The Archer's Paradox - The Travis Fletcher Chronicles (35 page)

She looked deep into his eyes. So like those of the warriors from Xi Scorpii E, yet so different. There was something about Travis Fletcher that fascinated her and not just the obvious attributes that she and Turix Dayak' had pondered over. She supposed it was always there, but she decided she needed to find out and now was as good a time as any; before he had a chance to change his mind about her again. She opened up an intimate channel between the two of them. This would not convey words or images or even concepts, but acted as a direct link between each other’s senses and emotions. What one felt, the other would feel, as if it were their own experience.

Travis had kissed Star’s hand on impulse. It seemed the right thing to do. A small gesture and he wished he could do more, but he was still floundering out of his depth. He had no idea what to do or what to say. He watched as emotions flitted across her eyes too quickly for him to identify. What was she thinking? Her shields were up so he had no way of knowing. A silent click in his head focused his attention. There was a connection between them, like when they had communicated telepathically before, but this was something new. Her eyes caught his attention and they locked together. She was looking intently at him. No, not at him but
into
him as if she was trying to read his soul. She moved closer without releasing her gaze and he felt a rush of anticipation,
her
anticipation.

She paused with their lips mere microns apart. He felt her warm breath caress his upper lip for a moment, stimulating the sensitive nerve endings, before she allowed the faintest of touches as their lips brushed each other. With that, all the hairs on the back of his neck rose up and shivers ran down his spine as the pleasure centre of his brain suddenly ignited. She drew back and smiled, evidently receiving the feedback of his reactions. She moved in again for a more lingering kiss.

After a long moment’s embrace, Travis felt Xnuk Ek’’s lips part slightly and her tongue probe gently. He responded and their tongues began an intricate dance which had no set moves or steps, but relied on the instinct and counter instinct of each dancer. As they embraced tightly, Travis ran his fingers through her hair and down her spine to the small of her back. She responded with shivers of pleasure that reverberated back to Travis and he found quickly that he was able to gauge just how much pressure and where would give the most positive reaction. They had melded together to become a single entity, sharing each other’s most intimate feelings and emotions. When they finally parted they were both breathless and looked at each other in astonishment.

“I think we finally understand each other, Travis Fletcher of Sol 3.” she said finally.

I don’t think I will ever fully understand you, Star
. He thought ruefully.

She either did not pick up on his thought or chose to ignore it. Instead she waved an expansive arm at the panorama displayed around them. “I brought you here to show you this. What do you think, Travis Fletcher?”

“Incredible, amazing, beautiful.” he replied. But he was not looking outside. Standing as she was against the backdrop of the universe, he realized that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met. She had released her hair from its constraining ponytail and it now bounced around her shoulders in silvery waves, as if there was a zephyr that blew just for her. She looked at him and smiled as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. His knees nearly buckled under him.

An image popped unbidden in to Travis’ mind. Xnuk Ek’ cocked her head, her silver eyes shining with anticipated pleasure. She reached up to the collar of her jumpsuit and drew the catch along her shoulder and diagonally across her chest to her waist. The jumpsuit lost its integrity and fell in a shapeless mass at her feet and she stood completely naked before him. Her skin was flawless; without blemish or wrinkle. Her breasts stood firm and proud with dark brown nipples and areolae. Being used to the women on Earth shaving their underarms religiously, Travis was surprised to see silvery wisps poking from under her armpits and the silver pubic thatch stood out in contrast to her skin. Her muscle tone was perfect with not one ounce of excess skin or fat. Her navel was an almost invisible vertical slit in her perfectly flat stomach. He felt a playful tweak to his mind. It was his turn. Mechanically he reached up and reciprocated, but how could he compare? Next to this goddess he was a misshapen, badly maintained lump of flesh. How must he look next to the men she was used to?

Surprisingly, he detected nothing but pleasure from her. Either she had low standards or she was hiding her thoughts very well, he decided.

I hide nothing from you. I am nothing more or less than you see before you and I am yours until I die.

But what do you see in me?

[Smile] I will show you.

