Vargemma Read online

  “I don’t think we can ram them enough to matter, even assuming everyone inside was hostile. Plus, we need them intact to get at that technology. No point in destroying the tools we need defend ourselves only to have this happen again later.”

  Sara sighed, then got up off her stool and walked to Paul, kneeling down beside him so her head was slightly lower and she was reaching over his armrest. She put her hand on his heart and held it there, starring at him for a long time without saying anything.

  He looked away for a moment, not wanting to give in, but a part of him knew she was right…but the larger part of him that never gave up didn’t want to relent.

  “We fight as a team,” she said simply, feeling like the words were treason even as she said them. “We can’t protect them anymore. Not on our own. We’re up against another Black Knight.”

  Paul’s head jerked around, looking at her as old memories of their basic training flashed back…and how they couldn’t beat him on their own, and even in groups they would get their asses kicked each and every time. They could never defeat him, for every time they knocked him down he would get back up again, and even their Final Challenge had them surviving and evading him to get to the finish, not actually stopping him.

  “The others hate this too,” she continued. “You’re just more stubborn than them, Admiral, because we rely on you a bit more than the others. You know what we have to do, but it’s something we never do unless we’re in the heat of battle, and that’s not going to happen when we’re hiding out…but for the sake of the empire we have to hide out. It’s time to let someone else win this while we…cower,” she finished, barely getting that last word out.

  “If victory is your first priority,” Paul acknowledged logically.

  “Death before dishonor,” she reminded him. “How many people are going to die needlessly before we make the decision? You know what he’ll say when you ask.”

  “But he won’t be the one going,” he said, grabbing her hand and holding it on his chest. “Logically you’re right, but my gut says no.”

  “Because we go in first. I’ve been over this with the others multiple times. We all hate it, because we want to be on the front line. But if you were a pawn, would you not want to go first? In order to protect your Rook so it could strike at the enemy and win the game?”

  Paul’s grip on her hand increased painfully as he jabbed his fingertips into the top of her hand, though her genetically enhanced armor-like skin didn’t break under the pressure. “I hate chess for just that reason.”

  “I know you do, but this isn’t our fight. We’re countered. But not all of the team is. Let Teemo go in. We need a sneaky bastard for this, and as luck has it, we’ve got one of the best the galaxy every created. Poetic irony, if you ask me.”

  “They will get slaughtered.”

  “If you were rooting for the Vargemma, would you say that? Or would you be worried?”

  “If you guys have already decided, give the order.”

  “No. It’s coming from you. It needs to be you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he respect you the most, and he has been wanting to justify the effort we made to save them.”

  “They already have, ten times over.”

  “Have they? They’ve earned their keep more than most factions, but have they done for us what we did for them?”

  “They fight with newbs, Sara.”

  “And that’s a strength we don’t have. They do. Now let them save us.”

  “They…”

  “Let them save the planets out there that the Vargemma are going to hit. Let them choose to risk death to shield the others. Don’t make it about you. We can’t protect the empire, not yet, and by the time we figure this out how many quadrillions will be dead? It comes down to a hopeless death or a nearly certain death. If it were you, which would you choose?”

  “But we’re picking for them.”

  “Yeah, we are, because we have no other viable options. And they want to be picked. We’ve taught them well. Now let them do what they’ve been bred to do, and what we’ve enhanced.”

  “It’s still death trading.”

  “The deaths are going to happen whether we like it or not, the difference is one way there is a pathway to victory, the other is endless, pointless loss. And if the Vargemma don’t kill the empire, the Hadarak will if we wait too long.”

  Paul stood up, getting out of the chair, then his peripheral senses caught whiff of an unfamiliar mind in the Repository. One that he didn’t realize was here.

  “You brought him?”

  “We’re a team, Paul,” she said, walking close to him about to put her hand on his chest again, but at the last moment her palm clenched up into a fist and she sucker punched him in the chin, knocking him back through the air and upside down to land on his head and somersault into his quarter’s wall. “Not his parents.”

  Paul toppled over onto his feet and sat on the carpet, rubbing his chin and knowing her hand had to hurt a lot worse than his jawbone. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

  “We were hoping you’d pull some magic out of your butt so we wouldn’t have to do this, but we can’t wait forever and you got nothing, right?”

  “Unfortunately true.”

  “Then we keep looking for an answer while they become the tip of the spear. They’ve earned it, don’t you think?”

  “You’re not telling me anything I haven’t already thought of,” Paul said, standing up and walking past her. He left his quarters and tracked down the mind that was a few hundred meters away, then he saw Cora-005 standing there with Thrawn and both looked in his direction.

  “I officially hate this,” Paul announced, stopping just a step shy of the 8 foot tall former lizard and looking up into his red, glowing eyes.

  “As do I,” Thrawn said, “but only because I cannot go myself. We exist to serve the empire. And if necessary, die to protect it.”

  “Can you win?” Paul asked, knowing the other trailblazers would have fully briefed him on the reconnaissance they’d obtained thus far.

  “If we remain undetected, we have traction and a technological advantage. If this were in the distant past, and we were still enemies, what would you say my chances were?”

  Paul cracked the barest of smiles, and not one of humor. The Paladin had never been able to fully let loose since joining Star Force, but he could imagine what that looked like based on how the lizards had fought and how much he and the others had upgraded the Paladin since.

  “Kick their ass,” Paul said simply, with Thrawn drawing a deep breath in and puffing out his muscular chest.

  “With pleasure…”

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