The cheers were still going, their third round of celebration, but Jaya did not tell anyone to be quiet or to calm down.

Streaks of light shot out from the Craton, their missiles intercepting debris by the dozens that threatened the shuttle that carried Brooks, Kai, and their rescuees.

"They are the last shuttle, give it everything we have. We will not lose them," she ordered, her voice still mostly calm.

Mostly. There was a shake in it, and she had to tell herself to stop clasping the arm of her chair so tightly.

The shuttle's system reported that there were two humans and forty-nine !Xomyi aboard the ship.

More than were even in his group, she thought. Somehow, he'd found more.

"Captain," an officer said to her. "Executive Commander Urle is back aboard."

"Good," she said. "Prepare to receive Brooks's shuttle, and then to pull back from the planet."

"Aye, Captain."

She looked to Ko. The blast wave from the last impact was still racing across its surface. The land where Brooks had been was leveled; not even the trees of that planet could withstand the force of that second blast.

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Debris from the impact, millions of tons of it, was being pulled back by the planet's gravity. They arced down onto the planet, glowing as they went through the atmosphere. Their energy was heating the air in their passage, and already the surface temperature of Ko was rising. Soon, it would be hotter than a kiln, and everything that lived on the surface would cook in air that was over 1200 degrees celsius.

After that, all that would be alive on the planet would be microbes, she thought. Some that lived deep within the planetary crust. And with subsequent impacts, even they would likely go extinct.

A message came in; it was Ambassador-General Abashidze. Her image appeared before Jaya, her face looking as stressed as Jaya felt.

"I see your last team made it out," Abashidze said.

"Yes," Jaya said. "Just barely."

"I'm very glad. All of ours were out a few days ago, but I . . . I greatly respect that your people stayed until the last moment, saving all they could."

Jaya nodded. Of course, Brooks had done that, she wanted to say. She knew, had known for years, the mettle of the man.

Guilt suddenly wracked her. After the pirates, and . . . and his decision to destroy the relic technology they had found, her faith in the man had been shaken.

But this was the true depth of him, wasn't it? He would do anything to save a life. If he could not throw himself into the line of fire, he would perform that cold, impossible calculation that no one wanted to contemplate; who must die so that many others could live?

She blinked, cleared her throat.

"Thank you, Ambassador-General," she said. "I will relay your words to the Captain when he returns."

Abashidze nodded, studying Jaya silently for a few moments. "I will give my commendations to you as well," she said. "You were more than worthy of the trust Captain Brooks placed in you."

"Thank you," Jaya said, finding her voice shaking. "Thank you."