The ship hurtled through space. Marik stood on the deck, his eyes automatically scanning the windows for any almost invisible ripples that would signal a cloaked ship tagging along beside them.

There was nothing but darkness and stars, the occasional planet and falling asteroid. The ship hummed with activity behind him, but he didn’t look at it. Flying had never been his favorite thing to do. Back when they had been children, Talon had once dared him to go up on a small two-person ship that had been little more than a bucket of mechanical parts that had failed long since and tilted guidance systems.

Marik had been so afraid he had nearly had a heart attack. Talon had been in his element. Their father had had to bring his ship up and help guide them down. All the way, Talon had stood in the control deck with his face shining and laughter spilling from his mouth as he told his father over the com–call box that he could absolutely fly that old tub even though all evidence pointed to the contrary.

Jenny spoke from behind him, “It won’t be long now, will it?”

He turned to face her. Her long blonde hair had been put into a neat and tight coil at the base of her neck. The rather harsh hairdo emphasized the sharp planes of her cheekbones and the curve of her bottom lip. The tunic and the trousers, however, disguised the very lush, if petite, body that she possessed and he found himself wishing that she had one of her dresses on.

He said, “Yes. Just a matter of hours now.”

Her fingers twisted together as she stared out the observatory window. “Doesn’t look like anything’s out there.”

Their reflections, ghostly and pale, peered back at them. He said, “We’re traveling so fast that you really don’t have time to register what is there unless it’s very large.”

She said, “I absolutely hate ships.”

He chuckled. “You’re not the only one.”

She leaned forward a little bit, her eyes moving over stars and whatever else was visible out there. “Why did you agree to do this?”

He said, “Someone had to.”

She turned to face him, and his body shifted as well. The ship vibrated beneath their feet, sending her forward just a bit. Her hand came up and out and touched his chest, just slightly, just enough for her to gain her balance and then she hastily moved away. She said, “They told me that you volunteered for this. I know you just said someone had to, but why you? You’re not human, and you have nothing that you love down there. You’ve never even been there. So why?”

He could have argued that one point with her but chose not to. “I told you. I’m a healer. I spent enough of my life killing and destroying things. Maybe this is penance for all that I’ve done wrong. The part of me that is a natural healer commanded that I go. That I heal as best as I can.”

Now her face held curiosity. “Is it true that you can touch heal? That, I mean, can you really bring the dead back to life?”

He gawked at her. Then he burst into laughter. “Someone’s been telling you tall tales!”

She flushed, and her eyes dropped. Immediately remorse set in. He put his hand out and touched hers. Her face jerked back up, and there was a startled expression on it.

He said, “I can touch heal, but I cannot bring back the dead. That is beyond the scope of any healer. I have heard that some healers are able to bring back those who are just on the brink, but to do so… To do so would mean their own deaths, so most choose not to. I can’t say I blame them.”

Her finger went to her forehead and rubbed at the small space directly between her eyebrows. She said, “I had the oddest dream. I dreamed that you and a few others came into my chamber and carried me off to the med–bay last night.”

They had. But what happened there had been so terrible, and it caused her so much anguish that she blocked out the memory. Her mind had not been the only thing to block out that memory; he had used a powerful drug to help with that block and he had also used a technique that further walled the memory of it away as well.

He had not necessarily wanted to do such a thing, but the truth was she was a natural healer, and she didn’t know it. Her brain needed to be reminded and awoken to the fact that she could do things she did not yet know she could do.

He had been teaching her while they were on the ship of course. He had taught her all sorts of skills and things, but there had not been enough time during the travel to truly teach her all that she would need to know once on that planet. And nobody could teach a natural healer how to touch heal. They had to learn that themselves. He had to implant in her body and mind the fact that she could do it and it would be up to her to try.

He said, as casually as possible, “Oh? That sounds like a bad dream.”

Her eyes rested on his face. He wondered if she remembered more than she would’ve liked to and if she was actually asking him if it had happened. She would remember eventually and when she did would she be angry at him for doing it or angry at him for lying to her now.

Probably both.

It was better for her not to remember what happened the night before. If she remembered, she’d be stricken by a pain so huge that it would incapacitate her for quite some time. He needed her up and moving right now. There were a lot of hurt people down there and sometimes a healer had to be incredibly strong in order to heal themselves after the process that he had just carried out upon her.

