Dallas looked at the face on his comm screen.

Blond, shoulder-length wavy hair, a beautiful smile, green eyes that pulled you in and never seemed to let go . . .

“She your first?” the driver said from the front seat.

“What do you mean?” Dallas said, a slight edge to his voice.

“Your first- you know, ‘joined-heart’ is what you pups call ‘em today. Right?”

“Yes,” Dallas said, looking back at the photo, and thinking about the first time he and his friends had walked into the place and saw her, waiting at the front desk, smiling at all of them, but smiling even wider when her eyes laid on him, and him alone…

“You don’t mind me askin’,” the big man said as the dashboard beeped, “we’re only about a minute away from the place. But why’s it taken so long for you? You’re a good lookin’ guy, pard. And your clothes say you come from a good family, too. Most guys get a joined-heart years earlier’n you- at school, or the job, church or some other place.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’ve been somewhat sheltered.”

“School?”

“Private tutors.”

“Job?”

“I’ve yet to work a day in my life.”

“Church?”

“Always with family, always supervised.”

“Well, dang, boy. Hope you break out and-”

The gentle thump of the ‘horse’s hoverwheels on the pavement interrupted his next speech. “We’re here, pard! Go see your lady. You, ah, want me to wait?”

“Why?”

“In case she’s ready to leave with you. Or- in case things turn out different than you expect.”

“Sure, wait. I should be back in ten minutes.”

“Rodeo. I’ll be here.”

Dallas thumbed the lock on the door beside him and sprang out of the backseat of the ‘horse soon as the gap was wide enough. He breathed in the air- cold and crisp in the small hours of the morning-and looked at the blinking lighted sign:

PRIMAE ET SECUNDAE BASIM

…then, it would blink to show the wording more associated with the common clientele…

FIRST AND SECOND BASE

“Cute name, huh?” said the driver, suddenly standing beside Dallas. “Links to old-Earth slang about baseball, and the flipping title says- ‘we got somethin’ for both the rich and the regular folks, here.’ ”

“Have you ever eaten here?”

“Me? Naw. I’m- I’m happy with what m’lady at home cooks up. No, but I’ve driven many a man here over the last few years. You sure you wanna be here, pard?” he said suddenly, looking at Dallas and taking the cigavape out of his mouth.

“Of course I do!” Dallas said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because sometimes, what we think we want is just a shadow of what we really want. That’s all. Better get-a-going! Pull the pistol out’ve the stone, and see if you’re the King, hey?”

“Uh- yeah. I’ll be back soon.” Dallas said, running for the entrance door.

“I’ll wait,” the driver said. Waving gently as Dallas opened and shut the door. “I’ll be here, you poor, damn fool,” he finished under his breath. Popping the cigavape back between his teeth, he walked back to the ‘horse, opened the creaking door and sat in the passenger seat.

Dallas entered the restaurant.

It was exactly as he remembered it. Even at this early hour, smells of cooking meat and baking pastries assaulted your nostrils with the first breath. Evenly-placed strips of wood- it looked real, not fake- lined the walls with military precision like soldiers at attention ready for orders. Even at this early hour, Secunda’s adoptive little sister, Triana, was at the hostess station, ready to propel any willing customer to their table where an equally attractive waitress would take your order on a light panel held in her shapely hands, always smiling, always delighted to serve.

Dallas remembered the first time he’d met Secunda- beautiful, smooth skin, a smile that beckoned and promised all things in his mind and heart, and bottomless green eyes that seemed to pierce him, making his heart her prisoner forever with the first look she’d given him when he’d entered the place.

His friends had teased him mercilessly afterward. About how he’d kept his eyes on her without stopping, sneaking looks when he thought everyone else was distracted. And how he’d found excuses to go slumming again and again, his friends always willing to go where he wanted…

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Wait.

Why did they-

“Well, hello, Mister Morgan!” Triana said, her smile every bit as big as Secunda’s. Only eighteen years old to Secunda’s twenty, Triana still was almost as beautiful as her sister. Though her hair was dark and her eyes blue, her smile was the…

The same.

Why did that disquiet Dallas so much, all of a sudden?

“Hello, Triana. Could you get Secunda for me?”

“Oh, I think she’s asleep right now, Mister Morgan. Would you like to have me carry a message to her?”

