by Greg Dragon
“Look,” she said. “I know the type of woman Marian is. She is fiercely loyal to you, but she respects herself, too, Rafian. If she were to find out that you are still doing things behind her back, I can see her shutting down the cloner and sinking a knife into you.”
“Yeah, we have already been down that path. To be honest, the day I told her that as a Jumper I should be able to sleep with any and everybody I chose, she has been different to me. I am not sure if what we had in Luca will ever come back, and it is totally my fault. She treats the ring I gave her as a metaphoric noose that she will tighten if I cross her, then throws out the option of us separating as if it is a choice. Tyherans don’t believe in divorce and Marian is my wife. In Phaser years, that is a millennia and I can’t say that I am good with that. I am more confused now than I ever have been, but I’m working it out slowly. I just need time.”
He walked over to the door and made to leave. He needed to get away and to retreat into himself the way he always did when life’s awkward moments made him feel vulnerable. How they judge me, he thought as he looked over at the tiny Vestalian warrior he had slept with on multiple occasions, now levying blame at him for being a womanizer. It seemed hypocritical, but he knew he was wrong in terms of Camille and Marian. He should separate from them both, but Marian was his wife and he was in love with her. He had to work at reigniting their bonds of matrimony.
“How about this, Commander? How about you actually try? Everything you have tried to do in your career has been a tremendous success, yet you shy away from trying at love and loyalty where your heart is concerned. You never talk about your history, but it wouldn’t take a psych expert to realize that somewhere in your past you lost something and you are playing it out now with the feelings of those you love the most.”
“I guess so, Tayden. This is the second time now within the span of an hour that you have reminded me that I have issues based on my history. Look, I understand and I will try to keep it in check for you moving forward, okay? For you, for Cammy and for Rhee. I will be a proper officer and a Phaser.”
Tayden walked over to him with the empty glass in her hand. She smiled at him and quickly twisted her hair into a bun and slipped a pin into it. He watched her go through the motion with some curiosity, then made to exit her office so that he could find something to punch that would not break. Tayden stood before him, barefooted and smiling the way she did with her subordinates whenever she had given a command and wanted them gone.
“Don’t look at me that way. I don’t appreciate it,” Rafian said to her, annoyed and unimpressed with the gesture.
“Rafian, do not make me into the enemy for talking to you. I love you—gods know I love you!” She reached up and touched his cheek before delivering a delicate kiss to his, a kiss he didn’t return. She smiled at him being suddenly cold to her, as if she’d expected it. She knew him better than anybody else outside of Camille, and she knew that in time he would get over it. “I love you Rafian, but you need to hear this, so thyping deal with it, man.”
With a nod of mock appreciation, Rafian VCA exited the office of Tayden Lark—the one woman whose enigmatic relationship with him had always been reliable, without any of the dramatic strings attached. He already missed being with her—she looked so good with her hair pinned up like that—and it felt as if a small part of him died inside her office. He felt small and stupid, and he silently vowed that there would be a change where the women in his life were concerned. Not necessarily the things that Tayden implored him to do, but he would cease giving himself up in the way he had done in the past.
He needed a drink and some alone time, so after taking the ban off the floor that Tayden’s office was on, he took the elevator up to the top floor. Once there, he locked the access to his office and sat in silence for a long time.
~*~*~*~
While Rafian was rescuing Camille from her torture, the Rendron was deadlocked in a fight against the Geralos destroyer. Commander Cilas "Rend" MEC sat on the bridge of the Rendron, scanning numerous screens and issuing orders for his subordinates to fire one thing or another to counter the Geralos's attack. The Messio-Tral had been decimated and when the Rendron jumped in to lend some assistance, it had been too late to save them. But Cilas MEC was not going to let the destroyer go.
