by S King
“For that, I apologize,” Eikko gave me an easy smile, “let me know what the cost is, and I’ll easily take care of it.”
Emric scoffed, “we don’t take Parlan currency.”
It took everything in me not to give him a screwed look at his statement. I didn’t know that Padrieg frowned on any type of currency; to be honest, I thought that all money was the same. Maybe I didn’t know the purple sun society as well as I thought I did.
“Anyway,” Kendrick interrupted the macho contest that was currently going on between Emric and Eikko. “We have a serious problem, you two are not supposed to be in the military district.”
Eikko and Somsang glanced at each other before Somsang spoke up, “well, how do we get out of said military district?”
“Are you not aware of the damage and danger you have caused by your slip of the gear? It doesn’t matter if the entertainment district offered a contract for whatever you do,” Emric snapped, showing a rare display of emotion, “if you two get caught here, of all places, then your ash. Not to mention the implications that you’re putting your own society in.”
Eikko narrowed his eyes at Emric, “we didn’t choose to land here.”
“You didn’t land! You crashed into us,” I jumped into the conversation.
Turning my narrowed eyes to Eikko, I knew just by looking at him that he was the type of man that seemed to always get his way and that type of arrogance was sickening.
“Either way,” Kendrick pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, “until we can get ahold of the entertainment district, you’re both stuck here.”
“What?” The four of us turned wide eyed to the Colonel.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, “wait,” I held out my hands to stop him from saying anything else. “These two aren’t going to be able to blend in.”
“Why not?” Eikko shot up to his six-foot eight height and frowned at me, “you think that we can’t blend in with your gruff and tough lifestyle?”
Even though I was a foot shorter than him, that didn’t stop me from stepping toe-to-toe with the jerk from Parlan.
“No, I don’t think that you can blend in with our lifestyle. First of all, your clothes are too much, secondly, your eyes are a dead giveaway and thirdly your hair could never pass as normal. And,” I stabbed my finger in his chest, “we don’t have dye or whatever it is that changes hair color on your sun.”
He smirked as he looked me over, “is that a dare Captain?”
Eikko had an accent that made his words sound like something from another lifetime. His words were so smooth and eloquent, and his tone made my insides turn to mush. Not good, this is not good.
Turning to Kendrick, I made my eyes pleading, “how is this supposed to work?”
Kendrick and Emric glanced at each other before Colonel Kendrick dropped a bomb, “Emric, you're responsible for Somsang and Ostana,” he looked at me with apologetic tangerine eyes, “you are to protect Eikko until we are able to get them to the entertainment district. I'll leave, so the four of you can get better acquainted and figure out what you guys are going to do.”
I'd never seen my Colonel run until the moment that he looked at me and saw my eyes glowing of the white fire that was threatening to attack him.
When the debriefing door closed behind Kendrick, Emric and I turned back to our inherited wards.
“So, do I need to come up with some family relation, or do you have something in mind?” Somsang asked Emric as he continued to twist his hands nervously.
Eikko took the open window to wrap an arm around my shoulder and smile down at me, “should we say that we're lovers?”
Slowly, taking my eyes from his relaxed hand on my arm to his rose-pink eyes, “get your hand off me.”
“Somsang, don't you think that's plausible?” Ignoring me the arrogant jerk looked to his... whatever Somsang was.
Grounding my teeth, I let the white flames encase my body forcing Eikko to jump away from me with a yelp,
“Touch me again, and I’ll turn you into ash.” I let my flames extinguish before turning to Emric, “let me know when the crash report is in.” I didn't wait for him to respond, turning on my heels, I headed for the training center.
“Oh Ana,” Eikko’s sing-song voice made me glance at him over my shoulder, “aren't you forgetting something?”
“No,” I snapped, pulling the door open and leaving the two Parlan idiots with Emric, or so I thought.
As I walked to the training arena, I heard Eikko following at a safe enough distance behind me. I knew why he was following me; at least, I knew that he listened to directions. Kendrick said Eikko was under my protection and in order for that to be effective, he needed to be within my line of sight. As long as I could see him then he would be safe, hopefully.
“Why are you following me?” I waited for the drone overhead lights to turn on as I took off my combat coat and readied my weapons on the table.
Eikko looked around the training arena, “isn’t that what I’m supposed to do while I’m here?”
Cutting my eyes at him, I turned on the ATP and flexed my hands, “what’s the real reason that you crossed the war zone?”
Without warning, I threw several wind slicing blades at the oncoming Eynos and waited for the next set of enemies to appear out of thin air.
Eikko jumped at my quick reaction and hid behind the observing wall as he looked onward, “I told you, it wasn’t on purpose and neither was the crash.”
