Brim's spirit soared like a rocket. Claudia! And not a single bandage. He waved back through the Hyperscreens, and she blew him a kiss. He felt his heart thumping in his chest as the wind lifted her skirts. Universe! She was beautiful even at a distance. Then the changeover from local gravity-and his extreme nausea-brought him back to reality as if he'd been smacked by a brick.
In due time, he watched Wellington and Ursis make their way across the brow while he powered off Defiant's flight systems. The two Blue Capes were met at the landward end by Prince Onrad, Lord Beorn Wyrood, a still-limping Admiral Penda, and whole collections of officers whose least rank still read "Admiral." Then, while the high-echelon assemblage crowded into a veritable parade of limousine skimmers, he secured his helm and prepared to exit the bridge. Before he could leave his console, however, Claudia was at his side with a concerned look on her face.
After they shared a long kiss, she drew back for a moment and looked him directly in the eye. "Someone in the base infirmary was calling your name when they brought her in," she said, "the lone survivor of the monastery teams. She's one brave lady, Wilf."
"Calling my name?"
"Are there other Wilf Brims around here?" Claudia asked with a little laugh. "I certainly haven't met them."
Brim frowned. "Must be somebody I met during Payless," he conjectured. "I don't know many people in the Intelligence office here."
Claudia smiled gently. "Her name's LaKarn, Wilf- Princess Margot Effer'wyck-LaKarn. I don't think she wants anybody to know who she really is, but I recognized her face as soon as they cleaned her up. Her wedding was broadcast not so long ago." She tilted her head slightly and smiled a little sadly. "I have the feeling that maybe you two were, shall we say,
'good friends' at one time." She closed her eyes for a moment. "She's beautiful, Wilf." She said. "No wonder you..."
Wilf took her hands-somehow it all made a sort of preposterous sense. "Can you take me to her?" he asked.
"That's why I'm here," Claudia said, placing a kiss on his cheek. "What are friends for, after all?"
Inside the crowded infirmary, Claudia led Brim through a maze of antiseptic-drenched halls to a rare private room in a small wing. She stopped at the door and took his arm. "Yon won't need me in there," she said.
Brim looked into her eyes for a long moment. "How can I thank you?" he asked.
Claudia smiled with her eyes. "I'll find a way," she said quietly. Then she kissed him and started down the corridor. "We'll talk about it sooner than you think," she called over her shoulder. Then she was gone.
Brim took a deep breath of too-clean air and walked hesitantly into the tiny room. The healing machine's hatch was open and... his heart suddenly pounded all out of control. There could be no mistaking that gorgeous face-even though much of her lovely body was shrouded by the healing machine's amoebalike apparatus and her hair was covered by a softly glowing cloth.
As he stood over the open hatch, her eyes opened and blinked sleepily. "Wilf..." she whispered as her face broke into a smile.
"What in the name of Voot are you doing here?" he asked, reaching gently into the machine to touch her cheek. "I thought you were back on Avalon...."
She hesitated a moment as if testing her capacity to speak. "I had to share this time of danger with you, Wilf," she whispered. "Otherwise, I could never look you in the eye."
Half blinded by tears, Brim leaned into the chamber and they kissed-for a long, long time....
"But who brought you here?' he asked when his heart returned to something approximating normal.
Margot's eyes twinkled for a moment, and she giggled weakly. "Cousin Onrad smuggled me here on Resolve," she explained. "He needed a bit of persuasion, of course-but under all that bluster, he's rather a darling pussycat. And it wasn't as if I couldn't find plenty to do when I arrived."
Brim shook his head. "Like trying to launch a monastery," he said with a feeling of awe,
"in the middle of the most devastating bombardment ever-anywhere."
She smiled and frowned. "I suppose it was sort of a chancy thing to do," she said quietly, gazing around at the edges of the healing machine. "But then, I didn't make it anyway...."
"Success is no measure of heroism," Brim quoted from a nearly forgotten textbook.
She smiled. "If it makes me a hero to you, I shall be well satisfied, Wilf. Otherwise, no one must know I have even been here."
"B-but..."
Margot giggled again. "Greyffin and Rogan both think I am home-in Effer-'indisposed,'"
she said with a grin. "Won't they have a fit when they learn I'm not preggers."
"That's what you told them?"
"Best excuse I could think of," Margot declared with a little blush, "Lately, Rogan's been doing everything he can to produce that heir Greyffin wants so badly."
"I, ah, see..." Brim said. All of a sudden, it was a lot easier to think about Claudia. "Why didn't you get in touch with me?" he asked.
"Well," she said, looking up into his eyes, "after you sent my ring back, I didn't really know if you'd talk to me. And you hadn't answered your mail since the party...."
Brim thought for a moment-took a deep breath-and then related his conversation with LaKarn beside the gravity pool. "Rogan claimed he could love you," he said in conclusion.
"And after what I put you through that night, it just seemed to be the best thing I could do for your life."
Margot smiled and shook her head sadly. "I am far too much in love with you, Wilf," she said, "for that to make any sense. And I can't hide it from Rogan, try as I might. He quickly tired of the game and went back to his other loves. It's better all the way around...." Then she peered into his face and frowned. "You do still love me, don't you?" she asked.
"I never stopped loving you," Brim answered, "not for one moment."
Margot closed her eyes for a moment, then whispered quietly, '"Life might change, but it may fly not; Hope might vanish, but can die not; Truth be veiled, but still it burneth;/ Love repulsed-but it returneth!'"
After that, they simply gazed into each other's eyes.
Eventually, a medical officer entered the room, nodded absently, then studied the readouts at the foot of Marget's machine. The small, heavyset woman-a Captain-had a round face, a button nose, and thin, serious lips. She was clearly suffering from considerable fatigue, but she was smartly dressed in a fresh uniform with shined boots. A professional if Brim had ever seen one. When she peered into the healing machine she seemed to brighten. "You are much improved this watch, Your Highness," she said, "and you look it."
She laughed grimly. "For a while there, you had us worried." Then she looked up. "I assume you are Wilf Brim, Lieutenant?"
"A-aye, Captain," Brim stammered in surprise.
"Prince Onrad left orders to expect you-he said you would know the Princess's true identity. Evidently, he spoke to a friend of yours from the base here. I mink he said her name was 'Claudia'...."
"I wouldn't be surprised," Brim asserted-nothing else seemed appropriate.
"Well," the medical officer continued, "at this juncture, it appears that the Princess will probably recover completely-after a great deal of rest." She pronounced the last few words looking emphatically down into Margot's face. "Prince Onrad has ordered her aboard Resolve within the next metacycle for the journey to Avalon," she continued to Brim. Then she smiled. "He said that I should expect you to accompany her to the ship's sick bay."
Brim nodded. "Probably that would be easier than trying to talk me out of it, Captain," he said.
Aboard Resolve, Brim found a message from Collingswood, summoning him to her cabin, "...when you get back to Defiant." He chuckled ironically to himself. Everyone seemed to know where he was.