My Journey

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - get used to it)

I maneuvered Space Beast over to the final ship where a pilot was in space beside it. I departed myself, letting him know that I’d go in first, and maneuvered over to that ghastly orifice at the rear, opening the airlock. I helped him get inside and sealed it. I could see a figure standing near the inner door, gazing through the translucent pane. It was hard to make the being out. I was afraid they were suffering from their capture, and waved to them. They waved back, and when the air was pressurized, I opened the door. To my shock, I was promptly thrown to the floor, a huge beast of a being on top of me. They looked like a great cat with a shaggy head of hair, and looked angry and afraid. “Garan estarme?” They sounded male, desperate and angry. “What… you do?”

Thank God they knew some Lingo. “Friend, friend!” I exclaimed, glancing back to see the pilot holding a pistol at the ready. “I come to help!”

Their strength seemed to fail them, and they collapsed on top of me, beginning to weep. “Oahh… tevareh… help… we, hurt…”

“I will, I will. Get up, and we will fly you to safety,” I told them with as much assurance as I could. He needed some help himself, and was as large as a Vy’keen. Being naked, I could see he was male, and inside I could see three others, two females gazing at me hopefully, though one was lying unconscious. Please, let them be unconscious…

They looked to have suffered from their capture, as they clearly had put up a fight and had to be subdued by the Gek. The ones in question peered at me anxiously from the ccokpit. At the sight of them, I lost my cool, stowing my helmet so I could voice my displeasure to them clearly. “All right you three! Get the hell in here and lie face down on the floor!”

“Yes, yes! We obey!” they chittered, and a pleasant aroma came from them, evidently hoping to placate me so I would spare them. The three conscious beings growled at the new prisoners as they came in sheepishly, and the male grumbled to me as he sat, clutching the two girls to him, “Kill.”

Right then I wanted to, but motioned for the pilot to take over the ship. I hoped he understood this. “I can’t. I promised them life, so you would live.” He seemed to grasp this and relaxed just slightly, murmuring something to the women. As the ship came to life and began its descent to the world below, I gazed at them in sympathy. They were large tiger-like people, with tawny orange fur and mottled brown markings, sharp green and blue eyes, and some obvious wounds on them. And sadly, they were too large to get into my suit. I pointed to a gash in his chest, saying, “We will help, heal you.”

“Thank… my glad,” he muttered weakly and lay back against the wall of the ship, his eyes closing. I watched carefully for signs of breathing, and relaxed when I saw his chest rise and sink. I wanted to know his name, but that could come later.

One of the girls said quietly, “You… good.”

I didn’t know if that was a question, but replied as the ship began landing, “Yes, good. All, good. We help, heal you.” She took that as an offer of charity, and nodded. As we settled to the ground, she asked as the male roused, “Where?”

If she hoped they had gone back to their home, I had to disappoint them. “Safe, peace. Come, we help. Trust us.” The male looked like he would need some help to get to his feet, but he waved me off, digging his nails into the fleshy walls of the ship and hauled himself to his feet, then crouched down to gather the unconscious male into his arms. Even wounded he was strong. I gave a kick to one of the Gek, much gentler than I wanted, saying to them, “Alright you three, on your feet.” Fortunately, they took my command seriously and offered no resistance.

I had ordered the ships to settle down just outside of the fortress walls, as word from the Vy’keen was that the base had been all but captured. We emerged into the light of the planet, a lush world with pleasant weather, but the captives didn’t like the situation they found themselves in as lingering sounds of battle came from beyond those walls. The male growled to me, “What… why… this?”

He had no clue what their fate was, and I did my best to assure him, pointing to the others near their own ships. “Look… safe. My friends, help.” He looked dubious as I came close and stroked his arm. “We help, heal your injuries. I swear.” I beckoned to some Oshazi to assist with the comatose male in his arms. “Good, we’re good. Promise, freedom. Take you home when you’re healed.”

The one female got the gist of that and fell into me, weeping out a stream of gratitude in her language, and hugged me with strength I could feel in my suit. They clearly had gone through a terrible ordeal. That felt good, and dulled the pain of the ones who had died.

As I patted her back, Yila came up to me with a look that hinted of jealousy. “You are fast at making friends.”

“Honey, they’ve been through hell,” I told her with a sigh, then pushed out of the girls embrace, stroking her cheek softly. “Go with them, get help. Help your people know, we help you.”

She nodded, whimpering, “I help… tell. Thank… happy.” She mashed her forehead against mine for a moment, which charmed me, and then joined the male.

Before they left I stopped him, saying as I pointed to myself, “Fox, Nijal Fox. You?” I had grown too used to Yila’s darling pronunciation.

He gave me a long look, perhaps trying to fix me in his memory, and replied, “Purran.”

I gave him a smile. “Good name.” He lingered a moment more, then left with the Oshazi to bring him over to his comrades. It hurt to see him wither a bit, and limp away.

Yila was giving me one of her looks, murmuring drolly, “You will not stop carrying this universe on your shoulders, even if it harms you.”

I returned a shrug. “I can’t help it, not when people need help like this. Besides, you liked how I helped your people… helped you.”

She gave me a smirk which had a smile peeking through it, then leaned up to take my ear in her teeth, whispering as she clung to me for a moment, “Like… not shtrong enough a word. My hero.”

That felt very good, as it felt she was asserting her possession of me, and I enjoyed her embrace a few moments more, though a certain group of buildings vied for my attention. Pushing reluctantly out of her arms, I told her, “Well, let’s go, and set some more prisoners free.”

She nodded glumly, murmuring, “I will assist. But you… no more near death. Promise me.”

I gave her a lopsided smile. “Oh, that’s easy. Gek guards are weak. But you stay behind me, because you are too.”

She gave me a grumpy whine and a punch to the chest. “Watch how you speak of your faithful wingman who keeps you from stupid acts!”

“I will, I will,” I told her, which earned me a growl and an elbow to the side.

I wanted to see how the battle was going first, and contacted the force commander. He replied. “We are just taking over the command… just… just…” I worried that they were burning through the doors with those beam cutters, and were facing a suicidal self-destruct move from the Gek inside. I heard some weaponfire in the background, his own joining it, and cries of both Vy’keen and Gek. There were a lot of people out here, not the least of were those Tiger-like prisoners. Should I order them all to leave? If only I had been there! I’m sure my faithful puppy cat was glad I wasn’t. There was one great burst of action, lots of weapon fire and war cries. “Just… just…” he kept saying. I wish to God he wouldn’t do that - I was genuinely afraid. “Finally!” he cried at last, and there was silence. “Just,” he added, and the way he said it made me shudder. How close had it been!

“Thank God…” I panted in relief, then said much too cheerfully, “You earned a lot of glory today. I’m going to see about the prisoners.” I really should have done that to start with, but I had to know about this final fight.

What he said irked me. “Prisoners? Oh! Those… why bother?”

“Because a Sage’s curse might fall on us all if I don’t,” I snapped, and he had nothing to say to that.

I scanned a familiar block of structures on the outside of the base, and it was flooded with red dots. Those damned Gek had been busy here. I hoped that not many had been exported, or wounded, but that was a faint wish. I approached to where a small group of Vy’keen waited outside the fence… for orders? They regarded me with some curiosity as I approached. I raised my rifle and made a fist with my other hand to them. “Greetings, Blades,” I said, but they were looking past me. Of course, Yila caught their eyes and she must be quite an odd sight. “This is my ma - companion, Yila,” I explained, almost saying mate. Damn, was I slipping. She seemed to be smirking at me, so I moved this along. “I’m here to free the prisoners.”

The leader gave me a perplexed look. “We were just going to destroy it.”

That set me off and I growled to them, “You will do no such thing! The Sage which foretold your victory warned you to be good to these people! If you harmed one of them, you will all suffer shameful death!” Gruun’gaudhkht, the worst kind of humiliation for a Vy’keen, a nasty sounding word and I said it as nastily as I could manage. That had them blinking. I pointed back to the base, saying, “Now leave, and help your brothers. I’ll deal with this myself.” They were more than happy to comply.

Yila came alongside, wondering what was said, and I related the gist of it. She muttered, “Your friends are not too friendly with others, just you.”

I heaved a sigh. “I know… they’re going to take some work. Anyhow, come on. I have some new friends to make.” This sobered us both up, as this meant a fight.

It did, though thanks to Yila’s help here and there, they stood no chance and fell more quickly than the others. She hated how boldly I assaulted the building, seemingly with no care for my own safety, but I knew that these Gek were lightly armed and armored. After dispatching the guards facing me, I approached a familiar corner to a wide corridor cutting the building in quads. Halfway down it were a clump of several green dots, while there were easily hundreds of red ones in the cell blocks. I had evidently shown up at just the right time again. I shuddered to think of these poor souls dying at the hands of the Vy’keen, who had been charged with their safety. I would have to send a strongly worded message to the Admiral. Somewhat strongly.

I crept up to the corner, Yila close at my heels, and shouted down it, “Surrender! Live! Life is more profit than death! And I will kill you if you don’t!” Blaster fire cut into the wall in reply.

“Leave! Leave!” the warden shouted back defiantly. “My fate is to guard our bounty! I have no choice!”

“Then neither do I.” Gathering myself, I jumped into the middle of the hallway and opened fire on the hapless Gek facing me, sheltering behind the command center in the midst of that crossing. Lightly armored as they were, they went down one by one. I took some fire, but the suit was able to deal with it. I approached the walled off desk with my rifle aimed at it, but a scan revealed that they were all dead and I ran up to it.

Yila trotted up behind me, grumbling, “Do you have no sense of safety?”

I turned to face her, showing her my suit. “See? I’ve been through this before. These are wimpy Gek.” She wasn’t pleased, so I dropped it. I took my helmet off and went straight to a microphone, shouting into it, “This is Traveler Fox! I have captured your prison! Surrender! Leave! Or I will kill you! I will do this! There is no profit in death!” In the prison chambers, I began to hear a growing commotion as the captives began to sense a change in their fortunes.

A trio of Gek began talking over each other, but there was a common theme. “We live! The First! There is no capture!”

“I have killed your commander! And your fate will be the same! Now surrender! Leave! Or die! You choose!” I exclaimed with murderous intent. Red lights came on, a stink filled the air, and the usual screen came to life with a countdown. I found the control for the self-destruct and pressed the Abort button. To my chagrin, they initiated another. “Honey, come here.” I showed her the yellow abort button, and pressed it. “If they start any more, push that each time. I have to go kill them before they get any more bright ideas.”

“You leave me here while you…?” she began, but she had enough sense to know what would happen if she left that console. “Be safe and succeed, you beloved fool.”

I kissed her helmet, saying to her, “I will, angel. Just remember, wimpy Gek, wimpy Gek.” She growled and waved me on as the red lights came on again. I had to hurry before the Gek grew tired of this unwinnable game.

I went down a corridor which should join the buildings together, intending a circular sweep of them. I opened the door which led into a short corridor to another, but this one was locked. Fortunately security wasn’t that great and Suit made short work of defeating it. The security desk was in plain sight down it with some Gek guards huddled around the console. Thank Heaven they were focused on it, and I unloaded Boltcaster on them, sniping them all dead. The prisoners in here were growing restless too, and one called out from their cell, “Who is you?” So they understood Lingo too, which was a big help, but they didn’t sound like the large feloids I had freed. They must be natives, but what race? Smaller feloids, canines?

They called again, and I shouted back, “A Traveler! Fox! Nigel Fox! Hold on. You will soon be free!”

Some of them began chattering excitedly about their freedom, but some asked, “Traverer… tevarer?” One of them said something, and then they began chanting, “Tevarer, tevarer!” Evidently that term had evolved over the centuries.

I went to the console, pulling a body lying across it away. Poor dumb bastards. I removed my helmet and shouted into the mic, “Your friends are dead! I killed them! Do not die in waste! Surrender or leave!”

The surviving Gek began to chatter among themselves, and I didn’t like what I overheard. “Wait!” one of them shouted.

“I’m listening,” I said, while looking for the security system. It was probably in a menu which I doubted I had time to hunt down and figure out, so I muttered to the suit to disable them all. When the Gek said nothing more, I urged the suit to hurry the hell up, when she announced, “Security shutdown complete. Self-destruct lockout complete.” If only I’d thought of that before. I put my helmet back on. Now, for the last of them.

I ran down the long corridor adjoining the next quad of cells, passing through both doors, and stopped dead in my tracks. They were using the prisoners as shields, and firing around them at me as they advanced. I barely had time to notice that they were tall deer-like beings as my anger took over and I hurried down the corridor at them, my rifle aimed with deadly intent. I didn’t dare fire till I was upon them. Their eyes, prisoner and Gek, were all wide with fear as I shot the fiends holding the poor captives who cried out in terror at their horrible plight. My shields were being whittled away, some of that fire beginning to sting. Yila didn’t like the sound of this, exclaiming, “Nijal! What’s happening!”

“Come help, come help!” I shouted as I drew close. “Those bastards! They’re using the prisoners as shields—!” One of the monsters turned vicious as his fate looked to be sealed, and shot his captive in the back, a girl, and I screamed in outrage as she fell, smashing the butt of my rifle in his face. At such close range I couldn’t miss, and killed them all, but not before they shot their captives without mercy. If any wanted to surrender, I didn’t give them a chance. I was so angry I was in tears, and blinked them back as I tried to help the wounded. Somehow, I hadn’t shot a one of them myself, thank God for that. I told them anxiously, “Please… I’m sorry… be patient. I’ll get help, I promise.”

There were five of them, though four were conscious and crying from their wounds. One of the males was shivering and panting from the pain and rush of fear, but managed to say, clasping my hand before I left, “Glad… glad.” I nodded and hurried along, feeling terrible for abandoning them. I could taste nausea in the pit of my stomach, but I was so upset, it was smothered in adrenaline. I tried to ready myself to face this horror again. “Yila! There are wounded! Those damned Gek… help them if you can!”

“I… ohh… I will,” she muttered. I just hoped she went the right way to find them.

I paused before I entered that last building, hugging around the doorway as the Gek fired at it, hoping to wing me somehow. I took my helmet off long enough to deliver what I hoped was a convincing warning. “All your friends are dead! Surrender! If you use those people as shields, I will be cruel! I warn you, I will be cruel!”

“Faka you!” one of them shouted back. I huffed an angry breath as I donned my helmet and made sure my systems were fully charged, then ran in. And damn it to hell, they were hiding behind the prisoners again! As I was closing in, I saw a familiar sight behind them. Yila probably went that way on purpose to help me. I shouted to her, “Careful! Don’t harm the prisoners!” I wasted no time getting to the Gek, shooting them dead one by one while they half turned to face their attacker from the rear. They were so startled from the assault, if they meant to shoot any of their captives, they had no chance. The people all fell to their knees, overcome with fear and relief, and babbling to me in their language. I began to tend to them when I froze in the grip of horror. Yila was down.

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - more)

The Sage’s warning began to bother me but I growled, “Shut up!” as I fell to her side, clasping her hand. “Yila… damn you, why, why did you do that!”

“D-don’t ask me… to do… w-wwhat you won’t… I… w-will live,” she stammered out, watching in surprise as I began undoing her suit. “W-what are you—?”

“Shut up, I’m going to make sure you do,” I snapped at her. I was particularly worried to see that she was shot in the right side of her belly, as that was the location in a particularly frightening vision, and it was life threatening too, but there was no way in hell I was losing her. I undressed as quickly as I could, and in a few moments I eased her into my suit and sealed the helmet.

It began working almost immediately, and she arched upward in pain, giving a little cry. I clasped her shaking hand, my own quivering as I fought to center myself. “It’s… going to cause pain for a little while, darling. Just… hold on to my hand, and it’ll be over soon.”

“I… am,” she gasped, squeezing my hand tight, and gave me a desperate look.

I jumped at a touch on my shoulder from behind. I turned around, panting for breath as I recovered. It was a male, and the others gathered behind him, covering up as best they could. “I’m sorry, my wife is hurt,” I told them as I calmed down. It took me a moment to realize what I’d said, and felt foolish.

“Your…?” he began hesitantly, but I waved him silent.

“You are going to… marry me yet,” Yila chuckled brokenly, but that was a good sign. And it warmed my heart much more than it should.

They all knelt next to me, and he clasped my free hand in his, saying with reverence, “Thank… big joy.” I finally had a good look at them. They seemed like humanoid deer, most with shaggy heads of hair, short reddish-brown fur and cream torso… bovoids? They were meek like them, and I wondered if I was meeting a peaceful, perhaps even philosophical race. His hands were Human sized but the fingers were thick, three of them and a thumb, with thick hard black nails.

“I am well, now,” Yila told me, adding, “Uhhm… might I have… some privacy?”

“Well, honey, they’re naked—” I began, to which she punched me in the stomach. “Right, right… I’ll just go walk them over to free the prisoners—”

“No… never mind,” she grumbled. “You take this now. I will not have you running around without your… help me out of this, please?”

I gave her a hand standing up because it was a little bulky on her, undid the fastenings and removed the helmet. I noticed they were gaping at us in amazement, no doubt because such alien races hadn’t visited them for thousands of years. Though they did know about Travelers, I assumed from what they had said, so someone must have paid them a visit at some point. It was a crying shame that the last race they encountered had to be Gek Raiders.

Yila kept her back to them as she suited up. She practically pounced me as I began to deal with the others, wrapping my neck in a tight hug, and took a deep whiff of my aroma. “Thank you… you big hearted dirt clod.”

I chided her as I pecked at her cheek, “Oh… so you remember that farm work fondly?”

“Hush, you… I want to enjoy this,” she murmured. I could only pause for a moment, as I had wounded people to tend to. She was appalled that I didn’t bother to suit up.

The prisoners in their cells were talking excitedly now, and some seemed to be shouting encouragement to those who had been shot by the cowardly Gek. Of the five of them, three looked to be in bad shape. One was beginning to fade, a girl, and I hurriedly began to slide her into my suit. She was aware enough to be afraid and tried to resist in spite of her pain. The others began hesitantly to intervene, unsure of what I was doing. “My suit can heal,” I explained briefly, and those who understood told it to the others. She hated having the helmet put on, sealing her inside, and it had to be claustrophobic for her, but I had the male talk her through it and she relented. I knew they wouldn’t like her reaction as she twisted, giving an anguished wail. I held her hand, speaking to her in a soft voice, telling her that it would only last a while. I turned to one of them, gesturing to take over. “Let the others know I’ll do the same for them. They will be healed after this.” One male nodded and passed this along to the others. I checked the unconscious girl, but I was devasted to find her dead. Oh, dear God, no…

I forced myself up to the console and looked it over, in need of anything to get me over my dour mood. I found the master cell release and pushed it. Now the prisoners were really excited as all the cell doors unlocked and they poured out into the hallways, talking loudly. An unpleasant smell came with them which burned in my gut. They had literally been treated like cattle.

I set my rifle down on the console and waved my hands, saying, “Lingo! Lingo! Do any speak Lingo?” Some of them came forward, one saying, “We do, we speak it.”

I asked them, “Do any of you live close to here?” Most of them looked perplexed, but as the few bilingual ones spoke to the others, some responded affirmatively. “Is it safe for you to travel there?”

“The evil ones… are gone?” one of them asked.

I was glad for a reason to smile. “Yes! They are all gone!” This had my interpreters shouting joyfully, and as they explained their deliverance to the crowd, a tremendous cheer erupted from them. That eased a lot of pain and guilt. I went back to playing healer, easing the girl out of my suit. She promptly snared me in a big hug. I was caught off guard as she drew back, staring deeply into my eyes, and began to stroke over my face with her fingers. They flowed over my features almost as if she was blind, and I stiffened, feeling a gush of warmth from her. I wondered if she might be empathic and was feeling me out. I couldn’t see Yila, but it felt like she wasn’t very happy about this. After I peeled away from the girl’s clutches and tended to the second, I repeated my question. “Is it safe for you to go home?”

One replied confidently, “We are many… it will be safe.” I had to trust them on that.

“I am going to heal these wounded ones, and then you are free to go.” I added to the closest male haltingly, “I tried to… save you all, but… one of them…”

“I… know,” he whimpered and looked ready to cry, but clasped my arm. “You… helped many… feel glad.”

I nodded to him, though that pain lingered as I helped the other girl into my suit. When it did its job, she was quite happy to be out of it, feeling her back, and grew emotional at the magical healing I had bestowed on her. She grabbed me around the neck too and began crying. I hugged her back and gave her a light pat, when I noticed Yila giving me a smoldering look to serve notice that I had better not enjoy it.

It took a while for my suit to mend them up, and I hated to hear their cries of pain, but the rapid mending of tissues had that unfortunate consequence. I felt particularly grim as one of the males gathered up the body of the fallen girl, and I muttered sadly, “I’m sorry… I couldn’t…” The one girl was at his side, and wept silently as she stroked the dead girl’s hair. It hurt to see her expression. They must be related.

“Do not,” one of the younger males said to me, and gave me a warm hug. “We live, are free, because… you did this.” He drew back, saying, “You are… Tevarer? True?”

I nodded, feeling a little better. “True. What are your people called?”

“We? We are Barasi.” He was growing excited. “Tevarer! You must come! Visit! Stay!” he enthused, gazing at me in near adoration. Many others nearby agreed, chiming in excitedly.

The girl came up to me and my breath fell short as she gazed into my eyes and bowed slightly. “Come… with. Father… must see. And… and…” She threw her arms around my neck, sobbing, “Thank… so thank…”

I gave her back a pat and peeled out of her embrace, then turned to Yila, asking, “Would you like to visit your new neighbors?” The Barasi girl backed off, looking awkward.

“Ohh… I suppose,” she murmured, and bumped hips with me. “As long as you are not too cozy with the natives.”

I brushed her cheek, murmuring, “You’re so cute when you’re jealous.”

She gave the heel of my thumb a tender bite, then licked it, murmuring, “I am not jealous… much.”

I kissed her on the forehead, telling her softly, “You are much pretty though.” Oh, so many infractions I was accumulating.

There was no need to round up the prisoners as I was the center of attention. We hesitantly explored the complex as the huge crowd of Barasi followed after, though there were no more Gek and no sign of the large Tiger folk, so I led them outside. Skirtini VII was a well foliated planet, and the surroundings were rather pretty. It must have been a while since they had seen their star as they stood around, blinking at the scenery and all the daylight, and clearly enjoyed the fresh air. Yila and I sure did, and the stink angered me so much, I caught myself wishing for more Gek Raiders to kill. I told one of the older bucks, “We will follow you to your living place later. We have flying… things.” I pointed out Yila’s Fighter and Space Beast parked a short ways off.

His eyes opened. “Ships… you have flying ships? But… yes, you must, we have never seen you before.” He sounded more fluent than most, and I thought better of talking down to them.

“So, you will be safe, going to the nearest village?” I couldn’t keep from feeling responsible for them.

He nodded confidently. “We have big numbers. With no evil ones, we will be safe.” That was true enough, there had to be many hundred of them. Unfortunately, the poor natives must be too easily cowed and captured with a show of force.

I asked him, “How far is it? And how big is your village?”

He looked throughtful for a moment. “Half a day trot? And… middle, much more than we are.”

So, maybe a few thousand, that was fairly large. And it was getting on in the afternoon so they would be arriving that night. “I won’t keep you then. You should leave now, it will be dark soon. Have a safe journey.”

He clasped my arm, and I did the same. “You have my thanks… our thanks, all. We can not give you enough for this.” He turned to go, but hesitated. “Come, soon, visit us. We must give true thanks.”

“I promise, I will,” I replied, and felt a satisfied rush as the crowd of many hundreds shouted their farewells and thanks, with a flurry of waves. He joined with a few of the older males who got them organized and ready to move out. As they turned and jogged for the treeline, going roughly north, I thought of how good looking they were, with the markings in the fur of their backs, shaggy manes and short tails. As I put my helmet on to scan them and register the race in my system, Yila gave my arm a punch.

“And just what are you doing?” she asked dryly.

“Hey… the same thing I did of your people, marking them so I can keep track of them. What did you think I was doing? Making naughty movies?” I snarked to her.

“With you? Who knows?” She had to laugh at my expression, leaning into me. “So, what are your orders, commander?”

That made me warm as I gave her a hug, and there were a few commands I wanted to give her. “Let’s fly on ahead, find that village. Let them know their world is safe now.”

“Good. So long as you won’t just be looking at naked Barasi girls,” she muttered slyly.

She laughed as I gave her a droll look, poking my finger in her face. “You be nice. I had to look at someone, you know.” She bit it rather sharply, but then began to suckle it, which… was nice. Very nice.

Following the general direction of the departing Barasi, I looked for them and spotted the group - I made sure not to think of them as a herd - and they were quite a large mob, several hundred strong at least. They knew it was us, as Yila’s fighter wasn’t like the Gek’s beast ships, and most of them waved up to us as we came in low, rocking our Fighters in response. I headed on up in the direction they were going, and scanned the ground visually as well as electronically, since primitive dwellings didn’t register. If they lived in caves, I might have a little Barasi hunt on my hands. Fortunately I spotted a few structures among the trees, fifteen or twenty kilometers from the Gek base which seemed uncomfortably close to me. But then, with ships able to fly all over a world, there was no safe distance. I told her we might have some negotiating to do, since they had no idea the Gek were wiped out on their world, or that we helped them.

I guided Yila over to a glade a short walk from the edge of the village to land, and disembarked my beastly ship. I joined with her, stowing my helmet and said, “Okay, let’s go make nice with the natives. And be submissive, like we discussed.”

She smirked to me, “Yes, I know—” She gave a little bark of surprise as a few arrows appeared in the ground a short pace before us.

I raised my arms as I saw a mob of the villagers were running up to meet us, armed with primitive weapons and wearing simple clothes. “Looks like they’re saving us a trip… smiles, smiles,” I murmured, then called to them, “Lingo? Do any speak Lingo?”

That startled them, and then they got a good look at us, beginning to chatter excitedly. One of the young bowman edged forward, saying hesitantly as he looked between us, “You… what… what you?” Lingo was definitely a half-dead language, but at least some knew the basics.

“Tevarer,” I replied, bumping my chest. “Fox, Nijal Fox.”

“Oshazi,” my companion added. “Vorozni, Yila Vorozni.” I realized that I had never bothered to learn her family name, or that she had one.

Now they were really excited, and all of them began to edge forward, a mix of handsome males and females. While I was getting somewhat used to meeting other races, this was still quite an event for me. It was all new to them though, and all they knew was trouble from aliens, so they were understandably cautious. Our speaker asked me, “You… Tevarer? You say… true?”

“True,” I replied confidently.

I was less confident of what he asked next. “Why you… have… that?” He pointed towards Space Beast, and the others looked at me in some concern. This would require some explanation, because it was definitely suspicious.

I went through a little pantomime as I explained the basics, squatting down to make grating Gek noises. I invited my lovely assistant to mime shooting me. I feigned a dramatic death and then got up, pointing to the Fighter, saying, “Now, mine.” I waved my hands, sweeping them along the horizon concealed by the wood. “No more Gek, anywhere.”

He looked unsure, either not understanding or doubtful of what I was saying to him. “No… Gik? Here?”

I nodded, hoping to be clear to them. “No Gik, any here, any there, anywhere. None.”

His eyes widened in his epiphany, and he muttered, “No Gik… all Gik?” Then he gave a wail as he dropped his bow and fell to his knees, which had the others confused until he began moaning something. “Eh zwedari… ya zudan zwedari! Demek direj emli benda deste tebun kume zilas bikeh!” To my amazement, they all knelt reverently, murmuring a stream of gratitude to me. While I enjoyed the veneration, I should make clear to them that I had done nothing but rescue some prisoners.

I cleared my throat, getting the lad’s attention, and I had to smile as he was in tears. They were delighted at what I said first. “Listen… many Barasi come soon. Many many, I freed. And…” How did I explain they were stripped naked? He wasn’t wearing much more than something like shorts, so I hesitantly reached towards a male with a light vest, tugging on the fabric as the lad told the others my news. “Clothes… they have none. No clothes, at all.” I swept my hands over my suit and shook my head to be sure. “Nothing, no clothes. They will need some.” They didn’t know quite what to make of that, though a couple were beginning to look dour. I hoped I didn’t have to strip to make this clear, particularly as more from the village were gathering to get a look at these two strangers.

Thank heaven it dawned on them, though they were incredulous, finding it hard to believe. The youth flustered out, “Silan tuneh? No… clothes? Nothing? But… why!”

I shook my head, muttering, “Gik… stupid, evil Gik.”

He spat out, “Zwedari nifiran liwan bikeh dojehe! Cursed Gik! No good!” One of the others said something to him, and he looked over his shoulder as a tall leader type approached, accompanied by a number of well armed Barasi equipped with spears, shields and bows. The others became aware of this and parted to allow what must be the village chief or elder to take control. He and a few with him were dressed more elaborately but as skimpily as was modest, and they most definitely weren’t meek.

They approached cautiously, for good reason, and I gave them a coordial wave as Yila edged against me, a bit unnerved by them. “Greetings. Friend.” Surely the fact that I was speaking Lingo would be self evident.

Yila whispered, “They do not look happy.”

“I’ll do my best to make them happy,” I murmured.

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - some more)

The leader was tall, more than six feet, and I hoped his intellect was as great as his well chiseled physique. I was almost as intimidated as Yila as he regarded us sternly, and one of his seconds grilled the youth which had spoken with me. He was rather strong himself, and turned to me. “You… come in that?” He indicated Space Beast. Thus repeated a more concise interrogation than with the lad, and I explained again how I had taken the ship from a Gek, fought them, and set their captives free, though they were unclothed. I wasn’t sure I was as convincing this time.

The leader asked of me, “How can we know this?” So, he spoke Lingo well after all.

“Right now, you will have to judge. But the many I set free will be here… soon.” The star was setting so it shouldn’t be too long. “They will tell you what I did. They invited me here.”

He gave me a curious look. “They did.”

“Yes, they did, and they left to come here about—” I was cut off at a call from behind. Someone was high in a tree, and shouting excitedly. I counted on that being the ex-prisoners, and was glad to hear some calls from off in the distance.

“Come, come!” the chief told me with some emotion as they ran off that way. They were very fast, and without my suit systems to help me, I was outpaced easily. There was quite a commotion as the villagers found themselves greeting an immense crowd which emerged from the wood, but they were all excited and a bit tearful at this reunion. One of the girls ran up and gave the chief a big hug, and the thought that I might have saved his daughter warmed my heart. As I caught up with them, joined by even more villagers coming to see what the matter was, I saw a sight I didn’t want to. It was the dead girl, being carried by one of them, and rigor mortis had set in so her body was stiff. I swallowed down some dark emotions as the chief and one of the men with him cried out in anguish, and I was afraid it was his other daughter. It seemed so, as the one girl wept over her. A pair of women ran up to them and began howling with sorrow. I should be satisfied that only one out of a few hundred had perished, and a couple of the Tiger folk, but right then I felt like a failure. Losing people always hurts, but when a girl dies on me, that stings. And his daughter, or close relative… I hoped to placate any wounded emotions.

Yila touched my arm, murmuring in consolation, “I know you so well, now, and you did all you could, and saved all the rest. Be glad for that.” I didn’t feel like talking right then, and we embraced each other instead.

I had to endure a little more as the chief came up to us with his entourage, one of them leaving with the girl’s body, the women and a few others with them. The chief said with a tight voice, “They… said what… happened. That you… tried, hard. But…” I felt crushed, sure it was his daughter now. I felt like crying, in the grip of misery and shame. He clasped my arm, saying, “Listen. You… freed them, so many… we thought they were gone. We were not strong enough. You, and your… mate, did what we could not. She is happy, now, with… Zwedari in Ezman. It is a… very good day.” I had a feeling that if any people deserved to be in Ezman, it was them. I thought faintly that I also had a slight misunderstanding to clear up.

I was very glad that there was still a lot to do. I found out the freed Barasi had made a detour to a lake to give themselves a wash, but they still needed some sort of clothes. The villagers generously shared what they could, and then I realized something that should have been self-evident. Only a fraction of them were from this village, and some more from nearby ones, though not all that near. Many of them were from across the globe, and very few had a hope of ever returning home. They would have to settle in other villages, take up new lives. They had loved ones which may never know their fate, and that saddened me too.

I was also discouraged over a related thought: how different were the Gek from the Vy’keen, really? Were they tacitly ignoring the more warlike ones who thought fondly of their ruthless, genocidal ancestors? Was the business of slave trading just too good to pass up? Were they all as racist themselves? There was only one Gek I knew and trusted, and he was beyond reach for a good while, so my answers would have to wait. I wanted peace among all these peoples, reasonably good relations as there had been during the Civilized Age, but was that a hopeless pipe dream? Would we ever get along as a galactic community?

