Vall's Will (15 page)

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Decision

Will walked
every inch of the ship as they headed for Regency Base. Walking helped her to
focus and to think. When she wasn’t walking, she was delving into the archives,
including those of the Ben Objure, looking for every fragment of data she could
about Resplendents. To Killjorn’s credit, the doctor had tagged what she’d
found, making it easier for Will to locate those specific comments.
Unfortunately, the more she read, the more alarmed she became, until the
thought of facing Vall again was almost an acidic blot churning in the middle
of her stomach.

Despite her
promise to get some rest, Killjorn knew full well that the Captain wouldn’t do
so during their flight to Regency Base. In fact, the woman sometimes knew Will
better than she knew herself.

It was odd, Will
noted, how some friendships blossomed from the first day of a mission, and yet
there were people on her ship she knew only by face, name, and rank, and would
never get to truly know throughout the months and years they worked together.

“Ah.
Believe it or not, this was the last place I expected to find you,” the
sardonic voice said from the doorway.

Will sat up in
bed but kept her monitor on. “Just following doctor’s orders to get some
rest whenever I could.”

Killjorn walked
into the cabin and pulled a seat cushion down from the wall. Letting it hover
near the bed, the physician parked herself on it and proceeded to inspect
Will’s eyes. Will quietly withstood the quick exam.

“You’re
healing nicely, but the toll on your emotions isn’t helping. You need more than
just rest. Looks like the merdridalin I gave you isn’t working. Reminder to
self, up the dosage.” The woman dug into the hip pocket of her uniform and
withdrew a small, disposable injection unit. Will glanced at it.

“What’s
that?”

“Something
else to help give that brain of yours a short vacation.”

“I can’t,
Killy. I’m needed on the bridge.”

“You’re
needed fully focused. Pacing around the ship isn’t helping anyone or anything.
Neither is sitting in front of that monitor for hours on end.”

Before Will
could object, Killjorn placed the unit against her bare wrist. Immediately, a
sense of lassitude began to creep through her bloodstream, bringing with it a
warmth that soothed her without making her thoughts fuzzy.

“There. If
you still need to keep re-reading those passages, at least you’ll be able to
concentrate. But I’d prefer that you close your eyes for at least an hour. Let
your body have a chance to recuperate without any outside interference.”

“Killy…”
Will ran a hand over her scalp and thought she felt the barest hint of stubble
beginning to emerge. “How do you kill a Resplendent?”

Killjorn stared
at her. “What are you thinking, Willis?”

Will noted the
glint of fear in the woman’s eyes. “I’m thinking I have two choices facing
me. In one of them, duty may force me to protect the base against Vall. The
other choice allows me to join him in diffusing the situation with the
Objurians.”

“By
protecting the base, you’re thinking you may have to kill Vall?”

Again, as it had
every time she’d thought of it, the idea roiled like slick acid in her stomach.
“I pray it won’t come to that. I mean…fekk, I don’t know what I
mean.”

“Then let’s
go back and start over. How do you kill a Respendent? Obviously, you can, or
else Vall’s parents would still be alive. If they were, I seriously doubt they
would leave their child in the care of the Ben Objure, and definitely not for
such a long period of time.”

“But the
Ben Objure aren’t that powerful,” Will pointed out. “Their weapons
are useless against us, and we’re considered to be the strongest force in the
twelve galaxies!”

“Let’s not
forget how Vall was able to penetrate Plymon’s shields with ease. Guess that
makes Resplendents stronger than us.”

Will nodded.
“Exactly. So how did they manage to kill a Resplendent?” Leaning over
the bed, she plucked the holo wristlet from the bed covers and turned it on.
The sight of the rampaging creature loomed above them, sending another shiver
of fear through her as she fought off the temptation to imagine the monster as
a replica of what Vall could become. “How did they manage to destroy a
parent protecting his offspring?”

“That’s
probably the very reason.”

“What?”

