by M. K. Eidem
It looked like a war zone.
A headless body lay near the airlock with burnt bits of skin and brain matter sprayed across the wall and ceiling. A red streak ran down the wall leading to where the Sub Commander slumped against it. The Commander was on his knees on the far side of the Sub Commander, his hands and uniform covered in blood, while Cali straddled the Sub Commander's waist, her hands glowing brighter than Xanto had ever seen as she pressed them against his chest. Cali's lower body remained covered in black scales, and that worried Xanto the most. It meant Cali had completely shifted into her primal state to save herself. Which meant she'd already expended a massive amount of energy and was now expending even more healing the Sub Commander.
Between the way Cali was beginning to tremble, how quickly her scales were dissolving, and how translucent her exposed skin was, Xanto knew she was drawing on the very last of her reserves. He needed to get her to stop before she irreparably harmed herself. He'd just taken a step toward her when Cali's eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed against Taarig's chest.
"Cali!" Taarig wrapped protective arms around Cali. He looked from Jamis to Xanto. "What's wrong with her?"
"She's depleted her energy reserves to the point where her body has to shut down to survive," Xanto told him, kneeling beside him.
"What do we do?" Taarig asked.
"I need to get her to her rejuvenation tank." Xanto reached for her only to pause when Taarig growled threateningly.
"Rejuvenation tank…" Jamis trailed off, things suddenly starting to make sense to him. "She's Zagreus."
"Yes," Xantos told Jamis, then looked back to Taarig. "She's Zagreus, Sub Commander. She depleted her power, healing you. She needs her rejuvenation tank."
"Then I'll carry her," Taarig said, moving to stand.
"Taarig, you need to remain," Jamis told him even as he helped Taarig to his feet. "I notified the Meddygs you were injured."
"You also can't carry her through the base like that," Xanto gestured to Cali's nakedness.
"But you can?" Taarig growled, shifting Cali, so he hid most of her nakedness.
"Yes." With that, Xanto moved to face the wall on The Brink storage unit's far side and pressed his hand against it. To both Jamis’s and Taarig's shock, the panel slid open, revealing not just a secret passage but a horizontal lift. "I can get her back to her quarters in this in a matter of moments." Moving back to Taarig, he held out his arms. "I vow to watch over her until you can, Sub Commander."
With the greatest of reluctance, Taarig placed Cali in Xanto's arms.
"Contact me when finished here," Xanto said as he stepped into the lift. "I'll get you into Cali's quarters unseen. She's going to want to see both of you as soon as she recovers."
The panel closed just as the Meddygs rounded the curve.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
"You are going to be fine, Sub Commander," Lead Meddyg Ra told him, still not understanding how such a minor injury had produced so much blood. "But you need to come to Medical, so we can figure out why you lost so much blood."
"No," Taarig told him, closing his jacket. The only place he was going was to Cali.
"But Sub Commander," Ra began.
"I said, no!" Taarig stormed away from the Lead Meddyg to where Jamis stood near Nalo's remains. "Are you finished here?"
Jamis had contacted Security Specialist Wafai as soon as the Meddygs arrived, demanding to know why the alarm hadn't sounded when Nalo discharged his weapons.
"Nearly," Jamis looked back to Wafai, who was studying Nalo's disassembled weapons. "Well?"
"He interfaced the suppressor with the ventilation system on the flight deck," Wafai reported. "When Nalo fired the weapon, the system read it as normal engine functions; quite ingenious actually."
"We aren't anywhere near the flight deck," Jamis said through tight lips, not appreciating Wafai's admiration of what had nearly ended Taarig's life span.
"We are near an airlock," Wafai absently replied, still studying the weapons.
"Which has no ship attached!" Jamis growled. It was all he could do not to throttle his head of security.
Wafai finally realized just how enraged his Commander was and carefully stated, "The programmers overlooked that situation."
"Well, consider it now and get it corrected! Do you understand me, Wafai!"
"Yes, Commander."
Jamis turned to leave when his Lead Meddyg stopped him. "What do you want to be done with the body, Commander?"
