“We’re working on that now. We have to get you out of here first,” Bart answered.
“I know. Is she well?” Kol asked.
“As I tell you every single day. She is well. She is being looked after by your friends. Kron in particular is driving her crazy and refusing to allow her to become lost in the sadness of this situation.”
Kol nodded his understanding. “I owe you much, Bart.”
Bart shook his head. “No, you don’t. It’s what friends do for one another. Whatever is in our power to do to help the other out.”
Kol held his hand out to shake Bart's.
Bart shook his hand then went back to his own meal. “Eat up, we have some work to get done today.”
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Ada Jane dragged herself out of bed and stumbled out of the bedroom and through the living room. Someone was knocking on her front door. They’d been knocking for so long that Ada Jane was seriously considering using her disintegrater on them — blast the whole damn door and whoever stood beyond it.
She didn’t look to see who it was, she simply flipped the locks open, then grasped the handle and pulled the door wide open. “What?!” she snapped.
The male stood there smiling at her. His fine, silky, white hair lifting from his shoulders as the breeze caught and played with it. His happy smile matched perfectly his yellow mottled skin. It faded from a deep yellow to a pale almost white as the mottling moved across his body. Ada Jane allowed her gaze to travel from his smile and the tips of his fangs showing through, to his eerie yellow eyes fringed with white lashes the exact same color as his hair, yet she didn’t return his smile.
“Hello, Ada Jane,” Kron said, still smiling and showing the tips of his fangs as they peeked from beneath his full lips.
“Kron,” Ada Jane returned.
“I came for a visit,” he announced.
“Why?” she asked, turning and walking away from Kron, leaving the door wide open. “I told you the last time you came that it wasn’t necessary. And I’ll tell you just like I tell everyone though they don’t listen to me either. It’s not necessary, and I’d rather just be alone.”
“Because it is what friends do, and who else do you tell to leave your home? Who else comes to visit you, Ada Jane? May I enter?” he asked, raising his voice to be heard in the back of the small house since she’d left his sight altogether.
“I don’t care,” she called back at him.
Kron stepped inside and closed the door behind himself. He glanced around the room and realized that for the few weeks Kol had been gone, she’d most likely not even left the bedroom. Other than a crumpled letter lying on the small table in front of the sofa, the room looked completely untouched as evidenced by the undisturbed fine layer of dust on all the surfaces. It was unlived in.
“Ada Jane,” Kron called, “who else do you tell to leave your home?”
“Jason. He just won’t take no for an answer!” Ada Jane complained.
“He has been here?!” Kron asked, disbelievingly.
“Yes. Deserted me to my fate with Diskastes and now won’t go away. He’s a Purist and thinks he can save my damaged soul from the likes of all the sinful aliens that can’t wait to bed me,” Ada Jane mumbled as she burrowed under her covers. “Go away, Kron. I’m not ready to get up and pretend I’m okay,” Ada Jane answered.
Kron heard her words and followed them to the darkened bedroom that still scented of Kol and Ada Jane. He stood in the doorway and watched her outline hiding under the covers on their bed. “You must get up, Ada Jane. You cannot hide yourself away from the world like this.”
“You don’t understand. Just go back to the base and do whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing. Just ignore me until Kol comes back, then we’ll act like this never happened, okay?” she asked.
Kron grinned to himself. She was stubborn, and determined to wallow in her heartbreak. But she had a surprise coming. He was more stubborn. He stepped toward her bed and took hold of the edge of her covers, then yanked them off her body, off her bed, and dropped them to the floor beside his boots.
“Hey! What was that for? I told you to go, just go!” Ada Jane yelled.
“No. I am here as your friend, for my friend and commander. He instructed me to be sure you live your life — to force you if necessary. So, consider this me keeping a promise to a friend. Get. Up.”
Ada Jane sat in the middle of her bed, legs splayed out before her, her hair a mess, her eyes bleary from weeks of crying and doing nothing but sleeping. “I thought I liked you. I don’t like you.”
“I don’t care. Get up,” Kron answered, still smiling at her.
“Why? What difference would it make? The only thing that will save me is Kol and he’s not here. There is nothing that needs to be done! Just leave me alone.”
“You can get up and dress yourself in something other than Kol’s shirt, or I can take you just as you are.”
“Take me where?” Ada Jane asked irritatedly.
“I have a surprise for you,” Kron said.
“I don’t want a surprise, unless it’s Kol,” she snapped, turning over and pulling Kol’s pillow over her head.
Kron watched her for only a moment more before shrugging. “Okay. Have it your way.” He walked over to the side of the bed, lifted her pillow and all, and tossed her over his shoulder. He turned and left her bedroom, then her living room, and carried her the whole way to his transport with her shrieking as he went.
Once he had her seated in his transport, he turned and faced her as she sat red-faced, practically spitting at him she was so angry.
“I don’t want to go!”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t want to go.”
“This is a surprise from Kol. He put this in motion long before he was called away. I heard from Bart two days ago; it’s time for you to have your surprise. Kol doesn’t want you to have to wait until he comes back to get it.”
