Purity (Pure and Tainted) (7 page)

K lifted her chin. “You’re safe from my retribution until I get my
suit. But only because it will be much easier to kill you with it on.”

“Well, thank you,” Boone said dryly. “I’ll consider myself
reprieved for now. Here.” He handed her a long, soft piece of deep green fabric
that had one wide triangular end. “That’s my best tie. Try not to abuse it too
much.”

K took the tie and knotted it around her waist in silence. Though
she tried not to let anger cloud her judgment, inside she was fuming. She
wasn’t used to having her threats laughed at. Well, she would make Boone pay as
soon as she found her suit. It had to be hidden somewhere on the ship and as
soon as she could get away from him she would make a thorough search for it.
One blast from her gauntlets and he’d be fried from the inside out. The thought
gave her a grim satisfaction, especially when he insisted on inspecting her leg
before they left his quarters.

“Just want to make sure the stitches are holding up,” he murmured,
kneeling on the floor in front of her to examine the long row of black threads
that marred the pale flesh of her inner thigh. He probed lightly and K shivered
at the sensation of his bare flesh touching hers. No matter how much he
contaminated her each touch was somehow new. “Does it hurt?” Boone asked softly.

“I feel nothing,” K said, wishing it was true.

He looked up at her, frowning. “Are you sure? Your skin is all
broken out in goosebumps.”

K could feel her cheeks getting hot and was sure he could see the
blush creeping into her pale cheeks. Purity, how she hated having emotions!
“I’m just…I’m not use to being touched,” she blurted. “Every instinct I have
says I should kill you right now for daring to even come near me, let alone putting
your bare skin against mine.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Well I’m glad you’re controlling yourself, K.
But I’m afraid with your Erian DNA touching is going to be an integral part of
your life from now on.”

“Only until I get my suit back.
And I
will
get it back.” She glared at him.

“In good time.”
Boone appeared unperturbed. “Well,
the stitches look good for now. I hated to resort to something so primitive but
I didn’t really have any choice. If I’d been
back
home
at a med-center on Colossus I could have used adhesive wound sealant.”

“If you were
back
home on Colossus where
you belonged, I wouldn’t have this wound at all,” K pointed out. “
And
I wouldn’t be contaminated and
condemned to death.”

“Hey.” Boone looked up at her again, his hand still warm on her
thigh. “There’s nobody here who says you have to die. I mean, Loki might want
to kill you but there’s nobody from the Purist High Council standing over you
and demanding your death. That decision is on
you
, darlin’, so who’s to say you shouldn’t choose to live?”

“Live and do what?” K demanded. “I can never go back now. Even if
I didn’t wish an honorable death—which I do—my commanding officers would still
think me fit only to be purged.” She imagined the High Sentinel, his
black-on-black eyes filled with absolutely nothing as he gave the order for her
death. Oh yes, she would be purged the moment she dared set foot back on Athena.

“Make a life away from them,” Boone said, rising at last. “There
are always plenty of ships looking for battle-trained mercenaries. Or if you
don’t want to leave your old way of life completely, isn’t there a group of
ex-Purists with a base not far from Midas?”

“The Tainted?”
K could scarcely believe he would
make such an insulting suggestion. The group he had named was comprised of
Paladins who had become contaminated and then gone rogue, refusing to purge
themselves. Joining the ranks of those dishonored scum had never even crossed
her mind. “You want me to join the
Tainted?”
she said again.

Boone shrugged. “Sure. They still wear the suit, don’t they?”

“Yes but I’ve heard that they’ve perverted their skinsuits
somehow—changed them into something wrong and Impure.”

“I don’t think that damn suit could get much wronger than it
already is, K.”

“That’s your opinion,” she snapped. “Besides, the perversion of
their skinsuits isn’t the only reason they are called the Tainted. They also
contaminate each other and reproduce without cloning.”

“So they have sex, huh?
Oh, the
horror
.”
Boone shook his head. “I
have news for you, darlin’, the entire rest of the
solar system
has sex. It’s all that’s on the majority of most
everybody’s mind at any given minute—especially if they’re male.”

K looked at him in disbelief.
“Truly?
You
spend your time dwelling on such a disgusting subject?”

Boone grinned at her. “Hell yeah—it’s a basic biological urge. And
it can be wonderful if you’re with the right person. Don’t knock it ‘til you
try it.”

K crossed her arms over her chest and shivered. “Allow myself to
be penetrated?
Another’s body
inside
my own?
It would be the ultimate contamination—the
very
idea
is repugnant.”

Boone sighed. “Well,
to each their own
.
But look, just think about it—living instead of killing yourself, I mean. We’re
going to Midas to get my sister. You help me get her out and I’ll give you back
the suit and drop you off with the other ex-Purists.”

“The
Tainted,”
K
emphasized.
“Those
who are too cowardly to purge themselves.”

“It’s not cowardly to want to live, K,” Boone said quietly.
“Or to want to make a home for yourself with people like you.
Find someone to love and settle down with. Somebody you can
not
have sex with every damn day if you
want.” He grinned. “Now come on and let’s go make breakfast. I told you, it’s
my turn for kitchen duty and since we’ve got to stay close to keep you healthy,
you get to help. Door, open,” he added as he headed for the exit.

* * * * *

K frowned as she followed him out the door. “What is breakfast?”

Boone glanced back at her. “The first
meal
of the day—what do you call it on Athena?”

“Meal?”
She looked confused.

“It’s like we’re speaking a different language,” Boone muttered to
himself. To K he said, “You know—food?
Eat
?”

K was looking more and more frustrated. “No, I
don’t
know. What are you talking about?”

