Donner smiled as Drelloc said the simple words, his heart fluttering in his chest once more as he tried his best to maintain his composure. “I know you do. I love you too, and I want you to know that we will make it through this. Failure isn’t an option, remember?” She gave an affirmative gesture and looked ready to say more but was interrupted by the sound of angry shouting growing closer.
Donner raised his gun, the spare ammo he had grabbed from the dead rebels would help them hold for a few minutes at best. But if they brought any kind of armoured support then they were as good as done, they had no AP and no anti-tank. He looked over at Drelloc once more and held out his hand to her, which she grabbed without hesitation this time in one of her own.
“We will make it through this, you have to believe.” he muttered slowly and with deliberation.
She swallowed audibly. “How can you have such hope in this grim situation?”
Donner thought it over as the sounds of conflict drew closer. “Hope is the quintessential human emotion. The thing that drives us to be more than we might have otherwise believed possible. It is what put a man on the moon before the age of computers, it’s what sent the first FTL ship into the deep dark without a solid gameplan. And it’s what kept me going when all else seemed lost. Without hope we are nothing, Drelloc. With it.. well.. we can do anything.” He smiled again, a tiny tear leaking from his cheek as she squeezed his hand.
She swallowed again, her eyes bright with moisture as she replied. “That’s the most beautiful philosophy I think I have ever heard. I think I finally am beginning to understand why it is humans were the only ones to discover FTL tech. You have an unrazah’voolian drive to push the boundaries of everything around you.”
He nodded. Anything he might have said in response was halted as gunfire erupted from the bushes in front of them on the upper edge of the gully, shattering the illusion of safety he had been clinging to in the dark. Sparks flew as steel-core ammunition and more carved craters in the hard stone of the riverbed and brilliant streaks of laser fire vaporised the earth around them. But he was undaunted, they had already come this far. What was another few minutes?
Donner leaned from cover and let loose a spray of gunfire towards the incoming shots and was rewarded with at least one cry of pain and the brilliant flash of a powercell being ruptured. That would keep their heads down for a few more seconds, but it wouldn't keep them down for long.
He didn't have to be told that he was in a tactically inferior position. The cliffs gave the enemy the height advantage and the end of the gully was a loose and dangerous pile of rubble. A grenade might be enough to trigger a devastating landslide that would see him and Drelloc crushed under tons of rock. But it was the best they had, the rebels on the other hand had no hard cover whatsoever and his return fire speared one standing on the cliff through the leg. They screeched as they fell to slam into the ground with a crunching thud, their body going still as they fell nearly five meters to the bottom of the ravine.
He had to blink rapidly to clear his vision as Drelloc fired her beam rifle, the brilliant purple glow of ionising air connected the barrel of her gun to the head of an enemy for the briefest of pulses before the rebel’s head exploded. The extreme hydrostatic shock from the rapidly vaporised flesh was enough to take the nerivith’s head clean off at the shoulder, showing their companions with blue ichor and shards of steaming bone.
An angry murmur grew as they returned fire in retribution for their fallen comrades. Donner was forced once more to hunker behind the rapidly degrading cover. An explosion rocked the ground as a grenade was tossed into their pile, earth and clods of clay showering them both as Drelloc made a series of groaning sounds. He knew her well enough by now to understand that she was afraid. It was all fair, he was afraid too.
The firefight went on for another few minutes before his gun clicked empty for the last time. He looked over at Drelloc as she fired another flurry of shots to keep the rebels back. She saw him shake his head.
“I only have one powerpack left.” She told him grimly. “This is it, isn’t it? The moment you were referring to, when we need to have hope?”
He nodded and scooched closer to her. “Yes, we held on as long as we could. Now it’s up to our friends whether or not we make it out of this alive. But I know we are going to be okay, Drelloc. I know it in my heart as I know the sun will rise tomorrow after this nightmare is over.”
She fired off another few shots while one of her four arms reached over and placed itself on his chest. “I trust you with my life, Donner. After all, I would have died days ago were it not for you. Whatever happens, know that I will never forget this adventure for as long as I live.”
