Starfighter mltiauthored fic2

Shouting something unprintable, Cain rushed forward, only to be stopped in his tracks by a voice, coming from the inside of the ship.
"...I'm sorry Captain, we didn't know that those blasted pirates hit us so hard... one of the engines must have been damaged badly..."
Listening to polite and calm words of Lev, who gently but firmly was leading Bowie out, Cain felt his muscles tense in preparation for a fight.
Lev looked at him indifferently and turned to Captain again.
"Thank you sir for your help, but my crew is more than enough here."
Captain Bowie's face was calm as he took hold of Lev's guiding hand. With all the skill of a seasoned Judo player, Bowie flipped the big man over his hip and Lev went crashing down on the floor. A gun seemed to appear from nowhere and was now pressed against Lev's forehead. "Tell your men to back off," Bowie commanded. "Or I will blow your brains out." Bowie's men also had guns pointed at the rest of Lev's goons. "You are under arrest for smuggling and for abducting a member of the Federated Alliance."
Cain didn't stick around for the rest of this drama. He and two other Alliance fighters rushed into the Haribdis to find Abel.
Cain rushed inside, not caring if the two of his fellow fighters lost him nearly immediately from sight. Knowing they could follow the sound of his steps, he ran to the crew cabins, where Abel should be held in. Opening the doors and searching the rooms one by one, Cain didn't spare any thought to the shadow that appeared behind him and as a result, he didn't even manage to turn around, when an accurate punch took his consciousness away from him.
Mika threw his weapon to Samok and catching Cain under his arms, dragged his limp body into the nearest room.
-o-o-o-
Abel felt like he was floating in a dark sky. In his dream, he could hear fireworks, but he couldn't see them no matter how much he twisted about. Suddenly an acrid smell made his nose twitch and his throat burn. When he attempted to clear his throat, a hand clamped over his mouth, and Abel opened his eyes to find himself staring into a pair of gray eyes. The man crouching next to him gestured for Abel to be quiet by placing his index finger to his lips. Gunfire erupted nearby, leading Abel to surmise it was the source of his strange dream.
Who was this guy? Who was fighting in the hallway? Abel did not recognize his potential rescuer, however Abel was certain the slim, dark-haired man was not one of Lev's minions. The man was wearing scruffy technician overalls, yet when the collar gapped slightly, Abel glimpsed Alliance armor.
Seeing that Abel is awake, the fighter looked him in the eye and checked his pulse, as if trying to assume how much of a concussion the navigator had. The examination must have turned out quite positive, because even if still with his index finger on Abel's lips, the fighter gestured his to stand up and quietly follow him.
Abel kept one hand near the wall to help balance himself as he followed the fighter to the doorway. The man passed Abel a gasmask before donning one himself. Abel, nodding once he had the gasmask in place, watched in fascination as the fighter tossed several round objects out into the hallway still echoing with sporatic gunfire.
Even despite the mask, Abel blinked rapidly few times, as he felt hot tears coming down his cheeks. The air was gray and a fog was floating at the level near his waist, when the fighter took him by his elbow and dragged forward. Abel saw an unmoving bodies lying on the floor in the corridor and he could easily say that there were two of Lev's cutthroats, Mika and the other one, whose name he didn't remember, as well as two men Abel didn't know. The fighter reached the exit in three long strides, when the door t his left opened suddenly and in the next second, the fighter was sliding on the opposite wall, unconscious.
Dagger lowered his leg after landing the kick, adjusted the mask on his face and grabbed Abel who still had to support himself.
Abel noticed Dagger's eyes were also bloodshot and watery behind the mask. In fact, Dagger was so busy trying to adjust his mask with one hand and hold on to Abel with his other hand, that Abel had no difficulty undoing the top button of the man's slacks. The low-riding, baggy slacks quickly slipped down over the man's narrow hips. Dagger's next step sent him and Abel crashing to the floor as his boots tangled in the material. Dagger's grip slipped and Abel reached over to pull the mask off Dagger's face. Groaning deeply, Dagger clutched his own thick throat before passing out on the floor.
