by Andi J Feron
“Tell me you’re not going to be dating Allie, Lucius.”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Nothing physical, don’t do that to her. You do that and I’m done. I’ll call Talon and scrap the mission.”
“Maybe just a little kissing.”
I looked at him in disapproval of what he was devising. We made it to Earth, and I was enrolled in college. My backstory was being a student who transferred in from California. Lucius even set me up to teach an art class on Thursdays. He told me it was his gift to me; that was not met with a thank you. If he thought this would get me away from Talon, he would be disappointed.
I learned Allie’s schedule. I spotted her walking in my direction, looking lost. She was more beautiful than any pictures Talon ever showed me. She was all grown up, though she still looked young and innocent. Talon and I entered the war at a much younger age, but somehow, Allie seemed too young at eighteen.
I took a deep breath and took advantage of the fact that her nose was buried in her schedule. I let her walk right into me, allowing my coffee to spill all over my white suit.
Her eyes widened in shock as she realized what had occurred. “Oh, no! I’m sooo sorry! I swear I’m spacey most of the time. I promise to replace your suit. My brother has a pretty good job, and he sends me an allowance every week. I’ve been saving some of it for a rainy day so I probably have enough, if not I can always explain to him what happened and I’m sure it won’t be an issue. He’ll replace it. I know that sounds bad that my brother has to pay for everything, but it’s a really long story, and he doesn’t want me to work. Oh now I’m babbling again. I do that when I’m nervous.”
She paused and I smiled at her. I was overwhelmed by talking to this girl that I had already loved for years. I couldn’t hug her, but I really wanted to.
“Seraphine.” I shook her hand and continued, “Don’t worry about it. I’m not hurting for money, and I know a really great dry cleaner. I’m about as new as you are. I’m a transfer from California. Want to go get a smoothie?”
She looked at me as though she was unsure she heard me correctly. “You want to get a smoothie with me?”
“Sure. I’ve been trying to meet some new people.”
“Okay, yeah.” She smiled, and I again resisted the urge to hug her.
I finally had my sister within arm’s reach and all I could do was smile back. I felt almost giddy as I walked next to her. We went to the smoothie shop, and that was the moment that Allie didn’t hesitate to trust me. I was now in her world. Talon was so careful to keep everyone away from her that he’d forgotten to take the time to convince her of the part of the world that was out to hurt her. We got our smoothies and sat down at a table.
“You said you have a brother?” I asked.
“Yeah, Talon. He’s the best brother ever. He raised me. A little overprotective, but he means well. He always seems to think the world is after me, but I’d have to be important enough. No one really notices me.”
I looked at her bright purple eyes and the perfect shape of her face. She was so full of life, there was no way she was invisible. She was probably noticed by everyone she passed by. I knew the war would suck the hope right out of her until her eyes held less light. Talon knew that too. He wanted the light in her eyes to stay; that’s what he always fought so hard for. But I knew there was no way around it now.
Lucius had a lengthy plan that would take a few weeks to complete. He wanted to be sure we gained their trust and got all three of the kids in a discreet location before we made any major moves. We didn’t have to worry about anyone else going after her now. The council gave her recruitment solely to Lucius, which meant that she was out of the system. I did wonder if Lucius could simply manipulate all three of them, but he seemed to have his own agenda in the method he was using. I didn’t like any of this, but I was fully involved now.
The first task Lucius assigned me to complete was to project a light battle to Allie and her friend John. He wanted them interested in astronomy. When Allie told me John talked her into hiking to collect rocks, I knew that would be the perfect time.
Over the next few weeks, I got to know Allie as I always wished I could. She quickly became the sister I wanted her to be, even though there was no way for her to fathom our real connection. She was completely unaware we shared the same last name, and the importance that Talon held in both of our lives. Lucius let me know it was time, and anxiety rippled through me.
I took a deep breath and invited Allie and her friend Gabriel on a double date. We would meet at Lucius’ dorm room; it would be done. Allie would no longer see the world through the same bright lens.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Talon - October 24, 2012
I was kept pretty busy, and I didn’t like being away from Seraphine or Allie this long. I was growing weary of this being what my days contained. The last few months were filled only with Seraphine and me on separate missions. We saw each other significantly less, and I needed to push against it. I needed to make my family my priority again. Many of our comrades were dispersed to higher-level jobs.
We watched our teammates get promoted, but that was never what this war was about for me. This war was always about protecting my family from the devastation that it would bring if it touched Earth. I fought for humanity, but most of all, I fought for my girls. I held on to hope there would be a day Seraphine and I could live on Earth close to Allie, and we could all be a family.
I was also happy a new hyperspace phone was invented. I could call Allie, and even though the connection wouldn’t be the greatest, we could still have a conversation. I walked through base toward the docking bay, ready to embark on my new assignment. Standing next to the elevators, I saw a young man and paused at the familiarity of his face. The closer I got to him, the surer I was that the man was Kais all grown-up.
He waved. “Talon.”
“Kais, wow, you’ve grown quite a bit.”
“Yeah, I’m a bit older than twelve now.”
“I heard about your dad. I was sorry to hear.”
