Part 4: Old Acquaintances       As the jungle grew more distant beneath them, Able Squad began to relax. "Send the signal, Alec." ordered J.T. "Acknowledged." replied Alec. The sky below them lit up in a flash, a moment later the air around them echoed with the sound of the explosion. Nara took one last look at the jungle, her questions had been answered but at the price of more questions. Who sent Ozon? And why did they want her? "Lt. Burns?" Sterling's voice came over the comm line. Nara abandoned her thoughts and answered, "Huh, what is it?" Sterling's black field Sargent e-frame hovered in front of hers, "The rest of the squad is heading for orbit, we should join them Lieutenant." "Right, let's go." * * *       '(Ozon has failed my lord, I am sorry.)' said Rodar with a bow of the head. '(His failure is not yours, he underestimated the half breeds and paid the price.)' Rodar raised his head to look back at the vidscreen. Eliodon's face was unreadable, he remained cool and collected as he spoke. '(This mission is too important to fail, that is why you will lead it personally.)' Rodar's face brightened at the prospect of battle, '(I am honored, sir.)' '(Do not be honored, be successful. Bring me the female and kill Taqueza. I expect results in one earth day.)' The monitor switched off and Rodar turned to his two companions. One was a large male Eltorian who was only slightly smaller in stature than Rodar. He had long white hair that he kept in a ponytail which went down his back. He wore the standard uniform of The Elite. Next to the male stood a female with short purple hair, she wore the red and black garments of a section commander. '(It is time. Patilia, prepare a strike team of guardsman. I want only the most skillful for this mission.)' The eltorian female bowed her head, spoke a loud '(Yes sir!)', and exited the room. Rodar looked at the male, '(Is there something on your mind, Darzurb?)' '(I do not trust her.)' said Darzurb. '(For what reason?)' asked Rodar. '(Patilia went through a lot of trouble to get onto this mission. She transferred from one of the more remote units in the guard, someone does not do that for mere glory. She wants to be in the sol system, and I do not know why.)' Rodar nodded his head, his bionic eye flashing a blood red. '(I have had similar doubts about her, though I believe I know why she wants to be here.)' Darzurb raised his hand, palm up, in gesture that begged to hear more. Rodar continued, '(Since we found that Shanita was still alive, Patilia has become obsessed with her. She has read her file repeatedly and kept repeated tabs on her location.)' '(For what purpose?)' asked Darzurb. '(I do not know her motives, but I am certain she wants to kill her. Since Shanita must die anyway, I see no need to stop her from doing so or to pull her from this mission.)' '(I see.)' said Darzurb, '(Do you have any requests of me?)' '(Yes, our mission shall be a three pronged effort. Patilia shall lead her group in an effort to eliminate Shanita, I doubt she will not enjoy the assignment. I will lead a group to eliminate Taqueza. You will capture the female, use whatever means necessary but she must be brought to Eliodon unharmed.)' Darzurb bowed his head and left the room. Rodar thought of the mission, Patilia is not the only one who will enjoy her assignment. * * *       "Now don't be nervous." said Kaz. "I am fine." said Shanita, which was a lie of course. She was about to meet Able Squad. Kaz assumed she was nervous at meeting so many people at once, had he gone to the mess with her he would have known better. The truth was one of the squad's members had killed Kamilia, one of her closest friends. She honestly wasn't sure if she would try to kill whoever it was. The bay doors opened and Able Squad came in for a landing one by one. Kaz started down the stairs that lead to the hanger floor. Shanita continued to watch the e-frames land. She recognized one, it was black, was it the one that captured her? Then she spotted a familiar blue-winged one and her blood ran cold. She stood transfixed by it for a moment as it landed. Her blood began to boil as she turned towards the stairs which led to the hanger floor.       Kaz walked up to Nara's reconnaissance e-frame and snapped a salute, "Lt. Takagi reporting for duty ma'am." Nara greeted him with a warm smile, "Its good to have you back Kaz. Thanks for the tip about the spy." Kaz shrugged, "I only wish Erikson didn't have die over it. We have his body in the morgue, it was recovered from a waste disposal chute." J.T. climbed from his frame, greeted Kaz with equal warmth, and commented on Kaz's return. "Avery told me a lot of good things about you, don't let him down." "Don't worry Commander Marsh, I won't." The rest of the squad gathered around as J.T. took the opportunity to introduce him to the newbies. "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I'd rather have Mack back than another officer in the squad." said Worthington. She shuttered a little as she looked at the back seat of her e-frame, which had two neatly stacked bodybags in it. "I'd rather have it that way too, if it means anything." said Kaz. "It would to Mack." said Remes as he shook hands with Kaz. Alec was about to say something when he stopped short and began again, "Um, Kaz, is that a...friend of