Star Brigade: Resurgent (Star Brigade Book 1) (21 page)

“I’m not sorry for leaving,” Nwosu finally said, “Only for how I left things. Should’ve…” The Cerc’s voice caught as he squeezed his eyes shut, forcing down a swell of grief. He began trembling and for a moment, it looked like Habraum might burst at the seams. Honaa, bitter or not, didn’t know if he could bear such a miserable sight. However, the Cerc swallowed hard, wiping away the tears with the back of his hand before composing himself. “Should’ve been less of a coward...and gone to the funeral.”

At least we agree on that.
“You talked to their familiesss?” Honaa asked.

“Only Jovian’s widow and daughter,” Habraum replied, his voice still thick with sorrow, but strengthening by the moment. “Those first few months…Mirräe and Kendra helped a lot with Jeremy when I was on Lelsoiim and Carriboth.”

Honaa laughed grimly, recalling the vitriol between Sam and Ivers’ wife. “I bet Ssssam loved that.”

Habraum gave Honaa a sidelong glare. “Sam
doesn’t know
,” he stated in a way that didn’t sound like a request. The Rothorid had always found the Cerc’s vibrant hazel-gold eyes rather unsettling, making one feel so exposed whenever under his penetrating attention. Habraum’s stare softened as he continued. “I know Star Brigade needed me then. But my son needed me more. Still does.”

The statement should have angered Honaa with all its crimsonborn self-importance. But he then recalled Nwosu’s offspring at his mother’s funeral, a pyre returning her to the earth and the sky in tradition of the Holy Gemini religion. Jeremy’s tears ran in rivers during the service. But like his father he never once sobbed. Cercidalean males were as unyielding as the red rocks of their homeworld, even in the face of such loss. How could anyone with at least one heart return to active duty when that wonderful boy needed them?
I was wrong once again.
You are far braver than I imagined, Cerc
, Honaa almost said. But if he spoke that aloud, Habraum wouldn’t be the only one in tears.

“I’m here now, trying to save Star Brigade…so their deaths weren’t in vain,” The Cerc turned his body toward his former mentor, his three-inch height advantage more pronounced. “I can’t do it alone, but I need Brigadiers I can trust on my side. Are you onboard or not?”

Seeing Nwosu steeped in barely contained grief, hearing the subtle plea in what was openly an ultimatum, Honaa suddenly lost his desire to hate the Cerc. So he let it go, and the release was liberating. Habraum Nwosu, his former protégé, was back where he belonged. As was a little piece of Honaa he’d thought had vanished.

The Rothorid nodded, conveying his silent agreement…and forgiveness.

Much of the taut grief on Habraum’s features bled away. “Alright,” he gave the Rothorid a curt nod, and blew out of the room as if it were filled with toxic air.

It was after the door hissed shut behind Habraum that Honaa, staring at the life-like holograms of his fallen teammates, allowed hopeful smile to play across his leathery snout. Deep in his very marrow, the Rothorid realized that Star Brigade might finally be in safe hands.

11.

“And when did this start, Borok?” Liliana Cortes asked, squatting before her patient. The Thulican youth Borok sat on an exam room table. The cone-headed boy had ruby saucer-like eyes, a lipless mouth and a noseless face; simple features like most Thulicans.

“Three days ago,” he answered, his metallic skin covered in nasty greenish rust. Borok scratched his leg, which had an extreme amount of it.

“Uh-uh.” Liliana rested a hand on Borok’s. “You don’t want to scratch off your skin do you?” she laughed. Borok didn’t. Liliana stopped laughing. Her mother always said her bedside manner sucked.

“Stand up and let’s see what’s wrong.” Liliana ran a wallet-sized medical scancorder over Borok that emitted a thin beam of light, inspecting his internal techno-organic systems. She flipped the device over, tapping a finger on her slightly dimpled chin while studying its results. The doctor frowned.
I knew it.

Cortes stood up. Even in dark blue scrubs her tall, long and lean figure was obvious. On his feet, Borok barely reached Liliana’s chest. “Corrosive Rash Syndrome. It’s an allergic reaction some technorgs get from eating high concentrations of beryllium.” Borok shifted in his seat, not meeting her gaze.

“Borok?” Liliana cocked her head curiously to the right. “Have you been eating glow puffs? I know Thulican progenies love that stuff, and it’s loaded with beryllium.”