“Did you speak to him? Is he well?” Ada Jane asked, her anger turning into concern.
Kron shook his head. “He’s not allowed to communicate with anyone other than his legal representative. Bart is defending him, and Bart is luckily friends with Quin, and most of the crew of Command Warship 1, and those of us who are running the base in Kol’s absence. So, we get updates more often than most would. He misses you. He asked Bart to remind you that he loves you, and you should be strong for him until he sees you again.”
“He’s coming back?” she said hopefully.
Kron chewed a bit on his lower lip. “We honestly don’t know yet.”
Ada Jane’s momentary interest visually deflated.
“Look, you can’t waste your life away. He made you promise to be strong for him. He didn’t want you lying in your bedroom sleeping away your life. He wants you out living it.”
“It’s hard,” she confided.
“I know it is. Do you think that I am unaffected? I am so angry that he has to go through this over the loss of a worthless male that I want to rally our Elite team and go free him. Blast our way in and kill all who stand in our way. But I can’t. The rest of his life he’d be tracked and hounded like a criminal. He deserves better. He deserves a life with his Ehlealah living every day to the fullest, not having to remain hidden every moment of every day waiting for someone to track you both down. So, he’s got to go through this. We all have to go through this until he is found innocent, and can return to his life where he left off. You have to keep this life going for him so he comes back to a happy, strong mate. How do you think he’d feel if he comes back and finds that because of his absence you fell into a sadness so deep that you could not dig yourself out? He would feel responsible, and it would hurt him.”
Ada Jane sat there, listening to Kron. He was right, she knew he was, but she still didn’t like it. Finally, she conceded. “You’re right. I know that. I just don’t know how.”
“Luckily, you have me. And all the rest of his friends,”
Kron said.
Ada Jane looked at him curiously. “I don’t understand.”
“You will. Sit tight and we’ll be there in just a bit,” Kron answered.
Chapter 31
“Where are we going, Kron?” Ada Jane asked.
“You’ll see,” he answered.
As the transport came up over the hilltop and started out over what were once fertile fields of corn and pasture land, Ada Jane sat up. She knew exactly where she was.
“Do you recognize it?” he asked.
“It’s home,” she said, her voice showing a trace of her excitement. “But, we were told that we didn’t have access to it. We were told that we couldn’t even fly over it!”
“That was all true, until Kol bought it for you. It’s all finalized. He started the process before he was forced to turn himself in. And Bart finalized the formalities on his behalf a couple of days ago. It’s yours, Ada Jane. The land is legally in your name.”
Ada Jane was smiling so big it hurt and she pressed her hands to her cheeks. “I can’t believe this,” she said in awe as she looked out over the land. “Wait, who’s down there?” she asked, trying to angle her head to see out of the windshield and the window to get a better look at the people she could see moving about on the ground.
Kron landed the transport and as soon as it was secure, he opened the doors and allowed her to begin to exit the transport. “Wait! You only have socks on your feet! And you need pants!” he called. He walked to the small storage cabinets in the back of the transport and dug around for a moment before finding what he wanted. They kept several sets of clothing and soft rollable shoes in the event they had to perform rescues of some nature. He walked back to the door of the transport and handed them to her. “Here, they’re not boots, and they’re probably a little big, but it’s better than socks. And put these pants on.”
“Thank you, Kron!” Ada Jane said excitedly, pulling on the pants that reminded her of sweat pants, and unrolling the soft-soled, elastic banded shoes and slipping them on her feet. Then she grabbed Kron and kissed his cheek. “Thank you so much.”
“I have only done as requested. It is not me who should be thanked,” Kron said, smiling at the first signs of interest in anything he’d seen in Ada Jane since Kol left.
“But it is. No matter how many times I sent you away, you kept coming back,” she said, pausing in her rapid stride to get to the large aluminum storage buildings scattered about her family’s property — now hers.
“When we are lost in darkness is the time we need the most encouragement, the most understanding. It is all I did,” Kron said sincerely.
Coming to where the most of the activity was, Ada Jane was surprised to find Buchanan working on sorting through one of the buildings. “Good Morning, Viceroy,” she offered.
Buchanan raised an eyebrow as he regarded Ada Jane. “Viceroy? I am not Viceroy. I am Buchanan.”
“But you’re a Viceroy, too,” Ada Jane reminded.
“When I am with friends, I'm just Buchanan.”
Ada Jane nodded in acceptance. “What is all this?” she asked.
“The government abandoned this place. It was used more or less as a storage facility for old or obsolete equipment and supplies they really didn’t know what else to do with. They sold it to Kol with the understanding that it was being sold as is with all buildings and whatever was inside intact. They are not responsible for clearing the land, or cleaning it up,” Buchanan explained.
Ada Jane looked up at the three story metal building stuffed floor to rafter with so much junk she’d never finish going through it all in her lifetime. And there were several more buildings just like it.
“That’s where we come in,” Kron added. “We’re going through the buildings, sorting through it. If it’s something you might be able to use, it goes in one stack for your input. Something we as a base may be able to use, it goes in another stack. Strictly for disposal, goes in yet another. Those who wish to volunteer their time will be here anytime they get the chance. It’ll take a little while, but we’ll get it done.”