yours?" Shanita was slowly walking towards them from across the hanger. Her eyes seemed to be that of a predator nearing the prey. "Oh, that's Shanita, she helped me find the spy in the squad. As a matter of fact she figured out there was a spy." explained Kaz. Sterling eyed her nervously. He had not expected to see her this soon. He also wasn't sure how she would react to him. But it looked like she wasn't even aware that he was in the squad. She stopped her advance next to Kaz who was within arms reach of J.T. Sterling was a few steps to her right. Thrax was on her left. Nara was standing next to Sterling. "Shanita this is Able Squad." said Kaz. Shanita said nothing at first, then pointed at J.T.'s frame while looking at J.T. "You fly this mecha?" she asked. J.T. seemed a little confused as he answered, "Yes I do, why?" The answer came not in words, but action, as Shanita's right hand swiftly wrapped itself around J.T.'s throat and lifted him into the air. Kaz couldn't believe what she was doing and when he tried to stop her she gently pushed him aside. The push would have been gentle for an eltorian, for Kaz it knocked the wind out of him and put him on his back. Thrax attempted to restrain her, but Shanita quickly shifted her weight to her left leg and whipped right leg out striking perfectly at his head. Thrax staggered back under the blow and fell to one knee, trying to get his bearings. Nara was about to do something when Sterling stopped her, "I will handle this." "Do it fast, then." said Nara. Sterling stepped forward and spoke in tongue that none, save one, understood, '(Put him down, Shanita. Now!)' Shanita's head snapped toward the human that spoke her language. She knew instantly who it was. She gently lowered the choking J.T. to the ground. He inhaled deeply as air rushed back into his lungs. The rest of the squad, in the meantime had brought their weapons to bear on her. Sterling walked over to Shanita and they stood face to face. She looked Sterling over. '(Yes, it is I.)' said Sterling. Shanita's face flushed blue, and she delivered a vicious right hook to Sterling's jaw. Sterling had not expected it. He had expected harsh words, but not physical violence. As a result, he fell backwards onto the hanger floor. He sat up and looked at her, not sure exactly what that was for. As if anticipating his question, she said, "That was for leaving me behind." * * *       "Chaos to transport, identify yourself." The distinctly human voice came over the comm line. Rodar answered, "This is the supply ship Danube II , we are in route to deliver spare parts to the exocarrier Resolute II." Rodar hit a button on his console and the computer fed the false I.D. to the Chaos controller. "You're I.D. has been verified. Follow your present course." Rodar smiled wickedly. "You can count on that, control." * * *       The proximity alarm went off on J.T.'s frame, for the what seemed like the millionth time in an hour. He banked hard left as red and green globs of energy shot past. Its time to finish this! thought J.T. He brought his frame up vertical and began to climb and loop behind his attacker. The black elt-frame executed a loop of its own. It was tighter, so as J.T. came out of his loop, the elt-frame was above and behind him, which is just what J.T. planned. He reversed thrust and as predicted, the elt-frame over shot him. He locked on target and fired. Shanita deftly avoided most of the blasts but was hit in back by one shot. She rolled with the hit and went into a dive. J.T. followed and fired again, with his missiles. Shanita let the missiles close to about fifteen meters and rolled hard right. The missiles followed. J.T. was a little confused, he had fired missiles on her earlier, but she had consistently executed an extremely tight loop to loose them. She's up to something. Shanita accelerated as she passed J.T., taking the time to shoot a few shots from her wrist blasters as she flew by. The missiles followed. J.T. looped around to follow only to come head to head with Shanita. She slowed just enough to collide with him, without killing them both. Shanita clung to J.T.'s canopy and wiggled her way to the top of the frame. J.T. repeatedly tried to swat her off. Her voice came over the comm line, "Good bye terran!" Shanita hit her jets and rocketed off J.T.'s frame. Her departure caused him to tumble a bit, long enough to see his own missiles coming straight at him. J.T. would have screamed...if he had the time. His frame exploded violently, Shanita watched the debris scatter, enjoying the victory, "My honor has been satisfied."       