The greatest gift Sarah Farragut ever had to give was her love.  Her capacity for it was as boundless as her wisdom to know who deserved it and who deserved a swift kick in the ass.  Often, I found myself with the dubious honor of being the recipient of both, sometimes at the same time.

— Ryland LeSarte

 

29 Novem, 5249 PD

Cool fingers wrapped around his as he lay on his stomach, his head pounding dimly.  He could feel warmth wash over him and he took a deep, quiet breath before he opened his eyes, squinting against light that still seemed too bright even though intellectually, he knew it was very dim.  “Hi Lin,” he murmured softly, squeezing her fingers.  “When is it?”

Lindsay smiled down at Commander Brendan Cho, gently brushing the fingers of her free hand across his forehead.  “Nine days since you came home.  How’re you feeling?”

“Like I could take my head off and carry it around underneath my arm like a ball,” Brendan murmured.  “That’d probably be more comfortable.  Do I look as terrible as I feel?”

She laughed quietly.  “No.  No, you don’t, Brendan.  You actually look…well, pretty normal except for the raccoon eyes right now.”  She leaned in and kissed his ear gently.  He exhaled, slumping a little against the mattress and squeezing her fingers again.  “Ezra said you can come home in a few days as long as nothing pops up.”

“Nothing like what?”  He murmured.  “Infection?  Something else?”

“Maybe more like something else.  He wants me to mostly be around for the first few days, to keep an eye on you.”  She stroked his temple with the backs of her fingers, smiling down at him.  “They’ve spent the past week trying to keep me distracted and now they want me to turn around and think about nothing else.  Ironic, huh?”

Brendan smiled, bloodshot eyes glimmering.  “I wouldn’t mind a couple days shut away with you.”  He rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand.  “I missed you, Lin.  Was afraid I’d never see you again.”

“You promised me you’d come home.  I knew you wouldn’t break that promise.”  She leaned forward, crossing her arms along the edge of the mattress and looking him in the eye.  She ruffled his hair gently, expression softening.  “Things are starting to happen.  It’s all beginning.”

“What’s happening?  What you saw?  What we saw?”  He felt sick all of a sudden, bile rising as he thought of the visions that had knocked her flat for days, the visions that were the harbingers of war to come.  Not a good time for me to feel like shit on a cracker.  Can’t afford that.  Not enough combat pilots.  Not enough people to train combat pilots.

            Shit.  I’ve got work to do and I went and scrambled my own brains and now I can’t do it.  Not right now, anyway.

“Not yet.  But there’s rumblings.”  She brushed a fingertip along his jaw.  “Someone attacked the Whispers.  It’s…it’s just gone.”

The Whispers?  Who the hell would have it out for the Whispers?  The Wanderers never bothered anyone and the Whispers is barely worth the rock it’s carved from.  Brendan’s brow furrowed.  “Who did it?  Do we know?”

Lindsay shook her head slightly.  “We don’t.  Not yet.  Reports say there aren’t many survivors.  Some are on their way here, but we don’t know how many.  Initial reports were saying there weren’t any, but we found out that was wrong.  A Mission Systems ship headed in on a sweep of the system to try to corroborate the data that you guys brought back.  They foundsome survivors, but we’re not sure how many yet.  They should be landing soon.”  She continued to stroke his cheek gently.  “I’m probably going to help process them.  I’ve been doing that kind of thing lately.”

“Really?”  Brendan struggled to raise an eyebrow at her, feeling sluggish.  “Have there been a lot of refugees?”

“A shipload of Compact refugees.  A lot of kids, Brendan.  Maybe half of them were under fifteen.  Most of the rest weren’t much older.”  She sighed quietly, brow creasing.  “It’s hard, listening to them talk about what they were facing, what they ran from.  They want to be here, though.  Because it’s safe for them.”

“But for how long?”  Brendan whispered, brow furrowing slightly.  “Have you seen anything?”

“No,” she said softly.  “Not about a war.  Nothing like that.”

His brow furrowed.  “But you’ve seen other things.”

Lindsay nodded.  “Nothing that important.  Most of it’s already happened.  I saw them carrying you off the ship.  That was the one I worried about.  Because it was about you and I didn’t know…well.  I didn’t know what had happened or anything.”

Brendan nodded slightly and winced as pain spiked from the back of his skull straight through, like a spike shoved from the base of his skull all the way through to between his eyes.  “Ooh,” he hissed, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment.  “Remind me not to do that again.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think so.”  He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.  “I just need to remember not to move my head for a little while, that’s all.  That hurt like a son of a bitch.”  He opened his eyes again, hand inching toward her face.  “Did he get it all?  I don’t have to go under again, do I?”

“No, he got it all,” Lindsay said, kissing his fingers as they quested near her chin.  “Like I said, you can come home in a few more days.  It’ll be nice to have you home. It’ll be nice to be home.”

His brow creased slightly.  “You haven’t been home?”  Why wouldn’t she be at home?

“No, I’ve been staying with Aunt Rachel and Uncle Adam.”

Uncle Adam…that still confuses me.  “Since when is Marshal Windsor ‘Uncle Adam,’ Lin?  I don’t get that.”

“Oh,” she said softly, the word little more than an exhaled breath.  “Yeah…I forgot.”

“You forgot?”  Forgot what?  That he was your uncle somehow?  Or that I didn’t know?  Or that you hadn’t told me?  “I didn’t know you were related to him.”

