by Celeste Raye
“Is he? I had no idea. I always thought Talon was that… That…” She did not know how to put it without offending him, so she clamped her lips shut.
Marik gave her an amused glance. “The bloodthirsty one? Oh, he is, no doubt about it. But only where the Federation and the Gorlites are concerned. His liking for blood stems from a need for revenge. I don’t blame him for that.”
The heat of his body was so close to hers that she could feel it and the warmth comforted her even further. She just didn’t dare lean into it. “But you don’t share his need for revenge.”
Marik said, “No. Not anymore. I did, but I’m a healer, and while I don’t mind killing those parasitic worms, the Gorlites, because they are a menace and they suck the life out of everything that they find, I have a harder time justifying killing anyone and anything else. Even those who are with the Federation.”
She was curious now. “Jeval?”
Marik flinched a little. His jaw went tight. “He has gifts beyond any I have ever seen. He has powers that only come around every hundred generations or so and yet he chooses to squander them. And his thirst for blood is born not just out of a need for revenge but from a liking of war. I think…” He fell silent.
So did she. A few paces ahead were Talon’s crew, and they were readying the ship for takeoff. Jenny's stomach turned, and her chest tightened. She did want to go back. She wanted to find Ben and have her happily ever after with him. It was possible to have that now.
After all, the old systems had fallen away and now they could be together and not have to worry that one or the other of them would starve to death or have to be pawned, that they would have to pawn one or more of whatever children they might have just in order to eat and feed the others.
Oh, but how she would miss this planet!
Chapter 4- Marik
The ship hurtled through space. Marik stood on the deck, his eyes automatically scanning the windows for any almost invisible ripples that would signal a cloaked ship tagging along beside them.
There was nothing but darkness and stars, the occasional planet and falling asteroid. The ship hummed with activity behind him, but he didn’t look at it. Flying had never been his favorite thing to do. Back when they had been children, Talon had once dared him to go up on a small two-person ship that had been little more than a bucket of mechanical parts that had failed long since and tilted guidance systems.
Marik had been so afraid he had nearly had a heart attack. Talon had been in his element. Their father had had to bring his ship up and help guide them down. All the way, Talon had stood in the control deck with his face shining and laughter spilling from his mouth as he told his father over the com–call box that he could absolutely fly that old tub even though all evidence pointed to the contrary.
Jenny spoke from behind him, “It won’t be long now, will it?”
He turned to face her. Her long blonde hair had been put into a neat and tight coil at the base of her neck. The rather harsh hairdo emphasized the sharp planes of her cheekbones and the curve of her bottom lip. The tunic and the trousers, however, disguised the very lush, if petite, body that she possessed and he found himself wishing that she had one of her dresses on.
He said, “Yes. Just a matter of hours now.”
Her fingers twisted together as she stared out the observatory window. “Doesn’t look like anything’s out there.”
Their reflections, ghostly and pale, peered back at them. He said, “We’re traveling so fast that you really don’t have time to register what is there unless it’s very large.”
She said, “I absolutely hate ships.”
He chuckled. “You’re not the only one.”
She leaned forward a little bit, her eyes moving over stars and whatever else was visible out there. “Why did you agree to do this?”
He said, “Someone had to.”
She turned to face him, and his body shifted as well. The ship vibrated beneath their feet, sending her forward just a bit. Her hand came up and out and touched his chest, just slightly, just enough for her to gain her balance and then she hastily moved away. She said, “They told me that you volunteered for this. I know you just said someone had to, but why you? You’re not human, and you have nothing that you love down there. You’ve never even been there. So why?”
He could have argued that one point with her but chose not to. “I told you. I’m a healer. I spent enough of my life killing and destroying things. Maybe this is penance for all that I’ve done wrong. The part of me that is a natural healer commanded that I go. That I heal as best as I can.”
Now her face held curiosity. “Is it true that you can touch heal? That, I mean, can you really bring the dead back to life?”
He gawked at her. Then he burst into laughter. “Someone’s been telling you tall tales!”
She flushed, and her eyes dropped. Immediately remorse set in. He put his hand out and touched hers. Her face jerked back up, and there was a startled expression on it.
He said, “I can touch heal, but I cannot bring back the dead. That is beyond the scope of any healer. I have heard that some healers are able to bring back those who are just on the brink, but to do so… To do so would mean their own deaths, so most choose not to. I can’t say I blame them.”
Her finger went to her forehead and rubbed at the small space directly between her eyebrows. She said, “I had the oddest dream. I dreamed that you and a few others came into my chamber and carried me off to the med–bay last night.”
They had. But what happened there had been so terrible, and it caused her so much anguish that she blocked out the memory. Her mind had not been the only thing to block out that memory; he had used a powerful drug to help with that block and he had also used a technique that further walled the memory of it away as well.
He had not necessarily wanted to do such a thing, but the truth was she was a natural healer, and she didn’t know it. Her brain needed to be reminded and awoken to the fact that she could do things she did not yet know she could do.
