The Black

Two flashes blinked outside of the observation windows of Port Royal as a pair of sleek hunters dropped out of slip space and headed for the planet. None of the occupants of the station could actually see the two vessels as they hurtled toward Delmar.

“Confirmation received, we are good to burn” Ivar spoke finally as R’Cari bent to his touch, Sombra hot on his wing, as the two deep space predators ignited their main drives once more and began the burn for Delmar.

“I hope we made it in time. I haven’t seen Frie’s little one yet” Martina mused as Sombra’s main drives purred under her command. “I hear they had a little girl.”

“Is that jealousy I hear?” Ivar mused back at his wife.

“A little, but we have work to do. And I love it out here, with you, too much.” Martina admitted.

“I know” Ivar said gently, “Mac and Lyrians kids are so cute, I do want to meet our own… someday” he finished.

The last few weeks had been an interesting event. As the USN Houston had arrived on station with Reliable Son, the husband and wife team had been sent to two more freighters. One was a false alarm, and the captain was not impressed... the other… the other had already been boarded by the time they arrived. The pair had to watch, unable to affect a rescue, as the freighter was stripped of its valuables and set adrift. They had tagged the pirate vessel, and it was currently being tracked by port Royal. They had received word that morning that one of the Delmar commanded cruisers had intercepted the barge and destroyed it, after rescuing a paltry 37 survivors from the derelict freighter.

Sol had promised a response, and supposedly Mac was bringing part of it. Martina worried, she knew the numbers… humanity lacked manpower, and their war of almost extinction had left them capable of defending their home system but…

Off in the distance, the transponder of the USN Galveston blinked on their sensors. “Gally’s already back? That can’t be good…” Martina murmured as she tuned Sombra’s forward array tighter to get a composite picture as they closed on the S.O.L. “Madre de Dios…”

“What is it…. gods….” Ivar reacted as Martina fed him her sensors through data link. “That’s the Celest…… Does Lyrian know?”

“I have no idea… but now we know why the Gally is in system..” Martina flicked her sensors back to TWS, unable to look at the barely recognizable hulk being ferried to the shipyards under Galveston’s gentle care. The rest of the two-hour burn took on an eerie silence.

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Cammy bounded up to the forward windows pressing her nose against the clear material as Galveston eased into orbit over her home. “This never gets old. I almost never get to see our approach. Engineering is always so……busy.”

“It’s a beautiful view” Patric strolled up beside her. “Feels more important somehow… after everything.” He smiled down at Cammy. “So. What are you going to do first?”

“I donno, my whole family is going to be there when I land, because of what happened. I probably won’t be let out of sight for a month.” She groaned.

“Oh? Not even with an old friend?” Patrick chuckled as she playfully shoved him.

“You know what I mean. I doubt they would be able to argue with the three of you.” She laughed.

“Three?” Patrick gave her a quizzical look

“You, Smith, and Wesson” Cammy smirked as Patrick snorted at the joke.

The trip home after the attack had proven that their room assignments were not a mistake. Both had woken up to nightmares and being able to talk to each other had been helpful. Patrick had taken to wearing his heirloom weapon about the ship, albeit in a more modern and less ornate holster, than the one it had come with. It currently rode on Patrick’s hip and received not so much as an eye bat from the crew of the Gally.

“Well, I guess the three of us could visit from time to time. I was just going to bunk in one of the naval apartments until I found a place… I didn’t really expect to be back this soon. I’m not even sure how my pay is going to work out, with the attack and all.” Patrick explained as they headed for the shuttles, the offload of survivors was beginning and the two of them had a shuttle to catch if they were to arrive with their things.

“What’s your family like?” Cammy asked as they walked.

“My Mah, she and my father split up when I was younger.. I grew up bouncing from her house in Wisconsin in the summer to his house in Norfolk for the winter… I was an only kid. Mah passed from lung cancer two years ago. Pops is still working for the shipyards. I think he gets his pension this year.” Patrick took a breath, “he never had any interest in space. He always thought we needed to focus on what we had right there at home.”

“What’s it like, having no siblings.” Cammy asked as they sat down in the shuttle, “I grew up with 3 brothers and a sister. I can’t imagine being that… alone.” she admitted. She turned and looked up slightly at the taller Patrick, “you’re coming with me. No one stays alone for the holidays.”

