by Reiter
“Aye, Captain,” Llaz spoke softly and Jocasta walked out of the chamber. There were many sympathetic eyes on him and Silnee even went so far as to voice her opinion.
“It was a quick plan. But if you ask me, it was a damn good one!”
“Thanks, Tolip,” Llaz replied. “All right, people. It’ll be some time before Roc rings us in for the feast. Back to your schedules, and yes, I expect all of the work shifts to be completed despite the time this little gathering took out of our day.” A few moans sounded and quickly Llaz held up his hand. “We can make it double duty!” he said, and the only response that came to ear was the sound of people walking away.
“It was a successful heist,” Siekor added. “That doesn’t mean it was a good plan.”
“You’re siding with the Captain?” Llaz asked.
“I suppose it had to happen… eventually. But she’s right on this one; you hit the target, but this was a quick draw from the hip.”
“Are you saying I should consult with you before I do something like that again?”
“You could do a lot worse,” Siekor replied before he laughed. Llaz pushed against his shoulder and walked away, smiling through the feeling of tightness growing in his throat.
That tightness remained in place for three hours. Silnee reported the ship was beyond the Almandior boundary markers, and Roc had served up prime rib along with some sort of roasted game bird. Llaz made his way to the Ready Room and tried to clear his throat before knocking on the door.
“Enter,” Jocasta commanded and Llaz walked inside.
“Before we begin,” Llaz said as he approached the desk and placed a bottle of rum on the corner closest to Jocasta.
“You brought me a bottle?”
“Actually, where the people had the Passion stored, there were a few bottles. Thom had primed the engines and was waiting for the all-clear so she could take off. When that didn’t come immediately–”
“She exercised some personal initiative and decided to grab a few bottles,” Jocasta said as she got up from her chair.
“A few crates actually,” Llaz corrected. “Her and Scamps managed to load eight crates on board the ship before we signaled them to leave the hideaway hangar. Since two of those crates were rum, I opened up one and gave it to the crew to go along with their feast.”
“Just took that upon yourself, did you?” Jocasta asked as she came around the desk. “Make yourself at home with my booty so the crew could have a good drink along with their meal?! I’ve got a booty you should take charge of!” Jocasta took hold of his face and pressed her mouth against his. The kiss was hard and passionate at first, but slowly became something soft and tender. When Jocasta took hold of the back of his head, Llaz kissed her neck and shoulder. Jocasta closed her eyes, welcoming the sensation.
“This is what you wanted to talk to me about?” he asked.
“It’s rude to talk with your mouth full,” Jocasta warned before kissing him again. “Had to dress you down a bit… keeps wannabes from thinking they can do it to and getting us into all kinds of trouble.”
“Good point,” he panted, taking in the delights of her touch and taste. As he took hold of her body, Jocasta backed up toward the far wall. Llaz came forward, keeping their bodies pressed against one another. He heard some sort of switch unlock and the wall panel gave. They stumbled into Jocasta’s quarters where she pivoted and hip-tossed Llaz down onto the bed. He did not fight the maneuver and landed perfectly on the bed, his head in the center of the pillow.
“Gods, you are just too cool,” she remarked, climbing on top of the young man.
“Funny,” Llaz spoke in-between passionate kisses. “I thought I was just trying to keep up!”
“Don’t do that,” Jocasta cooed. “Sometimes, even a Captain wants to be led!” It was the last clear sentence either one spoke for the next hour. Only moans of delight and the occasional calling of a name broke the silence. She called him Llaz and he called her JoJo with the only other words uttered being ‘oh’ and ‘yes’.
Jocasta laid in her bed, smoking a cigaro and looking up at the ceiling as Llaz dressed himself. She blew out the flavored smoke and looked over at her Second Mate. “Did I cross a line?”
