Neogenesis by Lee Sharon & Steve Miller

Author:Lee Sharon & Steve Miller [Sharon, Lee & Miller, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Action & Adventure, General
ISBN: 9781481482783
Google: FGHlAQAACAAJ
Amazon: 1481482785
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2018-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

II

On Admiral Bunter’s bridge, Tolly Jones outright laughed.

He laughed until tears came, and he lay limp in the pilot’s chair.

Soldier, you fool! he told himself. Haz can take care of herself just fine.

Mostly.

“Was Hazenthull’s action laughable, Mentor?”

Tolly pulled himself up straight, mopping at his face with his sleeve.

“Hazenthull’s actions were in every way estimable, and you could do worse than to keep that recording in active memory, so you can review it often.” he said.

“As to why I’m laughing—I’m laughing at myself, for thinking that only Tolly Jones knows how and what needs done in this universe.”

“I have a query from Tarigan on the quiet band, Pilot. Are we well and in good order?”

Tolly shook his head against the temptation to laugh again.

“I’m well. Let me be in good order, too, else she’ll worry. You’ll have to speak for your own self.”

“Yes,” said the Admiral.

“Query Tarigan,” Tolly said. “Pilot Berik-Jones’s greetings and is Pilot nor’Phelium available to the comm.”

“Yes,” the Admiral said and almost immediately spoke again, “Pilot nor’Phelium on comm for Pilot Berik-Jones.”

Tolly flipped the switch on the comm board.

“Haz—”

“Are you mad?”

Her question overrode his greeting. She sounded, he reflected, honestly curious.

“It’s hard to say, one way or t’other,” he answered truthfully. “Sanity isn’t particularly useful to the directors, so it’s not specified in the design. What is in the design is a strong need to be—and satisfaction from being—dominated, which I don’t seem to have. So, by the rules of my…birth culture, I guess you’d call it—yeah, I’m right off the scans.”

“Would this be the reason why you chose to place yourself in danger’s path, rather than flying to safety?” Voice still even; only wanting to know.

“If I may interrupt,” the Admiral said, doing just that. “That was a collaborative decision. Neither of us wished to see you taken by those who must be our enemies. Therefore, we came to your side.”

“You might have been killed. For no reason.”

That was starting to heat up a little. Tolly tipped his head, staring at the comm like he could see her through the speaker.

“Speaking solely for myself, knowing what I do about the directors and their methods—I couldn’t leave you to them, Haz—couldn’t.”

“My reasons were similar,” the Admiral said. “I am your friend, Pilot Haz. Friends assist each other—especially in peril. I know that you share this ethos, because you made the same choice yourself. If you had not understood that Tolly and I were in danger, you would not have left your own safety in order to assist us.”

A moment of startled silence was followed by a low, charming chuckle.

“It is an honor,” Haz said, “to share madness with such comrades.”

Tolly relaxed into the pilot’s chair, suddenly aware that he was smiling, wide and pleased.

Focus, Tolly Jones, he told himself, you can’t afford to get careless. Which was true enough, but he let the smile stay.

“Now that we have assisted each other to freedom,” she continued, “do you have a plan?”

Tolly leaned a little forward.

“Well, the Admiral and me, we’d decided it between us to make for Waymart.

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