Star-Crossed Lovers Ch. 03

A century later, when combined with the extensive psychological evaluation all cyborg conversion volunteers underwent, cyborg soldiers were now mentally more stable than their fully-human counterparts.

"I'll put the paperwork in right away," O'Connell clapped him on the shoulder as he walked away.

Within a few minutes, all of the Marines and sailors were underground. Sentries were placed, barricades were constructed and the survivors prepared for the inevitable.

Commander Burke ordered the most seriously injured to be moved into the medical center. He walked around in his power armour, trying to buoy morale where he could.

But like all officers, the weight of the dead hung around him and he looked for some place away from everyone else, if only for a few minutes. His thoughts were on the fallen SOLARs and Marines and in a quiet moment, he shed his final tears for them and recorded a message for his wife that he hoped she would get if his body were recovered and his suit weren't too badly damaged.

"Sir?" someone called from the door to General Kravchenko's quarters, which Burke had temporarily taken over. "Have you got a minute?"

"Come in, Juggs," he blinked his eyes a couple of times and the mask of command came over his face. "What can I do for you?"

The other SOLAR came in and sat down across from him. Burke was out of his armour, although it was still close by. He shed his jetpack—it wouldn't do him much good underground anyway—and he could get suited up in a matter of minutes. They were also far enough underground that any assault would take a long time to get to them.

Juggs was wearing a pair of coveralls she must have borrowed from the Marines.

She looked like she was searching for the words. After a few moments, she spoke. "Sir, I don't think I've ever thanked you for everything you did for me . . . for us . . . With Team Six and Team Four . . . We would have followed you into the depths of hell."

Burke chuckled with a slight trace of bitterness in his voice. This was about as sentimental as SOLARs ever got. "This place has the sulfur smell and in a little while, there will be the fire . . ."

Both laughed. A nervous, maudlin laugh.

Gallows humour.

"Sir . . . I was wondering . . ." Juggs shifted uncomfortably. "I was wondering why you . . . you never . . . you know . . . bunked with any of us."

Burke looked the younger woman in the eyes. "Because I need SOLARs, not lovers."

"Other lieutenants bunk with their platoons." That much was true. Some of the military psychologists believed that by taking lovers who were also brothers and sisters-in-arms, the bonds of trust would be strengthened. Like the Spartans of old, they also believed that people would fight harder for their lovers than simply for fellow soldiers.

He shrugged. Fraternisation between officers and enlisted wasn't illegal as it has been three centuries before, but Burke's preference was not to get too personally involved with those under his command. It hurt less when he lost them. At least that's what he told himself.

Juggs walked around the desk and stood before Eric. She looked into his eyes.

"Sir," she began. She licked her lips, as if gathering her courage. "I've been wondering . . ."

Her hand went to the zipper on the coveralls. Eric's eyes got wide as her large breasts spilled out. The nipples were erect.

"Andrea," he said quietly, almost giving in to temptation. "I can't . . . not without Maylene . . ."

"Are you sure?" her voice was husky and filled with long pent-up desire.

He shook his head and smiled ruefully. "Our marriage isn't like that."

Juggs flashed him a disappointed smile. "I understand . . . but will I get a shot once we get out of this?"

"You'll have to talk to her," Eric grinned as Andrea put her breasts back into the coveralls. "I appreciate the offer . . . and if I were ever going to bunk with any of you sorry apes, you'd be at the top of my list."

"Oh, now you tell me, sir," she said with a laugh.

"Andrea . . ." Eric's voice trailed off wistfully.

She nodded, both understanding what might have been.

"I'll ask her when we get out of this mess, sir," Juggs said, slipping back into the role of subordinate NCO.

She was on her way out the door when she heard Eric call to her. "Don't be too anxious; Maylene might want you to bring those two jarheads with you!"

Both chuckled, fully comprehending that their actual odds of surviving were pretty slim.

*************************

They didn't have to wait much longer. The attack came quickly. The Marines followed the plan, but sure enough the Federation troops blasted through the rock and dug new tunnels into the complex.

The defenders were ready, though. Despite their superior numbers, the attackers paid a steep price for every inch of ground they took, but they eventually shot their way to the command center.

