Nova

by Lora E. Rasmussen

  *

  By late afternoon of the same day, Serros had completed her Arca Synergy enabled, curative reverie and eaten a second time. Afterward, she desiccated the remaining pig meat into jerky with the portable laser much as she’d done with the jakhri well over a week ago. Though still aching, the day of rest, healing, and an abundant quantity of food made her feel more refreshed than she’d been since the cave they had sheltered in during the storm.

  Especially given Avara’s still in–process recovery, the two Nova Squad members decided that they would be best served by resting for the remainder of the day and continuing their travels with an early start next morning. As they would be staying, they set up the tent to ward off heat as well as insectoid and reptilian life, making for the slightly cooler canvass confines after Avara’s food preparation had been completed.

  As the two settled down in the tent, Avara felt a quiver of anticipation and necessity from K’llan, and Serros was again aware that the Vosaia knew exactly what she was going to say well before saying it. “K’llan, you need to Feed.”

  Z’arr nodded in response but, sitting to Avara’s right on her sleeping pallet, made no move forward, sapphire locks half–covering her face. Normally so confident and easy in movement or repose, K’llan sat with a stiff stillness that was utterly unlike her.

  Dampening her own thrill of excitement and trepidation, Avara breathed in deeply and focused on her concern and care for K’llan, let it roll off her and over Z’arr much as K’llan had done for Serros earlier. Moving to sit closer, Avara softly lifted K’llan’s chin, brushed azure strands away from violet eyes, and offering a faint smile, captured K’llan’s mouth with her own.

  In a moment of perfect stillness the pose was held, then Avara could feel K’llan respond. It started as a gentle trickle, the sensation of each woman’s life–energy lightly dripping in time with the pounding of heartbeats like an old fashioned water–clock. Then the cadence increased.

  Avara felt the fabric of their nyas intertwine and lock as the flow was amplified, even as the physical connection between them shifted from staid gentleness to a passionate exploration of lips and tongues. Avara could feel the escalation of K’llan’s desire like a living, breathing entity.

  At the same time, just as when K’llan had first Fed from her, Avara could also feel the undeniable reality of her own echoing response. Her heart was thudding and blood circulating with almost painful acuity, every fiber singing with a wild, demanding hunger and want that was all her own; all for the Vosaia. For the woman that she was somehow vaguely aware that she was now fiercely embracing. Their kiss became more fervent and the Human could feel an answering response in gut and groin, a physical testimony to the truth of mutual craving laid bare.

  And then, also as before, the Captain was cognizant of the rippling surge of her memories and thoughts pouring into K’llan’s consciousness, the very flavor and tenor of mind and heart seeping from one to the other. After a space of time that felt like less than a moment and longer than eternity, Avara experienced another shift between them. Avara became the recipient, rather than the donator, not only of a measure of K’llan’s life–energy, but also the essence of who she was.

  Serros was submerged in it all. K’llan’s strength and kindheartedness, her sure intellect and natural inquisitiveness, the determination she held to create positive outcomes for others that initiated her joining the STF; the Vosaia’s love of adventure and discovery.

  Serros also felt K’llan’s sense of excitement and fulfillment in her still new role as a member of Nova Squad. Yet at the same time, the very real pain she dealt with every day due to forced separation from her people, her home, and her family, was equally tangible. Avara was made fully aware of and experienced K’llan’s sense of loneliness and isolation.

  Emotions were coupled with images… moments of import and poignancy that shaped who K’llan was; places and people shutter–snapping in a dizzying array within Avara’s mind, often so quickly that the Human could only snatch the barest hint of meaning.

  Above all else, for the first time Avara fully grasped exactly what the Vosaia felt for her, and the extraordinary depth of those feelings synchronously startled and warmed her. K’llan intensely, distinctly, and passionately loved Avara. And yet the word, as powerful as its meaning was, in so many critical expressions, went far beyond the Human equivalent to the term. It was a reality intermixed with the connection that had been forged between them.

