by Lee Stephen
It was as subdued a silence as Scott could ever recall experiencing. There was no thickening of the air, no sense that his question was pushing Valentin off whatever ledge he was clinging to. There was just…silence. At long last, Scott received an answer. “If you are smart,” the keeper said distantly, “you will run when you have the chance.”
That was it. No explanation. No context. Only the unsettling response of a man whose story was as ambiguous as his mental state. Perhaps more frightening than anything, it was a response that sounded more genuine than anything the keeper had told him at Northern Forge thus far. It chilled Scott to the bone.
A whirring emerged behind Scott that he recognized as the camera on the other side of the suite door, in the short hall that led from the elevator. It must have detected motion. Along with a distinct dinging sound, the massive wall of screens flashed, the many displays replaced by a single, humongous image from the camera. When he saw who was approaching, Scott raised a curious eyebrow. It was Jayden and Esther. Looking up for the first time since he’d sat down, Valentin observed the couple as they knocked. “Unlock,” he said quietly. A click came from the door, as the blown-up image of Jayden and Esther was replaced by the many camera views.
A voice-activated room. That was how he must have unlocked the door when I came that first time. The keeper hadn’t been in the living room then. He must have simply anticipated that it’d be Scott who was coming to visit. Hell of a gamble for the keeper to take. Not that he was in any way threatened by anyone there, anyway.
When Jayden knocked on the door, Valentin said, “You may open it.”
What in the world were Jayden and Esther doing there? They must have been looking for him, for some reason. Approaching Valentin’s door, Scott pulled it open. When the hand-in-hand couple laid eyes on him, they blinked in surprise.
“Oh,” said Esther.
Scott looked at her oddly. “Oh?”
“I don’t think we expected you to be here.” The scout looked at Jayden, almost as if for approval to say the words.
They didn’t expect him to be there? Who in the world had they gone up there to see, the keeper?
Jayden poked his head in as Scott stepped out of the way. “We were actually lookin’ for the keeper.”
Well, that answered that.
As soon as he was indicated, Valentin turned to face the new arrivals, looking as perplexed as Scott did. Much as Esther had just looked at Jayden, Valentin looked at Scott as if to determine whether or not this was some kind of event Scott had ordained. Upon clearly seeing that it wasn’t, he narrowed his eyes and scrutinized the Texan. “Can I help you?”
Still holding hands, Jayden and Esther slipped past Scott into the room, a tad timidly, Scott thought. They were looking at each other—looking at him—as if neither of them were sure how to proceed with something. What in the world was going on?
“Mister Keeper, sir,” said Jayden in as reverent a voice as the Texan sounded like he could muster, “we know you were…” Jayden’s good eye caught the row of pictures, where his focus suddenly shifted. Seeming to hover over one picture in particular, he finished the thought, returning his singular gaze to Valentin, across the room. “We know you’re a chaplain, sir.”
Valentin shook his head. “I am not a chaplain.”
“You’re ordained,” said Esther, glancing at Jayden briefly. “That’s all that matters to us.”
Right then, a lump emerged in Scott’s throat. There was only one reason Scott could think of for Jayden and Esther to be searching for someone in the priesthood together. No way… Angling his head suspiciously, he waited to hear what would be said next.
“We were, uhh…” Jayden looked at Esther, then Scott, then Valentin again. “We were wonderin’ if you might marry us, sir.”
And that was the reason. Though Scott’s ears heard the words, his mind scarcely registered them. Jayden was wondering if…what?
Before the equally caught-off-guard keeper could scrounge for a response, Esther addressed him. “We don’t need anything fancy. We don’t want to be inconvenient. We just…” Her brown eyes settled on Jayden, who offered the faintest of affirming smiles. “We just want you to say the words.” She looked at Valentin again. “We want it to be real.”
“Hang on a minute.” Stepping to them, Scott stared at the pair dumbfounded. “Are you guys serious?” They gave every indication that they were. “Do you really think now is the time to—”
“Yeah,” Jayden said, cutting Scott off. “We do. And yeah, we know we’ve only dated for a little while.”
This was insane. “A little while? Jay, you can count the days on one hand! This isn’t how you go about this.”
“With all due respect, and you know I respect you immensely,” Esther said, “if we went about it the way you did, we might never live to see a wedding.”
That stung.
“Scott, man.” The Texan frowned almost sympathetically. “There ain’t nothin’ you can tell us that we don’t already know, and that we ain’t already talked about. No one gets married after a couple of days. But Esther and I have known each other for a lot more than a couple of days.”
“Yeah, but—”
Jayden went on. “We know enough to know we’re the best things that ever happened to each other. And we know that, on any given day from here on out, a bullet could take that away.” He sighed. “We ain’t fooled, man. This ain’t how it’s done. But look at where we are, look at what we’re doin’.” The earnestness in his voice was impossible to ignore. “It ain’t like I’m gonna take her to the movies anytime soon. Ain’t gonna go skinny dippin’ in the creek. This is it, man,” he said, holding out his hands as if to reveal to Scott the very room he stood in. “I want to love someone before I die, and she does, too. We each want that person to be each other.”
