Page 49 of Desperate Measures

“It was a mistake. I could have made her happy. I lived to make her happy. Oses and I both did…and Resan, if he’d tried, he could have loved her.”

“Betra.”

It was merely his name she spoke, but he winced as if he’d been struck. He’d noted through the years Nekis could load enough reproach in a person’s name to send him begging for forgiveness. Even Resan.

She sighed. “I don’t pretend to understand the dislike between my grandson and Shalia. They’re both wonderful people, but they can’t see it in each other. Perhaps it’s a matter of them being too alike. They are, you know.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t come out here to discuss them, however. I came to ask, do you truly love Shalia?”

“Of course I do.”

He was newly startled to feel her hand on his shoulder. Nekis wasn’t inclined to physical displays.

“Betra, you’re a wonderful man. I want you to understand I think so of you. Unfortunately, for reasons you’re fully aware of, you aren’t the best man for Shalia. If you were, then the old clan laws wouldn’t have stood in your way nine years ago. You wouldn’t have let her go. You did because you wished her to be as happy as she could possibly be. Your wish has come true.”

Betra wanted to yell she was wrong. He wanted to stomp off so he wouldn’t have to hear her speak. His feet remained rooted to the ground, however.

She squeezed his shoulder. “Shalia has all you rightly and bravely begged fate to give her. So you’ll let her go again, though it tears the very heart from you. You’ll do it because you’ve been cursed to love her beyond anyone else for the rest of your days. Because above all other considerations, you would never hurt Shalia.”

Having spoken, she left him, her words ringing in his ears.

* * * *

Alpha Space Station

Under the watchful eye of a Nobek station security guard, Charity sat at a long table in the middle of the installation’s library. For once, she was doing the schoolwork assigned to her before she’d fled Galactic Council space. There was nothing else to occupy her time. After it had been ascertained the Gyma had been spying on her, Nobek Selt had clamped down hard on her comings and goings, with her aunt’s and uncle’s full approval.

Though she sighed and grouched in her guardians’ company, Charity honestly didn’t mind. Flirting with Kalquorians was fun, but the men on the station were too old for a young woman who wanted to be silly and carefree when she wasn’t buckling down on her studies. There was too much for the Kalquorian personnel to be serious about, thanks to the Darks and the pandemics circulating on Earther planets and the empire.

Charity was in a serious frame of mind herself. Danger was present, though great efforts were being made to keep her safe. Because she was in no position to help fight the problems, as her ever-absent sister and father no doubt were, she’d begun to put her more sober and thoughtful mood to her studies. She might be useless where saving the galaxy was concerned, but she could at least behave and stay out of everyone else’s way.

The library was quiet. Only a handful of others used it, seated apart from each other at the room’s three computer-covered tables. Besides her vigilant guard, who was so still and silent she’d begun to consider him part of the furniture, there were Dramoks and a couple of Imdikos. They sat well away from her, intent on the computer readouts they studied. Before Nobek Ebos had faded in the background, he’d explained they were probably researching matters for their jobs on the station. “Laws, treaties, engineering and maintenance matters…whatever requires a link to the Galactic Reference Depository. Anything they can’t access on the local servers to answer questions that come up, they come here to research.”

Charity herself had a trio of vid screens floating in front of her. She worked on mapping what had until recently been Bi’is’ kingdom space using coordinate plotting for her astronomy class. It boggled the mind to realize the Bi’isils no longer existed, but she had set the sense of dismay aside to work on the assignment. There was a fourth screen activated as well, smaller than the rest, which she acknowledged perhaps once an hour. It played the latest news stories. Its audio was an almost meaningless hum in Charity’s earpiece, gaining her attention only when she needed a break from the endless computations and charting.

A beep sounded in the earpiece, worn so what she listened to wouldn’t disturb her fellow researchers. She blinked and set her work on pause, her gaze checking the chronometer. Midafternoon, time to take a break.

It flies when you’re having fun. Alpha Space Station adhered to Earth’s New Hope City’s clock, and she imagined fellow Earthers on the planet below the station counting down the hours to the workday’s end.

She stretched and yawned. Mapping star systems was fun as far as Charity was concerned. Like most of her classmates, she hoped to discover a new planet or star…really, any celestial object that hadn’t been detected before. Even a comet would do. The thrill of being the first sentient to find what no one else had seen or suspected would be heady stuff.

Her glance went to the news vid, and she tuned in to the reporter’s voice. The lead stories were the usual doom and gloom. Kalquor was managing to contain the RCN-16 virus to certain sections on its home planet. Health officials reported they were on the verge of developing a vaccine, but the death toll in affected areas continued to climb.

Earth II’s Dark Death continued to rage virtually unchecked. Governor Nichols had asked Kalquor’s researchers to help it develop a remedy, and they had apparently agreed to do so. Earthtiques predictably swore to avoid vaccines the Kalquorians had a hand in, for fear of genetic meddling. Governor Nichols was considering making any successful vaccine mandatory, and Earthers who refused it would have to leave the planet. “You’re free to put yourselves at risk, but no one else should suffer for it,” she’d said.

The Galactic Council alleged an “invading Kalquorian force” was using an Earther orphanage as a military base to attack them. The empire was countering by leveling its own accusations that the GC fleet had attacked the orphanage and was on the brink of continued aggression on “innocent staff and children who’d survived Armageddon only to be caught in the middle of the Darks’ war against Kalquor, and now, Earth.” The Royal Council’s spokesperson went on to accuse the Darks of unleashing the devastating viruses RCN-16 and Dark Death on the two species.

The same stories had been playing the last time she’d paid attention. At least nothing else has gone wrong in the past two hours.

As if her thought had been a challenge to chance and it had eagerly taken her up on it, a new bulletin began to play. Charity gaped to be confronted by her own face as an adolescent on the screen.

“The Galactic Council’s leading news agency has released footage taken days ago on Alpha Space Station, which orbits Earth,” the voice in her ear announced. “Charity Nath, daughter of Borey Nath, who was last seen alive on Earth’s Holy Leader’s battlecruiser Sword of Truth, is reportedly alive.”

The old picture disappeared, replaced by a vid of Charity, Ruth, and George walking along the station’s promenade. The shot zoomed in, froze, and a point-by-point identification program was run to show the probability it was her. Ninety-five-point-seven percent flashed in red under her face.

“In light of this new evidence, the Galactic Council has renewed its demands Kalquor, as well as Earth, reveal the whereabouts of Browning Copeland and Borey Nath. General Nath, a major force in the Earth-Kalquorian War, is accused of working in collusion with the Kalquorian Empire to hide the original Earth’s Holy Leader without benefit of a trial. It is already alleged Charity Nath’s older sister Hope is also alive and the Matara lifemate of Clan Piras, known to be stationed on Alpha Space Station. In response to this footage, the official government of Mercy Colony is offering a reward for the capture of any of the three Naths, who are wanted on that planet for questioning.”

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