Captive Embers (The Wardens' Game Book 1) by Brian Mansur

Author:Brian Mansur [Mansur, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2019-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

18

Location: Feni escape pod_

Sarah spent the half-hour-long flight to the Tsu in a dazed, nauseated rush. Following the Feni’s horrors, she wanted nothing more than to curl into a tight ball and cry. Despite her trembling hands and a twitching eyelid, she cut through all the marines’ suits, dressed half a dozen gashes, started three intravenous lines, and threaded as many urinary catheters. The gut punches, however, kept coming.

Lilith’s broadcast left Sarah thunderstruck. How can Zeus be gone? How many of the charred corpses now orbiting Belia were people she’d met? How much did they suffer before dying?

Moreover, she knew she’d botched her priorities during the battle. There was no hiding it. Claire would have their suit camera’s footage downloaded the minute they docked. Her hesitation to collect the wounded, her abandoning their patients to fight, her violating her protected medical-provider status—all of it would be on record.

I’ll never put my feelings ahead of my job like that again. The oath didn’t ease her tension much. As she finished prepping the marines for transfer to sickbay, she broke the morbid silence.

“Do you think anything will happen to me because I went after that mech?” she asked. “What you said got me worried and…”

Sean looked up from a pressure dressing he'd clamped to Martinez. “Nothing career-ending will happen. You tried to prevent a war crime. That mech would have done to me what it did to Horvath. I can’t imagine anyone important will fault you for acting.”

Sarah stared at Watson’s stumps and said, “You really think others will see it that way?”

Sean nodded. “Yeah, the people who matter will.”

Sarah kept staring off.

“Hey,” Sean said, “you took a stupid risk, but it didn’t hurt anyone this time. Don’t do it again, and don’t worry about it. No one’s going to punish what little success we’ve had today.”

Sarah blinked and tried to reconcile the idea of success with anything she’d done on the Feni. Sean added, “Listen, I won’t let anyone do more than reprimand you for saving my life. Okay?”

After a moment, Sarah looked at him and nodded meekly.

Sean gave her a tired, crooked smile before hanging his head. He cleared his throat and said, “I’m, uh, I’m very sorry for yelling at you.” He took a breath. “You’re a kind person. Even though what I said was right, how I said it wasn’t what you deserved. Especially since you saved my life.” He forced himself to look back up at her.

Sarah searched his face for several seconds. “Next time,” she said, “I’ll let the mech get you.” She took his hand, squeezed it and quickly let go. “I forgive you.”

Now, if only I can forgive myself.

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