Warrior Heart

by Laura Kaighn

  Dorinda did not answer. Instead the woman closed her eyes. “Me too,” she mumbled. “Her name was Casey.” Everyone’s mouth gaped when Dorinda reached out to gather the otter’s sleek, furred neck in a hug of shared sorrow. Scuttling forward into her arms, Noah moaned lowly. Within moments, Dorinda’s tears were slipping along his waterproof coat.

  “Well, I’ll be,” Sheradon uttered. Seeing that the otter meant the woman no harm, Yolonda relaxed her tightened muscles and sighed. “All right, people. Let’s clear the room. Leave them alone.” Once everyone had reluctantly returned to their former duties, Dr. Sheradon sidestepped to a wall intercom and buzzed the bridge. “Captain, this is Sheradon. Could you and Cmdr. Tankawankanyi come down here for a moment?”

  Coty sounded irritated on the other end. “Is this important?”

  “I wouldn’t call you otherwise,” she snapped. Her eyes were still locked on the grieving couple upon the floor. “I can’t explain. You’ll have to see this for yourself.”

  “All right, Doctor. See you in two.”

  Sheradon leaned back against the wall and observed her patients unobtrusively. Dorinda mumbled to Noah, soothing the otter with warm hand strokes against his glossy pelt. Sheradon listened while the woman told Noah about Casey and the sudden loss of her world. Dorinda recalled the tragic death of Michael Tanner as well, and how she had been living alone until Vesarius had literally tumbled into her life. All the while the woman continued to sit crossed-legged with the moaning otter curled in her cotton-draped lap.

  Dorinda and Noah were so engaged in their shared grief, they didn’t notice when Coty strode in through the med-center’s double doors, Vesarius at his heels. Rocking Noah gently, the woman’s fingers were buried in the Kin’s dark coat.

  “What the ...” Michael Bear Coty seemed dumbfounded. His boots stalled upon the deck plating.

  “Dorinda,” Vesarius murmured, also at a loss.

  Sheradon smiled. “I thought you’d appreciate the sight better than an explanation.” She pushed off from the wall and gestured at the two on the floor with a sweep of her arm. “Captain, I believe Noah’s chosen his new Bondmate. I can’t be certain, but-”

  “He was a half-crazed, suicidal time bomb a day ago,” Coty started. “What happened?”

  “To use one of your phrases,” Vesarius said squeezing his captain’s shoulder and walking past him, “Noah has found a kindred spirit.” The Vesar stepped closer, but stalled as if reluctant to interrupt the touching scene. Sheradon noticed that Dorinda was now humming quietly into the otter’s thick fur, her tears finally soaking Noah’s coat. Vesarius expounded further. “Dorinda has lost something very dear to her, as has Noah.” Then a sardonic smile crossed the warrior’s lips. “And,” he conceded with an ironic brow toward the watching doctor, “she has search and rescue training. Her dog was a certified tracker, and Dori is an emergency paramedic. I would not be here without them.”

  Behind the Vesar, Coty nodded in satisfaction. “Your friend has found her niche, thanks to Noah’s intuition.” Then the captain shrugged. “Perfect. I dare say there’ll be a very relieved Tloni on Fronznee Two. Noah’s recent reputation precedes him.” The three Pompeii officers withdrew leaving Dorinda and her newfound Kin alone to heal their wounds.

  Twelve hours later, Sheradon was to discover more of their honorary crewmember’s resilience. The doctor was instructing Dorinda Tanner on the fine art of walking. Leaning heavily on a pair of parallel bars set just below waist height, the young woman grunted as she forced her feet to make smooth, graceful steps. Dorinda slid her left hand along the bar then concentrated on lifting her right foot to swing her leg forward.

  “You’re doing fine, Dorinda,” Sheradon encouraged from beside her. The doctor checked the datapad crooked in her arm. “Just a little further and we’ll take a break.”

  Noah stood at the far end of the bars chirruping encouragingly. The woman huffed at him. “I’m coming, Noah. I’m going as fast as I can.”

  “At least now you are not falling down,” a deep voice retorted. Sheradon glanced up from her book-sized computer to see Vesarius stride in through the recovery room doors a good-humored smirk across his wide lips.

  In response Dorinda glanced up with a dazzling smile and tired sigh. “Good morning, Sarius!”

  Vesarius acknowledged her cheer with a wide grin of his own. “Did you save that just for me?” He stepped forward to squeeze her arm. “Now I want to see you walk the rest of the way.”

