Keeping With Destiny

by Stephan Knox

  Aari popped her head up to see Lexter waving some hundred meters down the road, “Found his shotgun gunner! His head’s on backwards, too!” he called to her as he headed back her way.

  Aari returned his attention to evaluating the transport vehicle. A closer look at the cage and she could see the prisoner being transported had managed to rip the grill from its rivets into the walls of the vehicle then peeled over allowing them crawled out. “drenn,” she muttered aloud. The question was: did it happen before or after the wreck? Surely after. With the vehicle twisted, it was far more plausible for the cage wire to be dislodged. So, who then, attacked the scamper? It was hard to tell if it had been shot at, since that was a regular occurrence for them, and telling an old hit from a new one wasn’t always obvious. But the missing food packs was a good indication they were attacked for their supplies. Marauders then, she concluded.

  “Guess we oughta’ head back then.” Lexter was beside her once more.

  She stood and gave him a look, waiting to see if he was going to suggest they take the bodies back. Not that she was wanting to. They’d just smell up her scamper. Besides, once back, the bodies would just be tossed in the incinerator with little regard to ceremony.

  Lexter made a double take on her. “Say uh—” His brow crumpled together and was leaning in closer to stare at her. Aari leaned away. It wasn’t like him to try to get too close. “—you have something in your eye.” He pointed at her.

  Aari felt the color leave her face and she quickly turned away. Her eyes darting about for the rearview mirror from the wreckage. She found a shard of it on the ground and used it to check, finding her left eye was turning pale. It was only a matter of time— half a day or a day tops, and her one blue eye would be a dead give-a-way.

  Drenn, she hadn’t planned on this. Good thing she always kept a hypo of dye in her pack. She feigned to wipe at her eye, “The wind musta’ blown some rust from the scamper in it.”

  “Well, here, let me have a look.” He tugged on her arm.

  Aari jerked her arm away. “No. It’s okay. I got some eye wash in my pack. Look around for any evidence of who might have done this.” She briskly walked off for their scamper. “And don’t forget to search their pockets for credits. They don’t need them anymore.” She hoped the suggestion there might be some currency to be found would keep Lexter busy long enough, so she could do what needed to be done.

  Back at her scamper, she got the small hypo of dye from her pack and settled against the side of the vehicle to steady her hand. The dye itself was made from a henna paste, something her unseen friends taught her about. It was easy enough to find with the nomadic tribes when they came around for trade as the women of the tribes liked to use it to decorate their hands and feet. A body adornment Aari found arousing. A sense of culture that was rare to witness anywhere else. Of course, for Aari the henna dye burned like drenn going in. Then again it wasn’t meant to be injected into her eyeball. But whatever damage was done it healed relatively quickly, locking the stain inside the fluids of her cornea. For a bit, at least.

  Her focus dialed into her intent. She held her eyelids open to prevent her blinking as she edged the needle towards the surface of her eye, but before she could remedy her appearance, Lexter came around the side of the truck and caught her in the act. Aari nearly froze, all but the hand holding the hypodermic needle and tucked it behind her.

  Lexter’s face went from mistrust to one of pure hate, “I suspected as much. You’re one of them. All this time, you were a fucking drenn parasite carrier!”

  Aari saw his hand move, but before she could free her gun, she was already staring down the barrel of his.

  “Put your hands on your head, parasite,” he ordered, his face twisted with disgust for her. In the pass of a millisecond, Aari had gone from trusted comrade to loathsome creature.

  Aari let the hypo drop behind her and did as he said, slowly bringing her hands up over her head. Her breath quivered, and she swallowed hard, closing her eyes for just a moment to calm her sym. She hadn’t gotten this far just to get executed on the roadside.

  She rested her hands on the back of her head as expected of her, but then slowly let her fingers walk her hand even farther— finding their way down her neck like a spider.

  “Watch it. Don’t move.” Lexter’s grip on his gun stiffened.

