Jackson Kez - Space Diplomat Ch. 04

"Is that so?" Jackson rubbed her back, moving one hand in slow circles.

"Yeah," she kissed him again. "It's obvious we're looking at a catastrophe. Nobody has said it yet, but we might have to... do something about Luminalia." She stared into his eyes. "You might have to do something."

Jackson responded with a solemn nod. He'd been thinking about that. He didn't like it, but he had to consider all the options. The closest Stellar Alliance ships were days away, and they all had equally important missions of their own, they couldn't just drop everything and come to his rescue.

"I know. I hope it doesn't come to that. At the academy they said every problem has a diplomatic solution, and I believe it." He hugged Vera, squeezing her against himself. She squished slightly into him, molding to his body. "I won't stop trying."

Vera kissed him one more time then put her head against his chest. "That's why I like you so much." She nuzzled into him. "Also, if you want me to help you, I'm much more effective when I'm happy," she paused, "and being with you makes me happy." Another pause. "Romantically, I mean." She looked up at him. "I want to have more sex with you, am I being clear?"

Jackson laughed, and then kissed her when she was about to call him rude again. "Yeah," he said, "very clear." He kissed her one more time, slow and gentle. "You make me happy too. Yucce said I would be crazy to let you get away."

"She's right," Vera said. Then she smiled at him. A playful smirk, full of mischief. She slid her hand down his cheek and put it flat against his chest. Then, looking him right in the eyes, she asked, "How was it with Yucce?"

Jackson grinned but looked away, embarrassed. His cheeks flushed.

"Ooh," Vera said, wiggling her shoulders. "She dommed you, didn't she?"

He laughed and looked back at Vera. "Yeah, that's an understatement."

"Well, don't make me guess! Did you like it?"

Jackson took a deep breath, reflecting on his experience with Yucce. "It was a lot," he said, finally. "I'm not sure I'm into being submissive like that."

Vera nodded. "Yucce is a lot. Even for me she was a lot, and you know what I like." She winked at him. "What else?"

"She taught me a lot about what feels good for a Sela."

"Oh yeah?"

Jackson nodded and slid one of his hands down Vera's back, stopping just above her waist. "Yeah. Lots of stuff. It was... informative."

Vera smiled and tilted her head. "Can you promise me something?"

"Sure," Jackson said, "anything."

"If we make it through this, will you do that stuff with me?"

Jackson chuckled, he couldn't help it. "That's the promise you want?"

Vera playfully pushed her hand against his chest. "Don't be rude, Jackson. Will you?"

He nodded and leaned in. "I promise." He pressed his lips to hers and she kissed him back, hard. "And," he said, disentangling from her just enough to speak, "you're going to be fine. We're going to get out of this."

"You're so reassuring," she said, kissing him again, softly this time. "My whole life has turned inside out, but I feel safe with you."

Jackson nodded. In his pocket, the tablet beeped. It was time to launch.

He sighed. Then his tablet beeped again, more urgently. And again, getting faster. It wasn't his tablet, it was the ship's proximity alarm. Vera, sensing his concern, jumped off his lap. Something was coming at them, fast.

"Oh shit," he said. "Vera, I—"

Impact. The ship rolled to its starboard side, tilting the escape up vertically into the air. Jackson felt the force press him into the seat, and Vera went sliding past him toward the exit. He slammed his hand down on the lock button, and the escape pod door whooshed shut in an instant.

"Jackson!" Vera yelled, then, "Ow, fuck!" as she hit the sealed door with a wet thud. She was in the escape pod, at least, that's what mattered.

"Vera," Jackson shouted, "we have to launch now!"

The ship's whirling spin accelerated, flipping Jackson upside down, and he couldn't get the restraints on in time. He fell out of the chair, and only just rotated his body so it was his shoulder instead of his head that collided with what had been the ceiling of the escape pod just seconds ago. He heard a loud pop and shooting pain. Something dislocated, maybe worse.

"Vera, you have to—"

Suddenly Vera was on him. He hadn't even seen her move. She grabbed the front of his flightsuit, tearing the pocket open. He saw a flash of pink. The syringe! Vera pressed it to herself, and it hissed, audible even over the sound of the ship tearing itself apart. Her skin immediately brightened, first returning to its usual pink hue, then becoming a harsh red.

