Phasers of Anstractor

by Greg Dragon

  "But what if someone as powerful as you were to become dark, Commander? With your knowledge of the crystals, the las-sword and seeker abilities, we would not be able to slow you down, let alone stop you."

  "I was chosen to guard the crystals, Dott. I cannot deviate. If ever I were to do the things that you suggest, my masters would come for me and destroy me in an instant. You have nothing to worry about. The only demons I have are my own. I would sooner sink a blade into my own chest before turning on those who I’ve sworn to protect."

  Dott was not convinced, but she was happy to hear it. She knew that within a week's time she would have the power and responsibility of a Phaser Ace and after a visit from the Supreme Leader, she was already looking forward to it.

  ~*~*~*~

  When Marika Tsuno stepped out of the crystal room within the Phaser halls of Vestalia, she felt as if she had been gone for many months. She had jumped with Marian to Luca but things had escalated to the point where Marian had begged her to return home to talk to the Phasers. Her first instinct was to find Val, but Marian was unstable and she knew that if she left her alone for long, there was a good chance the woman would try to take on the Felitians all by herself. She all but ignored the numerous recruits that tried to talk to her as she marched for the elevators, waving and nodding as she went, but not giving them eye contact or conversation. When she reached Tayden’s floor, she almost ran her over as she sprinted out of the elevator shaft.

  “Marika, when did you girls return?” Tayden asked as she sidestepped the assassin and touched her on the arm.

  “Tayden! Good. I was looking for you,” Marika said. “Luca needs us; they need Phaser power badly. Marian is trying to do it all herself and since she’s fighting with Rafian, she won’t come ask. So, I’m here, and I am going back, but I need agents and recruits to accompany me.” She spoke rapidly, her hands gesturing wildly.

  “So, let me get this straight, since you’re rambling a bit, girl. Marian, who—Maker guide her heart—is a sister that I love to death, caught a temper tantrum and fled back home to her galaxy. In doing this, she left behind her agency, her duties and her husband, with no care for what is happening here—“

  Marika, who saw where Tayden was going with her refusal, felt the need to interrupt, even though her rank decreed that she listen to her commander.

  “Tayden, please stop. It’s not like that. Marian just wanted to check in on her people. Rafian wasn’t—“

  After raising her hand to Marika’s face to signal her silence, the tiny commander backed up a step and crossed her arms with a smile on her face. “When did you start thyping Marian VCA, Marika? This is too funny. I would call myself shocked, but considering what Raf’s been doing to her for so long, I’m kind of proud of her. I just didn’t expect it to be you. Aren’t you and Val—wait. Is this serious, or are you girls just playing around?”

  Marika was becoming agitated with Tayden. It wouldn’t be long before Marian got herself in trouble if she felt like she wasn’t going to get help from the Phasers. She needed help and Tayden’s jealousy and defensive nature when it came to Rafian was making her focus on things that were not important. Before she could think better of it, she shot the commander a dark glance and spoke again, this time firm in the fact that she would not be interrupted.

  “Look, I am not talking about Rafian okay? A sister and her nation of people are dealing with a planet wide genocide, just like here! If we cannot help them, then tell me that, but do not delay me further with gossipy schtill and trivial accusations. Marian’s people have been bombed and burned on their moon, Tay. They are starving the rest out and she is in the middle of it. If you won’t help me, then let me talk to Rafian. He was a resistance leader there, back when he was without his memory. They know him and he knows their struggle well. Clear me to bring it to him if I am disallowed from bringing a fellow Ace or two.”

  Tayden was struggling with what to do about Marika’s insubordination, but the always-respectful Casanian was behaving strangely out of character, and this made her believe that her request for urgency was real. She could grant her the use of an Ace or two to help Marian, but what kind of message would that send to her as a Phaser? That, when the time needed it, she could rise up on her as if she were actually a peer?

  “I don’t like your tone, Marika. It is very disrespectful and unlike you, but I understand that you are under a lot of stress. Go back to Marian with this message from me—and you are not to talk to any other Phasers about this mission. We will send help but Raf is the one who knows the details. I will be talking to him tomorrow and he will decide how to get you girls the aid that you seek. Now excuse me, I need to go calm down before I rip your face off.”

  Tayden stood frozen as the commander walked past her and took the elevator down.

  When Marika was alone, she exhaled with satisfaction. There would be time later on for her to patch things up with Tayden, but for now she would go see her Vin’yn and share a tall bottle of celebratory wine with him.

  ~*~*~*~

  “I think that phantom is about as shiny as it is going to get, Cammy,” Rafian said as he stood near the wall of the academy watching her buff and shine her ship in the beaming sun.

  “Well, is this déjà vu, Commander, or were you just checking me out?” She was in a grey tank top with tiny shorts and Rafian would be lying if he were to say that he was not looking at her. Marian had been gone for over two months and while he had kept his promise to her, he found himself thinking of Camille and feeling guilty.

  “This was how we met the first time, wasn’t it?”

  “It was, except you didn’t have that arrogant smirk and your ego wasn’t the size of a planet.” Camille said. “You were a pilot that just wanted to make money to get a bigger apartment.”

