Xena's Arc

Chapter 13 of 13

The corridor lights dimmed to ship night an hour after the door closed. Xena kept her back to the bulkhead and the sword grounded beside her. The blade held its steady glow. She counted breaths and watched the far bend of the passage. By the third hour her knees ached and her eyes burned. The watch would not change until dawn, and dawn was six hours off. She had promised to stand the door and then to come inside. She meant to keep both parts. Footsteps came from the cross-corridor. A junior officer approached with a padd and a cup of something hot. He set the cup on the deck by her boot without speaking. He said the captain had signed the order an hour ago. Xena took the padd. The order named her permanent night watch and cleared her from day duty. At the bottom, in a separate line, Seven of Nine had added one sentence. It read: sleep is a system failure I will not accept in my protector. Xena handed the padd back. She said to tell the captain she had read it. The officer left. The cup steamed at her feet and she did not touch it. She closed her eyes for one breath and opened them to find she had lost a minute. The sword's light had dipped. She tightened her grip and the glow steadied. She thought of the fleet coming within the week and of the door at her back. She set the hilt against her sternum and asked the blade for what she needed. The rainbow along the edge brightened. Lightning ran the length of the steel and sank into her palm, into her wrist, up into her chest. Heat spread through her ribs and did not stop. Her heartbeat slowed and evened. The ache in her knees went out like a lamp. She drew a breath and did not need another for a long count. When she opened her eyes the corridor looked sharper. She understood, without being told, that she would not sleep again while she carried the sword. The cost was written into her hand where the light had entered. She accepted it. At the watch change she keyed the door. Seven of Nine was awake at the desk, wrist still bandaged, a report open in front of her. She looked up and read Xena's face for a long moment. She said, you did not rest. Xena said she would not, not on this ship, not until the fleet was answered. She set the sword across the desk between them so Seven of Nine could see the light hold under no hand at all. Seven of Nine touched the flat of the blade with one finger. She said, adequate. Then she said, sit. Xena sat, and the night went on without her in it.