Killjorn
gestured at the image. “His love for his child made him blind. Irrational.
He probably attacked without thinking. Either there’s very little in the
Objurian archives about how the Ben Objure obtained Vall, or we haven’t found
it. And I’m leaning more toward the latter. But I do know that love is more
powerful than any weapon, or any species, in the known universe. If the creature
was doing everything it could to defend or get its child back, chances are he
took risks. He made mistakes. He may have relied too heavily on his appearance
and his own abilities to pay attention to what was being thrown back at
him.”

Will bowed her head.
“What you’re saying is…love killed him.”

“Yeah. I
guess I am.”

“The same
way love could kill Vall?”

“Or save
him.” Killjorn gave her a hopeful smile. “It works both ways, you
know. Have you heard anything further from base?”

“No, but we
should be receiving something from them any time now.”

“Unless
their communications grid has been compromised.”

Will winced.
“Thanks for being such a ray of sunshine.”

Killjorn let out
a little growl of exasperation. “I can’t believe the Ben Objure would be
so stupid as to attack Regency Base. However, knowing what they want, I can
somewhat understand their reasoning. A hundred and twenty ships. Sounds like
they’ve sent the whole fekking fleet.”

“Don’t
forget, there’s also the possibility they could have other species aiding them.
We still don’t know who was driving the blue ship.”

“Nevertheless,
it’s stupid on their part to try and get him back by bombarding the base. They
must be confident in Vall’s ability to protect himself and survive the
barrage.”

“What if
I’m ordered to destroy him, Killy? What if he’s turned, and I have no other
choice?”

The smile faded
from the physician’s face. “I don’t know why you’re asking me that
question, when you already know the answer.”

“If he’s
turned, what if he doesn’t recognize me? What if he doesn’t remember me?”

“Worrying
about what might or might not happen isn’t an option right now,” Killjorn
stated.

Will nearly
launched herself into the woman’s lap. Clenching her hands in fury, she got
eye-level with the physician. “Worrying is the
only
option I have!
I
have
to think of every possibility, every option, every…
thing
…that
could go wrong. I must be prepared.” Her breath hitched as tears stung her
eyes. “I must be prepared…or I could lose him, Killy. One wrong move,
one bad decision, one false hope, and I could lose him.”

Killjorn
withdrew, but only slightly. “All right. What’s your plan, then? Or do you
have one? Don’t forget, you don’t have your armor. Even if you did, I doubt it
would give you any protection against Vall if he’s gone rabid.”

“I’m going
in to save him.” Now that she’d said it aloud, the idea didn’t seem so
ridiculous.

“And if
he’s turned?”

“I’m going
in to save him.”

“It could
get you killed.”

“If it
does,
then
you have
my
permission to destroy him.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Taken

They were less
than four hours away from Regency Base when they received another direct
communication.

“To all Nion
warships, return to Regency Base immediately! We are under sustained attack by
the Ben Objure and several unknown entities! The star base is demolished! We
have gone underground! To all Nion warships—”

Granth closed
the feed. “That’s all of it. That call went out sixteen hours ago.”

“Magnus,
what’s our window?”

“Three
hours, forty-eight minutes.”

“Captain,
what is your plan of action?” Plymon asked.

The navigator
turned around in his seat. “With that many vessels in the vicinity, when
we jump out of hyperspace, there’s a good chance we could collide with another
ship.”

Will had already
suspected such an occurrence, considering the number of ships already at the
scene, and probably more joining the fray every hour. It was the biggest danger
ships faced when leaving hyperspace, but the majority of the time the chance of
impacting with something sitting right where they emerged was less than
miniscule.

“Let’s
assume the Ben Objure are attacking directly head-on. There’s the chance we can
emerge behind the base.” She glanced at Magnus. “I don’t know if it’s
been done before, but can we get within range of the underground bunkers from
the back side of the planet? Or underneath the planet, out of view of the
attacking vessels?”

“I’ll get
with Felderen and see if we can work it out.”

