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  He read it in her mind: what the Resistance had planned for the men of Rysalia. His lips parted in shock and he stared at her for a long time, before shaking his head in disgust. “You evil conniving bitches.” Dr. Dean's chin came up. “We want our freedom. And we will get it!”

  He nodded. “Aye,” he replied. “I believe you will.” He turned to leave.

  “Cree!” she asked even though he didn't break his stride and never looked back. “Please be careful.”

  “A little late to be worried about my welfare, isn't it? ” He slammed the palm of his hand against the door pad. The panel shushed open and he was gone.

  ****

  BERYLA HURRIED into the isolation ward, her face ashen. “Where is he?” LeJong Kym was hovering over her patient as the Director barged in. The biochemist could not look at her. “He's had an adverse reaction to the vaccine, Beryla.”

  “What went wrong?” the Director demanded as she bent over her unconscious lover.

  “I cannot say,” LeJong admitted.

  The Director spun around and shoved the smaller woman. “What went wrong?”

  “None of the others have reported more than a simple headache and upset bellies.”

  “I gave that stuff to Cree,” cried Beryla. “Will it make him this ill?” LeJong shook her head. “His parasite will not allow him to have an adverse reaction to the antitoxin.”

  “Kamerone must not become ill from this!” Beryla shouted.

  “He won't,” LeJong stated firmly. “There may be some muscle aches. Nothing more.”

  “I have a headache from hell. Does that constitute ‘nothing more'?”

  The Director flung her head around to find Cree leaning against the doorway, his arms folded across his wide chest, watching her. He nodded toward the bed. “Is he going to be all right?”

  “Yes,” Beryla snapped. She turned back to her lover.

  The Reaper looked at his father, glanced at LeJong, and read the truth in the Chrystallusian woman's mind before she blocked out his probing. LeJong flicked her gaze to him, stared into his demon orbs. He gave her a strange, penetrating look before he turned and walked away.

  Drae Cree was going to die, he thought as he strode briskly down the corridor. His father was going to die and there was nothing he could do to prevent it.

  ****

  “HAVE YOU lost your mind?” Alexi Noll gasped.

  “I need you and my Keepers with me.”

  “To do what? Hang alongside you? No, thank you!”

  “To fight alongside me, Alexi,” Cree stressed. “Do you think I will lose?”

  “This is treason. You are talking treason here, Cree!”

  “We won't be alone. Every station has at least twenty Resistance fighters among the men there. They are waiting for FSK-14 to fall before they begin their own takeover.” He locked his eyes with Noll's. “All it will take here is a handful of men who know just what to do; where to go; how to disable the communications, sabotage the energy plant and cripple the armaments.”

  “Rysalia Prime will send-”

  “Think, Alexi!” Cree ordered. “The com-link will be down between here and there. They won't know what hit them. The planet gets its protection from the stations. There aren't even any weapons stored on Rysalia Prime. It is against Tribunal law!”

  “There are three long-range cruisers, two runabouts, and two transports, including the prison ship Vortex, sitting in our docking bays at this moment! What do you think the crews of those ships will be doing while the rest of the station is rebelling? ” Noll challenged.

  “The warp engines are being disabled right now,” Cree snapped with irritation. “Tealson Hesar is seeing to that.”

  “The Simoom is due back any moment from FSK-5 Do you really think Captain Belial will sit idly by and-”

  “As soon as she is in harness, she'll be put off-line,” Cree stated. “And Belial will do whatever the hell I tell him to do!”

  “You are mad.”

  “Probably, but once the last station is under the control of the Resistance and we've taken Rysalia Prime, we'll go after the old men of the Tribunal and-”

  “You will go after them.

  Cree sighed. “You won't help?”

  “I can't,” Noll said, pleading in his eyes. “I took an Oath to preserve the Empire.” He looked accusingly at Cree. “Just as you did.”

  The Reaper felt a moment's betrayal, but shrugged it away. “Do I have to worry about you going to the Tribunal?” Alexi Noll reacted as though he'd been slapped. “Don't ask such a thing!” he snapped. “You know better.”

