Wandering Storm

by Steven Anderson

  “Save me, Sam,” I called the next time I raced past him.

  “You’re on your own, MD. You started it.”

  “Did not,” I panted. “She stole my sopapilla. This is justice. I had to make her pay.” I turned and we collided. Winona smeared sopapilla all through my hair and across my chest, and in return I made sure her face would be sweet and sticky for Kal later.

  We sat on the deck catching our breath. “I love my Winona,” I told her. “I needed that.”

  “I love my Mala Dusa. I know you did. I needed it too.” She looked up at Kal. “God, I’m going to miss him.”

  Sergeant Ajani Walker kicked my foot. I hadn’t noticed him following us out of the mess hall. “Nicely done, you two. We’ve a Hail and Farewell in the Sim Lab to get to, and with our officers in this kind of mood, it may not be the dirge I was expecting.” He helped us to our feet and held my hand a moment longer than necessary. “Lieutenant, no beer for you, I understand that, but I’d like the honor of a dance if Captain Coleridge will permit it.”

  “He will,” I answered for Sam. “Maybe I should clean up first.”

  “Sorry, no time. That’s a lovely dress, by the by. I hope the sticky comes out of it.”

  “Costrano gave it to me,” I told him, looking into the warm dark brown of his eyes. “I refused to wear it. That was just before I killed him.”

  “Ah. That’s the very story I want you to whisper to me while I whirl you about the dance floor.”

  The Sim Lab was crowded, but we found room to dance and I told him everything about that day.

  He kissed my cheek when the music stopped. “Major Alaoui is still a hero in your tale, but you, Lieutenant, are an intriguing woman. Let me know should that man of yours ever mistreat you, or should you grow weary of him.” He smiled to show he was teasing me. I think.

  “No chance of that, I’m afraid. He is the other half of my soul.”

  “So it would seem. Have no fear for your secrets. I will keep them well.”

  “Thank you.”

  Sam raised his glass to me when I returned to my seat. “Have I been replaced?”

  “Never.” I took a small sip of his beer. “I told him the truth of that day. All of it.”

  “Did he believe what you said about the Puca?”

  “Left that part out.”

  “You and the truth have a very casual relationship.”

  “Yeah. I’m kind of a bad person. Ask anyone.”

  “And yet I still love you.”

  “That’s because there’s something wrong with you.” I had my hand on his chest, enjoying the feel of his heart pounding and the sharp taste of his emotions on my tongue. His eyes were focused somewhere below the level of my eyes, and I desperately wanted him to be undoing the honey-soaked strings holding the dress together. This was our last night for who knew how long, and sitting in a simulated bar was not where I planned to spend it.

  “Sam, please take me back to our cabin.”

  “What about the party? I thought we might sit and talk to Kal and Winona for a while. I want to dance with you, even though you’re kind of sticky. You smell like sopapilla, though, so that’s a plus.”

  “Samuel, if you don’t take me back to our cabin right now, I’m going to do more than just dance with you, and I’m going to do it right here. Do you understand?”

  “OK.” He stood and I leaned on his arm. “What about Kal and Winona?”

  “I saw them leave five minutes ago. Hold these for me.” I took off my shoes and handed them to him.

  “Why?”

  “Chase me.”

  “What?”

  I was gone, dodging past people and tables and out into the passageway before he could even start.

  “Mala Dusa,” Storm whispered in my ear, “are you all right? Your heart rate is elevated far past what is normal for your current activity level.”

  “Never better,” I lied to her. My arm was pounding as if it was about to tear away completely, but I didn’t care. I could hear Sam chasing me. I ran faster, not letting him catch me until I’d reached our door.

  “MD, what are you playing at?”

  I put my hands on his shoulders and pushed down. He took the hint and went to his knees in front of me, nuzzling my hips through the fabric of the dress, his nose and mouth buried in its folds. He was breathing hard from the chase, so it only took him a moment to stop resisting and look up at me.