“Yeah, he’s been gone for about three years now. He locked me out from capsulization and never fixed the order so I had to wait until I was eighteen and could decide for myself.”
“You waited all that time and still decided it was worth it?”
“Of course, I waited my entire life for this. They are putting me through training and then, in a couple of months, capsulization.”
“Well, good luck, Kais. It was good seeing you again. I’m off to a mission.”
I started to walk away, and Kais stopped me. “Talon, how’s Allie?”
“She’s good. Enjoying life far away from anything war-related.”
“Good. She’s too beautiful to be soiled by the monsters this war brings to us. When you see her next, tell her Kais says hi.” He disappeared down the corridor.
All this time and he never forgot my sister. I remembered how irritated I had been at him for kissing her. He was right about Allie, and it was why I fought to keep her out. This war would kill my little sister and, in turn, kill me. She wasn’t built for the harshness it would bring. She loved everything that crossed her path too fiercely.
Years ago, when I was home on leave, she found a stray dog caught in a barbed wire fence. She freed it, but the dog had bitten her pretty good. Instead of being angry at the dog, she insisted we take it to the vet. I agreed, only because I was worried he was infected with rabies. The dog came up clean, and Allie received torn-up hands as the dog’s only gift.
She wouldn’t rest until she found him a good home. She never once blamed the dog for biting her. She saw the good in everyone, and if they were cruel, she insisted that an outside darkness made them that way. No, my sister wasn’t built for a war where she would have to kill and destroy.
I arrived at the location of my latest mission. I would call Allie a couple times a week. Often times, I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but the fact that we could
have instant conversation being millions of miles away was pretty impressive. I was buried deep in my assignment of finding Khalbytians bases when I felt an intense urgency to contact Allie.
I talked to her earlier in the week, and she was fine. I was unsure what to make of the desperate pull that was rising in me. I dialed her number, and it went straight to voicemail. The impending feeling of dread gained intensity, and in a panic, I called John. He informed me her phone was waterlogged.
John told me I could try to reach Allie through Lucius. He gave a description, and there was no way it was anyone else but the bane of my existence Lucius. Here I thought he was redeemable when he saved Seraphine, but now he had found Allie.
I told the admiral in charge of my current mission I had a family emergency, and he insisted I go. I tracked Lucius to a dorm room on the campus that Allie was attending. I didn’t bother knocking. Lucius saw me and looked annoyed.
“So you figured it out?” he said with his tone full of aggravation.
“Back off my sister.”
“She’s eighteen now, Talon, you know she’s fair game. She’s also a great kisser, by the way. Feeling her tiny body pressed against mine…We have amazing chemistry.”
His words and the thought of him touching my sister ignited my rage. I launched across the room and hooked my fist into his jaw. We fought, sending the dorm room into chaos. My fist caught his nose, and blood began to gush.
“You can’t keep her from what she’s meant to do, Talon. You’ll lose her one way or the other. The only difference will be how much good you will keep her from accomplishing.”
There was pounding on the door, and my sister’s voice yelled from the other side. I had finally failed in protecting her from the destiny which had arrived to collect her. When the door opened, I wasn’t surprised to see John or even that they had another friend with them. I caught the familiar red hair of my wife out of the corner of my eye.
“Seraphine?” I gasped.
Lucius had put his plan into motion and we were all back on Saturn base including Allie, John, and their friend Gabriel. I was determined to get Allie back to Earth, but at every turn, I was being fought. Allie didn’t understand either. All she could see was that I had been lying to her for years. She looked at me as if I betrayed her, and it made me feel worse. I didn’t know how to make her see everything I had ever done was to keep her safe and far from any of this.
Seraphine and I were struggling more than we ever had in our marriage. When I first saw her in the dorm room, I automatically assumed she had found out Lucius was recruiting Allie and was there to stop it. Lucius knocked Allie, John, and their friend unconscious, and he beamed all of us to a waiting ship. I asked Seraphine what she was doing there but when she couldn’t look at me, I knew. I knew her well enough to read the guilt pouring from her face.
“You manipulate my wife, Lucius?”
“No, didn’t even have to. She did this one without even the slightest persuasion.” Lucius seemed way too satisfied to be lying.
I turned to Seraphine, and she nodded. She gave no reason why. All she said was she was sorry and refused to say more. I purposely slept on the couch for the first time since we’d been married. Seraphine didn’t even try to get me to follow her to bed. The couch was where I slept for the next few weeks.
Seraphine would try to make conversation here and there, but I would cut her off or walk away. Our communication was in disarray, and with it, our marriage was crumbling. I didn’t know what to do about my wife betraying me. She knew how hellbent I had always been on keeping Allie out of the war. I trusted her so much that she was the only one I had shared Allie’s location with.
*
January 9, 2013
I almost got Allie back to Earth, but Lucius thwarted my attempt. They activated Allie through capsulization, and she was gone. They locked me out of the database, and I could only make assumptions on their plan for her.
I could track her, but they weren’t letting me anywhere close to her. I was so angry that I put in for single quarters and moved out. The first night in my new quarters left me alone in my misery. My fear for Allie and anger toward Seraphine collided, and I walked to the bar for the first time in my life.
