Free Command by Viola Grace Page A

Alliance always honoured its treaty. Now that I am leaving the physical world, the treaty no longer holds, and my people will overrun the base to purge the interlopers from our world. I know that you can keep your people safe, but I don’t want lives lost on either side.”
    “I will start the evacuation procedures.”
    He smiled. “You already have. I can see that tick in your jaw that you get when you are working with the computer.”
    “You watch me too closely, Alvar.” She shook her head.
    “It is a lovely view. Now, to the other matter I have come for. I want to give you a great gift. You may not appreciate it now, but you will come to in the future. Of that, I am certain.” He stroked her cheek.
    “You need to rest. Your vitals are jumping all over the place.” She smoothed his hair, and he relaxed on the medical bed.
    “Get a meal in you, Lillibeth, it is going to be a long night.” He closed his eyes and relaxed into a light sleep.
    The moment that he was out, Lilli ran to the captain’s office and flung the door open. “I am prepping the ships. We need to evacuate.”
    Captain Worling blinked at her in shock. “What?”
    “The Ikanni leader is dying in our medical bay, and he was the only person on this world who welcomed us. His readings are not good, and he will probably be gone by dawn.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “The Ikanni have psychic resonance with their families. The moment that he is dead, an army will be over our gates, declaring this a sacred burial site. We have hours to get the hell out of here. I need your help to get the evacuation moving.”
    The captain still looked stunned.
    “Now, Captain Worling. We need every minute to scrub the computers and load all the equipment.”
    She left him, and when his voice announced the evacuation over the intercom, she sighed in relief. It took him a while to get moving, but once he did, he was unstoppable.
    Lilli followed Alvar’s orders and got herself a nice dinner, the last hot meal she would have for a while. She was going to be the last person off Ikanni, but there wasn’t any transport left for her, only an ejection pod. The problem with the pod was that she needed a direct shot to the orbital station or she would end up floating indefinitely in space.
    Lilli grabbed ration packs and hoarded them in her quarters. She had the command computer in her rooms, and she could hole up for several weeks if she had to, waiting for her window to escape.
    Now that she was prepared and she had three routes to and from medical planned, she returned to her friend.
    Alvar’s eyes opened as she began to idly braid his hair. “You are fascinated by that stuff, aren’t you?”
    She grinned. “It is like liquid snow. It reminds me of home.”
    His smile was slow, and he looked exhausted. “Are you evacuating?”
    She nodded. “We are. The first full transport already left.” She kept braiding his hair into a smooth column that reached his thigh.
    “Good. It will not be long now, and the moment the connection is broken between myself and my people, they will be over your walls and swarming the base.”
    “It’s okay, Alvar. I know what your people can do. They won’t go over the walls, they will go through them.”
    He smiled. “I knew you would notice that.”
    “I spend a lot of time staring out at the landscape. The fact that your folk could pop in and out of the foothills without walking anywhere was not lost on me.”
    Alvar started laughing, and he wheezed softly as the laughter died. “You are going to kill me before it is my proper time.”
    Lilli authorized lift off of two more shuttles. “You will go when you want to and nothing that I say will hurry you along.”
    He grinned. “You have a strong spirit.”
    “Some folks say I am bossy.”
    “They don’t know you—don’t see you like I do. Remember, I am giving you a gift, it just may not appear to be one at first.” He smiled and relaxed for a moment.
    Lilli pulled out her