He nodded again as she swapped to her last powerpack, the end of her gun glowing slightly as small wisps of smoke curled off the tip of the barrel. The beam rifle would be running out soon, no doubt the rebels had already noticed that his own gun had fallen silent. They would be pushing forwards soon, and all he had to defend them was his knife and fists.
He heard a low buzzing sound and looked skyward. Through the drifts of smoke and the general haziness of the battle he thought he could make out the shifting silhouette of a spotter drone. He tapped Drelloc’s shoulder and gestured to it as it swung almost lazily overhead.
“Drelloc, kill that drone!”
She handed him the rifle and spoke solemnly. “I can’t. It’s empty.”
He swore loudly. “Deep dark! Well, this is it then, stay down if you can.” He stopped and then reached out and drew the alien woman close. Her dark bodysuit pressing close to his own tactical gear as she made a startled noise.
She tried to push him away for only a second before she gave in and succumbed to the embrace. “Donner, what are you… We are going to be okay, you promised me that. And I have never known you to break a promise.”
Donner was forced to nod silently, not sure if he could speak without his voice breaking from the anxiety that threatened to drown his soul. So instead he just squeezed her tighter, he was sure that if he just believed hard enough that they would make it out of this okay. His team called him Ace because he always got lucky in poker, maybe he could siphon some of that cosmic luck to get out of their current situation?
He heard footsteps approaching and the sound of angry voices. This was it. Their do or die time, either rescue showed up or they were as good as dead.
The powers of the cosmos must have heard his desperate plea as the sound of an approaching vehicle cut through the clamour. The rebels seemed to be confused, as if they had not been expecting armoured support. He had only a moment to come to terms with this reality before the night was filled with roaring noise.
The sound of autocannon fire beat the air like a staccato death knell as rebel soldiers dived for cover along the edges of the ravine. Several of them were cut down or thrown bodily into empty space, their sundered corpses thudding to the rocky floor of the gully to burst apart like overripe fruit. He ducked back into cover, Drelloc still held tight in his arms as she shuddered at the terrible cacophony.
She pushed him away as she spoke, “I can’t believe it. That has to be our extraction. She started to stand but he dragged her down, and not a second too soon.
A flurry of red laser shots passed through the space she had only just occupied and he pulled his knife. He stood to his feet as a screaming human woman rounded the corner, the blocky form of the Jule2000 laser rifle she carried aimed straight at his chest. He managed to dodge out of the way of her first two shots but a third struck his armoured chest rig.
The kinetic energy of the actual shot was minimal, but the pushback of the armour vaporising knocked him back half a step. The woman’s frantic blue eyes locked with his as she raised her weapon once more to aim at his head, suddenly her head jerked to the side as a fist sized rock pelted off the side of her head.
He didn’t give the Hegemony soldier a chance to recover as he lunged forwards and jammed his knife into her temple with a savage yell. She slumped immediately, taking his knife with her as her twitching corpse dropped to the rocky ground. It didn’t matter though as he scooped up her fallen weapon and poured fire into the trio of soldiers that had been rushing towards them behind her.
His shots swept two of them off their feet but the third was undaunted and bully-rushed him with a huge, bayoneted rifle. The long blade caught on the side of his rig and the large yeown rebel used the leverage to knock him to the ground. As the laser rifle went spinning from his hands the yeown raised the rifle and brought it down on his chest rig with enough force to crack his already bruised ribs. The blade got stopped by his chest rig as he gurgled in pain, even as damaged as it was it held up against the prodigious predator strength of the enraged rebel soldier.
He coughed and let out a cry of pain as he was kicked twice in the side, the furred alien raised their bayoneted rifle once more, this time their shining green eyes locked on his throat and he put up a pitiful defense with his arms. But the blow never fell, instead a series of shots hit the big, furred alien. One, two and then three bullets striking them in the neck and chest respectively.
The green eyed yeown gurgled as their throat was turned into a minced meat ruin and then fell to their knees. Donner tried to stand as the soldier drew a wicked serrated knife from their chest rig, murder filling their reflective eyes. They seemed determined to take him with them into that awful dark oblivion, but once more he found himself saved from behind as a fourth and final shot took the top of the yeown’s head off. The steaming body slumped to the side, the remains of their cranium spilling upon the rocks below in a dark stain that spread ominously in the dark of the night.
