Read My Enemy's Son (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 2) Online
Authors: J. Naomi Ay
Chapter 8
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Dear Katie,
I hope you don't mind if I call you Katie.
In case you don't remember, I'm Ron's admin in the SdK Medical Centre. My
husband Tim is the Admiral in charge of Landbase Rozari. I have two sons, Thad
whom you have met and Larry who lives on Earth. Thad has two kids a boy and a
girl who we adore and often take care of.
I'm writing to you today because Tim told
me the Discovery just came out of deep space and I assume you were expecting
some kind of note or something from Dr. Ron. He's been insanely busy these
last few months building the company and seeing his normal patient load so
don't be surprised if he doesn't write to you or even call.
I just wanted you to know that he is
thinking about you and I know he will make every effort to visit you as soon as
his schedule let's up.
Best,
Shelly
PS. He did not tell me to write you.
Dear Shelly,
Thank you for your letter. Of course, I
was very surprised to receive it and you were correct in that I haven't heard a
thing from Ron. Deep space is always difficult as I'm sure you know. I
imagine that Admiral Mattson spent a great deal of time away from you and your
family. We did not encounter anything particularly exciting this trip so I was
able to spend a lot of time working on my qualifications as well as finishing
the requirements to obtain my third degree black belt. The ship performed well
throughout our cruise even though Engineering had to be completely rebuilt
after the fire.
We are going to be going into a short
drydock at Spacebase Earth Moon to iron out some of the squawks from the deep
space cruise so I will be taking the opportunity to go to Earth for few days
and visit my family. I have a brother, a niece and a nephew and my parents are
still in good health and I am very anxious to see all of them.
Best to you and your family,
Katie
Dear Katie,
How was your trip to Earth? I hope
everything went well and you enjoyed your stay with your family. All the
buildings at SdK Corp are now complete except for the new Admin building which
has just broken ground. Thad told me just yesterday that there are now more
than ten thousand people who work for SdK Rozari. Considering that a few
months ago, I didn't even know this company existed, it's really amazing. Of
course just about anything Ron does is amazing as I'm sure you know. He is
still maintaining a killer schedule. He is only in our office and the hospital
a few hours a week but crams as many patients as he possibly can into those
hours. Janet has become very adept at a lot of the simple non-surgical
procedures and so he has offloaded a lot to her and to several other resident
neuro-surgeons including a nice boy named Jason from Earth who I think will be
joining our office soon.
Susie, Ron's other admin, tells me he is
over in Engineering a good portion of the rest of the week. Thad says we'll be
launching a whole new product line within days so I imagine that is what they
are all working on.
I did buy him some new shirts and ties
while I was at the mall last week. He has a tendency to destroy everything he
wears. I don't know why he is always getting himself so dirty while the other
doctors around here manage to keep their clothes clean. I hope you like the
ties. They are all Armani, similar to the ones you bought when you were here.
The weather here is the same as always.
It's lovely working in Kalika-hahr now. Janet, Susie and I often take sack
lunches out to the lake and enjoy the cool breeze.
Gwen, Thad's little girl, just got a part
in her school play so we are very proud about that. His little boy, Jimmy is
on the basketball team so Tim spends a lot of time going to his games. Overall
we are keeping very busy.
Best,
Shelly
Hi Shelly,
The strangest thing happened today. I was
down in sickbay looking for Jerry as I promised him we could go to the pub for
dinner. Jerry's the ship’s doctor and we've been friends ever since I came
aboard. Caroline, she's the head nurse and my friend as well, wanted to go too
and she's been kind of seeing a guy from security so we decided to make it a
foursome for burgers and a beer. Anyway, I went down to sickbay to collect
them and Jerry shows me this new equipment that just arrived yesterday while
restocking at Spacebase 23. A whole bunch of new patient care monitoring
systems came in. Frankly, I didn't even notice what the last ones look liked
or who made them but Jerry was terribly excited so to indulge him I looked at
them. I admit they are very cool if you are into that sort of thing and have
many features that are light years beyond the old ones but the most important
feature that I noticed was the name on the lower right corner of every one of
them, SdK Medical Corporation and the little logo with SdK in a circle.
