From Last Time:

“There are more seriously wounded people who need our help,” Clark said. The Ensign merely nodded in understanding. With great pain, Clark pulled the sleeve of his uniform back into place over the bandage. He flexed his hand again experimentally. It hurt, but he could still use his arm.

As he exited the building he saw Ev Mir, leading several men in handcuffs and shackles toward the gates. “What happened, Lieutenant?” Clark called out to the younger man.

Ev Mir looked up at him and Clark could see the deep cut running across his cheek, his face covered in blood and grime. “We took the building and captured them,” he said, nodding toward his four prisoners. “We found two of our own dead inside and lost one more in the raid, sir.” Ev Mir turned away and continued walking. Clark felt his heart sink. People he had led, people he was supposed to protect had died because of the decisions he’d made. He felt the dizziness and the nausea sweep over him again.


New Stuff:


********

By morning, Nor’s forces had largely been subdued. Pockets of resistance remained, but the majority of the settlement was under the control of Talan’s forces. It was clear that the town had been left in the hands of a large group of thugs and that their leadership was long gone. In their absence, the thugs had held the settlement under siege, terrifying to population and taking whatever they’d wanted. Compared to all expectations, Talan’s victory had been swift and clean.

Soldiers took turns patrolling and sleeping. Clark was physically worn out and mentally way beyond exhausted, but sleep eluded him. He wandered through the settlement in a daze, unmindful of the fact that it still wasn’t a safe place. He’d helped the soldiers put out the fires in the fields a few hours earlier, but most of the damage had already been done. The crops were all destroyed.

To his surprise, Clark saw Ching approaching him. “Sir, we have word that some of the rebels may still be in this area, they will likely attack the civilians in hopes of using them as leverage,” Ching said grimly. “Our forces are already on alert and patrols have increased. Please do be on your guard, sir.”

“Thank you, Ching,” Clark replied soberly. The news of a continuing threat forced him to forget his own fatigue. He continued his patrol through the streets, although now ever more watchful, expecting danger to come find him.

For several hours, he patrolled, but found nothing. Exhausted, he made his way back to the gates. Before arriving there, however, something on a small street caught his attention. He wasn’t able to say what it was, or why it had attracted his notice, but years of being Superman as well as an investigative reporter had taught him to trust his instincts when something didn’t feel quite right. He cautiously walked down the deserted street, knowing that doing this alone probably wasn’t very smart, but he couldn’t risk the time it would take until help arrived. He wasn’t sure why he knew that, he just did.

He looked furtively between the small buildings, not sure what he expected to find. Finally, the sounds of men’s voices gave him pause. They were speaking in low tones and he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. The sounds were coming from behind one of the houses. He crept ever closer, hoping not to draw their attention. Subconsciously, he gripped his rifle tighter, ignoring the pain in his shoulder that resulted.

Clark put his back up against the building and inched closer to the sounds of the voices. He heard the sound of a window being pried open. They were going into the house. He prayed that it was empty. The screams of a child from within told him otherwise. He raced around toward the back in time to catch the last of the invaders trying to climb through the window. Clark hit the man in the ribs with the butt of his rifle. Before the man could recover, Clark punched him in the face, knocking him out, and dragged him to the ground. He grabbed the man’s gun before slipping into the house.

Inside, one of the other goons was hovering menacingly over a woman and two small children. The woman kept the children behind her, backed against a corner, as she stared at her attacker, fear evident in her eyes. The other was apparently sacking the home in search of valuables. He silently crept up on the first thug. He caught the woman’s eye and placed a finger against his lips, hoping that the woman and the children wouldn’t give away his presence. He held his rifle up and moved ever closer to the intruder, his heart slamming against his ribs, his mouth dry.

The thug turned to call out to his partner. “What’s…” When he noticed Clark’s presence and the gun steadily trained on him. He spat out a slew of words no one had bothered to teach Clark, which led him to assume that they were inappropriate to use in polite company.

