Why is someone holding my hand? It doesn't feel like Jon. 

     "Feeling better?"

     Beka opened her eyes. She was in a small room, in a bed. Her former brother-in-law, Hart James, was sitting beside her. He looked older than she remembered him. His dark hair was longer. The thin frame of his youth was now corded with muscles. His hand holding hers was calloused, and he had horrid scars on his cheeks and forehead. But his eyes…. His eyes were the same intense blue, studying her as closely as she was studying him. She smiled, squeezed his fingers, and felt her tears return.

     "Hart. It's so good to see you. I'm still having trouble believing this is real. But I am feeling better. Your doctors seem to know what they're doing. The woman--"

     "Spree."

     "Yes, Spree. She said this paste on my chest will bring the fever down in about an hour. She's very kind."

     He nodded. "Spree has a gift for making people feel better just by her presence. Doc Hyt is her husband. They make a great team of healers."

     "But she's Earther, and he's from Unity, right?"

     "It's a long story. But while you're lying here, doing nothing, I'll tell you what I can. I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

     "Yes, I do. First, how in heaven's name did you and Tomas get here?"

     "I came first, about four years ago. There used to be a prison here. The UPG built it on Earth so citizens wouldn't learn how much the Freestander forces had grown, while they rehabilitated us. They were still trying to prove they were the people's government back then, rather than the self-serving corporate militia they’re no longer hiding. About a year after you and Rand were married, I led a raid on a UPG weapon depot on the Manufacturing Level. Some of us were captured. The next morning they brought Mother to my cell and demanded I name the rest of my squad."

     Beka was so horrified she was afraid to move. "Oh, Hart."

     "I knew they would murder her and tell their usual lies, regardless of what I told them. And so did she. She made me promise to tell them nothing. She said... she said she didn't want a traitor for a son. So they didn’t learn any Freestander names from me. But they didn't murder her, not then and there. They put her to work in the food lab of the Farm Level prison where I was being held. They worked her until she died and made sure I saw all of it. Then they brought me to the prison camp here."

     "Oh, Hart. We were told she had wandered down to the Warehouse Level and gotten lost. She died falling off a movator. Rand never understood why she would be on that level to begin with. I guess we all knew we would never get the real answers from the Guardians who found her. I had no idea it was that horrific."

     "After I spent a few months in the prison here, an Earth woman helped the prisoners overpower the Guardians, at great personal risk and sacrifice. We escaped into the forest and were sheltered by her family and neighbors."

     "That's incredible. She should be treated as a hero. Whatever happened to her?"

     "I married her," Hart said, with a crooked grin. "And I try every day to treat her like the hero she is. And one I love with my whole being. Her name is Ana. She's away on a recruiting mission until later tonight. You'll like her.

     "Spree is her sister. Doc was in the prison camp with me, and after the escape, he and Spree worked around the clock to bring the prisoners back to full health. It was obvious to everyone they were made for each other. They have a precious little girl, Elsbet. And your son Jonathan? He's doing well? He was an infant when I was captured, but Tomas has told me Jonathan is deaf. That must be difficult."

     "Yes, he's healthy and happy. We use Old Earth handsigns to communicate, and he's very bright. My mother and I have been able to keep him hidden so far. It's not ideal. It's sad, but at least he's safe for now."

     Hart nodded and squeezed her hand.

     "No one can know about Jonathan. No one," she said.

     Hart scowled at her, his blue eyes bright with speculation. Beka knew he must be confused if she was saying her new husband didn't know about her son, and how that could be possible, and why. But he only nodded. "I won't mention him again. 

     "Tomas got here by a little different route. He came to Earth as a guard at the prison camp."

     "What?"

     "He'd been able to work his way up the United People's Guard corporate tract as a civil engineer until he was a subcaptain. He found out about the Earth prison, and somehow knew I was here. When they decided to expand the prison a couple of years ago, he arranged to come here and survey the area."

     "Are you saying he was a UPG officer?"

     "Yes. Those were some dark years for him. But he, also, was saved by a brave woman. He fell in love with the daughter of the prison commander."

     "I can hardly take this in.” She remembered how secretive Rand had been about Tomas’ long absences. Was he in the United People’s Guard that whole time? It’s hard enough hiding that I’m Blueray. I can’t imagine living among the UPG as a Guardian. 

     “Did she find out he was a spy? What happened to her?"

     "Tomas married her."

     She knew her shock must be showing on her face when he smirked.

     "You've met her. Remember that tiny woman Lidia with messy, dark hair who came in here? Trailing children with her wherever she goes?"