“Would it have mattered?” he asked, looking back at her. His eyes and tone of voice were too warm and welcoming. She stared at him as he turned, slowly approached, and kissed her full on the mouth. “You wanted… you took. If it’s one thing I’ve learned aboard this ship: the simpler you keep things, the easier everything is to understand. Neither one of us knows if we’ll ever have this sort of moment again. But you can’t get caught up thinkin’ about it. You run the risk of missing it altogether. It’s not like we schedule when there’s going to be boarders!”
“That’s right, I keep forgetting you were aboard for that last one,” Jocasta smiled. She put her hand to his hair. “What a world of changes since then, eh?”
“At least a world,” he replied. “There are no lines between us, JoJo, because right now, I’m not your crew, I’m your lover. Your lover calls you JoJo, your Second Mate calls you Captain. Simple.”
“Cool as a docking slip,” Jocasta remarked. “Just don’t go cold on me.”
“That can’t happen,” Llaz said softly. “… because both of me love all of you. Even if Llaz loses JoJo, I will always have my Captain.”
“And you’re good with that?” she managed to ask, closing her eyes to warmth she felt from his words.
“Hell no!” Llaz replied, causing Jocasta to laugh. “I’m as greedy as they get. I want it all! But I’m a big boy; I’m not going to get everything I want. I appreciate you looking out for my feelings, but I can’t help but notice yours.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You’re making comparisons… and it’s pretty clear I’m coming up short,” he stated with unwavering eyes. Jocasta started to speak, but Llaz’s finger touched gently to her lips kept her from saying anything. “Silnee’s a better pilot… barely, Mel’s up and become a better shot... for the moment, Z’s definitely a bluer man…” Jocasta giggled, taking hold of his hand, caressing it as she moved it away from her lips. “… and somewhere… somewhere back there, out there, wherever there… there’s a more welcome soul that you want to take hold of you. But they’re not here right now… I am. Sucks to be them, great to be me!” She laughed as Llaz stood up from the bed. “Permission to disembark the ecstasy barge?”
“Granted, but only for the time being,” Jocasta said, still giggling. Llaz nodded and walked out of the room.
The corridor was a cold comfort for him and Llaz walked, once again with his head down. “Leave it to my life… going from Llaz to Boss is a demotion!” Each footfall was on the metal catwalk, but his mind quickly returned to the desert, listening to the Witch.
“Abandon what you think you are, it is only holding you back,” she had said. “You will have to become more than you thought you could be in order to help her. And when you think and feel you have found the number one, recognize you will never be more than her number two. And that is not meant to be your place either!”
At the time, Llaz had thought the foretelling was warning him about Pristacia… or at least he had wanted it to apply to her. It spoke of a time when there would be intimacy, and Llaz figured no one he knew would ever be Pristacia’s number one. He had been glad to think he would be her number two… until JoJo kissed him. It was a taste of woman he had not known could exist and suddenly the comely curves of the one they called Princess were just that, curves. JoJo had made a straight line to his heart and he loved her.
“Who actually has a reader come to them?” he thought. “Easy answer… the one whose fate simply had to be known.” Somehow, by the turn of a transport, Llaz had found himself in the middle of JoJo Starblazer’s destiny. One thought considering the man named Dungias… and it became incredibly clear to Llaz. “This woman is meant to do things, something bigger than her, and she’s already bigger than me. And i
f what the desert witch said is true, no matter how much I love her, she’ll never love me the same way. Which means if I press it, all I’ll do is get in her way.” Llaz had seen what happened to the common people, the InvokeR, the Djinn, the Temple Chevaliers, the Master Thief, and the Upyri who had either dared or, through some twist of fate, been forced to cross paths with his Captain. Stacking his heart against that list made him feel small. But there was one gleaming path Llaz could walk. He could help the woman, and be more than he thought he ever could in the process.
“Yeah, that would be some place to stand,” he whispered. “… not center stage, true… but not in the audience either. Gods know, this has been one hell of a show so far!” Hearing the message-receive signal, Llaz lifted his brace-com. You’re right, I was making comparisons. Wasn’t right or fair. You’re not a pit stop. You’re a landmark. Without you I wouldn’t know where I’m going.