  “I understand what you want now.”

  “I thought you would.”

  He stood, opened the door, and gave me a rough push into the cabin, his eyes never leaving mine. He was still fighting it, though, part of his brain trying to stay rational. “Costrano gave you this dress. It’s not normal. Maybe something in it, or on it.” He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “Or something. I don’t know.”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes, it matters. It’s not just the dress. Something else is here. There’s a hum. It’s close by. I feel it.”

  “Can you feel this?” I knelt in front of him and he grabbed my hair hard, pulling me close. He started to untie my dress, having surrendered to the desire filling him.

  “You’re right. It doesn’t matter.”

  I woke hours later, disoriented, sprawled sideways in the bed with Sam’s head in my lap. I forced myself to stand, stumbled across the cabin fighting against the delirium, and shoved the dress into the recycling slot. I warned Storm what it was and told her to do a full chemical analysis before breaking it down. I collapsed next to Sam and snuggled on top of him. He mumbled a little and then sang softly to me while I cried myself to sleep. I wanted that dress back so much it hurt.

  “Duse, look at this.” Winona dropped her display pad on the table in front of me. “Granma sent me a link.”

  I closed my eyes and swayed a little bit. My breakfast was still sitting untouched in front of me. Sam was managing a cup of coffee.

  “Look here,” she persisted, “at the manifest.” She smiled at Sam. “You two look about how I expected.”

  “Manifest? What ship?” My head ached. All of me ached.

  “The packet ship Roxana. She left Earth three days ago and will be here Tuesday. Open your eyes and look.”

  I looked with one eye. “Sage?”

  “Salvation. Granma Matoskah is sending everything we need to keep your arm attached to your body, and she somehow got it out on the first ship bound for Kastanje.”

  “Sage?”

  “Not just sage. This will heal you if you let it.”

  “This is the hope we’ve been waiting for?”

  “Yes, more than hope. She sent me the whole ceremony for cleansing a person that has been in contact with Deer Woman.”

  “Deer Woman,” I repeated, my brain still dull. “Deer, like the animal?”

  “Bad shape shifters that can corrupt the unsuspecting and fill them with violent lust and evil desires. Tradition says that they appear in the form of a silent, beautiful woman, most often to young men, and fill them with uncontrollable yearning. She lures them away and then changes to the form of a deer and stomps them to death to keep them from telling anyone else that she exists. My people have known the Tarakana and the Puca for millennia; we gave them a different name, that’s all. I didn’t recognize it at first, but Granma did. She knew what they were when I described Costrano to her in my letter. She says it was too late to save him, but that saving you should be easy.”

  “Sage, sweet grass, one feather…” I rubbed my arm, wondering what it would be like when it was no longer a part of me.

  “Damn it, Mala Dusa. You said you’d trust me. This won’t work if you don’t believe. I didn’t believe in anything for a long time, and you’re the one who taught me to have faith. Trust me. Believe that the Creator can heal you through this. Between Granma and me,
we’re going to smudge the Puca elements out of your body.”

  “I do believe in you,” I whispered, “and I will trust you.” I examined the red scar lines. “I like my arm. I really don’t want to lose it. We’ve been together a long time and I’d miss it.”

  “Good. Everything we need will be here in a few days.”

  I was still scrolling through the manifest. I gasped and put my hand over my mouth.

  “Now what is it?”

  “Did you look at the rest of this?”

  “No, not yet.”

  “Hannah is on that boat.” I tapped a name and turned the pad so Winona could see it.

  “Isabella d’Este. Are you sure?”

  “Mom always assumes people don’t know history, so she picks her aliases as inside jokes. She did it the whole time I was growing up. Every time she needed to “borrow” a name – that’s what she called it – she’d pick some obscure woman who lived centuries ago, and then tell her name to me. I’d stare at her blankly and then she’d laugh and say bad things about the quality of my education. It was really annoying. By the time I was thirteen I’d researched every powerful woman from the dawn of time to the late twenty-first century to try to stay ahead of her.”

