Chrysalis Corporation

by T. A. Venedicktov

  “You just like sex,” Damion teased, pulling the towel away from Requiem to dry off his own skin.

  “I do not quite see how that statement fits into the current topic of conversation, but yes, I do not oppose the process. Especially when it does not give me large amounts of pain.” Requiem ran his fingers through his hair, patting it down. “Additionally, the fact that you appreciate it most thoroughly adds to the… pleasure of it.”

  “It definitely is pleasurable, but you like it too.” Damion tossed the towel aside and bent down to pick up Requiem. “This will be faster than just limping to the bed.”

  Requiem threw an arm around Damion’s neck for balance as Damion lifted him off his feet. “You seem to receive enjoyment from being able to carry me since you do it so often.”

  “Makes me feel useful.” Damion put Requiem down on the bed. “Want underwear?”

  “You did not feel useful before?” Requiem wore a perplexed expression. “And no, thank you. Unless you would like me to put some on.”

  “I just felt that outside the Ares you really didn’t need me for anything.” Damion shrugged and pulled out a pair of boxers for himself.

  Requiem was quiet for a moment. “I will admit, in the beginning perhaps, before I met you, that was all Fighters were useful for. Cores are created to help the Fighter, not the other way around. But it soon became a need for companionship that I did not have to keep myself guarded through. I could… speak my mind at times and not have to worry about repercussions.” He frowned, a mere quick downturn of his lips. “I did not expect to agree with my Fighter, even one that I choose specifically. It was a pleasant surprise. The ability to agree and the warmth.”

  Requiem seemed to be having difficulty finding words.

  “I think that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said.” Damion sat down next to him and ruffled his damp hair.

  Blinking, Requiem looked at him. Requiem’s head remained tilted as he crossed his legs on the bed. “I apologize if I am not a pleasant person. I do not know how to express myself since I have been encouraged not to. Emotions are still confusing when they do become apparent.”

  “I didn’t say that to make you feel bad, but compliments from you aren’t normal either. You’re not a bad person, but you can be a pain in the ass.” Damion’s sigh sprang from the well of miserable frustration inside him. “Maybe it is me who isn’t the nice person.”

  “It did not make me feel… bad. And you are a nice person. One of the nicest.”

  Requiem still sounded a little confused with the conversation. Damion was amused at his reaction. “I guess we are in agreement that we like each other.”

  Requiem ran his fingers through his damp hair, still appearing confused. “I agree that we are in agreement.” A yawn forced its way out of him. “May I request that I rest now?”

  “I think we both need to sleep.” Damion lay down and made room for Requiem as well.

  After a moment, Requiem curled his naked body against Damion’s so that he was between him and the wall. He was used to sleeping in an enclosed space, so it was probably easier for him to relax there instead of on the edge of the bed where he had nothing cradling him. He laid his head on Damion’s shoulder.

  “Sleep well.” Damion closed his eyes after hugging Requiem close, liking the feel of the smaller man in his arms.

  “You as well,” Requiem replied softly.

  Chapter Thirty

  Tuesday October 18, 454 MC

  1331 GMT

  Requiem

  REQUIEM HEARD Damion sigh as they made yet another circle around the Zeus. They would alternate between three flight plans for today. Damion had been making sure to do each flyby perfectly to prove his worth as a Fighter.

  “Bored?” he asked Requiem.

  “I do not know what you mean by bored,” Requiem replied from his chair, scanning something only he could see. He was patched into the navigation unit and also the scanners, doing complete 360-degree sweeps of the area.

  “This is not as fun as even doing stupid sims,” Damion grumbled. “Two days ago I wouldn’t have minded an assignment like this, but it’s just boring.”

  “Incoming ship. Midrange. 99.9 percent possibility that it is the President’s ship, the Olympus,” Requiem reported.

  “I suppose we should watch it dock, then.”

  Damion banked the Zodiac to the left and a few other Zodiacs and his Beta unit followed his lead. Ever since Arkin’s death, the rest of the Fighters had slowly deferred to Damion, making him the squad leader.