Drinking was something I was steadfastly against. I avoided becoming my father, the man I hated, at all costs. I took my first drink and kept going until I couldn’t see straight. I stumbled around, attempting to leave the bar before falling down, knocking over a stool. Security started toward me, and I saw a blurry Fayard Mason tell them he had me.
Fayard put his arm around me. “Let’s get you home to your wife.”
“No, I live alone now.” My words were incredibly slurred.
“Talon, I’m taking you home to your wife. Talk to her and make things right.”
“You don’t know what she did.”
I didn’t know if my words were coherent. I felt as though my brain was pushing through clay to communicate the smallest thoughts.
“It does not matter. I know Seraphine loves you and you love her, probably more than anyone else I have ever known. Love like that needs forgiveness strewn into it.”
He knocked on the door of the quarters I shared with Seraphine. She answered and I passed out. I opened my eyes and found myself in my old bed. My head pounded as though someone had dropped concrete on it. A banana, orange juice, and a couple of pain pills were on my nightstand with a note that said: ‘I’m sorry.’ I went to the living room, and Seraphine was asleep on the couch. Several Kleenexes were scattered around.
I went to the kitchen to make myself some eggs and poured a glass of orange juice. When I was finished, I grabbed some pain reliever out of the drawer and took a couple. I took a shower, and when I was finished, I saw Seraphine sitting up on the couch.
She looked up at me with puffy eyes. “How you feeling?”
“Like I slammed my head into a brick wall.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“No, I got it,” I snapped.
Seraphine said nothing else and went back to the bedroom. I left to wander the base aimlessly. My assumption was they would probably station Allie somewhere else. Who knew when or if I would ever see her again. I couldn’t think through my headache, so I walked to sickbay to see if Jasper had a magical hangover cure. In reality it was an excuse to talk to him. He had become a mentor to me and helped me through some difficult decisions.
“You look like a vision of loveliness,” Jasper greeted me after a short stint in the waiting room. “Come to the back. We’ll get you rehydrated and talk about why you were drinking.”
I had told Jasper many times about my stance on drinking. I sat in the recliner, and a nurse put in my IV.
Jasper sat on his doctor stool. “So, now why was Talon Cooper drinking?”
“You know they recruited Allie and activated her. Now they won’t let me see her, and who knows if they will anytime soon. Seraphine helped Lucius bring her in. My own wife betrayed me, and she won’t tell me why. I moved out yesterday, then headed to the bar.”
“I see. I know Seraphine, and you know her even better. I think both of us know if she helped Lucius out she had a good reason, even if she can’t tell you that reason.”
“I don’t know if I can get passed this one with her Jasper.”
“This coming from the man who lowered his pride to work with his enemy in order to save the woman he loves? The woman he now doesn’t want to extend forgiveness or understanding to?”
“I still love her, but I’m so angry at her. Why won’t she tell me why she did it?”
“Maybe she can’t. I think you should trust her. You owe the woman who has faithfully laid next to you every night for years the benefit of the doubt. You let this fester Talon, and you’re going to wake up someday and realize you lost the best thing that ever walked into your life. If you’re lucky enough you still might be able to get her back, but chances are if you wait long enough, you’ll have lost her forever. I guarantee yo
u when that moment arrives, it’ll be the biggest regret of your life.”
“So I should overlook what she did?”
“Maybe not, but you should trust that she loves you and would never hurt you this way unless she had to. That’s the Seraphine I know, and I know that’s the one you know as well. This IV has about another hour on it. Use that time to picture your life without Seraphine and decide if you really want to walk the path you’re about to.”
Jasper left, and I did what he said. I pictured waking up to cold sheets every morning. I pictured dinners alone and the emptiness of never feeling Seraphine again. Even though we would have a lot to work through, I knew feeling justified in my anger wasn’t worth living a life without Seraphine.
I went to the base’s flower shop. A woman on base grew hundreds of species of flowers from all over the galaxy, but I was looking for only one type from Earth—pink daisies. As I walked back to my shared quarters with Seraphine, I contemplated what I needed to say to fix things with my wife. I walked in and saw Seraphine sitting on the couch. I could hear her sniffling.
“Seraphine,” I gently spoke her name.
She jumped up and looked at me. Her eyes were puffy and red. When I disarmed my anger, all I saw was my wife hurting. I handed her the flowers.
“I’m so sorry Talon.”
“I don’t understand why you did what you did. My mistake has been not trusting that you had a good reason, and I’m sorry.”
“You remember right before Jerap died, he showed us both things?”
“Yeah, you told me he asked you to tell his family something and to take care of Shakespeare.”
She nodded. “That wasn’t all. He showed me two futures. One was us on Earth, happy with three kids, and the war ended in our favor. The second was you dead in battle. Also, in the second future, the war was over as well, but the Khalbytians had won. All humans were either dead or enslaved. I asked him which was the real future and he said it depended on the choices I made. He said there would be a day I would be asked to help bring Allie into war. When that day came, I couldn’t interfere.
