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Chapter 20

"They were waiting for us," Stargazer said when Strong Soul burst through the hatch onto the bridge.

She took only a moment to look through the windows to the swirling colors in the blackness that was hyper outside the window. It was a view that she'd come to love, spending as much time as they did within its confines. This time, though, when she looked out the windows, she could see small specks that weren't supposed to be there. She took in the view on the monitor as she threw herself into her familiar seat.

"What are they?" she asked.

"Hawks," Stargazer answered. "Five of them in sensor range, but there's probably more. Knowing the Alliance, they would have sent at least ten for an interdiction like this. Two at the gate and eight on the other side of the wall."

"Can we outrun them?" Strong Soul asked.

"We were lucky with our course when we came across. There is no way for another ship to know when someone is going to come across the wall, or where if they don't cross at a gate. It appears they were not expecting us to jump as we did."

"So is that a yes?"

"It is a maybe."

Strong Soul suppressed a growl of annoyance and closed her eyes, laying her head back on the headrest. All around her, she felt the press of mind glows, Stargazer's, First Spark's, Night Star's and the new, much different one that surrounded them all. That was Micah. What she felt from him was the endless calm of his eternally analytical mind. He wasn't discouraged or frightened, he was merely calculating.

There were Mrr'tani on the ships around them as well, and now that she wasn't pulling Night Star's ability over her like a protective blanket, she could feel their mind glows as well. They were from every different clan, and by the taste of them, she could tell that some of them were but slaves on the large cruisers while others were hungry for a chase.

"Micah," she asked quietly, "can we outrun them?"

"The closest cruiser was at rest when we entered hyper and they are just now beginning to accelerate. We still have our residual acceleration and velocity from our crossing, so for now, we have the advantage."

"Okay, continue on our current course, maximum acceleration. Let's put as much distance between them and us as possible while we can."

"Engines on line, throttling to maximum," Micah answered.

All around her, the energy pulsed as the ship came more fully to life. With the power output of the engines added to the systems, she could sense Micah's mind even more strongly around hers.

"May I touch your mind again, Micah?" she asked.

"Please," Micah responded.

She smiled. She heard the longing in his soft voice over the speakers and while she sought his glow with hers, she wondered if it was possible for him to have feelings the way they did. He was only a machine, confined to the circuitry of the Mrr'tani Pride, but as she'd gotten to know him over their travels, she had begun to think of him as something so much more. Her mind touched his again and they flowed together and once again, she increased her estimation of his humanity, for within the electrical pulses and the calculations that made up his mind, she did, indeed, find a small glimmer of longing, of desire to touch their physical world again.

She smiled and breathed a sigh of happiness, echoing Micah's own in her mind.

"Keeper," Stargazer said, "are you all right?"

"We are fine," she answered. She blinked as she heard her voice come from her own lips and also from the speakers on the bridge.

A moment later, the link was fully formed and she felt herself as the Pride, floating in the endless black of hyper with the waves making trails around her. Her eyes and ears and fingers were the cameras and sensors mounted on the hull, but she could also see through her physical eyes, the monitor in front of her seat another source of input.

<How long do we have?> she asked.

<See for yourself,> Micah answered.

Her mind opened and filled with calculations and constantly updating charts showing their acceleration compared to the cruisers. She had never felt her mind working so fast before, and even as her mind registered that she saw the charts and the maps, they were gone, though she was still able to recall every detail of them.

"Six hours," she said in the strange dual voice of earlier. "The cruisers will be in grappling range in six hours. What can we do to make that longer?"

"Hyper wave?" Stargazer suggested.

She flicked a switch in her mind and brought up those calculations, a constantly updating complex variable equation that was never stable long enough for her to really register any value, but after a moment's thought, she comprehended exactly what it meant.

"Too long."

"Stand by," Micah's voice said over the speakers.

Strong Soul turned her mind inward even further and found Micah working with the numbers, adding in course corrections and acceleration figures to the Hyper wave calculation. He was blindingly fast. So much so that all she could comprehend was an overall sense of what he was doing, though the different numbers had an effect on his mind glow, some weakened it, some strengthened it. Deep inside, her mind seemed to shift, and after it did, she started to discern pulses of happiness and anxiety or frustration. They were short, and seemed completely independent of each other, but they were all related to the numbers in the calculations.

"Come to course one eight four mark zero zero five," Micah said finally.