  As the warrior stood watching Dorinda strain with the effort, Sheradon queried about their Fronznee mission. “Has Coty been updated by the outpost commander? The captain seemed anxious to know what the Pompeii’s next move would be.” She poked her stylus at the datapad, advancing the medical information she had so far collected.

  “No. Only the ambassador has contacted us, via subspace link. Tlenck is on his way to Fronznee to review our data and take his first lessons in written Orthop from Moxland. Jonas is still working on the translator for her,” Vesarius added. Sheradon noticed the Vesar’s gaze was focused on the young woman stumbling forward between the bars. Then the commander paused to reconsider the waiting doctor. “Moxie thinks he is stalling. I know better. Have you seen Master Jonas’ new project?”

  “No. What’s our engineer blowing up now?” Sheradon absently tapped in more data regarding Dorinda’s progress. The woman was nearing the end of the bars.

  Vesarius shrugged. “Just the Pompeii’s engines.”

  “What?” Sheradon snapped, her iced eyes locking with the Vesar’s coal stare.

  Vesarius smiled teasingly. “Jonas is inventing an implosion device which will destroy the ship.”

  Sheradon dropped her datapad to her hip. “Don’t insult my intelligence, Commander. Has the captain found suitable recruits for crew replacements?”

  “Coty and I are preparing to leave now. The ambassador’s transport should arrive later today. He will want our total attention when he does, so I cannot stay long, Green Eyes.”

  Grimacing in concentration, Dorinda pivoted slowly to march back the way she’d come. Noah bounced his way to the far end and again chirruped encouragingly. “I’d love to come with you,” Dori said over her shoulder. “I’ve never been on another planet before. If I could only get my feet to work right.” Sighing she started forward again.

  “Give it another day, Dorinda,” Dr. Sheradon advised. “Your brain and spinal nerves need to remember how to talk to each other.” Sheradon caught Vesarius’ beckoning hand. “Keep at it,” she told her patient. “I’ll be right back.”

  Vesarius and Yolonda withdrew to her office. There, they could still see Dorinda, but could not be overheard. Once inside, the Vesar gestured out to the woman at the bars. “How are she and Noah doing? Coty wants to know if Dorinda will be staying on as a crewmember, or if we still need to find a Bondmate for Noah.”

  Sheradon considered her flat-heeled boots for a moment then raised a glowering stare to the Vesar’s earnest ebony gaze. “So, Coty has you doing his dirty work? Why didn’t he ask me about her and Noah?” The doctor jerked her head. “Why don’t you both ask Dorinda about it?” Drawing in a heated huff, Sheradon continued more calmly. “Noah is showing every sign of a full recovery. He still has moments of melancholy, but he chose Ms. Tanner freely. Noah’s bonded to her, inseparable. I just hope Dorinda realizes the full impact of this emotional tie.” Sheradon leaned back against her desk before finishing. “As for Dorinda, she needs time to adjust. She’s nowhere near ready to replace Jonathan Torch, nor may she want to.” Yolonda saw that the Vesar’s eyes had drifted again to the young woman in the recovery room.

  Dorinda was nearing the far end of the parallel bars. As the two watched from the office, Noah stood back on his hind legs, rested his front webbed paws on one bar and chirped loudly. The woman leaned forward to stroke the otter’s back with a free hand.

  “Vesarius?” Sheradon asked to get the warrior’s attention returned to the current issue
. “What do you want her to do?”

  “Huh?” The mahogany man’s head shifted to Sheradon’s sober face.

  “What do you want Dorinda to do?”

  Vesarius straightened his sleeveless tunic. At its center, the Vesar’s oval medallion clicked as the leather cords strung with totem-beads jostled together. “What I want is irrelevant,” he huffed gruffly. “Dorinda must choose.”

  Now Sheradon tilted her head at him. “But what are the alternatives? Her choices?” The physician leaned closer, crossing her arms in anticipation of his reluctant reply.

  The Vesar stroked the medallion’s tassels, a behavior Sheradon had observed when the warrior was uncertain of his social standing. “She can return to Earth of course.” He tossed back his shoulders. “Perhaps find a living descendant. She could learn to teach again as she once did.”

  “What about Noah?”

  Vesarius pouted. “Noah will be happy as long as he is with her. The Pompeii will find another search and rescue team.”

  “On Fronznee Outpost?”

