by Day Leitao
Saytera had a near imperceptible shudder. “You’re the kitchen expert!”
Dess chuckled. “Expert. I’ve been promoted.” From kitchen boy. But the Mainlanders knew nothing about it, and even the Lunars who were there hadn’t really mocked him, except Nadia a little. It wasn’t worth insisting on the point.
“Now seriously,” Marcus said. “They should train us about that in the academy. I mean, if it wasn’t for you, we’d be out of food by tomorrow.”
Right. His friend also noticed that the skill Dess had been mocked for turned out to be pretty useful. “Funny how things people despise can become important.”
“Cause people are stupid and they distort things,” Nadia said.
Weird to hear her addressing him, weird to have her and Saytera at the same table, but at the same time, he was glad she’d helped them and rescued the Mainlanders. They wouldn’t be there without her.
“Aren’t we glad we’re all past our period of stupidity?” Dess asked.
“Oooooh, we’re so wise!” Marcus laughed.
They all laughed as well. Still, Dess sometimes wondered whether they’d chosen the right path, if this was the right way to fight the horrible destruction planned for his city.
After some silence, the comm beeped. Dess had that odd panic of anticipation, not knowing if he’d feel dread or relief.
They all stared at each other.
“I’ll get the transmission here.” Larissa pushed a button. “Larissa speaking from the Tahari moon, we’re listening.”
“This is a message for Nadia Tarel and Nadia Tarel alone.” It was her father.
“I’m here,” Nadia said.
“I don’t want anyone else hearing this,” he said.
“Do you want me to lie and say it’s only me?” she asked. “You have no way to know. But you can talk to all of us. We’re eager to hear what you have to say.”
“That’s treason! Is that how you treat your father? How dare you spread unfounded rumors, lies? How dare you?”
“We…” She seemed to be scrambling for words. “Might have been... mistaken. If you can clarify any of the information we have, we’ll be happy to hear it.”
“Clarify? Clarify what? What you had was our plan to prevent us from getting attacked. Now that this information is out, our enemies will get us. Thanks to you and that traitor Starspark. He brainwashed you. Come back and we’ll fix this. Get out of there. You don’t belong with that scum.”
“Dad, if you have an explanation, work with us. Help us. We can fix this. We want to save our city, find peace. If we misunderstood something, explain.” Her voice was beseeching.
Dess wondered if a part of her actually believed that this had been some horrible misunderstanding. Well, it was her father, she’d probably want to hang on to a slight hope that he wasn’t planning on killing thousands of people. Poor girl.
“I’ll explain it all when you’re back,” Tarel replied.
“If you have an explanation, please, send it to us. If all you want to do is ask me to come back, don’t bother wasting your time.” Her voice was tight.
“Conspiracy and nonsense. Nonsense. We wanted to prevent the attack on Sapphirlune. Isn’t that obvious?”
Pain was visible on Nadia’s face. “Isn’t it obvious that what we’re doing will also prevent the attack? Isn’t it obvious that if we get a deal with Mainland we can also stop the war? We didn’t even spread all the information we had about your plans or your involvement with Heliumforge. But again, if there’s something we’re missing, we’d love to know.”
“Come back. Come back, or I’ll have to send a squad to bring you by force.” Tarel’s voice was thunder.
“Try it.” She sounded sad, more than anything.
“He brainwashed you. Starspark, do you hear me? You think you can steal my daughter, then take my company? Foolish, foolish, ignorant, unimportant kitchen boy, you’ll never achieve anything. You’ve just ruined your future.”
“Yeah, my future would have been wonderful with a destroyed Sapphirlune city,” he said.
“You’ll die, and die in a lot of pain.”
Larissa then cut the transmission.
“What did you stop him for?” Nadia asked.
“It was going nowhere.” She then typed something on the device. “I’m telling him that whatever he wants to send needs to be in writing or documents. That will get him to think twice before threatening us.” She then looked at Nadia. “I’m so sorry.”
The girl shook her head. “I… should have seen it earlier.” She sighed, then looked at Dess. “Thanks, the food was wonderful. I’ll get to the bedrooms.” After getting up, she left.
Larissa got up, too. “I’ll check on her. I’ll leave this with you, guys. Maybe we’ll get better transmissions.”
Saytera took the portable comm. She wasn’t as good with it as her friend, but she knew enough at least to handle it.
The conversation had left her anxious. She looked at Dess, Marcus, and Silvia. “You think he can… I don’t know. Do something?”
“He’ll try, but I think we’re safe here,” Dess said. “We also have a shield, just like Sapphirlune, plus we have the main canon and more manual anti-aerial defenses. Unless they get a shieldbreaker, we’re relatively safe.”
Marcus took a sip of his juice. “Technically then we could live here, as long as someone fetched water and some supplies. Hang on.” He looked at Dess. “Aren’t we the experts at it?”
“We’d need a ship with a tank, for starters,” Dess said.
“Who knows? Everything here has been so well prepared. I wouldn't doubt there’s one lying around somewhere.”
“Except we’re sitting on a fortune,” Sylvia said. “Not sure how long they’ll leave us alone.”
