NightPiercer

by Merry Ravenell

  “No, but he was willing to,” Forrest said. “He knows about the euth order.”

  Keenan narrowed her eyes. “Fuck.”

  Tsu steepled his fingers and tapped them against his lips. “How did he find her?”

  “No idea,” Forrest said. “But leave it to Rainer to find anything.”

  Tsu turned his attention to the Crèche Commander. “How did he find out about Lachesis?”

  Keenan blew out in annoyance, flicking the strand of hair that usually drifted over her face. “I have no idea. Micheal told Lachesis the truth, but she swore she hadn’t told Rainer. She knew it would push him over the edge.”

  “Well, it did, and he tore through Main Medical,” Forrest bit out. “And he’s currently camping there shedding all over an iso-pod and he’s sworn Lachesis dies over his dead body, and I believe him. He’s gone goddamn feral!”

  Tsu frowned and tapped his hands against his lips again. He hadn’t authorized the use of silver bullets against his Lead Engineer, although Security was outside Main Medical ready to deal with the Commander in very permanent fashion.

  “Not even Bennett knows the truth,” Keenan told Tsu.

  The Captain pondered a moment, then asked, “Why did you insist on Supervision so quickly? I supported you, but explain it to me in complete detail.”

  “We never did Supervision with his other spouses,” Keenan said. “The goal was to avoid dragging out failure like we did before, and an attempt to re-exert normalcy after the debacle of her arrival.”

  “But it’s not normal for her. You authorized her to know the truth? Not even Bennett knows the truth.”

  “I have spoken with Micheal about it. He should never have told her. Rainer takes his responsibilities seriously. It’s why his reports are unquestionably loyal. They know he is loyal to them.”

  “Rainer does not suffer betrayal of any kind,” Tsu said. “I only agreed to the lie to protect him from an ugly and irrelevant truth.”

  “Rainer never cared about his other wives. We were not expecting this reaction,” Keenan said.

  “What does he want?” Tsu asked Forrest.

  Bennett entered at that moment. “Who cares what he wants? He tore through Medical and he’s camping it.”

  “He’s camping an iso-pod and causing no further disruptions in patient care,” Tsu said. He eyed Forrest, who nodded reluctantly.

  “He went war-form and feral,” Bennett snapped.

  Keenan shrugged.

  “He’s vowed he’ll die before Lachesis,” Forrest said. “He wants her back. Period. Non-negotiable. I believe him.”

  Keenan groaned. Tsu rubbed his forehead.

  “So we’re going to let him get away with this?” Bennett asked.

  “What would you suggest?” Tsu asked his First Officer. “That we kill him?”

  “I would call it putting a rabid wolf down.”

  “I’ll be the judge of if he’s feral or not,” Tsu said steadily, not rising to the emotion of his other officers. The politics of senior officers was a headache, especially when one of them was the problem child. Rainer was beyond brilliant. The ship couldn’t afford to lose the mercurial Engineer. The ship also needed Bennett, and he didn’t believe Keenan’s story about exerting normalcy.

  Keenan had been quick to issue a divorce. Tsu had accepted that, but balked at the euth order, and even Bennett—who hated Rainer—hadn’t agreed to sign it.

  Crèche could be inscrutable, but normally there was some logic to Crèche’s madness.

  Rainer’s mother had found Lachesis and presented the idea to Crèche, who had presented the idea to Rainer. According to Keenan, Rainer had consented, but Tsu doubted Rainer had actually consented. He’d probably been manipulated. Rainer was absurdly easy to manipulate if you knew which levers to pull.

  But perhaps there’d been something in Lachesis’ dossier that had intrigued him. Rainer heading off to round up his wife on his own in full dress said a great deal, even if it’d been inappropriate and presumptuous. The handful of interactions he’d witnessed between the two of them suggested there might be something to it. He knew from experience the first couple of weeks with a new spouse were awkward and weird, Supervision was a nightmare, and it couldn’t have been easy when you were a mercurial genius paired with a snarky, semi-feral-she-wolf who had been worked over, roughed up, and mishandled.