The space battlefield flickered and faded away. Shanita pulled off her helmet and opened the hatch to the simulator. Across the way she saw Commander Marsh doing the same. She strode over to him and offered her hand. J.T. smiled and shook it, "That was pretty sneaky, using my own rockets against me." "My usual methods were not enough, I needed to be more creative." answered Shanita. J.T. looked her in the eye, "So everything is okay now, right?" "You have nothing to fear from me, eltorian honor dictates that I avenge Kamilia's death. I have done that." Shanita replied. "Well that's good to hear, because they well never let you into exofleet if you're always trying to kill you superior officers." Kaz said as he approached from the control booth. He and the rest of the squad had watched the simulated battle for the past hour or so. The control booth was situated to overlook the dozen or so simulator pods that were in the training room. Kaz had suggested, quite sensibly, that Shanita settle her differences with J.T. in the vertual world. "Well, now that everyone's friends how about we get some diner?" suggest Kaz. "Sounds good." said J.T. He and Kaz headed for the exit as Sterling joined Shanita. "Sterling, your mother's name was it not?" she said. "Yes, it was." replied Sterling. She gently rubbed his chin, "I am sorry about that punch." "No you're not, and you shouldn't be. I shouldn't have kept this," he pointed to his face, "a secret, and I should not have left you behind. I'm sorry." he gently brushed a lock of her hair out her face. Shanita smiled, "I'm sure you did what you thought was best. Come, let us eat." They walked out of the room together, talking amongst themselves. From the control booth, Rita and Nara watched the exchange. Or it should be said that Rita watched it and Nara pretended not to, failing miserably. "Jealous, Nara?" asked Rita. Nara unclinched her fists, which she hadn't realized were clinched to begin with, and blinked a few times. "No, of course not. Why would I be?" she said. Rita shook her head, "I told you, if you continued to ignore him he would slip through your fingers. It looks like he just did." Rita walked out of the control booth leaving Nara by herself. She muttered a curse under her breath and left the room a second or so later. * * *       "Are all eltorians as strong as you?" asked Thrax. Shanita pondered the question, "I would consider myself of average strength for my size, though I strive to keep myself in peek condition at all times." answered Shanita as she ate her dinner. Sterling was sitting next to her and decided to add something, "After carefully reviewing your databases I determined that the average eltorian is about as strong as a Neo Lord." Thrax's expression lightened a little, "Now I feel a bit better about being unable to restrain you." "I would have trouble restraining her." said Sterling as he rose to get a second helping. "Anyone want anything while I am up?" No one did and so Sterling headed for the kitchen. Alec rose from his seat, "I'll see everyone later, I've got something to do." Everyone knew he was going to see Maggie, but everyone pretended they didn't know where he was going and said good bye. "So what's it like in the eltorian military." asked Rita. "Its different than here. Everyone is required to serve in the military until they approach a certain age, at which time they are discharged from service." answered Shanita. "How old is that?" asked Sue. "The best way to put it would be a little under half a lifetime. But it can take a lot longer than that." Shanita noted that her response caused some confusion. Nara, who was sitting across from her, offered an explanation. "You guys spend your down time in suspended animation, right?" Shanita nodded. "So basically you are stuck in the service until you can age to about 30 or 40 years, which being in out of suspended animation can take centuries." Nara looked at Shanita for conformation, "Yes, that's right." "So how old are you?" asked Stan. "I assumed someone would ask and talked with Taque...er...Sterling, to determine my age in your years. I am about 63 years old." Shanita watched Stan's eyes widen. "You sure don't look it, ow!" There was a rustling under the table as Stan yelled out, indicating that Sue had kicked him. Everyone laughed, except Shanita, who did not seem to get the joke. "So do they allow you to get married and stuff?" asked Kaz. "What is married?" asked Shanita. "Its when two people care a lot about each other and decide to spend the rest of their life together as husband and wife, the wife is the woman by the way. They usually settle down and have lots of children too." explained Kaz. "So the purpose of married is to procreate?" asked Shanita. "Its marriage, married is the verb form, and yeah, you could define it like that." answered Kaz. "So do people get married?" "Yes, all the time." answered Shanita. "In the service?" asked Sue. "Yes, though that tends to be different from outside the service, which conforms most closely to your definition." Shanita finished her meal and sat with her arms folded across her stomach. "So how do you know Sterling?" asked Stan. Rita noticed the topic immediately attracted Nara's attention. "We served together in the same unit, I was his second in command." Shanita said. "Another officer, huh? What about your relationship outside the unit? You two seem pretty close, are you more than friends?" Stan had expected another kick for asking such a personal question, but found that Sue was just as interested in knowing the answer, to say nothing of Nara. Shanita raised a finger to her cheek and tapped it lightly a few times, as if she was choosing the best word to describe what she was thinking. "I am his wife." * * *       DeLeon arrived at the medical ward feeling somewhat good. The mission was over, the objective completed. They lost one of their own along the way, but they caught his killer. Everything had pretty much resolved itself nicely. He had quite a story to tell Maggie, but