She had a point. But they obviously didn’t need to spend that long on the Tahari moon. “We need just enough to get Mainland to change their minds. Even if nothing much changes, just avoiding the destruction of Sapphirlune city is a great start. I mean, it’s the most important, right?”
The comm beeped. It was written communication. “We received something. I can go check.”
“Suggestion here,” Dess said. “Five minutes won’t make much difference. Let’s finish eating, then we check. I can’t guarantee you’ll be able to swallow this once it’s cold.”
Marcus stretched his hand and pinched Dess’s cheek. “Oh, no. Don’t worry, we aren’t going to snub your impressive dinner.”
Dess slapped his friend’s hand. “I just don’t want us to starve.”
They finished eating and headed to the communication room. Saytera opened the message. It was again from Taro. It said:
Dear friends. Please return to Sapphirlune. The brave Mainlanders are welcome as well. Let me explain the extent of your misunderstanding in person. I’m sure we can all come to a positive agreement. I’ll promise you all some of the Staralloy’s profits. There’s always something to be gained. I hope you consider your future.
Dess glared at the screen. “How dare he? How dare he promise something that’s not his? Try to bribe us?”
Sylvia put her hand on Dess’s elbow. Saytera felt as if someone had punched her in the gut. The girl said, “Technically, Staralloy is yours. Maybe you should offer him some profit in exchange for the rest of the information.”
Dess snorted and shook his head. “We’d just get deeper into trouble.”
Sylvia still had her hand on him. “Do you have plans for the company?”
Thankfully, he stepped away. “No!” he said. “For now I just want to survive and save our system.”
Marcus pulled Sylvia’s hand. “Let him be. I bet things are stressful enough as they are.”
There was a slight edge in his voice. So Saytera hadn’t imagined that the girl and Dess… But no. Maybe they were both overreacting. But then, she remembered something Marcus had said on the island while hallucinating. Saytera’s stomach sank. No, it was too early to start with petty jealousy. De
ss had been very clear to Saytera that he wanted them to be together. Dess then approached Saytera, put his hand around her waist, and kissed her cheek. This was the first time he was doing it in front of everyone else. Nobody batted an eyelash, though. Saytera turned and hugged Dess. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on hers.
Christina, who had been sitting, got up. “I think we’d better get to bed. It’s past midnight on Mainland.”
“True,” Dess said. “Odds are slim we’ll get anything else tonight, and we need rest.”
Christina led them to the hall. “Come, I’ll show you the bedrooms we prepared.”
They followed her. Only after entering the bedroom assigned to her did the reality of it dawned on Saytera. She was with Dess.
32
Night
Night
The room had two bunks and a door to a small lavatory. Saytera could feel her heart pumping blood to her body.
Dess pointed to the beds. “Which one do you want?”
She pointed to the one on the right. “That one.”
“Ok. I’ll go wash. Or do you want to go first?”
“You can go.”
Dess took some clothes and disappeared in the lavatory.
They didn’t take showers, but rather washed with a very small amount of water. It made sense, but it was odd for Saytera. And even odder was being here, about to sleep in the same room as Dess. She’d dreamed so much of seeing him again, and this was like a dream, but perhaps it was going so fast that she was startled or maybe even scared. He came out and then it was Saytera’s turn to wash. How she missed taking a shower or a bath, she missed walking in the ocean and feeling the water around her.
Dess was asleep, lying on top of the covers, when she came out of the lavatory. He had been tired. Saytera decided to fix the covers over him, but then he woke up and sat up. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. We are tired.”
“You know what I’m thinking?”
Saytera had no idea.
He continued, “I wish I had my reader with me. I’d love to… I don’t know… tell you some stories or maybe compare them with what you know.”
She held his hand. “After this is over, maybe.”
“If my reader is still there. I don’t even know if they haven’t ransacked my apartment. If I have anything left.”
Saytera laughed. “If we end up having to hide on an island on Mainland, we might not need anything.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Except a lot of fuel for fires.”
His eyes were so pretty, and his hair was magnificent. “How do you wash your hair with so little water?”
“Well, we… ration, I guess.” He ran his hand through her hair. “I can see how in your case it would still be a challenge.”
Saytera looked down. “I don’t want to cut it.”
“No. I’ll check the deposit. We might have some hair products there. And I could help you.”He grimaced, as if catching himself. “I mean, you could lean your hair back on a chair, you don’t have to—”
“Thanks.” Saytera kissed his cheek. She knew his offer had been made with the best intentions, and it was actually really sweet. She decided to change the subject. “Your parents built this, right?”
“Didn’t exactly build, but planned it. Imagine how hard it must have been for the first people here.”
“They had to live on their ships, right?”
Dess nodded.
“It’s just…” Saytera was thinking. “We have a war based on something that doesn’t belong to either the moon or the planet. And it’s related to your family.”
He closed his eyes. “I know. But then you have to wonder if the idea wasn’t just to stop us from exploring it.”
Saytera ran her hand through his beautiful hair. “Being here must be so painful for you.”
