"Do you know why the nefrim attacked us?" Mikhail asked.
"The seraphim encountered humans and guessed that they could help, but their focus on us here made the nefrim focus on us out there."
"If we take it back and give it to them, will they stop attacking?" Mikhail asked.
"I think so," Captain Bailey said. "If nothing else, the seraphim will stop focusing on humans and there should be nothing to drive the nefrim mad."
Turk whispered something to Captain Bailey that made her blush.
"Shush you," she whispered back.
Turk gave her a smile that filled his eyes with laughter. He pulled her into his lap and nuzzled into her neck. Obviously the riff between them had healed since the two had left Ya-ya. Bailey put a hand up to Turk's hair and touched him with loving tenderness.
Bailey glanced up and saw Mikhail watching her. Her eyes filled with sadness and she looked away. She knew that Turk would be leaving.
"I get first dibs on your shower," she slid out of Turk's hold. "That puppy is yours to guard."
"I'll get you some clean clothes too," Turk stood up, hands still outstretched to her. They called her back to him and she kissed him again.
"Thank you." This time she slid free and went.
Mikhail studied Turk as his little brother watched her go. Turk was clearly head over heels in love. And Captain Bailey obviously loved him back. Was Turk going to give her up just to protect his suicidal older brother from himself? Did all the times that he protected Turk make Turk feel like he owed Mikhail to the point of self-sacrifice?
"Turk, you've found something good here," Mikhail said. "I don't want you to give it up because you're afraid that I'll self-destruct. This has put me through hell, but it's taught me to stop picking at wounds until they bleed. The only thing that could hurt me now is to someday realize that I've destroyed your only catch at happiness."
"You, you, you, its all about you," Turk growled but hugged him hard.
Mikhail expected Turk to let go after a brusque show of emotion. That was his normal way. Turk continued to grip him tight, almost as if he was afraid to let go.
"I—I'm staying." Turk said finally. "If I walk away from her, its will tear a hole in me that I don't think I ever could fill. I've asked her to marry me."
Mikhail thought he had braced himself, but it still was like getting stabbed. He was going to lose Turk. After a moment, though, the pain dulled. Turk would be here if Mikhail really needed him for some time before the time dilatation became too great. There would always be the comfort knowing that his little brother was happy. That he would be surrounded by people that loved him. That his children would never know the bigotry that Turk had suffered.
"So, we're having a wedding before I leave?" Mikhail asked.
Turk winced. "We're still trying to work it out.
* * *
Damn the man, Paige thought, as Turk walked in as she was searching his drawers. It wouldn't be embarrassing except for why she done it last time and what she'd found. This time it was all perfectly harmless.
"This is not what it looks like," she grumbled.
"It isn't?" He smiled at her discomfort. He'd borrowed someone's shower and come to his room wearing just a low-slung towel loincloth that looked oh-so-yummy on him.
"No." She closed the drawer she had been rummaging through—slowly—so it didn't look like she was feeling guilty. "Your shower is heavenly but that automatic drying cycle makes a mess of my hair."
She tried to run her fingers through to show off the knots, but it was too tangled even for that. "I'm starting to see why you newcomers always have such short hair."
"Short hair is easier with space helmets."
"Ah." She opened the next drawer and glanced over the contents. "Do you not own a comb?"
He laughed and ducked into his shower to open a cabinet she hadn't noticed recessed into the wall. "Here."
He laid on the bed and watched as she combed her hair. She could see him in the mirror. He was enjoying the show, but there was something bothering him. His smile had a touch of sadness.
"What is it?"
"Mikhail would like to be at the wedding when we get married."
Oh, yes, the whole future thing. It seemed so huge and scary when they talked on Loki. Amazing what being plugged into the voice of God could do to your prospective. She saw with clarity how Mikhail's success affected her family and all of the Sargasso. Cause and effect would ripple out Turk's universe and into hers.
She put away the comb and curled up beside Turk. "I can't stay here in the Sargasso, hording you to myself and ignore your universe."
"You'll come back with us?"
"Returning the Shabd might stop the nefrim from attacking, but I'm the only one that can communicate with them. They're not going to go away and humans aren't going to leave them alone—not after fifty years of war. Someone has to build a peace, and Mikhail can't do it by himself. He'll need both of us. And we'll need him to change how humans see adapted."
He rolled on top of her. "So you will marry me?"
"Yes. And you won't have to fish."
* * *
Mikhail ordered the Svoboda stripped to reduce the mass that the warp engine had to jump. They took out chairs, tables, and unused beds. They dumped all the water and stripped most of the plumbing. After some frank talks, he also left his surviving Reds. The people of Georgetown were grateful and saw them as strong, healthy young men. Families stepped forward to take them in, even the replacements, though with words of warning. Surprisingly, a few of the crew also asked to stay. He gave them the Tigertail as stake money to start their new life.
Lastly, although not least, they had a joint wedding for Turk and Paige, Rabbit and Hillary. Considering they might be jumping into oblivion, it was surprisingly joyous, though at times mystifying. The Georgies had developed a surprising number of odd wedding traditions. He'd have to ask Paige later what the thing about the fishing float was about.