“Yeah.  He and Aunt Rachel…well.  They kept it a secret for a long time.  There was no way for you to know because no one talked about it.  They’ve been apart for most of my life.  They’re finally…not apart anymore.”  She brushed her fingers through his hair.  “I’m sorry I never told you.  I wasn’t supposed to.”

“Your mother told me they were married,” Brendan said distantly.  “I kind of thought she was joking.  It just…didn’t make any sense.  Marshal Windsor and Rachel.”

“They’ve been Bonded for thirty years, Brendan.  Since before we were born.  They kept it a secret from everyone.  I don’t know why they stopped being together.  I just remember him leaving to set up a new base and her being sad and cutting her hair and him not coming back.  It was before you crashed, though not that long.  After that, I just kind of stopped thinking about it.”  Lindsay shrugged a little.  “They’re back together, now.  They both seem a lot happier.”  She stroked his hair again.  “I’ve been staying there because I didn’t want to be alone.  Marshal Rose is staying with them, too.”

“And your parents, too, now?”

Lindsay laughed a little.  “Yeah.  It’s getting crowded, so it’ll be nice to get home.  With you.”

Brendan smiled a little.  “Ezra said a few days?”  It didn’t feel like he’d be ready to move in a few days, but Ezra wasn’t often wrong about these things.

“Yeah.  Did you want to talk to him about it?”

“Mm.  Later.  Where is he, anyway?”

“I think he’s checking on some batches of tissue he cultured for Alana.”

Tissue for Alana?  “Is she all right?”  As much as they didn’t get along most of the time, the last thing that Brendan ever would have wanted to see was the deadly blonde hurt.  It’s only been nine days since we got back.  Did she get hurt on the run and I didn’t know, or did something happen—

            Damnation, did something happen here?

“No, no, it’s nothing like that.” Lindsay smiled.  “She’s fine.  She’s just finally getting her arm taken care of.”

Brendan’s brow furrowed.  “Really?”  With a war coming?  She’s going to get that deconstructed?  He had no doubt that Alana would be as good as new by the time Ezra was done with her, but limb reconstruction took time, and Alana’s arm had been the way it was for decades.  Won’t make her that much less deadly to not have the neurotoxin injectors in her fingers, but still.

“Yeah, really.  I guess she’s finally tired of being a soldier.”

Brendan laughed weakly.  “She picked a terrible time to retire.”

“Or a perfect time.”  Lindsay smiled wryly.  “Too bad you’re too young for that.”

Brendan choked on his laugh, reaching up and combing his fingers through her hair.  “Would you really want me to retire, Lin?  I haven’t given nearly enough back to the Foundation for what it’s done for me.”  He rested his palm against her cheek.  “Besides, how am I supposed to keep you safe if I retire?”

She laughed weakly.  “Outside of a cockpit,” she answered, kissing his palm.  “But I think Uncle Adam might have a coronary if you retired.  He’s already antsy for you to get back to training pilots.”

Brendan snorted softly.  “That’ll happen sooner than I’ll get back into the cockpit,” he admitted.  “Has he complained at all about how the training’s been going since I was gone?”

“No,” Lindsay said.  “But I can ask him to come see you if you really want to know.”  She smiled a little, starting to stroke his hair again.  “He’ll probably yell, though.  Wonder why you wanted to talk to him instead of me.”

“Business and pleasure.”  Brendan smiled, closing his eyes for a moment.  “I’ve got a job to keep you safe and I can’t do that unless the pilots are good enough to not crash into each other while they’re shooting down the bad guys.  Hopefully they won’t have to be doing that anytime soon.”  Something tells me that’s going to be happening sooner rather than later, though.  He blew out a quiet breath and opened his eyes again.  “So they hit the Whispers, huh?”

Lindsay nodded slightly.  “Yeah.  Nothing else yet.”

“Hopefully they won’t hit anything else soon.”

Lindsay shrugged a little, resting her head on the mattress next to his.  “I don’t know, Brendan.  I know they’re going to hit something else, I just don’t know what or when or who’s doing the hitting.  I wish I did.  Maybe then I could make a difference in the outcome.”

His fingers brushed over her pale hair as he frowned a little.  “Don’t try to shoulder the universe, Lin.  Just because sometimes you see the future doesn’t mean that it’s your job to save humanity from itself.  No can do that.”

“The Foundation’s trying.”

“And look at about how many people are listening.”  He smiled wryly.  “You can save us, Lin.  But you can’t save everyone.”

She sighed.  “I know,” she murmured.  “I know that.  Intellectually, I know that.  But tell that to the heart of me, Brendan, and make me believe it.  I just keep thinking that I have this gift for a reason.”

“You do,” he said.  “You have it to help the people that are willing to listen.  Most of the people here.  You’re the Oracle because people believe you’re the Oracle, Lin.  Because they believe in you, believe in what you see and believe that maybe, just maybe, that with knowledge of what’s to come we can change it for the better.”  He ran his thumb along her cheek.  “You’re amazing and you have an amazing gift.  But you can’t save everyone by yourself.  Even Ryland LeSarte didn’t get believed by everyone, right?”

Her expression softened, brows knitting a little as she stared at him.  “I love you,” she whispered.

Brendan smiled.  “I love you, too.”

“Promise me you won’t leave again?”

He smiled a little wider and rubbed her cheek gently with his thumb.  “I promise.  Never again.  You’re stuck with me.”

Her lips brushed his and he closed his eyes.  He had no intentions of ever leaving the system ever again.