Rebel's Quest (23 page)

“Which leads back to increased prosperity.” Roshan smiled wryly. “You come from an ancient culture, with a long history of dominance. It’s engrained this ultimate goal in its offspring for centuries. It’s not going to be easy for the SC, or any other union of worlds, to stymie a way of life that’s embedded in the majority of its population. Most of them may be regular people, but they’re also not hard to rally if the Onotharian propaganda machine powers up.”

Andreia shook her head, saddened by the gloomy prospect of everlasting war between neighbors. “I know, but we can’t sit idly by. The SC’s decision to intervene is a step in the right direction. Without them, Gantharat would eventually be lost. The resistance is already on the verge of being wiped out.”

Roshan didn’t speak at first. She looked down at her laced fingers, and Andreia wondered what was going through her head. When Roshan suddenly extended a trembling hand, she jumped. “We’ve come so far. We’ve worked from opposite sides, but toward the same goal, Gantharat’s freedom.”

Andreia took Roshan’s hand, which was ice cold.

“Some days I can hardly remember what it was like when my only worry was if I was going to flunk a test because I didn’t focus on it enough.”

“You? Not focus enough?” Andreia tried to joke.

“You were my main focus back then. Surely you knew that?” It was clear Roshan wasn’t joking. Her eyes didn’t waver, and she sounded as if the thought of the old days pained her.

“I thought so at the time. I mean, I guessed, since it was mutual. We were best friends, who could’ve been…more.”

“Could’ve been? Those are truthful words.” Roshan laughed, but with absolutely no joy. “Yes, I suppose that cargo ship left the docking bay a long time ago.”

A sharp twinge of pain caused Andreia’s heart to flutter without moving any blood through her veins. It was hard to breathe, yet nothing had changed, really. Roshan was lost to her, and it had happened twenty-five years ago. The Onotharian rulers had a lot on their conscience, and in the great scheme of things a broken heart was a very minor thing.

*

“Lock and load!” Three hours later, Roshan led her team of twenty rebels across a small field. She raised her plasma-pulse rifle to her shoulder and pressed the safety unlocking sensor. “Fire only on my mark!”

To her left, Andreia held a borrowed firearm, a small handheld weapon, but just as lethal, in a two-handed grip. Roshan was relieved her team seemed to accept their story that Andreia was the sole survivor of her resistance cell during the Onotharian raid. Only Jubinor had regarded her with dark, suspicious eyes, pointing out the fact that Andreia was obviously a Gantharian/Onotharian hybrid.

“Stay sharp, people!” Roshan, Andreia, and the rest of the team were aiming their weapons at the far end of the canyon, behind the northern part of the Merealian Mountains, where two small vessels hovered ten meters up in the air, whirling debris around them.

“Don’t let them any closer than that.” Roshan was fairly sure these were, indeed, Supreme Constellations craft, but she’d been around too long to take anything at face value. “They’re landing.”

The two small craft landed on the green field, and their propulsion systems powered down with a muted whine of the power nacelles. Nothing happened for another few seconds, but then Roshan saw the hatch open on the craft closest to her and her team.

A tall, slender figure climbed from the vessel and stood still for a moment, as if judging her surroundings. The woman pulled off her helmet, disentangling her long blond hair that folded out into the wind.

Roshan smiled and shouldered her rifle. “I knew it,” she said. She had to laugh, or the sheer poignancy of the moment would make her cry. “Hold your fire, everyone. These are friends.”

“What? Who is it?” Andreia squinted toward the tall woman.

“It is her. Our only remaining Protector of the Realm has returned to Gantharat. Who would ever have thought that possible?”

“Kellen of the O’Dals? Here?” Andreia said with obvious disbelief. She raised the binoculars to her eyes. “Oh, Gods, it
is
her. I recognize her from the SC transmission when they introduced the prince.”

“I don’t recognize the other woman. She looks Gantharian.” Roshan began walking to the ships, and Andreia kept an even pace with her.

“Paladin.”

Kellen sounded so familiar when she spoke while regarding Roshan with calm blue eyes. “May I introduce Admiral Rae Jacelon? My wife.”