Her hands moved on the controls and the Pride responded, shedding some of her precious acceleration as they made the turn. She could see the time estimate dropping even faster as she turned, but once they were on their new course, the prediction's decrease slowed, back to its original rate. They had just over five hours now.

<This will not be pleasant for you,> Micah said in her mind. <You would do well to secure the holds and yourselves to acceleration-capable seating.>

<What are you doing?> Strong Soul asked.

<A hyper wave will be forming along our course in three hours. We will intercept it, but we will do so almost perpendicular to its course.>

<What does that mean?>

<The acceleration that will be achieved will be very dangerous. Even with the inertial compensators, there is a ninety percent probability that it will render all organic beings within the ship unconscious. Without appropriate padding, your bodies may suffer damage.>

<What about Night Star?>

<The med bay couch has sufficient restraint and padding. He will survive. Now go prepare.>

Strong Soul felt the gentle nudge of Micah's mind against hers and she slowly swam back to herself, leaving behind the digital world in which the AI dwelt.

"We have to go," she said to Stargazer when she was once again aware of herself. "We're going to make it, but it's not going to be fun."

"What are you doing?" he asked. There was a suspicious tone in his voice, and she knew that he didn't completely trust Micah.

"We're going to be hitting a wave crossways."

"You know that has killed more than one crew," he said, "even Night Star wouldn't try something like that."

"We don't have a choice," Strong Soul said, holding his eyes. "What would you rather? Try this and die or end up with them? What do you think will happen to me and First Spark, or you and Night Star when they take us?"

Stargazer held her eyes for a moment and then finally dropped them. "Very well, keeper," he said, still concerned, but she knew that he would do what was needed.

"Good. Get to First Spark, help her secure Night Star and the med bay. I'm going to the hold. When everything's tied down, I'll meet you there and we can finish the rest of the ship."

Stargazer nodded and made his way off the bridge, but Strong Soul stayed behind.

"Micah?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, Strong Soul?"

"Thank you."

She never would have thought to say it before she touched his mind, but what she felt there when she was liked with him was something just as deep as any other mind she'd touched. She'd considered him only a computer program before, but she knew that he was so much more.

"You're welcome, Keeper of Hearts," he said.

Strong Soul's eyes widened and she looked sharply up at the speaker.

"You are not the only one who touched a new mind today, Keeper," he said. "But now isn't the time. Go and prepare, we'll speak when you're safe."

"Micah," she said, standing up out of her chair, "if this doesn't work and doesn't kill us, I want you to vent the ship."

Micah was silent for a moment.

"Venting the ship will kill all biological life forms on board."

"I know," she said. "But this is very important, Micah. They can not take me and First Spark, no matter what happens. You've seen inside my mind, and you know why. I'm giving you an order as the acting captain. If this ship is taken, you will vent the atmosphere and kill everyone on board and then you will set the engines to overload."

"Very well, Keeper," Micah said. His voice was deceptively calm considering what she was asking of him, and she longed for someone physical that she could embrace. It may have made it harder to give that order, though, if she had to look someone in the eye and give it. Perhaps it was for the best.

She took a breath and ducked out the door and off the bridge, resisting the urge to look back over her shoulder in the fear that she wouldn't see it again. She had much to do and little time in which to do it.

The cargo hold was easy enough to secure. The way that Night Star ran the Pride between stars, everything was mostly secured every time they lifted off from a planet. The last time they left New Mecca, they'd already secured all the containers with their grav straps and the only thing she had to do was put her range gear away in her crate and then get it stowed in its proper place. Then it was simply a matter of going back over the hold to check all the connections.

The galley and her quarters were another matter. Everything had a place, though, and it was simply a matter of putting everything where it belonged and shutting the doors. She was sure that Stargazer had done the same in his quarters before he went to help First Spark in the medical bay. With Micah's help, she stowed Night Star's belongings as well, but there wasn't much to that. He had all but moved into Strong Soul's quarters from the moment she was brought on board, and most of his things were already secured. When she was done, she took a last look from the door and then closed the hatch and made her way to the medical bay.

Stargazer and First Spark were already there, and from the look of things, they had everything well in hand. A soft blanket covered Night Star's still form on the bed and an iridescent blue glow about him told her that the acceleration buffer was active on the bed. The two of them were finishing up stowing all of the loose equipment and the last cupboard door closed when Strong Soul walked through the door.

"Everything in the hold is secure," she said, looking around. "Is everything ready here?"

