Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (44 page)

“Mike
,
I’ve missed you
,” Beth said
,
tears welling up in her eyes.

I
wanted to be vindictive and tell her she abandoned
me
,
leaving
me
in the void
to stumble
and pull
all the pieces together
to get
on with some semblance of a life. But none of those words came.
I
still was having great difficulty engaging the function of speech.

Beth continued. “I have nothing left in this world, Mike. Except for you
.
”
S
he
looked
hopefully into
my
eyes.

I
wanted nothing more than to push her out of
my room, but I
was afraid that if
I
even brushed up against her
I
would pull her down onto
my
bed and never let her go again.

“You left me
,”
I
whispered. The words scraping like sand as they came out of
my
constricted throat.

Beth looked stung, her eyes threatening to cry. She moved a step closer,
I
involuntarily flinched
backward
on the bed. The movement didn’t go unnoticed
,
Beth stopped.

“I need you
,
Mike
.
N
ow more than ever
,”
s
he nearly cried.

“Why
,
because I’m the only one left
?
”
I
wished the moment it
had
left
my
lips that
I
hadn’t said it. The effect was instantaneous. Beth began to sob, inconsolably.
I
had never been able to handle a woman’s crying and now was no different.

“Please
,
Beth
,
don’t do that. I didn’t mean it.”

The crying slowed but didn’t stop.

“Listen
,”
I
continued. “You hurt me l
ike I’ve never been hurt before.
I
t took me a long time to get over you.”

Beth’s tears almost doubled. “Yuh-
yyyou’re over me?” she cried.

“Please-
please
,
stop. Yes and no
.
I’ve finally stopped thinking about you every minute of every day
—
now it’s more like every other minute.”

Beth smiled a little.

“I know what I did was wrong
,” she said
haltingly. “I guess I didn’t want to believe how bad off we really were and the extreme measures we were going to have to take to survive
,” she said
. “I’ve had to do some pretty terrible things myself just to get here.”

To my surprise
,
I
found
my
self almost against
my
own will rising and crossing the distance
between
us.
I
n a moment
,
I
found
my
self hugging her and being hugged  in return by the girl who had showed
me
what love was and then shattered
my
heart into fragments.
I
had been able to piece some of
it
back together
,
but it would never be like the original.

Beth’s sobbing began anew as she buried her head into the crook of
my
shoulder.
I
stood there holding on for dear life,
my
own eyes threatening to loose their water works.

***

Tracy had been on her way to Mike’s room and had just turned the corner in the hallway to see
a person that
could only be Beth as she walked into the room and by the looks of it she had been invited. Tracy wavered between an all out confrontation or quiet
withdrawal
.
S
he was frozen in indecision
.
I
t wasn’t until she noticed movement at the far end of the corridor that she began to move. But much to her dislike it was away from
t
here
;
she wanted nothing more than to go to her quarters and put a few well aimed slugs in
to her wall
.
H
opefully
,
they would find their final resting place in
the picture frame she had managed to salvage that
now
contained Mike’s likeness. She was so blinded by rage
,
it took her more than a moment to discover she was somehow sitting on the ground
, having walked into a wall
.

“Small female hu-man
,”
t
he booming voice
echoed in the constricted quarters. “Are you alright?” Drababan stooped over
,
extending his giant hand to help her up. She attempted to swat away his offer of help, but anything less than lethal force was not likely to move any part of Drababan.

“I’m fine
!” she shouted
, wincing at her outburst.

Drababan didn’t seem to notice or at least he didn’t mind. “But there is water coming out of your eyes. I know that generally signifies pain in your species.”

“Oh
,
so now you’re a doctor?” Tracy knew Drababan had nothing to do with what she was feeling
,
but she couldn’t help using him as her
whipping
boy
.

“No,
I am not a doctor
,
but I have studied your species
’
physiology enough to probably be considered
as such
in some of your more backward societies.

Tracy looked up at him
,
stunned
.
S
he was having as difficult a time as Mike when trying to figure out Drababan’s wry sense of humor
, if that was even what it was.