  “What about Belvoir and Arbra?” the Reaper asked, referring to the other two Keepers assigned to his ship, The Revenant.

  “I would imagine they'll do whatever you ask of them. You'll have to ask them. I can't be a part of this, Cree.”

  “Then I wish you well, my friend.” Cree hold out his hand. “You will take care?” Noll gripped the Reaper's forearm. “I hope you win, Cree. By the gods, I do.” He held Cree's gaze. “And I will make myself scarce during the takeover. I'll not take sides against a man I admire.” Cree smiled. “That's all I wanted to hear.” He released Noll's arm. “By the way, were you given an injection earlier?” At Noll's nod, Cree breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. It may make you a little ill. I've got a bitch of a headache.”

  “What was it for?” Noll questioned.

  Cree shrugged. “Let's just say you'll be happy you got it once this is over.”

  ****

  BRIDGET LOOKED up as the lights went off in Kahn's quarters. “They've hit the generator.”

  “It appears so,” Kahn was able to say before once more he bent over his bed and threw up into the basin Bridget was holding for him.

  “If you'll just take the tenerse, you won't have to suffer this pain, Tylan,” she said with exasperation.

  “I am not going to take that crap!”

  “No, you'd rather lie there and suffer.”

  An explosion ripped through the walls, shaking the room, and Kahn's groan of pain punctuated the bright flare that lit the room.

  “Armaments,” Bridget said needlessly. She set the basin of noxious fluid on the floor beside his bed and walked into the living area. Beyond the port windows, the heavens lit momentarily in silent explosions all across the velvet darkness. A grim smile tugged at her lips.

  Cree had begun his war with the Empire.

  ****

  FOR MORE than two hours, the women of the Resistance joined their handful of male counterparts in sabotaging and bringing to a standstill Frontier Station Khamsin-14. Outnumbering the men by four to one, the women fought as hard as the men and some died just as valiantly for the cause in which they believed.

  From the Vid-Com screen in her tightly locked quarters in the Ministry of Science, Hael Sejm viewed the destruction of FSK-14 with grim satisfaction. The station had been seriously crippled and it was only a matter of time before every man outside the influence of the Resistance would be breathing his last.

  “Where are you, Cree?” Sejm muttered as she switched from one monitor to another in search of her hated nephew.

  It greatly angered Hael that LeJong had not inoculated Cree with the same virus that had only moments before taken the life of Drae Cree. Now, the younger of Sejm's targets would have to be dealt with in the same manner as the other Reapers. Though knowing what fate lay in store for Kullen, Coure, and the rest of his jackal brethren, Hael would rather have seen Cree perish in the agony that had claimed his father.

  “But you will die, Kamerone Cree,” Sejm promised as she turned her glazed stare to a monitor where one of Symthian Kullen's crew was defending himself against a Resistance fighter. She leaned toward the monitor and smiled. Even one woman's death was unacceptable and the sight sickened her, but the Keeper who had driven his sword into the unknown woman's belly was not to be harmed. Orders had been given to bring him to Sejm as soon as he was found.

  She sat back in her chair. “Cre
e will die screaming in agony, but you?” She watched the Keeper glance up at the camera that monitored every corridor aboard FSK-14. When he saluted his watcher with his laser sword, Hael Sejm grinned. “You, little one, will live.”

  ****

  KONNOR RHYE looked away from the camera. He knew someone, somewhere was watching him and he hoped it was a member of the Tribunal who had taken note that Commander Rhye was not a part of this insane rebellion. He grinned, glanced at the woman who was kneeling on the floor, steaming innards spilling out of her abdominal cavity.

  “F…finish it!” the woman pleaded.

  “With pleasure,” Konnor agreed. With one practiced snap of his wrist, he beheaded her. His smile grew as the woman's head rolled down the corridor and stopped almost at Deon Inse's feet.

  “Careful where you throw your toys, Koni,” Inse chuckled.

  “How are the upper levels?”