He had been teaching her while they were on the ship of course. He had taught her all sorts of skills and things, but there had not been enough time during the travel to truly teach her all that she would need to know once on that planet. And nobody could teach a natural healer how to touch heal. They had to learn that themselves. He had to implant in her body and mind the fact that she could do it and it would be up to her to try.
He said, as casually as possible, “Oh? That sounds like a bad dream.”
Her eyes rested on his face. He wondered if she remembered more than she would’ve liked to and if she was actually asking him if it had happened. She would remember eventually and when she did would she be angry at him for doing it or angry at him for lying to her now.
Probably both.
It was better for her not to remember what happened the night before. If she remembered, she’d be stricken by a pain so huge that it would incapacitate her for quite some time. He needed her up and moving right now. There were a lot of hurt people down there and sometimes a healer had to be incredibly strong in order to heal themselves after the process that he had just carried out upon her.
She was not strong enough yet.
Jessica stepped up between them. She said, “We land soon.”
Marik nodded. Jenny said, “Can I ask you a question?”
Jessica said, “Of course.”
Jenny asked, “How do you plan on keeping us safe? I assume you will since what good will we be if we’re dead?”
Marik could’ve told her the answer to that question long before she asked it. He gave Jessica an imploring stare, hoping that, for once, Jessica would soften just a bit. She was a hard woman, strong and often furious. Her eyes went to Jenny, and he saw something like sympathy on her face.
Jessica said, “We shall, of course, do all we can to protect you.”
Jessica walked away. Jenny and Marik stood there watching it as Old Earth slowly came into view. Jenny sa
id, “I have never seen it from up here. I was already locked into a chamber when the ship took off the last time I was near here. Somehow I thought it would be far prettier. More like home.”
Her face flushed and she looked down at her feet. His heart picked up a few beats per minute. Home? She thought of the planet Revant Two as Home?
He said, “I hear it was very beautiful before the wars started. It could be beautiful again. So much of it is unusable now because of the war, but maybe eventually it will heal.”
They stood there in silence as the ship slowly descended through the atmosphere and the planet became clearer and clearer. Marik said, “I believe these are the docking stations.”
She nodded, but didn’t speak. The ship began to take on a more active atmosphere. Crewmembers rushed around readying the ship for landing. Marik said, “I think that’s our cue to get our things ready for disembarkation.”
She said, “I only brought what I have on.”
He nodded. “I brought medicines, but Talon has stopped at several outlier planets where medications and things are more plentiful so we will have supplies.”
Her brow puckered as she looked over at him. “Do you think we will be able to save quite a few?”
He was hoping so. Deep down in his heart, he really was sick of death and blood, of war and violence. The part of him that had always been a healer cried out in protest against those things now. His quest for blood and revenge had ended long ago even if that quest had not ended for several of his brothers.
He said, “I do. I think we are needed here and that what we will do here will have very real and lasting consequences. My largest hope is that those that we will help may actually be able to learn from us as well in order to become healers themselves.”
She said, “I… I hope I can find Ben.”
Ben? He asked, “Is that your family?”
Her fingers went to her tightly pulled back hair. “No. My entire family is dead; I told you that. I was engaged to him. Before I was taken away to be a bride. Or at least that’s what they told me I would be as they dragged me out of the Below.”
His heart let off a painful throb. He ignored that. Now was not the time to tell her how he felt about her. “I am sure that if he is still anywhere near the place you saw him last, you will find him again.”
She swallowed hard. Her face wrinkled in thought. “The city has been mostly destroyed from what Jessica said.”
Marik said, “Unfortunately that is usually what happens when there is war.”
She flinched a little. “Well, perhaps I shall see somebody that I know, and they will be able to tell me where he is, and if… And if he still lives.”
Just then the ship docked. A hard lurch ran through the floor, causing her to stumble forward again. That time when her hands came up and met his chest, they did not help her to maintain her balance. She landed against him just as the ship gave another hard jolt and shudder. Her body, soft and warm, lay against his. She was small and perfectly built, and he had the oddest urge to just pick her up and carry her like a prize.
She stepped back hastily, her face going red with blood. “I’m sorry. I lost my balance.”
He said, “It’s all right.”
It wasn’t. His body ached for hers. He wanted to reach back out and hold her again, but the mention of a man, a human man that she had left behind but not by choice, had given him every reason to stay silent.
The whirr of activity continued all around them and, eventually, they found themselves joining in with several dozen others as they made their way toward the exit doors. The bay door slid open, and Marik caught his first glimpse of Old Earth from the ground.
It was awful.
Everything was a mess. Buildings had been shattered and crumbled, and the debris lay all over the streets, which were pockmarked and also broken by weapon fire. A thick cloud of dust, probably from the buildings in the street, hung over everything. The air was thick, and he wasn’t sure if he could breathe it. Several of the crew members began passing out masks that would go over their noses and mouths. He took one gratefully, as did Jenny.