  Watching Rainer try to talk to a distraught Lachesis about the solar wind and coax her to eat had been so awkward even his daughter had cringed.

  Rainer’s complete lack of ability to soothe and talk to Lachesis was so profound it’d caused even a thirteen-year-old girl’s crush to evaporate within a minute. That said something.

  Sometimes allowances had to be made for the most brilliant crewmembers. Rainer had a bad reputation, but the wolf wanted all the right things, and was willing to work harder than anyone else to achieve his goals.

  But when a male werewolf swore he’d die before he let harm come to his spouse, he meant it.

  And when Rainer said it, it went tenfold.

  He lowered his hands. “Keenan, considering how many compromises got made along the way, I think Crèche was expecting too much from these two too quickly. I understand the logic of holding them to expectations, but we’ve seen their files. These aren’t the most emotionally capable wolves. I’ve observed them interacting, and the Commander’s courting skills are seriously lacking. Crèche overestimated his abilities.”

  “Rainer had absolutely no trouble courting partners into his bed as a young officer,” Keenan reminded Tsu.

  “And every single one of them will agree they didn’t stay for conversation,” Tsu said. “His first two marriages ended in miserable divorces. Lachesis actually has him challenged enough he’s trying. He’s failing spectacularly, but he’s trying.”

  “Are you really going to defend Rainer’s antics this time?” Bennett asked angrily.

  Tsu leaned back in his chair. “He punched his way into the iso-ward because he thought someone he feels responsible for was going to be euthanized.”

  “He isn’t responsible for her,” Keenan said.

  The whole thing had disturbed him from the moment it’d been suggested. He’d expected Ark to refuse, but they’d been willing, and for a pitiful price, because they didn’t need Lachesis. They’d rather be owed a favor.

  And now Crèche wanted to cut their losses. Keenan was pragmatic to a painful, cruel edge, but she hated to admit defeat. Bennett of course wanted Rainer skinned. Forrest didn’t seem very upset. He wasn’t demanding Rainer get shot full of silver and pushed out an airlock.

  Tsu stood. “I’m going to go down to Medical. Unless he goes full rogue on me, we’re going to re-instate their marriage, and give them some breathing room. If it doesn’t work, we’re not going to dispose of Lachesis. So everyone figure out what we’re going to do with her. She’s too smart and educated to throw away.”

  “She’s a feral, Captain,” Keenan said. “Ark had already removed her from consideration.”

  “And according to her file she’s never had a single disciplinary action. Rainer’s a feral too, but he’s a civilized bastard until he’s pissed off. We don’t judge ferals by what they could do on this ship. We all know there are certain buttons you don’t push on Rainer, and coming at one of his own is one of them. We all could have handled this better. If any of you tell me you wouldn’t have ripped up Medical to save one of yours from an unjust euth order after finding out you’ve been lied to by your fellow officers, I’m going to be disappointed.”

  Saved By A Girl

  Rainer lifted his head off his paws. Tsu’s scent drifted through the hole in the iso-pod wall. So the Captain was here. Good. He’d been forcing himself to wait instead of tearing more things into pieces and shaking a nurse into treating Lachesis. That would not improve the long-term situation.

  The Captain stepped over some rubble, glanced around, looked at Lachesis, and gestured. “Human form, Commander. We’re g
oing to talk.”

  Rainer jumped down off the bed. “Captain. To what do I owe the honor?”

  “If it was an honor, you’d have on pants.”

  “I’ve already destroyed one uniform. I’d regret having to destroy another,” Rainer said.

  “You know why I am here. I’m the voice of reason.”

  “I am feeling extremely unreasonable.” Rainer raised a brow. “You lied to me.”

  “More like led you astray with your own ego. Tell me how you found out about the bees.”

  “If that’s what you’re here for, get Gribbons,” Rainer growled. “I can smell him outside. Him and those silver bullets.”

  Tsu clasped his hands in front of himself and rocked from heel to toe, unperturbed. “Tell me how you found out the truth.”

  “Why should I?” Rainer paced back and forth, skin rippling as his war-form stirred.