"Yes," Stargazer answered. "Everything is ready."

"Come on, then," Strong Soul said, gesturing to the both of them.

Stargazer and First Spark walked through the door and Strong Soul took a moment to look back at Night Star, his mind glow still bright. She gave him a mental caress and then turned to follow the other two. She didn't have to tell them where they were going, Stargazer merely led First Spark down the corridor to Strong Soul's quarters. She palmed them in and then closed the door behind them. A quick check of the clock on the wall told her that they were running short on time.

She guided First Spark to the bed first and then laid down behind her. Then Stargazer slid in behind her, his large body more than covering her.

"Micah," Strong Soul said, "activate the inertial buffer on the acceleration bed in my quarters."

A soft blue glow surrounded them and lit the room, casting its hue over everything in her quarters. Everything looked much different in the light, even with the steady normal lighting still around them. She could see the clock on the wall across from them and her eyes refused to look away as it steadily counted down. It wasn't until Micah's voice sounded over the speakers just before the clock reached zero that she let herself close her eyes and hold tightly to her friends.

"Rigging sails...now," Micah said.

The ship lurched harder than anything Strong Soul had ever felt, and even with the compensators in the ship turned to full and the extra protection offered by the buffer in the bed, she still felt the acceleration pushing her. With the buffer in place, though, the force was redirected, pushing her into the soft padding of the mattress instead of flinging the three of them out of the bed and plastering their bodies across the wall. She opened her eyes in time to watch a piece of clothing that was overlooked turn into a missile, hurtling faster than she ever thought possible across the room, and the sound it made when it hit the wall made her very glad that they were held inside the buffer.

"Acceleration at thirty percent," Micah said.

Strong Soul had never felt anything like it physically, the weight of ten of her pushing down on her body, but worse was what was going on inside her head. She could feel First Spark's fear, raw and ragged at the very forefront of her mind, the primal emotion blasted there by the force of the events. Stargazer was much calmer behind her, his quiet faith seemingly misplaced, but it at least worked to keep the fear from overwhelming her own mind. He was always a well of strength and stability that she could find even in the midst of chaos around her. Right there beside her as well was Night Star. His mind glow was strong and steady and he was only aware of the outside world through the link, though she could feel his concern, both for her and for Micah as he realized just what it was they were doing.

There were others, though. The Mrr'tani on board the pursuing ships. The surprise was palpable, something she could taste, but it was tinged with something else. It held a fear behind that shock, and when she felt it, she suddenly understood. They were the ones controlling the ships in reality. They were the ones manning the engines, turning the orders of their human masters into actions within the ships. She knew that the masters wouldn't be the ones that took the blame for their escape. The humans weren't like that, at least many of the ones who would have risen through the ranks of the Allied Planets navy.

As she touched those minds, she could feel her links flaring once again, the stress of their escape seeking something to hold on to, some new release valve for the pressure building in her mind. She couldn't force any more into any of her companions, they were full to the brim, and if she let them have any more, they would burst, just like Jacques when she did it to him. But out there were hundreds of minds, just begging to be connected. Some were her clan, and there were many others as well, and right now, it didn't seem to matter that there was that separation. Her mind simply wanted the connection and she didn't care where it came from.

With a cry strangled by the weight pushing in on her, she finally let down the wall that was separating her from the others. She felt her power reach out and touch every last one of the Mrr'tani whose minds sought it out. Wherever it touched, that mind flared in hers, linking them together. She was getting used to the feeling of being many in the same mind and different bodies, so when her vision split again, it wasn't the shock that it was the first time it happened. At first it was overwhelming, seeing through so many eyes at the same time. It was a confusing jumble of images and feelings and sounds. Then she started to narrow it down, discarding the irrelevant stimuli and focusing on the ones that she needed. This wasn't just for her to relieve the pressure, there was another purpose behind it.

Images flashed through her mind, scenes of Mrr'tani in brightly lit and clean corridors, walking past sleek doors set into the walls. Then there were the views of the Mrr'tani engineers staring at the engine cores in the pursuing ships. There were others, but she could tell by the amount of activity present which ships were the ones pursuing, and she started to filter even more. She wanted the Mrr'tani in the engine rooms, not the ones that were on the periphery. Little by little, Keeper of Hearts began to sift through their feelings, finding the ones that were the most sympathetic to her.

