Page 67 of Reformation
“You have no family, no spouse, no children.”And I know why. “Your work is your life. You want the best for your cadets. Well, that’s going to be whatever treaty or reconciliation you can hammer out of those hardheads in the Senate, and you need to act fast while everyone is still panicked. Their fortunes are falling, their lives are in chaos, and who knows if they even have any legal authority anymore? They’ll listen to you. They have to.”
“Perhaps for now. By next week, I could be dodging assassins of my own.”
“You’re not that easy to kill.” It was the closest Garrett could come to being totally blunt, and he appreciated Sigurd’s simple nod of acknowledgment.
“But why should I let you fly off into the sunset and leave me to fix this mess without your help?” he asked archly. “You have a lot of influence here, and you’re the architect of much of this disarray. You should have a hand in cleaning things up.”
“I can’t.” He couldn’t be any more honest. “I—Ican’t. I almost lost everything already; I don’t even know if—” He couldn’t say it. “I’m not saying I’ll be gone forever,” Garrett said. “But I can’t stay right now. I have to be with my family, I have to make sure they’re okay and get them somewhere safe to recover.”
“Where do you have in mind?”
“Somewhere beyond the reach of the Alliance, diplomatically speaking.”
Admiral Liang’s eyes widened slightly. “Perelan? Will they accept your presence?”
“They will if their ambassador has anything to say about it.” At least Jason knew how to send a damn message in a timely manner. “They’ve already got Claudia and the girls. It won’t be permanent, but it’ll give us space to breathe and recover.”
“I suppose it will.” The admiral sighed. “Go, then. Take your well-earned rest, but I want you to maintain an open channel with me. If you vanish off the face of the universe, I’ll assume the worst and come after you even if it causes an interplanetary incident.”
What an unexpectedly sweet sentiment from the old man. “I understand.”
“Then good luck, Garrett. Tell Cody I’m disappointed he and Tiennan won’t be attending classes any longer, but that I understand.”
“Well, I’m not sure that Ten—”
“Iam.”
He cut the connection, and Garrett sat back in his chair with a loud exhale. “Well. That went better than it could have.”
“A lot better,” Jonah agreed. “Wouldn’t have surprised me if he kept a few ships in reserve just to send after you and escort you back to help him deal with this clusterfuck.”
“Sigurd Liang is an expert at dealing with clusterfucks; he doesn’t need my help.” Garrett’s eyes unfocused a little bit as he thought about it. “I managed to track him. Did I tell you that? Found evidence of him across the centuries, new names and new jobs after his wipes, but a lot of his competencies are the same. He’s always a stand-up guy, and he’s always good at whatever he puts his mind to. He’s dealt with rebellion, revolution—hell, he’sleda few of them himself. He might not remember the details, but so many years of experience will come through for him. He’s going to be all right, and whatever he hammers the Alliance intoafter this, it’s damn sure going to be better than the mess we had before.”
Jonah smiled at him. “Is there anything you can’t plan for, honey?”
“Too much.” Garrett checked his comm again—it doesn’t matter that he would have heard it going off and dropped Liang’s call in a hot second if it meant getting through to Pandora—but there was nothing. He was in his private ship, and the comm system didn’t come with the bells and whistles that would get him more immediate contact with Pandora. From his official quarters, he would have been patched straight through to Jezria. Without that, he was one of what was probably a very long queue, especially since it looked like the fleet really was using the planet as a place to refit and taking up most of their bandwidth at the same time.
Garrett sighed. Soon. He’d be there soon, and then all this waiting would be over, and he’d know whether or not it was worthwhile for him to keep … going.
He was so tired. Fuck, he was so tired of everything, and he still didn’t know what he needed to. His husband, his son, his father—were they even alive? Odds were good that at least someone had survived, but Garrett wasn’t sure thatsomeonewould be enough for him at this point. It had to be everyone. He needed everyone, or else he might as well fly his ship into the nearest star with no one but his hallucination for company.
“No, darlin’.”
“No what?”
“No, you’re not gonna do that.”
Fuck, I forgot he’s not real. He can actually read my mind.Garrett chuckled.Because he’s allinmy mind. Only in my mind.“How would you stop me?”
“I’d find a way. For now, though? You need some sleep.” He lowered his voice to a croon. “When you wake up, you’ll be that much closer to Pandora.”
That was a good thing. So why was he dreading it so much? “Okay.”
“Good.” Invisible hands helped Garrett over to his bunk, the autopilot keeping everything on the ship running smoothly. “It’ll be all right. Promise.”
“You can’t promise.”
“How ’bout you let me worry about what I can and can’t do?” Gentle lips pressed a kiss to his brow. “Sleep, sweetheart. Sleep.”
