by Calista Skye
Tessa giggled happily at the alien's cheesy line, and she even blushed a little. “Thaaank youuuu! That's so sweet!”
Olivia noticed her touching her hair and her neck and giving every sign that she was available and interested. She had never seen her sister acting so... girly.
The alien gave Devon a friendly nod, as if they were old war buddies. “You keep good company, too,” he said to Tessa. “This MP is an army of one. He doesn't want you getting past, you're not getting past, and that's it. Stopped four death commandos just like that last night. We had to turn around and go home. No way we'd get past that one.”
Now Devon shone with pride like a beacon. The alien knew how to handle people.
He leaned on the table with his round little butt, chatting with Tessa and facing away from Olivia. He still hadn't acknowledged her existence, and she was feeling both hurt and annoyed. It was she who had taken down his damn death commando, and only the night before he's said that he was intrigued. But now he was ignoring her completely. Well, maybe he'd heard that she was the new liaison officer, and he wanted to not make things awkward for her. But he could at least have showed some sign that he recognized her.
“Ohmigod, you only came here two days ago?” Tessa happily exclaimed after their conversation had gone on for a while. Have you seen the station? I'll show you!”
“Very kind of you,” the alien said. “And I'm sure you can show me more than just the station.”
Olivia couldn't see his face, but she was sure that statement had to be accompanied by some very suggestive facial expressions.
Tessa gasped in surprised joy and her eyes shone brighter than ever. “Of course! I'll show you anything you want. And you can show me some things, too, right?”
“I'm sure I can. In fact, if you look closely, you can probably see some things right now.”
Tessan openly stared at the alien hunk's crotch and gasped again. “Is that for me? Ohmigod, you'll split me in half. Okay, let's go!”
It had to be the least subtle pickup attempt in the history of the world, Olivia thought. Tessa was openly throwing herself at the alien, and he wasn't turning her away. Well, that was one consequence of being a space marine – when you had a mission, you accomplished it no matter what. Subtlety was not a space marine quality, and Tessa had just taken the shortest route to her objective. She got to her feet and tried to drag the large alien away, but he didn't budge. He seemed to look around the room.
Then he suddenly turned around and lazily leaned over the table to Olivia, and before she could react, his mouth was by her ear.
“Know this: I'm your fate,” he growled into her ear. “You must prepare. There's not much time.” His crystal clear, sky blue eyes pierced her soul as he locked eyes with her. There was no mirth in him, no flirting. He was dead serious. And she was sure he had not been drinking at all.
He held her gaze for three heartbeats, then turned away. Olivia couldn't help gasping at the intensity he radiated straight at her.
“I'll be looking forward to the tour of the station,” he said to Tessa, and she stared at him in excited confusion.
Olivia felt a little pang of jealousy again, even though it was completely irrational. She was under orders not to get near that guy. Tessa, on the other hand, could do as she wanted. And she probably needed some action. They all did. The pre-war tensions were running high.
Then Ator'aq engaged with the girls at another table, and Tessa stared at him with obvious hurt in her eyes. She had pinned real hope to this encounter. Well, Olivia thought, being disappointed by men was something that any woman had to experience many times in her life these days. She had been disappointed many times herself.
What had he said? He was her fate? What was that supposed to mean? She had no idea, but suddenly she felt sober, and the bar felt chilly.
The other aliens were also flirting with girls, and soon all three had a girl of their own on their arm and made their exit in a gaggle of noisy aliens and giggling females.
Maybe their whole army was just made up of players. Except Ator'aq, Olivia noticed. He had made the rounds in the bar, but he left alone, to the visible disappointment of pretty much every female in the bar and the relief of every male.
The bar was suddenly much quieter. “Well,” Olivia said and stifled a yawn. “I guess that's it for me tonight. I won't be on MP duty tomorrow, by the way. Special task.”
“Now that you're an officer, I don't guess you'll be on MP duty at all,” Devon said, still clearly happy and honored that the alien general had singled him out for special attention. “No problem, lieutenant. Don't forget us enlisted guys when you make general, okay?”
Olivia laughed out loud and got to her feet. “You're too much, space marine. You just keep your head straight on your shoulders.”
She leaned over her friend and lowered her voice, speaking straight into his ear. “Now be a good and horny marine and pick up a girl. They all saw General Ator'aq shake hands with you, they know you're hot shit. Every chick in here wants you now. Capitalize on that. Tomorrow, we may all be dead. P'asperad astra!”
“P'asperad astra,” Devon reflexively repeated the Space Marine Corps motto Per aspera ad astra that was routinely butchered because the actual phrase was too hard to say right. “And goodnight, General.”
He was a good guy.
Olivia cuffed him on the shoulder and sauntered out. Through hardships to the stars. Sure, getting to the stars could sometimes mean hardship, she had no doubts about that. But Devon seemed to think she might make general and be able to fasten actual silver stars to her shoulder.
Well, she'd see about that. Tomorrow, on her first day as liaison with that damn sexy alien general, she'd probably find out just how much aspera she'd have to go through to get to the astra.
