• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Bethany looked to Jelly Hob. ‘Jeremiah, can you go to helm? I would be happier if you were there. Leaving here will be fraught.’

Jelly Hob’s old face lit with pleasure. Before he left he shook hands with Thales and then Balbao. ‘Farewell,’ he said with feeling, and left.

Bethany surveyed the rest of them. ‘Those of you staying on Scolar must leave now. Petalu Mau will show you off-ship.’

The teranu waved his arm meaning that they should move. Janne, Miranda Seeward and Jise went first. But the other tyro held back. He looked at Bethany almost shyly, Thales thought.

‘I would stay if I could, Captain Ionil.’

She regarded him with curious eyes. ‘Why would you do that? We will be on the run.’

Labile Connit licked his lips.

‘Cos he’s your nephew, Beth. Mebbe he thinks some family’s better than none,’ piped up Samuelle.

Bethany stared at him in shock. ‘You’re Lasper’s son? I never believed the rumours.’

Connit couldn’t meet her gaze. ‘I never knew him, but I am genetically his son. That is all,’ he added quietly. He waited then as if fearing a death sentence.

But Bethany was not, and would never be, her brother. She held out her hand. ‘You are welcome on my ship, Labile Connit.’

Relief smoothed the distress from his expression.

‘Sammy, find him a cabin and report back to helm,’ said Bethany.

‘Aye, Captain,’ said the old woman with a bright-eyed gleam.

And then only Thales, Bethany and Fariss were left.

Bethany broke the silence by embracing Thales again. ‘I will miss you.’

This time he returned her hug fully – for what they’d shared and what she’d done for him.

‘Goodbye, dear Thales,’ she whispered.

As he followed Fariss to the docking tube, neither of them spoke.

When they reached it, the last of the Feohte were disembarking. They waited for them on station-side with the tyros and Janne.

‘Thales!’ Janne called. ‘We must get back to Ling-Ma.’

Thales waved a hand to acknowledge her and finally lifted his gaze to Fariss. She returned it steadily, her expression infused with conflicting emotions.

‘You’ll stay with the ship,’ he said.

She nodded. ‘And you’ll stay with your world.’

Thales felt his heart tear into pieces. He’d not known what she would choose, not until now, when he’d seen her face.

‘I’d cause trouble for you down here, Thales. You’d grow to hate that.’

He didn’t know what to say. So he let her kiss him one last time, a lingering, deep, breath-robbing kiss.

‘When we’ve beaten the Post-Species, I’ll be back to see you,’ she said.

He nodded, believing her. ‘I’ll be waiting.’

MIRA

Mira?

Primo vein’s attention to Vito’s nutritional deficiencies had engrossed Mira as they left Araldis, but the biozoon’s anxious tone dragged her attention back to their task. What’s wrong?

See – this.

An image slowly bloomed in her mind, an object seemingly half as large as Tiesha or Semantic, burning its way out of Araldis’s ionosphere.

The Post-Species Saqr ship.

It pursues us.

Insignia …

What do you want from me, dearest?

The Entity is out beyond Tiesha. I’ve seen it in Lasper Farr’s device. I must reach it. The Saqr mustn’t stop me. Mira put all her desperate need into her thought.

I am not equipped to combat the creature that pursues us. I’m not even sure what it is.

It is fast?

Yes. I’m at full propulsion and it gains on us easily.

Mira felt Insignia’s desolate certainty.

How much longer?

Moments only.

No!

‘No!’

Mira’s cry was echoed by Tekton, who had settled in the Autonomy nub. Only Josef, cradling a peaceful Nova in the Secondo vein, seemed unaware.

‘Mira?’ he called softly as he rocked the baby. ‘What is it?’

But Mira was transfixed by the image of the approaching Saqr. How enormous it had grown. As she watched it through Insignia’s corduroy perspective, she saw a crack appear in the forward section of its body. It began as a large fissure in the gleaming carapace, which elongated and widened until the split was wider and longer than Insignia.

The Saqr ship was so close now that she could see inside the split to a frightening and