  “And you were a pilot, who was driven, ambitious and seemed a little lonely.”

  “So it was you that saved me from loneliness, Rafian?”

  “Not sure why you think my ego is so big, Cammy,” he said as he gazed at her, allowing his feelings for her to run free. “It was you that saved me. You gave me focus, you reminded me—with those beautiful eyes of yours—that there were things worth fighting for in this galaxy and that being a great pilot was insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Before you, I was just a boy who wanted to prove to the bullies of the ship, that even though I had no parents, I was meant to be there. I remember our first night together like it was yesterday and I remember thinking to myself: did that just happen, is this girl real? You were my first stroke of good luck on Helysian and—look, I don’t know why I am giving you this monologue, but I’ve never stopped loving you. I just want you to know that I’m glad you’re back.”

  “I know, Raf, but don’t start playing with my heart again, okay? ENOUGH! Just…please, stop,” she said, her voice high and irritated. She stomped away from him to the rear of the craft in order to hide the tears that were falling from her eyes.

  Rafian thought about her words and how correct she was in everything, and he felt ashamed at what he wanted to do. His mind began to wander and he thought of the fight he’d had with Marian that had prompted her to leave. She had all but divorced him before abandoning him to run back to Luca against his wishes. He was a Phaser and Camille had been his betrothed before he even knew Marian’s name. Who could fault him for wanting to return to familiar territory when left alone like this? Could he live with himself for breaking his promise? It would be a slippery slope that would find him once again within the arms of not only Camille, but several other beautiful women that lived inside the agency, the academy and the city.

  “Sorry, Camille, I don’t want to complicate things. I just wanted to apologize for my behavior and see if we can coexist without losing the bond we have.”

  She walked over to where he stood and took his hands in hers and shrugged. “We cannot deny our feelings, Rafian. It was what made it so complicated before.”

  Rafian pla
ced his hands on Camille’s tight, slender waist and was on the way to kiss her lips when Tayden walked out of the building and yelled his name. The timing was perfect, but Rafian’s mind was committed and he could not shake the memories of how good Camille felt, so he tore away from her painfully, as if he lost a limb.

  “RAFIAN!” Tayden screamed.

  “WHAT?” he shouted back, enraged and annoyed at the interruption.

  “Marika came back last night and we need to talk. It is beyond urgent.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Marian was sleeping peacefully within silken sheets inside a large tent when Rafian made it to her camp. It had taken him the better part of a week to track the crystals that she and Marika had used. His quest had led him to the discovery of the camp where she and the new rebels lived, preparing for the Felitian military. Marian’s tent was evident by the two freedom fighters that stood guard at its door. Rafian, cloaked, slid past the guards, then once inside, climbed into the bed beside her. She looked so peaceful, and he propped himself up on one elbow to watch her sleep.

  She took his breath away, but as he used a finger to brush a lock of hair away from her nose, she woke up, mounted him in one swift motion, and then pressed her knife against his throat with a thumb against his eye.

  “Rafian?”

  Though the position Marian was in meant death in the most painful way, Rafian relaxed his hips so that she could settle on his lap comfortably. He used his hands to caress her sides through her nightgown.

  “I’ve missed you my hatch kitten,” he said as he slid his hands down to caress her thighs that eventually relaxed from his gentle touch.

  “Raf, how did you…why are you…HOW ARE YOU HERE?”

  Rafian took her hand away from his throat and gently removed the knife and dropped it on the side of the bed. He then began to kiss her despite her attempts to talk, and she gave up on the idea and began to return his kisses in between her tears of joy.

  “Rhee, I am sorry for the way that I—“

  “Shut up, shut up, shut up. You came here. That says everything I need to hear. Take this off.” She jabbed her finger into his ribs to indicate the 3B suit and he did just that, along with the rest of the gear and weapons he had brought along.

  By the time they had finished making up, it was as if they were back in time to the morning when they had first consummated their marriage. Marian held him in a way that he hadn’t felt in years and he held onto her as if any release would see her float away from him and into oblivion. He felt stupid about his pass at Camille; why would he want to be with anyone else but this phenomenal woman that he now held in his arms? Whenever he and Marian were on good terms, he felt as if there was nothing else that mattered in the world. But when they fought, he would run to another woman, and it was this realization that came to him as he lay there with her. I can be better than that, he thought. I truly love my wife.

  They lay like that for several long moments before Marian broke the silence to answer the questions that needed to be answered for true reconciliation.

  “You know what the problem is, Raf?”

  “What is it, Rhee?”

  “It’s Anstractor.” When she said the words, she adjusted her body so that she was lying on top of him and staring into his eyes to make sure that he was listening. “You are not yourself there, Rafian—well, not the Rafian I fell in love with. Am I making sense? Here in Luca, I have you. I have the man that I gave up everything to be with. Here, we are happy, we are inseparable. In Anstractor, I am forced to share you with everyone and they are not okay with allowing me to have the biggest portion of you.”

