Michael made it to the Bridge, pulling Maria behind him. Taking his station, he checked his security scanners. Weapons were already online, and Liander nodded to him as he gave him a report.
"Check the battlements and full armory." Liander nodded and took off, smiling at Maria who was standing silently next to Michael.
Max turned in his seat to observe his brother as he entered the Bridge. His eyebrow raised at the sight of Maria there as well, but he held his tongue as he noticed her hand held in his brother’s when they entered the Bridge.
"Princess, we’ve entered the Upper Kingdom."
Maria nodded and looked at the opening star system and a full web of sensor ships littering the space.
"I see that. What's the time to Imohep?"
"About eleven hours at impulse." Max read a report handed to him. "It appears the shields are holding. We’ve yet to be detected."
"You will want to oscillate the shields on revolving frequencies as the amount of scanner ships increases. They are less likely to break the shields. Also, you're visually apparent, so taking cover in a traveling fleet will help decrease discovery."
Max nodded. "Sam, there’s a prowler. Pull tack to starboard and bring us into her shadow, but avoid her wake."
"Aye, Cap."
Reis, the communications officer, was frowning as he listened to incoming chatter and intercepted messages.
"Cap, I’ve got subspace chatter about Khivar." Max turned in his chair. "The Imperial fleet has instructions to scan and test all pregnant women for anomalies."
Alex cussed under his breath, as his eyes locked with Max's. So Khivar finally knew, or at least suspected that Kathleen was gone, and that she had left another Eminent One in her place. A child, as yet, unborn.
"Pierce." Alex said quietly. "I will kill him one day."
Max nodded. "I’ll make sure you do. That I promise you." Max sat back in his chair and frowned. "What do you want to do?"
"Nothing. Let them look. If we contact Agape it will draw attention to that world, to Amy and to the children. The child is not just mine anymore, but Kyle’s unborn sister."
Max accepted the truth of that statement. They had to believe that the baby would be protected, and therefore avoid giving Khivar reason to direct any undue attention to that world.
Alex shut his eyes in weariness. "That must be the reason he set in ambush for us in the Etruscan system. He needs to search the ship. To search me."
"That and the twins." Max looked at Maria. "With added security, it’s going to be hard to get you down on the planet without papers. They’ll be scanning everyone and checking papers. No matter how distracting you and Michael can be at times, I don’t think you can be that distracting."
"I’ll have to get your Immaculate." Maria shook her head no at Michael’s suggestion.
"It won’t work. You’ll never locate her."
"I was there last time. Just show your necklace thing, say a few words, assure her I’m not a ‘Princess’ and bring her back. Easy."
"Except you’ll have no papers for her either. So how you going to get her on board?" Alex pointed out.
"Damn." Michael thought about it for a moment. Then turned to Maria again. "You can open one of those corridor thingies, like you did on Zion! Maybe from here to the planet, and then back."
Maria shook her head. "I can’t. I’m not powerful enough to transport that distance, and off world. I’ve only been able to move from one point to another on an established world, and only so much distance."
Max just picked up his coffee and thought about it. "Okay, we’ve got eleven hours to come up with a plan, barring our getting caught in the interim. So brainstorm, and we’ll come to a concrete plan when we approach Imohep."
Maria stood on the Bridge, watching the fleet of Khivar’s ships actively scanning the area.
"Why here? Why now?"
Max came to stand beside Maria smiling to himself as he heard his brother behind him bitching about his sensors being offline. Michael worked best when things broke, and Max suspected that was because Michael tended to break them.
"What are you saying, Maria?"
"He came here, to the Upper Kingdom for a reason." Maria turned to look at the silent man. He was stroking his scar unconsciously. "Coincidences, I don’t believe in them."
"Neither do I." Max had to agree. It was too significant that Khivar would be searching for them in this specific area.
Alex had silently entered the Bridge. He joined them and studied the fleet of ships. Maria started and suddenly looked at him.
"Pierce. It’s Pierce."
Max frowned at the two. "How can you be sure?"
"The matrix...it bends." Alex said softly, and he asked Maria, "You saw it too?"
"Yes."
Alex and Maria shared a look of Understanding. But he turned and watched the hunt.
"The wind changes, thunder sounds and the tree is felled."
Maria just nodded. "Hunter and prey, it’s hard to say."
"It is understood, and the wind changes. That which was protected becomes exposed."
Maria nodded again and made an tsking noise in her throat. Max looked at her, back at Alex, and then at Maria again.
"You understand that gibberish?"
Maria just shrugged. "Not really. But the mind understands before the consciousness." Alex made a sound in his throat almost like a chuckle as Max flopped his arms and left them.
Alex smiled as Max left, watching him go. Suddenly his eyes became serious and disturbed.
"What is it that you know?"
"Not much." Maria looked at the space in front of them. "It worries me."
"Indeed." Alex grabbed her arm and forced her to look at him. "How does he know?"
Maria just shook her head. "Unless he found the Immaculate, I don't know. But my instinct tells me that he looks for you, and because I'm here as well, the disturbance is greater."
"We are bending the matrix."
"A ship doesn’t see its own wake."
Alex swore. "So no amount of protective shielding can keep Pierce from following our trail."
"I think it’s worse than that."
"Explain."
Maria discreetly looked over at Michael still bitching and working at his station. Max was busy as well.
"This Universe has been unstable for a while. Khivar saw to that when he killed the Eminent Ones. But its been evolving for a long time."
"Maria..."
"This ship. Look at us. Attilaans...they share a mental bond with their twin...correct?" Alex nodded. "But that bond goes on to include their mate. And Alex..." Maria double checked Michael’s location. "...that bond isn’t ordinary. It touches the Understanding."
Alex looked at the twins. Michael and Max. They always had a way to feel each other, but the actual mating bond was a mystery to outsiders.
"How much do they touch?"
"Watch Michael." Maria said turning her back to the room and looking out at the search ships. Alex peeked at her and was shocked when she unfastened her top and ran her hands up her torso, touching her breasts, and... "Alex!" Maria whispered adamantly, "Watch Michael and then Max. Not me!"
Alex turned, and frowned when suddenly Michael stopped working and looked at his hands, flexing his fingers, and then just as suddenly he was searching for Maria. It was Max that amused Alex. The moment Michael looked up, Max did as well, frowning at his brother, and then at Maria’s back.
"Stop it! You are going to get into trouble."
Maria just laughed. "Story of my life."
Alex swore, and swallowed a laugh. "Too late. One horny Attilaan bearing down fast."
"Hide your women!"
Alex laughed and Maria quickly fastened her top. Michael grabbed her arm and dragged her into the conference room, not bothering to see whether the door shut or not.
"What the hell was that?"
"What?" Maria tried to feign innocence.
"That...you! You were feeling yourself up on the Bridge!"
Maria just rolled her eyes. "I was adjusting myself. I got dressed very hurriedly. All things weren’t exactly right."
"Maria..."
"Michael." They both turned to Max’s voice from the door. "I need you on the Bridge."
Michael nodded and walked to the door, but pointed a finger at Maria. "Behave."
Alex watched Michael and Max leave, and came into the room. "You are driving him insane."
Maria hopped up on the conference table and checked out the fastenings on her top. "I refuse to be held accountable for a mental state that has been deteriorating long before I came on the scene."
Alex just laughed and sat next to her. "So you are joined."
"Don’t know what that means exactly, but if you mean do I feel him? Oh yeah. And I’m picking up static from Max as well."
"So they bend the matrix too."
Maria nodded. "They, and Kyle."
Alex grimaced. "It will not take much for Pierce to track a ship full of empaths and mentally challenged rebels, will it?"
"No." Maria fidgeted. She was slightly uncomfortable. "Still...Alex, Pierce was here before we were. How? Or better yet, why?"
Alex thought hard, and long. Why? How could Pierce know?
"Maria, do your Immaculate ones...do they bend the matrix or connect to the Great Understanding?"
