Petr's Mate (12 page)

“Wow,
the admiral isn’t going to dress for dinner? I know how much I love it when you
wear those clothes around our
quarters,
but I’ve never seen you wearing them out. What’s changed?”

He
shrugged. “I don’t always dress for dinner.” He held up a pair of dress pants
and a
button-down
shirt. A lot like his uniform except there was no jacket in sight. Petr must
have caught her lips twitching in amusement, because he gave her a telling
look.

She walked over to him and put
her hand over his heart. “I get to see that soft side of you and I love it. I
love being the only one for you.”
With a
wink,
he turned to pull on his clothing,
then a pair of shoes that looked like a cross between a loafer and a formal
hard sole shoe. They slid on much like a loafer but with a slightly harder
build to them. It was always amazing to Sam to see so many things that were
familiar and yet appeared re-imagined.

She
finished getting dressed, then looked at him. “Okay
let’s
go eat, because I am freaking starving
my butt off.”

Petr’s
hand landed on her
ass
and squeezed. “Not possible, Samantha. It’s still where it should be, and as
perfect as always.” His hand slid up to rest at the small of her back to urge
her out the door. In the lift he leaned in to press a kiss to her lips and
nicely distracted her for the rest of the journey.

Chapter Seven

Several
weeks later, about five and a half from what Sam could figure out, they were
approaching
Imara
. Petr’s home world. They were still
a ways out and would be stopping at the shipyard before taking a crawler to the
surface, but she had chills from her first look at the large planet. It was
almost two times the size of
Earth
and circled a white star much like Earth’s sun. Theirs was apparently older
than Earth’s sun, but it was more stable.

The
planet proper was much like the blue-green shade of Earth before things had
started to go to hell. One of the ensigns was showing Sam
a number of
images of the planet, and what
she saw had her in awe. The cities were full of towering, shimmering buildings
created in a manner to do as little damage to the environment as possible. The
’burbs, as she called them, were apartments spaced out with lots of green
space, and farther out were farms. All the cities, according to the ensign,
were built on thick rock plates that had long stabilized from time and a little
technological assistance. There were no earthquakes like she’d known. Not that
there were none, but the tech helped to dissipate them away from the massive
towers.

Imara
had a lot of water, again much
like Earth, and it surrounded the many sectors of the planet. Continents, she’d
figured out after looking at an overview of the planet. Each sector was almost
the same size as its neighbors. The only ones that were slightly smaller were
at the poles. Each had a unique shape, so she’d deduced they had once been the
same landmass, and much like Earth had split apart at some point in
Imarian
, or prior, history.

The ensign pulled up a folder
with a bunch of faces, names, and titles. “These are the ruling body of
Imara
. Each of these individuals oversees a sector, and
come together four times a planetary cycle around our star to discuss
planetwide
matters.”

“
Amazing,
” she told the ensign. There
was a pause in her entire body. Then her hand covered her mouth and a frown
creased her brow. “Wait. Go back one. There.” She pointed to one of the men,
then turned to look at Petr.

He
turned his head to look her
way
and frowned. He finished his conversation with the young man he was speaking
to, then came her way. Slipping an arm around her
waist,
Petr pulled her in close to
his body. “What is it, Samantha?”

“You
are going to think that I’ve lost my
mind,
but this man looks exactly like my father. I mean dead-out like him. He could
be him.” Add to it the man’s name was Titus Henry and she was freaking
out
a lot.

Reaching
down, Petr brought the man’s file up on the screen. “He’s been in a position of
power for the last twenty planetary cycles. Before that it appears there is
nearly no information on him.
Ensign,
please find out if there is more history to this man, and let Samantha know the
instant you have anything that could clear this matter up.”

“Of course, sir.”

Petr
drew her away from the others and cupped her face. “I don’t doubt you,
Samantha. But it’s wise to find out more information before we do anything in
regards to one of the ruling body.”

She
nodded. “I know, it just was a shock.” She knew that there were tears in her
eyes. She felt the hurt in the center of her chest. “Just seeing a man that
looks so much like my father had sent me back to that last moment I saw him.”
She had been young when the man had
passed,
but she still recalled him.

“I
understand. Ensign,” Petr turned suddenly, “do a search for any other
individuals you have no apparent history
prior to
building a life. Like this
man, start twenty planetary cycles back and move ahead from there.” Looking
back at her, he had a thoughtful expression on his face. “In our society it’s
impossible to vanish for a portion of our lives. Unless you live on one of the
outer moon bases where tech is harder to maintain, that is.”

“I
can understand that. There were places on my planet where people could go and
no one would ever know where they went. Even though my world was in one
contained
sphere,
there was still from time to time the missing and people coming out of thin
air.” She took another deep breath and nodded. “You’re thinking
something,
though, Petr. What is it?”

“It
is nothing, yet.” He brushed a thumb to her
cheek
and leaned in to give her a kiss. “I
need to do some research of my own. Will you be all right here for a while? Or
you can come with me to my office.”

“I
would rather come with you, if you don’t mind?” She knew she followed him
around like a little lost
puppy,
but she couldn’t help herself. She enjoyed spending time with him in any way
possible. She moved so that she was at his side, her hand in his as they walked
off of the bridge and into his office.

Once
inside, Petr locked the
doors
and had the AI system lock them down in a do-not-disturb setting. Moving around
his
desk,
he settled in his
chair
and keyed the screen to rise from the
desk. “There are drinks and snacks in the little cooler if you’re interested,”
he told her, pointing to the item behind and to her right.

“Thank you. Do you want
anything?” She moved to grab a drink from the cooler. She was too upset to
think about eating at the moment. “Is there anything I can do to help you? You
know how much I hate just sitting back and doing nothing.”