“Drop the weapon,” Clark said.

The man hesitated for a second, but he had been caught off guard and off balance. If he had tried to turn his weapon on Clark, Clark could have killed him long before he would have had the chance to aim or call for help. This was assuming Clark was prepared to kill, which the other man could only assume was true. He lowered his weapon. Clark forced him against a wall. He calmly instructed the woman to pick up the attacker’s gun and aim it at him while he restrained him. Deciding it was more important to get the woman and her children to safety than to worry about the three attackers, he quietly made his way to the door to make sure it was safe for them to leave. He opened the door and cautiously looked around before signaling the woman to follow him. She picked up the younger of the two children, both of whom were crying loudly and took the other by the hand. Clark picked up the older child as he gently shepherded them toward the door.

“Can’t you shut those…” A loud voice came from another room. Clark tried to get them out the door faster, but was rewarded by the heat of a laser rifle shot singing just past his head. Another shot just barely missed the woman, who was between him and the attacker. In one motion, Clark pushed the woman and the children behind him and shot at the attacker. It was only by blind luck that he ended up hitting him in the thigh. The attacker cursed and fell to the ground.

They raced out of the house to find that soldiers had already started to head toward them. The soldiers stormed the house to take the three rebels into custody. Clark was still carrying one of the children, who were both still crying hysterically. He tried to reassure the little girl, just as her mother tried to sooth the girl’s younger brother, but they were rightfully terrified. Several soldiers approached to take the woman and her children somewhere safer.

Clark hated to admit it, but he was relieved to have someone else looking after them. His nerves were shot and he doubted there was anything he could do for the family at that moment. He stepped back to watch the soldiers frog march the three captured rebels out of the house. It felt like he was watching something happen on TV; it wasn’t real. Or at least, it didn’t feel real at that moment.

“Kal El? Sir?” He turned around to find Talan calling his name.

“Sir, are you all right?” He regarded her curiously. For a moment, he could have sworn that there was concern in her cold, gray eyes. He said nothing. Dazed, he began to walk away. She fell in step beside him, matching his long stride easily.

“You did well today, sir,” she said in simple praise.

“Before I came to New Krypton, I had seen a lot of awful things in my life. But this isn’t the same. None of that prepared me for this. I gave an order that got three people killed. I shot someone today. This wasn’t exactly my best day, commander.”

“And how many lives did you save?”

“We aren’t keeping score here. I don’t get to kill someone for every person I save, it doesn’t work that way.”

In two quick steps she was in front of him, cutting him off. “Of course it doesn’t, but you have to do what you can to protect those around you and to accomplish your mission. You did that, sir. This is still a war and people are going to die; all we can do is try to limit the suffering and end it as quickly as possible.”

“Believe me, I know that. But it cannot change the fact that I don’t feel like I did the right thing here.”

“I understand that, sir.” She awkwardly stepped out of his way.

“Do you?” he challenged.

“Every morning, I begin my day with the knowledge that it is highly likely that I will kill someone today or that I will give an order that will kill someone today or that I will be killed today, perhaps even all three. It is not an easy way to live and it took a long while to get used to it.”

“I’m not sure I want to,” he replied.

********

Lois touched down gently on the porch. Four straight nights spent flying had done little to help her figure out what it was she needed to do to get her writing back on track. Floating up among the stars, she somehow felt even further away from Clark than she normally did. She was certain she was just imagining it, but for whatever reason, up there, she felt like she was losing him. Like he was slipping away from her. She tried to banish the thoughts and the pain they brought.

She stood out on the porch for a long while, unbothered by the brisk autumn air. She stared up at the endless Kansas sky and searched for his star. Just like he’d shown her, she found the right constellations and traced a line to the tiny little star. It wasn’t his star, but it was the closest one to the weak red sun New Krypton orbited, he’d explained.

