Anstractor Vestalia

by Greg Dragon

  ~ * ~ * ~

  The knock on the door was light and barely audible. Marian was fast asleep, so Rafian donned a robe and answered the door.

  It was Vani, and when he opened the door her big brown eyes were staring at him and full of mischief. Rafian wondered what it was she wanted at this late hour. He pulled her inside, then motioned to the upstairs room to let her know Marian was sleeping.

  He walked her to the kitchen, where his and Marian’s armor was everywhere. Vani was absolutely stunning, wearing a red 3B suit and silken flats with the letter H for Helysian woven in gold on the tops of them. He showed her the couch and offered her a drink, which she promptly took and gulped it down quickly.

  “What’s on your mind, Vee?” he asked as he sat down next to her.

  “When we last left off, it was horrible, Raf, absolutely horrible. You were my first love. I cried over you for a month after we split, and I was too upset and angry to even talk to you about it. So, I avoided you. Do you know how it feels to harbor those feelings and then, when you get over them and want to go make up with your friend, you learn that he’s disappeared and may have even been killed?”

  Her admission took him a moment to absorb. He got up to get a napkin for her to dry her tears, but she kept on talking as she fanned herself rapidly to try to calm down. “I shouldn’t be here. I know that it’s late, and it’s extremely inappropriate considering the circumstances. But it’s me, Raf, and it’s you, so it should be okay, right? Oh, Raf, I’m so sorry!”

  She hugged him as she had done at the dock, as if she would never let go. “I don’t even know what we were fighting over, Vee. I just know that you were my girl and I loved you more than the world. You were a good, loyal girlfriend. But you had a temper, I had a lot going on at the time.”

  Vani blushed and held his hand in hers as she breathed in deeply. It was beginning to get uncomfortable, so Rafian quickly complimented her and snatched his hand back from her soft palms.

  “So, congratulations on your rank, Vee. You were always a brilliant strategist, and I am glad they finally gave you some of the props you deserve.”

  Vani took on a different expression, one of anger and hurt. There was a silence that followed before she replied, and when she did, her voice trembled.

  “Hell yeah, Rafian. They finally gave me my damn stripes, after I got us out of a Geralos ambush near the Merudian moon. It took that sort of craziness for them to finally acknowledge me.” Her voice trailed off, and she slumped into the couch and took another drink.

  “So, any kids? Husband?” Rafian asked, changing the subject quickly to avert the awkward air.

  Vani shook her head as if the thought were absurd. “You were probably the only guy I would have considered the family thing with, Rafian. It hasn’t been easy on the ship. To be quite honest, I am thinking about transferring somewhere else.”

  “How about you come join us on Vestalia?” Rafian offered and she looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

  “Join you where?”

  She was doing one of her funny faces, and Rafian laughed despite himself. It was such a real laugh that it got back to her, and she too began laughing. He explained to her that he led a new order of fighters and that she was welcome to join them when they raided Vestalia.

  She was very much onboard with the idea of touching a planet after spending a lifetime onboard the ship. He walked her to the door and told her to be prepared, because their departure would be sudden and she would need to be ready to go with them when it happened.

  As she neared the door, she turned around and placed her back against it. She scanned the upstairs bedroom door to see if it was still closed, and looked at Rafian with a familiar glint in her eye. “Come here,” she said, and Rafian was puzzled at her intent. Without much thought, he came closer to her, and she threw her arms around his neck, stuck her tongue in his mouth, and kissed him longingly.

  “Tell Marian I’m sorry, Rafian, but I have been waiting three years to tell you how sorry I am. She’s very lucky to have you, but I was the original. Now go and get some sleep, and don’t forget me when you leave. I love you.”

  And with that, she was out the door and gone with Rafian looking after her for a very long time afterwards. To think, with patience, he could have married her as planned. Perhaps her temper would have gotten better, and they would have been together now for over ten years. The thought of it was intriguing, another fork in life’s past that he missed. He still tasted her sweet lips and—

  “Is that going to be a problem?” a voice said and Rafian spun around to see Marian materialize at the edge of the balcony. Her silken robes were blowing gently from the vent’s cool air, giving her the appearance of a powerful witch who had come to wreak havoc on anyone below her.

  It made him suddenly embarrassed to know that she had been watching them the whole time and probably wondering why he had allowed Vani to kiss him the way she did. She didn’t appear angry, but her voice had an edge to it that let him know she was not amused with Vani’s actions or words.

  “Let me try this again, in Tyheran. Is she going to be a problem, or will I have to cut out that little tongue of hers?” Marian continued as she began to gracefully descend the stairs.

  “It has been a long time, Marian. I don’t think she meant anything by it. Just emotions and being caught up in the moment. She’s ancient history. I’m looking at the future, whose legs have no match in either of our galaxies.”

  “Just the legs?” she asked and pushed her body up against his.

  “N-no, every part of you,” he whispered and she pushed him away from her.

  “Your heart belongs to me,” she announced, her face a mask of grim intent. “I don’t care who the original was, who your childhood sweetheart was, or who thinks they know you better than I do. You are mine, and if she so much as asserts anything different again—”

  “OKAY, stow the bloodlust; none of that is going on. Maker, it’s late, Rhee. Can we just go back to bed?”

