"Whadda you want, Cheryl?" I asked bitterly from my nest of spent food containers and spent booze containers.
It was absolutely fitting, since I was spent, too.
"Does the council have yet another Mission for me? Sorry, I have nothing left to give. You people have used me up.
I have already given you everything right down to my heart and soul."

 
by Lisa Caitlin Grey

 

---

 
This story is dedicated to my beloved friend and soul mate who passed away in November of 2002. Dana, I will always miss you terribly.
 
Part 10: Things Fall Apart, The Center Cannot Hold
 
Chapter 35
 
 
We slowly limped to Stile station. The two dreadnoughts were locked together in a weird sort of embrace. Brian said they looked like two whales humping. Typical guy imagery there.

It took us the better part of a week to make it to the station. Captain Edmunds-call-me-Darius-now's crew quickly came to the conclusion that they were loyal to their captain over the TSN, well, all but a handful of them, who were put into lifeboats and sent toward the crippled heavy cruiser. It was hoped when the TSN arrived to pick up the pieces of their tattered task force they would be rescued.

As we pulled into docking stations around Stile, we must have looked a sight; two battered and crippled dreadnoughts and an equally battered heavy corvette, but we survived, however miraculous that seemed. It was decided that we would leave the Excalibur at Stile station to await a repair frigate while the Aquinas and the Duality Too limped back to Diversity where there was a proper shipyard to make the repairs.

Unfortunately, the Duality Too didn't make it under her own power. As we came out of hyperspace after the first jump, the port secondary drive nacelle, which was hanging from a thread, gave way and the drive tore loose. Rather than risk a catastrophic failure, we opted to dock with the Aquinas and let someone else drive us home.

I should say at this point, that Miri had declined to join us on the battered heavy corvette after we got to Stile. She, instead, opted to ride on the Aquinas with little Brock. She was still furious with me for the way things went down and didn't want to see me. I couldn't blame her really. I still thought I did the right thing even if it was a rotten thing to do to someone that trusts you. I had violated her trust in a major way and regardless of the purity of my motives, it had critically damaged, perhaps destroyed, the bond we had. Needless to say, I was miserable and had cried myself to sleep more than a few nights, not that I was sleeping that well. My dreams were filled with the look of betrayal in Miri's eyes when I shot her, and I never could sleep well without being snuggled up to her.

After we got the Duality Too docked and secured on the Aquinas and the errant drive nacelle was recovered, I was requested to join the Captain in his ready room.

"Valerie Callaway reporting as ordered, SIR," I said crisply followed with a smart salute when I arrived in the ready room.

"Now now, enough of that, Miss Callaway," Captain Edmunds said. "We're not in the navy anymore. Please call me Darius and for the love of God, stop that standing at attention garbage and sit down." I grinned as him and sat down.

"You are still the captain of this ship and are due respect as such, Captain," I remarked.

"Then I am ordering you to call me Darius, Miss Callaway," The Captain grinned back.

"Only if you call me Valerie," I rejoined.

"Done!" Darius agreed. "Now, I owe you a huge apology, Valerie. I have said some things in our last couple of meetings that were way out of line..."

"Not at all," I told him.

"Don't interrupt the ship's Captain, my dear," Darius admonished. "I've been talking to Mr. Keller and Miz Flowers a bit. They told me about your grief at the deaths we forced on your hands. I was honored to know that you felt such remorse. I should've known you would, but after seeing that, I'd begun to convince myself that you were the heartless monster I accused you of being. I'm deeply sorry for that. I knew better, having witnessed the depths of your compassion."

"Thank you, Darius," I said sadly. "You're a good man, and I always respected you greatly. Your compassion is also remarkable." I gestured at my body and he grinned.

"That worked out nicely for you by the way," he smiled, "very nicely."

"Thank you, sir," I said, glancing down shyly.

"It's been hard on you hasn't it?" Darius asked. That's one of the things that made him a first-rate leader. He could tell when people had problems. "You want to talk about it? I am a good listener."

For some reason I did. Suddenly, it no longer mattered that I was in a shooting war with this man a week ago. He was reaching out to me and I found I needed that. I needed someone to listen to me that could understand the pressures and hard decisions of command. I started talking and it all just poured out. I told him of my rescue from the TSN brig. I told him of how my friends all stood by me when I told them about the pill. I told him how happy I was when my mind and body finally agreed and how thrilling it was to finally be in charge of my own destiny. I told of my love for Miri and the miracle of our son's conception. I told him about how I was regarded as some sort of legend in the Zone and how I could never live up to their expectations of me. I told him of the life I made for my family on Diversity and how they just couldn't let me live in peace. I spoke of my resentment that they made such demands on my family and myself, but that I couldn't refuse them because I most likely was the most qualified person available. I brought him all the way up to that last jump before reaching the Zone.

