Queen by Timothy Zahn

Author:Timothy Zahn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

fifteen

“It was half a victory,” Jeff insisted quietly from across the dining room table. “That’s what you have to hang on to. Half a victory.”

Nicole didn’t answer. The plate in front of her was loaded with food, and before she’d headed out to meet Fievj and Nevvis she’d promised herself a good meal when it was over.

Now, even with her stomach rumbling, she had no appetite.

What had she done?

“This is the part when you tell me I’m right,” Jeff said into the silence. “You can also add that I’m usually right if you want. I’ll wait.”

He was trying to cheer her up, Nicole knew. Trying to ease some of the pain choking her heart and mind.

In some ways his attempt at humor was an insult, as if he were brushing aside her failure and ignoring the terrible consequences of her actions. But she was too weary and heartsick to even feel offended.

“Nicole, you have to snap out of it,” he said. “You can yell if you want, or cry if you want, or even call me a coldhearted bastard if that helps. But you have to come back.”

“How?” Nicole asked, feeling fresh tears welling up in her eyes. “I killed them, Jeff. All of them.”

“You didn’t kill anyone,” he said firmly. “It was all Fievj and Nevvis.”

“Was it?” Nicole countered. “What if I’d let Levi throw the drone at them like he’d wanted to? You were right there, ready to fight back. Maybe if they’d had to take a moment to dodge the drone you’d have gotten there before they had a chance to shoot the Wisps.”

“First: You didn’t know I’d heard the ruckus and was on my way,” Jeff said. “Second: You don’t know that they’d even have bothered with the drone. They came to the meeting wanting to eliminate you, and there’s a 90-plus-percent chance they’d have ignored anything that got in the way of that.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Trust me. I do.” Jeff hesitated. “And third: We need those drones. Both of them. If they’d taken the time to shoot it, okay, maybe they would only have had enough time to take out two or three Wisps instead of all four. But it would have cost us.”

“So you’re saying that our plans and our gadgets are more important than people’s lives?” she snarled.

He held her gaze without flinching. “Our plans are for freeing the Fyrantha and saving the lives of everyone aboard,” he said. “There are certain things we need for that plan. You had to make a choice between something we absolutely need and some lives that the plan could manage without.”

Nicole shivered. “You make me sound like a monster.”

“No,” Jeff said quietly. “I make you sound like a general.”

The tears filling Nicole’s eyes flowed over and down her cheeks. “I don’t want to be a general.”

“I don’t blame you,” Jeff said. “Being the leader in a war is a huge burden. But it’s the job—and the burden—that the Fyrantha’s given you. And whether you like it or not, you’re pretty damn good at it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.