Sang the Stray (Completed)

42. Cheshire Cat

I was going with Second Squad on a mission for the first time.  KOTIS was pleased with results from my missions with Fourth Squad and wanted to expand my assignments.  The younger Fourth Squad guys had less than enthusiastic responses when the assignment had popped up my calendar two kai ago and tried to share their grievance during a training session.  Tsee Blackbourne refused to listen to any objections, saying something about "soldiers following orders".  Nathan, whose mood improved after a few kai of rest, had shot me a wink at that comment. 

I sent him a silent message:  Yeah, right. Me, a soldier.

He sent back: Too hard on yourself, made lots of improvement.  Wearing uniform, aren't you?  Ugh, that made me wince, the Imposter Setari.

North escorted me to the Gate Lock to meet with Second Squad.  He was especially stern and gruff, only giving a terse "Let's go," when we left his and Silas' apartment.  As we rode the elevator to the correct level, I gently placed my hand on his arm.  For the first time that morning his eyes met mine. 

I knew he wasn't mad at me and just tried to reassure him, saying, "I will be fine.  Second Squad are very good Setari.  You watch my last training exercise with them."

He grunted and pulled me into a hug.  I warmed as I felt his lips press against my forehead.  I felt some of the tension ease out of him, but now my emotions took a tailspin.  He kissed me!  The boys had touched me in different ways. Gabriel's licks, Kota's nose nuzzles, Nathan chewing my finger and all the others holding my hand or such...I secretly craved all of it...but this was the first time one of them had kissed me.  It felt like some unknown dam burst open within me.  I hadn't even contemplated it before, but now...the thoughts came unbidden.  How would it be if he kissed me, like a real kiss...on the lips?  And I wanted it...wanted them all to kiss me that way.   I stepped away as the elevator door slid open, though the desire to stay with him, or go with him alone to the rose garden, burned within. How would I even ask for that?  And then, I was inexplicably jealous of any girl he, or the others, ever may have kissed.  I had to refocus on the mission, try to calm my chaotic, selfish thoughts.

We stopped in the hallway as Second Squad came into sight.  North told me, "I'll be waiting right here for you to return, Sang Baby."  His eyes seemed to be promising much more.

Victor had told me yesterday that Maze Rotation was only one space, but considered difficult and required Squads with strong Combat Sight talents.  It was literally a maze of the white stone used in Taren construction, but old and overgrown by vines.  If it had once been a world settled by Muinian refugees, then it had been abandoned long ago, or the human inhabitants killed off. 

Tsee Axel Toma explained, "The Ionoth in this space are extremely fast and agile.  The walls make for tight space and we will be focusing on close combat, utilizing enhanced speed and Sights to track and fight.  Avoid touching the walls since that seems to alert the Ionoth of our presence." He rattled off specific instructions to the individual squad members.  Early on in our training, Axel had picked up on my aversion to Kayli's touch.  From then on, his strategy had Kayli enhancing as infrequently as possible, for which I was immensely grateful.  Corey and Brandon were assigned as my escorts and we were soon trekking through near-space to the Gate.

"What toughest rotation?"  I asked, as we walked towards the Gate.

"Unstables," Marc said.  "Spaces which have moved up against Tare's near-space, but which we haven't encountered before.  For everything else, even Columns, we know what we're going up against, and they choose which teams to assign based on that."

"We are assigned Maze Rotation more often than Fourth Squad because their strongest elemental talents are suppressed or unpredictably reflected by the white stones," Corey said.

Brandon added, "Griffen is good in this Space, though.  If we have a squad member out, we usually request his help.  His natural speed and combat skill are really effective."

Just before entering the Gate, Axel turned to me, saying, "Follow the Henshaws' lead, staying on the left, and communicate only as necessary."

Everyone except Corey made long blades out of their suits.  We stepped through individually and were surrounded by white stone at least six meters high. There were clover flowers in the grassy paths below and a bright blue sky above. Vines with tiny bluish-green leaves hung haphazardly, growing over the tops of the walls.

"Coming up, mark seven, twenty in," Marc's hushed voice reached me.  "Three rush."  Tsee Blackbourne had made sure I learned what these phrases meant since all the Setari used the same.

"Miss Sorenson, it is imperative that you know precisely how to react when I give a command," he had said, steel-eyes demanding perfection. I could almost hear the echo of his voice, smoothly drilling the orders until I responded correctly to them all.

'Three rush' meant Axel, Marc and Blake would take forward positions, while Raven, Kayli, Corey and Brandon closed about me and followed at a slower pace.  We reached the corner just as something I couldn't properly see leapt off one of the walls at Marc. The three forward Setari all have Speed talent, and even unenhanced they move amazingly.  With enhancement, they come close to blurring instantaneously from one place to another.  Combat Sight, which almost all of Second Squad have to some degree, is an ability to detect attacks almost before they happen.  The thing didn't really have a chance.

After it was dead the rest of us walked past and I looked down to see a lizard, like a gecko except with rather humanoid lines to its scaly white body.  Kayli suddenly turned and said, "Two coming fast from mark two," and they shifted about me to cover an opening on the opposite side.  It went on a long time like that as they cleared the space of the lizard-things.

We took a break in the heart of the maze.  It was an open, circular garden, with lots of grass between us and the walls, and beds of purple and red flowers.  Corey was telling me about KOTIS plans for an increase of exploration and searches for the Pillars.

"How many Pillars are there?" I asked.

Corey lifted his hands, then let them drop.  "We only confirmed three years ago that they truly exist.  And, presuming that rotational space you found does realign, we're only just coming up to our first chance to properly examine one.  The knowledge of how the things were constructed, and what exactly they're doing, has long been lost." The conversation drifted to other topics and I was only half listening to Kayli and Blake's mild squabbling about some kitchen incident involving eggs.

I looked over to see a kitten, like the type I'd seen on Muina, smoky grey with dark moss-green eyes.  It was just there, sitting in front of me, drifting into visibility in an eye-blink.  And, yeah, it was foolishly impulsive, but my automatic reaction to cats, even ones which pop up out of nothing, is to hold out a hand, fingers down, and see if it runs away.  The kitten acted just like a cat should, delicately sniffing, touching a cold nose to one knuckle, then rubbing its face against my hand.  Marie and I had once tried to bring in a stray cat that wandered into our yard, but my step-mother had sent it away.  I scratched the kitten behind one ear and under its chin and felt the slightest buzz of a purr before it even occurred to me that maybe I shouldn't, and carefully took my hand back.

"Can I pick it up?" I asked.

Second Squad's reaction would probably have been comical if Ionoth hadn't meant life or death for them for their entire lives.  Brandon was closest to me, sitting at a right-angle, and turned his head only to leap up as if scalded.  Then they were all on their feet, the nanoliquid blades appearing,  and the cat leapt away, vanishing.  I just sat there staring up at them.

"Kittens are evil?" I asked.

None of them answered immediately, but Marc touched his hand to my shoulder and stared about, searching.  "Nothing," he said.

We returned to KOTIS in tense silence.  Axel was the most on edge I'd ever seen him, probably composing a scathing report as we made our way back.  I was expecting to get a lecture from someone, well probably a couple lectures, but definitely from one 'someone' in particular.  I was not looking forward to North's return greeting.  There was no way he wouldn't hear of this. I was almost hoping for a stickie to show up when I was scanned.  No such luck.