"Forgive me," Vera said. It was the last thing Jackson heard before she wrapped him up in herself. Soft, hot, redness enveloped him and covered his vision completely. He couldn't see, and all he heard were muffled pops and groaning metal. He could still breathe, barely. Something exploded and Jackson felt himself spinning end over end, and then he passed out.

As it turns out, passing out was nothing like taking a nap. Jackson awoke with no feeling that time had passed. His body felt like it had been passed through an industrial rock crusher, and he couldn't see anything. He tried to open his eyes, but they were already open and everything was dark.

"Hello?" his voice cracked, his throat dry.

"Hey hey, don't try to talk." Vera's voice. "You're safe. Kind of."

"Not... reassuring." It hurt so much to speak. "Can't see?" he tried to make it sound like a question, and the effort made him cough, and that was so much worse. He'd definitely cracked some ribs.

He felt fabric slide off his face and sunlight flooded in.

"I had your head wrapped up to keep you from losing too much water, sorry."

Jackson blinked. It didn't help. He blinked again, harder this time. Still blurry. He closed his eyes and took a few shallow breaths. Inhaling too deeply made his chest feel like it might burst. Finally he opened his eyes and took in the surroundings. Slightly blurry, but he could make out a few details. Red sunlight illuminated what looked like a cavern. Wait, not sunlight.

"Oh no." He gasped out the words and didn't care that it hurt. Jackson turned his head slightly. It wasn't sunlight. It was Vera. Her whole body glowed a bright red. The injection. Memories came rushing back. She knelt next to him, her face flushed and dripping hot ruby liquid like she was sweating fire. Each drop sizzled into nothingness before it reached hit the sand-covered rocks.

They were underground, Jackson could see the escape pod where it had crashed through the roof, leaving a small pillar of sunlight shining in. Shards of broken metal lay everywhere, and the pod itself looked nearly totally destroyed. What had they hit? Or rather, what had hit them? Those things were supposed to be durable, but it didn't look at all like the kind of crash anyone would walk away from.

The pale light provided by the sun couldn't compete with Vera's glowing body. She cast harsh shadows on the walls, and her body kept twitching, making the shadows dance.

"Are you... okay?" Jackson groaned with every word.

"No," Vera said. "You haven't been out long, I just got you out of the escape pod. I put a few stabilizer patches from the first aid kit on you, as soon as the first stage is done I'm getting you up to the surface— ah!" She shrieked and doubled over.

Jackson tried to reach out for her but she thrust her hand down and grabbed his wrist, pinning it in place.

"Don't move, Jackson, please." Vera closed her eyes, a symbolic gesture for her, but Jackson had to assume it helped her concentrate. "It feels like my body is on fire, I don't know how much time I have."

Jackson's medical bracelet chirped, and Vera leaned over him to look at it. "Okay, Jackson, your bones are set. I'm going to move you."

Before he could answer she was picking him up. One hand slid under him, expanding to form a stretcher-like platform beneath him. She lifted him bodily off the ground in one smooth motion, like it was nothing. Then her other arm lashed out, extending to an incredible length. It reached up and through the hole created by the escape pod and grasped on to something, then Vera began pulling them both up. She kept Jackson totally steady during the process, parts of her extending over him like straps on a gurney.

As they passed over the escape pod Vera suddenly lurched, and Jackson felt his organs shift as gravity caught up with him. They fell maybe half a foot before Vera caught herself.

"Damn it," she growled, "this is burning me out. Sorry, Jackson, this might hurt." With a roar, she pulled Jackson in, wrapping him up against herself, and she launched them both up and through the jagged opening.

Jackson closed his eyes, ready to crash into something, but they made it up and through, and Vera landed hard on the desert rocks. Jackson gasped as he felt the impact pass through him, but Vera took the brunt of it. She partially liquefied, but managed to pull herself together before she dropped Jackson. He opened his eyes slowly. They were in open air now, at least.

"Fuck," Vera said. She put Jackson on the ground. "I can't..." she fell over and her body began to melt before his eyes.

"No, no!" Jackson reached for her and screamed as he felt one of his rib shift in a way it definitely shouldn't.

"I'm out..." Vera said. She sighed deeply. Her legs were the first to go, her feet and calves turning into a hot red puddle. "Out of time." It ran over her like a wave, up past her knees and her thighs. Unlike other times he'd seen a Sela become formless, she wasn't just spreading out, she was evaporating. Wisps of steam whirled into the air.

