TheDutyofPain (7 page)
“Gentlemen, can we get back to Udell base, so I can find out what is going on?”
They didn’t need to be told twice.
Her crowd of five hustled her out of medical, past a Dhemon and two Drai before they were on the newly fuelled shuttle and lifting off for Udell base.
Chapter Eleven
Waking in bed with arms around her was a little alarming. As she turned and saw the dark brown eyes of the man sharing the bed with her, she was left with only one conclusion. “Markenow?”
He leaned in and kissed her in response. His body was hot against hers, and as he shifted, she welcomed him.
He was not her first lover, but as she shivered in his arms over and over, she had a thought that he may be the last. No one could follow in her memory after that moment.
After the first rush of learning was over, she lay on her side with him wrapped around her back. “I am guessing that good morning might be a dangerous thing to say after that.”
He chuckled. “Good morning, Alda. I have waited a very long time to hear you say my name.”
She sighed, “Will you now let me know what is going on?”
He brushed lips across her temple. “It should be coming back now.”
She remembered, remembered meeting four of him, them stacking together and the bright blue of Quad’s eyes.
“Blue of Quad plus the orange of Keelor, equals beautiful brown eyes.”
His skin was paler than hers, and she enjoyed watching him stroking her hand with his.
“That is true. Would you like to hear the whole story?”
She nodded. “Yes, and then breakfast. I don’t think I have eaten in a while.”
He agreed. “Once upon a time, I was a pickpocket on Resicor. I was caught, and my mental ability to be unnoticed got noticed. It was a minor talent, so I was not considered valuable and my government sold me to the Raiders for experimentation.
“The creature that enhanced Ixa was the same one who worked on me. He had a plan, and Juhl worked to inject DNA, RNA and other substances into me. When I was packed full of potential, the enhancer worked to activate all those powers, all that potential at the same time.
“I felt as if I was being ripped apart. My body screamed and my mind shrieked as each day the enhancer went to work on me. Finally, Keelor emerged.
“They were satisfied that he was the end result of the experiment, and they locked me in the cells. We talked, and while it was obvious that he was made of my darker impulses, he had compassion for those around us. We planned an escape, and it had two options. The first was that we would both escape and try to reconnect later. The second was that Keelor would remain behind as a failed escape and give them his life in service.
“You know what happened next. I escaped, and he was left behind to play the long game. Every few months, they would run him through the minders, but as he and I were not psychically connected, they found nothing.”
She nodded. “So, when they sent him to get me on Udell, you and he reformed.”
He pressed a kiss to her temple. “We did. He was shocked that I had continued to split, and so, he could legitimately say that he had not seen the Guardsman known as Quad before.”
She sighed and enjoyed his embrace, the feel of his body against hers. When his stomach growled, she laughed. “I am glad you beat me to that.”
He chuckled, and they got to their feet, dressing in bodysuits that were clean and comfortable. “Why did you have to strip to stack together in Guardian’s office?”
He smiled as they made their way to the commissary. “One, my body doesn’t replicate artificial fibres, two, I was showing off. I enjoy everything about you, and it was only a matter of time before I was going to be allowed to court you. I thought I would simply show you what was on offer, times four.”
After loading a tray and having a seat, she said, “You need to learn some basic first aid, you know. If I keep touching people in agony and getting injured, you will have to do better than following my instructions.”
“I don’t want you in danger.”
“Tough.” She smiled as she worked through her fruit salad.
Dev walked in and joined them after she loaded up her breakfast tray, “You are back up to date?”
Alda nodded.
“Thank goodness. It was hard keeping everyone away from you.”
Alda quirked her brow, “You had to keep everyone away?”
“Sure. We are family, sort of. We are all in the same job and the same danger. Who can we lean on if not each other?” Dev shrugged and worked on her meal.
Razer and Tech came in, followed by Phase and Rupture, Guardian and Pax gathered, and with each addition, another table was shoved together until they were all eating at one long, unified structure.
Guardian smiled, “So, Quad is now Quint, huh?”
Markenow grinned. “Whole at last. Yes.”
“What happened to the minders at the base?” Alda asked Pax.
“They have been taken to a sealed base for healing and verification. When dealing with Raiders, we need to make sure that they are not sleeper agents.”
