The Smuggler's Ascension: Dark Tide Rising

by Christopher Ingersoll

  “And just what do you think you are doing now?” Anasha asked as she watched him come, clearly amused now.

  “I thought your students might like to see their teacher have to put up a real struggle,” Kristof said, his voice now low and filled with a hunger for her.

  Anasha did not even bother to answer before she came at him, but Kristof was ready. What followed was a fast and furious exchange of kicks, punches, and grappling that traversed the length and width of the training mat, but did not go beyond. Their moves were tightly controlled as they fought, and Kristof could see the looks of shock on the trainees’ faces, clearly seeing their teacher have to make an effort for the first time.

  In time Anasha found the advantage, as she always had in the past, until finally Kristof found himself flat on his back with her straddling him and choking off his air. He quickly tapped the mat beside them in submission, and she relented enough so that he could breathe again. The trainees applauded loudly while Anasha looked down into his eyes with a look that spoke volumes.

  “Class dismissed,” Anasha said distractedly, and the trainees all moved off into the training center. “I see you’ve kept in practice.”

  “Sorry I’m late, my love,” Kristof said breathlessly. “You missed me, too, I see,” he added with a wink.

  Anasha laughed and kissed him passionately, before rising and offering Kristof a hand up. Together, they walked off the mat to where Kristof had left his things and Subat now waited for them, his expression clearly amused.

  “Father,” Anasha greeted Subat and embraced him quickly. “I see you found my wayward husband.”

  “He was hard to miss in that new ship of his,” Subat responded lightly, “Stealthy or not.”

  Anasha gave Kristof a hard look as he pulled his boots and gun belt back on.

  “Our lovely Sabine is most put out with you, oh husband of ours,” Anasha said with an edge to her voice. “I love her dearly, but I would prefer to not be the one to have to deal with her when you decide to take your side trips or whatever is was that has kept you away this time.” Anasha’s voice softened as she said,” She worries about you, as do I.”

  Kristof rose and pulled Anasha into his embrace.

  “I am so sorry, my love,” Kristof whispered softly. “It won’t happen again.” Anasha pushed him away and giggled as she called him a liar. “Go clean up and we’ll see if we can’t go sweeten the disposition of that wife of ours,” Kristof added with a laugh.

  Kristof watched as Anasha headed off to the showers. He would have followed her had Subat not been there and it not been a public area, and the look his father gave him told him clearly that his thoughts were no secret. Flushing slightly at having been caught in his thoughts, he grabbed his jacket and gun belt as he turned to Subat, questions coming to mind.

  “What’s been happening here while I was gone?” Kristof asked curiously.

  “Mostly the usual palace politics,” Subat answered. “The remnants of the House of Duranis that weren’t involved in the assassination plot have all been groveling at Sabine’s feet for forgiveness. Elevating Stephan to the head of their house seems to have eased some of the old family tensions within the Protectorate, at least.”

  “And what of the Clovani? What is happening with them?” Kristof asked. “The rebel leaders are uneasy. Many of their cells have been hit lately.”

  “Surprisingly quiet,” Subat admitted. “After what happened out on the frontier, perhaps they have decided coming for us wasn’t worth the cost.”

  Kristof remembered well what had transpired on the frontier, having been at its heart himself. In his dreams he could still feel the fires consuming him. He pushed the thoughts away after a time, as soon Anasha returned, now in a blue and white Su’Tani uniform. Together, the three went in search of Purannis’s tiny Queen.

  ~3~

  Sabine looked on as her councilors finished the final aid details with the representatives from Bonibus. The details were tedious and boring, she thought, and didn’t require her input at this stage. She had fulfilled the promise she’d made to herself when she’d seen the downtrodden circumstances on Bonibus during her brief visit. Anger still remained in her mind that the Protectorate had done nothing prior to her rule, but there was nothing she could do about that now except what she had already done.

