The Reckoning – 2

The Hyperion Bridge…

Tense.

That perfectly described the atmosphere within the Bridge at that point. Both Horner and Valerian were listening to Kerrigan as she spoke through the holographic video.

"You know I'm going to Korhal now, correct?" asked Kerrigan specifically to Valerian. Her eyes looked deeply into Valerian's as she continued to assess the heir of the Dominion Empire. And it so happened she managed to telepathically dig on what was going on within the prince's quarters prior to the meeting. Not that she cared anything about it. But she still needed to be aware of anything unpredictable.

"I know," replied Valerian simply. "You're going to kill my father."

Kerrigan noticed the resigned look on Valerian's face. A small degree of pity grew in her heart for the young man and it surprised her to some extent. Immediately she pushed it away. There won't be any point for her to feel for the man, she thought to herself. Besides, like his father, Valerian never really made things easy for her. And she decided that she won't make it easy for him.

"He had this coming for a long time," stated Kerrigan firmly. Not once her eyes left that of Valerian's. "I need to know where you stand."

"I stand for my people," said Valerian. "I accepted that my father is beyond redemption and,….must be removed from power."

Kerrigan detected pain in every word Valerian muttered. Once again a sense of pity crept within her heart but she quickly brushed it off.

"I'm glad we understand each other," said Kerrigan, apparently satisfied.

Horner who had silently watched the exchange decided to cut in. "Why are you telling us this, Kerrigan?" he asked.

Kerrigan's eyes lingered on Horner for a few moments before she replied, "There will be ruins, destructions, millions will die amid the chaos." She then once again turned towards Valerian. "Valerian, your people will need a leader."

"You're right, Kerrigan," admitted Valerian. "They will. If I'm to be that leader, I want to ask only one thing off you."

Kerrigan raised her eyebrows questioningly but she said nothing.

Valerian who saw that Kerrigan was not about to challenge him continued, "Bring your Swarm down outside the city. This will give us time to evacuate."

Kerrigan simply stared at Valerian. "Korhal is going to be the most difficult battle of my life and you're asking me to make it harder!"

"I am," replied Valerian simply.

Kerrigan continued to lay her eyes on Valerian. True, he had all the bearings as his father once was but she never saw this side of him before. It was something that she had never expected. Of course Valerian never showed it before in the first place. She knew Acturus so well that she was more than willing to bet that he won't ask her the same thing. For Acturus, it was the destination that counts, not the journey. His son however was different.

"I was wrong about you, Valerian," she finally admitted. "You're not like your father. Very well. I'll give you your chance. Make the most of it."

Valerian felt relieved. A small smile concocted on his lip. For once, everything had finally going in the right direction. If everything goes well, he might finally get what he was looking for even though he knew it will eat him from the inside. And least he got the blessing from the most powerful leader of the Koprulu sector. He knew that blessing was important. It will allow him to rule in peace in the wake of his father demise without having to worry about any intrusion from the Zerg. Maybe and just maybe, the terran could finally live out their lives in the usually turbulent sector in peace.

Unfortunately, Kerrigan saw what he was thinking. "Valerian! Do not let it get over your head! My blessing doesn't come for free. Do not think for once that I will leave you alone! I will always be watching. Be warned, Valerian. One toe out of the line and nothing in this universe can stop me from finding you! You'll suffer fate much worse than death! Am I clear on that?!"

Kerrigan sudden outburst took Valerian by surprise. He forgot. He forgot that Kerrigan was a telepath and a powerful one at that.

"Crystal." That was all he could say to her while at the same time making a mental note to be more careful whenever a strong telepath was in vicinity.

"Good." Kerrigan then turned Horner. "Matt," she said. Her voice softened, almost pleading. "There will only be one person who will be damaged beyond repair if Jim dies. Me. Promise to me that you won't let it happen."

Horner nodded. "I understand, Sarah. I promise you, I'll do everything within my power to keep him alive."

"Thank you." With that, Kerrigan signed out.

There was a momentary silence. After a few minutes, Valerian decided to speak, "You know, Jim will one day die of old age if not in battle. It won't be within your power to stop it. What will happen then?"

"Funny you should ask that," replied Horner, scrubbing his chin. "I wondered that myself when I heard what she said. But that is not the thing for us dwell on for now. At least she did give you her blessing. That is a rarity."

"Yeah but with the term and conditions applied as well. And a strict one at that. I thought her blessing mean that she won't come back to haunt us forever."

Horner let out a small laugh. "We're dealing with the Zerg, Valerian. At most we could do is to take whatever we could get to ensure our own survival. Just be thankful for that."

Valerian nodded. "You're right. And we better get started." He then proceeded towards the Bridge communication console.

"You mean the evacuation?" asked Horner. "Valerian, we only have a few capital ships at our disposal. It won't be enough to move millions of people away from the battle field."

"It won't be just us, my dear captain," replied Valerian as he continued to punch the keys on the communication console. A few minutes later, an image appeared on console main monitor.

"Captain Horner," said Valerian. "I am pleased to introduce to you General Joanna Elissa Jor-el, commander of the Dominion Alpha Squadron."


The Hyperion Observation Deck…

"There you are!"

Jim spun around and saw Nova marched towards him. She was still in a pajama. No doubt it was Lily's. Lily was much shorter than Nova so her ankle shows. Her hair was tied in braid, draping over her shoulder.

"What are you doing here, Jim?" asked Nova softly the moment she arrived right in front of him. Rubbing his arm, she continued, "I'm so worried."

"I need some air. I can't sleep," replied Jim.

