The Black

Tristen flexed his new arm. It still tingled around the bandaged seam just below his elbow. He knew the nanites were still finishing up, and that the finished scar would be barely visible when he was fully healed. His eye was another matter. There was now a jagged scar, 2cm wide, at its widest that streaked from just below his hairline to the corner of his lip. He stared at himself in the mirror, inspecting his recently sown shut and sealed eye socket. ‘I guess I’ll have to get used to thi…’

“Oh, that’s not going to do, not at all.” came a familiar voice from the doorway of his hospital room.

Tristen turned to glare at the Human casually leaning against the doorway, “Chicks dig scars” he said indignantly.

“That they do, but let’s give you a bit of dashing to go with your new rugged swagger.” Mac said, holding out a piece of black material shaped almost perfectly to fit the orbital bones surrounding his empty eye socket. “It’s designed to adhere when you press on its edges. And release when you pull on the part nearest your temple.”

Tristen gave Mac one last pointed look before pressing the patch to his face and feeling it secure itself before almost completely disappearing from the felt sensation. He turned back to look at his reflection and just stood there, It was definitely an improvement. He felt himself smirking to himself.

“Oh… that’s hot.” the voice of his pregnant wife Juelana startled him out of his staring contest with himself.

Juelana walked up to him with a possessive fang-filled smile, “You’ll do nicely.” She growled at him as he looked on in shock at her possessive display in front of Mac before she stood on her toes and kissed him before backing away.

“Dam son,” Mac laughed as Lyri rounded the corner giggling before looking at Tristen, then back to Mac, then back to Tristen, finally back to Mac.

“Why don’t you have one of those?” she asked.

“B’cause I still have both my eyes….” Mac began only to be cut off by a nip to his jaw line.

Lyrian pulled away and bit her lower lip at him, “So?” She Coo’d.

Juelana was snickering now as Mac smirked before whipping out a second one, slapping it over his right eye, “Aye… keep it up woman, and Aarrr be comin’ furrr Da’t booty”

“Hmmm promise?” Lyri just smirked before nipping his lower lip.

Tristen lost it first, laughing hard. He was quickly followed by the rest of the room.

“Common ye lubber’s we have a pAARty to go to.” Mac laughed before removing his patch. “This is a breakout! I’m smoking a fuck load of everything over at my place. Get yer shit!”

10 minutes later the four hopped into Vito. Tili had already taken the gaggle of kids to the ‘Ranch house’ as Mac had dubbed it. And Icario was not far behind.

——————————————————————

Maximar sat in his office inside his Golem… the only reason it was still his office was because literally no other Corth’ existed to take his place anymore. It had been made excruciatingly clear that any more off-book attempts at information gathering would result in a reassessment of even that fact.

He smirked, it was a calculated Gambit, but it had born some fruit. The data from the sensors of both his insurance policies and his fleet had born fruit dressed in code. Humanity had indeed reached the stars in mass as he had hoped. Their Technology had taken an interesting turn. He wondered when exactly the monitoring crews had succumbed to the cataclysm. How long had they had a hand in Humaniy’s Journey. He sighed as he began digging through the first segments of information. His eyes widened, and he began to read the initial sensor reading from the Pirates… it was going to be a very interesting read indeed.

—————————————————————-

Darclemus was unsure of why he had been invited to this event at the Mackenzie Grarzia estate, though he had to admit it was a well thought out abode. A cheer erupted as Mac, Clint, and Tristen walked in from the outside smoker with a titanic amount of grilled and smoked meats and vegetables. Clint had raided the Tranquility’s stores for several racks of ribs and a 15lb prime rib roast he had stowed away for this very event. The combined Delmar and Human dinner spread soon had everyone gathering around. Ivar and Martina had been leading the respective mingling with a couple of other flight crews both Human and Delmar, but the smell coming from the platers as Mac cut the roast up into serving portions had everyone’s attention. Even Ambassador Gwen and Tili had been pulled out of their conversation as Mac stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled, silencing the crowd.