  “Incoming transmission from the Olympus,” Requiem stated in a mechanical tone.

  “This is the flagship Olympus. Requesting escort to the Zeus.”

  The Zeus replied quickly. “You’re cleared for approach and escorts are flanking your ship.”

  Damion grinned, listening to the communications. “I guess we’re the flanking ships.”

  “They are also requesting us to guide them in. The Olympus nearly exceeds our docking bay parameters, and they are sending me coordinates to help straighten out their approach,” Requiem told him.

  “Let’s hope their pilot didn’t have a few beers before duty.” Damion held his course steady along the Olympus’s starboard side.

  Requiem paused for a moment, thinking quickly. “Suggest doing an audio guidance instead of an intrasystem.”

  Damion muted his outgoing comm link to other ships. “You want me to what? Are you plugged in a little too tight?”

  “My inputs are perfectly acceptable and running at full capacity,” Requiem replied, and there was a hint of an eye roll in his voice. “I am merely suggesting this course of action for the reason that it will bring up your performance numbers and also bring you to the President’s attention. They will not be able to do anything to us if you are in the President’s notice. I will guide you.”

  “You are a sneaky son of a bitch. Let’s hope they don’t crash.” He flipped on his comm and hailed the President’s ship. “This is the Ares requesting that you allow us to guide you in.”

  “Permission granted, Ares Fighter. Flagship Olympus will follow your lead,” the pilot replied immediately.

  “They will not crash,” Requiem assured Damion, taking a deep breath and concentrating his view and navigation on the ship, pulling up schematics and calculations in the system. “Inform them that they need to shift 2.54 degrees to the port side in order to remain centered. They must achieve this with approximately 3.1 meters on either side of the ship for clearance, and 5.18 meters center on the top and keel of the vessel.”

  “Ares to Olympus,” Damion said as he reopened the comm. “Your majestic vessel is going to be a tight fit, and we need you to go two and a half degrees port. Use the Corp symbol in your cross hairs if you can.”

  “Roger, Ares,” the pilot stated, and then continued in a mumble that obviously was not supposed to be heard. “Bloody hell, simple peaceful mission, they said. Just pilot the flagship, they said. Didn’t tell me that dockin’ the bloody ship was going to be a square peg, round hole situation.”

  “He is still one degree off course and the stern is fishtailing too much. If he continues on this path, he will be able to get the bow of the ship in, but the stern will clip the Zeus. Advise that if he continues in this manner, we will have to do a four-point grappling guide.” Requiem’s fingers twitched as he moved through a schematic of the Olympus and continued to see measurements rise and fall in calculations.

  “Ares to Olympus, you’re still not lined up right. If you are having difficulty, we will have to assist.” Damion turned off his channel for a brief second. “For fuck’s sake, they put a newbie in charge of piloting the President?”

  “Roger, Ares, I’m having trouble with the starboard rear thrusters. Attempting to correct now.”

  The pilot’s tone was tense.

  Requiem immediately zeroed in his sensors to the thrusters, his teeth clenching slightly at what he saw. “Code Red advisory for manual lead-in! Rear thru
sters have a vapor leak and need to be shut down immediately or risk sparking a blowout. Repeat, advise to shut down rear starboard thrusters and throw out four-point line for manual guidance!” His fingers gripped onto the arms of his chair as his eyes flickered back and forth through the system only he could view.

  “Hermes, Dionysus, Athena.” Damion opened up the channel further. “We’ll need to grapple onto the ship. Olympus, please shut down your rear thrusters and let us help you in.”

  “Belay that!” the Commander’s voice came over the comm. “Everything looks fine where we are sitting. You’re overreacting, Ares.”

  Damion circled around and passed Juni’s Hermes. “Commander, they could blow an engine if they don’t. They have a leak.”

  Requiem let out a near-silent growl, took a deep, shuddering breath, and closed his eyes. He crossed through the communication circuits and momentarily slid into the warning systems for the Olympus. He could feel the Ares drawing on his personal energy for the boost, but continued to work instead of activating the auxiliary power bays. They would need them for their thrusters if they were going to successfully pull the much larger vessel.

