Sister Katherine (22 page)

Before Katherine could figure out what she was supposed to do with the Nobek’s smaller length, a hectic blare split the air.  She yelped in surprise and sprang away as Miv rolled out from under her to land on his feet.  He punched a button on the desk com and spoke in staccato bursts.  A voice answered him, returning Kalquorian chatter while claxons continued to sound.

Miv clicked the com off and rushed to the wall.  He slammed his hand against it to open his closet.  He wasted no time pulling on a uniform thick with armor.

Katherine watched him with fear.  “What is it?”

Miv dropped his butt onto the bed to pull his boots on.  “Tragooms have entered the area.  They look like they’re closing in for an attack.  I have to go, Katherine.  I’m ordered to lock you in.”

He was dressed and poised to race out of the room, but he paused long enough to touch her face.  He managed a tight smile for her.  “You’ll be safe in here.  Try not to be frightened, my love.”

Before she could answer, Miv was gone.  The door buzzed the moment it shut behind him.

Katherine sat still for a few minutes, trying to assimilate the thoughts running wild in her head.  Tragooms were in the area.  The ship might be coming under attack.  She’d been locked in.  And just before that, she’d been ready to give herself utterly to Miv.

As he’d left her, he’d called her
my love
.

She chewed on her lower lip, unsure of what to do.  The claxons still sounded, but the volume had been lowered.  For all the few seconds of excitement, things had gotten incredibly quiet.

Katherine stood and paced the floor.  She’d been on the verge of having sex.  With an alien.  With her husband.  With one of her husbands.

Tragooms had come into the far reaches of Earth space.  What were they doing here?  Would they really attack this ship?  What about the convent, where the children still were?  Good heavens, did the Kalquorians still have enough guards down there to protect the little ones?

Did Miv love her?  He’d spoken an endearment that gave her cause to wonder.  Hadn’t Simdow also called her that on more than one occasion?  She’d been too frightened before to truly notice it. 

A click behind her startled Katherine.  She turned around to see a drawer slide out of the wall.  She approached it cautiously, not knowing what she would find.  When she saw a swath of white fabric and her panties lying on top of that, she giggled nervously.  It was her laundry. 

Katherine dressed quickly.  Having her underwear and nightgown on comforted her.  She knew it was an absurd reaction, but she didn’t feel quite as vulnerable with clothes on.  She gave the drawer that had returned the garments a push, and it receded back into the wall.

Dressed, Katherine again found herself with nothing to do but pace and wait.  And think.  And pray.  She had so much to pray about.

The floor shuddered beneath her feet.  The movement wasn’t strong enough to knock her down, but she staggered a little.  Another shudder stronger than the first had her leaping onto the bed where she’d at least be safe from a fall.

The room kept shaking, each quake seeming stronger than the last.  Then the lights went out for an instant and Katherine screamed.  They came back up, and the claxons went off at their loudest once more.

The door hissed open and Vadef rushed in.  “Katherine!”

She sailed off the bed to be caught in his arms.  He sat down, placing her in his lap and holding her tight.

“What is happening?” she cried.

The Imdiko hugged and rocked her, kissing her hair.  “We’re fighting a Tragoom raider.  Don’t worry.  Our captain has faced worse and I would pick our weapons commander alone over a million of those bastards—”

A boom like a mighty crack of thunder sounded.  The room didn’t just tremble; Katherine could feel a shock jolt the very air around them.  The power went out again, and Vadef gasped.  Katherine screamed.

The darkness they were plunged into lasted only a few seconds, but they were the longest seconds of Katherine’s life.  She held onto Vadef as if he could keep the worst from happening, as if he wasn’t every bit as flesh and blood and mortal as she.

Low, pulsing lights illuminated the room once more.  “It’s okay,” Vadef said in an unsure voice.  “The backup power is on.  We must have taken a big hit.  I’ll com Miv and see if he can tell me what’s going on.”

He pulled his portable com from his belt and clicked.  A moment later, Miv’s voice answered.  He and Vadef conversed in their own language in a brief exchange.  When Vadef shut his com off, he looked stricken.

“What is it?” Katherine asked.  “What’s happened?”

He hugged her close.  “It’s all right.  The Tragoom ship has been destroyed.”

