Offspring (56 page)

“Peg!” Boomer screamed. “No!”

A cold breeze rose around Gretchen. Peg shrugged and spread her hands with mock sorrow. The loader door opened far enough to reveal black space, and the breeze became a wind. Gretchen’s ears popped. She raised the gravity beam and fired orange at the window. It didn’t seem to have any effect. On the other side of the window, Peg laughed.

The wind howled with hurricane force, dragging Gretchen backward. Grimly she increased the power and continued to fire. The cargo door grumbled steadily upward, and the four cryo-units closest to it were sucked out into the vacuum beyond. Boomer was screaming something incoherent. The window cracked into a spiderweb, and Peg ducked away. Gretchen fired. She couldn’t draw air into her lungs. The wind howled in her ears, but she kept firing. Her entire world shrank to keeping her balance and aiming the gravity beam. The energy indicator said the power cell was almost drained. Boomer was on his feet, staggering against the wind and moving toward her. Two more cryo-units vanished through the widening opening into space. Boomer leaped.

And then the entire door gave way with a shriek of tortured metal. It burst into the cargo bay on a fresh blast of air. Gretchen flung herself to the floor. The door sailed over her head and caught Boomer in mid-air. The wind whipped away the cloud of blood and sound of Boomer’s final scream as the door flung his half-crushed body across the bay and out the loader doors.

Gretchen tried to crawl forward against the rushing air, but her strength was giving out. It was all she could do to keep herself from being swept backward to join Boomer and the lost cryo-units. Desperately she checked the gravity beam. A tiny spark of energy was all that was left. With a flick of her thumb, she set the beam on reverse, raised a shaky hand, and fired into the hallway beyond. A green light shot from the beamer and hit the corridor wall. Nothing happened for a moment, then Gretchen felt herself being dragged forward by the beam. A cramp spasmed her hand, but she grimly kept her grip. The beam pulled her out of the cargo bay and into the corridor. Then it sputtered and died.

Gretchen rolled to her left, away from the open doorway. Peg was nowhere to be seen. The wind, focused by the tight confines of the hallway, shoved at Gretchen like a living hand. She managed to crawl to the control panel next to the door and slap the emergency close. The loader door, which was halfway open, ground back down again, more quickly than it had gone up. In a few moments, it boomed shut and the horrible wind stopped.

Gretchen lay panting in the corridor, her lungs filling with sweet, still air. She felt as if every inch of skin were bruised, and when she rubbed a hand over her face, her palm came away smeared with blood from dozens of tiny cuts and scrapes caused by flying debris. In that moment, the only thing she wanted was the chance to collapse like a rag doll.

Grimacing, Gretchen forced herself to her feet. There was no time to rest. Peg had no doubt already alerted the rest of the crew, and Gretchen wasn’t going to fool herself into thinking that Peg was the only other person the ship. Even a skeleton crew would consist of at least four people. Gretchen staggered down the lime-green corridor, clutching the empty gravity beam. “s she saw it, Gretchen had two options—try to hide or try to take over the ship. Although hiding had the advantage of giving her a chance to rest, it had the disadvantage of requiring her to know the layout of the ship. Trying a takeover in her current condition—wounded and unarmed—had its own set of difficulties. Dammit, why was everything in her life so
hard?
She wanted to howl and beat something—preferably Peg. Or Sufur.

Okay, get a grip
, she told herself.
You have to keep moving so the crew can’t find you. They’re probably already on their way down here. Maybe you can bluff them with the gravity beam. They won’t know it’s empty.

Gretchen reached an intersection and cautiously peered around the corner. Another empty hallway stretched ahead of her. Where the hell was everyone? She couldn’t believe Peg and the as-yet-unseen crew were willing to let her wander around the ship. So why weren’t they down here looking for her?

Hard tension stole down Gretchen’s spine. “No!” she whispered, and forced her screaming body into a run. Her heart pounded. There had to be a staircase or an elevator someplace. She had to find the bridge before—

“Attention! Attention!” said a computer voice. “The ship will enter slipspace in thirty seconds.”