“Let me help you up, small female hu-man
,”
D
rababan
r
epeated.

“Tracy, my name is Tracy. Not small female hu-man
,” she answered
as Drababan nearly sent her into orbit as he pulled her up to her feet. “Thank you
,”
s
he mumbled.

“You certainly are welcome
,” he said
graciously. “Have you been to Mike’s
?” he asked
.

“You call him Mike, why do you call everyone else around you by a description?” She nearly shouted, more so because he was so tall and she didn’t know if he could hear her from where she stood.

“He has earned it
,” he said
matter-of-factly
.

Tracy knew arguing with
him
would be futile
.
I
n her own way she had more than earned respect for the things she had done and accomplished
;
why
then
did she feel the need to earn th
e
ugly alien
’
s respect?
I
f she had the chance back in France
,
she would have filled his tough green hide with as many bullets as her rifle magazine could carry
.

“You kn
ow that I have earned the Navy C
ross?”
s
he threw out.

More perceptive than she could have ever imagined Drababan answered back. “Why do you care what I think of you?”

More in a rage than anything Tracy let loose anew with her tears. “I DON’T CARE
,
YOU FUCKING OVERGROWN LIZARD! I JUST WANT YOU AND ALL YOUR KIND TO GET OFF MY FUCKING PLANET!”

Her shouting drew the attention of a lot of civilians and just as many soldiers who had been ordered to ‘escort’ Drababan
around the base ‘at a distance’.

“Ah
,
look what you have done now, small female hu-man
.
Y
ou have brought my entourage
,”
Drababan
said
,
but with what seemed like a lot less humor in his
voice
.

Six soldiers loosely encircled Drababan, weapons not drawn
yet.

“Is there a problem
,
L
ieutenant?”
t
he nearest one asked.

“Yeah
,
there’s a fucking problem
,” she said
with more control, but laced with more vehemence in her voice. “Why is this fucking lizard w
alking loose around this bunker?
”

Tracy's fight was not with Drababan but rather his kind, he just happened to be within her range of anger.

***

“Because he is my friend
,” I said
as
I
broke through the circle of soldiers. “Put your weapons away and leave now
,” I said
to the sergeant closest to Tracy.
A corporal that had been on our detail coming in had come to get me when he saw the rising anger in Tracy. I was grateful that he had, this looked like it had the potential to turn disastrous.

The sergeant looked to Tracy and then back to
me
.

“
Sir,
we have our orders
,”
t
he sergeant replied.

“Fuck your orders!”
I
shot back. The sergeant visibly recoiled. “You don’t take your men now and withdraw
then
I’ll make sure you all are skinning potatoes for the next
year!”

“I’ll have to tell
the
g
eneral about this
,”
t
he sergeant said, trying his best to save face
as he withdrew
.

“Do you know who I am
,
Sergeant?”
I
asked with more control in
my
voice.

“I am well aware of who you are
, sir
,” the sergeant said,
swallowing what appeared to be a big knot in his throat.

“Then do you really think that I care if you go run off to the
g
eneral
about what happened here?”

The sergeant finally broke eye
contact
with Drababan and looked squarely at
my
hard features, for a moment unsure
which of the
two
of us
was at the moment more dangerous.

“Yes
, sir
.
I mean no
, sir
,
”
t
he sergeant stuttered, “We’ll withdraw now. Men stand down, go back to your secondary positions.” The crowd began to disperse as the tension drained away.

“Mike
—
Mike
,
what’s going on?” Beth said as she pressed through the dissipating crowd. She stopped short when she came up on the scene.
I
stood in a triangle with one of the
Genogerians
and with what Beth
w
ould
tell me later was
one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen to grace a battle dress uniform. Most women got lost in the clothes, this woman’s beauty seemed to rise above her garb
,
she had said jealously.

“Mike? Is everything alright?” Beth asked
,
skirting the
Genogerian
as much as was possible. But from the aura of hatred she could seething from
Tracy,
she tried her best to keep her distance there too, which in a small corridor was not an easy feat.