Panting as if after a marathon, Abel straigthened on shaking knees and leaned on the wall. The ship was not in the space anymore, but even so, Abel felt that the floor was swinging from side to side, before he realized that it was his sight that was failing him. Even more so, as when he accidentally looked into one of the opened rooms, he nearly fell to his knees again, seeing another, unmoving body, strangely familiar despite overalls and a cap covering his face.
Without hesitation, Abel entered the room. His hands fumbled around the door frame until he found the button to close the door. The door slid shut, yet Abel continued to press the button until a soft, feminine computer voice said, "Lock engaged."
As the room seemed to grow darker, Abel dropped to his hands and knees. He knocked away the cap before leaning down to stare at the face he'd been hoping to see. It was Cain. Abel pressed his fingertips to Cain's neck and was pleased to find a strong, steady pulse.
"Of course," Abel thought to himself, placing a shaky, unsteady hand against the hard metal beside Cain's head, "The bastard won't die so easily." The dark comment, however, lacked bite; it was too much, the insult, and Abel found himself silently chastising himself for the bitterness. Abel's harsh breaths seemed faint in the droning of the small room.
A loud banging broke the pattern, and Abel found himself cursing lightly under his breath.
Knowing the man on the other side of the door could be one of Lev's crew, Abel crouched next to Cain and remained quiet. His arms trembled as he ever so carefully rolled Cain onto his side before quickly checking his partner for obvious injuries. Abel didn't see any signs of broken bones, yet he did find a small knife hidden under a coverall sleeve. He drew it from the sheath with his right hand. The banging on the door suddenly stopped, but the silence didn't make Abel feel any safer. Several seconds later there was a loud click and the computer voice said, "Lock over-ride accepted." Abel watched as the door began to slide open.
Abel felt his aching body tensed, in preparation to jump and overpower the enemy, but in the next second, he relaxed and slid heavily to sit on the floor. He didn't think he would ever be grateful for this particular person to appear, to watching him walking quickly to Cain's side, and checking his injuries again, Abel sighed with relief for having another Alliance fighter near him.
Deimos glared at Abel.
Ever so slowly, Abel turned the knife he was holding so he could offer it to Deimos handle first. Deimos took the knife away, but he continued to look at Abel like Abel had deliberately caused all this mess . Raising his empty hands, Abel reached up to remove his gas mask. What a relief to be free of that thing. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and even tried to tame his hair by combing it with his fingers, yet he still felt like a wreck.
"Did the Alliance capture Lev?" Abel hoped this nightmare was finally over.
Deimos looked at him accusingly, but said nothing, massaging and stroking Cain's head instead. At first, Abel thought that such a demonstration of devotion is rather sickening considering their current situation, but Deimos must have had another objective in doing so, as Cain sighed and stirred.
Grunting out a string of what was likely mumbled Russian curses, Cain sat up with plenty of help from Deimos. Abel considered lending his own shaky strength to the effort although Deimos seemed to want to monopolize Cain at this moment. The diminuative fighter put his hands on either side of Cain's face as his low, raspy voice encouraged Cain to open his eyes.
Abel winced seeing unconditional admiration on Deimos' face and even coughed theatrically to make Deimos'a attention waver from Cain's face, but he was unsuccessful. From his side, Cain carefully touched his apparently throbbing head, took it in his hands and bend over his knees with quiet but violent curse.
Deimos drew a small, light grey packet from some hidden pocket of his armor. After unfolding it, the man twisted the slim packet somewhat violently, then squeezed it a few times. Abel realized it was a chemical ice-pack. Cain sighed with relief when Deimos put the now cold pack against Cain's forehead. The self-satisfied look on Deimos' face was almost too much to deal with. Abel wanted to tell him to stop hovering already.
However, before Abel could say a word to Cain about how Deimos was touching Cain's hair, and occasionally rubbing it against his face, Captain Bowie entered the room.
one glance at the Captain told Abel that they didn't have an easy way with Lev, as the man had one sleeve ripped and a lip cut. However, he stood firm and straight among his men that crowded in the entrance. Captain Bowie threw one quick look at the room and in two long strides walked to Deimos and Cain, who was still sitting on the floor with ice-pack on his forehead. The blond man sighed.
