by Greg Dragon
Retzo Sho would have been proud if he was able to concentrate, but in his private booth above it all he was providing his own entertainment for Captain Tara Cor. His lips played their own tune on her smooth tanned neck as she straddled him on his chair, her long legs astride his hips.
Oh, how he had missed the moments like this, when they would sneak away to spend the naughtiest moments alone. She had been his girl for as far back as he could remember, and it hadn’t changed after so many years and ranks.
With the repairs being done to both their ships, Tara had asked for permission to come aboard. Retzo was elated at the prospect, giving her a queen’s welcome, including a tour of the Rendron. After the eventual feast, he wanted to discuss the war in the ready room, but she had told him in so many words that she had come just for him, and was growing impatient.
The orchestra was the perfect excuse to get her alone without the scandal. The captain had his own room in a loft, meant to host guests privately. So here they were, though she was hosting, and he was taking a lengthy tour inside of her territory. It was the best thing to happen to him in over a year, and he wanted to savor it for as long as he could.
When Tara was gone, he’d be back to his regimented life, running the ship, answering emergencies, and doing the bidding of the Alliance council. Now his body betrayed him, despite his mind’s commands, and he cried out, involuntarily, as his tour came to an explosive end.
“I’m so sorry, Cory” he grunted, using the nickname he’d given her back when they were young.
“It’s okay Strut, I know that it’s been a long time. At least it confirms what I suspected.”
“What’s that?”
“That you’ve been alone. Why? Is it because of your station, the constant work and no personal time due to those lizards, or is it something else? Strut, have you been waiting for me? I never asked for that. If you were over here thyping your buns off, I wouldn’t care, as long as you were happy.”
“You would care. I know you, remember? Plus, my… excitement is not a sign of me not having done this with anyone else,” he said. “It’s been over a year, Tara, but I did remember our agreement. No commitments, no promises, we see each other when we can, share a drink, and then this. But I’m no fool or clueless romantic. I assumed that you were with someone and I was a distant memory.” She gave him a knowing smile and he realized that he was being defensive. “Well played,” he said returning the smile, as she held his shoulders firmly and pushed herself off.
“I think you’re full of schtill,” she said. “We’re both older now, and you’ve waited, just like I have.”
“You waited?”
“Who am I going to date? Me, the captain of that tremendous war machine tethered to yours? A planet-busting Marine officer, or one of my spacers looking to mount me for a promotion? I’m as stuck as you are, my dear. The smart captains have someone on a planet, sometimes a station. But the opportunity has never presented itself, and you were always there, calling me, making me do things for you.”
“Is it that bad?” Retzo asked, reaching forward to take one of her tiny hands.
“You’re delaying the procedure, Ace, you do know that’s a bad idea.”
“Yeah,” he said, “but I can’t think clearly with the lovely Tara Cor naked in front of me like this.”
“Strut, please don’t be upset with me, but this wasn’t the only reason I came all the way over here. I have a delicate matter to discuss, and I cannot trust comms. Not for this.”
Retzo regarded her curiously. Tara was not the type of person to take favors lightly. If she had come to talk to him, it meant that something major was going on. She took back her hand and studied his face for a time, then reached down to caress his cheek before kissing him firmly on the lips. It was curiously affectionate, another oddity that Retzo was not accustomed to. “What is it?” he said, his eyes now lost in the bottomless translucent olive of her own.
“It’s pretty big, and official word will find you soon, but there’s a secret…well, not a secret, but—thype me, I can’t even bring myself to say it. Strut, I need to borrow your Nighthawks to go after one of our own.” She exhaled heavily as if she’d admitted to the worst crime that she could ever commit. Inside her eyes he read desperation, embarrassment, and now, relief.
“My Nighthawks? But, Cory, it’s like I told you, the team suffered tremendous losses on that maker-forsaken moon. Two came back and they’re in recovery, working on rebuilding at the moment. I guess if what you need them for is easy enough for two operators, but, please, what is it? Why do you need the Nighthawks? What mission is so delicate that Aqnaqak Marines can’t do it on their own?”
He instinctively reached for her other hand, wanting to urge her back down. But whatever was on her mind required her to move as she explained it, so she did just that, pacing the area in front of the screen while gesturing with her hands as she began to speak.
Retzo held up his hand to stop her before tossing her his jacket. He was sure that the performers couldn’t see them through the glass, but he didn’t want to take any chances. A part of him felt guilty for making love in the booth while his crewmen performed a show in their honor, but Tara was magnetic, and he hoped they would understand if they found out.
“Okay, so the Ocelots, our ESO team,” she said. “If you recall we had to disband them, and several members were sent to the brig.”
“I remember, yes.”
“That wasn’t the full story, Retzo, the details are a little more complicated. That fight we just had, the one against that Geralos battleship—I didn’t just happen to be in the sector. The reason we were able to assist was due to a personal matter. Our Ocelot leader, Joran Wolf, stole a corvette-class ship with an energy torpedo and several other weapons and equipment. He had killed two men on a return trip from SunFire, our infiltrator, and then instead of jumping back, he took the ordinance to Meluvia.”
