Chapter Fourteen
They followed Burke through a series of tight, winding streets, always careful to stay in the shadows. O'Connell could sense the man's stress and, if possible, fear. O'Connell couldn't remember ever sensing fear before from his former commander. Whatever they were about to transport was of extreme value to Burke, and its safe keeping of great importance.
They took a left turn, moving even further into what O'Connell could only describe as the bowels of the city. The tall, metal buildings that rose above no longer glittered in the waning sunlight. This section of the city was dark, the metal caked with a black substance that O'Connell had no interest in investigating. The air was thick with dust and a sharp metallic scent that reminded him of both propulsion exhaust and burnt wiring.
One glance at Ashe confirmed his impressions. High tech and shiny as Vesta was, this side of town appeared to be were the real gritty mech assembly took place.
A sharp right brought them down an even darker street, barely wide enough for two people to travel side by side. There were no windows or lights on the buildings on either side of the street. O'Connell rested his hand on his M-9. If he didn't know better, he would have thought this a perfect place for an ambush. The street ended abruptly, nothing but a large sewer grate at the end.
Burke reached down and lifted the grate from its resting place. "Follow me," he said as he worked his way down a metal ladder and into the sewer.
O'Connell blanched, but said nothing. He glanced at Ashe and she shrugged. Back alleys, sewers, they were a second home to her. He grinned despite the smell that rose around him as he worked his way down the ladder. The girl was not squeamish, he'd give her that.
Burke continued his silence as they followed him through the sewer passages. O'Connell's patience, never his strong point, was wearing thin and as if sensing his thoughts Burke offered in a low tone, "Almost there."
O'Connell was about to growl a retort when Ashe's hand on his lower back made him pause. He glanced at her and saw the caution in her eyes. Her expression let him know she sensed it too. Burke's intensity boarded on mania. Whatever was driving him, consumed him and O'Connell wondered again what the hell he wanted them to transport.
Burke stopped abruptly and turned toward them. "Here we are."
Ashe glanced around, seeing nothing but dirty walls and a slim covered stone floor. She turned to O'Connell, curious.
O'Connell's focus was on Burke, equally curious. Burke ran his hand over the wall touching the filthy metal delicately, caressing a precious antique. His fingers paused, having found what he had been searching for.
Pressing a particularly slime encrusted spot, he grinned as a small panel popped open.
"Wow! Wicked!" Maluk whispered, clearly impressed at the deception.
Burked laughed softly and then pushed the panel aside, revealing a small scanner. He placed his hand on the scanner's face. A strip of green light raced down the length of his hand, finger tip to palm, reading every minute detail of his flesh. The door before them opened without a sound.
"Welcome to Haven," Burke said proudly and motioned for them to enter.
They stepped through the door, uncertain as to what awaited them. The sewer had been dark, grimy and nauseating, so it took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the bright light. But once they did, they paused, stunned, feeling as if they had stepped off of Xatra and onto another world.
"Holy frag!" O'Connell murmured as he stepped through the doorway onto a stone path. The path was only a couple of meters wide, to his left earth and stone rose a meter over his head then shot out, hanging over them like a roof. But to his right, the earth dropped away, revealing an immense circular opening.
Sunlight shone brilliantly from above, glistening on thick clouds of vapor as they drifted on a breeze. Birds flew across the open expanse cawing and singing as they crossed the distance to land safely on the limbs of trees that clung to the walls of the cavern. A metal fence, hip high, protected the right side of the path and O'Connell stepped toward the railing for a better look.
His grip on the railing tightened as he glanced down. He stood on the edge of a precipice, a drop so deep that he could not be certain how far it went. The opening before him had to be a half click wide. It was perfectly circular, as if an enormous drill had simply tore into the world. He could see the path continued forward in a spiral around the cavern, working its way downward until it was lost from view. Dark ivy grew on every wall; a multitude of trees clinging to the path at intervals. Thousands of blooms surrounded them, all colors and shapes, each flower filling the moist air with a sweet, musky scent.
Ashe rested her hand on the railing, at a loss for words. She had assumed they would enter a lair, perhaps a hidden base. Thieves often used underground tunnels and caves to hide from the world above. But this? Nothing could have prepared her for this.
"It's beautiful," Ashe murmured.
"Yes," Burke's tone was reverent. "It is.
"How is there so much light?" O'Connell's mind started breaking down the logistics. "Where's the source? How do you maintain plant life? What's your source of water? Why is it so warm in here?"
