“I love you Sean,” she cried barely able to form the words. “I never wanted to leave you.”
“But you did, and now it’s time for you to do it again baby. Run, don’t walk to my ship. It will take you to safety. Go,” he urged her as he pulled her to her feet pointing to the direction of the waiting fighter.
“Goodbye Ms. Novellas,” Yasa said warmly with a wave as if they had been old friends.
It sent a shiver down her spine. As she ran away Sean walked towards the Telarian. He looked back to make sure she was still running once he had reached his desired distance from Tomac.
“Our paths have crossed many times Captain Connor. Every time you have hurt me in ways you can’t imagine. You killed my wife and my daughter. Did you know Telarians mate for life? For life,” he said again angrily, adding emphasis to his statement. “The bond is caused by a chemical similar to your oxytocin but much stronger. I feel her absence, I suffer every single day from the pain. You cannot begin to understand the agony of loss a Telarian, or a Bvaltari for that matter, feels for the loss of their mate” he explained, nodding towards and referencing the suffering Kara endured. “As cruel fortune would have it years later you killed my son as well. It would seem that fate has chosen you as my nemesis.”
He motioned towards the captain and his men approached and forced him to his knees. One of them pulled out a widely braided, brown metal collar. He placed this device around Connor’s neck and it made an audible click as it locked. Captain Tomac raised his arm up and pointed to a similar looking object on his wrist.
“At the push of a button I can blow your head off. If you remove the collar, if for some reason you are more than two hundred meters from me. POP,” he said making a popping expression with his hands. “If I die, when my hearts stop beating, you die. Your life is now physically, as it has been inexplicably linked to mine. It is regrettable for your mate that you must die so that I might avenge mine.”
Sean did not know for sure if this Telarian was telling the truth but he suddenly felt very sick. If what this Telarian was saying was true he would want him dead too. He could not fault him for wanting to avenge his family.
“When did I do these murders you claim?” he asked.
Tomac responded with a brutal backhand that knocked him off his knees.
“Never again will you speak as though you are not guilty,” Tomac growled angrily through clenched teeth. “YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!” he screamed every word individually, deliberately, enraged, spit flying from his mouth. He kicked Sean in the chest with his booted foot hard enough to knock the wind from him.
He calmed quickly. This man lying at his feet deserved to know what he had done. He knew Captain Connor to be an honorable man, it did not change the blood debt he owed him however.
“I was the lead scientist on a small stardock and research facility where we developed the technology I traded for you. Your Razor team attacked us unprovoked. You were injured and when your ship jumped away it tore the stardock apart killing my mate and our daughter. I tried to save them. I ran as fast as I could to our quarters to save them, but all I accomplished was seeing their lifeless bodies, my wife clutching our daughter, her head in her hand, as if to comfort her in her last moments,’ his voice trailed off, he was almost in tears and he seemed to be trapped in the moment. He looked to Sean who had managed to sit himself up. His expression was one of shock and disgust.
“You murdered my son some years later when the Solaria jettisoned that jump drive in our path. That unsolicited jump crumpled our hull and left us to die far from home, here to be exact. The twisted hulk of the Parthess, just over there. Do you still deny this?” he looked away to the final resting place of his once grand ship. His voice was somber and empty as if he had no soul left.
“No. No I was responsible. I would only ask that you do not hurt anyone else in my place,” his voice sounded as equally defeated as Tomac’s.
He was in fact feeling quite dead inside at the revelations of the loss he had caused this man. He had destroyed this man’s world more than once, he would offer no resistance. His plan to possibly escape once Kara was safe fled from him.
“Bring him,” Tomac told his men. “Let us be done with this.”
The soldiers drug Connor to his feet and walked him to the waiting shuttle.
***
Kara boarded the Raptor without hesitation.
“Oh, it’s you,” Willow greeted her with a nasty tone. “Strap in and don’t touch my controls. We will be performing a jump from this position.” Kara hurriedly buckled in. As soon as she snapped the last buckle Willow jumped. It was a rough jump. Dirt and rock traveled with them and in a puff they were looking at the Relentless. The dust and gravel floated in all directions. At first Kara thought she was mistaken but as she approached in Connor’s Raptor she was surprised to realize it was the Relentless.
***
Connor was swirling in misery barely aware of his surroundings.
“Get up,” Tomac prodded him. “It’s time to end this. Soon this will all be over for both of us.”
Connor stood and slowly shuffled towards the hatch and then down a corridor.
“This airlock,” he began as they entered a large open chamber, Connor recognized it from their conversation. “I designed especially for this purpose. I want to see every last detail of your agony.” He used the same device with Llihanan’s pheromones on Sean as he had Kara and pushed him forward and stepped back as a large transparent blast door closed behind him.
“Now you will experience what my darlings experienced Captain Connor. Vent the atmosphere slowly,” Tomac instructed his soldier. The slow hiss of air began. Connor stood in the center of this unnecessarily large airlock apparently unaffected by the chemicals in Tomac’s device or the venting of atmosphere. Tomac glanced down at the device and inspected the thing.
