Alien General's Baby (Brion Brides 7)(65)

Before their eyes, as they stood there, seeing a dropship descend for them with all haste, was the battle field.

In theory, that was. In truth, there was nothing.

They were standing in the bottom of a huge crater and only a dark, grayish ash signaled that there might have been something else just a little while ago. Already, snow was starting to fall to cover up even that.

As far as the eye could see, the gun turret that had saved their lives was the only thing that had survived with them. The Chali ship was gone to the last piece, as was the android army. All the fallen Brions were dust and the Fearless... he was gone too.

Naima took the general's hand, squeezing it slightly to make him look at her. There was such love in there that for a moment, she was robbed of all words.

It had worked. It had actually all worked. Tears welled in her throat and eyes and she had to take a few quick breaths to force them down. Finally she felt like it wasn’t Braen carrying all the burden alone.

"My love," Braen said then. "You are truly the most magnificent creature to be born to this galaxy."

"I'm okay," Naima said, smiling. “And I love you.”#p#分页标题#e#

It was odd to laugh in a place like that, but all the long weeks of fear and concern were making themselves known through the surge of happiness taking over her. She wanted to scream until her throat was hoarse, if only to affirm herself that she was truly alive and Braen was with her.

The general was still looking at her, standing despite the horrendous wounds he'd suffered.

Damn Brion pride. I don't suppose I could tell him to rest. He'll walk to the med bay, I have no doubt. With that awful blade sticking out of his chest.

She couldn't resist anymore. She'd wanted to wait until the general was feeling better, to choose a quiet, peaceful moment for them to tell him, but decided it wasn't worth it. After all, the battle had ended and he deserved to know.

That, and she sort of wanted to scream it from the rooftops. Seeing as there wasn’t a roof in sight, she’d have to make do with the crater.

"Braen," she said.

"My heart," he replied, looking at her with tenderness that didn't match all the pain he'd gone through for her.

"It's gone," Naima told him.

It took a moment for the general to understand what she meant. Then his eyes went wide and the valor squares flashed with emotion she couldn't interpret.

"When you disengaged the glove for me, I looked around," she went on. "Not on Darius. In the galaxy. As we waited, I checked so many times I couldn't even count them all. The Fearless is gone. I don't feel it anymore. Everything else is in place.

“I saw the lifestone repositories and Audrey... oh, you should have seen her face. I only caught a glimpse, but she felt it die, I'm sure. Her connection is stronger than mine, after all. You did it. You killed the Fearless."

Braen's hands twitched and Naima couldn't help smiling, realizing he'd wanted to pull her into an embrace, but the sword was understandably a small hindrance in their way. The general's eyes were bright with tremendous emotion as he searched her eyes for any omission. It felt like he hadn't heard a word she said, judging by his first comment.

"You are safe," he said, the deep voice full of passion. "It can't hurt you anymore."

That's your first concern, Naima thought, smiling ear to ear. You've just killed a monster that has lived for millions of years. You are the hero of the galaxy. And you wonder if it means I'm okay. Brions. How could you not love one?

"Yes," she said out loud as the dropship landed next to them and warriors rushed to their general. "I'm okay, we both are."



Brion medicine was truly spectacular, almost as spectacular as Palian medicine. To Naima's eyes, it seemed Braen was holding himself together by sheer stubbornness, but if the healer's reaction was anything to go by, she'd "seen worse".

Naima had to try very hard not to say something snappy, but the knowing smile on Braen's lips stopped her.

While the general was attended to in the med bay, Naima was left with the aftermath. The Uthers and the Chali were still going at each other. She had no patience for them. Looking up from Darius to see them at war when there was so much to celebrate had thoroughly pissed her off.

Knowing that Braen was never going to interfere on the behalf of either, Naima took action herself. For a moment, she felt like she could do anything. She wasn’t sure whether she was riding high on the wave of success, or the universe was giving her a hand like it seemed to have with the plasma core earlier, but whatever it was, she was going to use it to its full advantage.

Politics wasn't her strong suit, sure. Curing useless aggression, though? That she could do.