  “Still ours,” Inse reported. “As soon as we get the generator back online, we should make quick work of these traitors.” Konnor nodded. “Aye, and when I find Kamerone Cree, I'll make quick work of him, as well.” Inse smiled. “Would you care to know where our glorious leader is at the moment?” The Keeper's face hardened. “You've found him? Where is the bastard?” Jerking his thumb toward the elevator banks, Inse snorted in response. “Trying to make his way to his woman,” he reported.

  “Where else?”

  “My woman!” Konnor corrected. He grabbed the front of Inse's uniform. “Where? Show me!” Overhead, the lights flickered back on, went off, and then came on again full force. Scattered along the walls, the emergency globes of phospho light that had given off only enough feeble light to keep the station from being plunged into total stygian darkness, faded away.

  “Show me!” Konnor repeated.

  Inse nodded. “It will be my honor.”

  ****

  THE RETROVIRUS Hael Sejm had created in her lab had been placed in the ventilation system of all fifteen space stations ’

  months in advance of that night. A complex system of relay switches designed by Dr. Aurora Burds of Terra's MIT had been installed in the base of one hundred and eighty stainless steel cylinders that contained the virus: one cylinder for each of the twelve floors of each station. Well hidden in the ductwork, the canisters sat waiting for the signal that would engage its deadly payload.

  “The fans are back on,” Teve Tulloch, Burd's Shepherd lover, reported.

  Dr. Burds was a woman of few words and she saw no need to waste them even on this momentous occasion. Her gaze went to the digital time readout and she noted the exact time: 2059 hours. She made a notation in her protocol book then placed her finger on the terminal switch that was connected to all the others. At exactly 2100 hours, she began to depress the switch.

  Upon depression of the switch at the Ministry of Bioengineering, an electric impulse traveled from switch to switch along the hundreds of miles of ductwork in the space station. In turn, each switch sent activation signals to minute motors in the base of each container. A tiny air valve at the top of the canisters opened to release a steady, forceful stream of colorless gas which carried the live bacteria through the station's twelve thousand air vents. Airborne, the bacterium floated out of the vent registers and was drawn deep into the lungs of every living being on FSK-14. The scent of lavender was the only sign there was something unusual wafting in the air.

  For some-those inoculated with the antitoxin-it would be only a headache and upset stomach, a few muscle aches, perhaps.

  For most, it would mean excruciating death.

  Aurora Burds smiled, thinking she had just paid the men of Rysalia back for having taken her away from her home so many years before. She had no way of knowing she had just murdered nine hundred men.

  Including her own lover.

  ****

  CREE STABBED the elevator's control panel once more but the cage seemed to have a mind of its own and kept stopping at every floor. Ever since the lights had come back on, he had wasted precious minutes trying to make his way up to Level Twelve.

  The lower levels were in the control of the Resistance, but the disposition of the top three levels had not been ascertained. Cursing heatedly under his breath as the cage stopped but the doors would not open, Cree stamped his foot like a petulant child. He tried to pry open the portals.

  “Having trouble?”

  The Reaper's hand went automatically to his weapon before he recognized the voice. “I can't get the gods-be-damned thing to open!” he complained to his 2/IC.

  “You never were good with machinery,” Drewe said softly. “Do I have to act as your navigator this one last time?” Cree grinned. “I'm glad to see you've come through this unscathed so far.”

  “I've been looking for you,” Lona replied. “I knew you'd head up here as soon as the elevators came back on line.”

  “We're winning, Drewe.”

  “Did you doubt we would?” Drewe challenged. The Shepherd wavered, put his hand up to his forehead and stumbled back from the elevator, his face registering pain.

  “Drewe?” Cree questioned, reaching for him. “What's wrong?”

  The Shepherd swung his head to the left, saw something that alarmed him and turned his already pale face ghastly white. He put his arm out, shoved Cree back. “Go!” he ordered. “Get the hell out of here!” He took out his phaser and blasted the elevator door; the panels slid obediently open.

  Cree stared in horror as blood bubbled over Lona's lips. “By the gods, you're hurt! What happened?” He reached for Lona, but the Keeper waved him away.

