by Greg Dragon
“Have you ever been to Vagnar Centures?” Rafian asked one day as he crouched next to her while she worked on the underside of her ship, the Gorgon.
“Can’t say I’ve ever been there, Raf. You heading there on a mission?”
“Well, I was going to go and investigate something in that quadrant, and wanted to see if you’d like to go with me.” He said it in a shy, soft-spoken sort of way, as if he expected her to say no. But Camille had always wanted to go to VC and would never pass up the opportunity to do so.
The real reason for Rafian’s need to visit the quadrant was to rendezvous with the battle cruiser Elegance to do some mercenary work to bolster his credits. He had burnt through his entire savings when he bought the officer-styled home to serve as his living quarters—and to get over what had happened between Vani and him—but he found himself low on funds for his daily activities.
Camille would be excellent company, he thought, and she could actually help him on those missions, seeing that two pilots could make short work of what needed to be done a lot faster than one could; plus, she had such a sexy, slender shape that stuck in his mind like Merudian slime. She was the only woman to occupy his mind more than the delicious Meluvian Minister Suwle, and she was a beautiful woman, a warrior—and on top of it all, he could not stop thinking about her.
A few days later, they rendezvoused on the deck to leave, and Rafian made sure to get clearance with his commanding officers so as to not cause any issues such as had had when he flew out to rescue Aurora. When they finally got onboard the Reaper transport vessel, Camille immediately took the controls and began pressing buttons and sliding diagrams.
“I love flying these things!” she exclaimed, and Rafian rocked back on his heels, smiling.
“You’re so cute!” he said before catching himself.
She looked over at him then slid a lock of her golden hair behind her ear and smiled. “So you don’t mind me driving, Captain?” she asked after the uncomfortable silence had gone on for several forevers.
Rafian replied, “Please do.” Mentally, he began kicking himself for the awkward faux pas, and he felt like keeping his mouth shut for the entire trip for fear of another stupid slip. The engines of the Reaper screamed loud and fearsome as Camille pulled it out of the dock and into open space, pushing the speed dangerously past five waves, which made the vessel feel as though it was going to tear itself apart.
“Sorry to scare ya, Raf, but at this speed, we can make it to Elegance in three days, being that this bucket of bolts lacks a jump drive.”
“I’m not scared, Cammy. You are one of the best pilots on the Helysian. If I can’t trust you, who can I trust?”
The first day of the trip gave them time to talk even further and without the chance of someone walking in to eavesdrop. They touched on more personal details of each other’s lives. Camille was divorced. Her husband had married her illegally, and the wedding was annulled when she found out that he was using her to smuggle a bomb aboard her starship carrier. She laughed at the stories Rafian told of Vani and seemed genuinely concerned when he spoke of Kim and the baby incident with his friend.
On the second day, they studied the star map together, speaking about places they would investigate as a team when they were finished with this chore and back on the Helysian.
As Camille was intently talking about the Feoton star cluster, Rafian snuck his hand on top of hers, and she didn’t pull it away even though she knew that he had done it on purpose. The sexual tension between the two was as thick as swamp air, but neither of them dared push the issue out of fear of hurting the magical chemistry that they had as friends. In the late hours of the day, they sat together in the kitchen and watched an old Vestalian romance movie to try to make themselves tired enough to sleep.
“This was a very productive day, wasn’t it?” Camille said as she let her hair down and kicked off her boots to relax. When Rafian didn’t reply, she looked over at him to see if he was asleep and then jumped back, startled to find him staring intently at her and moving towards her slowly, like a man possessed or crazed.
“Raf…what are you doing?” Camille whispered as if they could be heard by anyone outside of the walls enclosing them.
“Something I should have done a long time ago, Cammy,” he said to her softly, his eyes locked into her silver orbs as the surprise slowly crept away from them. She had put her hand up to cover his mouth, but he noticed that her other hand had taken hold of his 3B belt tightly, as if she wanted to pull him closer.
“Are you married, Rafian? Is there anything you haven’t told me in our talks?”
He could barely breathe as he struggled for the words, but managed to say no as he regained his composure.
“OK…well…do you have a girlfriend?” She kept pressing, but by the time she finished, he had pushed past her hand to take her bottom lip into his mouth and sucked it gently before moving into a passionate kiss with their tongues finally touching. It was as if lightning went up and down her spine as Rafian kissed her, and she surrendered to his touch, letting herself melt into his arms. Camille tasted like heaven to him, and he felt relief when her stiffened body relaxed to allow him to truly embrace her.
As the suits, pants, and boots fell to the floor, Camille took matters into her own hands and straddled him on the bench. They made love for what seemed like forever, and when they both had had their fill, she pushed him to the floor, undid the remainder of her hair, and mounted him for another round. Spent and exhausted, Camille lay on top of Rafian, and the sweat that had come from their heat just moments before caused her to shiver from the cold. She breathed deeply, trying to slow down her pounding heart. But it was beyond passionate, and she felt as if she would die.
“I feel silly!” she managed to say as Rafian pulled his cloak from off the bench to cover them.
“Why do you feel silly, sweetheart?” he asked.
