My Enemy's Son (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 2)

by J. Naomi Ay

  “Katie? Are you home?”

  “No!” Caroline called.

  “Come in, Jerry,” I said.

  The doors swished open and Jerry entered with a bouquet of daisies. He glanced at Caroline. “Aren't you on duty?”

  “No, VJ said he doesn't need me so Katie and I are going to watch a movie.”

  “Let's go dancing instead,” Jerry replied and started to dance around the room with the daisies. When he came close to me, he bowed and handed me the bouquet. Then he noticed the vases on my desk. “Hey, where'd all those roses come from?”

  “Dr. de Kudisha sends a new one to Katie every day,” Caroline said, haughtily.

  Jerry looked at his daisies. “What a sport. I'm sure that's why she's been in such good moods lately.”

  “What good moods?” I growled and fetched a vase from the recycle box.

  “My point exactly,” Jerry replied. “That is why I'm going to take you dancing. Come on ladies, the disco is open and the music is on.”

  “No thanks.” I gave the daisies some water and freshened eight of the rosebuds as well.

  “Come on,” Jerry whined. “We're all off duty and we've got nothing better to do. I'll buy you both drinks.”

  “I want a strawberry margarita,” Caroline said. “With a little umbrella in it.”

  “You guys go.” Suddenly, I was feeling very depressed. “I really don't feel like dancing.”

  “Listen Goldie,” Jerry said, grabbing my hand. “You need to get out and party a little. I know you had a good time with Dr. Hotshot Rozarian Brain Surgeon but it's time now to get back to reality and quit waiting by the vid for his call. If he hasn't called by now, he ain't calling.”

  “I'm not waiting by the vid,” I insisted.

  “Then you have no excuse not to come dancing with me. You know, I can be fun too even if I'm not 6'2 and don't have lots of long black hair.” He fluffed up his hair and strutted around the room. Despite myself, I laughed.

  “Come on, let's go,” Caroline said, heading to the door. “I'm wanting that Margarita real bad now and you are buying Jerry. I'm holding you to that.”

  “Goldie?” Jerry held out his hand. “First, last and middle dance?”

  “No slow dances, Jerry,” I cautioned.

  “Okay, we'll argue about what constitutes slow later,” he replied, taking my hand. “And a Pineapple Daiquiri with only a little bit of rum and lots of pineapple juice and a nice chunk of pineapple with a cherry and an umbrella too.”

  “Right,” I nodded.

  “I know you kid.” He put his arm around my neck and pretended to choke me.

  “I guess you do,” I sighed and locked my cabin door.

  Chapter 8

  Email

  To: k.golden@ssdiscovery.ap.mil

  Dear Katie,

  I hope you don't mind if I call you Katie. In case you don't remember, I'm Ron's admin in the SdK Medical Centre. My husband Tim is the Admiral in charge of Landbase Rozari. I have two sons, Thad whom you have met and Larry who lives on Earth. Thad has two kids a boy and a girl who we adore and often take care of.

  I'm writing to you today because Tim told me the Discovery just came out of deep space and I assume you were expecting some kind of note or something from Dr. Ron. He's been insanely busy these last few months building the company and seeing his normal patient load so don't be surprised if he doesn't write to you or even call.

  I just wanted you to know that he is thinking about you and I know he will make every effort to visit you as soon as his schedule let's up.

  Best,

  Shelly

  PS. He did not tell me to write you.

  To: s.mattson@sdkcorp.com

  Dear Shelly,

  Thank you for your letter. Of course, I was very surprised to receive it and you were correct in that I haven't heard a thing from Ron. Deep space is always difficult as I'm sure you know. I imagine that Admiral Mattson spent a great deal of time away from you and your family. We did not encounter anything particularly exciting this trip so I was able to spend a lot of time working on my qualifications as well as finishing the requirements to obtain my third degree black belt. The ship performed well throughout our cruise even though Engineering had to be completely rebuilt after the fire.