She placed a hand against her protruding abdomen and tuned in to the sound of her son’s heartbeat. The sound gave her peace, even when nothing else would. Lois had never figured herself for the maternal type, but over the last few months, she’d grown ever more thankful for her pregnancy and ever closer to the child she was carrying.

One thing she’d become certain of during the last five months was that life just kept going. Whether or not you wanted it to, whether or not you were ready for it to. You had to keep going along with it, even when you didn’t know how. Even when you were sure it wasn’t possible. You couldn’t stop one day from moving to the next, no matter how much you wanted to.

He was still the first thing she thought of every morning, she still found herself turning around, expecting him to be there. She caught herself all the time, about to call his name, as though he were just in the other room. Night time was the worst. She would fall asleep and dream of him, of sleeping in his arms, of making love with him.

The dreams were hazy now, as though a fog had settled on her mind, preventing her from seeing him clearly. They were like memories, growing dim with time no matter how hard she fought. At the beginning, she could have sworn the dreams were real. That he was there with her. Months later, the dreams were dreams. Hazy, muddy, so quick to disappear. That didn’t mean she didn’t wake up nights surprised to be alone, reaching to his side of the bed to find it cold and empty. She would fight a losing battle to remember, to remember the dreams, but she couldn’t hold on to them. Their gossamer threads slipped through her fingers no matter how hard she tried to grasp them. They’d leave her feeling bewildered, and painfully alone. With each dream, she seemed to lose something that she couldn’t even remember. And it hurt like hell.

No, she wasn’t at the stage where she could contemplate tomorrow without him. Right now, it was all she could do to get from one hour to the next, to just learn to live today without him. Tomorrow would come, but she couldn’t worry about it. She didn’t have the energy.

She didn’t have much energy for writing, either. With all that worrying, who had time to write? It wasn’t that she didn’t try. Lord, she tried to write, but she couldn’t get two sentences to link together, couldn’t get her thoughts to make any sense. Five words in, whatever thought had been in her head was replaced with ‘God, I miss you, Clark.’

And so it went. The baby grew, the work on the nursery proceeded, the corn ripened and was harvested, the summer turned into fall, the world kept going. It didn’t care if she wasn’t ready to go with it.

She wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight, she knew that. Leaving a note for Martha and Jonathan on the kitchen table inside, she went back out to the porch and launched herself into the night’s sky. She’d go to his apartment; she kept the lease up on the place, giving up her own apartment instead when the lease on it had run. Lois didn’t go to his place often. Most of the time it hurt too much, but right now, it was exactly where she needed to be.

********

“Aren’t there actual wounded you should be helping?” Clark asked through gritted teeth as the young medic repaired the torn sutures in his shoulder. They were alone in the sparse room Talan had directed him to just an hour earlier. It had been an officer’s quarters in the settlement’s barracks, but it now stood empty.

“I should think that First Minister Zara would have me thrown in jail if I allowed her co-First Minister to die out here from blood loss or a simple infection, sir,” Ensign Rayid replied with a lopsided grin. “All done.”

Rayid began putting away his supplies. Clark admired the young man’s handiwork, impressed. It still hurt like hell, though. He winced as he tried to move his arm.

“You will have to restrict your activities to far less heroic behavior for at least a few days,” Rayid said, not looking up from his medical supplies.

“Thank you, Rayid.”

“I assure you, sir, my actions are motivated by self interest. I should hardly want to be thrown in prison for not taking care of our leader.” Rayid flashed another grin.

Clark couldn’t help but smile. It was something he hadn’t done in a long while. “What led you to become a medic?” he asked, genuinely curious. The young man certainly had a talent for it, but he wondered how he’d come to this profession.

“My fiancée and I had just completed our studies to become physicians. We were about to begin our apprenticeship when the war began. They called for volunteers. She went, I followed.” Clark could see wistfulness in the younger man’s eyes as he remembered something fondly. The light in his eyes dimmed and his smile faded. “She was killed a few months ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Clark replied, wishing he could offer more than hollow words.