“I wish I could, Triana. But this is very, very important. I’ve been trying to comm her all night, and she’s just not answering.”

Triana paused. “I’m sorry, Mister Morgan…”

“Triana, Dallas, please.”

“Dallas, but she’s been feeling ill. She went to bed sick a few hours ago. Could you come back in the morning?”

“No, no I can’t. I need to talk to her now, Triana.”

“Well, you can’t. I’m sorry!” she said, her smile still on place, but her head bobbing and her hair…

Dallas had never noticed before. But Terita’s hair was the same long, wavy style as Secunda’s.

Her facial structure- similar, too. Even though Triana was supposedly adopted, her face was very, very much like Secunda’s, from the forehead to the cheekbones.

“Triana, I’m going to ask nicely just once more. Then I’m going to push past you and go through the upstairs door and find her room myself. Do you understand that?”

“Dallas!” Triana said, laughing and slapping his wrist playfully, “Don’t be silly! We both know I’d have to call the gendarmes if you did that! But I won’t have to do that, will I? I know you’re just teasing me again, like you did when you came to pick up Secunda for that date and said you’d set me up with the ugliest of your friends if I didn’t stop being a brat! Remember that?”

Dallas looked at her eyes. They’d gotten…sharper, somehow, as her smile had faltered just a little.

And she’d slipped her hand underneath the counter.

Dallas put his right hand on the counter that stood in place between them, resting the other hand on his hip.

“I do. But Triana, I think I need to divert this conversation just a little. Your mater…sorry, your momma taught you at home, correct?”

Triana’s eyes softened, and her eyes went back to being their previous sparkling little orbs of deception. “Why, yes Mi- yes, Dallas! Secunda told you?”

“She did. Did your momma ever tell you about a fellow named Sun Tzu?”

“I...think we might have skipped that chapter, Dallas. Would you tell me about it now?”

“First, please keep your hand still. I know you grabbed something, and I know you might be going to press a button in a second. I think we both want this little encounter to end well, and I know how to make that happen. But if you try to do what you’ve been trained to do, it’ll go badly for us both, and worse for you. Do you understand that, Triana?”

Triana’s bright blue eyes dulled a bit, and her smile became a prim line. “Yes, sir,” she said.

“Triana,” Dallas said, cutting her off and holding her gaze, “I’ve broken about a dozen laws tonight. I need to see Secunda, and I want to get us both off this large, red rock once I’ve proven my brother wrong about a few things. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“You probably don’t care if I wake her up; what you really don’t want is to get in trouble with your mater for letting me through, yes?”

“Ayup.”

“Good. So, *I* have to give you a reason to let me through, one that when you tell your momma, she’ll say ‘oh, that’s why; you did the right thing, Triana!”

“Ayup. But you can’t give me one, Mister Dallas.”

“Sure I can,” Dallas said.

With a flick of his right hand, the sword hilt was in his fist and the blade was lit.

Soundlessly, he sliced off a section of the counter. It slid and fell to the ground in a smoking chunk of burnt-smelling wood on one side.

Dallas’ action had exposed Triana’s hand under the counter, which now held a small, but still potentially deadly pistol. There was also a small, blue button near her hand, which had also been sliced neatly in two and seemed to be peering over the edge of the sliced counter.

“Triana, I was joking with you about setting you up with Antonio. But I’m not joshing this time. I need to see Secunda, and I am going to. Please take your hand out slowly from under the counter, and give me whatever you have in your hand.”

Slowly, Triana did as she was told, giving Dallas the pistol.

“Now, Triana, you have a reasonable fear of me doing harm to you, after seeing what i did to the counter. I also have your weapon. Even if this little spitball-thrower would need three or four solid hits to stop a normal man in his tracks, unless you got very lucky and shot him through the eye and into his brain. You understand this, yes?”

“Yes,” she said evenly, her smile gone and her eyes on the floor.

“Now, Triana, you’re scared. So scared that as I go upstairs, you won’t even think to call the gendarmes. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ll be down soon. And I’ll back up your story, after we leave. Understand?”

“Momma’s gonna be mad, no matter what.”

“She won’t hurt you.”

“No. She’ll hurt you.”

----

To Be Continued...