{"id":504,"date":"2014-05-06T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T04:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=504"},"modified":"2014-05-05T21:56:52","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T01:56:52","slug":"thirty-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=504","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-eight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u2018And then, in the hours in which all hope is lost, a light will shine in the darkness.\u2019\u00a0 Sarah had never looked at me like I was absolutely insane before, but she did when I said that.\u00a0 She asked me why I\u2019d said it\u2014we\u2019d finally won our peace, what I\u2019d said didn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0 I had to tell her that I didn\u2019t know.\u00a0 It\u2019s bothered me in all the years since.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been able to explain it.\u00a0 Maybe someday, someone will figure it out.<\/h3>\n

— From the journal of Ryland LeSarte<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

19 Decem, 5249 PD<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cDeacon Black, you bastard!\u00a0 What took you so long?\u201d<\/p>\n

Relief threatened to leave him shaking as Adam leaned against a nearby console.\u00a0 The sound of a familiar, friendly ghost from his past was more than enough to do that.\u00a0 They\u2019d known each other on Mimir before the end of the Psychean Guard.\u00a0 The last Adam had known, his old friend had been teaching at a war college on New Earth\u2014a posh academic position that let his bloodline be quietly forgotten.<\/p>\n

The Black family had been heroes of the Rose Foundation back in the days of Farragut and LeSarte.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you know, I had to find a ship that I liked and that was harder than I thought\u2014you lot didn\u2019t order much variety, did you?\u201d\u00a0 The faint sound of a proximity alarm sounded in the background of the transmission.\u00a0 \u201cWe can resume this once I\u2019m done dealing with the trouble in orbit.\u00a0 Tell your fighters to stay out of our fire-lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRoger that.\u201d\u00a0 Adam glanced at one of the techs, who nodded quickly and cut in another line, one to the fighter squadrons that had disobeyed orders and stayed to fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cFriend\/foe just came online,\u201d Tomasi said from behind him.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re broadcasting Psychean Guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got the Mission Systems ships,\u201d Adam murmured, staring at the video feeds.\u00a0 \u201cThey couldn\u2019t be anything else.\u201d\u00a0 Not broadcasting the Guard identifiers, anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n

He felt the brush of his wife\u2019s thoughts against his and smiled.\u00a0 Rachel must have sensed the abrupt shift from dread to relief.\u00a0 We\u2019ll make it through this one\u2014by the skin of our teeth, but we\u2019ll make it.<\/em><\/p>\n

The black ships came about, swinging toward the newcomers, their attack on the surface forgotten.\u00a0 Adam sucked in a deep breath as he watched Deacon\u2019s ships continue to pour fire on the black ships, his heart beating hard against his breast.\u00a0 The engines of one ship flared, then died.\u00a0 Another began to run, trying to knife its way through the formation of newly-arrived ships only to meet its end in a flare of brightness after successfully running the gauntlet, the damage inflicted by broadsides too much to survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so the tide turns,\u201d Adam murmured to himself, watching the video feeds.<\/p>\n

Then he smiled.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2022<\/p>\n

The distant sounds of the all-clear signal roused Alana from the strange half-sleep she\u2019d drifted into.\u00a0 Ezra was still with her, still holding her as they perched on the edge of the cot in the shelter beneath his clinic.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were going to go find your comm,\u201d she said in a shaky voice.\u00a0 Even though he\u2019d given her a full dose of the usual painkillers not too long before, she\u2019d already decided it wasn\u2019t nearly enough.\u00a0 Her arm ached with every heartbeat and her head throbbed in time with her pulse, too.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just falling apart in my retirement, aren\u2019t I?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t figure out how to lay you down without jostling your arm funny and waking you up,\u201d Ezra said as he released her.\u00a0 \u201cStay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re sounding the all-clear,\u201d Alana said, cradling her bad arm against her belly.\u00a0 \u201cWe can go back up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to make it all the way up the stairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

She set her jaw, eyes narrowing.\u00a0 \u201cI will if I\u2019ve got to.\u00a0 We have to make sure they\u2019re okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ezra apparently knew better than to ask who she was talking about.\u00a0 His lips brushed her temple and he started on the hunt for his comm.\u00a0 \u201cJust stay put,\u201d he said again.\u00a0 \u201cLet me handle this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll need my help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlana.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEz, please.\u201d\u00a0 She bit her lip, hating herself for the lump building in her throat.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t make me wait on the sidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stared at her for a long moment, then exhaled a sigh.\u00a0 \u201cFine.\u00a0 Wait here, I\u2019ll go find your sling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank\u00a0 you,\u201d she whispered, watching him turn away and head for the stairs, the blast door above.\u00a0 Alana sucked in a pair of ragged breaths, trying to pretend that amputation of her arm wouldn\u2019t have been preferable to the pain she was experiencing.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve felt worse.\u00a0 Deal with it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Of course, she was lying to herself.\u00a0 This was worse than anything she\u2019d ever felt before\u2014worse than it had been when the cyberware had gone in by a factor of ten.<\/p>\n

Her vision swam and she wavered on the edge of the bed.\u00a0 Hold it together.\u00a0 You have to go up there, see what\u2019s going on, see what\u2019s happened.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019re okay.\u00a0 They have to be.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAlana.\u201d<\/p>\n

She startled, eyes blinking open, the lids heavy.\u00a0 She hadn\u2019t heard Ezra come back.\u00a0 \u201cDid you find it?\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d\u00a0 He held up the sling even as he pressed his hand against her forehead, against her cheek.\u00a0 \u201cBut you\u2019re burning up.\u00a0 Lay down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I have to\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

His fingers laced through her hair and she shivered.\u00a0 His hands felt cold.\u00a0 Maybe she really was<\/em> spiking a fever again.\u00a0 Ezra\u2019s lips brushed her forehead and she whimpered, her eyes fluttering shut.<\/p>\n

\u201cEzra,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n

\u201cSleep.\u201d He eased her down against the pillow at the end of the bed and tucked a blanket over.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll make sure all of them are okay.\u00a0 I promise.\u00a0 Just stay here so I don\u2019t have to worry about you, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tears welled up behind her closed eyelids.\u00a0 His fingers brushed against her cheek and she leaned toward the touch, her heart aching as much as her head, as much as her arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cSleep,\u201d he said again, then pressed a pain patch against the joint between her neck and shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cI love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever he injected into her arm after that sent her sinking down into the soft, quiet oblivion of sleep.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t even hear him walk away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018And then, in the hours in which all hope is lost, a light will shine in the darkness.\u2019\u00a0 Sarah had never looked at me like I was absolutely insane before, but she did when I said that.\u00a0 She asked me … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-two-ashes-to-ashes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p25yjF-88","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}