BORN OF HEROES

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 46
 

While the assault troops were boarding the ship that was later discovered to be named Blood of Our Enemies, the rest of the task force detachment had either destroyed or disabled the remaining Legion vessels. Crews worked for almost two full ship cycles to repair damages that were, after all was said and done, fairly minor, and even ferried over to other ships to assist in repairs. The greatest blow to the task force was the destruction of the SPF Reliant. Everyone on the Righteous had known someone on that ship, with most of the senior officers having been a part of Elias’ initial training group when he’d gone through the Academy.

  He sat in his cabin sipping a cup of coffee feeling that the price was far too high for their relatively small victory. He sat with his unbooted feet stretched out and slumped in his chair feeling far older than he was. On top of the loss, there was the fact that he was missing his children badly and wished that he and Cerise were with them. As if the thought had summoned her, the control for the hatch to his suite chimed before opening, the black furred vixen walking in looking as tired as he felt.

  Without a word she stepped up to him and began to rub his shoulders, looking down and seeing the small picture he was holding of their children. “I was just thinking of them,” Cerise said. While her voice was soft and full of affection for her family, there was a note of sadness in it as well. “I wonder what they’re doing right now.”

  Elias said nothing as he set the picture and his mug down and spun the chair, his arms wrapping around the female’s middle as he pressed his face against her uniform tunic. “By the Maker, I’m tired and want to go home,” he whispered with a shuddering breath.

  Cerise clutched her husband to her and bent forward so she could rest her head on his. “I know, Love,” she breathed into his ear. “Today was a rough day.”

  “You aren’t kidding.” He sighed and closed his eyes against the burning sensation.

  She held him for another minute before straightening and pulled him to his feet. “Come on. Let’s get you out of this uniform so you can get some sleep. The relief crew’s on the bridge, Admiral Sheehan and the rest of the ships are holding picket positions so we can finish repairs, and you need some rest.”

  The fox stood there as his wife removed his uniform top, almost too tired to help. He’d been pulling extra duty and it was starting to show. His fur had a slightly dull look, and the whites of his eyes, when they showed, were bloodshot and red. She helped undo his belt and slid his trousers down so he could step out of them.

  “Do you want to take a shower?” she asked.

  “I think I might fall asleep and drown if I did,” he told her rubbing at the scar on his chest from where he’d taken an armor piercing round that had almost claimed his life. “Right now I just want a little rack time.”

  “You’ve earned it,” Cerise said and turned down the thick comforter. “Come on.”

  As he sat on the edge of the bed before sliding his feet under the covers, he looked up at his mate. “This isn’t something I ask often and I don’t want to sound…needy or weak…but would you hold me?”

  The vixen’s expression softened as she knelt next to the bed and regarded her mate with affectionate eyes and touched his face for a moment in a gentle caress. “Oh, Elias. That doesn’t make you weak to need some comfort. You had friends on the Reliant, you’re missing our kits the same as I am. You can’t be the Captain all the time. It’s okay to ask for comfort.”

  He watched as she undressed, his eyes never leaving hers and slid over as the ebony fox moved to the bed.

  “It’s just a good thing I’m off duty, too. Whatever would the Captain say if he found out that I was shirking my duty station for some much needed snuggling?”

  “I don’t know,” Elias said with the hint of an exhausted smile. “He might have to throw you in the brig.” As soon as Cerise was settled he wrapped his arms around her and laid his head on her breast, listening to the sound of her heartbeat.

  With a look of compassion that he couldn’t see, the vixen held one arm around his shoulders and gently stroked his ears. He wouldn’t let it show, but the loss of the Reliant was hurting him more than he could admit. Captain Ilsa Pritchard had been the white fox’s very first lover, and while their relationship had been passionate at first, over time it had evolved into a very affectionate and deep friendship. The red fox vixen would always have a place in Elias’ heart as his first love, and while Cerise didn’t doubt his feelings and devotion for her, it was still a hard blow and she could understand the turmoil he was in.

  As it was, Cerise and Ilsa had found common ground from the start, becoming fast friends. Cerise was sad for the loss of the other vixen, but it was a devastating blow to her husband. Ilsa had been as boisterous and full of life as anyone Cerise had ever met and one of those rare individuals that made life better for simply knowing her.

  She felt a tremble run through Elias’ body and her heart went out to him. “You know, I’m going to miss her, too. And I know what she meant to you, Love.”