“I don’t know how to thank you. All of you have already done so much for me,” Ada Jane said, eyeing the huge piles of what she’d label as rubbish, that they’d already removed from the first building. “And now you take on clearing all this from our land, too.”
“You should know that our people wanted to assist as well, but in light of the proceedings taking place, the powers that be are hard-pressed to grant travel visas to the Cruestaci wanting to visit Earth.”
“That’s a shame.”
“It is. But, picture a very large, very angry, very red male demanding he be allowed on Earth without further delay, and surely you can imagine their hesitance,” Kron said chuckling, doing his best to make her laugh.
Ada smiled. “I can see how he’d frighten most people.”
“In truth, I am only allowed here because my visa was granted previously. And, I was assigned to Earth Base 28 before anything occurred. I will stay here for the duration, if not longer,” Kron explained.
“I truly appreciate you, and every one who’s pitched in to help me and Kol.”
“It’s not a problem. If one of us was in Kol’s position and he was still here with our mate, he would do the same,” Kron said with conviction.
“Yes, he would,” Buchanan agreed.
Ada Jane smiled at them, but didn’t try to even speak. Her emotions were right near the surface, and she didn’t want to break down in front of these men again. She’d been pretty inconsolable over the last couple of weeks, and she felt bad about it. Her eyes strayed to a spot on a small rise that was dusty and brown, the grass having died there a long, long time ago. Ada Jane started walking toward it.
“Ada Jane?” Kron said, calling her name. “Where are you going?”
Ada lifted her arm and pointed. “My home used to be right there,” she said softly.
Kron fell into step behind her and just kept her company as she wandered around the site.
Finally after walking around the rise and deciding there was nothing there except the rise itself, Ada Jane took a seat right there on the ground.
She looked out over the land, the metal storage buildings, and watched the men working in one of them as they dragged large machinery out of it and left it there in the open before going back for more.
Kron sat beside her and was just there for her, not saying a word.
Sometime later she began to speak. “Where we are sitting right now, this would have been our front porch. Where that building is, that would have been our barn. The chicken coop was over there to the side,” she said, pointing to her left, “but we let them run around free all the time. We had corn crops, and we had dairy cows and sold milk and cream. We could sit here and look out over most of our land, except for the pastures in the back behind the house, of course.
We’d get up early in the morning and feed the animals, collect the eggs, milk the cows. Then I’d go to school and Momma and Daddy would start the rest of their day. I used to think that I’d leave here one day and become something unbelievable. Now, all I want to do is get back to the life I lived here. I didn’t know how wonderful it was.”
“You have become something unbelievable. You are Ehlealah Ada Jane Ra’ Don Tol. Mate to Elite Commander Kol Ra’ Don Tol. You are highly respected.”
Ada Jane smiled as she kept watching the men working. “Because I’m mated to a very good male?” she asked.
“No. Because of all you’ve survived to become the mate of a very good male. Your strengths are recognized as your own, as are his. Together, you are a force to be reckoned with,” Kron answered, offering her a smile that flashed his fangs at her.
“I miss him,” Ada Jane said simply.
“I do, too,” Kron answered. “Hopefully it will not be very much longer. The trial is set to start at the beginning of the next revolution.”
Ada Jane turned her focus to Kron. “What does that mean? How long is
a revolution?” she asked.
Kron took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It is difficult to explain. Time is calculated differently here versus the Consortium headquarters, versus Cruestace, and most other worlds.”
“Can you guess at how long it would be?” she asked.
“When you were on Command Warship 1, that was approximately a quarter of a revolution,” Kron said, thinking about it. “Yes, I think that’s a close estimation,” he confirmed.
“So it will be a while, then,” Ada Jane said.
“Yes, but it is moving forward, and it usually takes much longer,” Kron explained.
“Then I will be thankful. Do you have any other news?” she asked.
“Only that he loves you and misses you,” Kron replied.
“He never sends me any word on how he’s holding up, or what they think of their case, or anything about the upcoming proceedings at all,” Ada Jane said.
“He doesn't wish for you to be burdened by it.”
“I understand that. But I need to know how things are, I need to be kept abreast so that I can be prepared for whatever may happen,” Ada Jane explained
Kron sat in silence for a moment before eventually shrugging and deciding to be honest. “The truth is, Ada Jane, that no one knows what to expect. The charges are ridiculous. The only thing that will make Diskastes’s people withdraw their charges or to accept Kol’s innocence is if they find damning evidence against Diskastes. If Bart and his people can find that kind of evidence, Diskastes’s people will back off.”
Ada Jane nodded slowly. She understood that. She didn’t like it, but she understood it. And she understood that Kol didn’t want her involved in whatever it was he had to go through, not simply for his own pride, but for her protection and anonymity, though he hadn’t said as much she just knew him well enough to know that was part of it as well. She brushed her hands on her pants and stuck her hand out to help Kron stand. “How about a walk around the place to check the fences and see what needs mending?”
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