"As I was saying, our efforts should be joined, shouldn't they, Cain?"
The scowl Deimos fixed on the captain made Abel want to laugh outloud. Even as Abel covered his mouth with his left hand, his shoulders began to shake with the suppressed mirth. Then Bowie turned to look at him. Abel tried to stand up to properly introduce himself and to thank the captain for the rescue, but he was too unsteady so he remain kneeling. He couldn't wait to hear the whole story about how Cain and the other fighters made it to Xtb Aurora in time to help with the rescue. Now that Abel thought about it, the pirate attack didn't seem so random. Therefore someone powerful had to be pulling strings in the background to bring this all together.
Captain Bowie held out his hand. "You must be Abel."
"Yes, sir." Abel tried to straighten up into approproate and respectful pose, but he managed only to irritate his beaten arm. Hissing in pain he took Captain's hand and shook it, smiling with gratitude when the man helped him up.
"What about Lev? did you catch him, Captain?"
Bowie narrowed his eyes in a flash of anger, but as the image remained on his face only a second, he seemed indifferent. Yet, he sighed once again and unconsciously touched his swollen ribs.
"He escaped."
Abel winced at the bad news, although Cain seemed to perk up as he scrambled to his feet with help from Deimos.
"Good! That means I still have a chance to kill him myself."
Captain Bowie shook his head. "Actually, you don't. Unknown to my real maintenance crew, Lev had picked an unfortunate place to hide while eluding the search teams. My crew was working on the secondary positioning engines for the base, and when my chief engineer brought them back on line, Lev was sucked through a high-speed reciprocating fan. There was enough residue and bone fragments left to know he was killed instantly." Bowie scratched his chin. "Maybe it was for the best. He was wanted in so many different colonial jurisdictions that the pre-trial wrangling would have gone on for years."
Abel shivered unconsciously, thinking about a death like that. Feeling a cold chill running down his spine, he nearly shouted when he felt a cold hand, touching the nape of his neck.
Cain smirked, even though still pale and trembling a little, but he must have felt better, as he sneaked the other arm around Abel's middle.
Abel put his arms around Cain, hugging him close and swaying his hips in a way that was sure to warm Cain up in more ways than one. He didn't even care if Captain Bowie's men were making crude remarks punctuated by loud wolf-whistles. Nor did it faze Abel when Deimos started to glare at him with murderous intent. Looking up, he pressed his lips to Cain's. Abel's body hummed with pleasure as Cain's tongue entered Abel's mouth and the kiss deepened.
Captain Bowie snapped his fingers. "Abel, or I suppose I should say Ethan, I meant to tell you earlier that your father will be here in fifteen minutes."
Abel was so surprised that he even managed to ignore when Cain tried to suck on his lower lip.
"My father?" he asked with a little too high voice for his own liking, turning to the Captain. But a second later, a satisfied smirk appeared out of nowhere on his face.
"That's good."
All of the sudden deep in thought, Abel didn't notice when Captain Bowie smiled.
When Cain drew back from their embrace, Abel let his own arms drop to his side. He yelped when Cain pinched his nose.
"What the h*ll are you thinking about?" he said. "We need to get the f*<k out of here because the last person I want to meet right now is your father if he'd stoop low enough to hire someone like Lev.
"Don't tell me you are scared of my 'old man'" along with Abel, all men in the room winced uncomfortably. That nickname used by chilled-out teenagers didn't match especially with someone like Abel's father.
"Even though we were not agreed on some issues, I suggest following Cain's words, maybe just not so vulgar in sound." Captain Bowie looked strangely smug, considering he had been wearing torn uniform.
"But, sir..."
"Leave it to us, Abel" now Bowie was smiling openly "Cook instructed me how to handle things. Trust me."
This efficiently closed Abel's mouth.
Cain leaned in close to Abel's ear. "Let's get this clear. I'm NOT scared of your father," Cain said before giving Abel's earlobe a quick nibble. "I'm just in the mood to throttle his sh*tty neck instead of shaking his hand."