"Yes! They resonate. That’s how they can hold the crystals."
"He is tracking your second gem."
~~~
"Sean, I can’t shut it down!" Sean swore at his assistant, and tossed himself down a ladder from an upper level.
"Bloody hell! What caused the injectors to freeze?"
"I can’t pinpoint the area, but they're frozen solid. The plasma coolants are overloading and now offline without the injectors."
Sean swore again, and called the Bridge. "Captain, we’ve got a problem!"
Max voice came over the com system. "What’s the problem?" The words ‘this time’ weren’t said, but were very obvious in his tone.
"My coolant injectors are offline, frozen like hell. We’re going to be leaking plasma in a few moments."
Max looked up and turned to his Operations officer. but Maria interrupted him.
"Max, plasma venting will give us away."
The Operations officer nodded, agreeing with Maria. They couldn’t be scanned, but a plasma trail would pinpoint their position.
"Helm, plot us a jump out of here in case we need it." Max hit his console. "Sean, we can’t be leaking plasma today. Get it under control or you’re fired."
"Great - could use a fucking vacation." Sean swore at someone and acknowledged, "Understood."
Maria looked at Max one more time. "We can’t leave without my next gem. Pierce is tracking her. If Khivar..."
"Maria, we can’t take on this entire fleet. Your ship is still down and even with new technology and shields, we’re outgunned. I can’t..."
"I know." Maria did know. Max’s first concern had to be the safety of his ship and crew. Maria headed for the door.
Michael stopped her. "Where are you going?"
"To do my job. I’ve got to get my Immaculate, so that means we can’t vent the plasma."
"Maria..."
"Michael!" Max called to his brother. "Let her go. See what you can do, Maria. I’m sure Sean would appreciate the help." Maria acknowledged Max and was gone.
"Dammit, Max!"
"I don’t want to hear it, Michael. Do your job, and let her do hers." Michael’s jaw clenched, but he took his station again snarling at anyone that got in his way.
~~~
"What is it, Sean?"
"Frozen plasma injectors. I can’t find the reason they’re frozen. It could be some fried wiring from the battle that got missed, or something else."
"Has Liz looked at it?"
Sean nodded. "She’s searching the schematics."
"How long until the plasma vents?"
"Core temperature is rising. With the coolants offline, it will be critical in about twenty minutes. Then the failsafe will kick in, and it will vent the plasma."
Liz came to join them. "I can’t find the problem, but I’ve got it narrowed down to three possibilities." Liz pointed out three main junction areas. "If there is a failure in any of these relays, it will cause a safety protocol to enact and the injectors would be tripped to keep it from overloading."
Sean looked at the three position. "Liz, you take the upper deck access 3C, I’ll cover the lower one in cross-section 6B." Sean looked at Maria. "Could you take the one below the forward command module?"
Maria nodded and grabbed a repair kit. Sean looked at Jonesy.
"Go with her." Sean quickly sent other men with Liz, and he took off as well.
Liz was the first to make her destination. Quickly spanning out, the crew she was with checked all the leads into the plasma injector core.
"Sean, it’s Liz. 3C is clear."
Sean and his crew were finally inching forward into the area he needed to check. It was still a tight fit from previous damage.
"Understood, Liz. Head back to engineering and contact Maria. See how she and Jonesy are doing."
"Understood."
Sean quickly scrambled from the access tube, and nodded for his men to start running diagnostics. The area was clear.
"Maria, it’s Sean. You make the forward access area yet?"
Sean swore when Maria failed to respond.
~~~
"Princess, this panel is hot." Maria placed her hand next to Jonesy, and quickly took it away. It was too hot.
"We’ve got a fire in the well." Maria took her tools and quickly opened the access panel. "Go around to the far side and take some of the crew with you. Start rewiring the junction wires to route around this module. The injectors must have tripped because of the fire."
Maria turned to look at a man standing next to her. "Can you find us something we can use to douse the fire?" He nodded and was gone.
"Sean?" Maria waited. No response. "Jonesy, I can’t connect to Sean."
The man tried his com badge as well. No response. Maria looked up at the paneling above them. It was a heavy alloy, made to withstand a forward blast into the overhead command module.
"I think the paneling is blocking our communicators. Go forward and contact Sean, and then see about that rewiring. I’ll put out this fire."
"Princess..."
"Jonesy, you know the ship better than most. You know where to start the rewiring. We’ve got no time."
The man nodded, agreeing with her assessment. He cringed when the panel came open and a firewall was apparent. The last thing he saw before he went up ladder was Maria and a few crewmen entering the forward compartment.
~~~
"Sean?"
"Jonesy! What the hell! Our positions are clear. What's going on down there?"
"We found the problem. The forward compartment is on fire. We’re dousing the flames now. I’m rewiring the plasma injectors to compensate."
"You’ll need to not only rewire, but within the forward compartment is a Y-switch. You need to throw the junction and reboot by priming it, then turning it back on."
"That might be difficult. The forward compartment is toast. I’m not sure how much damage the fire is causing."
"I’m on my way." Sean grabbed another kit, along with fire gloves to handle the hot components.
"Princess!" Jonesy coughed through the smoke. A few of the crewmen were outside the compartment coughing and trying to get air back to their lungs. He grabbed one and shook him. "Where's the Princess?"
The man just pointed in the burning room. Doom had a name. It had a feel. It had a master. Jonesy could feel the Commander’s anger already.
Rushing into the compartment, he stopped a crew member trying to leave.
"Where the hell are you going?"
"I’ve got to get fire extinguishers for plasma. This fire is a plasma leak."
Jonesy swore, and spied Maria over the flames working on a panel not yet engulfed.
He searched for the Y-switch, but couldn’t find it. Making his way to the other side, he came up next to Maria.
"Princess, you need to leave."
"In a minute. I’ve almost got the internal rewire done. But there should be a triggering switch, a primer."
"Yes, Sean told me that we need to throw it for the rewire to work."
Maria nodded, and finally spied the red handle she was looking for. It was melting, so it had to be hot. Great, sure it was red. Everything she touched was red.
"Found it!" Jonesy saw what she was reaching for, and stopped her.
"It’s too hot! You’ll burn your hands!" Maria looked around. They needed something...anything.
"How much time till the plasma vents?"
Jonesy looked at his work pad. "Four minutes."
Maria closed her eyes. She was too tired and too sore for this crap! Pushing her tools into Jonesy’s hands, she quickly took off her leather shirt and folded it up. Grabbing the burning handle, she pulled the switch, and then tried to prime the pump. Jonesy’s hands came around her, and he added his strength to the job. Together, they moved the handle three times back and forth before resetting the switch to an open position.
As soon as it was done, Jonesy picked up Maria and headed for the way out. She stumbled and protested about leaving their tools, but Jonesy kept the recalcitrant Maria on a one-way trip to fresh air. The plasma was burning hot enough to send spewing burning metal pieces after them.
Sean stopped in his tracks as Maria came through the access panel with Jonesy pushing her through. She was coughing violently, and her hands were burnt. The dark soot was marring the white skin of her body, as Sean noticed her in nothing but a small scrap of material...silk bra, and her leather pants.
Sean swore and tossed air units to Jonesy and Maria. They both staggered to the corridor and collapsed to the ground breathing hard into the units.
Gasping between breaths, "Plasma fire. We rewired and threw the switch." Jonesy went back to breathing.
Sean nodded, and winced when he picked up Maria’s hands and turned them over. They were severely burned. A plasma fire burnt hotter than a regular one, and even though she used a piece of leather the heat had burned right through. Jonesy’s hands looked bad too.
"Liz, are the injectors online?" Sean swore again when there was no response. Maria pointed upward at the heavy paneling and alloy plating.
Fire teams finally showed up. Sean stood and took Maria under one arm and Jonesy took the other.
"Get those fires out, and someone find out why the damn internal sensors didn’t pick it up!" He headed Maria and Jonesy in the direction of Sickbay.