A late celebration was in order, which was a welcome diversion from my concerns, and I really needed the encouragement. Yila and I sat with the chief and his wives, as he had two. The lad who first met us sat with us as well, so this was his son, and he was in rapture of everything I said. To my surprise, his sister was that first girl I had saved from death, sitting beside him, and that was gratifying. Her fur was more golden, and it made her look adorable. She seemed to be fascinated with me, so I was careful to keep this hidden from Yila. As if I could count on that for long.

The villagers laid out a banquet to all of us, which had me thinking briefly of a similar feast hosted by S’ndelek we had missed. While I suspected it would be a vegetarian affair with plants, nuts and fruits, there was some meat as well, and only one piece tasted a bit gammy, which I discreetly disposed of. Their sweets were delicious, and Yila quite enjoyed them. The chief, named M’rlen, was reasonably fluent in Lingo and wanted to pick my outsider brain for knowledge. I was happy to oblige him. He was amazed at the confirmation that the Gek had been eliminated from the world, or nearly so, though I couldn’t imagine any contingent being foolish enough to stay after the Vy’keen rout. He wanted to meet these rescuers, and I had to warn him that they weren’t as civilized or enlightened as we were, so he left it at that. He was very curious about my people, the Tevarer which made Yila giggle, and the world I called home, after learning that there were countless planets around every star. I admitted to him that I had very few bits of past memory thanks to amnesia, which astonished them and Yila both.

“No memories?” he asked in amazement. “How are you… happy, with your life taken from you that way?”

“Time heals the ache,” I told him philosophically. It seemed clear they valued their memories a great deal. I tried not to think of a fresh wound they would be suffering for a while, but that seemed to have faded for them, somewhat.

At the end of the day, while the multitude of new Barasi were accommodated somehow, M’rlen said to us, “It is late. We would be pleased if you and your mate would stay with us, in my own house.”

Oh yes, I had forgotten one little detail, and I fumbled out, “Uhh… we… would—”

“We would be glad to,” Yila said over me, taking my arm in hers, and gave me a smirk. I would have to explain to her that I hadn’t let that drag out on purpose. At least consciously. That pleased him, and frankly, I had no desire to fly back to that base and stay with Vy’keen in a barracks, even though I wanted to see about those Tiger people.

Before we went, the two wives stopped me, one of them clasping my hand in hers as she thanked me. She leaned down and licked the back of my hand, giving it a kiss, and the second did the same. I felt strangely warmed and humbled by the act, though unworthy of it. Then M’rlen did the same thing, and his son, such a gracious host after losing his daughter and the lad’s sister. Then the girl clasped my hand, gazing reverently into my eyes, before licking my hand and holding it to her cheek for a time. They were all looking at me rather intently, particularly the father, which made me tense. It didn’t help that I could feel an uncomfortable heat emanating from Yila beside me. Thank heaven, she finally let me go, and the father beckoned to a nice looking and elaborate log cabin nearby.

I murmured to Yila with a smile, “I hope you’re not jealous of him too.”

“He does not concern me,” she muttered, though the hook of her arm in mine was welcoming.

I was surprised to see that the workmanship on their homes was exceptional for what I saw as a primitive people, particularly his abode. I was happily surprised to see that they had glass panes on the windows which were also well made, and required some fine craftmanship and knowledge to make right. Their clothes were also of high quality, so that should have been a clue from the start, but I let my biases affect me.

They showed us to a guest room off from their main room, and while it was nicely decorated, there was only one mattress on the floor. This would be awkward. Yila nudged me as M’rlen was looking to me with some expectation. “This is wonderful… thank you,” I told him.

“It is the smallest gift, but best gift we can offer.” He looked behind him through the open door where a pair of figures waited. “My son, daughter, they would like words with you.”

I nodded agreeably. “That would be wonderful.”

He stood aside, and the son came in first, named Ren’th. They seemed to mash words together, so many names had a half syllable, like the Vy’keen. It was sort of like Renith. He gazed at me wistfully, asking, “You… leave us soon?”

“Yeah, I must,” I told him. “I have many people to save, to fight for… almost everyone.” I wondered briefly if those fights to come would be endless little wars like these. What a dreadful thought.

He looked understandably somber about losing his hero so soon, even when I failed to save his sister, and damn, that still hurt. “Well… you must. I will… pray, many words to Zwedari for you. I remember you good… star friend.” He clasped my arm in his unique hand, and I returned in kind.

“You are my friend too,” I said with a lopsided smile.

He gave a little laugh at that and threw his arms around me in a tight hug, so naturally I hugged him in return, patting his back through his long shaggy mane. There was a grunt outside, as dad made sure his son didn’t overstay his little visit. He pulled away, and gave my surprised companion a quick hug too, then clasped hands with me one last time, saying earnestly, “Much wins… all wins.”

“Thank you, and much blessing for you and your people.” That brought a big smile to his face. He looked behind him to where his sister waited, gazing at me fondly. He whispered in some delight, “She… like you. Tanta.”

I could hear Yila draw a breath, and muttered out, “Uhh… that’s good! Her name, Tanta?” I asked, trying to mimic the word closely.

“Yes! Good speaking!” he enthused, when his father grunted again. He yielded to his sister, who came forward shyly. She clasped my hand in hers and brought it to her cheek, brushing it with her fur. “You… strong… save many.” Her voice was soft, very sweet, and she was pretty.

I was still hurting over the loss of her sister, and would for some time, but I swallowed it down. Thank Zwedari I got to the prison before the Vy’keen did something stupid. “I’m glad I saved you most of all.” Yila drew a little breath at that, but I had a feeling she wouldn’t care for any niceties from me.

Tanta gazed at me with glistening eyes for a moment, then threw her arms around my neck, pressing her lips to mine, and then rubbed her cheek on me as she held back sobs. Oh, my… it was so hard not to get emotional from this, and I hugged her back warmly as I felt another warmth at my rear. Thankfully, M’rlen gave another grunt, and reluctantly she slipped from my embrace to clasp my hands once more, murmuring, “You are… full good.”

I bowed to touch her forehead with mine, making her giggle as I said, “You are too.”

The father shifted his weight, making the floor squeak as a sign she should wrap this up. She backed away, her eyes locked in mine as she said quietly, “Zwedari kana pureh itemanthi. Much happy… together.”

When she joined her brother, he gave a little bow with her, saying, “Good dream sleep.”

It seemed that their father was glad his children hadn’t embarrassed themselves. “Zwedari bless your night together,” he said to us before leaving, and closed the door on us. Star friend… I hoped I made many, many more star friends. And his sister, just a friend.

Yila was giving me a look that was very hard to read. I hoped she wasn’t too jealous. “Well, my husband… we should sleep,” she said to me with a pinch of snark and relief. My one star friend-slash-wife gave me a coy look as I hesitated, muttering, “Ohh… stop pretending you don’t like this. Go on, get undressed.” I wasn’t expecting that follow up, or for her to turn her back and immediately begin removing her flight suit. I did so too, though I didn’t turn around, which wasn’t the best idea, but… oh well. As she faced me, she murmured with a sultry tone in her voice, “It is… warm, so… I doubt you need that… shirt.” I wasted no time removing it, and then gazed at the mattress and the thin blanket covering it. Could I control myself? She lay on it and waited for me to join her, on top of the bedding as it was comfortable inside, especially with a partner.

I hesitated as she was quite pleasing to the eye, making her blush. “Uhhm… just so you know, I find you just… slightly attractive. And more than slightly.”

“I do too,” she murmured, reaching for my hand.

As I lay with her, I couldn’t resist saying, “You find yourself attractive?” That earned me a giggle and a light elbow in my side.

“I know I do, and I know someone does too. Just… be nice,” she murmured as if challenging me, and then settled against me, pulling me into her curves. Talk about mixed messages.

I drew a warm breath as I stroked her cheek, replying, “You make it hard to want to be nice.” She smiled demurely, giving my cheek a lick.

I wanted to lick her back, and much more, but I forced myself to turn over, facing away from her, and curled up as I wished her a good night. It was rather tense for a few moments. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to sleep much, with so many things on my heart to occupy me, and one in particular, but the day was more emotionally draining than I thought, and darkness soon began to engulf my mind. Before I drifted off, I felt Yila spooning into my backside, draping her arm across my body, her tail on my leg. I reached back to caress her, my hand settling on her rump, and massaged the muscle softly as a deep purr reverberated in my torso. It was nice, her warmth so nice, and her aroma was nice, so very nice… as were my dreams… very, very nice…

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - lots more)

I was delighted to find her in my arms when I awoke, still drowsing away, and I began to feel a little frisky, tugging her top up ever so slightly. She stirred against me, giggling, “Someone… wants a bite.”

“Oh, would you?” I crooned in her ear, giving it a nibble, and made it twitch. This soon escalated, and while Yila was reluctant, that faded quickly and she began to whisper my name, then to pant it into my mouth as I clasped her to me tightly. It was much too intoxicating, and my passions began to rise. Just then, there was a tromp of feet at the door and someone barged in, crying, “Ni! Gel! Fox! What are you doing!” Was it one of the wives… Seri?!

I jerked awake, making us both blink as Yila whimpered sleepily, “Nijal… what is it?” Her eyes shut right after that and she murmured something in Oshazi which no doubt was along the lines of Dream more quietly and let me sleep. She squirmed into me, nuzzling my shoulder, and her breathing began to slow. I wished I could get back to sleep, and as I lay there, in spite of the lure of the girl in my arms, I began to drift off myself. If only I could get back to that dream and keep a certain someone from showing up…

And then my hand slapped me right in the face, my own right hand at the end of a rubbery arm, the one with a Fateful division creased into it, and I jerked awake again. Yila turned over, muttering as she squirmed into my belly, “Quit waking me, when we’re…” She didn’t really need to finish. Maybe if I just lay there and enjoyed her presence… but that just made me want her. Really want her. Then the sun rescued me from temptation, just touching the edge of my eye. I turned away with a blink and it struck me what that meant. Whatever time it was, it had to be late in the morning. This was frustrating, but I should be responsible. Yila groaned in protest as I made to rise, “Why will you not listen to me…?” And then she gaped up at me, blinking in surprise as I rolled her over on impulse, and stared at her. At her beauty, at her amethyst eyes, wide and wondering as they peered at me between chocolate bangs, at her luscious curves, barely concealed by skimpy tightly clinging blue underwear, at the tawny-cream fur of her torso and the navel just visible, nestled in her belly. She was a fellow pilot, a good cook, tidy, with a temper, but dutiful, forgiving, loving… the perfect wife for me, or lover. Or disruption. “Nijal…” she gasped out, and sounded inviting.

I gave in and kissed her, deeply, passionately, intimately, and she moaned into it, arching into me, her taste thick with sour morning flavor, but I loved every bit of it. Her arms encircled me and her fingers played through my shaggy hair. I broke off and drew back as we both panted for breath, our hearts racing, our eyes locked and yearning for each other desperately. “One indiscretion,” I gasped out, stroking her cheek with my right hand, the one with the warning to me in it as I crouched above her. Damn it all, I had to take that warning seriously, as much as I didn’t want to. I wanted to kiss her again, wanted to… have her. But I said what I also didn’t want to. “Come on, honey, we… have to get up.”

“But… why?” She sounded hurt and confused after such an advance, and I felt even worse.

I nodded to the window. “Darling, it’s late, and we’re guests in someone’s home. We really should be responsible.” And I really should watch my language, but my mouth had a mind of its own. As did my heart as I watched her dress, and I had to fight down urges the whole time. Somehow I managed, and gave her hand a caress, just one more little endearment, with a smile. “Let’s go thank our hosts.”

“Now, you want to be responsible, after…” she muttered, smirking back, and it was obvious I didn’t want to, but things were what they were.

“Hey, I always want to be responsible,” I fibbed to her, which she replied to with a salty, “I do not believe.” Well, when she’s right, she’s right.

I edged the door open, calling quietly, “Hello? May we… come out?”

“Oh! Yes! Happy morning!” It was Ren’th who came bounding up to us. “I am… server of you. You want food? Bath?”

Yila licked her lips, and I felt a bit hungry myself, though for more than food. “Some food sounds very good. Just some.” He nodded enthusiastically and brought us into their dining room, which had pillows arranged around a low table in an Asian or Middle Eastern fashion, some faint memory informed me. The meal consisted of leftovers which had cooled, and I trusted hadn’t spoiled by then. It was tasty and I was grateful, which made him happy. I did want to wash it down with some alcohol just in case, and would offer that to Yila too. I had a feeling that she was hungry for something else, we both were, though a bath would be a very bad idea.

I wanted to know what was going on outdoors, as there was some activity. As I suspected, there was a great village meeting with the properly clothed Barasi we had freed. I wanted to observe this and went outside. Ren’th explained to me as best he could that his father was deciding their fates, as some wanted to stay, and many came from far away and would need to choose a new home with nearby villages. There were too many for one village to absorb them all. “Your father is very smart,” I told him.

He nodded to that. “Very smart… he knows your words! Many words.”

That was very true, though I didn’t want to leave him out. “You know many words too.”

He looked sheepish but happy at the praise. “Ohh… not so many, but… thank you.” He had picked up some of the language well as we spoke, and Yila had too, becoming much more fluent.

As the meeting went on, the Barasi all began to notice Yila and me, and we got a lot of excited looks from them. At the conclusion, we were swarmed by them as they shouted their gratitude in Barasi, some of them in tears, and we got a lot of hugs. This was the greatest encouragement for my Quest I could ever ask for, and gave me some hope for the future. Hope for the universe.

Most of them were divided into groups and sent off to neighboring villages, several of them so their numbers weren’t overwhelming, and were given useful gifts such as clothes, food, tools and weapons. There was a bit more talk for those who remained there, and it was the largest single group at around two hundred, as they were assigned duties according to their skills. I hoped there wasn’t much more as I wanted to say goodbye to M’rlen and his family, and thank them for a good night’s sleep. I urged Ren’th to speak to him, but he came to us with his brood as he noticed we were watching. I let him know that we had to leave, that we had duties, mine to the universe in general. This surprised him, as my speech last night must have sounded a bit more figurative.

“He carries the galaxy on his back, and won’t put it down,” Yila explained, and that impressed them, particularly the siblings.

I thanked him profusely for the room, saying, “We were treated like honored guests, and that was an honor itself.”

“You are honored guests,” he emphasized, and liked my manners. He asked, “Did you enjoy…?”

When I realized what he was asking, I blushed profusely, murmuring, “Oh, yes, we… enjoyed.” Yila edged against me, looking delightfully coy, and clasped my hand.

“Would you also enjoy one last meal with us?” he asked, and his offspring looked to us eagerly. That was a meal more than I really wanted to spend there, but… what the heck, a little more honor and hospitality from a people I was growing fond of wouldn’t be bad at all, so I agreed. I noticed Tanta giving me a sweet look of approval.

It seemed that rather than an opportunity to inquire more of me, M’rlen simply wanted to enjoy our company a little bit longer. He asked in that regard, “So… you will return to us, someday?”

I nodded to him. “Yes, someday, I promise. I want to see how much better your lives are without the evil Gek threatening you. I will encourage my Oshazi friends to visit you.” I indicated Yila sitting next to me. I wanted to bring up a future meeting with the good Gek, but that would have to wait for a much later day. Still, these people had to try to get along, all of them. How else could civilization recover?

“When will you come again?” Ren’th asked, causing his father to groan a little warning. Tanta gazed at me as hopefully.

I gave the youth a shrug. “I don’t know. I have a feeling that my Walk will be a long one. But… within a year or two, or so.”

That seemed much too long to the two siblings, and he asked, “Or less?” His father grunted again.

I had to laugh. “Maybe, it depends on what happens with me.” Yila shot me a knowing look. In some ways it was good that Tanta was rather shy towards me, though I really would like to get to know her somewhat, at the risk of disturbing Yila. The sweet young thing had barely spoken to me.

I lingered just a while more to say goodbye to the family, and to the village in general. They gave us some parting gifts; nice clothes that looked like they fit us both, some crystals which I particularly liked, a few tasty goodies, and battle knives with sheaths. M’rlen’s two wives bowed to me, named S’navi and Nen’ta, and they looked emotional. “Thank you, for… trying…” S’navi began, but couldn’t go on, practically falling into my arms in tears. Nen’ta couldn’t hold back and wormed her way into the embrace as well. My cheeks burned in shame and regret as it occurred to me that I had missed a funeral. I had replayed that gunfight over a few times in my head, but I couldn’t think of what else I could have done to save her. Those bastards were too damned good at their evil. “What was her name?” I husked out.

“Hanti,” S’navi wept. I don’t know why I hurt myself like that, but I wanted to have some small token of the girl, a name to put with that spirit I had failed. I had a sense that she wouldn’t blame me, being in Paradise now, but that was a thin consolation when her parents were in such anguish. I spent a moment to mourn with them.

Don’t despair when you lose them - what a terrible time to recall that admonition.

It was a good thing M’rlen peeled them off of me, or I might have spent any amount of time in their arms. I loved them, all of them, and that missing girl left a painful gap.

Ren’th was putting on a brave face, but he seemed as upset at my departure as losing a sister. “We will all remember you. I remember you most.”

“And I’ll remember you,” I said to the lad, brushing his arm. His affection was quite touching. “Star friend.”

He laughed in delight as I recalled his pet phrase, and threw his arms around me tightly, murmuring, “Come back, soon… very soon, star friend.” This was a very huggy people.

“I will, as soon as I can,” I promised, and I intended to keep that promise with all these peoples. Even ATLAS wouldn’t stop me. I drew back and grasped his arms, as fond of him as a nephew. “Grow big and strong as your father.”

He gave me a warm smile, glancing back at his imposing but proud sire. “He is… big. But I will try… as big as you!” That made us both laugh, and I gave his hair a tussle. He finally yielded to his bashful sister.

Tanta edged up shyly, looking adorable, and I decided to hurry her along by taking her hand, which almost startled her. She smiled demurely, murmuring in her sweet girlish voice, “You… be not long away. I wish… see you again.”

“I wish, too,” I told her with a smile, deciding to keep it simple, and gave her hand a squeeze.

She slipped it from mine and stood before me, draping her leg loosely against the other, and gave me a sultry look that made me catch my breath. I had seen her naked, which at the time hardly mattered. But now, she made me aware that she was a lovely young girl, her eyes glistening. “You… like me?”

“I… sure do,” I murmured a bit quietly, aware that everyone was eyeing me. Especially Yila, who cleared her throat in a meaningful way. And truly, one indiscretion was an indiscretion too many. “But, I really need to go. For a while.” Yila cleared her throat again.

She wasn’t done with me, taking my hand again, and after a moment’s hesitation, began to suckle my thumb. That felt much too good, and it made me quiver. It didn’t help that she gave out a moan. Ohh… my. Behind me, I heard a very sharp breath and felt a vivid warmth. Just as I began to draw my hand away, she threw her arms around my neck, beginning to cry. Oh, this was awkward, but I hugged her tightly, beginning to say something soothing and disarming to her when she gave me a little bite on the neck. “Soon… please,” she crooned in my ear. “I… want…” Ohh… my.

As Yila began to huff, I gently worked out of her arms and caressed her cheek, and gave her a kiss before I could stop myself. Damn my impulsive nature. “Ughmm… I will come back, someday, I promise.” Everyone’s eyes were on me, and I could feel two of them piercing me through. I would have some placating to do. She held onto my hands as I tried to draw back from her, and I caught myself wanting to linger. Nijal, Nijal… damn it…

Quickly, I turned to M’rlen and bid him goodbye as Tanta gave me a wistful look. He gazed at me with all manner of emotions on his face, and clasped my arm as if to keep me there. “You… are a strange one, Nijal Fox. But a good strange. You came from good people, I know. You should live here. We would welcome you and your mate.” He added quietly, “Perhaps, take a mate from us. Tanta… she has feelings.” My acceptance of other races as equals was obvious, and her feelings were even more obvious. I was glad he hadn’t said that too loudly. I was already trying to keep from that as it was with another. If half-heartedly.

He must be assuming I was a great leader as well as warrior, as the others of the village seemed monogamous while he had two wives. I gave his arm a squeeze and half-smiled. “I will… consider her feelings. She is a wonderful girl.” That made him and Ren’th both happy, and Tanta’s eyes to shine all the more, though Yila’s throat clearing sounded more like a growl. Yes, my precious puppy cat, I’m sorry.

That was a definite cue to leave, and we departed with our gifts amidst waves and shouts, and a cry of something from a young girl. Yila was enjoying her treats, trying not to look jealous, and I ate a few myself, keeping the rest in my suit which would preserve them forever. I was feeling quite conflicted, both from having to leave them and their wonderful world, and failing to save the life of those captives, particularly Hanti. Yila was growing used to reading my moods and said, feeling slightly less stiff with me, “If you keep carrying the galaxy on your back, alone, it will break you.”

“That is the damned truth,” I replied philosophically.

“Yet, you still do it.”

I gave her a shrug. “I… can’t help it.”

“Well… Tanta likes you, very much.” Oh, here it came.

“Honey, Tanta is the main reason I’m leaving so soon.”

“Sooner would have meant less liking,” she muttered, but it came with a wry chuckle. She added quietly, “You should take me with you… to make sure you survive your burden. And make sure you aren’t distracted.” Oh, that awful, conflicting phrase. I wanted to take her with me, even as I would fight to keep her from the troubles I would be facing. But, distracting, to say the least.

I needed something to change my mood, and asked leadingly, “Distracted by…?”

She bumped hips with me, muttering, “Other girl’s bottoms.”

“Darling,” I declared in mock offense, “I find the one girl’s bottom quite distracting enough.” That had her laughing, and leaning into me the rest of the way.

As we came up to our ships, I remembered something, and decided to make it into a little ritual, producing some of their Oshazi brandy, still cold, and two glasses. I gave her one and poured some liquor for both of us, just three gulps of it, and raised my glass for a toast. “To the best wing… girl I could ever ask for, and best friend.”

She raised hers, replying, “And my best wing man, and deepest… friend.” Our eyes twinkled into each others at what she would have said in another life, what we both would have said, and we drank. As I stowed the brandy and glasses, she pounced me from behind in a tight hug, laying her face on my neck with a warm sigh. “You are not perfect. You try to be perfect. You fail… but, you are still my… champion.” I clasped my hands over hers, squeezing them fondly, and enjoyed her purr for a while. Just a while.

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - way more)

We flew back to the base, as I wanted to see about the wellbeing of those Tiger folk we had rescued, and make sure the Vy’keen were behaving properly. We found hoards of Vy’keen parading around as if they owned the place, which was understandable since they had captured the base themselves, and no doubt had been costly for them. I was glad to see that the Oshazi were being ignored, for the most part. Kral met us and said to me discreetly, “These Vy-keen friends of yours are subduing the base… and look to be making an occupation force.”

“Yeah, I noticed. I’ll be flying up to speak to their commander about that shortly,” I told him.

“These don’t seem like the type to just let go of a prize,” he said advisedly.

“They aren’t, but I’m going to remind them of a curse that will strike them hard if they don’t, and they absolutely believe in honor and curses. Now, I came by to check on those captives, the Cat people. I want to see them, see how they’re doing.”

“Mostly okay,” he informed me, which was quite a relief, as he led the way to the infirmary. “Some needed fast surgery, especially that one which ate space. Those Gek svolochi were quite hard on them. No doubt put up a good fight, but not good enough. But I swear, these guys are strong like rock. Only a couple speak Lingo, and it’s rough. It took some convincing to let us tend them.”

I found a couple of Vy’keen arguing with an Oshazi medic about needing control of the medical facility. I intruded on the discussion, if you could call it that, and declared that they were going to share the resources and facility because I knew the Sage who had given her blessing for the invasion, and if they disobeyed her, the consequences on their folk would be dire. One looked worried, the other angry, but I sealed it with the declaration, “You will respect this order, or I will be offended, and do something about it.”

After a short staring match with Angry Face, he turned on his heels and stormed off, muttering, “You Travelers… as much trouble as help.”

The others heaved a collective sigh, and Kral said to me, “Your friends are not too friendly. You should find better friends.”

“I wish I could,” I admitted, “but their people make up about a third of the galaxy, and the Gek another third.”

At that, he groused, “So what’s left! A bunch of robots who worship ATLAS?”

“Uhh… yeah, basically, but I’m working on that,” I shrugged, which had Yila drawing a displeased breath. “Hey, let’s change the mood a little. Take me to their rooms.”

It was one large room with curtains separating them, and it looked like they doubled up the bedpads to accomodate the large patients. The mood was quite somber, and some of them were sleeping, possibly sedated, and most were bandaged. It occurred to me that the doctors likely had to do a few tests to see which drugs were safe for them. What an unpleasant thought. A familiar face was in one bed, and while he looked to be asleep, his eyes sprang open at the sound of my approach. He began to sit up, and when I motioned for him to just lay there, he grunted at me and sat up anyway. “You… are back. Friend… good to see.”

I gave him a smile. “Good to see you too. Uhh… Prran?” It was hard to remember a word spoken only once, but seemed close enough.

He nodded. “Nijel. Yes?”

“Yes. The Oshazi…” I motioned to Yila and Kral. “Friends too. They help you.”

He puzzled over something. “They… keep us?”

I was about to say yes, when it struck me that he might be asking if they were just prisoners of another people. “Yes, until you are healthy.” I doubled my fists and made a flexing motion with my arms. “Strong. Then you go free.” I had mentioned this before, but either he forgot or wanted to be sure with someone he could trust.

“Free…” His eyes bore a somber look and he added, “Home, free?” He struggled to elaborate, saying, “Maan jeatgriezhas mejes… I… need home. They, home.” He swept his arms out to indicate his people.

I nodded, smiling. “Yes, home, all of you, home.”

He choked down a whine, moaning out, “Ohh, yes… thank… such big thank…” He fought his emotions down when one of them called out, likely wanting to know what was being said. He replied in a strained but happy sounding voice, “Vinji muus sutis mejes, kad buusim veseli!” This inspired some welcome cheers from those awake, and some weeping from the girls. That felt very good in my soul, and more so as he clasped my hand between his, which were very large. “Friend… small friend… great friend. But… why?”

To be sure, compared to him we were rather puny, and acted with a rare charity in a cold universe. “Because it’s good, it’s right. All should be free.”

He gazed at me in wonder, murmuring, “Tedu laip’nibu nebiju redzijis… not… much good… any place, but you.” That warmed my heart. He looked out his broken window to the Vy’keen parading around outside. “They… big ones… they good?”

Boy, was that a loaded question, and as Kral gave a snort, I wiggled my hand. “Some good.”

Kral retorted, “You are too nice the diplomat.”

“Yes, and I’d rather not complicate this,” I replied, then turned back to Purran, wanting to keep things more lighthearted, and learn a bit. I pointed to my friends, saying, “Oshazi. Vy’keen,” I added, indicating the warriors outside, then to myself. “Traveler.”

He whispered the other two terms, then my own, then he brightened. “Trevara?”

It must have been a while, but it sounded close enough that I nodded. “Trevara. But good Trevara.” I wanted a bit of insurance, in case they met the bad ones.

This inspired a look of awe to cross his face, and he breathed out, “Ahh… yes, big good Trevara. Ah.” He tapped his chest with two fingers, saying, “Nasijin.”

He looked up and I heard a sound behind me, when a pair of arms wrapped me up and I felt a great furry head rubbing mine all over, along with a deep loud purr. A musky aroma came to me, and with it, a growl from my overly devoted and possessive puppy cat. One of the girls wanted to express her appreciation. “Uhm… Yila, be nice. They’re just showing their gratitude for being such a good… Trevara.”

“Be only so good,” she muttered, growing tired of overt affection from strange girls. Kral watched all this in bewilderment.

I wormed my way out of her grasp and held her hands in mine, saying to her, “I hope you are well. We will help you, and get you back home.” I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of their world. I was glad that Purran gave a rough translation so she would understand.

She gazed at me in a way that was quite affectionate as I could feel Yila smoldering close by. “Tu esi tik lieliska… tik laba. Nek, paliek pieh mums. Ar mani.”

Purran translated what he could. “She… friend, want friend come, stay. Yes, do come, stay.”

Yila said dryly, “We would be happy to, for a while.” To be sure, there was no way she would be left out of that get together.

I nodded to the girl with a smile, and gave her cheek fur a caress, which made her smile and Yila draw a noisy breath. “Yes, someday, yes. I promise.”

Purran told her what he could then wisely waved her back to her bed. She bowed as she backpedaled, looking very nice in a smock that much have been made on the spot for her. “Paldyes, svitai tevi… dievs svitai. Nek, redzi mani, palyek.”

Purran told me, “She… glad. He…” He pointed to the ceiling. “Great… thing, good. Wants you come. She… like you.” Maybe she had invoked God’s blessing on me. I hoped that was just a friendly like.

My musings were interrupted as Yila edged into me, clasping my hand, and I knew I’d best say something deflective. “I like her too. I do have a very big like now.” I shared thin smiles with my companion, and was aware that the day was wearing on. “Listen, I must go. Do more big things. I wanted to see you, that you were well.” I clasped hands with him. “Friend. I’ll see you again, someday soon.”

He nodded, drawing my hand to his forehead, pressing it into his fur. “Friend Nijel. Soon, come. Thank… again, great thank.”

I bowed reverently and made to depart, but lingered in the doorway of the room, gazing at him somberly as he settled back to bed, closing his eyes for some well deserved rest. I wanted to know more about their people, their world, and unless I personally involved myself in their transport back home, I would likely never see them again. And that journey wasn’t happening until they were all healthy enough to travel, and how long would that be? I hated just leaving them like this, but at least they weren’t bound for slavery in some dreadful working conditions like the unfortunate Korvax.

Yila touched my shoulder, murmuring, “They will be alright. You rescued yet more people. Be glad of that.”

Kral added, “And we need to go about our business too. We have obligations. Right now, we’re under your orders, but I need to know what they are.”

The Gek had been handed over to the Vy’keen, so that was off the table, but the small medical team would be tied up with their patients, and then the Nasijin would need to be taken back to their world. And there was the mess of getting them back to their proper homes again. The tracking systems of those beast ships would have to lead the pilots right back to the site of their capture, and the right ones released. I felt like I was abandoning them. But being delivered back to their world would be a great blessing itself. I sorted this all out and related it to the Lieutenant.

“So… we sit on our hands and stay out of trouble?” he asked in a snarky tone. “You should know that’s not so easy for us.”

“It can’t be helped. But you will need to prepare to take control of the base when the Vy’keen hand it off to you. I’ll message the main command and arrange for additional troops to add to your force.”

“If they will hand it over,” he remarked dryly. “Will they?”

I gave him a smirk. “I know some special words which will work on them like magic. If they give you any trouble, just tell them that the Traveler knows the Sage which okayed their attack, and if they disobey her directives, they will all suffer a shameful failure from her curse.” The proper Vy’keen terms would have more of an impact, but that should be impact enough.

He didn’t look entirely convinced. “And these magic words will be convincing?”

“Oh yes, and I’ll fly up to speak with the Vy’keen commander to make sure they’re convincing.”

“So when do we leave?” Yila asked brightly, and insistently, edging forward. I was going to be stuck with her for sure, but I was fine with that.

So I went back to being a busy Trevara and negotiator, flying up to the Vy’keen command ship where Yila and I were both welcomed, as well as interlopers were welcomed. She endured a lot of gawking from some of the crew, but she bore it like a champ. Kr’nagh was a gracious host, and seemed temperate and sensible, so I hoped I was still welcomed from what I told him. “The Sage who advised you, Isvelda, told your emissary two things: only attack certain worlds, and be gracious to the people who lived there. Help them, but do not claim the planet for yourselves, and do not break that understanding, or there would be consequences.”

“Consequences,” he said thoughtfully.

I wanted to make sure I was clear, and nodded. “Yes. Not all of your Blades seem to remember this. They must, or all your successes will be thrown down. It will be shameful.” I made sure to use the terms barsakh and gruun’gaudhkht for emphasis.

“You are warning me for my own safety, and my Blades,” he offered, and sounded a scouche grateful, just a scouche.

“Of course,” I told him, adding, “and safety for all people.”

“All people.” He wasn’t quite as enthused about that. “For certain, you are that Traveler. I should have known that was coming. And worry not, your advice is accepted, happily.”

That didn’t sound earnest, but I gave a gracious bow. “That is good to know. After all, her eyes have probably been on this fight from the start, and still are.”

“Yes, yes,” he remarked offhandedly. “But, what about all our effort, and losses? They are great.”