  “This is not the time to be unreasonable. You’re on the wrong side of this.”

  “And I do not care. You lied to me,” Rainer snarled. “My Captain lied to me. You breeched my trust.”

  Tsu’s composed scent didn’t falter. “I fabricated the story about the hive of bees to shield you from the truth. Ark was quite willing to get Lachesis off their food rations in return for a particular variety of potato and some future good will. They weren’t even going to use her as a surrogate. She was expendable.”

  “How can you say she was expendable!” Rainer exploded.

  “I’m telling you the truth of what was discussed. I didn’t say I agreed. I also didn’t sign the euth order. No one did except Keenan. Even Bennett balked.”

  “Keenan didn’t need you to!” Rainer shouted. He pointed at Lachesis behind him. “Look at this! No restraints, no hydration, no feeding, nothing. Another eighteen hours and she’d have been dead from neglect, or didn’t Forrest tell you that while you dithered over the euth order that Medical wasn’t doing anything except keeping her drugged? Didn’t you realize she was dying?”

  Tsu’s expression chilled. “I’m here to tell you to stop putting your claws through things. She’s your wife again. We will still do Supervision, but once Counseling gives it the go-ahead. I give you my word I’ve told the other senior officers to figure out what to do with Lachesis if your marriage ultimately fails. Something that won’t involve turning her into organs and a mushroom farm.”

  Rainer tilted his head very slightly to the side. His nostrils flared. “Why should I trust you on this? You’ve already lied to me at least once.”

  “I’ve been watching you in the wardroom. Your complete inability to court a female you fancy is so severe my daughter got the hiccups from how pathetic you are. You have her to thank for helping me appreciate you really are as cringe-worthy as I thought. I guess when your good looks and cold-as-ice persona don’t work you don’t know what to do.”

  He didn’t have a good retort for that, and he didn’t care. All that mattered was getting Lachesis out of Medical and back into her den. “I will take her with me. Now.”

  Tsu pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re yelling at me about Keenan and Forrest, and you think you can take her out of here? If she’s been kept as you say, you moving her may rupture her aorta or shear her spinal cord. I’m giving orders they stop the drugs and normalize her electrolytes and cerebral-spinal pressures. Once she’s semi-conscious and safe to move, they’ll release her to you. Go find some damn clothing in the meantime.”

  “I’m not leaving her.”

  “Go put pants on,” Tsu ordered. “And while you’re at it, get your gear, because I want all of this repaired before the end of your next shift.”

  Tsu gestured to the shredded panels and dangling wires.

  Rainer grumbled.

  “And you never do something like this again. I am tired of defending you, Rainer. This crossed a line, and the only thing that’s keeping your hide on your bones is I’m just as much to blame as you. We’re going to call this even. If you act like some crazed Alpha again, I will end you.”

  Rainer showed his teeth in a feral grin. “Same, Captain. Same.

  He twisted into wolf form and slowly paced out of the iso-pod, tail and head high.

  Forest Sprite

  He set her down on the bed. She sighed and moved a bit. One hand reached up to touch the pillow. He’d carried her all the way from Medical. She wasn’t quite out of twilight yet, but they’d told her to take her home once she’d been deemed likely to not casually die from a ruptured aorta or have a seizure or compress her spinal cord. It would take her months to truly and completely recover from the ordeal, but she was probably not going to die.

  He wanted to tell her you’re home now, but this wasn’t home for her. Not yet.

  He tugged on the blankets a bit so they’d be completely even.

  She opened her eyes.

  He froze, not quite prepared for her to be awake, or what he could tell her or say to her. He couldn’t tell her it’s better now, because it wasn’t. Or you’re safe now, because she wouldn’t believe him.

  One of her hands lifted and drifted towards his face until her fingertips brushed his jaw. He willed himself to hold still even as his skin twitched all over from her touch.

  “Is it over?” She looked at the ceiling, rolled her eyes back farther to look at the triptych of paintings over her head. “I wonder if that’s what Earth looked like.”