~~~
Michael was running scans on the different ships in the fleet, comparing them with their databanks on known ships. Suddenly he dropped everything and stood back from his panels with a sharp shout of pain.
Max stood up at the same time, reading his twins pain. Michael was standing there looking at his hands.
"What is it?" Max moved to his side. "Michael?"
"My hands. They’re burning." Michael and Max quickly looked over his station trying to find where he received the burns. His hands were hot to the touch, and had a real pinkness to them.
Max shook his head. "Nothing."
Michael stopped and then hit his com badge. "Maria?"
There was no answer. Max moved back to his station and called for Sean. Sean didn’t answer either.
"Engineering."
"Captain. We’ve got the injectors online, and..."
"Where is Sean?" There was a pause over the com.
"The Lieutenant went to control a plasma fire in the forward command module. He’s been out of contact since."
Max looked at Michael sharply. "We’ve got a fire onboard? Michael?"
"I’m on it." Michael suddenly hit his console again. "Dammit! Internal sensors are offline again. Liander, I thought you said this was fixed?"
"Sorry, Commander. It keeps shorting out." Michael just snarled. He knew they should’ve stayed in the Thorns longer. The whole fucking place was falling apart around them!
Max reached over and responded to a hail from his command chair. "What?"
Kyle’s voice came over the com. "I’ve got Sean and a few of his crew in Sickbay for plasma burns. Just thought you’d like to know."
"Kyle..." Max was interrupted by Kyle.
"One of them is Maria." Michael swore and Max nodded. He motioned for Sam to take the Conn as he and Michael left the Bridge in a fast pace.
~~~
"He’s going to be mad." Kyle said simply. Sean just nodded at this understatement and decided to take himself off to Engineering before Michael showed up. Kissing Maria on the cheek he left at full speed.
"What else is new?" Maria winced as Kyle injected her hands, and suddenly they were numb. "How is Jonesy?"
"About the same as you are." Kyle watched the blistering pustules as they broke and wept. Shaking his head, he ordered his assistant to prepare a regeneration bath for both Jonesy and Maria.
"Kyle, I don’t want to..."
"Maria, the burns are deep. Too many layers of muscle below the skin have been affected. Regeneration will repair the damage. You’ve also got some burns on your back, a few scrapes and one nice tear. And your lungs are hashed."
"Tear?" Maria was confused. She had felt the cinder pieces striking her back on the way out, and the husky deep tone to her voice followed by coughing attested to the damage to her lungs.
Kyle avoided her eyes, but purposely looked down at her lower body. "Sex?"
Maria followed his glance, and suddenly her face turned almost as red as her hands. "Oh! That!"
"You two seemed to have gotten a little...heated?"
"Oh, it was definitely hot. There are plasma fires, and then there are plasma fires!"
Kyle laughed. "Spare me the details. You should be a little tender."
"Sore. Very sore."
"Well regeneration will take care of that."
Maria sat up a little more at that. "No. Really? So I’ll be like a virgin again?"
"No!" Kyle laughed and Maria just looked relieved. After all, once was enough. "It’ll just heal the tear, but it won’t put it back what's gone for good."
"Well, that’s a blessing."
Kyle looked at her under lowered lashes. "So you and Michael finally...um..."
"Shy? You’re shy?" Maria laughed. "Yeah, up against a bulkhead."
Kyle almost made a comment about Michael and his letting Maria’s first time be somewhere so not appropriate, but then he remembered that he was talking about Michael. A bulkhead sounded perfect for this couple.
Kyle tried to appear nonchalant. "So....when?"
Maria was growing suspicious. "Why?"
Kyle just shrugged. "No reason." He could tell Maria wasn’t buying. "Come on, Maria. I’ve got a hundred credits riding on..."
"A bet? This is about a bet?" Kyle tried not to appear so sheepish. Maria looked at him and pursed her lips. "How long in regeneration?"
"Twelve hours."
"Two."
"Maria..."
"Two, and I’ll give you all the details of place, time and location." Maria’s eyes narrowed, "And nothing more!"
"Eight."
"Four."
"Maria, I don’t care about the damn bet. The minimum is six."
"Done." Maria squirmed inwardly at the thought of that damn cold regeneration fluid all around her.
"So when will you give me the details?"
"When I come out in six hours." Maria smiled. Kyle might have two hearts, but she had watched him play poker and he wasn’t above cheating.
~~~
Maria and Jonesy were already sedated and nestling in regeneration baths by the time Michael and Max made Sickbay.
"Kyle, where is she?"
Kyle didn’t even try to stop Michael; he just pointed to the back regeneration room. Max watched his brother stride through the door with a frown on his face.
"How is she?"
"Not good. The burns on her hands were too deep for me to fix. It was regeneration or she would have lost them. The deep tissue damage was unbelievable. Necrosis was already starting and major circulatory was almost gone."
"Jonesy?"
"About the same, but not as bad as Maria’s. She took off her shirt and used it to touch the components caught in a plasma fire."
Max just swore. She was insane! Just as much a crazy loon as Michael, and together they were borderline psychotic.
"Just tell me she’ll be okay."
Kyle nodded and went to get them coffee. "She will. I'm depending on her people having good regenerative powers. I’ll take her out of the bath in six hours."
Max looked at the door through which his twin had disappeared, and spoke in a low tone. "Kyle, you need to check Michael’s hands too. He felt the pain when hers were burned."
Kyle nodded. "That’s to be expected. They bonded."
"How is that possible? We don’t mate outside our species."
"You choose not to mate outside your species. There’s no evidence that you can’t."
Max looked down at his own hands. Isabel. He had felt her stroke on his skin as if it were his own fingers.
"The mating bond starts at eight. Michael didn’t know Maria at eight, and I didn’t know..." Max stopped and his face closed down. "What’s happening to us?"
Kyle passed Max some coffee. "Something glorious. Freedom. Chances to not be bonded into a relationship, but to have free will to choose that bond with someone who doesn’t necessarily touch your mind...but your heart."
"I can’t do it. It unsettles. Whatever this is, I can feel it raging in Michael." Max looked in his coffee. "I don’t want it."
He was lying. He had never wanted anything more, and that was where the fear was. He couldn’t do it again.
~~~
Michael stood over her, watching her sleep submerged in the fluid. She looked cold...and alone. Checking on Jonesy real quick, he went back into the main sickbay.
"How long does she have to stay in there?"
"Six hours." Kyle pulled out a chair at a work table. "Sit. Max tells me that you felt it when she burned her hands."
"Yeah I did. Hurt like a mother bitch!" Michael made a face. "Still does."
"Uh huh. Nice language. Tells me everything I need to know." Kyle took Michael’s hands and studied them. They were still red and hot to the touch. Turning them to the side he could see the blisters rising.
Max saw the look on Kyle’s face, and grew concerned. "What? What is it?"
"Just a second." Kyle pointedly looked at Michael. "You stay there."
Michael just made a face. Wonder what bug got up Kyle’s butt. Michael was quiet until he finally had to know, to ask.
"Why didn’t you tell me?"
Max rubbed his face. It wasn’t a lie. Not a real one. It was more of an omission. In a million years, he had never suspected it would happen or that he would ever need to tell Michael the truth.
"Why tell you something you could never feel or have? You already felt the stigma of not being bonded, but to tell you what it really meant..."
"That’s why you mourn Serena after all these years?"
"Perhaps." Max slowly looked up at his brother. "I don’t know. It’s like she's imprinted on my brain...in my memories. I can’t shake it."
"So it’s not love?"
Max just laughed bitterly. "How do I know? What the hell does that word even mean?"
Michael shrugged. He didn’t know either, not enough to actually find words to describe it. All he knew was what he felt was true, and that it consumed him.
"I felt her when we..." Michael looked around the room. "It was her first time, and I wasn’t very careful."
"Did it hurt?"