Retzo sat up suddenly. “What?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The threat of a rogue ESO armed with heavy Alliance tech made her story so ridiculous he was baffled. “How in the planets does that sort of thing happen? Why didn’t you send word to Meluvia to vaporize that ship? Cory, are you telling me that there are capital weapons on the planet? Do you know what that could mean to…?” He paused and sighed. “Of course you do. He can fire on us up here, we’re stationary targets on the mend.”
“Yes, Strut, I know, but if you let me continue, I will explain why I didn’t alert Meluvia. My aim was to trace that corvette, and we were close enough to do it, but coming out of light speed I ran into the Nian, sending lizards down to the surface. What would you have done, as an Alliance captain? Chase down your man, or turn your batteries on that battleship?”
“I’m sorry, Cory, of course you had to fight. I—this is just unheard of, an ESO going rogue.”
“Worse than rogue. The piece of schtill, turns out he was a plant, the son of a Meluvian freedom fighter, looking to do right by daddy. Now, Strut, I haven’t told any of this to the admirals or the council. I could lose my ship.” Her voice cracked, and she rushed over to the console, poured herself a drink and downed it. “I need your help,” she whispered. “I need to clean up this mess before they catch wind that I am to blame for it. Retzo, if they use that ordinance on a city down there, the ramifications could be enough to affect the war.”
“Yeah, Meluvia will find themselves with a hard decision to make. Abandon the Geralos to rush home, smoke out Wolf and remove the threat to their people, or stay in space, fighting, while their planet suffers under the threats of a madman. Here you say that he’s connected to a Meluvian freedom fighter. Is it just him, or is he with an organization looking to do more with our ordinance?”
Tara Cor poured another drink, downed it quickly and sat in a chair. She stared at the glass as if she was surprised that it was empty, then placed it back on the console before facing him. In any other situation he would have rushed over, hu
gged her, and told her that it would be okay. Still, he hadn’t seen her in ages, and she was still as lovely as the day when they took their individual assignments.
“He’s with a more extreme version of the Meluvian Liberation Front. I reached out to the Jumper spies and they provided me intel on what they’re all about. Turns out that instead of speeches and demonstrations, this new group is dangerous. They are actually an arm of what we know as The Collective. This new group has been growing for a few years now and have revealed themselves formally as the new MLF.”
Retzo, like every other spacer in Anstractor, knew about the galaxy-wide cabal of anarchists known as The Collective. When Cilas Mec had reported that he and his Nighthawks had been picked up by a pirate ship, the mention of former Alliance Navy had made him suspect that it was the same organization.
He placed his face in his hands and groaned. He had no choice but to send the Nighthawks; it was as much his problem as it was hers. If the Meluvian government learned that Wolf was a member of the crew, there was a chance that they would lose the freedom to come and go from the planet.
“They will need to be briefed on your ship,” he said, still not raising his eyes to meet hers. “We do it here and word might spread. I have my own situation with traitors that hasn’t fully been resolved.”
“I love you, Strut,” she said. “I sat for a week wondering how to bring myself to ask you.”
“The sex helped, and you knew it would,” he said. “Buttered me up and then dropped the news, knowing I’d be helpless against you.” He was obviously joking and hoped that she would understand that he was. “You’re going to owe me the biggest favor.”
She stood up, walked over and then sat down, straddling his knees. Her muscular thighs flexed as she placed her hands on his thighs. Retzo felt himself grow excited and tried in vain to hide it, but Tara reached forward and cupped his chin.
“What do you think of a little Retzo or Tara in our future?” she said, and he looked at her quizzically, as if he couldn’t understand the question. “I came over to be with you, Strut, not just to ask a favor. What I didn’t expect was that we would have sex so fast. I wasn’t exactly prepared, if you understand what I am telling you. While I would love to go another round with you, Captain Sho, it’s either med-bay right now, or you’re going to be a father.”
“Are you serious?” he said, trying to imagine the implications. Two starship captains, together, trying to raise a family? It would force them to take real leave, which was unheard of for the job. The patterns would make them predictable, and a target for Geralos spies.
“Planets, I think that you would actually do it,” she said suddenly. “Retzo, I don’t know what to think. Are you saying that you want to have children with me? I don’t know what to think, Strut. I just, I would do it for you, with you, yes. But we’re captains, for Maker’s sake. Thype, now you’ve really gone and complicated things.”
“I know, but if anyone could make it work, Tara, we could. We’ve discussed this, and it’s what you want. What do you think they’ll do to us? Take our ships? No, they won’t do schtill and we’ll figure it out.” She still seemed torn and undecided but held his gaze as she grabbed her clothes. “Hey, you asked, and this was nice. To be honest, you’re the best thing that has happened in my entire life.”
“Planets, Retzo, you’re such a pain. Now you have me here wanting to cry. Alright, I’ll let it be, but we’re going to have to come up with a real plan if it sticks. I mean this, the pregnancy.” She reached up and covered her face. “The Wolf thing, if your Nighthawks can do it—”
“It’s done, beautiful. We’ll talk about it more later on, okay?” Retzo said.