As his erection strained to close the gap between them, she lowered herself into a nearby operator’s chair, which immediately tried to adjust itself to her body shape. She adjusted the height and attitude so she was reclining but not horizontal and beckoned him forward. As he approached she wrapped her long, shapely legs around his body and placed her heels in the small of his back.

Kiss me again.
She urged. He leaned forward as her grip on his lower body pulled him towards her. Deft fingers gently positioned his engorged manhood into position. He felt a slight resistance, then Xnuk Ek’ arched her back and gasped as he slid home. The feedback was so intense that Travis had trouble controlling himself. He had often wondered idly, usually when he was alone in the shower, what a woman felt during sex, but he had never had a woman react like this before. Was she getting reciprocal feelings from him? Was that it? He reached the hilt and was about to withdraw for a thrust when Xnuk Ek’ tightened her grip around him. She put her arms round his neck and held him in a soft but firm embrace.

“Do not move!” she panted in his ear.

Pulses of pleasure built and rippled through the connection between them, each one more powerful than the last. Just as he thought his head was about to explode, Xnuk Ek’’s body convulsed in an orgasm so intense it threatened to expel him like a Champagne cork, but her powerful legs held him in place, which only served to intensify the feeling.

“Oh sweet Jesus!” Travis gasped to himself as the aftershocks of her orgasm pulsed through him. Finally he felt her grip loosen a little so he pulled back slowly and kissed her passionately as he thrust deep into her. He changed his position slightly for the next thrust and was rewarded by an increase in pleasure from her. It wasn’t long before her body was wracked by another orgasm. This was so easy! There was no fumbling or guess work. He knew exactly what worked and what didn’t. This was incredible! He would have been considered a sex god if he could do this on Earth.

A familiar pressure in his loins warned him that it was soon to be his turn. He hoped she wasn’t going to be disappointed in him but it had been such a long time. He pulled away from her embrace to change his position to try to last a bit longer but the two silver saucers that dominated her face and the open mouth told him she was getting a front row seat for his orgasm and that she was building for a third. They exploded together, feeding off each other’s desire until they could take no more and he collapsed into her arms, panting from exhaustion.

He slipped out of her, slumped to the floor and rested his cheek on her stomach, the cold, hard deck of the bridge pressing at his bare skin. The rise and fall of her breathing was soothing and soporific. She stoked his hair, which had grown longer and even more unruly since she had brought him on board, and lay back in the chair. Never before had she had a lover so intent on her pleasure. Without exception Xi Scorpii men, and women for that matter, used the sexual connection for intensifying their own enjoyment, not to gauge how it was affecting their partner. Travis Fletcher was a singular individual indeed.
Now if he could only work on his stamina…
She felt a conflict in his thoughts but did not intrude. She knew he wanted to tell her something but was unsure how. Although Travis’ mental agitation made her anxious, she let him resolve it himself.

“When we were on the shuttle,” Travis began eventually, without taking his cheek off her stomach. “And people were dying…” His voice faltered as the memories came flooding back. She gave his emotions a gentle massage to ease the pain of the memory, just a little. “I decided that this was all a dream.” he paused for a moment. “I decided that I was still in my bed, on Earth, waiting to die and my mind was creating these intense images as it shut down.” she was about to make a comment but Travis continued. “I mean, how
could this all
be real?” he asked, rhetorically. “And happen to me, of all people.” he finished, a little plaintively.

“So, I am a figment of your imagination?” she asked quietly, trying to hide her disappointment. After all this time and all he had seen, he still could not accept who he was.

Travis jerked his head up and looked into her eyes. “No!” he exclaimed. “You don’t understand. Until then I had been a passenger.” she gave him a querying look. “Since my accident on Earth I had not made any decisions myself. Events, people, everything around me had made all my decisions for me; what to do, where to go, what to say. Even when you shot me, it was not my choice to piss you off.” Xnuk Ek’ blushed heavily as anger started to rise. Travis raised himself to his knees and held her shoulders without breaking eye contact with her. “And it wasn’t your choice to shoot me either.” he added earnestly. He was about to break his promise to Sundaravāda Ci
ṭṭ
e but he reigned himself in in time. “I understand that now and I forgive you.” he adlibbed instead, insinuating a link to her Paradox
of Honour without actually lying. Inside he berated himself for not telling her the whole truth.
Fucking Code of fucking Honour.
But he was not ready to tell her the whole truth and she was not ready to know. But if not now, when?

