Cynara was first out of the shuttle. She ran directly to Kord, stopping just short of an embrace. Lizbet’s face was flushed and smiling. Healer Zheng swept Cynara’s body with her medscan. A spate of conversation reached Ronan’s ears, and then all four faces turned toward the shuttle.
He placed the shuttle on standby and exited the hatch. Kord met him halfway.
“Brother,” he said solemnly. “You have returned with our captain.”
“Or she has returned with me.” Ronan smiled and clasped forearms with the Siroccan. “You are well?”
“Yes, though the Little Mother may change that.” He lowered his voice. “She’s very angry.”
“You took a great risk entering shaauri-ja.”
“I didn’t like leaving you and the captain on Persephone. We disobeyed orders and went back, and that was when Janek—Lord Damon—told us what you’d done.”
Ronan wondered just how much Damon had revealed, and if Kord and the others knew of the assassination attempt or Cynara’s plan to use herself as bait for the shaauri Kinsmen. Surely Damon would not have spared Ronan in any summary of recent events.
“Lord Damon has no love for me,” he said. “Why is he here?”
Kord lifted a brow. “That’s a tale you can hear on the bridge once Doctor Zheng has cleared you.” He looked Ronan up and down. “A shaauri ship let you go?”
“That is a tale for you to hear.” He hesitated, recognizing how much he feared losing this man’s regard. “You are aware that I breached your ship’s security before we arrived on Persephone, and that Lord Miklos Challinor exiled me from the Concordat?”
“You don’t have to explain, Brother. I know there is good reason for everything you—”
He was interrupted when Miya Zheng appeared to scan Ronan as she had done Cynara. She frowned over the readings and pocketed the medscan.
“Ronan VelKalevi,” she said. “Aside from a number of abrasions, lacerations, broken fingers, and cracked ribs, you appear to be in good health. Do you feel capable of going up to the bridge?”
“Yes. It is good to see you, Li Zheng.”
“I look forward to hearing the entire story of your adventures, considering the many omissions in what we’ve been told.”
“I will tell you all I can.” He bowed to her, and then gave his attention to An Lizbet, who had come to greet him. She took his hand with remarkable boldness and grinned as wide as a jukki.
“Thank God,” she said. “We were all so worried when we found out that you and the captain had gone alone to the Shaauriat with some dangerous plan to—”
“Montague,” Cynara interrupted with affectionate severity, “this conversation can continue later. It’s time to find out what in hell’s going on.”
The bridge was crowded with crew, as many as could fit in the limited space. Scholar-Commander Adumbe shook hands with Cynara, and Charis Antoniou in her rumpled fatigues saluted from among the ranks of her technicians. Damon Challinor stood beside the captain’s chair but had not yet confiscated it for his own. His face was strangely free of hostility when he met Ronan’s eyes.
After the first buzz of questions and conversation had died, Cynara went to stand before Damon.
“Lord Damon, I understand from my crew that you insisted upon accompanying the Pegasus in an ill-conceived scheme to ‘rescue’ Ronan and me from the shaauri. I assume you are aware of the risks you took, and continue to take, by entering shaauri space and confronting a shaauri warship.”
Damon clasped his hands behind his back and gave her stare for stare. “I am, Captain D’Accorso. It was, however, necessary. Once your suspicious crew returned to Persephone, they refused to leave until they had spoken with you directly. By then you and Ronan had gone.” He cleared his throat. “You have a very loyal crew, Captain. Once they learned that Ronan was a Challinor, and that you had accompanied him into shaauri territory hoping to… um… persuade him to join the human cause, they were unwilling to resume normal operations until they were sure you were safe.
Even if it meant penetrating the Shaauriat and courting destruction.”
She glared pointedly at Adumbe and Kord. “I would have credited you with more sense than to permit this foolishness, Lord Damon, and even less desire to join them, considering your feelings about Ronan and the plan Lord Miklos approved.”