Purity

by Evangeline Anderson

  The Empress’s expression went from deep despair to pure rage in an instant.

  “Why you insolent…I will bring you home with me and we will find a solution to this!” She took a step forward but Captain Hesler was suddenly between her and K. “Get out of my way you Tainted bastard!” she demanded.

  Hesler didn’t move an inch. “Sorry, Ma’am but that’s as far as I can let you go. Commander K obviously has no interest in going back to Eros with you,” he said evenly.

  “And since her DNA is changed beyond repair, I think you should just let her go,” Boone said quietly. “You lost her twice before, your Majesty. Maybe if you leave peacefully, the two of you might come to some kind of relationship in time. As long as that relationship doesn’t have anything to do with K ruling after you.”

  The Empress’s eyes blazed. She held herself regally erect, staring K down. Or rather, staring up at her—K had definitely grown a few inches—she was much taller than her mother now. K stared back, unmoving.

  “And this is your final decision?” the Empress demanded. “You truly don’t wish to claim your birthright and rule after me as is your right and royal destiny?”

  K stepped forward and reached for the Empress’s hand. She seemed to hesitate for a moment but then she took it, surprising Boone by her willingness to touch anyone but him.

  “Try to understand,” she said. “My destiny was changed the moment the High Sentinel stole me away when I was only five cycles old. It changed again when Boone captured me—changed for the better and for good. I’m sorry, Mother, but I spent most of my life leading others as a commander in the Purist army and, well…I’m tired of it. I’d just like to be in charge of my own life for awhile.”

  The Empress studied her daughter’s new blue-green eyes and then, finally, she nodded.

  “Very well. If that is how it must be…”

  “There’s no other way for me.” K squeezed her hand once and then relinquished it. “I’m going to stay with Boone.”

  The Empress looked up at him and then shook her head. “I suppose there is nothing more to do or to say.”

  Boone put an arm around K and pulled her close to him. “Nothing except to assure you that I’ll take good care of your daughter, your Majesty.”

  “Oh, you’ve taken care of her all right. You’ve ruined her.” The Empress gave him a withering look. “I will not forgive this, giant. Give me one reason I shouldn’t leave here and blast the lot of you out of the sky.”

  “I can give you at least five,” Captain Hesler growled. “That’s the number of blast cannons we have aimed at your ship, your Majesty. If you shoot at Commander K’s vessel, we will return fire in kind.” He spread his hands. “If, however, you choose to leave peacefully, well, that’s a different matter. We can all go our separate ways and forget this unpleasantness ever happened.”

  The Empress’s eyes flashed. “I never forget. And I will never forgive.” She glared at all of them. “None of you are ever welcome in my domain again. If I find any of you anywhere near Eros, you will be summarily executed.” She looked at Captain Hesler. “And that includes the Tainted. I will not forget that you came between me and my daughter, Captain. You may rely upon that.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.” Hesler nodded stonily. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Goodbye,” Boone said stonily. “Have a safe journey back to Eros.”

  “Goodbye…Mother,” K echoed.

  The Empress did not deign to answer. Turning on her heel, she marched back to the airlock, head held high and two bright, angry spots of color high on her regal cheekbones. “Come,” she told her people. “We are going home. Without the princess. And if anyone so much as breathes a word of this, I’ll have his head mounted on my wall before he draws his next breath.”

  There was a long silence when she left but when the airlock finally cycled shut, Boone breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Whew, glad that’s over.”

  “It’s not,” K said, frowning.

  Hesler nodded. “The commander is right.” He looked at Boone. “I advise you to go back to Colossus and stay there, giant. The Empress is not the forgiving kind—she just handed all of us a death sentence if we stray too far into her territory.”

  “Well, then we won’t go there,” Boone said lightly.

  “Easy for you to say,” Loki grumbled. “You didn’t just get banished from your home planet on pain of death like Rolf and I did.”

  “It’s okay, sweetheart.” Rolf rubbed his shoulders. “We’ll be together in exile—it won’t be so bad.”

