Ryn concurred.

Darling took a second to look the device over. "All right. There's bad news, and some serious suck-the-joy-out-of-your-life news. Where's Hauk?"

"I'm right here."

"Not you, Fain. My wingman."

"He's in the hallway. You know how he is about explosives."

"Yeah, I do, which is why I asked. Send him on a bulls.h.i.t and long errand across the station. We don't want Grandma freaking out on us. Now where's Mari?"

"With Nyk, I think. Or with Saf. I'm not exactly sure, but he's not here."

"Well, that sucks." Darling let out a tired sigh. "All right, Fain. Do you share Dancer's aversion to explosives?"

"Only if they blow up in my face."

"That's what we're trying to avoid." Darling paused a few seconds before he spoke again. "I need you in a hardsuit, with a blast box. Tell Syn to set the onsite dampners for that room to the sequence I'm sending to his link right now. You need a diffuser kit from him and he will have to be in the command center working in tandem with you to disarm it. If you two cannot work as a single unit and in the right order, we're all going to have a bad day."

"What can I do?" Ryn asked.

"Stay out of this. And don't argue. I know you're the best in a fight, but not when it comes to your mother. I need a clear head and not an idiot in the way. You want her out of there. Stay in the back and let us do our job."

"I'm taking advice on this from you?"

"Exactly. I'm speaking from experience, as I was the moron who got all of us into war because I went in to save my wife and I couldn't keep my mouth shut. Had I let all of you do your jobs and stayed home, you wouldn't be plotting my death right now. So, please, Ryn. I love Mama Dane, too. She's the only real mother I ever knew. So let me save her. I'm as upset by this as you are, and hanging on by a thread. We can only afford for one of us to be hysterical right now and I'm claiming it."

Tears glistened in Ryn's eyes as he looked at his mother, who gave him a sad smile.

"Danes don't flinch, baby. We stand and fight. They're not going to get me. Not today. Don't you worry."

He nodded. "Love you, Mama."

"Love you, too, Trey-vey."

Syn joined them and handed Fain a hardsuit. "Hey, I got the note from Kere that said you were in need of this." He glanced past him to see Hermione and Venik inside. "How you doing in there, Lady Tavali?"

"p.i.s.sed off and wanting to taste the blood of my enemies who dared to attack me here in my own s.p.a.ce."

"Working on delivering that to you. Venik, what about you?"

"Get me out of here so that I can give her the head and throat of whoever did this."

"From what I heard, Fain beat you to that. It's why he's here." Syn set the blast box at Fain's feet, along with the diffuser kit. "You know how to use any of this?"

"Not as good at it as you or Kere, but I've had a few training courses."

"You pa.s.s any?"

"A couple."

Syn turned positively green. "Oh, goodie. Ryn, you might stand back... a lot. We're about to have Explosives Amateur Hour. My favorite form of entertainment... when I'm watching from far, far away."

After making an obscene gesture at the Ritadarion, Fain turned to give Syn his back so that he could fasten the couplings for the blast armor.

Fain glared at his brother while Syn suited him up. "Dancer, listen to me. I want you and Galene to round up your wife and kids, Talyn and Felicia, and Vega and War. And grab Gavarian and Brach, too. Get everyone to my ship and secure them there until this is over. I'm not playing this s.h.i.t anymore. You'll all be secure there and no one will be able to touch you."

"That's against Tavali Code," Venik snarled.

"Kiss my hairy a.s.s, Ven." Fain kept his gaze locked on Dancer's. "You already have access and clearance to board. Tell Storm to follow Level Two protocols. She'll lead you through how to scan everyone in for clearance. There's plenty of crew quarters for everyone. And supplies."

"I'm not leaving you to face this alone."

"You're less than useless with explosives, and you know it."

"You have the same trauma I do... for the same reasons."

Fain winced as he tried not to think about either of their childhoods. "Yeah, but I'm not the one who fell off the side of a mountain after a charge detonated in my face." He jerked his chin toward the end of the hallway. "Go on, Dance. You've already watched one brother die in front of you. I don't want to be your next nightmare. You have a baby on the way. Children to protect. I need you to keep them and my family safe. For me, little brother."

Instead of leaving, Dancer moved forward and jerked him into a tight hug. "You die on me and I'm following you into h.e.l.l to beat your a.s.s. You hear me?"

"I hear you."

Dancer yanked his hair before he let go and stepped back. "I mean it, Fain. Don't make me have to commit a mortal sin to d.a.m.n myself to come after you."

"Go on." Fain playfully pushed him away. "You're annoying me. Get to the others."

Dancer took three steps before he turned to look back. Tears glistened in his eyes.

I love you, too, brother. Neither of them had to say it out loud.

Syn clapped him on the arm. "All right. You're in." He handed Fain the helmet. "Mic check."

Fain put it on and sealed himself in, then checked to make sure the audio and visuals were transmitting. "Check?"

"You there, Kere?"

"I'm here. We're ready as soon as you're in the commcen."