  I gave Winona a smug smile. “All that studying finally paid off. I’ve got her this time.”

  “You have the best mom, ever.”

  Sam leaned against me to look at the display. “Is she the representative that RuComm promised to send?”

  “I don’t think so. She’d travel under her own name if it was an overt assignment and she’s probably not the one they’d send to heal old political divisions and make peace, unless they want a high body count. Strange she’d be coming now that the separatists have been defeated. I hope we get a chance to meet up with her while she’s here, but it’s unlikely.”

  “Maybe I’ll see her in Oranjestad.”

  I kissed him gently and winced. Even my lips felt bruised. “You’ll only see her if she wants to be seen.”

  Winona was unhappy. “I should tell Captain Rostron.”

  “No, you shouldn’t. Storm? Can I trust you to keep this a secret?”

  Her voice whispered in our ears. “I agree with Lieutenant Killdeer, but I have been informed that this is a Department of Cultural Intelligence operation and I am to maintain its cover.”

  Winona was scrolling through the passenger manifest. “I wonder if any of these names are real. It bothers me. What is the DCI doing?”

  “I don’t know.” My head was starting to hurt again and there was a craving eating at me. I wanted my dress back. “Do you want my waffle? I’m not going to eat it.”

  That got her attention. “You don’t want it? What happened last night? I felt your emotions at first, but then you blocked me just when it was starting to get interesting.”

  “The dress.” Sam had his head leaning on his fist. “It had something on it other than honey. I could feel the Puca too. Part of the colony must be at the Hoog Schelde Yards because they felt close. The combined effect was…I don’t know. Intoxicating? Dangerous? Fun, in a dark, violent way. Not healthy, I’m sure of that. Not good for the mind or soul.”

  “Or the body,” I added. “I hurt in places that I didn’t know I had places.”

  “Where’s the dress now?”

  “I put it into the recycler. It took all the will power I had to do it. I wanted to keep it forever and wear it every day. Storm is supposed to be doing a chemical analysis to see what Costrano used. Storm, have you finished the examination yet?”

  “Not yet, ma soeur. There is an unexpected compound blended with the fabric. It is a psychoactive agent with hallucinogenic properties, but the specific composition used is unknown to Union science. It has self-replicating biological components as well as the chemical ones traditionally used to induce psychoses.”

  “The dress was alive?” Sam managed to get his head up off his fist.

  “It would seem so. I have isolated the organism involved and have already purged it from throughout the crew spaces. The rest of me should be clean in ninety-three minutes. I have notified Captain Rostron of the infection and my corrective measures. She expects to see you on the bridge at 07:30.”

  I sighed, putting both hands on my belly. “Our daughter is going to be so messed up.”

  Winona put her hands over mine. “With you as her mother? Duse, that was inevitable.”

  CHAPTER 14

  HOOG SCHELDE

  Captain Rostron entered the mess hall when everyone was starting lunch. Winona and I had met with her a couple of times over the past two days, working on an outline for reunification and reviewing standard RuComm guidance. She had been aloof in those meetings, distracted and more distant than even was usual for her. She looked pale as she entered, and conversation around the room died. Storm called us all to give her our attention, an unnecessary order.

  “Show the live feed, Storm.”

  The display showed an aerial view of a destroyed building, smoke and flame still visible in its collapsed core. The fire crews on the streets around it seemed content to let it burn. They were concentrating on spraying water and retardant on the structures around it, and keeping spectators at a safe distance.

  “These images are from one of my autonomous sensors,” Storm informed us. “I can tap into the Oranjestad ground-based sensors, if you desire.”

  “This is fine for now.” The Captain planted her hands on her hips. “The deployment of our Marines to the surface will be delayed. The dormitory that the Provisional Government was prepping for us is no longer suitable for occupancy. Colonel Gerbrandij has assured me that he is already making alternate arrangements for lodging at a KDF base in a more secure sector of the city. I will advise the team leaders when I receive a firm time, but it should be within the next twenty-six hours.”

