“Private Beiencar, are you ready to fly?”
“Commander Arguat, I believe that I was destined for this.” She put her hands on the controls and did what her instincts were urging her to. She flew.
They raced through canyons, kissed mountaintops and tickled the cloud layer. He followed her but did not interfere with her first flight. An hour later, her alarm pinged and she regretfully returned to the repair hangar while he set down in research.
Whyt climbed out of the fighter pod and pushed it back into the hangar. “It is still a little sluggish on the high-speed turns but that can be fixed with a tiny adjustment.”
Sarge was wiping his hands. “Fair enough. I will download the flight log, and we will tackle that adjustment tomorrow. The pilot can have it back by the end of the week.”
She sighed. “What will I work on then?”
“You will head over to research, and I will return to patching up regular old damaged ships.” He shrugged and helped her set the pod back into its normal position for repairs before he hooked the computer up to the fighter pod.
She was done for the day. Time for dinner.
She wiped her hands clean and headed for her quarters to take a shower before dinner. There was nothing that killed an appetite like hydraulic fluid and oil filling your nostrils.
It was amazing how quickly she had become used to life on the research base. She nodded at a few acquaintances as she passed them but kept her focus on cleaning up.
She was so intent on her goal that when a hand touched her arm, she jumped in surprise.
“Easy there, Whyt. I was sent to catch up with you. There is a visitor here, and you are requested to attend the officers’ dining room for dinner.”
Whyte blinked up at Commander Arguat. “Okay. I don’t have my formal uniform yet.”
“It is all right. It is a private dinner.”
“Oh. So, who wants to see me?”
“You will find out. Now, get a move on. You are already late.” He grinned and propelled her with a hand to her spine.
He guided her all the way to her door, and with a wink, he said, “I will be back in fifteen minutes. Be quick.”
It was the fastest shower she had ever taken, and she quickly wrapped her damp hair into a bun at the base of her neck before she slithered into a spare clean uniform.
The knock at the door came just as she was finishing the closures on her clean boots.
She checked her appearance in the mirror and opened the door. She stifled a sigh at Arguat’s charming elegance in his dress uniform. “I feel underdressed.”
“You look lovely; now, let’s go.”
He gestured for her to leave her quarters, and together, they marched through the facility until they reached the officers’ dining room. A pair of guards allowed them to pass and closed the doors behind them.
Whyt’s curiosity was up. A woman was sitting and smiling at them as they approached. Whyt felt her feet slow as the features on the woman’s face became achingly recognizable.
Arguat looked between them, startled. “Colonel Whisk, this is—”
“Private Whyt Beiencar. Hello, daughter. Please, have a seat.”
Whyt stumbled to the chair that the woman was pointing to and sat heavily. “This is not how I pictured our first meeting, madam.”
The colonel grinned, “Me neither, but this is what we are stuck with. Close your mouth, Commander Arguat. Dinner will be served shortly.”
They all kept silent while the first course was served and Whyt got over her shock. As soon as they were eating their soup, she blinked at her birth mother. “Why now, madam?”
“Your father has narrowed down your location; he will be here tomorrow, and he is insisting that you be freed from your service contract in order to have you wed and off to a little house in your prefecture.”
Whyte sighed and sat back. “Do you know what my fiancé thinks of this?”
Colonel Whisk smiled and turned to Arguat. “Well, Styvin? What do you think of your future wife being at the base?”
He coughed slightly. “Colonel?”
“Don’t play me for a fool, Arguat. I was well aware of your engagement to Whyt before you were asked to spirit her away in the night. I was simply surprised that you did it; now, did you do it for you or for her?”
He blinked and met Whyt’s gaze across the table. His eyes held a plea for understanding. “I did it for her. She needed to know what she was and what she could do.”
They went quiet again as wine was poured for them.
Whyt asked, “Why the urgency, madam? The end result will be the same.”