Syn inclined his head to Fain. "Good luck. I'm dragging Ryn with me so that he can have his nervous breakdown in a less distracting area."

As Fain reached for the box and kit, he realized that Galene had vanished while he'd been suiting up. That she hadn't even bothered to say good-bye to him.

Or good luck.

It stung a lot deeper than it should have that she'd abandoned him so quickly. For all he knew, he could be dead in the next few minutes. It was actually a good bet. And she hadn't even cared enough to wish him luck.

Don't think about it.

That was easier said than done.

"Fain? You with me?"

"Yeah, sorry. I was distracted."

"Um, okay, buddy. A bit of advice? Let's not get distracted while handling something designed to explode. Wanna stay focused. Trust me, your odds of survival go up exponentially that way."

"t.i.tana tu, giakon."

"Yeah, keep it in your pants, Andarion. You're not pretty enough for my tastes. Now make your way to the device and try not to b.u.mp it or the table. I want you to slide up under it, slow and easy, with as little motion as possible."

Fain was barely under the table when Syn's voice returned to his ear.

"I'm tapped into the system, Kere. I've given you full access."

"Beautiful. Fain, freeze."

He heard Darling tapping frantically.

"Syn, power up their cross shields with their interior routers for me."

"Done."

"Lights will dim on my mark. No one panic, but Fain, tell Mama Dane and Venik to run for the door when they do."

"Lady Tavali. Ven. The lights are about to go dim. When they do, you need to rush from the room." Then, he counted down with Darling. "Three. Two. One. Go!"

The lights dimmed.

Both ran past him, into the hallway.

"Are they clear?" Darling asked.

"Think so."

"All right, you ready for this?"

"Yeah, lead me through it."

Darling brought the lights back up. "Gently pull the cover off and expose the belly of the beast."

Fain did as he said and grimaced at the ma.s.s of gnarled wires that were wrapped around explosive mineral clay. Though the clay was no bigger than his fist, it was enough to take out this entire wing of the station. "Hey, Syn? You need to tell Venik to evacuate the entire southern quadrant."

"On it."

Darling calmly continued talking Fain through the disarming sequence. "All right, Fain. What I need you to do now is count the third brighter orange wire from the left and isolate it."

Fain hesitated. "Brighter?"

"Yeah. See it?"

He blinked as he stared at all the wires in his hand. Orange...

"It's this one, keramon."

Fain went cold at the sound of the sweetest voice in the Nine Worlds as a warm body slid up next to him. "What are you doing here?"

"I had a feeling you didn't tell them that the reason you never pa.s.sed those diffusing cla.s.ses was because you were partially color-blind."

Darling cursed in his ear. "Is she serious? Are you serious? You can't see a full color spectrum and you're handling a minsid wired explosive? Hauk? Are you out of your Andarion mind?"

"Yes. When he was a boy, he got into a fight with Keris and his brother injured his retina and did a significant amount of damage that left Fain with dichromatism." She covered his hand with hers and moved it to one of the wires. "This is the third brighter orange one."

Grateful for her help, Fain cut it while he ignored Darling's insults for him and his parentage that continued without interruption through his link. "You need to go to my ship with Dancer where it's safe."

"I'm right where I belong. You need someone here with smaller hands, who is used to handling delicate instruments. I'm a trained surgeon, with a full range of color vision. I've got this."

"Stormy-"

"Strong alone. Stronger together." She took his hand in hers and removed his glove. Her gaze paralyzed him as she took the ring from his finger. Then she pulled off her glove and placed the ring where it had once rested on her hand. "I have loved you since the moment I met you as a child. You are my life, Fain Batur. If you die here today, then you're taking me with you. I don't want to live another moment of this life without you in it."

Love for her choked him as Darling finally shut up. By naming him like that, Galene was claiming him as her husband, before witnesses. According to Andarion law, that would legally bind them as effectively as a unification ceremony.

He touched his bare hand to hers. "And you are the air I breathe, Galene Hauk. I shall never allow harm to come to you."

Darling let out an irritated sigh. "Aw, that's all sweet and moving, but could we please focus on the bomb that's about to detonate in your faces?"

"Yeah, waiting on you to tell us what to do, Kere. What's taking you so long?"

He broke off into a round of Caronese Fain was glad he couldn't understand, otherwise he might have ended the emperor's lineage. "Galene, shine the light and follow this sequence. Dark blue, light blue, green, yellow, light orange, red, red, purple."

She quickly snipped them in the designated order while Fain held the light for her. "Done."

"Did anything happen?"

Fain arched a brow at Darling's anxious question. "Was anything supposed to happen?"

"No. Not necessarily, but..."

"But what?"

"You might want to jerk the device off that table and seal it in the box real fast... Just in case the designer planted a fail-safe in it."

Fain obeyed, and locked the seals tight. "Yeah, okay. Now what?"

"That should be it. We should-"

The bomb detonated at their feet. Fain grabbed Galene and covered her with his body. He held her against the wall so tightly that she couldn't breathe. "Precious? I think we're safe. Is that not the purpose of the blast box?"