Drelloc stepped forwards and helped him to his feet, he grunted painfully as his broken ribs shifted under his armour and he gave her a grateful nod as he leaned on her heavily. “Thanks again. I was about to be shishkebab.”
She leaned her head close and gave him a brief nuzzle that felt a little more than platonic. But he didn't mind. She handed him the gun but he shook his head.
“No, you hold onto it. I’ll just drop it again.” The sound of fighting still permeated the air and they found themselves once more hunkering behind the fallen rocks for cover.
The rumble of distant artillery was punctuated with the spine shattering crack of a large bore battle cannon. He wasn’t sure as to the exact calibre, but the sound of heavy treads approaching and the clanking of heavy armour announced the arrival of at least one Quinten main battle tank. The huge edifice of hardened steel destruction pulled to a halt on the edge of the ravine amid the crackling and crunching of the sparse undergrowth that surrounded the ravine. It fired once more at something in the distance, the powerful recoil of the huge main gun rocking the sixty-four-ton vehicle on its tracked suspension. A moment later the distant sound of an explosion washed over the landscape and Donner flinched instinctively.
He took a second to extricate himself from Drelloc’s intimate embrace and looked over the top of the rock. Nothing moved that he could see, he wasn't too sure if the coast was actually clear though.
He pulled Drelloc to her feet as well, the alien’s strange two-toed feet found purchase on the shifting stones and they made their way down the rocky slope towards the bottom of the ravine. As they finally reached the floor he lowered his gun and put his arms out to the side as a group of heavily armed Union special forces scampered in their direction, weapons raised.
**********
Drelloc’s ears rang and her omnidirectional vision was marred by bright spots and several streaks from near misses by beamer and laser shots. Her heart thumped in her chest but she had to admit she felt more alive than she had even during the mine incident. She gazed over at Donner as the man stood triumphant over the battlefield, the smoke and haze seeming to frame him like some ancient statue of a long-forgotten god of war.
He was beautiful.
Her people liked to think themselves above the base conflict that dominated the psych of so many other races. They liked to think themselves superior. In reality they were just as base and carnal as the many other races of the union. They were just better at lying ot themselves about it.
Reality snapped back to her as he took her shoulder and pulled her back into cover with a short hiss of pain. He had been battered and bruised by his most recent encounter with death and she could very well understand his struggle. Her own body felt as if she had been run over by a truck in the past hour or so.
She saw him rub his bandaged shoulder, the faint smell of his blood still lingering about him as he winced once more. The painkillers must be wearing off.
He nodded towards the dead yeown, “Thanks again. I was about to be shishkebab.” he leaned his weight on her and not for the first time she marveled at his height. He was a full head taller than her, his strangely stubbled chin resting on the crown of her head halfway to her mouth, the short hairs so unlike the fine layer of satin fur that covered her own body.
She smiled with her eyes and leaned back into him. He was strong, stronger than she would have imagined any person could be. Strong enough to make up for her own lack. She gave him a loving nuzzle, her desire to be close to him as strong as the pull of the earth beneath her feet.
She held out the automatic rifle towards him as he shifted but she saw him shake his head. “No, you hold onto it. I’ll just drop it again.” He tensed and then dragged them both behind the cover of the rock as a shot whipped through the air nearby. The sound of combat seemed to draw ever closer and she found herself flushed with worry once more.
She needn't have worried though, the sound of a heavy vehicle approaching ended with the ear-splitting crack of battlecannon fire. That had to be their escort, if the rebels had sent tanks to end them…
She didn’t allow herself to finish the thought. It wouldn't do for her to worry herself about things she could not hope to change. Instead she focused on the man in her arms as he pushed himself away from her with some mild difficulty. She didn’t want to let him go, but she relented as she realised why.
She stood with him as he helped her up. She lowered her gun as he put his arms out to the sides in a non-threatening way. Heading towards them were a group of Union special forces, their dark black night operations garb reflected darkly off the sparkling overhead flares. The glint of their electronic visors and the dull red glow of their smart weapons made them all the more menacing as they surrounded her and Donner like a pack of hunting grinskal.
