Firebrand

Zuki of the Araxie was similarly friendly, Holly thanking her profusely as she joined the conversation. They were the three newest members of the Coalition, and that gave them a certain affinity. Zuki had visited the station before, and she offered to give them the tour, suggesting that they discuss the details of Holly's proposals over a meal as was the tradition of her people. As much as Holly would have liked to join them, her presence on the station had still not been officially announced, and she doubted that the Security Chief would have approved.

She felt elated, as though her heart was swelling in her chest. Her purpose had been fulfilled, and the continued existence of her colony had been secured. So why was she so distracted? Why did her eyes keep wandering from the faces of the delegates to Harry as he stood stoically beside the door? She felt that strange sensation in her belly when she looked at him, her newfound sense of triumph somehow enhancing the sensation. What had he called it again? Butterflies.

He caught her staring, shooting her a smile, and Holly suddenly felt as though she might melt into a puddle on the carpet. Zuki seemed to notice, her green, feline eyes darting in the Marine's direction. The corners of her lips cured into a knowing smile, Holly glancing up at her as her antennae waved nervously. The creature was certainly perceptive, was it bad that she might guess what they had done together? Had they violated some form of taboo?

"I believe the Jarilan Ambassador has other matters to attend to," she purred, giving Holly a gentle nudge in Harry's direction with her prehensile tail.

"But what of the battle plan for retaking our colony?" Cuetz protested, her feathers flashing purple. "There is much to discuss!"

"In good time," Zuki said, leading the gaggle of little aliens away. "Come, tell me about your cities. The Araxie are very interested in your construction methods, I hear that they have very little ecological impact..."

She glanced over her shoulder, Holly giving her a grateful nod before making her way over to Harry. Her first instinct was to leap into his arms, but she had to keep up appearances. She was an ambassador representing Jarilo, after all."

"Sergeant," she began, Harry grinning down at her.

"Ambassador. Congratulations, you seem to have achieved your goal."

"Indeed," she replied, struggling to keep her face plates straight. "Perhaps you could escort me back to my suite so that we might celebrate?"

"Aren't you gonna hang out with your fellow politicians for a while?" he asked incredulously. "You worked your ass off for this, you should take some time to enjoy it."

"I find that my mind wanders elsewhere," she replied, one of her antennae brushing his face surreptitiously. "My mission is now complete. I have done as my Queen commanded, and now my people are safe. I do not know how long I will be permitted to remain on this station, and while my diplomatic duties will no doubt continue in the future, the pleasure of your company is something that I want to make the most of while there is still time."

"I...see," Harry mumbled, glancing about the room. He gave Blackjack a sideways glance, the Krell nodding his long snout. "Very well, Ambassador. We'll escort you back your suite. Please, this way."

He opened the door for her, Holly walking past him on her two-toed feet, her gossamer gown trailing behind her. She could feel his eyes on her back, his pheromones already swirling in the air, betraying an anticipation that was already growing within him.

"We should talk to the Security Chief about what we discussed earlier," she said, Harry raising an eyebrow. "Your position as my bodyguard," she reminded him.

"Oh, right. Yeah, I think the Chief'll go for it. Not that he owes me and BJ anythin', we've just been doin' our jobs, that's all we've ever done. But he knows how important you are, I think knowin' that we're watchin' your back will take a load off his mind."

"Are you sure that you are ready to leave everything that you know behind?" Holly asked as they made their way along the carpeted halls of the hub. "Jarilo is a verdant planet, and there is a burgeoning human colony near the valley that we have made our home, but still..."

"Listen," Harry replied, "I spend most of the year either cooped up on a jump carrier or traipsin' around on some barely habitable rock looking for Bug holes. Don't get me wrong, I love the work, and I love the time that I get to spend on the station when I'm on leave, but I'm not gonna turn my nose up at the chance to relocate to what people are calling a second Earth."

"Very well," she chuckled. "And what of Blackjack? Does he wish to join us, or will he be remaining here?"

"What do you think, you big lug?" Harry asked as he turned to look up at the towering Krell who was lumbering along behind them. He was so large that he almost filled the corridor completely, his dragging tail so long that it trailed around corners. "Want to go live on Jarilo? There are rivers to swim in, you can sleep all day without anyone yellin' at you, and you can eat all the weird alien fauna you want."

He rumbled happily, Harry turning back to Holly.

"He doesn't give a fuck," he said, gesturing over his shoulder. "As long as he can scam money out of colonists with card tricks, he's happy."

Holly laughed, batting her eyes at him.

"I am glad. Separating the two of you would be a tragedy. Will he not miss the other Krell, though? Does he have no mate?"

"I'm not really sure how old he is," Harry explained. "Krell live for hundreds of years, and they only mate once every few decades. Judgin' by his size and the color of his scales, he can't be much more than about eighty. By the time he wants to make some little hatchlings of his own, I could be an old man. Hell, he only eats about once every six months if nobody's makin' him run around and do shit."

"I should thank the Security Chief again," she said as they arrived at the hub's small hangar bay. It was just large enough to accommodate two vessels about the size of their dropship, the blue-tinted energy field that held in the atmosphere shimmering, one of the long spokes and the curving hull of the torus visible beyond. "Was it not for his excellent choice of bodyguards, I do not know if I would have accomplished my mission, or if I would even still be alive."

"I can't really take credit for savin' your life," he chuckled, "we'd all have been boned if the Chief and his guys hadn't turned up when they did."

"But you helped me explore my human side," she insisted. "You taught me how to be closer to your people, you centered me when my inner conflict threatened to tear me apart. I thought that I was confident, I thought that I knew what I was doing when I arrived here, but I was wrong. You helped me to know myself, Harry."