  We are going to be going into a short drydock at Spacebase Earth Moon to iron out some of the squawks from the deep space cruise so I will be taking the opportunity to go to Earth for few days and visit my family. I have a brother, a niece and a nephew and my parents are still in good health and I am very anxious to see all of them.

  Best to you and your family,

  Katie

  To: k.golden@ssdiscovery.ap.mil

  Dear Katie,

  How was your trip to Earth? I hope everything went well and you enjoyed your stay with your family. All the buildings at SdK Corp are now complete except for the new Admin building which has just broken ground. Thad told me just yesterday that there are now more than ten thousand people who work for SdK Rozari. Considering that a few months ago, I didn't even know this company existed, it's really amazing. Of course just about anything Ron does is amazing as I'm sure you know. He is still maintaining a killer schedule. He is only in our office and the hospital a few hours a week but crams as many patients as he possibly can into those hours. Janet has become very adept at a lot of the simple non-surgical procedures and so he has offloaded a lot to her and to several other resident neuro-surgeons including a nice boy named Jason from Earth who I think will be joining our office soon.

  Susie, Ron's other admin, tells me he is over in Engineering a good portion of the rest of the week. Thad says we'll be launching a whole new product line within days so I imagine that is what they are all working on.

  I did buy him some new shirts and ties while I was at the mall last week. He has a tendency to destroy everything he wears. I don't know why he is always getting himself so dirty while the other doctors around here manage to keep their clothes clean. I hope you like the ties. They are all Armani, similar to the ones you bought when you were here.

  The weather here is the same as always. It's lovely working in Kalika-hahr now. Janet, Susie and I often take sack lunches out to the lake and enjoy the cool breeze.

  Gwen, Thad's little girl, just got a part in her school play so we are very proud about that. His little boy, Jimmy is on the basketball team so Tim spends a lot of time going to his games. Overall we are keeping very busy.

  Best,

  Shelly

  To: s.mattson@sdkcorp.com

  Hi Shelly,

  The strangest thing happened today. I was down in sickbay looking for Jerry as I promised him we could go to the pub for dinner. Jerry's the ship’s doctor and we've been friends ever since I came aboard. Caroline, she's the head nurse and my friend as well, wanted to go too and she's been kind of seeing a guy from security so we decided to make it a foursome for burgers and a beer. Anyway, I went down to sickbay to collect them and Jerry shows me this new equipment that just arrived yesterday while restocking at Spacebase 23. A whole bunch of new patient care monitoring systems came in. Frankly, I didn't even notice what the last ones look liked or who made them but Jerry was terribly excited so to indulge him I looked at them. I admit they are very cool if you are into that sort of thing and have many features that are light years beyond the old ones but the most important feature that I noticed was the name on the lower right corner of every one of them, SdK Medical Corporation and the little logo with SdK in a circle.

  I can't even begin to imagine what the contract for outfitting Spaceforce must be worth.

  Jerry was thrilled with them so kudos to all of you for your good work.

  I don’t have anything else really to tell you about, just the usual endless boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

  Oh yes, I did finish all my qualifications for a rank increase and hopefully will take the test in a few weeks. In the meantime I'm spending every off-hours moment either in the gym, with my
friends or studying. They did change the dance music in the disco recently and it's not too bad so we have been having some fun dancing as of late. Jerry, to his credit, is a really good dancer.

  I'm trying to imagine Ron dancing but the image is too unbelievable. Can you visualize it, especially with his big ugly feet? Lol!!

  I'm sure whatever you bought him is fine. Honestly Shelly, why should I care what his ties look like?

  Katie

  To: k.golden@ssdiscovery.ap.mil

  Hi Katie,

  No, I can't even begin to imagine Ron dancing but mostly because I don't think he has time for anything remotely enjoyable. I would think he probably learned to dance at some point but I could be wrong.