  More, in understanding the truth of that differential of meaning, Avara also fully experienced and realized the strain K’llan was enduring with gentle patience. The perseverance the Vosaia had tendered and suffered through as she waited with a hope that she knew may never be actualized. A weight K’llan bore as she watched for the Human to comprehend and respond to what culturally, would have been a given with another Vosaia.|

  Finally, Avara also understood that K’llan, bestowed with a lifespan of a millennium or more, would continue to wait, would continue to give Avara all the time and space she needed to understand and reach a decision until the day Serros drew her last breath.

  It was with this final thought, this incipient understanding that waves of shocked emotion went tumbling through her entire frame that Serros came back to the present. Like a dunking in ice–water in the high–heat of day, Avara became aware that the physical expression of their attraction had escalated.

  That somehow their clothes were partially–off and that their bodies had been avidly exploring just as soul and mind. With a groan of want and consummation denied, Avara pulled herself away, physically retreating in a single swift movement by sitting as far as the walls of their tent would allow.

  “Oh my God.” The words slipped out of her mouth before she’d even realized she’d uttered them. Her whole body was trembling and oxygen seemed a scarce commodity as she rapidly snatched shallow gulps.

  “Avara, I…” Letting the hand fall that had half risen towards Serros, whatever K’llan wanted to say was left unspoken as her words trailed off, and uncertainty battled desire in her glittering, amethyst eyes. She quietly began straightening her disheveled and undone clothing.

  Still in a sitting position, with her elbow resting on an uncurled knee, Avara said nothing, just watched K’llan as the Vosaia finished righting herself and then finally turned her eyes back to Avara’s. All the while the Shield struggled to find some measure of internal equilibrium.

  Finally, her alto unusually rough with tightly checked emotion, Avara asked “What is it K’llan? Our link… what is it called?”

  “Nyeria.” Z’arr’s response came quickly enough and her voice was composed, but Serros could read K’llan’s attempts to mute her own turbulent feelings.

  “My understanding is that the Vosaia term for a… Life–Mate, is Iyan, yes?”

  “Correct.”

  “Then,” Serros began, hesitant if she should ask, or even how to formulate the question that was driving mind and mouth forward. “What is the difference?”

  Shaking her head slightly, naturally pale face even more wan in the suffused sunlight bathing the tent walls, K’llan spoke slowly, as if each word was a fragile treasure. “In one sense, there is no difference, and the two terms hold the same meaning. In another, there is all the difference in the world.”

  When it seemed that the Lieutenant was going to say no more, Serros announced “I do not understand, K’llan.”

  Instead of directly answering the question, K’llan almost forcefully caught Avara’s gaze. “Are you sure you want to know, here and now? Are you ready?” Her tone was caution and challenge both.

  “I think I need to know.” Captain Serros answered seriously, not shirking the slightest from the intensity of those violet eyes.

  “And what about Diana Adeline?” The question was spoken without malice or jealousy, just simple awareness and smothered discomfort.

  “As I said before, my relationship with Diana is separate from… what is occurring betw
een us, and I intend to keep it that way until I understand.”

  “Mm.”

  At the Vosaia’s lack of cosignature to Avara’s declaration, Serros added, “Please, K’llan.”

  “Perhaps.” Z’arr replied thoughtfully, and though Avara could still sense worry clouding K’llan’s nya, a moment later it was clear she’d reached a decision, the constant tension of the situation and Avara’s plea tipping the scales.

  “Nyeria means ‘soul–bond’ and ‘soul–bonded.’ Our link is Nyeria; we are Nyeria, and to be Nyeria is to be Iyan.”

  In some ways, Avara felt like she was held fast in restraints and watching as a tide of bullets were unerringly slicing through the air towards her, that she was unable to remove herself from danger yet fully aware of its approach and expected impact. “But we’ve known each other for only a short period of time and … we’ve not been romantically intimate.”