"Sir, get down!" Master Chief McDaniel called. But it was too late.

The explosion hurled Burke across the room. The world seemed to stop for just a second. There was a flash of bright light, then complete and utter silence.

Things slowly came back into focus. His head spun. There was a ringing in his ears.

He tried to roll over, but couldn't. The power armour felt so heavy. A searing pain started in his gut.

"Holy fucking shit," he vaguely heard someone shout. "Corpsman up!"

Burke tried to speak, but only spat blood all over the inside of his faceplate.

"Hold on, sir," a voice said. A young woman—or was it a man? You never could tell in the armour—held his shoulders down.

Behind her, Burke could see people scurrying around frantically.

Don't worry about me! he wanted to say, but could not form the words. Plug the gap with second squad and kill those fuckers!

His arms groped around for something to hold on to. He tried to stand.

Raising his head, he saw his armoured legs. They were covered in blood. And on the other side of the command center.

A corpsman was in his face. Commander Burke could see his mouth moving, but couldn't comprehend what he was saying. The corpsman reached into his pack and pulled out a SCMU, scanned the gaping wound in Burke's gut, then ripped it open, releasing a thick syrup filled with thousands of miniature robots and medical nanobots. Their job was to stabilise him and keep him from bleeding to death.

Burke suddenly felt faint. Maybe it was because he knew he was dying. Or maybe it was the suit injecting him with sedatives to keep him from going into shock.

For a brief instant, there was a brief burning sensation in his stomach as the nanobots began cauterising and suturing his wounds shut. Then his entire body went numb.

He tried to give his final orders. But his body failed him.

Before the blackness claimed him, one thought ran through his mind.

Maylene is going to kill me.

*****************

"Why can't I move?" Eric asked the doctor again.

"I'll release the spinal block in a second, Commander," he replied. He pressed a button on the com panel. A trio of orderlies came into the room.

"Ladies first," the doctor said. They elevated Maylene's bed.

She had a smile from ear to ear. Eric looked into her eyes. It took him a second to realise the difference. The mechanical glint was gone. Their previous sapphire blue was gone, instead replaced by pupils that were duller and at the same time more radiant.

The doctor pressed a series of buttons on the collar around Maylene's neck. Lights on the collar flashed and then went dark. He removed the collar and set it on the table next to her bed.

Her arm twitched a couple of times, then she feebly lifted it. The smile on her face was irrepressible.

"Your turn." The doctor pressed the buttons on Eric's collar and sensation returned to his body.

He felt tingling in his fingers and toes. Looking down, Eric willed his fingers to move and they did. His reflexes were slower than he'd have liked, but he was moving!

"Why am I so weak?" he asked, trying to lift his arm.

The doctor laughed gently. "Because you've never used these muscles before."

"Two years?"

"That's how long it takes to grow back seventy percent of a body from scratch." The doctor poked Eric in a couple of places to test his reflexes. "If they hadn't put you into stasis immediately, you'd have died. You're a lucky man, commander. Not many people can say they lost everything below their lungs and lived to tell."

One of the orderlies removed the rails from the two beds and then the other two wheeled Eric's bed over next to his wife's.

He felt Maylene's gentle touch on his hand. It was the most pleasurable sensation he had ever felt. With a great effort, Eric turned his palm over and entwined his fingers around Maylene's, the squeezed her gently.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you, too." There were tears in her eyes, as well as his own.

The doctor and orderlies stepped back for a second to allow the couple to share this moment.

"We've got about a month of therapy before they'll release us," Maylene said.

"I don't suppose the war's still going on, is it?"

Eric's wife chuckled. "No, honey . . . it ended when we took Iridian back. The armistice has been in place for almost twenty-three months now."

It took a second for that to sink in.

"Don't worry," Maylene winked. "I'm sure the Navy will find something for you to shoot or blow up. Grand Admiral von Luck has some big plans for you."

"What about you?"

"I've got big plans for you, too."

"No, May . . . what about you and the Navy?"

"I think they'll find a job for me, too," Maylene said with an amused smile. "The Navy needs every live body it can get. Isn't that right, Doctor?"

"That's what I hear, Admiral."

Eric's eyebrow shot up. His wife laughed and soon he was laughing along with her.

