Ancient Hunter

I stared at Thorda open mouthed. I couldn’t believe she had done that knocking Lieutenant Gant out. I wasn’t sure how she had managed it she was a diminutive T’Arni and he a Human. What I did take note of was that the bridge crew had made no comment either for or against what had happened. They seemed too busy with their tasks to take notice of what was going one. I guessed it was a pretence and they didn’t want to get involved. I couldn’t blame them it wouldn’t go well for Thorda striking a superior officer. Fortunately I was on her side Gant clearly had a problem with me. Persefoni hurried over her red rescue suit a splash of highlighted colour against the sombre dark blue of the Alliance uniforms. She leaned over the comatose Gant her medical gauntlet sweeping over him.

“Out cold, no severe damage,” she stated.

I looked at Thorda. “Why?” was my question to her.

“Because he would have taken pleasure in your misery. Xenai only keeps him on as he is good at his job. He hates you with a passion,” Thorda told me.

“Why?” I regretted saying that it made me sound like a whiney child. I didn’t know what I had done to earn his ire. He must have hidden it well around Xenai her telepathy would have picked that up. Then she had told me once she didn’t read the mines of friends and colleges.

“Jealousy pure and simple. You have what he hasn’t closeness to Xenai?”

Ok that was weird I wasn’t in that type of relationship with Xenai. I considered her a sister and as she did to me. “I consider Xenai my sister,” I stated.

“That’s a given,” Thorda said. “She thinks the same of you. What’s that human term, oh yes ‘heck’ she thinks of me as her sister.” She glanced at Gant unmoving on the floor of the bridge. “He knows that Xenai walked through your mind.”

She had done that when I came back from the cavern beneath Saros. She knew about the Keepers and what they had done to me.

“That was only to prove I was still me.” These days I wasn’t certain what I was? A Human part of me is, Valkyrie again part of me is and Keeper.

“What Xenai kept from you was that in doing so, was that it dangerous.”

“It could have killed her?” I remembered her discussion while I pretended to be asleep. Kelli had warned her about something I wasn’t too sure what it was about it was long ago.

“No, you wouldn’t been mind linked.” Thorda actually shivered. “Minds and bodies locked in sync.”

“That’s a real thing?” I asked.

“Very real,” Persefoni replied looking up from Gant. “I’ve never heard of any cases that involved a Human and a T’Arni. I don’t think that is possible?”

“There is,” Thorda said looking from Persefoni to me. “Some planet near the core called Erikino. A Human and T’Arni linked they’re both tepes.” Thorda looked uncomfortable. I knew wasn’t a racial thing since she considered me a friend. “When the Human dies the T’Arni will.” She drew a deep breath. “If one is killed the other will die. Or if one is injured the other feels that injury.” Clearly she was horrified at the prospect.

I realised what she was hinting at but that didn’t happen to me. Nor would it now that The Keepers had blocked my mind from telepathic interference or probing.

“What are we going to do with Lieutenant Gant?” I said changing the subject before it got too maudlin.

“We get him down to the nearest Medbay where he can sleep it off.” Thorda grimaced. “I’ll get it in the ear from Xenai but it was in a good cause.” She looked at me. “Get some rest I’ll deal with the fallout.”

I did wonder if Thorda had been learning Imperial idioms while I was away.

I headed back to my quarters. If I was going to bunk down Freyhilda’s squad I needed my underwear at the least. I halted outside the Aid Station where I’d left the wounded Marine. There was a trail of blood to the station but none from it. It was empty someone had rescued him.

“What are you looking for?” Freyhilda asked me as I closed the door.

“A wounded Marine I’d hid in here for his safety.”

“Probably been evaced out.”

Which made sense when you thought about it. We continued to my quarters. I dreaded every step closer despite the fact I was doing this in the light instead the semi darkness on the emergency lighting. The devastation to the door of my quarters looked worse under the glare of full lighting. It was apparent the door had been torn apart which made me wonder how strong the creature was. It wasn’t going to be an easy repair and I had no doubt that it was low of the list of priorities. The hull breaches caused by the Ulkoi (T’Arni word for aliens not of the known races) had caused to the ship. Their and I assumed they were ‘their’ drop ships had punched through the hull and into the ship’s heart.

Cautiously I approached the yawning gap that had once been the door to my quarters my sword gripped tightly in my hands. Somehow my nervousness had communicated itself to Freyhilda’s squad they followed me weapons at the ready. I halted at the edge of the damaged door and peered into my quarters. The creature’s body was gone. I was unsure if it had turned to gloop like the false Orsini on Demeros. Or it had been removed by the ship’s cleanup team. I doubted that it had got up and walked. I was certain I’d cut off its head at least. I couldn’t but notice the dark stain on the floor. With the quarters clear I stepped into the room although I still had a firm grip of the hilt of my sword. Freyhilda’s squad followed behind.