Jackson's mind ran in fast circles, running over everything he knew, desperate for a solution. Then he remembered two things Vera had said.

"Fuck, what am I doing," Jackson said, muttering to himself in a hoarse whisper. Adrenaline pushed him forward, through the pain, and he grabbed the nanotool from his flightsuit, flipping it to knife mode. A polished blade formed in under a second. He quickly cut away the sleeve from his left arm and pulled himself closer to Vera. Every movement was like a dagger shooting through him, but he couldn't stop now. The stabilizer patches started pumping painkillers into him, and the pain became like blunt impacts instead of jagged spikes.

He shoved his arm forward, reaching into Vera's torso. Her body yielded to him, and she gasped. He clenched his jaw as the heat seared his arm, it felt like he'd just thrust his hand into an oven. "You gotta eat something, Vera. Take what you need."

"What?" She said. "Oh no, I'm so hungry... I don't... I... Jackson, I'm so sorry."

The sensation changed, from burning heat to ice cold numbness. Jackson watched his skin begin to flake off, and he shut his eyes. His teeth ground together, and he fought to keep from screaming. Something about Vera's digestion numbed the worst of it, and he felt that lack of sensation creep deeper into him, passing through skin, muscle, and bone...

Then it was over. Jackson saw his arm now ended a few inches past his shoulder. His mouth hung open, his eyes wide. Jackson looked at Vera, back at his arm, and promptly passed out again.

All he could remember was a moment of descending darkness and then he awoke. This time his eyes opened to the blue sky of Genoria, and a very worried, but reassuringly pink Vera leaning over him. She'd been crying, her cheeks flecked with the remnants golden tears.

When he woke, before he could speak, Vera lunged in for a hug. It was a little awkward, with Jackson on his back, but she made it work.

"Ow," he said quietly, feeling the pressure on his ribs.

"Sorry," Vera said, releasing him. She reached out to touch his face gently. Then suddenly, Vera looked angry and guilty, her pink face flushing with reds, purples, and even a hint of turquoise. "I... why did you do that? How could you do that?"

Jackson looked at his left arm and saw Vera had wrapped one of the tourniquets around it. His stomach turned, trying to flip completely over, and he averted his eyes. His arm ached, but no more than the rest of him. It was just the sight of it that he couldn't handle. It reminded him of that creeping, sinking numbness. He swallowed, steadying himself. "I had to," he said, weakly. "If you had died... I would have died too. I'm in no shape to survive alone out here."

Vera nodded, begrudgingly. "I can't argue with that, but I'm still mad at you." She caressed his cheek. "And really happy you saved my life." She smiled. "But also still mad."

"Right," Jackson said, tilting his head back. He expected to feel hard ground beneath him, but Vera had put something soft under him. He didn't bother trying to figure out what it was. He closed his eyes for about half a second before they shot wide open. "Oh fuck, what about Tinoqa?"

Vera put one finger over his lips and shushed him. "She's okay. After I took the... syringe, I felt like I could do anything. I put Tinoqa in the storage crate and stretched out to fill the whole pod, stabilizing you both. We crashed. Really hard," she gave him a pointed look, "definitely not gentle or easy, so thanks for telling me that it would be fine."

Jackson cracked a slight smile, it was all he could manage.

"I got the box out of the pod after you saved me. Tinoqa seems okay. Definitely beat up, but I guess those boxes have some kinetic absorption built in because you got it far worse."

"See?" Jackson said. "You would have been fine in the box."

Vera laughed and touched his face again. "Fine, fine. I admit it was an okay idea."

"So what do we do now?" Jackson asked. He was starting to feel a little better, it must be the cocktail of drugs running through his system.

"I've been following the instructions on your bracelet thing, which is very stylish by the way, and it says you should be safe for light physical activity in about 30 minutes. You'll probably register on most scanners as one big bruise instead of a human, but aside from the cracked ribs, there's nothing serious."

"Oh, is that all?" Jackson opened his eyes and smiled at Vera.

"Look at that, making jokes already. That's how I know you're going to be okay."

"Yeah, you've got me figured out."

Jackson took a slightly deeper breath than before, wincing when he stretched his lungs too much and his ribs protested. He did seem to be improving. Jackson knew the stabilizer patches were good, even now they were injecting him with metabolism boosters and a special Stellar Alliance cocktail of bone rejuvenation that he honestly didn't understand. But as long as he just lay there and let them work, he should be okay to move around on his own soon.