She raised the shortwave radio and spoke, “Union special agent Drelloc, I believe you are here to rescue us?” it may not have been by the books, but it seemed to get the point across well enough as one of the soldiers stepped forwards.
They were tall, impressively so. It took her a moment to recognise with a small amount of surprise that they were an umraghj, the low gravity aliens were rarely seen outside of their low-gravity colonies. Let alone in the top notches of the special forces, they must be an impressive specimen indeed, all three meters of them.
She heard the whine of active servos as their powered exoskeleton assisted their movements. In the relatively mild gravity of Minasdee, the tall yet spindly alien needed the assistance of the gear just to move himself. She found herself wondering once more how they had managed to qualify for such a rigorous position as the special forces.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
She didn’t get a chance to ask though as the tall alien spoke to them. Their voice was a low synthetic burr that wheezed out through their all-encompassing environmental suit as they addressed her directly. “You would not believe the amount of shit we had to wade through to get here. No time for chitchat, get up to the transport, we were informed of your personal ident marker. We confirmed it was actually you before we even came down here, as for your companion?” The question was open ended but not the kind that could be easily ignored, the implied threat in the man’s synthetic voice setting her on edge.
She gestured towards Donner, “This is my only surviving protector. Donner, part of the original escort before it was destroyed. We were ambushed.” She clarified as the tall alien cocked his horned head once more. She continued sternly and in a manner that left no room for debate. “Wherever I go, he goes.”
Another of the soldiers stepped forwards slightly, “I don’t mean to be abrasive ma’am.. but the secure nature of your mission dictates that you travel without those that may..”
She cut them off with a two armed gesture as she tugged Donner in the direction of the aforementioned transport. “Oh, he knows. I gave him an in-the-field security promotion. He is fully cleared to go anywhere I go. Now, are we going or are you all going to just stand there looking menacing?” She added a bit of haughtiness to her comment, not because she thought they needed it, but because she was feeling a little short tempered. They were here to rescue her and her data, not debrief her as to the state of her mission.
She huffed and puffed as she and Donner climbed up the rocky side of the steep embankment. She smiled with her eyes as Donner, ever selfless, helped her over some of the more difficult areas even with his own injuries causing the man to make tiny groans of discomfort from time to time.
She put a hand on the top of his head as she was boosted up over the edge, hands reached out of the dark to pull her to her feet and she saw another pair of the dark clad soldiers standing watch over the top of the ravine with weapons drawn and at the ready. The nearer, a bulky vinarfelien female with long thin antennae, gestured into the relative dark with a jerky insectoid motion.
“Please, this way quickly. We have rebels bearing down on our position and must get moving as soon as possible.”
Drelloc made an affirmative gesture as Donner climbed to his feet a little shakily behind her, a grimace of pain marring his otherwise handsome features. He opened his mouth and let out a sigh. “Oh, I could use a break for sure after this. And a long hot shower.”
She agreed. “Yes, a shower would be nice. Or a long soaking bath, with fresh gweawa steak.”
She saw him nod as they were whisked away into the darkness. She found she was able to keep up the frantic pace, her recent stint through the harsh and jagged terrain with Donner having radically improved her stamina and muscle definition even after a few days.
The vehicle was waiting only a short distance away. Its rear compartment opened and looking like the yawning maw of some steel beast. A strangely ominous green glow filtered from its interior as she was directed inside by dark clad soldiers.
Her eyelids fluttered as she sat in the dark, the pale green light that lit the back of the armoured ICV seemed like the pale light of the moon filtering through shallow water. It made her realise just how exhausted she was. Her muscles tingled and her bones seemed to ache with the exertion she had been forced to undergo the last few days.
Drelloc sat back into the seat as the vehicle started up. The bench seat wasn’t really designed with her race in mind and she was forced to move around a bit to find a comfortable position that worked with her radial symmetry. After a few moments she was as comfortable as she could have been expected to be, she gave Donner another long look through drooping eyelids.