It was times like these when he missed his friend Helga the most. She was an ace in every sense of the word and if she were there, her Night Hawks would have been all over the Geralos ships, mincing them up into pieces. The pilots he’d sent out to do the job were being massacred, but pride would not let him quit and jump away to safer space. This was his fight and he did not aim to lose it. The Rendron was to hold the line as long as possible, till reinforcements showed up to rout the Geralos.
There had been calls made to elite forces all around the first quadrant and one of them was bound to answer—Cilas was sure of it. The ship’s shields were close to critical but he made sure that the faster-than-light drives were protected above everything else. The first direct hit to their hull—once the shields vanished—would prompt him to jump away to the third quadrant. But until that happened, he would keep on playing defense against the enemy ship.
After an hour had passed and the main shields were gone, twelve, red-tinted fighters appeared beneath the Geralos destroyer. The ships seemed to have appeared out of thin air but began a display of masterful maneuvers as they destroyed the Geralos fighters, one after another. Rend knew them to be the Phasers of Vestalia but his happiness was stunted by the realization that the Geralos could call for help from one of their other destroyers.
"Commander Cilas, this is Frank OTA of the Phaser Agency of Vestalia. We have been sent here by Commander VCA to disable the Geralos destroyer. How are you holding up, sir?"
"Just happy to see you, Frank. You think you can disable that floating fortress with those mosquito ships? You make it sound easy but I know better than to question a Phaser."
"Happy to help, sir. We will have the Rendron clear in just a few..."
"Don't take too long, Phaser. There will be more of these things flying in soon if they start losing."
"The Geralos know our ships well, Commander. They would be foolish to give us more targets."
The crimson fighters continued their onslaught and forced the destroyer to take its attention off of the Rendron to lock in on them with trace lasers. But the Phaser phantoms were too fast and skillful, and before long all of the Geralos ships were destroyed and the Phasers began taking turns at the destroyer. Seeing the tide turn in his favor, Cilas ordered his crew to retrieve the disabled ships floating around outside and to begin repairs on the shields. He saw no reason to press the Geralos with the Phasers there and took the opportunity to get the Rendron back to full power to deliver a final devastating blow.
Inside his phantom, Frank OTA turned away from his comrades and fired a strange-looking shot through the shields of the destroyer. Frank was a golden giant with short blonde hair, cut low in the way of a Marine. He knew that the Geralos would jump away from a losing fight but his orders were to kill all of them. As soon as he fired the shot, the FTL drives of the destroyer came to life and it blinked away, retreating from their region of space. The Phaser phantoms—with no more targets to destroy—landed in a neat line aboard the Rendron and Cilas rushed down from the bridge to thank them personally.
When he saw the empty phantoms parked on the bridge, he was confused.
"Is this some sort of joke?” Cilas asked. “Chief, where the hell are the pilots of these vessels?"
"You won't believe me, Commander, but they landed, hopped out with assault rifles and then vanished into thin air."
Cilas MEC began to laugh hysterically when he heard this. He had known the Jumpers before they became the “Phasers” of the day, and he knew they had the means to disappear and reappear magically. He slapped the massive chief on his shoulder as he walked past him on his way back to the bridge, and gave him a wink to let him kn
ow to keep it between the two of them.
"They are gone to finish the job, Marec. You can continue looking to our disabled fighters as they come in and don’t worry about our friends."
"Aye, aye sir." Marec said, confused and frightened at the same time by the Phasers. It wasn't every day that a man saw people appear out of thin air and then vanish again, but it was his commander's casual acceptance of it that confused him.
As the destroyer jumped to a safe area above Geral, Frank OTA and the eleven Phasers he had brought with him appeared inside what seemed to be a cafeteria. Injured Geralos were arguing over plates of food and the atmosphere held a strange mist. The Phasers began to open fire on the helpless Geralos and Frank flicked out his las-sword and set the edge buzzing before running through the hallways, looking for the bridge. He was not as skilled a swordsman as Rafian or Yuth Varience, but to an enlisted soldier, he was death incarnate.
