WHAT DO YOU mean I can’t leave the medbay?” Sabira sat up on the examination cot. Her headache spiked, like nine chisels hammering into her brain at once.
“Just until the Lead Shastri clears us for transport over to the Safehold,” Gabriel said. “A few days at most. Coraz will check on you regularly. A lem will bring you food. All you have to do is wait it out here for a few days.”
“Then why can’t I wait in my cabin?” Sabira considered lying back down but decided she’d rather not move at all.
“Because you picked a fight with a squad of space marines while recovering from head trauma.”
“They drew on me first.”
Gabriel scratched his chin, darting his eyes over to Grandfather Spear lying face down on the other cot. A fresh graft of skin and swaths of bandages stretched across his back and neck. The pale flesh not covered by bandages displayed as many battle scars as crisscrossed his head. Sabira was building up her own collection of scars, but Spear had several decades’ head start, and it showed.
“You’re lucky,” Gabriel said. “Commander Arkrider wanted you restrained as well. I talked him down to a guard at the door.”
The room swayed and tilted in Sabira’s vision. She covered her eyes with her hand, willing the dizzy spell to end. “Lucky. That’s me.”
“What was that about, anyway? We go through hell to get you to the Constellation, and the first thing you want to do is go back to the Slavers?”
“Not back to the Unity.” She slowly tested opening her eyes. Reality had decided to stop teetering back and forth, for now. “Back to Loshan. Back to Godsfall. I need to stop her.”
Gabriel took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Killing Daggeira won’t bring Zonte back. No more than me killing your grandfather would bring back Maia.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a foolish mine rat. I know it won’t bring him back. We can’t . . . I can’t just let her go.”
“Even with the Godsfall weapon, she’s all alone on the other side of the galaxy.”
“She’s not alone.”
“Subaru Hanada?”
Sabira grunted.
“I suppose that Orion told you he had his own reasons for going back and offered you a ride.”
Sabira looked up from her hand, half expecting Orion’s face to emerge on the medtech monitors after hearing his name.
“Once we’re past all the quarantines and regulations, we’ll tell my people what happened. We’ll let them know about everything waiting on the other side of those Gates. And then we’ll decide how we should respond. It’s not all on you, Sabira.”
“It is on me. I’ve been running away from one massacre after the next. Trying to outrun every consequence . . . outrun the sacrifices I owe. If I don’t turn and face them head-on, it’s just a matter of time before they sneak up behind me.”
“Maia and Rain and Zonte sacrificed themselves so that you and the other Freebrood could live a life of freedom and peace. Don’t let that be for nothing.”
“Freedom? Peace? We’re being held prisoner on our own ship.”
“You’re not a prisoner. This is simply protocol.”
“Sure. Warseers liked to give fancy names to the things they did to us, too.”
Gabriel uncrossed his arms and paced back and forth. “When we were at the bastion, you told me Maia would have wanted us to give your grandfather a second chance—that all the servants deserved a chance for liberation. For peace. I saw you, then. I knew what you said was true. Now you see me, Sabira. Chasing a blood vendetta across the galaxy is definitely not what Maia would have wanted. I’ve done my part to honor her legacy. It’s time for you to do the same.”
Gabriel opened the medbay door. “Killing Daggeira is not going to bring you peace.”
The door swooshed closed behind him.
“He’s right, you know,” Grandfather Spear said, barely above a whisper. “Quarantining strangers, systematic debriefing, threat assessment. Basic protocol anywhere that gives a damn about their security.”
Sabira lay back and closed her eyes. Under siege from the stabbing headache, she wouldn’t get a decent rest any time soon. “So golden that you woke up in time to let me know.”
“He’s wrong about the peace, though. Nothing brings a sweeter, deeper sleep than knowing your enemies are dead. Dead by your own hand.”