Xnuk Ek’’s heart soared and her anger subsided, but she was still a little confused. “Why now? What has changed?” she asked with trepidation.

“On the shuttle,” he replied, “I made a
decision
to give myself up, I didn’t
have
to, I could have let things just happen, just like before, but I didn’t. That’s the difference.” he was on a roll and the words started tumbling out of his mouth. “And later, when you had been…you were…” he could not bring himself to say the words but she nodded her understanding. “I
made
things happen, me!” he finished, with a tone of self-incredulity. “And then…” An image formed in his mind of their recent lovemaking. “How could this
not
be real?” How could I have dreamed up someone like you?” he asked, smiling tenderly. “Someone so beautiful, so amazing, so…” he left the sentence unfinished.

She cupped his head in her hands and bent to kiss him. The connection was still active between them and Travis felt his sex drive reviving under Star’s coaxing. She took him by the hand and led him back to the cabin. There was time to investigate this more thoroughly.

Commander Lemphealt Wudubucca was still smarting from the sneak attack by the Xi Scorpii fighter squadron that had attacked the Eardgeard Cwellend without warning. The swarm of tiny craft had not appeared on their scanners until the first shots had been fired, knocking out their communications arrays, and they disappeared just as quickly before the ancient turrets of the Eardgeard Cwellend’s defence batteries had been brought to bear on the swarm of tiny ships. Lemphealt Wudubucca had torn strips off the scanning and gun crews, threatening everything from lifetime incarceration on a moon of ice that serviced Níwlíc Éðel with fresh water to immediate spacing via the nearest airlock. Neither solution would solve the fact that they had been taken by surprise, no doubt to ensure that they could not warn the fleet of an attack from the rear. Cowards! Still, what could a swarm of angry insects do against the Pride of the Níwlíc Éðel fleet? He changed his attention to repairing the damage and preparing to enter the fray if they were needed. Recriminations would come later and he was sure that he would be first on the list when Fleet Commander Beadu Slecg returned victorious. He had to make sure that he could mitigate as much of the blame as possible.

The communications channels were unusually chaotic by the time the repairs had been completed. More damage had been done to the old ship than had originally been estimated, with gaping holes left in the hull where the transmitters and receivers had been located. The weapons of the tiny fighters were more powerful than expected and the aged hull just could not take the punishment. Still only pinpricks in the hide of a leviathan, but the damage had been done. The repair and maintenance crews had had to build new arrays by cannibalising other systems. Níwlíc Éðel ships did not waste space carrying spares, which were always in short supply and spares for the old Eardgeard Cwellend were rarer than other ships.

The Communications Officer had been sifting through the bands, trying to make sense of the confusion as Commander Lemphealt Wudubucca became more and more impatient.

“Mostly calls for help,” he reported eventually, “failing life support, power problems, structural integrity, engine failure…” he summarised as he switched from one channel to another, keeping his tone neutral. “Many casualties...” he paused to study his console intently while he made rapid adjustments to the controls. “Wait…I have something…it is the Beorn…” he turned to look at his Commander with wide eyes and open mouth and temporary loss of his voice.

“Well?” Lemphealt Wudubucca queried impatiently.

The Communications Officer snapped to attention in his chair under the withering stare of his commanding officer. “It is your orders, Sir, from Fleet Commander Beadu Slecg.”

“Well?” Lemphealt Wudubucca repeated, leaning out of his chair menacingly. “Let us all hear them.” he growled.

The poor Communications Officer turned back to his console. His hands trembled and his armpits felt suddenly damp as he transferred the last transmission to the bridge’s open system. Silence fell as Beadu Slecg’s final words echoed round the vast space.

“Annihilate them!”