He took my hand as I related to him the look of betrayal in Miri's eyes when I shot her for her own good. At this point I had quietly begun crying. I finished with my fears that I had done irreparable harm to our love, at which point the quiet crying became a full-blown sob. Darius, my once CO, and recently my mortal enemy was holding me as I sobbed on his shoulder. He whispered words of comfort in my ear and stroked my hair as I let all the pain, all that fear, and all the guilt flow out of me. From that moment Darius became more like a father to me than my own dad ever had been.

"I miss her, Darius," I said sadly as my sobs wound down. "I miss her so much."

"I know you do, dear," he said gently, handing me a handkerchief. "I would have done the same thing in your position."

I looked at him, mute gratitude in my eyes. He understood. He knew what it was like to make the hard no-win decisions for the good of others who you were responsible for.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"Not really," I smiled, "but the pressure is released for now. It seems like I have been doing an awful lot of this lately."

"You've been under a huge strain," Darius said. "Don't sell yourself short. You've had the future of your people resting on your shoulders and nobody to share it with. You're bearing up nicely, considering. I don't envy you a bit. Now, you are invited to the Captain's table at dinner, which should be in a couple of hours. You will be staying in my cabin...not with me, silly," he said, as I was about to protest, "I will be bunking in here."

"I could not possibly displace you, sir," I protested anyway. "I can stay aboard the Duality Too."

"I won't hear of it. You are bunking in my cabin; end of story," he said firmly. "Now as I was saying, if you would like to get some rest and get cleaned up for dinner, I believe the replicator has already been set up for your uniform. Feel free to make use of it."

"Thank you, sir," I said. "That's very generous of you."

"Think nothing of it, my dear," he smiled. "Now run along. You know how to get there."

I took my leave of this wonderful older man and smiled to myself as I made my way to the officer's cabins. I had just rounded the corner into what was termed "officer country" when I came nose to...er...bosom with a force of nature with ash blonde hair and flashing green eyes. It was everything I could do not to run for my life.
 
 
Chapter 36
 
 
"Hi Miri," I said tentatively.

"Hello Valerie," she returned icily.

We stood there for a minute in silence.

"I miss you," I said softly.

"Well I guess you should have thought about that before you shot me and left my behind in the damn brig, huh?" she seethed.

I looked down at the deck, feeling ashamed of treating Miri, the person that meant more to me than anything in the world, like that.

"Look, I am so very sorry I did that to you," I apologized. "I just thought..."

"You thought what?" she demanded. "Did you think you could screw me over like that and everything would be okay? Did you think you were doing me a favor? Stupid bitch, don't you see? All I ever wanted was to share my life with you, all of it. I would have died for you. But now...now I don't know what I feel. You hurt me horrendously. I doubt I can ever get over this."

"Miri, I love you more than life itself," I said as the tears began again. "Don't you understand? I did what I did so I could give you and our son the best chance of survival, so that our child wouldn't have to grow up an orphan. If you can't understand that I did what I did out of love, and the desire to protect my family, then I guess there is nothing more to say, is there?"

Miri grabbed me, and administered one of those toe-curling kisses of hers. I was just beginning to think things might be okay when she pushed me away and delivered a punch that I never saw coming. It felt like my cheekbone shattered as she connected and I was knocked off my feet. My last conscious memory was of Miri standing over me.

"I hope you enjoyed that, bitch, cause it's the last you'll ever get from me," she screamed at me. "But then I doubt you will have anything to worry about. There's always Brian, or Sam or any of the other guys you always have sniffing around you."

When I came to, I was lying on a bed and there was an officer with a ship's doctor insignia on his collar leaning over me with smelling salts. I groaned.

"Welcome back to the waking world, Miss," he smiled at me. "How do you feel?"

"Like I was hit with a rifle butt, Doc," I said groggily.

"It looks like you were too," he laughed. "There doesn't appear to be anything broken, but you will have a nice wonderfully colorful bruise on your left cheek for a while. Did you see who did this to you?"

