by Timothy Zahn
"They will," Caine said. "They do."
"We'll see," Lathe said. "And after that ..." He turned toward the mountains, his eyes taking on a faraway look. "There's no Backlash left, Caine," he said quietly. "And without it, this first generation of blackcollars is also the last. It's time for us to start our graceful fade into the history books."
Caine swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat. "You saved humanity," he said quietly.
"We helped," Lathe agreed. "But it was hardly our show alone. There were Lepkowski and the Chryselli, Shaw and the Khala blackcollars, Anne and Kanai and the old Torch people who created Whiplash—the list goes on and on."
"And Galway, of course," Caine said, nodding. "Risking his neck to try to do right by his people."
"And don't forget yourself," Lathe added. "You're the one who started the ball rolling, after all."
"Maybe," Caine said. "But no matter how you slice it, you and the other blackcollars carried the heaviest load. We're never going to forget that."
"Never is a long time, Caine," Lathe said, a small smile on his lined face. "But we'll see. We'll see."
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Timothy Zahn is the winner of the coveted Hugo Award for his novella "Cascade Point" and is author of the New York Times best-selling Star Wars novel Heir to the Empire. Born in Chicao, he earned a B.S. in physics from Michigan State University and an M.S. in physics from the University of Illinois. Selling his first story to Analog in 1978, he quickly attracted attention as a new writer of "hard" science fiction, based on real, cutting-edge science. In addition to his novels for Baen set in the Cobra universe, he has also written such popular series as the "Blackcollar," "Conqueror," and "Dragonback" novels. Other recent novels include Angelmass and Manta's Gift. He and his family currently live in Oregon.
THE END
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