“Shit!” Once the ship entered slip, it would be untraceable, destroying any hope of rescue. Peg and her crew knew that full well, which was why they were readying the ship for the jump into slipspace instead of trying to catch Gretchen. She found an elevator and slapped the control. No response. Peg must have locked her out.

Overhead, an intercom speaker chimed to life. “
So there you are,
” said Peg’s voice. “
Don’t worry, Gretchen—we’ll come down to get you soon. Don’t bother fighting. There are eight of us up here and we’re all armed.
”

Gretchen remained silent, unwilling to give Peg the satisfaction of an answer.

“
Get ready,
” Peg said. “
We’re entering slip in five...four...three...two...
”

The floor lurched, flinging Gretchen to her already bruised knees. Thunder rumbled over the ship, vibrating the plates beneath Gretchen’s body.

“
What the hell?
” Peg said, apparently forgetting the intercom was still open.

“
Attention alien vessel
,” interpolated a new voice. “
This is the Bellerophon military ship
Irfan’s Pride.
We have you in our gravity beam and you are hereby ordered to stand down.
”

“A
w, shit
,” Peg said, and Gretchen began to laugh.

“The end is where lovers meet.”

—Daniel Vik

Father Kendi Weaver picked up the empty cup. “More tea?”

“No,” Gretchen said. “But we would like one of Lucia’s croissants, please.”

Kendi selected a plump, flaky croissant from the platter and efficiently sliced it in half with a bread knife. The entire household was gathered here in Salman’s living room. Gretchen, bandaged like war hero, had commandeered a
chaise longue
. Lucia was overseeing the enormous amounts of food piled on the coffee table. Tan lounged in her usual spot in the doorway. Ben and Harenn shared a sofa with Evan and Ara in their laps, and Salman occupied an armchair. She looked older, and tired. A great deal of her usual energy was absent, and Kendi found the change distinctly odd. He put the croissant on a small plate and started to hand it Gretchen.

“We prefer our croissants with orange marmalade,” she sniffed.

Kendi made a mock bow. Ben laughed and jiggled Ara on his knee.

“Do not become accustomed to this,” Harenn admonished. “I have the feeling that Kendi’s goodwill will not last.”

“And we intend to milk every last drop until it runs out,” Gretchen said airily. “Not so much, Kendi. We have to watch our weight.”

Kendi gave her the plate with another mock bow and sat on the thick carpet. The little yellow lizards chirped softly and skittered about their cage.

“I’m just glad everything’s over,” Kendi said. “The election results may have sucked, but at least we don’t have to worry about them anymore. Sufur is dead—party scheduled for tomorrow—we stopped his weird little scheme, and the doctor’s said Keith is already getting better. Now all we have to do is finish moving into the new house. Me, I don’t think I’m ever going out in public again.”

“So what are you planning, Grandma?” Ben asked. “You’ve been really quiet.”

Salman cleared her throat. “The race took more out of me than I thought,” she said. “I think I’m just going to finish out my term in the Senate and retire. Maybe I can be a professional great-grandma.”

Ben reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “You were
always
a great grandma.”

“Thank you, my duck.” But her tone was wan. “At least this entire incident has brought Ched-Pirasku around to my way of thinking. Sufur’s scheme made it abundantly clear to everyone that Bellerophon can’t afford to cut back on the military.”

“How are the kidnap victims doing?” Lucia said. “I forgot to ask.”

“They’re fine,” Gretchen said. “The
Irfan’s Pride
found the cryo-units Peg blew out into space, no problem, and the rest were just sitting in the cargo hold. Most of the people didn’t remember much after Boomer-boy and Peg knocked them out. The whole thing was actually harder on their families. And me.”

“We’ll be forever grateful to you,” Kendi said. Gretchen snorted and took a big bite of croissant.

“Once you’re on your feet again, Gretchen,” Tan rasped from the doorway, “I’ve got a continuing assignment for you, if you want it. Election’s over, but the Father and the Offspring will still need guarding.”