"Yeah," replied Nova as she continued to rub Jim's arm.

That display of affection certainly hadn't gone unnoticed by Jim. Then he remembered something. "How is it that you know where to find me?" he asked.

"Hmmm….., intuition I guess?" came the reply. But this time Nova looked down. It was as if she couldn't meet his eyes when she said that. "I just came to visit Lily at her office. When I arrived, I found that you weren't at your bed."

"At this time of night?" asked Jim.

Nova didn't answer. She continued to look down. Her hand still rubbed Jim's arm.

Jim continued to stare at Nova. It was at that point he realized that Nova did have some similarities with Sarah. During their Son of Korhal days, Sarah too had the knack of finding him no matter where his location was inside the huge ship. Hiding from Sarah certainly wasn't an option for him. He did try that. She would always found him no matter what. He did ask Sarah whether or not she put a tag on him but no matter how hard he pressed her for an answer, Sarah would always decline to answer that question. And now he had the suspicion that Nova somehow decided to do the same to him.

He noticed that Nova was blushing. He decided not to ask her anything about that. Changing the topic could be a better option.

"You should go back to sleep, Nova," he said. "It's still early in the morning. I'll go back to the medbay later. Don't worry about me."

But Nova shook her head. "No. I'm staying. At least until you're safely back inside the medbay. You shouldn't be out here, Jim. At least not until Lily gives you a clean bill of health."

"I'm the commander of this outfit, Nova. Lily has to do whatever it is I say."

"True," replied Nova, now crossing her arms. "You assigned her as the medic. You told her to save lives as many as she could and that may include yourself. And yet here you are denying her from ensuring that she could do her job properly and that is to make sure that you continue to be alive. Does the word contradictory mean anything to you?"

She was stern.

Jim said nothing. Slowly he turned his gaze towards the Leviathan that was outside the ship and remained silent.

Nova continued to lay her eyes on Jim but she said nothing.

Time slowly ticking but the two remain quiet.

"Something is bothering you, isn't it?" Nova finally spoke minutes later. "You can tell me. It is never a good thing to keep what you feel bottling up inside you. You're liable explode at any given moment."

Jim remained quiet.

"It's about Sarah, isn't it?"

Jim immediately turned towards Nova the moment she mentioned Sarah. He was indeed surprised and wondered from where and how much she knew.

Nova cooked up a smile as she listened to Jim's thought. "You still love her, don't you? And you had a hard time letting her go."

Jim didn't answer at first. He slowly turned his gaze back towards the Leviathan.

Nova did the same. "I'm a telepath, Jim. I could dig out everything I need to know out of you without you knowing but it won't help you. Conversation is always the best form of communication between two people. You know that. Talk to me, Jim."

Jim let out a sigh. "It's not just about her," he finally replied.

"I'm listening."

"I'm lost, Nova. I'm a total failure. Everything I did, its all ended in failure. There's a lot of time that I really didn't know what I was doing."

And Jim began to tell a tale from his day as a lowly Confederacy marine and being the most hunted criminal throughout the sector until the day he launched the invasion on Char. All that time Nova was listening intently. Not once her eyes wavered from Jim's face. Sometime during mid of the story telling, their fingers intertwined without any of them realizing it. And throughout the story, her fondness for Jim grew stronger,….

…before her heart broke.

"I thought that things will go back the way it once was after I got her back," continued Jim. "I thought it would be just me and her against the rest of the world. That we could finally have the life we both dreamt of. But she rejected me no matter what I did. I tried to win her back but with not much success. She did open up to me a little bit when we were at the Umojan station but there's not much we could do about it. You know what happened. I got caught and the moment I got back my freedom, she had turned into the thing I most despise."

Jim took a deep breath before continuing. "Her name had become my mantra, virtually the only thing that holds me together during my time in the cell. I would have died if I didn't continue to be strong. But it seems that death would have been a better option for me the moment I saw her returning as the Queen of Blades."

Silence.

"Some nights ago, I dreamt my wife. It was strange. I never dreamt of her before this. Not once ever since she's gone. But yes. I saw her. In that dream, she was so beautiful. So genuine. So honest. Just like the way I remembered her. In that dream, she told me to be strong. She told me to stay true to what I believe. She even told me to find someone. Someone who would care for me just like what she did when she was still alive."

Silence again.

"When I look back, I realized that I could do the first two. But I don't think I could do the third. I now realized that I may never replace her with anyone else. I don't know if I ever could. Only time can tell. But for now, the status quo remains."

At this point Nova quickly let go of his hand and walked towards the door. Without looking at Jim, she spoke, "I need to get you back to the medbay, Jim. Lily would be worried if she finds you not in your bed." There was no emotion in her words.

Jim sighed. Somehow he had a hunch that Nova was angry but he didn't know the reason why. He was about to follow Nova when he notice some movement outside the window of the observation deck. He turned around and saw the Leviathan began to heave and continued to break away from the fleet. Its distance from the Hyperion kept increasing until at one point Jim saw a wormhole formed right in front of the Leviathan. Moments later, it entered the wormhole and vanished without a trace.

Jim stood there for a few moments. He continued to stare at the spot where the Leviathan had disappeared. And suddenly, out of the blue, something went flying inside his head. Jim quickly turned around and walked past Nova.

His destination. The Bridge.

To be continued…

A/n: It warms my heart to see that my story still managed to grab your attention. Thank you very much. And many thanks to those who took the trouble to review this story. And not forgetting those who put this story in their Favorite/Followed list.

As always, please read and review and I'll see you soon.