I nodded, and then thought better of it when my face started throbbing and my head began to swim.

"Can you give me a name or a description so I can have the Captain round him up for some quality time in the brig?" the doctor asked.

"Don't bother," I said. "I had it coming."

"Well, suit yourself, young lady," the doctor said.

"Where am I, by the way?" I asked.

"You are in the Captain's cabin," the doctor supplied.

"Oh, good, that means I don't have far to go before I collapse," I laughed weakly. "Do you suppose the Captain would be too put out if I should pass on dinner this evening?"

"I think he'd understand," the man said. "It's probably best if you get some rest anyway. Here's something for the pain," he held up a bottle of pills. "Take two every four hours as needed. Call me if you need anything, and if you should get hungry, the Captain left instructions to have you call down to the galley and have them bring you something up. Now if you will excuse me Miss, I have some more patients to attend to."

"Certainly, and thanks Doc," I said. He smiled and nodded to me as he walked out.

'Gee, I wonder if he has anything for a broken heart,' I thought to myself, looking at the bottle of painkillers.

I spent the rest of the trip back to Diversity mostly in my cabin in a haze of pain, both my face and my soul. I called down, had my laptop brought up and continued working on my Nextgen ship designs. I sequestered myself because I couldn't stand the people staring at the bruise I had on my face the few times I did put in an appearance. I also didn't think my body or my heart could take another run-in with Miri.

When we arrived back at Diversity, I refused to go planet-side. I had the tattered remains of the Duality Too parked in a docking bay at the Norfolk shipyard orbital platform and I lived on her as I worked on the new designs. My life was empty, where before it had been full. I couldn't bear to go planet-side and deal with the fanfare I knew would greet me. Screw'em! They had used me up. I only had one passion left. She would be my crowning achievement, the biggest most powerful warship the human race had ever seen.

I was a total wreck emotionally and physically I wasn't much better. I had been working day and night, until I dropped from exhaustion. It was the only way I could get any sleep without the nightmares or the preliminary crying. The only contact I had with people was via text messages, and I responded to very few of those that weren't ship design related.

This went on for a month before I got my first visitor. It was Cheryl and she wouldn't be turned away. Still, I didn't let her in at first, but she came back three days in a row. The third day I watched her on approach on the external monitor carrying some sort of equipment.

"Alright, Valerie Callaway, I know you are in there and if you don't let me in I am cutting a hole in the goddam door," she called up to the camera. She actually fired up the plasma cutter and began to cut on the door before I bowed to the inevitable and let her in. Soon I could hear her tromping up the passageway.

"Holy goddess," Cheryl exclaimed as she entered the common room where I had sent up residence. "This place is a wreck! And what IS that stench? Cripes, Val, when's the last time you had a shower?"

"Whadda you want, Cheryl?" I asked bitterly from my nest of spent food containers and spent booze containers. It was absolutely fitting, since I was spent, too. "Does the council have yet another Mission for me? Sorry, I have nothing left to give. You people have used me up. I have already given you everything right down to my heart and soul."

"I'm not here in an official capacity," Cheryl said gently. "I am here as your friend."

"Oh, so this is an intervention," I spat. "You're wasting your time. I don't wanna be helped."

"So that's it then?" Cheryl asked. "You're just gonna roll over and give up?"

"Why not?" I demanded. "Is that so bad? What have I got to look forward to? I am empty, a mere husk. Beyond these ship designs," I gestured to the detritus around me, "I am nothing."

"Val, is that what you really think," Cheryl asked incredulously, "that you are nothing? That's the most unbelievable bullshit I have ever heard. It's pure self-pity. Look at you. You are young and beautiful and charismatic, you have more money than a person could spend in a lifetime, you are a genius at designing ships, and I understand you're an exceptional leader and a damn brilliant tactician. You certainly seem to come out on top time and time again against staggering odds."

"I don't have HER though," I said wearily. "Without her, none of the rest has any meaning. Don't you see, Cheryl, everything I have done, with the exception of taking that pill and letting Alex through the blockade, I have done for her. Period. I've done it so she can be protected and raise our child. Now I have lost her."

"Let me lay a little wisdom on you, Peaches," Cheryl said. "I didn't get where I am because of my traffic stopping beauty, or my tremendous intellect. I got where I am because I am a keen judge of people. I can generally read them like an open book. Miri loves you utterly. Do not doubt that for a microsecond. Her problem is not that she is mad at you, or that you betrayed her, although that's what even she believes. She cannot admit the truth, especially to herself. She is a very strong woman. She prides herself on that and she isn't afraid of anything or anybody. This is Miri to the core of her being.