"You're...welcome," he replied, not really knowing how to respond.

She looked around for a moment, checking that there were no personnel nearby, then reached up to kiss him on the cheek. She stood on her toes, resting her hands on his shoulders, her furry antennae tickling his face.

"Will you make me more hot chocolate when we return to the suite?" she whispered.

"Of course," he laughed.

"And...can we do more..."

"You don't have to convince me," he added, choosing a hand to hold and guiding her towards the shuttle.

***

"Two new member species in one week," Moralez muttered, tapping at his tablet computer with his new hand. Although it was identical to his last one, printed from the same schematics, it felt subtly different in ways that were hard to describe. It would take a little getting used to. "At this rate, we're going to need a bigger station..."

He was sitting at a table in one of the many cafes in the tourist quarter, watching the crowds of pedestrians and off-duty personnel pass by beyond the large glass windows that overlooked the torus. Boyd and Lorza were seated across from him, the Polar finishing an oversized sub sandwich while her partner sipped at a steaming cup of coffee.

"Don't worry about the Bugs too much," Boyd said, upending a little more cream into his cup and stirring it with a teaspoon. "UNNI will keep an eye on them. That's part of our job, keeping tabs on our allies to make sure that they're playing by the rules. If they make any suspicious moves, we'll know about it."

"Did you find out anything new from the SWAR goon and the Courser pilot?" Moralez asked.

"The conspiracy seems to have been contained," Lorza replied, pausing her chewing to lick a droplet of mayonnaise from her furry cheek with her long tongue. "From what we were able to gather, Lieutenant Commander Murphy was the ringleader. When he chose a team for the mission that Admiral Vos had tasked him with, he selected only those who were close to him, people who he knew shared his politics. From the moment the Admiral requested their assistance in safeguarding the Jarilan Ambassador, the team was rogue, even if they kept up appearances. It was their intention for Sinclair to take the blame, and they would have succeeded had the engineer not been so forthcoming. SWAR itself was not involved as far as we know, but we will certainly launch an investigation into how such attitudes were allowed to fester in the way that they did."

"The Jarilan Ambassador should be safe now," the Chief said, "two of my best men have volunteered to escort her back to Jarilo. I'm a little sorry to see them go, but I can't think of anyone I'd rather have watching out for her."

"Whatever happened to Sinclair?" Boyd asked.

"He was released from custody after agreeing to submit to a psych eval," the Chief replied. "He's supposed to report in every twenty-four hours, and he's under house arrest pending the conclusion of the investigation, but he seemed more relieved to be ordered to attend group therapy than anything. I'm going to head down there myself a few times, sit in on some of the sessions. I kind of feel responsible for the guy."

"Group therapy?" Boyd asked. He was probably raising an eyebrow, but Moralez couldn't see it behind his visor.

"Yeah. It's for vets, people with post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic injuries, things like that. When Sinclair came back from the ICU, he didn't have anyone. No friends, no family, no support structure. It'll do him good, show him that he doesn't have to face his problems alone."

"Perhaps Kaisha's bedside manner has rubbed off on you," Lorza suggested, giving him a smile.

"Our work here is just about wrapped up," Boyd added, taking another sip of his coffee. "We've received orders to redeploy. It's a shame, I was hoping central would drag their feet a little, give us some time to enjoy the station. This place is like a resort compared to what we're used to."

"Where are you going next?" Moralez asked.

"That's classified," he replied with a smirk.

"I'm not sure if I ever really thanked you two," the Chief continued. "When Vos assigned you to keep an eye on me, I assumed he'd sent you to sabotage the investigation. I can't count the number of times one of you saw something that I missed, or came up with an idea that brought us a step closer to unmasking Murphy."

"And you're a much better Security Chief than we were led to believe," Boyd replied. "I'm just sorry that it took us so long to realize it."

He set down his coffee, extending a hand as he rose from his seat. Moralez took it, his new prosthetic whirring as they shook. "I see you decided to get the tattoo," the agent added, turning the Chief's hand as he examined his forearm. Much like his XMH, the matte black polymer housing of his limb was decorated with floral patterns and twisting vines, a flowing tapestry that culminated in a Marine Corps logo on his bicep. Instead of inlaid gold, it had been etched into the material with a laser cutter, hard to make out when the light wasn't shining directly on it.

"This artwork is Elysian, is it not?" Lorza asked as she leaned in to get a closer look.

"Yeah, I have a friend who does damascening. I had her draw up some designs, then Kurtz laser-etched them for me. He works down at the printing facility, he makes prosthetics and spare parts, stuff like that. I figured it was a better option than going without an arm for a week while she worked on it."

"I might have suggested some Polar script," Lorza added, "something a little more...refined. But this suits you well."

"We'd better get moving," Boyd said, nudging his companion. "Don't be a stranger, Chief."

"Please give Kaisha my regards," Lorza added, the two leaving the table. Moralez watched them through the window as they vanished into the crowd, blending in with their civilian clothing. He drew an e-cigar from his pocket and lit it, taking a puff, blowing a smoke ring that drifted lazily through the air.

He had taken the job of Security Chief both because he had wanted to stay on the station with Kaisha, and because the thought of retiring had never appealed to him. Moralez had never been someone who could just switch off and take things easy, he always felt that drive, that desire to keep himself busy. It was a safer occupation than his previous line of work, to be sure. It didn't involve dropping into hostile territory while taking AA fire, or exploring unmapped Bug tunnels, but that wasn't really the point. Kaisha wasn't happy about his firefight in the hangar, but he had to admit, he hadn't had this much fun in years. Maybe the odd conspiracy was just what he needed to keep his joints from rusting.

-THE END-