What Jamis wanted to do was toss Nalo's body out the same airlock from which he'd ejected Cali. Something he was still struggling to deal with because Zagreus or not, Cali shouldn't have been able to survive that.
"Commander?" Ra urged.
"Take what's left of him back to Medical," Jamis bit out.
"I will do an intensive scan and examine his records to see if we can determine what caused him to end his span."
"Do that," Jamis growled. He told Lead Meddyg Ra they'd come upon Nalo, and Taarig got shot in an attempt to disarm Nalo. He knew Wafai questioned that. After all, who brought two weapons, equipped the way Nalo's were, to end their span? But he wouldn't bring those doubts up in front of others.
"Taarig, with me." With that, he and Taarig went to their Lalla.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
"How many rukking secret passages are there in my Star Base?" Jamis swore as Xanto led them through the one he'd used after the viper attack.
Xanto smirked. "You'll have to be on the Wik Corp-approved list to know that."
"And you are," Jamis didn't make it a question.
"Yes, although I'm sure Cali will be more than willing to show them to you."
"I don't give a ruk about secret passages," Taarig growled at Xanto. "Where's Cali?"
"In here." Xanto gestured into a room where the door had just slid open.
Both males quickly entered the room, only to come to an abrupt halt.
Slowly, as if he were approaching something unknown, Taarig moved toward Cali. She was fully-submerged in a clear-sided tank filled with glowing fluid. Shimmering tendrils were moving around her naked body. Dropping to his knees, Taarig reached out to touch the tank, only to jerk his hand back when one of the tendrils thumped against it.
"It senses Cali's energy in you," Xanto told him quietly. "Every Zagreus has a unique power signature which you now carry."
"Because she healed him." Jamis found himself jealous that Taarig now carried a bit of Cali inside him. Unable to stop himself, Jamis reached out to run his fingers on the tank near Cali's cheek. To his surprise, a tendril brushed along the other side.
"Yes," Xanto agreed as his gaze focused on the tendril trying to connect with the Commander. It seemed Taarig wasn't the only one Cali had brought back from a life span-ending injury. Xanto'd wondered after the viper attack, but Jamis reacted contrary to those who had melded with a Zagreus.
"I wasn't aware the Zagreus had the power to heal." Taarig had been struggling to believe that Cali, his Lalla, was Zagreus, but seeing her in the tank made those doubts disappear.
"Few do," Xanto informed him. "I only know of one other that has that power."
"You've known Cali was Zagreus all along," Jamis accused, his head turning to Xanto.
"Of course," Xanto told him unapologetically. "I've known her for nearly her entire life span."
"Why didn't she tell us?" Taarig murmured, still kneeling beside the tank.
"That is for Cali to explain." Xanto looked between the two Commanders. "It is going to take some time before she recovers enough to surface."
"Healing me harmed her that badly?" Taarig touched the flexible skin seal the Meddygs had sprayed on his chest. He hated thinking Cali had risked herself for him.
"That combined with being ejected from an airlock," Xanto reminded him.
"She was actually ejected?" Taarig looked to Jamis for confirmation. His mind was fuzzy on a lot of what happened after being shot. He couldn't believe it when Jamis g
ave him a jerky nod. "I thought… How the ruk was she able to survive that?!"
"Because she's Zagreus." Xanto saw they still didn't fully understand what that meant and decided it was time to educate them.
"The Zagreus are an ancient race. Their lore tells how they were spawned in the deepest, darkest depths of space in the exact instance the universe was born and tied the two irrevocably together, making the Zagreus nearly immortal."
"Nearly?" Taarig questioned, frowning.
"Everything in the universe has a life span, Sub Commander. Beings, planets, stars. It's because of that it’s believed that when the life span of the last Zagreus ends, so will the universe."
"That's all good to know, but it doesn't explain how Cali was able to survive now."