“The settlement where her family lived had been attacked. She demanded that she be able to go with the rescue party. They were ambushed at the settlement. She was trying to save someone when she was killed.” Rayid looked away and drew in a shaky breath. He looked up and Clark could see tears in his green eyes.

The young medic cleared his throat. “My unit was on maneuvers not too far away, but I had no idea that she’d been in the settlement. Her father set out at once to find me. He did not so much as take time to grieve himself. The moment I saw him, I knew. I knew. At that moment, I was certain it was going to kill me. I did not think I would survive losing her. She was amazing. The most brilliant person I have ever known. She studied medicine because of the challenge. Because she was wanted to conquer and defeat pain and death. Because she could think of no greater calling in this world.”

“She sounded like an incredible person,” Clark said. He felt a tightness in his chest; he knew he would never be able to go on even breathing if anything happened to Lois.

Rayid smiled, tears shining bright in his eyes. “She was. I love her so much.”

“How do you…” Clark stopped, wishing he hadn’t said anything at all. He didn’t want to push Rayid, to force him to relive any more painful memories.

“Keep going? Because I believe in what she believed in. Because I love her. Nothing can take that away. Not even this war. ‘Suomit te alun di dolei ein te alun di paulei.’"

‘Love is something you give, not something you surrender.’ It was a Kryptonian saying, more poetic than most of their rather practical aphorisms. Clark merely nodded in understanding.

“It has been a long day, you should get some rest, sir,” Rayid said, his tone formal and deferential again.

“So should you, Ensign,” Clark replied.

“Aye, sir.” Rayid nodded. He quietly gathered his equipment and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Clark lay back on the cot, feeling too tired to sleep. Exhaustion had seeped into every cell in his body. Every muscle and bone ached and throbbed. His head swam with unpleasant images and memories he’d sooner forget. After a string of sleepless nights spent in the merciless New Kryptonian wilderness, it felt so odd to be in a room, with a roof over his head and a bed underneath him, sheltered from the cold and the wind, a hot meal in his stomach, and no long, grueling day of marching ahead of him. He felt anxious and unsettled, as though something were still wrong. It didn’t make any sense. It didn’t seem right to go from a vicious firefight to sleeping in a bed again. It was crazy.

He took the chain out from under his shirt and stared at the ring on it. He wondered what time it was, what day it was, on Earth. What was Lois doing? Was she thinking about him, too? Did she dream about him the way he dreamt of her? Kryptonians didn’t exchange wedding rings, but he wondered if Rayid had something to remember his fiancée by – some little token or memento that had been hers. He knew that unlike the young medic, he never would have had the strength to keep going, let alone to keep fighting a battle that had claimed the life of his beloved. How could you have faith in a world that had taken so much from you? He closed his eyes and after a long while, a troubled sleep claimed him.

********

“Something is not right, Ching,” Talan said grimly without looking up from the reports scattered in front of her.

“Ma’am?” Ching looked at her questioningly. He stood with his hands clasped in front of him. All around him, soldiers worked to reestablish communications with General Command and to gather information on what had happened in the settlement. He’d arrived in the communications center a few moments ago, having been summonsed from a much needed sleep. He hadn’t been surprised to find Talan working; she had a reputation for never sleeping more than a few hours a night, but he knew that it had been over a week since she’d slept, so he suspected she needed the chance to get some sleep as well.

“Four months ago, I would have expected this sort of outcome – a settlement terrorized by a few dozen undisciplined thugs,” she said the last word with disdain. “Short work for our forces, but this does not comport with what I have grown to expect. How could so few rebels have overpowered this settlement’s defenses? Where are their commanders? And where are the forces that General Command must have sent? They could not have anticipated our deployment and they would not have allowed Terian to fall. Something is gravely wrong.”

********

“My dad’s gonna kill me,” she said for the seventh time since they’d gotten into the car. Jennifer glanced over at her boyfriend as he concentrated on driving. The long country road was poorly lit and a thick fog had settled around them.

