I could tell from Callum’s creased brow that he was about to fire off another query, which is when events became strange. I saw Alik starting to pour himself another bourbon from his precious vintage bottle. His focus shifted to me, his eyes widening, betraying surprise. Then his fingers began to open, allowing the bottle to fall. My attention flowed to Kandara in the chair next to him, who was grabbing a handful of roast pistachios from a dish. Her formidable muscles were stiffening in a classic threat response. I even saw her forearm flesh ripple as buried peripherals activated. Suspicion and alarm triggered a strong sense of threat within me, and I determined something very wrong was occurring behind my chair. My head started to turn as I heard Callum’s panicked yell begin, and I caught a blur of motion. Jessika was standing behind me, face contorted with effort, her arms gripping a long red pole she was swinging toward me. Instinct forced my own arm up protectively even as I attempted to duck. It was no use at all; she was moving too fast. Then I saw the wickedly sharp head of the fire axe as it expanded into my vision, becoming my whole universe. I even briefly heard the cracking sound of my skull breaking as it struck. Then the blade penetrated my brain—
JULOSS
YEAR 593 AA
Before they left, before every item of human technology in the Juloss star system was reduced to its constituent atoms, they went back to Kabronski Station’s garden for a final nostalgic look. Their marble table by the little waterfall was still there, the elegant koi sliding about in the water just as they always had.
“I feel like we should take them with us,” Dellian said as he watched the fish glide across the pond and vanish under the sluggish waterfall, only to reappear again a few seconds later.
Yirella slipped her arm around his shoulders. “You can’t think like that. Not anymore.”
“I know.”
Together they looked up through the vaulting geodesic glass roof. Juloss was a thick crescent below the station, its terminator line creeping across the Deng Ocean.
“It’s beautiful,” she said wistfully.
“We can come back. When it’s over.”
“That would be nice. I don’t think there would be many of us, though.”
“Really? I bet most of the squad would come. Hell, maybe most of the
She gave him a gentle kiss. “It’s where we were born. It’s where we trained. But home? I don’t think we have one. Not yet. That’s something we have to build for ourselves. Afterwards. Hey, who knows, perhaps the Sanctuary star legend will turn out to be real after all, and we can go and live there.”
He gazed up at the blue-and-white crescent, his mind filling in the continental coastlines on the nightside. “You know, back on Earth they said whole continents were lit up by city lights at night, that they were like miniature galaxies. Can you imagine that? There were so many of us on one world.”
“And look what happened to them. Human worlds can’t afford that kind of population again. Not until we win the war. We have to have enough traveler generation ships to lift everyone off a settled planet in an emergency. Nobody must ever be left behind. Not again.”
“But if we could’ve stayed here…what a world we would have built.”
Yirella rested her cheek on the top of his head. “You really are an old romantic at heart, aren’t you?”
“I just believe in us, that’s all. I mean, look at it!” Dellian gestured extravagantly at the planet. “We did that! It was a lump of naked rock when our ancestors arrived. Fifty years to terraform it. Fifty years—that’s how long it took us to give life to a whole planet! And it’s brilliant.”
“It’s tragic.”
“It’ll still be here when this is all over. We were careful; no signal ever escaped. They don’t know humans were here, and they never will, now.”
“I hope you’re right. All the worlds in this system have terrestrial life on them now—bacteria in the comets, lichen on the asteroids, weird frogs on Cathar’s moons.” She grinned at the memory.
“Damn right. Even if they pulverize Juloss, they can’t eliminate us from this system now. Terrestrial DNA is here to stay. We mutate. We adapt. We evolve every time. In a billion years, this will still belong to our life. Because we rock.” He tilted his head back to kiss her.
Beside them, the waterfall cascade slowly shrank away until only drips were falling from the stony lip. A loud chime sounded across the garden zone.
“Time to go,” Yirella said softly.
They both looked up at Juloss again for a long moment, then made their way along the path to the exit.
—