  Rafian slipped his fingers into her curly, ebony hair and kissed her full, maroon-tinted lips longingly before speaking. He noticed that in the moment he could think of nothing else but her and making her as happy as she could be. It was different from how he felt not even three months ago, when she was one of many responsibilities that he felt the need to juggle out of fear of it all falling apart. He had grown confused once again, on whether he wanted her forever, or if it would be Camille, his lovely Filan Ace. It wasn’t until he had spoken to Val that it had dawned on him how childish and unlike a leader he was acting about his wife. He had made her a promise and had led her to believe that he was her last stop on the journey to love. That it was indeed fated that they be together. He would not let himself grow distracted again, not for anyone or anything, and he felt lucky to be allowed another chance at making things right

  “It does seem that way, doesn’t it, Rhee? Here in Luca, we are husband and wife first and warriors second. In Anstractor, we are Phasers first, soldiers second and married last. How do we fix that moving forward—especially since it involves so much more than us? How do I get you back there and not revert back to what I was when you left me?”

  It was Marian’s turn to kiss him gently. She moved her legs to fall outside of his and straddled him anew as she sat up on his lap. She was making it very difficult for him to concentrate, even though they had gone at it with the energy of droids not two hours earlier. She whipped her hair to her right shoulder and as she gave him a warm smile, she answered his question.

  “Well, I was thinking. Help me set up with some crystals and you can leave me here to be with my people. Here, I can undo the damage that the Felitians have wrought and you can go back to the war against the Geralos. I would visit you—very often—and you can visit me the rest of the time. We would miss each other greatly. That cannot be avoided. But we would stay happily married and on top of that, we could simultaneously tackle the issues of our two worlds.”

  “That’s a tough proposition, Marian, one that would drive me crazy. I need to be with you more than you want to believe and it would kill me to have limited time with you in that way. Plus, you have no cloning ability here. I could lose you, or you could age out and leave me due to the difference in our galaxies time. This cannot be your wish.”

  “Of course it isn’t a wish, but I am not happy in Anstractor.”

  “You were not happy because you were never given a chance to be happy. I brought you into a war that you have no stock in, forced you to befriend strangers, and I turned into a terrible husband who neglected you.”

  Marian thought for a long time and then nodded. “It wasn’t all you, baby, so please don’t take all of the blame. I put up with a lot, yes, but we could have talked it out. I left you to punish you more than to come home and check on things, and I am wrong for that.” She looked around, as if she were taking mental notes of their surroundings, then looked at him again as she ran her hands over his chest. “You know, if we could remain this way, I don’t think location would matter at all. I just need to know that despite everything, you are mine, Rafian VCA. Mine. Mine alone.”

  “You got it, Baroness Rienne. I am yours, just like I swore to you that day on the cliffs. You no longer have to worry about that.”

  “And Camille?” she asked.

  “Cut the flesh and it heals, but there is a scar left behind to remind us that it was cut. Camille and I have a bond that doesn’t break with words or actions. I would do anything for her and she would do the same for me. Everything we have gone through, finding one another the way we did. Two aimless, misunderstood fish in a sea of doubt and negativity. We found one another and that made us feel like we belonged together. I won’t lay here and lie to you that it is anything less than that. But what I can tell you is that her Filan bond with me is gone, thanks to the cloning and I have learned how to choose my honor over everything else where she is concerned. I love her, Marian, I really do, but my heart is yours eternally and you need not worry for it anymore.”

  Marian looked physically annoyed at what Rafian had said and she looked around, shaking her head, as if accepting his words were a painful and unrealistic thing to do.

  “You have some nerve, Rafian. This brings me back to the night aboard the ship where you told me that no matter what I did, you would continue to sleep wi
th Camille.”

  “I did say that, and I was an idiot. At the time, you were still Tyheran and I was a Phaser. Those words I spoke were based on me being an emotional and rude bastard to you. What I’m saying to you now is honestly based on reality. I refuse to lie to you about anything, Marian. I need you to accept it. You can be upset with me and hate her for it, but I will not sit here and lie to you that the past has not made Camille into something that isn’t easily changed. What I need is your trust, once again, in knowing that I am here for you where it counts. I won’t stray…”

  “We’ll see. The thought of you two together just makes me see red. Do not let me think that you are with her, Rafian, ever again, this you will promise me or you can jump back to Anstractor and consider me dead. You and Camille – the closeness is now a theory. Do you understand me? I don’t want to see anything that hints otherwise, or I will sink a blade into her and I will be gone from you. Promise it to me!”

  “I promise, Rhee. I do. You are my everything.”

  “Okay, husband,” she said.

  Marian then told Rafian about her plans to assassinate the most important man in the Lucan galaxy. He was impressed beyond words at the plan she had put into action. When the morning hours brought in the rustling sounds of her rebels in their dusty, brown armor and second-hand gear, he kissed her longingly and placed a small pouch inside her hand. She looked down and opened it and saw mysterious crystals blinked beautifully back at her. She hugged him closely while whispering her thanks – for finding her and providing help.

  “Are you going back to Anstractor now, Raf?” she asked as he quickly dressed and washed his face.