Borok nodded ruefully, his resemblance to a mechanoid scary. “I didn’t know I was allergic. Please don’t tell my progenitors!” he pleaded. Borok’s youthful voice had the Thulican mechanical resonance.

Liliana winced. “Sorry, I have to. C’mon. I’ll write a prescription to clear this up and then we’ll tell them together.” Borok sulked. After writing a prescription and telling his progenitors in the waiting room, Liliana saw why he didn’t want to tell them. The two Thulicans loudly berated their progeny in the beeping/honking Thulican dialect. Even after leaving the office, Liliana could hear the progenitors still scolding poor Borok down the hospital corridors. She sighed and ran a hand through her short brown hair, pixie-cut with a tousled spiky styling. Just another unspectacular day at San Ysidro Medcenter. All her work days were starting to feel alike, the same maladies with different sentients attached to them.

By the time Liliana’s shift ended, a crimson-streaked sunset had bled over Alcazar’s skyline. The city-state’s panorama of towering starscrapers and veiny hovercar traffic were sandwiched between the majestic Winehorns Mountains and Navarre’s Diamante Coast. Liliana whistled in awe, even though this was her daily view for the past year. In fact, she couldn’t think of one viewport in the entire San Ysidro Medcenter lacking a great view of something. Not surprising with San Ysidro nestled so deep in Alcazar—Navarre’s capital and Terra Sollus’ fifth largest city-state. Liliana walked toward the viewport and zoned out, her thoughts stuck on the monotonous life she had chosen.

It wasn’t that Liliana disliked patient care. She enjoyed curing sentients of their ailments. Still, Liliana just went through the daily motions, pressed rewind at the end of the day and repeated the next day. What she really wanted was to do xenobiology research.

Six more months,
Liliana reminded herself.
She needed to complete eighteen months of patient care at San Ysidro before applying for one of their research grants. Liliana might’ve gotten a research grant sooner, if she could stomach interstellar travel. So chronic was her space sickness, that she could only travel to and from med school on Galdor using slumber stasis.

She pushed away the stomach-churning memory. By the time Liliana moved from the viewport to her office, the sinking sun had leached away the violet hue from the Winehorn mountain range, leaving a jagged and imposing silhouette. Time for patient bookkeeping—easily the least exciting part of her job.

Liliana hadn’t even sat down before her desk’s comm began beeping incessantly. The helix-shaped SuSpa Communications logo imposed itself on the holographic viewscreen hovering over the doctor’s desk. “
Dulce Madre,
its past 1800 orvs!” she snapped. “Who—?” The screen displayed ‘Restricted Call’ in bold. “Send it through.” Liliana sighed, more wary than angry now.

The caller appeared onscreen, and Liliana immediately brightened. “Samantha D’Urso!”

“Liliana Lucia Gallegos Cortes.” Sam beamed at her. “How are ya lovey?”

“Pleasantly surprised,” Liliana smiled. “Why do you get such a kick out of saying my full name?”

Sam shrugged. “Eh, for funsies.” Immediately, the two women were chatting and catching up in Spanish—a common Old Earth dialect on Navarre and Terra Sollus’s other Latin nations.

It amused Liliana to this day recalling their first meeting three years ago. The doctor, then beginning her xenobiology/xenoimmunology fellowship on Hollus, first encountered Sam from afar. Liliana had refused to believe that any human being could possess Sam’s face and body without biosculpting work, particularly the natural ‘goldilocks’ blonde hair so rare amongst earthborns. And then she had witnessed Sam publically cursing out a pitiable Galdorian analyst over some colossal screw-up. Her fury had been frightening, only adding to the unflattering stories Liliana already heard; repeated clashes with superiors, excessive risk-taking on missions, the many contacts of the felonious variety, a parade of rumored lovers—including not one but
two
married Brigadiers. Even if Liliana’s xenobiology residency hadn’t been her primary focus, Samantha D’Urso hadn’t been someone she
ever
wanted to associate with.

But try as she might to avoid her, Liliana had inopportunely found herself sharing a translifter with Sam a month later. Wearing horned-rimmed info-glasses, her golden hair tousled as if just rolling out of bed, she had gregariously greeted the doctor like an old friend…in flawless Navarreño Spanish. Even stranger, Sam had known all about Liliana, from who her famous mother was, to the time of her morning jog in Hollus’s fitness center. “I’d be a shitty intelligence operative if I didn’t know who’s who on Hollus,” had been her blasé reply to Liliana’s surprise. The conversation had traveled out of the translifter and to Holosphere for an impromptu dinner.