There were a few that felt the touch of her mind and responded with panic and alarm beyond the normal shock of feeling a Mother's Mrr'ouwff. These she knew were the collaborators. They were the ones that would most likely sound the alarm. While she sorted through the links, trying to find the minds she did want, she kept track of the ones that she needed to watch. Touching Micah's mind had given her more insight than she'd realized as she started to catalog all of them in the back of her mind.

When she'd found the collaborators in the engine rooms, she screamed down the Mrr'ouwff in to their mind, filling it with noise to crowd out everything else. It wasn't the surge of power that she'd felt in Airgidbaile, but it was something similar. She felt them collapsing and writhing with what she was putting them through. Images from Catcher of Souls and the Night of Blood came to her mind unbidden and she redoubled her effort, screaming and pushing until every last one was unconscious. Two of the weaker minds didn't survive the onslaught and she said a silent prayer for them, knowing that there was nothing anyone could do to bring them back.

Once the collaborators had been dealt with and the humans were busy tending to them, distracted from the other Mrr'tani, she found the ones most loyal and most faithful, the ones whose minds had reacted to the Mrr'ouwff with joy and happiness, and she let her mind flow into theirs. She focused on one ship to start, her vision flowing into the engineers' and her mind took in everything that it could as she did. All over the ship, Mrr'tani pushed buttons and entered commands into computers and within minutes, the ships gravity sails had been disabled so thoroughly that nothing short of a shipyard would get them back on-line.

"Acceleration at fifty percent," she barely heard Micah's voice announce. "Cruiser Alpha one one breaking off. Alpha one two still closing on hyper wave."

She only had a limited amount of time before the other cruiser would make the wave, and they had much more powerful shields and inertial compensators than the Pride. She knew that if they intersected the wave, they would eventually catch them, it was only a matter of time. Feeling the pressure build, she backed out of the minds she was in and slid her thoughts to the ones that she'd already identified in the second cruiser.

One look through the eyes of her chosen engineers told her that she was too late to accomplish what she had with the first cruiser. They were already setting to rig their sails.

Blow the capacitors, a strange voice said in her mind. A quick series of images flashed through her mind, showing exactly how to do it, and exactly what it would do. She pulled back her mind in horror and shook her head.

No, she thought, that will kill too many.

There's no choice. You're the one that they're waiting for, and if you don't escape, then there won't be an end to the death and suffering.

She nodded silently, her logical brain warring with the feeling of desolation in her mind as she started to work on what she'd seen. Every tap on the screen, every push of the buttons brought the reality of her end result further into her head. She put every bit of concentration and focus into what she was doing, trying to get it done sooner. She recruited more and more of the Mrr'tani on the ship into her plan and the ones that weren't working on setting it up, she sent to the Mrr'tani in the forward sections, warning them of what was coming. She couldn't save them all, but the ones that could took refuge where they would most likely survive.

And then it was done and with a flash of apology, she sent the thought that would set it all in motion. It was a simple thing, merely a thought that put one Mrr'tani on the cruiser into action, a simple tap of the screen and it was all over.

She didn't want to watch it happen, but now that she'd opened the gates, there was no closing them. Her mind was too full of the others, too connected to shut it all down, and regardless of what she wanted, she was helpless. She could only sit by and watch as the forward capacitors in the pursuing cruiser charged to their capacity, ready to deploy the sail that would take the cruiser into the wave that the Pride was already mostly turned into. The ready lights lit on the consoles in front of her many eyes and then winked out, replaced by the crimson lights of warnings that lit throughout the ship. Alarms wailed as they charged past their designed threshold. The ship shook beneath the Mrr'tani who were linked to her and with the single explosion, she felt a moment of pain, greater than anything she'd ever felt before, and dozens of the links flared and died, leaving her more empty than she was before.

The remaining Mrr'ouwffi let her feel the terror and single-minded purpose of the others still alive on the cruiser. The ship was still headed into the hyper wave and the others fought to keep it from intersecting and tearing the ship apart. Strong Soul watched, still overcome with the power that was lost in those initial moments, but finally, she pulled her mind together and began to link the other Mrr'tani to each other, using herself as a conduit. With the look into each others minds and the linking of all their thoughts, the response to the emergency streamlined, each Mrr'tani doing their job to help the others.

"Acceleration at one hundred percent. Wave direction matched. Deploying after sail," Micah announced.