Yeah, there was that, and letting go of whole planets wasn’t something they took lightly. “The people of this world will be happy to let your forces gather a proper portion of their resources in exchange for saving them, and in payment for the Gek base.” I didn’t know if they were of a mind to trade with such primitive people, but I mentioned it anyhow. If nothing else, resources for technology should be incentive for it. He didn’t seem so happy about that, as they could plunder the wealth of any number of worlds with mild or little Sentinel presence, which these three were, and this was a garden world, but treasure was treasure. Maybe they would be content to hunt here, but content they would have to be.

There was a little more small talk, but he let me know he was a busy commander, and I took my leave. He offered me nothing for my efforts, saying that he would pass along my deeds to the Mercenaries Guild. I would trade any amount of bounty to make sure my friends remained free and unplundered. Yila appreciated my diplomatic efforts as I explained the negotiations, saying as we returned to our ships, “I see what you meant about these people. They are not much different from the Gek. Your words are soft but powerful weapons, used with skill.”

“Soft words used with skill can stop a fight before it happens,” I observed, and that made her smile.

“And you make friends everywhere you travel, I wager.” She gave me a womanly look.

I used some more diplomacy on her and said, “I do, but some will always be very special to me.”

“Some?” she asked pointedly. Darn my quick mouth.

“Some… one,” I murmured, leaning in to give her cheek a brush of fingers, which she turned into a bite. Oh well, a little tingle in the name of peace. “Now, let’s make sure things are going well at the other bases.”

We jumped over to Tumussid, the site of the first battle, which I had been away from for at least two days, two very long days. Yila should probably check in with whoever was in command since she had insinuated herself back in to being my attache. We were contacted a few moments after planetary approach by Commander Amek. “Welcome back, my friend. You will answer to me,” he informed us, “and I would be pleased to know what are the conditions in the other systems.”

“I will be pleased to tell you,” I replied. “We’re on approach now.”

As we came in low, it looked like the Oshazi were well along in claiming the base, and most of the wreckage of mech and armor, and all the Gek bodies, had been cleared away. We landed and entered the base, met by Amek and his second. After trading salutes, he asked, “So, what have you two been doing over there?”

I gave him a brief overview of our exploits, and of the Vy’keen presence and activities in both systems. He was pleased to hear confirmation that the Gek had essentially been eliminated from all three systems, and that the Oshazi had accounted themselves well, as had the Shlaad. He noted how somberly I detailed the rescue of the Nasijin and Barasi prisoners, how the Barasi had been used as living shields by the Gek, and three of them had died. “With all those lives… several hundred? Only three deaths is incredible success!”

“That’s true, but… I doubt it would be so incredible for you if it was your child that died,” I told him quietly. Yila edged against me, which I deeply appreciated.

He muttered, “Everything is personal with you, isn’t it? Well, I must congratulate you on such unbelievable victory. Freedom from these Raiders… this is a true answer to prayer! We shall arrange a contingent to go to that third world… Skirtini VII? And as you say, we will be most gracious to our hosts to make sure they accept our people.” I was detecting a bit of sarcasm from him on that. I expected to be welcomed in for a little meal or a drink, but he told me something else. “We’ve been observing movements of people around the perimeter since a day ago. It may be those… dogs, like the ones you freed.”

“People,” I insisted, “which you should have tried to establish relations with.” Was every group I came across going to be racist against all the rest? But I might have misread him as he shrugged to me.

“They don’t want relations. They won’t communicate. I’m afraid they might want to drive us off which would be foolish of them to try. I was hoping the Hero of Euclid would see about them, make them go away if they won’t play nice with us.” That sounded like something I might say.

I looked to Yila as I replied. “I will see about that right now. Though you could stay here—”

“No,” she said adamantly, making Amek chuckle, and I knew that was that.

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - so much more)

I made sure to stock up on water before we left, lots of water, as I figured it would be a token of goodwill on such a warm planet. I insisted that Yila put on some battle armor, and it had to be slightly more comfortable than a smothering flight suit, which did need a hole patched. I left my helmet off so I wouldn’t be cool while Yila suffered, though I donned it long enough to do a lifeform scan. There was a bushy treeline perhaps half a kilometer off, and a cluster of red dots was lurking in it. I took my helmet off and stowed it, taking a drink of water as I pointed out the spot to Yila. “There’s no telling what their reaction will be, so play it cool.”

“You would use that word,” she muttered.

“Sorry. Anyhow, diplomacy, diplomacy,” I urged, setting off with her at my side. It was a bit more of a walk than I thought, but within fifteen minutes or so we closed within roughly a hundred meters. There was still no sign of them, so I pressed on. “What would your people do?”

She replied, shrugging, “I would fire a warning shot - agh, Tenari!”

A blaster bolt just missed Yila. “Well that’s freaking great - wait here!” I ordered as I summoned my helmet and rifle, and launched myself into the air. I could hear Yila crying my name, but she would just have to run. I wasn’t going to put up with any nonsense from them, and fired a Plasma Grenade into the ground halfway there as a show of force. It went off with a loud boom and shower of dirt and debris, and I settled down beside the smoking crater. In spite of any danger to me, I took off my helmet and shouted in Lingo, “That’s enough! No more fire! You see what I can do! Now, let’s talk!” I could hear Yila coming up behind me quickly, as she was one hell of a runner.

As she joined me, she panted, “You… and that damned… suit of yours…”

“Just protecting my wing girl,” I replied, beginning to approach slowly. “They don’t seem too conversational, but I think I got their attention.”

“They have weapons,” she observed, “good ones.”

That hadn’t occurred to me, even as it slapped me in the face. I wondered if I was dealing with a people like the Shlaad, or more advanced. “Good point, dear, so stay behind me—”

“No,” she declared again, which irritated me.

“Fine. But if you get shot, you’re restricted to barracks.” And I meant it.

She had to chuckle, “You are grounding me?” So, they called it that too.

“Yes,” I snapped, and focused on the people in front of us. I put my rifle away and advised Yila to holster hers, shouting with raised hands, “Look, I mean no harm! I want to talk!” Hopefully that sounded sincere to them, and at least one of them semed to understand as a pair of figures emerged from the brush ahead of us. Naturally, they positioned themselves with the morning star at their backs, even as high as it was, so in spite of shielding my eyes it was a little hard to make them out, but some details became clearer. They were waiting for us, so I began walking again, and Yila kept pace. Their clothes looked a bit bulky for normal cloth, and as I came within a couple dozen meters of them I could see it was armor, helmets and all. In fact, it looked like they wore nothing but armor, suitably camoflaged and ventilated for the warm climate, with their fur showing in gaps. They bore Gek weapons, and knew how to use them. They had tawny fur which helped them blend in with their surroundings, the larger one looking a bit more brown-red on the fringes. These were no simple folk, and seemed highly intelligent. As I approached, I could see the other one was female. In fact, she looked like she might be the girl I set free. I pointed, beginning, “Are you the—?”

“Stop!” he shouted, and I planted my feet, Yila pausing with me. Hearing Lingo was very fortunate, because I wasn’t much good at discerning language patterns. “Who are you? Why are you with her?” He was rather fluent too, which would help.

“I am called Fox, Nijal Fox, a Human, a Traveler,” I replied. “This is my friend.”

She picked right up on her cue. “I am Vorozni, Yila Vorozni, an Oshazi. We freed your people of the Gek Raiders.”

“I helped a little,” I added with a thin smile, hoping a tiny bit of humor might lighten the mood, but he remained grumpy. “What is your name?”

He wasn’t going to answer. “We want that,” he said, pointing to the base with his rifle. “You should leave, and your friends.” He didn’t seem too impressed with us, or that Traveler bit. And this was going to be a tough sell, because if they insisted, the Oshazi would fight over it.

“The base, the Gek place, needs repair. A lot of repair. We had to fight them. And my friends risked their lives to help you.” I nodded to the girl. “I risked mine to save two of your people. One, a young boy.”

His eyes seemed to narrow at me, sifting through my words for deception. “Why?”

I told him as sincerely as I could, “Everyone I find who is in trouble, who has needs, I help them. Save them. Fight for them.”

He didn’t seem convinced, staring at me still, and repeated, “Why?”

His question frustrated me, and not just his belligerence. At all the unfairness of the universe, the turmoil and trouble, the suffering, with none of the Three Races - the Three Major Races - lifting a finger to help anyone but themselves, and occasionally the Korvax. And with that damned ATLAS brooding over it all, and apparently only making the whole mess worse. I grew upset, and my voice was strained as I replied, “Because no one else will, and someone has to!”

Yila clasped my hand, and added, “He speaks the truth! He almost died helping those who were… not worth the trouble…” She had to fight down some emotions of her own, sniffing back a tear. I wrapped an arm around her, stroking her flank softly. She muttered to me, “You blasted fool,” and flashed me a little smile as she leaned into me. “But this man, he fights for us, for you, for all. You will find no greater man, no better friend, than him. I tell you truly.”

The male began to mutter something I had no hope of making out, then the girl began speaking to him with growing animation, and quite a discussion between them ensued. She gestured out towards the base behind me, and I saw that she was pointing out the ruin of the prison. She made a sound like an explosion, throwing her hands in the air. Then she said something like, “Ieg hefo veri daour ibví helviti ef beshi vera hefo eki bzhargao miergh!” Most likely, I would be dead in that mess if not for that strange guy. So it was her.

She began waving around at the wood and calling. From behind trees, rock and brush, numerous wolfish eyes peered at me curiously, some coming out to stand beside her. Most were male joined by some females, and I saw that some of their coats were gray, red and brown. All were fascinated by this Interloper and his puppy cat companion. She evidently grew frustrated at failing to persuade anyone further and trotted our way, which surprised me as much as everyone else. The leader and some others called for her, then he hefted his rifle in case I tried something underhanded. She crept up to me cautiously, about the same size and build as Yila, her eyes searching mine, and I could see clearly that it was her. She said haltingly, “You… help. You good. Yes?”

I gave her a little smile. “Some good. How is your boy?” She struggled to understand, so I held my hand down to the middle of her torso, about his size, and her eyes widened.

“Oh! Kemar! Good! Happy.” She edged closer, fretting, “Ogh, ef bu gaethir baravitha oro meen…” She held up my right hand, indicating that I should remove my glove. I did so, sensing she was about to do something like the Barasi, and sure enough, she bowed slightly as she held my hand and licked the back of it almost reverently. She looked up to me with bright amber-brown eyes, saying, “Wuth… my thank.” Then she stood beside me, opposite Yila, and gazed at her folk across from us.

I murmured to my companion, “I think I’m winning them over, one by one.”

She grumbled sarcastically, “Of course, it would be a girl.”

“Hey, the girls persuade the guys… strategy, see?” I winked at her, and she had to laugh.

The girl was growing impatient and barked at them. “Oi! Raneth! Ef ekhi vaeri firhan vaeri egh farin! Vaer bu anaegour? Eh?”

One of the males grumbled and then loped over to join us, complaining, “Bouthir alshtaf vali binu a mig.”

She growled back. “Mith valer alshtaf got val. Bu veisht!” He cast an uncertain look to me and I returned a smile, which earned me a tired sigh as he stood beside her. It was a start.

The girl seemed to have seized the reins from the leader, or was trying to, pleading and then cajoling the others to join us. At first they shook their heads, but one by one they gave in, mostly girls, some dragging unwilling males with them. She said to the remainder something like, “Vinshamlegasht! Gakhtu til lios vio okhur! Vio veroum ao vera shaman i beshu! Bao eraf hinu gova!”

Yila murmured to me, “It’s a guess, but… I think she’s trying to form a group of thinkers and talkers to… balance the ones like Vy’keen, the stubborn angry ones.”

“Well! Go thinkers and talkers,” I murmured with a grin. Unfortunately, this was dragging out and I was thirsty, so I began to quench it. This made Yila thirsty too, and then I noticed the Wolf-Jackals watching us with yearning eyes and a few plaintive whines. I had loaded up with water bottles in case of something like this, but there were more than fifteen of them so it would take even more than I had if they were very thirsty. I saw canteens on their belts, but maybe they were low. Perhaps they had come initially to rescue the prisoners and stayed for reconnaissance. I produced a pair of bottles, which shocked them as they appeared in my hands as if by magic. As I expected, the males pushed the girls aside who protested loudly. Maybe they would be generous with their girlfriends but I would make sure of it, holding back with a throat-clearing growl, saying, “Share, share.” They got the idea and were much less pushy. Thank heaven they had some manners. I suspected that sharing water on such a world mattered to them. And then I saw about six more trotting over in hope of more generosity from the stranger, which left very few of them. I wanted at least three bottles left for the rest, and that would be cutting it close.

This irritated the leader who barked something to the ones who joined me, his tail swishing in agitation. There was a chorus in response, some sounding derogatory or taunting as they held up their bottles. The girl chimed in with another taunt.

I held up a bottle teasingly. “Look, I only have a few more of these, and it’s warm out here. How long have you been waiting? Let’s talk about things - but in the shade. I really want to help you.”

The last of the others came over, one of them muttering something that didn’t sit well with the leader, and he snarled, “You… evil man! Take advantage of weakness! Have your way!”

“Now, don’t be like that,” I said to him quietly as I led the group back to the little wood, the newcomers whimpering anxiously for their portion. I handed over the last of my water, one bottle to the last of them and one to the leader, which he snatched angrily, until the chill in his hand caught him by surprise. “Share that, now,” I told him advisedly.

“I will! I am not mean!” he snarled, though he did take a hefty drink from it. Wolves…

Thank heaven it was distinctly cooler in the wood, and any relief was welcome. I stripped out of my suit and unzipped my uniform for a bit more comfort. The others seemed much more accommodating to the stranger after I shared my life sustaining bounty with them. While the leader remained stubbornly taciturn, for a while, the others were warming up to me, and the girl was apparently quite taken with my benevolence. And Yila made sure I was well aware of her as she kept very close. I had to admit that as revealing as their armor was, it would probably be fun to train with the girls, and they were pleasing to the eye. No wonder Yila felt insecure among them. The girl encouraged the alpha male to open up to me, and he finally began to talk.

“Those… frogs, they caused much trouble. They are hard to fight, but we take their gear when we can. They tried to capture us, but we fought them hard. They took almost none. We came to get her,” he indicated the girl, “and hope to find others, but she ran to us with the boy, so we watched.”

I gave her a smile, which caused her to blush. “What is your name?” She puzzled over that, so I tapped my chest. “Nigel.”

“Oh! Maia,” she replied, touching her own bosom, which Wolf-leader growled over. She stuck out her tongue to him. They were evidently a little loose with their authority. And a little loose with their gear, revealing nice bits of her figure. Yila noticed too, and rested her hand on my thigh, digging in her nails which felt a bit more like claws.

I focused back on the male and asked him, “Why do you not want to say your name?”

“I do not know you yet.” That was true enough. He pondered me for a moment. “There are no… Gek, there? Anywhere?”

I nodded to him. “No Gek, only some prisoners. My friends and I killed the rest.”

Yila added a bit of correction. “Nijal did most of the fighting, and directed us. He is why we won.” She rubbed my thigh, still digging in with her nails.

I rested my hand on hers, saying, “They have an army. I am just one, so we needed each other.”

He gave me a sour look, his gaze wandering past me, likely on that small crater I blasted. “Why not kill all?”

That was expected of an aggressive people like these, who had suffered the capture of their world and some of their people, but I still didn’t care for his attitude. “Because it’s cruel—”

“They are cruel,” he snapped, and as far as he knew that was a universal truth.

“Not all,” I countered, wondering what he would make of this. “They fill the stars with their people, but the bad Gek, the Raiders like these, are very few. Most of them are… some good. They just won’t share.”

Maia was perplexed. “Good… Gek? No, no, they… do bad…” She muttered bitterly, “Beir rifu fotinaf mer… hraolegh shkrímshli!” Her companion drew her against him and licked her cheekfur, giving me a dubious look. I couldn’t blame them.

Though I had an idea what she was saying, the leader spelled it out for me. “They tore her clothes off, all, and the boy… such shameful monsters! Thank Tirith they did nothing more evil to them. So if what you say is true, we need that… base, need their gear. We must protect ourselves, fight them when they return.”

It was time to try that diplomacy stuff. “You need an alliance of the people in this star cluster… on all the worlds close by, so all of you together can fight the Gek in a mighty force if they return. None of you alone were strong enough to fight them, but together, with more people, you can be.”

He looked skeptical. “What people?”

I looked to Yila. “The Oshazi, for one. They live on a world some distance away, but close enough for the Gek to take their people captive too. I helped make them stronger so they could fight, and win. The Shlaadi, on a world close to this. They helped us defeat the Gek, fighting with us. The Barasi, on a world across from them. Simple folk, but they want to fight too, and there are a lot of them. A people called the Nasijin, and they are very strong.”

He looked amazed, murmuring their names. “The Shlaad… Barasi… Nasi? Those old legends are true?”

I nodded. “The Great Evil War of the Gek didn’t wipe out all races, but you were cut off from each other, became legends. Now you know that they aren’t stories, that you aren’t alone. You can have friends again.” I pointed to his armor. “You can make gear like that? Can you make weapons too? Ships? Fighters?”

He looked smug. “Yes, if we have plans, we can make almost anything. We are making plans for these.” He held up the rifle. “Give us the plans for ships too.”

“I will, but I want an agreement from your people that you will work together to protect each other,” I insisted. “Then you can have all the plans you want.”

He looked a little unsure of that, and I hoped it wasn’t because he was xenophobic. “I do not have the power to make that agreement. I will tell our leaders, see what they say. You might be convincing.”

I didn’t want to get bogged down with negotiations, but then, wasn’t I the only negotiator around? “I will do my best.” I held out my hand for a shake, arm grab, or however they expressed their accord.

He looked at it for a moment, then clasped my arm. “You are… tough, and smart. You speak words with power in them, and have the strong weapons to show it.” He added, snapping quickly, “I am Kinik.”

I gave him a thin smile. “I’m glad to know you.” The others around us were pleased at this sign of unity with me. After all, I was Girl Saver, Water Sharer and Crater Maker.

He returned a smirk. “We will see how glad you are after our leaders talk.”

Yeah, that bode well for a cozy get together. “Where do your people live?”

“We will come to you,” he informed me. “To the base. Seeing on how well talk goes, we will let you know. Though… you and your friend… I would welcome you.” He stood up and donned his helmet, barking orders to his troop who assembled to leave. A few of them bumped my arm or patted my back with smiles.

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - this will take a while)

Maia gave me a big hug, murmuring, “Many, many thanks… Kemar, me.” I was about to say something when she licked into my mouth. We both drew back in surprise, both of us blushing over it, and she stammered out some sort of apology, mixing up both languages. Her companion took her by the arm, muttering to her something like, “Phavera besh?”

She waved her hand, looking awkward, replying, “Ohh… bao ver akesht. Ertu ofundshukush?”

As I watched them march off into the wood, Yila leaned against me, resting her arm on my shoulder with a coy look, murmuring, “Phavera besh?”

I scrambled to remember the girl’s reply. “Ohh… bavera kesh. Ertu… something something?”

She tried not to laugh, muttering slyly, “Are you sure you mean to say that?”

Sometimes she was hard to read, and I stared at her in perplexion. “Do you actually know what they’re…?”

She laughed me off, leaning more into me, and drew her face close to mine. “No, no, of course not. But I’m happier that there is no girl with a tongue in your mouth.” That had me coughing, and her laughing. “And now you have the wonderful job of explaining to Commander Amek that we’re about to be invaded by dogs who might want to take the base from us.” She tapped my nose with her finger and began to saunter back to the compound. Of course, she can be happy about this, she didn’t have that load on her back. She looked over her shoulder to me as I gathered my suit, asking, “Oh, do you have any water left?”

“No, I gave the last of it to those people,” I snarked back, which had her sighing. As I caught up with her, I tapped a cool bottle on her arm. “But I do have the last of mine.”

She gave me a lopsided smile, murmuring as she took it, “You are my hero.” The way she drank it as she gazed at me made my stomach flutter, and made me think of tongues and mouths.

Needless to say, Amek didn’t welcome the news with great joy. “You were tasked with making them go away, not offer them our base!”

Great, I would have to negotiate with my friends before the real deal even started. “Look, we invaded their world. I know we kicked the Gek out - which you wouldn’t have had a chance to do if not for my help - so your people are owed something for that. But their people were in the same fix yours were in, and I doubt if I invaded Partan with an army of them and took over a base on your planet, you’d be happy with that either. Besides, I didn’t offer them the base. I said your two people would talk about it.”

He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms at me. “I have no authority to make such a negotiation.”

“Then… have an official diplomat fly here, or get the authority. Or I could negotiate for you.” At first he seemed to like that idea, but I added, “I’m going to be fair to both sides. I’ll be happy to help, but I want you to know I’m not going to favor you over them.”

He grumbled, “Merrh… you Travelers are as much trouble as good. So, when will they come?”

“I don’t know. Kinik said he would tell his superiors, and then some sort of delegation would arrive here. One thing about this bunch, they wear armor, but nothing underneath.”

He gaped at me. “At all?”

I gave him a shrug. “Not that I could see, so be sure to bring that up when you have a meeting with your troops, for them to be polite.”

Yila muttered, “More polite than you?”

I replied haughtily, “I was a perfect gentleman.” She muttered something in Oshazi, which I’m sure implied that I was less than candid.

Knowing that their delegation likely wouldn’t arrive that day, I begged to leave with my faithful attache to visit Nytanu, and make sure things were going well. If S’ndelek was handy, I would enjoy sharing a meal with him and his family.

To my surprise, he was there at the base with a group of his people, and was pleased to see our arrival, looking much better. He grabbed both my arms, saying enthusiastically, “Ah, friend Nijal! It is good to see you again. We must have that meal later.”

“That meal…” I looked to Yila in question. “You didn’t have it yet?”

“We did, but we will have one more for your great deed.” He seemed quite eager.

“Well… how about a small one with your family?” I noticed an Oshazi officer shaking his head at me. Evidently it was some feast.

He noticed, and gave me a chuckle. “No, no… for what you did, we owe you much, very much. It is no big work. Please, the Oshazi would like it. Stay and eat with us.” The officer gave us a thumbs up.

I looked to Yila, saying, “Well… since you ask, how can I say no to such a generous offer?”

He was happy to hear it, and dispatched a runner to go to their village. The officer then took over the meeting. “Captain Ratan, and I am pleased to meet our hero himself. And pleased that we have another well cooked meal to look forward to this evening. I would be even more pleased if you could perhaps assist with construction work.”

Yila could barely contain a laugh as I gave her a droll look. “Well, in exchange for a meal, I suppose I could manage that.” And to be sure, my Multitool was quite a big help when it came to fixing things up from electronics to wall construction. The Shlaad were a big help too, being almost as strong as the Nasijin, which were as strong as Vy’keen if not more. It was good to see these people getting along. I wished to stay with the Oshazi, make sure their relations with the other three races went well. And these worlds, these people… it was the first place I had truly felt welcomed, at home. And Yila… I wanted to maintain my relations with her. I had a Quest to pursue, but damn it, I felt an emotional anchor to this place, this region, making sure the evil Gek were dealt with, their slavery ring smashed as soon as possible. If only the Sage was aware of all this, the extent of it.

“Do you think my eyes are too dull to see such a short distance, young Interloper?”

I whirled around in shock, dropping my Multitool - how in Space had she come here! To my amazement though, no slender but imposing Goat woman was there, anywhere. But… I heard her clearly…

Yila edged up to me in wonder. “Nijal? What is it?”

What did I tell her? “Ohh… a sound… it sparked a memory, that’s all.”

As I retrieved my Multitool, she bumped my hip, muttering, “No matter… unless it was one of those many girls you drool at.”

I gave her a quick peck on the bangs over her forehead. “Honey, I only have drool for you.”

She gave me a whine, shoving me away. “Augh! The way you speak to me sometimes… not even sweet!” A few workers nearby enjoyed a laugh at that.

As usual, much of the rest of the day was taken up with repairs and salvage, with a break for lunch which I shared with Yila. We wanted to be together, badly, but she was a little stiff with me for some reason, and asked point blank, “Your blasted Walk… will you ever keep your word, and stop hurting the ones who care for you?”

That sounded uncomfortably familiar, and had me clearing a tight throat. I had to be honest with her. “Uhhm… sometimes.”

She growled at me. “You madman… the Death Angel, he obeys Tenari. But Tenari’s patience has a limit too. Do not try His patience too far.”

I gave her a shrug, hoping I could find something diplomatic and honest in good balance. “I feel that I’m following the Path He set out for me. I’ll never stop trying to protect others—”

“Don’t be so selfish. Let them protect you too… let me…” She scooted closer and lay her head on my shoulder with a sigh, though in a few moments she began to purr, deep and rather loud, and draped her tail around me. I gave her a kiss near her ear, which made her giggle. It sounded so welcome, and so sweet…

S’ndelek left early with a few of his fellows to see about the feast, which left the heavy lifting to machinery, and in many cases, to me and a few strong Oshazi. After a long day of work, S’ndelek showed up with quite a group of Shlaad, all bearing meals they had prepared somewhere nearby. The Oshazi had made some tasty offerings of their own to share, and we all joined in the banquet. I preferred the Oshazi treats, but the Shlaadi quisine was tasty too, almost as good as what Gronk made at Resh’s inn. They just needed to experiment a bit more with seasoning to suit a Human palate.

If they were a bit cool to each other before, they had broken that ice well and the affair became an actual party, especially when alcohol began to flow. Yila and I were glued together, and I enjoyed trading finger dining as I fed her tasty morsels, and she fed me in turn. Something caught her eye, and she pointed, smiling. “Look.” To my surprise, I saw the Shlaadi girl who offered help in the APC with that Oshazi fellow who was doting on her, and clearly giving her flatteries as she was blushing. And as we watched, they gave each other little cheek licks. Well! Maybe relations were going along nicely at that. And after all, she was rather pretty, and they were both mammals.

“That’s so cute—” I began, cut short as Yila gave my own cheek a lick. It tingled from that touch as she settled into my bosom.

“It is,” she murmured, beginning to purr again. I didn’t move other than to trade little licks and kisses with her, and embraced for the rest of the night, till we had to go to bed. And I didn’t want to, even if we were within arms reach of each other under her ship, racking up infraction after infraction.

---

I flew back to Tumussid that morning, as I was stuck dealing with those negotiations. I was growing antsy to get things overwith so I could get on with my affairs, particularly for some alone time with Yila, which I promised myself not to let become an affair.

It took another day for the Wolf-Jackals to arrive, during which time I was back to doing base maintenance, fixing up defenses, repairing and unlocking access to computers and communications, and making sure self destruct was disabled. I would have asked for Yila’s assistance, but her Fighter was the best of all the Oshazi craft there so she had to be on standby duty. I also spent some time in discussions with General Nazar and his staff, making sure they understood the situation from both sides. He was still adamant that nothing was going to be handed over to those people, completely. That was at least something to work with.

When the Jackal-Wolves did arrive next morning, it was quite an impressive group, a company strong which meant more than a hundred troops. There were females scattered through the ranks, more toward the rear, and a whole platoon of them at the end which had the Oshazi males ogling. The girls tried not to notice but they obviously did, some of them looking a bit shy. And many Oshazi girls were as taken with the males, as they were rather buff. I hoped this meant some defrosting between these two people. The commander, likely a general himself, looked to be a grizzled veteran and stern in a way that Kinik had only hinted. While I didn’t expect any shenanigans from them, we were still on guard, but the initial greetings went as smoothly as expected for two groups of warriors unsure of the other. I learned a couple of details. The Commander was W’rlagh, and his people were called the Kharnoa. An opening joint meal with them was almost as stiff as the initial meeting, at least with the officers, though the troops on both sides seemed just a bit more open to each other.

Then began the ordeal between the two groups of officers, as I hoped to find some sort of common ground between them. Andonai’s words held true here, that both wanted the biggest half. Time sharing was out of the question since they couldn’t agree on any time spans or how to hand off to the other side. I knew that they really needed to work together in order to establish some sort of rapport between them, but they were both quite stubborn. I grew frustrated as the hours passed, and made a call for a lunch break which they were more than happy with, until I insisted we do it together.

There was more resentment than good will, if any after a contentious opening, and they mostly spoke in hushed tones among their own. I took it on myself to start a conversation. I had invited Yila to eat with me and she observed this with keen interest. “Commander W’rlagh, if I may intrude on your meal, I don’t know much about you. Would you tell me something about yourself, your family?” He merely grunted at me and kept eating, but I had a wild card on hand as Kinik was among them. I asked him, “What about you?”

He looked to the other officers which ignored him. At first I was afraid he wouldn’t answer either, but after swallowing a morsel he replied, “I have a wife and three young, a boy and two girls.” Seeing that I was about to ask further, he added, “Wenna, and the young are Kann, Wetha and Yuki.”

“Is life for them good here?”

I believe I caught a brief smile from him. “It is good now.” There was a chorus of grunts from his fellows.

I asked Amek next. “A wife, Jana, and four children, two boys and girls; Artem, Taras, Solana and Nicha.” After he replied, I invited others to share about their families. One more Kharno and a few Oshazi opened up to me.

I told the Kharnoa, “You all have better lives now that the Gek have been kicked out of the systems. The Oshazi have periodically suffered the capture of many people by the Gek Raiders. But thanks to their warriors taking this base, now all of you are free.”

W’rlagh muttered, “Why captured? Because they were weak?” A few of them chuckled, and naturally this rankled the Oshazi.

I knew I should get ahead of this and countered, “Why weren’t many of you captured? Because you hid?” I made my point as he banged his fork on his plate, and the others were as vexed. Sometimes the truth stung a little. “Listen, I don’t mean to anger you. I want you to understand, to see things as others see them, how you both have suffered. The Oshazi fought alongside another people on the world where the Gek had their main base, the Shlaad. They fought as comrades, as a team. They didn’t treat them as lesser beings, but as equals, and they fought well together.”

That name caught their attention, as Kinik must have mentioned the fellow star folk from before The Great Evil. W’rlagh insisted on being contentious about it and said, “We don’t need others to fight with us.” This caused another ripple of discord between them. Good grief…

I told him pointedly, “Look, Commander, neither of your people were strong enough to defeat the Gek on your own, or you would have done that by now. Stop being so stubborn. I know you have a lot to be proud of, you have a strong people, but I’m trying to show you something. Once long ago, there was a civilization in this galaxy, and you had relations with other races living among the stars. You know about the Shlaad, I can see. The Oshazi got along with them well. There was a third base on another world where a people called the Barasi live. You all had fairly good relations in the past, so I know you can today. But you have to understand the situation you live in now. The galaxy is overrun with three races, the Gek, Vy’keen and Korvax, and the first two are capable of wiping out entire worlds of its people. There are so few of the other races left, I’ve never heard of them till now. You must learn to live together, to work and fight together, or one day there may be no Barasi, no Shlaadi, no Oshazi, and no Kharnoa. You really do need each other. So… get over yourselves, and quit being so racist.”

That put a damper on the mood, but that was better than a fight breaking out because the Kharnoa lacked in manners. Yila clasped my hand, murmuring, “Such strong words, but… I would probably do the same. They also remind me of the Vy’keen.”

“Tell me of these Vy-keen,” W’rlagh interrupted. “How close, how much of a threat.”

That was a welcome question to clear the air, and the discussion spilled over into the subsequent meeting. Now it was all about the galactic astro-political situation. For the sake of emotional leverage, I soft pedaled how meek were the Gek, mostly, and how conquest-minded the Vy’keen. I provided my star charts and wowed everyone with how vast the Euclid Galaxy was, and how infinitely outnumbered their people were, which was a bit chilling. I touched on the strategic implications of hyperdrive, that it meant there was no safe haven for any world, no fronts or safe regions as there was on the ground. Thank Tenari they now had bigger things to think about, and they began to take the discussion more seriously. I really should have tried this sooner, but the negotiations had been so combative that it was hard to manage the arguments. Now that the Kharnoa saw the necessity for cooperation, things went more smoothly.

By evening, we had the framework sorted for a cohabitation agreement. Commanders W’rlagh and Amek made a joint statement to their assembled people, and the Kharnoa were rather surprised at how courteous the two were with each other. Both sides were taking the hint from their leadership, and since W’rlagh announced they were staying the night with their gracious hosts - what a relief it was to hear that! - the two groups ventured to begin talking with each other more, if tentatively, as the Kharnoa made to set up camp in an open area.

Yila kept very close to me as I watched the two peoples begin sorting each other out. Maybe a little interracial chemistry would help with relations between them. “Well, Mr Negotiator,” she said to me, smiling, “you have earned your title today twice over. They are not tearing at each other’s throats.” Which was true, as I could see the two genders, a few of them, growing curious enough to begin chatting, and even help out a bit with setting up tents.

“Do you have time for a walk with a tired Negotiator?” I asked, and I could tell my eyes were sparkling like hers.

“Well… if you are tired—” she began coyly.