Mikhail had his remaining crew suited up into spacesuits and gathered in the engine housing. And he attached his recording of all the time they'd spent in the Sargasso to the engine itself.
For the first time in his life, he felt like he was shutting a door behind him, and walking into a future that he chose. For the first time, he felt nearly sick with fear, because death would be more than just a release from pain and a failure to his crew. For the first time, he prayed.
Taking one deep breath, he triggered the engine.
The field flashed over him, making the hair on his arms stand up. There was a deep ringing vibration, as if the whole universe had been a massive bell that had just been struck. It was a purer tone than the normal sound that of a normal jump, which always had a muted hum. At least his vision filled with the same color of wine. There was the familiar jolt of heat and cold and smell and blindness and nausea all at once as his senses protested being shoved through a hole in time and space.
And then it was over.
"Was that it?" Paige whispered.
"Yes, that was it." Turk murmured. "Welcome to my world . . .hopefully."
"Stations." Mikhail ordered as he headed forward to see if the bridge survived this time. "Damage report!"
The bridge had survived. He snapped on the exterior cameras. They had come out near a planet. The question was which planet. He'd chosen to return to Krasnyi, which was Novaya Rus' least populated planet on the far edge of human space. He wanted to be in control, but he didn't want to endanger his people in case the alien device turned out to be dangerous. But had they reached Krasnyi?
"Kutuzov, find out where we are. Moldavsky, set up a secure channel to my father."
Moldavsky squeaked quietly in surprise and perhaps intimidation, but set to work.
"Sir, it's Krasnyi." Kutuzov said.
The planet was only recently habitable as it reached the last stages of terraforming. It no longer had its reddish cast that earned its name. Modified wild barley grass gave the vast
plains a sandy hue and its seas were turning blue.
"Sir, incoming ship! It's nefrim!"
It was one of their carrier ships, filled with fighters all only slight smaller than the Svoboda. Luckily they weren't built to land on planets. The astrosphere would also deflect and defuse most of the carrier's energy weapons.
"Take us down to Krasnyi. Away from the ocean, please!"
Lieutenant Belokurov started them into the gentle glide into the planet's astrosphere.
"Two more ships. Three. A destroyer. A dreadnaught. No, two dreadnaughts."
Nothing yet that could touch them on the planet. He was afraid of something like this happening. The Hak had implied that the nefrims acted as one, and the seraphims had communicated mind to mind. They'd picked up the return of the Shabd and obviously were now focused on getting it back. It was possible that they'd have the entire nefrim fleet here shortly.
"Sir, a planetbuster just warped in." Moldavsky said.
Their only hope was that the nefrims' return to sanity was as sudden as their plunge into insanity.
"Sir, are we landing?" Lieutenant Belokurov obviously wanted to continue being a moving target.
"Yes. Put us down. We're hoping for first peaceful contact." He glanced to Paige who nodded slightly.
They settled on the northern plains. Mikhail clipped on a headset, saying to Moldavsky, "Put my father through when you connect with him."
She nodded, her eyes wide with fear at her screens filling with incoming nefrim ships.
He, Turk and Paige went down the gangplank together. Paige carried Shabd.
"This." Turk flung wide his arms. "This is a steppe."
Paige laughed as if he made a joke. "Where is my borscht?"
They waded out through the knee-high grass that ran for miles in a shifting carpet of gold. The clear blue sky filled with the underbellies of nefrim ships.
"Sir," Kutuzov's voice came over the headset. "One of their frigates is coming down. It's heading right for us."
"Stand by but do not engage," Mikhail said.
"I think its going to be all right," Paige whispered. "The seraphim are here."
In the clear day, the seraphim were nearly impossible to see, except for the slightest distortion in the air and the stirring of the barley. When they brushed against Mikhail, he had flashes of joyous memories. Turk was in every one. He glanced to Turk, smiling.
Apparently they were doing the same to Turk, as he grinned and said, "This is what happens when you shake the universe to see what falls out."
There was a faint rolling thunder of sonic booms that grew louder and louder as the nefrim frigate dropped down out of the heavens. It came roaring across the plain, growing from a black speck to a gleaming black slice of metal. At the last minute, it banked and slowed in a howl of VTOL engines. It landed a hundred feet off, beating down the barley around it.
Turk reached out and put his hand against Paige's back. His new wedding ring gleamed in the sunlight. "I love you."
"I know," Paige said and walked toward the frigate carrying the Shabd. The air was alive with seraphim pressing close to her.
The nefrim appeared outside their ships. They moved to tower over her. Paige held the Shabd out, which they took, and then settled on the bent grass. One of the nefrim settled in front of her, and they started to commune.
"Mikhail?" A voice came through his headset, and caught up at the moment, it took him a second to recognize it.
"Father?"
"Oh, thank god, you're alive. Director Heward sent me a communiqué saying he'd lost you. Is Turk all right?"
"He's fine." Mikhail was surprised that his father cared. "We need to talk. I've given out promises I need you to keep. And I think I'll be giving out more very shortly."
"This has to do with what's happening in the space around Krasnyi?"
"Yes."
"I take it you found more than the Fenrir."
"I found things beyond our understanding. And I found a new colony. And I think I found a way to end the war. And I found myself."
THE END
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