The Forbidden Stars by Tim Pratt

Author:Tim Pratt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857667700
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2019-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Elena snuggled up against Callie. This wasn’t the first time they’d gone to bed together since they got to the Vanir system, but it was the first time they hadn’t simply fallen into exhausted, subsistence-level sleep. Callie had that faraway look, the one that said she was calculating angles and figuring percentages, and Elena respected that… but she also wanted Callie to see her, so she gently tipped Callie’s face toward her and kissed her on the lips. Callie’s return kiss was perfunctory at first, but she could never resist Elena for long, and soon she returned it with real heat.

Elena pulled away and smiled, tracing her fingertip along Callie’s lower lip. “There you are. Nice to see you. Nice to be seen.”

Callie laughed. “I have been pretty distracted, haven’t I?”

“You’re just being the master strategist. I get it. But we have a minute to take a breath, so I want to make sure you do take one.”

“I would, if you didn’t keep taking my breath away.”

“Stop it, or I’ll start expecting romance from you.”

“That’s true. I’d hate to set you up for disappointment.”

The White Raven was in orbit around Niflheim, having shepherded the transport ship to safety. Callie had made her pitch, and now the leaders of the resistance were down there arguing about her idea amongst themselves. “Do you think we can win?” Elena said.

“If I didn’t think we could win, I wouldn’t suggest we try – I’d get Ashok to wire the bridge generator into their big transport ship and take as many people to safety as we could instead. That said, possible doesn’t mean definite. This is a whole different order of fight than the ones we’ve taken on in the past. Destroying that first Axiom station we found, ambushing truth-teller cells, tricking pirates, even destroying the Dream – those were battles. This is a lot more like an actual war.”

“War’s just a series of battles though, right?”

“To some extent, but you can win every battle but the last one and still lose. I wish I knew what Shaper and the rest of the Exalted actually want. I don’t believe they’re just doing medical experiments for their own enjoyment. I want to slip away and check out the coordinates the Benefactor gave us – as far as I can tell, they don’t correspond to any of the facilities the resistance knows about, which could mean one of them is the seat of the secret project Metcalf muttered about. But.”

“You’re helping to lead a revolution right now.”

“Apparently.”

“Our mission isn’t really to fight the Axiom,” Elena said. “It’s to protect people. We’ve focused on the Axiom because they’re the biggest existential threat to intelligent life that we know about. These people, here and now, need our help. We’re doing the right thing.”

“I know. I’m just impatient. If the resistance will back my plan, and it works the way I hope, we would be the ones in a position of power in this system, and the Exalted will be the scrappy underdogs.

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