A Soldier in Love (13 page)

Michelle woozily opened
her eyes. She blinked a few times and tried to shake the sleepiness from her
body. It didn’t seem to want to leave but she pushed harder. Finally things
seemed to come back around.

“Hey, I didn’t wake you
did I?” Serik said softly as she awoke.

“No,” she replied softly
as she sat up slowly.

“How
are you feeling?” Serik asked warmly.

“I don’t want to jinx
it but I think I am starting to feel better,” she smiled.

He smiled back. “Good.”

Michelle folded her
hands in her lap nervously. “So, I uh, never asked… where are we?”

“We are in
Galaxus
Prime. We’re on course for Sora,” Serik replied.

“
Galaxus
Prime?
Sora?”
Michelle repeated furrowing her brow.

“I guess I should do
some explaining now that you are feeling better,” he began as he took a seat on
the edge of the bed. “I’m a trader and sometimes a bounty hunter when the price
is right, but right now I have a deal for a load of
Luvoxko
to take to Sora.”

Michelle started
laughing softly.
 

“What’s so funny?” he
asked.

“I have no idea where
we are, where we are going, or what
Lukoko
is.”

“
Luvoxko
,”
he gently corrected.

“Whatever,” she said with
an exasperated look on her face.

“I’m a trader. I travel
between the many realms and planets selling supplies and goods,” he replied.

She looked into his
golden and blue gaze, still confused.

“Why did you save me?” she
asked quietly. Part of her wished he would have let her die, yet the other part
was hopeful. She wondered if it was just part of the human condition to be
hopeful, even in the most hopeless of situations.

“You needed help but
honestly I don’t know, really. I only know that on my planet females are
treasured. We would never expect them to fight for themselves. I would die
protecting my female,” he stated.

“Are you saying I’m
your female now?” she gave him a perplexed look.

He shook his head. “No,
I mean not unless you wanted to be.”

He grinned and his blue
and golden gaze gleamed.

“I understand. I am a
soldier I would die fighting to protect others,” she said quickly brushing over
his advance.

I think you almost did, baby
, he thought to himself. He wasn’t sure if he should
tell her the others made it or not. It seemed like they had left her behind to
die.

Michelle tilted her
head to the side as she often did when she was thinking. “But if you go to all
these lucrative places getting Lu-
Luko
—whatever it
is, why were you on
Reddex
?”
 

So much I don’t understand…
Michelle thought to herself.

“There was rumored to
be a bounty hiding out around that area. It’s a shithole no one ever goes there
and those damn molcos are hard to kill. Also, I had a deal with your Earth Army
commander for supplies.”

“Yeah, we were almost
out of food,” Michelle mentioned solemnly.

“Your captain sounded
pretty nervous. What was going on down there?”
 
he
questioned.

Michelle shrugged her
shoulders. “I don’t even know.”

“Why were you there?
You’re a soldier?” Serik said moving closer to her.

Michelle shook her head.
“Almost anyone healthy is an Earth Army soldier. I didn’t mind being a solider
though. I wanted to, I wanted to serve so that my parents’ deaths in the war
wouldn’t be in vain, to fight the Cabaka but instead I got tattooed, micro-chipped,
injected with God knows what, sent to Redex, almost starved to death, given
weird memory fog, and attacked by molcos hunds. Not to mention I lost almost
all of my squad... I can’t even remember it all.”

The Cabaka,
Serik
repeated in his head.
It’s their fault
again, their evilness knows no end.
She would hate him. Even in this part
of the universe they had wreaked havoc.

She let out a heavy
sigh. She wasn’t sure why she had just bared her soul to a complete stranger. A
complete stranger whose lap she had curled up on like a lost kitten. She
silently cursed herself for acting like a fool.

“I’m sorry, Michelle,”
he said softly. He knew that there weren’t any words he could say to make her
feel better. The little female had been through a lot.

“Thank you, Serik,” she
replied halfheartedly. She knew from his tone he was sincere but it all felt so
hopeless.

Serik gave her a
concerned look. “Females are treasured we would never expect them to fight.”

“Maybe some of us want
to fight,” she said boldly. Despite her current compromised position she was
still a bit annoyed with his caveman-like remark. She was still angry and that
anger wouldn’t fade anytime soon.

“You said on your
planet females are treasured. If they are treasured, why are you here alone?” she
snapped.
 

“Because on Baat
only 10% are female now.
There was a
genetic mutation that started a little bit before my time. That among other
things that I’m not sure you would understand,” he said with saddened eyes. He
didn’t want to tell her everything, he couldn’t. He would get her somewhere
safe before baring his secret to her.

“Oh, I’m sorry,”
Michelle replied feeling a bit hotheaded.