“It’s okay, we just fell asleep watching a movie,” Chris replied.

“Right, like he’s gonna believe that. It’s three in the morning!” She sighed nervously and out of the corner of her eye, caught Chris grinning. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” he replied, but kept grinning. She smacked him playfully on the shoulder, feeling her own mood lighten just a bit. They approached the bridge over the river.

“Ow,” he said, pretending to be hurt. He rubbed his shoulder. Jennifer rolled her eyes and looked out at the deserted road in front of them. Except it wasn’t deserted. A car was coming straight toward them, on the wrong side of the road, it’s headlights off.

“Look out!” she yelled. Chris swerved to avoid hitting the car and laid his hand against the horn.

“What the heck was that?” he seethed. Behind them, on the bridge, there was a loud crash.

“Omigod,” Jennifer said under her breath. “Chris, stop, turn the car around.”

Chris pulled over and the two teenagers jumped out of the car. They immediately ran back toward the bridge, where the car had plowed itself into the guard rail. An obviously distraught man climbed out of the driver’s side of the car.

“I…I fell asleep, I can’t…I’m sorry, I didn’t see him…I didn’t see…oh my god…”

“Who? You didn’t see who?” Chris demanded.

Jennifer looked down at the river. She reached out and grabbed Chris’s arm. She swallowed, trying to get her mouth to produce some moisture so she could speak. “There,” she said, pointing at the water.

“Holy…”

There was a motorcycle sinking in the water, its rider nowhere to be seen.

“He…he fell…” the driver of the other car stuttered. He ran a shaking hand through his thinning hair.

She saw a look of both desperation and anger flash across Chris’s face. “Stay here,” he growled at the other driver. He glanced at her, too, as though the warning were meant to apply to her as well. He then took off running to the base of the bridge and the water’s edge.

‘Yeah right,’ she thought to herself. She’d gotten a higher score on the life guarding test than he had. She was going to help. She ran after him. Jennifer caught up with him at the bank of the river. He said nothing to her as they both scanned the water. An eternity seemed to pass in just a few seconds. She felt her heart hammer in her chest. Where was he? Why couldn’t they find him?

“There!” Chris cried out at last. He pointed at a figure drifting downstream. They ran down the bank toward the rider’s unmoving form. Chris ran ahead of her and she sprinted in an attempt to keep up. He was in the water first, running in without breaking stride. She followed on his heels, splashing into the river, her system shocked by the frigid water. She was in waist deep instantly and dove forward. Her lungs constricted immediately and she felt like she couldn’t take in a deep breath. All her muscles seemed to freeze and spasm at once as she tried to coordinate her arms and legs.

Jennifer quickly overtook Chris. She was on the swim team and he wasn’t, so she was a much faster swimmer than he. Her strokes more efficient, more rhythmic, she relied on technique, whereas he just used brute force to push ahead. Never taking her eye off the prone figure of the motorcycle rider, she finally reached him. She treaded water as she flipped him onto his back. He didn’t seem to be breathing. One arm around his body, she started tugging him toward the shore. Chris caught up with her and helped her drag the man to the riverbank. The man was much bigger than she was and Jennifer was thankful to have Chris there to help her get him to shore. The water was so cold she felt like her whole body was going numb. But her limbs continued to pull and kick. She gasped for breath, finding it difficult to draw air into her lungs.

“We need to get help,” she managed.

********

Lois flew through the cloud cover back toward Kansas in the hours between night and morning. She’d found herself just as restless at Clark’s as she would have been anywhere else. After a few hours, she’d given up her pacing through his apartment and decided to fly back to Kansas.

“We need to get help.”

She froze as she heard the words coming from below. Lois didn’t really understand how her superhearing worked, but just like a person’s ears always prick up when their name is said, no matter how softly, she seemed honed in on the word ‘help.’ It would cut through the everyday din of the world like a clarion bell and alert her to the fact that others were in danger. She scanned the ground below her and hesitated for a fraction of a second. This probably didn’t require superpowers, but they certainly could use help.