  Dark eyes narrowing, Vesarius now tugged at the trimmings of his family crest. “I suppose I will need to find out,” he replied hotly. Then, spine stiffening beneath his leather shirt, Vesarius rumbled his excuses. “The captain is waiting for me in the transport bay, Doctor.” As he stomped out on his long legs, Yolonda Sheradon had to smile. She shook her head and sighed at the commander’s ambiguous discomfort.

  The doctor’s amusement disappeared, however, when she heard, “Sarius?” Thump. Rushing out of the office, Yolonda helped Dorinda to her feet. “I keep forgetting I can’t walk.” Dori rubbed at her bruised knees. “He left so abruptly. He was angry at something, wasn’t he?”

  Sheradon guided Dorinda to a chair. “Conflict of interest,” she murmured under her breath. Patting the young woman on the shoulder, Sheradon clarified. “He has a lot on his mind.”

  “Doctor,” Dorinda asked once she’d eased her pride free of pain. “You know Vesarius better than I do. Does he resent my being here?” Her patient rubbed at her brow as if to reposition the eyeglasses she no longer needed. “Am I ... a nuisance?”

  Yolonda recognized the anxiety behind the woman’s jade eyes and smiled reassuringly. “Dorinda, Vesarius is confused right now. He still feels guilty about your being trapped here. His anger is not toward you. Believe that.”

  Dorinda digested that information by slumping into her seat. “I’d like to rest now. Can I be alone for a while?”

  In answer, Sheradon smiled crookedly then straightened herself over her distraught patient. “Well, I’ll leave if you want. But I doubt you could get rid of Noah if you bottled him up and tossed him into space.”

  Dorinda grinned slightly and patted the otter Kin’s round head upon her lap. “That’s okay. I ... I just need to think.”

  Sheradon placed her hands on her hips and lowered her chin. “Then consider this, Ms. Tanner,” she began. “You’re stuck in a time when wondrous things can happen to a young woman who searches her soul and knows what she wants. Dorinda, you must start thinking about your future. Now that you’re here, what’s next for you?” It was meant as a rhetorical question.

  Dorinda hung her head though and closed her eyes. Sheradon saw the woman’s lips trembling and pulled up a chair beside her, sitting down. “What is next?” Dorinda asked her voice thick with emotion. Her glistening eyes blinked against fresh tears. “I’m lost, Doctor. What do I do?” Gasping several breaths in succession, she continued, “Sometimes I wonder why you even bothered to save my life.”

  “It’s my job,” Yolonda touted, then softened her voice. “A life is a precious gift to humanity, no matter what time it’s from. Dorinda, you can do much good here. You’ve already saved Noah from self-destruction. And you rescued Vesarius before that. This galaxy needs compassion like yours.” When Dorinda tried to stifle a sob Sheradon patted her shoulder. “I’ll leave you alone to think. Noah will keep you company. And if you want, I’ll berate Vesarius for leaving without saying goodbye.”

  Dorinda sniffled and waved the doctor off with a shake of her head. “Don’t bother him. He has a lot of work to do.”

  With a nod Sheradon left the woman to check on Careras who was working curls in the therapy room. Ignoring the man’s straining muscles and groaning lungs, the doctor increased the weight ratio on the machine.

  Chapter 6: Conflict of Interest

  Vesarius piloted the Pompeii’s transport to a smooth landing upon the pad outside Fronznee Two’s administration complex. As the crew disembarked, Vesarius watched, amused when Coty sniffed disapprovingly at the muggy Fronznee atmosphere. “Reminds me of skunk musk,” the captain complained. He stood by the transport while his small team of officers exited beside him. Vesarius hopped down last and hit the auto-lock button beside the hatch. Turning he saw two Alliance citizens approach. One he knew.

  “Ambassador’s here already,” Moxland Darby informed greeting her captain and crew. A shorter, slender Tloni was with her, chittering agitatedly and brushing at his fawn fur with stubby, rounded digits. Moxie introduced the canine sentient, “This is his aide, Glon.” A round of acknowledgements was exchanged. “You’re to meet with Ambassador Tlenck immediately, Captain.”

  “What about the Pompeii’s recruits?” Jonas Botrocelli asked. The engineer pulled at his collar to wipe away perspiration with a black handkerchief.

  Coty pivoted back to his crew. “Jonas, you and Moxie take the rest of the team,” the captain instructed. “See to the provisions we ordered, and take care of the crew replacements. Vesarius and I’ll see the ambassador. This won’t take long.”