“No. It’s healing. Things make more sense now. And you’re here. It can’t be painful.”
Saytera almost wanted to ask “Really?”, wondering if it was true that she could help ease his pain and longing, but the truth was that he helped with her own pain and longing for her past.
She just smiled. “I hope we fix this mess.”
He was staring at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Your eyes… are mesmerizing.”
Saytera looked down. “I think they’re odd.”
Dess chuckled. “Definitely not even.”
There was sunlight coming from the window. So strange to spend time in that place where days and nights meshed together. Saytera got up. “I’ll shut the blinds so we can sleep.”
As she closed the thick layers blocking the sun, she realized this was another way to create darkness. She stared at the remaining slit, reminiscing older times. “Funny. This reminds me of my bedroom in the Academy. But we didn’t have windows.”
Dess was behind her. “You lived in the academy? Sounds nice. One reason I had to work at the kitchen was to pay the rent.”
“I guess tonight we were all glad you had to pay it, then.”
“Glad to be useful.” Saytera felt his arms around her, his body behind her, his face over her shoulder. He asked, “Missing your planet?’
“Missing more water and fresh food. I bet you’ve always missed those things, haven’t you?” It was amazing to be in his arms.
“Even if I hadn’t experienced them? I guess. In theory we shouldn’t miss things we don’t know, but the reality is that there are things we’ll always crave no matter what. Nature is one of them.”
Saytera took a look at the planet and how they were facing its stormy, unknown side, then closed the blinds a bit more, while still leaving an open slit through which the light penetrated the room.
She felt his lips on her ear. “I missed you before knowing you.”
Saytera closed her eyes and shivered. She remembered the moment on the island when he had his body against her, whispering in her ear, and what had been terror then was very different now. She could feel him behind her hips, and she leaned in that feeling.
Something shifted in their energy then. Dess was now kissing her neck, pulling her even closer to him. After a fraction of a second of hesitation and fear, she decided to enjoy the moment, enjoy the feeling, and guided his hands up and let him touch her heart.
Saytera couldn’t stop thinking about his body behind her and turned suddenly. Their eyes met, but it wasn’t just the eyes, but their entire beings. His eyes had love and yearning, but also a certain hesitation, a question.
He looked down. “It is… early, I guess.”
It was actually late. No. He’d meant… early… for them. Definitely. Still, Saytera wasn’t even sure what they were doing, but she didn’t want it to stop. “We don’t have to go all the way.”
His breathing was heavy. “How far do you want to go?”
“We’ll see.”
She pulled him to his bed and they kissed. It was almost as if voicing her desires had toned them down a notch, or at least toned down the desperation in being with him, the crazy yearning. They spent a long time just kissing. Saytera basked in his closeness, his warmth, the feel of his arms.
And more and more she wanted to be close to him, feel his touch, his skin. As she relaxed in that feeling, her layers came off, his clothes came off, and so did hers. Saytera didn’t feel ashamed or afraid, but free. Kissing him while feeling the touch of his chest against hers was one of the most amazing feelings she’d ever had.
Dess was strong but also fragile. A sad boy craving for love and she wanted to embrace him. Embrace all of him. See, feel, and taste all of him. Dess was insanely beautiful. Under his dark gaze she felt safe, more than safe, she felt a different kind of fire in her, a flame growing bigger than anything, one she didn’t want to quench. And she understood why what they were doing was so sacred, as she let the flames meld together, as she let herself be open and vulnerable and welcome his flame into her.
Dess felt something tickling him and realized it was Sayt
era’s hair covering his body. They had slept in the same bed. There was something magical in her, magical in her caresses and something absolutely wondrous in being welcomed into her and feeling like one. Her power, he wasn’t sure what it was, but somehow he could feel it, like the thunder and lightning lying in a quiet storm cloud. His magic girl.
He took a deep breath, realizing he was no longer the same person that had entered this room the previous night. Neither was she. Neither were they.
Someone knocked on the door.
“Coming!” he replied.
Then he felt the surprised gaze of the odd brown and green eyes on him. Dess kissed her forehead, then hugged her, feeling her face on his chest while he ran his hand through her hair. They remained like this for a moment, hugging. If he could, Dess would want to spend the day, the week, the month like that.
But Saytera sat up. “We’d better get moving.”
Dess should be getting dressed, too, except that as she opened the blinds and let in more sunlight, all her majestic, natural beauty was revealed to him. He couldn’t forget his hands on her, his lips kissing her. Something hit him in the face. It was his shirt she’d thrown.
“Get dressed,” she said. “Stop staring at me as if you’d never seen…”
“Well, technically…”
Another impact. His pants had been thrown at him and he put them on quickly. He got up, pulled her for a kiss, then put on his shirt and opened the door.
There was nobody in the hallway, so they rushed to the communication room. Everyone else was already there.
“They’re sending a fleet,” Marcus said.
“From where?” Dess asked.
“Sapphirlune.”
That didn’t make sense. “And what do they expect to accomplish? We haven’t turned off the main canon, and it’s not like they can break our shield. This is the same technology as Sapphirlune city.”