"The problem is that you terrified her. You showed her a part of herself that she cannot deal with; the part that fears and is as helpless as any other woman. She loves you so much that she is terrified of a life without you, and you made her feel helpless in the face of that fear when you tranq'ed her and left her on that ship while you went off to face horrific odds to ensure she lived. Then, as if to make the point crystal clear, you, indeed, negotiated away your very life for her safety.

"So, she had all these feelings that are so abhorrent to her core identity. She felt fear of a life without you with her, she felt helpless to do anything to help you, and she was faced with the very concept that she was putting your head on the executioner's block because if not for her, you would have destroyed the dreadnought and lived. That circumstances intervened and you both lived didn't change the fact that she was terrified and helpless and guilty for nearly costing you your life in return for hers.

"Because she couldn't deal with this she had to find another coping strategy. The fear she had turned to anger. The helplessness became betrayal and the guilt became confusion," Cheryl concluded.

"How can you have this sort of insight into Miri, when I have been her lover for almost ten years and not know it?" I asked skeptically.

"Because for one, I have been dealing with women as a woman for a lot longer than you have, and let's just say I know the type," Cheryl replied.

"So, you are saying she wants me back?" I asked with a faint glimmer of hope.

"Of course, she wants you back, Bonehead," Cheryl laughed, then sobered. "She isn't ready to have you back yet, though. You see, right now she is facing her fear, a life without you. And she needs to be tested to see if she can stand by and not try to save you if you're in over your head.

"You have to give her time, Sugar. She has to find her own answers and realize that she still needs you. For now she is having a rather painful phase of personal growth."

"Thanks, Cheryl," I said, "but I doubt it will stop the nightmares or let me sleep again. I am just so lost without her. How is she, by the way?"

"She would probably be in a similar state as you seem to be in, except she has Brock to worry about. She doesn't have the option to let herself go like you have," Cheryl said, wrinkling her nose and looking around. "She's doing okay, aside from her inner turmoil."

I nodded.

"Look, Valerie, you need to get out of here," Cheryl observed. "You may not believe me, but looking at these same walls day in and day out is depressing you even more as well as stifling your creativity. You need to take some time with a friend. Go somewhere where there is no pressure and you can just relax. I know this great place in the mountains that fits the bill perfectly. It's remote and secluded and very few people know about it. What say you and I get out there and do a little camping and hiking? I have a week or so free."

"Sounds nice, Cheryl, but I'm afraid I wouldn't very good company," I said, not sounding incredibly interested.

"Val, I seriously doubt you could ever be 'not very good company' as far as I am concerned," Cheryl snorted. "Current personal hygiene aside, of course. If we went and sat in silence for days I could deal with that. I like doing that; it kinda lets you think, but still allows for companionship. So, what do you say? Are you game?"

"I don't think so Cheryl," I declined. "I've got work to do."

"Suit yourself," Cheryl smiled mischievously, "but it will be awfully hard to get any work done with a constant stream of your friends coming by to check up on you. And they will come once they hear what you are doing to yourself."

"You wouldn't dare," I said, looking at her sharply. She just sat there, meeting my gaze evenly, as if to say, 'Try me.' On second thought, she probably would dare. That's one of the things I liked about her, she wasn't afraid to antagonize people if she had a good enough reason.

"Okay, you win," I sighed. "When do we leave?"

"As soon as you get your pretty ass in the shower and wash that stench off," Cheryl said, grinning in triumph. "Don't worry about bringing anything. I already have your pack all made up, clothes and all. I'll lay some stuff out for you while you are in the shower. Now get, girl."

I got up, tiredly resigned and listlessly made my way to the head.
 
 
Chapter 37
 
 
Camping with Cheryl was just what I needed, it seemed. I complained bitterly for the first two days of hiking. I wasn't used to this type of exertion and my back and feet were in agony. Then we reached the glade Cheryl had unerringly guided us to. It was breathtaking.