Llaz smiled and typed in: Aye aye, Jo-Cap! He hoped that in putting Jo first, she would be complimented, eased by their exchange. It was not honest, but she did not need his honesty, she needed Llaz and Boss… at least until such time that she knew where she was going and he would only be the means by which she could mark where she had been.
“Kind of makes you wonder though,” he whispered. “How I’m going to ‘shine in the darkest of skies’. Screw it. Everything else has been falling into place. That’ll fall too… when it’s ready.”
Llaz opened up the rosters and started looking at the schedules. There had to be a way to get more work out of the crew, more training into them. Before Llaz worked too deeply into fathoming an answer, he recalled this sort of thought was not his forte. He smiled devilishly and opened a channel. “I need the Brain Trust in the Computer Lab, please.”
Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students.
Solomon Ortiz
(Rims Time: XII-4203.20)
Ephaliun was the first to respond, but he only did so by getting up from his chair and pacing behind the others with his hand on his hips. His lips moved but he did not make a sound outside of huffing disgust and frustration.
“Did you bring enough for everyone?” Rahneece asked, looking over her shoulder.
“Enough of what?” Ephaliun asked.
“Angst. It feels like you want to share.”
“How the hell can I share this?!” Ephaliun barked.
“There it is,” Rahneece said softly, looking forward again.
“You did ask for it,” Teela reasoned.
“Yeah,” Ulios added. “Asked.”
“Huh?” Ephaliun continued. “How do I not get mad at this? C’mon, you’re the super-spy.”
“Ephaliun,” Dungias said, frowning in disapproval. “She is hardly a spy.”
“I’m not?!” Rahneece asked, surprised at the standpoint taken.
“You are not perceived as one,” Dungias replied. “I see you more as someone in dire straits, manipulated by someone of a loose moral code. But, I am most curious as to what is aggravating Ephaliun.”
“He wants to hate you but he can’t,” Teela explained.
“Thank you!” Ephaliun cheered.
“Teela?”
Her large, dark brown eyes locked on Dungias and she took in a deep and steadying breath. “There’s no other way to say it, Z. I knew before you shared your story with us that you were different.”
“Yeah, because the blue skin gave nothing away,” Ephaliun added.
“I think everyone here knows what I mean,” Teela fired back. “You did something. Something that we want to call manipulative, and calculating, and shallow, and inhuman! The first two might be right, but the last two… after what we just shared in… you’ve put your life on the line for people you’ll never know; for a place that isn’t your home. No one can call that shallow.
“And after knowing what we know now… how do we say no?!” she continued. “I mean, you’ve been right more often than not, and it’s not even you saying the Rims are in trouble. It’s the damn Stars! I don’t know about everyone else–”
“Oh yeah ya do,” Ephaliun argued. “Believe me! So far, so freaking good!”
“… but it’s blowing my mind that the Stars are living things! And you talk to them! And they talk to you! And it’s because of that ability that you are what you are: a Traveler.”
“Master Traveler,” Alpha corrected, and Teela nodded, gesturing toward the Osamu.
“Who builds sentient machines that are smarter and more powerful than all of us combined! And Dugger just wants to be mad at somebody. He wants to be mad at you, but he can’t. You’ve taught him too much about awareness, balance, and logic… and you weren’t even here to do it! It just boggles the mind, Z. Spins the brain. It makes you want to scream, but what exactly should that scream be?”
“Might I suggest, ‘no’?” Dungias asked. “You have a choice. At this point in time you are not in the Rims and you need not return. There are countless realms out there in the InterVoid and beyond. To map one sector of the Astral Universe could take ten lifetimes, and there are twenty-seven sectors. You have choices.”
“No we don’t,” Rahneece declared. “Cowards have choices. How the hell do I, a human – albeit partially – walk away from this when a Malgovi leaves his home to fight and risk dying for my kind? You didn’t just teach me this,” Rahneece said, bringing raw EnerJa to her hand. The glowing, liquid-like energy burned around her palm, crackling and warming up the area before she closed her hand, extinguishing it. “You taught me how to listen, watch, think, and feel outside of myself. Do you have a choice, Traveler?”