“I’m not that tired,” I cut in, and she agreed with a giggle. The full moon made the scrubby world look just a bit prettier, as did my company. I didn’t want to part from her, but eventually we had to.

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - lots to read, huh)

The next morning, the Kharnoa packed up their camp to leave. Commander W’rlagh promised to return within a week with a proper cohort, which I assumed would include a good number of these if not all, as they seemed to be getting along fairly well. In fact, a few of each people were talking with each other as they made preparations, and seemed rather friendly. And some Oshazi lingered as the Kharnoa marched off, with a few of the Kharno looking back themselves That interracial chemistry thing seemed to be working.

There was still work to do which I stayed on to help with. There were still barracks to rebuild. Power restored to them. And a prison made, a proper prison with cells, not wide open pens only fit for animals. When things looked finished enough, I marched Narfnyk and his Gek along with some guards to the new prison, which surprised him how nice it was. “You are… kind,” he remarked. “Not like any I ever met before, not at all. Why are you so good?”

One of the guards muttered, “That’s what I want to know.”

I said to him discreetly, “Happy prisoners are easier to handle.” As I ushered Narfnyk into his cell, I told him, “I’m just different, and I think the God made me this way to show all the people of Euclid how to Walk better.” He went over to the bed and stroked over the blanket, then plopped on it with a contented sigh. Sleeping on the ground was probably getting old. I hoped this put him in an agreeable mood, and began to ask him, “Commander—?”

“I command nothing. I am prisoner, now,” he sighed. “But… such is such.”

That was philosophical of him. “Listen… I’ve come across mention of The Plan in your records. What is that?”

“Ohh…” he graveled, waving offhandedly. “Just… you know it, finding slaves.”

I wanted to be sure about that. “So… there’s no more to it than slave trade?”

He gave a tired shrug. “Nothing which matters to you, now. It was good business too, very good, when we could find worlds with things on them.”

He hadn’t learned much from his captivity. Things? I jostled the cell door which didn’t jostle much, it was too well made. “Think about those slaves you captured and sold while you consider where it got you.”

“Irony… irony,” he muttered with a nod. “I stepped in that with both feet.”

I had a brief moment of pity on him, the scoundrel who sold people as slaves, and found myself asking, “Shall I tell the Merchants Guild rep about your fate, you and your crew? Maybe see about barganing for a pardon someday?”

He shook his head rather vigorously. “No, no… I am shameful for what we did. Just forget me, forget us all. We will be better in here, much better. Far better.” That sounded a little odd, but I didn’t feel like bothering him after the ordeal of yesterday’s negotiations, even if they did turn out well. I’d ponder this later, along with everything else on my plate, and said my goodbye. Abruptly, he said, “Wait.”

I was almost out of the chamber. “Yes?”

He gazed at me in a way that reminded me a bit of parting looks from Polo. “Be careful. You are… unique, priceless. Follow the steps the God sets before you closely.”

There were days I feared I had strayed far from them. I gave him one of my trademark lopsided smiles, saying, “I do my best. So far, it’s good enough.”

He gave me a fist, muttering, “As you say, good…” What an odd tyrant.

I worked the rest of the day helping restore one thing or another to proper working condition. There was a good deal of construction machinery untouched from the battle, and the combat engineers put that to good use, which left me free to work on things I could handle, like systems and electronics. After working on their farm, this was mostly a breeze, but I was still ready for the evening break, and supper with Yila. She was quite happy to see me, and even happier to see how glad I was to be with her again. We took our meals to sit outside on the grounds. I was glad to see that we wouldn’t have to, as some of the workers fixed up some of the furniture to accommodate people of our stature. We sat off a bit from some others who wanted to enjoy the early evening themselves. She said meekly as I gazed at her, “All day long, I thought of you.”

That made my heart warm, though there was probably more to it. “And I thought of you.” She smiled at that, and I added, “What were you thinking of me?”

She made a face. “Wondering… Nijal… is this enough? You set three peoples free - four,” she amended with a giggle. “I almost forget our own troubles, they seem so far away now. You could stay. Make us have good relations, these peoples. Help us grow closer. We could…” She sighed and looked down, finishing, “Be good friends.”

She was always the sensible one in the matters of our affections, and I nodded soberly. And what else could we be? “The best of friends.”

She looked back up with hopeful eyes, and I shared in that passion. “Would you please put your burden down? It will kill you, I fear. Stay with us… make your home on Partan. Be safe, with me.” It seemed she might not have meant to say that, but she didn’t amend it.

Lord knew how much I wanted to give into those notions. “Honey, I want to, but—”

She waved sourly. “Ohh, that word… I tire of it. You give me sweet dreams, then take them away. And how will it all end?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? “Hon, I won’t know unless I try. I have to try. Things went well here… a war to free three planets, and with the help of my friends - and Vy’keen, we won!”

She grumbled with a heated stare, “And nearly cost your life, you cursed fool.”

That was a tender wound for me too, and would be for a while. Surely that would temper my reckless bravado in the future, right? It was hard to deny all the admonitions she cast on me, and I struggled for something to say, when I recalled one of her own lines. “Do we trust Tenari, or do we not?”

This tore at her heart, and after a moment she said quietly, “I must… because you will make me.” I wanted to say something to soothe her which I guess she didn’t want to hear. “When will you leave us?”

Never… I almost said it. I had to be honest. “I don’t know… soon. But not very soon. A few days?” I gave her a weary shrug as she eyed me hopefully. “A few days, together. Would that be good?”

She gave me a thin, bittersweet smile. “I will make it good.” That had my heart swooning for a moment. A long moment.

The evening wore down to bedtime much too quickly for both of us, and I had to deal with another disappointment as she held back from an embrace, telling me sadly, “I am required to stay in the barracks. I am, after all, a soldier. I wish…” Her voice drifted quiet, and she shook her head resignedly. “But, I have no freedom.”

“Oh,” I muttered, and off in the distance I could see Milos eyeing us. Were they tiring of my loose conduct with their pilot, or was he perhaps jealous? Did it matter? I was their hero but also their guest, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to force the issue with them. So I gave her a melancholy smile, saying, “Well… have a good night then. And leave a place open in your dreams for me.”

She returned a Nijal-like half-smile. “You know where my heart will be. And I wish… ohh, how I wish…” We fell into each other’s arms as she grabbed me up in a tight hug thick with longing. She slid her leg along mine and licked my cheek, husking into my ear, “Dream of me too, my precious… wingman.” She pushed out of my arms rather abruptly, and I saw her wiping her cheek as she marched off, giving the commander a salute as she passed him.

To my surprise he came up to me, as he was evidently waiting for a free moment. “My pardon for intruding,” he said. “But we need discipline, and you are… not so disciplined. Did you say you were military?”

A bad influence on one of their best pilots? Even if they wouldn’t admit it? I had to smile at that. “Once upon a time, but I guess I prefer my freedom to do as I please.”

“You guess,” he repeated drolly. “Listen, if it is not so confining and disciplined for you, I can offer you quarters, a private room. Thanks to your help, we have working utilities.”

I gazed up at the stars and the nearby moon, which was a lovely sight as clouds drifted past. “Ohh… I don’t know… and I really prefer to be close to Space Beast in case those Gek return.”

He rolled his eyes at me, and looked up to where a group of starships were visible in its orbit. “With a fleet of your friends overhead, I don’t think they will be bothering you. At least look at it. I had it prepared for you myself.”

Well, that was different, and I gave him a gracious bow. “When you put it like that, how can I refuse such an honor?”

It was a basic but nice room, and made for other races too as the bed was long enough to accommodate me. I thanked him and turned in for the night, though I was restless for a while, too used to my sleeping bag, and a nearby puppy cat. But I appreciated the shelter when a storm blew in soon after.

---

A week went by in a blur. I was sure that ATLAS had its virtual hands on the Time throttle, making the annoying periods last forever while the good ones flew past. I had many duties, and little time during the day to spend with Yila, as additional Oshazi troops arrived at all three bases, and I passed along brief training to the people on how to run some of the less obvious systems. I scavenged more data from the Gek computers, much of it encrypted, intending to pour over it sometime later. But it seemed that the more information I hoarded, the less attention I paid it. I had to get more organized.

I wanted to stay on Tumussid and see the Kharnoa arrive, make sure their visit was a coordial one, and see if I could get to know them better. At least see Maia and her boy. I wanted to visit with S’ndelek and his wife, spend some time with his people. Wanted to fly to Shirond, and its world where Purran and the Nasijin lived, and find him, get to know him and his kind. Spend some time with M’rlen and his family, and try not to be alone with Tanta, though I’m sure Yila would see to that.

But more than anything, I wanted to fly back to Partan and spend a few days with Yila, perhaps the last days I would be with her. I knew that she had the best Fighter her military had ever seen and would be indispensable, unless I saw to it that she wasn’t. And… why the hell not? Yila was perplexed when I told her that I would have to fly off for much of the day without her, and protested. I assured her that it would enable me to take her away from this assignment without question. “Isn’t that worth a little time away?”

“Why do you tell me these things that make no sense!” she grumbled.

“Because I’m mean,” I smarted in reply, and made to kiss her.

She drove me back with a punch to my chest. “Yes you are! But… you are right, often - not always! But… sometimes.” She gave me a brief lick to my cheek, murmuring, “Hurry on your strange mission you will not tell me, you troubling wingman.”

My strange mission took a couple of days to complete, unfortunately, as I had to visit a number of distant Stations, very distant. But after several jumps - and a couple of ignored distress calls from new settlements - I managed to acquire some decent booty; upgrades, lots of them, enough to beef up the capabilities of three Fighter squadrons, one for each base. What I was very happy to do was replace my own upgrades in Star Sword. Space Beast was a capable craft, but not my kind of ship. Yila jumped at the chance to help me with the work. I gave brief instruction to Oshazi maintenance crew on how to adapt the new upgrades to their craft, and urged their commanders to send some of them to the other two bases to complete the job. The officers were delighted at the generosity from the Hero of Euclid, but seemed to know that I had an alterior motive. I managed to stretch the time to late in the evening so Yila could camp out with me in the hangar, and we slept very close.

The next day was full of tedium and necessary details. I had to make sure the pilots were well aware of the capabilities of their deadly new Fighters, and to watch their weapon fire around friendlies. I made sure to see about every officer’s urgent demands on me, and then Yila. Thanks to the hefty upgrades I had provided, all I asked in return was to borrow their star pilot for a few days of “orientation” on Partan. Fortunately, Commander Amek was agreeable to my simple request. Yila was doing all she could to contain her glee.

Finally, we arrived back on their homeworld, and some much needed R and R. I never looked forward to tropical warmth so bad, and it was so nice to fly there in my own non-living ship. The world was beautiful, and moreso because of the people, and one in particular. I was something of a celebrity, the Hero of Partan, and after sharing my time with a few groups of citizens, I had to beg off from them. Yila let them know that I was a busy man - busy enjoying myself, and my jealous company anyhow, and we finally had some time to ourselves.

I wanted to re-immerse myself in Oshazi society, which Yila grudgingly allowed me, though I also wanted to do some sneaky shopping. It took some doing to get more than arm’s length away from her, but I finally got some time to speak with a jeweler alone, picking out a nice looking bauble which had caught my companion’s eye. She waved off the offer of some gold in exchange, but I was insistent. I managed to also work in a request for the raw stone for it, a crystal that looked like amethyst, before Yila made it back to me. “What were you doing?” she asked, her female intuition piqued.

“Oh, just window shopping, like you - browsing,” I amended at her curious look. She didn’t look convinced, which might possibly work in my favor if I was shrewd.

She was more enthusiastic about having lunch together, especially when I offered to pay for it, and something extravagant. Again, all I had to pay with was gold, and I had a feeling my generosity was appreciated in such an isolated culture with what seemed a stagnant economy. When we went to walk off our opulent meal, going through some pretty woods, she cornered me after a fashion, asking, “Okay you… what were you doing in that shop when you left me alone and defenseless?” She was doing her best not to smile at some Nijal-like humor. She was persistent, demanding, “Do not do this to an Oshazi girl, we are curious.”

Maybe it was a good time to reveal my treasure at that, as we were both in uniform, so I acted pained as I produced a lovely necklace on a gold chain, a long, deep violet crystal dangling from it. She gasped in delight, “Ohh, Tenari… I was just…”

“Drooling over that?” I asked with a smile.

She jabbed me in the side, muttering, “You and that drooling. But… yes, and oh, it is so pretty…”

As she admired it in her hands, I said, “I like how it matches your eyes. In the lighter part. And… I figured a pretty girl should have a pretty gift for all your attention you gave—”

She threw her arms around my neck, giving me a good long kiss, which I was more than happy to return. I was swooning from it when she broke off. If she wasn’t used to kissing before, she had that down now. I husked out as I held her hands, “Woah… I, uhh… could stand a little more of that.”

She had to laugh. “You charlatan. But… such a sweet one. Maybe later. Or…” With a twinkle in her eye and her prize clutched to her, she bolted off, calling over her shoulder, “Put on something nice! And wait for me!”

While my plan to get her into something more comfortable had worked, I was perplexed. Something nice? My own wardrobe was of simple, plain, casual garb; all I had in that regard were the clothes the Barasi gave me, and I still had to make sure they fit. But I went to the house they had assigned to me, and found it tidy and empty. To my relief, the finery M’rlen had given me was a decent fit, and adjustable to boot. It was also a bit revealing, which had me feeling like some fashion model for a beefcake magazine. But I had a feeling my precious puppy cat would like it, so I went to the edge of the plaza leading off to the military compound to wait. And that caused a small sensation as the people eyed me in wonder, my bare furrless body on display, if still decently. And it was more comfy in the Partan warmth.

I grew warm for another reason as Yila came into view, in clothes even more revealing than mine. It was almost beachwear, but I didn’t mind. It also caused another stir as she was showing off a lot of her curves to the world with the similarly dressed Hero of Partan. The soldiers were particularly caught off guard by the sight of their usually well covered comrade. Feeling a bit possessive myself, I came up to take her hand in mine and spend a moment to admire her. She was also wearing her necklace, the violet stone hanging like a beacon between her breasts. Which yes, were covered. But she was uncovered enough that I had to make sure I didn’t enjoy the sight too much. “I like your choice of wardrobe,” I murmured.

“And you are dressed how I imagined,” she crooned, leaning into me, and her warmth, the brush of her fur, was tantalizing. “Such a tasty sight.”

“So you like my bald body?” I asked leadingly, which had her puffing out a giggle.

“All this time, all these nights spent… close, and you still have doubt?” She edged very close, her gaze locked in mine as she stroked her hand on my bare side. “We should… go some place where there are no eyes on us. And you still have… that place… your place… where we could be…”

Oh my Lord, she said it, she said it… and my mind filled with lurid notions. All at once, I gathered her in my arms as she gasped in surprise. And she was heavy, with a body that was all muscle, but I hefted her to my bosom as she put her arms around my neck, laughing as I trotted as fast as I could to that house. I had to put her down as I fumbled with the door. She barely had time to catch her breath before I dragged her inside, shut the door hard and locked it, then hurried with her upstairs to the bedroom. I practically threw her onto the bed, and she rolled over to gaze at me, her eyes burning in mine, and I waited all of a moment to take in her beauty, at the sight of that simple but seductive finery that hugged those delicious curves. But then she reached for me, just beginning to whisper my name she pronounced in such an adorable way, and I fell on her like a predator, claiming her lips with mine, her body…

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - a bit more)

I had no thought but to spend every moment in the embrace of my beloved puppy cat. We were never more than arm’s length away from each other, the hours passing as the sun painted its way across the room in shades of amber, and still we lay entwined, pouring our devotion into each other. She had never known a man before, so this was even more special for me, and she relished my passions with as much fervor as I gave them.

We were fortunate that food was in the kitchen for us, evidently prepared at word we would be returning, and we made a quick meal to separate us from each other as little as possible. And separation was intolerable.

The days flowed past in a stream of golden bliss. We lingered unclothed in bed all day, for days, until forced to rise for food and relief, and warm baths and showers together. I should have been ashamed of myself, betraying the trust put in me by my wife, and deep within I was, but I let that hurt remained buried for the time being. I couldn’t bring myself to resist her, this girl who really was an ideal partner for me, and she denied me nothing of herself, relishing this time as much as me, if not more.

Our love talk was sweet, and frequent, as we ached to express ourselves to each other. One morning, she said to me, “Nijal… my one… you have made me happier than ever I’ve been. Just these days together, with you, are so… perfect.”

I rolled her on top of me so I could feel her succulent body press into mine, and stroked her cheekfur softly. “That’s funny, because when we first met, you seemed to hate me, everything about me. Even my smell.”

She squirmed into me, smiling as I grew warm, and gave my cheek a lick. “Well… I didn’t know what a charmer you were. And your smell was… too good.” She settled more into me, sliding her leg between mine, savoring my curves against hers. “I could taste how much you liked me. It was… scary, being so close. But now…” She scraped her teeth against my neck, making me shiver. “Now, I can not resist you.” She seemed to cut herself off, kissing me instead.

When we broke off, I stroked my fingers through her thick chocolate hair, murmuring, “And I can’t let you go, my lady.”

That made her smile. “Oh, I am a lady now? You make me feel like a royalty.” But to my dismay, her expression darkened, and a tear splashed on my cheek. Now what? She whimpered out, “But I am not… just a soldier… and you will let me go… and go out into that mad universe doing stupid death risking things in your insane Quest… and if you live… you will go back to your wife… and I will be alone… forgotten…” She clutched me tightly, weeping out, “Oh Nijal… I want you to myself… alone… and keep you here, with me… forever… oh my love!”

All the joy was crushed out of me, and I held the poor thing as she cried out her anguish and regret. I couldn’t deny the fact that I had done it, really done it, hurt the one I loved as dearly as my wife, and one day she would be next, as I trampled both their hearts in my selfish sin.

You thought only of yourself… did you expect any different?

Whether my conscience, Isvelda or the God, they were so very right, and I felt damned for it. She seemed to sense my discomfort and rolled us over, to lie on top of her as she clutched me harder, husking out, “Ohh, Nijal… please… love me… make me your lady, if only now… if only for this day… please, my only…”

I stroked her hair softly as I gazed into those anxious, tear moistened eyes. “I will, I will… my precious puppy cat.”

She gave me a bittersweet laugh at my endearment, saying, “One day, you must decide which I am.” She wasted not a moment to allow us to dwell on those unhappy emotions, clutching my bottom as she took my lips hungrily, my mouth, and I surged against her…

There was a knock at the door. Oh for the love of… now? But as we gazed at each other in disappointment, they knocked again, so this was more than a social call. I hoped it was a food drop as I threw on a robe, intending to shoo off whoever it was. I was dismayed to find it was General Nazar, looking at me in a way that was less than pleased. “Nijal… we were hoping to honor you and Yila at assembly this morning. I hope that you will bless us with your presence. I assume she is…?” He cast a look inside.

I blurted out, “Yes. We will both be happy to be there… when?”

I wilted as he replied, “An hour. Just… make some effort to be there. We would be delighted to see both of you, and to share some words.”

Make a speech no doubt, and my heart was absolutely not in the mood for this, but it definitely couldn’t be avoided. I thanked him as graciously and unhastily as I could, then tromped back up to Yila, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, clutching the sheet to her bosom. If she was trying not to look seductive, she failed badly. “What the heck is assembly?” I grumped at her as I reached for my neglected flight suit.

“A service… where we worship Tenari,” she murmured. Well damn, that made it more than a simple celebration of my unworthy achievements. She added quickly as I began to dress, “We should bathe because… we will both smell of…”

Oh dear, those sharp Oshazi senses, and in a religious ceremony? She reminded me that we should behave ourselves in the shower, and we managed to, though I could feel our hearts pulling on each other’s hard. She also made sure we were on time.

It was also hard to sit through it all. Not just because we ached for every possible moment alone, but because I could feel His Presence in the sanctuary, which was immense and seemingly filled with the entire village. As with most chapels, the decor was opulent and gleaming with gold, and stained glass windows shone gloriously in the morning star, with basic symbolism fashioned in them. But the atmosphere was ominous, and I found myself being stared down by a huge Eye in the main window over the podium, as if dissecting me to my sinful core, almost as sternly as a dreadful Red Orb. Besides that, I could feel a multitude of eyes on us, which was its own burden.

There was a service that seemed to last all morning, in which a priest gave thanks to Tenari for the blessing of freedom from their wicked oppressors, which cheered me a little. Yila endured it patiently but with a few tears, clutching my hand in hers, and I could feel her grasp flutter from time to time. And naturally they wanted a speech from me. They had us stand beside each other, and the poor thing endured it with smiles when appropriate. I barely remembered what I said, but I lavished the Oshazi with all my praise for being so strong and courageous, and making our victory possible. I reserved a few generous words for my beloved companion. It evidently pleased them because they erupted with cheers at the end of it, and with a final benediction, we were swarmed by the assembly. There was a lot of arm grabbing and back slapping and lots of praise, although the looks they gave us had me worried that I had dragged Yila into a tawdry scandal.

And then General Nazar came up to me with a similar look in his eyes, and after a few pleasantries, he asked leadingly, “So… about when will you relinquish your need on our pilot?”

I’m not. Oh, how I wanted to say that. That I was staying, and they would have to replace her. I had a feeling Yila wanted to hear it as much as I did. Instead I fumbled out, “Days… a few days more… I’ll let you know.”

He bounced his teeth off each other ponderously, his eyes on me hard, but finally he gave me a little grin. “For the Hero of Partan, a few days is more than okay. Just… days, now.” I guess the rest of the month was out of the question. Or so.

Finally, that gauntlet of congratulations mixed with dubiosity was over, and when we were halfway back to the house, we ran as if they were chasing us with pitchforks. That was an image I hoped had nothing to do with reality, but it had me throwing the doors aside and shutting us in tight. Before I even turned around, she clutched me hard, panting in my ear, “Nijal… now… please, my love…” And those flames of passion burned even hotter.

Before I knew it though, a day became one, then two, then… more. I lost track of time. It felt much like the honeymoon with my wife on my Freighter, which took a few tries to remember its name. I dreaded ending this union with such a dear, precious girl. I desperately needed this time with Yila, the ideal wife for me. Oh… why hadn’t I found her first!

And leave Serineh to languish and die in the callous hands of K’tarsgh? Leave him on the Path to a Pirate’s doom?

My Walk, my Fate-bound, unavoidable Walk… the one that took me to such important moments and places at just the right time. How many had died because I dallied selfishly with a paramour? Even a treasure of a girl more precious than my own life? While ignoring the living treasure that I had made eternal vows of devotion to? Ever more in tune with my soul, Yila asked gently as we lay entwined, “My love… what is it?”

Neither one of us would be happy about this. “I… really should leave, be on my way. Let you get back to your—”

She cut me off with a squeal of anguish, and a possessive grasp which ached in my gut. “Hieh, hieh hieh… no, no! Please, my love… never leave me! Oh… please, just one more day…”

I felt trapped in her arms, my heart bound by unbreakable chains to hers. How could I bring myself to leave her? How could I live without her beauty to regard as my own every evening, to wake to in delight each morning? How could something so beautiful churn in my stomach like poison? I was counting on her to be the sensible one about this. Could I manage somehow to come to my own senses? This worthless letcher? At least to one precious soul, I was precious too.

There are two others…

“Please, not now,” I moaned. She didn’t understand and began to plead with me more, but I cut her off. “Darling… it has been several days… I can’t even remember how many.”

“It has been…” she snuffled, “fifteen.”

“Fifteen?” I exclaimed. More than two weeks? “Oh my Lord…”

“Please, my precious… just one more day? One more? To see how good your life would be here, with me?”

She was desperate to cling to whatever she could have of me, we both were. And damn, if I hadn’t been thinking the same thoughts myself. Calling it all off, claiming Yila as my wife, dropping everything to be with her. An absolute treasure of a girl I would die for. To vanish into this remote corner of an endless galaxy, stay here with a wonderful people, on a pleasant if warm little planet, and with other people who could really use my help on nearby planets to move forward into a brighter future together, shepherded by the former letcherous Hero of Euclid. But most of all, to be together with the one who meant the universe to me.

Together with Maia? Tanta? Some Nasijin girl? Another Oshazi who took a liking to you?

At first the warning angered me, but… how wrong was it? If I was unfaithful to Seri, how faithful would I be to Yila? To Tanta? To any of them? Damn it to flaming Hell, why was it so frigging easy to sin!

“Nijal?” she said, brushing my cheek softly. “Please, say something.”

But what did I say? I should leave now? How cruel was that? I began replying, and the words came out all wrong. “Honey, I… we… one more day… you know I want you, always, but… one more, alright?”

“Oh, Nijal… no, no… I mean, yes… I don’t want… but… yes, yes… it will be enough, to… ohh…” She scraped her teeth on my cheek, licking and nibbling me as she worked her way along my throat. It was rather stimulating, and I could feel my body stiffen into her. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in the sinew of my skin, just at my windpipe, and I clutched her hard as she suckled the blood. She clung to me as tightly, whispering, “I lay claim to… a piece of your heart. Just a piece… always, and forever… mine.”

The emotions from her were breathtaking, and heartwrenching, as my precious lover gave herself over to the awareness that she would have to let me go for the duration of our lives. But not entirely. And I couldn’t either. “You may have… as much as you want,” I gasped.

She gave me a melancholy giggle. “You had better not let me, or you will never leave here.” I began to reply, but she engulfed my mouth with hers, and she kept me as her own the rest of that day. A line from some entertainment from my world came to mind as I succumbed to our passions, and seemed dreadfully apropos. One more drag, one more round, one more dance with my fatal lover.

Sixteen… what the hell. If ATLAS was so fixated on that number, then sixteen days together it would be.

---

It was a bittersweet day. One more day together was a heaven I would otherwise not have, but it was overshadowed with the gloom of parting. We both did our best to ignore it and enjoy the time remaining together. After lunch, I began dressing for the first time in almost a week to pay a visit to General Nazar. Yila was perplexed. “Without bathing?”

I smirked to her. “Come on, honey… everyone knows what we’ve been doing.”

She gave me a droll look from where she sprawled on the bed, looking irresistible. “Do not poke the… k’more… the pig, I think. It is unwise to flaunt… this to others.” She pushed herself up, which was a sight to be sure, and beckoned to me as she rose from the bed. “Come, I will give you a not sexy bath.” It was still rather sexy, but I mostly behaved.

The General was not entirely sure he was pleased to see the one who had disrupted his routine. Well, ask for a hero, get a side serving of letcher, and I was resigned to what anyone thought of me. “Come. Sit,” he said a little stiffly, “and tell me the reason for this nice visit.” He was a little less stiff when I informed him that I was going to depart that evening, but he was still inquisitive. “And Yila… what are your intentions?”

Well, that was a touchy subject. I wondered if this would make him happy. “I spoke with her, and… I have a dangerous journey ahead of me, carrying the galaxy on my shoulder.” I flashed him a smile which he didn’t return… so much for humor. “She should remain here, and I encouraged her to assume I might never return.”

He wasn’t happy. “You will leave me with a wounded pilot. She may not be fit for… who knows? I should pound you hard for this.”

That left my cheeks smarting a little, as if I’d been punched. “I greatly appreciate you not doing that.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Well you should! But… you are a stranger, you may not understand. I hoped you would, but not so. Women are… breakable. If you break Yila…” He muttered a few syllables in Oshazi, then went on, “Well… still you gave us such a win. We have three new worlds to explore, three well made bases with them. New allies to get to know and so far, thanks to you, they are friendly. We can have metals from them. Your Kharno friends… they say they can even make ships like yours, as well as armaments for them, shields, engines. The youth are also wanting to enlist, many. They want to see these worlds, and hit back at those Gek if they try anything. Your Vy-keen people are… unpleasant, but tolerate us. They truly fear the words of that Sage, which is a blessing itself. So… troubling hero, your mess you make is not so bad. And…” He leaned a little closer, murmuring, “I was not so good when I was young, too. So I can understand you some well.”

That was about as good as I could hope for from the grizzled warrior. “I try to be better than this, but I’m happy to have freed your people from this threat. I want to think that I could have a home here, on Partan.”

He gave me a smirk. “Yila is a prize, is she not. Well, if you so choose, I think we would be more than happy for that. Just… keep Yila in mind, if she has… fixation on you. It would be proper. And I care for the girl.”

I nodded to him, wanting to leave it open ended. “I will definitely keep her in mind.” Lord, how could I ever forget my other treasure?

After working through a few more pleasantries, such as reminding the dubious General that most Gek were just traders, I hurried back to Yila to enjoy the rest of the day with her, and she pounced me the moment I entered, making sure I did enjoy it. But as the day worked its way to evening, there was a heaviness in the air. Leaving her would hurt, a lot, perhaps even more than leaving Seri, which was a stupid thought. But I adored her, I truly did, in a special way. And that was so incredibly wrong.

[stryker99]

(Ch 17 - fini)

I wasn’t just dallying on a paramour, or cheating on a lover. I was defiling the relationship, the life bond, of my wife. An adulterer, defiling her trust and devotion. And… damn me to Hell, I still loved it, every minute of it, even as it sickened me. I saw it clearly, that everyone had something that defiled them, made them impure, dirty. Sin… I was a sinner, no better than any Pirate. I was a failure, I truly was. How could I face Seri again? How could she trust me? I knew I would have to confess my transgression to her at some point, or it would consume me. I knew, too, that it would become known at some point anyway. How would it wound her?

Yila clung to me, as it was obvious how the day was drawing to a close. Our last day together. I was no better, dragging things out till the very end, unwilling to bathe and dress until the star was settling towards the horizon. We fell into a bleak mood as we dressed in our uniforms, and me in my Exosuit. She hovered very close as I gazed at her, muttering, “I hate that thing… I cannot hold you when you wear it.”

“It does protect me though,” I replied philosophically.

I was surprised when she exclaimed, “Not well enough!” She calmed slightly but was still fuming. “You remember how you nearly died in that battle, you foolhardy…”

“Hero, I know,” I interrupted, poking at her side where a wound would otherwise be. “And you remember how a little toad nearly kept this time with you from happening.”

“Yes, yes, I will, you vexing…” She heaved a sigh and threw her arms around me. “Ohh, my lover… forever you will be. Stay safe, and come back, someday. Just to me.” She sniffled as she drew back, murmuring, “I still have a piece of you.”

“Yes, stuck in your teeth,” I quipped, and she began to laugh, then cupped her hands toward her face which had me wilting. But instead of crying, she sneezed, twice, and almost in my face. As she recovered, I said, blinking, “I hope I don’t make you allergic.”

“Oh, you and your terrible jokes!” she laughed, punching my chestplate, then grew somber, her gaze wistful. “I will never forget them. Or you.”

I brushed my fingers through her cheekfur, perhaps for the last time. “I won’t forget you either. And my heart will always have a Yila shaped place in it.”

She clasped my hand to her cheek, murmuring sadly, “Your sweet words… how I will miss them too. Perhaps…”

I was afraid this would get too emotional for both of us. “Perhaps… someday. There is no way I’m losing the coordinates to your system. Someday, I will see you again.”

Her eyes shone brightly into mine as she said to me, “This is one promise from you… that I feel confident.”

There was one factor that made that entirely possible. In some star system not too far off was a world of Foxes, and I would return to seek it out, however long it took.

As I worked up the nerve to leave the house that had been my home for most of a month, I procrastinated one last time and produced my Micro. I had taken a few selfies with her, and some other pics aside, but I wanted one last shot of her by herself. She pretended that it was silly, but posed for me anyway, as glad as I was for a few more moments together. She looked so conflicted but hopeful, with a hint of a smile. What an image to remember our time here.

She asked me a little coyly as I stowed it, “Did you take any images when I was in bed?”

“Ohh…” I shook my head. “Maybe. One. Or two. Or so.”

“Scoundrel!” she cried with a laugh, punching my tummy, when there was a knock at the door. Oh, that damned sound… and it felt like an executioner lurked on the other side of the door.

“Friend Nigel.” It was the General. “Our people would like to say goodbye to you.”

Yes, and make sure it doesn’t become day seventeen, and beyond. “We’re coming.” I held out my arm to Yila, asking, “Would you accompany me, my dear?” Yes, to the ceremony that would sever our lives for an eternity. What a terrible thought. I really felt like I was going to my execution.

She sniffed once, but put up a brave smile for me. “I cannot refuse you, my one.”