About midway through the third day, just when I thought I couldn't walk another hundred yards, the trees opened up into a sunlit grassy glade, rife with wild flowers that produced a display of colors that would shame a rainbow. And that wasn't the best part. There, in the middle of the glade, was the most perfect waterfall. It looked like something you would see people frolicking in, pictured in a travel brochure. It spilled down a small rock face, perhaps 15 feet high, at the edge of the glade before collecting in a crystal clear pool almost exactly in the middle of the glade, about fifty feet across. The edge opposite the waterfall formed a shallow stream that traveled a short way before plunging over a cliff. Standing at the edge of a cliff revealed a spectacular vista of untouched mountain forest. It all looked very primal and very unspoiled.

We set up camp on the shore of the pool and it was here that we would stay until we felt like returning to civilization or until our supplies ran out. The wonders of modern technology did tend to take the "rough" out of roughing it. For instance, not being men, we could hardly go pee behind the closest tree, so we had a nanite cube that, once activated, used the available materials to build a small outhouse. We set this up at the far edge of the glade. It would process our waste into an ecologically friendly byproduct and when we left it would disassemble itself into the component parts, leaving the area as unspoiled as when we arrived. We had similar cubes for our tent and even for seating and a table. All we had to really bring with us was our clothes, sleeping bags, and foodstuffs, which Cheryl greatly extended by knowing what we could find naturally.

Though it was a bit chilly in the mornings, it warmed up considerably during the day. In the mornings, we would wear jeans and flannel shirts over our tee shirts, but in the afternoon, we would swim in the pool and even shower in the waterfall. I was beginning to enjoy myself in spite of my determination to be miserable. How could you help but feel serene and peaceful in such an idyllic setting?

On the afternoon of the fifth day, I was sunning myself in a nanite lounge chair, which I had placed on a small stone hump that had an inch or two of water coursing over it. Though clothing was strictly optional in this secluded setting, I was wearing a bright azure blue bikini. My hair was pulled back in a scrunchy and I had a pair of sunglasses on.

Cheryl swam up to the edge of my stone perch and placed her elbows on the edge of it, chin on her interlaced fingers. She just watched me with a slight smile, not saying a word. As she considered me, I also was considering her. Cheryl was a stone butch lesbian, one of the types that I never could figure. She was dressed in a pair of loose men's swim trunks and an oversized tee shirt. She was built like a lumberjack, and aside from her long flowing hair, she appeared to reject all the trappings of femininity. In spite of that, she seemed very comfortable with the fact that she was a woman.

Cheryl was a stark contrast with Miri. While Miri was also a big woman, she was sensual and feminine even with her rippling hard muscle. Miri was lithe and graceful, while Cheryl was a wall of flesh and had all the grace of a charging bull. Not that it was a bad thing; it worked for her, but the two big women were as different as night and day.

"You're very beautiful," Cheryl said, breaking me out of my thoughts. I smiled at her languidly, and then slowly stretched my entire body, teasing her a bit.

"I should be, I took a body tailoring pill," I said after I released the stretch.

"It's more than that, and you know it," Cheryl said. "It's your personality. Physical beauty is just a pill bottle away in this day and age. True beauty comes from inside. Haven't you ever wondered why people fall all over themselves to take risks for you?"

"I had wondered that, yeah," I commented. "Goddess knows I am not worthy of it."

"See, that's just it," Cheryl explained. "You are a strange mixture of competence and child-like vulnerability. Add to that the caring and compassion you display time and time again, throw in a generous portion of raw sensuality and people just can't help but love you." I frowned.

"I'm not 'all that', Cheryl," I dismissed. "I've done some very ugly things. I'm personally responsible for the deaths of thousands. That hardly qualifies me for sainthood."

"War is hell, Peaches," Cheryl said. "The fact that you regret every last one of those deaths says a lot. The fact is, if I were to have to pick out one glaring fault about you, it would be that you can't take a compliment gracefully, but then again that's part of your charm. People that are 'all that', and know it, are unbearable."

I didn't have a comeback to that so I just sat back and thought about what Cheryl had said. Why couldn't I accept that I might just be the good person everyone thought I was? I couldn't find an answer. Perhaps it was because I had just seen and done too much bad stuff. I let it go. This place was too tranquil for such introspection.

"Come on, Peaches," Cheryl said abruptly, "Let's get cleaned up for dinner. If you wanna collect the firewood, I will start prepping the food."

"Sure," I said, getting up with my chair and wading back to dry ground.

-=^=-

I awoke suddenly with all my senses sharply alert. I don't know what woke me, but I lay there motionless, listening as Cheryl slumbered. All I could hear was the sound of the waterfall and the gentle susurrus of Cheryl's breathing. I was just about to dismiss it and go back to sleep when I heard it again. It was the snap of a breaking twig and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. There was someone out there.