  Tears that had been held at bay began to escape and he let out a choked sob. “I’m watching all of my friends die,” he lamented in a raw, husky voice. “First my mates on the Scimitar, then Melise and Stram and Rutger, now Ilsa and Forbes. I can’t help but wonder who’s next? And what really kills me is wondering if I have to lose you, too!”

  He squeezed Cerise tight as she continued to try and sooth him. “I’m not going anywhere. And I’m not going to leave you, my Elias. Not ever. This will all end and then we can go home and be a family.” The vixen waited until the worst of the emotional storm was passed before lifting his head and kissing him.

  The contact was innocent at first, but the second kiss was much more intense and soon both were touching each other in a way that only lovers can. Cerise slid further down as Elias channeled his grief into another venue. Their lovemaking was frantic, a desperate edge to it as if they tried with all of their might to reaffirm their place among the living. It was something that had been happening since the beginning of time, a way of saying that while they mourned, life had to go on. While almost fully primal in nature, it was also cathartic for both of them.

  They both lay back, panting with the exertion, but the act also having the benefit of releasing the knots of tension both were suffering from physically and emotionally. As their breathing returned to something more normal, they held each other close taking and giving comfort as best they could.

  “I…I’m sorry if I was rough,” Elias said softly and nuzzled his wife’s cheek.

  “You were fine. I think I needed that as much as you did, Elias. I told you that I would always be there to comfort and support you. I meant it when we got married…both times. And I mean it now. Besides there are times a girl likes it that way. Not all the time, but every so often.” She nipped at his neck in affectionate love play.

  They were silent for a while, Elias gently stroking the vixen’s soft, glossy black fur as she returned the attention in kind.

  “Elias, why didn’t you marry Ilsa?”

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I asked her to,” he admitted. “Both of us had just graduated flight school and we’d been dating exclusively for almost a year. I thought that with graduation we could get a joint posting. I thought it would have been perfect. She turned me down flat. I even think she was angry.”

  “Why?”

  “Ilsa’s family was what you might call traditionalists. Real ultra-conservatives, but it went a lot further than that. She’d been raised in a family that believed females were delicate, to be protected, and should do as they were told. Her father was one of those throwbacks in that he believed the male was in charge, so-on and so-on. When she joined the Academy, it was after being thrown out of her parents’ house for a number of reasons. The first was that she was taking extra classes in school for mathematics and such. Her father blew up over that saying that any daughter of his didn’t need all that schooling to take care of her mate and make kits as was only proper.

  “The second reason was that she refused to be a party to the arranged marriage that her father wanted for her. Because she was a virgin at the time, the family that wanted her for their son was willing to pay a substantial sum that would have set her family up for life. Ilsa refused to be bought like a brood mare for someone’s livestock.

  “When I asked her to marry me, she got scared and angry, seeing it as a ploy to do exactly what her family wanted to do to her. Ilsa wanted to see the Alignment, to live life on her own terms. She wanted to be her own person. Though it hurt us both, she declined my proposal. Before I could even get back to my dorm room, she’d packed everything up that was hers and was gone. I didn’t see her again until about a year and a half later.

  “We went out for a drink, and she eventually told me why she left, and that she was sorry. Ilsa knew that I wasn’t like her father and didn’t want to force her into being nothing but a domestic. She also explained that for the first time in her life she was really free to do what she wanted and could stand or fall by her own choices. We wound up going to my room, but despite how we had felt about each other before, I no longer held that place in her heart. It was fun for a few hours, but that was it.”

  “Did she know that you were still in love with her?” Cerise asked sadly, reading more meaning by what her mate didn’t say.

  Elias shook his head. “I didn’t tell her. I knew it wouldn’t do any good. She had her direction to take, and I had mine. She didn’t need me to complicate her life anymore than I already had.”

  “You know, it’s selfish, but I’m glad she walked away,” Cerise admitted. “If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here now.”

  Elias smiled and pulled her closer. “No. I think that you and I were always meant to meet and fall in love.”

  “You do, do you?”

  The fox nodded and kissed the end of her nose. “I do. Out of all the females I could meet, you are the one best suited for me. You enhance my strengths and bolster my weaknesses. You seem to know what is bothering me and help me through the things that I have trouble with. You make me want to be…better. Better than I was, better than I am. You’re gentle when I need that and firm if I’m being stupid about something.

  “You were the brightest point of light in my darkest moment. Not to mention that you’re gorgeous and have the cutest hiney on the ship.” He tickled her causing the vixen to yip in surprise before settling down.

  “What do you mean, brightest point and darkest moment?” she asked nestling into the crook of his arm.