"Oh really?" Abel shivered when he felt Cain's hot breath on his neck "Is it all you are in the mood for, right now?"
"I'm always in the mood for more, Sweetheart." Cain slung his left arm around Abel's shoulders and turned him towards the door. A moment later he grabbed Deimos by the arm to drag him along also. As far as Abel could tell from the pouty frown, Deimos wasn't too happy about this, yet the fighter didn't try to shake off Cain's hold on him.
Bowie's men cleared the doorway as Cain drew Deimos forward to be the first to pass through the door while Abel had to press slightly closer to Cain so he and Cain could leave the room together. When they were all finally off Lev's ship, Abel let out a hearty sigh of relief.
And a moment later he let out a sigh of completely different nature.
"Get your hands off me." he said, feeling Cain's sneaky hand on his hip and still getting lower. "Or I may kick you in front of everyone."
"Go ahead princess." Cain smirked, but turned to the side, when Deimos tugged at his elbow.
After smacking the mouse upside the head, Cain started to tell Deimos to stop butting in -- then he caught sight of the group of people walking down the corridor towards them.
Automatically, Cain dropped his arms from Abel's middle and straightened up. Deimos sighed weakly when he felt that he was suddenly being pushed forward, with Cain following him closely. He just could hear Cain's hiss adressed to Abel about 'getting f*<k out of here' before the two of them were faced with a bunch of bodyguards.
"Mister President, sir!"
Abel wanted to laugh and hide his face in his hands as he watched Cain and Deimos stand before the presidential bodyguards like a pair of ragged straw-men. Abel knew exactly what those bodyguards were capable of doing.
However, in the next second he was grabbed by his shirt and dragged around the corner, just in time not to be seen by the one bodyguards were guarding. He could only hear voice of the man, lecturing Cain and Deimos, before he turned to his assaulter.
"Let's leave for now." Captain Bowie's face was serious.
Abel, walking as fast as possible, followed Captain Bowie as the man led him down one corridor after another. It wasn't like Abel had much of a choice. Bowie continued to grip Abel's shirt.
"Where are we headed?" Abel said.
"To somewhere relatively safe for you." the man said, not looking at Abel, but glancing around with a frown, instead. "Your father would give us a lot of trouble, should he see you, Ethan, so we shall spare him that pleasure."
Abel and the captain turned another corner only to be nearly trampled by the people they were trying to avoid. "What the bloody --" Bowie sputtered. Abel heard his shirt rip as the captain was pulled away from him by several of the bodyguards. The others grabbed Abel and dragged him over to stand before his father.
The surprise and anger on Abel's face had to be obvious as his father patted him on the top of his head. "I always knew I would eventually have to use the tracking nanite I placed in you when you were just a baby."
"You WHAT?" Abel heard from behind his father's back and some more bodyguards joined already crowded group standing there. He could just hope that Cain wouldn't be suffocated with so many bodies on him.
"That's illegal, Mr. President." calm voice of Captain Bowie sounded strangely out of place, considering that the man himself was also held in firm grip of bodyguards.
"That's never stopped him," Abel said. "He's always been willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish his goals." As he struggled to get a glimps of Cain, Abel could feel his torn shirt slipping off his shoulder. Suddenly his father grabbed Abel's chin before pushing Abel's shirt out of the way. At first Abel didn't understand, then he remembered all the bruises and the deep bite mark Cain had placed on his left shoulder. Oh no, the sh*t was going to hit the fan now.
"Who did this to you!" his father roared, red in the face. "I can tell these wounds were inflicted more than three days ago, but don't even try to fool me into believing they happened while you were battling the Colterons."
"What, did it sound like interest in your voice?" even Abel was able to say that his tone was bitter, when he forcefully grabbed the edge of his shirt to cover his arm after he freed his face from his father's grip. "Or was it just I'm destryoing your image of caring and responsible man?"
The blow to his face, when father punched him, burnt like fire.
The stunned silence in the corridor lasted for only a moment before Abel spoke again. "I'm 24 years old, and I'm never going to be the perfect little shadow to follow in your footsteps."