*****************

"You don't know how long I've been waiting for this," Eric whispered.

Maylene scoffed. "Sweetheart, you spent the last two years in regen. I don't want to hear about waiting."

Holding his wife in his strong arms, Eric carried Maylene over the threshold into their cabin.

After a brief convalescence, Eric and Maylene took some leave together. Despite the end of the war, the Alliance only downsized a little bit. The armistice was fragile and there was still a lot of space to protect from pirates and rogue factions. While Eric's body was being grown back, Maylene was promoted to captain, served one tour as DCAG for Air Wing 44 and then took command for another tour.

Due to her exemplary service and because some senior officers left the Navy after the war, she was promoted to commodore admiral right before taking her leave to undergo clone reconstruction herself. The grievous nature of Eric's wounds necessitated him being put in a stasis tank while his body was grown back, but Maylene's arms, legs and eyes were cloned, then transplanted on to her body before a brief three week regen stay to grow new skin.

She timed her reconstruction to end at the same time as her husband's. Physical therapy for both went quickly. It is always easier to relearn how to use flesh and blood limbs than bonics, and both Eric and Maylene left the hospital early.

Despite being unconscious, the "brevet" before Eric's rank was removed and his promotion to the rank of commander was made permanent. As he learned how to use his arms and legs again, Eric got word from Grand Admiral von Luck that he was going to be tasked with standing up a new SOLAR Team. She didn't give him any details, nor did she give him the option of turning down the assignment. But first she ordered him to spend some time with his wife.

They went back to his parents's cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It hadn't changed much since they were last there. The neighbours were still few and far between. The view was spectacular. And once again all Eric and Maylene had eyes for was each other.

Since leaving the hospital earlier in the day, the pair was always touching. It seemed that neither could believe that they could actually feel each other with their own flesh and blood.

They didn't take the simple brushing against one another for granted. Eric's skin tingled as Maylene's fingers entwined around his own. The hairs on Maylene's arms stood up as he traced circles around her palms.

Eric carried her straight to the bed, and set her down gently. Neither paid any attention to the butler automat that brought their luggage in, then went to work preparing dinner.

His hands caressed her body. He was tempted to tear her clothes off, but he also wanted to savour the first feel of her he was going to get since being roused from his coma.

Maylene squealed with delight as his hand gently cupped one of her breasts.

"Undress me." There was an eagerness and desperation in her voice. Her hands went to his clothes, pulling at zippers, tugging at buttons and trying to slip his shirt over his head.

Where their mechanical hands were always kind of awkward and clumsy, the cloned limbs were nimble and dexterous.

"I love the way you feel, May," Eric said.

She purred in response. "I love having you touch me. . . . Remind me why I made you wait a month."

"You can't blame me for that," he replied with a huff. "That was your idea."

"Actually, I think it was my mother's idea," Maylene said with a smile. "Something about waiting until we were a hundred percent before resuming our rabbit-like behaviour."

Eric kissed her neck and pinched her nipple. The one that had been burned off in the fire.

She cried out when he bit her lip when he did it again. More aggressively this time. Her voice was heavy with desire. "Remind me not to take any more of her advice."

"I think I told you it was a bad idea a month ago." Their eyes met. Eric stared into his wife's eyes. They twinkled, laugh lines in the corners.

"And here I thought you were just being your usual horny self."

"I'm the horny one?" Eric stopped caressing her breast long enough to dig his fingers into her ribs. They both laughed.

"Yes, you are." Maylene pulled her husband to her. "I was a pure little innocent girl until I met you."

"I don't think there was anything innocent about you when we met."

"I was, too, innocent. My daddy even says so."

Eric snorted. "What's that move you taught me? The Spanish corkscrew?"

"It's French corkscrew, sweetie."

"I rest my case." He pulled her in for a deep, passionate kiss. Eric's hands went to her dress. He pulled it over her head and threw it across the room.

Maylene wasn't wearing a bra. In addition to growing her skin back, the medtechs lifted her breasts, making them as pert as they had been when she was right out of the Naval Academy.

She gasped when Eric kissed her right in the middle of her chest.

"I love you," she whispered. His hands went to her panties. Eric pulled them down over her hips and she was naked.