  Thad told me to take a drive out to the coast yesterday, specifically about twenty miles south east of Takira-hahr, near the national park property. Tim and I headed out there and you wouldn't believe what is being built there. Oh my goodness, it was the most gorgeous villa I have ever seen. This whole area of beach and shore lands has been re-claimed and is as beautiful and tropical as anything in Hawaii or the South Pacific islands of Earth. It's like a tropical oasis in the middle of nowhere which just goes to prove that the technique Ron has come up with to reclaim the former nuke sites is really working.

  Anyway, the house there is still under construction but looks like it's about three stories high and it has a central courtyard which is open to the elements although Thad seemed to think it would have a retractable roof. I can imagine plumeria and bougainvillea and a few other things I would plant in the courtyard if it were my place. The top two floors of the estate have balconies circling on both sides because even though only one side has a view of the ocean, from the other side, you can see the tropical forests. Tim and I were just saying how wonderful it would be to sit out on those decks under the sun canopies and sip on Mai Tai's or Margaritas.

  Gwen and Jimmy were with us when we flew by the property and begged us to take them down to the beach so they could go swim but there's some kind of an invisible security bubble over it so we couldn't land and had to go on to the national park which hasn't been re-claimed and it was hot and dry with only red dust covering the grounds.

  Anyway, Gwen's play was delightful and Jimmy's basketball team finished second in the league. The kids stayed over last night as Thad had a late night out with Ron and this other fellow who is now running the subsidiary company back on the other planet. Thad said it was all meetings but every one of those guys stunk of beer and cigarettes this morning and only Ron seem sober enough to work. I didn't catch a whiff of perfume so I'm pretty sure no women were involved and it was an actual late night work marathon.

  How are things with your friends and your family?

  Shel

  To: s.mattson@sdkcorp.com

  Shelly,

  I love getting your emails. As I'm sure you know, space duty, especially in these long cruises is very hard and sometimes very lonely. But, I really don't want to hear about Ron and all the wonderful things he is or isn't doing because frankly, I don't care. Six months ago when I started this contract, I thought I would take the next contract off or maybe even apply to Landbase Rozari because I thought Ron and I would have a future together and he would want me there with him. I haven't heard a peep out of him in all this time so I guess I am the fool for not listening to the warnings the nurses there gave me. So now I've signed up for another contract. After visiting my parents last week, I'm back in space for six more months. At least Jerry and Caroline are here too. Jerry isn't Ron but he's here and he's here for me every day whether or not I want him to be. At any rate, please continue to write to me about your grandkids and the Admiral and life on Rozari but I don't need to know how drunk Ron and his buddies got last night.

  Kate

  Chapter 9

  Katie

  “That was fun,” Jerry said, standing outside my cabin.

  “It was,” I agreed, still laughing. “That comedian was hilarious.”

  “Like a modern day Woody Allen,” Jerry said.

  “Yeah. Except he was Talasian with green skin.”

  “Yeah,” Jerry chuckled.

  I looked at my door. He looked at my door. You wanna?” He inclined his head toward the door.

  “I don't know,” I said.

  “Why not?” He leaned in close to me, his lips hovering above mine, his hands on either side of my head, pushing me back against the wall.

  “I don't know,” I said again.

  Slowly, he put his mouth on mine. It wasn’t the first time. He was gentle. He was kind. He didn’t push himself on me and in me and make me feel like I was going to melt into a puddle or spontaneously combust. I wanted to be held. I want to be loved. Senya awoke something in me that I never knew I needed and now I needed it and he wasn’t here to give it to me. I might never see him again.

  I unlocked the cabin door and we slipped inside. The aroma of roses was overwhelming. Jerry wrapped his arms around me.

  “You know I love you, Goldie. Even a blind man can see it.”

  A blind man? Could he see this, my blind man? He wasn’t mine. He was mine for five days but not anymore. The scent of roses seemed to be growing stronger, intoxicating me, and suffocating me. Jerry was unbuttoning my blouse, kissing my neck, taking off my bra, pushing himself against me. He led me to the bed and as if I was in a trance I lay down upon it and let him unbutton my jeans and slip them off me.