She was not strong enough yet.

Jessica stepped up between them. She said, “We land soon.”

Marik nodded. Jenny said, “Can I ask you a question?”

Jessica said, “Of course.”

Jenny asked, “How do you plan on keeping us safe? I assume you will since what good will we be if we’re dead?”

Marik could’ve told her the answer to that question long before she asked it. He gave Jessica an imploring stare, hoping that, for once, Jessica would soften just a bit. She was a hard woman, strong and often furious. Her eyes went to Jenny, and he saw something like sympathy on her face.

Jessica said, “We shall, of course, do all we can to protect you.”

Jessica walked away. Jenny and Marik stood there watching it as Old Earth slowly came into view. Jenny said, “I have never seen it from up here. I was already locked into a chamber when the ship took off the last time I was near here. Somehow I thought it would be far prettier. More like home.”

Her face flushed and she looked down at her feet. His heart picked up a few beats per minute. Home? She thought of the planet Revant Two as Home?

He said, “I hear it was very beautiful before the wars started. It could be beautiful again. So much of it is unusable now because of the war, but maybe eventually it will heal.”

They stood there in silence as the ship slowly descended through the atmosphere and the planet became clearer and clearer. Marik said, “I believe these are the docking stations.”

She nodded, but didn’t speak. The ship began to take on a more active atmosphere. Crewmembers rushed around readying the ship for landing. Marik said, “I think that’s our cue to get our things ready for disembarkation.”

She said, “I only brought what I have on.”

He nodded. “I brought medicines, but Talon has stopped at several outlier planets where medications and things are more plentiful so we will have supplies.”

Her brow puckered as she looked over at him. “Do you think we will be able to save quite a few?”

He was hoping so. Deep down in his heart, he really was sick of death and blood, of war and violence. The part of him that had always been a healer cried out in protest against those things now. His quest for blood and revenge had ended long ago even if that quest had not ended for several of his brothers.

He said, “I do. I think we are needed here and that what we will do here will have very real and lasting consequences. My largest hope is that those that we will help may actually be able to learn from us as well in order to become healers themselves.”

She said, “I… I hope I can find Ben.”

Ben? He asked, “Is that your family?”

Her fingers went to her tightly pulled back hair. “No. My entire family is dead; I told you that. I was engaged to him. Before I was taken away to be a bride. Or at least that’s what they told me I would be as they dragged me out of the Below.”

His heart let off a painful throb. He ignored that. Now was not the time to tell her how he felt about her. “I am sure that if he is still anywhere near the place you saw him last, you will find him again.”

She swallowed hard. Her face wrinkled in thought. “The city has been mostly destroyed from what Jessica said.”

Marik said, “Unfortunately that is usually what happens when there is war.”

She flinched a little. “Well, perhaps I shall see somebody that I know, and they will be able to tell me where he is, and if… And if he still lives.”

Just then the ship docked. A hard lurch ran through the floor, causing her to stumble forward again. That time when her hands came up and met his chest, they did not help her to maintain her balance. She landed against him just as the ship gave another hard jolt and shudder. Her body, soft and warm, lay against his. She was small and perfectly built, and he had the oddest urge to just pick her up and carry her like a prize.

She stepped back hastily, her face going red with blood. “I’m sorry. I lost my balance.”

He said, “It’s all right.”

It wasn’t. His body ached for hers. He wanted to reach back out and hold her again, but the mention of a man, a human man that she had left behind but not by choice, had given him every reason to stay silent.

The whirr of activity continued all around them and, eventually, they found themselves joining in with several dozen others as they made their way toward the exit doors. The bay door slid open, and Marik caught his first glimpse of Old Earth from the ground.

It was awful.

Everything was a mess. Buildings had been shattered and crumbled, and the debris lay all over the streets, which were pockmarked and also broken by weapon fire. A thick cloud of dust, probably from the buildings in the street, hung over everything. The air was thick, and he wasn’t sure if he could breathe it. Several of the crew members began passing out masks that would go over their noses and mouths. He took one gratefully, as did Jenny.

Talon appeared. “Marik, I know that you know how to use this. Jenny, you probably don’t. I would advise you to learn very fast.”

Marik looked down at the weapons in Talon’s hands. The last thing he wanted to do was touch another weapon, but he knew that he had to take it. Things were volatile there on the surface of that planet, and there was no telling who might be an enemy and who might be a friend. Jenny stepped backward, her head shaking from side to side. “No, I won’t.”