I can't even begin to imagine what the
contract for outfitting Spaceforce must be worth.
Jerry was thrilled with them so kudos to
all of you for your good work.
I don’t have anything else really to tell
you about, just the usual endless boredom punctuated by moments of sheer
terror.
Oh yes, I did finish all my qualifications
for a rank increase and hopefully will take the test in a few weeks. In the
meantime I'm spending every off-hours moment either in the gym, with my friends
or studying. They did change the dance music in the disco recently and it's
not too bad so we have been having some fun dancing as of late. Jerry, to his
credit, is a really good dancer.
I'm trying to imagine Ron dancing but the
image is too unbelievable. Can you visualize it, especially with his big ugly
feet? Lol!!
I'm sure whatever you bought him is fine.
Honestly Shelly, why should I care what his ties look like?
Katie
Hi Katie,
No, I can't even begin to imagine Ron
dancing but mostly because I don't think he has time for anything remotely
enjoyable. I would think he probably learned to dance at some point but I
could be wrong.
Thad told me to take a drive out to the
coast yesterday, specifically about twenty miles south east of Takira-hahr,
near the national park property. Tim and I headed out there and you wouldn't
believe what is being built there. Oh my goodness, it was the most gorgeous
villa I have ever seen. This whole area of beach and shore lands has been
re-claimed and is as beautiful and tropical as anything in Hawaii or the South
Pacific islands of Earth. It's like a tropical oasis in the middle of nowhere
which just goes to prove that the technique Ron has come up with to reclaim the
former nuke sites is really working.
Anyway, the house there is still under
construction but looks like it's about three stories high and it has a central
courtyard which is open to the elements although Thad seemed to think it would
have a retractable roof. I can imagine plumeria and bougainvillea and a few
other things I would plant in the courtyard if it were my place. The top two
floors of the estate have balconies circling on both sides because even though
only one side has a view of the ocean, from the other side, you can see the
tropical forests. Tim and I were just saying how wonderful it would be to sit
out on those decks under the sun canopies and sip on Mai Tai's or Margaritas.
Gwen and Jimmy were with us when we flew
by the property and begged us to take them down to the beach so they could go
swim but there's some kind of an invisible security bubble over it so we
couldn't land and had to go on to the national park which hasn't been
re-claimed and it was hot and dry with only red dust covering the grounds.
Anyway, Gwen's play was delightful and
Jimmy's basketball team finished second in the league. The kids stayed over
last night as Thad had a late night out with Ron and this other fellow who is
now running the subsidiary company back on the other planet. Thad said it was
all meetings but every one of those guys stunk of beer and cigarettes this
morning and only Ron seem sober enough to work. I didn't catch a whiff of
perfume so I'm pretty sure no women were involved and it was an actual late
night work marathon.
How are things with your friends and your
family?
Shel
Shelly,
I love getting your emails. As I'm sure
you know, space duty, especially in these long cruises is very hard and
sometimes very lonely. But, I really don't want to hear about Ron and all the
wonderful things he is or isn't doing because frankly, I don't care. Six
months ago when I started this contract, I thought I would take the next
contract off or maybe even apply to Landbase Rozari because I thought Ron and I
would have a future together and he would want me there with him. I haven't
heard a peep out of him in all this time so I guess I am the fool for not
listening to the warnings the nurses there gave me. So now I've signed up for
another contract. After visiting my parents last week, I'm back in space for
six more months. At least Jerry and Caroline are here too. Jerry isn't Ron
but he's here and he's here for me every day whether or not I want him to be.
At any rate, please continue to write to me about your grandkids and the
Admiral and life on Rozari but I don't need to know how drunk Ron and his
buddies got last night.
Kate
Chapter 9
Katie
“That was fun,” Jerry said, standing
outside my cabin.
“It was,” I agreed, still laughing. “That
comedian was hilarious.”
“Like a modern day Woody Allen,” Jerry
said.
