No Second Chances

Crystal Column 2 The tight confines of this hollowed-out column are unfriendly to those who suffer from claustrophobia - and still provide no small amount of discomfort to those without a phobia of cramped spaces. A pale blue light glows from the base of the column.

- The coffin fades from existence. Ace finds herself adrift in low orbit over Nocturn, shrouded in blue light, along with thousands of other Kamir. Her eyes now glow blue. Porter'kamir is floating about ten yards above and behind Ace. He points toward Hancock Station as it drifts on station near the Nexus point. "We've got to move that past the Nexus and back in time! The trouble is, I don't think you've got what it takes. You had your chance to be ready for something like this. You had it offered to you, silver platter and all, and you *refused* it! So, if this doesn't work..."

If this does not work, it will not be because of me!" Ace snaps back, determined to see this through. "Did not have a reason to ascend before, but for this, I will leave my humanity behind!"

"Guess I'll have to take your word for it!" Porter'kamir replies. He looks toward the other recruits and the more veteran Kamir. "Focus your minds, people! Focus on the station, where it must go, and when. Unity and precision are what will win the day for us." As he says this, though, more rifts can be seen shredding the void. One flashes open about a hundred yards left of Ace, spilling from it a small army of very surprised-looking Cossacks on warhorses. They soon expire in silent misery.

Every morning for nearly two hours over the course of three years Ace would meditate to keep control over her abilities. Joe Fulton had taught her to focus. Hezekiah had trained her in shielding her mind. Kat had spent endless hours helping her to learn to harmonize her thoughts with those of another psi. She was as ready as she could be, but still she could not help but wonder if it was enough. If she /had/ taken the offer before, would she have gotten the true training she might need. But still, she was determined as she focused her thoughts on the task at hand, following Porter's lead now as she had never been able to when they were both flesh and blood. "From blood, to blood," she mutters, words from an ancient oath she swore decades ago. The cossacks get but a passing glance as the breath freezes in their lungs, the work at hand too important to pay them any more heed.

"Not good enough," whispers the disembodied voice of Morden'kamir. "It was a mistake to give you another chance. I've changed my mind." Before a protest can be voiced, there's a sense of something shifting within Ace, her eyes fade to a normal humanoid hue, and she is mortal - adrift in space, in danger of freezing and suffocating in the next few seconds, just like the Cossacks. Porter'kamir sees this happening and shouts: "NO! Damn it, Morden! What the hell are you thinking?" The former Athena captain is distracted from his focus on Hancock long enough to throw up a translucent shield around Ace with breathable atmosphere. He then returns his concentration to the escaping refugee vessel.

Ace's hand goes to her throat as the lack of air suddenly becomes lethal, her lungs trying to suck in what simply is not there. For a bitterly cold moment, she hangs between life and death...

And then she is gasping in the air that Porter provides, gulping in a breath or two before she has enough to yell. "NYET!!" she shouts to Morden, "I will not die for nothing! Will not give up everything to be told I am not good enough!! I can do this! I WILL do this!! You need all the help you can get!!"

It's too late. Hancock Station is already on the move, the center of all the Kamir focus available, making its approach to the Nexus. A new rift erupts in a crackling line of emerald green about a mile below and to starboard of Hancock. It seems to be stretching toward the refugee vessel, like a glowing green zipper in space. Strange alien spacecraft, bug-like and menacing, zoom through the rift and arc around to target the station.

Hancock continues to roll onward, but its fate is not determined by the newly arrived alien warships. Instead, the aft section of Hancock Station is ripped asunder by the passage of the glowing green rift. Crippled, the ship goes into a slow spiral. Their energies cast askew by the rift's damage, the Kamir ... stutter ... psionically. This results in an uneven distribution of force along the remaining hull of the refugee vessel, which starts falling apart. "NO!" Porter'kamir shouts, his face agonized. Bodies can be seen spilling out of the broken station as its remnants drift around the Nexus point.

Ace shouts in tandem with Porter, "NYET!!" she screams, sinking to her knees as the station splits apart and she watches the last hope of the survival of the Arm drift through space like so much flotsam. "Why!? Why did you not let me try!" she cries out, tears spilling silently down her cheeks as the enormity of the disaster sinks in.

"They weren't worth wasting precious Kamir on," replies the voice of the unseen Morden'kamir. "Now we can focus on fixing the damage instead." The alien vessels are swarming toward Nocturn, but the Kamir effectively vanish the craft before they can get within weapons range. "Without you," Morden'kamir concludes, and suddenly Ace's bubble is hurtling toward the rift the Cossacks floated out of. She enters the rift and the world goes white - and then she finds herself back in the glass coffin on Nocturn.