by Susan Grant
He lifted his hands to his head, lacing his fingers atop his braids. Hair that Kelly had braided for him. His chest squeezed as he savored the memory, their treasured quiet times, the periods of calm in the storm that was them.
It must be like that for his parents. A love like theirs.
He’d been lucky to grow up with such a couple to observe and on which to model a future relationship. A hardened warrior, his father had been a loving husband. And a good father.
“Please, I want to see the surface,” Hawk had begged him repeatedly as a small boy, until the sky warrior had finally capitulated and taken him dirtside.
He could still recall the long lift ride—down, down, down, his ears popping with the change in pressure until the air grew dense.
Now that he was an adult, Hawk understood his father had intended more that day than to simply indulge a young boy’s wish. He’d wanted to show his son what it was like down there, up close, rather than as a fantasy world viewed through thick tempered nanoglass in a microclimate-controlled room two miles above. To keep Hawk from yearning to live among the grounders, he’d give him a dose of reality, of dirt. A trip to the surface would dissuade his son from pining for it ever again. What cloud-dwelling sky warrior would want to live there?
It might have taken Hawk nearly four decades and a trip to Earth for him to realize it, but his father’s strategy had actually backfired.
Hawk hadn’t been repulsed. No, not in the least. On the surface, he had smelled, heard, seen, tasted, experienced. People wearing work clothes… dirt under fingernails… mist falling. Cook fires burning. Weeds spouting. Weathered clothes, weathered faces. Knowing smiles that said, You’re the ones missing out, not us. It was raw and messy and real.
And he’d loved it.
His relationship with Kelly was also raw and real. Rife with imperfections. And that’s what he loved about them, about the life he’d found with her. Not only the perfect parts but the soul-shaking, wrenching, blindingly genuine bits in between. It turned out the things that left him feeling most alive were connected to everything around him. Not walled off. Not protected. Part of life.
Part of Kelly… but in ways his world had never intended.
They were perfect for each other because they weren’t. That she was no longer perfect in his world’s eyes made her even more so in his.
An idea coalesced in his mind then… an imperfect plan. He returned his gaze to the data-vis.
Dragon-Leader Torren: We heard what happened with Kelly. Please call.
While Hawk had sometimes chafed at living in his parents’ shadow, struggling to live up to their success, his father never failed to be there for him. He’d always gone above and beyond the call of duty for his firstborn son. Would he do so now?
Hawk began to type:
Major, Hakkim, H: Yes, Father. I need to speak with you.
His father replied almost immediately, given the vast distance between them. Thank you, Goddess technology, Hawk thought.
Dragon-Leader Torren: When? Your mother and I are very concerned.
Hawk typed his reply, then jogged back down the hill.
Chapter Seventeen
On the flight line, Hawk hauled himself up the ladder to his Raptor, sealing the hatch. Sliding into his pilot seat, he welcomed the feeling of being wrapped in the powerful craft.
He placed his hands on the console and closed his eyes, letting his mind sink into that of the ship’s, letting his thoughts float, unimpeded, in the silence, until it settled him.
He was ready when the comm from his father arrived. He’d need all his wits and powers of persuasion.
“Father.”
The man who looked so much like him wore an air of defeat. His angular face was drawn, his lips sloped downward, his eyes shadowed. The last time he’d seen his father look so sad was when his grandfather died unexpectedly. He’s upset that after so many years of dashed hopes, I’m once again a Solo. Like Ertugreth, he’ll say it’s too bad about Kelly, but the odds look great for her replacement.
His father spoke before he could. “We like Kelly very much, Hakkim, your mother and I. She’s funny. Smart. A beautiful young woman. Clearly with strong feelings for you. She is what any parents would want for their child. Most of all, it did our hearts good to finally see our son in love.”
Hawk blinked once. This wasn’t what he’d expected to hear, but it was all he’d hoped. “Thank you, sir.”