“Alright people! Before we devolve into tonight’s feeding frenzy. I’m looking at you “Boris.” Mac waved a knife in the skinny stick figure of a Romanian Gunship Pilot.

“Go ralph in cockpit, BigMac!” Called the man in a ridiculously thick accent. And the entire airmen of both contingents roared in laughter.

“Ok, I deserved that, it’s nice to see everyone getting on so well. Each and every one of you represents someone close to me and Lyrian. You are our inner circle, the ones present here on this side of the galaxy at least. The rest will get this recording in the next transmission. Yes, this party is for both sides to meet. To get to know each other, but it is more.” Mac finished and Lyrian stepped forward.

“Aunt Gwen, Ma’; I hope you two are ready, “Lyrian said softly before turning to the confused crowd and spoke more loudly, “All of you have new members of this family on the way. We found out This morning. I carry twins of both Delmar and Human blood.”

Aunt Gwen’ hands flew to her mouth and Tili squeaked in shock looking over to her Husband who just smirked at her. Icario had been the one to do the test. He hadn’t told his wife for want of her reaction. She did not disappoint.

The rest of the room began to cheer.

————

He faded into consciousness. He did not know how long he was out. He did not know where he was. He tried to move and found he was restrained. He opened his eyes and recognized the ceiling of the main Helyon hospital on Delmar. It didn’t fit, the last thing he remembered was….

The memories of this cabin. The K’Claram assassin. The pain in his gut as the knife plunged. The man’s head coming off. The burning inside and the tearing of his body as the weight of the dead man drove him into his chair as the knife was ripped across his insides as the dead man’s weight dragged the handle with it as it fell.

All these slammed into Captain Silu’s mind as the sedatives burned away. His eyes flew wide as he found he could not make more than a rasp. The panic began to set in as his heart started racing, throwing itself against his chest in frantic fury as Silu fought for control.

“Easy old friend, you are among friends... rest easy...” The comfort of a familiar voice washed over Silu as the familiar face of Icario leaned into his vision, “I’m sorry for the restraints my captain, but your attacker used Ku’kris to stab you. You lost a few organs from the acid. The cloned ones aren’t quite ready for implantation. We must keep you perfectly still for the bed to keep you alive.”

Silu blinked….K’Claram had vestibular spines that carried a very mild acidic toxin as a defensive measure in their ancient past. If a K’Claram chose to collect and concentrate it, it became a powerful weapon if injected into an enemy. Adding such a toxin to an edged weapon was commonplace for K’Claram criminals and assassins to ensure success and to offset their very hard, but very brittle exoskeletal bodies weaknesses to impact.

“as… assassin?” Silu rasped and his old friend Just nodded.

“Much has happened, you are stable enough for a visitor for a few minutes, but then I’m afraid I have to re-induce the coma until surgery.” Icario turned to the door, “3 minutes, then he goes back under.”

Icario disappeared from view as the heads of Mac, Lyri, and a man Silu had never seen before stepped into view. His eyes widened as he realized the newcomer was also human.

“Captain Silu, I am Commodore Clint Stevens, Mac’s brother. I know you don’t know me, but I wanted to personally thank the man who saved my brother’s life when he first arrived. Thank you, sir, sincerely.” the man said in almost perfect Delmar before stepping away and he heard the door open and close behind him.

“Traveler is safe, she made it home to warn us. Marge fought traveler well, she cut the Barge that sent the assassin to pieces when it tried to finish the job on your departure burn.”

“How… how many…” Silu rasped.

“From Traveler, I’m not sure. we got hit by the VR shortly after you arrived.” Silu’s heart sank at the name of the biblically infamous pirate group, “They did not survive” Mac flashed him a vicious smile both predatory and Triumphant. “But that’s not important right now.”

Silu looked at him incredulously as Lyri started grinning. She leaned into Silu’s ear “We found out this yesterday. You better make it through. You have great uncle duties to fulfill.” she said, absently holding her stomach. Silu’s eyes widened in understanding.

“You’re…” he began before Lyrian rested a hand on his shoulder and raised two fingers. ‘She bares twins!’ His brain was buzzing in questions. But Mac shook his head to make sure he rested.