Poor guy, he saves my ass, takes care of me, and I’m
snapping at him when apparently his society is having some sort of genetic
mutation drama. If only 10% females…
does
that mean
his people are dying out?

“Many of your Earth
counterparts are mated to Baat now since the wars,” he stated.

“How do you understand
me?” she quickly changed the subject again feeling the heat rise to her face.
She hated that he made her blush so easily. She hadn’t spoken to a man who
looked at her like that in many years. His eyes were almost too much for her to
handle.

“What do you mean?” he
questioned.

“I mean, how do you
speak English? They can’t possibly teach you that on Baat,” she questioned.

“Translation microchip
but I should mention I studied Chinese and English when Earth came into play, a
few years ago.”

“Translation
microchip?” she raised an eyebrow. She had never heard of such a thing. She
hoped it was what she thought it was.

He nodded and moved in even
closer to her. He offered his ear to her. Michelle studied the small silver
stud inside of his ear cartilage. It was like an earring or like an IS.

“I’m sorry for all the
questions. I must sound very uneducated to you. I guess I’ve just never been
off Earth before except for the space station and Redex. I’m not sure if either
of those really
count
…” Michelle trailed off.

He shook his head. “Redex
is a place for no one which is probably why they sent you there.”

“So the Cabaka wouldn’t
come after us I bet,” she said pensively.

He nodded in agreement.

“Too bad those molcos
hunds did first,” she sighed. Her heart felt heavy again.

“What happened to your
arm?” he asked gently. He had noticed the large scarred marks for awhile now. The
marks were massive. It bothered him, not knowing what caused it.

I’ll hurt
whoever did that to you, Michelle. I
swear.

“Can I have a
translation microchip?” she asked ignoring the question about her scars. It was
something painful from the past but it was all still fuzzy.

“Way to dodge the
question,” he replied as he moved in closer.

Michelle inhaled his
delightful masculine scent. He ran his rough fingertips over her ear. She
blushed as his touch caused her skin to breakout in tiny goose bumps and the
hair on her neck stand up.

“Yes, I’ll get you one
when you are feeling stable in a few more days,” he said after carefully
studying the tissue.

She was thankful he was
too busy examining her ear to notice her blush or her
goosebumps
.

“Thank you. You’ve been
very kind to me,” she said softly. She didn’t know why but his body close hers,
made her nervous. Him being closer also allowed her to get a better whiff of
his cologne. He smelled amazing.

I really should ask about this cologne, he smells
great.

She took a deep breath
and exhaled.

“You have been so kind
to me… is there a payment you expect in return?” she said wanting to turn her
head and break eye contact as she asked the question but she didn’t.

“No,” he replied with a
hurt in his eyes. It seemed that he was almost disappointed that she would ask.

“I… I get very lonely
here, Michelle. I will care for you until you are well. I would just enjoy your
company, the company of a female. You are welcomed here until you find
somewhere else you’d rather be,” he added.

It felt strange to her.
The way he looked at her it felt so foreign. He looked at her with wanting and
desire. She didn’t know if anyone had ever looked at her like that before in
her entire life. She almost didn’t recognize the look at first.

Soldiers do not exist like that
, she reminded herself.

She nodded. “I will be
of use here. I will help any way I can.”

“OK but only when you
are better. You need to take it easy for awhile,” he replied.

“Can I take a shower or
a bath? I mean do you have those here?” she added meekly.

He rolled his eyes and
smiled. “Yes, we have those here. It’s funny I know so much about Earth culture
and humans yet you know nothing of our kind,” he said amused by her questions.

“Well, maybe you’ll
just have to teach me,” she grinned.

He smiled back. “I’d
love to.”

Serik led Michelle to
the bathroom. It wasn’t too different from what they had on Earth. He showed
her how to turn the water on and off with a button instead of a dial and how to
adjust the temperature by waving her hand over a sensor.

He then handed her a
small fluffy piece of fabric. It was deep blue and about the size of small note
card.
 

“What is this?”
Michelle said looking up at Serik.

“It is what your people
call a
tolly
,” he replied.

“
Uhm
,
Serik, not to be rude or anything but on Earth the towels go around our whole
bodies to dry us,” she said examining it.

“It can absorb up to 100
gallons of water at a time. Is that not enough?” he replied with confusion
written on his face.
 

“
Uhm
,
if you say so,” she replied albeit unsure of the tiny
tolly
he gave her.

“Do you have some clean
clothes I can borrow?” she asked as a faint blush rose to her cheeks.

Why am I blushing like a little school girl? Why
does he make me nervous? What’s wrong with me?

“I only have my own. I
can loan you those, I hope you don’t mind,” he offered.

Michelle nodded.

“OK, wait here. I’ll go
get some,” he said as he made his way down the hall.