  “These women of yours, Rafian—they pop up all over the damn place. I knew when we got together that it was going to be a challenge, but this is annoying. I do not want to—”

  Rafian put his finger to her lips and silenced her. “They will know their place where you are concerned, Marian. Let us drop it, OK?”

  Memory 24 | Cammy’s Secret

  When Camille finally reached Helysian she brought with her a prisoner to turn over to the marines. She had run into pirates who had come aboard to take her ship, but she took them out one by one and captured one of their leaders.

  Camille was met with thunderous applause and numerous accolades for what she had done. Had the pirates taken the ship, they would have been able to use its signature to dock at military posts, rob them, and much worse. It would have meant heavy losses in supplies to the ships like Helysian that were on the frontlines.

  She appreciated the honors, and it took her back to her early years as a pilot, when praise such as this was a common occurrence whenever she would land her fighter after a good mission. Rafian was nowhere to be seen, and she wondered if he had heard about what she had done.

  While docking, she had steeled herself to deal with him and Marian looking at her, smiling, as they tended to do. She imagined Marian with those dark, sparkly, untrusting eyes of hers and Rafian by her side like some lost, lovesick puppy.

  Now she felt a bit cheated, since they hadn’t bothered to show up at all. She gave up the prisoner, whose name turned out to be Rhet LeFau. She was wanted on several systems for war crimes that were as scary as they were brutal. The way the intelligence read, it sounded as if Camille had stopped a crew of some of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy. She accepted the honor medal but turned down the invitation to party with the Helysian marines.

  All she wanted was a long mineral bath, one of those ice-cold ones that made pain a distant memory, and then she would retire to a couch with a tall bottle of port and the pleasant company of herself
.

  When she arrived at the executive room that was given to her, Camille turned off all the lights, set the bath going, lit several aroma candles, and removed her clothes to submerse herself in the olive liquid. After she had soaked for ten minutes or so, a shadowy figure stepped out of the corner.

  “Hello, love of my life,” Camille said calmly. She didn’t need to look at Rafian to know it was he. She could always feel him.

  “Is this going to be a problem, Cammy?” Rafian asked as he sat on the edge of her bath, looking at her.

  “What problem?” Camille asked nonchalantly, her tone hinting she didn’t care for an answer because she knew what it would be.

  When he replied with “Us,” she couldn’t help but laugh out loud. But it came out as a small “hmph,” and she was forced to clear her throat.

  “I hurt you, Cammy. I can keep on saying that it was due to my amnesia, but I brought back Rhee. I get that you’re upset with me, and I am truly sorry.”

  He lifted one of her shapely legs out of the bath water and washed it gently with the sponge, admiring how perfectly shaped her tiny feet were. She watched him as he did it and would have been lying to herself if she had said that she didn’t like it.

  “I never told you my heritage, Rafian, but I am an old race, just like you.” She was beginning to feel sorry for him, as he seemed genuinely tortured, and she wanted him to know the reason behind her obsession.

  “So, you’re a Seeker, too?”

  “No. Look at me. Like, really look at me, Raf. I have blond hair, dancing crystal eyes, and fair, slightly golden skin. How many girls around here do you see who look anything like me?”

  Rafian took a look at Camille, this time observing her racial uniqueness. Then it dawned on him that she was indeed a one-of-a-kind on the ship. Sure, there were many blondes and dark and pale skin types, but Camille had a complexion that stuck out from all of them, and her eyes were also freaky. They looked as if she had no pupils in certain lights. It was due to the color, a gray that was so light it appeared to be silver.

  Camille was also one of the only soldiers who could detect him even when cloaked. She triggered uncontrollable urges within him whenever she was close, and she felt like his, no matter how much he shielded his feelings with the thought of his love for Marian.

  “Camille, are you a Filan?” He knew the answer as he asked, and the thought of it frightened him. “So how in the hell did you get through the jumper class? Sex outside of your chosen mate is supposed to be like torture to—”

  He stopped himself as he put it all together, his inability to not be inappropriate with her and her refusal to let him drift away. He realized that the night he made love to her on the mercenary ship so many years ago had fulfilled the Filan bonding ritual of matrimony.

  “Why in the hell did you not warn me back then, Cammy?”

  “I didn’t think we would go that far, Rafian. I was stupid and lonely—and there we were, two fighter jocks with no one in our lives but each other. You were everything to me, do you not understand? We lived together, we made love every night. It was perfect before all of this jumper schtill.”

  Rafian knew that she was right, and he looked at the Executive Room’s wall as he pondered this. He had been fully committed to Camille all the way up to his first jump and the chemical memory loss that made him find Marian. He still had strong feelings for her and knew it went beyond the draw that her Filan blood had on him. There would be no “moving on” for them, and the only way they would be rid of each other would be through death.

  “Do you love me, Rafian?” She broke his thoughts with the question. It was asked so quietly that he wondered if she really wanted to hear his answer.

