ship than going to the ship, hoping to remain hidden from the guns of the enemy.
Connor had begun shooting when Maryanne and I got back to where he was. “Camp’s awake,” he told us, “but it just happened a couple of minutes ago. Found one of the bodies. They don’t know that you’ve got him yet. How is he?”
Maryanne shook her head. “I haven’t looked at him yet. Better get aboard.”
I nodded and started toward the ship, still carrying Lucian. Maryanne was quick to follow while Connor continued to take shots when he could get them, which appeared to be often. I unloaded Lucian onto a bunk we’d readied for him and then hurried to the cockpit and started to get ready to liftoff. Connor heard the engines rev up and got up, grabbing his gear and dashing toward the ship. Once he was aboard, he slapped the control to close the hatches and lock them down. “Go, Cat, go!”
“We’re gone.” I guided the dropship through a fast take-off and ascent, using the planet’s gravity to whip us out of orbit a little faster and help us build the speed up to jump out of the system. I glanced over my shoulder as I ran us up to our jump point. “How’s he doing, Maryanne?”
She shook her head. “Don’t ask. Probably a good thing he’s unconscious, because he must be in a lot of pain. Sooner we get him home, the better off he’ll be.”
God, Luc...please hang on. I’ll get you home. I returned my attention to the controls, forcing myself to focus more on getting home quickly and safely and less on the reasons why it was important to do just that.
I radioed ahead on Maryanne’s orders to get a medical team waiting for us when we set down on base. Word reached us that Kiros had, indeed, cut orders for us while I was preparing to lift from the base earlier that day. We were all tired--it had been a very long day. Maryanne had managed to stop the bleeding from the wound in Luc’s side and made him comfortable--he never woke up, though. In a way, I was silently thankful for that. I wouldn’t have to explain this to him. Not yet.
Kiros and a medical team met us on the deck as Connor and Maryanne wrestled a stretcher with Lucian strapped to it off the dropship while I shut down. I could hear him saying something to them as the medical team whisked Lucian away to the base hospital. He appeared at my shoulder a few minutes later, as I was getting ready to leave. He patted my shoulder. “You did good, Cat.”
“Thanks,” I said quietly. “It was something I had to do.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I realize that. Your, uhm...your brother told me to tell you that he’d take the first watch, since he’s gotten sleep in the past forty-eight hours and you and Maryanne haven’t. He’ll wake you in ten hours.”
I nodded, closing my eyes. Please be all right, Luc. Please be all right. I can’t lose you again. An incredible sense of relief filled me, despite my worries about Lucian surviving. God, it’s over. We brought him home. It’s out of our hands now--he’s here, he’s home, he’s safe. It’s out of my hands.
It’ll be OK. He’ll be OK, and we’ll have the chance we should have had...the one I should have given us as soon as I found out he was still alive. “Thanks, Kir.”
He patted me on the shoulder again. “Go grab a shower and some rack time, Cat. You did a good job today.” He left me there, then, sitting in the cockpit of the dropship, where now, I felt more at home than I’d felt anywhere in a very long time.
Epilogue
When I slipped into Lucian’s room at the base hospital twelve hours later, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Connor hadn’t said much more than that he’d be all right with a little time and rest, and that he’d been awake for long enough for them to do a little talking. While I was searching through most of my possessions to find the single thing that probably meant more to me than anything--whether two days ago I would have denied it or not--Connor told me that he hadn’t told Lucian the truth about anything--that would be up to me. I’d responded that I wasn’t sure what I’d do. We agreed to keep each other abreast of what was going on--since we were in this one together.
I found Lucian awake when I got to his room, staring at the wall on the opposite side of his bed from the door. He must have turned his head toward me when he heard me come in, because after closing the door quietly behind me, I turned around to find him looking at me, his brow furrowed slightly. I smiled a little at him. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he said quietly, his voice hoarse. “Can’t say I expected to see you here.”
I shrugged. “Well, you know. Sometimes people surprise you.”
“Guess so,” he said, staring up at the ceiling as I sat down in a chair next to his bed. “Sorry if it seems like I’m skipping all the small talk and stuff, but there’s something that’s really been eating at me since I talked to Connor earlier. Why would you, of all people, go with him and Maryanne to rescue me? I thought you hated me.”
Geez, is that what it seemed like? Damn it all. I didn’t realize it came off like that. God, I came off as hating the man I love. Imagine that. I shook my head. “I don’t hate you, Luc. As for the whys...it was my idea in the first place.”
He was clearly confused by that. “You? It was your idea?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it was. Sorry if my behavior made it seem like I hated you. I had my reasons--I felt like I had to keep my distance, you know? But I’m over that now. No more keeping my distance, not from any of you. Something someone said to me finally sunk into this thick skull of mine.”
“Why?” He looked at me. “Why would you do something like that? Putting your career on the line for me?”
I smiled. “You were worth it.” That only appeared to make him even more confused, which prompted me to stifle a laugh. It’s now or never, Catherine. Tell him. Tell him the truth. I leaned forward. “I’m going to tell you a story, okay? Once upon a time, there was a girl who fell in love with someone she’d known all her life. The boy she fell in love with and her brother were closer than brothers themselves. Everyone was happy, and everyone was happier when the boy asked the girl to marry him. Then, about a year later, something terrible happened and it seemed like everything changed. The girl was away when that terrible thing happened, and she thought her family and the love of her life were dead. So she tried to move on. It took her five years to realize she’d failed.” I showed him the engagement ring that he’d given me years ago, the simple diamond ring that had made me the happiest woman in the province—maybe in the known civilized world. “I was that girl, and six and a half years ago, that boy got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. When I said yes, he gave me this ring. I tried very hard, after Gattica died, to forget him. I thought I had, until I met two 'brothers' from my home province. Then I realized I'd never really forgotten him at all.”
He gently took my hand in both of his, wincing slightly--it must have hurt to move his shoulders and wrists, especially given the way his wrists were bandaged. He examined the ring on my finger, his brow furrowing a little bit more, frowning a bit in concentration. Then, after a long time, he looked up at me, tears starting to gather in his eyes. His voice was barely louder than a whisper. “Catey?”
I started to cry almost immediately, throwing my arms around him and hugging him. I felt him wince, but then he put one arm, then the other around me and held me as he, too, began to cry. “I gave you that ring, six and a half years ago. And then a year later, Gattica and the fire and the pain and then the darkness...God, Catey, I’m sorry,” he whispered, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry. How could I have forgotten?”
“You, at least, had an excuse,” I whispered back to him. “It’s all right, though, it’s over now.”
“I always knew that there was something about you...” He swallowed hard. “We have a lot of time to make up, you know. You and Connor, you guys have to help me sort out everything now...it’s starting to come. Slow, but it’s coming now. No more darkness before five years ago, but still shadows.”
“We have all the ti
me in the world, Luc, all the time in the world. The three of us, we’re not going to lose each other again. I promise. What matters now is us, and I mean that.” Now that I have you back, Luc...for the first time in years, everything’s right.
He kissed my temple and held me there. We just stayed there, together for the first time in five and a half years. I was there for hours before he fell asleep, and stayed a little longer after that. That night, for the first time in five and a half years, the tears I cried myself to sleep with were happy.
The End
Extras
Don’t miss an exciting sneak peek at the first novel in the Epsilon universe, Broken Stars!
Epsilon: Broken Stars
Nearly one hundred years after Cat’s rescue of Lucian on Demar, Alliance officer Aaron Taylor battles his demons and the monster E-Fed has become--all in the hopes of finding some peace in a warzone...