Gretchen swallowed her croissant. “I’ll think about it. Right now I just want to sleep for a month. In fact, I think it’s time for our royal nap. Would someone be so kind as to help us upstairs?”

Lucia rolled her eyes. “Come along then, your majesty. I’ll be glad to help.”

“The babies need to be changed and put down for their naps,” Harenn said, also rising. “Ben?”

“Let me take Ara up,” Tan said suddenly. “I want to hold her for a while.” When she realized everyone was staring at her, she added, “What? I can’t be a grandma, too?”

Gretchen hobbled out of the room with exaggerated care on Lucia’s arm, followed by Tan and Harenn, bearing babies. Kendi plucked Gretchen’s plate from the coffee table and stuffed half the croissant into his mouth.

“I can’t believe you want to retire, Grandma,” Ben said. “It’ll be...I don’t know. Weird.”

“I’m an old lady, love,” she said. “Things aren’t the same anymore.”

“Change is the only constant,” Kendi said, swallowing. “Even in the Dream.”

“Is that a Real People saying?” Ben asked.

“Probably.” Kendi reached toward the coffee table, intending to set the plate down. “The Real People said just about every—shit!” His hand slipped and the plate tumbled toward the floor. Salman automatically reached for it, then snatched her hand back. The plate struck the side of the table and broke in half. The rest of the croissant landed marmalade side down on the carpet. Kendi ignored it. His eyes met Salman’s for a long moment. She stared defiantly back.

“Grandma?” Ben said softly. “Did I just see...?”

Salman didn’t move. Kendi glanced pointedly down at the old woman’s lap, then met her gaze again. “Grandma?”

Slowly, with aching deliberation, Salman Reza held out her hands. For a moment they both remained steady. Then the right one began to shake. Ben let out a long breath. Kendi sat back on the sofa.

“How?” Ben asked. “Why?”

Salman abruptly straightened and the room crackled with her old energy. “How can you of all people ask that, Ben?” she cried. “Padric Sufur was a
monster
. He engineered the deaths of thousands upon thousands of people. He destroyed my campaign. He killed...he killed...” Her voice fell into a cracked whisper. “He killed my daughter.”

“I should have seen it,” Kendi said. “You knew about Sufur, you knew where the cameras were. You also knew about Ara’s neuro-pistol. How did you get it?”

“I’ve always been cleared for Ara’s safe,” Salman said. “Just in case something happened to her. I never dreamed...” She looked down at her shaky hand. “It was surprisingly easy to tell everyone I was going to bed early. I’m an old lady who had just lost a major election.”

“You gave most of your guards the evening off,” Kendi recalled. “Not because you no longer needed the security but because you needed the chance to sneak out of the house.”

“Yes.”

“Then what happened?” Ben asked.

“I went over to Sufur’s house with the pistol. He answered his own door, and I remember that surprised me. He didn’t look startled to see me or anything. He just invited me in and sat in that chair. I asked him why he did it, why he created the Despair. He told me that humans are filthy and disgusting and that he wanted to stop us from killing each other. He looked so smug and righteous, sitting in that stupid easy chair, calmly explaining why he murdered my little girl. So I shot him.
That
surprised him, I could tell. He choked and clawed at the air, and I smelled his bladder let go. Then he died and I left. That was it.”

Ben leaned forward. “Did it make you feel better?” he asked earnestly.

“I don’t know,” Salman whispered. “I’m still adjusting to the idea that I killed him.” She paused. “Actually, that wasn’t all that happened. Just before Sufur died, he looked at me and I...I swear he whispered something.”

“What?” Kendi asked.

“I think...I think he said...
thank you
. It was the last thing I expected to hear, and I’m still not sure I heard him right.”

“
Thank you
,” Ben repeated softly.

“Are you going to turn me in?” Salman asked. “I suppose I’ll understand if you do.”

“I think I speak for both us when I say no,” Kendi told her. “It’s pretty clear to me that the only way to stop Sufur from hatching more...plans was to kill him. Someone had to do it. Why not you?”