  Smirking, Vesarius saluted Jonas then headed off with Glon and his captain toward the outpost’s administration building. “Not take long?” The warrior slowed his pace to stay even with his captain’s shorter legs. “What are we to tell him?”

  Coty considered his first officer with one eye in the steamy glare of Fronznee’s twin suns. “Easy. You’re going to voice your concern about Orthop time travel through the Arch. I’m going to implore him to be very careful in his negotiations. The Orthops’ll view a peace proposal as a shpleepy trick to stab them in the carapace.” Coty smirked. “A lot like your people’s reaction to our invitation to join the Alliance.”

  Vesarius jerked his shoulders back indignantly. “My people are proud warriors, not wanton murderers. Besides we did not own the added threat of copycat technology ... or a time machine.”

  Coty nodded as they were guided toward a single-story, adobe-styled building – the outpost’s government center. “It’s a good thing those cockroaches didn’t have time to tinker with the Arch,” Coty said. “We didn’t give them a chance.” He rubbed sweat from the back of his neck. “Damn outpost worlds. How do the Tloni stand this heat?”

  “What heat?” Vesarius asked leering.

  Coty harrumphed in reply. “Funny, Sarius. This is springtime weather for you.” The two men and one Tloni reached the stairs of the austere structure. Jogging up side by side, the two friends strode to the set of transparent doors and entered together. Only after a rapid scurrying did the ambassador’s aide catch up. Once in the lobby, Coty stepped aside and waved the shorter biped on jovially. “After you, Glon.”

  The fringe-tailed Tloni wrung his pudgy hands, bowed his chin then skidded down the right hall in his species’ version of a purposeful gait.

  Coty followed behind shaking his head. “Jittery little fellow. Not very old or his mane would be fuller. Glon’s tail stripes haven’t completely faded either.”

  Vesarius nodded in agreement and speculated, “This Glon seems about nine, just two years into his apprenticeship. Too young yet for a mate.”

  Glon had stopped outside a door, his pink nose twitching in time with his tufted triangular ears. “Inside, please,” the young apprentice hissed through the elongated incisors that gave most Tloni a cartoonish appearance. “The ambassador will see you now.” Coty entered the open office. Vesarius followed. G
lon stationed himself just within and shut the door.

  “Wisdom be yours,” the Tloni ambassador greeted in a wispy yet articulate tenor. The furry bureaucrat stood from behind a large desk piled high with papers and crystal storage rings. “I am Ambassador Tlenck.” He next extended a knobby four-fingered paw. “Please take a seat.”

  “I’m Captain Michael Coty, and this is my first officer and navigator, Cmdr. Tankawankanyi.” They exchanged paw shakes then settled into the small office’s sagging, upholstered chairs.

  “Capt. Coty. Vesarius. Welcome.” The Tloni ambassador sniffed at his paw, taking in the pheromones of his guests before next considering the hand-hammered medallion pinned to the Vesar’s tunic. Tlenck tilted forward to peer over a stack of storage disks. His violet eyes studied the pictogram and totem-bead strung tassels. “Your talisman is from an old family, Commander. Is there perhaps Brahmanii royalty in your blood?”

  Vesarius straightened in his seat, unnerved at the sudden scrutiny. “No royalty, Ambassador.” The warrior fingered the family crest etched into the silver metal. “But I am of an honorable line, though nearly extinct. I have no sister,” he added in confirmation.

  Tlenck shook his head. “Shame. The stars and sun motif connote space travel.” The Tloni’s incisors hissed at every soft consonant. “You were destined to be out among them.” At the Vesar’s skeptical frown, Tlenck settled back in his chair. “Forgive my curiosity. I am an amateur genealogist, when I have the time to indulge in it. Perhaps my interest stems from my own name. The “TL” prefix denotes wisdom, you know.” Tlenck elaborated further with the sway of an outstretched paw. “Vesar matrilineal lines fascinate me, since Tloni are patrilineal. As are most Earth cultures, if I’m not mistaken.” Tlenck blinked long lashes and regarded his human guest. “You have the look of an ancient peoples, Capt. Coty. Might you be full blood?”

  Coty negated, “Only half, Ambassador. My mother was Lakota, my father a Scotsman by pride, though he was of mixed heritage. The Lakota are a patrilineal people.” Vesarius watched Coty adjust his seat for the ambassador’s aide was wringing his paws again. The captain redirected the conversation. “You wished to speak with us, Sir, about Mytok?”