Confluence, p.15
Confluence, page 15
After a tuck and roll, she found her feet and raced back toward the plumes. Over the pattering crush of quick boots down the graveled shoulder, she heard Khorthat holler after her to stop.
She drew in a deep breath and felt the strength from her muscular modifications. Khattara raced back toward towering dark clouds and an enemy of unknown strength. Over Khorthat’s protest, she heard another voice, one from within.
Khattara, what the hell are you doing?
The eyes of the child refugee flashed again in her mind. In the brief moment when the two had passed, Khattara had seen the girl was hugging her knees. The warrior’s jaw clenched, and her teeth ground tight.
Who would come for a princess?
The fragile peace in the demilitarized zone of her past was now completely shattered. Khattara’s feet moved quick like her hearts, and the movement reminded her of times when she had evaded the Takers. Every planet seemed to have them, and there was a girl out here somewhere. In that moment, above protest and convention and protocol and sanity, one single purpose in the universe surged through the survivor of Shorcanton.
I would come!
Khattara continued with mod speed back toward the bridge crossing the ravine. The booming echo of weapons fire ahead brought her back centered in the moment, and the warrior she’d become flew off the open road. Khattara charged the bolt of her rifle and heard the clacking action as the first round chambered. Her opposite thumb danced over the safety position and confirmed the weapon was hot. Moving quickly across open terrain, she raced from one tuft of scrub to the cover of another.
Dust and smoke were clearing as she approached the edge of the ravine. The ground ahead spat up dirt and rocks in seeming protest as enemy fire from the far side of the small canyon landed all around her. Khattara continued to advance, and in that precise moment, with bullets whizzing past her, the weight of combat flipped a switch deep within. Thousands of training hours keyed in like tumblers within the lock of her soul. For the prior eight years, the slave princess had taken refuge from the shards of her past within the oasis of a full sensory combat simulator. There was a simplicity she embraced in the moment of battle. At a certain point of deadly escalation, matters became clear, and all the other background noise of life evaporated away. While flirting with death across a table of battle, she enjoyed a quieted mind. She knew this was no simulation, and the consequences of her choices would be permanent. Still, there was familiar comfort in the moment around her because it was the fire that had become her chosen element.
Khattara’s finger pulled down on a well-worn trigger, and flashes erupted off her barrel. The purr of the weapon’s stock into her shoulder gave her comfort. No one in that canyon, not even Khattara, had any idea of the warrior entering the arena.
Although her lower body moved with great speed, Khattara’s head and barrel held steady on multiple targets. Her gun sights pivoted between enemy positions with crisp, measured control. Once per second, a long flash off the muzzle preceded the brrrrt noise of multiple rounds streaming from her rifle. The sound reverberated through the canyon as she laid down bursts of blistering fire. The rounds were placed with uncommon precision, and the enemies all held low for cover. Those slow to shelter were taken as casualties, and many others fired out in the blind in a desperate effort to find better cover.
Between volleys, Khattara continued to advance along the ravine edge. The bridge they’d crossed earlier had collapsed save the pillar nearest her side. A small segment of roadway was perched on the tilting support, and the disabled refugee vehicle rested precariously upon it. She could see several bodies had been ejected from it, and they lay motionless near the smoking wreckage. Other survivors appeared to have already fled, but movement from a ledge just ahead of the pillar on the ravine wall caught her eye. A small form had landed a few feet below the canyon lip and darted back between a series of large boulders. Khattara Eschala nodded with pinched lips. The moment overlapped with a memory of her younger self perched up high on a tangle of debris.
I would come for that girl!
Quick eyes surveyed several sharp boulder piles that lay in the path between her and the survivor. Under enemy fire, she’d need to make quick travel across them. The first would be a forty-foot vault out and over a jagged field to a ledge about twenty feet lower in the ravine. Assuming the first landing didn’t break bone, she would need all her modified strength to make two subsequent thirty-foot jumps upslope to narrow landings above.
