Keeping With Destiny Read online

  The hunter let out another howl that pierced through the shouting being done by Lieutenant Sora and the other two men.

  Tannin finally obliged to let their comrade go, taking a proper and timely step back, just as the others brought their pulse guns up to target him. He threw his arms up in the air in mock surrender, “Drenn. That musta’ hurt, Camber. Guess you won’t be pleasing the ladies for a while, huh?” Tannin shifted his gaze to the lieutenant, creating a glinting movement in his brows to reemphasize his earlier suggestiveness towards her. “Guess your nights are free now?” He licked over his lips again, and just like before her eyes followed. Yeah, she was hooked.

  She was stalwartly though. She never let it show. Not in any way that a normal man could have picked up. He just wasn’t one of those normal men.

  “Step back, prisoner,” the lieutenant ordered calmly.

  Tannin did as told. His gaze still holding hers while the steel wall from overhead began moving back down in its grooves, “So does this mean I get my food and water?” He tossed her a wise-ass grin. She turned, shooting him hardly a sided glance of lusty eyes right before he was once more locked away in isolation behind the solid wall.

  A SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

  Aari stayed out several hours longer than her shift, if for no other reason but to be as far away from the man They wanted her to set free.

  It was quiet out here. But sit long enough and the silence soon becomes a deafening quagmire of noises. Somewhere close by, from a tree perhaps, a creature hooted at her with a tenor breath. Some called it a night demon, while she overheard one of the captains correct them, saying it was a great bird that hunted in the dark, and flew without making a sound. Aari just figured they were both nuts because she’d never seen anything fly away for all the times she had watched and waited.

  Farther out in the distance, she could hear the barking yaps of a coyote or jackals, never quite sure of which made the high-pitched yipping sounds. Behind the base, looming high into the night sky were the two towers of the twin power plants. One in broken silence while the other and its tower of a single, working nuclear fusion plant hummed and churned into the night.

  Every once in a while, when she’d be out here working patrols, she’d hear banging against metal, like a hammer. She often wondered if it wasn’t just one of the maintenance guys beating the drenn out of the second plant, hoping a good pounding would make it work again. Other times, noises from the hangars on the far side of the base echoed off the towers and bounced back this way, but even this late, the hangars had long since fallen quiet.

  Sometimes she sat straining to hear beyond her means, silencing her mind and thoughts like the priests from long back always did. All the same, if doing so had helped them hear their destiny, it never worked for her; best she ever heard was maybe a vehicle or gun shot in the distance. And usually those sounds were better off to be farther away than close up.

  She’d developed a traceable habit of standing post, high up on a section of upheaved rock that split the terrain, creating a cliff wall some seven or eight fathoms nearly straight up. It was the only location that gave her the advantage of being able to see beyond the barricade walls built up from the hollowed-out shells of the old-world flying machines. However, she mostly liked it up here because it was remote from the others and she could see out there; which gave her some false illusion of freedom waiting for her. Only, deep down under, she knew better. She knew she’d never be able to survive on her own. So, she had stayed.

  It wasn’t until Stever came looking for her, Aari decided it was best to turn in.

  “Hey, Aari! Hattrix said you didn’t check back in. So, you know, I had to come and see if there was any chance you might be out here waiting on me,” he spoke as if he actually had a chance with her as he climbed up on the overhang of rock where she stood. Stever was always nice, actually, more than nice. He was pursuing her. But he was also a hunter and would easily discover her secret if she let him get too close. Stever on the other hand knew he’d find her here and never thought twice about approaching or offering his body’s company as he leaned against the cliff wall next to her. He wasted no time to move in, sliding his arm around her.

  Aari deflected; her hand shooting up and landing flat against his chest, shoving him back out of her personal space. In the same motion she twisted, turning her neck from the reach of his touch. “And whatever gave you that idea?” she sneered mildly.

  Stever was easy on the eyes. Brassy colored hair and grayish-green eyes told of his persistent willingness. He wore a scar above one eye from an attack he survived last solar cycle when he went out with the Guillotine Hunters. The scar gave him a hint of rugged allure, rather than took away. He was no scholar, but the girls liked him. So did a few of the guys and Stever complied and played with both interests. Aari tried not to think about that, as it only added to her already sexually frustrated body.

  “Why must you bother me up here, Stever?”

  “I reckon, just curious; who comes up here to warm your thighs on these long nights?”

  “As you can see, there’s no one.” She rolled her eyes and gave her neck a quick crack to cut short the shiver her Symbiotai would have sent up her spine in response of its own need.

  “I know you gotta be getting it somewhere. Nobody goes this long without it.”

  She turned her face away with a cold glance. She had long ago developed a keen sense of lying, but she still didn’t look them in the eyes unless she had to. “I get plenty— off base. I’m just not stupid enough to fuck anyone in my unit or on the same detail.”

  “But it would be so much more convenient for you to be tossing it with me. Seeing how you don’t get off base that often,” he goaded her.

