Chains of Destruction (15 page)

"Admit that you've been screwing with my head for years. I don't know what you really want, and quite frankly I don't know if I can handle you sexually, or emotionally for that matter. You know how I felt about Sandy, and you know she didn't feel the same way about me. I don't really know how I feel about you, all I know is I don't want to wake up one morning and realize I've fallen in love with you and that you're in love with someone else. Especially if that someone else is David Grant."

RJ laughed, and was immediately less tense. "Levits I could never love David. I don't think that I ever really did. He was the first person besides Stewart that I was ever close to, and between you and me, my father wasn't the warmest guy in the world. I wanted to love David, and since I didn't really understand what love was then I thought that I did. I know better now." She took a deep breath. "I think it's obvious that the reason we are fighting all the time is because we aren't having sex. I admit it. I just haven't wanted to get that close, especially to someone I care about. I wanted to separate myself from everyone and everything, but you wouldn't stay behind, ya bastard, so since you're here bothering the hell out of me, we might as well at least be having sex."

"Once we leave the ship there's probably not going to be another chance for awhile," Levits said swallowing hard.

She made the first move, walking up to him and draping her arms around his neck. "If you're really worried about me shredding your manhood
 . . .
"

"I'm not." He put his arms around her and pulled her to him. He brought his lips down on hers and she responded. "So can we close the door?"

"No, but I'll make sure you forget that it's open."

Topaz, Janad and Poley were in the rec-room. Poley and Topaz were trying to teach Janad how to play the complicated game of bottle caps.

"So you throw the bottle cap into the cup and that's it?" Janad said.

"You have to make it from the spot the last person made it from," Poley reminded.

"And if you miss you have to take a piece of your clothing off very slowly," Topaz said. Poley started to contradict him. "That's the space rules, Poley."

Janad nodded, and threw the cap in.

"Beginner's luck," Topaz assured her.

They all heard RJ's screams of ecstasy. Topaz looked at Poley and smiled. "Maybe they'll stop fighting now."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Poley said. He made his shot.

Levits walked into the rec-room looking disheveled and exhausted, and grinning from ear to ear. He didn't even seem to notice the fact that Topaz was sitting wearing nothing but a smile.

"So I see you lived through it," Topaz said.

Levits smiled stupidly his head lolling to one side. "So far."

"I'm so happy," Poley said.

"OK, whatever little tin dude," Levits laughed. He seemed to stop and think for a minute. "I wanted to tell you guys something, now what was it?" Levits seemed to be in deep thought. "Oh, yeah! I slept with RJ." He laughed, went to the drink machine, took out two bottles, unscrewed the caps and tossed them to Poley who caught them.

"It didn't sound like you were sleeping," Topaz said with a broad smile.

Levits just laughed, took his drinks and left.

"That was very primal," Poley said thoughtfully.

"How so?" Topaz asked.

"The male of the species foraging for food to feed the female and the ritual equivalent of pounding on his chest in the presence of the other males to let them know to stay away from what he now considers to be his female," Poley said.

"Very good observation, Poley," Topaz complemented.

Janad just shrugged, bored with all of it. She tossed one of her bottle caps at the cup, and she missed for only the third time. She had taken off both her boots already, so she took off her top slowly as previously instructed.

Topaz smiled.

"While your courtship behavior is more juvenile," Poley observed.

"Here's a clue for you Poley!" Topaz turned glaring at him. "You don't have to speak all your observations out loud." He jumped up, grabbed his pants off the floor and put them on quickly. "I have to go check on David." He left.

Poley shrugged and tossed his bottle cap. It went in the cup; it always did.

"Do you always hit it?" Janad asked.

"Yes," Poley said matter-of-factly.

"So why do you play?

"Because I like to win," he informed her.

He still made Janad uncomfortable, but she no longer feared him.

"What's wrong with you?" Janad asked.

"Nothing's wrong with me," Poley said in confusion. "I'm perfect."

"That's it!" Janad exclaimed.

Haldeed woke up first. In the distance he heard machines, big machines. Sounds he had only heard a few times in his life but recognized all too well. He ran to the window and looked out. In the distance he could see a huge flying machine carrying something even bigger below it. He watched in horror as it got closer and closer, and he realized what it meant.

Haldeed ran back to the bed and shook Taleed till he started to stir.

Taleed woke up smiling. He'd slept well enough and long enough that even being awakened with a shake couldn't dampen his spirits. He was warm and dry and well rested, he stretched and thought of the wonderful breakfast he would eat. "See, Haldeed? We have made it. We have escaped, and no horrible fate has befallen us. We haven't angered the gods, and no punishment will come to us," he said smugly

He heard a strange noise, and then Haldeed was frantically pulling him towards the window. Taleed followed reluctantly; he didn't want anything to rain on his parade. He looked out the window and sighed. "Damn! I should have kept my mouth shut."

They dressed and packed quickly and started for the back door. They could hear the village priest in the middle of the town telling the people that the gods had ordered that some of them go to shed blood on a distant world for the glory of the gods. Haldeed started to go towards the town square, but Taleed elbowed him in the other direction.

"We cannot give up now, Haldeed," Taleed whispered in Haldeed's ear. "Not when we have gotten this close. We certainly can't allow ourselves to fall into Reliance hands."