Abel gritted his teeth when his father raised his fist once more, but one of the older bodyguards stopped Abel's father from striking Abel a second time. The man had likely forfeited his career for him. Abel nodded and thank him before speaking again. "I joined the Alliance to help protect the Earth and her colonies. The gay sex is just a benefit." Somewhere in the background, Abel thought he heard Cain's laughter.
Abel's father changed red on his face, but before he managed to open his mouth, Captain Bowie stepped forward, already free from the bodyguard.
"I warn you, Mr. President. Despite being blood-related to this soldier no abuse shall escape the punishment. Not in my presence."
"You-"
"Well said, Bowie." hearing the voice from behind them, all men turned around as if one. Abel startled. "Well said, indeed."
He was looking at cool, armed and royally furious Fleet Commander Admiral Cook among his personal guard.
No one blocked Cook's way as he strode forward to stand beside Abel. "Mr. President, this informal meeting will end now. You have seen your son, and he has seen more than enough of you."
The President did not acknowledge Commander Cook's words as he continued to stare at Abel before speaking. "Ethan," he said, his voice pitched low,"your mother is going to be very disappointed with you. I can't believe you would hurt her like this." The President then turned away to walk down the corridor, his guards around him.
However, cool voice of Commander Cook made all of them stop abruptly.
"Actually, sir, it was your wife that urged me to come here in the first place."
Abel was close to the point that he didn't care what was appropriate, he would grab Cook by his shirt and shake him, only to know what mom had to do with this intervention. The officer ignored him.
"Would you please tell your men to release my Fighters? I'd rather have them not suffocated there."
The President snapped his fingers. Deimos and Cain were lifted off the ground by the bodyguards before being tossed to land in a heap at Cook's feet. Abel crouched down next to Cain. His partner looked pale and Cain's cheek had the imprint of a boot sole on it. "Are you okay?" Abel said.
"Bunch of fat @*s idiots tried to break my d*mn back," Cain said, his voice rough as he struggled to get back on his feet.
Abel helped Cain to stand up, at the same time feeling around to make sure he was uninjured. Cain leaned on him for a moment, looking around with hawk-like eyes, hatefully taking in a whole lot of bodyguards that earlier didn't want to let him go, no matter how much he struggled. Abel started to relax a little, feeling familiar body heat near himself, but sudenly Cain shoved him off.
"Deimos! Hey, Myshonok, what's wrong?"
Shorter Fighter didn't stand up, he was still sitting on the floor with head between his knees and with one hand massaging his throat that already started to swell.
Captain Bowie immediately started barking orders to his men. "Get an emergency stretcher. We need to take this man to Medical ASAP!" In just a few seconds a stretcher was brought over. Cain and some of the other soldiers helped to place Deimos on it before lifting the stretcher to carry Deimos away down the corridor. "Mark my words, Mr. President," Bowie said. "I will make a full report about this to Aurora's Senior Medical Officer."
Abel was about to follow Bowie to medical as the Captain left along with the rest of his soldiers, however, Commander Cook held up his hand. "Please stay here, Abel."
"Yes, Sir."
"As we seem to be getting some space now" Commander Cook began slowly, looking at the men before him with cold eyes of a soldier "I suggest we all part in peaceful agreement."
"Listen, Cook..."
"With all due respect, Mr. President" Commander's firm voice cut out the other's speech in one second. "Just shut up."
Abel twitched hearing that, trying hard not to laugh from the expression his father made.
His father must have noticed Abel's amusement for his steely eyes focused on Abel once more. "Don't bother coming home once the Alliance is done using you like a cheap prostitute. As far as I'm concerned, I no longer have a son." Abel bit his lip to keep from replying to such a poisonous insult. He turned away until the sound of his father's footsteps could no longer be heard in the corridor. Now he and Cook and Cook's personal guards were the only ones left.
Abel flinched when Cook touched his sore shoulder. "I can tell by the way you're standing, you could use some medical attention also." Abel nodded before following Commander Cook to Medical."