Boone stopped in the middle of the metal corridor and turned to
face her. “Come on now, I’m speaking Standard the same as you. Surely you know
what food is—you put it in your mouth, chew it,
swallow
it. It fills you up and gives you energy. You
know,
food
.”

“You chew it?” K frowned. “Is it some kind of solid nutrition
drink?”

“A solid nutrition drink?
Holy shit.”
Boone put a hand to his forehead and stared at her in disbelief. “You mean to
tell me you’ve never had anything to
eat
before?”

“My suit fed me nutrients hourly,” K said stiffly. “It could
sustain me in even the most extreme conditions. Other than that, I drank protein
nutrient drinks several times a day to gain anything I lacked.”

“You have
got
to be
kidding me! Paladins really never eat?”

“We have no need of solid sustenance while wearing our skinsuits.
A full belly slows you down in a combat situation.”

Boone still couldn’t quite believe it. “What about when you were a
kid? You said you didn’t put on the suit until you were nine cycles old.”

“Twice daily we had vitamin and protein paste to supplement our
nutrient drinks.” K made a face. “If that’s what you mean by food then I would
rather not have any. I never liked that paste very much.”

“Oh, I think we can do a little bit better than protein paste.
Come on.” Boone led her further up the hall until they ended back at the mess
hall. He was glad to see that no one else was up and bitching about breakfast
being late. Loki, especially, could be a picky eater though when
he
cooked he expected them all to eat
Erian high holiday food which was much too frou-frou for Boone’s taste. He
preferred plain old home cooking—the same recipes that had been handed down by
his ancestors from Earth-that-was.
Especially for breakfast.

“What are we supposed to do?” K asked.

“Fix breakfast for ourselves and the rest of the crew. Don’t
worry, you’ll like it.” Boone was already rummaging in the cold storage unit
for the ingredients he wanted.

K walked over and tapped the food simulator experimentally. “Why
don’t we just use this? Isn’t it what Mom used to make that strange sweet
drink—the
hawt
shauklat
you gave me last night?”

“Hot chocolate,” Boone corrected her. “And the food sim doesn’t
make anything nutritious—it only simulates the taste and texture of what you
want without giving you the actual substance. As far as your body is concerned,
you might as well be eating or drinking water. Not exactly the breakfast of
champions.”

K frowned. “What will we do then?”

“We’ll cook.
Pancakes, scrambled eggs, and
bacon.
How does that sound?”

“I have no idea. What do you want me to do?”

“Here,” Boone said. “Let me show you…”

To her credit, he found K was a hard and willing worker even
though she obviously had no idea what she was supposed to be doing. Boone put
her to work cracking the eggs into a bowl and whipping them with a whisk while
he made the pancake batter.

Of course, this meal might be handed down from his ancestors but
he doubted anyone from Earth-that-was would recognize the ingredients he was
using to make the familiar fare. He only used two eggs even though he was
cooking for four—himself, K, Mom, and Loki. That was because the eggs were from
hens genetically modified to withstand the heavy G-forces of Colossus. By
Earth-that-was standards they would have been about the size of an ostrich
egg—an extinct bird Boone had only read about. Also, the flour in the pancake
mix was ground from spliced wheat and the ‘bacon’ was actually strips of
pre-cooked porcine substitute. But it was close enough as far as Boone was
concerned and as the smells of cooking began to fill the small mess
hall,
his mouth was watering to taste his efforts.

K seemed interested in the food as well. “That smells…different,”
she remarked as Boone flipped another pancake onto the large oval serving platter.

“Different as in
good
?”
He raised an eyebrow at her.

“I don’t know.” She frowned. “But when I smell it, I start to
salivate and…and I feel strange
here
.”
She put one hand over her flat stomach. “Hollow somehow. Empty.”

Boone was delighted. “You’re
hungry,
that’s what you’re feeling. Your suit was probably shooting you up with
appetite suppressants along with everything else. How else could they keep you
from ever eating anything?”

“What’s hungry?” K seemed honestly curious and Boone was glad to
see that for once she didn’t try to deny that her suit had been giving her
meds.

“It’s that hollow feeling inside. Your stomach is sending messages
to your brain to let you know it’s time to eat. Here, try a bite.” He tore off
a tiny piece of warm pancake and held it in front of her mouth. “Come on,
darlin’, open up.”

Hesitantly, K parted her lips. Boone popped the shred of pancake
into her mouth before she could change her mind and then watched expectantly.

At first she let it sit there on her tongue but then she seemed to
get the idea. Slowly, she began to chew and a strange expression came over her
delicate features. “It’s sweet,” she said, swallowing at last. “But not as
sweet as the
shauklat.
And it’s warm
and soft between my teeth. I like it,” she concluded at last, looking up at
him.

“Wait until you try the bacon.” Boone tore off a piece of that and
fed it to her before she could protest. K chewed again and her eyes went wide.

“Salty.
And crispy.
It crunches when I
chew it.”

“That’s bacon for you.” Boone grinned. He hadn’t expected to like
having to keep K near him constantly—for one thing she was the enemy and for
another she didn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor. But this was actually
fun
.

He’d always enjoyed cooking and introducing others to good food
but to actually introduce someone to the entire
concept
of food was completely different. It was almost as though K
was a baby or a child that hadn’t been allowed to mature and she was just now
seeing the universe through fresh eyes.
I
always wanted to be a father,
Boone thought dryly as he coaxed her to try
the scrambled eggs.
But this wasn’t
exactly what I had in mind.

He didn’t really see her as a child, though, despite her asexual
appearance and unfamiliarity with things he considered basic and everyday.
There was too much of the trained killer in her for that. And she had a woman’s
self-assured grace and confidence, even if she didn’t have any curves to go
with them.