Page 157 of Sky Song
“There, I’m dropping you off.”
Phex’s large eyes blinked, the only sign of disbelief. “Commander?”
“You’ll pick up the people waiting in the woods and follow us in the ship Shadow Flyer has prepared. Take three men with you.”
The stupefied Phex didn’t argue. His energy remained even - a feat of self-restraint, to be sure. “How much time do I have?”
Simon motioned at Paloma. She fished a small device from her pocket and opened it. The tiny lights blinked and lit. “When I jam the grid, you will have twenty-five minutes before the backups restore the emergency services at the depot.”
Phex inclined his regal head, saluted Simon, and left to follow his orders without a backward glance, without so much as a twitch of his sandy eyebrows.
“Commander… Simon,” Ren spoke up. “My sister has to come with me. We’re twins with a condition, truly, and she’s the most affected.”
But Simon was done. “She will follow us with the others until we reach Priss.” He turned to leave, then stopped, cocked his head. “Phex is one of the best. He’ll keep them safe.” He left then, his quiet reassurance still hanging in the dry cold air of the alien ship, the only one he’d been willing to offer.
Defenders gave Cricket queer looks, but Simon’s robe over her shoulders implied his approval if not his protection, and she was afforded respect she otherwise might not have received. Her lips twisted. First, Simon’s genes, and now, his clothes over her body. It was like some cosmic hand forced him to watch over her against his will. Maybe she should feel grateful.
The ship was small, and Cricket easily found the medical bay. Lyle lay wrapped like a mummy, strapped to a narrow sleigh-looking cot, a mask over his face with a tube running out of it into a wall that hid most of the medical equipment. Cricket squeezed into the narrow cabin and placed her hand on his arm, ran her fingers up and down gently. Even through the wraps, he seemed cooler to the touch, and she took it for a positive sign. “I’m with you, my love. We’re going to be okay.” A hard lump got stuck in her throat.
She didn’t know how long she stood over Lyle, watching him breathe. The door opened without a sound, and Simon’s oversized frame sucked in all space. Cricket had an instant urge to shield Lyle from the commanding Rix. She must have made a small move that gave her away, because Simon asked bluntly, “Do you expect me to kill him like this?”
“I don’t know, Simon.” She was so very tired. She blinked at him sleepily, the drowsiness falling over her like a lead curtain. “I heard you’re quick to act, and what I’ve seen today confirms that rumor.”
His eyes weren’t flat and cold like Lyle’s could be, but the depth of his was no less terrifying. Cricket felt herself drowning. She blinked to dispel the sensation, and for a moment her eyes refused to open again. When they did, she felt disoriented.
“No one was going to kill him to begin with.”
She sensed it wasn’t all he wanted to say. “But?”
“He didn’t want to go back to prison.”
“Is he going back to prison now?”
Simon shook his head, that moonlight-white hair shimmering under the lights.
“He was always going to… die?”
“Eventually, his implant was going to run out. He knew it. It was a conscious choice.”
Cricked raked her hands through her hair. She wanted to cry and cry. “How could you?”
“Do you know anything about his crimes?” Simon asked her.
“Why?”
“Do you know that he was born into a pirate’s haven, the son of a Rix criminal who had escaped Enzomora and established that colony?”
She gave a short nod.
“So you understand why he was never getting out of prison.”
“Makes me wonder why you all didn’t just kill him,” she said hoarsely.
“Lyle was spared death because of how he came to Enzomora.”
Cricket looked at him, against her will bespelled by his smooth voice. “Because he surrendered?”
Simon continued to stare at her - from their close quarters, she saw his pupils trained on her face. “Yes, he surrendered. It wasn’t the reason.” He looked briefly at Lyle. “His surrender came after the pirate haven had been destroyed. We had always known about the pirates, but locating their den and planning the operation took decades. Finally, the defenders surrounded the planet where the pirates lived and destroyed it, raining fire on it and pulverizing everything alive in that place. But we hadn’t been able to catch them by surprise, and many pirates had had time to scatter. They grabbed what few workingships they could find and flew off into space. Most were shot down. Some escaped. Lyle was one of the escaped ones, but his ship was damaged by the defender fire.”