"The same way every species does when faced with a life span ending situation. Her survival instincts kicked in, and she reverted into the form that would ensure her survival, her primal Beast. What I find remarkable is she was able to maintain her evolved consciousness while in that form. It allowed her to re-enter the base and not attack either of you." He let his gaze travel over Cali but quickly looked away when Jamis released an angry growl. "I knew she was special but I never realized just how powerful she truly was. Or how deeply she cares for both of you."
Xanto was quiet for a moment as the ramifications of that sank in. Then he looked at Taarig’s and Jamis’s stained uniforms. "Would you like me to retrieve clean uniforms for you?"
"Are you saying you can get into our secured quarters?" Jamis demanded.
"Of course." Seeing Jamis’s anger, Xanto sighed. "Commander, I've answered directly to the Supreme Chairman for over seven hundred years. I know every Star Base inside and out and can access any part of one I want, but I would never abuse that ability."
"But you did when you entered my quarters," Jamis challenged.
"I did not," Xanto denied. "Someone had already deactivated your code. That's not for me to explain. So, do you want me to obtain clean uniforms for you or not? Cali's going to be concerned if the first thing she sees when she surfaces is both of you covered in blood."
Taarig and Jamis looked at each other and realized Xanto was right. Cali had a lot of explaining to do, but neither of them wanted to upset her unnecessarily. She was their Lalla, after all.
"Thank you, Xanto," Taarig is the one that spoke. "We'd both appreciate that."
Xanto bowed his head slightly. The Commanders didn't realize it yet, but they were now members of the Paramount's family, and Xanto would treat them with the deference he did Caradoc. "Anything for Cali."
Silence reigned for several minutes after Xanto left, Jamis and Taarig both lost in their own thoughts. Taarig spoke, finally voicing the question they both had.
"Why do you think she didn't tell us? It would have made things so much easier."
"Cali doesn't do easy." Jamis looked to Taarig and couldn't help but grin. "If she did, she never would have taken us on."
"Seriously, J? How can you joke about this?" Taarig couldn't believe it. Jamis was always the serious one.
"What do you want me to do, T? Rant and rave? I'd love to, but what would that accomplish? Until Cali wakes up, surfaces, or whatever that," he gestured to the tank, "is called. There's nothing for us to do but wait."
"I know it's just…" he ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
"Just what?"
"She just seems so far away. I mean, I know she's right there." Taarig pointed at the tank where Cali serenely floated. "I can see her, but I can barely feel her in here." He rubbed where the Meddygs had sprayed the skin seal on his chest. "We can't lose her now, J. Not when she just agreed to be our Lalla."
"And we won't," Jamis squeezed his shoulder reassuringly, "but we are going to get some answers before we bond." Jamis let his gaze return to Cali's floating body. "Why don't you go cleanse. Xanto should be back with the uniforms soon."
"What about you?" Taarig gestured to Jamis’s stained hands and splattered uniform. The Meddygs had given him a cleansing cloth once they'd realized he wasn't injured, but he hadn't gotten everything.
Jamis glanced down at himself. "I can just clean up in Cali's sink."
"Then you go first," Taarig told him, his gaze returning to the tank. "I don't want Cali left alone."
Jamis nodded, and after one last look at Cali, entered her cleansing room. Once inside, he got his first good look at himself and grimaced. He was a mess, not as bad as Taarig, but still unacceptable for a Star Base Commander.
Ripping off his jacket, he hurled it at the mirror. He dropped his head, and his knuckles whitened on the edge of the counter as he searched for that stellar control he supposedly had so he didn't punch his reflection in the face.
Gods, he'd nearly lost both of them. How could he have allowed that to happen? He'd been too wrapped up in convincing Cali to be their Lalla that he hadn't even sensed the Si male. He had to have been there before he and Taarig had arrived. But how had he known they'd be there?
Leaning back on his heels, he sucked in a ragged breath, then meeting his own eyes in the mirror, faced the truth. What happened was all his fault. It was his actions, his thoughtless, arrogant actions, that set into motion the events that endangered his mates in the first place. He'd never allow that to happen again if his mates forgave him.
