She watched the clones of herself rampaging through the streets.
"We're not going to die."
The bottom of the tower shuddered, and they heard triumphant howling from the horde below. Sulu and Demora had bolted the door below, but it had held only a brief time. They heard it crashing in.
Sulu and Demora looked bleakly at each other, Sulu no longer having empty promises of salvation to toss around.
"I don't want to die like that," Demora whispered. "Torn apart by them … I don't want to die like that."
He said nothing, but looked at her in a way that had no despair, no hopelessness … but instead pride, even defiance.
"There is a way out, isn't there," she said, knowing the answer.
And knowing that she knew, he simply nodded.
She looked down at the drop. She could see, far below her, the bloodthirsty mob pushing its way in. The tower continued to shudder beneath the pounding of their feet.
"It's not dishonorable, is it?" she asked.
"No."
"Because I know that's important. And I'd want you to be proud of me."
He smiled, keeping back the tears, to be strong for her. "I wouldn't mind having you proud of me, either."
The tower trembled, the shouts getting louder. A few feet away from them was the opening to the stairway that led down. A door was closed over it, but it wouldn't last more than a second.
"Dad … I never knew before that you had tests done to make sure I was your daughter. If … if they'd come back as negative … would you still have taken care of me?" She paused. "Feel free to lie in order to spare my feelings. I promise I won't hold it against you."
"Yes. I would have made you my daughter anyway. And I'd have loved you as much, and I couldn't possibly have been more proud of you than I am right now."
The horde grew closer and closer. Only seconds remained before they would burst out onto the uppermost portion of the tower, and that would be the end.
"Demora," said Sulu, "I am … honored … to die with you."
"To die would be a great adventure."
Sulu frowned. "I've heard that. Who said that? Ch'en Tu-hsui, wasn't it?"
"No. Peter Pan."
"Oh. Well then," and he rose to his feet, taking her by the hand. "Let's fly."
They stepped to the edge of the tower. The drop yawned beneath them. Beyond them was the horizon, the purple skies seemingly ready to welcome their soon-to-be-freed souls.
"Dad … I'm scared."
"So am I."
"Do you believe in life after death?"
"I believe in life before death."
"In that case … good job." "Same to you."
She took a deep breath and said, "I love you, Daddy."
"I love you, Demora." And he did … perhaps, for the first time, with all his heart.
They braced themselves, took one last look at each other.
And Demora leaped.
And Sulu didn't.
He did not let go of her hand, however. Instead he clutched on desperately as Demora swung down like a pendulum, slamming into the great stone tower. Sulu held on for all he was worth, still in the tower.
Demora screeched in terror, confusion, anger, dangling with only her father's frantic grip preventing her from plunging to her death. It took a few moments for her father's shouts of "Look! Look!" to penetrate, and then—even as she hung there—she twisted her head around to look where he was indicating.
A shuttlecraft was hurtling through the sky, glinting in the purple light, approaching them at high speed. At the pace it was going, it would be there in ten seconds.
Three seconds later, the first of the berserker clones smashed through the door. It was a clone of Taine, followed by several more of exactly the same vintage.
Both hands occupied with preventing Demora from falling, Sulu kicked out frantically. The kick knocked the clone back, sending him crashing into others coming in behind him. They were shrieking, howling, and they converged on Sulu from all sides.
Sulu kicked out again, knocking one off his feet. Another grabbed at Sulu's face and Sulu bit him, sinking his teeth in and drawing blood. But more were coming and Sulu was out of time …
And the shuttlecraft was directly beneath them.
Breathing a prayer, Sulu let go. Demora dropped five feet and slammed into the roof of the shuttle. She came near to skidding off, but then she managed to clamber back up. "Dad!" she screamed, "Dad!"
They were all over him now. Sulu couldn't pull free of them. His hand was outstretched to Demora, but they seemed separated by a distance of miles.
The door of the shuttlecraft suddenly slid open, and Captain John Harriman was hanging half out of the doorway. He was holding a phaser and, angling it upward, fired. He nailed one of the clones, blasting him backward, and then another, and for a moment Sulu was free.
Sulu tore clear and leaped over the edge of the tower. He thudded onto the roof a few feet from Demora and she reached out, grabbing him by the wrist to hold him in place.
Harriman was shouting into the interior of the cabin, "Gently, Anik! Keep 'er steady! We got 'em! Let's get down and get 'em inside."
The shuttlecraft began to descend gently to the ground, a safe distance from the city. As it went, Demora and Sulu lay flat on their stomachs, clutching each other's hands, gasping, looking at each other and hardly believing what had just happened.
Finally Demora managed to get a sentence out.
"Couldn't have spotted them two seconds earlier, could you."
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