The cruel las-sword cut ribbons of light through the mist and the stunned Geralos fell before it, not understanding how the humans had managed to get onboard their ship. One of the commanders of the destroyer heard the familiar hum and took out his own las-sword to be ready. When Frank came upon him, he was forced to pause and the two men stared at one another for a time. The large Geralos was quick and started the fight with a number of flips and twists in hopes of intimidating his human opponent. Frank did a small kata of his own, throwing the las-sword up to twirl while he spun, kicked and bowed, then grabbed the hilt as it fell past his knee and launched himself into the unsuspecting Geralos. There was a mutual respect between the two, the kind that comes when enemies recognize the discipline of the fighting arts in one another.
They clashed blades and parried as if they had all the time in the world. Phasers filed past Frank with their guns drawn, but he and the Geralos commander paid them no mind. They knew that a mistake, any mistake, would result in their opponent taking off their head so the only thing that mattered to them was winning the duel. Frank feinted a thrust to draw out the Geralos' guard and as the big lizard swung to disarm him, he spun acrobatically and drove a hidden knife into his throat before dancing out of the way of a possible counter. The Geralos fell with a strange look of satisfaction across his face and Frank bowed out of respect. He hated that he’d had to resort to a trick to beat the Geralos swordsman, but he was out-classed and it would have taken a better Phaser to best a creature of his skillset.
After the fight with the Geralos swordsman and the charging of the bridge, it wasn’t long before Frank OTA had commandeered the destroyer and the Geralos onboard were taken prisoner and locked inside of the brig. Frank sat in the captain’s chair and breathed a sigh of relief as his men tried their best to decipher the controls of the Geralos ship. The plans were to keep the ship for the Alliance and deliver the Geralos prisoners to Meluvia, where they would be tried and executed for war crimes.
Frank waited several hours before calling Tayden and Cilas to update them on their status, since he was enjoying the feeling of having his own ship.
“Have you considered just keeping the damn thing?” Tayden asked when he told her what had happened with their invasion.
“Are you serious, Tayden? What about the qualified captains and military leaders of the alliance, won’t they want this ship for the war?”
“Do we, the Phasers of Anstractor, own our own destroyer, Frank?”
“Well…no, we don’t.”
“Are we a part of the bloody Alliance?”
“No, we Phasers stand apart. But…”
“But nothing Frank. What you and your men did was the type of maneuver that makes it into the history books. Name the thyping ship and enjoy it…Captain. I will brief Rafian on this new change and maybe soon I will be able to come aboard and check it out for myself.”
~*~*~*~
The Geralos Maes stood frozen in the bathroom as he watched his comm readout relay the message that they had lost the Helysian’s psych ship and the Phaser woman named Camille. How long would it be before they came for him, he thought as he walked back to the bedroom where Pryston, his Meluvian lover was napping. He wondered how many times he would need to sleep with the man in order for him to start talking. The Meluvian was an ace Marine pilot who was rumored to be on the list for Phaser recruitment. He sat on the bed and injected a shot of adaptation serum in between his fingers so that he could deal with the artificial oxygen for another sixty hours.
“What you injecting there, lover? AND, can I have some?” the Meluvian asked as he turned on his side and began kissing Maes’s abdomen.
The Geralos stared down at him with disgust, wanting to push his eyes into his skull and bite him in the head. This was the one part of the job he hated—sleeping with disgusting aliens. He got no satisfaction from it. He missed the boys at the temple of Florax back home, and had used his imagination to conjure them up in order to consummate the session with the Meluvian.
“Rumor has it you will be a Phaser soon,” Maes said, trying to get him on the topic. He had tried in vain many times before, but the Meluvian had a one-track mind.
“You and your obsession with Phasers, Sako,” Pryston said, using the alias Maes had come up with. “It drives me up the wall.”
“Answer my questions and I will stop asking Pryston, Is that so hard?”
“Not hard at all. I don’t know much more than you, though. I know that they admire talent, that’s about it.”
“Ever thype one before?”