Once more she felt a confusion of emotions for the alien man. He was not at all attractive by the more classic standards of her own people. His waist was far too narrow and he only had the two eyes. His face showed none of the extreme nuance in minute muscle movements that her own people would have. In short, he was blunt and brash like all humans, and she found that was what she loved about him the most.
The way he so casually let his emotions lead, his instincts seemingly so in tune with his psyche. It was truly impressive and had shocked her more than once in the past few days. He had saved her life more times than she could count, and now that they were finally on their way back to the main base she realised that he would be under incredible scrutiny. They may even try to use him as a scapegoat as he was the only surviving member of her escort.
She let out a long breath as her tired minds communed briefly, it was time to reverse the roles. She would have to protect him now from the suspicion and political maneuvering of her world just as he had protected her from the dangers of his. A world just as dangerous as the wilderness through which they had trekked. Just not in the same ways.
**********
Donner sat tiredly across from Drelloc as the armoured vehicle bounced and jittered over the uneven terrain. He was tired, but he was also trained to remain alert in tense situations. And he couldn't imagine a situation more tense and dangerous than the one he now found himself in.
He looked around as casually as he could. He had been searched as he was shuffled into the ICV, the large umraghj making sure he was entirely unarmed. Obviously he wasn't as trusted by the special forces as he was by Drelloc, they seemed to laze around them but his own killer’s instinct could see the tension in their postures. He could see their tightly gripped weapons, not holstered as one might expect, but held at the low ready as if they were expecting a threat. There was the possibility that the ones in charge of the whole situation had told them not to bring anyone else back and it was only by the grace of Drelloc that he was still breathing.
He shuddered slightly at the thought and pulled his jacket closer in case one of the others had seen. It wouldn't do for them to think he suspected them.
The uneasy silence grew like mold on a damp windowsill, slowly filling the space till all felt sickly and choking.
He kept his mouth shut as the vehicle picked up speed, the distant cracks of gunfire mellowing out till all he could hear was the pounding of blood in his own ears and the low thrum of the vehicle’s tires on the hard packed earth outside.
Before he knew what was happening he found himself being shaken awake, he must have dozed off during the trip. He looked around and saw that the rear doors to the vehicle were open. But most importantly and to his immediate alarm he realised that he didn't see Drelloc.
He stood to his feet quickly, the top of his head nearly banging into the roof of the transport’s tight inner confines as his ribs screeched in protest. He coughed in discomfort as he demanded, “Where is she? Where is Drelloc!”
The large umraghj man guided him out of the vehicle, his enhanced strength more than sufficient for Donner’s mild protestations as he found himself dragged bodily from the vehicle. Not cruelly, but certainly not with any subtlety either.
He blinked as he was forced to march towards an uncertain fate.
“Walk, keep your eyes down.” A voice demanded of him as he shuffled forwards, one arm held about his chest in discomfort.
He looked around as best he could while not being obvious about it. He was being marched towards a large dark coloured bunker complex. The structure had the look of a permanent fortification, not the more scrappy design of the more common prefab structures that were most commonly found throughout friendly lines. This place must warrant special attention to be so well constructed.
He voiced his mind as they entered through a guarded checkpoint. The bright lines of automated laser designators drawing his eye to the automated turret defenses on the wall mounted above the doorway. They had the mean look of devices designed only for the purpose of killing.
“So, where are we going now?”
The umraghj simply snorted as the unseen soldier behind him cuffed his ear. “Silence. You are in possession of dangerous classified information. You will not compromise the mission with any further utterance.”
Donner was forced to stumble forwards as the soldier behind him shoved him roughly once more.
“Ayye, gently.. I’m walking wounded here!” Donner objected with a grunt of pain as he stole a look behind him. The unpleasant guard looked human enough, but with the fully encompassing suit they wore it was impossible to tell. They could have been any gender of several different species, maybe they just didn't like the way he looked.
He was shuffled down hallways made of dark carbcrete, through thin clefts in what looked like natural stone and over areas of the floor that looked to be metal grates suspended over deep chasms into the ground. He once more had to wonder as to the original purpose of the structure, it looked more like some sort of fortified mine than it did the command center for the UIA on the planet.
