The Diving Bundle: Six Diving Universe Novellas (63 page)

“There were transports that were closer than the
Stillwater
,” she said, her voice a little less raspy. “And fighters.”

“Yes,” Janik said. “They got hit with the same thing you did.”

Thing
. He didn’t know what happened. No one had told him. Had anyone been alive to tell him?

“You said survivors,” she said. “How many?”

He glanced at the woman, who nodded and looked rueful at the same time.

“Just your bridge crew,” he said gently. “And not even all of them. Calthorpe didn’t make it.”

“I knew that,” Elissa said, trying to process. God, her brain was working slow.

“I want to update you on your condition,” the woman said to Elissa. Then she looked over at Janik. “Flag Commander, you can talk with the Commander Trekov later.

“Wait,” Elissa said, and would have lifted a hand, if something didn’t keep pulling her arm down. “Just my bridge crew? They were the only ones on the
Discovery
who made it. No one else?”

“No one else,” Janik said softly.

“What about the transports? The fighters?”

“Nine people survived, Commander,” Janik said. “Including you.”

Her heart rate increased and it made her feel wobbly. Something was still wrong with it. Something was wrong with her.

“How many died?” Elissa asked him.

He tilted his head. “Later, Commander. When you’re better.”

“
No
,” she said. “Now.”

“Six hundred,” he said. “We think. We lost a lot of information.”

“Lost information?”

The woman had her hand on the Admiral’s arm, pulling him back. “Let her rest.”

“I’ll tell you later, Commander,” he said, obviously complying with the woman.

But Elissa didn’t want him to. She needed to know.

“You couldn’t repair the ships?” she said. “They were destroyed, from that wave. But the information should be there.”

“It’s not,” Janik said. “We can’t get them back up, no matter what we try. They
look
fine. That’s the irritating part. So everything from your mission is gone. Everything.”

Including six hundred lives. Her breath caught. She couldn’t go there yet. She couldn’t process any of this. She didn’t dare.

So she looked at the woman. “And me? Why can’t I lift my arm?”

“We’re repairing your hands,” she said almost cheerfully. “You can’t feel it, but they’re in a solution that is good for new skin. We kept you in a coma while we did something similar for your face. The new skin there is not as delicate now.”

New skin. On her face. New skin, and new other things? She couldn’t tell. But she felt strange enough to know that more had happened to her physically.

“I nearly died,” she said, and it wasn’t a question.

“There was a debate as to whether or not you
were
dead,” Janik said. “But the medical staff on the
Stillwater
, they revived you. They had to. You’re a hero, Commander.”

“A hero?” For killing six hundred people? She didn’t ask that part, but she had a hunch Janik heard it in her tone.

“You saved your bridge crew against the longest odds I’ve ever seen,” he said. “By rights, none of you should have made it. You saved them. They all agree on that.”

“So they’re okay. They’re not here?”

“They’re better than you are,” the doctor said, clearly answering both questions. “And now you’re going to rest. Everything else can wait.”

That last was pointed at Janik. He nodded. “I’ll be back, Commander. We can debrief later. We want you well first.”

She closed her eyes. Debrief. A hero. Six hundred dead.

How ridiculous.

And such an opportunity. She could lie about everything. Not even her bridge crew knew what happened.

She could blame everything on Vilhauser.

The thought felt alien, a product of the ambition she could barely remember. She had wanted her own command. She had gotten it.

And six hundred people had died.

Because of her.

Vilhauser could take some of the blame, but he had no military training. He had no experience in the field.

She did. And she had screwed it all up.

She would tell Janik about the troubles with the command structure of the SRP, the way she couldn’t handle Vilhauser, the mistakes she made on the Room of Lost Souls. She would tell Janik it was her fault that their scientific mission failed, and good people died.

She would tell him.

And then she would enlist his help in finding the betraying bastard—whoever he was.

Whatever he was.

She needed to tell Janik that and more. She would supply the missing information on the mission that had gone so very wrong.

She had to.

Six hundred lives demanded it—and this time, she wouldn’t let them down.

The story continues…

Skirmishes
by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is available

in ebook, trade paperback and audiobook

from your favorite bookseller.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

If you liked these novellas, you might like these works by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:

The Spires of Denon

Skirmishes

The Disappeared: A Retrieval Artist Novel

Snipers

Alien Influences