"So," Jackson said again, "you didn't really answer me earlier when I asked what we do now."

Vera sighed. "Can't you rest for even a second?" She put a comforting hand on his cheek. "Get some rest, that's what you're doing. I'm going to climb back into the cavern and get whatever supplies I can salvage from the escape pod, it may take a couple of trips."

"Okay," Jackson said, closing his eyes. "No arguments here. Just be careful, okay? I need you."

He must have fallen asleep quickly, because he couldn't remember her responding. When he opened his eyes he was in the shade. Vera had spread the nanoweave blanket around him, anchoring it to a couple of rock outcroppings to provide them some shelter from the hot sun. Like a makeshift tent, it went from the rocks down to the ground, and it felt a lot better than being out in the open. He heard Vera grunt, obviously annoyed at something.

"What's up?" Jackson asked, propping himself up to look for Vera.

"Hey," Vera said. She was a sort distance away, fiddling with her data jewelry. She glowered at the elegant crystal device, and then dropped it unceremoniously on the ground. "It's totally shot. I must have crushed it when I started shifting around in the pod. How are you feeling?"

Jackson pushed himself up farther into a sitting position and was surprised to find that it only hurt a little bit. "Better," he said. His mouth ached for water. What a strangely thirsty mission this had been. "Water?" He asked. "A bottle, please. If I take a hydration pill I'm just gonna puke."

"Vivid imagery, thank you," Vera said. She stretched her arm out, extending under the nanoweave, rooting around in a pile of stuff outside the tent. She extracted a metal water bottle and passed it to Jackson, all without getting up.

Jackson smiled and Vera blushed, but he didn't say anything. It made him happy that Vera seemed more comfortable shapeshifting in front of him. Jackson reached out for the water bottle with both hands, and it took his mind a moment to register that he only had one hand to grab it with.

"Oh," he said to himself. He took the bottle and looked at it, wondering how to open it. Maybe setting it on the ground, or he could wedge it against his body...

"I got it," Vera said, already moving. She stood up and walked over to him, sitting on the ground next to him. Gently and kindly, she reached out and opened the valve.

"Thanks," Jackson said. He took a sip. His training told him to drink slowly, despite the temptation to down the whole thing in one gulp.

"Are you... doing okay?" Vera asked. "I mean, I know that for monoforms losing a limb can be really traumatic, and I can't exactly relate but I want to be here for you, you know?"

Jackson nodded, nursing the water bottle. "Stellar Alliance prosthetics are really good," he said, "I could get one that's indistinguishable from the one I had, or a cool synthetic looking one. It'll take some getting used to, like any other big change, but it's not a tragedy."

"Right, I forgot how enlightened you all are in the Stellar Alliance," she said the name sarcastically, but he could sense the relief in her voice. "Although... the long road to proper disability rights in human history is fascinating and we should talk about it sometime."

"Yeah," Jackson took another sip of water. "I can't believe it was just yesterday we were talking history and philosophy over sushi, and now this."

"That was really nice. Better times." Vera sighed and leaned in a little closer. "I feel awful," she said. "I can't believe I ate your arm."

"This isn't going to look great on your performance evaluation," Jackson said, chuckling. He put on his best bureaucrat imitation and said, "Ambassador Vera performed her duties admirably, until she ate the diplomat's arm. She reportedly said it was delicious, and that she regrets humans have only two arms to eat. Human tourism has dropped by 80%."

"Oh stop," Vera playfully slapped his shoulder. Very light, she was being extra gentle with him. "How can you make a joke out of any situation?"

"It's a coping mechanism," Jackson said. "Really though, it defuses tension. That's a key skill for a diplomat."

"Very true," Vera said, "you are good at your job." One of her fingers trailed down his chest. "Speaking of things you're good at... your medical bracelet says we should stimulate your metabolism with some light activity. To help the medicine circulate through your system." She looked up and bit her lower lip. "I can think of a few ways to do that, and one of them sounds a lot more fun than the rest."

Jackson's eyebrows went up in surprise. Talk about a lightning quick change in the mood.

"What?" Vera said, reacting to his shock with a frown of mock annoyance. "You just saved my life, and I just saved yours. It was an intense experience and now we're out of danger, and I'm turned on. And that damn injection, it amped me way the hell up and I'm still running at 150% of normal, so sorry if I'm rambling and not sorry that I want to jump your bones."