  “Yes, it will.” Loki crossed his arms over his chest, clearly pouting. “What about friends and family? What about the bathhouses? No place in the universe has such hot bathhouses as Eros filled with so many hot men…”

  Boone felt bad for his friend. “I’m sorry about that, Loki. I never meant for you to get banished too.”

  “Oh please,” Mom said in an uncharacteristic display if irritation. “It’s not like he ever gets home above once every few years. We’re always out flying missions. He’ll live.”

  “Only if I don’t go back to my own home planet!” Loki stormed out and Rolf followed him, trying to calm him down.

  “Wow.” Boone shook his head. “I’m never going to hear the end of that.”

  “Yes you will,” Mom said. “Just let him loose in the red light district on Colossus. He’ll be happy as a clam.”

  “I don’t know how Rolf would feel about sharing,” Boone murmured. “He strikes me as the monogamous type.”

  “Like us.” K smiled up at him and squeezed his hand.

  Boone kissed her cheek. “You know you’ve smiled more in the past few hours than in all the other time I’ve known you. Hell, you’ve even laughed. You’re all bright and shiny all of a sudden.”

  “I know. I just feel…good.” Her smile widened and she shrugged. “Strange, huh?”

  “Not really. It’s because you’ve finally broke the suit’s conditioning and gotten over your need for it that you’re able to show and feel real emotion.” Hesler sounded almost wistful.

  “But K was out of the suit before—when I first captured her,” Boone pointed out.

  “Yes, but she hadn’t broken the conditioning so the drugs lingered in her system. Until you reach that breaking point on your own, you’re not fully free of the suit’s influence. Now K is free to be who she really is—who she was always meant to be.”

  “What about you?” Boone asked him. “Did you break your suit’s conditioning?”

  “I did. My breaking point came when that old bastard, the High Sentinel, ordered me to purge myself and I decided I’d rather live than die. It was damn hard, but worth it to be in control of the suit instead of the other way around.”

  “True.” K nodded.

  “I’m envious of you, Commander K.” Hesler gave her a level look. “You’ve found what you were looking for and you no longer need the suit as a crutch.”

  “Boone’s solution could work for you, too,” K suggested. “If you want to get away from the suit.”

  “Only if I found someone I wanted to swap DNA with,” Hesler said dryly. “Finding your one true love isn’t easy when you’re on emo-supressors—even modified amounts like I am.”

  “Why not come off them?” Boone asked.

  Hesler shook his head. “As I told Commander K, I tried that once. Took off the suit and let my Erian nature exert itself. Even went though a cycle.”

  “And?”

  “Things…didn’t go well.” Hesler sighed. “Besides, I like the emotional distance the suit gives me. It keeps things from getting messy.”

  Boone nodded. “I understand. But take it from me, Captain—sometimes messy can be good.” He smiled down at K who smiled up at him.

  “And speaking of cycles…” She shifted from foot to foot restlessly. “Could I see you alone for a minute?”

  Boone got the hint. “Of course, darlin’.” He looked at Hesler. “We’d all be bla
sted to space dust without your help, Captain. What can I do to thank you?”

  “Well…” Hesler cleared his throat. “If you have some time after you…take care of the matter at hand…” He nodded at K. “Then there is something you can help us with. A crew member who needs a medical consult if you wouldn’t mind.”

  Boone was intrigued. “But I thought the skinsuit took care of all your medical needs.”

  “The skinsuit is part of the problem,” Hesler said grimly.

  “Boone…” K’s tugging at his hand was more insistent now, more urgent and Boone felt his body responding to her need.

  “Can I come to your ship in a few hours?” he asked Hesler.

  “Of course.” Hesler nodded. “Take all the time you need.” He gave K a small salute. “I wish you luck, Commander K.”

  “Thank you.” K returned his salute with a smile. “But it’s just K now. Not Paladin or Princess or Commander. Just K.” She tugged at Boone’s hand, leading him away. “And that’s the way I like it.

