Nebula Nights: Love Among The Stars

by Melisse Aires

  Once she was among and the focus of the Dentonian security team, Kala looked into crowd of her enemy and screamed out one word, “Enough!”

  She looked into the eyes of the Dentonian security force and with every ounce of pain aching from her body, she attacked in precise and intense telepathic motions. Many of the Dentonian force were unprepared for a telepathic attack that could reach through the technological psionic barriers erected. They fell to the ground, most unconscious, and some close to death. When their back up approached her, she simply repeated the measure with intense focus and pain evident in her green eyes. Soon, her body shook from the overwhelming pain she was feeling coming from the bodies around her. She turned and searched out her team before she collapsed among the depths of the pain she caused.

  Without hesitation, Commander Maddux moved to Kala’s side. Lifting her from the battle field he turned to the rest of the strike team. “Finish this!”

  The team advanced, and Maddux brought Kala to the makeshift triage. He looked at Commander Crex’s body, and sat with Kala finally understanding what happened. He wrapped his arms around the small woman and whispered, “It’s not your fault, Kala. It’s war.”

  She refrained from further crying. She desperately wanted to regain her composure and reach out to help her friends. With little delay, Sira ran back to inform them, “It’s time to go. Now. Sar has the charges set, so they can’t follow.”

  Maddux reached for his communicator again, hopeful he could get through to them this time. When he did, he told the Enpassant to lock on, and relocate the whole team to the ship as quickly as possible. Within moments everyone was back on the ship, including Phelian’s body. When the Enpassant re-emerged into space, the light that was evident from the explosion surprised everyone.

  Kala stood, and walked back to her friend’s body. She looked down upon his now calm features, and the pain erupted from her chest again in a scream. The team turned to look at her. They knew the agony she must have felt in that moment, but none was sure how to help her.

  Henessa walked over, and wrapped an arm around her. “Shhh, let’s get you out of battle garb and burn those.” She moved the blood and sweat stained hair out of Kala’s face. “This isn’t going to help hon. Come on.”

  Henessa tried to guide her best friend out of the room, but Kala struggled briefly before finally being led out. As the two stepped out into the hall they were met by Captain Palrion, who looked at Kala for a long moment, and then nodded to them both before entering the observation room for debriefing.

  ~*~

  The following week passed quickly. During that time, Kala remained in her quarters, trying to grasp what she’d done ,and what happened upon the planet. She ached for her loss, but was overwhelmed by guilt. Her friends and teammates each took shifts trying to watch, interact, and monitor her. She knew they were fearful of her reaction to everything. She knew they feared her reactions to it all. She remained recluse and silent, diligently meditating.

  In the early hours of the last morning of the week her meditation was interrupted by a telepathic link. ~Go away Yatrell.~ She projected the moment the link was established.

  ~Not yet, Kala.~ His voice was full of concern. ~Your team struck in the heart of Dentonian space. They say one woman stood among our security team and …~ He found himself having to force the words from his mind. ~Are you alright? Kala it’s not easy to deal with that. I know.~

  ~I am and will be fine.~ Kala’s voice was controlled and focused. ~We have another mission far more dangerous than your Dentonians.~

  ~Kala, please don’t shut me out. Let me help.~

  ~You can’t. You’re not here and even those who are can’t help. They didn’t hurt all of those people, I did. They didn’t harm many in moments, I did.~ She swallowed as the image of Phelian’s last moments crossed her mind and she cringed and softened. ~They took my friend. He was family. He…But then I hurt so many more. It wasn’t my right. I was angry. I shouldn’t have.~ For the first time since that day, Kala began to sob.

  ~Shhhh Kala. It’s ok. It’s war. If you didn’t stop them they would have reached out to stop you. You would have suffered or died,… or both.~ His tone expressed sadness. ~You did what you had to do, Kala.~

  ~But my abilities should be used to preserve not take life or injure others.~ Kala’s cheeks were wet again and her hearts sank further into despair. ~I’ve injured people, maybe worse. Please, Yatrell, just leave me.~

  ~I will, but only for a short time. I miss hearing your voice. I never want there to be a time I can’t hear you.~ His tone was calm and consoling, but really he just wanted to know she’d be okay through this. His life swam with uncertainty, and change. Losing her would make everything unbearable.