She flew down, landing far enough away to go unnoticed and quickly made her way to the riverbank. The two teenagers struggled to drag the man to shore. She rushed to help them. They laid the man down on the ground. The two teens shivered, water dripping from their hair and clothes.

“He’s not breathing,” the boy said through chattering teeth.

“We’ll do CPR,” Lois explained calmly. “Can you guys help me?”

The girl nodded. “We…we were lifeguards.”

“Good,” Lois said. She scanned the man’s body for injuries and surreptitiously used a gentle amount of heat vision to try to warm him up. He had several broken ribs, which would make CPR a bit tricky, but not impossible. Lois took her cell phone out of her jacket pocket and tossed it to the boy, who caught it.
“Call for help,” she instructed.

The boy nodded. Lois turned to the girl and gave her quick, simple instructions for two-person CPR. They got to work very quickly. Lois kept an ear for a pulse and constantly scanned the man to insure she hadn’t missed any serious injuries. She performed the chest compressions carefully. Finally, after several rounds of CPR, she heard a weak heartbeat.

“We’ve got a pulse!” she said. Almost immediately, the man began sputtering and coughing up water as he struggled to breathe. They rolled him on his side and Lois draped her jacket over him.

“An ambulance is coming,” the boy announced as he tossed the cell phone back to Lois.

She looked at the two shivering teenagers. “Is your car around here?”

The boy nodded.

“You should both get in the car and get warmed up, you’ll freeze out here.”

“But we…”

“It’s okay, I’ll stay with him, just get yourselves warm and dry.”

They boy put his arm around the girl and the two shivering and dripping teenagers walked back up the embankment toward the bridge. Lois used another gentle burst of heat vision to warm the man up again. His pulse was steady, but his breathing was raspy. Long minutes passed before she heard the ambulance sirens. If it wouldn’t have raised suspicions, she could have taken him to help much quicker, but she’d vigilantly monitored his condition and decided the best course of action was to wait.

The ambulance finally pulled up to the bridge and the paramedics emerged with a stretcher. They made there way down toward her and quickly began their work. She stepped aside to let them do their jobs and quietly made her way back to where the cars on the bridge were parked. She spotted the two teenagers standing on the bridge together, wrapped in blankets. The young man stood behind the young woman, his arms wrapped around her as they watched the paramedics work down below.

“That was a very brave thing you two did,” Lois said as she approached them.

“Is he going to be okay?” the boy asked.

“I think so,” Lois replied. “Not many people would have had the courage to jump in that river after him.” It was an act of heroism. Of incredibly brave, selfless action to benefit another. These two kids were bona fide heroes. A thought struck her like a bolt from the blue. Forget the stuff she did as Ultrawoman, these kids were the real heroes. Their story was so much more interesting than hers could ever be.

“We’re good swimmers,” the girl said, brushing the remark off as though Lois had merely complimented her backstroke technique.

“You’re not from around here,” the young man said. It wasn’t a question.

“No, I’m not,” Lois admitted. “I live in Smallville.”

“That’s a long ways off, another couple of hours’ drive,” the young man replied.

“My name is Lois Lane. I’m a reporter, well a columnist now, for the Daily Planet. I want to write about this, about what you two did tonight, if you’ll let me. I want to interview you.”

“Interview us?” The young woman’s voice was small and she seemed amazed by the concept of being interviewed.

“Ms. Lane,” the young man began.

“Call me Lois.”

“Lois, I’m not sure about this…”

“Just hear me out…I’m sorry, I don’t even know your names,” Lois began.

“He’s Chris, I’m Jen,” the young woman replied.

“It’s nice to meet both of you,” Lois said. “Anyway, I want to write my column this week about you two, about what you did here tonight. I think people will want to read about this, about how two ordinary kids can be heroes.”