Patrick looked back at her, giving her an odd expression, she didn’t recognize. “I’de be delighted.” He finally answered with a warm smile.

The shuttle’s dampeners muted the buffeting as it passed through the thickening atmosphere. And Patrick looked out the window. This part never got old for him. The shuttle’s force fields shimmered as it managed the heat of reentry rather than forcing that on coating of the skin of the vessel. Patrick mused on his life as flickers of plasma licked at the invisible shield standing between the shuttle and fiery oblivion. His was an existence of boring but reliable engineering principles punctuated by episodes of pure elation or unfathomable terror. This incident seemed to combine the two, with the Terror of the Pirate attack punctuated with the following weeks of sorrow lined with the company of the most beautiful creature to give him the time of day, in his entire life. He knew she most likely just saw him as a friend, and he smashed the small bead of hope he felt when she invited him to visit her family. Delmar were this way after all. He went back to viewing the very uniquely Delmar scenery as the shuttle swooped in towards the offload zones.

“It never gets old…” He murmured...

“No, it doesn’t.” Patrick jumped as the sweet voice had shifted to his shoulder and startled him, he turned to find Cammy leaning over his shoulder looking through the same porthole.

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A pirate barge burned heavily towards a Delmar Freighter in the distance as its captain sized up the signature on his scanner’s readouts.

“Launch fighters...” he bawled, he didn’t like how fast his prey was, but he could have caught a captain between contracts, and the equipment from inside the vessel would pay for the attack if he could dispatch his prey quickly.

6 cobbled together snub fighters burst from the flanks of the barge and burned toward the freighter leaving dirty black particulate in their main drives exhaust wake.

“Hale them.” The captain ordered before heaving his mass to his feet just as an image of one of those ‘humans’ appeared on his screens. He smiled, as he would be able to fetch a price for this one. “Heave to and prepare to be boarded. I won’t ask a second time.”

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to comply. Break pursuit, or we will respond with force.” The human’s cool demeanor rang alarm bells deep in the pirate captain’s mind, but his sensors still showed a single freighter and his fighters closing. They would be in range in 2 minutes.

“Fine, we do it the hard way. Your carcass will pay for this entire operation, Huuuuman. All batteries, Open fire.” He sneered. Every one of his forward Plasma batteries fired as one with his ship grade laser turrets lanced their hate into the void, slamming into the freighter. The balls and lances of energy pummeled the freighter, and the pirate smiled as it gave his onslaught covered his fighters approach, the were just about to…

White puffs of smoke appeared from seeming nowhere, each streak arced out, chasing down each and every one of his fighters before more puffs of smoke arced out from the from even more seemingly empty spaces in the void and these curved toward his barge. The Hulk shook and groaned as his shields failed first before each and every one of his forward batteries was turned into slag. The captain bellowed orders into the bridge even as his sensors told him that more of these strange weapons had destroyed the output cones of his main drives.

“Now, Captain. Prepare to be boarded, I will not ask a second time..” The pirate captain turned to realize that the Hale had never been disconnected. The Human’s surroundings shimmered and were replaced by a pristine white bridge with several other humans and Delmar at their positions all wearing the same uniform.

The USN Valles dropped her pretense and her faked energy and beacon signatures as she came about and launched her own boarding shuttles. The pirate captain’s eyes widened in horror as no less than 3 separate Delmar Defense transponders activated around his ship, proving that the one thing his intended prey was not..

Was alone.

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Patrick stepped out of the shuttle and took a deep breath. The Delmar air’s pleasant, yet uniquely alien scent just as he was yanked off towards the side by a familiar arm as Cammy practically dragged him toward a small group next to the Luggage pickup. Patrick chuckled as he allowed himself to be led toward the group. He snagged both of their seabags with ease in this gravity as they passed by without breaking stride. Smiling at the slight widening of one or two eyes as he did so.

Not a word was said as mother and daughter reunited with a more traditional embrace before Cammy wrapped her mother up in a Human hug. To Patrick’s surprise, the mother returned the gesture without confusion ‘huh, I guess that one stuck for good’ he mused as he set the massive bags on the ground.

“Mamma, I’m ok Mamma.” Cammy patted her mother on the back.

Her mother straightened after a moment and turned to look at the human her daughter was still holding onto by the hand, “Camorra, who is your friend, and why is he.. well… what is he wearing?”