Her mother shook her head. “Not if your husband is willing to work with you here. That is what it comes down to. If he will extend your engagement to pass around your year of service, you will be able to continue on as you are. If he agrees to your father’s terms, you will be ejected with no chance of seeing the sky on your terms again.”
The shock of the first option was weighed down by the second. “I could run again.”
Colonel Whisk shook her head. “No, you couldn’t. We are your family; we want what is best for you, but I am also your commanding officer, and you are not going to leave the base without my knowing where you are going. If you try, you will be brought up on charges and thrown into the brig.”
They waited while the soup was cleared and the next course brought in. It gave Whyt time to think.
The next time they were alone, she said, “Madam, as much as I respect your rank, I am an adult, and I have a right to choose my own path. I don’t need to hide behind anyone. I will stand up to my father and tell him that I want to put my time in here at the base.”
Colonel Whisk smiled and slid her fork into her salad. “Good girl. I was wondering when you would pick up on the fact that you are an adult. You are also the blending of two genetic lines, and one of them will kick in shortly. You need to be closer to me when it does.”
Whyt paused. “Something is going to happen?”
Arguat was listening keenly and completely silent.
Whisk grinned. “Perhaps, perhaps not. You have not had any stressors on your mind, and so, your development has been a bit behind where it should be.”
Whyt blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“Tomorrow morning go about your day. When you are summoned, you are to appear in the administration building where I will mediate between you and your father.”
Whyt looked toward Commander Arguat. “What will your place be?”
He grinned. “I will be standing by to either wed you or begin an actual courtship.”
She stared at him, and her heart skipped a beat. Whether she would pursue a relationship with him had never really been a decision. Ever since that night when she had held him for hours while they talked of inconsequential things that made her laugh and kept her from realizing the enormity of what she had been doing.
Leaving family and friends was not something that had been done lightly, but rather, it had been a compulsion that drove her from her home and into the sky. He hadn’t judged her but rather had made it as easy as he could.
Colonel Whisk cleared her throat. “That isn’t strictly allowed, Styvin.”
Arguat grinned, “Check the paperwork. We are registered as an engaged couple.”
They went quiet again as one course was removed and the next brought out.
Whyt watched her mother scowl at Arguat.
“I didn’t authorize that.”
“I know, but it was something that I wanted to have on record in case our relationship began to move forward on its own.”
Her mother drummed her fingers. “Did it?”
He grinned. “No, but we have made the first steps. We are comfortable around each other and genuinely like one another. You can love someone, but if you don’t like them, that feeling can fade. If you like them for themselves, there is always a path to rebuilding love, it will simply take on a new shape.”
The colonel was silent, and a slow smiled spread across her lips.
Whyt tried to memorize that last sentiment and applied herself to her meal. He was a friend and she did like him; however, she also remembered the feel of his body pressed against hers in the wee hours of the night when she woke from fevered dreams, so her attachment to him might not simply be relegated to friendship. Time would tell.
After four more courses interrupted by the servers, they were finally alone over hot, dark tea.
Whyt stifled a yawn and smiled at her birth mother as she was asked how the repairs were coming.
“Oh, the ship is done. A few minor tweaks and it will be done. The pilot can have it back tomorrow.” Whyt sat back and smiled at the woman who had birthed her.
“Good. She is very anxious to get her fighter pod back. She still blames her partner for bumping her.”
“There was some residue on the wings that might support that.” Whyt chuckled.
“Well, Colonel, I believe that Private Beiencar has an early morning that will end in a turbulent afternoon.”
Whyt checked her watch, and her eyes widened at the time. “Tomorrow is my last day on the repairs. After that, I am off to research and development. I don’t want to let Sarge down.”
“Fine. You are dismissed, daughter, but this is not our last meeting.”
Colonel Whisk got to her feet and in sight of the servers and Commander Arguat, she hugged Whyt tight to her.
Whyt hugged Yelana Whisk, and she felt something inside her mind,
click
. Whyt leaned back. “What the hell was that?”
Yelana sighed. “Your birthright. Get used to it, and if it is overpowering, have them call me. You will know what I mean.”