  She cocked her head his way, eyes filled with plenty of attitude. “In case you forgot, I’m a lead gunner in the transport team, and on the Outlander patrol now. I not only get off base regularly enough, I make runs well out of our district with plenty time enough to stop somewhere for a rendezvous.” Not as much as she wished, but her trips had increased since she’d made that last position, which sent her out scouting for enemy troops and worthy salvages. For her, it was a way to simply get away and perhaps actually find more of her kind or better yet, the lost temple and its priests. Even if she wasn’t actually meeting up with anyone.

  “Yeah, but—” Stever stepped back in, trying once more to wrap himself around her, “—you could have me anytime you wanted. You could have me now.” He lowered his face to her ear and his hand ran up her back.

  The touch instantaneously sent warm waves through her. She gulped down the escaping, whimpering gasp and just as quickly brought her knee up between his.

  Stever crumpled to the ground with a wail, “Fucking drenn!”

  Aari huffed at him, indifferent to his pain, “I told you before, I would send you to your knees if you touched me again without my invitation.”

  You should be more grateful I show you any interest at all. They’re starting to call you the troll.”

  She stormed off. Not at all regretting her actions. He, like all the others, knew better than to touch her. She had made that painfully clear numerous times and would continue to do so as many times as it took until they got it through their thick skulls— or scrotums— she wasn’t going to be fucking anyone that was posted on the base.

  In truth, she wasn’t intimate with anyone at all, except she wasn’t about to explain that particular tidbit to anyone. She was probably the only female on the face of Terra who had a reason to remain untouched. That reason being the very knowledge that would also condemn her to death.

  Aari went back through the front as before, she hadn’t meant but to pause long enough for Hattrix to check her in and log her off duty. But he was so invested in the book he was reading that he didn’t even look up at her. She reached over, tilting his book up so she could read the cover’s title, but only accomplished rousing his attention. The title she couldn’
t read. Fucking drenn, it seemed they were always in the wrong language. That was half the problem in surviving. Language. It was all sorts of messed up. There must have been hundreds that existed before the upheaval. Now only remnants of them persisted. Diminishing into just a few words, like that Franchey one. Then there were the ones like Spanglish, when more than one language got thrown together, most likely because someone didn’t know all of one and partnered up with survivors of another. Or Marinwords. No one was really sure where or who spoke it, some stories told of men who lived under the ocean. But in the holocaust of Terra, their things were washed ashore along with what remained of their words and for some reason, most were still used today by those on land. Including the Skaddary.

  But the real death of words was not needing so many. Whoever heard of amooz meants parks or telahveesahns? They were just meaningless words. Those that had no purpose in day to day life were often abandoned. Each surviving generation passing down only what was essential. And then there were the Bedouins, also known as the Native People or Tribes. She remembered trying to learn the tribal words when she still lived at the temple. It was likely the hardest thing she’d ever tried to learn then lost it shortly after being moved to the academy. Theirs was not a welcomed tongue within the Skaddary. And using it was a fast track to getting one’s ass kicked.

  The Bedouins. The priests had called them the long-lost tribe of scripture, but no one knew what that even meant. She wasn’t even sure the priests understood and often wondered if even the nomadic Native People knew what it meant themselves. But at least they remembered their language.

  As it were, she knew only how to speak three or so languages, plus a handful of various words from different dialects, but she knew only how to read two, Americlish and Symmapi. The latter she hadn’t seen or used since a child, but her sym was inbred with the knowledge, she would know it again. Just not here. She would never acknowledge that here.

  “Still looking for a book to read?” Hattrix asked as he glanced at the monitor when she waved her wrist under the scanner.

  Aari shrugged, “Not really. I’m a transport driver, when have I time to read?”

  Hattrix gave his version of a shrug, but it only showed in the movement of his eyebrows and a slight pull to the side of his lip. His eyes flickered to the screen, “Scan it again. It didn’t take,” he told her and tapped his screen. “Hey, by the way, Stever went looking for you. Did he find you?”

  She nodded as she waved her wristband under the laser light again.

  “Boy has got the hots for you bad, Aari.”

  “Yeah, well, now his balls are a might hot.” She frowned then walked off before Hattrix contracted any further discussion over the matter. No need for him to be surprised, it wasn’t the first knee assault and wasn’t likely going to be her last either. She just wished everyone understood that.

  “Hey! Don’t forget to return your check out!” She heard him call after her before she vanished through the doors.

  Drenn, she was hoping to hang onto it for a while longer. She felt safer having a spare on her. Odd how even inside the Skaddary Base she felt as though she always had to be armed and ready.

  She dipped inside the ammunition room and returned the pistol she’d picked out earlier, only when she turned to leave she got a surprise. The curious bundle she’d seen the squadron bring in earlier was sitting on one of the shelves. She went to the door and stuck her head out, looking both ways. Like Hattrix said, it was way late, so few people were up at this time. She vanished back inside and quickly grabbed one of the gear bags that looked big enough to stash the bundle. The bundle was surprisingly heavy, and she couldn’t wait to look inside, but here wasn’t the best place to let her curiosities get the better of her.

  She slung the pack over her shoulder, peeked out the door to see to if the coast was clear, then rushed down the corridor, taking her confiscated prize with her. And having to put a good amount of effort into keeping it from banging against her legs as well as dragging on the floor.