  “Go, Cree!” Drew grated. “Get in the gods-be-damned cage. They are-”

  Agony suddenly caved in the young man's face and he twisted sideways, away from Cree. The Reaper made a grab for him then went down under the inert weight of Lona's body. Blood was gushing from Drewe's mouth and nose as the two men crashed to the floor.

  “Drewe!” Cree stared in horror as the front of Lona's brown uniform tunic became slick with blood. Lona's head fell back over his friend's arm and a gurgling bubble was expelled from his lungs.

  “I believe he's dead.”

  The arrogant voice brought Cree's head around only a fraction of a second before something hard and unyielding slammed into his temple and the lights were shut off again.

  Chapter 23

  “I'VE JUST received word,” Dr. Burds said softly as she stood beside her friend, “the others stations are fully engaged. Too soon, I think, but we'll see. At least there is one piece of good news: The Stormwind and her sister ship, The Whirlwind, are in orbit over Rysalia Prime. They will be dropping their payload within the next half hour.” Beryla never took her eyes from the man she had loved more than her own life. To see him so still in death was almost more than she could bear. She sighed from the bottom of her weary soul. “Can you abort the delivery?”

  “Abort?” Aurora questioned. “Why should we…?”

  “How is Teve feeling?” the Director interrupted.

  “Sick as a dog,” Aurora said, frowning. “He had an adverse reaction to the antitoxin. Why?” Beryla ran her fingertips over Drae Cree's cold lips. “Because they lied to us, Ro-Ro,” she said, calling the woman by the nickname from long ago.

  Aurora put a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. “Who lied to us, dear? About what?”

  “Hael Sejm and LeJong Kym.”

  “I don't understand.”

  “Look at him,” the Director whispered. “He is fifty-six years old. Does he look to you to be a man who would succumb to an antitoxin meant to keep him out of harm's way?”

  Aurora looked down at Drae's silky white hair and imagined the dark, sparkling eyes that had always tried to hide a glimmer of merriment despite the horrendous job he had. “No,” she admitted, thinking of his deep voice and robust laughter. “He has always been in the best of health, I thought.”

  “You thought correctly,” Beryla acknowledged. “I, myself, gave him a thorough physical only a month
ago. ” She smiled wistfully. “And enjoyed doing it, too.”

  “You don't believe he had a reaction to the vaccine, is that what you are telling me?” Dr. Burds asked, suddenly worried.

  “The virus will not sterilize the men, Aurora,” Dr. Dean answered in a fierce voice. “It will kill them.” Aurora stared at her. “How do you know this?” The thought of her own lover experiencing the horrible death Drae Cree had suffered made her weak with fear. “Does this mean-”

  “You have killed the man you loved.”

  Aurora slumped against the wall, stunned. “The others?” Her eyes flared. “Kahn? He is Hael's adopted child! The bitch raised him, taught him! How could she…?”

  “He is safe, as far as I know,” Beryla answered. “Why they wanted to keep the Reapers and their crews alive, I have no idea, but I can imagine it wasn't out of the goodness of their hearts!”

  “Dr. Dean?”

  Beryla looked around and found a smut-smeared Ivonne standing tiredly in the doorway. “Yes?”

  “I've got terrible news,” Ivonne said. She put a shaky hand to her straggly hair. “News I wish I didn't have to relay.” Fearing the worst, the Director stood up. “We've lost?”

  “No,” Ivonne was quick to answer. “We are winning, but I'm afraid the ships carrying the virus to Rysalia Prime have been destroyed. FSK-9 managed to get off two long-range missiles before being overrun by our people. They shot down the sister ships.”

  “The gas?” Beryla asked, her face anxious.

  “The sister ships weren't close enough to Rysalia Prime for the gas to do any good. It was destroyed with the ships.”

  “That may be the best news we've heard all day.”

  Aurora held up a hand before Ivonne could question that statement. “Is there anything else?” Ivonne nodded grimly. “I'm afraid so.” She glanced at the body of the dead man, then away. Looking back at Dr. Burds, she cocked her head toward the corridor.

  “Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of me, Ivonne O'Malley,” said Beryla. “What is one more thing gone wrong today when I have lost my lover and possibly our savior in one fell swoop.”