Abel was sitting quietly on his bed, wincing and straightening up, when slouching made his bangades move and irritate his sore arm. It had been more than two days since he last time saw Cain and Deimos, as the two of them were stuck in the Medical due to their injuries. Even Cain, who claimed to be nearly as goos as new, once he got some sleep. The doctors, on the other hand, claimed that he had three broken ribs, twisted arm and beaten, bruised sides that indicated risk for his internal ograns to be damaged. Abel had really no idea, how Cain managed to resque him with such injuries.
Abel sighed. He was feeling restless now after sleeping for almost a whole day. A borrowed computer pad had helped him to catch up on the latest news from Earth and the colonies, but he was really getting bored with this inactivity and being stuck in a small, featureless dorm room on Xtb Aurora. When the door chime rang out, Abel grinned. It was always nice to have a visitor even if it was just a nurse from Medical checking up on him. To his delight, the nurses on Aurora -- all of them men -- were pretty cute in Abel's opinion. He tried to imagine Cain in the white and green medical scrubs instead of the Alliance armor, however the mental image really came off more bizarre than sexy.
"Come in," Abel said and the door slid open.
However, instead of a cute boy-nurse, a tall and muscular man stood in the doorway. First thing that Abel recognized was an Alliance Fighter armor, which was kind of strange in this base with navyblue uniforms, but only then did Abel looked at the incomer's face.
"Praxis!"
"What a welcomed surprise. When did you arrive at Aurora?" Abel gestured to a seat next to his bed. "Please, sit down," Abel said with a big grin, "and tell me all the latest gossip from the starbase."
"Actually, I've just got here." Praxis smiled at Abel, but his face grew serious when he noticed all bandages and dressings he had. "Commander Bering sent a team of Fighters to retrieve you, Cain and Deimos from Aurora."
When Praxis sat down in the chair, Abel noticed he perched on the edge of the seat as if he expected to jump up again immediately. "The other fighters, the ones that originally helped Cain and Deimos with your rescue, have all returned to the starbase. So has Commander Cook." After a quick glance at the door which was still open to the hallway, Praxis continued talking althought he lowered his voice and leaned in toward Abel. "There's been some unusual activity in Colteron space. You three need to be back on duty right away."
"Unusual activity?" Abel whispered. "What are the Colterons doing now?"
"That's exactly what we don't know" Praxis looked stressed and nervously started to tap his fingers on his knee. "But we did notice strange commotion in their bases and more frequent movement towards our positions."
"Is that so," Abel said. "Well, I'm ready to return to the starbase, but Cain and Deimos have some serious injuries which are still healing. I'm not certain if the doctors will clear Cain to fly in the Reliant right away."
"You could always get a new fighter assigned to you." Praxis's smile seemed to stretch from ear to ear.
Abel thought about it for a second.
"That's right. I can get another fighter assigned until CAin recovered enough to fly. Speaking of which, how is your new navigator doing, Praxis?"
The smile fell as Praxis stared at his boots. "He's okay I suppose. But the way he talks down to everyone really bugs me." Standing up, Praxis turned towards the door. "I've heard what he thinks about fighters, and I can't trust him. Not like I trust you, Abel." Praxis waved as he walked to the door. "Get ready to go. I'll meet you later on the transport ship."
Feeling strangely distressed by the tone Praxis said that, Abel looked after him even when the door closed. That was right, he could get a temporary change in fighter, that was an excellent idea... just why he felt that he had said something terribly wrong?
Abel pondered those prickly thoughts as he put on the new clothes provided by Captain Bowie. Before he would go to the transport ship to talk once more with Praxis, he decided to check in at Medical to ask the lead nurse to send an update to the medical records on the starbase. He also wanted to see Cain.
However, before he even managed to touch the lock, the door slid open on their own.
Abel blinked in surprise. Cain and Deimos stood before him, blocking the doorway. Abel was about to ask them why there were here, but Cain cut him off. "Good. You're ready to go," Cain said as he dragged Abel out into the hallways by grabbing a fistful of Abel's shirt. "Time to go back to the starbase. Bering has an important assignment lined up for me and you."