She racked a round into the lower barrel of her grenade launcher, braced the butt of her rifle on her upper thigh, and tilted the barrel upward. Before she could fire, her left shoulder reeled back like someone familiar had tried to pull her around at a party. She felt the piercing pain a moment before the shot echoed off the canyon walls. Time seemed to slow as Khattara glanced at the frayed fabric on the outside cap of her shoulder. An enemy round had seared clean through, and she heaved through the initial pain. With clenched teeth, her gaze returned to opposite positions across the ravine. She visualized the firing arc of the grenade round based upon thousands of hours from the range.
Enemy fire whizzed past her as a crimson spot began to expand on her shoulder. A trigger pull released the first round with a loud fhump, and Khattara rapidly pumped another explosive round into the chamber. She fired again before the first grenade had landed. The recoil on her hip was pleasing, and as she fired the third, she could almost make out the actual arc. Khattara trilled softly as her barrel rose in anticipation and sighted on the enemy positions. The grenades landed just above each point of enemy cover, and the ensuing shrapnel avalanche drew many out into her fire. Khattara eliminated several more combatants as other survivors clambered for new cover. The moment created a window of opportunity, and she made her move.
Khattara bolted from her location and paused for a moment at the edge of the jagged field. This was the longest leap she’d ever attempted with mods. She squinted as she surveyed the gap.
Takers are closing!
The thought electrified her, and with three powerful strides, she sailed out over the field. The ground on the far side came hard, and her knees telescoped into her chest, knocking the wind from her. Without breath or pause, she took another three steps and vaulted again to the next higher ledge. She’d scarcely taken another step when the enemy returned fire, and this time they too shot explosive rounds. Five simultaneous blasts nearly knocked her from the landing, and she was covered in an avalanche of cobble.
Khattara coughed through choking dust and rolled over. Her eyes sharpened on the final ledge above, and she bolted for it. A maelstrom of enemy fire kicked up stone shrapnel as rocks exploded all around her. She made the final upward diving leap for the top ledge and ricocheted into cover off a larger upslope boulder. The impact once again knocked the wind from her. Khattara Eschala found herself staring into the wide brown eyes of the little girl she’d earlier seen passing by her window.
The child thrust her palms out and tried to hold the warrior away.
Khattara gently patted the child’s hand and waved her other hand in front of her own face. After a moment, she gasped and regained her breath. The panting for air seemed to reassure the girl that Khattara was a friendly force in distress; monsters seldom have the wind knocked out of them.
“I’m Khattara.” She motioned toward herself and panted. “Khattara.” She pointed up toward the top of the ravine and motioned with her fingers as if they were walking. “You wanna get outta here?” She motioned between them and upward again. “Go?”
The girl nodded with large doe eyes. Both flinched when another explosive round detonated behind the enormous rock sheltering them. Khattara surveyed their position and determined the natural bunker would provide adequate cover for the moment.
Her focus returned to the child. “Anything broken?” Khattara grasped the girl’s hands and turned them over. Her eyes traveled up to her shoulders, and she looked over her neck and head.
The little girl vaguely remembered what it was like to have someone look after her. Khattara’s eyes moved in a familiar way, and after a moment, the child glanced down at her shin. Khattara followed her eyes and noticed the wound.
Blood was weeping from a deep hole that looked like a shrapnel wound. In an instant, Khattara had a field trauma kit out. She grabbed a couple of objects that resembled large cartoon-like thumbtacks. Double glancing at the child, she tossed one of them back into her kit. She held up the second and twisted a dial on the bottom portion to measure a quarter dose. The child watched as Khattara brought it down, snapping it into her upper thigh. The firm striking movement caused an inner hypodermic needle to extend and stab into the girl’s leg. Khattara held it firm despite the squirming and allowed the dose to enter the bloodstream.
Before the child could protest further, Khattara blurted, “For the pain. It’ll make it numb.” She motioned toward the wound and made a waxing motion over it with her hand. “Feel better?” Khattara nodded and smiled as she repeated the question.
