by G. E. Stills
“Rhody,” Naa’dia pleaded. “I expect no mercy for myself, but please, please spare our child. She has done no wrong. Lina, I’d like it if you came too. I’d like to see you.”
It was clear to her that Na’dia was crying. Her sobs carried through the phone.
“I have to go now. I’ll break connection, but I’ll leave the phone on. See you soon, Rhody, Lina.”
The line went dead.
“What the hell was she saying?” Trevor asked. “A child?”
“Not possible,” Rhody said.
“Maybe it is,” Kyra spoke.
“How?” Rhody asked.
“We original six women have Men-gar genes in us. The men who created us were Men-gar. You are my son, a descendent, you have Men-gar genes in you.”
“Got it,” Trevor announced. “I have the coordinates for her phone. Just as she said. She hasn’t shut it off.” Trevor dialed his phone. “Lance I’m at Rhody’s apartment. Get here…now.”
Trevor had just replaced the phone in his pocket when Lance blipped into being.
“So here’s the plan. All of us are going to this location. The visions I see do not show there to be any danger. Naa’dia is waiting outside a cave. With our abilities I think we can handle her if needed. Kyra you take Lina and Rhody. Lance you and I will follow and arrive a few feet away from the others.” Trevor gave the location information to both Kyra and Lance. “Okay lets go people.”
Kyra took her hand and Rhody’s and Lance took Trevor’s.
Lina’s stomach lurched for an instant and then they stepped out of a hazy fog. Naa’dia stood just above them in front of a cave. She wore a fur pelt around her waist. There was an infant in her arms swaddled in similar furs. Moments later Lance and Trevor blipped into being a few feet away.
“Good, you’ve all come,” Naa’dia said. “The most important people in my life.” She nodded to each of them. “Lina, you look great. I’m so sorry for what I did. Rhody,” she sighed. “You are looking as handsome as ever. I do love you. Trevor, I’m happy to see that I didn’t hurt you too badly during my escape. I wish I hadn’t hurt any of you. But alas I did. Kyra, you have wonderful sons. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me for what I’ve done to them. Lance, we’ve never met, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.”
Lina glanced beside her. Rhody hadn’t said a word. There was no longer hatred in his eyes as he stared at Naa’dia. It had been replaced with a look he often focused on her. He still loves Naa’dia.
“So what now,” Trevor growled.
“This is how it is going to be. I have judged myself guilty. I must atone for the evil things I have done.” She held out the infant. “Lina will you take Rho’naa?”
“Do not go, Lina,” Rhody whispered from the side of his mouth.
She ignored him and rushed forward.
“Please take good care of her,” Naa’dia said.
Lina took the baby and backed away. Naa’dia reached under her furs and pulled out a pistol.
“Gun,” Trevor warned. All of them dropped into a defensive crouch.
“So this is the punishment I have decided I should suffer for my past actions. I give up the joy of watching my daughter become a woman,” Naa’dia said.
“You’re not the same person that came to Earth are you, Naa’dia?” Trevor asked.
Naa’dia turned her attention to Trevor. “No, Trevor, I’m not. The fact you call me a person tells me you consider me human. That means more to me than you’ll ever know. I consider myself human.”
Naa’dia held the gun, but it was pointed at the ground. Something inside her told Lina that Naa’dia had no intension of using it on any of them. From their lack of actions of the rest, they must feel the same. All of them were listening to Naa’dia’s words.
“Telling us there were bombs set to explode was just a smoke screen. You never intended to really use them did you, Naa’dia?” Trevor asked.
“I could never take the life of another person. Never again,” she answered. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks.
“So where do we go from here?” Rhody asked gently.
“Take care of our child, Rhody dear. Give her the chance to grow up and become the fine woman I’m sure she will be.” Naa’dia placed the gun under her chin.
“No,” Rhody screamed. He surged forward.
“Goodbye all of my dear friends,” Naa’dia said.
As fast as Rhody moved, he was too slow. Naa’dia pulled the trigger. Rhody reached her before she fell. Gently, he lowered Naa’dia’s headless body to the ground. He knelt beside her and openly wept.
Lina cradled Rho’naa’s face in her breasts so she would not see her mother’s body. She held her there, rocking back and forth and cooing softly.
“I will raise our child just as you asked, Naa’dia,” Rhody said.
Kyra stepped up beside her. She reached out a hand and combed it through the baby’s hair.
Trevor and Lance moved up beside Rhody and Trevor placed a hand on Rhody’s shoulder. “Lance,” Trevor said, “Go get a body bag. Rhody, we will give her a proper burial. I could sense her feelings toward her child, the remorse she felt for the things she did, Naa’dia has atoned in the only way she felt she could for the things she did in the past.”
EPILOGUE
“Mommy, when will Daddy be home?”
Lina glanced at her watch and then gazed down at five year old Rho’naa. “Soon. He’ll be home soon.”