  The End

  ***Read on for Chapter One of Tainted, the sequel to Purity, coming in late 2013 or early 2014 from Evangeline Anderson***

  Tainted

  Chapter One

  “Yup, that’s Necrotizing fasciitis all right.” The giant shook his head as he examined Neely. “I’ve only ever seen it in a few old textbooks that survived from Earth-that-was. Never thought I’d see a case of it in this lifetime.”

  Hesler looked down at his best friend’s arm, trying to be controlled and detached. The grayish-purple rot had spread since the last time he’d seen Neely’s arm without the suit. Spread a lot.

  “It’s up to your elbow now,” he heard himself say. “Last time we looked it was barely to the wrist.”

  “Doesn’t feel much different.” Neely’s face was stony and Hesler bet himself the other man had his emo-dampers turned up on high. Who could blame him, considering the state of his arm?

  The skin was sloughing away revealing pitted craters the color of a fresh bruise. Hesler could even see some bone and tendon poking out along the back of his friend’s hand—that had to be painful, although the suit was probably controlling it as best it could, deadening the pain receptors.

  “What exactly is Necrot…whatever the hell it was you said?” he asked, turning to Boone.

  The giant frowned. “And infection of the deeper layers of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, spread across the fascial plane—”

  “In Standard please, doc,” Hesler said. “I wasn’t trained as a medic.”

  Boone frowned. “I thought none of you were. K told me you have all your medical work done by mechanoids—right?”

  Hesler nodded—a short, sharp jerk of his head. “Right. Because Purity forbid we should touch each other. Or anyone for that matter.” He sounded bitter, even in his own ears. “Mostly the suit can take care of any illness. But in this case…”

  “We think the suit caused it,” Neely said.

  Boone looked startled. “What? How?”

  “Neely and I were the first Paladins to defect—we formed the Tainted ten years ago,” Hesler said. “We were also the first to modify our suits. We’ve fine tuned the process now for new recruits. But back in the beginning…”

  “We didn’t exactly know what the hell we were doing,” Neely finished for him. “And my suit…didn’t react well to being tinkered with.”

  “Or maybe it’s just the long term exposure to a modified suit,” Hesler said. It was a discussion they’d had over and over. “Wearing it all the time. Never taking it off.”

  “Because you had such a fucking fantastic time when you took a vacation from yours,” Neely said dryly. “Riiiight, Hesler.”

  Hesler frowned. “You and I both know that cycle I went through was a season in Hell. But taking a break from the suit might be what kept it from eating me alive—the way yours is eating you.”

  “You don’t know that,” Neely argued. “Besides, the suit is the only thing that’s controlling it.”

  “It’s not controlling it nearly as well as it was,” Hesler pointed out. “If it was, the rot wouldn’t be halfway up your arm by now.”

  Neely frowned. “I’m telling you, taking off the suit is not the answer.”

  “Well if it’s not then we better damn well find the fucking answer before—” Hesler stopped abruptly. Taking a deep breath, he sent a quick mental command to his suit, adjusting his own emo-damper control, turning them up to maximum. The sharp bite of his suit’s needles in each forearm helped calm him—even better was the cooling rush of chemicals that sluiced through his system, turning everything to ice. All the pain and fear and worry he felt for his best friend was suddenly washed away, replaced by calm detachment.

  Better. It’s better this way. Now I can think without emotion getting in the way. Now I don’t have to feel. Don’t have to hurt.

  Neely clearly knew what he was doing. “Better?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Hesler nodded shortly. “Yes. Look, I’m just saying we need to do something soon. Clearly this stuff—whatever it is—is getting worse.”

  “Basically, Necrotizing fasciitis is a flesh eating bacteria,” Boone said, crossing his arms over his chest. “And you’re right, Captain Hesler—it looks like it’s spreading.”

  “Right. What can you do about it?” Hesler asked.

  Boone frowned. “Well, I could take the arm—”

  “No.” Neely shook his head. “No, I need my arm. And before you start,” he said, turning to Hesler, “You and I both know replacement parts grown in the flesh tanks are never the same. The loss of control and fine motor coordination—I’d be useless in a combat situation.”