Burke chuckled and Ashe glanced at O'Connell, caught off guard by his reaction. She had never seen Burke grin, never mind laugh!
"Wait, wait. I'll answer all your damn questions in a minute. First, let's go find my wife. I want you to meet her."
"Your wife, sir?" O'Connell hesitated only a moment then moved to keep pace with Burke. Ashe and Maluk followed a short distance behind.
"Hell yeah. You didn't think I spent all these years alone, did you?"
"Well, I… don't think I gave it much thought, General."
"Cut that shit out, O'Connell. If my wife hears you call me that she'll never let me live it down." Burke laughed and this time Ashe found it infectious.
"Yes sir." O'Connell grinned. Archways were carved periodically into the earthen wall to their left and he glanced through the open doorways as they passed. He caught a quick glimpse of tables, chairs; even caught a few people eating a meal. The openings continued down the path before him and he wondered what this underground city's population was.
Burke sighed. "All right. Questions. Lighting. Combination of radiant and chemical energy. Long story short, we use the best of any and all possible resources we can muster. Plus my wife is a genetic genius. She's cross bred and genetically modified enough vegetation to more than compensate for the lack of natural sunlight, plus produced enough hardy vegetables to keep us all well fed."
"Quite remarkable," Ashe offered.
Burke glanced at her and smiled. "Yes, she is. She's having trouble with fruit mind you. Her apples taste like goat. But don't tell her I said so."
"No sir," O'Connell chuckled. They had made their way far enough down the path, following it as it wound around the enormous opening, that now O'Connell could barely make out where they had entered.
"Ah, here we are." Burke stepped through an open arch. "Theresa? Are you home woman?"
"Where else would I be at supper, mister?" Theresa stepped into the room carrying a bowl filled with dark green leaves. She placed the bowl on the table before them.
O'Connell's glance covered the room, taking in the table, chairs, and the painting of the Trazious nebula that hung on the far wall. The warmth and simplicity of Burke's dinning room surprised him. Then his gaze settled on Theresa herself. She stood no taller than his shoulders; her hair was black streaked with grey, but glistened in the light. Her eyes were large and dark brown and her skin had the warm caramel color of a woman more accustomed to seeing the sun, then the inside of a cavern. Her smile was gracious, her tone warm as she said, "You've brought guests, Don!"
"An old friend, my love. You remember me mentioning O'Connell?" Burke moved toward his wife, kissing her on the top of her head.
"O'Connell! Well this is an honor," she said, smiling warmly and offering her hand.
He gently took her tiny hand in his; having the oddest feeling he might crush it. "I don't know about that, m'am. It is, however, an honor to meet you."
"Oh please. Call me Theresa. I have heard so much about you, young man, I feel as if I know you. Between you and me," she leaned a little closer to him, winking conspiratorially, "my husband holds you in very high regard. But he'll never tell you that, so mum's the word!"
Burke rolled his eyes. "Theri… I swear…"
Theresa grinned. "Big grouch."
O'Connell laughed. "Yes, m'am. Sorry… Theresa."
"And who is this beauty you have beside you?" Theresa turned her smile on Ashe.
Ashe leaned forward, offering her hand. "My name is Ashe. So nice to meet you."
"And you, young lady." Theresa's gaze turned to Maluk. She reached out and placed a hand under his chin, lifting his head so she might look him in the eyes. Maluk allowed the intrusion with more patience than Ashe would have given him credit for. "And this handsome young man is your son?"
O'Connell grunted and Ashe halted his rebuttal with a hand on his back. "No, he's a good friend," Ashe explained.
Maluk glanced at Ashe and smiled. He seemed to suck in a deep breathe and stick out his chest. "Maluk, m'am."
"Ah Maluk. So wonderful to meet you. Please call me Theresa." Her smile was gentle and warm and Maluk grinned back. "I assume there are things we will need to discuss, Don?" Theresa's quick change of topic startled them.
Burke sighed. "Yes, love." He leaned toward O'Connell. "See? It's like dealing with an entire Terrain fleet of spies."
"Hmph." Theresa's eye's narrowed. "Well since I have the feeling you have something up your sleeve I won't like, let's have supper first. I always deal with your craziness better on a full stomach."
"Yes, dear." Burke motioned to O'Connell. "Let me show you some of the tech that runs Haven. It's ingenious. Remember Regulas 4? And the tech we confiscated? I've incorporated some of that technology into…" his voice trailed off as the two men disappeared down a hall toward the back of the house.