Talon appeared. “Marik, I know that you know how to use this. Jenny, you probably don’t. I would advise you to learn very fast.”
Marik looked down at the weapons in Talon’s hands. The last thing he wanted to do was touch another weapon, but he knew that he had to take it. Things were volatile there on the surface of that planet, and there was no telling who might be an enemy and who might be a friend. Jenny stepped backward, her head shaking from side to side. “No, I won’t.”
Talon said, “Listen to me, Jenny. I know that you’re frightened. You have every reason to be. You are here to help heal people, but you can’t do your job if you are dead. Take it. You may never need it, but it is better not to need it and to have it than to need it and not have it.”
Marik took the weapons from Talon. He stuck them both in his belt and said, “She shall be with me anyway. I will carry it for her.”
Jenny gave him a grateful smile but Talon’s forehead wrinkled, and his eyes narrowed. “That will do her no good at all if something happens and you are not near her.”
That was just one more reason not to stray far from her side, wasn’t it? Marik said, “I intend to stay close to her. I will take care of her.”
Talon opened his mouth to say something else but shut his lips abruptly. His head nodded, and he said, “Well, let’s go then. There’s a sort of hospital set up near the center of the city, but it’s a hard fight to get there.”
Jenny asked, “What do you mean?”
Talon did not try to soften the blow for her. “They are still fighting here. They’re fighting each other now more than anything else. If they think you have something that they can use here, then they may go after you. Unfortunately, it’s not just those who lived above ground who are desperate to regain the system that used to be in place. A lot of those from Below are equally determined not to have the system back in place, and they are fighting for their very lives. Then there are rovers.”
Marik’s head lifted. His eyes went to Jenny and then back to Talon. “Rovers? Here?”
Talon said yes, “Human Rovers but Rovers. That’s what we’ve taken to calling them because that is precisely how they behave. They don’t care whose side you’re on. They don’t have a side either. They just take advantage of anyone and everything they can. They will shoot first and ask questions later. We are carrying a lot of valuables. That medication is incredibly valuable. So are the food supplies. If we are attacked by Rovers, all of us will have to fight.”
Marik looked at Jenny. “Stay very near me.”
Her face held a look of sheer terror. She said, “I will.”
They set off. The streets appeared to be deserted, but Marik’s senses told him that they were not. Sure enough, they had only gone a few dozen paces when he spotted a male human sliding around the side of a building, shrinking away from them. Talon, right beside him, muttered, “Look up, but carefully.”
Marik’s eyes went upward and then back down in a seemingly casual sweep of the terrain. It was not casual. He had seen exactly what Talon had wanted to show him. There were people up on a roof of a building far down from where they were walking. Again, not a good sign.
Marik asked, under his breath, “Rovers?”
Jessica, walking behind him and right beside Jenny who was flanked on the other side by a very large crew member loaded down with weapons, said, “It looks like it.”
Talon said, “Keep walking, but be cautious.”
Marik did keep walking, but his eyes were continually moving. He spotted several more people huddled in the burned out shell of a hovercraft that had crashed onto a street, one wing still pointing skyward.
The whole place was blasted and broken. Rubble crunched underfoot. He could hear the sound of voices coming from somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where. The broken buildings and the heavy wind that had picked up and had begun to whip along
the destroyed cityscape made sound distort and sharpen all at the same time.
The grit, blown about by the wind, stung his exposed skin. His eyes watered when a particularly nasty little chunk whizzed by and scraped across his eyelid. If he had not closed his eye in time, it would’ve gone right across the surface of his eye, and he knew it.
He made a mental note to try to find some goggles or some other kind of eye protection before he had to go out on the streets again.
They made it past the buildings, but Marik knew better than to be relieved. Rovers often traveled in large packs that broke off in two small hunting parties. If these humans were behaving like Rovers, the ones that had been on the buildings that they had already passed were just the flanking section. A flanking section that would eventually come back around and circle them from another side, and probably while they were engaged in battle with another part of their pack.
Talon said, “We have to take this street.”
The street was in less disrepair than the others but the buildings, what remained of them, stood silent and haunted. The air of abandonment and desperation hung over everything.
The door of one of the buildings burst open and a woman, very disheveled and clearly distraught, rushed out onto the street. Immediately weapons were pulled and pointed in her direction. She fell to her knees, her hands up in the air. Her hair, long and a solid gray color, flowed over her shoulders and back and her face, shockingly unlined and a striking contrast against her hair, looked up at them. Her face was dirty, but her tears had cut clean channels down her cheeks. Talon spoke, not unkindly. “You should not be on the streets right now.”
The woman screamed out, “They have destroyed my home! My husband is dead, and the government has fallen! The Federation said they would help, but they have not come back! They have abandoned us here and those… Those creatures from Below… Those unworthy… Things! They are everywhere! I ordered someone to bring me food earlier, but nobody has come. They ignore me and laugh at me and disregard my station!”