“Wife?” Roshan blinked, momentarily amazed because the woman next to Kellen looked entirely Gantharian. “Good job on the makeover. We’re thrilled to have you here, Admiral.”

“Thank you. We thought it best to rendezvous with you on a smaller scale. We’ve brought troops.”

“We’ll need them.” Roshan saw how curiously the two women regarded Andreia. The rest of her team was waiting ten meters behind them. “This is O’Daybo.”

Even Roshan would never have recognized Andreia the way she looked at the moment. If Rae Jacelon had managed to alter her features that much using derma-fuser technology, Andreia had pulled off a complete transformation merely using hair dye, colored lenses, and makeup. The hour they’d spent at Roshan’s mansion, quickly preparing to join the other rebels in the mountains, had paid off. It was a gamble, but if anyone recognized her as Andreia M’Aldovar, everything would be over. As disciplined as the rebels were, a lot of them were trigger-happy. Now they saw a reddish blond woman with pale skin and blue eyes. Even if nothing could be done about Andreia’s height, she looked Gantharian enough to be a convincing hybrid. That also explained her Onotharian biosignatures setting off their scanners.

Two other women, looking just as Gantharian as Rae and Kellen, joined them from the other spacecraft. Introductions were made, and then Roshan suggested they return to the base camp. “It’s only half an hour ride on the hoverbikes from here through a secret tunnel in the southern mountain that the Onotharians don’t know anything about.”

“We have to work fast. Our assault craft can stay on low-energy cloaking for only four hours.” Kellen directed her firm gaze at the men and women keeping their distance. “Can some of your people remain behind to make sure they’re safe?”

“Certainly. We’ll be back here in time for you to return to your main vessel,” Roshan assured them. Walking toward the rebel team members, she could feel a new energy and spring in her step. Her team would of course recognize the Protector, and Roshan hoped her presence would inspire them to believe in the future. The massive attack against so many of their leaders had damaged the ideals of the younger members.

“Paladin?” Andreia was walking a little way behind her, and Roshan now shortened her stride to wait for her.

“Yes?”

“How on earth are we going to be able to ensure the Protector’s safety?”

“She doesn’t expect us to do anything that she can’t do herself.”

“But if something happens to her…The prince—”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Roshan said quickly. “I’ll do anything to keep her alive. I’ll die trying. But she’s a Protector, a warrior like neither of us has ever been or can ever hope to be. It’s in her blood.”

“I know from the file we keep on her that she’s formidable in every way. Not to be underestimated. But she looks…incredible.”

“She does and she is.” Roshan watched Kellen’s movements as the young rebels gathered around her, eyes shining and obviously awed when Kellen extended her hand to each of them, a gesture Roshan recognized from her father’s way of greeting people.
She must’ve picked up this foreign tradition among the SC citizens.
Roshan knew that her father’s homeworld, Earth, was the SC center, and Kellen had taken the prince there to keep him safe.

“All right, people, let’s move out. Everyone, pair up so our guests have enough bikes at their disposal.” Four bikes were freed up, and everyone drove to the tunnel system hidden in the bedrock, Roshan spearheading the convoy.

Dark, damp walls surrounded them as they sped through the narrow tunnel. Andreia sat behind Roshan on her hoverbike, and it didn’t matter that she tried to keep her mind on their high-powered visitors; all she could think of was Andreia’s arms around her waist.

Roshan stopped just inside the entrance on the south side of the mountain. On more than one occasion this precaution had prevented them from being discovered. If they lost their tunnel system, they’d lose their current advantage of escaping into thin air.

“Anything?” she asked Andreia.

“Let me switch to long-range scanning, just to be safe,” Andreia said, and adjusted the scanner. “I don’t see any Onotharian biosignatures other than my own. The only life signs are wildlife and the team members back at camp.”

“Good. Let’s move on, then.” Roshan raised her hand and pushed her fist forward twice. “Team, double-cradle formation once we clear the tunnels,” she said into the comm system embedded in their helmets. “Let’s go.”