I nudged Cheryl, who grunted softly in protest. I shushed her. She picked up on my tension and came fully alert.

"What is it," she said in a barely audible whisper.

"There's someone out there," I hissed.

"Who is it?" she asked quietly.

"How the hell should I know?" I shot back.

"Oh yeah, right," she conceded. "What are we gonna do?"

I took stock of our position as we began to hear more sounds all around us. Ground based combat is not my specialty, but my best guess was that there were five of them. From the sounds, I judged that they had surrounded our tent and were slowly converging from a distance of about 50-ft away. We were armed. We had two military hand lasers. They were the ground action type that didn't get used on ships because of the danger of puncturing the hull. Beyond that, we had nothing but a flare gun for emergencies.

Our visitors didn't seem to be overly competent, or we wouldn't have known they were there. They also didn't seem to know we were aware of their presence. That meant that at least they were inexperienced. They were probably using infrared night vision glasses in spite of the moonlight. That thought made me wish I had brought mine.

I was just beginning to formulate a plan when, in the dim moonlight that that was penetrating the fabric of the tent, I saw a shadow at the door flap. The flap moved aside and a small tube slid in. As I heard it start to hiss softly, I drew my weapon and shot the shadow. It crumpled and the tube withdrew. Now we had given up our one advantage, the fact that they thought we were unaware of them. There was a three-centimeter burning hole in the tent where my laser had passed through it.

While our assailants dropped back to figure out what to do, now that surprise wasn't in their favor, I quickly sketched out my plan to Cheryl. They obviously wanted us alive or they wouldn't have tried to gas us. We could use that against them to a point, what that point was I wasn't sure. I felt through my pack until I came up with the flare gun.

"I am going to fire a flare," I explained. "That should momentarily blind them by overloading their night vision. When I do, we are going to run for the waterfall. The cold water will prevent them from locating us via our body heat. Then we can wait for an opportunity to take them out or escape. Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Cheryl said tightly.

I opened the tent flap and fired the flare, keeping one eye closed as I did so I wouldn't ruin my own natural night vision. I heard curses as our attackers were blinded and I threw open the tent and ran, Cheryl close on my heels. I made it to the waterfall, and as I ducked behind it, gasping as the icy water showered me. As the initial shock of the frigid water wore off, I became aware that Cheryl wasn't with me. I looked back and saw that she must not have closed her eyes when I fired the flare. She had tripped over the body that was lying outside the tent and even now the attackers were moving in on her. Damn.

I left the waterfall and took cover behind a rock outcropping. I began to snipe the assailants as they got close to her, but the others, a few more than I had originally guessed, began returning fire, forcing me to duck down. I had a good position. They couldn't outflank me and they would never survive a direct assault, but they had another card to play now.

"Alright, Callaway," a male voice said. "Give it up and come down here now, unarmed or your friend dies." Damn!

"Don't listen to them, Val! Don't worry about me! Save your...ooff!" Cheryl was cut off when one of the men punched her in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her.

"You have to the count of ten, Callaway, then I burn a hole in the back of her head," the man called.

Cheryl was right. If I let them shoot her, they wouldn't be able to get me before I wiped them out. I could hold out here indefinitely. However, while I was willing to die for my friends, I wasn't willing to let them die for me, not if I could do anything about it. The count had gotten to five when I stood up, holding my gun above my head. I threw the gun into the pool as I stepped down from my position.

"So this is the Great Captain Callaway," the man holding the gun to Cheryl's head said. "You don't look so tough." I didn't say anything.

"Good work, Salazar," said one of the men in TSN commando fatigues. "The Terran Government will reward you handsomely for your assistance."

"Salazar?" I said. "That name sounds familiar."

"It should," said the man holding the gun on Cheryl. "You killed my brother, bitch. I am Birchell Salazar and I must say it's quite a pleasure to meet you under these circumstances. Lieutenant, you said you only wanted Callaway, what are we going to do with this one?"

"I don't care," the man in charge said. "Shoot her. No loose ends to get caught up in later."

"No!" I shouted. It was too late. Salazar shot Cheryl in the head, killing her.

"NO!" I screamed in rage and grief, charging Salazar. My hands were almost around his throat when a rifle butt struck me in the back of the head. I hit the ground and blacked out.

-=^=-
 
 

-=^=-