  “Yes, and it is, as far as I know, almost unheard of that our connection formed so very quickly and without specifically being sexual.” Avara could hear the unspoken ‘yet’ hovering between them as loudly as the blaring cry of a trumpet. Given the fact of arousal that had almost been effectuated twice now, Avara hardly felt like she could legitimately contradict the unvoiced suggestion.

  “Nevertheless, it did.” K’llan continued, acknowledging the Human’s confusion. Now that the long avoided discussion had been initiated, she plunged forward, driving towards clarity. “It means that our souls, our life–energy, what Vosaia call nya, are linked and fused at a psychic and physical level, and over time, the bond will become more profound. Nyeria is extremely rare, even among my people, and yet once formed, it is as indisputable as it is unbreakable.”

  Despite the internal warring dance of thought and feeling, Serros felt a curious kind of quiet, internal lassitude at K’llan’s pronouncement; words forming confirmation around what had been nameless, but not unidentified. Watching K’llan, her long blue lashes curling above lilac colored eyes, Avara could feel desire swelling, want for the woman before her that was undeniably physical, but was also so much more. She could also feel the danger of that want here and now. Danger to her sense of self, to what she held to be true and to some sense, sacred. She just didn’t know how to properly communicate everything she was thinking and feeling to the Vosaia sitting scant inches away.

  “Do not, Avara. There is no need; I already know.”

  Though at this stage she felt she shouldn’t be, nevertheless, K’llan’s words startled her. They were spoken with such conviction, such certainty, that Avara could find no doubt in their sincerity. K’llan did know, did understand, and as she had sensed during Feeding, despite the patent strain it was causing for her, the Vosaia would be infinitely patient in regards to Avara reaching resolution.

  With Avara nodding once in silent acknowledgement, Captain Serros and Lieutenant Z’arr silently lay back on their respective bed rolls. Both women let sleep catch her while they could indulge, before the driving claim of tomorrow grasped them. Their souls were touching as dreams took them and offered respite from the ordeal of survival, need, and question alike.

  CHAPTER 23

  Moving at an unrelenting pace, Serros and Z’arr quickly left the river filled canyon far behind, continuing their sojourn to make the Karukai outpost and hopefully, the means to escape Dantis. Within a few days the landscape began to shift once more, gradually metamorphosing from the red–rock filled broken lands that had become the norm, to first a smattering and then a vast sea of familiar gray–green savannah grass.

  The change was a welcome one, for though still quite warm under the planet’s three suns, the climate cooled just a bit, offering a modicum of respite from the previously blasting heat of the rock–lands. Other than a couple of brief jakhri attacks, the journey sped by uneventfully. Day slipped into night and day again, as the duo fell into the almost hypnotic rhythm of straight–coursed travel.

  Avara found that the meditative set of mind and body acted as a soothing balm for plaguing questions of the heart. It was with a sense of jarring startlement that Captain Serros was knocked out of the dream–like travel state that had come over both of them when, some six days after leaving the gorge behind, they finally reached their long–sought objective.

  Cresting a small hillock, the two Excalibur crewmates were greeted by a sun–hazed, ovoid–shaped, durexium and pale blue glass construction of tan and cream. Momentarily amused by the notion, Avara thought the structure vaguely resembled an oversized beehive. Next to the main, center positioned beehive building were four much smaller constructions of exact design. The entirety of the small complex was situated to the west of the trebling stream that they’d been following.

  Scans revealed that there were also several power generators scattered around the facility, which made sense since the station was so isolated. Still, the number of generators represented an enormous amount of energy given the small size of the facility.

  To the west of the main construction was a landing pad and the most squat building of the lot, obviously a mechanic’s station, though based on its dimensions, it could only serve the most basic needs. Avara also noted with great interest that though there were no shuttles, there was a squad of seven starfighters, Karukai Scorpions, resting on the pad.

  More, atop the flat base of the central building’s roof was a large, silvery Comm array, shimmering in the mid–afternoon light. Finally, though foot–traffic was light, the glint of afternoon sunlight highlighted the crimson armor of patrolling soldiers like glowing holo–adverts.