  “So, we’re still going through with this?”

  “Yes, Kal, we’re still going through with this. I requested verification from Fleet General Kimmel an hour ago. You’ll be the first to know if I hear anything different. Captain Coleridge, you and your medical team will deploy as per the original schedule. The Central Hospital in Oranjestad has prepared quarters for you on site. That facility has not been affected by the current unrest and, I have been assured, will remain unaffected. Gerbrandij tells me that the hospital’s policy of treating anyone that’s sick or injured, regardless of affiliation has earned the respect of all the factions. That should keep the three of you safe enough. The rest of you, stand by and keep training.” She looked around the room, and then squinted hard at me for half a second. “That’s all. Killdeer and Holloman, with me.”

  Colonel Gerbrandij was waiting for us in the small conference room just off the bridge. He stood and set his coffee cup on the table as we entered. Winona and I saluted him and he returned our salute.

  “Lieutenant Holloman. A pleasure to see you again. You look quite nice in Union Tan and Brown.”

  “Thank you, sir.” I smiled at him and then glanced at Winona, waiting for the Captain to introduce her. She frowned, irritated that Colonel Gerbrandij had acknowledged my existence.

  “Colonel, may I present our Stellar Tactician, Lieutenant Winona Killdeer?”

  “Lieutenant.”

  He shook her hand and Winona didn’t respond for a few seconds. Her eyes were enormous, analyzing everything about him from the feel of his hand in hers to the way his hair looked overdue for a trim. She probably learned more about the new leader of the KDF in those few seconds than the Department of Cultural Intelligence had discovered in the last year.

  “Sir. Lieutenant Holloman and I will do everything we can to integrate Kastanje back into the Union. I pray that our Marines can keep you and the Government leaders alive long enough to accomplish that goal.”

  “Huh.” He released her hand and squinted at her the same w
ay Captain Rostron always squinted at me, but tempered with just a touch of amusement. “You do go straight to the point of it, don’t you?”

  The Captain dropped into her chair at the head of the table before Winona could respond. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let’s get down to what the hell just happened. Not that I’m ungrateful, but why destroy the building before my Marines had moved in?”

  “They’re trying to scare us away.” I answered before I sat. It was obvious to me because it was similar to the logic of why the Puca had spared my life on Costrano’s Redoubt. “They’re hoping that the Union will reevaluate the risk of intervening in such a dynamic and dangerous environment. They’re gambling that we’ll run. If they had killed our Marines in that blast, the Union would have had to escalate to save face. We’d put a significant force on the ground, including infantry and armored fighting vehicles; more force than they could hope to resist. If we didn’t, the separatists would consolidate power and we’d have to fight them all over again. A lack of retaliation would send the wrong message to other rebellious systems.”

  “Sit down, Engineer.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Sor–” I cut myself off before I could make things worse by apologizing. I sat next to Winona and she squeezed my hand under the table, proud of me.

  “Colonel, I’m waiting for your answer.”

  “I’m not sure I can add much of value to her evaluation of the current situation. The Lieutenant must have been paying attention in her classes on insurgent tactics.”

  He gave me the slightest of smiles, which I fully returned.

  “We’re not sure yet if the building was destroyed by one of the factions or by what’s left of the Kastanje Home Collective or some combination now that they have a common enemy. I think the KHC is more likely for exactly the reasons Lieutenant Holloman enumerated. If you leave, they will win. If you stay, they’ll avoid killing your teams en masse to prevent too sharp a reaction from Union command. I’m not saying you won’t suffer losses, but it will be one or two at a time. As reunification gathers momentum, I think you can expect the KHC to try to capture some of your folks to use as pawns to force Union concessions. They used the same tactic when they seized power the first time. This is going to get unpleasant and cruel before actual peace prevails.”