“Then why do you look so upset?”

Vadef swallowed.  “Our ship is crippled.  Maybe beyond repair.  And the captain – Captain Tranis has been badly hurt.  His clanmate Dr. Degorsk is about to operate on him now.  Simdow is in command.”

Katherine watched him worriedly.  They’d survived the Tragoom attack, but apparently the price had been high.  “What’s going to happen, Vadef?”

“I don’t know.”  All at once, the Imdiko looked incredibly young and frightened, just like one of her girls.

Katherine stroked his long hair, trying to comfort him.  “Simdow is very smart.  He’ll get us through this.  You do have faith in your Dramok, right?”

“Of course.  It’s just – we’re so deep in enemy territory, and the ship – and we have to protect all of you – if we’re attacked again, I just don’t know—” 

His voice edged into panic.  Katherine spoke with a confidence she didn’t feel.  “Hush.  It’s all right.  It’s all right.”

She kissed him, hugged him, soothed him.  Little by little Vadef calmed until he looked at her with embarrassment.  “I’m supposed to take care of you.  I’m the caregiver of the clan.”

“How old are you, Vadef?” she asked.

He grinned shamefacedly.  “Twenty-four.  Younger than you, but too old to be acting this way.  It’s just we’re responsible for so many lives; yours as well as the women and children on the colony.  I never thought about how huge that was until now.”  He stared into her face.  “What if I fail you?  What if I can’t take care of you as I should?”

Katherine smiled back.  “We’ll take care of each other.  That’s what married people do, you know.  You did hold me when it went dark and I was afraid,” she pointed out.  “You were strong when I needed it most.”

“I am so glad you belong to us.  You have no idea how much you’ve added to my life in such a short time.”

He said it with immense feeling.  When Vadef kissed her, Katherine returned it.  For some reason, it made her feel good that she could offer him reassurance when he needed it.  It was almost frightening how right it felt to give and take comfort with this man.

The next hours passed slowly.  Katherine and Vadef were too keyed up to do much more than pace until they were tired.  Then they sat holding each other, finding comfort in simple contact.  They spoke little.  Katherine had the feeling Vadef was struggling with many emotions, though he said he was fine when she asked.  He asked after her several times as well.

Finally Vadef decided it would be a good idea for them to look for lunch, just in case the kitchen had taken damage and there was a longer wait than usual.  They ventured out into the corridor.  Except for the low lighting, Katherine saw little to suggest damage to the ship.  Certainly not enough to warrant concern.

When she mentioned this to Vadef, he gave her a hopeful smile.  “It doesn’t look bad, does it?  But Miv said the brunt of the damage happened on the bridge and in engineering.  Maybe we’ll be okay.”

The dining room seemed intact as well, though there was a suggestion that all was not well.  Food had been set out in containers for people to pick up.

One worker told Vadef and Katherine, “Everyone is on extended shifts until we figure out what’s happening.  Thank goodness we’d already prepared the mid-shift meal, because on emergency power we’re going to have to go to rations after this.”

Vadef managed to wheedle extra meals for Miv and Simdow.  “If I know them, they’ll skip eating to deal with the emergency,” he told Katherine on their way back to the sleeping quarters.  “I’d hate for them to get stuck with rations.”

Katherine noted him looking around the corridor with a hint of sadness.  The expression only intensified once they got into the clan’s quarters.

“It’s more than just worry, isn’t it?” she asked him.

Vadef managed a smile.  “I met Simdow and Miv on this ship.  I’m being stupidly sentimental, but if it has to be scuttled, it’s going to hurt.”

They sat on the bed and began eating.  Between the mouthfuls the Imdiko fed her, Katherine said, “I don’t think it’s stupid at all.  I had a sweetheart once.  When we were together, every place we went had a special meaning to me.  The first restaurant we ate at, the park where we took walks, the college library where we studied together.  I told myself, ‘Later, after we’ve been married for a long time, we’re going to come back and visit all these places where we first fell in love.’”

Vadef chuckled.  Some of his sadness seemed to have faded.  “That sounds like me.  Why didn’t you marry, Katherine?”

