by S King
“What?” We both said in confusion.
“Lunch. When is it?”
Emric and I shared a confused look before Emric took the reigns on the conversation, or rather argument that was about to happen.
“We don’t have lunch. What you ate before coming here is all you’re going to get until dinner time.”
I hid my smirk as I looked at the budget that Kendrick had drawn up. Emric wasn’t good at speaking Parlan and always seemed to have an issue with pronouncing the simplest of words. Granted I wasn’t all that fluent in Parlance, either. So, I didn’t have room to laugh.
Of course Eikko wasn’t going to accept the answer as suffice and stood from the chair, “you’re telling me,” he pointed to himself, “you don’t eat anything for twenty-three hours and then you go home and eat that chicken feed? That’s it?”
“I don’t know what chicken feed is, but I do know that we have structured mealtimes and that means that what we eat in the jutro is all that we have until the dana is over with.”
“What?” Eikko twisted his face, trying to understand what Emric was saying.
Putting down my pen, I looked at the confused man, “the meal that we eat in the morning is all we have until the day is over with. We don’t need a meal in between.” I went back to looking over the budget and had to stop myself from scoffing at the extravagant amounts that were being allotted by the top officials of the military.
“Well I’m hungry now, so what options do I have?”
“Nothing,” Emric and I said in unison.
Somsang and Eikko stared at each other before turning their pink gazes to us; of course, Eikko was the one to speak.
“Nothing? As in I have to wait?”
Slowly, the internal fire in me was beginning to come to the surface in agitation. I wanted to get back to my investigation about my sister and get to the bottom of the wreck. Not sit here, having to start and stop with the budget for Eikko’s needs and argue about eating times that have already been discussed.
“Yes, Mr. Kangho, you have to wait. If you’ve got a problem with that, you shouldn’t have come to Padrieg.” Emric snidely remarked.
“It wasn’t a fucking choice, Freyer!” Eikko erupted before pushing the chair out of the way and going to stand directly in front of my right hand, “I’m sick of your attitude, so lose it or we can settle this here and now.”
“I don’t think that’s something you want to do, sir.” Somsang whispered as he stepped back from the two and started twisting his hands.
“Listen to your handler, kid,” Emric smirked in Eikko’s face even though he was an inch or two shorter than him.
The purple flecks in Eikko’s eyes began to spread wide, covering the rose-pink color, “call me a kid again and see what happens.”
Emric wasn’t afraid of Eikko’s temper or changing eyes; I could tell ever since we met the two men from the blue sun society that Emric didn’t like either of them.
A fight was impending between the two, but I’d seen Emric fight in the past and that’s the only reason that I let my internal heat push outward to warm the room and force all three men to back away from each other as they tried to get a grip on the change in temperature.
“Now that I have your attention,” I said going back to the budget report, “Eikko, you’re not going to get anything to eat until the sustenance delivery is notified of the mealtime. First Lieutenant Freyer, if there’s nothing more, you and Keon can resume your activities prior to reporting to me.”
“But—” Emric started but stopped when he caught sight of my warning look.
I was already pulling rank on him in front of our two wards, but that didn’t mean that I wouldn’t unleash my full power on him should he try to question my authority in front of anyone. He may have been my right-hand man and best friend, but I was still stronger than him and that meant that I would completely destroy him should he decided to have a pissing contest with me.
“That’s all, you’re dismissed,” I said and went back to my budget report. I needed to get this done before my shift was over with because everything, I needed to find out more information on Theodora was in my office on the base and not in my domicile. I was racing against the clock that was quickly running out of time.
“Yes ma’am,” he said through gritted teeth. With a final warning look at Eikko, he and Somsang left my office and allowed me to resume my cost sheets.
Thankfully, Eikko took the seriousness of the conversation and remained silent as I went through the stack of papers and sent them to Kendrick through the document locator.
When the day was over with I rubbed my eyes and checked my time piece; it wasn’t too late to go to the training arena and get a little workout in before the final meal for the nakti came and I could use with a little unwinding.
“Let’s go,” I shut off everything in my office and waited for Eikko to get out of the chair.
He stretched as he stood up and looked at me, “is it time to eat?”
“No,” I locked my office and started for the training arena without giving him the order to follow me. I knew he would and to my lack of surprise he did.
“Where are we going now?”
“The training arena,” I nodded to several officers that were coming on duty for the nakti and kept my pace light.
Eikko sighed in frustration, “is that all you do?”
I glanced at him as I turned on the drone lights and sat my things down, “what?”
He motioned around the room, looking more bored than he did in my office, “work, train and go home.”