Ashe turned to Theresa. "Thank you for offering to share your meal with us. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Oh it's almost done. Why don't you both come into the kitchen with me while I check the roast?"
The kitchen was large, a table stood in the center, the walls held cupboards filled with dishes and cookware. Ashe found herself drawn to the open oven on the right wall. It was faced with stone, with a small key pad to the right and held a chunk of delicious smelling meat rotating on a spit.
Theresa moved to her side, gesturing toward the oven. "It's geothermal."
Ashe glanced at her. "The oven?"
"Yes." Theresa nodded. She pressed a button on the panel and the meat's rotation began to slow. "All of our heat and energy begins as geothermal.
"Really?" Ashe turned back to the oven, her gaze focused on the glowing rocks beneath the turning roast. "How do you control it?"
"Years ago when we first found this place, it was obvious that the warmth was geothermal. It was simply a matter of finding the veins that run close enough to the surface to harness their energy."
"But to have this tight a control, over liquid rock, it's amazing!" Ashe murmured.
"It's been a process, certainly. We've been lucky. We have some amazing minds here at Haven."
"What's this?" Maluk had worked his way to the back of the kitchen and was holding up a white crystalline shape.
"Ah that!" Theresa grinned as she joined him. "This is my workbench," she motioned toward the table. It was filled with beakers and flasks, snips of vegetation, and two machines. One machine hummed as it swiftly spun an assortment of vials, the other blinked a dozen red lights onto what Ashe had to assume were specimen jars. "This," Theresa continued, "is my latest discovery!"
Maluk turned the pale crystalline form back and forth in his hand. "What's it do?"
"Ah! What do you think?" She watched the boy's face as he pondered the question.
"It's a lot like conductors I've seen. Does it refract light? Is it for a laser?"
Theresa grinned. "Good guess, young man! However no, it's not for a laser."
"Oh," Maluk looked crestfallen.
"How about a hint?" Theresa took the crystalline form from his hand, and snapped off a small piece. She handed the larger chunk back to Maluk. "I discovered this while I was doing photosynthesis experiments on some of my plants. The fruits to be precise."
Maluk shrugged. He didn't feel that was much of a hint.
"Photosynthesis is the way in which plant life converts the energy of the sun into life sustaining sugars."
Maluk continued to look confused.
"I was doing an experiment on fruit sugars working on sweetening the cross bred fruits I have created. My husband complains that my fruit tastes… well…"
"Like goat!" Maluk offered, and then looked sheepish as he remembered that was supposed to be a secret.
Theresa laughed. "Yes and as we know goat does not taste like fruit! Anyway, I had to leave my experiment for a few days and when I returned, this was what I found."
Maluk glanced at the crystalline form, then back at her. "But what does it do?"
Theresa laughed. "It doesn't really do anything." She held up the small piece she had taken and popped it in her mouth. "You eat it."
Maluk gave her a look that suggested she was mad. "Eat a rock? Why would I want to do that?"
Theresa laughed. "Try it! I promise you won't regret it."
Maluk glanced at Ashe. She shrugged and broke off a small piece for herself. She popped the tiny crystal into her mouth and immediately grinned. "It's so sweet! It tastes like apple… no wait, pear and plum! Oh I haven't tasted plums in so long!"
Maluk snapped off a piece and shoved it in his mouth. In a microsecond his expression changed from uncertain to enraptured. "This tastes just like one 'a G's summa' pies!"
Theresa laughed. "I'm glad you like it. Keep it. I want you to have it."
"Thank… you," Maluk stammered. He wasn't accustomed to others giving him things; he usually had to steal them.
"Well, supper's ready. Why don't you go find the men and let them know." Theresa watched the boy as he nodded and raced from the kitchen, her gaze lingering on his retreating form before she turned to Ashe. "Help me set the table?"
"Certainly," Ashe replied, watching the woman's expression. The look on her face reminded her of the look Gynni had given Maluk. Wistful, maternal. She felt a pang of guilt realizing again what their rush from Veronus 3 had cost the boy.
Dinner was a boisterous affair. O'Connell and Burke regaled them with exploits from their past and Maluk shoved more food down his throat then Ashe would have thought possible. She had to remind him twice to slow down or he would choke.
