out of the barbarian's hand and made him shout with pain and turn on Abie with rage in his face. He grabbed Abie with the hand of his other arm, not yet able to use his damaged arm. He released Abie just long enough to tear the rifle from his grasp and hit him with it - a stunning blow that knocked Abie to the deck and left him too breathless to scream in pain. The barbarian threw the spent rifle away. He took a moment to assess the damage Abie had caused to his elbow, flexing the arm and growling like an animal from the pain.
Sammy stepped out of the cabinet and saw how close the opening in the ruined doorway was. He could probably make it to the door but there were sharp points of steel curled inward around the hole in the door that would slow his exit. He looked back at Abie who was now trying to crawl away as the barbarian stepped toward him with further violent intent written in his expression. All of the grownups were cowering as far from the barbarian as they could move.
The barbarian used his uninjured arm to yank Abie up by one of Abie's wrists, then slammed Abie's arm across his rising knee, breaking the arm bones with a sickening snapping sound. Abie's scream was not loud yet its tone made Sammy desperate to help Abie. The barbarian prepared to deliver another punishment to Abie, grabbing his other arm.
Sammy was already running across the room. He threw himself against the back of the barbarian's legs, dropping the man to his knees. Sammy bounced from the impact, caught his hand on the weapons harness on the back of the barbarian. As the barbarian got to his feet, Sammy climbed on his back and tried to get an arm around his neck.
The barbarian felt Sammy climb his back and seemed not to care. He now held Abie by his unbroken arm. Sammy beat on the barbarian's head with his free fist, trying to distract him. The man turned his head to look at Sammy, trying to dodge the pummeling Sammy gave him. Before he could turn back to Abie, Sammy gouged the barbarian's eye with his thumb.
The barbarian threw Abie across the room and reached for Sammy. Sammy tried to wrap his legs and arms around the barbarian but in only a few painful moments the barbarian gripped him by the throat, raised him up, and glared at him with his undamaged eye.
Sammy kicked hard with the regeneration machine on his injured leg, finding a soft spot in the barbarian's torso, causing him to grunt in pain. The barbarian swung Sammy around and slapped him hard with the hand of his injured arm. Sammy lost much of the sight and sound in the room. He couldn't hear the painful swearing of the barbarian or see him flex his bad elbow after hitting him. Sammy couldn't see the barbarian preparing to slam his fist into his face despite the pain it would cause his elbow.
Sammy didn't see one of the other people in the room grab the barbarian's cocked fist. He did feel the surge of pain in his face and neck as the barbarian pivoted, swinging him by the neck. He would have felt the impact of his foot and leg hitting someone else, but the pain in his neck, where the barbarian still held him in a strangling grip, overrode all other sensations. He was almost unconscious when a final impact took away all of his suffering, and his life.
= = =
"We got the last barbarian, sir!" the Marine shouted, but not in exultation. "We have two fatalities and I can't get through to the hospital! The two dead are children, Captain!"
"Damn!" Horss swore, the shock filling him with dread for who the children might be. "Are they viable?"
"Unknown, sir. They were heroes. They distracted the barbarian until the adults could attack. They beat the bastard to death. They're all frantic for medical help for the boys. One of them is Sammy!"
The pit of his stomach filled with lead and his mind - for just an instant - burned with hate. Horss switched his shiplink and connected with Mai. She opened the channel but couldn't reply for a few seconds. Horss could hear her issuing triage orders, her voice rising above the din of pain and confusion in the hospital emergency rooms. He used his captain's authority to break into the comm system of the hospital. He broadcast his words into the emergency rooms. "Listen to me! Two children have died! Children! Children! Do you hear me? Go now! Use a transmat! Here is the location!"
The hospital background noise rapidly died. "Children?" Mai finally said. Then Horss could hear other people in the background, echoing the word: children. Then he heard the word GO shouted by others. She cut the connection.
"Jon," Zakiya said by shiplink. "Jon, what children?"
"Where are you?" Horss asked.
"I'm in the hospital, helping. It's terrible here!"
"Stay there, dear lady! Don't go with Mai!"
"Is it Sammy?"
"Don't go! Please, don't go!"