  Aari stilled momentarily. “Come on, Lexter. It’s me, Aari. I’ve been at Skaddary since I got out of the academy. How can you possibly believe I’m a Symbiote?” Her fingers reached their destination.

  Lexter ignored her. He dug into his jacket pocket pulling out the communicator bud.

  Aari couldn’t let him call her in. If he did, she’d be doomed before she got back.

  She moved swiftly— her fingers grasping the hidden blade of glass and she swung over and down— she twisted in the same motion, her blade slicing down Lexter’s wrist just as his gun went off. The bullet just missed her, ricocheting off the scamper and the gun fell all in the same instant. Lexter let out a curse to clutch at the open veins now gushing from the flesh wound on his wrist.

  Aari dropped to the ground, her fingers wrapping around Lexter’s gun as she rolled under the scamper, drawing her own gun in the process and fired before he could follow. The first shot took his ankle out and the moment his face came into view, she fired again. The bullet going right through his temple.

  Lexter fell flat to the ground. His eyes slowly glazed into a dull stare and blood oozed from the hole in his head.

  She laid there and stared back. She felt the emotions from her Symbiotai welling up, but she refused to let them get to her. She would not regret this. Lexter had, without hesitation, identified her exposed dual eye colors as a Symbiote trait and would have no doubt killed her if she didn’t kill him first.

  Still, she stayed there, quietly looking at the body for a long time until her Symbiotai understood that, and the emotions were no longer a struggle for Aari herself.

  When she did finally crawl out from under the scamper, she reclaimed the hypo of henna, injected the dye in her eye and successfully covered up the evidence of her forbidden hybrid existence.

  She rid Lexter of his credits, then used some of the ripped sheet metal from the wrecked scamper to make several cuts on her forearms to look like defense wounds. Then entered yet another mental battle with her Symbiotai to keep the cuts from healing too quickly. She would have to report an attack from bandits and the wounds would look well enough for her story.

  Aari arrived the next morning and was instantly sent to the infirmary to get her arms checked out for the cuts she ended up having to reapply anyways, despite the discouragement she had mentally sent to her sym. Healing for them happened as naturally as breathing. There was little Aari could do to have prevented it, though she often tried just for the hopes of an anti-survival skill should there ever be too many eyes watching. And there were always eyes watching. At least still had all the dried blood from the day before encrusted on her skin, with which to put on a good show.

  “You’ll be fine. The cuts aren’t too deep, just bled a lot. Charts say you’re up to date on your tetanus,” the doc prattled on as he wrapped her arms in white cotton bandage strips then tied the ends in place. Nothing more than a simple field dressing. “They should heal in a few days. You should count yourself lucky. At least you came back alive. That’s better than the outcome of the other team.”

  “What do you mean?” Aari’s surprise was synthetic, but she wanted to know the further details. Like who Lancey had been transporting at the time and whether they had managed to call in any info before being killed.

  “There was a botched transport just three days ago. But I hear they got the prisoner back on ISO holding.”

  Aari couldn’t get out of the infirmary fast enough as she rushed for the hangars and to the narrow passages that would lead her to the access panel and into the air ducts. Was he okay? Was he hurt? Had it even been him that had
been in the wrecked transport? If so how did they get him back? Too many questions rattled her brain, triggering her Symbiotai’s emotions to run amuck.

  She crawled through the narrow tunnel of flimsy sheet metal, fighting the urge to rush. It was hard enough moving through them without making too much noise.

  When she reached the bars that opened up into the man’s cell, she found him in much the same manner as she had the first time. Eyes as blue as the sky on a sunny day, looking up as if he’d been waiting for her the whole time.

  She dropped her head onto her arm, letting out a long sigh of relief, and just kept looking down at him for what seemed like ages. Losing a large passage of time feeling calm— safe, for the first time that should could rest without risk.