Fascinated by the stories the men shared, she found herself prodding them with questions whenever they paused. She watched O'Connell as he laughed at a story Burke told about a young ensign named Williams and she realized how little she knew of him, how little he shared of his past. She wasn't exactly an open book, to be sure, but O'Connell was extremely tight lipped about his years as a soldier and the wars he fought.
Their relationship had worked because they had always focused on the present, the next job, the next mark. Never on the past. She had been grateful for that at the time as the less she had had to lie about her reason for being onboard the MorBui the better. But suddenly the thought crossed her mind that perhaps their ignorance of each other, might end up costing them.
O'Connell glanced across the table toward her, catching her gaze. He mistook the concern on her face for the need to move forward and quickly brought Burke's story to a close. "In any case, Williams was sent home shortly after that. So no harm done."
"Yeah," Burke brushed the tears from him eyes, trying to stem his laughter. "No harm done. Except to his buttocks!"
O'Connell laughed. "Yea well… that goes without saying." He switched moods abruptly. "So, the MorCai…"
"Ah… yes," Burke sighed. "Back to the present."
Theresa stood and grabbed four glasses off a side table, filling them with a dark red liquid. "I have a feeling we might all want a drink for this conversation."
"Thank you, love." Burke raised his glass. "To serendipity, my friends."
O'Connell raised his glass, confused by Burke's toast. "To serendipity, sir."
"Start at the beginning, Don," Theresa said. "What's going through that devious mind of yours?"
Burke reached out and squeezed his wife's hand. "O'Connell needs a ship, dear. And a way to send a message to the planet Ashram. We need someone… to take her to safety."
Theresa's eyes lit up. "Take her off world you mean? Where they can't touch her?"
Burke nodded. Theresa's eyes filled with tears. "Oh Don. That would be wonderful… and… and…" she paused and suddenly found herself choking back tears.
O'Connell paused, his glass halfway to his lips. "What's going on, General? Who is she?" his tone held a touch of anger.
Burke turned to O'Connell, his expression one of pain and fear. "She is my daughter."
"Your daughter?" O'Connell let that digest. "Your daughter is the package?"
Burke shook his head as if to clear it, then O'Connell watched as the gentleness of the past few hours vanished from his face, to be replaced by the stoic one he was so familiar with.
"The situation on Xatra is much more complicated than it appears, boy. The elitist humans in the major cities, Vesta, Corona, Parlua, Mathra, have created android armies for their workforce, their military. They have shoved all human activity to the outer reaches, the deserts and forests. There are only a handful of humans left in the major cities, and they are usually working for the elitists, or thieves and outlaws hiding in the shadows, barely surviving."
O'Connell nodded, his concerns at least confirmed. You couldn't enter the market without realizing something was wrong. The whole place had an unnatural feel to it.
Burke leaned forward, his tone and expression intense. "What you don't understand is how tensions are building. The inner city humans despise the humans in the outer regions. They have also found that after a century of progress their cities are not large enough to hold them. They want to expand, take the lands further and further from the cities for their own. The humans in these outlying areas have rejected technology at even the basic level and they are not willing to give up the land they have worked so hard to make viable. A civil war is on its way."
O'Connell glanced from Theresa to Burke, their faces filled with fear and resignation. "There is no government? No protocols for these people?"
Burke's laugh was short and harsh. "The planetary governors are elitists. They will simply annex the land surrounding their cities and then give themselves the largest cut."
"Bastards," O'Connell murmured.
"What will the people do? The ones in the surrounding towns and villages?" Ashe asked.
"They will die," Burke replied. "They have no weapons to fight the android armies that will descend upon them. They are farmers, tradesmen. They will die by the thousands. The cities will send their mechanical armies, their ships and their technology and by power and by number, they will kill the humans who resist and burn the villages to the ground. Then they will have their android workers clean up the mess and rebuild." Burke's voice was filled with disgust.
"What about here? What about this place?" O'Connell glanced at Theresa.
"We don't know. At one time this place was a complete secret to both those in the cities and the villages. But now…"
"What happened?"
Burke hesitated for a moment. "My daughter happened."
O'Connell stared at him. "What do you mean? Is she some kind of revolutionary?" He had to admit that it would be a huge cosmic joke if the General's daughter was a revolutionary.
"No. No… not like that. She… has a gift."
"A gift?" O'Connell repeated. "What kind of gift?"