  Drugs were a hell of a thing, especially in a system that wasn’t used to them. Her fingertips rested on his skin. Every nerve danced at her touch and her soft scent. “Yes, it’s over.”

  She sort of moved as if to sit up. At least she’d waited until back here to wake up.

  “Lachesis, you need to sleep. You’re exhausted,” he said. She needed true sleep where her body repaired itself. Not the sedated kind where the body struggled to purge the drugs.

  Eyes the color autumn sky and leaves turned to him. “I thought we were divorced.”

  Her scent confused him, and she still had her fingers on his face, moving softly like he was an instrument. The damaged nerves in his shoulder caused the fingers in that hand to twitch where it rested on the blankets. Right on one of her thighs. She shifted under his touch. He tried to move his hand away, except somehow this resulted in his palm sliding higher up her thigh. “I didn’t give them a choice.”

  “How?” Her voice trembled just a bit.

  “My extraordinary charisma is a force of nature.”

  Her fingertips drew him closer, as soft as her chuckle. “Extraordinary charisma.”

  “I sense sarcasm.”

  Another soft chuckle. Her breath brushed his skin, her fingertips seemed to pour something into him that flowed through his veins into every chamber of his heart and down his spine into every single nerve and fiber. He succumbed to the cold, primal push, and kissed her, gently.

  She pulled him closer, lips parting, soft, pliant. The shimmer of her desire rose off her skin and engulfed his mind like honeysuckle pollen. She tasted like flowers and dawn. Her tongue tangled with his, and something like vines tangled along his spine with whatever had coiled there from the first moment he’d met her.

  He couldn’t do this.

  He wanted to, the desire and need more intense than anything he could remember in his life. She consumed him and pulled him closer, her body ready for him to push her down into the blankets, pull off the fabric separating their bodies, hear her mewl in pleasure as he sank deep into her, clench his teeth around the softness of her neck while her fingers dug into his back and raked painful patterns into his skin.

  He managed to wrestle himself away. This was wrong. This was very wrong.

  She breathed his name, and it summoned him like a howl across forests and mountains.

  It was right, he was sure it was right, everything told him to—

  NO.

  The not-voice howled yes, yes, yes.

  NO.

  He struggled to find his human voice, and when he did, it was hoarse and ra
w. He lifted her hand off his cheek and laid it on the pillow, guiding her down into the bedclothes. “Go to sleep, Lachesis.”

  She laughed softly, like some wild forest sprite, then sighed and snuggled into the pillows.

  Rainer got to his feet and backed out of the room, quickly, and closed the door, before he did something very stupid.

  He looked at his hands. They trembled.

  Functional sedation: it made the patient docile and tame, but capable of compliance if prodded. All mental defenses gone.

  He took a deep breath, held it, counted his heartbeat.

  The fact he felt his pulse in his cock did not help his desire or his guilt.

  “Dangerous little sprite,” he growled under his breath. But the dangerous forest sprite was out of her mind, and when she came to her senses, she’d gut him. Or cry. Or both.

  He picked up his tablet. Now he needed to wait, and plan.

  Another Betrayal

  She picked through the wool-wrapped memories in her brain. She didn’t remember much of anything after they’d taken her to Medical. She’d talked to someone, hadn’t she? She remembered… she couldn’t remember. Trees. She remembered trees? Trees and rain and saltwater and stone.

  That made no sense.

  She pulled herself up along the pillows, or tried to. Her muscles ached and refused to obey. Her head hurt and she felt fuzzy and woozy. And above all of it, she was so thirsty.

  Her shoulders hurt too much to move the blankets. She abandoned trying to sit up and decided to worm her way out of bed.

  Flop.

  She and the floor got personal as her legs didn’t obey her and ended up tangled in the blankets.

  “Ow,” she muttered.

  The door to the bedroom slid open.

  She managed to roll over onto her back and stared up at Rainer. He was in casual dress, not his uniform. He crouched down next to her. “Would you like some help, or are you enjoying the floor?”

  “Why do you play with your prey?”

  “We’ve had this conversation, little forest sprite.”