They kept walking, finally after what felt to his tired body like hours they rounded a doorway into a small and secure looking room deep in the bowels of the government fortress. He was sat down at a small nondescript table in front of a severe looking nerivith woman with impressive swept back horns the same soft rose pink as her skin. He looked around as the silence grew for a moment. The room was simple and as spartan as a cell could be with the exception of the large mirror on the far wall. He knew almost immediately that he was in an interrogation chamber of some type, the mirror was likely a one-way design that allowed shadowy figures to look in upon him without their identities being exposed.
He sat silently for another moment, but then the questions came. The woman only gave him time to answer one with a blurted statement or hurried quip before moving onto the next. She was relentless, she had obviously done this before. Donner reeled internally as the questioning continued, many of them seemingly random and designed only to keep him off balance. She followed a question about his military training with one about his favorite type of candy as a child.
It took only minutes of this assault to weaken the already crumbling mental defenses he had been desperately clinging to as he finally shouted, “What is the point of this! I want to talk to somebody in charge!”
The woman closed her mouth and held up a hand as Donner stood to his feet and the two soldiers standing behind him took steps forwards as if to restrain him.
The nerivith seemed to mutter quietly under her breath and he looked menacingly at the mirror. Whoever was behind it was likely enjoying themselves at his expense. Screw them and screw this whole situation.
Donner threw out an arm towards the window and shouted, “If you want to silence me then silence me. If I am to be rewarded then out with it, but I will not be caged like some misbehaving lab znot and pestered for the remainder of my days. I have better things to be doing than sitting down here getting grilled. Show yourselves!” he felt his ribs flare in pain once more at his own outburst but the pain did nothing but shock his mind back to wakefulness.
The room remained silent and for another few moments he worried that he had gone too far. But then the door to the room opened and in walked the largest atraxses female he had ever seen. The alien woman was huge, a mass of muscle and long shaggy white fur that seemed to take up the entire doorway. She stepped through and he read the rank epaulets she wore, his face going a little pale as he realised just who he was dealing with.
She was an intelligence director, maybe one of the most individually influential people on the entire planet of Minasdee, if not the whole damned sector. Not somebody to be trifled with and definitely not somebody he would at all benefit from speaking too so brashly.
He cleared his throat and stood to attention painfully as the woman stopped and looked at him. Her beady orange eyes seemed to scutinise him as one might look at the horderves upon a snack platter at some fancy party. He swallowed heavily as he awaited some form of judgement from the large alien.
The large furred woman nodded to the two guards and they promptly filed out followed shortly after by the nerivith woman. He watched the pink skinned alien’s long tufted tail flicking behind her toned back as she stalked out after them. Finally alone, the woman took the chair across from him. It groaned in protest of her absolute bulk as she settled her body as best she could.
“I am going to level with you Donner. You are a problem for us.” He flinched at her words, she made a gesture for him to retake his seat as she continued to stare at him with those piercing eyes.
It was about what he was expecting, he was going to get disappeared. He nodded slowly as he sat slowly in his own seat once more. “I understand ma’am. But I would ask that I am allowed to see special agent Drelloc at least one more time before I go?”
She cocked her blunt head, the black skin of her unfurred face wrinkling even more as she looked him over. “Go? And where pray tell is it that you think you are going?”
He shook his head. What could he tell her? That he was afraid of getting an early retirement package in the form of a bullet to the head? No. He needed to stand his ground.
“It doesn't matter where I go. I won't ever say anything to anyone about what happened. Not even a peep..” He trailed off as the large woman chuckled.
“Ah, I see. You think that you are going to be punished?” He nodded sheepishly after a moment. She shook her head and slapped the table as she laughed again. “Nothing could be farther from the truth, Donner. In fact, you are to be awarded the Illustrious Gold Cross and the Glory to the Union Awards for incredible actions taken under extreme conditions. And you have our apologies as to the loss of your entire unit. I sympathise with what you must be feeling for them, I have lost good men and women too in the field.”