     "Yes, she sat with me for a while when Spree and Doc left. She gave me some soup, then spent the rest of the time telling me and some children something about a healing amulet. I think I was still too feverish to follow what she was saying. I never saw Spree or Doc use an amulet."

     "That's because she was making it up. Lidia is a compulsive liar. But she doesn't have a greedy or hurtful thought in her. Lying helped her survive a childhood without a mother and with the commander for a father. Now, I guess it's just habit."

     Beka thought of all the lies she'd told in the past three years. She knew exactly what it felt like to create an imaginary world around you to feel safe. "I have a feeling I'm going to like her, too."

     "When she first came to New Vermilion, after saving Tomas’ life, she saw what most of us hadn’t – the Earth children were learning a lot about farming and becoming hunters and soldiers, but very little about being children or what else life could offer. So, she started a school in one of the barns. The kids love her. 

     “She's been a godsend for Tomas. There were entire months when I never saw him smile. He refuses to talk about the things he witnessed, but I know he still has nightmares. With Lidia, his soul is healing.

     “So, Tomas and I are just two old, boring, married men now."

     "Yes, I feel so sorry for you in your feeble, browbeaten state." She remembered how he had lifted her without a word, then carried her to Doc, demanding he check her now. "And I've noticed how reluctant you are to give orders to everyone, as always."

     He laughed and kissed her hand. "Still the same Rebeka."

     "No, Hart. I'm not the same person I was."

     He sighed. "We've all had to make changes. Sacrifices. Inside, in your core, I'm sure you're still the same compassionate, lovable tower of strength. I noticed how that big, new husband of yours glared at me when I picked you up. Nik says he keeps asking about you, but Nik's trying to keep him busy until you finish your treatment. That boy is seriously amped by whatever those designs are your man is explaining to him. He may have finally found someone as brilliant as he is. I think Nik just doesn't want to let him stop talking, yet."

     "Well, I know Jon had some important information to give him. I guess it's best to let them finish their work. Besides…. We're not actually married. Jon just said that because we weren't sure whom to trust. We only met a few days ago."

     "Now, that's interesting."

     "Why is that interesting?"

     "Interesting how two strangers can be so in love after just a few days. Am I right?"

     "Yes, I'm truly crazy about him. He's a wonderful man. Like you said, brilliant. Though also very kind and thoughtful. And so brave. But he's a fugitive."

     "Aren't we all?"

     "I'm... involved in something. I have to get back to Unity as soon as possible."

     "Involved? What have you been up to, my girl?"

     Should I tell him? What purpose would it serve? It would be such a relief to tell someone I trust completely with such dangerous information.

     "Remember my father held some patents on some e-ware?"

     He nodded.

     "Well, he didn't patent all of his designs. One in particular, called the VEXUS, was able to make connections among an incredible amount of data in real time, including the proximity of two people at any moment. Have you heard of Blueray?”

     “Blueray? You mean the rebel who has warned so many Freestanders before they were arrested? I’ve heard of him, but I don’t think anyone knows who he really is, or how he gets his information. He uses this VEXUS your father invented?”

     “Yes.”

     “Do you know how he does it?”

     “Yes. Let’s say, one evening a man is taken from his office by a squad of UPG enforcers. He had been diverting funds from a Guardian payroll account to fund some Freestander safehouses. He sees them coming and is able to warn his wife, so she won’t go home where UPG soldiers are waiting. She’s in a restaurant on the Entertainment Level with their two children.

     “Now, the VEXUS shows Blueray where they’ve taken the man because it knows the vehicle he was transported in, but there’s nothing anyone can do for him at that point. But what if an elderly woman, also in the restaurant, committed to the rebellion, could be contacted on a wrist-comm? And what if this woman walks up to the wife, minutes after she’s gotten the warning from her husband, and tells her of an empty biohab near the restaurant where she and her children can hide? And what if a doctor on a movator behind the biohab cluster has her autocomm intercepted and is told to go to that location because the older son will need his asthma suppressor before nightcycle? The wife’s vehicle is involved in an accident on the Spacedock Level, and two witnesses swear they heard children screaming as the vehicle went into a fuel cache, exploded, then was immediately jettisoned into space in fragments by the fire emergency system.

     “And during the nightcycle, a transdriver, whom none of these people have ever met, knocks on the door of the biohab to tell the wife he will be transporting furniture the next morning to the Outer Sector, where the wife’s cousin lives, and there are three available seats on his transport. And what if all it takes to set this in motion is one person with a VEXUS, a determination to see what’s needed, and Blueray’s swirling arcs of electricity authentication symbol to assure everyone they can trust the directions?”

     "Gods above, is that possible?"

     "It happened last week. And it took me less than three hours."