Universe of the Soul

by Jennifer Mandelas

  “Yeah, blasted the whole hallway.” He could feel Adri's hand gently touch his own. He wondered if she even realized what she was doing.

  “Piontek?”

  Adri glanced away at the far side of the infirmary. “Doubtful. He's in surgery now.”

  Gray took a moment to really study Adri's appearance. “You look awful.”

  Adri reached up to gingerly touch the swelling around her eye. “Gee, thanks.”

  “Are you sticking around?” he asked, his voice sliding to a whisper as the will to remain conscious weakened.

  “Somebody's got to do it,” Adri replied, with a small smile.

  “You should lie down.” Gray blinked as his vision wavered.

  Adri shrugged, and then winced. “I hate infirmaries. The only way Doctor Gloom here is getting me into one of those beds is if he drugs - ” her eyes widened and her body jerked instinctively as the doctor removed the old fashioned needle from the back of her arm.

  “My thoughts exactly, dear,” Doctor Geiger said pleasantly. “Luckily I still have these old syringes stashed in case of emergencies. You always managed to hear my other equipment charging up and dodge.

  “Danwe.” Adri muttered as she began to slide off the bed.

  Gray couldn't help the smile tugging at his mouth as his eyes closed. He could hear Adri's slurring protests as the doctor half carried her to the next bed over and laid her down. The last thing he heard before drifting back was Geiger's voice; “Now, let's see what the damage is…By Danwe Rael, why are you wearing a swimsuit under your uniform?”

  Gray opened his eyes again…moments later? Hours later? A glance to his right found Adri in the bed next to him, sleeping. The swelling around her eye had gone down considerably, making him wonder just how long he'd been unconscious.

  “Lieutenant Grayson,”

  Gray turned and saw Duane walk up to his bed. “Hello Duane. What are you in for?”

  “Minor scrapes and bruises. I've just been released.” Duane replied. He had an abundance of skin tape around his right eye and down the side of his face. The pale cream color stuck out oddly against his magenta complexion.

  “How's Ad-the L.C.?” Gray pushed himself up into a sitting position. His head swam for a moment, and then settled.

  Duane glanced over at Adri. “Some deep internal bruising, a couple of broken ribs, and so on. She said she got in a fistfight with the Belligerent Coalition leader. Can you imagine?”

  Gray shook his head carefully. “It's a bit hard to believe.”

  Duane bit his lower lip a bit apprehensively. “This whole episode is a bit hard to believe.”

  “Have you heard all the details?” Gray asked. “How did they get aboard the ship? What were they doing once they got here? Do the analysts have any theories yet?”

  “Rumors I've heard in the past few hours from others here in the infirmary are pretty wild. My guess is nobody has any good idea. You've gotta admit, knowing that the Belligerents can just randomly appear on the ship is really freaky.”

  “They simply appeared? They didn't come in through the docking bay?” Gray was incredulous. If the Belligerent Coalition had discovered the ability to…teleport somehow, it could very well change the tide of the whole war. The Galactic Commonwealth had always been at the forefront of new technology, but he'd heard nothing about any feasible plans that would allow a being to teleport from one place to another. Certainly not the ship-to-ship distance that would have been needed to keep the enemy ship from appearing on the Oreallus's sensors.

  “Yeah, it's got everyone running scared. The captain has called up the security team onto the bridge to protect him. Another creepy thing is that there aren't enough enemy bodies to equal the reported number of attacking troops. At least, that's what I've heard. Geiger makes a habit of confiscating everyone's communicators once they enter the infirmary. Darned annoying when you want to know what's going on,”

  Gray made an agreeing grunting noise, deep in thought. “This whole setup since I arrived has been out of character for a typical Belligerent strategy.”

  Duane nodded. “Everything they've done seems…”

  “To be aimed at the L.C.” Gray finished. “Whoever's in charge seems determined to take Adri down, one way or another. They tried to take her prisoner on Rema. When that didn't work, they moved on to annihilation.”

  Duane blinked at the unfamiliar use of Adri's given name. “It would seem so. Speaking of Adri, just how…er…close are you two?”