Theresa laid a hand on Burke's, comforting him while she tried to explain. "When our daughter was born, she suffered massive trauma to her cerebral cortex and medulla obla…," she paused, registering O'Connell's blank stare, and decided to skip the anatomy lesson. "She suffered trauma to her brain. We thought we were going to lose her, but there was a… visitor. A scientist. A man who worked in cybernetics."
O'Connell leaned back in his chair, trying to understand where this story was heading.
"She was dying, we knew that. And there was nothing we could do to help her." She took a deep breath, focusing on her glass of wine, holding back the tears. They waited while she collected herself. "So when he offered to… offered to help her, we jumped at the chance."
"He performed surgery. On your newborn daughter?" Ashe gently prodded.
Theresa nodded. "He said he could… replace… the parts of her brain that had been destroyed. He could use his implants to act as her brain would have. They would tell her lungs to expand and contract, her heart to pump, her limbs to move. Her entire autonomic nervous system would function, as if there had been no brain damage at all."
"And it worked?"
"Yes!" Theresa nodded excitedly. "She lived, she grew. She was perfect in everyway."
Burke glanced at his wife. "Well… almost."
"Don!" She gave him an angry look.
"They need to know Theresa. She will be traveling with them and I will not send O'Connell on this mission without full disclosure."
"I…I…" Theresa shook her head, the tears she had held in check finally falling down her cheeks. "I understand."
O'Connell could feel his temper rising, but he held it in check. This was obviously difficult for them both. Burke had the ability to shut his emotions off, years of military training. Theresa did not have that skill.
"Our daughter," Burke continued, "has one… disability, for lack of a better word. We didn't even notice it until she was about six months old. Right about the time you expect responses to stimuli. Real responses. Not a grimace for pain, or a smile for gas. But a real connection. You smile at the child and the child smiles back. Make a funny face, the child laughs. There… there was nothing. No response. My daughter absorbed everything around her, but was completely unable to form a response to it."
Theresa sighed. "The easiest way to explain it is our daughter has no… personality."
O'Connell glanced at Ashe, confused. "I'm not sure I understand."
Burke shook his head. "It's not what you think. It's not as if she is extremely serious with no sense of humor or ridiculously stupid. She is brilliant and beautiful, but she is as incapable of responding to surrounding stimuli as," he lifted his spoon from the table, "as this damn spoon." With a growl he threw the spoon across the room; it slammed into the sideboard and dropped to the floor.
Maluk jumped, startled.
Burke turned to O'Connell. His tone edged with pain and asked, "Is the spoon upset right now? Is it annoyed? Did it enjoy the flight? Does it give a flying frag what I just did to it?"
"I'm sorry, sir," O'Connell murmured, Burke's obvious suffering tearing at his heart.
Burke clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to keep his anger and grief under control. "She doesn't form opinions; she does not distinguish between right and wrong. She does not love… or hate."
"Is she mistreated?" Ashe wondered aloud how the people of Haven might react to a girl who was so different.
"God good, no," Theresa said. "Those who live here have been with her as she's grown. They understand why she is the way she is and are uniformly grateful that she is here and can use her talents to better our city."
"Then… I don't understand sir," O'Connell asked, confused.
"This problem is not why you need to take her away from here. It's her talent. Her gift. We don't know if it was something she was born with, or if the implants created it. We don't know and Bailey left shortly after he performed the surgery so he couldn't tell us. But recently they have become aware of her and her gift. They will eventually come for her."
Ashe leaned forward. "What is her gift?"
Burke sighed. "She can speak to computers."
O'Connell frowned. "What? What are you talking about? Anyone can speak to a computer."
"No, not like you or me. I can tell a computer to perform a function which it's programmed to perform."
O'Connell shrugged. "Exactly."
"Kara doesn't do that. Kara…" Burke searched for the right words, but Theresa found them.
"Kara programs computers with her thoughts. If you hand her your blaster and tell her you want it to blow bubbles, she can create the appropriate code in her mind and upload it to the blaster. No terminal, no ports, no mess. Just instantaneous communication."
O'Connell stared at his former commander, incredulous.
Ashe glanced at the spoon on the table in front of her. No emotion, no opinions, no moral code for guidance. Combined with the ability to reprogram any computer? Kara would be an invaluable ally to anyone, or an unknowing dupe. She turned to Theresa. "Why Ashram?"
"If it comes to civil war… and it will, I want my daughter as far away from here as possible. The only place Don and I can think of where she will not be misused would be in the holy city of Aegis."