“I can hardly wait. His shift up there in the sky seems to take so long to pass. He promised to take us on a picnic tomorrow.” Her blue eyes, the ones that were a mirror of Rhody’s, lit up.
“And if he made a promise to you, then you can be certain he’ll keep it.”
“I know. He always keeps his promises.”
Yes he does. He certainly does.
“Mommy, tell me again. When will my sister be here?”
Lina gazed down at her huge stomach. “Any day now. Any day.”
THE END
Acknowledgements
“In each moment we are given the opportunity to choose our future. What we do today will determine what we face next week, next month or next year. It is at the moment of particular occurrence that we are called upon to make a choice: ‘Will I do it the way I’ve always done it, or will I do it a different way?’” –Iyanla Vanzant (The Value in the Valley)
MY ENEMY, MY ALLY
BY G.E. STILLS
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Copyright © 2015 by G.E. Stills
Cover Designed by: Gary Stillman
Edited for CHBB: Elizabeth A. Lance
Though some of the places are real this is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and situations in this work are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead, or situations are merely a coincidence.
No part of this work may be reproduced in any form, other than a brief quote in a review or article without the written permission of the author.
Published by
Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing, LLC.
Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it.
Jean Paul (1763-1825) German novelist and humorist.
CHAPTER ONE
Rho’naa watched the ten Men-gar enter the small room through its only entrance and spread out to surround her. Two of the Men-gar had pistols and the rest were armed with knives. And me with nothing but short
s and a sports bra.
She dropped into a crouch and eyed the circling men warily. “Drago, Fight mode…now,” she mentally ordered her artificial intelligence implant.
Adrenalin flooded into her circulatory system. More chemicals, these non-biological in nature, spread through her, providing greater strength and dexterity to her athletic muscles.
“Fight mode activated,” Drago answered calmly.
Instead of backing away from the menace that faced her, Rho’naa leapt to the center of the circling Men-gar. One of the men started to raise his pistol. Rho’naa transformed into 120 pounds of deadly fury. A biological killing machine.
In a blur of motion, she grasped the one holding the pistol, twisting his arm, and putting her finger over his, she shot the other Men-gar with the gun hitting him in the head. She crushed the hand of the man she held, causing the pistol to clatter to the floor and drove the elbow of her other arm into his face reducing it to a bloody mass. Continuing her fluid motion, she pulled the Men-gar’s arm up behind his back and snapped it. She spun him around and into the path of another attacker imposing him between her and the knife thrusting at her.
Her Men-gar shield groaned as the knife plunged into his stomach. Using her shield as a springboard she kicked into the air and her foot drove into the knife wielder’s face crushing it and driving his nose into his brain.
Rho’naa twisted toward the floor grabbing his knife as she fell. Landing on her feet like a cat, she burst into motion again. She slashed into a fourth Men-gar at the same time as her legs formed scissors and broke the neck of a fifth. This time when she landed on the floor, she had a knife in each hand and blurred into motion doing a quick graceful and deadly dance. Twisting, dodging, leaping and pivoting, she cut the remaining force into shredded flesh. The thrusts and stabs of the Men-gar always seemed to cut through empty air where Rho’naa had been moments before. They didn’t always miss, but she ignored the pain from the deep stab wounds she received. She needed to end this battle quickly before the loss of blood weakened her.
The last Men-gar fell, his torso ripped open. Rho’naa sank to her knees amid the slaughtered remains of the ten dead Men-gar. Her chest and stomach heaved from exertion. She bled in over a dozen places. Her short red hair was matted to her face and a sheen of sweat covered her from head to toe. At her request, Drago switched off fight mode, ending the adrenalin and other chemicals pouring through her. Rho’naa dropped the knives and rested her hands on her knees gasping for each painful breath.
The dead Men-gar vanished along with the room as the hologram flashed out of existence. Her wounds disappeared. A woman stepped from the shadows. “Better. At least you didn’t die this time, my dear,” she said.
It took all the effort Rho’naa could muster to twist her head and face grandmother, Kyra.
Kyra continued, “I’ll give you thirty minutes to rest and get a drink, then we’ll do it again. We’ll keep doing it until you can defeat all ten without getting hacked up yourself. I may increase the number of opponents you face to fifteen before we’re through.”
Rho’naa closed her eyes and groaned. The hell, she thought. I’m fucking wasted.
“Fifteen!” she groaned.
Kyra smiled. “You don’t think just because you’re my granddaughter I’ll go easy on you, do you? Quite the opposite.”
“You’ve never gone easy on me. If anything you’ve been harder on me than on the others.”
Kyra clapped her on the shoulder. “That’s because I want you to be the best of the best. You should rest, my dear. I’ve got some calls to make then we’ll practice some more.”
Rho’naa groaned again and glared at Kyra’s back as she left the small gym. Slowly her heart rate returned to normal and her breathing slowed.
“Biological functions normal. No ill effects from chemicals introduced have been detected,” Drago droned.