“Yes, but it was made long ago.”
“And that only adds to it, man!” Ephaliun whined. “What about simple-minded Jocasta?! Not making an insult, I mean the literally brain-neutral clone… and that plant that came from the cremation of your wife. Come the hell on! You can’t say no to that Kot!”
“Very well then,” Dungias resolved before looking at Ulios. “However, the Rims is not your home either.”
“Z not kill Ulios… after Ulios try hard to kill Z,” the QuiQami male said softly. “Z let Ulios sneak on ship... offer to teach Ulios… give to Ulios… allow Ulios to choose his way after Z train Ulios. Not know Human tongue well… but I think word for this is love. Ulios not know love before. Not want to lose love found.”
“Someone let me know when the room’s regular,” Ephaliun said as he turned for the door.
“Where are you going?” Teela asked.
“He’s got something in his eye,” Rahneece said very softly to Teela before she turned to look at Dungias. “Looks like you’re the apocalypse, Z… because you’ve definitely got your four horsemen.”
“Rating us kinda high, aren’t you?” Teela asked.
“And just what is the weight-pressed limit on those shoulders?” Rahneece asked, looking at Teela’s frame. The former college student then looked down at herself , remembering the physical changes that had happened while she was about the business of learning from Dungias.
“I’m not sure,” Teela admitted.
“Seventy kilograms,” Dungias stated. “That is your current military press weight.”
“Is that out of the armour?” Rahneece asked and Teela slowly nodded ‘yes’. “That’s more than I weigh!” The young EnervationisT sighed and folded her arms. “I say we give Dugger a few more minutes to let him dry his eyes so we can get on with it.”
“Agreed,” Ulios remarked.
“And once he returns,” Dungias said, feeling more hopeful than he had when he collected the star-pod. “… now that you know my history, I can share with you my hope for the future and my plans for Jocasta Endigun.”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
The dust had yet to settle. The smell of laser and gunfire was still thick in the air. People were still coughing, dragging their feet, moaning and crying over lost loved ones or the fact that they were hurt or dying. Med-Techs were r
unning all over the place and two came to tend to the Governor before they looked at the man, deciding to extend triage medicine elsewhere. It might not have been stately for a man of his position to sit on the dirty ground. Getting Isaiah Gundryss to move, however, was the sort of quest that did not bode well for those who dared to take it up. His forearms rested on the tops of his knees as he looked around. Through the smoke and dust he could still see the remains of the fray, scattered all over the stands of the arena. Charred bodies remained draped over banisters, vehicles and shrubs… a few of the lifeless forms had been slashed, shot, or stabbed, a few had combinations of all three types of wound marks. As bad as things looked, he was sure that the people of Black Gate would be calling for the Games to return as soon as possible.
“It is good to be reminded that you achieved your status within the Magistrate ranks through non-academic or political means,” J’Raldri said softly as she walked in front of the man, carrying one of their few casualties. “You should get your shoulder tended to.”
“My shoulder’s… bah, I can’t even finish the lie. Getting too old to be going to regens, Ral.
“Oh, that came out wrong, J’Raldri. I didn’t mean–”
“I take no insult from you saving my life, my Master,” J’Raldri quickly spoke. “… or how you saved it. I was given to you for many reasons. One of them was to learn. Today you reminded me that combat does not always happen in front of my eyes. I am just sorry I was the reason why you received the injury.”
“Just returning a daily favor,” Isaiah replied. He looked around once more.
“I suppose that appreciative is the card I need to play now,” Isaiah thought, wincing in pain from the throbbing wounds in his back and left shoulder. He had not gone untouched in the chaos of the attack, but his body armour had not been penetrated or burned through. There would be some bruising, but Isaiah could cross being struck with an En-Mace off his list of unknown experiences.