  “Tell me you love me too, sweetheart,” he said, kissing me. “Tell me you love me even a little bit?”

  “Jerry,” I whispered. I was so confused. What was I doing? Where was Senya? Why didn’t he want me anymore?

  “Love me, Goldie, love me,” Jerry cried and he pushed inside me. “Yeow!” He shrieked and fell off the bed. “What the hell was that?”

  “I don't know!” I cried, sitting up. I wrapped the blanket around me. There was a burning feeling in me. “What happened?”

  “Shit!” Jerry was down on the floor where I couldn’t see him. “I feel like I just got electrocuted.”

  “How?” I squeaked.

  “I don't know!” Jerry practically screamed. “Do you have some weird space disease you didn't declare at your physical?”

  “Me? Maybe it's you!” I felt around for my clothes and quickly put them back on.

  “I'm sorry, honey.” Jerry took a deep breath. “Damn that was painful. It was like a bolt of electricity just shooting through me. I hope it didn't turn me into a eunuch.”

  “I'm really sorry,” I cried. He didn’t respond, just put on his clothes down there on the floor. “Maybe it's for the best anyway.”

  “I don't think making me sterile with a bolt of electricity would be for the best,” he snipped.

  “Jerry,” I whispered. “I don’t think I did that to you. Nothing like that happened with Ron. He was fine, more than fine.” I felt my face heat up big time. Damnit to hell, I missed Senya.

  “Ron?” Jerry stood up and put his hands on his hips.

  I nodded. “I don't think this is going to work between us, Jerry,” I said. “I'm really sorry.”

  “Well yeah,” he retorted, angrily. “If you've got an electric vagina, it for sure isn't going to work between us.”

  “It's not me!” I gasped. “How can you say that?”

  “Well I nearly got fried and you seem fine.”

  “I'm a little sore!”

  We stared each other down for a moment.

  “Jerry,” I gasped with realization. “He did something to me.”

  Jerry looked puzzled. “What? Like an internal chastity belt?”

  “I don't know, maybe.”

  “Well, maybe we should go down to sickbay and I'll take a look.”

  “No!”

  “Katie if he put something in you, I can damn well take it out!”

  “No! I'm not going to let you look up me like that!”

  “Well VJ can do it then.”

  “No!” I said for the third time. “Ther
e's nothing there. I think I would know it but I still think he did something. He can do weird things almost like magic.”

  “Magic?”

  I nodded.

  “Magic?” Jerry repeated, obviously pissed. “Goodnight Kate. I'll see you later.”

  “Bye.” I shut the door behind him, undressed again and climbed into bed. Like a foolish teenager instead of a twenty-seven year old Lt. Commander in the Allied Spaceforce, I cried like a baby, holding my pillow and wishing it was Senya.

  Chapter 10

  Email

  To: k.golden@ssdiscovery.ap.mil

  Dearest Katie,

  Tim had a bit of a cardiac episode last week and he's fine now so no worries but I've been home with him ever since. He did have a procedure at SdK Medical Centre and I can say, not as an employee, but as a patient's wife, the care there was first rate. We are discussing our options for the future. Tim can take retirement at any time and we are thinking that perhaps this would be a good time to do it. I am really enjoying my job though and am not ready to just ride off in that Winnebago in search of sunsets.

  I do have a bit of gossip. Thad is dating Dr. Gina. Janet despises her, probably because she is a competent surgeon, and probably because she had her eye on Dr. Ron about the same time Janet did. Gina's good for Thad though. I don't think she's nearly as ditzy as Janet makes her out to be. Thad seems happy and less rumpled when I see him. Maybe this will turn in to something?

  Tim, if he decides to go back to the Landbase, has mentioned a need for an adjunct who will relieve a lot of the stress that is currently on his shoulders. This person would need to be a full commander though. Perhaps you know someone?