  When she knew he was out of her mind, she laid down in her bed ,and sobbed until her tears carried her into the nightmare, again.

  ~*~

  Yatrell paced as he waited on a nurse to remove his bandages so he could finally head down to the surface. His mind replayed the moment a week and half ago when the most respected man he knew, took his own life. No matter what Yatrell did to push it from his mind, it replayed over and over again. The captain’s voice echoed in his mind each and every time.

  By the time the nurse came in, Yatrell was ready to remove the bandages himself. Unfortunately he was required to get medical clearance before he went down to the house gifted him on the surface. She removed the bandages to expose a fully healed, smooth, and fresh layer of skin. She ran a scan of the area and cleared him. To most doctors or nurses, seeing Commander Jae heal so fast and well from a brutal injury obtained during battle would have been a surprise.

  Once he was cleared, he took purposed strides back to his room. Canith was waiting by the door when he arrived. “No, I don’t need company on this trip.”

  “Come on, man, no one can handle everything alone.” Canith stood upright.

  Yatrell opened his door and stepped inside to gather a few items, including the data tablet the captain provided. “I need to take this one alone. I’m meeting a senator below to discuss the situation.” He pulled on a well worn denim jacket, and stretched a moment to be certain the aches wouldn’t bother him below. “I’ll be fine.”

  “If we don’t hear from you by nineteen hundred, one of us … maybe all of us, will be down for a housewarming.” Canith spoke with great concern for his friend.

  He nodded in acknowledgement. “Alright. I’ll make sure to check in, dad.” He walked out of his room, to move to the relocation platform. Canith followed. As he stepped onto the platform for departure, he projected to his friend. ~Don’t come down. I won’t be alone. If I need company, I’ll find it.~

  A moment later the confinement beam surrounded him, and then the light of the relocation process took him to the planet, not four lengths from the green house by the shore.

  A moment after he arrived he heard, “Commander Yatrell Jae, I assume?” The voice belonged to an older man, his head full of grey, and his eyes were like cold steel. Yatrell nodded and extended a proper formal greeting, to which the Senator responded, “We’re not on the Senate floor, or on your starship. No need for formalities. Right now, we’re just two men with a mutual loss of a dear friend. Come, I’ll show you around.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Yatrell followed the senator to the house. When they approached, there was a long white porch that wrapped the dark green home. The men stepped onto it, and they were greeted by a friendly woman’s voice. Yatrell looked at the senator then back at the house.

  “The voice is Sam’s wife. He had it programmed to greet him, and interact where the computer does, long before she was abducted and amalgamated.” The older man told the computer who he was and that he brought the new owner of the house. The computer acknowledged in the same sweet woman’s voice, and the door opened.

  “Sam? I never knew his first name.” Yatrell stepped into the living room, and saw the furniture covered by simple cloth. The room was easily ten l
engths long and nearly that wide.

  The older man chuckled, “That doesn’t surprise me. He was a very private man. I served with him during his first tour with the space fleet. The war then took its toll on him, but he still managed to meet her.” He gestured to a picture of a dark haired woman with dazzling brown eyes. “He was a changed man for years after that. They married, settled here, and then that stone…” The man shook his head and walked through the living room and into an opened dining and kitchen area. “You want a drink?”

  Yatrell looked around the house as he walked. “Yeah.”

  “Any preference?”

  “No, whatever ya got.” Yatrell stopped at a picture of Sam Rex and his wife standing outside of this house. He found himself drawn to the necklace she was wearing. It matched the description of the amulet that he was told to give to Anara.

