by Hana Starr
But there wasn’t one.
“Fine,” Jade said, hating herself for the answer. A hard knot of anger formed in her throat, showing through in her words. “You’ve made your point and I’ll take this on for you.”
“Thank you,” the chief said. The look on his face said that he had known this would be the outcome all along. Suddenly picking up his warm and businesslike mask, Byron swept slightly to the side, bringing his hologram with him. “Now, you had better get some proper rest. I’ll make sure that no one bothers you this time. I’m sure you can find your own way out.”
As Jade walked out of the large office, she thought miserably, why did this have to happen to me?
And why am I…happy…that I still get to see Sorlo?
Chapter Six
Sorlo sat unhappily in the commons, watching the projected screen on the wall. Just as he had been the only one in the cafeteria after Jade left, now he was the only one sitting here. The screen showed a glimpse of space from one of many dozens of satellites, occasionally changing to the next view. He studied it for a while, watching the vast array of stars and planets.
No matter how much the sight changed, it always seemed to stay more or less the same. The presence of heavenly bodies, the colors, a glimpse of floating asteroid or the icy tail of a comet just at the edge…Looking at it, he had to wonder how different things would be if everyone could see like this. Perhaps not these exact screens but in some sort of way that allowed them to catch a glimpse of the sameness. How many such wars as they had been part of could have been avoided if everyone realized that they were the same despite their differences? Everyone was simply striving to do the best they could with what they had.
Strange then that he should feel a glimmer of jealousy right then for the entire universe. Everyone had something, but he had been left with nothing.
As the screen changed again, to a satellite that showed a glimpse of this very same cross-shaped base where he sat brooding, Sorlo let out a heavy sigh and ran his hand through the length of his pale hair. That’s not true, he thought, looking out at the establishment which housed him. I still have my health, my job, my family. Even if much of it was taken away from me, I still have all this.
Feeling only slightly better, he straightened his hair again and then was about to stand and find his way to his quarters when a sudden commotion came from the hallway nearby. Curiosity came over him, followed by relief as he watched for what was causing the tumult. It was a horrible way to think but if something were to happen now, it would remove a lot of the attention that had come to rest upon him.
As he watched, a group of four warriors came from down the hall. They had surrounded a young purple alien, who was restrained and sulking. No, this didn’t look like a recent surrounding. It must have happened elsewhere, for all the guards looked calm enough.
The curiosity was pounding inside him, a force nearly as impossible to overcome as was desire. Still, he knew better than to disturb his brothers when they were hard at work.
Luckily, as the guards and their odd captive passed by the opening of the commons, Sorlo saw that they had some stragglers following behind who were merely watching.
“Warrior,” he called out.
Several of the stragglers looked up, but only one bothered to halt and look at him. “What?” came the impatient reply.
He gestured in the direction the others had gone, though he couldn’t personally see them through the wall in the way. “What is that about?”
The impatient look on the other’s face faded as he realized this was a chance to gossip with someone who didn’t already know the news. The alien fully halted in his path, allowing Sorlo to approach the doorway. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard. I think the entire Riser is aware by now.”
“I’ve been just in here for awhile,” Sorlo said, somewhat defensively.
“That explains it, then.” The other alien warrior nodded. “That cadet up there tried to attack that Dark Space assassin who is staying here. I’m surprised more haven’t attempted it. I didn’t even know they were allowed to show their faces anywhere near other people.”
Alarm burst inside his heart. “Wait. Someone attacked Jade?”
The alien looked closer at him. “Wait. You’re the one who got towed back with her, aren’t you?”
“I guess I am.”
“Heh, I’m surprised you’re alive. And even more surprised that our little friend there isn’t dead. From what I hear, she had her gun pulled on him and everything. Ah, but maybe that doesn’t matter so much. In any case, last I knew she was headed up to communications. I don’t know what the chief has planned for her but I’m betting it isn’t going to be good. Where are you going?”
Sorlo didn’t have time to answer though the question came before he had thrown himself in the opposite direction of the procession of guards. His heart was pounding in his chest, fit to blow straight out from behind his sternum; curiosity had become complete dread as he too started to wonder what chief Byron had planned for the woman who had saved his life.
Why he cared so much, when she had made it so obvious that she didn’t, was completely beyond him. The thing was just that he simply couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her –to anyone at all really, but specifically her right now.
Running through the halls, he had to spin and occasionally leap around others as they got in his way. His tired body rejected the sudden movements but he had healed enough to the point where the last of his hurts didn’t slow him down any.
Several times, others shouted after him and he brushed off their concern, though he knew they meant well. It was one thing to have a cadet wandering around lost in an area where he didn’t belong, and another thing entirely to have a disgraced commander racing through the wings like he had gone crazy. Some concern was to be expected and he appreciated it, but this just wasn’t the time.
