A night passed. Parry and the doctor, whose name she'd learned was Nikal Skibbik, had moved the lounge closer to the fire to keep Ray's body temperature up. Parry spent the night on the floor beside the lounge, dozing on and off. Every time she woke, she looked first to Ray, to see if she had moved or opened her eyes. Thus far, there was nothing.

Parry found herself searching Ray's face as if answers to all their questions could be found written on it. Truth be told, as relieved as she was that Ray was here and still alive, she almost wished that this wasn't her. She was so skinny, so drawn. What she must have gone through, Parry couldn't imagine.

What the rest of them may be going through right now…

And what of her? Her wingman was starved, tortured, and near death. Her wingmates, those that had managed to escape with them, what was it they had escaped toward? Were they laying in some dingy room somewhere, just as tortured and starving? Meanwhile here Parry was, in what would be considered a mansion anywhere on Earth, with clean clothes, washed hair, and at least some food in her stomach.

Why? Because she'd been the one that had the bad luck to be caught when Ara Chaz wanted to commit an elaborate suicide.

Might have been better had we stayed and fought, she thought as she started to doze again. If, instead of running after the wormhole collapsed, we'd just turned around and attacked. We'd have been wiped out but we'd have gone down fighting.

What hope did they have now? Ray was alive, and part of her was desperately happy that was so. She was alive, and that mostly made her happy as well. But what hope did they have? They were at the mercy of the Cats, with only the words of a traitor to reassure them that yet another Cat would spare their species if only they got him on the throne.

Her doze deepened a little as her mind seemed to sneak away from these unpleasant thoughts. She was sitting beside the lounge, her back against it and her arms wrapped around her knees. Her head dipped forward slowly, chin to her chest and forehead nearly to her knees. Dark crept in, warm and inviting and

-Parry?

A tornado of chaos surrounded her, swallowing her. Pain, ecstasy, color, darkness, lightcoldheatloudquietmusicdiscordanceWHATISHAPPENINGWHEREAM-

She jolted, her eyes flying open and her hands reaching out, a faint cry escaping her. She felt as if she'd been pulled into a thin string, a string that had snapped back into her, into wakefulness, like a rubber band being released. Her heart was racing so hard it almost hurt.

Skibbik whirled around from near the fire at the cry, letting out a bleat of confused surprise. She and Parry stared at one another a moment before the Cat's eyes shifted to the lounge and widened even more. She started forward as Parry turned, then pushed herself up onto her knees, catching the stick-thin hand that reached out to her.

"Ray?"

"I'm sorry," Ray said. Her voice sounded faint, sandpapered, but her open eyes were bright and alive. "I didn't mean to- "

"Shh, shh," Parry felt tears heating her eyes with an abruptness that scared her, all thought of that momentary tornado banished. "You haven't anything to be sorry for. You're safe. You're safe now. I'm here."

Ray's free hand quested over, felt the IV line in the crook of her arm and, afraid she might pull it out, Skibbik gently halted her.

"Don't, you still need the fluid. You're in rough shape."

"I'm better," Ray said and gave a thin smile. "I'm together again."

Parry wiped her cheek off on her shoulder with a self-conscious sniffle, then looked at the Cat worriedly. "She's…?"

"A little disorientation is normal," Skibbik said. "She's been through a lot. Make sure she doesn't pull that IV out. I'll go and see if there's some broth to be had, get something in her stomach. We have to make sure she goes slow. I'll be right back."

Parry looked back at Ray, taking her hand again and holding it in both of hers. "Ray, she's going to get you some food, ok? Are you hungry?"

She internally cringed even as the words came out of her mouth; Ray was visibly starving. To gloss over such a ridiculous question, she quickly continued. "You're safe. Shadow's here, and Reaper too. This is a resistance safe house, I guess is the best thing to call it. They- "

"I think Diamond is dead," Ray said, her voice still small and vague.

"Oh…" Parry's voice sounded just as small to her as she said it. "No. No, I-…the others? Do you know-?"

"I-…don't for sure, not yet," Ray said, her thin brows knitting. "When they were taking me out, I saw Rafe and E-Evelyn…"

"Evelyn?" Parry asked.

"Blade," Ray told her. "That's…that's Blade's name…"

"Were they ok? Was Rafe ok?"

Ray nodded weakly. "Was then. Now, I…don't know. Not just yet…I'm sorry…"

"Shh, ok," Parry gently stroked a hand over Ray's head. "It's ok."

Skibbik returned just then, a tray in her hands with a small bowl of broth and a cup of what might have been some kind of tea. On her heels was a sleepy-eyed Jondell.

"We'll need to sit her up," Skibbik said as she set the tray on a nearby table. Jon moved over to help.

"Hey, Ripley," he said with a soft smile as he reached them. She gave a weary, droopy eyed grin back.