“Now you’re speaking my language! No, I can’t say that I have. I bet it would be amazing though… They know how to move in a fight, so, naturally it should transfer into their thyping, right?”
Maes was getting annoyed at Pryston, so he thought about the information that he did have. Aurora had a lover or friend that was a Phaser. It was something he’d overheard on the bridge when she had taken some time off recently. The controllers were gossiping about her and he caught enough of it to know, so he turned the conversation towards her.
“What about Aurora’s—“
“Who, Rafian?”
“Is that his name?”
“You are on Helysian how long and you don’t know Rafian VCA? That’s Aurora’s brother. He rescued her from death when they were cadets. He did a drop on Geral, stole a ship and made it back in one piece. He is probably the greatest soldier to come out of here.”
“That’s amazing. He dropped to Geral, you say? Are all Phasers that good?”
“Considering that he’s the leader, probably not, but every Phaser that I have met impressed the hell out of me.”
Sleeping with the Meluvian had finally proven fruitful for Maes. He now knew that Aurora’s link to the Phasers was more important than anyone else’s. She was the sister of the most dangerous threat to his people and more importantly, she was vulnerable. It would be easy to kidnap her and draw him out, but he had heard about Phasers teleporting all over the place, so he would only do it when they knew how to capture Rafian. He lay back down next to the Meluvian and thought about it at length. He would need to get the scientists back on his planet to figure out a way to keep Rafian’s body in stasis. This way, he could kidnap Aurora, draw her brother out, then freeze him in stasis and bring him back to Geral for questioning. He couldn’t help but smile at his luck in being so close to Aurora. He would relish the day when he could capture her and lock her away. All of this was thanks to the Meluvian lying next to him.
“Thanks for spending the night with me, Pryston,” he said in a convincingly affectionate way.
“You know, it’s my pleasure, Sako. I should be thanking you.”
Memory 4
Camille Yan woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the heat of the bright sun beaming down on her face. She couldn’t believe she was on Vestalia, and waking up to birds made it even harder for her to believe. Her body no longer ached with the pains of her capture and as she looked down at her fingers and toes, she realized that someone had given her a
manicure and pedicure sometime during her sleep.
How long did I sleep? She wondered this as the thought of someone clipping her fingernails and toenails drove home the reality that she had been unconscious for quite some time. The bed that she laid on looked like a flat, circular, glass table, but the surface was soft and sturdy and though she could see the floor beneath her, it felt like heaven. She had never seen a bed like it and the equipment attached to it was foreign, too.
Glancing at the room itself, she was reminded of the Jumper temple and all of the wonderful secrets that it had held when she and Tayden had torn it apart, looking for answers. She attempted to sit up. She was afraid of the pain that would come from the effort, but was too brave not to try. To her surprise, her limbs felt strong, stronger than she had remembered them being even before her capture, and it reignited her enthusiasm.
Hopping off the bed onto the metal floor, she flinched at the coldness that ran up her bare feet to her knees. That was unfamiliar. She walked over to the screens that displayed her vitals and began to peruse them, wondering what had been done to her. It wasn’t long before she found her answer.
“Cloned.”
The word fell out of her mouth in a whisper as she read through the medical records and saw where the attempts at healing her damaged body were considered futile. So a cloning procedure had been ordered and her first body was processed to reveal all evidence of what had been done. The records showed the worst of atrocities and as she read through them, she didn’t realize that she was crying. There was a time when Camille wondered how Rafian could live with the amount of hate he had for the Geralos, but now she understood.
They had experimented on her, keeping her awake for the majority of it to gauge her reaction to pain. The worst of it was when they’d cut her head open to do things with her brain. The Geralos had an interest in the female Vestalian brain because of the “sight.” Random women on the old planet were prescient and called seekers. This “power” was one of the main motivations behind the lizards’ invasion and continued torture of her people. They would bite into the brain and steal the gift, using it in turn as a means of psychic mind control.