Speed of Darkness by Tracy Hickman

Author:Tracy Hickman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction - Adventure, Fiction - Science Fiction, Video & Electronic, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Video & Electronic - General, Science Fiction - Series, General, Science fiction, Science Fiction - General, Games, Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9780671041502
Publisher: New York : Pocket Books, 2002.
Published: 2002-05-21T03:00:04.086000+00:00

CHAPTER 13

MERDITH

ARDO JUMPED BACKWARD AS THOUGH HIT BY AN electric shock. His head was pounding. “Melani! Please, stop! It’s me!”

The woman screamed again, her eyes wide with fright.

Ardo held his hands up, trying to will her to calm down. His eyes stung, filling with tears. His head throbbed, almost blinding him as well. “Please! I won’t hurt you. You’re confused . . . and . . . and hurt. It’s been so long, I . . .”

“Get away from me, you bastard!” The woman’s teeth chattered as she struggled to control her fear. “Where the hell am I?”

“You’re in the infirmary at . . . uh . . . at . . .” Ardo winced against the pain exploding in his skull. He was finding it hard to think. “At the Scenic Garrison . . . on Mar Sara. It’s a Confederacy outpost base . . .”

She struggled against the restraining straps once more, rattling the framework of the wall-mounted cot. Cutter had done his job well. In a few moments, exhausted, she lay back panting.

“Please, Melani.” Ardo blinked back tears. He struggled with the lock rings on his gloves, desperate to remove them, as he spoke. “If only you knew how much I’ve dreamed of this . . . how much I longed for you. I’ve seen your face a thousand times in the crowd . . .”

She turned her face toward him, still blinking, struggling to remain conscious. “This is a Confederacy base?”

“Yes!” Anguish in his face, Ardo stepped toward her. “Oh, Melani, if you only knew how sorry I am . . .”

The woman yelled at him with all her strength. “Take one more step you sonofabitch and I’ll kill you!”

Ardo stopped, frozen, unable to move forward or retreat. The thundering pain in his head overwhelmed him. He gave a single, choked cry and collapsed to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Memories washed and flooded across his mind. Golden fields. Golden hair. Screams and crimson blood.

It was some time before he heard her voice, quietly talking to him.

“Hey, soldier-boy, it’s all right. Relax, it’s gonna be fine.”

Ardo looked up through the blur of his tears.

“Just take it easy, okay? We’ll talk . . . just talk . . . all right? I’ll help you make it better. Deal?”

Ardo nodded slowly. He was spent, sitting ignominiously in his battlesuit on the floor of the infirmary, his back propped against the desk.

“That’s fine.” The woman’s voice was calm and deliberate, as though she were talking a suicide away from the edge of a cliff. “You just sit there and we’ll talk for a minute and get all this sorted out, okay?”

Ardo nodded vaguely again.

“My name is Merdith. What’s yours?”

Ardo sucked in a ragged breath.

“Look at me.”

Ardo did not know if he had the strength. “Oh, Melani . . .”

“Look at me,” Merdith said a little more forcefully.

Ardo raised his eyes.

“Look at me closely.” Merdith lay still, concentrating her dark eyes on Ardo’s face. “Look at my hair . . . look at it.

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