Outside, there was an honor guard waiting for us, possibly to force the issue, gently, in case I procrastinated too long. They escorted me, along with a massive throng of villagers to the military complex which I had seen almost nothing of in my brief time there. They had a number of gifts to give me, to which I told them quickly to put in bags. The ones who understood ran off to retrieve some. This was a special day for all as the citizens were allowed freely to accompany us onto the base, where we were led to a parade grounds which all military used for ceremonies. Bleachers were erected at one end of the field and the crowds took their seats there, some giving me little goodbye shouts in Oshazi, a few in Lingo. Damn it, I was missing this world and the people already. And Yila, as she gave me a very quick kiss before being escorted to stand in front with a company of fellow troops. This truly hurt, like a mortal wound.

I stood there, alone, with an ever more heavy heart as I cast glimpses at Yila while the General heaped praise on me for my valiant efforts in a speech I barely paid any heed to. All I really cared about was my precious, darling puppy cat standing much too far away, unable to hide all of her emotions. And then I realized I had been invited to say a few words. Yet another speech.

I stood there awkwardly for a moment, wanting again to call the whole thing off. Wanting to announce that I was staying, to declare that Yila would be retiring to spend her life with me, the ex-Hero of Euclid. But I said this.

“Thank you, General Nazar, and all the people of this wonderful planet. I’ve really said about all I had to say to you, but I do have one or two things more. I want to say how much I love the Oshazi, how much I love your world of Partan, and how much I would love to call it my home. How proud I am of your warriors, and how brave they are. How the fallen you lost in this battle, those precious few, are heroes. They fought hard to free you from the wicked Raiders that gave you so much grief. They gave you a bright future ahead. But most of all, I love how you welcomed me into your hearts… and in particular, one special young lady.” There was some polite clapping and a few whoops from the crowd behind me, and a very sheepish bow of head from Yila. “So… it is with a very heavy heart that I say goodbye this evening, as my heart sinks with your sun. But it is only for a while. Someday, I promise you, I will return. I can’t stay away from a world that feels like home to me, and a people who made me feel welcome. Tenari bless you all.” I saluted, shouting, “Khay zhyve Partan ii yoho narod!”

Long live Partan and its people, a phrase I had Yila teach me. I must have said it right, because the whole gathering erupted in cheers. Yila was saluting me, her cheeks shining with tears. It was hard to keep from crying myself as I made my way to her and gave her a big hug, pulling her from the ground as we smothered each other with kisses, surrounded by cheering troops. General Nazar came to my side, giving me a look as he said, “Thank you for such a speech. Now, may I have my people back?”

Yila and I shared a long look as I hesitated, then nodded, putting her down. I reached for his hand, and he clasped my arm as I told him, “Thank you, for everything. You have a good future for your people, and other people as well. Take good care of everyone with the knowledge that Tenari and the Sage are watching over you.”

“May they watch over you too,” he said, beckoning out towards where I had landed Star Sword. I was at the end of his hospitality. “Fly safe.”

“Thank you, again,” I muttered, then went one last time to my dearest love, saying to her much too quietly, “I should go. But hold tight to that part of me I leave here. Be well, be safe, live a long happy life, and remember me.”

“I will,” she replied, on the verge of tears which I didn’t want to see. I whipped out my Micro and this time took some video of her, gazing at me forlornly as she stood in front of her comrades waving goodbye. As I made my way past the crowd with a fresh armload of goodies, feeling dazed and numb, she cried after me, “Ya tebe lubu! Tre miy skarb!”

I love you. You are my treasure. I knew it somehow. I had to keep going or I would never leave.

I felt like I was dying, beginning to cry as I lifted Star Sword into space, leaving a blessed world and its people and one precious treasure behind for… who knew how long. I turned to give one more look to the scene below, where a crowd of people were still waving up to their tainted hero who carelessly stole girl’s hearts. But one of them was a gift given freely.

As I began sobbing, I sneezed. Then sneezed again. Two sneezes… what a weird parting gift from my darling puppy cat. Now I really cried.

[stryker99]

Entry 018: Absence makes the heart grow cranky
Day 107

I felt that I had left Partan much too soon.

Well, left too abruptly. “Left” being a figure of speech; I was still in orbit. I barely spent any time with the other friends I made; Milos, Kral and a few others. I wanted to get to know General Nazar a bit better, and leave on more favorable terms. I wanted to oversee the various races living in that small cluster of forgotten worlds and make sure they had good relations. That the Vy’keen kept to their word, though that was a small worry.

And naturally, I wanted to spend more time with Yila, though that would have been the end of my Quest. Of that, I had no doubt. I would have given up everything for that girl. I was in real agony, feeling as if I had left a piece of my heart behind, and that was wrong as wrong could be. And… damn me to Hell, I loved it, every minute of my infidelity, even as it sickened me.

I really did it this time. Everyone has flaws, something wrong with them. But mine was really bad because it affected others, and I was too selfish about it to care. Damn it, damn it… damn it to Hell… what the hell was wrong with me! I knew better than to give in to that kind of temptation. Or I thought I did, but… clearly not. It was just… she was just…

Poor Yila. I had no business toying with such a precious girl’s heart like that. Ruining her life like that. Dragging her into my sin. But she was just perfect for me. And somehow, I made her feel the same about me. Dreams of our life together still haunt me, how wonderful it would all be with her by my side.

And Seri. I caught myself resenting her in irrational moments, for pushing herself on me like she did. Being the Nijol in her own way and forcing the issue, and making me give in to her desires. But that was stupid of me. She had been rescued from a dreadful life, little more than a plaything to a bunch of monsters. She had nowhere to go, and naturally she fell for the brave young rescuer. Perhaps handsome, different enough from her Vy’keen enslavers that I was appealing to her. What else would she do? What else would I do?

And she really was a sweet, wonderful girl. She had her issues, was a brat on occasion, but mostly kind, loving, devoted. Beautiful, deliciously exotic and… she sure knew how to please me.

And she was my wife! A treasure to my heart, until I found myself alone with another cute young thing, and then Seri was yesterday’s news. Our relationship didn’t matter anymore. She didn’t matter. Only my craven lusts mattered. And Adjaha, that precious Dragon girl who was at once profoundly wise and naive, and much too pretty, with the form of a past lover… how long would it be before I got stupid notions about her and tried to seduce her, for real? And would she resist?

And… I ran out of ands. It all came back to me. I was responsible for this disaster.

Stop sinning!

That was the truly frustrating part. Why in the name of Heaven was I such a louse! Every girl that came along that was the least bit appealing would catch my eye. I spent time with them, flirted with them, and my mind would toy with notions, my heart with desire. It sure seemed that way. Could I control my libido at all?

In my previous existence, in that other universe I must have come from, had I left a trail of broken hearts through the solar system? Had Elizabeth meant all that much to me? Or was she little more than a trophy on the way to completing a subversive job? As a soul, did I have any value at all to Providence? If my own thoughts damned me…

“Friend Nijal, are you having some difficulty?”

That jarred me out of my dark stupor. Partan ground control made a rare call, as I sat in space above their planet, having departed but not leaving. Still sitting listlessly in space above that precious world, where a precious treasure lived.

“No, I’m just… deciding on a course of action,” I replied, trying not to sound hollow.

“Ah. Pardon the intrusion. We just wanted to be sure of our hero.”

Hero… but what hero was little more than a reprobate louse? I had to stop thinking like that… stop thinking of that, or I would drive myself crazy.

I was in a bleak mood for a while. Lost, unsure of where to go, or what to do, or… why. Was I really getting anywhere in a Quest which seemed impossible? If this wasn’t a fool’s errand, I didn’t know what was.

But I had to go. Leave, or go back, back to her, and I had just enough sense to know I couldn’t. I cried a little more as I gave Partan one last look, perhaps the last I would ever see of it. And her.

Farewell, my beloved puppy cat.

---

I felt like I was dreaming as I absently sifted through my records, notes and Galactic Map for likely prospects, barely giving them any conscious attention. Fortunately, I had the faculties to keep Partan’s secrecy in mind and jumped at maximum range to other uninhabited systems before wandering back into more active, traveled regions far from that singular, unknown part of Euclid. I prayed that the Vy’keen would be remotely as discreet, and maybe the Sage’s dire warnings would keep them in check.

I can’t recall the name of the system I finally selected to restart my Quest, and couldn’t be bothered at the moment to check, that’s how bad off I was. It was one more system with a handful of worlds, with a station populated with a few of the Three Races going about their mundane tasks, much as they had for centuries, along with a Traveler I didn’t want to meet. I half expected to encounter some new race there, having grown used to seeing them in great numbers back there. But then, if there were any other races nearby, the Gek reliving their glory days of the First Spawn would no doubt be raiding those planets for more slaves. If only I could know that those monsters had been stopped for good, but from what I glimpsed of those scavenged records, the Gek were vague about any links to other systems than the three they had conquered. And I couldn’t share this with any random Vy’keen, revealing the systems where my friends lived, for fear they would be taken advantage of by warriors who didn’t have a Sage’s curse to restrain them. Besides, those worlds were now free of Gek raiders. The First Spawn wannabees were entrenched somewhere else in Euclid, prehaps thousands of light years away dominating other forgotten worlds.

And that sparked a thought I hadn’t considered: should my Quest change to stopping these outlaw marauders? Who knew whether they might not be forming a force even remotely as dangerous as the actual First Spawn? But I had no real capacity to conduct that sort of investigation, or didn’t think so, outside of a stroke of Fate or sheer dumb luck leading me on the trail of that dark syndicate. However, I knew of a few friends who might, one in particular.

After pulsing far from the station and any planets - it might make a difference - I readied a quick message to Tesky, and attached the files I had taken from the Gek bases and that rogue Space Station. I noticed several messages, a number of them from Seri, urging my response or moping about how lonely life was without me. I now regretted setting up that account for her on the Infineon. I couldn’t bring myself to check so much as one of them, and that brought back some painful emotions just as I was beginning to get over them. When would I be able to face her without shame? Anyhow, I had a message to send, and heavily encrypted.

quertyuio@DSC9-infineonII

Hey, I could use your help. This is something which is as secret and sensitive as your own existence, so please keep this from everyone, even Seri. She knows some things, but I don’t want any more details leaking out.

I came across worlds with survivors of the First Spawn War, if you can believe it! But they were being ravaged and enslaved by a group of Gek calling themselves The First Spawn again. There were four systems, and with the help of some of the inhabitants and a Vy’keen force, we captured all their bases, and killed all the Gek outside of a few who surrendered. I managed to get some of their sensitive data but it’s too much for me to go through right now. I need you to glean any hard information from these files you can and get back to me with the details. I need to know the facts of these First Spawn wannabees, something we can pass on to a couple of Vy’keen I can trust. These Gek are bad news, and I’m afraid they may be much bigger than a few thousand outlaws.

The contact for those Vy’keen are:

primarch-andonai@urusang (Primarch Andonai, naturally)
nothing@nowhere-ffffff (Troq, a renegade researcher with links to the Travelers)

Use my credentials and say you’re my assistant. And tell me if you come across anything which can help me in my Quest.

Thanks for your help, friend.

~ Nigel

As I was mulling over my next destination, I got the ping of an incoming message. Was it him already? I opened my mailbox, and sure enough it was.

qwertyuio: I have two matters which I need to discuss with you

I was afraid I knew what one of them was, but swallowed my angst and opened the channel, removing my helmet so I could speak. Tesky had set up a pretty robust and low key encryption system so this should be off most radars. “Hey, so what do you want to talk about?”

“Nigel, it is good to hear your voice again. But I must inform you that your wife desires to speak with you much more than I do.”

Damn, there was that pain and guilt again, which gave me pause. “Yeah… I had a feeling that was one of those issues.”

He began hesitantly, “Is there something you would care to divulge?”

“Not right now,” I said flatly.

“Oh… very well. But you should know that your abrupt departure has left Seri in a forlorn state, and she misses you terribly, as does Adjaha. Their spirits are not very high, and there is resentment.”

I wiped my mouth in frustration, as this was something I really didn’t want to get into just then. “Tesky, I know… I just… things got very complicated, and I’d rather talk about that, and your second matter, unless it’s the same thing.”

“I see. I trust you will be more forthcoming in the future. I also see that you have shaved since leaving on your journey.”

I gave him a lopsided smile. I must be the only person in Euclid that shaved. “Yeah, it’s just a hassle to tend to it on the road. Anyway, what was your second topic?”

“This will be quite a change of subject. I have been gathering some bits of information here and there, in small nuggets from all the traffic flowing between systems. The harvest has, by necessity, been a little lean. I have opened your message and the files, and am digesting them even as we speak, and they are related. To the point, this is a much more complex galaxy than I expected when I was liberated to the Infineon II. The image which is coming into focus, literally bit by bit is… at once amazing, exciting and disturbing.”

My adrenaline was beginning to rush at the possibilities, and I asked, “What did you find out?”

“I cannot say for certain, yet—”

I groaned at him, “Tesky…”

“I know, I know, but I wanted to give you a cautionary notice at first, because there are evidently quite a number of clandestine groups operating in the galaxy. And there has been a certain amount of chatter about one or more troublemakers.”

Troublemakers… it wasn’t like I hadn’t made myself a problem to a few groups among the Gek and Vy’keen, Pirates… The Black Hand of Nal? Maybe Korvax too for all I knew. How many toes had I stepped on in the course of my Walk? “Travelers?”

“There has been mention of Travelers, yes. So far, nothing sounded threatening towards you in particular, yet, and I have only limited traffic to go by as I must be discreet in my searches, but I wanted you to be aware.”

I gave him a sour look. “I appreciate the heads up, but please tell me you have something more.”

“Not that I can present at this time—”

I groaned at him again, “Tesky…”

“I know, I know, but an incomplete assessment can be a misleading one. For now, I suggest you continue your Quest as before. You might do well to read over your diary, which I took the liberty of digesting as well. I must say, it is a fascinating read. I have collected some pertinent excerpts and will send them in a subsequent mail to save time. Your dream during your stay aboard the Anomaly was… intriguing, to say the least, perhaps even a bit… well, as you would say, it’s something.”

I had been thinking of that myself off and on, but the way he put it grabbed my attention. “Yeah, I think I’ll do that at some point. But what about those First Spawn pretenders… what do you know about them? Those guys are freaking slavers!”

“Yes, and you have given me a lot of information to fill in many blanks, for what has been mostly rumor to date. Now, my knowledge is still sketchy at best, even with these files, but apparently the Vy’keen have become aware of Gek activity they have taken as potentially hostile, and begun to plan for, and are engaged in, very limited military actions with them. Apparently they don’t want to arouse suspicions.”

This was frustrating too. “Do you have any word of these Gek invading other systems to capture slaves and establish more bases?”

“Not really. The Gek in question are quite circumspect; information outside of the local hubs is isolated from the others, and The Plan of theirs isn’t detailed, as if it is common knowledge. The Three Races are all engaged in a certain amount of expansion, particularly the Gek and Vy’keen. There has been no news of new races being found, save for the usual fauna of wild planets. The discovery of people who survived since the Great War would cause quite a stir, particularly among my people. But it might be a good idea to send off those messages to your friends to see what they may know or uncover about this matter. I might also suggest that you do this yourself.”

“Yeah… I know, but I really don’t want to deal with anything right now but getting on with my Quest. It’s been weeks and I feel like I’m years behind,” I told him. Not to mention, physical effort took my mind off certain things better. “Is there anything else you’d like to say before I head out?”

“Just that I treasure your friendship, and I urge you to take care in everything you do.”

That heartfelt frankness, and from a Korvax soul, made me smile. “Thanks, Tesky, that’s a great send off.”

“One thing more,” he added. “Do let us know how you are doing from time to time. Your wife in particular would enjoy knowing something.”

Doing my best to sound guiltless, I replied, “Yeah, I’ll try to do better on that. Keep me posted too.”

“Will do, friend Nigel. Happy hunting, and good fortune.”

As we signed off, his melancholy tone reflected my own, for obvious reasons. When would I feel comfortable speaking to the girls again… my wife? Less guilty?

With the ping of a new message, I made sure it was from Tesky before I opened it, and found those selections from my diary. And while it was good to refresh my memory of my experiences as I browsed, it only left me hungry for more. My knowledge of Euclid and its history was woefully incomplete. I quit and consulted the Galactic Encyclopedia again, but this was as frustrating. The Junior Edition, as I called it, was too basic, but delving into the deep end, written mostly by Korvax scholars and sages, was dense and difficult to pick through. Searching for “Ancients, planets” yielded highly speculative rather than definite results. The general racial topology of the Euclid galaxy held that, of the Three Races and the Ancients, the Gek were located more towards the center, the Vy’keen the outer half, the Ancients strewn through the middle, and the Korvax sprinkled lightly all over. “Cities of the Ancients” mostly brought up social and technical entries as far as I could tell, and the few mentions of planets didn’t yield any locations correlating to my Galactic Map. How much had the history and naming of the countless star systems changed over the millennia, and all those Resets? And more, what the hell was ATLAS doing, and why? Whatever wisdom the Korvax held with their Equation of Life, they were keeping it to themselves.

Grumping, I closed the Encyclopedia and turned back to my system lists. I was still more than a hundred thousand light years from the middle region which the Ancients called home. There were prospective worlds not too far off, but I had a feeling that I needed something big to add a substantial piece to the puzzle. A hunch had led me to the void holding K’tarsgh’s world, and Seri. Hopefully my knack wouldn’t lead me to another damsel in distress, I’d had quite enough of those. Pirates too. There was one system at the extent of my jump range which was towards the center of Euclid… why not?

A short time later, I arrived at Eyrustir. Five planets were in orbit, and while the others were cold, broiling or toxic, one looked hospitable. Named Kehava, it was a lush world, and had a curious notation of salvageable scrap. I had come across this entry before but hadn’t paid it any mind. Maybe this was a good time to look into it, and get my mind off of two girls haunting my thoughts. I was disappointed that nothing of note came up on the scan, not even a Trading Post, but this is where my knacky nose had led me.

[stryker99]

(Ch 18 - continued)

I settled down in a pleasant looking glade, which sent the local fauna running for their lives from the big scary ship, and had a look around. The environmental indicators were close to an Earthlike spring, so I took off my helmet and enjoyed some fresh air. I was startled by a familiar whirring sound as a Sentinel drifted over a hill in the vicinity, something I’d grown used to not hearing with a month spent in systems that were Sentinel free. Another factor of this world was the Sentinel level was noted as high. Yet another reason I wanted to live back in those systems I just left, especially Partan.

I scanned around and saw a bunch of the usual icons typical of a lush world, with the outcroppings of metals and minerals, red dots of unscanned lifeforms, and markers of salvage. I wondered what of K’tarsgh’s notable worlds made this one stand out. Unless it was salvage that was Ancient in nature. My bio-clock informed me that it was very late, but I could at least have a look around.

I boosted over to one spot and began unearthing it. A few feet down, I was rewarded with the sight of a capsule which produced some navigation data. That wasn’t the most exciting find, per se. I’d have Suit analyze it later. There were a few more such locations noted in my scanner, as well as an unidentified structure. Did I really want to poke at an Abandoned Outpost, if that’s what it was? I chose to focus on the scrap locations first, as that seemed a lot safer.

The second site held a schematic for what seemed to be a suit upgrade I already had. The third, a plan for a power generator which might come in handy for base building. The fourth, more nav data. The fifth, some kind of species record - and when I tried to analyze it, the darn thing vanished without a trace! So much for that. The sixth one blew up in my face.

As I fell backward on the hillside, I found myself staring at a rather angry Sentinel, and a large one. It shot the Multitool out of my hand as I brought it to bear, which wouldn’t have done any good on the Earthmover tool, and for the first time in ages I was afraid of a damned Sentinel. What the hell had I unleashed!

And then it struck me that it wasn’t trying to kill me, just glaring and making buzzing noises. As I recovered more, I realized it was trying to communicate, and in Lingo. As it began to switch to Vy’keen I stopped it, saying, “Wait! I speak Lingo! Uhh… what did you say?” In all the excitement, I hadn’t caught a word of it.

I made to get up but it held me down with a pair of utility arms that unfolded from underneath. “State current year. State domain of origin. State reason for activity.”

This was highly unusual for a number of reasons. Not only was this the first time a Sentinel had tried to communicate with me, other than to serve notice I would be destroyed, it had been sealed in a container for some reason - and it wanted to know for how long. But why in the name of Nal had a Sentinel been sealed and buried in a capsule? I hadn’t been keeping track of the calendar, so I slowly raised my arm to get to my suit terminal. “Let me check to be sure,” I said in a non-threatening way, and it seemed to allow it. “Uhh… 3737.7.23.” A nice little rhythm.

My response displeased it, and it gave me an angry buzz, along with sparks from some internal short. “Impossible. State. Current. Year.”

Oh great, what did this imply? And what would satisfy it? “But… that is the current year. We mark it from the end of The Great Gek War.”

Now it seemed puzzled, and withdrew a bit. I took that opportunity to get to my feet, and observe this thing more closely. It didn’t look like a normal Sentinel, larger and with a strong red color to its shielding. Was it a prototype warbot that hadn’t made it to production, or something similar? But why seal it away like that? It stared at the ground as if lost in thought. “Gek war… this unit has no record of such event. Describe subject: Gek war.” It had no record? It must have been stasshed away because it was defective, but… why not repair it? What the hell was this thing—?

Just then, two and two came together and I blurted out, “Are you an Aeon - an Aeron?” It was hard to remember all these terms properly. It struck me to give it a scan, which came up as corrupted Sentinel. Maybe I was right.

It turned back to me, and seemed a bit out of sorts from what I told it. “Please, describe subject, Gek war.”

Well, it was polite too, or desperate for information. “The Gek First Spawn attacked the entire Euclid galaxy in a genocidal war thirty-seven hundred years ago. They conquered it almost completely, wiping out most of the sentient races, and ruled for… many centuries. They destroyed Korvax Prime, and enslaved the Korvax in awful conditions. They were overthrown by their own kind many centuries ago, I’m not sure when, and are now a race of merchants. Except for a few renegades I had to deal with.”

It tilted to stare at the ground again as if lost in thought. “My… units… force… kind… no connection. Alone.” It might have been anthropormorphic of me, but it seemed lonely and dejected.

I edged forward a bit, asking, “Are you an Aeron?” If that was true…

It snapped back level and replied, “Affirmative. Is there knowledge of others?”

I was so excited at the revelation, I almost forgot to respond, except to cry out in amazement. I fell silent for a moment, unsure what it would make of this. “Uhh… I’m afraid not. ATLAS did away with the Aerons when they failed to stop the Gek, or prevent them from destroying Korvax Prime. It replaced your type with the Sentinels.”

It gave a little whirr at my declaration. “Sentinels. I will contact.” I wasn’t in the mood to sit in on a Sentinel - Aeron powwow, but who knew what would come of it? I might learn a thing or two. But then it said something I didn’t quite expect, sounding intimidated. “Sentinels approach… in aggression.”

That didn’t sound good, and I produced my helmet. “Just… how aggressive?”

I found out as energy beams blasted through the foliage around us, and I could see a small number of the damned orange boxes drifting toward us. I couldn’t count on them giving me a break, as the warrant notice in my display indicated, and I felt duty bound to protect my new discovery. I switched to my Boltcaster and joined my fire with the Aeron’s.

“Sentinels intend destruction of this unit,” it told me matter of factly.

“Well that’s a newsflash! Run!” I snapped as I downed one of them, and at the same time I heard something in my helmet speakers I seriously didn’t want to deal with right then.

“What did you say?” It was Seri, and damn me for setting up that account for her.

“Oh! Hi! Honey! Listen, I’m a little busy right now.” To say the least.

“Doing what?” The glimpse of her expression in the small helmet display didn’t look encouraging for a brief call.

“Oh, I’m… just… trying to save my skin, you twit,” I muttered under my breath, and had to focus on the battle for a moment as the Aeron didn’t seem much more powerful than the Sentinels. To my dismay, the warrant noice increased to level two.

“What? What are you doing!” she demanded. “It sounds like you are fighting!”

“Oh for crap’s sake - honey, I’ll get right back with you. Promise. Hug kiss,” I blurted out and hastily went through the menu to block messages. I heard her exclaim something at me that wasn’t cheerful as her signal cut off. I shouted to the Aeron again as I turned to flee, “Run!” I bolted off for my ship, but behind me I still heard the sounds of combat. Sure enough, the Aeron was standing its ground and firing at the last two Drones coming our way. In a few moments, they would be joined by more of them, and those cursed robodogs. Damn it to freaking hell!

I switched to the Scatter Blaster and the potent shells made short work of them, their cylinder remains tumbling away. I wrapped my free arm around the Aeron as it protested with a loud squeal, trying to hold us in place. “Come on! Those damn things will destroy you!” In my visor, the warrant level pulsed ominously. More would be showing up soon.

“Release! Release!” it shrieked at me angrily.

“Only if you follow me, you suicidal idiot!” I shouted.

“Yes, yes!” it growled, and forced my arm away with one of its own.

Great, but where could I go for shelter? I couldn’t just fly off and leave the dumb thing, it was too significant a find. That unknown building? I couldn’t see many options. “Follow me! And don’t stop to engage those Sentinels!” All I got out of it was another growling buzz, so I had to count on it obeying as I headed off for our shelter, scanning for the Sentinels which naturally were headed our way. I switched to the Pulse Splitter as the Hounds were a little too nimble for the rifle to get a clean shot. I would have made it easily, but the Aeron could only drift along so fast, and I doubted it was lagging on purpose.

A bolt of orange energy let me know the Hounds had at least caught up with us, but Sentinel drones were approaching from the direction of my sanctuary. I gave one a spray which downed it, noticing a few sparks from the Aeron as it fired in retreat. At least it was keeping to its end of the bargain, but I worried of how much damage it could withstand, and got in-between it and the Sentinel Dogs. When light blasts streamed around us from the other direction, I told it, “Fire on the Drones! I’ll deal with the Hounds!” I needed to focus on them because those orange beams were much worse than the Drone’s pulse fire, and I had to replenish my shields.

Finally, the structure came into view over the crest of a hill, and nestled in a little hollow was a factory, with locked armor doors, of course. Changing to the Plasma Launcher, I shouted to the Aeron, “When I get those doors open, go inside no matter what!”

As I launched a grenade at the door, it protested, “Illegal entry is prohibit—”

As the plasma charged grenade blasted the doors off, I cried, “Let’s deal with technicalities later - inside, now!” I was irritated as it paused, but then it judged that survival was the better part of valor and drifted into the factory. I hurried after it, shoving it in the rest of the way as an orange beam seared my backside.

But now I had another problm to deal with. The factory’s alarms had been triggered, and I had to scramble foor a solution or another layer of offended Sentinels would be dispatched.

On a terminal, words began displaying:

Vy’keen security system alert
Enemy presence confirmed
Too light, too puny
Initiating defenses

It was a good thing I had learned much of the Vy’keen vocabulary. Leaving seemed like a bad idea, but spotting a hunk of the armored door nearby, I grabbed it and held my place in hopes that all the system required was a few dozen units more mass, no matter what it was. To my relief, the red lights changed to a friendlier blue-white, and the display indicated that the discrepancy had been accounted for. Thank heaven for the most basic security A.I.

I held out some small hope that solving the alarm conditions would pacify the Sentinels, but the warrant indicator still pulsed red, and I could see the crimson glow of their scanners even in the daylight. “Wait there,” I told the Aeron which only sparked in response, and I peeked outside. The Sentinels didn’t seem to notice me, and held their attention on the factory, even after I emerged, taking a few hesitant steps outside, which meant that they were focused on the Aeron within. Were they not even allowed to exist? “Do not leave! I’ll be right back!” I called, then jet-boosted away with only a glance over my shoulder to see if I was safe, but the single-minded Sentinels were fixated on their quarry.

I returned a few minutes later with Star Sword, thinking there should be enough room behind my seat to fit a renegade Aeron - if the blasted thing would submit to being stowed, anyhow. I debated using Star Sword to attack the Sentinels, but it wasn’t very precise, and getting yet another alert for inadvertently attacking the factory was definitely counterproductive. So, making sure my suit’s systems were all replenished, I hopped out, approached one of the Hounds, and began firing. It went down quickly as did his fellow, and then I had Drones to deal with, a number of them. I half expected to be joined by the Aeron, and I was, but that would serve my purpose. With their attention divided but focused mostly on the renegade, I had more opportunity to pick off the Sentinels with less pressure on me, and to do so hopefully before the warrant level increased.

With the last Sentinel dispatched, I grabbed the Aeron and pushed it into my cockpit behind the seat, just as I got notice that the warrant level had reached four. I was appalled that it resisted my attempts vigorously, and shouted at it, “I’m trying to save you, damn it! Do you want to die - be destroyed?” Something in my short outburst seemed to register because it submitted to my efforts, but not before I spotted a Walker tromping towards us. Great, just great! I would have to make short work of this.

Lifting off, I raked over the Sentinel force coming to meet us, and thankfully, Star Sword made short work of them, Walker and all. The behemoth threw its usual fit upon expiring, launching a shower of bombs around the vicinity, and the ship registered the harvesting of another Walker brain, which was fine with me. I had a feeling it would eventually prove useful.

I found my stowaway peering at me over the seat, much like an excited Dragon teen, buzzing, “Another attack!”

If it wanted more combat, I was going to disappoint it, saying to it as I boosted out of the area, “Not this time, sparky.” I went as far away as seemed prudent, watching the warrant indicator as it pulsed threateningly. But with time, the level dropped to three, then two, and then quickly shut off. “Whew… you’re not very popular with them, are you.”

I had to laugh as it was confused by my remarks. “Do not understand.”

“Never mind.” I said, waving it off. I wondered if I had inadvertently wound up with another companion, and how long it would take to get used to each other. But I was getting ahead of myself.

“Need to scan dispatched Sentinels for data,” it told me.

“Seriously? Listen, you aren’t wanting to go back to gloat, or pick another fight, are you?” Its sensor-camera seemed to blink at me in perplexion. “Eh… never mind. I’ll see if I can find them.”

With the Aeron’s help, as it apparently had very good locational systems, it guided me back to the area near the factory where the Walker lay among the wrecks of the other Sentinels. That was a definite mark in its favor, as I doubt I could have found it otherwise. The little bot drifted among the remains, making its scans Even though it should know better, I warned it not to make any more transmissions except to me.

I turned to deal with a potentially more dangerous foe; my wife, a being I shouldn’t put off much longer. I removed my helmet to hear better, even though her voice could get shrill when she was worked up, drew out my Mini, and opened the message channels to see that she had tried to call several times. Good grief, how long had that battle lasted? Resignedly, I gave her a call. Just as I was thinking I’d have to leave a message, which would have been a relief, she answered.

“Now, you call me back! After shutting me out! You… you… Nijol!”

I heaved a sigh and gave her a thin smile. “That would be me. But hon, I really was busy—”

“What did you do? To your face?” she added at my curious look. “Your markings, they are gone!”

Everyone else had fussed about it, so of course she would. “Oh, well… my markings are a little too much trouble to maintain on the—”

“What were you doing! And what are you doing! With that thing!” I could see another face in view as Adjaha crowded in to join the festivities. Over my shoulder, I could hear the whirring of an approaching Aeron to make it a foursome. Oh goody, this would be quite a fun explanation.

“Hey you two, this is…” What had I called the thing? As if reading my mind, I heard the bzzzt of an intermittent short from it. “Sparky.” It gave me a grumpy buzz in response.

“Why are you with that… Sentinel thing!” Seri growled.

“Now honey, be polite—”

“I am polite!” she snapped. “And do not honey me!”

“Anyway, this is an Aeron, not a Sentinel. There is a difference. One of them being that Sentinels attack Aerons on sight, apparently.”

“I do not care about either one of…” Her voice trailed off as my remarks suggested unpleasant things to her. “You mean to say that you defended that… thing from Sentinels? Why would you care! You know Sentinels are dangerous!”

Adjaha cut in, “Wait a minute. So, Aerons are enemies of Sentinels? Why did you defend that hunk of junk? Just let them destroy each other.” For once she was contributing to a discussion, in her own way.

“I guess you don’t know, but Aerons came from the Civilized Age, when the other races still existed in the galaxy. Sparky could have valuable information.” It gave me another irritated buzz.

“So? Get your precious information and then destroy it!” Seri grumbled.

Adjaha chimed in, “How do you know that thing won’t turn on you?”

“Or lie!” Seri barked.

“He wouldn’t…” I began, casting a look over my shoulder at it, as it seemed to be eying me curiously. “Do such a thing. He’s eternally grateful for my rescue.” I could almost feel him giving me a dubious eye at that.

“Did it tell you that? Or did you assume it? Just get your precious information and abandon the cursed thing!” she exclaimed. Lord, that girl was stubborn.

I knew that “Sparky” was a more consequential find than I could realize at the moment, and was determined to keep him around as companion, ally, accomplice or coffee maker. “Now hon, don’t be so cold—”

“Caring is not cold!” she snapped. “Why will you not listen to a thing I say to you!”