"A little...more like a pulling than a tear, then it was lost in everything else." Michael’s voice went even lower and more private. "You should’ve told me, warned me that it would feel like that, that it would...be...everything."
Max just shook his head. "I didn’t know. We don’t bond...after eight. How or why this is happening to you now....? I never thought it could. It should’ve just been sex. Something that takes off the edge, but that’s it."
"It wasn’t. It was...more." Michael went silent as Kyle came back with a large bath of fluid.
"Put your hands in this."
"Regeneration fluid?" Michael looked at Max confused, and shrugging, complied.
Kyle just sighed. It was bizarre. "I don’t know how it happened, but Michael has burns. Real ones. At least second degree."
Max felt like a damn broken record. "That’s impossible!"
"So you told me." Kyle sat down again. "I thought the bond was mental...a sensation of feeling, but not really physical."
"It is. It was." Max said. Michael remained silent, resting his hands in the fluid. They were already feeling better.
Max looked at Michael and frowned. "How much do you really feel her?"
Michael shook his head. "I can’t describe it. I can feel the fluid covering her. I can feel her rising hysteria, even in sleep. And I know she feels cold." Michael was silent for a moment. "She’s afraid to sleep too deeply because dreams will find her."
Kyle stopped a technician and asked him to turn up the water temperature on Maria’s regenerative bath, and to give her a sedative in her support line.
"Even with Serena...I could feel her, but shared sensation was exclusive to sex. This is unprecedented." Max said quietly.
Michael rolled his eyes. "Great. A freak again. Can’t even get a simple bond
right."
~~~
Kyle sat watching the inhabitants of Sickbay, occasionally going to check on Maria. She was still agitated. He had to sedate her three times, and each time she was on the verge of emerging from the sleep state. Jonesy was already up and gone. His burns weren’t nearly as severe as Maria’s. She had also taken in more smoke.
It took some convincing to talk the large dark man from his medical bay. Jonesy had every intention of standing guard over ‘his princess’, but Kyle ousted him to his personal quarters for rest.
"How long?"
Kyle snorted to himself and looked at the woman now sitting up in the regenerative bath. She had broken through again.
"Not as long as I’d like." Kyle disconnected her from the support lines, and helped her from the bath. "What does it take to get you stay in one place?"
Maria shrugged shivering in a full body white thermal stocking, soaking wet. "No clue. My parents used to complain about my restless nature as well. I don’t think I ever slept an entire night undisturbed."
Maria paused. That was no longer true. She slept undisturbed with Michael.
"Come on. I’ll set you up in a warming bed. It’ll take off the chill and dry your clothes."
"Maybe I should just go..."
Kyle shook his head no. "You’re an hour early, and Michael is coming back for you. Don’t make me call him early."
Maria just grimaced at Michael’s name. In her head she was practicing all the phrases she knew he would use - all the bitching. 'Can’t take care of herself.' 'Taking risks.' Blah. Blah. Blah. Heard it before.
"Have we reached Imohep?"
"I think ETA is four more hours. They found a supply ship to cruise under. It appeared to be heading for Imohep."
Maria took the cup of hot liquid from Kyle gratefully. After taking a sip, she lost that gratitude quickly.
"What is this?"
"Coffee?" Kyle suggested.
"Like I said, what is this?"
"You’ve been spending to much time around Michael. His humor is deadly and contagious."
Maria took another sip. "I didn’t realize that the Commander had a sense of humor."
"That’s the point. He doesn’t." Kyle said smiling to himself as he checked her vitals, and hands. Michael did have a sense of humor, but at best it was dry.
Maria silently watched as Kyle looked at her hands. He was gentle, careful not to cause her unnecessary pain. His face was an open book, honest and trustworthy, and yet she couldn’t read any emotions from him.
"So why aren’t you married, settled down and making babies?"
Kyle paused, just for a moment, then shrugged. Maria almost didn’t catch his reaction.
"No sane woman would have me." Kyle gathered up his supplies and passed them to an assistant.
"Oh, I don’t know, doctor. You seem to be about perfect."
Kyle laughed at that. "Only for my sins."
"Honestly. Why are you touring the galaxy with this band of rebels?"
"It’s difficult to explain. But they know me, and I know them. They don’t expect me to be something I can no longer be, so they are the company I choose to keep."
Maria watched him closely. "You’re married."
Kyle once again avoided her eyes. "Technically, yes."
"What happened?"
Kyle just smiled ruefully at her, and sat down. "I happened."
"I don’t understand that. So far I would say you're damn near perfect."
Kyle looked away and settled back in his chair. "Not true. Not on my world. I was born with two hearts, an anomaly. It wasn’t unheard of, just rare. But all empaths born with two hearts become healers."
Maria didn’t comment. Sadly, she listened.
"With two hearts you have twice as much pain to feel, twice as much compassion and understanding and twice as many opportunities to have them broken. And when they're broken, you feel it twice as much."
Maria was sorry she asked. "It was the war, wasn’t it? I imagine it would be hard on an empath."
Kyle laughed bitterly. "More than you know. By the end of the war, I was broken. Lost. Michael, Max and Sean refused to leave me to my own devices."
All his protective shielding learned from childhood was gone, and he felt everything, all the time, every day. It damaged him, took him to the brink of insanity and despair.
"You went home?" Maria saw his eyes, and knew.
"For about two weeks. By that time, my wife of ten years avoided me like the plague. My children were all sleeping in fetal positions and psychologically disturbed." Kyle laughed bitterly. "It took my own parents years to learn to be around me for more than a few days at a time, something none of my siblings have learned to do even now."
"The horrors of war?"
Kyle nodded. "It stayed with me. It broke my barriers. At night when I slept, my wife and children would get to share my nightmares, and all the horror I had seen through the war."
"So you and your wife are..."
"There is no divorce on my planet. Just enumeration of events and a type of annulment."
"And the children?"
Kyle shrugged again. "They were taken from me to protect them. My two hearts made it impossible for me let go of those men I watched die. Not even for my children could I learn to not be who I am."
Maria looked down at the floor. Was there no end to the amount of suffering that Khivar started and wreaked! The Granilith was his stronghold, his power. Maria closed her eyes. Lately she had been faltering from her path, but Kyle had reminded her why it was important.
"I’m sorry, Kyle. Sorry for you, and for all those lost."
Kyle hugged Maria real quick. "Don’t be sorry for me. This ship is a walking refuge for people who lost to Khivar. Some like you, their entire worlds or races gone. Others like Michael have no place in their race, and some like me, who could no longer sit on a planet and pretend that everything was alright."
"Jonesy?"
"Him, too. He watched his world burn, and after the war was over, went home to help rebuild. But war changes men. It hardens them. He couldn’t settle. The rage was too great...the anger. Finally he returned to the stars and he found us."
"I’ll do it, Kyle."
"What?"
"I’ll do what I must to bring some balance back to this Universe, or at least give you and the others a fighting chance."
Kyle suddenly realized what Maria was saying. She was talking about her mission.
His story, along with the others', made her feel guilty. For however many moments Michael had won her away from her destiny, Kyle had just sent her back.
"Maria, I didn’t mean..."
"What is she doing up?" Michael asked from the doorway.
Kyle and Maria looked up, both appearing guilty, as if caught. Michael’s eyes narrowed. He waited patiently.
"What the hell is going on?" Michael waited two heartbeats. That was patient enough.
Maria just smiled and jumped down from the warming bed. "Nothing you’d be surprised at. Kyle was having a hard time keeping me in the regeneration bath, so he finally gave up. He was checking my hands."
Michael just snorted. Maria staying still? She wiggled like a live wire.
"Is she okay?"
"Pretty much healed. They’ll be tender for a few days." Kyle looked at his friend in regret. Maria was as firmly on her destined path as ever.
Maria smiled at him, and Kyle was amazed at the softening of Michael’s regard as they stared at each other.
"Did you come to pick me up?"
Michael shifted on his feet, and looked at Kyle quickly before answering. "I was planning on being here when you woke." Michael’s discomfort increased so he added in a gruff voice, " I know what a handful you can be."
