“She had taken a few bites by the time I got to you, but yes, I found you.”
Gerald looked around. “How did you find us?”
She pointed behind him. “I stole a warship.”
Gerald turned around and saw the short sleek pirate vessel, sitting there in a field of orange clovers, looking completely out of place.
“Holy cow. How did you steal a warship?”
Ilrica shrugged. “Space-walked over, hacked into an emergency hatch, froze time, piled up the crew in the airlock and spaced em, sliced into the network to give myself command access, went through the wind tunnel just before it closed, and started a sensor sweep. No biggie.”
“No biggie? How can you be so nonchalant? You took over a warship all by yourself.”
“Just a corvette class.”
“Still, that’s amazing. You’re like a super hero.”
Ilrica blushed. “You know, I could get used to this praise and adoration you give out so freely. Keep it up.”
Gerald noticed Cadbury happily chasing the lizards about, occasionally tripping over a mushroom and tumbling to a halt.
“Hey, you brought Cadbury,” Gerald said happily, rising to his feet. He immediately regretted it. His head went fuzzy and he began to fall over.
“Careful,” Ilrica said, catching him and easing him back down. She looked him over tenderly and shook her head. “What would you do without me?”
“I’d be dead twice now, by my count.”
She held up four fingers. “Nope, try again.”
“When did the other two times happen?”
“Well, I’m the one who sent Trahzi over to rescue you, and then I saved you from Trahzi herself, so that counts as two, not one. Also, back in school some of the guys poisoned your food one day, so I swapped it out before you ate it.”
“Did they really?”
“Oh yeah. Fed it to them instead. The doctors mistook it for a food allergy.”
Gerald’s brow came up. “So, that’s why the tralliss team missed the championship game.”
Gerald dropped his head into his hands. “Sometimes it seems everyone has tried to kill me at some point.”
“I haven’t.”
“What are you talking about? You hit me with a skiv!”
She patted his head. “Well, then, keep saying nice things about me, and it won’t happen again.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
Gerald felt another wave of vertigo pass over him. For a moment all of his senses went numb, then slowly faded back in.
“So, I’m guessing this is the effect of having some of my soul consumed?”
“You’ll live, but it’s definitely shortened your lifespan.”
Gerald had trouble not being upset at her. “You say that like it’s nothing.”
She shrugged. “Well, for me it is. Every time I use my powers I shave a few hours off of my lifetime. Of course, I’ll probably live about a thousand cycles, so it’s a little different equation for me than it is for you.”
“How nice of you to acknowledge the difference.”
She flicked him in the forehead. “Hey, by all accounts you should be dead right now, so be grateful for this extra time I have granted you.”
He rubbed his face. “You’re right, I am sorry.” He looked into her eyes in that sincere way that made her melt inside. “Thank you.”
Ilrica went bright red and smiled. “No biggie.”
Gerald looked around. “Is Trahzi okay?”
“Yeah, she’s been out engorging herself on henna-beasts for the last couple of days to get her strength back. The local news media thinks there’s some sort of plague. Some animal rights people came out to protest and blame the disease on big corporations, but I think Trahzi may have eaten them too.”
“You shouldn’t joke about things like that.”
Ilrica blinked. “Who says I’m joking?”
With her help, Gerald got up to his feet. “Okay, well I need to get on the wave.”
“What’s the rush?”
“Gotta find out who won the battle. Gotta make sure the others are okay. Gotta let everyone know where we are so they don’t worry.”
As he hobbled towards the ship, Ilrica seemed hesitant about something. Finally she just spat out, “Wait!” He turned around.
“What is it?”
She blushed heavily and looked down. “Um...”
He looked down. She was bashfully drawing in the dirt with her big toe. “What is it, Ilrica?”
“Well, it’s just that...”
She was being so unlike herself he almost laughed. He got a good whiff of her cinnamon roll scented perfume. “Just spit it out. It’s just me.”
“You’re right,” she said, taking a breath. “Why not just not tell anybody?”
“What?”
“Just stay with me. Nobody knows we’re here. No one knows we even survived. We have a ship of our own, we can go wherever we want to, do whatever we want to. It could be a lot of fun, you know?”
Gerald didn’t know what to say.
She feigned confidence. “Hey, after all, I am a captain now,” she said, straightening the cap she had stolen.
“Ilrica... I... I just can’t just disappear. There are people who depend on me.”
“But think of all the fun we could have.”
“It would be fun, sure. I can’t think of anyone who would be more fun to be with, but...”
“Then just do it,” she said, walking up and taking his hand in hers. “Come with me. It’s a huge big universe out there. Think of all the places we could visit, all the things we could see. I can show you the diamond falls of Bornion, the singing forest on Antium. I mean, just pick any one of the fifty wonders of the old confederacy, and we’re there. You can even get first pick.”
“Ilrica...”
“Just don’t pick the corpse swamps of Utakk, I don’t think my nose could take it.”
“Ilrica...”
Her confidence began to collapse. “Please,” she said, squeezing his hands. “I just don’t want to be alone anymore.”