hesitated just outside her curtain. He was feeling good, but his visits with Maggie usually brought him down. For a moment he wondered if the visit was worth losing that feeling, but only for a moment. He pulled back the curtain to find an empty bed. "Maggie?" he said, his voice full of hope. He looked around the room and found no trace of her. His heart skipped a beat. Oh my God! Something has happened! he thought. He left the room and began to frantically search for a nurse. That's when he saw her. She was wearing her uniform and was talking with a doctor at the nurses station. "Maggie!" he yelled and ran straight for her. She turned to him with a broad smile on her face, "There you are!" Alec wrapped his arms around her, "Oh Thank God!" Maggie returned his hug with equal force, whispering "Its alright, I'm okay, everything is going to be okay." Alec released her, taking her hand, "So you're not mad that I wasn't here when you woke up?" Maggie laughed lightly, "Of course not. I was surprised, I'll admit that, but I figured that you had a really good excuse, and I was right." Alec was positively beaming, "Can you leave? The guys would love to see you." The med-tech standing behind the desk took the opportunity to continue his talk with Weston, "As I was saying before you arrived, Lt. Weston is fully recovered and officially discharged. You can start active duty tomorrow, Lieutenant." Weston smiled and took hold of Alec's arm, "Thanks Doc." She said as she lead Alec away. "So," she asked, "What have I missed?" * * *       Sterling sat down at the table and began to munch down his food. He looked around the table and noted all conversation had stopped. Everyone looked a little uncomfortable, except Nara. He had seen that look before, right before she had tried to strangle him. He looked at Shanita, who looked as confused as he did. "Is everything alright?" he finally asked as he took a drink of water. Remes, true to form, blurted out what was on his mind, "Shanita happened to mention your married to her." Sterling promptly spit his water all over his tray and sat coughing for a few seconds as he tried to speak. His reaction noticeably eased the tension of the table. "Married?" he said looking at Shanita. She quickly repeated the conversation he had missed in eltorian. Sterling relaxed and nodded his head, "Oh I see, there isn't a precise word for that in their language." "Care to fill us in?" asked Torres. "Certainly," replied Sterling, "in the military there is something called," he paused tying to come up with the best translation,"the gene partner protocols. Normally, eltorians enter the military and serve their time. Once completed, they then become private citizens. It is usually at this time that they take a partner and raise a family. A ceremony is preformed, very similar to your wedding ceremony, and this is what you would call marriage. This is not what Shanita was thinking of. In times of war, when the number of casualties result in the military becoming too depleted in numbers the gene partner protocols are invoked. What it means is that existing soldiers undergo a relatively simple medical procedure to extract sex cells or gametes. These are then combined artificially and matured at an exhilarated rate." "Test tube soldiers" mused Kaz. "Exactly, these new beings then serve in the military like everyone else, at the end of their term they are free to live as private citizens. These soldiers are not created randomly, each individual is carefully evaluated and matched up with another. Shanita and I were gene partners." explained Sterling. Nara seemed more friendly as she asked, "So do the two of you have children floating around somewhere?" Sterling shook his head, "No, we were never called on to fulfill said duty." Shanita, looking at Remes, added, "You aren't the first one to assume we are involved, it has happened a number of times. We are, in fact, best friends and nothing more." As Shanita finished her sentence Alec arrived with Maggie, "Hey everyone! Look who's awake!" Everyone immediately got to their feet and greeted Maggie, who was a bit embarrassed by all the attention. While the rest of the squad was chatting with Weston, Nara noticed Sterling eying her with a curious look. She positioned herself next to him, "What?" "Nothing." said Sterling. "Don't give me 'nothing', what's with that look?" Nara asked. Sterling turned to look her in the eye, "Back at the table I couldn't help but notice the expression on your face and the way you kept clinching your hands." "So, I have a lot on my mind." said Nara dryly. "I don't think so, you were jealous." announced Sterling. Nara looked offended, "Of what? You and her? I don't think so." said Nara. Sterling let a self satisfied smirk creep onto his face, "Its nothing to be ashamed of, I care about you too. When you're ready to admit it, you know where to find me." Sterling began to walk away, pausing to introduce himself to Weston before he left. Nara just watched him go. Suddenly she remembered Rita's words "He'll slip through your fingers." She started after him but was cut off by Maggie, "I've heard some interesting stories about you." Nara looked past for a moment, then relented, "I think you need to hear my side of it." "That's what I'm here for." replied Maggie. On to Part 5