1
What emerged from the portal was not the feared armada. Instead, it was a single ship. A familiar ship. I felt a quickening in my atoms. Clever, dangerous girl. I have been expecting you.G.S. Jennsen
2
She skidded around a corner, slamming her shoulder into the wall and bouncing off of it without slowing. Caleb?Silence. Forty-six meters. A long stretch of hallway. She pushed faster, harder. Twenty meters. She burst into the room in unison with a deafening crash of metal shearing metal.G.S. Jennsen
3
It was killing him, seeing her this way. She was not meant to be uncertain, timid or fearful; the woman he knew exuded confidence so fiercely it might as well be a damn spiritual aura. He needed to fix this. “It’s time to adjust your perspective. You want to show the politicians on Earth they don’t rule the galaxy? Well, let’s show them.G.S. Jennsen
4
It felt somehow comforting to return to the sparkling lake tucked into the mountains on Portal Prime. But why, when everything about Mesme made her the antithesis of comfortable? Because here was where desperation had become hope. Where helplessness had become purpose.G.S. Jennsen
5
Semantics, Admiral. I’d appreciate an honest answer.”“ I’d appreciate a multitude of honest answers, but I rarely expect to receive them.” Miriam sighed; the verbal tete-a-tete was growing tiresome. Time to bring an end to it with, ironically, honesty.G.S. Jennsen
6
Evening had turned the sky a deep persimmon. The remaining sunlight enriched the colors of the ubiquitous flowers and foliage to even greater vibrancy, as if the saturation filter had been notched up several levels. Caleb noted all this in passing as he strode deliberately forward. He didn’t know how he was going to do this, only that he had to make the attempt.G.S. Jennsen
7
A wispy murmur in the blackness. Blackness, where before there was only nothingness. It was dark, inky and thick, but there now existed the palpable sense of tangibility. She gasped in alarm, but no sound came out of her throat. "Where am I?, " she shouted, but no words made it past her lips.G.S. Jennsen
8
I believe my judgment has never been clearer. I have seen firsthand their potential, their strength of will, in a way you have not.”“ You have loosed a chaotic, unstable variable into the Mosaic. They will destroy everything.”“ It is a risk. They also may save everything.G.S. Jennsen
9
I frankly expected a far more negative reaction from you on discovering…” she glanced around the lab “…the situation. Why are you helping?”“ I’m not helping– I’m merely not hindering in as strenuous a fashion as I am able.G.S. Jennsen
10
He checked her over while mentally checking himself. “Environment suits sealed up. Breather masks in hand. Daemons. Blades. Transmitters. Healthy respect for the adversary–you’ve got that, right?” One corner of her mouth curled up. “Absolutely.G.S. Jennsen
11
If there was anything the last year had taught her–if there was anything Caleb had taught her, the Metigen War had taught her–it was that perspective was everything. If you wanted to understand your enemy, you must understand that they were the hero in their own story.G.S. Jennsen