She sighed.  “His family was very well connected and rich.  They objected strenuously to Curtis marrying the daughter of a school teacher and church secretary.  At first, Curtis insisted he would marry me no matter what, that I was the only girl he would ever love.  Even after he was disowned, he refused to give in to the pressure.”

“So what happened?”

She felt a stab of the old sadness.  “I saw how it tore him apart to be separated from his mother and father and siblings.  I knew he loved me, but I didn’t believe our relationship could survive the regret I was sure he would feel later.  We were so young.  I realized we were too young for such a momentous decision.”

“You let him go.  And then he married another.”

Katherine nodded.  “He didn’t do that right away.  I transferred to another college and told him it was over.  We cried and cried, but I wasn’t going to be the reason he wasn’t with his family.  It was wrong.” 

“You didn’t try to get back together after time went by and things had changed?  Before the other woman came along?”  Vadef’s brows drew together as if he didn’t understand that.

“He got married the next year to a girl his family approved of, one with social and economic standing.  One his parents didn’t object to.”

Katherine was amused to see Vadef look insulted.  “After only a year?  What happened to you being the only girl he would ever love?  What of his promises?”

“As I said, we were very young.  His mind changed.”

Vadef scowled.  “I clanned young, and I knew beyond a doubt I wanted to be with Simdow and Miv.  In fact, I was below clanning age and had to get my parents’ permission.”  He suddenly grinned.  “With me having seven parents, you can imagine the gauntlet Simdow and Miv had to run.”

Katherine stared at him.  “Seven parents?  How does that happen?”

“My mother was courted by two clans when she came of age.  She took her time getting to know both as well as she could before choosing one and settling down.  Shortly thereafter, she discovered she was pregnant with me.  Normally, the clan she had joined would have assumed sole fatherhood.  However, I was born with a badly compromised immune system.  It became necessary for my biological father to be singled out to track down the genetic abnormality that caused my problems.”

Katherine tried to not think too hard about Vadef’s mother entertaining so many men intimately before marriage.  She didn’t want to be judgmental, especially in light of her own recent indiscretions.  “Your father came from the other clan?  The one she didn’t settle down with?”

“Exactly.  My recognized parent clan graciously extended the offer that the clan my biological father came from could share in my upbringing.  They thought it best I get all the support I could, especially since I was sick so often.  I spent more time in hospitals than either parent clan’s home.”

Katherine tried to wrap her head around the idea of the men Vadef’s mother married not only raising a child not their own but allowing the real fathers to stick around.  She knew of stepparents from a couple of her own girls and had noted how fraught with tension those relationships could be.  From Vadef’s expression, she had the idea his extended family had gotten along perfectly well.

She mentally shook her head at the intricacies of Kalquorian clan life.  “That’s wonderful that they came together for your sake.”

“I was lucky.”  He rolled his eyes.  “Until I misbehaved and got into trouble with the whole bunch.  They had a policy of a united front in my upbringing, and I could never play one clan against another.  In fact, I only tried it one time and learned very quickly I didn’t want to do that again.”

Katherine chuckled.  “Oh boy.  That must have been a wake-up call.”  Her eyes narrowed.  “Was Miv’s conviction an issue for them?”

Vadef shook his head.  “Not after they met him.  My Nobek fathers in particular congratulated him on avenging his sister.  They see him as a good protector for me.”

She mused over the situation.  “Six fathers.  So it doesn’t matter exactly who is the real parent?”

“Not at all.  They all assumed responsibility for my well-being.”

“So, if – if I have children, it won’t matter who the real father is?  For example, you wouldn’t be kinder to those that are yours than you would be to the ones that are Miv or Simdow’s?”

Vadef pulled a face that told Katherine he thought her question ludicrous.  “In all likelihood, we won’t know who the biological father is.  It doesn’t matter.  We would all be the fathers of your children.  The only reason tests were done to pinpoint my actual father was because of the genetic deviation I had.  The doctors needed all the information they could get on my biological in order to treat me.”

“Is your condition hereditary then?”

He nodded, but his expression was unconcerned.  “If you become pregnant, the unborn will be tested to see if it has the same issue, just to be safe.  Fortunately, there is now a cure for the suppressed immune system I suffered from.  Any child I father won’t have the same problems I did.”