The Phoenix War
still under
our control?”
    “Precisely.”
    “Do you think that’s wise? Surely Zane kept
the prisoners alive for a reason.”
    “I know exactly why he did,” said Guillermo.
“He wanted to keep the replicants in line, so he kept the originals
as leverage. But there’s no point anymore. The replicants are
probably already working for the Rahajiim, or the Enclave, or god
knows who, or else have gone rogue. If we continue keeping the
prisoners alive, that will only serve to incriminate us. We must
eliminate the evidence. All of it. And soon.”
    “All right, I’ll send the word. But it’ll
take time. There are loyal people who will need to be removed
before things get ugly down there, people and information too,” she
said. “Only then can we do a full sweep.”
    “Do what you have to do. Just see that it
gets done.”
    “I’ll see to it personally,” said Celeste.
“In the meantime, I don’t think it’s safe for you to remain in
Capital System.”
    “I quite agree,” said Guillermo.
    “I take it that means you’re jumping
system?”
    He considered not telling her, the fewer the
people who knew his plans, the safer he was. But Celeste was one of
the only people still alive who he trusted completely. So he didn’t
mind letting her know that he planned to escape Capital System, but
he decided not to tell her to where exactly, in case someone was
listening.
    “Yes, I am jumping system,” he said. “But I
can’t tell you where I’m going, not yet. But I’ll let you know once
I get there.”
    “I understand.”
     
    ***
     
    It was lonely in his quarters. Like most
Polarians, Rez’nac was unused to privacy as he slept. It wasn’t his
first night back on the Nighthawk; this black, metal, soulless
human object hurtling through space, but sleep came no easier than
it had the previous night, and the night before that, and so
on.
    By human standards it had been a kindness,
Rez’nac knew, that Captain Pellew had granted him his own living
space apart from the barracks that housed the human soldiers. But
with no fellow Polarians to share it with, no brothers of the
Essences, no son, no one but himself, it felt cold and empty and
lifeless.
    We are not meant to be alone. We draw
strength from one another, that is our way, alone we cannot
flourish. Alone we must certainly perish .
    He disliked the loneliness that came with
being the sole Polarian aboard the ship, now that Grimka and the
others of the X’jinn Detachment had moved on, but he knew it was
his duty to remain and offer whatever aid he could. Even though his
dark thoughts shifted in the night, haunting him with the memory of
the Arahn-Fi he’d fought against his son. How by sparing his son’s
life, a decision he’d make again in a heartbeat, he’d stripped
himself of honor and deprived himself of his sacred place among the
Essences forever.
    I was of Khalahar , he reflected. One of the noblest and mightiest of the Essences . But now,
Rez’nac knew, he was devoid of Essence. He was a wandering soul. A
Lost One. A Fallen One. Forever. No matter how honorably or
dishonorably he lived the rest of his life, it would not matter.
His soul would never join the honored dead once he passed away. His
place had been given up in that moment, that instant when he’d
withheld the knife from Grimka. And now it could never be
restored.
    And yet it was worth it , he thought.
If it meant he’d given Grimka more time to live, to mature, to see
the error of his ways and become an honorable person. If it
means my son can join the Essences when he dies; I gladly offer him
my place.
    It was a strange thing being a Fallen One.
Before, when he’d still been in the good graces of Khalahar, he’d
looked upon the Fallen Ones with pity and confusion. Wondering why
they had allowed themselves to fall. He’d always imagined that they
must not care, that they were empty inside. That they lacked the Rhiq’ir —the thirst for duty. And yet, now that he himself
was

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