Patric noticed the older woman’s eyes stray to the pistol still on his hip and he thought quickly, “Patric O’sullivan ma’am. It’s an ancient weapon, it’s been on me since the attack just in case we had more problems, I just forgot to take it off.” He smiled gently, remembering not to show his teeth.

The mother slowly looked him over for a moment before nodding, “I guess that’s fair, considering what happened. I trust it won’t be as… prominently displayed in the future?” Her tone was neutral, but it was clear that the weapon worried her.

Patrick nodded and quickly untucked his civilian button up shirt and slid it over the pistol, “If this makes you more comfortable, I can make do.” he said cordially. He felt Cammy unobtrusively squeeze his hand.

“Mother, it’s been a horrible few weeks, and Patrick has no one to stay with for the Holidays, I invited him to stay with us.” Cammy said finally, breaking her mother’s skeptical stare as her daughter finished.

“OH! Oh yes! Im sorry, where are my manors!” She exclaimed, “Of course! I’m Aria Bailins, this is my husband Kraystus.” She said as the older man of the group nodded toward Patrick, “Well, the train station is this way, Is there anything else that needs to be transported?”

“I only have my sea bag, Cam?” Patrick smiled as the pistol was completely forgotten in a very out-of-sight-out-of-mind sort of way.

“I always packed light, Just the bag” she said as she hefted her own bag, with some effort to her shoulder.

“Well then, this is Pretty much all I left Sol with, so. I’m good to go” Patrick flicked his sea bag over one shoulder.

The trip to the tram station and the tram ride was of filled with small talk, Cammy’s mother wanted to know all about the more pleasant parts of the voyage, what Patrick did before leaving Sol, how comfortable the shuttle ride down from orbit was, where they went this year. Patrick understood. They were being polite, and staying away from open emotional wounds. Cam’s father just sat there, and watched unobtrusively, nodding occasionally, to the conversation. The conversation meandered until they finally reached their destination stop and stepped out of the tram to a walkway one hundred meters in the air that led them to a house build into the trunk of an ancient jungle canopy tree.

Patrick looked up in awe at the dwelling, then glanced over as he heard a familiar laugh. “What?!?” He broke off his stare to send a mild glare to its owner.

“The look on your face!” Cammy continued to laugh before imitating the gesture of an Italian chef that he had taught her, “Priceless” she said in English, drawing a look of surprise from both Patrick and the rest of the group. “Quit gawking, Red. Let’s dump our shit!” She said finally, getting a reprimanding look from her mother before the older woman sighed and waved them in.

Patrick walked into a carved palace, complete with a central staircase and portraits on the walls. The house was 4 levels inside of the ancient tree. With a long elevator to the jungle floor. The same elevator shaft led up the tree to the top of the jungle canopy where a small observation deck was located. Patrick was shown to a room on the third floor by Cammy, who then bounded down a few doors and disappeared into another room returning without her seabag. Patrick stepped into the guest room and found an enormous Delmar style bed as its central feature with a fully separate bathroom off to one side and a closet to the other.

He smiled as he felt Cammy step up beside him, “You didn’t tell me your family was loaded” he mumbled. “Uh, Rich.” He corrected quickly at her confused nose wrinkle. “I feel like I’ve stepped into a palace.”

“We are an older family. Many generations’ blood and toil built this place. I’ve lived my whole life before the freighters here.” Cammy explained. “My people like to live in one place when we are on-world. It makes us feel…”

“Planted.” Patrick turned, “I know the feeling.” He said, intentionally taking Cam’s hand, “Thank you. It’s nice not to be alone in my apartment for once.”

Cam just smiled and bounced on her feet, “Oh Come on! Dinner is almost ready. I’m starving!!” she begged, pulling at him as he once again was led down a labyrinth of ornately carved wood to a massive dining room.

By the time dinner was done, and the mild interrogation from Cammy’s hoard of siblings, Patrick fell face first into his bed, asleep before his head hit the pillow. He was out like a light, but also suffered from being a very light sleeper. A few hours later a soft tapping sound woke him from his slumber. He rolled to his back, assuming the house creaked with the tree’s movement. He was just about to go back to sleep when he heard it again, this time it was louder, and coming from his door. He groaned as he crawled out of bed and slowly trudged to the door. He opened the heavy old wooden-style swinging door slowly, only to be half tackled, half pulled into a desperate hug form a Terrified, Shaking Camorra.