“Yeah. Except he was Talasian with green
skin.”
“Yeah,” Jerry chuckled.
I looked at my door. He looked at my
door. You wanna?” He inclined his head toward the door.
“I don't know,” I said.
“Why not?” He leaned in close to me, his
lips hovering above mine, his hands on either side of my head, pushing me back
against the wall.
“I don't know,” I said again.
Slowly, he put his mouth on mine. It
wasn’t the first time. He was gentle. He was kind. He didn’t push himself on
me and in me and make me feel like I was going to melt into a puddle or
spontaneously combust. I wanted to be held. I want to be loved. Senya awoke
something in me that I never knew I needed and now I needed it and he wasn’t
here to give it to me. I might never see him again.
I unlocked the cabin door and we slipped
inside. The aroma of roses was overwhelming. Jerry wrapped his arms around
me.
“You know I love you, Goldie. Even a
blind man can see it.”
A blind man? Could he see this, my blind
man? He wasn’t mine. He was mine for five days but not anymore. The scent of
roses seemed to be growing stronger, intoxicating me, and suffocating me.
Jerry was unbuttoning my blouse, kissing my neck, taking off my bra, pushing
himself against me. He led me to the bed and as if I was in a trance I lay
down upon it and let him unbutton my jeans and slip them off me.
“Tell me you love me too, sweetheart,” he
said, kissing me. “Tell me you love me even a little bit?”
“Jerry,” I whispered. I was so confused.
What was I doing? Where was Senya? Why didn’t he want me anymore?
“Love me, Goldie, love me,” Jerry cried
and he pushed inside me. “Yeow!” He shrieked and fell off the bed. “What the
hell was that?”
“I don't know!” I cried, sitting up. I
wrapped the blanket around me. There was a burning feeling in me. “What
happened?”
“Shit!” Jerry was down on the floor where
I couldn’t see him. “I feel like I just got electrocuted.”
“How?” I squeaked.
“I don't know!” Jerry practically
screamed. “Do you have some weird space disease you didn't declare at your
physical?”
“Me? Maybe it's you!” I felt around for
my clothes and quickly put them back on.
“I'm sorry, honey.” Jerry took a deep
breath. “Damn that was painful. It was like a bolt of electricity just
shooting through me. I hope it didn't turn me into a eunuch.”
“I'm really sorry,” I cried. He didn’t
respond, just put on his clothes down there on the floor. “Maybe it's for the
best anyway.”
“I don't think making me sterile with a
bolt of electricity would be for the best,” he snipped.
“Jerry,” I whispered. “I don’t think I
did that to you. Nothing like that happened with Ron. He was fine, more than
fine.” I felt my face heat up big time. Damnit to hell, I missed Senya.
“Ron?” Jerry stood up and put his hands on
his hips.
I nodded. “I don't think this is going to
work between us, Jerry,” I said. “I'm really sorry.”
“Well yeah,” he retorted, angrily. “If
you've got an electric vagina, it for sure isn't going to work between us.”
“It's not me!” I gasped. “How can you say
that?”
“Well I nearly got fried and you seem
fine.”
“I'm a little sore!”
We stared each other down for a moment.
“Jerry,” I gasped with realization. “He
did something to me.”
Jerry looked puzzled. “What? Like an
internal chastity belt?”
“I don't know, maybe.”
“Well, maybe we should go down to sickbay
and I'll take a look.”
“No!”
“Katie if he put something in you, I can
damn well take it out!”
“No! I'm not going to let you look up me
like that!”
“Well VJ can do it then.”
“No!” I said for the third time. “There's
nothing there. I think I would know it but I still think he did something. He
can do weird things almost like magic.”
“Magic?”
I nodded.
“Magic?” Jerry repeated, obviously
pissed. “Goodnight Kate. I'll see you later.”
“Bye.” I shut the door behind him,
undressed again and climbed into bed. Like a foolish teenager instead of a
twenty-seven year old Lt. Commander in the Allied Spaceforce, I cried like a
baby, holding my pillow and wishing it was Senya.