Far From Home: The Complete Second Series (Far From Home 13-15) Read Online Free PDF

doesn’t have long."
    He let go of her, dug his hands into his jacket pockets.
    She walked past him and knelt by Singh’s side. He looked up at her and smiled. He was burnt all over. She fought to hide her horror. Jessica knew the Captain needed to see all the strength she could muster.
    The mangled mess of his legs. The blood pooling from his midsection. His face grey, washed out. Tears streamed down her face.
    Her voice cracked as she spoke. "Please don’t go, please."
    Captain Singh shook his head slowly. Smiled. "Jess . . . We each have our time. My own is at an end . . ."
    " No . . ." she managed to say.
    Singh reached up, stroked the side of her face. "Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have . . ."
    He smiled again, then his eyes seemed focus on something far away. The light in them faded. Singh’s hand fell away from hers and the sound of his last breath issued slowly from between his lips.
    "No . . ." she whispered as she cradled him in her arms.
    *
    "Excuse me, Captain? Are you all right?"
    She turned around to find an Ensign standing there, a look of concern on his face.
    "Huh?" she asked, taken aback. She'd been certain there wasn't anyone down here.
    "I didn't mean to startle you. I . . . it's just I saw you standing here . . ." he stammered.
    Jessica smiled. She was well aware her eyes were moist, her face red.
    "It's okay, Ensign. Just having a look about. I thought I was alone down here," she said.
    "You would've been, but I didn't much fancy drinking tonight with the others. I'm very much looking forward to our next assignment, Ma'am," the Ensign said.
    "Well, I am too. But don't be afraid to let your hair down a little," Jessica told him. "We all deserve a little break now and then."
    The Ensign nodded. "Thanks. I'll remember that."
    As Captain King left the munitions section, she thought, As will I.
    *
    Master At Arms Eisenhower peered up. "Haven't you got anything better to be doing with your time, sonny?"
    Dollar grinned. "Nope. Hand me a wrench, will yuh?"
    Eisenhower sighed, dug out a wrench and watched as the gifted pilot worked on his ship. He'd been slowly piecing together the antique star fighter for months, and it was nearly done.
    "What did you say you're going to name this thing, when you're done?"
    Dollar patted the nose of the ship. "I was thinkin' Dragonfly ."
    "Good name."
    "Thanks."
    "So, uh, you not with your lady friend this evening? I hear most of the crew's upped sticks and gone out for drinks and what have you," the Master At Arms inquired.
    The hangar was quiet save for Dollar's antics, and it was a wonder Eisenhower wasn't tucked up in his quarters already. But the truth was, he'd found it hard to sleep the past couple of months. Ever since the accident . . .
    "I was with her," Dollar said sheepishly. "Then I was with her, if yuh get my meanin'."
    "Oh," Eisenhower said. He knew all too well. He'd been something of a ladies' man himself, many moons before.
    "Anyways, she's asleep, and I'm there next to her thinkin' I'd like to get a few hours in down here," Dollar said. "Tell the truth, I didn't expect to see yerself down here either, fella."
    "Can't sleep," Eisenhower said. He took the wrench from Dollar and swapped it for a long handled screwdriver. With every tool and implement at their disposal, sometimes there was no better tool than a good old-fashioned cross head.
    Especially when it happened to be an antique that was being put together, piece by piece.
    "I hear yuh," Dollar said softly. "The accident."
    The Master At Arms nodded slowly. "Comes to me, now and then. Yourself?"
    Dollar stopped what he was doing, looked up at some distant point.
    "Sometimes."
    They'd been down in the hangar bay when the Defiant got struck by a series of tachyon bursts from a nearby supernova. It played havoc with ship's systems, caused many of them to operate erratically, without warning. At the time, Jack Boi had been helping Dollar work on Dragonfly . The cargo bay