“But…” Scott couldn’t find the right words. He just had nothing.
“There ain’t no ‘but,’ man. If we’re still alive ten years from now, we can all talk about how stupid this was. But as it stands now, we might not make it to next Wednesday.” His resolve was unbendable. Looking at Esther again, the Texan squeezed her hand tighter. “We’re doin’ this. You can either support it or you can’t.”
What was Scott even supposed to say? Turning to the keeper, he looked for someone else to insert common sense that was desperately lacking. What he found, instead, was yet another surprise.
Nodding his head thoughtfully, Valentin said, “I will do it.”
Oh, come on!
“Did you want to do it now? Here?” Valentin asked.
Her smile brightening, Esther answered, “We were actually hoping we could do it in the medical bay. We know that’s a little strange, but many of our friends are there. We would hate for any of them to miss it.”
This was happening. This was actually happening. Scott’s sniper was about to marry his scout. Scott’s blood was boiling. This was like a bad dream. Jayden and Esther were out of their minds. Support them? How could he possibly support them? How could he support this ill-thought-out foolishness? He was so mad at them for even thinking it up. He was practically livid. He was…
…he was so incredibly jealous.
“If you wish that I perform this in the medical bay,” Valentin said, “I will do so.”
How could they be on the verge of this after a few days, when Scott had dated Nicole for five years before even popping the question? All that time dating, all that time courting. All that time trying to do things the right way.
And then Nicole died.
Jayden and Esther were practically beaming. “Thank you so much,” the scout said, looking like she was about to start jumping up and down. “This is the most wonderful day of our lives!”
In that moment, Scott realized that he and Nicole were exactly what Jayden and Esther were trying to avoid. Nicole’s death had crushed him—changed him forever. He never got to experience her the way he’d wanted to. Given the situation that Jayden a
nd Esther were in now, Scott was beginning to understand.
“Let’s go get everyone,” Jayden said exuberantly. “We gotta round ’em up! How long you think we’ll need, an hour?”
“How about two?” Esther asked, smiling sheepishly. “I might see if Tiffany can do my hair.”
The Texan nodded. “Okay, cool. I might go take a shower or somethin’.”
“Sounds good! I’ll see you in the med bay in two hours.” She looked at Valentin and smiled. “We’ll see you in two hours!”
Valentin nodded without a word. In the next second, Jayden and Esther were gone, the pair practically skipping away like overjoyed children. Scott and the keeper were left behind in silence.
Scott felt the need to say something—to find some word to break the unsettling quiet. But he found none. Rubbing the back of his neck, he turned to look at Valentin.
“I will need all of these two hours,” the keeper said stoically. “I will see you in the medical bay. Please inform Doctor Shubin of the Ithini’s release.” Without another word, Valentin walked out of the living room and into his bedroom, closing the door behind him.
Now alone by the keeper’s door, there was literally nothing for Scott to do there. Stepping out of the suite, and with a heart as unsettled as it was envious, he made his way for the elevator that led to Level-4.
Esther Timmons. Was that really going to be his scout’s new name? Though there’d be nothing official about this, at least in the realm of legal documentation, they were about to be verbally wed by a man of the cloth. In the eyes of God—at least in the perception of those there on Earth—that would be enough to make this legitimate. Why wouldn’t she take Jayden’s last name?
That was going to take getting used to.
As Scott filed away to his room, all he could think about was the life he’d been denied. That he’d denied for himself. He hadn’t gone about things wrongly with Nicole. There was no reason to regret the long dating and courtship process they’d undertaken. But there was no reason to question Jayden and Esther’s whirlwind pace, either. There were different approaches for different circumstances. Maintaining etiquette wasn’t easy when you were being chased by everyone on Earth.
Sitting on his bedside, Scott closed his eyes and bowed his head. There was no way he’d make it through a wedding ceremony—as brief as it was liable to be—without the comfort of God to hold him together. It’d rip him apart too much, as fair as that may or may not have been for all parties involved. As difficult as this was going to be, Scott was going to support it. He was going to support his friends. He just needed a little support through it, himself.
The two hours passed faster than Scott thought they would, and before Scott knew it, he was making his way down the halls of Northern Forge for the medical bay to see two of his comrades get wed. Only when he arrived there—only when he saw the smiles on the faces of Jayden, Esther, and all of their gathered comrades in the room—did the surreal nature of the situation fade. What replaced it was joy.
As she’d stated she would, Esther must have visited Tiffany. Her disheveled inverted bob had been remolded into a wavy form that would have dazzled on any catwalk. Returning to her tattered, albeit clean little black dress with the pearl earrings and necklace, she looked utterly splendid despite the contrasting conditions of her hair and clothes. She looked ready.
Jayden, wearing a nameless Nightman uniform, simply looked clean—but that was always good enough for a man.
Every member of the Fourteenth and Falcon Platoon was there and alert, with the lone exception of Max, who was still sedated. Even Natalie, much to Scott’s surprise, showed up to witness the ad-hoc ceremony, though Scott was fairly certain it was more out of curiosity than genuine well-wishing.
