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“HUNTER…HUNTER…” Omega screamed.
Her heart clattered in her chest, she was caught in something, trapped. She tried to wiggle free in the dark but couldn’t move.
“HUNTER…HUNTER…” She screamed again.
“Omega,” Tech’s hushed voice called. She reached up to try and find him, her eyes fluttering open and realizing she wasn’t caught, just tangled in the blanket in her bunk in the gunner’s mount.
She could see the faint blue glow of hyperspace through the gap in the curtain and rolled over onto her stomach to see her bespeckled brother’s goggles starting back at her, the low lights of the Marauder’s console blinking in the distance.
“It’s okay, Omega. You are here. You are safe.” He said over the rumbling snores of Wrecker on the lower bunk. “Did you have another nightmare about…Bane?”
“Where’s Hunter?” she asked urgently, wiping her damp hair off her forehead.
Tech pulled away slightly, his eyes dropping down to his hands. “Omega…”
“I need him. Where is he?” she asked, feeling her pulse in her neck throb.
“Omega…he’s on Daro. Remember…”
Omega’s eyes suddenly flew open. “Tech. We have to go back for him. What if they’re hurting him. What if they’re…”
“Omega, we’re working on it. Echo and I are doing the repairs while you and Wrecker rest. Please. Try and sleep and…”
Omega sat up and shook her head. “He fell Tech. He fell so far. He’s got to be hurt. We have to go now. What if they… what if he…”
“Omega…we are doing everything we can. I promise you we…”
“You left him behind.” She said, a guttural sob erupting out of nowhere. Tears streaming down her face.
Tech recoiled as though she had slapped him.
“We don’t leave out own behind.” She said again, and Tech hung his head.
“I followed a direct order. Hunter wouldn’t want…”
“He wants to be with us, Tech…he…” she was hysterical now, her voice high and sharp.
“He wants you safe, Omega. He wants all of us safe but no one more so than you. Hunter made a tactical decision for all of our safety.”
Omega crumpled, her small body closing in on itself.
Tech sighed and pulled off his goggles. She rarely saw his eyes without them. His eyes were lighter than the others. Lighter than Hunter’s. She held his gaze and her breath.
“Omega. How many of our plans have you memorized?” he asked, cleaning the lens of his goggles on the curtain to her room.
“I’m up to seventy-two.” She said with a sniff.
Tech pulled out his data pad and after tapping for a few seconds, handed it to her.
Plan 99. She read.
She felt Tech’s eyes on her as she read.
To be used as a last resort. Plan 99 will be utilized if the sacrifice of one member of the squad can secure the safety and freedom of the rest. There are too many variables to describe but if it were to happen, the rest of the squad pledges to carry on, regardless.
“I…I don’t understand.”
“Hunter sacrificed himself for us. This was his plan 99.”
Omega felt her eyes widen in shock. “Tech…we can’t leave him there…we have to go back…we have to…”
“Correct. And we will.”
“But…but it says the squad pledges to carry on.” she said, handing him back the datapad.
Tech glances at it briefly before turning off the screen. “Indeed. But we know Hunter survived his fall. He spoke to us. He is not dead; therefore, he is in need of rescue. Like you so eloquently said. We don’t leave our own behind.” Tech said, pulling his goggles back around his head.
Omega sighed and nodded, her heart still thumping in her chest, but to a lesser extent.
“I have no intent on losing my brother, Omega. We will not fail to recover him.”
For the first time since they left Daro, Omega felt a slight smile cross her lips.
“Thank you, Tech.” She said, throwing her arms around his shoulders. He froze for a second, before gently patting her back.
“You are most welcome, Omega. Now please, rest up. We will have work to do soon.”
Omega nodded and laid back down, gripping Lula tightly and tucking her under her chin. Tech leaned forward covering her in the blanket before closing the curtain behind him.
She watched the blue lights swirl against the durasteel of the ship in the gap between her curtains and was slowly lulled back to sleep.
***
“HUNTER…HUNTER…HELP…” Omega screamed.
She heard the clatter of heavy books on the durasteel grated floor, and her curtain was pulled open with a swoosh.