Rho’naa sighed. It was the same report Drago gave each time she came down from fight mode. “Thank you for the status report, Drago,” she said sarcastically.
Her AI didn’t respond, although she knew he was capable of interpreting the sarcasm in her comment. Rho’naa crossed to the table in one corner, filled a glass with water and took a sip. While she drank, she thought of the last five years. At fifteen, she had begged Kyra to accept her for training in the elite force she had just organized while ignoring her mother and father’s strong protests. I was a typical rebellious teen. To her surprise and pleasure, grandmother Kyra had accepted her request and overruled her parents protest.
I had no idea what kind of hell I was asking for. Thank goodness in two weeks I’ll graduate and turn twenty at the same time. She thought of Kyra’s threat of fifteen opponents. That is if I survive the next two weeks.
With few exceptions, each day lasted for twelve hours. Six hours of mind taxing classroom study followed by six of physical training. Once per month she was allowed to leave the Institute of Defense and go home to see her parents for a day. Rho’naa stifled a chuckle at the name. Defense? Hardly. She glanced down at her trim well-muscled body. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on her. Kyra saw to that through grueling exercises, strength training and then there were the augmentation surgeries. Over the years, she had been molded into a highly intelligent, biological killing machine. Of the ten individuals that Kyra had originally selected, only three remained. Rho’naa’s chest swelled in pride. She was the youngest and the best of all ten.
Kyra returned. “Daydreaming Rho’naa?”
“Maybe.” Rho’naa grinned.
“You have one more hour left of the day.” A wicked chuckle rolled from Krya’s lips. “Since I suddenly find myself with some free time we’re going to do things a little different today. Instead of a robot instructor leading you in calisthenics I’m going to take personal charge for the next hour.”
Rho’naa shuddered and squelched a moan of dismay. The robot instructors were tough, but they didn’t even compare to Kyra. An hour later, it was all she could do to drag herself from the gym. The warm summer air felt cool as it dried her sweat soaked body and matted hair. Rho’naa crossed the small courtyard and entered her living quarters. She punched in some numbers at the automated chef mounted in the wall and moments later removed her food tray from the recess next to the buttons.
Rho’naa placed her tray on the small dining table and collapsed into the seat. She took one look at the tasteless “special diet” and started shoveling it in her mouth.
“My toothpaste has more flavor than this,” she complained into the air. “It’s about the same consistency to.”
“But it has all the special nutrients you need while you’re in this intensive training,” Drago said.
Rho’naa grinned. “Right now I would kill for a hamburger and fries. Oh and a chocolate milk shake. I haven’t had any of those things since I’ve been here.”
Drago chucked in her head. “You know that would not be allowed.”
“And you know that’s one of the first meals I’m getting after graduation.”
“I know.”
She finished her tray and put it in the wall disposal. Peeling her clothes off and tossing them on the floor, she headed for the shower. After washing the days grim away, Rho’naa wrapped herself in a towel.
The room computer’s voice announced, “You have a visitor.”
“ID?”
“Tylee.”
A thrill coursed through her. “Admit.” She peeked out of the bathroom just as the door slid open. “Tylee it’s great to see you. Have a seat.” Rho’naa crossed to her dresser and dug out some clothes while the woman seated herself at the table.
“I won’t stay for long, Rho’naa. I know how hectic your schedule is and how early you start in the morning.”
Rho’naa slipped on her top, drew on first her panties and then a pair of shorts. She shrugged her shoulders. Tylee is one of the f
ew people allowed to visit me here. I refuse to admit it is because she is the granddaughter of my aunt Kat, the woman in charge of our entire alliance. Instead, I prefer to think it is because she is my best friend.
“So I’ll be a little more tired than normal tomorrow. Stay as late as you like. Grandma can only torture me so much before I collapse into a heap.”
Tylee chuckled and stood to embrace her when she crossed the room.
Rho’naa stepped back and viewed her best friend. Tylee had her father’s hazel eyes and his dark wavy hair, although natural bright orange streaks shot through hers. It was mid-back in length. She had fantastic female curves, but the most striking thing that set Tylee apart from others she had inherited from her mother. A shorthaired coat of fur made up of black and orange strips covered her from head to toe.
“You’re looking gorgeous as always.”
“And so are you.”
“I can hardly wait to graduate. Two more long weeks,” Rho’naa said. “You, my girl, are buying the first round after you take me to get a burger and fries.”
“That’s one reason I came over here.” Tylee hung her head. “I won’t be at your graduation. I’m so sorry.”
“What! Why?”
“I won’t be here. I’m leaving tomorrow to visit my grandfather.”
“You’re going to Zanatha?”
Tylee smiled. “Yep, alone. My parents aren’t chaperoning.”
Rho’naa swallowed her disappointment that Tylee wouldn’t be at her graduation and smiled. “That’s great. I guess I’m kind of out of the loop. I didn’t know there was a passenger liner scheduled to go to Zanatha in the next few months.”
