. Sunday rules.”

The handsome chief, who was a few years older than her and considered quite the ladies' man among the Flight Department, tended to change the rules whenever he wanted to. No one else ever invoked Sunday rules, which required swapping the roles of the rooks and knights, or the Midwatch Option, which meant the bishop could clone himself. Still, their games killed the long stretch of time after midnight, when ship's dawn was only a dim prospect on the horizon.

“Mother said there'd be days like this,” Cappaletto said, around a yawn.

“Days like what?”

“Stuck for hours on end with a beautiful woman and nary a bed in sight.”

She grinned. “Are you hitting on me, Chief?”

“Never!” He held up his fingers boy-scout style. “My heart currently belongs to a beautiful young ensign in the Astronomy Department.”

“I don't want to hear about you breaking regulations,” Adryn said.

“Besides, if anything happened between us, your wife would probably drag me to the infirmary and castrate me. Without painkillers.”

Adryn grinned. “She sure would.”

An alarm began to trill on the control panel. Adryn swiveled for a quick glimpse through the observation window. The Eagles were all still, with no sign of movement. Just cold metal and engines down there, waiting to destroy or be destroyed.

“Alert in bay five,” Cappaletto said. “One of the bots again, I bet. I'll get it.”

Adryn rolled her chair back. “No, I'll get it. Need the exercise. Why don't you find a deck of cards while I'm gone and I'll kick your ass at poker?”

He grinned. “Why don't I break out a chess set with training wheels on it?”

She shot him a middle finger on her way down the ladder.

It took a full sixty seconds to hike across the deck to the flight bay in question. The air smelled like oil and fuel. The only sounds were the
echo of her boots and the hum of the air-circulation system. She envied Laura, snug in their bed back in officer berthing. They'd been on opposite schedules for two months now. Adryn had taken an officer exchange slot with the Americanadian Forces precisely to be near her wife, but she was beginning to think she'd see her more if Laura came over to one of the big Team Space ships.

She was still brooding over the subject when she reached the bay and found three intruders in civilian clothes.

One of the strangers, a man, had pulled away to a corner bulkhead and was clawing at the metal with his fingernails. Another man, shirtless and sopping wet, was having some kind of convulsion or seizure on the deck. Beside him was an equally drenched pregnant woman in what looked like a bathing suit. She was crying and writhing and clutching her stomach. Adryn was afraid she was in the middle of delivering her baby, or maybe miscarrying it.

Adryn activated her SOEL. “Chief, get Security down here right away, fully armed. And a medical team.”

“We need help,” the woman said. “Please! We need doctors.”

Adryn approached warily. None of them seemed armed, or dangerous in any way. “It's all right, help's coming. Are you in pain?”

“He said the baby wouldn't make it,” the woman gasped. “Terry? Is he—help him!”

The man having seizures went abruptly still. Adryn carefully checked the pulse in his neck. When she caught sight of his features, her fingers went numb with surprise. She knew him. Hadn't seen him since she was a kid, but she'd grown up with the vids her parents had propped up on the mantelpieces and bookcases, and of course there were all the books, movies, and games that had been based on his life. The hero of Burringurrah. Right here on her flight deck.

Now that Adryn looked closely at the woman, she recognized her as well.

Bewildered, she asked, “Uncle Terry? Aunt Jodenny?”

The infirmary on the
Confident
was a long, low row of cubicles, closed rooms, electronic privacy screens, and uncomfortable furniture in the lounge. Adryn couldn't sit down for more than ten minutes at a time.
She paced the lounge, pestered the nurses for information they didn't have, and chewed on her fingernails one by one. It was just past oh-six-hundred now but she didn't feel the urge for breakfast or even sleep. Instead she felt frazzled and empty and worried. She didn't think she'd be able to sleep even if someone tranquilized her.

She wasn't alone in the lounge. Lieutenant Commander Will Endicott from Security was there, conducting one conversation after another on his SOEL. She'd met him a few times, but didn't know much about him—tall, intense, nearly bald. A security guard was standing in the doorway, ready to be called upon. Myell was in a room down the passage, guarded by a petty officer who wouldn't let Adryn past the hatch.

Uncle Terry, missing fifteen years, arriving on her doorstep.

Now, when they needed him most.

She didn't know what to think about it.

Eventually a commander showed up, and like her he wore a Team Space uniform instead of an Americanadian one.

“Noel Haines,” he said, shaking her hand. He had thin blond hair, a small forehead, and a crooked way of twisting his mouth that almost, but not quite, looked like a smile. “Let's go on down to the doctors' lounge and talk there.”