Then it was her turn to finish undressing him. Maylene pressed her body against Eric's. She started to pull him close but he pushed her away.

"Stand up," he said unexpectedly.

"What?"

"Stand up, May." Eric rolled her off the bed.

Maylene took a step back, unsure of what he wanted.

"Let me look at you," he whispered.

Her arms reflexively crossed in front of her, but he gently swatted them away. The windows were open and sunlight flooded the cabin.

"You are so beautiful." Every woman loves to hear those words. Especially women whose bodies have been ravaged and disfigured by fire.

Eric's fingertips brushed her skin.

"No," he admonished when her hands went to his body. "Put your hands behind your head. . . . Yes, just like that."

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Eric devoured his wife with his eyes. She saw the hunger in his gaze. Maylene blushed as he ogled her. A part of her was embarrassed. A part was flattered. All of her was in love.

Tentatively at first, Eric reached out. She jumped slightly as his fingertips brushed her now-smooth skin. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Goosebumps covered her from head to toe.

She wanted to reach out and touch him, too. But just watching the way Eric's hands roamed her body turned her on. He was examining and exploring every inch of her body. The scar tissue was all gone. Her skin was perfectly smooth.

On the human body, the pads of the fingers have the second-highest concentration of nerve endings per square inch. The highest is the genitals.

For a special operator, having those tactile sensations often meant the difference between life and death. Setting demolition charges, disabling a booby-trap, or assembling a weapon in seconds were vital tasks in Eric's line of work. In his work, Eric could get by with the bio-mechanical hands that were provided so generously by the Terran Space Navy.

In the year that he was separated from Maylene, Eric was okay with his synthetic limbs. But when they were together, he cursed the day he volunteered for the Navy. They robbed him of feeling. Of his humanity.

When they were first recovering at the hospital, both had little strength and control over their cloned limbs. The sense of touch returned, but it took a couple of weeks to unlearn some of the reflexes and instincts that came with partial bionic reconstruction.

And then there was Maylene's (mother's) whole abstinence idea.

As he promised before, Eric reveled in the simple act of touching his wife. His hands lingered on the parts of her body people generally don't think of as sexy.

Maylene giggled as he gently traced her ribs. She gasped as he ran his hands over her hips and squeezed.

"Your skin is so smooth." His voice was barely audible.

"That's the beauty of regenerated skin," she replied, just a touch of laughter in her voice. "No acne. No blemishes."

The smile disappeared for just a second. There were tremors in her voice. "No burns."

Eric stood and took is wife in his arms. Their nude bodies pressed together. They felt each other's warmth.

He felt so . . . alive.

Pulling the woman he loved close, Eric forgot about everything else. He forgot about the Navy, the war, the men and women who died under his command. It all went away.

He turned her so they were facing the mirror hanging over the dresser. Eric stepped to the right so they were standing side by side. "What do you see?"

Maylene started to say something but couldn't.

"You were beautiful before." Eric's voice was soothing. In the mirror, their eyes connected. "Now . . . now I never want to let you out of my sight. . . . Or out of my reach."

There were tears in Maylene's eyes. It was a long moment before she spoke. "I used to wonder what you saw . . . in me. I was so . . . ugly."

Eric turned so he was facing his wife. "No, May . . . You were never ugly. Burned . . . wounded, yes. . . . Ugly, never."

"I love you," she whispered.

In response, Eric kissed her deep and hard. She threw her arms around him and he led her to the bed.

Eric's weight pressed down on her. Their limbs intertwined.

"What else did you see?"

"I saw you," she whispered. "As I was meant to see you. When I blink, I don't get the thermal image or the nightvision . . . I didn't zoom in to twenty times magnification . . . I saw us . . . together."

"And we'll always be together, my dear."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Your skin is so soft," Maylene whispered. Her fingertips traced circles around his shoulder blades.

"So are you."

They shared one more kiss, then Maylene pushed him back. "I want you to make love to me."

Eric smiled gently. It was the smile only she saw. None of his SOLARs had ever seen this expression. "I thought you'd never ask."

"But first I want to do something to you," she said, rolling him to the side. "Something I've wanted since that first night we were together."