Her first move was simple. Turning the Benevolent towards the fighters worked like cold water to the face. When the Benevolent fired up its cannons, the action ceased immediately.

With Kerven as her liaison, Naima arranged for a meeting between the troublesome allies and their would-be enemies.

It was too much to hope that the presence of the Brions would keep the peace. Soon enough, the species would feud again, presumably as soon as Braen had taken his ship back to the more traveled space. Which he would, as soon as he could, she was sure. The Fearless had been his problem. The Uthers and the Chali were not.

She brought Alona along, brand new in its new body. Brions had crafted one for the android out of the pieces of its contemporaries that had been brought up in the dropships leaving the planet before the explosion, considerably more accommodating than they'd been to it before.

Naima brought Sinetha as well, who she had imprisoned in Braen's name, to be taken to a union   prison. The trader came along willingly enough, not saying a word when Naima explained to her what she needed. Considering that she was practically suspended in a lucid coma in a healing pod didn’t make for many opportunities to disagree, after all.#p#分页标题#e#

They met on Darius, neutral soil. Naima arrived in the colors of the Brions, deemed an official ambassador to them. The general had promised her he'd stand by whatever she achieved, accompanied by a grin.

Stomech represented the Uthers, looking pissed at being treated like an enemy by those he'd granted passage to. And the cyborg representing the Chali looked to be an almost perfect copy of Sinetha to the point where Naima wouldn't have been surprised if she was her sister.

She exited her dropship with Kerven and Alona as her guards.

The Chali woman glared.

"I am Noel," she said without any greeting. "I speak for the Chali. We have come to search for one of our own. Is Sinetha with you? I see nothing else is left."

"Did you?" Naima asked. "I don't believe you. You're here for the same thing she was, but I have bad news, I'm afraid. The Fearless is gone. All of it. Every piece."

Noel could barely control her rage, it seemed. Stomech, on the other hand, looked less angry than before. Curious, more like.

"Trust Brions to destroy the most valuable thing in the galaxy," Noel spat.

She clearly wanted to go further with questions on the matter, but Naima raised her hand. The last month of her life had filled her measure of idiocy to the brink.

"Yes," she said. "My gerion killed the Fearless, once and for all, and did us all a favor, whether you like it or not. Stomech, you know your worlds would have been the first to fall. As for you, trader. I arranged for you to see directly what the Fearless was capable of."

She stepped out of the way solemnly to make way for Sinetha. Of course, the trader couldn't walk on her own feet anymore. She was sitting on a floating carrier platform in her mostly translucent pod, slowly appearing from the dropship they'd arrived with.

Noel gagged, taking a step back and covering her eyes. Stomech's tiny eyes went wide with horror.

"You will not look?" Naima asked calmly.

Noel turned away, shaking her head in disgust.

"Most valuable thing," Naima snapped, raising her voice now. "The general will leave her soon and you should be thanking him for saving your worthless lives, whether the Fearless would have reached you tomorrow or in ten years.

“The Chali are going to give some serious answers to the Galactic union  , I swear it. You can make it worse by staying here to brawl, in which case it's almost certain my gerion will come for you on the orders of the union  's council.

“Or you can leave now and seriously reconsider your vile practices. As for you, Stomech, you've had your revenge. Look around us. All those who hurt your people are dead in the most horrible way.”

She paused for a moment. The Uther warlord didn’t grace her with a reply, only a noncommittal grunt.

"Except for Sinetha, here. She has pleaded with the general to allow her to live the rest of her life in a prison and he will not break his word. Do you think that is unfair?"

The Uther didn't respond, but he couldn't look at the broken cyborg either, not for long. Sinetha, who hadn't spoken a word to either, turned her platform around and floated into the dropship.

Naima turned away as well.

"We will leave now," she said. "I suggest you both go too, or you will see the Benevolent again very soon. Trust me when I say you don't want to make enemies of the general."

With that, she left Darius forever. While the Brion techs worked to raze the battle field clean of even the tiniest piece of the Fearless and the androids and Braen healed, Naima watched the two armies disappear from the orbit.