Title: Rescue Run

Author: Lady Rheena

Genres: Alternate Universe, Action/Adventure, Romance

Rating: R

Disclaimer: If you recognise it from a fandom, I probably don't own it. That includes the world of The Matrix, all its characters and the concepts it entails. The idea of the Fleet and the Planetary Coalition are technically my own, but you'll probably recognise bits and pieces from various sci-fi media.

Chapter notes: Okay, okay, MORE tissues ready…

Part 28- Final Run

'You know I could really get to like this stuff,' Wurm remarked. 'What's it called again, Niobe?'

'Coffee,' Niobe told him with a grin. 'And be careful, caffeine's proven to be addictive.'

'I could get an addiction? Cool. Haven't had one of those before.'

'You stupid shit,' Ice said to him. 'Besides, this isn't coffee as I remember it. I reckon it's some kind of caffeine substitute to avoid the addiction part.'

'How do you know coffee as you remember it isn't the wrong taste?' Neo asked her, remembering a certain conversation he'd had a long time ago about Tasty Wheat. 'How would a machine know what coffee was supposed to taste like?'

'Or chicken,' Trinity said, catching on. 'They couldn't figure out what to make that taste like-'

'-which is why chicken tastes like everything,' Morpheus finished with a roll of his eyes.

'Old joke?' Ghost asked.

'Very old,' Trinity told him. 'Practically prehistoric, in fact.'

'Well, the old ones are supposed to be the best,' Maggie said.

'Only according to the people who haven't heard them a million goddamn times before,' Roland said in an unmistakeably weary tone that made everyone laugh. Niobe glanced back and sighed.

'Sparks, will you quit pacing? You're starting to make me nervous.'

Grumbling, he complied. Neo's felicitous discovery- via Maloney- of the communal mess halls situated every forty rooms or so on each colony residential level had enabled the crews of the Logos, Nebuchadnezzar, Gnosis, Vigilant and Mjolnir to meet up for a drink and something to eat together since their lift order had meant they ended up within a few doors of each other- except for AK, Jax, Mauser, Jacob and of course Link, who had civilian family elsewhere so different allocated quarters with their respective bedmates. Niobe, for her part, couldn't remember what coffee had tasted like in the Matrix so was perfectly happy to gulp down generous mugfuls of the delicious stuff from the dispenser. She was judiciously beginning to allow herself to feel happy for the first time in years- no more patrols, no jacking in, no Agents, no sentinels, no being cold, no goddamn nutrient substitute either. The meal they'd had was, at a guess, a small slice of grilled steak with potatoes and green vegetables. It hadn't been an overly large plateful, either, but Niobe found that she was absolutely stuffed; another new and surprisingly pleasant sensation. The only problem with the mess hall, in fact, was that it lacked a display screen like the ones present in all their quarters, which by careful experimentation had proven to be a useful data access device as well as capable of being set to just view the outside of the ship by activating the charmingly named 'window mode.'

'How much longer, d'you think?' Binary asked nobody in particular. 'Surely we're close to having everyone up and out by now.'

'I could ask Maloney,' Neo said with a wink at Trinity.

'You keep bothering that poor man and he's going to saw your skull open.'

'He told me to contact him as often as I needed to. Something about working my mental muscles.'

'So ask him,' Sparks said. 'And ask him how the fighters are doing, while you're at it, huh?'

'Sparks,' Niobe said quietly, laying a hand on his shoulder. 'She's a good pilot. She'll be okay.'

Neo's eyes suddenly refocused from the slight mistiness they assumed when he used his as yet rather limited TP skills.

'Oh my god,' he whispered.

'What?' Trinity demanded, just as the door opened to admit Commander Lock and Captain Mifune. The others immediately gave a small collective cheer since if Lock was up, everyone was up. However the commander's face was grave and unusually bleak.

'Jason?' Niobe asked, rising in concern. 'What is it? What's wrong?'

He responded by stepping aside to reveal a rather bedraggled-looking young man in a Fleet uniform. His hair was sticking out at all angles, one side of his face bore a sooty burn mark and there was a cut on his forehead. When he spoke his voice was exhausted, despondent, almost tearful.

'Desperadoes squadron provided escort to the Churchill into orbit. The Makauly fighter Riot, under Captain Dena Reese and gunner Louise Davis, remained behind to draw sentinel fire.' He swallowed hard. 'After the Churchill made dock, we received a report from fighter deck control. They've lost sensor readings of the Riot. She's… she's believed to be down.' He closed his eyes and turned to walk, half-stumble, from the room, leaving a stunned silence behind him.

'Oh my god,' Niobe whispered.

'We were stuck halfway up, below the cloud level,' Lock said slowly. 'Even with the rest of the squadron giving covering fire we couldn't move. Then the sentinels just…left. Ensign Galaway-' he gestured to indicate the young officer who'd just left the room '-believes that Captain Reese fired two nuke missiles to get the machines' attention, and then used her ship as live bait to draw them away. Towards the power plant.'

'But she could still be alive,' Neo protested. 'Just because they've lost sensor contact. They said the scuttlebugs were down so there's no signal getting through any more. The Riot could still be down there!'

'Neo, that's one fighter ship with four guns against over ten thousand sentinels,' Mifune said, shaking his head as he sat down. 'I don't know a pilot or gunner alive who could survive those odds, even in an orbital ship.'

Niobe shook her head, feeling tears come to her eyes and trying to ignore them as she turned, her voice dropping again to a whisper.

'Sparks…'

He stood up and walked out of the room without a word. She half made to follow but Morpheus' voice checked her sharply.

'Leave him.' When she glanced back he softened slightly. 'He'll need time.'

Lock sat down as Niobe did and she leaned very slightly against his side, still too shocked to try and properly think or feel.

'Reese was a damn good soldier for a woman who'd never been in a war,' Mifune said harshly as he took a chair. 'There were seventeen people on the Churchill on that last lift. And I think that she'd find two for seventeen more than a fair exchange. Like a soldier.'

'That doesn't make it right,' Trinity murmured, shaking her head. 'After everything she's done for us…she shouldn't have died for us as well.' She let her head fall onto Neo's shoulder when he put an arm around her.

'She was going to come visit my garden on Capella,' Niobe said, and then they all fell silent once more.