“Now this.” His father shook his head slowly. “Tell us, what are your thoughts? What can we do? How can we help you and Kelly? We can’t imagine ourselves in your situation. Goddess guide us through this.”
“I want to appear before the Council of Elders and appeal to be removed from consideration for a Sky Mate rematch. I could use your help in getting me an audience. As a Solo, I don’t have the status.” Hawk paused to let that sink in. No use dillydallying. Might as well launch right into it, skip the preliminaries where he’d remind his father of the tremendous influence he and his mother had on Sky’s End, the respect they’d earned, their friendships with the rich and powerful, including Falcon’s father, the governor. “I request this due to being matched already. Kelly, thank the Goddess, isn’t dead. Yet the same rules have been applied as when a Sky Mate passes. Ours isn’t a severed match but an active one. What would happen if Kelly healed and I was already matched to someone else?”
His father reared back. “A double match.”
“A simultaneous match. How would that work, Father? Would my two Sky Mates be matched to each other as well? How would I divide my time between them? Who would train with me? Would all three of us share a bed? That would be the most efficient use of our time—”
His father’s hand shot up, his mouth twisting with amusement. “Save the details for those in our citizenry whose tastes run in that direction.” Then he sobered. “Talk to me, son. I’ll need as much information as possible.”
Hawk steepled his hands and leaned forward, explaining the work he and Kelly had done on Project Sky Mates. His father listened raptly as Hawk relayed the story of the flight that had resulted in Kelly’s brain injury, something they’d all assumed was healed. “If you don’t feel you can get involved, I understand. No hard feelings. In that case, I’ll come home and take care of it myself. I’ll fight for an audience until they grant me one.”
“I will have you do nothing of the sort.” His father gripped the armrests of his chair. “I’ll get to work securing you an audience right away.” His lips compressed. “That I can do. But I can’t guarantee the results will be to your liking.”
“I don’t expect a guarantee. But if they refuse to reconsider, I’ll be back to try again, and the Council of Elders will rue the day they ever heard my name.” He’d never give up fighting for Kelly.
When the call ended, Hawk wearily hung his head and sent his plea to the Goddess. His family was now involved. Tentative hope edged aside his despair. That was a start at least.
Kelly immersed herself in work, just like the old days. The days before Hawk.
Poker-faced, she briefed some WUGs for a mission the next day, then hid in a back office. By now the news of her disqualification had spread around the base. Kelly begged off seeing anyone, avoiding even Dee. There was plenty to keep her busy.
She finalized arrangements to expand the number of Solos destined for training at Webber. Then her contact at the Intergalactic Dating Agency produced consent forms she’d requested for those interested in being Sky Mates. She also readied the plans she’d developed with Hawk for joint forces training, needed for gaining approval at the Triad Fleet level. She could probably write the chapter on the hazards involved with mixing spacecraft and fighter jets!
She frowned and rubbed her head. “You’re medically disqualified. Grounded—permanently.”
Hawk had been spending a lot of time communicating with his command the past few days. She worried that the length of time it was taking to get an answer didn’t bode well for his
goal of escaping being rematched.
What happened if they found him a new Sky Mate candidate? Would Hawk feel attraction for that woman? Even if he didn’t want to, would he be able to help it? Synergy was synergy. Would the couple sync before Kelly’s eyes?
That person would swoop in the way her stepfather had done, taking the place of her dad, capturing her mom’s full focus, leaving Kelly to fend for herself.
Was she destined to keep repeating that fate? She’d done her best to avoid serious relationships. Then Hawk showed up and bowled her over.
With text messages! She opened up her data-vis and touched her fingertip to his headshot, his smokin’-hot Mr. Serious face next to some of their old conversations.
Major, Hakkim, H: I thank you for your due diligence on the matter of seeing to our comfort.
Ha. Hawk, the master of social awkwardness.
The master of her heart.
The love of her life.