**********

On the Xi Scorpii Interstellar Explorer, Vita Nyundo watched with uncharacteristic satisfaction as the flagship of the attacking fleet began to tear itself apart under its own forces, but the sight of so many bodies and parts of bodies floating in the debris and being ejected into space as compartment after compartment decompressed with explosive force soon brought him back to his senses. He silently admonished himself as generations of training and self-discipline seemed to slide away so easily in the adrenaline fuelled fog of war and the taste of victory. He had to remind himself that each body floating like a discarded children’s toy in the debris once had a life, a mother and father and maybe even children. How many thousands were dead and dying on the other ships he had disabled or destroyed? How many lives had been destroyed because he had killed all those warriors? But there again, what about the thousands of Xi Scorpii that had died to protect their home, their families and friends? There were casualties on board the ship, but also there seemed to be no survivors from the fighter squadrons that had led the attack. He had ordered them back in again and again, against all odds and had failed to back them up when they needed him. He replayed the battle in his mind. Arguments and counter arguments raged their own war in his head as he anguished
over the dead and dying. Were there things he could have done differently? Were there things that he
should
have done differently?

The bridge around him was nearly deserted. All torpedoes had been fired and the energy weapons were depleted, engines were inoperable and power levels were at critical, so they were unable to recharge even the meteor repulsors. The first order of business was to get back to Otoch, so he had ordered everyone to help with repairs. The skeleton crew that remained with him covered the communications, scanning for possible attack, not that they could do much about that anyway, and conserving what power they had left for life support and defensive shields.

Two of the four massive nacelles had been launched with the non-essential crew on board and would be back on Otoch soon, but there was still a World Killer out there, hidden in the remains of Tocha. What would they do once they found their fleet had been defeated? Run, or retaliate? He could not take the chance that they would withdraw. The Children of Éðel did not seem to operate on the same level of logic as the rest of the Xi Scorpii and the consequences sent cold icicles of dread stabbing through his chest. A thought crossed his mind. He tapped a control and relayed some new instructions to the repair crews.

**********

Commander Lemphealt Wudubucca had no idea how he managed to make it into Otoch’s orbit without being challenged. Commander Beadu Slecg’s fleet must have knocked out the early warning systems that had betrayed their presence during the course of the battle. But still, he was wary and there was not a moment to lose. As soon as they were in range, he ordered a missile strike on the city. Wave after wave battered the protective shield over the huge city without so much as a dent, but the underground spaceport was not so well protected and was totally obliterated by precise missile strikes that penetrated underground before exploding. Secondary explosions had blown back into the City causing damage and mayhem to the surrounding area inside the dome, much to Lemphealt Wudubucca’s satisfaction. The inhabitants were isolated with no means of escaping the surface or striking back. Commander Lemphealt Wudubucca could now take his time.

Ground analysis mapped the lattice of tectonic plates that showed the weakest points in Otoch’s crust. His specialists selected a route that he approved and the huge ship lumbered off on its pre-programmed course. This was so easy, just like a training simulation!

Every few miles a huge black cylinder was ejected from the bays in the craft’s belly, each one over three hundred feet long, and ploughed through the atmosphere to the planet’s surface below. Before hitting the ground, cutting equipment in the nose powered up, adaptations of the disruption beams used by ships and warriors, which tore through the rock below like a high pressure hose through sand. The cylinders sank through the ground almost as fast as they fell through the atmosphere. Once at the programmed optimum depth they stopped drilling, clamps anchored the cylinders securely to the rock and began to send out very low frequency pulses and listened for responses from the rock surrounding them, searching and adjusting until they were vibrating at exactly the right frequency.

**********

Travis’ senses began to surface and he started to become aware of his surroundings. He was still in that contented drowsy state between sleep and wakefulness where dreams coalesced and became thought before they melted away and were forgotten. His body and mind had never felt so relaxed. If he was any more relaxed, he would be a pool of liquid on the bed. He murmured contentedly to himself as the image he had just created flowed across his mind. He started to remember what had transpired the night before. Was it last night? They were on a spaceship; therefore there was no night or day. But what a night it was! Never in his life could he have imagined...

