El

My heart wrung in a strange twist of love and anger when the missing G.E.F. ships jumped in next to us. The Armstar, my husband's ship. It had been my home for years. Svolun was on board. I knew he was.

In one moment, I remembered our first kiss under the moonlight on the beach. His eyes had looked on me with such tenderness. It had been the beginning of our lives as if nothing before that had mattered. The next moment, I remembered the pink in his eyes as he tried to rip out the top stud in my ear. I reached up and touched that ear.

"They refuse to respond," the communications officer said to Captain Les.

And then the Armstar fired on us. Their weapon systems had been modified. It was no longer the standard Gathering Exploration ship.

"They are only three ships," Captain Les said. "They can't expect to win."

Just as the captain ordered the ship to fire back, ten Brist ships jumped in below the Armstar. The Brist ships moved to intercept the rest of the G.E.F. ships while the opposing G.E.F. ships targeted the RedNova.

Don't do this. I sent the thought across the expanse and hoped my husband would somehow hear and when he heard that he would somehow be able to resist the miasmids.

The Armstar fired on us again. The other two ships joined in.

"Captain, our shields are failing."

Captain Les turned to me. "Take a crew out into space and battle with the light."

I nodded. I had been training several officers for this very thing. Before I could call to them to gather someone said, "There is a hole breach in engineering!"

I didn't wait any longer as I rushed to the door. The final words I heard before I left the bridge were, "The Aether field is down!"

When I called my crew, I was pleased to see they had already gathered at the docking bay. It didn't take me long to reach the docking bay. The Aether field was down, but the backup system - the old system - was on. We all had our light shields up so even if there had been a breach in the bay, we wouldn't have been bothered by space.

I opened my mouth to order them to move out, but I froze with my mouth open. From space came the largest pink cloud of the miasmids I had seen yet. They came in the bay. They didn't bother with me and my people.

The cloud flew passed us and we heard screams come from the corridors beyond. Our light shields were not strong enough to keep out so many of the miasmids.

"Jo-Dinun, what do we do?"

I wasn't officially a Jo-Dinun anymore, but the people on board felt I needed a title so that's what they called me.

Sorry, Shel. This may be the day I die.

"We need to help our people," I said. I started to lead them in a charge back into the corridor when several shuttles entered and landed.

And he stepped out of the first shuttle. My husband. Svolun. Our eyes locked. His were blue for a brief moment before the pink glinted from them. He swallowed. A young K'thaktra stepped out beside him momentarily drawing my gaze away from Svolun. He was about Shel's age. He smiled as he looked between my husband and me. It wasn't a pleasant smile. A little human girl and a Brist stepped out behind the K'thaktra. Others stepped out behind them and from the other shuttles.

"Jo-Dinun," one of my people said behind me.

"We must stop them," I said as my eyes met my husband's again.

My husband didn't say anything as he stared at me across the distance. The young K'thaktra next to him led the charge.

The K'thaktra was in front of me now. He punched at my face with the barbs on the back of his hand leading the way. I dodged, grabbed his arm and used his momentum to throw him forward. Svolun smiled when he saw and then his face contorted in pain.

The young K'thaktra regained his footing and charged at me again. I called on my light and when I grabbed his forearm after he tried to punch me a second time, I sliced with my red light. It cut through his exoskeleton. He pulled away from me before I could slice his arm completely off. Orange blood trickled from the wound where my slice hadn't cauterized the wound.

The little human girl came to stand beside him. She looked at the wound and frowned harshly at me. Then she charged me with her knife leading the way. Pink in her big brown eyes. The K'thaktra grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her back beside him. She turned that frown at him, but he shook his head at her.

He pushed her gently towards the Brist that had exited the shuttle with him. The Brist was in battle with one of my people. He was being held at bay by a wall of wind, but my person wouldn't be able to keep that up for too much longer.

The K'thaktra looked me over with new respect. His feet shifted as he prepared another attack against me. Svolun had moved and now stood next to the K'thaktra. He placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Help Sally with that one," my husband told him and nodded his head toward the little human girl and the Brist. "I will handle her." He looked at me.

"How many times must I tell you you aren't in charge anymore?" the K'thaktra said to him.

"Why must you argue every single time, Thrissko? I'm not going against the miasmids this time."

They looked at each other both with pink in their eyes as if the miasmids were communicating through them without words.

"Fine," the K'thaktra said. He took a step away, but stopped to say, "but I don't think the miasmids will be pleased with you when you fail to kill your wife."

Then it was only my husband and I. There was fighting all around us, screams from the corridor, but I only saw Svolun. I hated him. I loved him. I was angry with him. I pitied him.

How did we come to this? But I couldn't voice it.

He rushed me. I blocked a kick. He blocked an elbow. It was just like when we used to spar. We continued that way with neither of us truly serious about hurting the other. I let him push me back away from the others as we continued to fight. He fought harder when he realized he couldn't really hurt me because I had my light shield up. I called the light several times to my hands, but stopped before I cut through his flesh - the flesh I had caressed and kissed - the flesh of the person I missed more than anything. When Bundu-Jo bonded it was for life. There would never be anyone else for me but him.

"Svolun," I whispered before I could stop myself.

He stopped and took a step away from me. He grabbed his head as the miasmids hurt him.

"Vai can help you," I said quietly. I knew it was hypocritical of me. I had told Vai and the others that he couldn't heal everyone and that he shouldn't try. But I wanted my husband back. I wanted Shel's father back. I wanted to be a family.

A strange sound escaped his throat as he bent forward. I could no longer see his face.

The sounds of fighting around the docking bay grew quieter. I couldn't look away from my husband to see who was winning.

"Svolun," I pleaded.

His hand shot up with such force and strength that it broke through my shield and closed around my neck. Pink was in his eyes, but so were tears.

He squeezed, but not with enough force to block my air completely. And to choke a Bundu-Jo, he would have needed to keep this up for an hour. We both knew that.

"Hurry and finish her off and let's move on," the young K'thaktra said behind him.

Svolun's hand tightened around my throat not because he was obeying the K'thaktra, but because he was suddenly angry.

There was fresh blood on the K'thaktra's hands that wasn't his own. The little human girl stood beside the K'thaktra. Fresh blood was on her knife.

I closed my eyes trying to deny the truth. I didn't want to see what had happened to my crew. When I opened my eyes, the tears were no longer in my husband's eyes. A pink haze of miasmids was in the air above where the fighting had taken place earlier.

"I'll do it for you if you can't," the K'thaktra said.

Svolun kissed me. It was warm and welcomed and familiar and needed.

Then he pushed me through the field and out into space. I hadn't realized our fighting had taken us so close to the bay opening.

The K'thaktra smirked and he walked away with the human girl and Brist close on his heels. Svolun watched me as I drifted away from the ship. The ship jumped away along with the other 3 opposing G.E.F. ships and the 10 Brist ships.

The SingingStar approached me. I used the light to close the distance and enter the SingingStar's bay. I was the lone survivor from the RedNova. The miasmids wouldn't leave the rest of the crew alive. With the light opened in them, the miasmids couldn't enter and control them. The only option left was to kill them. Another ship lost. An entire crew dead.

And I couldn't shake the feeling that I just saw my husband for the last time.