Maria’s eyes narrowed and a mischief smile crossed her mouth. Leaning in close to him she whispered against his skin, "Yes, you do."
Michael bit back a retort. She was purposely pushing his buttons in front of Kyle. Maria trailed her hand down his body, and went to change back into her clothes, or what was left of them. Michael just watched her go, thinking of all the payback he was going to extract from her when he got her home.
Home? Michael frowned at that thought.
"Michael," Kyle tried to get his friends attention. "Michael."
"Yeah, what?"
Kyle grabbed Michael’s arm and forced him to look at him. "Do me a favor."
"Sure. Whatever."
Kyle made sure Maria wasn’t returning. "Take it easy on her."
That got Michael’s attention. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, sex...take better care for a few days."
Michael crossed his arms and bit back his anger. "What’s going on? Maybe you could just tell me, or explain how my physical relationship with Maria is any concern of yours."
"I repaired a tear today." Michael looked confused. "First time for a woman. It sometimes causes a slight tear - nothing that doesn’t mend, but..." Kyle rubbed the back of his neck, "dammit, Michael! Couldn’t you at least have made sure her first time was in a real bed?"
Michael actually felt a little guilty about that. He hadn’t realized the full extent of her experience, or lack thereof. By the time he did, things were already too far gone.
"Kyle..." Michael paused. What did he want to say? "Is she okay?"
"The regeneration bath took care of it. But try not to...just a little foreplay or something."
Michael nodded. His history was bad. The women he knew were a fast slam, or else basically them doing everything. He never had a reason to treat sex as anything more than...sex.
Michael shifted uncomfortably on his feet, and scratched his eyebrow. "Okay, what exactly are we talking about here?"
Kyle just rolled his eyes. Manuals. There should be instruction guides given out to the eternally clueless.
"You’re...big, and she’s...not. Sometimes the parts meet some resistance..." Kyle held up his hand to stop Michael from interrupting, "...don’t just slam in there until you achieve orgasm, and then walk away. Try to take some time, explore her body, get her to the point of excitement, and she’ll be better prepared to..." Kyle stopped and just swore.
Michael had a frown on his face. "This is part of the ‘love’ thing, right?"
"Yes. Big part." Kyle desperately wanted the man out of his medical bay. "Just think of all the things you like women to do to you, and sort of apply it to her body. Prime the pump, as it were."
"Dammit, Kyle! I know what I’m doing, or how to do it. I just never really had a reason to...practice it."
Kyle snorted. Yeah, bay whores charged by the time, so a real intimate relationship was best served in the shortest amount of time.
"I can’t believe you didn’t feel the..."
"I think that was before we made the full connection. I felt something during. It was..." Michael just shrugged. He had felt it but it had been quickly covered up by everything else and the sensation was lost. Once again, there was no language for it.
"Hey, you ready to go?" Both men looked at the door where Maria was standing, and surprisingly they both looked red and embarrassed.
"What’s going on?"
"Nothing." Maria looked at them in speculation as when they both denied it at the same time.
"Fine. Whatever. Can I leave now?"
Michael finally seemed to realize what she was wearing. His face clouded over, and Maria just braced herself for his reaction.
"Where the hell is your top?"
Maria looked down at her bra, and shrugged. "I suspect it’s ashes somewhere below the forward command module. I believe leather burns very evenly and fast."
Michael just made a harsh note under his breath and quickly removed his own shirt and tossed it at her.
"Put that on. I think you need to practice opening those corridors directly to our bedroom. It could become really convenient."
"Yeah, I’m sure Max would love all the sensors going insane as we wreck his subspace warp field, and alert the fleet to our position just so we can walk into our bedroom in a wink of an eye."
Kyle decided to intervene, and cleared his throat. "You just need to be careful with the hands. They’ll be a little tender. If you experience any more blistering, come back."
Maria looked at Michael after acknowledging Kyle’s instructions. "You coming? Or did you need to see Kyle about something?"
Michael made a face. "What? No. I’m coming."
Maria glanced at him from time to time on the way to their quarters. He was strangely silent, and for him it was abnormal. She expected him to start ranting and raving immediately upon leaving Sickbay, but he surprised her.
Once in their quarters, she headed straight for the bedroom, dropping his shirt along the way. He absentmindedly picked it up, along with all her other clothes that she was shedding along the way. Maria was nothing if not consistently untidy.
"Okay, I can’t take it anymore!" Maria turned to look at him, her back to their bed. "Just say it! Tell me that I was irresponsible and I should’ve taken better care of myself. Tell me that I’m untrustworthy to care for myself, and..."
Michael pushed her down to sit on the bed, and picked up her hands. Kneeling down in front of her, his face was quiet and dark as he stared at her them. The palms were still pink and tender to the touch. The regenerated skin was soft and supple, almost translucent, lacking the usual toughness from use.
Maria shut her eyes, and moaned under her breath when he bent his head and kissed her palms, and then rested his face in them. Uncertain what to say or do, she watched his bent head. Tender. He was being tender and it was unnerving.
"Michael?"
"I felt them burning." Michael finally looked up at her. "The moment you were burnt, I felt it. Maria, I received second degree burns too."
Maria moved her hands from him, and framed his face. "Is this normal? For your people?"
Michael shook his head. "No. At least I don’t think so. Nothing about you and me seems to be normal."
Michael shut his eyes and rested against her when she shifted closer and moved her hands into his hair, her mouth finding the side of his neck.
"Can you feel me, Commander? Do you know what I’m feeling?"
"Yes," he said softly.
"Then you know that I think you have way too much clothing on right now." Michael smiled at that. "How long before we reach Imohep?"
"Just over three hours. Max told me he would put a call through when we reach the outer system."
"Shouldn’t you be on the Bridge with all the security and activity?"
Michael nodded. "Normally, yes. But Max wants me off duty until we get there. I’m taking you down to find your newest Immaculate. Max thinks he has a solution to your lack of papers."
"Three hours?" Maria appeared to be thinking, then she said softly against him, her lips just touching his. "Hardly enough time to do it right, but we can just practice for later."
Michael laughed, and stood to pick her up, pushing her back on the bed, his mouth on hers the entire time. He joined her on the bed as his hands moved along the long lean lines of her body, and she, in hardly a moment of time, had his pants open and gone.
It had only been a few hours since they were last together, but it felt longer. Michael moved away from her and looked down at her, searching her eyes. The clearness and brilliant green looked at him in trust, and Michael groaned at the evident lust in her gaze.
Hunger. It felt alive. It was consuming.
Pausing, he frowned and tried to pull back. Kyle’s words gave him pause, made him try to stop the bond from pulling him under. But as usual, Maria wasn’t cooperating.
"What’s wrong?" Michael saw the confusion in her eyes.
"Kyle said you had some damage from...before...that we needed to be more careful."
Maria groaned. That explained the hesitation, the tenderness and concern. She didn’t want him that way. It was unnatural, against his nature, and she suspected, against her own.
"What does Kyle suggests exactly?"
Michael closed his eyes as she moved under him, her skin rubbing against his own, and her leg moving upward the skin of his inner thigh. Her mouth was sucking on his collarbone.
"Foreplay."
Maria just shrugged. "We’ve been doing that. It’s all we’ve been doing for months." Maria reminded herself to have a stern talk with Kyle later. Foreplay?
"Maybe we need to slow it down and take a little time to make sure you're not going to get hurt." Michael hated Kyle. Bastard.
"I am hurting, Commander." Maria softly ran her hands over his body barely applying pressure. "I could do this." She took him in hand and when he automatically pushed forward for a firmer purchase, she removed her hand.
Michael moaned. "Maria..."
"But my hands are too tender to do that." Michael moaned again and looked down at his body and where her hands were resting. He had forgotten. "But you could do it," Maria took one of his hands and moved it down to where she had just held him. Maria whispered in his ear, "I could watch."