Strong Soul still paid no attention, barely recognizing that Stargazer was stirring behind her, deactivating the buffer around the bed. She was still too focused on the other ship, giving the last of her attention to the Mrr'tani on board, finally pulling back when she saw through one set of eyes that the course was sufficiently changed to allow the rest of the crew to survive.

She still couldn't shut down the Mrr'ouwffi no matter what she tried, but she could pull back, using what she'd learned over the course of her travels to shove the links to the back of her mind. She wouldn't be able to get rid of them until they crossed back over the hyper barrier or until she was able to get Night Star awake again.

Still, despite the pressure in the back of her head, she opened her eyes and found Stargazer kneeling by the side of the bed, a look of worry on his face. She brought his link to the front and gave him a gentle nudge as she tried to smile.

"I'm alright," she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. Her throat hurt and the sound that came from her lips made the look on Stargazer's face suddenly understandable.

"With the way you were screaming, I could not be sure," he said quietly. "I felt it as well, but from a distance."

Strong Soul nodded. First Spark was shaking against her and she looked down, still holding her tightly. The girl's eyes were open but staring off into the space of the room. Strong Soul brought her to the fore again and set about trying to calm her mind. She hadn't meant for either of them to feel what she felt, or even know what she'd done, but they all knew, and when she tasted Night Star's link, she found the glow of approval tinged with sadness at what it had cost.

Slowly, First Spark's tremors eased and she still held her tight, whispering a quiet song into her ears as she soothed her mind even more. Finally, she pet the girl between her ears and then slid out from behind her. She could see First Spark's eyes falling shut and she gave her a last stroke against her fur.

"Rest, First Spark. I'll take care of Night Star."

First Spark nodded and her eyes shut the rest of the way as she drifted off to sleep.

Strong Soul stood and started for the door with Stargazer following. Together they made their way to the bridge, finding the familiar swirls of color through the window that told her they were safely riding the wave.

"Micah, status," she said as she slid into her seat.

"Wave merge complete, Strong Soul. We are on course. Relays report moderate damage. Hull breach in hold three, no cargo loss, but the hold is open to space. Repair may not be possible with supplies on board."

"It could be worse," Strong Soul muttered, bringing up the schematics on her screen. She watched the numbers in the corner, making sure everything was stable before she turned her attention to the damage. Finally she shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

"It's going to have to wait for Night Star to wake up before we try to fix that. It shouldn't mean that we can't jump back to normal space, though."

"Then we are lucky," Stargazer said.

Strong Soul felt his hand on her shoulder and she turned around to look at him, finding his intense gaze locked on her face.

"You did what was necessary," he said. She felt the conviction behind his words, and the absolute certainty with which he believed them.

"I killed a lot of Mrr'tani," she said, feeling tears forming at the corner of her eyes. She'd deliberately tried not to think about it, to keep herself busy with the ship so she didn't have to face the thoughts that were swirling about the back of her mind.

"They knew why," he said. "I know you felt that because First Spark and I felt it. Do not blame yourself, Keeper."

"You saw the vision Catcher of Souls gave me when she spoke to me and First Spark. From the Night of Blood. I still killed our own kind. I didn't even give them the choice. I thought it and they did it. I'm no better than a Master!" she shouted, her hoarse voice almost covering the sob that came after it.

"You know that is not true, Keeper. Every one of those that died knew they were giving their lives to help you. What you did was not malicious. If you had given them the choice, every one would have chosen to do what they did."

"But I didn't, Stargazer. And I'll never know that for sure." She turned her head back to the front and bowed her head as tears dampened the fur beneath her eyes. She laid her ears back against her head and shook with the sobs. "I took over their minds. No matter what a Master does, their minds are still their own, but what I did was so much worse."

"How many did you save with what you did, Keeper?" Stargazer asked. "You saw the ship drifting into the wave, and the only reason every single Mrr'tani isn't dead is because of you. Had they been separate in their minds, they could not have reacted quickly enough to save themselves. You did what had to be done, and when it was over, you put your ability to use to save them."

She shook her head and stood up from her seat. As she palmed open the door, she turned back to Stargazer.

"I know you're right, Stargazer," she said. "We didn't have a choice. But that doesn't make the deaths easier to bear."

"Death should never be easy to bear," Stargazer said. "Lyria taught many that lesson, and I am happy to see that it has been well learned."

"I need to check on Night Star. Stay here and keep an eye on things, okay?" she said as she turned to leave.

Stargazer merely nodded and slid into her seat as the door closed behind her.