Part 39 (2/2)
”Did we win?” Ray wanted to bite back the question as soon as he asked it. He sounded like some raw recruit in his first live fire exercise.
”I hope this is a victory. I don't know how a defeat could look any worse,” Dancer said through clenched teeth.
”Are any of you left?” Ray asked.
”No,” Dancer sighed, eyes resting on the lance in his belly. Ray was afraid that was his last word. After a moment, Dancer looked up, took in a shallow breath. ”The President got most of us...but you got him.... Unfortunately, in getting him...you got what was left of us.... I guess it's a decent trade.”
”I'm sorry,” Ray said-and discovered he meant it. He'd come to like Dancer.
”I know you are. That's why I'm going to show you something. Lek thought he could keep a secret from me. I kept asking him why, if you didn't like it here, you didn't just go home. He said you wouldn't let them, something about a virus, but I knew, there was more.” Dancer shuddered, coughed up blood. Ray held him as he had so many of his own troops.
”I know the way home, for you,” Dancer whispered. ”You do, too. It's in your head. Along with all the other junk we dumped in. Too much for you to figure out. Too much in there for you ever to find the map yourself. Let me show you.”
Dancer reached up, touched Ray's forehead. Ray went inside. There, among the soaring towers and plunging caves, the history and the fables, was the course on stars.h.i.+p navigation. There was the map of all the jump points, and how you treated each one to get to the place you wanted to go. And there was Wardhaven.
Ray knew the way home.
”Thank you,” he whispered to Dancer. The computer image's eyes were open but unseeing. His mouth gaped wide, but there was no breath. Ray stood one more time to survey the battle scene. Nothing alive moved. The kids were not there; the doc must have pulled them out earlier.
Ray stepped back from the stone, smiled at the doc and the waiting kids, and collapsed onto the floor.
EIGHTEEN.
”I KNOW THE way home,” Ray muttered as he came awake. ”I know the way home,” he told Doc Isaacs as the blur before his eyes coalesced into a human face. ”I'm not delirious. I have the map in my head.”
Ray panicked. Had it only been a dream? But when he rummaged through the mush that was his brain, he found it, found the chart for this system-and for Wardhaven. And the one in between. No wonder Matt couldn't find a way home!
”It's okay, Ray. Matt is headed downsystem right now. We caught him coming in after another try. He wants to hear what you found.”
”What about the others?”
”They're in better shape than you are. The nanos quit working the moment the President died. There were a lot of shamefaced people skulking out of the base yesterday morning, too. With the President gone, sanity, such as we humans claim, returned to a whole lot of people.”
”Casualties?” Ray snapped.
”Surprisingly few, Colonel,” Mary reported from over the doc's shoulder.
”I told you to stay out of here,” Jerry growled without turning to face the marine.
”You're not in the chain of command, Doc,” Mary growled right back, ”and accurate info about his command is bound to help the Colonel more than your potions and spells.”
”The medical profession never gets the respect it deserves from you overgrown children.”
”Our side, their side?” Ray reminded them of his question.
”Two marines, sir. And we managed to keep from killing too many of them. We lost Ca.s.sie.” Ray saw the pain in Mary's drawn face. Her friend, her partner, the one who saved Mary's life and she saved in return had not been saved this time. He nodded.
”She was a miner, never meant for killing. She'd seen too much killing in the war. Couldn't give the order for more. I should have spotted that. Should have relieved her.”
Ray reached for Mary's hand. ”We can't see everything coming, and we can't do everything right.” He swallowed hard at the rejection of his words in Mary's eyes. ”And I stood where you stand after you stopped my brigade, and it took me six months to get where I'm lying today, so I'll give you the time you need, Captain.”
”Thank you, sir.”
Ray nodded. Tired. Exhausted beyond words, he slipped back to sleep. There were things to do, but they could wait.
Ray came awake groggy and grouchy. ”What's a man got to do to get fed around here?”
”Keep your pants on! The doctor is busy!” Jerry shouted.
Ray checked; he wore the usual hospital gown. ”I don't got any pants to keep on. What's so important?”
”This little darling,” Doc said, entering Ray's area with a tiny bundle in hand. ”If you're expecting to be a practicing daddy real soon, you better start practicing.”
On the other side of the slim part.i.tion in Ray's room, an exhausted woman rested in the bed; A proud man/husband/daddy followed close on Doc's heels, as if to make sure the tiny bundle wouldn't take it into its head to vanish.
”Would you mind?” Doc only half-asked the father.
He nodded; even proud dads have a tough time arguing with doctors. Jerry carefully settled the baby in Ray's arms.
Ray flinched. ”That's a.s.suming we can ever go home,” he reminded the doc.
”That little one says you can, Ray.”
Ray looked into the tiny face, eyes open, roaming, quietly taking in this strange new world of light and smells. His heart skipped a beat. Would he ever hold his own little son, daughter? Dare he hope? Dare he risk? Ray started to growl a response to Doc, then felt the gentle touch of those inquiring eyes. He smiled softly into them, stroked a b.u.t.ton nose with his finger, and pitched his voice for new ears. ”Doesn't look like she's saying anything.”
”Her blood will,” Doc said, picking the baby up and depositing her in her father's arms. The dad's teeth clenched at the sight of the small needle Jerry produced to p.r.i.c.k his daughter's heel. The baby took the new sensation in with all the others and answered with only a slight whimper. As Jerry held up his drop of blood, the father took his daughter back to his wife.
”What's in the blood?” Ray asked.
”I told you there were two viruses working on this planet. One caused the brain tumor and has us spooked. The other seemed to adjust our allergic reactions. I suspect it will make it possible for any human to live on any planet ever occupied by the Three. My problem was developing an inoculation against the first virus without inhibiting the second. I've spent the past month, while you soldiers were having so much fun running around,” Doc said dryly, ”working on it. I think I have it; at least it made one virus disappear from my blood after I inoculated myself. If that little girl is clean, and stays clean for the next few days, I'll know I have it under control.”
”You want to give me a shot, too?”
Jerry frowned as he studied the baby's blood at his workstation. ”How much do you want to mess with that map in your head? Your call.”
Ray pulled the sheet up to cover himself, taking little comfort in the added warmth as the very thoughts coursing through his mind chilled him. His people needed the knowledge in his head. No matter what his personal price, he could not let down those who had fought with him, died for him. Maybe they could go home-all except him.
The next day, Ray felt recovered enough to set up a meeting with Matt and the key crew of Second Chance. Lek worked his usual miracle of wires and nets. Closing his eyes, Ray leaned against the stone and found himself in a planetarium. Above him, now-familiar stars moved across the ceiling/sky of Santa Maria. Matt, his XO, and his jumpmaster, Sandy O'Malley, stood at his side.
”Neat setup you got here,” Matt drawled.
”Yeah, I seem to have inherited it. Hope I can figure out how it works.”
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