“I am going to think about it,” she said, grabbing her skirt and planting a kiss on his cheek. “We have some time, but we’re not just going to ‘figure this out’. It will change our life forever, my love, and we have thousands of spacers relying on us.”
He watched her walk to the head but when she reached the door she stopped and turned to face him. “If I could go back in time to the academy,” she said, “when you asked me to marry you and I said no. I would thyping say yes, Retzo, I was such a dumb girl. I just want you to know that I love you.”
He leaned back into the chair and smiled when he heard the door shut. Their coupling had been so rash, spontaneous, and reckless, he couldn’t help but be empowered by it. She gave him the intangibles that made the life of a spacer exciting. Everything that he did on the ship was methodical, precise, and planned, but for these brief moments, with the two of them locked inside of this space, he had felt happier than he’d ever felt. He had felt alive.
The performers had a hologram message drifting slowly down the glass. It was a nice effect, a real display of artistic skill and attention to detail. It appeared as clouds broken by sun rays, and read, “Welcome to the Rendron, Captain Cor.” It was unfortunate that she missed it, but he would just have to tell her about it as soon as she came out. Reaching for his wrist comms, he touched the side of the device and a tiny camera flipped out. He used it to record the end of the display, as it faded into nothingness.
The audience cheered, and as he made to retract the lens, he saw that there was an urgent message. What now? he thought, annoyed at the fact that he couldn’t go an hour without someone needing his help. It was a saved message from Genevieve Aria, and he saw that she had been trying to reach him for the past fifteen minutes.
He snapped the lens in place and slid his finger along its surface. The message began to play, and he sat up suddenly when he learned what the urgency was. There had been an attack on a hub, and the Marines stationed near the location had somehow ended up missing. One of the survivors had found a way to contact the Alliance, and the Rendron was being asked to investigate.
Retzo scrambled to get up, and as he rose, Tara emerged from the head, looking as sharp as she always did. Her white captain’s uniform with the buttons and medals glinted beneath the light and her long brown hair was pulled back in a tight bun, revealing the cheekbones that had drawn her to him. She was beauty in strength, a walking example of naval excellence, and the bird he thought had flown away, only to come back to him now.
“Oh, that’s amazing,” she exclaimed, when she saw the words on the glass. “I almost missed it.”
“I recorded it for you,” he said. “I will have to show you later, however. We have a situation on our hands. Syr station was attacked, and several civilians were taken.”
“By the lizards?” Tara said, knitting her brows.
“Genevieve didn’t say, but I assume it’s them, probably in retaliation for us taking out their battleship. I’m going to have to send in the aces and an assault ship with my Marines.”
“No, Strut, it’s my turn. I’ll send some Marines to investigate and see what can be done. We have a bunch of fresh boots that are itching for a fight. This will be good for them to blow off some steam, and—what’s wrong?” she said, as Retzo seemed distracted as he scrambled for his clothes.
“Call it a hunch, but the timing is odd. Why now, when we’re crippled? Do you know what I mean? The two of us have captained our ships for well over ten years, and in no time during our service has a hub come under any real danger. We have Marines stationed near every satellite, and the few pirates that tried have failed. Yet now, this, after I lose an infiltrator, a commander, and so much more. Our ships are tethered, frozen in repairs, and of all the starships patrolling Anstractor, I’m the one they call?”
“You’re on Vestalian watch and that hub’s above our planet. Don’t think too much into it, my Marines can be there in the blink of an eye.” She was close to him again and his excitement grew, which only served to annoy him even more about the news.
I get to see her after so long and this is when they choose to attack? he thought. A part of him wondered what deity he had angered to have this chain of bad luck. “Cory, these Marines of yours. Are they really reliable? Have you used
them before on delicate missions like this?”
Tara Cor sat back on the chair, urging him down to sit next to her. “Captain Sho,” she whispered, running her fingers through his hair. “My men are on the verge of killing one another out of boredom. Give me this, please. Let me send them, and then we can finish enjoying this show that your spacers worked hard to prepare.”
3
When Helga learned that a formal request had been put in for the Nighthawks to come aboard the Aqnaqak, she was elated at the prospect. For weeks the two warships had been orbiting Meluvian space, working on repairs from the fight against the Nian while guarding the vulnerable planet against any Geralos attempts to invade.
Meluvia had been hit hard, and there were still Alliance Marines on the surface. Armored planet-busters from both Aqnaqak and Rendron were training local militias and hunting down the Geralos encampments. Above it all, the Meluvians in space were repairing their satellites that had been disabled by the Nian before the attack to keep them blind while they invaded.
It had been a mess, and Meluvia had been lucky. If not for Aqnaqak, the planet would be flooded with Geralos militia. Still, the invaders had been culled, but the Alliance worried that there were still many hidden on the planet. This was what Helga assumed was behind the summons — the Aqnaqak was in need of ESO veterans.
Since receiving her medal, she had been given the job of assisting with special operations inside of the Combat Information Center (CIC). This was how she learned that the Aqnaqak was requesting their presence, but when she told Cilas, her Nighthawk team leader, he didn’t seem excited in the least.
“Come on, Rend, it’s our chance to get back into the fight,” she said, using the new moniker that he’d been given by the Marines.