Michael laughed at that. "You could, but I thought you didn’t want me doing that in our bed."
"Circumstances change." Maria took his hand again, and directed him to move over her body. His hand went low to stroke her, to move inside as his leg went between hers opening them to give him more room.
Maria moaned. "Tell me what you feel."
"You. I feel you..." Michael mouth found her breast, as his fingers moved in her body, stroking her. He smiled at how much she responded to him.
"No, tell me what you’re feeling."
"You’re hot. Tight." Michael paused. "Wet."
"So, enough foreplay?" Maria asked hopefully.
Michael smiled wickedly as he pushed her hard against the bed, settling between her legs, and his hands ran up the sides of her body to push her arms up over her head, holding them by the wrists, careful of her hands.
Moving one hand down, he looped his arm under her back to pull her pelvis closer
to him as he joined them. Surging hard and fast, they mated with neither of them
stopping or pausing. Caught in the storm, they rode each other hard. When they
finally fell off their bed Michael hit the floor first with Maria following, and
they both laughed as they became tangled in the sheets and each other.
~~~
The communication link was an unwelcome sound. Maria sat up from the floor and rested her arms on the bed to look at the offending noise. Michael came up behind her, his mouth on her shoulder.
"Ignore it." It couldn’t be three hours already! Maria laughed as he arms came around her holding her firmly against him. "I hate that damn thing!"
It continued to buzz. "Why do you think I sleep on the other side of the bed, away from it?"
Maria looked at him and pinched him hard, smiling at his reaction. "A gentleman would’ve insisted on sleeping closer to the door to protect me."
Michael just snorted. "Fairytales. You want a gentleman?"
Maria suddenly became serious. "No. I want you."
Michael’s eyes darkened, and he pulled her back to the floor with him. They rolled around kissing passionately, trying to ignore the world. But the person on the other end of the com wasn’t giving up.
Maria finally untangled herself from Michael long enough to get back on the bed and reach out for the communicator. Michael followed her, his length and reach was longer. Slapping her hard on her naked ass, he laughed at her indignant huff, and tucked her against his body while finally answering the page.
"Yeah?"
Max’s voice came over the com. Michael groaned. Of course it was Max. He always spoiled everything.
"Michael, wake your ass up, and get to the Bridge. We just orbited Imohep."
Michael and Maria stared at each other. No way! Three hours had flown by, and now it was time for them to work. Maria extracted her limbs from Michael, and rushed into the bathroom to start a shower.
"Understood. We’re on our way." Michael quickly followed her. Joining her in the shower, he moaned his approval as the hot water hit his skin. He was sore in places he never felt before, and then some. Gathering her close, he reached around her and took her hands in his to turn the palms up.
"Still hurting?"
"Just a little. My ass hurts more." Maria looked back at him. "I can’t believe you just spanked me. My own parents never did that."
"They should have. You...you definitely could’ve used the instruction."
Maria smiled at his tone knowing he was teasing her, but suspecting at some level he wasn’t. "So does spanking me turn you on?" She tipped her head to the side and bit her tongue to stop from laughing.
Michael just moaned, and turned her back into the spray of the water washing her and himself quickly.
"Stop it. We’ll get into my favorite kinks later." Michael leaned down anyway and whispered in her ear. "But for your information, everything about you seems to turn me on."
Maria snorted. "Yeah, from what I hear, I shouldn’t be flattered. Your reputation is preceding you Commander. I understand watching paint dry made you horny and ready to rut."
Michael’s tone bellowed in disbelief. "Who told?"
~~~
Max noticed them when they finally made the Bridge. Handing over his chair to Sam, Max gestured them into the conference room. Sean was already in there drinking coffee, and giving orders over a com link to engineering.
"Took you long enough, Michael. We were going to send out a rescue party," Sean said, "for Maria." Sean smiled wickedly as Maria actually blushed and avoided his eyes. "But then I’ve see the lady toss you around in the gym and figured if she was captured, she wasn’t wanting rescue."
"Sean, I don’t have time to beat you bloody right now, so how about someone tell me what’s the plan."
Max came to take a seat after pouring himself some coffee, and passing Maria one. Manners. That was new to him too, but he actually liked Maria. Michael? Michael just pissed him off most of the time. He could get his own.
"We entered Imohep’s orbit. It’s lousy with Imperials, so we were forced to hold a position over one of its poles. That means that getting into the city of Kheb is a long journey on the ground. You could take a transport to the planet and then travel there, but you’ll be stopped by Imperials and they’ll want to know how and why you have no clearance papers."
"You said you had a solution to Maria’s lack of papers."
Max nodded, and looked up as Alex joined them. "Serena’s papers. Maria can alter her dampening emitter to read Attilaan and pretend to be Serena."
Michael had forgotten about Serena’s papers. What was shocking was that Max still kept them. For the first time in six years, Michael finally seemed to understand Max a little better in regards to his relationship to Serena, and why he felt it difficult to sever all ties. Standing up, Michael decided to stop stealing Maria’s coffee and get his own. Along the way, he stopped to refill his twin’s cup opening the link between them. The two stood staring at each other over their coffee cups.
"Maria can use the papers and retrieve her ‘gem’ by opening a distortion field." Alex said.
Maria frowned. "I can travel a few miles, maybe twenty-five at the most. But it’s difficult. It drains me, and I need to concentrate on a set point to open the field, and I’ve never been to Kheb."
"Can you concentrate on the Temple of the Immaculate?" Michael asked.
"Yes, but it's a place with no physical attributes for me. I have no feel for it, but I can try. Once I'm there, I can move us out easily enough to where we leave the ship because that point is fixed. But I can’t promise the trip in. The best I can do is try."
Sean sipped his coffee. "We’ll still need papers for your Immaculate. While we’re at it we should get papers for your other two, Liz and the last one. It’ll make transporting them easier, and if by some bizarre twist we actually ever get scanned or boarded, at least they appear normal."
"They are normal." Maria reminded Sean. Each of them came from an established world with its genetics already known. They lacked papers because the Priest in the Temple kept them safe.
"Not normal enough, Maria." Alex said softly. "They resonate in an unusual manner, enough to bend the matrix. Enough to alert Pierce."
Max nodded. That’s why the place was swarming with Imperials. Pierce was directing them for his Master, Khivar. Too many people on the ground would only increase their chances of being discovered.
"Michael, you and Maria will go retrieve the Immaculate. Sean will hit the seedier bars and find a person who makes fake papers. I’m sending only the three of you. The less exposure, the better."
Michael agreed. He'd have left Maria as well, but they needed her to open the distortion field, unless...
"Alex, can you open a distortion field?"
Maria hit him hard. "Don’t even think of leaving without me! This is my job. And I hired you to do yours, so stop it!"
Alex smiled slightly. "She is right, Michael. More than likely the Priests will not turn over their charge except to her, and I have no control over whether I can or cannot open the distortion corridor. For all I know, the ability was borrowed from my unborn child."
Michael cussed under breath and accepted the inevitable. "Okay, fine. But this operation goes by the numbers. We’re in and then out."
Sean shrugged. "I could go with Maria, and Michael could get the fake papers."
Max laughed. "No. That wouldn’t work. Michael tends to piss people off at a glance. They’d just shoot him immediately. You? At least you look like you belong."
Sean was offended. He didn’t look shifty, like the dregs of the Universe. Sure, he once bet on his mother’s life, but actually it was Max and Michael’s mother, and it wasn’t like he really expected her to die or anything. Not that he could imagine a person strong enough to take that woman down. Still...
"It seems to me that not only am I misunderstood, but I’m misrepresented." Michael, Max and Alex just looked amused. So Sean appealed to Maria. "You believe me don’t you, Princess?"
"You stole three credits from me at the gaming table the other night."
"Oh! That’s not true. I thought they were mine."
"They were in my pile of credits. They didn’t just walk to your pile on their own."