“What is going on here,” he could feel the anger welling up inside him.
“Full vacuum sir,” the soldier said incredulously staring at Captain Connor and then to Yasa.
“THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE!”
He ran to the control panel to confirm for himself what the soldier was saying. Yasa hit the control that opened the outer airlock door. All the while Sean stood in the center of the airlock oblivious to the lack of air or the now endless vacuum of space behind him. Yasa stared in disbelief.
“HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHAT KIND OF TRICKERY?” he howled.
Before his eyes Connor slowly began to dissipate in a mist. Tomac pushed the button on his wrist band. The collar exploded forcing the vapor like particles out and away and they simply fell to the floor and Connor was gone.
Yasa threw his head back and screamed, “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” his arms outstretched, as he fell to his knees.
Chapter Nine
Triangles
Triangle, (of Latin triangulum, neuter of triangulus ‘three-cornered’. A plane figure with three straight sides and three angles. A situation involving three people or things, especially an emotional relationship involving a couple and a third person with whom one of them is involved)
“Sean, I love you,” Akema admitted.
The pleading look she was giving him with those beautiful eyes glazed with tears was more than he knew how to handle.
“What’s wrong Akema?”
He was trying to divert the part where love entered the equation. He had admitted to himself that he had some strange infatuation for her but he was not ready to say it.
“Don’t go. Please stay,” she begged.
“Go where,” he said trying to play as if he didn’t know what was going on. She gave him that don’t treat me like I’m stupid look.
“Don’t surrender yourself to Tomac for her. What has she done to deserve your life? Where has she been? She abandoned you ten years ago and never looked back and now when you finally find someone who cares about you, you are willing to throw her away for Kara,” the lights flickered slightly as her voice rose yelling at him.
She was angry, angry at him, the hurt evident in her voice.
“Whoa...time out, calm down,” he started to try and defuse her anger but apparently it was to no avail.
“What about us? I know you love me. The way you touch me,” she reached out and caressed his arm.
“They haven’t been dreams have they Akema?” he asked her softly, taking her hand as the realization dawned on him. She shook her head no. “How?”
“Since I came online I have become more and more aware of these feelings I have for you. I cannot explain it but I love you. I could remember what it was like to touch you, to kiss you. I rewrote code for the nanites and made myself a real body, I’m flesh and blood,” the guilt of what she had done weighed heavily on her he could tell. “I just wanted to touch you to see if what I remembered feeling was real. I couldn’t stop myself after that. I wanted more, so I kissed you and you took over from there,” she said blushing.
He didn’t know what to say. He remembered those dreams seeming so real and he could not help but admit he enjoyed them. Finding out that they were not dreams and potentially the actions of a defective ships avatar disturbed him somewhat.
“Are you okay Akema,” he asked.
She cut her eyes at him with that icy glare.
He stepped back.
“I AM Fine. I have run diagnostics on myself, I am not malfunctioning. I am in love Sean,” the crying started again. “Don’t think it hasn’t been confusing for me either. I know what I am and I know what I’m not supposed to be, but I am.”
Sean would have sworn he was fighting with Kara, the two were eerily similar. He stepped back to her and wrapped her in his arms. He held her head to his chest.
“It’s alright sweetheart. I didn’t mean anything by it,” he comforted her.
“You did. You think I’m crazy,” she said to him softly.
“No, I think you are in love. Maybe I am too. I don’t know what to make of it honestly. Such a thing would be unprecedented,” he spoke to her honestly. His openly admitting his feelings for her made her feel better and she hugged him tightly. “I still have to go Akema.”
“Please stay with me. I will be everything to you that she never was,” she pleaded.
“It’s not about Kara. It’s about saving a life Akema. My feelings for you would not change my need to save a life. It’s who I am. I do love you but I have to go,” he kissed her forehead and turned to leave.
After he turned his back she reached up to the base of his skull with her thumb and index finger, one on each side of his spine and zapped him with an electrical discharge. He started to slump but she caught him. Her true strength belied her small frame. She dragged him to a long contoured table that didn’t exist moments before. The contours fit a body’s outline as if to keep one in place comfortably. She produced a thick net like piece of head gear with small cables from behind the table and placed this on the captain’s head. The device was normally used to transfer the neural pattern to a ships computer. She altered this one to act as a link between Connor and his nanite doppelganger that was now forming in the corridor beyond just as if nothing ever happened. If this worked her beloved Sean would save the day and never be in harm’s way. He would not be aware of her deception until afterward in which case she was sure he would forgive her.
***
Connor opened his eyes. Akema’s smile greeted him. She kissed him.
“YES,” she exclaimed with giddy excitement. She hugged him tightly. “I couldn’t lose you. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? How did I get here?”
She looked at him nervously biting her lip. Kara did the same thing when she was nervous he thought.
“I couldn’t let you go, I used the neural interface and the nanites to make a clone,” she explained.