  Her eyes fluttered open. Her brain trying to make sense of the dark grey metal box that surrounded her until she remembered she was inside the air ducks, realizing she must have dozed off. But surely, the prisoner had not remained as still and equally quiet as she had, so she must be losing her senses after the long drive. Still, she was relieved for some strange reason that he was still here and unharmed. Still looking up into the dark shadowing space where she hid.

  She liked looking at his face. Dark creamy features further tanned from being outside, and not just his face, but his shoulders and arms as well. She couldn’t help but wonder how much more of his body had seen the daylight, uninhibited by clothing. She had heard the nomads often walked about their camps with little more than strips of cloth over their genitals during the warmer months and that was why they had much darker skin.

  “I missed you,” the prisoner took the initiative to break the silence. Blue eyes, bright, as if he could see her and liked what he saw. She didn’t dare let him see the real her, or that expression of interest her wore would quickly fade away.

  “They tried to transport someone the other day. Guess it didn’t go so well. I was afraid it might have been you.”

  Tannin couldn’t help the grin. “It was me.”

  He’d not seen her for days and he’d feared she might not ever come visit again. He was glad she did. Drenn, if he didn’t feel like a young boy suffering from his very first crush on the cutest little girl in his tribe. They, too, would keep their faces hidden, only with strips of pretty cloth during their year of pollen making. A rite of passage when a girl flowered into a young woman. That was always a time that drove the boys crazy, spurred them to complete the rites of passage to become a man so he could remove the veil from his chosen bride. He never did pick one.

  Aari said nothing, content with her thoughts and barrage of unasked questions within the long silence again. If it had been him then how did he get back here? But then she noticed how his black hair was clean and with a fresh braid. She knew drenn well he wasn’t given water credits while here, so he must have bathed in a nearby creek or at the river before the search party managed to hunt him down again. To many questions to keep quiet about anymore. “What happened?”

  “I killed them,” he answered perhaps too honestly, but like her, he lived in the real world.

  “How did they recapture you?”

  “They didn’t. I walked back and turned myself in.”

  “What?” she popped up smacking her head on the upper casing of the duct. “Ouch,” she hissed and rubbed her head, but what the drenn? “Are you mental?” she practically shouted at him in a loud whisper. “You could’ve been free.”

  A slight chuckle escaped him. “Perhaps.” He beamed up at her brightly.

  “Why?”

  By Destiny, he wished she’d let him see her face. “I didn’t have what I came for yet. So—” He shrugged. “I had to come back.”

  “What do you mean came for?” The tone in her voice gave away her confusion. After all, from her point of view, he was captured, and brought in, not the other way around.

  “It’s a personal matter. One I’m not ready to divulge yet. Not even to you, but if you come visit me again, perhaps I will then.”

  Again, there was a long silence and Tannin had to wonder if she would sit up there silently for the rest of the night. He didn’t mind so much, though it would have been far more pleasant if he had been able to see her face, and he could just stare at her as they remained quiet, just listening to each other’s breathing. “What’s your name?”

  “Why would I tell you?” her tone shifted from relieved concern to a vocalized glower.

  “I’ll tell you mine,” he offered as if he were whispering to his lover.

  “I don’t want it,” she warned.

  “I give it anyways. My name is Tannin.” There was a pause and then he heard his name said back to him.

  “Tan-nin,” she whispered and for some reason the way his name sounded on her lips went straight to a body part that had no earthy need to be waking up about now. Not here at least.

  “Say it again.” But she said nothing. “Won’t you tell me your name?”

  “Why? So you can use it to gain favoritism with the lieutenant?”

  “I have far better ways of gaining favoritism with the lieutenant then griping about mice in the duct works.” That response didn’t seem to go over any better than his last conversation when she visited, because right away she was working her way down the vent away from him.