Once they were out of the tunnel, the rebels took up formation around their visitors. Driving fast, they crossed the large meadows that led to a narrow pass between two rock formations. There, two rebels guarded the camp entrance, and, unwilling to stop and create another opportunity for a potential attack, Roshan signaled the guards by voice and hand gestures. The closest guard acknowledged with the correct signal, which assured Roshan that everything was calm in the camp.

As they entered the plain in front of the humble structures outlining their facility, Roshan saw Doc and Jubinor standing in front of the main building, their faces serious. She pulled up to the two men and shut off the propulsion.

“Good to see you all back, Paladin.”

“Thanks, Jubinor. We’ve brought guests.”

Kellen and Rae dismounted their hoverbike and joined Roshan and Andreia.

“Gods of Gantharat,” Doc exclaimed. “Protector…”

Jubinor looked at Kellen and showed no expression. “When you set out to find backup, you don’t mess around, do you, Paladin?” Then he walked closer and placed both hands on Kellen’s shoulders. “Protector. I knew you only by your call name, but you were the bravest kid I’d ever come across. When you disappeared I was afraid you’d been killed.”

“It’s good to see you again, Jubinor,” Kellen said. “I left because of Armeo. We were constantly in danger.”

“I realize that now.” Jubinor let go of her and wiped at his eyes. “Damn it, Protector, it’s good to have you here. We haven’t had much good news lately.”

“So I understand,” Kellen said. “Let’s see if we can help change that. The SC is getting ready to engage the Onotharians, and our first priority is to free our people who risk ending up in the asteroid prisons.”

“The senior rebels are crucial to the SC’s involvement,” Rae Jacelon said. “We need their knowledge, their expertise.”

“And you are?” Jubinor asked. “I don’t remember ever seeing you before.”

“You haven’t. I’m Admiral Rae Jacelon, of the SC Fleet. Kellen is my wife.”

Jubinor barely smiled. “Welcome to our homeworld. I pray the SC
involvement
will help us toward our ultimate goal, freedom.”

Roshan had heard enough. She knew Jubinor was tired, and a lot of their cell’s administrative work had fallen on his shoulders, but she couldn’t allow him to border on insolence like this.

“Jubinor, I’m sure you appreciate that without Admiral Jacelon’s connections, they wouldn’t be here, and the SC would still be negotiating and discussing their involvement.”

“Of course.” Jubinor’s shoulders slumped briefly. “I didn’t mean to sound unappreciative—”

“And you didn’t. You’re fighting damn near unbeatable odds. I hope we can help alleviate some of the stress and strain.” Rae motioned toward the building. “Should we go inside?”

“Of course.” Roshan let them all enter ahead of her and Andreia. When they were alone outside, she took her by the hand. “You’re frowning. What’s on your mind?”

“I’m afraid I’m jeopardizing my identity by being here. I know the mask is good and that nobody has recognized me. Yet—”

“I understand that your identity as Boyoda—”

“No,” Andreia interrupted harshly, her eyes like molten lava. “I’m not all that concerned that anybody will recognize me as Boyoda, but as Andreia M’Aldovar. Especially with our Protector and Admiral Jacelon present.”

“Why? Why would that be worse?”

Andreia tugged at the sleeves of her jacket and straightened her back, as if she expected to be chastised any moment. “Trax led the OECS team that engaged the covert SC operation six lunar months ago. If they find out that I’m his sister—”

“Was that when he was killed?” Roshan asked, forcing her voice to sound soft.

“Yes.” Dark emotions flickered over Andreia’s face, and she paled. “Trax nearly killed Admiral Jacelon. She was still a commodore then, and as you know…Kellen O’Dal is a Gan’thet
master.”

“Of course, he didn’t stand a chance.” Roshan could have applauded Kellen’s skills right then and there, but she knew how Andreia had once idolized her brother.

“She won.”

Roshan pulled Andreia behind the corner of the building, out of sight of the rebels guarding the camp. “You understand he left her no choice, don’t you?” She examined Andreia’s face for any sign of how she felt.