Letting the white flames wrap around my arms, I grabbed an Eyno by the throat and incinerated it, “I think you’re lying. The entertainment district is on the other side of the purple sun and you’re telling me.” I grabbed another Eyno, slamming it on its back and glanced at a cowering Eikko, “that Somsang got disoriented in his path and that’s how you got into the military district?”
“Yes!” He jumped at the brutal scene in front of him and gagged at the black holographic ooze coming out of the Eyno.
I smirked and grabbed another set of wind slicing blades, “you two have no sense of direction then.”
Eikko stayed silent, watching me mutilate and destroy Eynos left and right; part of me wondered if he'd ever seen a red sun thing. But that curiosity died when he cleared his throat and stepped out from behind the observer wall.
“What?” I paused the ATP.
“Not that I’m not enjoy this,” he put his hands out in defense, “because believe me, I am, but.” He looked around the training arena again, “where can I get some sleep around here?”
Narrowing my eyes, I slammed the proceed button on the ATP and turned my back on the Parlan jerk that was already beginning to cause me problems.
How was I supposed to know where he was supposed to sleep? What was I? His babysitter? Taking my frustration out on the oncoming Eynos, I contemplated the very question he had asked me. Kendrick said that I was to keep an eye on him, protect him; yet, I didn’t know if that included keeping Eikko with me at all times.
“Welcome Lieutenant General Shaye,” a holographic voice announced through the screeching of the Eynos.
Pausing the ATP again, I turned to greet my grandmother only to snap my mouth shut at her serious look between Eikko and I.
“Finally, someone that has some power,” Eikko straightened his jacket and smiled at Othala like she was the best thing on this side of the stratosphere.
My grandmother cut her eyes at Eikko, sizing him up before leveling her lighter garnet eyes on me.
“What happened?” Her voice was tight with agitation and authority.
I opened my mouth, prepared to tell her everything when Eikko took the opportunity to step between us and smile at my grandmother.
“There is a simple explanation to me being here and surprisingly this isn’t,” he glanced at me over his shoulder, “Ostana’s fault.”
Othala narrowed her eyes further at the Parlan native and said through clenched teeth, “why are you here?”
“My aircraft w
as headed for the entertainment district when my pilot got disoriented. In turn, we somehow veered into the war zone. Naturally, being disoriented and not knowing where we were, we accidentally crashed into Ostana’s aircraft.” An easy smile covered his handsome face as he crossed his arms over his chest, proud that he came up with a somewhat plausible reason for being in front of a top-ranking official of the purple sun society.
In the tense silence, I couldn’t gauge whether or not my grandmother was thinking about killing Eikko or not. It was perfectly fine if she did, after all, Eikko and Somsang had crossed into a war zone outside of their territory and that meant, if Othala decided that things became too much of problem for the military, then the two Parlan idiots would be made casualties of war.
Finally, my grandmother looked at me, “what’d Kendrick have to say about this?”
Now, this was where the fun really began; how was I going to explain to her that Eikko was my ward, in a sense, and that I was responsible for his safety? Which meant that he needed to be with me at all times, until we could get him and Somsang into the entertainment district.
“Well…” I rubbed my temple and thought about the different ways of explanation that would lead to the less angry reaction from her. “In short, right now since the operators are trying to fix the Citlail. Kendrick ordered Emric to watch Somsang and me,” I hooked my thumb to Eikko, “to watch him. Just until the aircrafts are fixed. Then they’re out of here.”
“Well, don’t sound so excited about my departure,” Eikko mumbled.
Othala rolled her eyes, “who is Somsang?”
“His handler.”
“He is not, he’s my friend who handles my business, contracts, day-to-day schedule and whatever else I need.” Eikko snapped, not liking the fact that my grandmother and I were talking around him.
“He’s your handler,” I rolled my eyes, looking to my grandmother, “do you have any ideas how to make this work until the aircrafts are fixed?”
She looked at Eikko and sighed; neither of us liked anything out of the norm for us and with Eikko and Somsang here, our world just got turned upside down and inside out.
The real problem that we were going to be facing though, wasn’t either of them getting in the way or the amount of time that it was going to take for the aircrafts to get fixed. No, all of that was going to be easy in comparison to hiding both men that already stood out like a sore thumb and worse yet, I could tell the Eikko wasn’t the type to listen to directions.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Othala began to shut down the ATP and overhead drone lights, “he’s going to have to stay with us and somehow, we’re going to have to make him blend in.”
“And how do you expect to do that?” I followed her out of the training arena with Eikko following quickly behind us.
“I’m still working on the details,” she smirked at me and led the way to our domicile.
