"Jay! OMG, Jay!" Eve cried kneeling on the floor beside him and trying to stop the bleeding taking off her blouse and tightening it as a ligature on his leg; she pressed her hands on the wound in his side. And went on crying: "Jay, look at me!" JS blinked: It was hard for him to keep his eyes open for more than a few seconds. "Eve, you're safe now. How's the baby?" he thought. "Fine, positively fine!" The sword fell from his hand. JS moved his hand as if to look for it. Eve took the sword placing it next to his hand so that he could feel it with his fingers. His skin was cold, he was shivering. She removed his useless armor and hugged him to keep him warm. "Jay, stay with me!" she shouted with all her voice and mind. JS murmured: "Yes ..", but he was very weak. In his mind he was seeing his mother and sister and all his dead comrades, Adam and Vlasav ... "Jay Sea, I forbid you to die!" Eve screamed through her tears. "Jay, you can't leave us!" Vickie and Etta mind-cried. JS blinked again. "Here we are!" the ships shouted in unison as the door behind them opened and Lee rushed in ready with two plasma bags. Vickie and Etta had warned him. "Dammit!" Lee muttered to himself. "He isn't going to die, right?" Maurr asked. "No, I'll take him aboard where everything is ready: Vickie and Etta have already arranged their core for him." "3TC never knew the math!" JS's voice was almost inaudible. He smiled, just a hint of a smile, a quivering of the lips, but Eve's heart lifted up to heaven. "What does he mean?" O'Malley asked. "3TC had told him he had run out of his nine lives. Obviously 3TC was wrong." Eve smiled. "What happened?" Maurr asked observing the void where small dark flashes and lightning were still sparkling. "I don't know." Eve said, and followed the stretcher with JS, holding his hand. JS's convalescence was a blissful period for Eve. She liked fussing over him, and they laughed together sharing their memories of what they had thought the first time they met. Eve adored his eyes flashing with mirth, when JS was thinking how kissable was her mouth. As JS regained his strength, their mutual touch bought on shocks of pleasure, called up wild springs of desire, strong and needy, deep from within. All that warm skin, hard muscles, soft curves tingled under their love. Eve loved when he made a noise something akin to a growl, JS excited Eve's silvery giggle. "We have to make up for lost time, what's left is lost, isn't it?" JS said grinning so Eve grinned back striking his length. Then delegations began calling for: Eartheners from the Earth, from its colonies, S'skashs from Pie and even Rasharr and Gray people. "Tell them I'm still sick and too weak." JS said. "But if we made love until now!" Eve replied fearing incoming troubles. "Exactly! I have to get my strength back, you squeezed mine, sweetheart!" JS laughed. "They’re just PITAs, Eve. They want me to support their demands, and there is none that I’d support. At most I’ll listen to the Grays, just to put them back on track, but then will have to fend for themselves." One day Maurr visited. "Sorry to disturb, but as soon as you send them away empty-handed the shit disturbers come to me, Jay! It can’t go on this way. Listen: neither you nor I wish to go back to our planets, how about if we go to Larir, Oph 121, where no one can pester us." "I have to think about it. Go ahead, I have to keep a promise before." JS replied. "Where are we going?" Eve asked. "To the Hand of God nebula. I have to tell Vlasav why I couldn't keep my promise to put 3TC's corpse on his grave." At the Unnamed Soldiers' Cemetery JS's and Eve's minds boggled. 3TC's body was there. "How..?" Eve asked. JS just shrugged. "You've kept your promise." Grinning JS kicked 3TC's body. The corpse toppled sideways. "Stiff dead!" JS laughed.