  The people of Bonibus had been eager to respond to her summons, and had sent a group of twelve to represent them. Bonibus was now a province of the Protectorate after the Clovani Empire had abandoned them to their fate, having stripped the moon of most of its valuable resources. Sabine had seen the mean way of life left to the people there, and had vowed to help them any way she could.

  Yawning as unobtrusively as she could manage, Sabine watched as a door at the far end of the conference room opened. Anasha and Subat entered, eliciting a grin from the young Queen as she saw her wife and father-in-law together. When Kristof followed after them, though, Sabine felt a joyous explosion in her core that erupted in a huge smile even as he blew a kiss to her from across the room.

  “Gentlemen,” Sabine announced to the assembled councilors and representatives. “I believe you all can finish up the detail here on your own. We will meet again tomorrow to finalize the arrangements.”

  The group rose to their feet and bowed to her as Sabine left her seat and hurried as fast a decorum would allow across the room to her husband. Decorum disappeared, however, when she leapt into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist, as she always did at these reunions, while kissing him passionately. Anasha laughed as she embraced the duo.

  “Perhaps we should take your reunion someplace private,” Subat suggested with a smile, noting the amused expressions on the group of dignitaries behind them.

  “Of course, father,” Sabine said as she eased herself down from Kristof’s embrace reluctantly. “I just needed to make sure he was real, is all.”

  They all laughed as Sabine’s ever present quartet of royal guards formed up around them and led the way to the royal apartments. Sabine held Kristof’s hand tightly in her left, while she had Anasha in her right just as tightly, suddenly feeling complete once again. As they walked and talked, she tried to remember what her life had felt like without these two people, and could not remember it at all.

  Max awaited them in the royal apartments and Sabine hugged him warmly, always smiling inwardly at the android’s apparent shock at being treated as a normal being. Max was as much a part of their family as anyone, Sabine thought, and knew that everyone else felt the same. She made a mental note to inquire about finding an external sheath or something so that he wasn’t so hard when she hugged him, though.

  As their tiny group settled into the apartment, Sabine turned to Kristof and remembered that she was angry with him for being late. With a quick strike, she slapped him sharply across the cheek and was pleased at the look of shock that appeared on his face.

  “That’s for making me worry,” Sabine said sharply, and then just as quickly grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulling him down to kiss her, her anger already gone. Kristof’s return kiss was just as filled with passion and love as her own, even as a slightly bemused expression crossed his face. Breaking apart, she looked to Anasha watching them close by.

  “I already kicked his ass down in the gym,” Anasha said sweetly with a smile.

  “I’m married to brutes,” Kristof complained to Subat with a smile on his face, to which his father-in-law nodded with an agreeing smile.

  “Oh, you love it,” Sabine accused him, also smiling as she led him and Anasha to their favorite oversized chair that held the three of them comfortably. “So tell me what was more important than being here with us, my love,” she told him as they got settled. Kristof’s injured expression caused her to laugh and kiss him, forgiving his tardiness.

  Subat settled in a chair across from them as Max brought a tray of drinks to them. Despite being a free being, the android still tended to carry out many servant type duties, Sabine notice
d. She guessed that even for an android it took time to become accustomed to a new way of life.

  “I made the run to Mallis IV as planned and met with the resistance leaders there,” Kristof began. “They had been expecting an attack for days, apparently, so my arrival with fresh supplies and weapons was most welcome. The attack fell soon after my arrival, so we ended up right in the thick of it. We used the Phantom to try and provide some cover fire during the ground assault, but the attack came in too hard and the resistance was forced to abandon the base and scatter. We took off as many wounded as we could and headed for Mallis VII, but things are looking pretty grim on Mallis IV right now. I went back after the attack and found that the entire planet had been bombarded from orbit. We spent a lot of time picking up survivors and ferrying medical supplies.”