"What are you talking about?!" Abel shouted, while he was being dragged forward. Deimos followed them silently, like an expressionless shadow, but Abel could catch with a corner of his eye bandages and dressings that shorter fighter had on his neck. Well, that injury wouldn't make him any more talkative, would it?
The trip back to the Alliance starbase was uncomfortable to say the least. Praxis kept staring at Abel with sad puppy-dog eyes, however Abel never had a chance to talk to him during the flight because Cain had taken some medication and was now resting his head on Abel's shoulder. Deimos tried several times to shift Cain over to his side, but Cain always pushed Deimos away before returning to lean on Abel. The other fighters on the transport made dirty jokes about Cain and his "pillow". Cain responded with rude hand gestures.
However, when they arrived at the starbase, they were greeted by a group of medics that immediately threw themselves at Cain, just to tie him down and put on the stretcher, in company with man's shocked insults. Before Abel could turn around, the medics were already going somewhere with swearing, tied Cain and apparently worried, mute Deimos.
"I just thought it would be convenient" Abel heard from behind him an amused voice and he unconsciously stood up at attention.
"Commander Bering, sir."
Bering chuckled. "At ease, Abel," he said before making a small follow me gesture. "Let's go to my office. We need to talk about your next assignment."
"But I have to report to Commander Cook first, sir..."
"He will be there as well." Bering's smile was gone in an instant, his voice firm and serious.
Abel, who was now in Commander Bering's office, felt like he was facing a firing squad as he stood before the two Commanders. Cook spoke first. "How is your shoulder, Abel? Are you ready to pilot the Reliant again?"
Not knowing what he should say to that, Abel gave the only possible answer.
"Yes, sir."
"Execellent" Commander Cook turned to Commander Bering "I trust that until Abel's partner recover, he can get a substitute?"
Bering smoothed his hand over his beard. "In most cases, a substitute fighter would be used. However, I advise against doing so this time." The sudden tension in the room made Abel almost wish he was back on Xtb Aurora. "Cain, is the best fighter on this starbase," Bering continued, "but he is a loose cannon. His actions before, during and after the rescue mission clearly show that he will not tolerate being apart from Abel for very long."
"However" Commander Cook's voice was cold. "Cain is to be hospitalized for at least a week. Yes, a week" he repeated when Abel loudly drew in a breath. "Even if he himself says otherwise. Did I understood correctly that in this situation we shall resign from using one of the best Navigators we have just because his partner has his moods?"
"Cain will end up taking months to heal when he fights his way out of the infirmary just to challenge the Reliant's new fighter. It doesn't matter if the substitution is temporary." Bering held up his hand when it looked as if Cook would say something. "I will not allow the doctors to sedate Cain for the whole d*mn week. Abel has been on the starbase for less than 2 weeks, and he just spent the last 4 days off the base. We can spare him for awhile. I suggest Abel work as an instructor for the flight-combat simulators. He will train with the unpaired fighters during the day shift, helping those fighters to improve their skills and marksmanship. Abel will have the evening shift free to visit Cain in the infirmary and KEEP HIM IN LINE."
Cook said nothing, only nodded mutely and gestured Abel to follow him out of the office. When they stepped out on the corridor, Commander turned to Abel.
"I hope you know what does it mean." he said, his eyebrows furred slightly in displeasure. "At least try and make Cain stay out of trouble. Having to deal with Colterons and him at the same time may be troublesome."
"Yes, sir. I'll do my best." The next instant Abel fought to stifle a yawn he hoped Commander Cook wouldn't notice. The commander frowned at him. "My apologies, sir."
"Get some rest, Abel. You're going to have a very busy day tomorow."
Abel returned to his dorm room, hung up his clothes and showered carefully. The bandages were waterproof, but they couldn't take having hot water sprayed on them for very long. Later as he adjusted his pillow and pulled the sheet up to his chest, he thought about everything that had happened since he got out of bed four days ago. That son of a b*tch Cain still wasn't here in bed with him. Abel sighed, but he was too tired to worry about restless sleep. He closed his eyes.
THE END