Sean looked belabored and indignant. "It’s hardly my fault that your pile spilt over into mine."
"I was sitting on the other side of the table!"
Max stood up. "Then it’s agreed. Michael and Maria go to the Temple, and Sean goes to rub elbows with his long lost cousins in the seedy underbelly of Kheb."
They left the room with Sean bitching under his breath about needing a better class of friends. Maria just patted his shoulder in comfort.
The drop was quick and fast. They took Trinity with her new reflective shields in place. Moving from the frozen polar cap, they moved to the interior of the larger land mass, heading for the capital city of Kheb. Michael kept the transport low and fast, close to the treetops to avoid visual sighting.
They set down in a deserted place about six miles outside of the city. Maria passed Sean a handful of Imperial-pressed credits to pay for the papers, and they quickly headed out for the city.
Michael established a meeting place with Sean and worriedly watched him walk away.
"What’s wrong?"
Michael just shrugged. "I hate Sean going alone. He’ll get the job done, just god only knows what trouble he’ll get into while he does it."
The lightbulb went on as Maria finally figured him out, or at least as best as she could. Michael was a worrier about those most important to him. Suddenly she felt flattered that he seemed to be most protective of her. Grabbing him, she kissed him hard and with lots of passion.
"What? What was that for?" Michael asked when he was able to breathe again.
"Just because." Maria spotted a nice ordinary-looking man and went to acquire directions from him.
"Because, huh? She can ‘because’ me any day, any time." Michael waited, keeping an eye out for Imperials. It didn't take long to spot them. They were stopping people left and right for their papers.
"I know where it is." Maria said coming back. Michael just nodded and grabbed her arm, leading her away.
"Let's go. Fast. There are too many Imperials around here for my liking." Michael led her down a back alley, but then paused. "Where exactly do we need to go?"
"The Temple of the Immaculate is at the top of the city’s highest hill. He said we couldn’t miss it. It’s sort of a center focal point."
Michael just closed his eyes and sighed. Sure it was. They quickly took the back alleys as they worked their way to the center of the city. The closer they got to the Temple, the more Imperial patrols they had to avoid.
The Temple was swarming with troops. Maria looked at Michael and shrugged. Now how much fun would it be to just walk in and leave?
Finally their luck ran out.
"Halt! Papers!" They stopped at the sound of a voice behind them. Slowly removing his papers, Michael watched as Maria did the same. They turned to look at two Imperial soldiers. Passing them their papers, neither spoke.
"What is your business here?" The man read both their papers and looked them over. "Attilaans? You’re a long way from your sector."
Michael smiled slightly. "We’re on furlough from the Imperial cruiser, Sitari. Our leave is two weeks long."
The Sitari isn’t in this sector." The man said suspiciously.
"She was rerouted. We’re to meet them in transport."
"And the woman?"
Michael pointedly ignored Maria. "She’s my mate."
Maria just snorted and looked away, bored.
"You’re not his mate?"
Maria stared the man down. "Hardly. He’s my mate. My family is held in higher regard than his. He married up. That makes him my consort, not the other way around."
Michael forgot himself for a moment. "Fuck that! I didn’t marry up! My family is one of the First Families on Attila. Bullshit! We’re equals."
"Ha! Name only! But where are your holding grounds?" Michael opened his mouth to retaliate, when the Imperial soldier stopped them.
"What is your business in this area of the city?"
"We go to the Temple of the Immaculate."
"Services?"
"No. We’re renewing our marriage vows." Michael said at the same time that Maria said, "Marriage counseling." They looked at each other and shrugged.
"Which is it?"
Maria smiled at the man. "On our world, marriage counseling is always recommended before renewing the vows. It’s a requirement."
"Renewing the vows is stupid."
"Is not!"
"No one on our world gets divorced. Now the marriage counseling I can understand since I have to eat your cooking."
"My cooking! Ha! You poison yourself on a daily basis, and no person can stomach that gruel you produce. The least you could do is try to learn to cook decently!"
"And you cook?"
"I cut up the vegetables very nicely, thank you. That stew you made the other night would kill a moose." Maria just shook her head warming on her topic of critiquing his stew. "Why can’t you make something other than stew? What is it with stew anyway?"
"I like stew!" Michael yelled. "It’s better than all those vegetables you toss at me. What the hell is wrong with meat?"
"Vegetables are better for you."
"They make you fart!"
"Your stew makes people fart - from both ends!"
"A little gas never hurt anybody."
"Unless they sleep with you and are threatened with slow torturous death. Genocide is a capital offense, buddy."
The Imperial quickly shoved their papers back in their hands and almost begged them to go seek therapy at the Temple. Michael took Maria’s hand and led her up the steps.
"You really hate my stew?" Michael asked her as they climbed the stairs to the Temple.
Maria stopped at the door, and before opening it, kissed him tenderly. "Let's just say that I like you despite it."
Stopping in the door, she quickly laid her weapon to the ground and pulled off her boots. Standing in bare feet, she waved her hand over the sacramental waters in the sanctuary, and Michael heard chimes sounding in the background. Michael waited for the strange Priests to arrive like they did in Abydos.
There was no response. Maria waved her hand over the water again, and this time Michael noticed her hand lit up. Frowning, he looked at her, but remained silent.
"Michael?" Maria said quietly.
"Yeah, something is wrong." Michael drew his weapon, and circled the sanctuary, careful to not cross the Crest of the Immaculate on the floor into the inner sanctum.
Maria picked up her weapon and circled the other way, careful to stay on the fringe and out of sight, keeping tabs on Michael. They found the Priests in the back room. All of them were kneeling in silence as a man paced in Imperial robes, wearing the emblem of the Order of the Eminent Ones.
Pierce.
"I know that you are hiding her! I can feel her. Where is she?"
None would speak. Pierce nodded to a soldier who backhanded one of the Priests. Still no one spoke or lifted their eyes to make contact. Michael pulled his weapon tightly to him, and quietly checked his energy reserves and levels. He set his weapon to kill mode, but Maria put her hand over his and shook her head no.
Placing her weapon in the small of her back, she nodded for Michael to do the same. "No blood can be spilled in the Temple, Michael. Follow me, but stay slightly behind."
Maria did a quick shudder as if she was getting into a role, and walked into the room. Michael swore under his breath and followed her.
Maria face screwed up in confusion as she took in the scene, and she looked taken aback. "I’m so sorry! I was looking for the Priests. I rang twice, and..."
The Priests all slowly lifted their eyes and saw the amulet Maria wore around her neck. They quickly lowered their eyes again.
Pierce turned and looked at Maria, his regard dark and unfathomed. He sensed her power, and it confused him.
"Who are you?"
"No one. My husband," Maria indicated Michael slightly behind her, "and I came for our wedding counseling and to renew our vows. We had an appointment."
Pierce moved closer, and Maria refused to flinch. He was darker than Alex. His demeanor was evil. The man was as tall as Alex, equally lean, with dark hair and a smile that held no warmth. It was his eyes that caused the blood to still and congeal. They were black emotionless orbits carved in his head. And whereas Alex was kind and charming, this man was poison.
"You move the air. The grass blows to the force of the wind."
Maria just shrugged. "We’ve been told that before. My husband and I have a special bonding, unlike others of our world. It transcends the mental to the physical."
Maria removed a knife from her waist, and the Imperial guards turned their weapons on her. She calmly slashed the side of her arm, and Michael made a sound of pain, as he grabbed his own forearm his blood leaking through his fingers.
"Interesting." Pierce moved closer to Maria. He could feel her power, but he was unable to breach her mind. Michael was different, but all he could feel was anger and irritation. "Well, as you can see, the Priests are busy today. You’ll need to reschedule."
Maria smiled politely. "I’m sorry. That isn’t possible." Michael watched as Maria’s hand came up, and suddenly Pierce flew across the room as if felled by a force too great to withstand. She quickly turned to the guards and did the same. Michael looked at them in shock and confusion, as they lay unconscious on the floor.
