Ten days later, dull burning pain reminded Orin Hart that he was still alive. He opened his eyes for the first time since he'd been shot.
He felt too tired and weak to move much, but he found a smile as he looked up into Nalina's worried face. Her eyes were brimming as she whispered his name and stroked the side of his cheek with her little sun-bronzed hand.
Just like his mother, he thought. She cried when things were bad and cried when things were good. But, it felt good to know she still cared enough to cry for him. His arm felt like it was lead-weighted, but he managed to reach up and draw her head down against his shoulder.
"You can stop your crying, little one," he whispered, stroking her soft, sweet smelling hair. "I'm not dead after all. Why the hell not, I don't know! What happened? I remember being shot, and then there was this strange dream---real strange."
"A medical team brought you to Elran and put you back together. The raids are over, and Zevus Mar has nearly been rebuilt, now. The other Tregan raiders are dead or in prison on Penta. Zevus Mar is back in Federation control, now," she explained.
"But, why did they bother to save me? What are they going to do with me? Send me to prison, too?" he breathed dryly. "They might as well have let me die!"
"No, no, Orin. Don't say that!" she admonished. "They saved you because of Lanimer. He made Casir understand what you did for us. Lanimer's father Mikal was a good friend of Hankura's back on Aledus some years ago.
"When you were dying, they healed you. It nearly killed them. That must have been your dream. You are truly not like the others because they touched your mind and helped you find the will to live. They are telepaths like Lanimer only stronger and more skilled. They made records that say you are Terran like Chelle. The Federation won't check your past. As far as they are concerned, Raider Orin Hart is dead."
Nalina paused and shifted herself on the bed beside Orin, half lying with her dark head nestled against his massive shoulder.
"You can come to Oltarin live with us---Lanimer and me," Nalina continued. "We can be together--if you still want us. I mean---you don't have to take care of us anymore. You don't even have to go with unless you want to. You are free, free to go wherever you want, thanks to Hankura and Casir."
"Don't talk crazy, woman! Of course, I still want you," he admonished. His strong fingers under her chin forced her to meet his eyes. Her feelings were all mirrored in her dark, luminous eyes for him to see and savor.
Freedom was a relative thing, he thought, smiling fondly at her. To some, it meant not having any emotional ties to keep them in one place. To others, to him, when he deserted from the Raiders, it meant he had nothing left to lose. But, that wasn't true anymore. He had a lot to lose if he let her go without him---this tender, gentle woman who loved him and a son he claimed in his heart for his own. These were just the most fragile of dreams that had died the day the Commander General hauled him from his home on Veldis Lar, what seemed so long ago.
Orin had fought long and hard to claim these simple things in life that other men took for granted. Now, he had found a place to belong, and he would fight for it again if it ever came to that. But, Orin Hart was no warrior; he was a gentle man of simple dreams who could and would fight to the death to preserve them.
"I'm not going anywhere without you, Nalina, and I'm not just going to desert Lanimer. I love you both too much for that," he murmured fiercely. "If I go there, though, what am I to do?"
"As soon as you're well, we can go and live with Hankura and Chelle and Lanimer when Casir builds their house on Oltarin. I will care for Lanimer and for their child when he is born. You were raised as a farmer, and they need someone to run the farm and care for some kind of animals. But, if you don't want to ...."
"It's what you want, isn't it?" he half smiled indulgently.
"Yes, but I thought that someday, that you and I---”
"That we could do what?"
"That---that we could have our own son---our own land---that I could be your wife just like other people."
"But, I thought---I mean, I'm sterile. All of us were."
Nalina smiled and shook her head. "No, Orin. Hankura said you only had a temporary implant. It can be removed."
There was that stranger's name again---yet somehow Orin knew he wasn't really a stranger.
He might as well get used to it, he sighed. He was in a world full of strangers, and his future happiness depended on his being able to come to terms with it. He was going to stay with them and try to forget the same as they what havoc his former comrades in arms had done to his life on this little desert world called Zevus Mar.
For the first time in months, Orin Hart really believed his life would be whole again . . .