  Gray gingerly touched the back of his head to feel the damage. “Not as close as I would like. But we're getting there.”

  The paranthian eyed him with a mixture of astonishment and glee. “Are you trying to date the L.C.?”

  “Don't be ridiculous. Adri is not the kind of woman you date. She's the kind of woman you have to actively pursue and then drown in seduction before she realizes you're serious.” Gray glanced at the side table and wished for a glass of water. Or even coffee.

  “So you're…”

  “Going to marry her.” Gray replied confidently. “She's the one I've been waiting for.”

  Gray strode into the infirmary and over to Adri's bed. He smiled when he saw that she was sitting up, her arms folded across her chest, looking both seriously annoyed and terribly bored. “How you feeling?’

  Adri gave him a mutinous glare. “Ready to kill someone. Our demon doctor says forty-seven more hours before he'll even consider letting me out of here.”

  “Hmm,” Gray replied diplomatically. “Hey, did you know we're passing Junus now? We dropped back down to normal speed while we wait for a relay message from one of the moons in this system.”

  Adri waved her hand dismissively. “What's the update?”

  Adri had been confined to the infirmary for three days, an eternity for someone who was always active. The first two days the doctor had kept her unconscious, knowing it was the only way to keep the lieutenant commander still long enough for her wounds to heal. Since Gray had been released the day following the attack, he'd faithfully come every day to sit by her side. This was the first time, however, that she would be fully alert and coherent.

  “What are the analysts saying about the attack?” Adri demanded. “What is the total damage to the ship? Any prisoners? Come on Gray, you've got to give me some information!”

  Gray smiled and took her hand the same way she had when their roles had been reversed days before. “You're sure cute when you're annoyed Adri.”

  “Then I'm about to be beautiful in a minute because I am getting FURIOUS here!”

  Still smiling, he took the hand he held and pressed a kiss on the callused tips of her fingers. Adri stared at him, stunned, feeling as though…she had no idea. He sure knew how to diffuse her temper. “You've got to quit that.”

  “Why?”

  Why indeed? “Because.” The universal non-answer was the best she could come up with.

  Gray laughed. He couldn't help it; the look on her lovely face was one of such confused pleasure that anyone who knew Adri in her lieutenant commander role would have been shocked. Leaning forward he brushed a kiss across her pouting lips, then rested his forehead against hers. Then it slipped out, as if some greater power had deemed it time, even if Gray did not. “I love you Adri.”

  If he had pulled out an ATF and shot her between the eyes, she would have been less surprised. “No you don't,” she stammered.

  With infinite slowness Gray leaned back. “I don't?” he repeated calmly.

  Adri stared up into his dark gray eyes, feeling something uncomfortably akin to panic. His eyes seemed calm as always, but the shadows behind them seemed to reveal something else. Disappointment? Anger? Hurt? At the last thought, Adri swallow. Had she just hurt him?

  “Tell me, Lieutenant Commander,” his cool tone had Adri flinching, “how it is that you think you can dictate my private feelings?”

  She opened her mouth, found she had nothing to say, and closed it again.

  “Good. Th
is wasn't quite the way I had planned to tell you, but there it is. I love you. I think I've loved you the moment I first saw you. You're everything I could ever hope to find. You are intelligent and courageous, and beautiful and sweet and vulnerable and so clueless sometimes.” Here his eyes warmed and he smiled again. “You quite undo me.”

  Somewhere in her mind Adri knew she objected to some of his terms, but all she could sputter was, “I'm not as complicated as you make me sound.”

  “Complicated?” Gray repeated. “Baby, you are so complex you make my head hurt sometimes. Just figuring you out is going to be a life's work.” He leaned forward and kissed her again, firm and brief. “I'm going to thoroughly enjoy it. Once we get married, I'll have all the rights to take on the task.”

  “You're crazy! I'm not marrying you!” How had this conversation gotten so out of hand?

  He grinned and took her hand in his again. “Ever heard the expression ‘crazy in love’? And I will marry you, Adri. Just as soon as you give me the words I want.”