Her mother stroked hair away from her face and smiled. It was Whyt’s smile, and her heart shifted slightly as the joy of their reunion swept through her. She staggered when she realized that the emotion was not coming from within herself. It was the colonel’s joy that was spiralling through her mind.
She slowly eased from her mother’s embrace. “I will keep you posted.”
“Dismissed, Private. Get a good night’s sleep. You are going to need it.” Colonel Whisk touched her cheek once more and waved her off.
Arguat put his hand on Whyt’s back and escorted her from the room. They were halfway back to their quarters when he said, “So, that was a fun-filled evening.”
She laughed, sensing his restraint via the small touch on her back. “You have a knack for understatement. Did you know?”
She meant did he know about the colonel being her mother. He caught on.
“No. I knew that she was instrumental in bringing you here, but I had no idea why. It is surprising. Did you know?”
“I knew that my mother was a non-Athuunan pilot. I knew her name but not her rank until a few months ago. I recognized her the moment that I saw her though.”
He chuckled. “I noted the resemblance when you were side by side.”
They were talking and walking in one of the pedestrian corridors of the base. She leaned into him and whispered, “Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”
“Why? I knew you were not going anywhere, and you were running toward something. How would I dare to stand in your way?” His grin lit his eyes, and he paused on the walkway.
She took the hint and leaned up to kiss him. His lips brushed against hers as she brushed against him, and the roaring wave of emotion that swamped her sent her senses reeling.
She clung to him as she fought for balance, tried to find herself in her own body. The foreign emotions were identified by a portion of her mind previously dormant and sorted out as being external from her own. The moment that the separation took place, she broke the kiss.
He blinked at her. “What was that?”
“Um, earthquake?”
“No.”
“Pressure drop?”
“No.”
“Magnetic disturbance?”
He looked down at her as if she had suddenly gone insane, and he shepherded her back to her quarters, following her inside. “Explain.”
She smiled and shrugged. “I can’t.”
“How long have you been able to do that?”
She bit her lip. “About five minutes? Something clicked when I hugged Colonel Whisk.”
“You are not kidding.”
Whyt shook her head and released her hair like she did every night. “I am not kidding.”
As if he wasn’t there, she sat down and began to brush her hair, just as she did every night before she went to sleep.
He sighed and took the brush from her hand. “It felt very strange, very unsettling, and I felt overwhelmed.”
“That sums up my evening. You have been holding a bit of emotion back, Styvin.”
He had been brushing her hair, and he paused. “You felt that?”
“I am guessing that I crawled into your mind and you crept into mine.” She smiled at the image in the mirror. It was common amongst their people to groom one’s mate, but she had never experienced the sensation before.
He kept brushing, carefully holding her hair so that he didn’t tug the roots.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were the man my father had in mind?” She looked at him and watched the nuance of expression on his features.
“You were running from me, and I had been recalled to the base to train you. Your housekeeper had been very efficient. She not only sent in your registry, but also pulled strings to get you assigned to the research base and not the Nathrin base. This base is hidden from the general populace.”
She chuckled and watched the white silken locks flow through his fingers. “I know that. It was in your first class. What comes next, by the way?”
“We are going to test your ability to turn designs into reality. I am an engineer, and I believe that you can bring my designs to life. I think that the adjustments that you made to the fighter pod were amazing. It will now be a lot more user friendly for its pilot.”
Whyt smiled and her lids grew heavy. “Will it?
He chuckled as he continued to brush hair that didn’t have anything resembling a tangle. “It will. I am dying to see what you do with a fresh design and a free hand.”
She swayed slightly, and he helped her to her feet, sat her on the edge of the bed and removed her boots. Fully clothed, he tucked her into her bed and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Sleep well, Whyt. Tomorrow, it all hits the fan.”
She smiled sleepily and nestled in her sheets, loving the emotion that had washed over her with the kiss. It was only after he was gone that her eyes opened wide as she realized what he had said. Gone was the warm fuzziness, in roared the trepidation.