But there was something else. It insinuated itself at the back of his mind like a cat scratching at the back door on a rainy night, trying to get in; small but incessant and difficult to ignore. Scratch, scratch, scratch. He turned over again and opened his eyes. She wasn’t there and there was something else. Scratch, scratch, scratch. He sat up and looked around, slightly perturbed. Scratch, scratch, scratch. He stroked the bed where he had expected Star to be, but there was no way of telling how long she had been gone with no sheets or blankets to ruffle or retain heat. Scratch,
scratch, scratch. He stretched out his senses and it wasn’t long before he found her. She was on the bridge, but did not respond to his touch. Scratch, scratch, scratch. She wasn’t ignoring him and she did not seem to be angry, she just didn’t notice him. Scratch, scratch, scratch. Fear. That’s what he could feel. It was fear. Not hers, but someone was very afraid, so afraid he could almost taste it, like a bitter tang in the back of his mind.

He got up, put on a fresh jumpsuit and went looking for his Star. He found her standing at the apex of the upper level of the bridge, where they had made love for the first time. The memory sent tingles down his spine, but he forced the feelings down and joined her. She looked as achingly beautiful as ever, even with her hair restrained in the tight, multiband ponytail that seemed to be as much a part of the ship’s uniform as the ubiquitous jumpsuit. She did not immediately acknowledge his presence but stared out at the planet that hung in the front view, as it had before, with her eyebrows drawn together in a worried frown. Apprehension curdled his stomach and he took her hand. Whatever it was, whatever he had done…

“Something is wrong.” she said, without looking at him.

“I know, I can feel
it
.” he replied.

“They are afraid.”

“Who?” he asked.

“Everyone.”

“Everyone?” he asked again, thinking he was starting to sound like an echo.

“The whole City is afraid.” she finally turned to look at him. “I have tried to raise the shuttle port to find out where our shuttle is but no one answered.” she looked back at the planet outside. “I am trying to find Turix Dayak' but there is so much confusion.”

“I’ll look for Rainbow.” Travis chipped in helpfully, but not hopefully. If Star was having difficulty locating her best friend, what chance did a beginner like him have? She smiled and nodded her thanks. Even if he had no chance, the effort was appreciated.

He stretched out his mind and imagined himself jumping the space between the ship and the planet. While he was on the planet he had difficulty locating his friend in the next sector, but this was easier as the planet was hanging in front of him like a huge dried orange and he could visualise the journey. He then concentrated his mind on finding the City, which was surprisingly easy as well. With so much ‘noise’ it was difficult to miss. That was the first thing that struck Travis as wrong. The Xi Scorpii were normally very good at keeping themselves ‘quiet’. Millions of years of telepathic evolution tends to teach that ability, but Star was right; the City was alive with confusion. He had a chance in a billion of finding his friend in this cacophony.

Let’s think about this logically, he thought to himself. How to find one mental signature in a city of a hundred million all milling around and shouting at once? It was not as if he could hone in on her address to see if she was there. It did not work like that and working through each one, one at a time would take forever with his skills, but he had made a promise, so might as well get started. He began to understand the frustration Star had talked about when she found him amongst billions of others on Earth. If it had not been for his fear and anger augmenting his latent abilities when he was in hospital, incommunicado with the rest of humanity, they might not have found him at all, or found someone else.

Travis Fletcher.
The thought pricked his mind. It wasn’t as if someone was calling him, it was a bit like being in a crowded room at a party and somebody mentions your name and you instinctively focus in on that one voice.

**********

Niji No Tori stood on her balcony overlooking The City. She was alone and afraid and the cacophony of sound and sensations that assaulted her senses felt like the whole city was trembling with fear in sympathy. She had cowered in her apartment as missile after missile had struck the dome high above her, silent blooms of colour flared and dissipated in random patterns. The Council had issued orders that everyone was to stay inside and that the dome was secure and could not be breached. She had looked in horror as black, oily smoke roiled up the side of the dome after a series of explosions over by the shuttle port. The Council had continued to insist that they were still safe, while asking for volunteers to help the City Guard with the injured. Niji No Tori had retreated to the far corner of her apartment and buried her head between her knees while chiding herself roundly for not being braver.