The girl’s crinkled face relaxed, and she looked down at her wound with a dull, glazed expression. Khattara had a flashback to the moment when a medic had snapped a needle into her finger so many years ago. Instead of standing up and walking away, Khattara gently grasped the girl’s hand. She smiled and nodded at her. “I came for you; we’re bustin’ outta here together.” She winked before motioning with her hand back and forth between them, then she pointed again up toward the top of the ravine. Khattara nodded at her again before raising an index finger and pointing down to the girl’s shin. “But first we need to dress this a bit.” Khattara tore into paper bandage packets, and scraps of discarded white wrappers danced in the dust around them. She dumped a coagulant powder on the impact hole and quickly put a sterile dressing over it. Then she speed-wrapped a tight gauze band around the leg to compress the wound.
Khattara felt the girl’s hand pawing at hers. As their eyes met, the child grasped the envelop with the coagulant powder and motioned toward the warrior’s shoulder. The area was now a dark crimson patch caked in dust. Khattara glanced at it and raised her eyebrows. She took her finger and pushed some of the powder into the hole of her own wound. Looking back, she winked again at the girl.
Khattara lifted her rifle, and the child saw something fall from the center of it. She noticed Khattara’s arm disappear behind her back and then return with a metal clip. She spun the long cartridge around in her hand, inspected it, and then snapped it up into her rifle. The little girl watched closely as Khattara tilted her weapon to the side and inspected something on the bigger bottom barrel.
Another explosion detonated behind the natural rock bunker, and both instinctively lowered their heads as small pebbles rained down. The child watched as Khattara took quick glances out from their cover position and surveyed the upslope terrain above them. With each glance, the surrounding rocks kicked up from enemy gunfire.
The girl watched as Khattara dug in a lower pants pocket and retrieved two small metallic canisters. She held them up toward the doe-eyed child.
“Smoke cans; we’re gonna need a little cover.”
Khattara motioned by spreading her fingers away from the canister. Then she moved her fingertips like they were twinkling in the wind.
“Makes it harder for the bad guys to see us.”
She moved her hand in front of her eyes. The girl smiled as Khattara peeked through her fingers. She rotated the canisters and held them so the child could see a colored ribbon on each side.
“Which one, purple or blue?” She motioned again with each. “Purple? Or blue?”
The girl stared blankly at Khattara for a moment before pointing to the blue one.
Khattara gushed, “No kidding! Blue’s my favorite too.” Khattara pulled the pin and winked before crossing her eyes, sticking her rolled tongue out and tossing the blue canister over her head. It clanked down between the rocks just behind their position and started to hiss. As the royal-blue cloud blossomed and spread, Khattara placed the ring of the second in her mouth and pulled the pin out with her teeth. The girl smiled, watching as Khattara heaved it much further out into the ravine.
Khattara zipped up her pant pocket and looked back at the girl. Pointing up toward the top of the ravine, she asked, “Ready?”
The girl nodded again.
“I’m gettin’ you outta here. Hold on tight, and don’t let go, OK, sweetheart? We’re goin’ up and out of here that way.” Khattara motioned up the slope with a knife hand.
While trying to exude confidence, the warrior was steeling herself for a slowed ascent carrying the child through a hail of gun fire. Khattara knew her torso would serve as a shield for the girl, and she nodded in thought.
No matter how bad it hurts, just keep movin’. She’s got a fightin’ chance if you get her up top…and if you fall after…if you bleed out here…then at least it wasn’t Shorcanton. So yeah, fuck you, Shorcanton. Fuck you!
Khattara looked into the girl’s innocent brown eyes, smiled, and winked. The child nodded and hugged into Khattara. Just before Khattara stood, multiple points of thunderous fire rang out from just above their position. Friendly forces had deployed, and multiple explosions erupted from the opposite canyon wall.
Khattara smiled and closed her eyes for a moment. After a large breath, she mumbled, “They came…They came.”