She followed him reluctantly. By craning her head she could see the exam room where a cluster of doctors, including Adryn's wife, were working on Jodenny Scott. Laura had been called in because of her background in high-risk obstetrics. Laura had looked surprised to see Adryn in the lounge but there'd been no time to talk then, and there hadn't been any since.

The doctors' lounge was small and sparsely furnished, and smelled like old coffee. There was a real aquarium on the corner table. The water looked dirty and Adryn wasn't sure the two goldfish floating inside were even alive. Commander Haines sat down on an uncomfortable-looking green sofa and said, “Tell me why you think one of those men is your uncle.”

Adryn ignored his gesture to sit beside him. She automatically clasped her hands behind her back. “I don't think it. I know it. He's my father's brother. She's his wife. I've grown up looking at their vids, wondering what happened to them after they disappeared.”

“You only met Commander Scott once, when you were a child,” Haines said. “She visited your family's farm.”

That certainly wasn't in any records that Adryn knew about. Jodenny Scott's trip to the farm, all those years ago, had been a secret. Fraternization had been a big risk back then, as it still was.

Carefully she asked, “What department did you say you worked for, sir?”

Again, that twist of the mouth almost like a smile.

“Research and Development, Department Fifteen,” he said.

She nodded. “Alcheringa geeks.”

“That's what they call us,” he agreed. “Commander Scott and Chief Myell have been missing for fifteen years. Now they show up during your watch. Any inkling why?”

“I don't think they planned it,” Adryn said. One of the not-quite-dead fish in the tank swam toward the surface, looking maybe for food or rescue.

“Do you know who the third man is?”

“No. I didn't recognize him.” She did know that Security had been forced to tranquilize him to get him out of the bay. He was somewhere nearby, probably strapped to a gurney.

Adryn wasn't surprised that the three of them were under heavy guard. Hero of Burringurrah or not, Myell and the other two had materialized out of nowhere onto a secure flight deck. Explanations would be demanded. She'd put a ping in to Legal Services over on the
Melbourne
but hadn't received a return call. The situation was going to be complicated by the fact that Myell and Jodenny were Team Space personnel, inactive roster of course, on the flagship of the Americanadian military forces, in a joint operation at war with the Roon.

Her head hurt just thinking about the possibilities.

She asked Haines, “Do
you
know who the third man is, Commander?”

“I have an idea, but his embedded dog tag is missing. It looks like it was dug out by a knife, years ago. There's a scar. But your aunt and uncle's tags are confirmed. Even the archaic chip model is authentic.”

“What's going to happen to them?”

“Depends on where they've been and what they can tell us.”

“They have rights,” she said.

“They're also security risks,” Haines said.

“How?”

“There are still parts of the Burringurrah mission that are classified,” Haines said, which of course she already knew. “You don't have the necessary clearance. When and if it becomes necessary for you to need to know, Lieutenant, I'm sure you'll be briefed.”

The fish in the tank were beseeching Adryn with their sad, bulging eyes. “What about Admiral Nam, sir? Has he been briefed?”

Haines's gaze narrowed. “I'm sure the news is working its way to all the fleet admirals.”

Maybe he wasn't as smart as he thought he was.

“With all due respect,” Adryn said, “the news better find him soon. I may not know the exact details of what my aunt and uncle were doing on their last duty assignment, but I know the admiral was involved. He told me so, the day I graduated from the academy. He also told me he holds himself personally responsible. I guarantee you that the minute he finds out, he's going to be on a birdie over here. And if he finds out they've been mistreated in any way, someone's going to pay for it. Sir.”

A muscle twitched in Haines's check. “I'll consider your advice carefully, Lieutenant. You're dismissed.”

Adryn returned to the lounge. Commander Endicott had stepped out somewhere. Ten minutes later he returned.

“You can see him,” Endicott said. “Try to get as much out of him as you can. He's not very talkative.”

Adryn went down to Myell's room and stepped inside. He was sitting on a stool as far as possible from the flat exam table. Someone had given him dry scrubs to wear but they were thin and not much protection against the cool air. His face was dry but his eyes were rimmed red.

“Damn it, Homer,” he was saying. “Show yourself!”

She asked, “Who's Homer?”

His gaze swerved her way. “Do you know what's happening? To my wife?”

“I don't know.” Adryn felt suddenly unsure, and cold despite her uniform sweater. “Can I get you something? Are you hungry?”

He shook his head. His gaze was on the bulkhead, where colorful
medical posters outlined the symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases. “The kids. Were they with us? Two kids.”