As predicted, the wedding was not long, with most of it consisting of Jayden and Esther explaining to their comrades in the Fourteenth why this was happening. They explained everything. How life was short. How any day could be their last. How they wanted to live before they died. Most meaningfully, they confessed that neither of them knew what true love was—but that they were eager to find out about it together. It was an honest plea for understanding in the midst of a turbulent time. And it was that honesty, that humility, that won over the Fourteenth. No objections were brought. Jayden asked Becan if he’d be his best man, to which the Irishman joyfully accepted. Esther, in a move that would have been shocking mere weeks ago, named her maid of honor Svetlana, in absentia.
And so right there, beneath the fluorescent lights of Northern Forge’s medical bay, in front of witnesses and the dutiful supervision of the base’s resident chaplain and keeper, Jayden and Esther Timmons came into being with a kiss. There was something about the simplicity of it all—the lack of flowers, and photographers, and wedding cake—that almost felt refreshing. It felt surprisingly right.
The sole souvenir from the experience was a single photograph, courtesy of Gavriil Shubin, snapped by a camera with an asset tag. It was anything but formal, with every able observer crammed into the shot between those restricted to medical beds—but the photograph captured them all. Svetlana was even there in spirit, represented by a jar of mustard held up whimsically in Esther’s free hand. It was an informally fitting moment for the hastiest, yet somehow sweetest wedding Scott had ever seen. Jayden and Esther were headed off together into the unknown. There was just something magical about that.
And then, it was over. The bride and groom departed, leaving the merged family of the Fourteenth and Falcon Platoon to go about their business as anything-but-usual. The only thing bearing any semblance to an off-color remark was made after most of the crowd had departed, as Natalie said to Scott rather dryly, “I don’t understand you people at all.”
Scott simply answered, “Give it time.”
Thus, the evening of Wednesday, March 22nd came to a close. It was the first day Scott could imagine that Northern Forge had hosted both a wake and a wedding. It was a day about saying goodbye and about starting new chapters. It was a snapshot of death and life. A full circle.
But where was Scott’s circle leading him?
As much as the revelation of Jayden and Esther’s “engagement” had made Scott think of Nicole, the only person he could think about as he’d seen them actually get wed was Svetlana. There was irony in that Esther had been the one to proclaim her the future Svetlana Remington. If anything, that name felt more natural than Esther Timmons. But Esther Timmons was there, now.
Where was Svetlana?
As Scott returned to his room to retire for the night, thoughts of the blond medic—his love—stayed present in his dreams. He longed for her. He missed her. Watching Jayden and Esther get married made him miss her more than ever. Maybe the sniper and scout weren’t so crazy after all. Maybe they had this exactly right. Maybe, just maybe…he and Svetlana would be next.
Stranger things were happening every day.
27
Location: Unknown
Time: Unknown
“TU-SHINNA`KA,” said Nagogg from his captain’s chair. The Bakma chieftain’s raspy voice split through what for some time now had been an eerie silence. Affirming in action only, the Noboat’s pilot, Nik-nish, decelerated the spacecraft until it had come to a full stop—discernable only by the quieting of the Noboat’s engines. Rising slowly from his chair, Nagogg’s sunken eyes narrowed.
From her vantage point on the floor against Nagogg’s chair, Svetlana could only partially make out the actions of the Bakma leader and his crew. Though she knew he had risen, the object of his attention was unknown to her. Straining to turn her head to the side as much as she was able, she tried with little success to see anything on the view screen beyond the blackness of space. Lowering her forehead again, she surrendered to her limited state. Whatever was going on around her, she would have to decipher with her ears.
“Pi’vash targ-nassa!” Nagogg said, excitement pulsating in his voice. Stepping forward, the rider pointed to the view screen with widened eye
s.
Again, Svetlana turned her head, and again, she could make out nothing. Lifting her chin from the floor and flinging her hair from her face, she fixed her ocean blue eyes on Ei`dorinthal. The Ithini angled his head toward her. A moment later, the click occurred. Svetlana didn’t even wait for the being to acknowledge her. What is happening?
We have arrived at the Akaarist Quadrant.
The Akaarist Quadrant? Was that where the Khuladi homeworld of Khuldaris was located? Before she could purposefully pose the question, Ed answered for her.
The Akaarist Quadrant is a region of space that has not been fully explored by the Khuladi.
Above Svetlana, Nagogg barked out enthusiastic orders to his crew—orders she desperately wanted to understand. In that moment, she realized a weakness: she was wholly dependent on Ed to understand Bakmanese. At least, to the extent where she could understand it when spoken fluently. She needed to learn that language.
Sensing her thoughts, the Ithini addressed her. You are tempted to siphon once again.
A fear of irrelevance overcame her, not from herself, but from Ed. He was sensing her concern—that she sought the one ability he possessed that kept him crucial: the ability to translate. She sought to replace him.
I need this, Ed. I need to be able to understand what the others are saying without the need for you to be present. At the core of the Ithini’s being was the desire—the need—to be directed. To serve. It was a desire she was sensitive to. You must have a master. This, I know. I will still be your master after I know Bakmanese, just as I am your master now. But I need to understand them on my own.