by F. E. Arliss
A soldier burst around the corner, skidding to a halt before the entwined couple. Fidgeting from one foot to the other, he eyed them anxiously.
“What is it, Ensign?” asked Major Donji dryly.
“Sir, come see what we found in the ore. Hurry, sir. Hurry, ma’am,’ he exclaimed.
They both jogged after the flustered Ensign, smiling at each other as they did.
Ahead of them bent over the ore bins, a group of soldiers milled about oohing and ahhing, though mostly with at least one hand clapped over nose and mouth.
When Katyia and the Major reached the edge and peered over, the smell hit them first, then they were stunned to silence. Well, yes! That could cause a fuss. It was a baby Soclaued! It’s small two-foot form wriggled and squirmed amid the chunks of pulverized ore.
“Call the Colonel,” ordered Major Donji.
Katyia tapped her comm. “Chloe?” she called. “Would you stop by my quarters, pick up my wolf-fur coat, and then come to Bay Two, please?” she asked. Upon hearing Chloe’s confirming reply, she clicked off her comm.
“Are you sure,” Hiro asked her, eyebrows raised. “You love that coat! It will never smell the same! You must not!” he stated vehemently.
“It’s ok you know, Hiro,” Katyia beamed at him. “Now I have you. I don’t need a security blanket anymore,” she whispered, smiling at him. “You are all the strength and security I need.”
Chloe and the Colonel burst into the bay.
As soon as Chloe spied the baby, she understood the coat. “Oh, Katyia, thank you!” she squealed with delight. “It will be perfect!
One of the hovering Ensigns, clambered into the ore wagon at Chloe’s impatient motion. Scooping up the bundle, he placed it into the fur coat Chloe held open expectantly. “Until we can get baby Bambam back to his mama, you’ll love Katyia’s nice coat. Won’t you?” she whispered, cooing to the baby she was bundling into the wolf-pelt. “Oh, aren’t you sweet, my little Flintstone,” she said.
Chloe had explained the cartoon characters from an old Earth children’s show to Katyia once before. She believed they were supposed to be cave people. Though, they were much more advanced in the strange program that any cave people Katyia’d ever heard of.
Chloe didn’t even notice that everyone had backed up. She flowed out of the landing bay with the Colonel trailing well behind. “Someone get her some mineral ore for him!” barked the Colonel crossly. Snickers trailed from the group behind them. “Ready a fighter escort to take the baby home, asap!” he ground out.
Chapter 23
The Binding
Katyia was nervous again. Geez, she hated this sensation. Chloe said it was called ‘butterflies in the stomach’ and wasn’t really nerves. More like a nervous excitement about what was going to happen.
She and Hiro were to be linked in the ancient tradition of the ‘cloud-soul’. They would drink Chinkon tea, a rare herb grown only in the highlands of Japan’s sacred mountain, and repeat the ancient words that comprised the ritual.
The ritual dated back into ancient history, and was all the marriage that Katyia needed. Spiritually, it meant that no matter where they were in the universe, their souls were combined. They would be able to feel each other’s presence through the bind, or cloud. Or at least, that was what legend said.
Katyia thought it was an ironic coincidence that long before information was being upload to the ‘cloud’ via computer, the monks of ancient times had been doing the exact same thing. Nothing new under the sun, she thought to herself.
Hiro had shared with her that he and Haruto had done this ceremony many years ago, after a particularly harrowing day in which they both ended up with broken ribs, swollen faces, and writhing in pain. They’d only been eleven years old at the time. Perhaps that was why their bond, even across all the years, different life choices and distances, had never been severed.
She hoped it was true. Though she had never been one for fairy tales, Hiro Donji allowed her to believe that they did indeed, come true. Knowing in her heart that their bond would never be broken, Katyia stepped out onto the cliffs above the Sea of Japan. Haruto’s new home was on the opposite side of the country from plant they’d destroyed. He was now the CEO of the Donji manufacturing conglomerate. Here, at the plant on the Sea of Japan, a new contract for military grade armor was taking up most of his waking hours.
Katyia walked to her future along the grassy path to an arbor set above the pounding waves. Hiro waited for her there. She could see the Colonel and Chloe, Johanna and the Majors Torrance and Bergstrom, among the crowd of her fellow Corpsmen and Guardsmen. It truly was the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen. Life, was good. Orbit Guard had become her world, and Hiro Donji, was the sun that brought light to her universe.
Preview
Orbit Guard Assigned
Johanna Van Heusen left South Africa, a supposedly apartheid-free South Africa, where prejudice still ignites hate crimes and women are still second-class citizens, in order to garner the respect she deserves, in the career she loves.
When the gregarious Major Bergstrom tries to approach her, she’d rather not give the gigantic bear of a man any room to enter her life. However, his ‘bigger than life’ personality and even bigger heart, complicate her ability to ignore him.
Plus, he’s got that very annoying trait of wanting to protect her from every little thing. Before she can even think about transferring onto another space cruiser, he’s made sure that she’s assigned as ‘acting engineer’ for his forward mission group, Tiger Guard.
She wants that job! And Major Bergstrom seems to want her!