Gerald looked away. “I know. But they need me. Without my scholarship funds the missions back on earth will close.”
Ilrica perked up. “Is that all? Okay, then I’ll fund them.”
“You will?”
“Yeah, it’ll be easy. This ship has shadow tech, we can just pick off the occasional cargo freighter and...”
Gerald folded his arms. “You can’t fund a relief mission with stolen money, Ilrica. That defeats the whole purpose.”
“Ugh, you and your weird morals. Okay, well, then, what if I got a job?”
Gerald’s brow came up. “You?”
She realized how silly the suggestion was. “Okay, admittedly there isn’t a real big job market for a hunter, but maybe I could...”
“Ilrica, your people are probably at war with the Alliance right now. That’s going to make job hunting a little difficult.”
She got real quiet. “Yeah, I was trying to forget about that.”
Gerald tried to be as gentle as he could. “Besides, doesn’t this all sound a lot like just more running away?”
She grabbed her elbow. “It wouldn’t be running away, more like starting over.”
“Uh, huh. Look, I can’t just run away from my problems, Ilrica. You taught me that. You practically beat it into me, remember?”
“Cute,” she said, turning away.
Gerald could see the hurt in her eyes. “Hey, this is not a rejection of you, okay?”
“It feels like it.”
“But it isn’t. We may have gotten off to a strange start, but you’ve become more than a friend to me.”
Her eyes lit up. “I have?”
Gerald laughed and gave her a handsome smile. “Yes, of course you have.”
Ilrica looked like she was about to melt.
Gerald put a friendly hand on her shoulder. “Yes, you are more than a friend, you are my hero. I think you
are amazing.”
Her ears dropped. “Oh.”
Ilrica brushed his hand off of her shoulder and turned away.
“Ilrica...”
For several moments she stood there. Silent. Unreadable. Then she stood up straight and turned around to him.
“Ha!” she said weakly, pointing a finger. “I was only kidding that whole time. Like I’d want to pair up with someone like you anyway.”
“Ilrica, you don’t have to hide your feelings.”
“Who’s hiding?” she yelled, startling him. “I’m a hunter! I don’t need anyone, okay?”
“I can kill, gut, and clean a trynox before it even hits the ground. What can you do? All you’re good for is turning oxygen into carbon dioxide and saying things like what and I don’t understand?”
Gerald shook his head in confusion. “What? I don’t understand.”
“See? Exactly! The truth is that you are the one who is scared. You hide behind those robes, behind your rules, behind your faith, all because you are terrified of your own feelings. So, go. Go on! Get out of here, I don’t need you. Go back to serving those people back on Earth who hate you.”
“Ilrica...” Gerald said, looking like his heart was about to break.
She tipped her cap down over her eyes to hide the tears. “Trust me, I know what it is like to serve people who hate you. Nothing good ever comes of it. You may be too stupid to realize it now, but one day you’ll learn.”
Ilrica turned and starting walking towards the ship.
“Where are you going?”
“What do you care?” she snapped over her shoulder. “It’s my ship, I’ll take it wherever I please. I offered for you to come along, but you were stupid, so I’m outta here. The nearest city is a few parns to the east. Enjoy the hike, human.”
“It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“It can’t be any other way.”
Gerald watched her sadly and she ran up to the boarding ramp. She paused one last time to look back at him.
“For what it’s worth,” he called back to her. “I wanted to go with you. I am sorry that I can’t.”
Ilrica sniffed and tried to look brave. “Ask yourself, Gerald Dyson. All those people you’ve served. Those people who are so frakkin’ more important to you than I am. Have they ever thanked you, even once? Would they save your life like I did?”
Gerald didn’t know how to answer.
She went inside and the ramp closed shut. As the ship took off, Gerald dropped his face into his hands.
“I... I did it again. I hurt somebody.”
He looked up as the ship flew away into the blue skies.
“I’m so sorry.”
* * *
Gerald wiped the sweat from his brow as he made his way into town. Already the local stores were picked clean. Bare shelves and empty bins as people tried to stock up for the coming months. War always reminded people of the basics. The gambling halls were empty, the holo-cinemas deserted. Now that reality had crashed down on them and broken them out of their normal routines, most people were home with their families.
Gerald shook his head. Already the Alliance was beginning to look like the Earth he had grown up on. It was truly shocking how thin the veneer of civility really was. Faced with deprivation and desperation, it didn’t take very long for former neighbors to turn on one another. It didn’t take months, nor even weeks. Gerald knew that within twenty-four hours, those same wonderful friendly law abiding people would begin looting each other’s houses. Then, it wouldn’t matter how much food you had saved up. It wouldn’t matter how much money you had in the bank. All that would matter was defending yourself.
Gerald turned into a wave station. The clerk had abandoned his or her or its post, but he threw down a few credit chips onto the counter anyway. He took out his burned ID card and slipped it into the reader. He knew he would have to be quick before the thing broke down, but he just couldn’t resist the urge to write out a message to Cha’Rolette, even though he knew contacting his superiors was the priority. He wasn’t sure what to say, so he didn’t worry about what he was supposed to say, and instead he just wrote what he felt. He poured out his heart, telling her how highly he thought of her; how much he regretted what had happened to her, how much he hoped and prayed for her recovery, and how sorry he was for having so unfairly misjudged her. Once he had sent it off he set up a wave through the military channels. It took a few levels of red tape, but he eventually managed to get through to Admiral Greir.