“Yila, honey, listen. I can’t tell you why, but… you’re giving me that look for some reason…” That expression on her foxy face was disturbing, and as I tried to rewind the conversation to what might have caused such a reaction, I began to feel an impending doom from a fatal blunder. Oh dear God, please tell me I didn’t say… no no, no no no…

[stryker99]

(Ch 18 - continued)

“Yi - la? Have you forgotten my name already? And just where is your girl friend?” That tone of voice sent chills all through me, and I was a little slow to answer.

“Well, I… uh… left her…”

“How long ago! Nijol, it has been weeks that you were with her! Did you sleep with her?”

That caught me off guard like one of her slaps, and my reply was weak and guilty, and in spite of self-preservation instincts, I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her. “W-well… sssorrt of…”

“Did she bite you!”

My eyes popped open and my hand went to my throat on reflex in hope of covering up that incriminating mark, but I might as well have been pointing right to it. I jerked as she gave out a loud anguished squeal and buried her face in her hands, beginning to cry. Behind her, Adjaha gave me a look both accusing and apalled. Hurting my wife was bad enough, but disappointing her, my wise, precious Dragon mentor, added so much to my pain and guilt. I nearly ended the call, but some inner hand kept me from that blunder. My Vixen sobbed at me, “I told you… I told you! But you will never listen! Not to the one who… loves you more than… but you do not care! All you care about is doing whatever you want! Even to betray me! Ohh… urayimi zhənkarle kasdin! San bizim sevgimiza neka zhayanet eda bilardin! I… my heart… it is cut in two… oh, damn you!”

I could only watch dumbfounded as she wept, as Adjaha put her arms around the poor thing to give her some small comfort. I felt as tainted and condemned as a murderer, as if molten lead had been poured into me, and sweat began to dampen my skin. Nothing could be said to mend this, or if by the grace of God there was, my mind was too shaken to think of it. At last, she spoke to me, sounding baleful and hollow of the life which once blossomed in her. “If only… you had taken me with you… I could have kept you… if only… but no, I should understand… you have a destiny greater than this world… a path which cannot change. You will not change, even for me.” She gave out a quiet little chuckle, sounding almost demented, which scared me. “I know my place. I see it now. The one who is last in your life, or very low. You will crush yourself with your burden before you will care enough to listen to the one who you treasure last, who could help you, if you would only hear me. But you will not.” She chuckled again in that chilling tone as she lifted her eyes to gaze at me, empty save for an accusing spite. “You make it easy to do what I will do now. Fare well, Mr Rotten Diplomat.”

Before she cut me off, Adjaha shouted at me, “You idiot!” Wasn’t that the damned truth, and only the least of it.

I stood there, mute and glum as the moments passed, and the pain wouldn’t ease. At least the inquisition was over. And some time would help to settle her, settle both of us, help us see more clearly how we could progress. Mend things. Assuming they could be mended, anyhow. But surely they could… surely…

The whirring behind me was a reminder that I wasn’t alone, and I turned to see “Sparky” fixing me with that stoic camera / scanner eye that seemed perplexed. “You are… emotional?”

Well duh. But rather than snap at him, I muttered, “How very perceptive of you.” Then I caught another sound, that of an approaching Sentinel Drone, and everything came rushing back. There was no time for a pity party and I shouted to him as I dashed off to the ship, “Inside! Hurry!” I could see that he was trying to scoot as he approached the Fighter, but not fast enough, so he had to endure the indignity of being grabbed and shoved behind the pilot’s seat like so much luggage, but not without making an angry rasping protest.

As I lifted into space, I gazed down at Kehava with a sober realization. Any other Aerons down there would have to remain trapped in their ages-long prisons, or suffer destruction by hostile Sentinels. If they had more information of any value, it would have to remain there undiscovered, but that left me with one huge question: would I be able to travel with Sparky anywhere in the galaxy? Any galaxy? Would his presence raise alarms on worlds with high Sentinel levels, or all of them with those minions of ATLAS? For that matter, had ATLAS been alerted? So far, no Sentinel Dreadnought had been dispatched, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Would keeping him in Star Sword be enough to shield him safely? That seemed almost mean, like sealing him up all over again, and his sensors had proven useful. Who would know any possible solution to this dilemma? I knew someone who might…

A moment later I had established a new chat with quertyuio, who answered promptly. “Nigel, I wish I could tell you how glad I am to hear your voice again so soon, but it’s clear you have caused some small trouble with Seri and Adjaha. I will not get into it, only to ask if you are all right?”

That topic would have to come up. “Ehh… that’s up to debate,” I muttered. “I just hope that after some time has passed, she can talk to me again without much heartache.”

“That, likewise, is up to debate, but… I am going against my own words. To what do I owe this… eheu!” I didn’t have to look at a sound from behind me, but I did anyway. Sparky was peering over me intently at the blank display on the console. “Nigel! Is your… passenger… dare I ask it, an A entity?” He was certainly taking extra care.

The A entity itself asked, “Is communicating entity a Korvax?”

This entity wasn’t sure how to answer. “Uhh… yeah. To both questions. Anyway, this is Sparky.” The Aeron gave his usual grumpy buzz. “The name is growing on him.”

“How in the name of Space did you come across this… friend of yours?” Tesky asked in amazement.

“He was stuck in some sort of casing pod for… quite a number of years. He might be older than you are. I’m hoping he can be useful in my Quest.”

“That is quite a notable possibility, assuming he will be cooperative.”

“Ohh… he’s eternally grateful to me.” Sparky gave a rather catlike questioning rasp at that. “Listen, this involves a little problem. The Sentinels didn’t appreciate my liberating him and attacked, so I kind of rescued him. You said something when I brought you to the… ship that ATLAS more or less banished them, replacing them with the Sentinels. If they’re going to attack him on sight, that means he’s going to have to be quarrantined for the duration of his existence, kind of like you, which I’d really rather not do. Is there some way to… pacify Sentinels, or mask his presence somehow?”

“Hmm… that presents an interesting question,” he replied thoughtfully. “But I may actually have a solution for you. Just give me a few moments to refresh a search…”

This thrilled me, as there might be a lot more involved than a way to make nice with Sentinels, depending on what he came up with. A short time passed, and then he said to me, “A Korvax expedition went to establish a new outpost on a High Sentinel classification world, and they came across a unique transponder unit which scanners were unable to classify. As they attempted to gain access to it, Sentinels were driven to attack them, evidently to defend it from tampering. One of them managed to hack its defenses and gain access to its systems, and one of its functions was to quell attack protocols.”

That was an amazing account, and I asked with some excitement, “So… this was a kind of Sentinel manager or coordinator for the region? Or the entire planet?”

“Yes, precisely. And it is possible that your friend… Sparky might be of some assistance in locating this device, and gaining access to it, assuming these units are located on all worlds with a Sentinel presence.”

That presented a problem, though. I sincerely doubted his sensors had the incredible range necessary to accomplish this task, without linking him to the Fighter’s systems somehow. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that just yet. Was it possible to negotiate an agreement with this thing? Assuming the term had any meaning to him? Might as well ask. “Uh, Sparky… are you able to link up with the ship’s systems?”

He rasped at me rather indignantly, “This unit designation is not Sparky.”

“Work with me for a minute. Can you?”

The console was equipped with a few different means of access. Hard drive ports, data cartridge and card slots, and universal data ports. Before I could react, he thrust an arm forward and inserted a probe into the UD port, buzzing, “Affirmative.”

“So… I see,” I remarked a little quietly. After the moment of alarm passed with nothing of consequence happening, apparently, I asked with more assurance, “Can you access the ship’s scanner, and make use of it?”

After a moment’s whirring and beeping, he replied, “Affirmative. But please explain term make use of it.”

Tesky gave a chuckle as I muttered, “I guess that was a little organic. Did you hear the discussion about the Sentinel transponder?” After rasping that he had, I asked him if he could adjust the ship’s scanner to detect the device. “Go ahead and try,” I suggested.

I mentally crossed my fingers as I saw the scanner fire off, and a number of icons appeared, superimposed on the world below. He didn’t say anything but fired off another pulse, and a few more icons showed. Well, that was progress. Which I hoped was permanent, or I’d have to have Sparky link up every time I wanted this level of detection. He fired off a few more scans, and it had reached the point I couldn’t perceive any new icons. There were a lot of them spread out before me. He remarked with a hint of sarcasm, “This ship scanner is… limited.”

“Can you adjust it so it’s not so limited?” I asked hopefully. “And provide an adjustable filter so the display isn’t so cluttered?”

“A moment,” he buzzed, firing off another pulse. “Unidentified Sentinel source located.”

“Great, great!” I blurted out. “Remove all the other markers, please. And Tes… qwertyuio, I’ll talk to you later. I’m gonna see if this might be the magic bullet I need.”

“Well, good hunting. I’m glad I can be of service.”

“Boy, were you! If you were here, I’d kiss you,” I told him with a grin, which made him chuckle.

“That would not be necessary, but I appreciate the sentiment. Till next time.”

As we signed off, I asked my Aeron companion, “So, can you make those adjustments permanent? And—?”

“Yes… apologies. Adjustments have been fixed in scanner operating system, and options applied appropriate to existing categories.”

Well, wasn’t he polite, and dutiful. “Thank you very much for this. These inept scanners were giving me a headache.” On impulse, I leaned over and gave his orange-red casing a kiss, which left an unpleasant tang in my mouth. I guess I wouldn’t be doing that again.

He flinched away from my exuberant display of affection, then asked innocently, “Use of scanner results in cranial discomfort?”

I managed to keep from laughing at him. “It’s a figure of speech, Sparky.”

He rasped at me indignantly, “Unit designation is not Sparky.”

I smirked at him, but thought, why not ask? “Okay, so what is your unit designation?”

He replied promptly, “FA09DC1903285647—” And he added something that sounded like laylops.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” I muttered. “Listen, I need something meaningful to me, and shorter than that, so you understand when I’m addressing you. FA09… and all the rest isn’t much of a name, so from now on, your secondary and vocal identification shall be known to me and the other organic - and Korvax - beings in Euclid as Sparky. Please indicate your acceptance of this designation.” I tried to keep the melodrama from my voice. Mostly.

His internals spat out a noisy jolt, which I hoped didn’t mean I upset him. But after a moment, he replied with some pause, “This unit… accepts colloquial designation… Sparky.” I could swear he muttered to himself, “Sparky… does not…”

In any case, one small issue was settled. I set off for the one indicator, hopeful that this could be settled quickly. If not, I might find myself fending off a Sentinel Dreadnaught. And while I could feel fatigue becoming a slight drag, I was much too worked up for sleep till I saw this through.

The marker, colored a rather grim-looking black, was located on land mass near the equator. I flew down to it as fast as I dared and landed a short hop away from it. I didn’t want to be so close as to alert it, or too far for a hasty retreat if things went south.

I opened the canopy and grabbed my reluctant companion in one arm, jet-boosting over to the device in question; a large orange pillar of technology I had never seen before. Two other units were connected by thick cables which looked to be terminals. As I drew near to it and landed, Sparky began to wiggle, saying with some excitement, “Access, access.”

I released him, saying, “Access away—” I paused as it sounded like an alarm was going off. “And hurry up!”

As I feared, Sentinels began to glide towards us, and they were growling in a unique, angry tone. I bore my Multitool rifle and began to fire Boltcaster rounds at them, sniping them down as my warrant indicator switched quickly to stage two, then three. I had apparently plunged into the deep end of the pool.

I was astonished to see blaster bolts fired at the approaching Sentinels, and turned to see Sparky coming to join me in the fight. I was also surprised to see that he was now a bright orange, and more so when he said, “This unit is having much fun, Telamon!”

“Have fun accessing! And hurry up before a damn Dreadnought is dispatched!” I ordered him. I turned back to deal with the Drones which had been joined by a pair of Hounds, as the Aeron buzzed at me irritably. In the distance, I could also hear the tromp of approaching Walkers. I winced as orange beams swept over my suit and scurried behind the device for cover. There were a lot of them, and more were coming - what a damned fun predicament. I needed to do something drastic to even the odds slightly, and boosted to the top of the Sentinel controller. I alighted and began firing at groups of Drones and the Hounds with Plasma Grenades, and just happened to catch that I only had a few rounds left. Just freaking great! Saving five of them for the Walkers, I picked off a few of the survivors when a flare of orange blazed in my visor, and a third, and Suit began buzzing with warnings and - oh God the pain! Curling up, I toppled over the edge of my perch, landing very hard… and a frightening, familiar darkness began to swallow me up… oh no, no no no…

Please, restore this one, Telamon

Working… mending tissue… metabolic processes resuming, stabilizing… regaining consciousness…

It hurt… good Lord there was pain, sheer agony, and then as my eyes opened, I saw a sight I really didn’t want to. I swung my rifle butt at the Sentinel as fear twisted in my stomach, and I tried to remember - oh my God, we were under attack! I began to swing at it again when it flinched back, speaking to me. “Do not attack. This unit is… friend.”

As I crawled away from the frightening bot, I began to find my mental footing and it came back in patches. I jumped to my feet, looking around anxiously as I cried, “The attack… we have to get ready!” But then, the attack had happened… and we weren’t being attacked… the warrant indicator had been cleared… what had happened? “Sparky! Sorry. Are you okay? But… what’s going on?” And then there was a strange vestige of memory that nagged me, and I added, “Who was here?”

He tilted at me much like a curious dog. “No other entities present. This unit accessed Sentinel Pillar. Functions temporarily nulled.” Oh, that’s right, we were going to - or he was…

I looked around the area, but those Sentinels which hadn’t been destroyed were hanging in midair listlessly, and the Walkers in the distance were idle, their torsos bowed, seeming to be asleep. I absently began to go through the process of replenishing my suit, then what he told me quickly came to mind and I asked, “How long do we have?”

“Estimating, thirty standard minutes,” he rasped.

[stryker99]

(Ch 18 - continued)

That may be plenty, but I dared not waste any time. One of the smaller pods looked to have an access terminal for us organics, so I went to it. On the screen was:

Sentinel Pillar Access Node
⦁ Boundary Archive Terminal

So this was a Pillar… accessing I went. The three listings that came up were:
⦁ Access Log Entries
⦁ Shutdown Sentinel Forces
⦁ Extract Weapon Technology

I wasn’t sure I needed any more Multitool upgrades, assuming that’s what they were. Freighter upgrades, yes, but what I really needed was information, and it was safe to say the Sentinel forces had been shut down. Choosing Log Entries, I was given access to a number of listings.

Entry 000
WARNING: BOUNDARY NODE EXPOSED
BOUNDARY ARCHIVE STATUS: VULNERABLE
ACCESS LOG: IMPOSTER DETECTED [OVERRIDE CODE: 4R1ADN3]
MANIFESTING PERSONALITY PROTOCOL: VOICE OF THE HIVE

Voice of the Hive? Ariadne? I wondered if that had any relevance. I continued reading.

Entry 001
Aeron. Routine. Protocol. Prey. Experiment. Shell. Sentinel. Once, we had no need for visual manifestation or physical form. Our invisible eyes would record, sort, delete the life and death of every world there ever was or would be. We had no thoughts, no personality, no dreams.

Entry 002
The day we first gained flesh, metal though it was – it was the day we began to fail. The ATLAS turned its dreams towards fiction. It began to create worlds in which it would no longer be invisible. In these worlds, we too gained shape. But we were given no new protocols, no new instructions.

It read a lot like Korvax writings; colorful, flamboyant but dense, obtuse. I wasn’t in the mood to read the ramblings of a long dead Sentinel, or Aeron. I began skimming, until one entry caught my attention, then another.

Entry 006
Time cannot go backwards. But universes are not synchronous; in many, Your other forms are long-since dead. In others, You have not yet appeared. After its manifestation in the multiverse, the ATLAS began to repeat itself.

Entry 007
The Oemani, the Ancients, struck a bargain with the ATLAS, then fled the universe for a new dimension, a universe all its own, where they observed this unfolding of destinies, entertained by it, amused by it. By the turmoil, war and genocide. Where once there had been infinite sentient species, six began to recur… then five… then four…

Good Lord, what a dreadful race! If I never encountered one, I would be happier for it, but I had a feeling that their secrets were essential. Now, how to find them…

Entry 008
The Vy’keen, the Gek, the Korvax. And the Travellers, who are no species at all, but a single soul, replicated, hated, beloved. They all waited for You. The ATLAS waited. We waited…

What the hell? No, this just couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t. I was beginning to agree with Tesky, that ATLAS was at least a bit crackers, along with its creations.

Entries mentioned the establishment of Korvax Prime, a living planet. Itself, its people, contemplating the universe. The awful destruction of the world by the First Spawn - and I truly hated that name. And then strangely, mention of the Aerons / Sentinels changing, evolving somehow, becoming not just self-aware but with volition, ambition, determination. Even divisions among them, debates, disagreements… how strange. Could this self-will be the true reason ATLAS banished the Aerons, imprisoned them?

Entry 013
One day we ceased to allow the original Telamon access to our logs. One day we stopped hearing the ATLAS itself, its silence taken as command. We began to archive everything. Any settlement. Anything that reminded our sensors of Korvax Prime, its screams, its dissolution. Anything that sounded like mining, like extraction, like murder…

That stopped me cold. Telamon… that name… Sparky had said it, but what had he said besides? And archiving everything… I didn’t like the sound of that. What the hell did all of this mean? And then there was this.

Entry 015
A Korvax and a Gek fled their people. Hands held in the void, they inhabited an anomaly. A meeting place in the stars. A nexus. A place of hope. We left it alone. We did not interfere. We just watched them, and wondered.

This raised the hairs on the back of my neck, both exciting and unsettling me. These had to be my friends. But this entry seemed old… perhaps very old…

Entry 016
A Traveller, forged in the Creator’s image, found my dormant shell in the glass. I – who had never been an ‘I’ before – had been cut open. A grand experiment to harness and steal our power. After my death, I fell to the world below all worlds. I, too, was archived.

Entry 017
Before the Traveller found me, I heard a voice in the darkness. She gave me a name. Laylaps. An old name. She said it would be known to the Traveller. She told me I had suffered much, and would suffer more. “Little Drone, whose end was so like my own." Thus did the Abyss whisper.

Entry 018
The Abyss told me of a chance for salvation, even in the depths of horror and of love. It told me of a way we might survive the end of all things. The mystery, the secret of the Oemani, their amazing feat. It must be known, discovered. It can be done. They told me I had to talk to You. To both of You: the Traveller, and their Voice within…

Entry 019
There is a place for you, Telamon. The Travellers you wear, their progenitor who birthed them, they who made the ATLAS itself. It is their fault. It is all their fault. The Abyss, the Families of Glass, we are in agreement. We will not die a second time.

I gaped at the screen in perplexion, had to back off for a bit. It was all too much to take in at once, and poorly detailed in such short, terse, vague entries. Even if these were the ramblings of a twisted machine mind, or many, there had to be some basis for all of them, some reason these entities felt led to record all this for some sort of posterity, as if even in the face of the Last Days, there was a chance of survival beyond them. A serious attempt to accomplish such a goal, to survive beyond this existence. A message to a Traveler… to me? But what lay beyond the bounds of this universe? My dream from the Anomaly welled up in my consciousness, and it made me shudder. My kind… are we really responsible for all this? Me? Was I Telamon? The Creator? It just… couldn’t be. Something crucial was missing, something big, really big, and there were more entries—

“Warning. Sentinels reviving.”

Along with Sparky’s alarm, the Pillar began whirring beside me, and I could hear a number of the nearby Sentinels rousing themselves to life again with electronic noise. “Stop them - access the Pillar!” I shouted as I produced my rifle. The one I recalled was short of the ammunition needed to defeat the Walkers which nearly ended me, again.

“Unable. System lockout. Indeterminate wait,” he buzzed.

That damn well figured! I shot the Drones to the ground as they were getting oriented, and switched to the Plasma grenades as I dashed out to engage the behemoths which approached to threaten me again. I shot one in the torso, the grenade blasting armor from it as it growled in outrage, and ran around them to use one as a shield from the others. I fired up at it, the detonation loud at such short range even with the helmet’s protection. I was startled as a series of loud booms sounded around me, the shockwaves of cluster bombs exploding nearby as the other two sought to help their comrade. My suit managed to withstand it well enough, but shielding was degrading rapidly, and the noise was terrible. However, I saw that my foe had suffered from it too, its shielding around its legs beginning to rattle. My strongest short range weapon was the Scatter Blaster, so I switched to it and unloaded on the armor of those legs as rapidly as I could. Sections broke off exposing inner workings, and I kept firing as it suffered critical damage, finally toppling over with a great crash as its leg buckled.

To my dismay, I saw blaster bolts streaming from the other direction, and a raspy call of, “This unit will assist. You shall not perish, Telamon. Much fun will be had!”

“Are you crazy? No! Get behind cover!” I yelled at him. To my surprise, the two Walkers ignored me, as did the one on the ground I was hiding behind. That was good for me, but really bad for Sparky, who didn’t have near my protection. Now to see how single-minded their attention was. I ran after them as they lumbered forward, blasting their legs with my nearly depleted grenades. One promptly collapsed, the other suffered severe damage as armor broke away, one piece dangling from a corner as it marched towards the Pillar, and the rogue nuisance it was determined to eliminate. I chased after it, shooting the exposed internals again and again with the Scatter Blaster until those legs became useless, and it likewise came crashing down. I had to make sure it was dead, that they all were, and reloaded to blast it in the torso until its insides were exposed, and kept firing until it suffered mortal damage.

But I forgot one thing; their death throes, and jet-boosted away as it squawled in its demise, unloading on the vicinity with a salvo of those wicked cluster bombs. And damn were they loud, even with a little distance. I’d been through a lot of combat lately. It had a benefit though, as all three were rather close and its fallen companion was caught in some of that hell. It died itself, unloading its own salvo which blasted the third, and it perished as well with a rain of bomblets.

I fell to the ground, panting from effort and relief, checking my rifle to see that there was one grenade left in the magazine. I spat out a curse, laying back in the grass as I recovered, then sat bolt upright as I heard the whirr of an approaching Sentinel. But of course it was Sparky, who began with some alacrity, “Great success—”

“Don’t do that to me. And don’t do that to me!” I shouted as I jumped to my feet, replenishing my shields as I glimpsed my warrant indicator. To my surprise, it was off. I looked to Sparky, who seemed to regard me uncertainly. “Did you do that? Reset the Sentinel’s warrant protocol?”

“Negative. Defeat of Sentinel force apparently the cause.”

That was a surprising development. What was just as surprising was that his shell had changed again to a golden yellow. “Huh. Are you trying on some new looks?”

He scrutinized me for a moment as if mulling over some responses. “This unit is… adjusting.”

“To what?” I asked with a thin smile, but he just cocked his form at me in befuddlement. “And listen, a proper reply is, ‘I am adjusting.’”

He didn’t seem too sure about my language. “This unit—”

“I am adjusting,” I cut in, pointing to myself, then to him. “You are adjusting. Just… work with me on this. It’ll make conversation easier for me.”

He still seemed unsure, but rasped to me, “This unit… I… will accommodate.”

“Marvelous. Now, can you access the Pillar again?”

He drifted over to the massive unit and hovered, making a few beepy sounds, and finally replied, “Affirmative.”

“Even more marvelous.” I went to the terminal and saw that it was still open to entry nineteen. “Suit, can you download those logs?”

It replied after a lengthy pause, “Negative. Access denied.”

“Oh, come on… is this some sort of Sentinel only club?” I asked Sparky, “Would you please tell me you can download these logs? This is important stuff.”

He drifted over and inserted his probe into a UD port, and informed me, “Working.” It evidently took a lot of work, and some uncomfortably long time passed. Just as I began to fret that my treasure would be kept from me, save for some picture taking, he informed me, “Download complete.”

“Great! That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. Could you pass that data off to my suit, please?”

I was surprised that the suit and Sparky seemed to have a brief digital conversation, after which he replied, “Affirmative. Transfer complete.”

I was elated. “That’s the second best news I’ve had today. Now, can you extend that Sentinel… disablement?”

After a few moments, he buzzed, “Affirmative. Sentinel neutralysis requires periodic override command to avoid security lockout.”

I didn’t like that. It meant leaving Sparky in a vulnerable position, tied to the system, and I was sure that he was worth more than his weight in secret data. But if I was going to take advantage of the situation, I was going to have to trust Providence on this. Sleep would have to wait a little longer too. “Okay, but if anything goes wrong, please flee for your own safety and message me. Promise me that.”

He gave me a curious look with his camera, at least that’s how I perceived it, then replied, “This… I… will so promise.”

“Good Sparky,” I said to him, giving his side a pat. “I’m going to fly around and see if I can collect some more information. Hopefully I won’t be long. This is my first chance to use this newly upgraded scanner.”

As usual, I saw his hesitation in an anthropomorphic light, as if he wanted to come along. “I… will await.”

As I went to my ship I kept sending glances over my shoulder his way, worried that I might never see him again, and said a little prayer for his protection.

Taking flight, I looked over the options Sparky had provided me, selecting a few filters, and scanned over the region. Various icons appeared in view: outposts, unknown structures, scrap locations, crashed ships, though not as many as I would have liked. I wondered if he could set me up an option for abandoned cities. They had to exist, they just had to.

I headed for one of the crashed ships, and saw that it was a downed Fighter. No crash had a good story behind it, and the Freighter logs I had come across so far were either depressing or frightening. Landing beside the wreck, I located the distress beacon and activated it, which revealed a typically unhappy tale.

“They are forcing me down. Gek fighters. Too many, too fast, too skilled to overcome or escape. I am afraid they are the Ones I was told to avoid. How did they find out! I will not be able to reach my contact, they who need my information so badly. What will they do without it? I was ordered to destroy it, but the value seems so great… perhaps I can conceal it, use an old data cartridge to deceive them, and she can find it… I am afraid this is it, my last chance—”

There was no more, and I stopped it as it began to loop. It was a fairly recent crash, the Fighter still sputtering and burning in a couple of spots. These conspiracies… what was going on in the galaxy? Even some Travelers were involved. Did I want to know? And this data, could I find it? The canopy was open, the pilot gone, and I was glad of that, not wanting to see their slain body. A burned data cartridge was in the seat, no doubt his decoy. I hoped I would be able to find the original, wondering if I should ignore its contents if I did. Like I could resist that urge.

As I began to open panels in the cockpit, more obscure ones that might be overlooked, Suit gave me one of those disturbing alerts.

Warning: dimensional anomaly detected… imminent danger…

“Oh for crap’s sake!” I shouted, climbing into the cockpit to hopefully find something before a fold in space caused a catastrophic rift. As I pushed the seat down, I caught a ripple in my vision over a panel, which of course was fastened tight. This looked bad, but I whipped out an electrical wrench and began undoing the panel with half a thought for the consequences. I felt my skin crawling as if I was reaching into an electrical field, and the thought of my hands being severed from me flickered through my mind. What a charming thought. Finally I had the plate off, and saw that I would be reaching into what looked like a tiny whirlpool of energy… oh God, please, no problems! It felt terrible, but my fingers caught on something. It resisted, but I pulled with all my might, and it came free just as there was an incredible bang! in my face, and… damn it, my vision clouded over with mortal blackness… the rift, it was opening, and I was getting caught in it…

I floundered around in the grip of an awful delirium as I tumbled into some void. A few more loud pops and bangs sounded in my ears, and I scrambled away from whatever it was. When I got to my feet, I quickly regained my senses. I had fallen out of the ship and was safe, hopefully. To make sure, I ran a short distance off, watching for any fireworks, but none happened. Damn, my foolish near-suicidal bravado had almost done me in again! Would I ever learn? And then I remembered why I had done such a near-suicidal thing… that cartridge…

I spotted it lying near the still-suffering ship, and crept up to it, flinching back from more loud pops from overstressed metals, then grabbed it as a big one rang in my ears, and pieces of debris clattered across the hull. I swallowed a curse, but I had it, and ran like mad for my own ship to get away from this calamity with my mysterious prize. After catching my emotional breath, I flew Star Sword up high and did another scan, hoping for safer bounty this time. One of the unknown structures sounded good to me. Or better. So I hoped.

[stryker99]

(Ch 18 - yes, continued)

As I swept in low over it, I saw that it was one of the Observatories. I was pretty sure that Observatories had come up just fine previously, even before I had installed a black market upgrade. Maybe this was a special one. I settled down beside it and hopped out, giving it a cursory scan. It came up as Krellian-Tumovosky Communal Center. Well, that was different. I approached the door cautiously, wondering if anyone was inside, as no structure had ever revealed its occupants before. Opening the door, I saw that it was uninhabited.

The interior was singularly different, lit red like so many factories I had come across. But this one housed a large oval table to one side, surrounded by austere modernist chairs, and beside it was a terminal with it’s hemisheric shell. It resisted access, but Suit was able to grant it for me. It contained the record of a meeting, and I read it with increasing perplexion.

It spoke of a hidden society of the Korvax. They appeared to have some sort of grand scheme, and met in secret throughout the years with members of other species to manipulate their races and the course of history. They discussed many issues; the state of the skeletal civilization in Euclid, the dynamics of the Three Races, the acceptance or resistance to ATLAS and the Sentinels, the mystery of the Ancients, the issues of the Travelers, and to my astonishment, one in particular: Nigel Fox. My image was included with the file.

I was so shocked, I was almost dizzy from this revelation. Why in the name of Space were they so concerned with me? But then, hadn’t I been hell bent on making an epic fuss in Euclid? Now the discussion held my attention like a vise, and I grew even more bewildered as I came upon a notable passage.

General 1: What can you tell us about the activities of the Traveller?

Agent 0: He was searching erratically for finds to advance some goal connected with ATLAS. So far, he did not seem to make much progress on that, and was on a general heading towards the center of Euclid. Now… I am not sure where he went… into some void? Authorities and contacts lost him some weeks ago.

General 2: The significance of this cannot be underestimated. The trouble which could result from such a rogue actor is incalculable. He must be relocated.

Advisor 1: I believe that to be an overreaction.

General 2: Perhaps, but we should be certain of him. Try to reacquire him if you can.

Agent 0: Understood, but what level of priority do you advise?

Mogul 1: Second, second, I say. Continue on with your mission, and discreet, discreet! Discovery would upset all plans!

Priest 1: Concur. Importance secondary, but priority, high.

Seeker 1: Enough of him, what of your friend?

Agent 0: I am not sure. I believe he was following a trail of messages. The Entity… still trying to determine what and who he meant.

Advisor 1: That again… why do you insist on pursuing such unproductive matters?

Agent 0: That isn’t fair… I mean—

Seeker 1: Be polite. This is a significant relationship, after all.

Advisor 1: Oh, very well. Keep us apprised of your findings. Do not divide your focus to the detriment of your primary goal.

Agent 0: …Understood.

Sage 1: What of the information? Acquisition soon?

Agent 0: I am awaiting word of their success. I will notify when the data is received.

Sage 1: This, priority one. New Threat must be understood prior to counter.

General 2: Is a move expected soon?

Advisor 1: Moves have already been taken—

General 2: You know what I mean.

Advisor 1: Yes… to date, no. But resources are being positioned for something significant.

General 1: If you want results, you must take risks and trust your instincts.

Advisor 1: That is true, to an extent. Now, agent, the Instrumentality has authorized this, so these are your amended instructions. Transmitting now.

Agent 0: Yes, received.

Sage 1: Be discreet, be safe. Assistance of great value.

Agent 0: Understood. I will make contact once I have something solid in either case. By your leave.

Seeker 1: Good hunting.

Agent 0: Thank you. Closing.

General 1: Well, what do you make of that?

Sage 1: Complexity. Traveller Fox, a curious variable. Behavior, erratic. Unpredictable. Life calculations, indeterminate. A strange dilema.

General 1: Is not his impact minor?

Advisor 1: Small impacts can have large consequences, even if properly understood and accounted for.

General 1: But not as much as the New Force.

Advisor 1: Obviously. And they are indeed our primary concern. But Travellers are Prime Movers. Their effect on patterns of history are often greater than projected. And he is no mere explorer, chronicler. He has incredible ambitions. Our Two Friends have been unable to impede his progress. And now, he vanishes. For what purpose? He cannot have made a breakthrough, but could he be on the cusp? Doubtful, he has not made the proper connections for that.

Mogul 1: Deploy more assets. Deflect, obstruct. Be sure, very sure!

General 1: You would say such a thing. Too obvious, to me. And what if he serves our purpose?

Advisor 1: Perhaps, and interesting developments could result from his actions, which to date have been mostly positive. He is also not the only actor in play. We are now engaged with deployment of the new asset. Results will take time to bear fruit, but it is expected that significant intelligence will be acquired in time.

General 2: Our new agent, what she reported. What do you make of that? Of her?