Things were moving too fast for Donner, the shock of her comment nearly undoing his carefully crafted calm exterior. His mind whirled as she continued to speak, though most of it simply washed over him. She asked him simple and direct questions about the mission and what he had done to complete it. Things she could not have possibly known unless she had already talked to Drelloc extensively.
This made him slam back into reality as the woman asked him seriously, “I was also informed that you and special agent Drelloc may have formed an.. intimate.. bond, over the course of your journey?”
The implications of the words were blatant. But he couldn't deny them, not when she already knew the answer to them. He sat straight for the first time in many minutes and nodded. “Yes. The special agent and I were under incredible stress over the course of the mission as things took a decided turn for the worst. In these circumstances it is not at all uncommon for a bond to be formed between soldiers and battlemates…” Instead of letting him finish the woman waved a hand for silence and leaned closer. Her voice took on a more dangerous tone as she asked him bluntly enough to make his heart drop.
She smiled as she said it, “I see I need to be more direct. Did you form a romantic attachment to her while on the course of the mission?”
He swallowed. He had to answer, but how could he? While romantic entanglements were not forbidden by the Union’s military regulations, they were not encouraged either. And when the woman in question was also an important Union intelligence agent there were likely even more unknown problems.
‘Fuck it..’ He said to himself.
“Yes. Yes I did.” He stated simply. A hammerblow of worry crushed his heart as the woman leaned back into her chair which creaked worryingly at the motion.
She rubbed her chin and muttered something he couldn't quite make out. After another moment she stood and moved towards the door. “Well, then I have only one option left available to me, Donner. You cannot go back into the regular service as you know too much. And your close contact with our inner workings means that I am going to be forced to place you under strict surveillance.” She opened the door and Donner stood so fast that the chair he had been sitting on was thrown to the floor, all thought of his cracked and bruised body forgotten.
Into the room strode Drelloc with her strange twisting gait. The woman had obviously cleaned herself up a little and was wearing the equivalent of casual clothing for a razah’vool. A simple belt that slung over her naked shoulders and connected to another that went around her flared waist. It was covered in pockets and other equipment as she wore no other garment, but his eyes were drawn immediately to her eyes.
While he had originally struggled to tell her people apart, he now knew every subtle curve and wrinkle of her surprisingly emotive face. She stepped into the room as the large woman spoke up once more. “Lucky for you it seems I have had a volunteer to keep an eye on you. I am sure you won’t mind special agent Drelloc keeping tabs on you?”
He snapped his gaze from Drelloc back to the Intelligence director. “No, not at all.”
She gave a nod and moved to leave the room before she motioned for him to follow. “Well then, there is only your assignment left still to discuss. As your unit was destroyed you are free to take any position you would like, including early retirement if it suits you. Consider it our thanks for getting the job done despite the challenges.”
She looked like she was going to continue and so he blurted out, “I want to be placed on a personal security detail!”
Drelloc gave him a funny look as the atraxses woman nodded in a considering manner. “Consider it done, for whom?”
He nodded to Drelloc and stepped closer to the woman. “For her, for agent Drelloc. Surely she is in need of a protective detail, the enemy likely knows her now. I would gladly spend my life in her service.” He stepped up to her and she held out a hand that he took on his own. Her slightly wrinkled velvet-like skin felt cool in his hands and he smiled as her face crickled into her own version of the emotion.
Drelloc spoke quietly, enough so that he barely heard her even standing as close as he was. “I made sure they knew how valuable you were to me, Donner. They wanted to get rid of you, but I told them that if they did then they would have to get rid of me as well, and I am the only one that can unlock the data drive.”
Her gurgling chuckle sounded like music to his ears as he smiled in response. While they were engrossed with each other the large atraxses woman nodded and left the room, her attention now totally focussed on the datapad she had been holding in her other hand.
Donner smiled at Drelloc and was only mildly surprised as she pulled him into a four armed hug, gentle as she must surely be aware of his injuries. He rested his chin on the top of her head and closed his eyes as he breathed in her strange alien scent. “I won’t ever let you go either Drelloc. You mean more to me than all the badges and honors in the world.”
She hugged him tighter and he felt a tear leak from his eye as the realisation that their torment was actually over finally washed through him. “I know, Donner. I know.”
END OF STORY