Talon said, “Listen to me, Jenny. I know that you’re frightened. You have every reason to be. You are here to help heal people, but you can’t do your job if you are dead. Take it. You may never need it, but it is better not to need it and to have it than to need it and not have it.”

Marik took the weapons from Talon. He stuck them both in his belt and said, “She shall be with me anyway. I will carry it for her.”

Jenny gave him a grateful smile but Talon’s forehead wrinkled, and his eyes narrowed. “That will do her no good at all if something happens and you are not near her.”

That was just one more reason not to stray far from her side, wasn’t it? Marik said, “I intend to stay close to her. I will take care of her.”

Talon opened his mouth to say something else but shut his lips abruptly. His head nodded, and he said, “Well, let’s go then. There’s a sort of hospital set up near the center of the city, but it’s a hard fight to get there.”

Jenny asked, “What do you mean?”

Talon did not try to soften the blow for her. “They are still fighting here. They’re fighting each other now more than anything else. If they think you have something that they can use here, then they may go after you. Unfortunately, it’s not just those who lived above ground who are desperate to regain the system that used to be in place. A lot of those from Below are equally determined not to have the system back in place, and they are fighting for their very lives. Then there are rovers.”

Marik’s head lifted. His eyes went to Jenny and then back to Talon. “Rovers? Here?”

Talon said yes, “Human Rovers but Rovers. That’s what we’ve taken to calling them because that is precisely how they behave. They don’t care whose side you’re on. They don’t have a side either. They just take advantage of anyone and everything they can. They will shoot first and ask questions later. We are carrying a lot of valuables. That medication is incredibly valuable. So are the food supplies. If we are attacked by Rovers, all of us will have to fight.”

Marik looked at Jenny. “Stay very near me.”

Her face held a look of sheer terror. She said, “I will.”

They set off. The streets appeared to be deserted, but Marik’s senses told him that they were not. Sure enough, they had only gone a few dozen paces when he spotted a male human sliding around the side of a building, shrinking away from them. Talon, right beside him, muttered, “Look up, but carefully.”

Marik’s eyes went upward and then back down in a seemingly casual sweep of the terrain. It was not casual. He had seen exactly what Talon had wanted to show him. There were people up on a roof of a building far down from where they were walking. Again, not a good sign.

Marik asked, under his breath, “Rovers?”

Jessica, walking behind him and right beside Jenny who was flanked on the other side by a very large crew member loaded down with weapons, said, “It looks like it.”

Talon said, “Keep walking, but be cautious.”

Marik did keep walking, but his eyes were continually moving. He spotted several more people huddled in the burned out shell of a hovercraft that had crashed onto a street, one wing still pointing skyward.

The whole place was blasted and broken. Rubble crunched underfoot. He could hear the sound of voices coming from somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where. The broken buildings and the heavy wind that had picked up and had begun to whip along the destroyed cityscape made sound distort and sharpen all at the same time.

The grit, blown about by the wind, stung his exposed skin. His eyes watered when a particularly nasty little chunk whizzed by and scraped across his eyelid. If he had not closed his eye in time, it would’ve gone right across the surface of his eye, and he knew it.

He made a mental note to try to find some goggles or some other kind of eye protection before he had to go out on the streets again.

They made it past the buildings, but Marik knew better than to be relieved. Rovers often traveled in large packs that broke off in two small hunting parties. If these humans were behaving like Rovers, the ones that had been on the buildings that they had already passed were just the flanking section. A flanking section that would eventually come back around and circle them from another side, and probably while they were engaged in battle with another part of their pack.

Talon said, “We have to take this street.”

The street was in less disrepair than the others but the buildings, what remained of them, stood silent and haunted. The air of abandonment and desperation hung over everything.

The door of one of the buildings burst open and a woman, very disheveled and clearly distraught, rushed out onto the street. Immediately weapons were pulled and pointed in her direction. She fell to her knees, her hands up in the air. Her hair, long and a solid gray color, flowed over her shoulders and back and her face, shockingly unlined and a striking contrast against her hair, looked up at them. Her face was dirty, but her tears had cut clean channels down her cheeks. Talon spoke, not unkindly. “You should not be on the streets right now.”