Thanks to the late hour, only members from my unit were patrolling the levels of the home base. Kendrick along with my grandmother and other top-ranking officials must've told the entire base that Eikko, Somsang and the crash were to be treated as the most confidential piece of information that had ever come through the purple sun. No one gave us a second glance as we passed the officers, only a respectful, curt nod and a knowing look.
Until the Citlail or the Magdolonian were fixed, Eikko and Somsang were going to be a pain in our sides. Well, Eikko definitely was. I couldn't say one way or the other for Somsang. From what I could tell he was more nervous than a newborn grimalkin; he didn't seem like the type to cause problems in an already difficult situation.
My grandmother swiped her identification tag across our domicile entrance panel and stepped through the open door as the holographic Parlan citizen appeared.
“Welcome home, Lieutenant General Shaye.”
Eikko stared at the woman until she disappeared through the wall she came out of. “That's amazing,” he breathed.
I tried not to roll my eyes as I asked him, “have you never seen one of those before?”
“Not in person, I mean,” he shrugged as he straightened, “not up close. In Parlan, actual people welcome me home. Not a projection.”
Weird. I wouldn't know how I would feel to have another living, breathing person greeting me when I walked through the front door. Then again, I lived in a completely different society than he did and what was normal to me was weird to him and vice versa.
“Could I bother you for something to eat?” Eikko clapped his hands together as he smiled down at me. I hated that smile.
Dropping my combat gear in its respective hidden compartment, I turned and headed for my office, “mealtimes are structured here. Which means that you'll have to wait until the jutro.”
“What?” He followed me into my office, “you cannot be serious.”
I glanced at him, sitting down behind my desk. Like every other room in my domicile unit, the room was simple with no wall hangings or figurines to distract me. Light gray toned walls watched with gun metal silver furnishings that filled the small space. My office was a place to work, not somewhere to lounge or take a moment to myself.
“Problem?” I uncapped my pen to begin signing off on the authorization orders for airstrikes and time-off.
Eikko spread his arms wide and stared at me from by the door. “Yes, Ostana, there is a problem how do you expect me to not only get in a crash—”
“That you caused,” I interjected, looking over the first airstrike proposal.
“Irrelevant, the point is, I'm going to starve if I don't get something to eat.”
Glancing at him again, “you can go eighty-seven hours without food before you reach the starving point. So, stop being so over dramatic.” I signed off on the airstrike request and pricked my finger to stamp my approval with blood.
“So, in other words, I'm being subjected to punishment because I didn't crash sooner?”
I watched the silver blood dry into a flame and grabbed the next request, “maybe you'll think twice about getting disoriented and crossing into a war zone next time.” I pressed my index finger on the next approval and kept up the pace I had naturally fallen in.
Eikko fell into one of the chairs across from my desk and rubbed his temples. Finally, I thought to myself as I finished all of the airstrike requests.
In Padrieg, time was calculated by the stars in the sky which meant that večeras wasn't going to be any longer or shorter than any other nakti. Thirty-six billion stars in the sky translated to thirty-six sati of darkness. Too bad both aircrafts were out for the count, I could be killing Eynos right now, but no, instead I was sitting here on desk duty because the jerk in front of me wanted to ruin everything.
“When is breakfast?” Eikko asked.
I looked at my timepiece before going back to the time-off requests, “twenty sati.”
“You’re joking,” he accused. Rubbing his forehead, he said through clenched teeth, “what the hell is sati?”
Slowly, I lifted my eyes to look at him, “do I look like I’m joking?” I wasn't even going to start the translation game with him.
We stared each other down, neither moving nor making an attempt to speak.
Finally, Eikko leaned back into the chair and shook his head in disgust, “Ostana, I don’t know why you insist on making me be difficult with you. All I want is something to eat.”
Slamming my pen down on my stack of papers I pointed at him, “this isn’t me making you difficult. This is the reality of Padrieg and if you don’t like it,” I pointed to the door, “leave and make sure not to get shot on your way out.”
Snatching my pen from the crisp pages, I began signing off on time-off requests. Not caring that I was approving everyone and would have to figure out how I was going to get their positions covered.
“Fine!” Eikko shot out of the chair and marched his way to the office door, “at least tell me where to sleep. Since I’m going to be stuck in this god-awful place.”
“Yes?”
“Do you mind showing Mr. Kangho where he’ll be staying?”
She chuckled softly, “is he getting on your nerves already?”
The only time my grandmother ever showed any emotion was when it was just the two of us and now was one of those times.
“You have no idea,” I gritted my teeth, staring at the time off requests.
“I’ll be there in a moment,” her communicator disconnected from my own and left me to finish the signing of paperwork.