During the meal
Sam had a smile in her voice as she told loud and often lewd stories of her fellow Brigadiers. The
feminine allure she exuded had left Liliana utterly charmed, her sharp wit and irreverent opinions on everything had the doctor clutching her sides with laughter. Sam had revealed little about herself outside of Star Brigade, but had a talent for prying personal details out of others, like Liliana’s crippling space travel phobia.

“Yet you attended medical university on Galdor? And are doing an accelerated UComm medical fellowship…on a
starbase
? You’re infinitely weird.” An impish lopsided grin had pulled at Sam’s lips when she purred, “We’re sooo gonna be friends.”

True enough, they had been good friends ever since. Even at the end of Liliana’s fellowship when she had opted for inactive reserve status, Sam was one of the few who stayed in touch.

Presently, Sam brought Liliana up to speed on her work with Korvenites. “Wow,” Liliana stretched her long slender legs, speaking in Standard Tongue again. The doctor had no interest in discussing Korvenites, so she changed the topic. “What’s the word on Star Brigade?”

“That’s actually why I called.” Sam’s expression sobered dramatically. “We’re having an all-hands on Hollus tomorrow, 1030 orvs. Sorry for the short notice.”

Liliana narrowed her dark, deep-set eyes. “Sam, I can’t come tomorrow. I have patients—.”

“—who can be reassigned to another doctor, no?” Sam finished for her.

“Well, yeah but—,” Liliana stammered.

“But what?” Sam observed her expectantly. “All summoned personnel are required to attend.”

The order behind her jovial tone wasn’t lost on Liliana. It was just a meeting.
Probably to decommission the damned thing.
Slowly Liliana nodded in acquiescence. “I’ll schedule a flight to—.”

Sam scoffed. “Ha! We’ll have someone pick you up at Bilbao Interplanetary!”

“Sam,” Liliana pursed her full lips, annoyed. “I’ll be there.”

“I know, sweets,” Sam gave her a lopsided grin. “Just a courtesy since Terra Sollus is right next to Zeid. I’ll send flight info and the Brigadier picking you up in a bit.
Hasta mañana
!” The viewscreen winked out and Sam was gone, leaving Liliana to ponder what the hell she just agreed to.

She kept asking herself that question the following morning, standing now in the middle of Bilbao Interplanetary Spaceport, buffeted by the usual hustle and bustle of passengers rushing around her. “What the
HELL
did I agree to?” Just being inside a spaceport made the doctor’s stomach sour.

Liliana had chosen to do her fellowship on Hollus Maddrone UComm starbase for two reasons—its accelerated xenobiology fellowship and to master her maximal abilities that had manifested in the middle of her medical university. Thankfully, Liliana’s ‘gifts’ weren’t violently out of control like her elder brother’s. But the doctor had still wanted to gain mastery over them, just in case. So she trained in the proper use of her abilities with other Brigade recruits, despite being on a much different career track. When not training, much of her fellowship still took place in the Medcenter that serviced the Star Brigade sections of the starbase, doing research on maximal mutations as well as treating injured Brigadiers. But she had no desire to be a field operative for Star Brigade. The injuries she had treated solidified that stance…and Brigadiers had to fly in ships…constantly using hyperspace jumps. Liliana shuddered.

Like Sam had said, Star Brigade sent Liliana an image and profile of a Star Brigadier to her datapad so she’d recognize him. “My fellow Brigadier? Did I just think that?” Liliana couldn’t…
wouldn’t
think that. She planned to remain a doctor with her feet on solid Terra Sollan soil no matter what this meeting was about. 2
nd
Lt. Prydyri-Ravlek would be transporting her to Hollus Maddrone, leaving from shuttle bay 5100. Tall and powerfully built, V’Korram was a Kintarian with semi-thick tawny body fur, green-flecked eyes and shaggy ginger mane falling past his shoulders. Liliana’s xenobiologist savvy told her that he was Antharo Kintarian, evident by his broader more feline nose and pointed, brown-tipped ears sticking out slightly lower than most Kintarian ethnicities alongside his head.