LINKS
____________
The Christa Affair
Epilogue
The room was dark -- pitch black -- and silent. He struggled to sit up, but his body refused to work. He wasn't even sure he \had\ a body -- he couldn't feel anything except a slow throbbing in his head. He tried vainly to remember... Where was he? \Who\ was he? Why couldn't he move -- he couldn't \feel\ any restraints. Why was it so dark and quiet, and why didn't \somebody\ turn on the lights or open a window? He opened his mouth to call out, found he could make no sound. Why was it so quiet? And so dark? And who \was\ he, anyway... And where... And why? The questions made him tired, and he drifted again into sleep...
*********
In the control room, Tad struggled to stay awake. The autopilot had been damaged beyond repair; without it, the jury-rigged direct-control system required that someone be under the hood at all times. Only the telepaths could tolerate long periods of exposure to the Teacher, and there were only two of them; he had been standing watch-and-watch in ten hour stretches since departure from Sanctuary. Twelve days... Just three more and they would be at L'sa'ria. He wondered if it would really be as beautiful as Karli's description.
*********
The somber group formed a tiny circle outside the aft starboard airlock. Mechanically, Toko intoned the words of \Final Orbit\, and the single casket was ejected into the darkness. Tabor had made it back to the ship. The Federation agent had lived three days; it was he who lay in the coffin. As Toko gave the command to return to hyperdrive, the others turned silently away; Marty toward the control room, Korlana toward her quarters. From her wheelchair, Suu squeezed Toko's hand in silent comfort.
*********
In the infirmary, Joei stood looking down at the still, bandage-wrapped form on the bed; she hadn't left his side since they transferred aboard from Licti's cruiser. She knew her brother was unaware of her presence, but it didn't matter... \She\ knew she was there. She'd lost her parents in the Bardarani raid on Summit's Human Sector; Rang was dead -- sacrificed to save their lives; and Jashi was like \this\! Why wouldn't he wake up? "Please don't die, Jashi," she whispered. "You're all I have left!" She laid her head on his chest and cried -- for the hundredth time.
*********
Karli lay on the bed, staring sleeplessly at the ceiling. Less than an hour till time to relieve Tad at the controls, and she had managed only short, intermittent moments of fitful sleep; each time, the nightmare had brought her rudely awake, trembling and soaked with perspiration. Over and over again -- the same graphic, slow-motion replay of Katya's energy beam as it reached out for Jashi, exploding his helmet into tiny pieces and destroying the right side of his face as Karli watched helplessly, her own weapon's powerpack exhausted. She heard again the Princess' cruel laugh of triumph as Jashi fell; saw the projector of the weapon as it swung to bear on her; heard again Katya's scream of frustration as her legless torso became overbalanced, toppling forward to the floor; relived again the gory scene as she ripped the Princess' royal body to shreds with her bare hands. It had taken both Tad and Toko to pull her off.
She shuddered as she remembered their frantic dash for Licti's cruiser in the pouring rain and howling wind, Roi carrying Jashi over his shoulder like a sack of sub-terrainian vegetables, Licti left behind -- Tad's blade thru his heart -- at the bottom of the lift-shaft. Only the storm had saved them from the fire of their pursuers; then it had become their enemy, threatening to destroy them as they lifted off into its fury.
She relived again their twisting, turning flight from near-Sanctuary space aboard Licti's star-cruiser -- somehow avoiding the deadly bolts of energy launched by pursuing Raider ships and Licti's military, until they were outside the system and could go hyper. Faster than the cruiser by ten times, the \Klondike\ had waited five days for them to make rendezvous almost eleven light-years from Falturon.
She thought of Roi and Lito, and puzzled again at their decision to attempt the hazardous voyage to Uzos in Licti's ship. It had been an awkward parting, and she was haunted by their refusal to give a reason for the decision. "Why Uzos?" she asked herself again. True, they had lived on Uzos-Two for several years before signing aboard the \Klondike\, but it wasn't their home-world. She wondered if it had any thing to do with what Roi and Toko had seen on Estara, when they blew the transport facility. Karli knew she'd miss them in the trying days ahead.
She thought of Rang, and she cried. Kind gentle Rang, devastated by the loss of his bondmate -- his pain made all the more intense by her betrayal of them -- selflessly sacrificing himself to save their lives. She thought of Tabor -- unjustly suspected because none of them wanted to believe Mowii could do it -- and was sorry he'd sensed their distrust; only Rang had been willing to face the truth. And Suu... Perhaps the medical expertise of the Keeper could restore her legs -- if not, at least he'd be able to provide better motivation than the crude wheelchair to which she was now confined.
The bed's wake-up call roused Karli from her somber reverie, and she pushed herself to a sitting position. Max jumped into her lap and nuzzled her affectionately; she stroked him, and he began to purr.
Karli gently deposited the contented ball of fluff on the foot of the bed and got to her feet; resolutely she pushed aside her gloomy thoughts as she padded barefoot across the room to the fresher. They had done it, by God! The cost had been high, but the mission was accomplished. Licti and DeCarlo were dead, their evil empire in disarray -- up for grabs by rival factions among the Raiders and other criminals who had used Sanctuary as a base of operations for so many years -- and the natives of Falturon-Six were free of Licti's exploitive rule.
With the transport facility on Estara destroyed, the grasshoppers would again be confined to their own violent world -- for now at least. She wondered who'd end up in possession of the stores of Immunofactor-26 Licti had been hoarding, and the L'sa'rian weapons and transport cases captured when Katya was kidnapped.
Would the Federation survive to restore order to the galaxy? Would the traces of I-26 on Ultazari be sufficient to supply the needs of everyone? In the absence of a functioning galactic authority, who would administer it? The galaxy would be in turmoil for many years to come, with only the strongest surviving; she wondered how Terrans -- so relatively new to interstellar society -- would fare during the reorganization.
Karli stood under the scalding spray of the fresher, her jaw set in grim determination. \They\ would survive. She'd see to it! In three more days they'd be home, safe and secure inside L'sa'ria. Five females and two males -- with the Keeper's help, a sufficient gene pool to establish a healthy population. In just six months, Marty's son would be delivered -- the first-born of a new generation in the native home of their ancient benefactors; a generation whose own descendants would someday return to galactic society -- or disperse to populate the worlds of another.
Karli thought of Jashi. He was alive -- that was the important thing; she prayed that the Keeper would be able to help. Yes, life for the group would go on -- she'd see to that -- but without Jashi, Karli knew she would never again be complete. She shivered as she switched the fresher to icy needle-shower, and for a moment she could feel his arms around her. Tears came unbidden to her eyes; angrily she brushed them away. There was work to be done -- there would be plenty of time to cry later.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
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