"How did you...?" The energy blast was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was as if she pushed the fabric of reality forward in a pulse.
"I told you. I can do some things." Maria quickly went to the Priests. Her legs were wobbly, and she could feel the energy drain. Soon she would be too tired to carry her own body weight, and she still needed to open the distortion field back to the Trinity.
The Priests stood slowly and looked at Michael and Maria. The head Priest came forward.
"You are The One."
Maria just frowned and shook her head. The One? Before she could act, Michael’s actions caught her eye.
"Michael! No!"
Michael was pointing his gun at Pierce, ready to shoot and end the man’s life.
"No? Alex says he can track us. We kill him now while he's defenseless, and it's over. Khivar loses his Eminent and Alex gains his power."
Maria rushed to his side, and grabbed his arm accidentally hurting him by putting her hand on his wound she inflicted on him.
"No blood can spill in this Temple. And if you end the life of an Eminent One, one of the few remaining Eminents, this fabric in space will shift and tear. We cannot!"
Michael looked at the man and cussed. He had twice witnessed what happened when an Eminent died. It was why they were now protected. Lowering his gun, he looked at the downed man, and took the opportunity to kick him in the stomach.
"Next time..."
"It’ll be Alex. Only Alex can kill Pierce. He’ll need to bleed his power first."
Maria turned to look at the Priest.
"They came for the Immaculate?"
"Yes. They didn’t know her, but somehow that one knew of her."
"Well that’s a nice pickle."
The Priest nodded and asked. "You seek knowledge?"
Maria remained staring at Pierce. "I seek enlightenment in the House of the Immaculate."
"Your journey is long?"
"My journey is too long. I seek the one that draws the thread."
Michael watched as the group of Priests blended into the background. He watched as Maria dropped to her knees and bowed her head. Once again, somehow that position worked for him.
"The path is set. If you can walk it, then your way is clear."
Michael watched as Maria quickly stood and handed Michael her weapon and knife. She shared a glance with him and was gone.
"The path is for The One. Why do you not go?"
Michael looked at the man, and then after Maria. Looking down at where the Imperials and Pierce laid unconscious, and then at his own weapon, Michael just made a face.
"Not this time, Spanky. I’d rather cut off my own balls, tie them to a stick and swing them about my head than walk barefoot and defenseless in this place. I’ll just babysit."
"Why do you not seek the higher path?"
"Bad hair maybe? What’s with all you Eminents, Priests and crap, speaking in tongues? I’ll let the little honey with the big mouth seek the enlightenment for us both."
The man looked at him. "You walk in the shadow of The One?" He looked at his brethren. "The shadow does not exist without the physical body. What you seek is already within."
"Yeah, whatever. I’ll just keep an eye out for that shadow thing." Michael frowned at the man. They must have dictionaries or something so they could understand each other.
"When these jokers wake up, they’re not going to be too happy with you and your silent pals. You know that, right?"
"The journey has passed. We walk our own path now."
Michael didn’t get it, but he understood that Maria’s removing the Immaculate left them without anything to really do. "Yeah, guess your problem is now ours? All we need is another untouchable woman to cloud the issue."
They bowed away, and Michael looked at them for a moment before looking into the main Temple, all the while watching for more Imperials. Looking was a bad thing, especially when suddenly there they were. A nice patrol entering the sanctuary.
"Maria." Michael swore and left the room, shutting the door hoping it took a little time for them to find their unconscious buddies. No blood in the Temple? Fuck that. Michael drew his gun and merged into the shadows.
Maria walked forward between lines of candelabras, to stand in a middle of a circle of lit ones. Slowly circling, she held the medallion she wore around her neck in her hands, and she slowly released it to open her palms out and upward.
The wall moved to allow the figure to emerge, and in the dim light stood a woman wrapped in full cloaks of red. She stood in place and then suddenly moved, almost in annoyance. Her voice was young, and but cracked in sarcasm and irritation.
"Just tell me that you are the Princess."
"I am. And you are..."
"Courtney." The tall blond woman came forward, shedding her red robe to reveal a long red sheath beneath. "Just get me the hell out of this boring place. Chop, chop, time's a'wasting! Let's get this damn crap over so I can finally have a life."
Maria stood silently, staring at the young woman in horror, when she heard Michael calling her name.
"We’ve got to go. Michael is calling us. Imperials have entered the Temple."
"I didn’t hear anything." Maria grabbed the woman hard and dragged her from the room. "Ouch, careful with the flesh! I’ve got uses for it when I finally get to shed this Immaculate gig."
"Shut up!" Maria pushed them into an alcove as Imperials moved through the Temple.
"Can’t you just blast them? I thought you were the Protector?" Maria calmly thrust her elbow backwards into Courtney’s mouth. She smiled at the ‘omph’.
"Silence!" Maria saw stairs, and quickly pulled Courtney up them with her.
Michael, who saw them exit the inner sanctum, made a sound of irritation as he watched Maria pull the woman in brilliant red up the stairs. Oh damn! Not up the stairs! And the red? Might as well set the Immaculate on fire and put up signal lights!
Michael took out two soldiers as they passed, careful not to kill them, just make their day a little less pleasant. Pursuing Maria, he swiftly went up the stairs.
When he came out on the upper landing opening to an upper balcony a hand circled his throat. Maria.
"Sorry." Maria released him immediately. "I thought you were an Imperial."
"What, my smell?"
"No, all the bloody noise you made coming up the stairs."
"I was stealth-like, almost as eerie as a jungle predator."
"Right." Maria took her weapon back from him. They could hear Imperials below, and some starting up the stairs.
"What the hell made you come up the damn stairs?"
"They were there?"
"Never, never go up! Once you’re there, there’s nowhere else to go."
"Great. Does this mean we're not leaving?" Courtney asked.
Michael’s eyes narrowed as he took in the woman. "Who the hell is she?"
"Oh, Michael, meet our newest Immaculate. Courtney."
Michael glanced at her and then quickly dismissed her as just one more problem and no help at all. The whining tone of her voice was already apparent. All in all, he liked the quiet Liz better. She was silent and stayed out of the way.
"When are we leaving?"
Michael set his teeth on edge as the whining voice hit him. Ignoring the Immaculate whiner, he looked at Maria.
"Princess, any ideas? Or I’m afraid I’m going to be forced to spill blood."
"I’m trying." Maria leaned against him and took a deep breath. "I’m trying to open a distortion corridor, but I’m too weak. The energy pulses I used earlier drained me."
Michael heard the steps coming closer. Reaching around Maria, he pulled her body tightly against his. "Come on, Maria. Try again. We’re out of time."
Maria rested against him, closed her eyes and concentrated. The area in front of them altered and opened into a brilliant corridor. Taking Maria’s hand, he pulled her through with him, trusting that she in turn would drag her untouchable.
"It’s about time!" Courtney said as the distortion closed behind them.
Maria had managed to get them as far as the place they were to meet Sean. He was not there. Leaning his back to a wall, Michael gathered Maria in his lap as he kept watch, his weapon drawn and ready. She was almost too tired to stay awake, but they needed her to get out of the city. The Courtney thing next to them, was continuously bitching under her breath about the ground, the dark, the cold and wanting to leave.
Michael lifted his weapon and aimed it at her, but before he could find some satisfaction and peace, Maria’s hand intervened.
"Michael! No shooting the Immaculate."
"I wasn’t going to kill her. Just shut her mouth. She doesn’t need her mouth to work the crystals does she?"
"Michael, please." Maria felt so tired that her limbs felt like lead. "Where is Sean?"
"I don’t know. But this city will be shut down tighter than a drum once the Pierce creature is awake again. He can feel her, and he obviously feels you. We need out of here. Now."
Courtney’s voice piped up again. "When are we leaving? I’m bored!"
Michael shook his head in disbelief. "She who is patient?"
Maria just shrugged and nestled into his warmth again. Not her fault. She didn't write the damn legends.