“To quote one of my old CO’s ‘I do not authorize you to die, Captain.’” Mac said in a low menacing voice, only to be ruined by the grin on his face.

“Aye..” Silu rasped, holding Mac’s gaze as Icario stepped back into view.

“Back to sleep I’m afraid.” he said typing into the bed

“See you on the other side, Captain.” Mac snapped a salute and Lyri placed a hand on his arm as Silu’s mind faded into the medically induced fog of coma.

He smiled.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Clint stood outside the Hospital room in the Vacuum Exposure Ward. The patient in the room had been given the reversal drugs to come out of a long medical coma. She was one of the fifteen that the rescue flotilla under His command had picked up from the wreckage of the doomed Delmar beacon defense fleet. He had come to learn that she was the second officer of the one cruiser that did not get rammed at near relativistic speeds. All the survivors came from that one cruiser. Clint had personally EVA’d to check on what he had thought was her corpse. He assumed from the metal shard in her abdomen and the blood in her helmet, that her suit had ruptured. It had almost. She had suffered catastrophic depressurization momentarily as the emergency functions of the Void suit activated. The suit's nanites had sealed in around the shard and bonded to it, and emergency air was used to repressurize her suit. This had taken just enough time for her to experience severe vacuum exposure while still saving her life. Clint had quickly looked her over and had been about to thruster pack back to the shuttle when he felt a weak grip on his arm from her hand, he had used to real in her body in the first place.

“Is she ok?” another young Delmar Woman spoke from beside him. She had approached him while he was lost in the memory of that event.

“I don’t know. I’m still getting used to your medical capabilities. “We would not have been able to save her, on my world.” He responded just above a whisper.

“I’m Frie, by the way. She is my older sister… It’s a miracle the Rescue shuttles found her.” Frie whispered back, matching his volume.

Clint wasn’t sure what to say, “You’re Lyri’s friend.” He managed finally.

“Yea, How…” She quirked an eyebrow before realizing who he was, “Your Mac’s brother!” she whispered in excitement, “What are you doing…”

A small Gasp interrupted them both as the woman in the bed opened her eyes, she was restrained by the bio-bed for her protection and couldn’t so much as move her head. Her eyes fluttered around the room violently as she whimpered at the realization of her situation.

Frie called down the hall, “Doc!! Hera’lene’s awake!” before rushing into the room to her sister. She was followed by Clint at a more sedately pace.

“Hera’, Hera’, shhh. It's ok. Your safe, your alive.” Frie Coo’d softly to her sister, standing over her so she could be seen easily.

“I’m… I’m not dead?” she rasped as the doctors rushed in checking all her vitals. “Water...” she asked for next and one of the doctors gave her a small ice chip to suck on.

“No, you made it. The Human rescue party found you and 14 others. You were the worse off” Frie whispered. Clint slowly walked over beside Frie and Hera’s eyes went wide.

“You!” She spoke a little easier this time with a wetted throat.

“Him?” Frie asked, confused.

“Yes…” Clint confirmed just as the doctors allowed the bed to release her arms and head movement. The rest of her body would have to stay immobilized until the Nanites finished repairing the damage.

Hera reached up with her right hand and touched Clint’s arm where she had grabbed his suit that fateful night, “You… Thank you..”

Frie’s eyes flew open and turned to stare at Clint, “you?!?”

Clint looked between the two of them before gently taking Hera’s hand in his, patting it gently, “I was in command of the Rescue Flotilla.. Your Hera’ here was the last one we found.. I thought she was dead until she grabbed my EVA suit.”

“You saved my life…” Hera’s eyes began to tear up, not letting go of Clints hand, Clint *oofed* as Frie slammed into him in a sobbing hug. ‘Mac must be rubbing off more than he thought’.

“Thank you for saving my sister...” Frie whispered before releasing him, “Sorry.”

“It’s ok” he said, before turning to the Bedridden Hera’, “ rest now” He released Hera’s hand and sat down in one of the room's reclining chairs, Frie took the other and the three of them talked, mostly Clint and Frie bringing Hera’ up to speed as she rested.