“Omega? You’re here. You’re safe.” Hunter asked, his hair falling over his bandana as he looked down at her, his concerned eyes roving her face.
She felt breathless, confused and unsure why she had called out. She blinked at him then turned as she saw the bright Pabu sunshine streaming through her curtains. She closed her eyes and the sunshine disappeared, replaced with a cold, cloudy sky.
“Plan 99.” Her brother’s clipped voice sounded in her head.
“Don’t you do it, Tech.”
“When have we every followed orders?”
Her eyes flashed open as the ting of a blaster bolt hitting metal rang in her ears as if it were happening again.
“Omega, what is it?” Hunter asked, his hand reaching for her shoulder as she sat up.
As always it grounded her, brought her back to the present in a way that nothing else could.
“Tech.” she rasped. Hot tears falling down her cheeks.
For a split second, Hunter’s face fell. His steely eyes softening with a grief he still hadn’t processed, just like her. But when she looked back up at him, the resolute Sergeant was back. He climbed into the entrance of her room, perching on the top step, leaning against the wall.
Hunter sighed. “I miss him too, kid.” He said quietly, his gravelly voice sounding strained, as though stuck in his throat. She noticed him swallow to try and clear it.
“He told me about plan 99 after Daro.” She said quietly, playing with a loose thread on Lula’s ear.
Hunter’s brow furrowed, “why?”
She looked up at him, her vision suddenly watery. “Because he said it was your plan 99.”
Hunter’s eyebrows rose into his bandana as he brushed his hand through his hair. “It wasn’t the same, kid.”
“You told us not to come back. That was your sacrifice.” Omega said softly, coming to sit next to him, her legs dangling down the ladder to her room.
Hunter squirmed as if uncomfortable. “Omega…Tech was…he was the best of us.”
“We didn’t go back for him. We didn’t even try to find him.” She said, a shuddering sob erupting out of her. She felt Hunter’s arm close around her shoulders and leaned into him.
She sat there, waiting for him to speak. Waiting for him to say something. To make it better. To take away this feeling away that had found a home in her chest, one that was rotting from the inside out.
“We did.” Hunter said after a minute.
Omega lifted her head up, her face damp from her tears. She brushed them away hurriedly. “What?” she asked, in a quivering voice.
Hunter sighed again and looked around the empty ship. “We did…go back. To Eriadu…After Hemock. After you. We…we had to know. He had the goggles. They were broken but, in one piece. We thought maybe he made it somehow. If they took him, we could get him back…”
Hunter wasn’t meeting her eyes, instead choosing to stare off in the distance.
“But you couldn’t find him.” She said.
Hunter hesitated, his eyes dropping to his hands. “Omega. We…we did. I was able to track him. He…” Hunter shook his head as though trying the shake an image out of his head. “He died, Omega. He died when he fell.”
Omega realized that the small piece of hope she had kept in her heart, that told her that one day her brother would return, shattered. The tears started again, and her body shook and before she knew what she was doing the leapt down the steps, slammed her hand on the ramp release and leaned over the side, vomiting into the Pabu sunshine.
Hunter was next to her with a cloth before she could wipe her mouth on the back of her hand. He rubbed her back gently and sat down on the top step.
“I’m so sorry, Kid.” He said.
She sat down next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. “He really loved it here.” She said quietly and tears continued to fall.
Hunter smiled. “Yeah, he did."
Omega wasn’t sure how long they sat there, the bright warmth of Pabu so contrary to the icy cold she felt, as though still suspended over that frigid chasm, watching her brother fall.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Omega asked at last.
Hunter suddenly found great interest in his hands again and shrugged. “Didn’t see the point in breaking your heart twice, kid.”
She sighed knowingly. “At least…at least I know.” She said softly. Her gaze softened as it fell over the bustling crest of the island. Stalls were set up selling wares, cast in the shadow of the weeping mya tree. Across the way the Archium stretched up into the brilliant blue sky.
“We should put his goggles in the Archium, so he’s here forever.” She said quietly, almost to herself.
Hunter looked at her, his dark eyes seemingly changing color in the light. “That’s a great idea, Omega.”
She sighed again and smiled, leaning onto his shoulder and enjoying the warmth on her skin and missing her brother.