  Finding a short in the Olympus’s alarm systems, he rerouted it so that it was once again attached. He was momentarily intrigued at the way the short had been created, almost purposefully, before retracting himself fully back to the Ares. He partially returned to his own mind in time to hear the pilot of the Olympus vocalize over all channels.

  “Negative, Commander Sandrite. The Ares is correct. Our alarm systems just went off informing us of the vapor leak in the thrusters. Damn observant, Ares. If that blew, then not only the hull of the Olympus would have been damaged, but probably the Zeus as well.” There was a pause. “Rear thrusters have been deactivated. Permission to anchor granted. Coming in fast, so accuracy is a must.”

  “As long as Hermes isn’t sleeping, we should be fine,” Damion quipped even as he was focusing on deploying his tether.

  Juni laughed as he flanked Damion. “Can’t sleep with you buzzing over my fucking head.”

  “Deploying in ten seconds. Mark,” Damion announced.

  Requiem sent out a call to the three other Zodiac ships for the Cores to link up. If all four Cores were perfectly attuned, the tethers could be released simultaneously and with maximum accuracy if they were all synchronized over the schematics in the system. All gave their silent agreement and a grid appeared, overlaying the schematic, a perfect square with the points reaching from Core to Core.

  “Core sync complete. Accuracy at 99.9 percent, pending all five ships stay on current course and await deployment,” Requiem stated out loud. His voice was cold, mechanical, and distant as he was too engrossed in the system and the link to even notice his body’s failing energy.

  “Four… three… two… one…. Deploy,” Damion announced. “The power cells in the Ares are acting funny—the levels dipping, then rising quickly back. Requiem, what the hell are you up to now?”

  “Attachment complete. Core sync deactivating,” Requiem said instead of replying. With a shuddering breath, he pulled out of the link and more into awareness. “I am doing what is necessary.”

  “Attachment completed flawlessly. Good job, Alphas. Lead us in,” the Olympus pilot said with obvious relief, and cheering could be heard in the background.

  “Bullshit, you’re doing that fucking thing you do when you make the Barrier,” Damion hissed in a low voice. “Just stop it before one day you end up dead.”

  “Ares, set thrusters at minimum burn to pull starboard aft 4.78 degrees, Athena required to guide from the aft side. Hermes needs to set thrusters at maximum burn to pull starboard rear 10.33 degrees to correct fishtail. Dionysus required to guide from the port side,” Requiem advised instead of replying to Damion’s warning, bringing up the schematic in the systems again to watch for when everything hit zero mark.

  “Ares, is everything okay? It sounds as if your comm system is muffled. Do we need to switch leads?” the Olympus’s pilot stated. They must have heard Damion’s hissing outburst even if they couldn’t understand what he had been saying.

  “Everything is fine, Olympus,” Damion quickly answered. “My Core is just moving us around so we don’t ruin that pretty paint job of yours.”

  “We’d appreciate that, and so would the taxpayers,” the Olympus’s pilot joked.

  Requiem waited until everything was on zero and aligned before speaking again. “Perfect alignment, still two meters too far to port. Advise that the Ares and Hermes go into full thruster burn on mark to pull the Olympus into alignment. Also suggest that interior grapples are put on standby to attach to the nose of the Olympus to bring them in once the Olympus is in place.”

  “Get that, Hermes?”

  “How can I not?” Juni sounded amused. “I feel like the Cores are flying this thing in instead of us.”

  “Mark,” Requiem stated loudly so that it would be heard throughout the comm system. He felt the ship vibrate with the sudden burst of fuel, the hull groaning with the effort of pulling the much larger vessel. Feeling the Ares falter, he realized that he had taken too much of the auxiliary energy when he reactivated the alarm system on the Olympus. Taking a deep breath, he fed the Ares his own energy to keep the thrusters burning. “Thruster shutdown in three… two… one… down.”

  “Have the interior grapples deployed,” Damion ordered.