"Hey, boss."

"I finally understand how you got your handle," he teased gently, as Parry slid an arm behind Ray's shoulders. "I never would have believed it."

Together they helped prop her up into a sit. Her weary grin grew a little.

"Believe it or not," she said.


Skibbik could not stay when the time finally came to move the humans to the mining colony. Despite Ray being human, she'd shown herself as a very compassionate and attentive doctor, and Parry regretted the anger that she'd shown her when Ray had first been brought to them.

They hadn't been entirely comfortable with moving Ray so soon. She was just starting on more solid foods in very carefully monitored portions. She was still so weak and thin, and had only managed a single lap around the lounge room with a crutch the doctor had brought to her.

They had little choice. They could not stay in the house any longer without risking discovery.

As Elie had hoped, the Undervend colony proved far safer for them. It had been built on Igrathi, the smallest of Kilrah's two moons, which was also home to one of the massive fleet shipyards. The southern hemisphere was a hive of Kilrathi activity as the shipyards were in full swing, but the old Undervend colony was in the far northern hemisphere, it's thorium mine long since depleted and abandoned. The Cats had never cleaned up the tailings heaped in various locations around the colony, and the low levels of radioactivity from those tailings would help mask their presence. The colony itself was well shielded from the trace amounts of dust given off from the tailings and so would pose no health concern for them so long as they stayed inside.

The vast amount of ships going to and from Igrathi also had served to hide their arrival, and they had landed without incident or suspicion.

While not as nice as the house that they had just left, the old colony was far more comfortable than the flooded tunnels, old catacombs, and other abandoned underground hidey-holes they'd heretofore been hiding in. They had access to quarters and cleaning facilities, and a freedom of movement they hadn't had since being captured on Provaktor.

Ray had slept most of the trip up to the moon, and Jon had ended up having to carry her into the colony, but once there she seemed to gain her strength quickly. Two weeks after arriving, she was almost looking like herself again, and was able to move around quite efficiently with her crutch.

Parry was nearly always at her side, the two stitched at the hip as it were. She, Diane, and Jon had not grilled Ray about the Nedris or her experience in Karfa's hands out of respect for her recovery, and Ray certainly behaved as a woman with something extremely weighty on her mind. A million times Parry started to ask her, and a million times she stopped herself.

There was a little cafeteria in the colony, that had become an unofficial meeting room. Parry and Ray were in there one morning eating some Kilrathi MREs and sipping grimly at a thick sludge that apparently was the Cat version of coffee, when Jon came in to join them. Parry knew immediately upon seeing the Jon's face that Ray's reprieve from probing questions was coming to an end.

"You're looking better," he said as he sat down, and started to open an MRE. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Ray said. "Still tired all the time."

"I get that," he said.

"Shadow not joining us?" Parry asked. He shook his head.

"She barely lets Kaan and the other Cats out of her sight these days. Not being in the fight…"

Parry knew how that felt. Hiding away like this, having no choice but to hide away like this, grated on them all.

"She wants revenge for Merlin's death," Ray said. Jon looked at her, and a muscle rippled in his jaw as he nodded slowly.

"We all do," he said, then quickly moved on from the subject of his father. "I think she's hoping to convince Elie that it is in their interests to hit the shipyard."

Parry stared at him as the implications of that sank in. "If they could take out the shipyard, it would strike a definite blow to the Cat fleets. Might buy Sol and our Fleets some time."

"It'd also be suicide," Ray said. "I know it feels like death is better than sitting here out of the fight, but it's not."

Jon looked up at her as he picked apart his MRE. Unlike human MRE's, Kilrathi ones were more or less just meat, dried to a thick jerky. He was shredding his more than eating it.

"Ray, I need to- "

"I know," she said. "You can ask."

Abandoning the last remnants of her own MRE, Parry reached over and took her hand. She remembered so strongly Ray doing the same thing for her a million years ago in the Houston cafeteria, and for a moment the emotion of everything threatened to overwhelm her.

"You were in the prison camp with the others?" he asked gently. "You told Parry that you thought Diamond was dead?"

Ray nodded. "I never saw her there," she said slowly. "They had me in a little room underground, not with the others. Because of my leg, I think. They kind of forgot that I was there. It had a little window that looked out on the yard and when I could, when they brought the others out, I would look and see if I could spot anyone that was with us on Provaktor."

"And you never saw Diamond?"

Ray shook her head. "I don't think I saw her when the Cats caught us, either. They had us all lined up, I don't think she was there."

Parry thought, and also couldn't recall seeing Diamond there. Everything had been such chaos just before they were caught, people going in all directions. Her only thought had been to stay with Ray. Then they'd been caught, hit with the realization that Merlin was dead…in all the commotion she hadn't been taking a head count. From the look on Jon's face as he met her eyes, he hadn't been either.