“I…well…” she managed before she started to giggle. “Well, I can’t feel my feet!” She laughed, and Rafian could do nothing but kiss her because she was very cute at that moment.
The remainder of the trip was delightful once the lovemaking was introduced, and Rafian found it odd that even after their tryst, he still could not stop thinking about her.
“Can I admit something to you, Cammy?” he said as she decreased their speed a bit and looked over at him in the other pilot’s seat. Expecting negativity, she grabbed a tuft of her long blond hair and brushed it back in an almost violent way.
“I think that I’m in love with you.”
Camille met his words with a mysterious stare, and when it got to be too much, Rafian tried to fix the odd air by continuing.
“It’s just that I think about you all of the time.…I have never had that happen with anybody before.”
Camille kept staring, and it made him uncomfortable until eventually she caught herself and finally admitted the words, “I love you too.”
She had said it in her standard, neutral but nasally cute way, but it was as if the bells of true love and happiness had begun their toll on the pair. She had said the one thing that Rafian VCA did not expect her to say.
“You know, you don’t have to agree with me, Cammy. I just wanted to let you know,” he said, suddenly embarrassed at how vulnerable he was.
“What are you talking about? Do you think I would wait on the docks for just anybody, Raf? Had I not fallen for you, I would have hidden from you every day until you got the hint. But I waited. I waited every day, looking forward to hearing your voice, your war stories, and to seeing the way you looked at me. I am here, Captain, on this ship, with you, a man whom I am in love with. I am here…for you.”
By the time they made it to the Elegance, Rafian was no longer interested in doing mercenary work for credits. He took over the controls and piloted them to the nearest mystery void they had plotted on the star map and stopped the ship.
“What about the credits you need, Raf?” Camille asked.
“I
have things I can sell. When I made the deal to come here, I did so because I wanted to get away from Vani more than anything else. Helysian can feel like a prison sometimes, and this was the perfect excuse.”
“So, what are we going to do out here?”
“Well, I was thinking we could actually watch that movie from a couple nights ago, and I can find a way to persuade you to move in with me on the Helysian so that I don’t have to burn so much brain power imagining that you are there whenever I go home.”
“Ha! Someone sure moves fast. Slow down, Captain, we just started this thing. What makes you think I would be a good roommate?”
“Well, if you trash the place, I would be happy to clean it up for you, every time, Cammy.”
“I won’t trash your place, silly.”
He sat looking at her, happy to have taken the gamble of pushing things when he did, and she smiled back at him and winked.
“OK, Rafian. I will move in with you.”
Memory 11 | A Dark Education
As Rafian VCA and Camille YAN became a couple, the two of them were inseparable. Rafian loved everything about his beloved Camille, and she made it her duty to make sure he was happy at all times. Despite Rafian’s plans to move his love into the penthouse he had purchased, the couple decided against it due to the close proximity to Vani and Kim. Camille wanted nothing to do with the two women and their negative energy, so she talked Rafian into selling his home and purchasing a modest place with her away from his old life. The place they chose was in a tiny civilian area deep in the tail end of the Helysian, where vacancies were plentiful due to the commander’s insistence that the ship remain a strictly military vessel.
It was now a year since they had sworn love to each other and about six months since they decided to push ahead with a move instead of the constant visits they made to each other’s apartments. Careerwise, things were great. Rafian’s resume had grown, and he began receiving invitations to the starfighter spy network in Virulia. Camille was given the post that the legendary Helga ATE had held as commander of air to ground assaults (CAGA), and she too was being wooed to become a spy.
The invitations were a tremendous honor for the couple, but even though they were the best in their respective Special Forces divisions, they didn’t think they would ever be recruited. Nobody on the ship knew people who became spies, and when they had encountered spies in the past, it was always such a brief and hurried introduction that it was difficult to form a real opinion of them.
Rafian had fought alongside one before, and the man had moved and fought like something beyond human. Rafian had always wondered whether spies were outfitted with cybernetics or were made to be on a vine of some sort. To fight like that man would be a dream come true for him. However, with the mystery of the Virulian spy network and the many rumors about their order, he hesitated in accepting the invitation for fear of the worst.
“You know if we do this, it will not be the same between us, right?” Rafian said to Camille on one of their many evenings together. The pair could normally be found embracing and talking on the wing of Rafian’s Alpha X Pterodactyl whenever they were both on leave and not running missions for the base. These moments were rare, private, and precious for them, as they barely got to see each other during the week.
“Being spies would take us off of the front lines, Raf,” Camille replied, her golden hair gleaming under the lights of the dock, making her seem strangely elfish. Her hair had been cut when she became CAGA, and she styled it into a tiny Mohawk, which made her very cute to Rafian.
“Don’t look at it, Raf. You know I thypin’ hate it!” she declared as he looked over her hair with a smile on his face.
He knew to stop because of the cuss word—Camille was not one to curse frequently, and when she did, it indicated she needed a full stop.
“I don’t care what you think about it, babe. I like it, and I think it makes you look badass.” He said this knowing that unlike her pilots who shut down when Cammy started cussing, he had nothing to fear from the Golden Chameleon.