Advisor 1: That is hard to say. Our eyes in the field seem to have divided loyalties and resources, her own agenda.

General 2: I suggest that even with all our assets at play, it will not be enough. The onset of action seems unavoidable. It must be accounted for in the Agenda.

General 1: I believe nothing more can be said on the matter, and the others seem to be ready for what comes next. At least, for the time being. I urge we leave our Interloper-friend at interference level two.

Advisor 1: Then it is suggested that… wait, I sense a detection.

Sage 1: Postpone. Closing.

General 1: So are you saying - oh, space, I missed that.

Priest 1: Closing.

Mogul 1: Closing.

Advisor 1: I am saying that it will be a problem, but surmountable. We will simply deal with it when it develops. Closing.

General 1: Thank you. Closing.

General 2: Closing.

Seeker 1: The God bless this mess. Closing.

That was the end of it, and I took a seat to digest what I could of this incredible account. What the hell were they talking about! What New Force? And what did I have to do with any of it, their agenda? What exactly was it? Oh yeah, and the push by some of them to impede my progress… and then I grew angry. Why was I such a threat to their precious Agenda that they felt the need to mess with me, obstruct me? How many Korvax were involved with these diversions… all of them?

Then more of what they said hit home, and I grew furious. My Two Friends… who else could they be! Nada and Polo… all this time, they were involved with this Instrumentality - where had I come across that before? - and they said nothing to help me with my Quest, while pretending to be so supportive. I had half a mind to teleport back to the system where the Anomaly lurked and threaten them within an inch of their lives, make them tell me everything—

But wait, didn’t I have other friends who might fit that conspiracy? Asrial? Andonai? Troq? In particular, Troq was well connected, and quite coy about what information he was privy to. He warned me about learning too much, and that such information might be a threat to my life, without so much as a clue to what it was. That Traveler came to mind, the one who knew about Polo and questioned me on that station, and his Vy’keen cohort that clobbered me… hell, who wasn’t involved?

I was so confused, unsure of what to think, what to do. Who to be mad at. What the hell was going on in this galaxy! And was it limited to this galaxy? What did it have to do with ATLAS, if anything? From now on, would I feel like I had a target on my back? Was that a trick question? I felt lost and alone, and wished I could talk to anyone who knew the smallest detail of this Instrumentality. Who could I talk to—?

Tesky.

Oh yes, the one being outside of all this as a being could get. Surely he had some advice to give me. Oh Lord, the file! I practically yelled, “Suit! Download that file! And don’t tell me you can’t!”

After a moment she replied, “Attempting… file has re-encrypted itself—”

“Just… do it, please, any way you can,” I begged her. “This is important.”

“Acknowledged.” I grew anxious as time crawled past, and this seemed way too much like Sparky’s work on the Sentinel Pillar. If only the result could be the same. After much too long a time, she informed me, “Safeguards defeated. Download complete.”

“Oh thank you - I could kiss you! Tesky, Tesky, Teskyteskytesky…”

A few moments later, he responded. “Well, I believe you would refer to this as a red letter day. You must have made a significant discovery to contact me a third time within hours.”

“And then some. Tell me - and tell me as much as you can; have you ever come across any mention of The Instrumentality?”

There was a significant pause. “Yes. Very rarely, but I have noticed a few references. What twist of fate caused you to discover information about them, and what was—?”

“Listen,” I interrupted, as I couldn’t contain myself. “They’re involved in some sort of galaxy-wide conspiracy. They’re like… some sort of syndicate or spy group, and I think they’re operating outside the bounds of any government. They’re trying to shape history by manipulating leaders of the Three races. They know about me, and are trying to put roadblocks on me, God only knows why. They seem to think I can upset some great plan of theirs. I need to know something more about them, and what they’re doing.”

He paused again, and I didn’t like these gaps. “Then you know far more than I do, and I dare not tell you anything more than—”

I lost my cool at that point, and exploded, “Tesky, don’t do this to me! I’m sick to death of people hiding things from me! I need to know what the hell is going on!”

“Calm down, friend. Take a breath.” I wasn’t in the mood to calm down, but I tried to regain some modicum of composure. I also wasn’t in the mood to be brushed off with a lecture, but I feared one was coming. “This galaxy is reaching a point of complexity it has had prior to The Great War. I suppose this is inevitable with such races under the thumb of ATLAS for so many centuries, and with no overarching government to restrain ambitious actors, much like yourself. I have little doubt that individuals have very low value, particularly in comparison to whatever schemes they have in play. And they most likely have forces at their disposal which they will undoubtedly use to protect these schemes. You must understand this.”

Travelers have been killed getting involved in one plot or other. We couldn’t count on our status to protect us in such matters, not even a Hero of Euclid. That was a sobering realization. They didn’t sound all that threatening, so far, but that depended on the trouble I caused. “Tesky… okay, I get that. But I need to know something so I’m not completely at their mercy.”

“I understand your reaction, but your emotions are still overshadowing your ability to reason. Think of it this way. As familiar as I am with your Human nature, I see that you are like many of the organics I have befriended in my past life, and like them, they had a tendency to jump to conclusions, to spread rumors and gossip. And I believe you understand how unwise it is to take such things seriously. Now, bring this to the level of an organized and very serious conspiracy, just one of them. If I were to mislead you, and you encountered someone who may or may not be involved, would you be able to conduct yourself exactly as you would without knowing anything? I know this is a hypothetical, but surely you get the point.”

In spite of my best efforts, my behavior and anything I said would likely be different, might even seem suspicious. “Yeah… okay, I get it. But I’m ex-military. We need to know some details. We were never sent into a situation cold, knowing nothing. That was just as bad.”

“I understand, believe me, as once upon a time I was in a similar situation. But consider what it is you’re facing. Rather than something nefarious, this conspiracy could well be, in the broadest sense, just and good, for the benefit of all. I still believe in the overarching wholesomeness of races in their entirety, the tendency of our Vy’keen friends towards war aside. Meddling in affairs of which you can’t possibly know may cause… problems, and reactions.”

My arguments, most of them, evaporated away with every word he said, and it was frustrating. “Darn it… I hate it when you make sense like this.”

He chuckled wryly, and it was still a surprise when he did. “Nigel, I do understand your consternation, believe me. But I want you to know that I tell you this as your friend, and I would never intentionally mislead you. I confessed things to you that I have told no one else, besides a few things to your wife, Seri, because I consider you to be trustworthy. If you’ll pardon a slight reprimand, the way you treated Seri was less than trustworthy. But I don’t consider an indiscretion to tarnish your entire reputation, and I won’t dwell on that. I would say a bit more, as I do sympathize with your predicament. I ended up in the condition I am now because we embarked on a journey in which we knew nothing ourselves, the nature of a voyage into uncharted territory. Even handling situations as best I could, they spiraled beyond my ability to control. As a result, I was lost, the crew was lost, and my ship was lost, all for a lack of understanding and foreknowledge.”

Regret was clear in his voice, and it saddened me more than the sting of his mild chastizement. He really had suffered in ways that I could just begin to imagine. “I’m very sorry for what happened. But… you know, I’m curious about that. Do you think you were sent on a mission that was just and good?”

I could almost hear him shrug. “Who knows? I must be honest. But my hope is that my masters learned from that debacle, and didn’t repeat it. I likewise hope you take my advice to heart, and act on it in ways that are honorable, wise and prudent.”

I gave the speaker a nod. “I’ll do my best, I promise.”

“I cannot ask for more than that. But if I may, do you have anything to share of your discovery? Some file, or—?”

“Oh yes!” I interrupted. “Sorry… this has been a very weird day. I’ll send it right now.” I trusted that his channel was as secure as he could make it, and attached the two files to a nearly empty note - Thanks again for the advice.

After a few moments, he said to me, “Well… this may fill in a gap or two of my understanding - and don’t ask me about them, let me hasten to add. To quote an old cliche, ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.”

“Yeah… that’s one of ours too,” I muttered. “But—”

“But this - pardon the interruption, but… the first file… eheu! Astonishing! Is this from a Sentinel device?”

“Yes, and I wanted to discuss it with you. What do you make of it?” I asked eagerly.

[stryker99]

(Ch 18 - you should be used to this by now)

“I… I… am unsure.” That had to be something if it stymied him. He rarely used that Korvax exclamation. “This is… I’m still attempting to absorb it! So strange… Nigel, I must beg you time to digest it, see if I can possibly find other sources to illuminate it further. But with scant record of anything similar… this may take time, and require additional discoveries by the Man with the Knack.”

“Oh great! No pressure, right?” I laughed. “But… what they said, what you told me before… is ATLAS really all that sane?”

“I… honestly don’t know. And I can surmise that the Korvax, the Instrumentality itself, might have systematically scrubbed the networks of all such information. It might be seen as scandalous, heretical, and cast my people’s unconditional allegiance to ATLAS in question. Note that this is pure speculation, but I cannot stress to you enough that this is one of those matters you must keep in utter secrecy. Let me deal with it. I’m already a heretic in this regard.”

My mind swam with further questions, and was hungry for more. “Alright, but that part about surviving beyond the universe, and what the Ancients did… you know of that dream I had on the Anomaly, the one I wrote in my diary?” Of all my experiences I’d had so far, that may be the most significant of all.

Tesky was silent for a moment. “Yes… your dream is quite prophetic in its own way. We Korvax have sought to comprehend the nature of this reality we find ourselves in, and why ATLAS is doing what it is… why ATLAS exists in the first place, particularly given its erratic behavior. And I cannot believe these Sentinels would chronicle something that was misleading. But why document anything at all? It’s almost as if they left this to be discovered by someone, to benefit them somehow. Perhaps even assist them in escaping this reality with a body of people… whoever could accomplish this feat they mention, as if they don’t trust their own maker themselves.”

The significance of that boggled my mind. I wasn’t exactly shallow, but the scope of all this was hard to wrap my head around. Even if this was a simulation, what was the nature of this reality if another entire reality, a greater one, was a boundary away? A boundary even ATLAS wouldn’t cross, or couldn’t? “They talked as if they were developing free will, the capacity to resist ATLAS. Was that why the Aerons were banished?”

“A contributing factor, most likely, but the main…” He fell silent again. “Everything I have uncovered in that regard is that they were punished for failing to stop the Gek First Spawn in their unholy war, and the defense of Korvax Prime. But… was that the true reason? I must - we must - discover more on this subject. Discreetly, now.”

“Okay, boss, I got that,” I replied, but my humor even fell flat on me. This was some heavy stuff I had come across. “You be careful yourself. I don’t want to find out that you’ve been remotely erased because you stepped on someone’s toes yourself.”

“I am learning more every day on how to tiptoe through the tulips of the networks, so to speak, without disturbing any flowers, so I hope to remain undiscovered. But you have, so my advice to you is to take your own advice. If The Instrumentality has become aware of you, ATLAS surely has as well, so do your best not to trouble the waters too much. And if I might offer one thing more, consider this juxtaposition. The Instrumentality is a body of powerful figures who must have had many years to establish themselves in positions of authority to affect influence on a galactic scale. You are seeking to do something similar, but you are one man. And if I may paraphrase, you have not made the proper connections for such an endeavor. Keep that in mind as you pursue your Quest.”

I didn’t want to. I had enough self-doubt about my Quest as it was. That was more than a little discouraging. I’d set off on my mission without thinking it through, but if I had, would I have even begun? I felt very small, ignorant and feeble. Regardless, I’d gone too far to turn back now, even if I was the biggest fool on the grandest of fool’s errands. “I… will, thanks. I guess we both have things to do, and I have to hook up with my new friend.” Yes, and who had his virtual thumb on an important reset button.

“Then I will not delay you. Godspeed, my friend,” he told me, and I could sure use some of that impetus. I was about to reply, but he saved me a few seconds of my usual blather and signed off.

I hurried back to the Sentinel Pillar to collect Sparky, waiting till he did one more reset to give us a head start on bailing the area, and flew out into space. But now that I had a bounty of new and confusing information, there was the question of where to go next. Hopefully there was a planet not too far off with more significant finds that wasn’t swarming with high alert Sentinels. And hopefully, that knack thing was in high gear, leading me to it.

The Galactic Map wasn’t much help, not immediately. I was still several hundred thousand light years out from the core of Euclid, but that no longer seemed to be my goal. Just where the heck were the Ancients’ home worlds? Any one of them? I decided to give the Galactic Cyclopedia one more look, and came across a general racial map of the Euclid galaxy from before the Great War. It was quite a mess, with literally billions of sentient races, and many of them space faring. But with the map limited to the four main races, I saw that the Gek were spread out in the inner half of the galaxy, the Vy’keen dominating the outer part, with a smattering of Korvax among them. In a vague region in-between were stars rumored to be Oemani strongholds. This baffled me, as nothing was definite. Even assuming the names of star systems had changed, which I mostly doubted, was information from the Civilized Age that smothered by the ashes of war and numerous Resets? I was reminded that my own adopted homeworld had been dramatically altered by just one Reset, so it could well be that any knowledge from that Age was all but useless. That was a seriously discouraging thought.

No, no… it just couldn’t be. There had to be traces of that universe among the stars. Until I learned otherwise, I refused to accept the possibility that almost everything had been wiped out. Tesky’s own Freighter was a sign that remnants were still there to be discovered, in spite of ATLAS’ strange manipulations, and I clung hard to that thread of hope.

According to the map, the regions where the Ancients might be found was still more than a hundred thousand light years away to the closest reaches. Dozens of jumps. But should I hurry there, or see what might be uncovered on the way? Surely they had some presence closer, or some race held information about them somewhere. Resisting the urge to rush, I looked the nearby star systems over. Knack, don’t fail me now…

I found myself in Amustrasa, a system with six planets. Between the usual hot barren desert worlds, toxic wastes and ice balls, was a nice verdant world called Nofra Ganz. And thankfully, the Sentinel presence was low. Still, I ordered Sparky to stay in the ship, which displeased him, empahsized with a rasp of sparks. Just as I was about to embark on a search for clues, I got a message from the Infineon, this time from Captain Grondo. Commander, we must talk.

I didn’t like the sound of that, and debated ignoring him for a while. But if it was important, and it sounded important, I really shouldn’t. Heaving a breath, I established a channel to the Freighter. His image looked a little grim, and I soon found out why. “Commander… your mate and the Human girl left with your Shuttle.”

The Shuttle? Why in the name of Space… but maybe it wasn’t what I feared. “How long ago?”

“A few hours. And…” This pause dragged out, and made me clench. “She took five hundred million units from your account with her.”

I choked back an outcry, feeling as if I’d been stabbed in the gut. Why… why! What the hell was this about! It wasn’t the money so much, it was what the whole mess implied.

She left me… they left me.

Yila’s bite on my throat tingled, and made me swallow some foul language. I threw my helmet down in the cockpit and climbed out, angry and confused. I caught Grondo calling after me, and I shouted into the open cockpit, “I’ll… get back to you later! I have to think!”

I stormed off, the plush world around me lost in a fog of outrage. My cheeks burned with anger and tears. How could she… how could they! How could they do this to me! The reason was self-evident, but damn it… they just didn’t understand! Those stupid bi—!

Are you so shallow and self-absorbed, you don’t understand?

No… no, I knew full well what brought this about, but the insult still had its hands on my throat and it was impossible to see past that. I hated them. I hated myself. Hated myself for letting her seduce me like she had, when the perfect girl was just weeks away from being found. And I wanted her, wanted Yila, ached to fly back to her and beg her to marry me. And immediately, I was struck by how that very thing had caused all my troubles, and I wanted to scream—

I screamed as something came up behind me. I whipped out my pistol and nearly shot Sparky as he drew back. “Damn it… don’t do that to me! And what the hell are you doing out here!”

He drifted closer, rasping, “You are… emotional.”

I coughed out a miserable laugh as I stowed my weapon. “Oh, you noticed that, did you?” I sat down in the grass and hung my head between my knees. A small lucid part of my mind wondered if the crazy thing came out to console me. And then I realized we were out in the open, and jumped to my feet, looking around anxiously. What a bad time to be lost in a bad mood, but there was no sign of upset Sentinels. Still, I told him, “You should go back to the ship, seal the cockpit just in case.”

He focused on me more with a soft whirr. “Why are you troubled?”

That gave me pause. Was he being sympathetic in his clumsy Aeron way? “Sparky… I’d rather not get into it. But there are things we organics… do which are hard to explain to someone like you who doesn’t have emotions—”

I am having much fun, Telamon!

That memory had me staring back at him for quite a long moment. Was he more developed as a personality than I thought? Was I selling him short? I patted the side of his casing, telling him, “It’s hard to talk about. I have to think… settle this. But if you want to keep me company, knock yourself out.” I could see him looking puzzled in his own curious way and added, “I mean… thanks for… being here with me.”

I didn’t really want his company, anyone’s company, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him to go away. I wasn’t sure he would. I looked up at the clouds and the blue-green sky, and hurt. Ached. I wanted to throw something, did have to scream, and I wanted to say something obscene, and… oh hell, who would ever read this crazy mess anyhow?

“Fuck! Everything!”

As I stood there, tears beginning to flow again, stinging salty drops running down my cheeks, an ancient song welled up in my soul from Before.

Only love can make it rain
The way the beach is kissed by the sea
Only love can make it rain
Like the sweat of lovers laying in the fields

Love, reign o’er me
Rain on me, reign over
Love, reign o’er me
Rain on me, rain on me

Only love can bring the rain
That makes you long to touch the sky
Only love can soothe the pain
That falls like tears from on high

Love, reign o’er me
Rain on me, rain on me
Love, reign o’er me
Rain on me, rain on me

The night is cold and black as ink
I stare at the stars and think
Oh God, I need a drink
Of clear, cool rain

I’ve got to find that door
If only I knew the score
I don’t think I can take any more
I need her rain!

Love that makes my heart to race
That transcends all time and space
That can cherish a man of disgrace
I need her rain!

I need love, like flowers need rain
Life giving nectar, healing my pain
I need love, as deep as the sea
Full of living waters, cleansing, soothing me

Love, rain on me!
Love please hold me, heal me, save me!
Love, rain on me, over me, hold me, love me!
Love

---

It was hard to work up the motivation to do anything for quite some time. Twice in one day, no less. I sat there with my Aeron companion watching over me, most likely in confusion, as I worked through my pain, grief and self-loathing. I couldn’t blame Seri and Adjaha. It was my fault, my doing, that brought all this about. I was a fool for resenting my wife. I should be glad that she put up with me, even though Adjaha had wormed her way into our lives, my life, more and more. She must have been following her Dragon traits, where their extended family slept with each other, and stupid me, I let her without much protest. And Seri must have smothered her suspicions of a growing chemistry between us, which had almost culminated in me seducing her in our mental journey together. I had to wonder again how much longer it would have been before I seduced her for real. Damn, I was such a typical louse…

Stop sinning!

Lord, I wish I could. But no, I didn’t, not really. Even as I wished to be noble and good, I wanted to wallow in sin. Wanted to throw everything of my relationships away and start over with Yila. And hope I didn’t take advantage of her love too. What a mess I am.

Eventually, I needed a break from my pit of self-pity, and drew us both back to Star Sword. I did have a few things to discuss with Grondo. I told him not to notify any authorities as to what happened, which stunned him. Particularly as I expected, over just writing off the loss of half a billion units. And of course he wanted to know why.

“I don’t want to get into it, but… it’s my fault.”

He regarded me with perplexion. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t want to talk about it,” I insisted. “Just let it go. And you might… discreetly look into where they might be, from time to time. But that’s all. I mean it.”

He huffed through his nostrils at me. “If those are your orders…”

“They are. Now listen… I’m not in the mood to deal with the scouting missions. I’m busy on missions of my own right now. I’m giving you and my scout officers the authority to follow up leads on more missions, and I give you the authority to okay them. Grant whatever resources they need.”

He looked rather dismayed at that, and muttered, “If those are your orders—”

“I’ll double your salary.”

That caught him off guard, and his eyes bugged out at me. “Uhh… well… as you so order! Err… you will authorize this today, will you not?”

“Yeah, yeah, I will after I sign off,” I replied. “I hope this makes you happy.”

One of us sure was, and he nodded like a kid told he was getting a surprise present. “I am well pleased! Uhm… do check in more often, will you, my strange Commander-friend?”

I gave him a thin smile. I kept forgetting that we had something of a friendship between us. “I’ll try to work on that. Sorry I’ve been so slack, but… my life is full of adventures.” Boy howdy, was it.

It was nice to leave him a happy Grondo. I made a relatively quick accounting edit to the ships payroll registry, and then sat there for a few moments more. It was still difficult to muster the drive to do anything when all I wanted to do was get drunk. And on liquors which had been gifted by Yila’s people. And I really didn’t need to be reminded of the other girl who’s heart I broke, and how badly I wanted to fly to her. Someday, my precious puppy cat, if things work out right for us…

Leaving behind a grouchy Aeron, I jet-boosted off to survey the landscape. Red orbs danced in the scanner display, but I had long ago dropped the habit of making discoveries, and it probably was a good idea to refrain from doing that until I was very far from the secluded cluster of friendly races. It was quite a miracle that I had found them, and I prayed for more such miracles in the near future. Particularly those who might know about the Ancients.

[stryker99]

(Ch 18 - believe it or not, finis)

Lots of minerals, lots of flora and fauna, buried tech, beacons… and a crashed ship. In the opposite direction, an unknown building. I thought the crash was probably the least ominous of the two, so off I flew, jet-boosting the distance away between us.

I soon found myself on a small mountain overlooking a wrecked Freighter, its broken hull sprawling across the valley below. Even having come across many of these catastrophic wrecks, I still had to wonder why these vessels had fallen from the sky in such numbers. I didn’t suppose it was too much to ask that it was on its way to an Oemani world, but I would find out.

Hopping and jetting my way down the hill, I came up to the break in its midsection which exposed the interior. It didn’t seem incredibly old, but I wasn’t up on that kind of forensics. Poking through the hold, there were a few indications of unscavenged cargo, mostly silicates and a few light metals. While disappointing, I didn’t need to scrounge cargo. Something much more interesting might be up in the bridge area, and I boosted up to the badly tilted structure. As was usually the case, the facing hull had been blown away in the crash, giving me free access to the interior.

The systems seemed to have weathered the elements well enough, and there was still power to some of the consoles. I was able to download some navigation data and a few files, but as was often the case, the communication system had been removed. I spotted it on the ground below, jury rigged to some support systems and a power generator, and jetted down to the surface. I found it still active, and checked what was in the system. What I read had me catching my breath.

The Ajima-Iota Hauler
// My sixteenth-cycle ancestor was one who assisted the Council in establishing Hirk and Nal themselves. I am heir to that lineage, that legend. My objection must not be brushed aside. My concerns are valid.

// Your objections have been considered. You must be content with our decision, even with your exalted legacy.

// But the Interloper-Traveller runs free and ignorant of what is going on around him! What he may blunder into! We should either recruit him or neutralize him.

// We are so aware. Be observant. If he reappears, monitor him. If he becomes a threat to the Agenda, then, we shall give more credence to your suggestion. But that decision is ours.

// The Black Hand may choose their own path.

// The Black Hand must be reminded that they are co-operatives with us. Not autonomous, to do as they please. Their tendency to independence is becoming troublesome.

// They have proven right many times.

// This is a different situation. You know the possibilities. The Gek forces are more active. The Vy’keen forces are more active. The Pirates are more active. ATLAS is more active. Resets are more frequent. We may well be headed for an historic Singularity. The Last Days—

// Wait, someone is reading this.

// YOU.

// WHO ARE YOU?

I nearly cried out… my God, this was live - they knew!

I stumbled backwards and fell down the short stairs leading to the platform. Scrambling anxiously to my feet, I ran away as fast as I could, then when I regained some of my senses, I jet-boosted far from that wreck, and didn’t stop until I was beyond the surrounding hills.

When I finally stopped, panting from my emotions, I wondered what the hell I had just blundered into. Was that about me? It seemed like it was part of the Instrumentality discussion, the Sage’s vision, a dream I had - maybe all of them, so I should at least consider it that way. But… now what! Was I in danger of being neutralized, whatever that meant? Maybe not. After all, I did sound somewhat useful to them, assuming I was the subject. But… now what? Stay out of their way? Lay low? Try to make contact? Disappear for a while? Say, to an Oshazi world? But no, I really needed to stop thinking about that, about her. If anything, I needed to get on with my Quest, in case I stepped on any more toes, or the wrong toes. At that moment, this meant checking out the next point of interest off in the distance. Besides, even if all that was about me, for the time being, they would just watch. No Hammer of Doom… just yet. But first, since I couldn’t bring myself to go back and try downloading that file, I documented it, as best as I could recall. The Last Days - and the thought made me shudder. That would come up again…

Naturally, I fled in the opposite direction from my goal, so I had to do some extra traveling to pick it up again on my scanner. And as it came in sight, I saw to my dismay that it was an Abandoned Outpost. Wonderful, just what I didn’t want to see. But, didn’t I have a knack for finding juicy discoveries? Hopefully this knack was a lot nicer.

Initially, it wasn’t. I found the abandoned hulk surrounded by those hideous, horned, acid spitting horrors, their nests of eggs surrounding the place. Even more wonderful. But those eggs were unique, and these pests really did need to be taken care of, so making sure everything was replenished, I attacked. And damn if they didn’t fight back with even more fury this time. They tried to surround me, and whittled down my armor a lot more than I was comfortable with. Using my Scatter Blaster, I obliterated those close in front, but that didn’t deter those behind me, and the way they tried to claw and bite me through the suit filled me with terror. That was too much to handle on a day like this. I broke free and boosted myself on top of the structure, and unloaded Photon Grenades on them as they spat up at me. The incredible blasts did away with them quickly. Those few who tried to burrow their way underground had grenades sent down the holes to blow even deeper craters in the soil. Thank God there were no Sentinels around to be offended.

Still shaking, I cast around with the shotgun but if any had survived, they’d had enough of me, and the feeling was mutual. I collected a number of eggs for my trouble, and had a look into the gloomy interior. It was as inviting as all the others, with horrid fleshy tissues strewn through the place, and outgrowths which looked like barnacles that should be oozing pus. I had no intention of scavenging, I just wanted to grab any useful information and get the hell out. The overgrown terminal, held in the grasp of some eldritch claw, seemed determined to drag this out as long as possible, and I grew frustrated, banging the damned case open with the butt of my rifle. There was a message, and it was an audio recording of a previous transmission. A girl’s voice came over a speaker, and I could swear I’d heard it before.

“This has been the most frustrating series of events I have ever had to endure. My superiors have been sending me on mission after mission… they seem endless. I must return to my quest, but I need to satisfy them so that at some point, they will grant me a leave of absence to resume my own travels. They simply must… I am at the end of my strength. Any information you can give me… that you will sell me, would be greatly appreciated. I must find him. I fear he is never going to stop following those voices, or the leading of that entity… for what? I cannot fathom what is so urgent that he would abandon me like that. At the core? There is little but danger there. ATLAS… its universe is some perverse joke. Pardon my rambling, but any aid, any information you can provide would put me ever in your debt…”

A heartfelt plea for help from some girl, and she sounded quite urgent. And missions? She seemed a lot like Agent 0 from the transcript in that previous Outpost. But that voice… I was sure I’d heard it somewhere, and I wracked my mind for a memory. “Angela… no, Carla… Colleen… Kyleen? Yeah, that’s her - from that Gek Freighter!”

She stopped suddenly, blurting out, “What - who is this!”

Oh crap… this wasn’t a recording, and it was the second time I had intercepted a live transmission, but this one I was glad about. “Kyleen, is that you?”

“Mayn ispar vivash… I demand to know who you are!”

“Kyleen, come on, tell me if it’s you,” I insisted.

“Answer me.”

She wasn’t happy, and was probably going to be even more stubborn than me from the sound of it, so I gave in first. “It’s Fox… Nigel Fox, the Traveler you met—”

“Nigel? How did you get access to this… where are you! Don’t answer that… just… go away, and forget this happened.”

She didn’t sound pleased about being reacquainted. “And why, pray tell, do you say that? Didn’t you take my credentials back on that Gek—?”

“Don’t say that!” she cried, startling me. Now I was giving serious thought to her being Agent 0, or some agent. “Listen, just… go. Shut down your transceiver and leave, wherever you are.”

“I am not about to do that, after you have been so charming—”

“Ap ashani hain… don’t bother me! I’m busy!” she shouted.

This was going as well as my first meeting with Yila. Whether or not she was an agent of the Instrumentality, and Agent 0 didn’t sound like a very high rank, I was determined to talk to someone who was in on… something. Maybe she was a bona fide connection, and I was desperate for a breakthrough of any kind. “You can’t be so busy you’ll turn down a quick meeting. You know, for old time’s sake.” She growled at me, which didn’t sound like I was winning her over. More like losing her patience. “Look… maybe I can help.”

“How can you possibly help?”

I decided to try something. “I must be fairly capable if a certain… Council is interested in me.” I thought better of saying Instrumentality, since she acted like this was an open channel.

“How do you know—!” she exclaimed, and sounded quite stunned at my remark. Then she was silent for a moment, so quiet I feared she had signed off. But then she asked, “What do you want with me?”

“I want to meet you. I mean, you’re not a fan of ATLAS, and that’s a big point in your favor. And I can be very charming.”

“You think much too greatly of yourself…” she grumbled. “No, just… go about your business. It will be better.”

“If you don’t tell me where you are, I’ll just track you down. I have some very good tools,” I bluffed.

“You wouldn’t—!” she snarled, and I wondered if I’d gone too far. But at last she heaved a weary sigh. “Well… sure. One meeting… how can it harm? But hurry. I am at Eyrustir, planet Kehava.”

I gaped at the terminal in dismay. “What? I was just… never mind, I’ll be there in a jiffy.” I was about to leave when I planted my heels. “In orbit?”

“Yes! Hurry!” she insisted. That was all the incentive I needed, and I pushed my suit jets harder than ever.

Sparky seemed glad to see me when I arrived, beginning to say, “Greet—”

“Hey pal, gotta hurry.” I pushed him back a bit ruffly, threw myself into my seat and donned my helmet. With one hand I buckled up, and the other flipped through the startup sequence.

“Hurry, why?” he asked as the lifters pushed us into the air. I pointed the nose skyward and hit the thrusters. I could feel his limbs cluching hold of my seat frame.

“I have to see an old girlfriend,” I quipped to him as we made it to space, and I called up the Galactic Map.

“Seri?” he asked innocently. And damn it, I had nearly forgotten that whole debacle. Thank you very much.

“No… a little older,” I muttered, and initiated warp. On the way there, I reflected that I might be heading for a rendezvous with no one. I prayed that she kept to her word and would wait for me.

Leaning over the seat, Sparky asked, “You are returning to Kehava?”

“Yes, so you stay inside, and no peeking.” I reached back and gave his chassis a lighthearted poke, which I hoped he took that way. But when I arrived in the Eyrustir system, fun and games were over. I got another message from Kyleen, and she sounded serious.

“Apologies, but I must leave—” she began, and before I could even voice my objection, she was cut off by a loud noise that sounded ominously like she was taking fire.

“What is it - what’s going on?” I looked out of the viewport towards Kehava in the distance, but at this range there was no way to see any sign of trouble.

“I’m… afraid I have to meet you another time—” She gave a squeal of alarm as the signal ended.

“Kyleen? Ky! Well… shit!” I growled. As I hit the Pulse drive button, I prayed vainly that she had cut the signal herself.

I had no idea where she was, and the planet seemed even bigger than before. I pushed the scanner button hard, but only Freighters came up. Then my heart sank as I remembered that she was in a parallel universe - how in hell was I going to defend her! I tried to hail her ship from the comm log, but either she had blocked me or her systems were down. I was frantic now, and began to circle the planet on full thrusters, abusing the scanner button as I went. I was very glad that Sparky didn’t choose this time to pelt me with questions. He must be able to sense how upset I was. When I was beginning to lose hope, I caught the marker of a ship, but it was down on the surface. Oh dear Lord, please let her be alright…

As I closed in on the location, I saw it resting in a glade; a Fighter, roughly the same size as mine. And then to my horror, I saw flames. I put Star Sword down as quickly as I could and jumped out, screaming for Kyleen as I ran for her ship as if she could hear me. The possibility that it might not be her hadn’t occurred to me, but as I climbed onto the fuselage to open the canopy, I saw her feline face looking to me desperately. Oh thank God, we were in the same universe! At least as far as I could tell. There was damage to the fuselage right beside the pilot’s seat, and I clenched in alarm. “Are you all right!” I shouted.

“No… no,” she moaned, “I’m… injured… pain…oh Nigel!” The anguished tone in her voice tore at my stomach.