The woman screamed out, “They have destroyed my home! My husband is dead, and the government has fallen! The Federation said they would help, but they have not come back! They have abandoned us here and those… Those creatures from Below… Those unworthy… Things! They are everywhere! I ordered someone to bring me food earlier, but nobody has come. They ignore me and laugh at me and disregard my station!”

Marik sighed. It was clear that the woman had always lived in the above ground and was used to having servants and having everything done for her. She was shocked to the point of insanity at the moment.

Talon said, “Go back to your home. Go back. We cannot stop to help you now; we have other things to do. Somebody will come.”

Marik did not have to look around to see the bitterness coming from some of those on Talon’s crew. Jessica and Jenny were both from the Below. Several of his crewmembers had come from the Below; they had signed on during the rebellion and had proven themselves to be good at the tasks that Talon had set for them.

Their simmering resentment against this woman, who was clearly confused and upset and frightened, was understandable but it was also dangerous at the moment. They were all heavily armed and on edge because of the Rovers that were probably stalking them.

The woman clambered to her feet. Her eyes, a faded blue, went from face to face. “Are you from the Federation? If so, I demand, I absolutely demand, that my house be stockpiled with food and water. That my building be repaired immediately. That you give me new servants to replace those who either ran off or died and that you do it immediately. I am the wife of the All-High Commander Marks.”

To Marik’s shock, it was Jenny who spoke. Her voice held no rancor, but it also held no compassion. “We are not from the Federation. You must go back into your home now. If you don’t, you will die. There are those who would absolutely kill you if they knew that’s who you are. Go on now. Your time of ordering people to do things is done. If you need something, you’re going to have to figure out how to get it for yourself right now.”

The woman stared at them and then she screamed, a furious and wavering scream that threatened to burst Marik’s eardrums. Her hands balled up, and her fists and her feet began to stomp. Dust flew up all around her, and she whirled like a dervish. She finally stopped screaming, but her next words were even more vicious than the words she had used before.

“Those things that live below us were never worthy of being anything more than our slaves. We gave them everything they needed for life, and this is how they treated us.”

She stormed away, back into the house. Jessica said, “Even now…”

Jenny said, “It doesn’t matter. We need to go.”

Talon said, “She’s right. Move.”

They continued onward. Every step he took was another step into a hellish landscape. The dead, and there were so many of them, were piled in front of large outdoor furnaces. Jenny let out a low cry of distress as she watched several people pick up a body and toss it into the fiery maw of one furnace.

He wanted to comfort her but she was behind him, and he was walking ahead with good reason. They had formed a kind of phalanx with the medication and other supplies in the center. The best warriors were on the edges, and those who were skilled but not quite as skilled as those on the front lines formed the secondary layer of protection for those in the very center. Jenny was not in that center, which bothered him. She was not a fighter, and she should’ve been back, closer to the medications and the chests of food and supplies.

Past the death furnaces stood high machines that were busy swinging heavy round balls made of some immutable material into the sides of buildings that were mostly already fallen. Marik assumed that the humans were hoping that if they tore down the buildings most in danger of falling over, they would stop them from falling on their heads.

The wind picked up yet again. Now that they were past the death furnaces and the large groups of humans who had gathered along that street, they found themselves at a small intersection. They went left. Marik’s forehead puckered as he heard a soft, slow whistle from somewhere overhead. His eyes drifted upward, but he saw no winged creatures flying on those unfriendly skies. His eyes slid over to Talon. Talon’s jaw was clenched and his shoulders rigid.

Marik said nothing. He didn’t have to. The mood of the group had become noticeably charged and tense. They too had heard that whistle. That whistle was undoubtedly a signal, probably one Rover letting the rest of his pack know where they were.

Jenny asked, “How much further?”

Talon said, “About a mile. Just keep walking.”

Again Marik wanted to comfort her. He wanted to reach back and squeeze her hand and give her some silent reassurance, but he couldn’t. The stink of charred flesh rose on the air; not even the mask could keep that smell out. He had to squint his eyes against the thick banks of smoke from the furnaces and the grit being blown about by the wind.

They walked faster. Talon and Marik were picking up the pace and the others following. It was a hard pace to keep, and he knew it, but they had to go as fast as possible. Those who had been stoking the furnaces with the dead were unlikely to be of any assistance if the Rovers had attacked them back there. That the Rovers had not attacked them back there meant nothing. They were probably simply not willing to share whatever they thought they could take off the group with the people who had been back by the furnaces and tearing down the buildings.