  “Seriously demented.” But she didn't remove her hand. “And I'm not telling you whatever words you think I'm going to say. Seriously, we don't even know each other that well.” Even as she spoke, something inside herself seemed to sigh at the romance of the situation, and sigh again as she tried to ruin it. Adri felt as though there was a war going on inside herself. The side that wanted to fling herself into Gray's arms, however painful that would be with her healing ribs, stood against the side that cringed from the very idea of giving so fragile an organ as her heart to anyone.

  “Sure we do.” Gray replied with his usual confidence. “We've been together for several weeks now. We've worked together, eaten together, spent leisure time together. The only thing we haven't done is sleep together.”

  All of Adri's insides seemed to quicken at the very words. “And we won't.”

  “Yes we will.” Gray pressed a kiss into her palm. Adri could practically feel herself melt. “When we're both ready. I've discovered that I'm a pretty traditional sort of man. When you give me the words. Then I'll know you're ready.”

  “I don't think you get it, Gray.” Adri felt sick with a sort of panicked confusion. “I'm not going to sleep with you, I'm not going to marry you, and I'm certainly not going to give you any words, especially when I don't know what you're even talking about!”

  Gray looked down at her hand in his for a long moment before she drew it away. When he looked back up at her, his eyes were filled with a sort of quiet longing. “Yes, I know. That's why I'm not pushing harder, even though I want to. When you know what the words are, and are ready to tell me, you will.”

  “Why are you so sure?”

  Before he could reply, his communicator blipped. [Tolsto to Grayson,]

  “I'll be right back,” Gray murmured before rising and brushing his earpiece. [Grayson here, what's the problem?] As the security ensign talked, Gray moved out of hearing range, leaving Adri stuck in the bed, more confused and frightened than she had been in many years.

  How in the world had this happened? How, by Danwe, had she allowed Gray to fall in love with her? More importantly, what was she to do about it? Did she want to do anything about it? The idea of kicking Gray out of her life right when she had realized that she was starting to depend on him hurt the very delicate organ she had spent most of her life trying to protect. But fear of worse pain to come if she allowed him to stick caused an equal pain. And what of guilt? She liked Gray, more than she wished to analyze. How could she untangle herself from a relationship she had been sucked into without hurting the other half of the relationship, regardless of her own feelings?

  “Something wrong, L.C.?”

  Adri started at the sound of Duane's voice. She glanced over to see that he had walked up to her bedside while she struggled in the chaos of her thoughts. “I've gotten myself into a mess,” she murmured, watching Gray as he continued to talk on his communicator and study something on the infirmary's computer bank. “I'm so confused, Duane. I'm way over my head, here.”

  “Yeah, the lieutenant has that effect on people. He smiles and talks so pleasantly that you don't know you've been stepped over until you're looking at his back.” Duane grinned suddenly and nudged her shoulder. “I like him, if you ask me.”

  “I didn't,” Adri muttered.

  “Do you want to know why?”

  “Not really.”

  “He's genuine. He says what he thinks, no games, no masks. He never makes a fuss about little things, and never compromises on the big things. But I guess the real reason I like him is because he makes you happy. I've been your friend for years now, probably your only friend, and this is the first time I've actually seen you really happy. ”

  Gray suddenly rushed over to them, carrying one of Doctor Geiger's holoboards. “You've got to see this, Adri. Tolsto may have hit upon the Belligerent's plan.”

  The moment you realize that you want something that you've always had, that something suddenly becomes impossible to acquire.

  -Undarian Proverb

  Chapter Fifteen

  Adri could feel her adrenaline begin to race as she stared down at the schematics of the ship while Gray talked. It was like staring at a complicated code, knowing that the key was just under your nose, waiting for your mind to catch on.

  “Although their small raiding craft managed to get within a hundred meters of the Oreallus's docking bay,” Gray was saying, “it didn't actually land. The best the analysts can come up with is that they somehow managed to - ”

  “Teleport,” Adri answered.

