The power generator blast knocked Jane Sagan right on her ass and blinded her for a good three seconds; she recovered sight just in time to see large chunks of the power generator’s room hurling through the sky in her general direction. Sagan backtracked enough to avoid the debris and instinctually checked her integration to see if by some miracle Seaborg had managed to survive. There was nothing there, of course. You don’t survive a blast like that. She could feel Harvey, though, shocked for a moment out of his orgy of violence. Sagan turned her attention to the science station itself, its windows shattered and parts on fire, and it took her several seconds of formulating a plan before she realized that she had integration once more. Knocking out the power somehow brought back her BrainPal.
Sagan took an entirely inappropriate two seconds to revel in the return of her integration and BrainPal before she wondered if she were still integrated with someone else.
The blast knocked both Boutin and the Obin to the floor; Jared felt his crèche shake violently. It managed to stay upright, as did the second crèche. The lights went out, to be replaced a second later by the soft green glow of lights running on emergency power. The Obin got up and went to the wall to activate the lab’s backup generator. Boutin picked himself up, cried for Zo? and ran out of the room. Jared watched him go, his own heart in his mouth.
::Dirac,:: Jane Sagan said. ::Answer me.:: Integration flowed over Jared like golden light.
::I’m here,:: Jared said.
::Is Boutin still alive?:: Sagan asked.
::Yes,:: Jared said. ::But he’s no longer the target for the mission.::
::I don’t understand you,:: Sagan said.
::Jane,:: Jared said, using Sagan’s first name for the first time either could remember. ::Zo?’s alive. Zo?’s here. His daughter. You need to find her. You need to get her away as fast as you can.::
There was an infinitesimal hesitation from Sagan. ::You need to tell me everything, now,:: Sagan said. ::And you’d better hurry.::
As quickly as he could, Jared dumped everything he learned from Boutin to Sagan, including the recordings of the conversations he’d begun to create as soon as Boutin restored his BrainPal capacity, hoping against hope that some of his squad might have survived and would have found a way in to him. Sagan wouldn’t have time to go through all the conversations, but they were there, for the record.
::We should still take Boutin back,:: Sagan said, after Jared finished.
::NO,:: Jared sent the word as strongly as possible. ::As long as he’s alive the Obin will come for him. He’s their key to the thing they want the most. If they were going to go to war because he asked them to, they would go to war to get him back.::
::Then I’ll kill him,:: Sagan said.
::Get Zo?,:: Jared said. ::I’ll take care of Boutin.::
::How?:: Sagan said.
::Trust me,:: Jared said.
::Dirac,:: Sagan began.
::I know you don’t trust me,:: Jared said. ::And I know why you don’t trust me. But I also remember what you once told me, Lieutenant. You told me, no matter what, to remember that I was Jared Dirac. I’m telling you now, Lieutenant. I know who I am. I am Jared Dirac of the Colonial Union Special Forces, and my job is to save humanity. I am asking you to trust me to do my job.::
An infinitely long pause. From the hallway, Jared heard Boutin heading back to the lab.
::Do your job, Private,:: Sagan said.
::I will,:: Jared said. ::Thank you.::
::I’ll find Zo?,:: Sagan said.
::Tell her you’re a friend of Mr. Jared, and that he and Daddy both said it was okay to go with you,:: Jared said. ::And don’t forget her stuffed elephant.:: Jared sent information on where he thought Zo? would be, just down the hall from the lab.
::I won’t,:: Sagan said.
::I need to break integration with you now,:: Jared said. ::Good-bye, Lieutenant. Thank you. Thank you for it all.::
::Good-bye, Jared,:: Sagan said, and before she broke integration sent him a wave of something that resembled reassurance. And then she was gone.
Jared was alone.
Boutin reentered the lab and yelled at the Obin, who snapped some switches. The lights came back up in the lab.