“Captain!
Incoming communication from the
Legion of Mercy.
”

“On
screen.”

“It’s audio
only, full dispersal to all within range.”

“Pipe it
in.”

A high-pitched
buzzing noise preceded the message. Captain Alamet’s voice was barely recognizable
above the interference.

“—under
attack! I repeat, Regency Base is under attack! To all Nion warships, return
immediately to Regency Base! Be advised, use Command Code Orange! Command Code
Orange! Do not appear within visual range of the base, or you will be
annihilated! I repeat, do not appear within visual range of the base, or you
will be annihilated! To all Nion warships, Regency Base is under attack! I
repeat, Regency Base is under attack! To all Nion warships, return immediately
to Regency Base!”

Granth closed
the communication when Will waved her hand. Beside her, Plymon frowned.
“Code Orange?”

“Refresh my
memory,” she ordered. In all the years of her captaincy, she vaguely
recalled a Code Orange being issued, and even then it didn’t directly affect
her ship. It gave her a small sense of satisfaction to watch Plymon refer to
his monitor.

“Return
fire being sent to enemy ships,” he replied, then raised his head to
glance over at her. “Return fire from an unknown source. Something on the
base is firing back, and it’s not from the base’s weaponry.”

Will felt a
shiver go through her. “The Objurians are being fired upon from Regency
Base? From non-Regency weapons?”

“Who’s
firing back?” Magnus spoke aloud what they all were thinking.

Vall.
It
had to be Vall. There could be no other explanation.
Then what is he using
against them?

“Listen. If
there’s unknown artillery firing from the base, we can’t automatically assume
it’s allied fire. We have to approach them the same way we approach any enemy
or unknown. Magnus, if the front’s taken, where would you go?”

“The rear,
Captain. Or, like you suggested earlier, from beneath.”

“Unless
you’ve come up with a different solution,” Plymon presumed.

Will smiled.
“Magnus, cancel my previous orders. Instead, have us emerge from hyper
space in orbit around Surro Three.”

She was rewarded
with surprised looks from everyone.

“Surro
Three will have us approaching the enemy ships from their rear,” Magnus
observed.

“And hopefully
every other Nion warship facing them will keep them too engaged to notice
us,” Plymon added.

“If
Trinity
can’t get me on base from Surro Three, I can certainly get from Three to
Two using the transport from Two’s bays.”

A hand reached
out and grabbed the back of her chair. Plymon turned her around to face him.
“Your shields aren’t ready. You’ve barely recovered the skinning. I’m
going with you.”

“As are
Peersoff and two more of his men. Granth, send a reply to Captain Alamet. Let
him know we’re responding, but don’t give out any details. For this to work, we
have to be the only ship coming through the back door.”

Will heard the
communications officer begin to reply, when an intense white light suddenly
flooded the bridge. It steadily grew brighter, bringing with it a coldness that
quickly became unbearable.

Around her, she
sensed her crew erecting their shields. Releasing herself from her harness, she
took a couple of steps away from them, knowing they wouldn’t be able to include
her inside with them. And she couldn’t risk touching one of them, or else
suffer excruciating pain from their auras.

Shielding her
eyes, she caught a faint outline within the center of the light. The outline
moved, not quite taking a recognizable form.

The coldness
intensified, until Will could see her breath misting in front of her. It was a
bitter frost that slipped beneath her skin and began to cool the blood in her
veins. Wrapping her arms around herself, she turned to retreat into the small
alcove off the bridge.

Without warning,
a pale arm reached out from brightness. The hand bore almost talon-like fingers
with long, pointed nails. She struggled when it caught her by the upper arm,
but then a voice whispered inside her head.

My Will.

She stopped, and
the figure inside the light solidified.

Vall?

Faintly, she was
aware of people yelling. Someone fired into the brightness.

The form began
to back away, but it pulled her along with it. Unable to free herself, Will
allowed herself to be carried into the core, where the air grew warmer.

In the next
instant, the ship disappeared, and she slipped into the light.