“Like Keelor.”
Pax frowned. “I suppose.”
“Why don’t you heal them, offer them employment in the low level of the minder guild or a ticket home if they have a home to go to?”
Pax shrugged. “I suppose we could arrange semi-annual visits to check on them.”
“And self-defence classes. They definitely need a feeling of personal capability. Everything they had was taken from them.”
Guardian was listening. “I will pass your opinion along. Compassion is rarely misplaced.”
“How about Satut and his niece?”
“Satut and Novi are being permanently assigned to Morganti base. There are children on the base already, so it will be the best place for her to grow up. The Citadel will provide schooling and the Sector Guard, training. She will have everything she needs.”
Alda smiled until she realised that there were two names missing from the discussion. “What about Dr. Juhl and the enhancer?”
Guardian grimaced. “They escaped. We don’t know how, but no life signs were found at the base. They are still out there, but we will find them.”
Alda shivered at the thought that those monsters were out there. “What about the Resicor government selling their talents for experimentation?”
Guardian smiled, “That is going to be taken care of in short order. Attacking a civilian population is out of the question, so when we move, we have to do it carefully. Currently, we are engaged in siphoning off several Resicor talents and offering the government treaties and mineral rights in their sector as compensation. It has given us a view into their bureaucracy and that is helping us find the moment to strike.”
That reminded Alda of something. “Come to think of it, am I finally a member of the Citadel?”
Guardian’s cheeks darkened pewter under the silver skin. “Yes. We couldn’t have you officially in the Citadel when you were taken, or they would have had to mount an immediate rescue. We needed a little more time.”
Markenow put his arm around her, “What our esteemed leader is not saying is that as you are a member of a Citadel that isn’t built yet, the only person who could legitimately come to your aid is Dev.”
Dev wiggled her fingers from across the table. “Now, I am impressive, but not taking down a whole base impressive.”
After breakfast, Alda took a long walk with Quint, talking, laughing and enjoying the interior garden. She turned to him under the green canopy and smiled up at him. “This is a very strange turn of events.”
“Our coming to the gardens?”
“No, my being here on Udell instead of chained in the palace on Olsted. To think, if you had not managed to make it there before the duke died, I would have ended up with the Raiders anyway. I would have met Keelor, and who knows what would have happened.”
He grimaced. “What are you getting at?”
“Could you have been content with only part of you being with me?” She was looking for a declaration, but she couldn’t figure out how to get it.
He wrapped his arms around her. “Quad would have felt the loss of your presence in his life. He would have wandered the worlds lonely and alone. Keelor would have been a smug bastard and escaped with you to start a life amongst the stars.”
She laughed and cupped his jaw with her hands while he stroked his fingers over her cheek and brow the same way Keelor had when they first met. “That is precisely what I wanted to hear.”
He kissed her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, enjoying the moment when pleasure won out over pain and death was not lurking in the darkness. She knew it was a rare moment, so she committed it to memory.
Joy was a glowing spark against the dim grey of pain, and she held that spark in her mind until she could feel nothing else. Knowing that pain would return made the joy glow all the brighter, and she fanned the flames until it was burned into her memory.
When five pairs of hands grabbed her ass, she began to laugh and looked up at Keelor’s burning orange eyes and his body in the tattered suit. The others were moving in on her, and she surrendered to the peculiarity of having one man with five bodies.
The possibilities were mindboggling, and if she was lucky, that wasn’t the only part of her that would soon be overwhelmed.
Author’s Note
Sharing pain is something people do every day in every way. Over the last year, I have spoken to any number of friends who have lost loved ones, pets and relationships. The pain hurts, but sharing it seems to take the sting out.
Everyone I have ever met has taken or given pain in the course of a week. Some delight in causing it, others are wrapped up in trying to ease it. It costs nothing to share someone’s pain, but you lose a bit of yourself by causing it deliberately.
Now, on to funnier topics…
The Starborn
will be my next release, and it just goes to show that no matter how much you wish to, you can’t choose your family. For better or worse, your family is yours alone, and you will have to deal with them when they go supernova at a family gathering.
Viola Grace
About the Author
Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.
Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.