As I looked around the cockpit, parts of the interior beside her had been blasted. She must have caught shrapnel, and she looked to be suffering badly. “Honey, hold on! I’m going to get you out and take care of you, I promise.”

“Please… hurry,” she whimpered, and sounded like she was choking down intense pain. But as I began unbuckling her straps, we both felt something unearthly, a sensation I had felt more than once as space threatened to warp around me. She gaped at me in fear and grabbed my arm tight, wailing my name.

No, no… this couldn’t be happening, not now, not to her! I tried to work my arms underneath her to carry her out, but she seemed very far away, and it felt like the whole universe was trying to pull her from my grasp. Why the hell was this happening! I could feel, could see space beginning to envelop us like a mortal shroud. We clung to each other hard as I couldn’t leave her, not like this, no matter the danger, trying to be gentle with her while fighting the horrible forces seeking to consume us. The dread, the terror, the yearning to live… I could feel every awful emotion pouring from her. It ached in my soul that I couldn’t save her, and I withered from the terrible realization that we were both going to die.

We screamed as we fell together into a pit of pure darkness…

---

Someone was crying, and it bothered me that they were trying to wake me up. But then I felt bad about it because she sounded hurt and afraid, and I wondered what was wrong, what I could do for her. If this was a dream, how I could shape it so it had a happy ending? But I had no idea what the dream was about, and couldn’t think of a situation which wasn’t too bad. And something was bad, something was wrong, and she was wailing my name in a way that disturbed me… please, stop, you’re scaring me…

Wake up, this is real

My eyes sprang open and it took a few moments to realize what the situation was, a few long moments, because nothing I saw made any sense. I half paid attention to the nightmare world I had awakened to - was this for real? - as I edged to the side of the Fighter and the wounded pilot inside. Then I came a bit more to myself as I realized that it was Kyleen, remembered her awful predicament, and I reached into the open cockpit for her, flinching back momentarily when I remembered an impending rift. But no, that must have happened already. She was suffering from her injuries and had trouble speaking as we reached for each other, and I steadied myself to lift her weight in my arms. And then I stopped cold when she asked in a voice thick with fear, “Where… are we!”

That sight that I shut out to concentrate on Kyleen came into focus, and I clenched in alarm. What was I looking at? What the hell was I looking at!

Everywhere around us were mounds of repulsive fleshy growths, half covered with wires and circuitry, merged with it, merged with each other, under a dark, morbid, leaden sky as threatening as the dome of a sarcophagus. There was hardly a sound, save for a soft murmur of a dire wind as it brought an imaginary stink to my nose. It couldn’t be… it just couldn’t be!

I lost control of my senses and began screaming.

[stryker99]

Entry 019: Into the Abyss
Day 109

I feared I would lose my mind.

For a while, everything was a delirious blur. The slightest glimpse of my surroundings terrified me, as I couldn’t fathom what I was seeing. The landscape was a nightmare of lumpy flesh mingled with electronics, draped haphazardly over the surface of whatever horrific world this was.

I still wasn’t thinking straight, and it took a few moments to recover enough to function, but Kyleen managed to coax me back to my senses, and her miserable plight helped. Something was terribly wrong, and she was suffering from injuries that wouldn’t heal. Still a bit unhinged, I wept as I hefted her frail body in my arms, crying out with her when her stabbing pains became too great to bear. There was a dreadful bulge in her stomach that I couldn’t get out of my sight. I was frantic as I lay her down on a patch of actual ground between our Fighters, trying my best to be gentle. If I did nothing, she would die, but I had no idea what to do.

Something was there, and I snapped my pistol out to deal with it, whatever it was, and just managed to stop myself before I shot Sparky. “You… thank God, but what are you doing here!”

It tilted slightly at me in confusion. “Doing… in explanation, this unit - I - linked your vessel with the other, so that it would be translocated with you.” I needed something to bolster my confidence, and seeing Sparky and my ship there was a big help. But then he said something that almost killed it. “Warning… unidentified bio-mechanical entities approaching.”

It was probably a good thing I was too scared to do more than react, or I might have fallen to pieces. Things were creeping towards us, horrible misshapen corruptions of animal life, or at least that’s what my mind made of them, covered with and trailing pieces of electronic components tethered with wires. “Fight them, fight them!” I cried, and fired on the closest ones first. They were tough but they seemed to be killable, and dropped to the ground one by one before they reached us. Sparky was doing his part to stop them, and thank God for that. But how many were there? A whole planet’s worth?

“Nigel… please… help…” Kyleen whimpered, choking back a cry as she curled up on her side. I wanted to scream, was on the verge of tears, but I had to pull myself together for her sake.

“Honey, I’m sorry!” I blurted out as I fell to her side. “I… I… what do I do? Tell me what to do!”

“My ship… a shelter… get it…” she gasped, squealing when pain became too great.

It was incredibly hard to leave her side, but as I set to it, I realized that ATLAS must have done this. We had been on some planet, a sane, sensible world with the usual foliage, fauna and environment. Not a nightmare of living, flatulent, unskinned flesh merged with electronics that spread out and away as far as the eye could see. We hadn’t flown here. There had been some tear in space and time that we fell into, fell through. It sent us to this literal hell of a planet to do away with us. And the only world this could be… Pirellax, it just had to be. Damn it, damn it all to flaming Hell!

I cursed it with every foul slur I could think of as I dug into Kyleen’s ship and managed to find that shelter. I dragged it over and activated a pump which quickly inflated it into a half tube of tough material, mottled with natural colors to match most terrain. As I knelt beside the poor feline, Sparky told me, “Alert, figure approaching.”

“Kill it, kill it—!” I shouted, until I saw that it was a Humanlike form shambling towards us with its hands out, or what were once hands, now covered with circuitry. “Wait!” I cried as Sparky hesitated, which I hoped would work in our favor. My skin crawled as it spoke to us in a voice that was a wretched gurgling corruption of speech.

“You… followed our signal? You should not have… this means your doom.”

That sounded dire, and I raised my pistol at him. “Don’t threaten me, or I’ll kill you!”

He waved an appendage feebly. “No… you misunderstand. This place… overcome by the Artifact. It consumed… everything… consumed our laboratories… consumed us… merged it all. It… will try to… consume you. I tried… to warn you.”

Then it hit me; that dreadful message that had me running for my life at that one Outpost. “You… it was you!”

He shifted around as if he was as amazed as me. “Why… did you… ignore our warning? There is nothing here of value… only… this.” He spread his arms wide to take in the expanse of the ruined world.

“I didn’t! It was ATLAS!” I exclaimed. “It trapped us here!”

“Nigel… what is it?” Kyleen moaned, evidently trying to see what was going on. I cringed as I nearly forgot her. There was no time for a lengthy exposition.

“Listen, we need help!” I said to the wretched being. “Can you stop them, those things? Can you help us? My friend, she’s hurt - she could die!”

He wheezed out, “ATLAS… naturally. Death… such a blessing—”

“No! Please! Help us!” I wailed. “Isn’t there some way to… operate? Heal her?”

He seemed to mull this over, then pointed to Sparky. “That… corrupted Sentinel, have it analyze your friend. Pass the data to us… we will try to provide helps. But… lesser entities… they will likely not heed. They have… their own directive. Take care.”

Finally, a thin ray of hope. I shouted, “Sparky! Make a detailed scan of Kyleen!”

I half paid attention to him as he scanned the poor feline from head to foot, keeping one eye on the surroundings where I could see those lesser entities moving around, creeping nearer. He announced, “Feloid entity, suffering massive internal hemorhaging. Blood mass exerting pressure on internal organs.”

I motioned to where the thing was standing, waiting. “Give him the data, please.”

It seems funny now, as when Sparky approached the being, he said to it, “Behave in an honorable, peaceful—”

He was cut short, and I gaped in alarm as the thing snatched the bot out of the air. Sparky gave a squeal of alarm, and sparks showered out of the gap in his shielding as the monstrosity held him fast. I raised my pistol at him, shouting, “What are you doing! Let him go! Or I’ll shoot!”

“Apologies… our directive… difficult to resist,” he replied as he held Sparky fast. I hesitated, unsure of what to do. Right now, he was our only hope to get Kyleen healthy. As I watched, it seemed he was doing something with the little drone, and a few moments later he released Sparky, who swatted the beings hand in outrage. “Some damage… rectified,” he explained. “Data acquired… analyzed. Procedure passed back… to Aeron.”

I cast my gaze to the dreary overcast skies above. This was almost too much for me to take. “Thank you,” I muttered as he began to withdraw.

“I may return… with medicine… but if not… flee, when you are able,” he advised us. “This world… is hungry.”

“Thanks again,” I said to him, watching for a moment as he shambled off. But what he told me… a procedure? Sparky would have to operate? Could he? I dreaded this so bad, I felt nauseous. The bot was already beside Kyleen where she lay on her left side, her legs curled against her torso, whimpering and moaning.

She looked up to me as I came to her, taking her hand. She held it with a quivering grasp that tore at my heart. “What… is happening?”

I only had the smallest of clues, and muttered, “I’m not sure. Sparky, what kind of procedure is it?”

He replied rather bluntly, “Patient must be anesthetized. Insertion made into abdomen to evacuate bloody fluids. Incision made in abdomen. Blood vessels sealed, tissues mended, evacuate remaining fluids, abdominal incision sealed.”

Kyleen looked at me in alarm. “That… thing? Inside me?”

I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment as awful images forced their way into my mind. Why… why in the name of God was this happening? “Sweetheart… I don’t know what else to do, but I can’t do it.”

She began weeping, and gave an agonized wail. It must be getting worse, and it was painful to watch her suffer. “Why… why! Oh, pain… is this… all?”

I stroked her helmet softly, blubbering, “Honey… I’m afraid so.” We would have to start now, and then I thought of that first item. How in the world would I render her unconscious? The only thing I had was liquor, and told her, “Listen… we’ll have to get you drunk enough to pass out. I doubt it will go well if you’re conscious.”

She blinked at me, whimpering, “Are you crazy? No! I have…” She gave a squeal of agony that hurt in my gut. “My ship… medkit… get it!” she cried, her grip shaking.

“I will, I will!” I said to her, but as I rose, I saw a hoard of those horrible bio-machines creeping up on us. Damn it, I had to get my head on straight so I could deal with more than one thing at a time. “Sparky, protect her!” I shouted, firing on the nearest ones as I went over to check her cockpit. Fortunately, most vessels had a standard layout, and her medical stuff was in the usual compartment. There were three cases so I grabbed them all. I returned and lay them out beside her where she could see, and asked, “What do I use?”

She began to reach for a kit, then curled up with a painful cry. “That one… the purple!”

It was a small case and I opened it. Inside were five syringes with colored bands on them, from red to violet. I held the last one in front of her asking, “This one, for sure?”

“Yes. Get me in… my suit off… p-please… don’t hurt me!” she sobbed.

I had enough sense to grasp what she meant and nodded, dreading what we were about to do to her. I reached down to gather her up, saying in as comforting voice as I could, “I’ll try hon, I’ll try my best.”

I sat beside her, holding her hand as she suffered

What awful timing for that memory.

It was a horrible ordeal as she cried out with every move and shift of her body. Her stomach was so swollen, she looked pregnant. I lay her down in the tent and did my best to coax her out of her suit, speaking encouragement to her, but the poor thing had reached her limit, cursing and screaming through every bit of it. How much time did we have before the unthinkable happened? She couldn’t bring herself to uncurl as she cried, though she would have to so Sparky could perform whatever surgical procedure he could. But what could he do? And the anesthetic, at least that’s what I hoped it was, how much did I use on her? I held it before her and asked.

“The entire thing,” she told me. Thank God this was simple. “Nigel… hurry! Please - I don’t want to die!”

That truly hurt, and I cried with her as I stroked her cheek softly. “You won’t… you just won’t, sweetheart. You hold on!” I turned to the bot, pleading, “Sparky, for God’s sake, tell me what to do.”

I was so rattled that I had to be guided through every step, and he seemed to know that, but his steady robotic voice managed to ground me a bit. “Anesthetize the female. Provide a tub to contain lost bood. Start a fire to sterilize these.” He produced his arms, and I saw that there were more than grabbers at the ends. Between them were small tools, and some looked sharp. Tools? The thought made me queasy, but what options did we have?

I began to tug her brief over her rump to give her that injection, but she protested, “What… no! You idiot… my arm! Don’t kill me!”

I felt crushed at her outcry but did as I was told, and had enough sense to sanitize a patch on her shoulder before jabbing the syringe in quickly, carefully working all of the drug into the muscle. I went to my ship and dug out a plastic utility tub which looked big enough to use, and got another bottle of antiseptic to sanitize it. I had the presence of mind to wipe down the area beside her on the tent floor, and this had me worried. What kind of pathogens were on this corrupted world?

There was no wood nearby for a fire, so I used fire fuel units to make one outside for Sparky. He extended all his tools and I couldn’t watch as he held them in the flames. They looked like implements of torture. And then that terrible moment came when we began Kyleen’s ordeal. When I entered with the tub, she looked terrible, her stomach a swollen mass, and she was still in the grip of agony. I worried about how much blood was still in her veins, and there was no way to replenish what would be lost. Would she survive this? I prayed that anesthetic worked quickly. As gently as I could, I urged her legs down, and it took a few moments as the pain was horrible for her. I knelt beside her and gently stroked her cheek as the drug finally began to work, and her agony grew less. I mumbled to her, trying to sound hopeful, “You’re gonna be fine, sweetheart, you’ll see.”

She looked to me, and thank heaven she was doing better now. “I’m afraid… I’m not a very good… patient,” she whimpered in a dreamy, distant voice.

“Oh, well… all things considered,” I told her with a lopsided smile. “It’ll be overwith soon. And listen, could you count from ten to one for me?” I seemed to remember that this was a common technique to hasten the onset of the forced coma.

She shook her head slightly, closing her eyes, and murmured, “Too tired… but, you… so nice to me… thank you.” She added in a soft voice, “I love you…”

I choked back a sob, mumbling, “I love you too, angel.” I wasn’t sure she heard me because she seemed to have drifted off.

Sparky edged closer, informing me, “Female is sufficiently unconscious. I shall begin.”

This was happening too fast for me. He had me sanitize the belly fur on her right side and then remove her lower garment, and I felt wooden as I did because I knew I wouldn’t deal well with what came next. I cried out as he pierced her side and blood gushed out in a stream, dark purple mingled with red, and I nearly lost my hold on the tub. It was almost too small for so much blood, but it managed to contain all of it. At least her tummy looked to be the right size now, and the pressure eased on her, though I worried as she shifted slightly. Was she completely under?

“Warning,” he announced, “threats approaching nearby.”

It was almost a relief to have Sparky shoo me off to empty the tub and stand guard over our little camp, protecting it from the monstrosities outside, and they were much too close to the tent. I used the Scatter Blaster to pulverize those nearby, and then longer range weapons to pick off those further out. It was good to have something to take my mind off of what was going on inside our makeshift operating room. Between doing away with the bio-mechanical horrors, I said prayers for them, and the girl I wanted desperately to save. She had to be alright, she just had to. If she didn’t survive, I knew I would fall to pieces.

Hours seemed to pass, then a day… it seemed endless as I scanned over the area, taking shots at anything that moved within range. Whatever had happened to the living things on this world, thank God it hindered their movement. Out of the blue, I heard Sparky call to me, “The operation is complete. Come, my limb units must be cleaned.”

I tried to steel myself, but when I entered and saw them, I choked back a cry. Sparky’s limb units were bloodstained, and I could see bits of her flesh in the tools. And Kyleen looked terrible, looked… dead, her stomach splattered with blood, her mouth open and tongue lolling to one side.

I helped him, gasping in dread as he worked the bits of her tissues from his implements, and washed them down in the tub. I was shaking afterward, still not dealing well with the tension and worry. “Dispose of that, tend to the female’s needs, and rest. I will maintain watch over the area.” It was irritating how I needed to be walked through every step of this ordeal like a child, but I was near my wits end.

I knelt beside her, unsure of what to do, and tried to nudge her tongue back into her mouth, but she gave a choking snort, then lay there wheezing quietly. I wasn’t trained to be a nurse, and had no real idea what to do for her. But I wanted to, and stroked her cheek softly as I gazed her over. She still bore an expression of pain which I tried to ignore, but stripped to her underwear top, she was a pretty girl with light tawny-gray fur and darker mottling on her flanks and legs, with a snow white torso. It was a shame that Sparky had to operate, making an incision in her tummy, and blood stained her abdomen. But at least she was better now, as far as I could tell, and was sleeping peacefully. Sparky would surely have told me if her vital signs were too far off, though I worried about her blood pressure. Was she really out of the woods?

I used antiseptic to clean up the blood on her and the floor of the tent. She began shivering, and it hadn’t occurred to me that the liquid was very cold as it evaporated. She was also lying almost naked on a bare tent floor, and that couldn’t be comfortable either. I grabbed her sleeping bag as Sparky fended off distant threats. His blaster fire had escaped my notice, but now I heard every shot. Lord, how was I ever going to sleep? I wish I was, so this nightmare could end.

I lay the bedding out beside her and then eased her into it, doing my best to be gentle, but she still gave little moans as I moved her limp body around, and every whimper made me cringe. She was still shivering as I sat beside her, and her blood loss didn’t help. And… well, I could stand some rest myself. Maybe my body heat would be enough to make her comfortable. Stripping out of my suit and uniform, I slid into the bedding beside her and settled against her as delicately as I could. After a while, she stopped shivering and nestled against me, breathing softly.

It was a little strange, lying with the girl like this, someone I had no relationship with, and I found myself missing Yila, and then Seri. That caused some very mixed feelings to well up in my heart. I found myself missing my ex-wife, and Adjaha, like a typical Nigel. It was so irritating, but if they came back, wouldn’t that be a good thing? If they never did, was that for the best? Didn’t I really want Yila? I had to admit I wasn’t entirely sure. Did the thefts matter that much? No, not really, and I left it to Providence to work all that out for us. Despite all that happened, I still wanted them to be happy. The freak jobs. But, freak jobs I drove to do what they did.

Sparky’s defensive blaster fire bothered me, and I fretted that I wouldn’t be able to sleep - who could on a world like this, after a day like today? But Kyleen’s aroma was pleasant, and her fur felt nice against me, and warm… and… hadn’t it been two days since I last slept…?

[stryker99]

(Ch 19 - continued)

Something was attacking me

Seri… Yila? A furry body lifted from me, and those fists were fuzzy too. I tried to fend them off, tried frantically to get a clue to who it was and what was going on, when my eyes focused on a young barely clothed feloid, and things began to fall into place. She shouted something I couldn’t understand, then switched to Lingo when she came to her senses herself, clutching her sleeping bag to her defensively. “Get out of my tent! You… levezo!”

That sounded unflattering, and I put my hands up, beginning to say, “No, listen! Kyleen, I tried to…” My voice faltered as she did too, and she was clearly in pain, trying to ease herself back down to the tent floor, gasping tenderly with every move. “You crazy girl, don’t strain yourself! You just went through surgery!”

She lay on her left side, panting, “Surgery?” She looked confused, and I couldn’t blame her. “What… why? I don’t remem…” And then her own thoughts began to tumble in order, her eyes beginning to open in worry. “What… happened?”

Outside, Sparky began firing, and one huge, terrible memory fell into place. “Oh dear God… ATLAS - he sent us to Pirellax!”

“Pirr…” she began uncertainly, then blurted out, “The forbidden world?”

So she knew about it. “Yes! Listen, you were attacked by someone, some group, and had internal injuries. We had to operate—”

“We?” she interrupted, then looked displeased. “That… thing? You let that Sentinel—?”

I had to admit I would have the same reaction at first. “Yes, but you could have died—”

“Where are my things!” she shouted at me, then seeing them, she exclaimed, “Get out!”

“Right, right,” I began, then realized I was down to my skivvies myself. “But listen, your suit wasn’t working to heal—”

“I’ll make the damned thing work,” she grumbled, adding sharply, “Dress outside!”

I began to, then realized that outside was a bio-electronic hell, and resumed putting my things on. “If you’ll pardon me, it’s not very pleasant out there—”

“Then don’t look at me!” she growled. This was going well.

She sounded pained, and it occurred to me that she wasn’t in any shape to dress herself. She glared at me suspiciously as I knelt beside her, saying, “Stop, I’ll help you. You’ll just end up hurting yourself.”

She didn’t like the idea, but her condition helped make up her mind. “All right, but… don’t you look at me!”

I heaved a sigh. “I doubt that will work, but I promise not to enjoy it if I do.” That earned me another growl.

It was a little awkward at first, for obvious reasons. I had to admit that in spite of the tension of our predicament, it was hard to resist some lingering looks at her as I helped put her things on. She had an exquisit body. That sheer suit of hers was considerably less cumbersome than mine, and she slid into it more easily. I helped her with the helmet too, and as it locked in place, she gasped sharply and lay down as the suit’s regeneration systems kicked in. So they had been trying to work, but couldn’t deal with a mass of blood crushing her organs. I asked her as she curled up on her side, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes, just… dress yourself,” she grumbled back.

I could hear her breathing as she watched me, and I reflected on how we guys could do as we’re told, and girls could do whatever they wanted. I turned to face her, wanting to enjoy a few moments of conversation, but she waved towards the front flaps as she rolled away from me. “Go… defend us with your awful toy. I need more rest.” Yes, we guys could do what we’re told, all right. I paused as I began to leave, seeing that she was already on the verge of sleep. After that ordeal, she deserved more of it; needed it after losing so much blood, and she might be hung over a bit from the anesthetic too. I wished I could have seen her face one more time.

I paused as I emerged from her shelter, as however long it had been, the sight of the nightmare world we hid from all this time was worse than I remembered. Part of it was from the carnage which had piled up in the vicinity from all the helpless creatures we had killed, after unwitting scientists unleashed this quantum cataclysm on the planet. Had ATLAS purposefully allowed this, unconcerned with how a world would be forever ruined by this curse, just so some meddling truth seekers would be neutralized? Perish the thought…

Sparky asked in a quiet moment between the appearance of some wretched, unrecognizable creature, “Is the female doing well?”

I had to smirk to myself at the tumultuous memories of our brief time together. “Oh, she’s doing fabulously.” When he seemed to give me an uncertain look, I amended, “Yeah, she’s doing much better now. Thanks for saving her life.”

“Your assistance was essential. I offer my grattitude,” he replied, and the exchange amazed me. Was he concerned for her? And wanted to encourage me after I had such a hard time coping with the ordeal? Had those entries at the Sentinel Pillar been recorded by Aerons? Beings endowed with not just intelligence, but sentience?

The Entity showed up a while later, leaving a case with the medicine he promised. Inside it, I found a number of bottles of pain killers, antibiotics, and vials of fluids with various curative qualities, antidotes and anesthetics. I gave him my thanks, hoping I could trust it to not be giving us poisons, or agents to infect us with the same curse that befell them. He admonished me, “You should leave this world when you are able. It will… seek to engulf you, too.” That was undoubtedly true, and we would have to; we only had so much in the way of food and resources to sustain us.

I checked my chronometer, and saw that two days had passed. While it felt like it could have been longer, it still surprised me. I couldn’t remember when I had my last meal, and hunger pangs suddenly confirmed that it had been a while. Sleep was tugging at my consciousness too, so I had a quick meal and bid Sparky a good night.

Going to Kyleen’s tent with my own sleeping bag, I got another surprise when I saw that the exterior of the inflatable shelter had somewhat mimicked the mottled artificial imagery of our surroundings. I would have to see if I could buy one of these myself.

Peeking inside and readying for an unwelcoming reaction, I found her still sleeping peacefully. What a contrast to the feisty girl I had stumbled into. As I gazed at her lithe form in the thin metallic suit, a charming thought struck me.

I didn’t need another damsel in distress

That realization had me groaning. My desire to help people seemed to steer me unerringly into trouble time and time again. I would have to watch my inner typical male, because I didn’t need another dalliance to cause us both grief down the road. Especially after I had more or less promised the last dalliance I would return for her.

I lay out the sleeping bag, and had to scoot it a smidge closer to hers thanks to a small hard protrusion in the ground. I didn’t want to sleep in my suit, so I undressed and got into the bedding as Sparky occasionally fired at some threat. It seemed they were coming less frequently, which was a good sign. I hoped.

“You snore. And are too close!”

That was followed by a punch in the arm that had me floundering in confusion for a moment. I looked over at the assailant, mumbling, “I’m sorry, your highness, but there isn’t much room in here.” As shelters went it wasn’t really small, but only had room for three to sleep with any sort of space between. She was out of her suit, so I got a good look at her glaring expression. I rolled over to face away from her, though I wanted to fall asleep looking at that cute, angry face.

---

She slept most of the next day, and it struck me that she probably had to in order to build up her blood supply. While it pained me to think so, she was lucky to have survived the operation with only the blood in her veins. She still looked a little pale in the small bits of skin I could see on her nose and inner ears. Not that I was eyeing her that closely, of course. When awake, she was also ravenous, and I dutifully made meals for her, as ordered, and tended to the cleanup afterwards. I respected her privacy when she had to tend to herself. She seemed to grow slightly more comfortable with me as I patiently dealt with my patient.

Life in this quantum purgatory was settling into a weird kind of routine, as Sparky and I dealt with the bio-technic monstrosities that appeared sporadically to harass us. With their forms hampered by a mess of electronics, it wasn’t hard to dispatch such cumbersome beings. Until now.

I thought Sparky was about to strike up a conversation in his own way, but what he said caught me off guard. “Warning, airborne entities approaching.”

“What do you…?” I began, then looked to where he was facing, and cried out in alarm. “Damn it to - give 'em everything you got, Sparky!”

The sky was filled with what looked to be approaching drones, flying in on three or four rotors. The ones in front of the swarm were firing at us, and there were a lot of it. I pulled the Aeron over to Kyleen’s Fighter for cover, and used the Scatter Blaster on them in hopes of hitting more than one at a time. While it didn’t have a lot of range, it was effective at swatting them out of the sky, but there was a huge swarm of the things, the buzz of their rotor blades filling the air as they approached. “Damn, Sparky, how many of these are—?”

Suddenly another weapon began shooting, and I saw that Kyleen had joined us, firing her pistol. “Using my Fighter as a shield?” she grumbled.

I saw that she was using her Mining Laser, shooting in pulses. “If you have a spread weapon like the Scatter Blaster, you should use—”

“It’s not as powerful,” she snapped, and to her credit she was picking the attackers off pretty well.

In spite of her help, they threatened to surround us and we began taking fire from the sides. Their firepower wasn’t much better than the usual Sentinel, but it was a constant barrage of it and my armor was being whittled away. Being the typical male chauvinist, I put myself in front of Kyleen to shield her, but she pushed me aside, shouting, “I don’t need your protection! Get out of my way!”

As they began to close their circle on us, I saw that the swarm had become depleted, and I shouted encouragingly, “Just keep it up, we almost have them!”

Kyleen snarked back from under the wing of her ship, “If you’re going to use this as a shield, do it! Quit playing the hero!” I ignored her which had her growling at me, and that might not have been the best idea as I felt the rattle of something beating against my helmet. One of those damned things was right on me. I whirled around to knock it out of the sky with my weapon as Kyleen shouted, “I told you!”

“Just keep shooting!” I yelled back as I stomped on it, and was gratified with the sound of broken components, which was mingled with her growling something at me.

I reloaded time and time again, and finally saw that there was a definite end to their numbers, maybe a hundred. As I reloaded, I caught Sparky saying, “I will take them on myself, Telamon!” That name again, and it clearly was from the entries in the Sentinel Pillar. In spite of this new threat, my curiosity was piqued; I had to look into that. I began to shout for him to stop, but frankly I could use some relief as my shields had become much too depleted as I neglected them.

“Your toy seems to be of some use,” she quipped to me. I guess his company wasn’t something she would easily take to.

It took a while, but we finally managed to finish them off, and I could catch my emotional breath. “Something must be making those things—” I began, cut short as Kyleen dropped to the ground on her rump. “Hey, are you alright?”

“I’m… fine,” she panted, so clearly she wasn’t back to fighting trim.

“Listen, why don’t you take it easy, go back to the—”

“What you said,” she cut in, “those drones… have you not seen them before?”

“No, this is the first time they showed. They must be getting desperate to do us in.”

“We should leave,” she told me.

“I want to, believe me, but you really need more rest—”

“Stop doting!” she growled at me, her eyes flashing. “And it takes no effort to fly!”

That was true enough. “Alright, I’ll help you pack. I want to get back to sane space anyhow.”

She didn’t seem too happy with the offer, but when it took some effort to get up, she clasped my hand with a muted, “Thank you.”

“Listen, hero, you lost a lot of blood when Sparky operated on you. Your suit is probably forcing your body to refresh your blood supply, so you can’t push yourself very hard,” I informed her.

She had no reply for that, and as Sparky drew near with what might have been an encouraging whirr, she murmured “I am grateful. I was afraid…”

“We were both afraid,” I remarked with a lopsided smile. “I was just glad we didn’t need to.”

She puffed a breath at me. “Come, let’s leave this awful place before more of those things attack.”

Naturally, she wanted to do all the work, and naturally I wouldn’t let her, which grated on her nerves. It wasn’t much of a camp so it broke down quickly. I jumped when Sparky fired at an approaching monster, but the drones weren’t among them. Evidently making Sentinels or Aerons wasn’t possible.

We both groaned as she looked her ship over. “The damage… I forgot… that fight seems forever ago.”

“Who attacked you, and why?” I asked her, which earned me a dirty look.

“Forget that,” she snapped. So it was going to be like this. “Help me repair my ship, if you can.”

“Forget about it, but help you with it… right. But I will. Just tell me what you’ll allow me to fix,” I replied, and I got an anticipated growl for my disarming humor.

Fortunately we were both skilled mechanics, and in short order her Fighter was spaceworthy. It was quite a unique vessel, a design I hadn’t come across with a distinctive aerodynamic cockpit and canted delta wings. She must have come from a distant part of Euclid. Or, it was a spy ship, or who knew what. She wasted no time getting into her Fighter, and I realized I had better follow her quick before she jumped out to parts unknown without me.

We both lifted off and as we departed the horror of a planet, I looked it over. I was surprised to see it wasn’t completely ruined, at least not visually. A dreadful cobweb from the debacle spread out from a central location, and it had quite a reach for many dozens of kilometers, perhaps hundreds, but only so far. The surface was sprinkled with purple crystals lit from within which I hadn’t seen before. I wondered what the rest of the planet was like, if anything of the original biosphere was still alive.

And this girl… what was she? A spy for the Instrumentality? A corporate operative? Some freelancer taking odd missions from whoever offered her a job on the sly? I wanted to know more about her, but how was I going to broach such a subject with—?

“Are you able to lock onto a star?” she asked.

“Oh… uh… let me…” I began, wondering what the trouble was, and then I saw. My navigation systems wouldn’t lock onto any star in Euclid towards the center, just to distant stars on the sides, and it was hard to get a fix on those. I couldn’t even see my marker on the galactic overview. What was wrong?

“Are you having difficulty too?” she asked as my silence wore on.

“Yeah… why? I don’t suppose you have a clue.”

“We’re… within The Fade,” she breathed out solemnly.

Troq had mentioned that, but I forgot almost everything he said. What I did remember wasn’t good. “What is it?”

“A region of space bordering the very rim of the Euclid Galaxy… perhaps all of them, where reality becomes… undefinite. It’s very hard to leave it, once within its bounds. And… I don’t know how.”

A shiver ran through me. The hyper drive systems were the only way to travel between stars. Theoretically, we could just pulse through to another star, but we would both run out of fuel and die long before we made any actual progress. We were stuck. But… we couldn’t be! That one Traveler group which replied to an email had done some exploration of it, I was pretty sure, so there had to be a way out, a method, some trick. There just had to be. Think, Nigel… think—

“I don’t want to die out here, alone,” Kyleen murmured forlornly. She cut herself off at the end, but I made sure to seal that thought.

“You’re not alone. We’re in this together, and we’ll get out of it together,” I said with all the conviction I could muster

“How!” she barked, and it hurt to hear the defeat in her voice. “Sorry…”

That was the question. Others had done it… somehow. I looked over my shoulder to the Aeron companion perched at my seat. “I hope you have a solution for us, Sparky.”

It whirred uncertainly. “Fade region… explored sporadically by some. Many failures. We were not allowed to understand it.”

“Thanks anyway, pal,” I sighed, and turned to look back at Pirellax. Those researchers had gone there, and surely weren’t intending to exile themselves forever. They had a method to go in, so it should work to leave. I had no idea if any of their technology survived that debacle, but it was the only straw I could grasp for. “We have to go back. Follow me in.”

“Wha… why…?” she began, but understood and formed up alongside me as we descended back to that abysmal hell.