  She took off down the corridor towards the barracks yard, but instead of exiting the double-doors that left the main base operations section to cut across towards her quarters, she went right past them. Her thoughts thick and heavy with the constant weight of being here. It was safe, but she hated it. It was too easy to dream back to the time when she was a little girl, living at the temple with all the other Symbiote. Like they were family. The elders tutored them about what they were destined to do for the survivor colonies. Destinies that had long since been destroyed by the time Aari was even born. And life, for all Symbiotai–carriers, grew much worse by the time she took in her sym at too-young of an age. But They had still held hope and They still spoke of purpose and destiny.

  However, when the Guillotine Hunters showed up and attacked the hidden temple, they killed most of the Symbiote, the tenders, and the priests that were there. Not even the Guardians, the twins, Cojourn and his sister, Sariehya, had been enough to protect them. With the last Guardians killed, even They despaired there was no hope for the survival of the colonists or Destiny itself. Aari could scarcely remembered hiding under the Altar of All Prayers. She’d been so tiny back then. Then again, she still never did sprout into anything of greatness.

  Aari heard voices coming from the hall up ahead and she paused in the corridor waiting. She stared at her reflection in the stainless-steel paneling on the wall, not liking who she saw. Lip-shade-tomboy they used to call her here when she first arrived fresh out of the academy. Although you wouldn’t catch her dead in lip color. But she knew what they meant. At the time, she had the potential to be too cute for her own good. An appearance that would have made it impossible to keep the men off of her.

  She shifted, letting her reflection move in the metallic shine. Her fingers floated up to touch the short strands of hair, muddled with longer ones. She’d never wanted short hair but trying to keep the tangles out of wavy hair was a lot of trouble, so she often opted to cut them out instead of rip at her scalp any further to get the dreads combed out and under control. She just couldn’t bring herself to cut it all off like Lt. Sora did. And Aari’s hair suffered for it. Pretty? She didn’t see it. Then again, she’d assuredly done everything she could not to look attractive. Now that she wasn’t, she hated it. The guys just teased her about it because they wanted to get laid and just about any woman would do. Even an ugly one with chopped hair and baggy clothes. Were they really starting to call her the Troll? Was she so hideous?

  She was still young at twenty-six solar cycles and not used up or badly scarred from battle. Not that she ever could become scarred and it was her flawless skin that made her a prime target for the men’s subjective approaches. But she couldn’t give in, even if she wanted to— and lately— sometimes she wanted to, just for the physical relief.

  The voices faded away, she peered around the corner to see if the coast was clear then continued on— across the wider corridor and into another narrow hallway then out into the stairwell and headed down. Down four flights and out to a corridor, cutting straight for the hangars.

  Once in the double-doors, she tried to sneak past security without looking too sneaky, just preoccupied.

  “Hey!”

  It was worth a try, she thought as she ground to a halt, and turned, glancing back at Trooper who’d called after her.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Thought I’d work on my scamper some. Have it ready next time I get sent out.”

  “It’s o’two-hundred hours in the morning, Aari,” Trooper used the old-world clock time. It meant little to anyone outside of base operations. Here, however, it remained in use to keep everyone on schedule and punctual. Something that was hard to establish most anywhere else.

  “Axey has company.” She gave him a look. “You know I hate listening to her howl.” Aari played out a dramatic eyeroll for the sake of emphasis. Trooper had slept with her roommate numerous times, which meant he k
new firsthand Axey made a considerable amount of noise.

  He grimaced, obviously not fond of hearing the woman he liked to sleep with presently was with someone other than him at the moment. “You alright?”

  The concern was genuine, she knew. Trooper had even tried to pursue her once. She could even say he did so gentlemanly compared to others, but a man could hold out from sex only so long. When her no never turned to a yes, Axey was quick to move in and take Aari’s place. Axey never said no, though Axey never offered the loyalty Trooper’d been looking for from Aari, either.

  She felt bad, but the alternative was out of the question. Despite the rejection, Trooper never stopped caring. And she supposed he never got angry at her because she didn’t turn around and say yes to anyone else.

  “Aari?”

  Remembering he’d asked her a question, Aari offered him a tired nod but nothing more.

  Trooper glanced over her head to the bag, nearly as long as she was tall, slung over her shoulder, “What’s all that?”

  “Hattrix owed me big time and he finally paid me off.”

  He chuckled. “Well, alright, go on ahead.” He waved her off. “But don’t get into any major projects. You’re likely going on alert in the next few days.”

  She hesitated, wanting to ask, but decided better of it. She didn’t need to be getting into any detailed conversations right now. She could guess why and if she was wrong, it didn’t matter anyhow.

  She pushed past the next set of doors, headed across the hangar, and then out another door into the back-utility hall; never even sparing a glance towards her armored vehicle. Then she disappeared through a door tucked away next to the lockers.

  The passageway was narrow and not very tall, but easy enough for her, seeing how she was thin and only three and a third cubits. The passage was crowded with conduits and plumbing pipes, far more than what was actually in operation.