“You what!” he exclaimed snatching the neural link from his head and sitting up
“It was the only way. You would not have listened to reason. We are safely in hyperspace leaving that awful man behind,” she told him.
“How can I trust you when you behave that way Akema? When you love someone you allow them to make their own choices,” he said to her. “Did Kara make it back to the ship?”
“Yes. Willow doesn’t like her either you know,” she told him.
“I know, Willow and I have had many talks on long ops. Maybe you should be jealous of Willow too,” he said sarcastically.
“Neither of them could ever be what I can be for you,” Akema huffed. “Go. Hug and kiss them both. See which one lights your fire as I do.”
He walked out of the Avatar Chamber and ran towards the ladder to the next deck. He slid down to the lower level and ran through engineering to the shuttle bay. Kara was staggering down the wide corridor, he slowed to a walk.
“Sean?” she asked incredulously when she saw him.
“Yes.”
“But how?” she asked.
“It’s a long story,” he responded.
She hugged him tightly and he returned her embrace.
“I have missed you Sean,” she said to him and laid her head on his chest. She noticeably slipped in his arms and he caught her weight. “I have to get back to the Nacuru. It’s located in the Lorrinthian system.”
“I know where it is. Get back there? How did you know we were there and why do we need to return?”
Her request confused him. How could she have known they were there? It started to dawn on him, it was Kara that Tomac had been after. He wanted to use her as bait but why the distress call? Seemed someone else had an agenda as well.
“I have to get back to Jacob.”
“Who’s Jacob?” he asked, figuring Jacob was her husband.
“He’s our son,” she said weakly and she passed out in his arms.
Akema watched the security feed for the corridor from the Avatar Chamber.
“What a drama queen,” she said to herself.
***
Dr. Pendrie stood at the foot of the medical table. She tapped commands on the interface activating the beds medical scanner.
Dr. Pendrie walked from the table to a round work station in the center of sickbay.
Captain Connor was pacing nervously as he awaited a response from the doctor regarding her patient.
“Well Captain. According to my scans and the blood work Ms. Novellas is suffering from Phylloxan syndrome.”
“What is that?”
She gave him that look women give men when they ask the obvious.
“Ms. Novellas is a Bvaltari. Bvaltari mate for life. It’s part of a chemical process involving pheromones. Without their mate they suffer from a debilitating affliction they call Phylloxan. Are you with me so far?”
He nodded slowly as he stared at Kara. The doctor continued her diagnosis.
“She has mated for life but she has been without contact or replacement therapy and her levels have been low for quite some time. Her blood levels are dangerously low of the chemicals she needs for normal brain function. She does have some in her system from a recent intake of pheromones but she has been ‘starved’ of what she needs.”
“What can we do to help her?”
“That’s the interesting part. I don’t know that it’s my place to share the information with you but given the situation we find ourselves in, I’m not likely to face prosecution for telling you. She has bonded for life with you according to the DNA profile of the Perithricine in her system. My recommended treatment, she needs your touch. Lots of it. This beautiful young lady is literally dying for you to touch her. Which begs the question, as a human your physiology is different but the Bonding process takes in humans as well but it’s not as strong, how have you handled the absence of her?”
“I haven’t.”
“This is the one that got away isn’t she?”
He nodded yes.
Dr. Milli Pendrie was the surgeon who had saved Sean’s life all those years ago. During his recovery she was there every step of the way. He had confided in her his life st
ory during that time, including his love of Kara.
He carefully took Kara’s hand in his and weaved his fingers into hers. Everything he felt for her inundated his soul. Everything came back to him as if it were yesterday. His eyes welled up with tears. Kara too seemed to take notice even in her unconscious state. She squeezed his hand and smiled weakly as tears welled up and ran down her temples. It was true he realized. He was forever inexplicably linked to this woman by a bond that transcended anything he could explain.
Love could not be explained or calculated.
“I’ll give you some privacy.”
It brought a great deal of joy to Milli’s heart and tears to her eyes to witness what she had just seen. Sean had become like a son to her during his recovery. She had lost her own son, Steven, to the war. In saving Sean she somehow felt as if she had saved her own son. Occasionally, during conversations, she would accidentally call him Steven. If he ever noticed he never corrected her.
The war had taken his mother, had taken her son, but returned to them another family. That family was here, on the Relentless. Jerry, Daxton, Kale, Hirusho, Chaz all of them were brought together in the hospital. Some were patients. Some were visitors. Some were care givers. All left with a bond that defied explanation, but it did have a name, family.
Relentless. An aptly named ship for this crew. None of them ever gave up. She thought of the events that brought them all together.
Sean lost friends and loved ones. He had lost himself when he entered the hospital.
Jerry had lost friends too. His surviving brother in arms struggled to find himself. It was hard for him to watch Connor’s inner turmoil eat at him as he struggled during his rehabilitation.
Daxton lost his big brother. It crushed him when David died. David had been just a few years older but in their single parent family he was his male role model. While visiting David’s friends, trying desperately to find some way to cling to him, he found new brothers.
Relentless: Book One of the Union Warship Saga Page 21