7
She only had her old fatigues, and she wasn't sure if they were appropriate for liaison duty. But that was the only uniform she had that would completely conceal the exoskeleton. At least now she had one golden bar on each shoulder and the name tag 'Cooper' on her chest.
The secret exoskeleton was a super high tech device that it had taken many decades to perfect. It was extremely expensive and not set to be deployed to ordinary forces for many years. But Military Intelligence had no limits on its budget after the Ethereals had destroyed the colony on the Moon. Everything had to be done to get any information about those aliens, and money was no object.
The exoskel itself consisted of smooth, gray form-fitting and interlocking parts that Olivia fastened to her arms and legs and that would make her several times stronger than she really was.
The material was very exotic and could not get anywhere near plastic or aluminum, or it would melt and become useless. It had internal power sources that no one had been able to explain to Olivia, but the main point was that very little energy was needed to power it. The strength and power lay in the material itself. But in the emergency state, she could activate it to burn all its energy on a single move. That would be an epic move, Olivia had been told. She hoped she would never experience it.
At first it had been hard to walk while wearing the exoskel, because if it was triggered too hard, it would send her jumping to the ceiling. She had learned to move smoothly to keep from triggering the thing too much, which would happen if she prepared her muscles for extra effort. But she had not perfected it yet, and her walk could get jerky at times, especially if she was nervous.
She looked in the mirror in her new officer's quarters – a tiny little room with its own bathroom. Well, the exoskel was hidden, alright. And the uniform was just tight enough to show off her voluptuous shape. She adjusted her beret to set it at a better angle and show off more of her shiny black hair.
She looked pretty fetching. And after all, those guys wore damn animal skins and swords. She didn't need a dress uniform.
She grabbed her infopad and left her room.
8
The Braxians had been given the whole former tourist
accommodation section as their barracks. No tourists would come to the International Space City until the war with the Ethereals was won. If the war was lost, there probably wouldn't be any tourists ever again.
It meant that the aliens had the best quarters on the station, with both luxurious rooms and nice views of the Earth. Even Earth officers had to make do with much less nice accommodations. The aliens had been given the best of everything.
It spoke volumes about how much Earth depended on the Braxians to help them against the Ethereals. Especially because the alien warriors didn't really need barracks on the station – the spaceship they had arrived in was so big it must have ample room for thousands.
There were Earth MPs at the door to the tourist section, now called the Friendship section. They saluted Olivia as she opened the door and entered.
The corridor was empty, and there was a faint smell of exotic spices in the air. She slowly made her way along the corridor, enjoying the view of the Earth just seeming to hang outside the large windows on one side. Until now, she had hardly laid eyes on her home planet from space. Windows and nice views were not a priority for space marines.
Suddenly one of the doors to her left was violently broken open with a jarring bang, and two large shapes erupted into the corridor. There was a cacophony of deep roars and yells and metallic bangs, and Olivia stopped in her tracks, reflexively crouched near the outer wall and felt for her gun before she remembered that she wasn't carrying one.
But she had her combat visor on her and quickly put it on. It only told her what she could see for herself – one Hostile! person was fighting a Neutral person with Edged weapons. And they were fast and violent, so erratic and abrupt in their moves that she had trouble identifying them.
They roared and yelled and heaved at each other with huge swords that glinted blue in the earthshine from outside the window. They were both bare-chested, and they kept moving, not standing still for a moment. Their sword fight was so violent and uncontrolled that it was obviously a fight to the death, not the dainty, carefully choreographed dance-like fighting that she knew from countless sci-fi movies. Their roars and the metallic clangs filled the corridor, and Olivia stayed crouched down while the combat visor showed her the whole thing from several angles.
Now she saw who they were – it was Ator'aq and the death commando who had attacked Devon and who Olivia had been forced to take down. Well, with her exoskeleton, she could probably defend herself okay if they got too close now, too.
It was both a frightening and exhilarating display of wildness and ferocity of fighting. Bright green sparks flew whenever one of the combatants would parry a stroke from the other, and their shouts and yells were so loud that they instilled a terror all by themselves. The other Braxian was larger and heavier, but Ator'aq seemed to be winning, steadily pushing the other back, towards Olivia. She'd have to take off and get out of harm's way if they got much closer.
Then Ator'aq said one sharp word in an alien language, and the fight immediately came to a halt. The other Braxian, who was still wearing his kilt of animal furs, straightened up and held the hilt of his sword out to his superior, as if demonstrating that his sword would always be in that superior's service.
Olivia breathed out and straightened. They had been practicing. But it sure could have fooled her.
General Ator'aq nodded once to his subordinate. Then the most extraordinary thing happened. Ator'aq held out his bare sword with a straight arm, and the other alien did the same. Then they each touched a bare arm up against the edge of other's sword, giving themselves shallow cuts. It was only just enough to draw blood, but seeing them perform what was obviously an ancient ritual made Olivia have to concentrate to not let her jaw drop. It was such a primitive thing to do that she felt dizzy, as if the stone age had collided with the space age right in front of her.