Washing up, he returned to the resting chamber, ready to face whatever his future held.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Cali was floating, her mind like a kaleidoscope only filled with differing thoughts, feelings, and images.
She was in the dark, cold emptiness of space. It felt like home, and she wanted to stay, but something was tethering her. Two somethings. She saw flickering lights in the distance, and they called to her. Using her paws, she began running toward them.
What? WHAT?? Paws?
The kaleidoscope shifted, and suddenly she was straddling Taarig's body, reaching so deep with her power that she touched his soul and refused to let go.
The kaleidoscope exploded, and Cali jackknifed up, her heart pounding, as she frantically tried to figure out where she was and why.
"Do you always surface so violently?"
The unexpected voice had her surging to her feet, ready to defend herself. When she saw Jamis and Taarig rising from chairs placed near her tank, she lowered her fists. Until suddenly, it all came back to her, and her gaze flew over Taarig.
"Are you okay?" she whispered.
"I'm fine," Taarig reassured her, his fingers caressing her cheek as he tucked several glowing strands of hair behind one of her ears. He was amazed at how soft, silky, and dry it was. "Thanks to you."
"Thank the Gods," she murmured, releasing the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
"You never answered my question." Cali looked to Jamis, standing just to Taarig's left, and while he appeared as concerned as Taarig, he didn't touch her.
"Question?" she asked.
"Is that how we'll witness you surface for the rest of our life spans?" Jamis expanded his question.
Her eyebrows drew together slightly at how cold and reserved Jamis was being. "No, it's normally quite serene."
"Then why wasn't it this time?" Jamis asked.
"Because as I surfaced, I suddenly remembered what happened." Jamis grimaced, and her frown deepened. "What's going on, Jamis? Why are you acting like this? Is it because I didn't tell you I was Zagreus? Do you no longer want me as your Lalla?"
"No!" he denied. "I mean, yes! Of course, I want you to be our Lalla; you are, but…"
"But?" She frowned when Jamis seemed to stiffen as if preparing for a blow.
"But I would understand if you," his gaze shifted to Taarig, "both of you, preferred not to be mine."
Taarig gave Jamis a stunned look. "What are you talking about, J?"
"Everything that's happened is my fault: the transport, the problems here on the base, the vipers," his gaze shifted to Cali, "you ejected into space. It’s all because of my actions w
ith Taini."
Cali's eyes stayed locked with Jamis’s as she stepped out of the tank and moved to stand in front of him. "Your right, it is." She saw Jamis flinch, but he didn't look away from her. "But that doesn't mean you're responsible for what happened after. Tecumseh and Nalo are. You're mine, Jamis, mine and Taarig's, and you aren't getting rid of either of us that easily." With that said, she pulled Jamis down by his shirt and captured his lips for a long, claiming kiss.
Jamis’s arms wrapped around Cali's waist, pulling her close as he returned her kiss. He couldn't believe she'd forgiven him. She had every right to say I told you so. She'd as much as predicted this would happen when trapped on that planet. Instead, she accepted him, faults and all. But Taarig hadn't said a word. Breaking the kiss, he looked to Taarig.
"T?" That single word revealed the depth of Jamis’s uncertainty in his friend's response.
"Cali's right. None of this was your fault, J! Taini told you she wasn't mated, then told her mate that you seduced her. As for not being your bond mate, after two hundred standard-years, do you really think you're getting rid of me that easily?"
All the tension immediately left Jamis’s body, and he gripped Taarig's neck and pulled him into his embrace with Cali. "Thank you, T."
Taarig just nodded. They'd been together too long to need words. Then he turned his attention to Cali and growled, his face inches from hers. "You will never do that again."
"Do what?" Cali asked, totally confused.
"Risk your life span for me. I won't have it! Do you understand me, Cali?!"
Cali's eyes narrowed at Taarig's tone. Did he think he could tell her what to do? "When it comes to the safety and welfare of my mates, I will always do what I think is best."
"Not if it risks you," Jamis added his voice to Taarig's. "I can't go through that again. My heart was sucked out of that airlock with you, Cali."
"Jamis…" she whispered.