  The senator laughed. “It’s whatever you’ve got. I’m now the guest in the house.” He poured two short glasses of a very strong beverage and dropped ice cubes into them. He walked over to Yatrell and handed him one glass, “They couldn’t have children. This house was designed for it though. Could have been enlarged too, but that didn’t happen.” Both men poured some of their drinks down their throats while looking at the photo.

  “What happened?” Yatrell gestured to the picture. “They look very happy.”

  “That picture… I took it the day he celebrated his official retirement. He retired to fill this house with children, and to spend time with his wife, days after they were married. I’d never seen the man happier. About a year into their life together, she finally explained that her childbearing was in question so they were going to adopt. That seemed to be going on the right path for a while, until that amulet became her passion.

  “I never thought she’d see anything beyond him, but she swore that amulet could change things if the second stone was ever brought together with hers.” The senator threw back his drink again. “She knew what it meant, and tried desperately to explain it to anyone that would listen. Rex most of all. Finally, she spent the little bit of savings they had to bring home a solo piloted space ship. It could have held them both, but he didn’t want her to go. He got stubborn and couldn’t believe she’d leave without him. He refused to get on the ship. He died the day she left.”

  “She went looking for this second stone?” Yatrell couldn’t take his eyes off of the image.

  “That’s what she kept saying. Somehow, she sent the ship on autopilot back here. She wrapped the amulet in an old fashioned type of paper, and wrote him a note. I couldn’t tell you what it said. He’d locked it up before I made it here after I heard the news. She included a video message explaining her last moments before being taken by the Cybernetics. Those two were a part of each other. All of her logs showed how much she needed to have been with him, but she was so stubborn about that stone. She swore somehow the changes would allow her to give him the children they both wanted, and she alluded to many other things that none of us fully grasped. He was my friend, but so was she. Their loss pains me to no end.”

  Yatrell turned away from the image, and looked out the side window, seeing the beach stretch far from the house. “How did he end up back in the stars?”

  “The long of it, he became obsessed with her ship. He enhanced it, altered it and I think, he hoped to be able to find her. The obsession became too much to bear. He was starting to lose touch with everything, and everyone else. As his friend, I couldn’t let him do it. The short of it, I forced him back into service.”

  He threw back the rest of his drink, and walked into the kitchen to place it onto the cleaning counter. The counter moved immediately and pulled it into a wall dishwasher and then dispensed it on the far end when it ran the cycle.

  “I used my then, newly reached, position as senator to put one of the most intensely tactical minds we had back on a starship. The war needed his leadership, and I needed my friend to find himself again. I don’t think he ever did. Although, I think you, and a few others might have helped ease some of the strain he felt.”

  Yatrell looked down. “When I came on the ship, I was fourteen. I had been adopted by some kind people who had no grasp about how to deal with telepathy. My whole life, until that point, was spent trying to conform to my parents thoughts of me. They tried different means and various tactics to teach me how to behave and how not to listen. I can’t shut this off.”

  He tapped his head. “I hear everything, all the time. It’s a lot like running music while working on a report. It’s background noise, only there’s no off switch. Until I met the captain, no one just accepted me. I lied to get my first post. I told everyone I was sixteen. Minimum age to begin training, and eventually get a post. I had to get off this planet. The captain wasn’t assigned to train me, but he did find out about me and cornered me one day on the age issue. I begged him not to force me back, and he promised not to, as long as I consistently exceeded expectations.”

  Yatrell finally took another drink from his glass, this sip smaller than the last. “He … wasn’t disappointed. I made a lot of enemies along the way, but the captain stood by me. He encouraged me to use my ability … often curse, when it would help the fleet or the ship. Eventually, he became one of the few people who knew my secret, and could be trusted with that and more. He saved my butt, and evidently I his. In his last moments, he told me he viewed me like his child. Oddly, that didn’t surprise me as I think it should have.”