Of course, he'd just seen his father killed in front of him.

Briggs had been there; that Parry could remember. Rafe, she'd definitely seen. He'd been bleeding, gashes on his head. She was pretty sure she had seen Judy as well, though couldn't have sworn to it in a court of law.

Ray had told her trust the Prince, to trust Zuhn, when Parry realized the Cat was nowhere in sight. Diamond, however? No. No, she couldn't remember Diamond being there.

"She must not have been," Jon said, half to himself, as he searched his own memory. He looked at Parry. "If she'd been with us, she probably would have been taken with we three. She was a general's daughter- a worthy prize for just that."

"Could she have gotten away? Evaded capture?" Parry asked. "Could she still be alive and on the run on Provaktor?"

Ray was already shaking her head. "I don't think so," she said. "I think they killed her, in the shuffle."

"Did you see something?" Jon asked. Ray shook her head.

"It was a mess down there," Parry said to Jon. "One Cat almost killed Ray as well. He would have, if his superior hadn't shown up and ordered him to let her up."

He gave a slightly conceding tilt of his head. "Kaan seems confident all the others caught that night were taken to the same prison camp. Ray, if you never saw her there, we have to assume that you're right. Dead or alive, she never left that planet."

"You saw everyone else?" Parry asked her, and she nodded.

"You said they kept you in a small room, forgot you were there," Jon continued gently. "Why did they take you out again?"

Ray said nothing, just watched him with an odd look on her face, as if she had asked the question and was waiting politely for him to answer. Jon's eyes flicked over to Parry a moment before returning to Ray.

"I understand this is difficult. There was some speculation when you were brought back to us, by the doctor and Kaan. The Cat that took you, his name was Karfa I think. He was some kind of a spy?"

"Nedris," she said. "That's what they call them, those spies. Nedris."

"Nedris," he repeated. "And this Nedris brought you to see the Emperor?"

"Yes," she said, without hesitation. "He ordered me killed. Told one of the men there to take me out into the courtyard and shoot me."

Parry released her hand, putting her arm instead around Ray's shoulders. "I think that's enough, Jon," she said.

"It's all right," Ray looked at her. "Parry, I'm ok."

"I'm sorry, Ray," Jon said. "But we need to know."

"I'm ok," she repeated. "Sela managed to convince her brother not to have me shot."

Jon leaned forward a little. "Why?" he asked. "Why did that Nedris take you to see the Emperor? Why did Sela bother to convince her brother not to execute you?"

For a moment they thought Ray wasn't going to answer again, before she spoke in very measured tones. "Because they thought that I was a Nedris, like Karfa."

"They thought you were a spy."

"It's not exactly the same, but yes."

Jon's mouth gave a twist of distaste at his next words. "It's been suggested that these Nedris have unique abilities other spies don't. There was some ridiculous assertion that they were the result of Cats being brought back after they had vanished in a Jump. That the Confed has also developed the ability to bring back people who were lost in a Jump as well, and those they brought back also had these unique abilities. Ray, as much as it pains me, I have to ask. Were you- "

There was no dishonesty or hesitation in her voice when she said, "I am not a spy. I've only ever been a fighter pilot for the Confed."

"Of course," Jon said, letting out a relieved breath. "I'm sorry but I had to ask."

Parry squeezed her shoulder, then hesitated when Ray looked at her. The expression on her face made her feel cold. "Ray? What's wrong?"

Ray looked about to say something, then suddenly turned toward the cafeteria door as Diane strode through it. Her artificial eyes were gleaming with that same hard light they had back on Provaktor, when Merlin had been killed.

"Jon, you need to come. The Prince has arrived, he needs to speak to us."

"What's he doing here?" Parry asked, also getting to her feet as Jon abandoned his chair. Ray grabbed her crutch.

"Unsure yet, we'll fill you two in as soon as we know- "

"No," Ray said, thumping her way past Parry and toward the Colonel. "No, Jon and Parry need to stay here. I'll come."

"I beg your pardon, Second Lieutenant?" Diane said, and the same hard edge from her eyes was in her voice. Parry and Jon just looked surprised.

"Colonel, please," Ray said. "I know why the Prince is here. I badly need to talk to him and to you, but Jon and Parry need to stay here."

"How could you possibly know why the Prince is- "

"To tell you will be to break classification," Ray said. "It's necessary to break it but the fewer people there when I do the better. The less blowback there will be. Jon and Parry must stay here."

Diane paused only a moment, and her nod was sharp and brief. "Fine. You two, stay here."

"Ray, what's going on?" Parry asked.

"Not now. I can't…I can't tell you now. But soon. When I'm sure you two are safe, ok?" Ray said, as she and Shadow headed out the door. "I promise!"

"Ray!"

The door shut behind them, and baffled, Parry could only stare at it.