The other alien sheathed his sword. Then he sent Olivia an unfriendly glance and sauntered away. Ator'aq sheathed his sword as well and crossed his huge arms across his chest. Then he just stood there smirking at her, feet far apart, as steady as a mountain range.
He was still further away than normal conversation distance, and a part of her resented having to walk over to him and not the other way around. Well, she was the junior officer here, and protocol was clear on the matter. Even so, she demonstratively looked him right in the eye for two seconds before she walked over. He would know she did what she had to do.
“Second Lieutenant Cooper, Space Marine Corps, reporting for liaison duty, sir!”
She saluted as perfectly as only a space marine could.
“Olivia Cooper,” the alien said slowly, looking her up and down, pausing briefly by her chest and hips. “Now promoted, I see. From enlisted to officer. That's not very common in your world. Was it because you knocked my death commando on his ass?”
“I don't know, sir.”
“I see. Well, I'm going to guess that it was. Normally, one is not promoted for knocking out allied forces. That's usually reserved for those who have taken out an enemy. Makes me wonder.”
No question or order. Don't expect a reply from a space marine.
His eyes pierced her again, and she had an impulse to look away, but she withstood it. There was huge authority and confidence in his eyes, but she had all the authority and confidence of the Space Marine Corps behind her.
They stood and stared at each other for a few seconds.
Then the alien smirked. “I see you're not a pushover, Olivia. Good. Braxians don't respect pushovers. Welcome to our barracks.”
He turned around and started walking down the corridor, and Olivia fell into step beside him. “We don't use ranks. We only use names. Except that my men sometimes refer to me as Lord. There is a reason for that, but it is none of your concern at this time. Follow so far?”
“Yes, General.”
The alien looked down at her, bemused. “You disapprove, Olivia?”
“I'm a space marine, General.”
“And you have your own protocol to follow. Very well.” He gestured towards the window.
“It's a very attractive planet you come from. Blue and white, green and brown. It's worth defending. And it's a worthy task, an honorable task. What are you willing to do for you planet, Olivia?”
“Sir?”
“It's a simple enough question. Now answer it.”
“Sir, I would follow orders.”
“Really? I would think that goes without saying. Anything else?”
Olivia thought fast. Space marines didn't spend much time thinking about philosophical questions. She's just tell the truth. “I would go to my death for the planet, sir. That is what a space marine does. And I would take as many damn fairies with me as possible.”
The alien nodded once. “The ultimate sacrifice. Yes, I would also expect that of my warriors. And that is all that matters. Our methods are different, but our objectives are the same. And the mindset, too. Something for you to keep in mind, Olivia.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Except, of course, that my men would go to their deaths for your planet. Would you likewise die for our planet, the sacred and ancient Brax?”
Olivia thought furiously. Was this a test? Should she try a diplomatic answer, try to wiggle out of this? These people seemed to value honesty. And diplomacy had never been her way.
“I don't know, sir.”
“So noted,” the alien said. She had no idea if she had failed or passed the test.
“Sir, may I ask you a question?”
“You may.”
“That thing you did a few minutes ago. I mean, after your fight with your... companion. The ritual. What was that?”
“You mean the wetting of the blades with blood? Our swords are sacred and may not be returned to their homes without drawing blood. Their homes being their scabbards. They are not for show. They will not approve of being drawn for no purpose, like warriors being pulled out of their beds at night and then told it was just a joke. They hav
e their honor.”
“Do you have any other weapons, sir?”
The general glanced down at her again. “We do. But the sword is always our main weapon. We strongly dislike being without it. That's why my companion felt slighted by your friend outside that bar. He has not been apart from his sword since it was passed to him eighteen years ago, and the idea of it made him lose his temper. He had also had a drink or two. His name is Gar'ox. Kindly use it from now on.”
“Sir, have you often fought the Ethereals with swords?”
The alien slowed down and opened a door, holding it open for Olivia to enter. Normally, she as the junior officer would have entered last, but she saw no way of accomplishing that without being ridiculous.
It had obviously once been a suite, and it still was, but the furniture must have been discarded and it looked like an office. Two Braxians were there, surrounded by exotic equipment and screens that showed diagrams and alien writing.
“Our strategic and tactical center,” Ator'aq said, ignoring her question. “Here we plan the downfall of the Ethereal menace.”
Olivia looked around. Two Braxians and a heap of equipment was their whole tactical center?
“Sir, is there any more than this? On your ship, perhaps?”
“Oh, we have a very fine operations center on the ship. But I thought I'd let the personnel get off that old barge for a little while and see some new scenery. This is Harow and Tarx, my brightest tacticians. Any progress?”
“We have been able to add a little to our basic intel about the Ethereals,” one of the men said. He was wearing loose leather pants and a red shirt that hung loosely around his large muscles. “They are still in this solar system, but they're keeping far away and seem to be staying around the largest planet. No sign of any plans for departure. Apart from that, they seem to have behaved in the same way here as in every other solar system they've defiled with their presence.”