“We’re not he…”

“You jumped into a freezing cold river and saved a man’s life tonight, trust me, I know a little something about heroes and you guys are the honest to goodness real deal. I know it’s late and you’re both tired and probably freezing, but if you’ll meet me later, we can discuss this.”

The two exchanged a long look. “There’s a diner in town at the corner of Oak Street and Church Road. We can meet you there at three this afternoon,” Chris said.

********

“Sir, you’re needed at once.” Ching’s voice came through the closed door. Clark yawned and stretched painfully, immediately regretting the movement as a jolt of pain skittered down his arm. He scrubbed a hand through his hair and slowly sat up.

“I’m coming,” he called out to Ching. He stood up and opened the door.

A grim-faced Ching stood on the other side. Didn’t the guy ever relax? “Commander Talan wishes to see you, sir.”

Clark followed Ching out of the building and across the settlement. It was almost evening now – he’d slept for most of the day. All around them, people went about the process of putting their lives back together. A few soldiers stood guard. Others helped the settlers in various clean up efforts. Most slept in the tent city that had formed in the center of the settlement. They made their way to the settlement’s communication center and found Talan inside, conferring with several soldiers.

She looked up as they entered. Clark was surprised to see that she looked completely rested, no dark circles under her eyes, no slumping posture that spoke of fatigue and pain. She’d even managed to get cleaned up and now looked every bit the part of the fastidious military commander. There was no sign anywhere that she’d spent the last week trekking through the mountains and all of the previous day in a vicious firefight. Her eyes, as always, gave away nothing at all. A fact that Clark found disconcerting.

“Sir, we have been unable to establish radio contact with General Command. There is nothing wrong with the equipment here, and as far as I can tell, nothing wrong with the relays or the transmitters. The problem is on their end.”

“Could it just be a technical issue?” Clark asked.

“I highly doubt it, sir. It has been days. If it were merely a technical issue, it would have been resolved by now.”

They were interrupted by a breathless soldier bursting through the doorway. “Ma’am, sirs, you should come quickly.”

“What is it, soldier?” Ching demanded.

“The forces that had been sent by General Command. They’re here.”

The three leaders followed close on the young soldier’s heels. They made their way out of the communication’s center and back toward the edge of the settlement and the gate Clark had spent so long defending the night before. Just outside the gates, a group of men and women, perhaps thirty in all, staggered toward the settlement. Haggard, weary, and wounded, they nearly collapsed at the settlement’s threshold.

A man with bloodshot eyes, three days’ worth of stubble and a torn and dirty uniform approached them. He was clearly in charge. “Ma’am, I am Captain Brul Ro of the Expeditionary Forces.” He bowed slowly. “These are my forces, or what is left of them. Of the two thousand sent to liberate this settlement, we remain. We humbly await your orders.”

“Captain, what happened?” Talan asked.

“Sabotage, ma’am. The transports were rigged with explosives. They were detonated about halfway between our starting point and our destination. The explosive attached to my ship malfunctioned. The ship was damaged, but my pilots were able to crash land it in the mountains. That was three days ago. We set out on foot for the settlement.”

“By the Fates,” Ching murmured. “And the other transports, they were all destroyed?”

“Every one of them, sir.”

“I cannot believe we have been so stupid!” Talan exclaimed. “Ching, get the Captain’s forces food and lodgings, then place all of our forces on immediate standby to deploy.”

“What’s going on?” Clark asked.

“This town, it was so poorly defended. It was left under the control of a few dozen brigands, without orders or officers. There was never any intent to defend it. It was a decoy.”

“They wanted to draw as many forces away from the colony as they could,” Ching continued. “The communications system. They must have hit General Command, to keep them from radioing for help.”

“Or from warning Captain Brul Ro’s pilots.”

“Then the main colony…” Clark began.

“Is likely under attack at this very moment,” Talan said grimly.