“You
are not doing nothing, Samantha,” he said softly. “You are pacing around my
office at speeds that will tire you out. If you need something more to do,” Petr
pulled out a data pad from a
drawer
and handed it to her, “the
ensign
has already sent through the initial findings.”

She took the data pad from Petr,
then leaned in and kissed him. “Thank you for letting me help.” She didn’t know
what she was looking for, so she settled in and began to read about the man
that reminded her so much of her father.
Petr fell silent to let her
read while he worked. She could hear the soft sounds of his fingers tapping
against the glass top of his desk where the keypad was highlighted.

Sam
was reading the information on the data pad, again completely stunned by the
language implant allowing her to read both
Imarian
and
Craegin
languages as well as a lot of other ones.
“So it seems that he married into money when he first appeared on
scene,
” she said. “His wife is from
one of the first families from the ships or
armada.
Does that make sense?”

“Both the
Craegin
and
Imarian
culture is built around the families who
started our worlds. The terms are different, but the meaning is the same. They
are the foundation on which our society rose into what it is today. There are
very few living relatives of the first families on
Imara
.
A handful, if that. There are a couple of others living on other worlds, but it
holds not nearly the same meaning out there as it does on our home planet.”

“I understand that.” Much like
the first families that had come across the oceans to avoid religious
persecution to America. “So their bloodline goes back to the start. It would be
interesting to compare those blood samples. Of someone from the first families
on both sides of this war. I wonder how much they would have in common.” She
was now mumbling aloud to herself.

Petr
was silent for long enough Sam looked up to see if he’d heard her. He was
frowning again, and nodding, too. “That may be possible,” he said. “I know of
one man, the first officer of
Fintan’s
best friend,
who is of the first families of
Craegin
. Or whatever
they call them there. I can also get you someone from one of the families on
Imara
. The lines are
diluted,
though, Samantha. Will it
still work for your purposes?”

“It would.” She moved just a bit
so she was sitting on the edge. “Essentially, from what we found on Earth, at
least, we are all in some way related. However, there are certain genetic
traits that would stay with a family line. For example, if a person came from
one side of our world, their people going back to the beginning, their DNA,
would have certain tags in it, so to speak, that were created to help the
person deal with where they lived. Those markers are passed down through
genetics. It’s possible. Just might take a long time.”

“I
’
ll arrange to get some blood from them both, should they be
willing. I
’ll have to
tell them what this is about. How much would you need to have, Samantha? This
may be your only time to do this, so be sure.”

“Only
a tube of blood from both. I won’t need a great
deal,
just enough to be able to run the test
several times, if possible,” Sam told him as she began to think of all that
would be needed. “Perhaps the doctors on board could help with it? I wasn’t a
geneticist,
but I know the basics and know
what to look for. It was a field that was just starting to gain traction when I
left Earth.”

“I’m
sure he would gladly assist you, Samantha. One step at a
time,
though. I still need to see if I can
get you the blood you require. Remind me when we return to our quarters to send
Fintan
a message,” he said. At her nod, he smiled.

“Anything
would be good. I’m in no hurry.” She would need to read up a bit on genetics,
which she hoped would be in their medical records.

“It would be nice to have this
settled before Lennox and Morgan grow much older. I hate the idea of them
growing up in a world that despises their mother’s people. Not only because it
makes visiting them so difficult, but they shouldn’t have to be faced with that
ugliness.”

“Their
people don’t shun those babies, do they?” She wasn’t sure how the people saw
Morgan and Lennox, now that he mentioned it.

“No,
not at all. On his
return,
Fintan
went through an ancient
Craegin
ritual to guarantee that
Adira
was no longer seen as
Imarian
, only as
Craegin
. But
there will be whispers, nothing to
Adira’s
face, or
where
Fintan
could hear. They’re family, Samantha.
They need to be protected until they are old enough to make their own decisions
and choices.”

“I
agree.” She sighed and shook her head. “I would have thought that we would have
moved past
racism,
but it’s just another form of
it.
”

“If
we can end this war once and for all by proving the two races started out as
one, that will go a long way to changing people’s minds. Not
immediately,
unfortunately, but in time.”
Petr rolled his chair back to pull open a section of wall. After a minute of
digging around he came back with a slightly bulkier data pad. “We use these to
help the little ones learn their history. While it’s simplified for
them,
it should give you some place to
start. It has pictures, too.” She caught his grin and knew he was messing with
her. Sam liked it. It meant he was becoming as comfortable with their
relationship as she was.

“I
know you’ll want to go beyond this, but it will teach you some of the terms you
may run across that the translator isn’t always that great at working with.
Some of them are from the old tongue that the ruling body has stripped out of
the programs as it’s too old-fashioned in their minds. You’ll need that for
when you go digging through the database. Which reminds me,” he said. He tapped
on the desk, then nodded. “I thought I had. Good to know I’m not losing my mind
entirely around you. I gave you the highest clearance I can, which is almost as
good as it
gets,
so you can dig anywhere in the archives. There are only a few sections that are
not accessible via the AI system. You’ll need to do that in person with the
hard copies once I figure out how to gain access for us.”

Sam
nodded. She wasn’t a researcher by
trade,
but she had done enough of it that she understood where she needed to start and
that would lead her to another start and so on. She would have to go into this
from start to finish with an open mind and fresh eyes. The primer with some of
the old language in it would be very helpful. “Thank you,” she said, brushing
her fingers to his. This was home, she realized for the first time. Being here
with him and touching him. This was what home was, not hundreds of years in her
past but this time and this man in this place.