  About a second later, the sound of metal hitting metal and mechanisms attaching echoed throughout the area.

  “Deployment and attachment complete. Olympus is being pulled in. Docking successful. Thank you, Ares. See you onboard.”

  “Guidance grapplers have been released and retracted,” Requiem reported weakly and then sagged into his chair. “We are being requested to dock before going back out on patrol.”

  Damion disengaged his grapple and turned off the communication link. “Requiem.”

  Requiem heard him unbuckle his harness and turn around in his seat. This made it possible for him to reach back and tug Requiem’s hair.

  “What the hell did you do?”

  After failing once or twice, Requiem eventually sat up. He was still connected to the system, so he could only turn so far in the chair to look at Damion before the cables tugged at his input jacks. “In what capacity do you mean?” he asked wearily, swaying a bit in his seat.

  “What the fuck did you do to drain yourself this time? Damn it, if you keep that up, one day I swear you’re going to die. Stop it.”

  Damion gave another small tug to his hair.

  Requiem winced slightly at the persistent pulls before sighing and lying back down in his chair, his arms shaking as he lowered himself. “I had to enter the Olympus’s systems to trigger the alarm for the rear thrusters. I cannot be 100 percent positive, but I am 91.5 percent sure that it was shorted out on purpose. That leads me to the conclusion that perhaps the vapor leak was not an accident either.” He took another long breath. “To support my jump into the flagship’s systems without draining power from the thrusters, the Ares needed to take some energy from me. But it was still not enough. Because we were on patrol beforehand, there was not enough energy to complete the maximum burn that we required to pull the Olympus, so I gave more of my energy to complete the process.” He paused again, his voice already having grown rough and quieter from the effort of speaking. “I do what is necessary, Damion, for both of us. If we had failed in any of those tasks, we would not have been able to complete what we have done.”

  “Then someone else could have done it.” Damion turned back around in his seat and flew them into dock.

  “Then the purpose of the whole plan would have been lost. The Ares and its Fighter have been put into a spotlight, and it is hard not to notice at this time. You even managed to maneuver around the Commander’s attempts to discredit you, and instead he was discredited himself.” Requiem paused. “Docking at level two, slot fourteen is available and has already been approved for use. I did what I had t
o do to keep us safe. I did what my purpose is. I am sorry if you do not approve. I will be fine.”

  “I don’t approve of you risking your life for something as inconsequential as the President.”

  Damion sighed and flew them into dock.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Requiem

  AS THE cockpit opened, Damion crawled out first and nearly had to pick Requiem up out of the Zodiac.

  “If you reach the correct conclusion, I was not doing it for the President, I was doing it for you.” Requiem leaned heavily against Damion once they reached the catwalk platform, unable to even hold his head up. “Our actions have put us in the notice of the President and have discredited the Commander. I did what was necessary, and there was no risk to my life.”

  “You don’t know if there was risk to your life, and if there was, you wouldn’t care anyway. Damn it.” Damion lifted Requiem’s chin to look at his lover’s face. “Don’t make me take you to the doctor.”

  “As long as I do not allow the Ares to drain my energy completely, I will not be terminated,” Requiem stated patiently, his gaze staying on Damion’s chin as was appropriate for a Core in a public area. “And it would be illogical to take me to the Med Bay where I would merely be brought back under the attention of the Creators.”

  “You are a handful.” Damion sighed and let Requiem’s chin go so that his head could fall forward once again. “Can you walk?”

  Requiem thought about it for a moment, taking stock of his current status. “How far do you require me to travel?” he asked hesitantly. “And what type of impression do you wish to give for the President, his pilot, and his security? They are disembarking now.”

  “Why are you so worried about the President? I doubt the Commander will send us back out, or if he does, it won’t be for the next five hours.” Damion sighed. “Just… sit and rest.”

  “We are assigned to do outer patrol for the next five hours immediately. The only reason we were ordered to dock was because the Olympus requested it.” Requiem continued to lean heavily against Damion’s side, his head resting against Damion’s shoulder, eyes closed.