The Admiral seemed genuinely surprised to see him. “By the gods, boy. How the blazes did you survive? We already had you declared dead.”
“That’s why I called, Admiral. Minister Trahzi and I are alive on Kullun.”
“Well, send her my thanks. We owe the Trahzi a great debt. There’s even talk of inviting the Trahzi to join the Alliance officially now. Thanks to her, this has been the most successful military operation of your generation. We wiped out every major pirate threat in the galaxy in one swift stroke, although it came at a great cost.”
“I’ll make sure to tell her. Is Minister Immestria safe?”
“Yes, she is safe. Her father came and took her back with him.”
“Oh good,” Gerald said, relieved. “What are our orders?”
Greir cleared his throat. “Well, obviously it would be pretty dangerous to continue your diplomatic duties for the time being. The western fleet is in really bad shape, we cannot guarantee the safety of the shipping lanes in our current state, and the Bertulf are on the move. They have invaded five worlds with their blasted drone fleets, including a massive push on the Sloi system. Another fifty systems have joined the Sub-Federation against the Bertulf, but it may not be enough. Until we make repairs there’s little we can do to oppose them. Probably the best thing for you to do right now is take a transport back to the academy...”
Greir ducked as someone threw a shoe at him from off screen.
“...Actually, on second thought, just stay where you are for now, till things settle down.”
“That might be a long time, Admiral.”
Greir’s eyes narrowed as he recalled something. “What about the Bertulf that was with you?”
“She already left,” Gerald admitted. “I don’t know to where.”
“You will let me know if you hear from her.”
“Admiral, you need to know that without her help, Trahzi would not have been able to fight on our side. I don’t think it is fair to treat her as our enemy.”
“If she ever resurfaces, she’ll face trial for espionage and treason. That should be good enough for you.”
Gerald found this distasteful. “If the courts were impartial to her kind I would be. You know, Admiral,” he shot back, “one of these days I’d like to sit down with you and discuss how it was that that you arrived so quickly on the scene once we stumbled on the pirates.”
“I bet you would.”
The window snapped shut before he could inquire further.
* * *
The contractor reached up and cracked his neck. This body was older than the last one. Its back got sore easily, although he did enjoy the white beard. It let him go out in public more easily. People routinely ignore the elderly, so he could get away with things he could never dream of in his last body.
Before him sat the intercepted transmission between Gerald and Greir.
“So, the target is on Kullun.” He turned to the woman who was merged with the wall. “This may be a chance for you to redeem yourself.”
The assassin opened her lavender eyes.
* * *
Gerald removed his card from the reader just as the wave station shorted out and powered down. He turned around and his face ran smack into a pair of enormous red breasts in a school uniform.
“Ah, Trahzi,” he said, backing up, his cheeks flush. “I didn’t see you there.”
Trahzi looked around. “We were not making any attempt to conceal our presence.”
“No,
it’s just... never mind.”
“We wish to talk to you.”
“Okay.”
As she walked with him down the deserted city streets, she didn’t have her usual stride. She took smaller steps to match his own, as if she was more concerned with staying alongside him rather than the destination.
That surpised him, but not so much as it did when she handed him the puppy to hold while they walked. Gerald gave Puppy Trahzi a kiss on the head and cradled her softly, which seemed to please Trahzi immensely.
Gerald felt a little dizzy and had to place his hand on the wall to catch himself.
“Are you okay?” she asked, supporting him.
“Just a little dizzy.”
She looked at him sadly. “We did this to you, didn’t we?”
Gerald felt a spasm of pain in the skin in his arm. He had to grit his teeth. It felt like his skin was burning again.
“The nerve damage?” she asked, placing her hand over her heart.
“It comes and goes,” he said, trying to downplay the pain. “It’s not that bad.”
She shook her head. “You are lying to protect our feelings. We burned you, and you are still feeling the effects.”
Gerald paused to catch his breath as the pain subsided.
She bit her lip. “How often do you feel it?”
“Not very...”
She placed her hand on his chest. “Please, we want to know the truth.”
Gerald looked up at her. “Almost constantly,” he said reluctantly. “They gave me some medicine, but I left it back on the Kalia Greir.”
Trahzi stepped back, looking timid. “We feel we owe you an apology. For everything. For burning you, for hurting you, but especially for misjudging you. We see now that you never had any intention of tricking or controlling us. We are sorry, very sorry, for what we said to you.”
“It’s okay, I...”
She raised her had. “Please, let us finish.”
“Okay.”
She stopped underneath a crystal tree, a strange look upon her face. “We still don’t fully understand why you were willing to die for us back in the yacht. We keep thinking, wondering, if the situation were reversed, would we have been willing to offer ourselves for you as you did for us?”
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