Chapter 39
“Wraith’s hands were shaking so hard it took three fucking tries to switch on her team broadcast. And if the panic surging through her system would just abate even slightly, maybe she could get some words out.
Words like Run. Or maybe, I love you. Run.
Another Wasp appeared beside her, rolling up from beneath her position.
She looked left. Spirit.
You okay, Baby Bird?
His voice was in her head, not on the comm.
With it, reality snapped back into focus, and she knew what to do.
Not even slightly, she told him.
She couldn’t see his expression, but she could guess.
“Ghosts; Wraith. We need to Tunnel. Now.”
She hit the button and smashed Inbetween. Spirit appeared next to her almost immediately.
Then the other four, appearing one after the other in close succession. Much nearer here than their positions in real space.
“We have a problem, boys and girl, a big one.”
“Bigger than that fucking Leviathan, Wraith?”
“Yeah, Spook. Much bigger. We have to integrate.”
Silence.
“Why?” Phantom. Not questioning the need, seeking to understand.
“You remember when we first integrated? Why we first integrated?”
No one responded, no one had to.
“Well, I’ve just been ordered to do that again, except at the exact moment of Tunneling.”
“It’s one way to end the battle,” Geist’s voice was barely audible.
“And it would let the Fold bleed through and destroy this part of the galaxy with it. Oh, and also us and anyone else in the vicinity.” Shade, getting to the heart of the matter as usual.
“So, what do you propose?” Spook. Calm as Phantom, who was unusually silent.
“We need to get past the Leviathan’s shields. We need absolute precision, so we integrate. Punch through right next to the damn thing, launch everything we have at it, and Tunnel out again.”
“Ready when you are,” said Spirit, sounding subdued. It was not a good feel for him.
As plans went, it was one of her better ones. With one teensy, tiny little problem. As they exited, Wraith clipped debris and her dash lit up. The Wasp was not happy.
She ignored it, blocking it from the others. They needed to focus.
They were almost out of missiles, but the shield was flickering. They couldn’t destroy the Leviathan short of a suicide run, but they could make sure it could be destroyed.
“Now, Captain.”
The cold voice sounded in her earpiece. She killed all comms.
Time to get out of here.
Tunnel. Now!
She slammed a fist on the, button. The rest disappeared. She didn’t.
“Oh, fuck.”
The connection to Ghost Command fractured. She could still feel them, but barely. A new swarm of Locusts was emerging from the Leviathan. Two more Goliath’s flashed into the fray. She had just disobeyed orders, or, as a Military Tribunal would say, committed treason.
But she could still save her family. One missile left.
I’m sorry, she told them.
Don’t you fucking dare, Ash!
Tom.
She closed her eyes. Severed the connection. Delete
“So, I flew my broken Wasp into the Leviathan.” Wraith told Kael. “We’d made kind of a large hole. There was something at the center. I could feel it pulsing. I got as close as I could, and sent off that one final missile.
“Hightailed it out of there.
“I was beyond their shields when the blast wave hit. Like a giant fucking EMP. My instruments died. My Wasp just floating, dead in space. But I was alive.”
“I remember starting to laugh, and then the second blast wave hit. A hell of a lot harder that the first. Fire this time. Debris. So much debris. I was flung backwards…
“Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a cell. That same cold voice tells me:
“You have been found guilty of treason. There is no appeal. You will die in this cell.”
She wiped tears off her face with her free hand.
“Asshole.”
Kael’s voice sounded from behind her and his fingers tightened on hers. She realized he was there. Part of her. Had been with her for a while, reliving her memories with her.
They’d integrated and she hadn’t even clocked it.
“You okay?” she asked.
Not even a little bit. His voice was quiet in her head. But I’ll get there.
“We can’t stay long,” Kael told Wraith as they approached the Other’s giant vessel. “Being down here isn’t… good for me.”
He didn’t know how to put it better than that, but Wraith didn’t ask him to explain.
“Agreed.”
He felt strange.
Not like before, when the Void was clawing him open while whispering promises.
He felt… no, not whole. Real.
Disturbingly real.
Wraith felt distant.
Maybe it was the loss of physical contact after almost three days of using her as a very real anchor. Maybe it was the way he’d lived through that final battle with her—as her—and he was now just Kael again in his head.
Maybe it was something else.
A hanger bay door opened. Wraith easily maneuvered them inside and set them down with barely a vibration.
Still the best flyer he’d ever seen or even heard of.
“Why didn’t they fast-track you for Flight?” he asked her. He’d seen her Basic records. Putting her with ground forces was a poor decision.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” She cut the engine, equalized the cabin pressure. “In fact, with your clearance, your guess may be better than mine. Let me know if you ever figure it out.”
He released his harness. He’d have to make up for all this sitting with some serious time on the mats.
Wraith was already on the ground as he climbed out, twisted and dropped to the floor.
He eyed Phantom, who was walking towards them along with Seori. That would be an interesting hand-to-hand match. He imagined Elijah felt the same way.
His gaze flicked to Wraith.
She didn’t need to know about it. At least not until after it happened.
“You survived.”
Elijah’s smile was huge, his relief written clearly on his face.
“Nah, died years ago,” Wraith replied.
She’d expected a chuckle. Got tears instead.
“Don’t try to kill me,” Elijah warned Helios. “Or my wife.”
Then he wrapped his arms around Wraith, pulled her close. She tensed, waiting for a reaction from the man behind her.
There was none.
She closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around Elijah, and leaned into him. Let herself be Ash. Just for a moment.
“I’d like to do a medical check, if that’s alright?” she heard Seori say to Helios.
“Thank you, Dr Tommasi, but we need to get back.”
Wraith sighed, and Elijah tightened his grip.
“But before we go, I do need to ask you some questions.”
Void damn it all.
The Major was back. And in full SID mode, no less.
There was no way this was going to go well.