But Taleed, how far will we get when the very gods seem to be pitted against us
? Haldeed signed in despair.
How can we escape the Reliance and their machines
?
If we go to them and tell them who you are, they will surely take us back to your father
.
The worst that will happen to us is we will be scolded
.

"No! No, I will not go back. Do you hear me, Haldeed? I would rather be a slave to the Reliance than a slave of the priests. If you are right and the gods are true, then no harm can come to me because I am then a god. I am the chosen, and I shall make sure that no harm comes to you. Now come on, Haldeed, let us not give up without at least the hint of a fight."

"What the hell are we loading all this shit for?" Levits asked putting yet another pile of pans into the skiff.

"The girl told us they trade goods from their planet for metal. We may need items of value to trade. Theirs is a metal poor planet, therefore anything of metal is going to be of value." She threw the second broken security droid into the skiff. "The cloth, while of some trade value, is mostly there as a cover for the gold, and we sure as hell aren't taking that gold to the planet."

Levits nodded his head in agreement then smiled.

"What?" RJ asked. Then feeling why he was smiling, smiled herself. She felt better than she had felt in a very long time and much more relaxed.

"I was just thinking about how surprised David's going to be when he wakes up and finds out everything has changed." He looked at her his face getting suddenly red. "RJ, I just wanted to say that I
 . . .
Well that you really are
 . . .
"

"What?" RJ asked with a crooked grin.

"Infuriating," he said with a laugh. He leaned over and kissed her check. "Did you
 . . .
could you
 . . .
" Levits damned his tongue. He didn't usually have any trouble talking; he sure as hell hadn't ever had any trouble talking to a woman. Except that this wasn't just any woman. This was RJ. It was unnerving to know that she knew exactly how he felt and that he had not a clue how she felt. "Damn it, RJ, do you feel anything at all for me?"

"Of course I do," RJ turned her head and kissed his lips, "and yes I could." They were in each other's arms and on the floor of the ship in a matter of minutes.

Topaz coughed loudly. "All right I hate to be the one to rain on young love, but it really is important that we get David to the surface as quickly as possible."

Levits rose up on his arms and looked down at RJ. "See? He's nothing but trouble." Levits got up and put down his hand to help RJ her up although it wasn't necessary. She took his hand, and allowed him to pull her against him as she reached her feet. He kissed her, and then they parted.

Topaz set down the load of pans he held. "Janad and Poley have another load, and then I think that's about got it. I've loaded all the medical supplies I could find. Who knows what we might be exposed to?"

"Lovely," Levits said taking a seat at the controls and giving them a quick once over.

"All right all that's left is to get our space suits on, make sure the helmets are safe and it's time to bug out of here," RJ said. "I'll go get David. See if you can get a fix on where the Reliance set down their transport station on the surface."

"We were in luck," Levits said from his seat at the console. "We seem to be in a pulse free window, and I've already got the coordinates locked in."

"Let's just hope this pulse free window doesn't allow the Reliance to track us," Topaz said.

"We know their position in space, they don't know ours, it's damn hard to track something if you don't know it exists, much less where it's coming from," RJ said.

Topaz nodded. That made sense. "It won't take them long to set up the transmat unit, and then they will be transmatting the Beta 4 humanoids to the station. That's one more reason to get this show on the road."

RJ nodded in agreement and went to get David. Topaz and Levits started to put on their space suits. Levits got in his long before Topaz did, then he turned and without a word started redoing the seals on Topaz's. Yesterday this would have precipitated a continuous stream of load noxious insults out of Levits' mouth, but today he just unsnapped and resnapped the seals. Topaz was glad to see Levits smile, and even happier to see that the spring was back in RJ's step.

Janad and Poley brought the last load of pans. Poley helped Janad into her space suit.

"Aren't you going to put a suit on?" she asked.

"I don't need one," Poley said.

"But don't you
want
one?" Janad asked. "They're pretty. It will make you look like a god."

Topaz laughed. "Honey, with the
shlong
Stewart stuck on that boy, he already looks like a god. However put the suit on anyway Poley it may help you with the natives."

RJ arrived carrying David, and Levits helped her slip his sleeping form into a suit but not without mumbling. "Bastard, sling shit all over me, I ought to leave your seals open." They slipped his helmet on him and secured it, then lashed him into a stretcher type affair at the back of the flight deck, which was there to haul wounded back from the front.

They sat down and strapped in. Levits started the countdown, the bay doors opened, and as he got to one the skiff was shot from the mother ship like a spore out of mold.

"Ye ha!" Topaz screamed. "Now this is how it ought ah be. This is like
Star Wars
shit, man!"

Levits just smiled and shook his head. He actually felt more comfortable flying the skiff than he had the troop carrier. That had just reminded him too much of his own personal terrors.

"Don't rejoice yet, Topaz, you haven't experienced re-entry. In a ship the size of this skiff and a planet with that kind of gravitational pull, it will feel like you are being shook apart," Levits informed him.

"Bring it on, baby! Bring it on!" Topaz said excitedly.

"Just pray the Reliance doesn't get a bead on us, Old Man," Levits said. "I'm sure even their temporary satellite has fighter ships, and this skiff has one forward plasma cannon and one aft laser."

"They aren't likely to see us, much less get a bead on us," RJ reassured them. "They're on the other side of the planet, and as I said they don't know to look for us. I think you can relax and enjoy the ride."

Topaz laughed heartily. "You know I've just got to say it. You two are so much easier to get along with when you're getting laid."