She cut the connection. Horss slumped into his chair, and for just a few moments ignored the bridge's wall of images from every part of the ship, demanding his attention.
= = =
Zakiya looked into their faces and saw extreme emotions: shock, terror, grief, anger, guilt, pain. Two Marines treated the simple injuries. She saw the first child lying on the floor, guarded by three people who stared at her as she paused. Their expressions showed dismay and sorrow. She recognized the boy: Abie, Lam's nephew. He was connected to a small medical device. He might survive! She saw a man tending a simple tourniquet on a woman's severed arm. On the other side of the room people stood in a group, looking down at something, many of them crying. They noticed her and reacted with even more emotion.
/
Mai had only just arrived and now Zakiya was here, so soon! She could tell it was Zakiya by the reactions of the people standing around her. She didn't want to look up at Zakiya. She didn't want to speak to her. She didn't want to say what had to be said and then see Zakiya's reaction.
/
Zakiya saw Sammy even though Mai seemed to intentionally obscure him from her view. She maneuvered to a position opposite Mai, with Sammy between them. Mai was doing nothing medically for Sammy; she was just straightening his legs and folding his arms across his chest. Zakiya went down on her knees. She knew what that must mean but she wanted to deny it. She wanted to question Mai, to demand of her that it could not be true. Mai would not look at her, was looking away from her. That told her everything. That made her deny everything, as tears blurred the sight of blood pooling under Sammy's head. She placed her hand on Sammy, closing her eyes to the blood and feeling numb to the absolute stillness of his body. She choked on a volcano of misery erupting in her chest. She opened her eyes when she felt Sammy move, but it was only Mai trying to lift him, trying to take her son away.
Zakiya held on to Sammy and pulled him from Mai, got her arms under him. Zakiya struggled to her feet and carried Sammy unsteadily toward the ruined doorway. She maneuvered carefully through the bent and jagged metal and passed into the corridor. The future lay dark and blurry before her.
/
Mai paused by the doorway to watch Zakiya walk away with Sammy's body. Only duty kept her from screaming and retreating from reality. Other people moved past her to exit the room. They followed Zakiya down the passageway, some of them still needing treatment for injuries.
/
Zakiya was unaware of how long or of how far she carried Sammy's body. She wasn't aware of the people who followed her. She never realized how many people watched her pass by them, then joined her. She reached the biosphere, where the sun was starting to set, not knowing where she was going. Her strength began to falter, the grief weakening her more than the effort of carrying Sammy. She stumbled and went down on one knee. Many hands helped her rise and started to guide her. She finally found herself in the plaza in front of the hospital. People were waiting for her. There was a gurney and hands reaching for Sammy, to take him from her.
She had to let go. She had to. He was dead. He was gone. She began to weep harder and harder as they took Sammy.
Zakiya collapsed on the pavement. Direk sat down beside her and held her. The crowd melted away. Eventually Direk helped Zakiya find her way home.
2-30 The Son of Two Mothers
She couldn't sleep, yet she couldn't bear to be awake, to be awake and to think a
nd to remember. She remembered Sammy, the first time she truly embraced him and wanted him, perhaps even loved him. He needed her and came willingly into her arms. She carried him through the woods to Rafael's house.
Images formed. Her breast: light, not dark. Her infant: not dark but not light. Aylis reaching toward her baby, touching it, finding purchase, drawing her son away from her. His small complaint at losing the nipple, the drops of milk wasting, a toothless yawn.
"Why did you find me?" Ruby asked, not yet admitting that she would never see her child again. "Why did you have to find me?"
"You remembered," Aylis replied, "but you didn't remember enough, or you would not have done this."
"Let me have my son!" Ruby pleaded. "Why must it be this way?"
"Not while there is still hope," Aylis said, pulling her son away.
"There is no hope! He's gone forever! And Jamie is gone! This is all I have of him!"
"There is hope. That is my task: to remember the hope."
"And my task?"
"You won't sleep but you must not die."
"I'm a mother! You're stealing my son!"
"So am I a mother," Aylis Mnro said. "We're sisters, you and I. And there is still hope."
Someone shook her, then shook her harder. She awoke but she didn't know who she was or where she was. But she remembered her son!
"Aylis!" she cried. "You took Petros!"
Someone grabbed her face in