“Well, I usually would be on the battlefield, but someone decided that they wanted to become disoriented and ruin my aircraft.”
He narrowed his gaze at me before leaning against the observer wall, “you’re not going to let me live that down, are you?”
“No,” I let the ATP warm up, turning my back to him and wrapped my hands in resistance tape to prevent any damage to my skin.
He scoffed, “well, I hope, your twin is a little more merciful and polite because you, my dear are evil.”
My temper ignited as I sealed the last of the tape and spun around with a fire shooter in my hand shooting the observer wall he was standing against. Apparently, he thought I was playing with him because he didn’t move. That is until I shot him, loading the arson clip, and waited for him to get up.
“Why are you shooting me?” He ducked away from another bullet and hid behind a stone wall.
“Because you deserve it,” I let another round go off as he ducked behind the wall and peeked at me from his crouched position.
“I deserve to live,” he said ducking out of the way from another shot, “why do you keep shooting me!”
“Why do you keep getting up?" I shot a white fire angel at the protection barrier that he was behind and smirked as the ruble exploded into the air, exposing Eikko for another round of arson bullets.
“White flag!” He waved his arms, “white flag, ok? I surrender. I’ll stay out of your way and be silent, just stop shooting at me!” He flinched as I raised my inflamed hand and spun on an Eyno coming at me from a hidden position on the training terrain.
“Fine.”
I didn’t like to agree with him or make deals that I really wouldn’t benefit from, but as long as Eikko stayed in his own bubble and left me to my work and investigation then maybe things would go better than they currently were. Now, I just needed to find out what Theodora and the wreck had to do with me.
Chapter 6 A Suit, A Plan, and A Fire Angel
“Are you done acting crazy?” Eikko cautiously stood up from his hiding spot behind the ATP and dusted ash from his shirt.
Shutting off the ATP, I splayed my fingers, “I’m done, for now.”
“Is there anywhere that I can get some new clothes?”
Frowning, I gave him a once over, “what’s wrong with the clothes you have now?”
“I’ve been in them since I landed here—”
“Crashed,” I corrected, shouldering my bag, and already running through the options for men’s casual clothing.
In Padrieg there weren’t a lot of options for men or women, besides the military uniforms and workout wear. The options were slim. Although, I had to agree with him; he’d been in the same clothes for the past almost four dana and he was just now complaining about not having another outfit. After all, we had the budget and we still had four sati until the next mealtime.
I rubbed my forehead, “fine, but I need a shower first. Then we can go shopping.”
A wicked smile covered his face, “is that an invitation to get clean with you?”
A fire angel came to life in my hand, “do you want to get burned instead of shot?”
He sighed, shaking his head, “Ostana, what am I going to do with you?”
I let the fire angel extinguish and started for the shower rooms.
Eikko had a way about him that seemed to be as natural as the sun; getting under my skin, making any kind of anger or resentment disappear just as quickly as he provoked it. It was a wonder that he’d made it this far without being killed. Granted, it was still early in the nakti and I still wasn’t in the best frame of mind.
Swiping my arm across the identification panel of the shower room, I turned and pointed to him, “you stay here and don’t talk to anyone.”
“What if I want a shower too?” His cocky smirk returned as he put his hands in his pocket and looked down on me.
I pointed past his shoulder, “then go to the mens’ shower room. You won’t have any luck because you’re a guest and not a resident and that means that you don’t have access.” My shower things appeared from the delivery compartment as the holographic woman wished me a happy bathing.
“When am I going to get my identification,” he motioned to my arm, “thing?”
“You won’t. Again, you’re a guest and not a permanent resident.”
“Then how do guests get clean?”
Before the door closed to the shower rooms, I ducked in and tossed over my shoulder, “they use the guest facilities.”
For a second I felt bad for leaving Eikko standing in front of the now closed doors to the shower rooms and argued with myself to show him where to bathe, but I was on a deadline and if he wanted a shower then he should’ve said something before I swiped my arm.
Thanks to the top officials of Padrieg society, once you swiped your arm and collected your things you were to use the shower and get done. No lallygagging, no hesitation. Get in, get clean, get gone. That was the way of the society and nothing was going to change that.
I followed the illuminated blue path to my shower stall and quickly disrobed; after I got finished, I would take Eikko to the guests’ showers. Surely, he could wait five minutes.
“Ana, are you in here?” Xerminara’s voice broke through the spray of the shower head and made me internally groan before I answered her.
“Yes,” I called over my shoulder, minding the timer on the hot water.
“Guess what!” She was at my door and from what I could tell she was bouncing on her toes like she had a huge secret that was trying to erupt from her.
The first warning on the shower sounded, “what?”