O'Connell nodded. Made sense. "Why send her with us? Why not take her yourself?"
Burke's face grew dark. "I have no idea how they found out about us, about Haven, about her. But now that they know, they will come. They will seek to use her or destroy her. Before Theri or I or any resident of Haven has to choose between their life or her safety, I want her off planet and safe." He turned to his wife. "Theresa and I will stay here and defend what we have built."
"General? Why?"
"Because, Captain," Burke responded angrily, "we have built it!"
O'Connell sighed. "Understood, sir."
Burke shrugged. "Besides, civil war is still a ways away. They haven't yet come to look for her. They will do that first. Both sides."
"Both sides?" Ashe asked.
"Yes. The elitists because she is a danger to them, to their wealth and technology. The villagers because they will see her as a weapon to destroy their oppressors."
"And you General? You don't want your daughter to use her ability to give the human population an edge?" O'Connell waited for a response.
"When the time comes, we have had Kara create certain, programs… that will limit the role the city's android population plays in the war. But in order for Kara to upload a binary change in code, she needs to touch the object. I will not allow anyone to send my daughter into the lion's den to upload this code."
"You're going to do it yourself." O'Connell read the conviction in the set of his friend's jaw.
"Yes, O'Connell, if it comes to that." Burke squeezed his wife's hand, "I will not let them use her. She is my daughter."
O'Connell held his friend's gaze for a moment. "Understood, General."
Burke stood abruptly and motioned toward the door. "Let's head to the lower level where you can meet her. Then you will continue on to Paradi and the MorCai."
Sighing, Theresa rose more slowly from her chair. O'Connell watched her, thinking she suddenly looked as if all of her years had come crashing down on top of her. "I should get some things from her room, Don."
Burke shook his head sadly. "She will not miss them, love."
She turned tear filled eyes to his. "Of course not. I'm… I'm just being silly."
Burke pulled his wife into his arms, holding her tightly for a moment. "I suppose an image of us wouldn't hurt. That one from the trip to Parlua? You love that one."
Theresa nodded. "I'll fetch it. Give me a moment." She left the room in a rush, and they stood in silence.
O'Connell glanced at Ashe, knowing if she was in his place she would know what to say. "General, I…"
Burke stared out the doorway, across the cavern's expanse, his eyes seeing nothing. His voice was barely more than a whisper when he said, "Enough, Captain."
O'Connell glanced at the floor, then straightened his shoulders and replied, "Yes, General."
Ashe watched both men as they shoved their emotions into a place in their hearts where it could not affect what they were about to do. She felt Maluk slip his small hand in hers and knew he saw it as well. They understood it, understood the need for it, but it was a chilling sight none the less.
"I have it." Theresa held a small holodisk, an image of her, Burke and their daughter glowing on its face. Ashe glanced at the image. Kara stood in the center, bracketed by her parents. Burke and Theresa smiled broadly at her, their eyes sparkling with excitement. Kara's face held no expression at all.
"She's quite beautiful," Ashe said.
"Thank you. She is quite lovely," Theresa agreed. She moved toward the doorway and then paused, unable to step out onto the rocky path.
Burke stepped toward her and held out his hand. "Come, my love. O'Connell will keep her safe and deliver her to Ashram."
"Yes… yes. That's what we're doing. Making sure she's safe. I just didn't think… I wasn't prepared…" Theresa slowly placed her hand in his and allowed him to lead her out of the house. "My daughter will be safe. Away from here. In the holy city." She turned to O'Connell for reassurance.
He nodded. "Yes, m'am. I promise. I will keep your daughter safe and get her to the holy city."
Theresa smiled through her tears. "Thank you."
O'Connell stared down the rocky path they now followed, keeping his expression blank. He didn't like leaving the general and his wife behind. He didn't like having the safety of the general's daughter on his shoulders, not with Marcus and that damn artifact already on their plate. But his commander asked it of him and he owed this man his life a hundred times over.
He forced himself to stare at the path and not glance at Ashe. If this new mission forced him to choose, between delivering Kara to the holy city, or helping Ashe get to Ling, he wasn't sure how that might play out. How the hell was he supposed to decide which goal was more important? And if he chose to aid Kara? He knew Ashe would rush off without him to meet Ling and get herself killed. He felt a soft growl start at the back of his throat and laid his hand on his M-9, an unconsciously reassuring gesture.
'Well then, damn it,' he thought, 'I'll make damn sure I don't have to choose.'