“That’s not going to come out,” Freyhilda said pointing to the stain.

That was the least of my worries. “I gathered that,” I said to her.

Freyhilda put her fingers to her helmet comms unit. “Frialmold and Rodrifa will guard your door. Well what’s left of your door. The rest of us are on clean up detail. Such is the life of a Marine who would have it any other way,” she announced.

“At least you’re not slogging it on your feet like the groundpounders,” Rodrifa said.

Groundpounders was the nickname the Marines used for the Confed Ground Forces, also known as the GF.

“Anyway,” I said to Freyhilda. “Thanks for the assist.”

“It our pleasure to serve you Mother Gwen. At least you make things fun.”

I still wasn’t sure about the Mother bit the Elder’s on Alfheimir hadn’t said anything on the subject. Not that I had asked them. I’d been too busy doing other things.

Freyhilda left with her squad. I was alone with Frialmold and Rodrifa as company. Both had positioned themselves either side of what was left of the door. They were taking their roles as a Clan Mother’s Guardians seriously. I hurried through my quarters to the bedroom propping my sword against the wall by the bathroom I had no where else to put it. I grabbed some underwear and transitioned to my washroom and changed in there. Before doing a quick check of my appearance in the mirror. I straightened my tunic and adjusted my collar. Xenai had insisted I wore my uniform even though my status with the Alliance was in flux. I stared hard at my face, it looked no different from the last time I looked at it. Then what was supposed to be looking at. Why was I expecting to change? No I was the same person as I started out with a lot more baggage. Relieved that I was wearing underwear I stepped out of the washroom into an argument.

“You’re not coming in!” I recognised the voice as that of Frialmold.

I wondered who she was talking to. The next moment I heard another voice. Relief flushed across my body.

“Why?” a more familiar voice stated.

Kelli, that was Kelli I had been worried about her. “Frialmold, Rodrifa let Lieutenant Kelli in.”

“As you command Mother Gwen,” Rodrifa replied. She wasn’t being sarcastic she was letting all that could hear her that I was a Clan Mother. Even if it was a Clan with only one member, me.

Kelli entered looking a little harassed, she was in her dress uniform. She wasn’t alone she had Jervic and Denassi with her. My heart soared I would have kissed Jervic there and then. Unfortunately he was in full combat armour a Coil Assault Gun strapped to his chest. Then there was my status with Frialmold and Rodrifa I was a Clan Mother in their eyes. Clan Mothers didn’t act like that it wasn’t the Valkyrie way. Well that’s what I had perceived from the handful of Clan Mothers I had met. The Valkyrie were so full of complexities and contradictions that it made my head spin.

“Gwen,” Jervic called out making my heart fluttered.

Kelli smiled in a knowing way.

I knew instantly it was not because of what wasn’t going on with my love life. She wouldn’t be satisfied until she checked me over.

“Why don’t you get it over with?” I sighed.

Kelli grinned from ear to ear as she pulled out her medical gauntlet from the satchel she had on her hip. “Assume the position!” Kelli sounding one of those ancient Security procedural vids. She laughed at her words. “That’s what you’re supposed to say is it not?” she paused. “I haven’t got the accent down pat yet. Then I was watching it in Galactic and not in Universal Standard English that the Terrans do.”

I wasn’t insulted that she was referring to my Imperial heritage. I wasn’t sure what I was anymore. I was trapped between my Human, vaihdokas, and Keeper sides. I was both a citizen of the Empire and the Confederacy at the same time. It was a heck of a mix but in the end I was still me.

“We don’t say that anymore!” I protested feeling a blush crawl up my body as she waved her gauntlet over me. I wasn’t with Security I hadn’t been for the last few years.

Kelli laughed as she waved her gauntlet over me. “Yep,” she said. “Just as I thought.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “What is?” I asked anxiously. It was bad enough I had to put with the fact I had wings. Hidden wings it blew away any chance of being intimate with Jervic. It was the one thing I hadn’t told him about. Kelli knew I had her do a DNA analysis on the feather. I had picked up when Regitha threw me over the wall at the Debonair Brewery. She later proved to be a traitor, a believer of the Prophet although she denied that. I had got Kelli to do comparison with a feather I asked Moon Shadow to give me. Jennifer the First One pretending to be the vice president of Saros hadn’t been lying. She had told me the Keepers had harvested my ovaries to remake themselves. When meant that they were all a version of me. As to the wings I was certain they were a recent addition. I think they would had been noticed before I reached Davenport. Frigga would have said something during our training sessions. And like all Valkyrie she had insisted we train in the nude.