“Claud presented an engagement agreement to me today!” Happy giggles left her as she squealed out her happy news through the shower door.
I paused. Sure, I had known that eventually Claud was going to present the agreement to her, but I didn’t expect that it’d be so soon. I had given them another godine before Claud would take that step. He wasn’t the type of soldier, or man, to rush into things and he really didn’t do well under pressure outside of the battlefield. Nonetheless, I was happy for my friends, truly. But something told me that once the vows were exchanged and the agreement was signed, things would never be the same. In order to keep married warriors together, schedules had to be rearranged and so did battle platoons; less messy, I had always said.
When partners were in combat together, they seemed to focus more on their other half than what dangers were coming head-on. In turn, that resulted in more fatalities than necessary and insubordination between the captains and warriors in question.
I stepped out from the ice water that was now spewing from the shower head and started drying off, “that’s great news. When’s the ceremony?” In my mind, I was already moving Claud from the pepodine shift to the jutro shift just so he and Xerminara would have the nakti together.
“Sutra,” she clapped her hands together as if sutra couldn’t come soon enough. “By the way, I showed Eikko,” again she sighed on his name like he was the butter that melted on her rice, “where the guest showers were. Are you going to get him something else to wear?”
I had stumbled into my pants and was bracing my arms on the slick walls of the shower after she had told me that her ceremony was sutra.
That wasn’t going to be enough time for the shifts to be adjusted, nor would it give me any kind of leeway to prepare the platoons for the change in ranks. For once, I thanked Eikko and Somsang for crashing into my Citlail because if we had to go on the battlefield now, there were bound to be more problems than not.
“Yes, I just got the budget for his care,” I stepped out of the shower room and stared at her, “so, you’re really going to do it, huh?”
She shrugged, “why wouldn’t I? I mean he’s a great guy, we get along for the most part and now that we are signing the agreement, we’ll both move up in ranks. All in all, it’s a great arrangement and the best part is,” she smiled at me, “we’ll have our own domicile. Without our parents and siblings harping on us about when we’re going to enter into the arrangement. Finally, we’ll be able to relax when we cross the threshold and not have to worry about being so uptight all the time.”
Well at the least she was thinking with a sound mind and not just doing it to get away from her parents. Although, I did envy her in the worst way because she did have her parents but didn’t appreciate them in the way that I thought she should.
“Good, I’m happy for you,” I tried to give her a genuine smile, but I didn’t know if she really knew what she was getting into.
She nudged her shoulder against my own, “it’ll be fine, Ana. I promise, I know what I’m doing.”
“If you say so,” we stepped out of the shower room only to come face to face with Eikko talking to a low-ranking officer of the military base.
I didn’t know why but a wave of something new and unfamiliar washed over me in a rush. Not to mention that I didn’t like the officer Eikko was currently devoting all of his attention to; Emrys Ingemar was nothing more than a knock-off of her mother and only half as pretty. Her dirty blonde hair bordered on a light brown, hinting at her lack of a prestige bloodline. Her spice orange eyes never seemed to focus on one thing and her shorter stature made her completely useless on the battlefield. The only thing that she was good for was answering communication attempts.
Now, here she was talking to Eikko, flipping her hair over her shoulder, and smiling at something he was saying. With her only being five-foot-four, she looked ridiculous standing in front of Eikko with his six-foot-eight height towering over her. The final straw to my patience was shredded when I saw her trailing a finger down his chest.
“Uh oh,” Nara said under her breath as I surged forward.
“Officer Ingemar,” the sound of my voice was sharp, and I knew that my eyes were glowing a dangerous blood red.
She jumped, spinning around, and saluting me out of respect, “Captain Shaye.”
“Why aren’t you on base? I don’t remember approving you for time off and I’m sure that Colonel Kendrick didn’t get a whim to allow it either.”
She twisted her hands, obviously coming up with a lie or a way to talk herself out of the hole that her presence has already dug.
“Well, Captain, I…” she began but stopped when Eikko surprisingly stepped up.
“We were just having a pleasant passing conversatio
n. Since you were in the shower, I had nothing to do and she was going back to the base.”
I narrowed my eyes on him, “didn’t I tell you not to talk to anyone?” Shaking my head and waving off his next excuse I turned back to Emrys, “go back to the base and if I catch you out in the society when you’re supposed to be on rotation, I’ll make sure that you never get another rotation off again. Is that clear?”
The fear of God was forced into her as she nodded quickly, saluted me, and ran to the military base.
“Feel better?” Xerminara whispered, staring at Eikko.
“A little bit,” taking in a deep breath, I looked back to the man in question, “do you want new clothes or not?”