Reaching the communications tower base, he saw the lift straight ahead and dashed for it.
Before he had gone very far however, the doors suddenly split wide open down the middle and out strolled a very pissed-off-looking Jade.
Sorlo skittered to a halt, his slick uniform boots sliding on the tiles. “Jade!” he exclaimed happily. Despite looking angry as hell, she also looked completely unharmed. He was so, so glad about that. “You’re okay!”
Jade turned her head in his direction, not moving any of the rest of her body to do so. “Do I look okay to you?” she growled.
“Well…”
“What are you doing here, Sorlo?” she asked, skipping over him impatiently. “I’m very tired.”
“I know,” he said sympathetically, and then backpedaled a little as she bristled. “I mean, I understand. From what I hear, your sleep kind of got interrupted. I just wanted to make sure nothing bad had happened.”
Something he couldn’t fathom danced through her dark eyes. There and then gone, it left him unfocused so that all he could do was try to find something else to center himself upon. Unfortunately, or perhaps very fortunately, there was the rest of her face right there. Perfect cheekbones, the nose a little crooked, a harmony of lips in the surrounding darkness of bitter coffee…
“Stop drooling,” she said, but it didn’t sound quite as annoyed as he thought it would. In fact, it sounded the same way as her eyes had looked, and he continued to not understand. “Look, I’m fine. Thanks for your concern. But you should probably head on up to see your chief anyway if you’re so interested in what happened, because I can almost guarantee you that you’re going to hear the same things from him that I just heard. And I’d rather not be the one who has to stick around and explain things to you if you aren’t smart enough to get it. So…move along.”
Jade was the one who moved along, however. Watching her go, Sorlo couldn’t help but to ponder over all this. Despite the pointed sharpness of it all, that had been one of the most civil conversations they had ever had!
Not to mention that he was enjoying this vie
w of behind. She had such a fine ass, and the willowy length of her body meant she shook it pleasantly as she walked. Whether that was intentional or not, meant to tease him or simply a part of the inherit charm that all desirable woman held, he wasn’t sure.
Then she turned the corner and was out of sight, breaking the spell she had put upon him simply by existing. He stood there, gathering odd looks, and pondered over what she had said while subtly playing with one of the lights, pulling the energy in and out of it so that it blinked on and off.
“That’s really distracting,” someone complained.
Sorlo stopped. “Sorry,” he replied absently, and let the last bit of warm light he was holding onto slowly slip from between his fingers.
Exactly what did she mean? Why would I get told the same thing that she did?
Well, there was only one way to find out, wasn’t there?
To that end, he rode the lift all the way up, navigating through communications until he came to stand outside Byron’s office.
Silently poking his head around the corner to try and catch a glimpse, he was interrupted by a voice from behind. “I hope you realize I have command of all security footage. I saw you coming from miles away.”
“Ah!” he yelped, practically jumping his own height in the air while his stomach gave a sickening lurch. It was much like the sensation he got in his gut whenever a ship began to dive in for a landing, only much worse because he wasn’t in charge of it. Spinning around, he found Byron watching him with cool regard. “Chief! You startled me.”
Byron flashed a very white smile, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I suspect I did. I suppose you came looking for your assassin friend.”
“I passed her on the way,” Sorlo admitted. “She mentioned something about you possibly needing to tell me something that she had already heard?”
“Yes,” the chief said. “But I imagine you won’t be hearing it in quite the same way.” His voice was sympathetic but firm, and Sorlo knew that he was about to get a stern talking-to.
But it’s still the same day. Aren’t I supposed to get some rest first?
He knew it wasn’t quite fair to be thinking in that matter, though. He had come looking for this, not the other way around.
Both men, alien and human alike, headed into the office. With the doors shut behind them, the talking-to began.
The Illurian wanted to hang his head in shame like a child who has been called out on for their behavior, but he was a seasoned warrior and so he held all his most visible emotions inside. He really heard nothing that he hadn’t already been expecting to hear, but it was slightly painful all the same. He wasn’t exactly in any sort of trouble but he did stand to lose several of his prized marks as a result of the unintentional carelessness in battle that led to the death of his crewmates.
When it was over, Byron just sat back and regarded him. Sorlo kept his thoughts to himself, trying to take care of his tender feelings while letting the information absorb. Very quickly, a bit of their conversation stuck out to him.
“Wait. Sir, did you say…”
“I did,” the chief said, sitting up straight again. The man was so competent, so skilled at switching back and forth between personalities as the situation called for it, that Sorlo respected him even more all over again. And it was hard to respect someone who was giving you bad news, but he managed it.