  “When I was on the Scimitar. I just knew I was going to die. But you gave me hope. I saw your face on the comm screen and I knew that I had to live just to meet you. Your voice? Cerise, at that moment I swear that your voice was what heaven, or whatever afterlife you want to believe in sounds like.” Elias looked deep into her eyes. “That’s why I named the Angel what I did.” He traced his finger along the line of her jaw. “You have always been my guiding angel. Always.”

  Unable to contain the emotions within her, Cerise initiated their next round of lovemaking. While before it had been desperate, this time was tender and gentle, each focusing on the other instead of themselves. Where the other had been healing, this was uplifting and as intense as their first time in the little cabin in the woods of Dennier that was so far away in both time and space. Again they curled up around each other, the situation they and the rest of the fleet was in forgotten for a moment. As they drifted off, they told each other three of the most powerful words ever spoken.

  I love you.

  While Cerise and Elias brought comfort and succor to their mate, the same was happening in other places on the ship, and on other vessels.

  After all, if love wasn’t worth living and dying for, than nothing was.

***

  Sharan Tambor was familiar with the agony of waiting while her husband was on deployment. His time with the Spatial Police Force during the first sixteen years of their marriage had been filled with weeks, and sometimes months, of her being alone while Rovi was on a duty assignment, first suffering through the separation alone, then with their two eldest daughters. Sharan had been strong, the temptations that other females had of seeking comfort in the arms of another never entering her mind. It had actually been easier for her to bear after the births of Cerise and Keena. At least then she had something that was part of both of them to cherish.

  There was also no question that Rovi was the only male for her. He’d caught her eye while on Dennier for leave during his first cruise as a fully inducted Spatial Police Officer and she would always remember how dashing he was in his uniform. She had been out with friends at one of the many dance clubs in Grandstorm when she saw the black fox enter with some of his shipmates. Even though she’d only been sixteen, a few days from her seventeenth birthday, at the time Sharan knew that she had just laid eyes on the male that she would be with for the rest of her life.

  When Rovi had seen her and made his way to where she sat with her friends he’d seemed so young and full of himself. Of course Sharan had acted cool and indifferent, even as she tried hard not to swoon when he took her hand and begged her for a dance. It had been the most magical night of her young life as she spun and twirled on the dance floor with the young Spatial Police Officer.

  He was only in Grandstorm for a few weeks before he had to go back out on assignment, long enough that he could spend her birthday with her. On the night of the party that her parents had thrown her, Rovi presented her with a silver betrothal necklace and as he stumbled over the words of asking her to marry him, she took his hand and with eyes bright and sparkling she’d suggested they get married right then.

  Little did she know that years later, her very own daughter and the male Cerise had chosen for a mate would wind up in the very same courthouse and office to exchange their vows just as she and Rovi had. Her parents were livid at first, after all when their daughter had left hours earlier after the party celebrating her majority they didn’t think she was really seeing anyone apart from the occasional casual date. For her to return with the young male in tow, and as an officially bonded pair no less, had been more of a shock than they were prepared for.

  Rovi had proven to the young female’s family that he was not only serious about his commitment to their daughter, but very respectful.

  Now, though, the long tense days and weeks of waiting were starting to take their toll. Not knowing what was going on was almost like being transported back in time to those days early in their marriage. Unlike then, she also had her daughter, the two males that had married her children, and their friends to worry about. Another similarity with the past was holding the infant in her arms as a whole universe of ‘what if’s’ ran through her mind. The little white furred female with black fox markings looked up at her grandmother, her eyes still blue, not having changed in the slightest while her brother’s had turned green, and seemed to pet the elder vixen’s chin as she made yipping noises with the occasional consonant and soft growling noise thrown in as if she were attempting to talk.

  To Sharan it was like Renee was trying to comfort her. She looked down at the kit with a smile even as her eyes filled.

  “Momma?” Keena asked as she looked up from feeding the kit’s brother, Van. “Are you alright?”

  Sharan nodded. “I will be,” she said softly. “I was never good at the waiting part.”

  “They’ll be fine,” the younger vixen said. “I believe Lem when he says they’re the best officers he’s ever served with.” Her tone was filled with confidence in her mate’s reassurances. “I do miss them. Especially Lem. I think that’s the worse part of it for me. We only had a couple of days before he left…” Keena told her mother before her voice trailed off.

  “Tcha,” Pala Lon admonished softly. “When you worry about defeat and tragedy, you give it the opening to happen.” The Kastan took Van from the younger vixen and held him high and giving the kit a wide smile which the infant loved and began making a great deal of noise accompanied by a happy flailing of limbs and a substantial amount of drool.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.