Don’t go. Don’t leave me to learn how to live without you. The wall she’d erected around herself wavered. Her face crumpling, she crushed the heels of her palms to her eyes to staunch the flow of tears, but they began to fall anyway, damn it.
“Doggone it, Crackers.” Dee breezed in. She opened a desk drawer and pulled out a box of tissues. “Don’t look so surprised. I keep them in the same place in my office. Why are you in here all alone when it’s clear you need a friend?” She sat on the edge of the desk, rubbing Kelly’s back while she tidied up.
Sniffling, Kelly dabbed at her wet nose. “I didn’t want to scare people. I’m an ugly crier.”
“I’ve never seen you cry.”
Kelly laughed. “Now you know why.”
“You’re adorable. I’m glad I tracked you down. It took a while. Why was Hawk ordered to the SCIF?”
“What?” Kelly peered at her through swollen eyes. “He was?”
“Yep, Sky’s End is looking for him. A deep space, a high-priority incoming signal. I get all those notifications, you know, a benefit of my job. What’s going on?”
“He didn’t say.” She hoped he wasn’t about to do something irreversible. Chances were good if he hadn’t said anything. He knew how she felt.
Unless his world planned to unveil his next Sky Mate.
Kelly’s eyes narrowed. “I need to get inside the SCIF.”
“Already arranged. I’ll escort you.” Dee grabbed a tissue and cleaned away the last of her mascara smudges. “I figured you’d want to listen in.”
“I love you, Rainbow. I owe you.”
“Nah. Maybe just a piña colada at O’Malley’s.”
They jumped to their feet and headed out.
Hawk couldn’t believe that after only a few Terran weeks since the Council of Elders had blessed his match with Kelly, he’d be facing them once more. Solos didn’t win audiences with the honored elders. But thanks to his newfound, although disputed, status as a Sky Mate and his parents’ help, he had.
He stood in front of a large screen in full dress uniform, posture erect, his hands clasped behind his back. Before him were the council chambers where the leaders of his world went about their legislative business. Certainly, during the war, this grand hall was in a constant state of high-stakes stress. In peace, he was certain matters were much more mundane.
Like seeing to the destruction of his life and Kelly’s.
He couldn’t help glaring, his lip curling in anger. Settle yourself.
Calm.
The Council’s speaker announced, “Commodore Hakkim, come forward and speak!”
Murmuring rumbled like distant thunder from the audience seated in the gallery. He could see the silvered heads of sky warriors and also the diverse skin tones and hair colors of the rest of the citizens. Every seat was full. He’d never seen such large attendance.
“Order!” the speaker scolded.
The ancient Sky Mate elders turned in unison to face him. They always looked as if they’d swallowed a bitter pill. He wished he could stride to the center of their U-shaped conference table and address them face-to-face. But alas, it had to be this way. He could only hope his desire to right this situation came through despite the countless light-years separating them.
Now he must make the most of the scant moments they’d granted him. Speak fast.
Think faster.
He stepped closer to the display, his hand over his heart as he bowed deeply. Resuming his military bearing, he took a breath and said, “Honored Elders, I reject the move to rematch me. I reject it as a violation of the sanctity of Sky Mate pairings, which has been in place since the beginning of our history. I humbly request that this improper order to see me rematched be rescinded. I also request that my genetic profile be removed from further consideration so that I may be by my true mate’s side while she heals. That is where I belong, with her. Not here, before you, battling such an appalling miscarriage of our laws.”
The muffled murmurs became a roar.
“Order!” the speaker cried. “Order, I say!”
Hawk suppressed a smile. Well, that should give the elders something to chew on while he loaded his next salvo.
Chapter Eighteen
Dee drove Kelly across the base in the staff car. “Sky Mates aren’t plug-and-play. Sky’s End had better start treating us Terrans”—she made air quotes when she said the word—“nicer than this, or we’ll cut off the supply of Sky Mates.”
Kelly laughed. “Damn straight.”
Then their grins faded. “How’s everything been going, Kel? Want to talk about it?”