  Sabine could feel how tense Kristof was as he told them of the resistance’s plight. Several worlds under the control of the Clovani Empire were in open rebellion, and Kristof and a select group of ship captains under his command, were smuggling in weapons and supplies to these various rebellions despite Sabine’s and Anasha’s stern objections. They argued that the operation did not require Kristof’s direct involvement, but he would not be dissuaded, arguing that he was not suited to sit on the sidelines.

  “It would seem the Clovani have recovered somewhat from their disaster last year,” Kristof went on, not needing to explain what that disaster had been. They’d all been a part of that great disaster, after all. “Whoever this new commander is that replaced my father has been systematically rooting out the various rebellions and bringing those worlds back under the fist of the Empire.”

  “Have we had any word who this new commander is?” Anasha asked from Kristof’s other side.

  “So far, no,” Subat said quietly. “Intelligence coming out of the Empire has dropped off significantly. Our agents are dying at an unusual rate over the past three months. I have ordered a few Su’Tani operatives into the area to investigate.”

  “It certainly sounds like the Empire has gotten its shit together,” Max added in. “Those attacks we witnessed on Mallis IV were very well coordinated.”

  Sabine kept silent as the prospects of war with the Empire returned to her thoughts for the first time in almost a year. Worry for her people was at the fore of her mind, just behind the fear she felt for her family who she knew would not stand aside in this fight. She herself was not a warrior as they were, no matter how well she could fight on her own.

  “Father,” Sabine said softly after a time, “Max, I feel that I need to be alone with my loves for a while. If you don’t mind, please.”

  “Oh great, they’re going to do it again,” Max grumbled as he rose and headed for the door, the air filled with light laughter at the android’s lack of tact.

  Subat gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek, as well as a kiss for kiss daughter, before leading Max out of the apartments and leaving Sabine alone with Kristof and Anasha. She felt small and frightened all of a sudden, a sense of vulnerability that threatened to overwhelm her. Kristof wrapped her tightly in his embrace from behind as Anasha embraced her, enclosing her in a circle of their love.

  Through the connection the three of them shared, Sabine knew that they had felt that cold, icy fear inside her and were attempting to force it away in the heat of their love for her. Anasha kissed her lips softly, drawing her eyes up into hers to see the love there for her.

  “What is it, my love?” Anasha asked her quietly, her voice concerned.

  “I don’t know,” Sabine whispered just as softly. “I just had this sudden feeling of dread and pain, as if out of nowhere.” She watched as Anasha gave Kristof a curious look, before she returned her eyes back to her.

  “Come, my love,” Anasha whispered lovingly. “Let’s see if we can’t banish those fears from your heart.”

  Kristof rose with Sabine in his arms, and she clung to him tightly as he carried her towards their bedroom. Fear forgotten for the moment, Sabine bit at her husband’s neck as her wife pulled at her clothes and tossed them aside as she and Kristof fell upon the bed. The remainder of the night was lost in the loving embrace of these two people that had completed her as their passion consumed them into the early hours of morning, when they at last fell into a deep sleep, embraced in each other’s arms.

  ~4~

  Anasha sat nude upon the floor in the darkened room, legs folded beneath her and her arms rested on her knees, as she tried to clear her mind and meditate. Kristof and Sabine slept on the bed a short distance away, their nude forms barely visible in the dim light. Sleep had eluded her, even after the sexually charged evening that had just passed, and she sought now to clear her mind.

  The fact was that her mind was troubled by their conversation earlier. Sabine’s fear had seemed like something separate from her, and when Anasha had looked into her wife’s brown eyes she had seen the telltale signs of precognition normally seen only in members of the Su’Tani. Sabine was not Su’Tani, Anasha knew, which made seeing those signs in her eyes rather frightening all by itself. An untrained and unnatural precog could be dangerous to others as well as suffer adverse side effects themselves. Anasha tried desperately now to meditate and seek answers, but that state of mindfulness eluded her tonight.