That was the Illurian way, after all.
“That’s a potentiality but it doesn’t have to be the end result. There is a way for you to win your honor back.”
Sorlo leaned forward, breathless and gripping the metal desk between them. “I’ll do anything.”
“I know you will, and that’s exactly what I’m counting on.”
And Byron explained, very briefly, everything that he had told Jade, though he ended it differently while Sorlo clung to his every word like it was keeping him alive. “If you were to do this, you would be able to do for any survivors what you could not do for your own men.”
Yes. This is exactly what I need to do.
Not allowing himself to think of what this would mean as far as having to spend a great deal more time with the assassin, he said, “And Jade agreed to this?”
“I have my ways.” Byron turned his head slightly, flashing a grin that seemed lost somewhere between kind and devious and grim. “Now, I would like to have a nap before I’m called down to help process that young cadet. You’re dismissed, warrior.”
Nodding, Sorlo got to his feet and gave the Federation salute. “You won’t be disappointed.”
“I better not be,” Byron called after him.
Aware that there was quite the bit of a boulder hanging over his head now, Sorlo thought about seeking out Jade before realizing that she also hadn’t really been able to get any sleep yet. And neither had he, though his exhaustion was mostly in his bones.
Still, he found his sleeping quarters while fielding exactly the sort of third-degree he’d been expecting. Actual rest was a long time in coming. It arrived only in short bursts between the scenes that played out behind his eyes, flashes of light and heat of the sort of power no amount of Illurians could ever hope to combat. Explosions. Screams. The groaning of metal beneath his feet as his proud ship had buckled under the force of the onslaught from the ambushing reinforcements. It played over and over in his mind like new, just as it had every single time he tried to sleep on the trip back to here. Some of it was faded and echoing, while other parts of it seemed to be so vivid he could feel the hairs on his arms melting from the heat, his suit warping with it.
Gasping awake for the umpteenth time, Sorlo sat up in bed and gasped into his hands. His heart was hammering in his chest as it seemed to do so often these days. Shakes gripped his shoulders, and he let the tremors wrack through his body until they had run their course. Wiping tears and sweat from his face, feeling at least slightly better for the moment, he headed to the showers and then down to the cafeteria.
The meal today was reconstituted protein substitute with a side of mixed greens grown directly in one of Red Riser’s own greenhouses. As far as Federation food went, it wasn’t half-bad. At least it meant that some of it was fresh, which was typically a luxury when there was no planet right nearby. He even had a quarter of a tomato in his salad, so that must have meant the harvest was going well.
That didn’t mean the tomato tasted good, though. It was mealy and tasteless, though that was also a vast improvement of sorts over the regular fare.
“How can you eat junk like that?”
Sorlo wasn’t even surprised when Jade perched on the bench at the opposite side of the table, long hair flowing in the breeze she made just by walking. “What junk?” he asked curiously. “Compared to the freeze-dried stuff on your Falcon…”
Jade scowled at him over her own half-eaten tray. “For your information, everything I put in my body while aboard my Falcon is carefully crafted in order to meet all nutritional requirements.”
“Is that so?” Sorlo asked. It was meant to merely be an absentminded question, as he didn’t really care for the conversation, but he realized the double meaning to his words when Jade’s mouth opened slightly. She looked startled, but she quickly wiped the look from her face and replaced it with that blank mask; disappointment filled him at the sight of it, making him realize exactly how much he enjoyed those rare glimpses of true emotion from her.
She said blandly, “Yes,” and he ate a little more in the silence that followed before she spoke again. “I suppose you get used to anything after so many years. It’s hard to adjust to something else after so long.”
“I know exactly how that is,” Sorlo said softly. His throat constricted and he sat back, deciding he was done with food for now. His stomach felt very sour all of a sudden.
“I imagine you do. How old were you when the siege came to your planet?”
Surprised, he lifted his head and peered at her from beneath strands of moonlight bangs. Was this the first personal questio
n she’d asked him that didn’t seem to be double-barbed?
“I was not very old. Four or five in standard human years.”
Jade’s lips quirked a little. “Awfully young, but just old enough.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “If I had been slightly younger, I doubt I would have known what was going on. As it is, it’s just impressions of differences. Love and peace, and then suddenly not. I was a refugee for quite a while. It is difficult to suddenly have nowhere to go, to shelter with others who only tolerate you or don’t like you at all.” He paused to think, mentally catching himself up on how much she knew before deciding to just skip to the point. “The Light-Bringers were my family. We made it so. We were…our own planet again. And now I am lost once more, a refugee again even though this time I have a home. That sounds stupid.”