  Duane shook his head. “Oh come on! Nobody has cracked the secret to organic teleportation! How would the Belligerent Coalition know that secret before us? The Commonwealth has always had the upper hand in technological innovation.” He glared at Adri as she stared down at the schematics hologram in her hands. “Don't say you think they can teleport! If they could, why don't they use it all the time? Are either of you even listening to me?!”

  Gray gave the paranthian a conciliatory pat on the shoulder as he watched Adri think. His declaration of love had been premature, but perhaps it was for the best. Now that Adri knew exactly what he wanted, he wouldn't have to hide his own emotions. Just watching her made him fell sappy inside. Suddenly Adri looked up, the faint frown lines on her forehead and the urgency in her eyes drawing him back to the situation at hand.

  “Gray, have you inspected all the areas that were known to have been penetrated by the Belligerents during the raid?” she demanded.

  “Not personally. I've been too busy collecting damage reports and working up the battle schematics for analysis since I got out of here to go over the whole area myself.”

  Something in Adri tensed. “Has anyone inspected?”

  “Sergeant Tolsto has done a brief scan, and doubtlessly maintenance has been through,”

  “But none of them would actually be looking for anything out of order, would they?” Adri muttered impatiently.

  Gray had a bad feeling that he was beginning to catch on. “No, they wouldn't.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Duane wanted to know. “Looking for what?”

  “Time-sensitive fragmentation devices,” Adri snapped.

  Duane's complexion lost some of its brilliance. “Bombs? You think there are time bombs on our ship?!”

  Adri tapped the holoboard. “Almost certain. Sergeant Tolsto reports that the enemy appeared in these locations, essentially at once,” she pointed to the locations that blinked red on the board. “Some of these places are obvious, such as the Engine Room and the munitions stores, but others appear really random, like the tertiary vehicle warehouse. But look at its location within the blueprint of the ship: its right over a major energy line that feeds the ship. If a big enough bomb was placed somewhere within the room, the chain reaction along the energy strain could practically split the ship in two.”

  Duane made an incoherent moaning sound.

  Gray frowned. “But i
f that would do it, why go to all these other places?”

  “All these other areas also have proximity to something major. A bomb in the munitions stores would take out the whole port side of the Oreallus's warehouse. That alone would cripple us, making us easy targets. Am I correct, Duane?”

  Duane forced himself to swallow. “Yep.”

  “Why haven't they gone off?” Gray inquired. He didn't doubt Adri's take on the situation, it made too much sense.

  It was Duane who answered, shakily. “A bomb of such a nature as to take out the entire munitions store, or the tertiary vehicle warehouse would be very fragile and temperamental. Nearly impossible to transport safely. Better to bring them in disarmed, set them up where you want them, and then finish the process there. The only setback to that is that it would take a long time for the bomb to fully load to full detonation capacity.”

  “How long?” Gray demanded, leaping to his feet and reaching for his communicator.

  “About seventy-two hours. Any time now.”

  Gray contacted his security team and began to bark orders. He turned to confirm the schematics with Adri only to see her out of bed, punching the code into the locker next to her. She pulled out her jacket and boots and clipped on her earpiece before turning to him. “Let's run. I'll contact the bridge.”

  Running turned out to be painful, but Adri blocked the pain from her mind. Besides, even with the pain and the knowledge that they could be blasted to smithereens at any second, it was nice to be up and moving, her fighting elegy singing in her blood. Well, might as well admit it all; up and moving with Gray. Even if he was a crazy man who seemed to believe that they were going to get married.

  Married. Huh.

  Gray talked rapidly on his communicator as they ran, ordering the security team to race to the designated points and search for anything amiss. The bombs had to be concealed somehow so that they couldn't be discovered prematurely. [Search for anything out of place, even if it's nothing but a discolored wall panel.]

  They had a moment to catch their breath in the lift as they made their way down to the pertinent levels. Neither spoke until Gray's earpiece crackled, [Tolsto to Grayson, I'm in the tertiary vehicle warehouse. My squad and I have discovered a vehicle seven centimeters off its mark. There's something secured to the underside. Whatever it is, it's big.]