  “Drenn. This is all your fault, old man,” he cursed his Symbiotai, turning away from the empty air vent, but then he felt a sudden range of emotions storming up inside him. The expression twisting up his face. “Don’t even go there. It’s within my right to blame you for everything that goes wrong. It was you, after all, that got me in this predicament. I’m within my rights, so I might as well blame you for this part as well, flooding my head with boy crushes ins lay lazily doing nothing— humph.”

  The comm system along the corridor called a page for Aari just as she came out of the hangar. “Outland gunner Aari, personnel number 35XTR79 report to the office of Lieutenant Commander Gage.” It was no surprise that she was being called. She knew she would eventually have to report on the incident that cost her a transport partner.

  She made a U-turn, crossed the yard, and headed for the command building right away.

  She knocked when she reached his door and without delay Lieut. Commander Gage called her in.

  “Have a seat, Aari.”

  Aari kept silent, taking the chair in front of the flimsy metal desk. Not fancy like some of the other officers, but then Gage had always been a down to battle and business type person. He even ate in the mess hall with everyone else, despite the frowns he got from some of his fellow ranking officers.

  “You know the procedure. Let’s just get to it, shall we, and record what happened to you out there?” He glanced at her then to the monitor screen and he typed in a few things before she even said word one.

  “Yes, Lieutenant Commander, sir.”

  Aari proceeded to tell him about the one wounded rider dying en route to the med-center, then about finding the turned over vehicle, and the bodies of Lancey and his shotgun driver. She dropped her head, diverting her eyes as she then fabricated a tale of marauders that ambushed them for scrap rights. During the whole tale she brushed her fingers over the bandages still wrapped around both forearms.

  “Aari, look at me.” The command was tender, but she knew he would insist on it if she didn’t follow through the first time.

  She blinked up at him, putting on her best wounded look. Not physically wounded but her pride, confessing that she of all people had walked into a trap and got caught. She had more to prove than anyone else on base, so she never let her guard down, never allowed room for failure. Never let anyone get close.

  “Doc says you refused a rape exam.” He paused a moment as if reminding himself he was asking questions of a delicate matter. His voice lowered to a near whisper with the next question. “Did they rape you, Aari?”

  Aari shook her head. “No, sir. I’m just better with my gun than Lexter was.”

>   Lieutenant Commander sat back in his chair, leaning as far back as it would pivot, his hand scrubbing over his face a moment and the scrub of facial hair he’d let grow you more than usual. Some relief seemed to be there, relief for her or perhaps just getting past the sensitive questions. But his eyes remained on her, worrying her.

  “Aari, I worry about you.”

  “Why? What else did the doc say?”

  “Relax. Doc says you’re as fit as a loon.”

  “Loon, sir?” she asked with a scrunch of her face as she looked back at him. It wasn’t the first time she’d ever heard him use the phrase, but she’d never been alone with him so that she could ask just what he meant by it.

  “A solitary bird.” He straightened, “Very pretty— in an odd way. Shy. Doesn’t do well in captivity.”

  She blinked at him a moment. She caught his jest— innuendoes to say she was an odd ball in the bunch. She had tried not to stand out only to succeed in isolating herself even more from everyone else. Nevertheless, she couldn’t risk ever getting close or getting attached to anyone. “I’ve been here for eight solar cycles, sir, I think that shows I’ve done well enough in captivity.”

  “Have you? How many friends do you have, Aari? How often do you hang out with them at the mess hall or in the cantina? And a lover? Guys say you’re the un-get-able-get. The women say far worse.”

  “Better than being called the troll.” Aari dropped her head, keeping her eyes to the floor. She didn’t have any answers that would solve this conversation. And any lie she might give, the lieutenant commander would see right through. He almost always did. So long as she didn’t stack too many at once. At thirty-five, he was the youngest that she’d ever known to reach rank of lieutenant commander and he’d already held the position for three solar cycles.

  “Is there a point to all this, sir?” she mumbled, feeling every bit of the isolated loneliness, he’d just highlights, sink in.