  The senator laughed, ”Yatrell, my boy, that man spoke of you from the moment he found out how old you really were. You had already proven yourself in his eyes by that point, and he was determined not to let you return to whatever forced you onto a starship and into a war two years early. He took great pride in your accomplishments, both with the academics you pursued in search of an officers position, and in the knowledge you obtained in weapons. So yes, he did indeed accept you as part of his family. Thanks to Rex, I know your entire military story, and I have had to keep my mouth shut about much of it for the last eleven years.”

  Yatrell looked at the senator, surprised, “I… see.” He finished his drink like it was the most interesting thing he had to do all day. As he did, his mind wandered across many things in his life. Certain names and faces surfaced again and again. “I apologize for any trouble I may have caused along the way. I know the captain had to… “ He paused a moment to consider his words, “cover my tracks, several times.”

  Again, the senator found Yatrell humorous and he laughed, “That you did boy. There were times I had to discuss Sam’s career with him over it, but… things turned out well in the end. When you contacted the surface about the house, I wasn’t at all surprised that it was you he gave it to. He was proud of you. He defended every impulsive, questionable choice you ever made, because, in his eyes, you earned it. With that kind of attachment, it is only right this is yours.” The senator gestured to the younger man. “Come, I’ll show you to his workshop.” He chuckled again. “Sorry, your workshop.”

  Yatrell followed him down a long hall and, what seemed like, into a wall. Inside the wall was a door that opened into a lift. They took it downward. When it came to a stop, the initial walls were transparent. It was an amazing sight to behold as they looked up into the ocean waters full of life. Yatrell gaped at the sight until his awe was interrupted by the senator who gently nudged him.

  “Ah, right sir.”

  He followed behind the senator and into a room full of tools to his right, and a very large two person space craft. This craft had part of the hull in pieces, and the door was left open.

  Yatrell stepped onto the craft, and the senator followed. “Hum… he had a lot he was working with on here.”

  He walked into a short hall. To his right was the cockpit with the expected controls, two seats, and what looked like one pull down seat in the wall behind the co-pilot’s seat. He turned left, and walked into an area that resembled a studio flat, complete with kitchen area and a slightly private restroom. “A
ll the pleasantries of home.” He chuckled. “Maybe I should take this back to the ship and make this my quarters.”

  “You can do with it as you wish, Yatrell. Everything here is yours now. There are no debts on the property and there is nothing that says you can’t adjust what you wish.”

  Yatrell nodded, and walked to the front and sat in the pilot’s chair. He projected back to the senator, ~Thanks for the tour,~ as he started to pull up the computer system.

  Hearing Yatrell in his head, the senator felt an unintentional twitch above his left eye. He walked up toward the front to join Yatrell. “Listen, my boy, before I head out I want you to know something. Thanks to Rex I know you better than most people in the Senate. They know your record, I’ve heard about you, as a man. If you ever need something, come see me. I’ll see if I can help you make it happen.”

  Yatrell stopped and looked at the older man in the eye. “Senator, I’m grateful for your offer and effort in my behalf, but I still don’t know your name.”

  The old man’s eyes danced as he chuckled at the realization they had spent the afternoon together without the formality. “I’m Thorp, but on the Senate floor, I’m Senator Zukow. If you need anything, Commander, please contact me.” He turned, and walked out of the cockpit, calling back his goodbye as he left.

  Yatrell was alone on the ship. He entered the information from the data tablet that he could recall, and he saw the ship’s systems come alive. A full report about the current status scrolled across his screen alongside the original plans. He took note of it, and stepped outside to see what tools and supplies were still useable. Then he got to work on the ship, trying to put it back together.

  As he moved through the shop, he found the intended alterations, and chose to add them to the little shuttle. As he did, he realized many of them were anti-cybernetic in design. Although this was positive to him, he was also concerned about protection from Ven forced entry. As he worked, he used the home computer to help research Ven defensive measures.

  Yatrell found himself working well into the night. When his body finally told him to sleep, his mind continued to race. He walked back into the small living area and spread out on the bed. He carefully tried to reach out to Kala across light years. As he connected to her mind, he could tell she was in an uneasy sleep. He hesitated to project, for fear of waking her.