"Enough talk!" Brasednewic had his fingers curled into massive fists now, his scowl transformed to a snarl. "I had a chance to rescue Carlotta, and you botched it for me!"
Grayson’s eyes widened. So he'd been right about Brasednewic and Carlotta. They were lovers.
Montido looked confused. "But she was Old Family..."
"Damn you, don't talk about her as if she's dead!" Then, more quietly, "So, she's Old Family? You think that mattered...to us?"
Grayson watched something akin to embarrassment flick across the faces of some rebels. As for himself, he felt painfully out of place, as though witness to a very private family argument The rift between the descendants of the planet's first settlers and the refugees who'd come later was old and deep. Feelings about men and women who crossed that line seemed to run high on both sides.
"Damm it!" Brasednewic shouted, "Carlotta and I loved each other!" His head swiveled from side to side as though he were daring anyone to make an issue of the statement "And we still love each another! Nagumo's bastards won't have killed her yet, not if they think she might be useful to them, for propaganda, or whatever. I would have had her out of there today...only...only..."
Tears choked him. Grayson put a hand on the rebel chiefs shoulder. "I think I know how you feel," he said.
"How the hellcan you know that?" This time there was no anger in the words, only pain and loss.
"You aren't the only one who's lost someone he loves." Grayson spoke softly, remembering his father. "But you can't use your people for your own personal vendetta. Not and keep their respect!"
Brasednewic just stood there, his eyes on the ground, fists clenched at his sides. Then, without another word, he turned his back on Grayson and strode from the group. Grayson started to call after him, but Montido held up his hand. "Let him go. Captain. One of us'll talk to him later. It'll be better that way."
Dace nodded. "Meanwhile, what are your orders, Captain?"
* * * *
Later, in the dark and near-chill of Verthandi's predawn, Lori found a favorite rock among the trees beyond the plantation clearing. The Li Plantation lay at the top of the Basin Rim, amid a straggling of jungle growth that had climbed the slopes from the Silvan Basin and spread across the Bluesward. BattleMechs, their black shapes strange under the ragged cloaks of camouflage they wore among the jungle trees, loomed against a starry sky. Verthandi-Alpha had long since set.
The dream had come again, and she had decided to walk off some of the horror's edge. Listening to chirimsims keening and shrieking in the jungle basin below, she hugged herself and closed her eyes, willing the dream's terror to fade.
She loved Grayson. She was certain of that now, but somehow, somewhere deep within, she still could not trust him. That conflict in her feelings for the young BattleMech commander were tearing her apart. She had learned to override her own fears—even her terror of fire—during battle, but she had not yet managed to come to grips with the storm of her own emotions. She had been a MechWarrior long enough to know that such a tearing of mind and will would sooner or later be fatal. The time would come when she would make a mistake, and...
The dream had put her in a black mood. Would death be so unwelcome, after all? Beyond the men and women of the Legion, she had no family. Certainly she had had no romantic relationships since her closeness with Grayson on Trellwan. Somehow, every man in the Legion knew she was the Captain's woman. She laughed aloud at that. The Captain's woman!
In the weeks since Sue Ellen's rescue, the two women had become friends. Recognizing each other's loneliness, they took comfort in one another. Lori knew that Sue Ellen's loneliness was so much worse. Her man was dead.
She opened her eyes, trying to shake off these thoughts of despair and death. In the darkness and pale starlight, it was difficult to make out who they were, but she could see a man and a woman approach the clearing from another path in the distance. It was some moments before she recognized one of the Verthandian women rescued weeks before. What was her name? Janice, was it? Walking beside her, the man had his arm around her waist.
So, if Janice Taylor had found companionship among the men of the Gray Death Legion, why couldn't she? The man had both arms around the woman now. As Lori watched them embrace, then kiss, her own loneliness became suddenly overwhelming. She wondered what Grayson was doing right now. If he were awake, would he want her to come to him?
The couple drew apart after a final kiss. Janice turned then, and started across the clearing toward what was now the women's barracks on the Li Plantation. When the man turned, Lori finally saw his face clearly, too.
It was Grayson.
He saw her at the same moment. He seemed to hesitate, then started toward her. She rose from her seat on the rock and turned to pass him.
"Lori..."
"Good evening. Captain." At that moment, she felt more mixed up than ever. Was this betrayal that she was feeling? Was it jealousy? Or was it simple anger at her own confusion and distress?
"Lori, what is it...?"
"Nothing, Captain. Nothing at all. Good night." It was all she could manage to walk back toward the womens' barracks without breaking into a run. The Captain's woman, indeed!
* * * *
Not many more weeks passed before it became clear that the Second Battle of Fox Island had been an important turning point in the war. Duke Hassid Ricol had departed for his starship the Huntress,leaving Governor General Nagumo still in command. After all, Ricol admitted, the idea of attacking Fox Island had been his own, and Nagumo had deployed the two Light Recon lances with skill and dispatch during the desperate fighting outside the University walls. The rebels had been within meters of winning through the gates and into the University courtyard when the two lances and the sentry Crusaderhad arrived and forced their withdrawal. The destruction of one of the rebel ‘Mechs was a decided plus, for the rebels would be hard-pressed to replace their BattleMech losses.
Ricol was more than willing to call the battle a victory and leave Nagumo in charge. His alternatives were either to place the incompetent Admiral Kodo in command or to remain on Verthandi himself to take charge personally, neither of which the Red Duke was prepared to do. He was scheduled for an audience with Lord Kurita himself on Luthien in another two weeks. Besides, if he took command, he would have to produce a victory. At this point, Ricol wondered privately if victory were ever going to be possible on Verthandi.
He had seen the faces of the people of Regis as they watched the passage of his entourage. The Loyalists were grim and reserved, already fearful that their Kurita allies would depart, leaving them at the mercy of the rebels. Sheer, open hatred was on the faces of the rest.
For the Combine, victory might well consist of escaping Verthandi with a whole skin.
In the wake of the fiasco at Fox Island, patrols now departed less and less frequently from Regis or the other Kurita strongholds to sweep the countryside or probe the hills for rebel supply caches. The battle at the airfield had destroyed two AeroSpace Fighters completely and the third would be crippled and useless for at least three months. The remaining fighters on Verthandi-Alpha had been loaded aboard Ricol's DropShip, along with DEST 4. If it turned out that Nagumo would be unable to pacify Verthandi, at least those valuable units would not be lost. Of course, that meant Nagumo was left without their services in tracking rebels or providing air cover.
The Kurita ‘Mechs and the Regis Blues never entered the jungle anymore. To do so invited attack and annihilation.
Within a few weeks, the Kurita presence on Verthandi had dwindled to Regis itself, a handful of mines in the southern desert, and a scattering of fire bases and supply depots guarding the principal government routes of supply and communication. What was left of the 44th Line and the Light Recon regiments remained within Regis itself, while the others were deployed in garrisons at the mines and elsewhere. At any given time, a quarter of the Kurita ‘Mechs were down and under maintenance, their pilots on leave at the base on Verthandi-Alpha. For the first time in nearly a decade, most of the countryside and smaller towns were not under the shadow of the Kurita ‘Mechs.