“He’s fighting for me. For us. I just worry he’ll wreck his future over it. I hope that’s not what he’s about to do in the SCIF.”
“Hawk knows better.” Dee gave her arm squeeze. “You know it too.”
Kelly nodded. “He’ll do the right thing.” If only the right thing didn’t have the potential to be so painful for them both.
“Objection!” one of the examiners on the Board of Physicians bellowed at Hawk. “The Sky Mate candidate cannot receive the implant. Without the implant, there is no pairing. Thus, this sky warrior must be rematched.”
“Negative,” Hawk argued. “As healers, you make diagnoses, you confirm viable matches. You do not bring a sky warrior to heel, to force an illegal rematch.”
“How is this illegal?”
“Paired or no, I already have a genetically confirmed Sky Mate! It is against our laws to have more than one.” His father had warned him to not bring up a trio of Sky Mates in bed in front of the elders. But if he needed to deploy the very visual argument in his favor, he would.
“A Sky Mate who has been disqualified,” Dragon-Elder Kaledonia pointed out. “Do not forget, a Solo sky warrior takes vows to submit to the process of finding a mate. It is crucial to the survival of our world.”
“It is.” Hawk nodded at the regal, elderly man. “Honored Elder, not having me to match won’t hurt our readiness, not long term. Project Sky Mates is a success. In a very short time, there have been two pairings with Terran women, with Kelly and me as the third, her disqualification aside. Before this, there was a ten-year dry spell! The drought is over. There’ll be more matches. I believe that. It’s what brought me here. To see Sky’s End returned to its former glory. An abundance of Sky Mates.”
The elders hunkered down to confer among themselves.
“I cannot bear another moment of this ridiculousness!” Hawk’s mother had stepped forward to speak. “The Council of Elders, our entire government for that matter, ought to give my son a medal for his efforts, not seek to turn him into a… a cog in a Sky Mate factory!”
Hawk chuckled. Another commendation was the last thing he was after. Unless it would help his cause.
“You are out of order, Dragon-Leader Minn!” the speaker scolded.
His mother reacted with an arched brow. His father stood behind her left shoulder, hands on his hips. Other couples moved closer to surround them, Sky Mates ganging up on the oldsters on the council. Sh
e lifted her glowing lavender-brown eyes to Hawk and nodded.
He nodded back, feeling love and pride for the couple who had raised him.
He turned to the huddled elders once more, his voice quieter. Make these words count. “Kelly has suffered an injury to her brain. If we cancel my rematch, or at least forestall it, she and I can work on seeing to her health. Let us give her the time she needs to heal. And I do believe she will. We share a natural synergy that is as powerful as it is beautiful. Our bond is everything our Dragon-flying ancestors hoped for. To tear us apart would be… it would be unconscionable.” He girded himself against a surge of emotion. With his hand over his chest, he said, “Such a severing may not damage brains, it may not be visible on scans, but I assure you, damage will be done. To the heart, to the soul…” A thickening in his throat cut off further words.
It had gone deeply silent, the entire chamber. Unease flickered in his gut. He hoped he had not “screwed this up,” to use a Terran phrase. “Honored Elders, I again ask you to reconsider and cancel this rematch.”
He bowed, stepping backward. He’d done all he could. It was up to the council now.
He drove his thoughts inward, using all his creative and logical powers to come up with alternatives if this first attempt failed. He’d plunged so deep in plotting and planning that when a voice shattered his concentration, he jolted, startled.
“There’ll be no flights for her in our craft until she is healed,” a stern and hoarse female voice warned.
Dragon-Elder Sparrit had addressed him.
“No, Honored Elder.” Hawk’s heartbeat began to accelerate with guarded hope.
“We will run more tests and come up with a therapy if warranted,” she continued. “We will work closely with the Terrans on the matter. You’ll remain on Earth to see to the Sky Mate program. You’ll also remain, technically, a Solo for the duration. On that we cannot budge, Commodore.”