  Instead memories from the past year kept intruding. Anasha sat and remembered awakening the first time after the Phoenix God had restored her body, and how it had felt feeling blood pump through her heart once more, how it felt when Kristof had kissed her lips for the first time in ages, and how it had felt the first time Sabine had kissed her flesh and blood lips. Goosebumps rushed over her skin at the last thought.

  The diminutive little Queen had shocked Anasha at every turn with her totally accepting love; first when Anasha had still been a spirit and been invited to join Sabine and Kristof in the Akana’San’Tani marriage ritual, and then again when she came to Anasha’s rescue in the depths of the Underworld. Anasha had seen visions of Sabine years before she herself had died on Bonibus, and she had used her power to nudge Sabine at various times of her life, knowing that one day she and Kristof would fall in love even as she had. Anasha had fallen in love with Sabine herself during that process, and to have that love returned completed Anasha in a way she had never expected.

  Anasha guarded Sabine fiercely once she had been resurrected. Kristof guarded them both just as fiercely, but Anasha admitted to herself that she had a special love for Sabine. They often spent much of their time together just the two of them. Partly it was because Kristof was frequently away assisting the resistance, and the other part was just due to them being women and sharing so much. The tiny little queen took up a huge part of Anasha’s heart, though.

  Smiling, Anasha remembered a time when Sabine had come up behind her and caressed her breasts from behind, complaining that she wished her own breasts had been so full. Anasha had pushed Sabine to the bed and told her and shown her just how perfect she thought Sabine’s breasts were. Kristof had of course walked in on this wanton display of affection, and things went as they always seemed to when they were all naked together.

  Anasha’s love for Kristof had become just as fierce since her return. It really tore at her heart whenever Kristof left on his missions, knowing that she chose to remain behind with Sabine. Kristof was more than capable of taking care of himself, she knew, but it still made her heart ache watching him leave. It was her father that offered her the best advice on what was a truly unique experience among their people.

  “What you three have forged has never been done in the history of our people,” Anasha’s father had told her when she came to him about what she was feeling. Her father had always been her closest confidant, even as a child. “There are times when you will feel torn in your love, I suspect. It is hard enough loving just one person, but to love two such as you do will test you at times. You have always been a guide, a protector, as much as being a lover and a companion. Kristof and Sabine are both very different people, and you love them diff
erently even as you love them equally. There will be difficulty in navigating this course you have all chosen, but just remember that even as you struggle at times, so do they.”

  Anasha smiled at the memory as she gave up her attempts at meditating. Her father had been so correct in predicting difficulties. There had been many arguments in the early months of the union between her, Kristof, and Sabine, as they all figured out their place. Sabine’s role as Queen had at times made her seek to try and assert dominance in their union, which she and Kristof had both resisted out of their own natures. Anasha’s own need to protect them both had led to a similar rebellion by Sabine and Kristof. Ironically, it had only been Kristof who had not sought to assert any type of control or protection over their triad beyond what was necessary, perhaps because he was simply so bewildered by the situation he'd found himself in.

  As if hearing her thoughts, Kristof’s voice drifted to her from the bed.

  “Are you alright, love,” he asked her sleepily.

  Anasha rose and went to him on soft feet, not wishing to awaken Sabine.

  “Yes, love,” Anasha whispered as she sat beside the bed and laid her head next to Kristof’s. “I was trying to meditate, but memories of you two kept intruding.”

  Kristof reached out and caressed Anasha’s hair as he gazed into her eyes. She found herself losing herself in his pale green eyes, remembering all of their adventures from before, long ago in what seemed and really was another lifetime. A tear formed in Kristof’s eye as she recounted her memories, and she reached out to touch his cheek and brush away his tear.

  “What is it, my love?” Anasha asked him quietly.

  “I was just remembering that day on Bonibus,” Kristof said quietly, with a slight catch to his voice. “I was just thinking about how much I love you and Sabine, and that I can’t bear the thought of ever losing either of you again.”