  The Supreme Leader stood up and began pacing the room in thought. “I can’t stop thinking about you, Cammy,” he admitted and inhaled angrily as he let it sink in that the admission made him a terrible husband to Marian.

  “I love you to death, baby, but I will not divorce my wife. Should I kill myself to release you, or should I return to Tyhera with Marian so as to spare you the connection?”

  Camille motioned Rafian over and emerged from the mineral bath to stand in front of him naked with the water pooling around her feet on the shiny black floor.

  “Look, it would be easy to choose either, but that is not our way, is it, Commander? I think you should find a way for Marian to accept that I am in your life, forever. Accept that I had you first, and accept that if I want you, then I am going to have you.”

  She had a serious and dangerous look in her eye that reflected a person who was settled on a direction. She touched the sides of his face with her wet hands and kissed him gently on his lips. She smelled and tasted like heaven and it made Rafian lose focus.

  “I’ve experienced and survived some really traumatic things for you, Rafian. I know that you know this. I am sick of crying and curling up in pain trying to get past what I cannot physically get past. So tell that to the woman you married, or don’t tell her. But accept that you cannot be rid of me. I think you owe me that at least.”

  Rafian nodded in agreement and then slipped off his 3B suit.

  Memory 25 | No Quarter

  Rafian sat in his favorite café on Helysian, slowly sipping the tea he had ordered. He sat in his regular seat, which was in the back, behind one of the large columns that held a mock Vestalian ceiling in place.

  The café was supposed to help patrons immerse themselves in the music and forget for a few minutes that they were on a military ship. Everyone in the café knew Commander VCA, but more importantly, they knew not to bother him or alert other patrons that he was in attendance.

  Most days he was there, he would be calming his nerves or seeking escape from the political arguing that men of his position seemed to gravitate towards. Rafian was still very much a soldier, and he felt more comfortable going into action than filling his stomach with exotic liquors and bartering for the planetary scraps that fell from the Geralese table of galactic domination.

  Today, he had come to the café to escape the sarcastic wrath of his beloved wife, Marian. He didn’t know why he thought that the conversation about Camille would be easy. For Marian, the old Tyheran ways were hard to break, and even though she herself was part of their new order, she could not find it in herself to allow her husband to have an open relationship or to accommodate another woman outside of herself.

  After a heated argument, Rafian removed himself from Marian’s wrath when he realized how bad an idea it had been to ask her about it. The entire thing made him sigh with a heavy chest. Life had always been an adventure for him, so he didn’t know why he invited drama into his life with this new issue.

  Better had he left his new wife on Tyhera and jumped to her every weekend or so, but that was unrealistic. After what he had done to her life, her becoming a traitor and starting a fire under the resistance, it would have made more sense for him to live there with her and jump back to Camille whenever he could.

  There was no easy way to avoid this, and it led him to even more irrational thoughts, such as, what if he could just leave them both for a new start somewhere else?

  “So am I to be replaced by food and drink now, Rafian?” The question came from an unexpected Marian, who sat down next to him with a concerned look on her face. “Did you really think it would be easy with me?”

  She was obviously trying to continue the earlier discussion that he was trying so desperately to get away from. His immediate urge was to get up and leave, but this was his wife, a woman whom he had vowed to stay with for life. Vows were to be taken seriously, and although he hated verbal arguments, he owed Marian the conversation.

  “There isn’t much to talk about, Marian. The reality of the matter is that for Camille, our bond is chemical. If I push her away, it could get dangerous. Filans aren’t like you and me.”

  Marian punched in the code for her standard order of coffee with milk and let it materialize fully before picking it up and sipping
away at it. Rafian was fully aware of her tactic of letting him simmer before she answered, so he focused his attention on the holographic dancer who shook her body in front of the kitchen.

  The silence was nerve wracking, but he set his mind elsewhere, not expecting an answer. He missed Aurora. She was so easy to talk to during situations like this.

  “You know what, Marian? You don’t deserve any of this. Let me figure out this thing with Camille. You don’t have to worry about it.” He stared at her to read how she had taken what he said.

  She looked up from her coffee absentmindedly, and then said to him, “Thank you, husband.”

  The pair continued their time together with happier topics, and after another thirty minutes of talking, she got up, kissed him on top of his head, and left. Rafian sat there in a daze afterwards, not allowing himself to think about Camille. Just then his comm flared alive with an incoming call. The face of Tayden Lark hovered above it and she began to speak.

  “Hey, Commander, our scouts on Vestalia have found vulnerability at a massive Geralese compound known as Zynec Prime. The marine command would like for our Phasers to investigate this place. It looks good, and it’s remote and in a valley. We can occupy it and use it as our alpha headquarters.”

  Rafian sighed with relief at the chance to do something else. He quickly thanked Tayden for the update and resisted the urge to leap to his feet and yell with excitement. Instead, he stood up, took a deep breath, and swallowed the last of his tea.

  Rafian made his way out of the café and towards his rented office. He called Camille to let her know the news, but the call wasn’t answered. This made him stop in his tracks. What sort of Phaser did not answer a direct call from their supreme leader? He looked at the comm as if it had the answer and then took a detour to the Helysian command in order to investigate.