“Hey, Shh. What’s wrong. Did something happen?” He asked softly, gently putting his arms around her, very aware of how thin her night dress was, at the moment. She only clung to him more tightly, trembling as they stood there in the hallway. Patrick looked around before pulling her and him into his room and closing the door once more. “Hey… shhh. It's ok. We are at your home... Cam, talk to me. What’s going on.” He whispered to her as he sat her down on one of the decorative chairs and knelt down to her level.

Camorra sat in the chair for several moments as the violent shaking slowly subsided and focus came back to her features. She finally lifted her face, “I’m sorry. I… I was alone... in my room… It was so cold, I…” She paused as if searching for something. She finally shook herself, “I don’t want to impose..” She stood to leave before being stopped by Patrick.

“No, talk to me. You were terrified just now. What’s going on.” Patrick said with a gentle firmness. “What happened”

Camorra sat back down, “I feel crazy… woke up… you weren’t there... I couldn’t hear you... I was alone… I... got used to listening to you sleep… It helped keep the dreams away knowing you were in the bunk below me...” She admitted before looking him pleadingly in the eyes, “Can I… Stay... I can sleep on a couch or the floor... I just don’t want to be alone. I know Humans can get…. Weird…. with communal sleeping…. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Understanding flooded Patrick’s features, recognizing the PTSD attack for what it was. “Hey, you’re not crazy. We went through something out of nightmares. It will take time to recover from it. We weren’t wounded, but some hurt can’t be seen. Come.” he stood, taking her hand, and leading her to stand, “You can stay, on one request” he stood as she looked a question at him. “Could you put on some more… modest… sleepware… Your night dress is… yea…” Patrick smiled as the auburn patterns on Cammy’s face and neck flared in an embarrassed blush.

Camorra darted down the hall and quickly returned wearing one of the thicker more covering versions of night attire he had seen her wear when they were roommates. “Sorry…” She murmured, walking over to one of the cabinets to pull out spare bedding to put down on the floor. She had not heard anything when an arm reached out and caught her about the shoulders. She gasped as she was spun around by Patrick with a very intense look on his face, “Patrick?” She asked wearily as she was gently, but firmly pulled until she was up against his chest, He slowly walked the two of them toward the big guest bed, locking her eyes in his as he slowly pressed her down onto the bed, following her with his body until she was on her back with him hovering over her. He used his arms to block her escape as he leaned in and brushed his lips across her cheek then up to her ear. She quivered with his breath on her neck and his body keeping her from moving.

He held her there for just a moment before smiling and whispering, “Payback” he smirked as he rolled over to the side and crawled into the bed.

She only lay there, panting for a moment before realization flooded across her face, “Oh you bastard!” She laughed, her laugh grew into a cleansing full-bodied affair for a few moments before she sighed, “Ok, I deserved that.” She finally said before beginning to get up, only to have her wrist caught again.

“No, we are in Delmar, not Terra. This is your house. You are not sleeping on the ground.” Patrick pulled her to the giant Delmar style bed; and she paused for a moment before settling down beside him, still keeping her distance.

“You sure? It’s not your custom” She asked, only to be pulled closer.

“No, It’s yours. And you aren’t going to sleep on the floor. Not after that episode of yours,” Patrick stated finally before settling in and closing his eyes.

5 minutes later, Cammy gave in, crawling up next to Patrick and falling asleep to his familiar soft snore.

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A faceless monstrosity of armor and violence stomped into the bridge where the pirate captain was being held on his knees. The boarding action had been bloody, and very one sided. Not a single armored invader had been slain, and eighty percent of his crew was dead, and his walls still dripped with the gore of his bridge crew. Laser and plasma bounced off these monstrosities and their weapons obliterated flesh and bone.

“I see you are almost as valuable as you would be dead” The faceless armored monster rumbled. “Your computer security is almost as bad as your shipbuilding skills.” He drew his sidearm, a strange squared-off thing with a large hole at the end that he pointed at the head of the captain.

“What do you want. I can share my trea..” The pirate’s attempt was cut off as a supersonic Gauss pistol dart canoed his head, and his limp body was unceremoniously dumped on the deck.

The Armored Being turned and walked out of the bridge, stomping back to the Terran boarding shuttle. “We have coordinates, Contact the Admiral.” The face plate retracted as Captain Alex “Dozer” Collins stepped back into the boarding shuttle. “We have a meeting to catch.”