Scoffing at him while rolling her eyes, Camille wouldn’t admit that she appreciated his words, but she punched him in the arm to remind him to stay on topic. “Thype the hair, VCA. When are we going to decide on these invitations? You know that this is an honor that people aren’t allowed to turn down.”
She was right of course, because they knew this invitation to the network was more of a summons. When you stuck out as a candidate and they had room for recruitment, they would summon you—and it was never a question. If you dishonored them with a refusal, you would disappear without a trace.
“I get it, Cammy. And being a Virulian spy is the stuff of dreams, so I think we need to accept immediately. The only thing that concerns me is the process. The spies I have met are like gods, but from what I know, to get there, they have to give up a part of their souls. Come on, you’ve seen how they are.”
Camille sat up and then got to her feet to stand next to him. She walked over to one of the thrusters and began playing with its length—her mind working rapidly as she went over the decision and what it could mean to them.
“I know this isn’t very soldiery of me, Rafian…but I just don’t want to lose you. I can deal with death, but spies are rumored to be void of all empathy. I fear that we will cease to be what we are right now…forever.”
“Cammy, look, we are both strong people who have been through a lot of shtill to get where we are today. What exactly can they do to me to force me to stop loving you or giving a damn about those lizard bastards who killed my parents?”
It was a question that he should never have challenged the fates to answer. When the pair sent back word of acceptance to Virulia, two agents in 3B suits immediately came to visit them at the apartment. The odd thing about the arrival of the spies was that they didn’t come from a ship, seeing that none had docked on Helysian for weeks, and they had never seen them onboard.
The man was a big guy, but he moved like a cat—all quiet and dangerous. The woman was slight, but her eyes indicated she was very much a predator. The man stepped forward and introduced himself as Michyl, a midlevel agent in the organization, and the woman was Ree, a recruit who had just gotten her clearance and held the rank of “person,” which seemed an odd rank to have. The introductions were brief but turned awkward when Camille asked about grabbing a packing cube to shrink and carry her things. Michyl stopped her short, shook his head, and produced a device that resembled a very tiny silver capsule.
“A spy owns nothing” was all the couple heard before the light consumed them, and they were unconscious.
When he awoke, Rafian found himself standing in front of a graying old man in a stark white room with padded floors and walls. The room was large, and the ceilings seemed taller than the Vestalian standard. He also noticed that the gravity level was lower than it should be for humans, and it made him wonder if his eyes and mind were deceiving him.
“Am I dead?” Rafian asked, halfway joking due to the irony of the bright, white room and the old man—also dressed in white—who looked at him as if he could read him.
“Do you know how you got here, boy?” the old man asked suddenly, his voice as deep as an earthquake with confidence as sharp as a knife.
“First of all, you will not address me as boy; I am Captain Rafian VCA of the Helysian, a proven officer for the honor of Vestalia.”
This brought a smile to the old man’s face, and he shook his head with amusement. “You see this?” he asked, indicating nothing in particular. “This right here never gets old to me, and I have been doing this for an extremely long time…boy. You recruits come in, you spout out all of the honors that weaker men and women have afforded you, and you expect to get respect.” As soon as he said “respect,” he made a fist, and Rafian felt a crushing pain in his chest that caused him to cry out. He then noticed that he was in the air, floating as the old man’s magic hurled him across the room into one of the padded walls. It hurt like h
ell, and it took him a moment to regain his composure.
The old man seemed annoyed. “Let’s get to it, shall we? That move that I hit you with just now is a skill that I picked up from the third planet of Jenua when I jumped in as a defender of the Skale Republic as they faced genocide by the Jash Alliance.”
“Sir! I do not know what any of that is, and I am VERY well studied on our galaxy’s history.” Rafian managed to speak as he climbed to his feet and wiped the blood from his mouth. “I will say that I aim to learn whatever sorcery you hurt me with, if only to return the favor to both you and those Geralos lizards who desecrated my home planet with terror and savagery.”
The old man got up from his seat. His flowing white robes sparkled with silver gems and was awesomely accented by black-and-red trimming. Despite the torture and pain he had felt in his chest, Rafian thought that the man looked beyond impressive, as a true master should. He thought about the meeting he had had with the spies and wondered if he was now in the spy recruitment center. Was he undergoing a test, or was this a warrior’s hell where he would spend eternity with a beautiful but cruel old man?
“The Geralos lizards are the least of your concern, young Rafian.”
The elder said his name this time with a respectful tone and seemed to admire Rafian’s bravado, despite the blood and the obvious pain that the young man was feeling.
“So you aim to torture and possibly kill me, then?” Rafian asked, misunderstanding the intent of his words.
“How boring a thought, boy! The Geralos are a plague in THIS galaxy—Anstractor, as it were—but there are many galaxies and many planes of existence that need our help.”
“Wait…planes of existence? Is this some sort of religion I signed up for? I thought that the spies were a military organization.” Rafian became visibly angry, fearing that he was being indoctrinated into a religion and the worship of some ideology that would yield little results and keep him from assisting in the complete annihilation of the Geralos.