Talon said, “To your left. Third window from the very top.”

Marik looked and then looked away. To the casual observer, it would’ve seemed as if he had just looked upward for a minute and then away without ever registering a single thing. The casual observer would’ve been wrong. He had seen very clearly a human outlined against the window, a weapon drawn and resting on the sill. The barrel had been pointed down toward the group, and that meant that at any moment either that sniper would begin firing, or the Rovers would attack from the ground.

Jessica said, “There’s no clear space. We don’t know which of the buildings are safe and which ones hold Rovers.”

Marik understood then what she was saying was that they could not separate those who were carrying the supplies from the group and let the group fight while the others got away. She had a good point, but his heart sank anyway.

The first blast of weapon fire went right past his head. If he had not turned his head to look back at Jenny, he would’ve been missing his entire head.

Jenny screamed. The sound, high and sharp, carried on the air. Her hands came up and smacked together in a round of involuntary applause. If things had not been so dire, he might’ve actually laughed at that. Instead, he grabbed her by her upper arm and shouted, “Run!”

They did. They stayed in their formation, all of them running fast as possible. Those bringing up the rear pushed those in the center forward while those upfront set the pace. More weapon fire rattled down.

Talon panted out, “It’s a good damn thing they have archaic weapons with very little accuracy. If not, we would all be dead by now. They’d be picking us off one by one.”

Marik was not reassured by that. If the Rovers could not pick them off from above, then their plan must be to separate them. “We must stay together. There are either trying to make us cluster or make us break apart. I’m not sure which.”

At that moment, there was a short distance between him and Talon and Jenny’s voice floated up from behind them. “No! You can’t go that way! That is the tunnel mouth!”

Marik’s eyes went ahead of them. Talon shouted, “Dammit! She’s right! That’s covered it but you can just see the trap! Go right!”

They all broke to the right, streaming around the side of a building like fish in a school. They fetched up in an alley and pelted down it, the narrowness of it forcing them to break their formation finally.

Jessica shouted, “I know where we are; let me lead!”

Marik fell back and she raced past him and slightly ahead of Talon. She lifted one hand above her head, two fingers up in the air hooked and pointing toward the left. They all followed her because there was no choice, and because she was their best chance.

Jenny fell. Marik caught her fall from the corner of his eye and his feet slowed. His long arm reached backward and he gripped her hand and pulled her forward.

It was clear she could not keep the pace.

She had been weak and sick when they had taken over the wrecker ship and her strength had come back to her slowly—too slowly. On top of that, he had given her an implant that had, no doubt, sapped her strength as well.

Not even thinking about it, he swung her up in his arms and then over his shoulder. Her head bumped against the long curve of his spine and her diaphragm rested on his strong shoulder. He pulled one arm up and over her, holding her waist and her arms went around his waist as she cried out, “I’m okay! Just go!”

He did. He raced along behind the others as they came out under a building whose upper floors hung out so far over the lowers that it provided a sort of shelter. Jessica leaned against the wall, breathing hard. They all took a moment to catch their breath and Marik lowered Jenny to her feet. How long they had been running he did not know, but there were a soreness and a tightness in his arm that he had had curled over her body during the run.

Jessica wiped her face with one sleeve and said, “We have to go down into the tunnels. You will not like this.”

Talon groaned. “No, we won’t. Is there no other way?”

One of the crew members who had been nearest the back panted out, “No. I saw at least three dozen of them coming. And I heard more.”

They all stood there, their hands on their knees and inhaling as much of the tainted air as they could get into their lungs. Marik’s ears, more finely tuned than that of humans, caught the rattle and beat of a great many footsteps. His eyes met Talon’s. Talon nodded. Marik said, “I hear at least fifty, or maybe even sixty.”

Jessica panted out, “I really need your guys’ hearing. It doesn’t matter even if I don’t have it, I guess. I do know that we’re pretty well screwed if we don’t do something, and now. The tunnels are our only chance. They either won’t know about them, or they won’t risk them.”

Marik had no idea why the tunnels were so terrible but if they were so terrible that a Rover would not risk them, he was pretty sure that taking the tunnels would be no less lethal than the Rovers.

Either way, they were facing death.

They probably stood little to no chance against the Rovers and more of a chance in the tunnels.