  After silently retreating to a safe distance, Serros and Z’arr made themselves comfortable in a small clearing and set to strategizing. The Quorum Shield Operative couldn’t help but issue a satisfied grin as she remarked, “Well, here we are; objective one complete. Congratulations, Lieutenant.”

  Laughing in return, Z’arr replied “And congratulations to you, Captain.”

  “Now, to how we’re going to get off this rock and back to Excalibur.” Serros commented, stretching her arms then fingers in anticipation. “I didn’t spot any security fields and there’s no defensive wall, which is all to our favor. Unfortunately, I also didn’t note any QGST capable vehicles.”

  “Yes, meaning the starfighters are only useful if we know for sure that Excalibur is still in system and within range.” K’llan confirmed. “It has been over three weeks since the Ardent exploded; do you think the crew is still searching? Or by now, would they have us listed as presumed dead?” Genuine concern colored the Vosaia’s voice as she posed the question neither had broached during their seventeen–hundred plus mile trek across the surface of Dantis.

  Slowly shaking her head, Avara answered, “If there was even a faint chance, neither Marcus nor Diana would ever leave the system without definitive proof that we were dead.” Her tone held absolute, unwavering confidence, and yet, rubbing her brow thoughtfully, she added, “However, if they thought they’d obtained irrefutable evidence or, if Excalibur was seriously threatened, they may have jumped system.”

  “And such is not unlikely, given the location of the Karukai Outpost here on Dantis that a threat has made itself known to ship and crew.”

  “Yes, exactly; an only too plausible possibility.” Gesturing a moment later with a definitive cut of her hand, Avara declared “If the latter scenario did occur and Excalibur was under attack, Marcus and Diana would return, but we simply do not know what the situation is. No, we can’t assume Excalibur is still in system. We need to find out before commandeering a fighter and traipsing off into space only to be stuck and stranded once more, this time with the Karukai aware of our presence.”

  “I concur. What is the plan then?”

  “We could try knocking?” Avara suggested, a teasing cast to her voice as she waited for K’llan’s response.

  “If what you mean by knocking is blasting a path through the front entrance, then no thank you.”

  Laughing at the Vosaia’s dry tone and exp
ression, the Captain replied with a half–shrug, “Very well, if you insist, I suppose we shall have to come up with an alternative.”

  “Ha–ha; very amusing.” K’llan commented, knocking her shoulder into Avara’s in playful rebuke. “I say the obvious answer is we need to get to their Communications Hub within the outpost so we can attempt to contact Excalibur.”

  “Agreed. Before proceeding, I think we need to gather more intelligence regarding what we’re likely to face so we can avoid trouble and make Communications.”

  “Avoid trouble? Hmm. Well, that would be a change, anyway.” Z’arr mocked Avara in return. “Reconnoitering then?”

  “Reconnoitering it is.” Captain Serros confirmed.

  In perfect concord, the duo retraced their earlier path and set about observing the facility’s activities for the rest of the day and well into the late hours of evening turned next morning.

  It was clear that Outpost J2’s main defense was its remote location and secrecy, for technologically speaking, security measures were almost non–existent. There were no shield generators, ground cannon emplacements, or anti–aircraft batteries to be seen. Similarly, the facility appeared to be entirely absent of turf vehicles, from basic Hurricanes to EV Tanks.

  Patrols of armored Karukai were well evidenced, however. Avara and K’llan counted off at least three dozen separate individuals, with who knew how many more based inside the Outpost. The guards seemed to be operating in patrols of six divided into two person teams, the lot broken into three rotations for each diurnal cycle.

  Most significantly, Serros and Z’arr spied at least three Varda sporting the black and gold, lightning slashed chevrons denoting their unique status. In a society where ability immediately translated to public ranking, as the most elite and highly trained of all Karukai soldiers, the presence of the Varda was problematic, to say the least. Every Varda represented an adversary more deadly than a company of standard Karukai soldiers or Mech Suit specialists combined. Such individuals would each be an Arca IV, at the least, and exceptionally skilled and battle tested.