She showed the girl two fingers and then motioned between the two of them. Khattara pointed up toward her squad above and held up many fingers. She brought the two fingers from one hand together with all the raised fingers from the second. Khattara made a circling motion and held all her fingers up together. The child nodded and smiled.
Khattara tenderly swept the bangs from the child’s eyes and ran the back of her fingers along the side of her head. The girl snatched her arm and hugged it.
I gotcha, Princess.
◊ ◊ ◊
Later that evening at a secure camp, Khattara looked on at the torn fabric over her upper arm. She put her finger into the hole and felt the bandages underneath. “Bit of a graze today.”
Khorthat nodded and smiled. “Yep.” He took a slow sip before continuing. “Makes me think back on that moment when you first returned to us. I remember seeing it in your eyes.”
Khattara chuckled and took a sip of the bootlegged libation the squad was sharing around the fire. “What? You talkin’ about years ago when I came home off that transport? Jheez, I was a mess back then.”
Khorthat took another sip and shook his head. “Nawh, that’s not the time I’m talkin’ about.”
Khattara cocked her head.
“I’m talking about earlier today when you rose outta that ravine with the little girl. Busted lip, clipped in the shoulder, caked in dust, but there you were, swaggering out, holdin’ that kid in your arms. That’s when I saw it in your eyes, and I knew…you’d finally made it back to us.”
The others around the fire nodded in silence and smiled at Khattara. One by one they raised their cups in the air, and Khattara felt as though she couldn’t swallow.
She stared down into the fire and slowly shook her head. “I…I don’t think that other princess ever came back.”
Khorthat smiled again and put the weight of his weathered hand on her uninjured shoulder. “Well, maybe true, but I’m thankful for whoever the hell it is we ended up with.”
Khattara glanced to his eyes, and he nodded at her.
She looked back into the fire. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be anymore, and today…” She shook her head and paused. “Today out there…that whole thing.” Her eyes once again found Khorthat’s. “I liked it. I liked it a lot.”
Khorthat’s smile was uncharacteristically large as he glanced to the others. He held his mug up as another voice around the fire hollered, “One of us!”
They all raised their cups and hollered. Khattara nodded and looked to each one across the fire. As she did, a smile crept over her face. A few moments later, a picture was snapped; it was the one in the wooden frame that Ryan asked about and one she held dear. It was taken the day a lost girl learned she was worthy of someone coming back for her. The photo also served as a reminder to live and act without regret. A few weeks later, the palace residence was caught up in an attack.
◊ ◊ ◊
Khattara wiped a smudge of dust from the top of the picture frame and tenderly polished the glass. She smiled looking on it and huffed. “Mugs around the fire.” Then she placed it back on the table.
Ryan chuckled. “Wow. So lemme get this straight, you just ran off out there into the middle of it...all by yourself.” He looked down at the image of Khorthat. “Poor bastard. I think I may know a little how he felt, gettin’ left behind on one of your missions.”
Khattara smiled, shook her head, and glanced away. “Why do I tell you this stuff?”
Ryan’s eyes followed her. “So what’s her name?”
Khattara’s head turned to Ryan. “What?”
“The little girl you rescued, what’s her name?”
Khattara gently bit into her lip and squinted. “Jheleen.”
Ryan looked at her for a long moment. “So is she OK?”
“That’s the problem; I don’t know. We got her back north with extended family, but a few years later, the entire planet descended into global war. When the Aligned Systems pulled out of the peace treaty, we recalled our forces. Ever since, the entire planet has been a lawless mess run by tribal leaders. It’s dangerous for Centauri there; the one thing all tribes agree upon is a hatred for my people. We represent a law and order that the warlords do not want. The crown forbids anyone from the kingdom going there, and all lines of communication have been cut off.” She paused for a moment. “With what happened immediately after my return, King Khefton expressly forbade me from pursuing the matter further.”
Ryan cocked his head.
Khattara grimaced. “Someone in the press took pictures in that bender and released them just prior to our return home.” Her head shook as she thought back on the frenzy.