  Hesler frowned. “Damn it, Neely, I’m not worried about combat—we’re talking about saving your life.”

  “Don’t want to live as half a man,” Neely said stubbornly.

  Hesler took a deep breath, glad for his emo-dampers. Without them, he would have been ranting at his best friend by now, demanding that he see reason.

  “Fine,” he said shortly. “Other options, then.” He turned to Boone. “Isn’t there some kind of medicine you can give him? Some kind of drug that will cure this…this thing?”

  “There was a kind of drug that could cure it, if I remember my medical history right.” Boone frowned. “A whole class of drugs, actually, that they used on Earth-that-was. Antibiotics. Between nanos and gene therapy and other modern innovations, we haven’t needed them for millennia. But back before mankind left the mother world, they were the first line of defense against infections like this.”

  “Antibiotics, right!” Hesler felt a spark of hope, even through the haze of emo-dampers. “Good, so where can we get some?”

  “You can’t,” Boone said mildly. “Unless you’ve got access to a working time machine. Those drugs haven’t been used since the early twenty-first century. I couldn’t even simulate any in the lab—their chemical composition is a complete mystery.” He shrugged. “Just one of the things we lost in the Great Purge, right before mankind left for the stars.”

  “Shit,” Neely said flatly. “Well then, looks like I’m screwed.” He started to pull the black webbing back over his rotting fingers and hand. A gobbet of flesh fell on the floor with a wet plop. “Whoopse.” He gave Hesler a sickly grin. “Well, looks like I won’t be giving anyone the finger anymore, huh?”

  Even with the emo-dampers washing through his system, Hesler still felt sick for his friend. He cleared his throat.

  “Maybe not. You said we needed a time machine?” he asked Boone.

  The giant frowned. “Well, yes. But obviously I was being facetious. There’s no such thing—”

  “Oh, yes there is. Or something like it,” Hesler said.

  Neely frowned. “Hesler, tell me you’re not thinking about what I think you’re thinking about.”

  “I am.” Hesler crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s a perfectly viable option and you know it.”

  “I
don’t know any such thing. The damn thing was too unstable. You can’t possibly—”

  “Excuse me,” Boone interrupted. “But are you actually saying you have access to a time machine? Because I’d really like to see that. Considering that it’s supposed to be impossible. I mean, not theoretically but—”

  “There’s nothing theoretical about it,” Hesler said. “It’s real but it’s not a machine—it’s a passage. A time passage that leads back to the twenty-first century on Earth-that-was.”

  “But you don’t know where you’ll come out,” Neely objected. “Only when.”

  “Stamos said you could control that,” Hesler said.

  “Only to a certain extent. It’s too damn dangerous!”

  “What’s the alternative? You’ll lose your arm or die? No, I’m not letting that happen.”

  “Hang on.” Boone held up one massive hand. “Could you explain, please? Where is this ‘time passage?’”

  Hesler ran a hand through his hair. “It’s on Minotaur’s second moon.”

  “Minotaur has moons?” Boone frowned. “We were there not too long ago and I didn’t notice anything orbiting that saurian filled hell hole. Of course, I was fairly distracted at the time…”

  “Well, they’re more like glorified asteroids,” Hesler admitted. “But Crete, the smaller one, actually has a breathable atmosphere. Pracket Stamos is the sole inhabitant—he won the interstellar lottery and bought the damn place.”

  “Hmm. The modern equivalent of buying your own private island,” Boone rumbled. “Go on. Is he some kind of scientist?”

  Hesler shook his head. “No, just a prospector. He bought Crete for its pshalite deposits. They aren’t nearly as extensive as the ones on Midas but they’re enough to keep him comfortable. While he was prospecting he found what seemed to be a corridor carved into the side of an old mine.”

  “There were markings all around it—symbols nobody could interpret,” Neely said. “Stamos thinks he’s not the first one to go digging there.”

  “Then who—?”