The Guardians of Sol Read online

  “As if you have to ask?” He replied.

  “I’m sorry to rain on your parade, sis,” I told her. “But I already have plans tonight.”

  “What kind of plans, big brother?” Sarah teased, though my reluctance to even breach the subject probably gave her a fairly good idea of what those plans were.

  “Personal kinds of plans. Ones that wouldn’t be very happy with me if I went to dinner with a strange woman.”

  She smiled at that. “Katie isn’t strange. But why don’t you just invite your mystery girl to dinner with us?”

  I started to reply, thought better of it, and instead said, “I’ll be right back.” I wandered off to a private area and pulled up my comm. Called Rachel. After a moment I came back over to where my sister and Jimmy were waiting.

  “She says that she can make it… we’re going for seven, right? Have you made any reservations yet? We’ll need them if this café is as good as you say it is.”

  “I haven’t really had a chance yet… between filing paperwork and dropping my luggage off. I just haven’t had the time. I’ll take care of it in a bit.”

  “Okay, fine. So where should me and Jimmy and…” I looked over my shoulder to see Shot-put sitting on the ground rubbing the side of his head. “Hey John! Get over here! And John. Where should we pick up you and your friend, Katie was it?”

  “That won’t be a problem, she’s staying at you’re apartment too!”

  “Don’t I get a vote in this?”

  “Took the words right out of my mouth,” John said from behind me.

  “Later, John. Besides, it’s not like you were going to do anything but get drunk tonight anyway.” I gave my attention back to my little sister. “Well, do you have an answer?”

  “Oh don’t be rude. Where else would she sleep?”

  “Where in the Depths am I supposed to sleep? I only have my bed and that crappy inflatable mattress!”

  “Well, there’s always the couch. Or, I’m sure James would let you stay with him this week.”

  Haywire burst out with something of an evil laugh at the mention of the latter option. James Freed shared quarters with his three brothers, and given the mess (and smell) that they cultivated there… it was an idea even less appealing to me than going on any sort of date with my little sister.

  “Uh… I think my couch will do just fine…” I said. But my how cramped my small apartment was going to be with three people…

  “Perfect! Well, I have to be off now… I’ll see you later, James.” With that, she hugged us both again and ran back to her shipmates.

  Haywire put his hand on my shoulder. “Tonight is going to be great, eh brother?”

  Instead of talking, I replied by whipping my hammer down, around, and pulling Haywire’s legs out for under him. Then I slammed the rubber head into Haywire’s unprotected stomach.

  “About time I hit you!” I exulted as Jimmy wheezed.

  “So I really don’t get a say in this?” Shot-put asked, still puzzled.

  *****

  About a half hour later, after everyone else had hit the showers, but hours before it was time to teach the next session of combat class, I jogged along the track, working off steam. Something about my sister, though I love her and practically raised her, always agitated me. It didn’t help that she always tried to set me up with her friends. With both her and her friend Katie at my apartment, I didn’t want to go back there any sooner than absolutely necessary.

  My run finished even faster than I anticipated, but that was fine, I could waste time on other things. I rinsed off and made my way to the innermost hallway and from there to the fast track station. The transport travelled swiftly along to block three where I got off.

  I wended my way through halls full of engineers and technicians rushing from one project to another. I even had to stop a few times to keep from getting squashed as a few of those projects were being moved. It took me a few minutes, but I finally got to the cafeteria I was aiming for.

  I got a bowl and ladled beef stroganoff for myself. I frowned, the beef was reconstituted, but at least the sauce seemed perfectly creamy. With fork and bowl in hand, it only took me a moment to find where I wanted to go. As suavely I could manage, I sidled up next to Rachel. She was halfway done with her lunch, but I’m pretty sure she still appreciated the company. I kissed her cheek and tickled the back of her neck, making her cringe and giggle.

  “It’s about time you got here, mister. I was probably going to leave in a minute or two.”

  I gave her a grin. “I got here exactly when I intended to. How much longer do you have for lunch?”

  “About a half hour. Ruiz takes the term ‘lunch hour’ very seriously. But I wouldn’t mind getting back early to get in a little extra work.”

  “Well,” I said in between bites. “Don’t feel any pressure to stick around on my part. After all, we do have that harrowing experience later tonight.”

  “Oh you worry too much. It will be fine. Until then you should just concentrate on not getting hit by anymore shuttles.”

  “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

  She hit my arm, took her last bite of the pasta. “I’m serious. I expect you to get in trouble on a battlefield, not when you’re training teenagers to spacewalk. Alright, I’m going now. Take it easy, Captain.” This time, it was her turn to kiss me. She walked away, and I watched her walk away. I had only known Rachel for about a month, and I had never met a more intelligent or beautiful woman. The intensity of the feelings she stirred up in me scared me.

  *****

  Sitting at the desk in the small cubbyhole I call an office in my apartment, I polished the designs on my uniform bracers. I had moved my few articles of clothing to the office, quietly cursing the whole time at the inconvenience. I sometimes wonder if I like cursing too much… Although, one can’t be seen giving in too easily, you know. I still had yet to see Katie, but I didn’t really care. Mostly because I figured that Sarah was using this whole thing as a setup just to go on a date with Haywire.

  There was a knock on the door. Sarah poked her head through the crack in the doorway. “Are you ready? James and John just got here.”

  “I’ll be out in a moment,” I replied without looking up. “Sis, what are you trying to do with him?”

  “I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” she replied, a tad indignantly and with a just a touch of feigned innocence.

  “Have it your way then, but you should realize that I’m not as dense as you might think,” I told her. I stood, slipping on the bracers. “Let’s go. I’m tired of waiting for you.” I followed her out the door, only now looking at what she was wearing. Was she seriously trying to give me an aneurism? My little blonde sister was wearing a tight green dress – a very tight, and very revealing green dress. I ground my teeth, she’s old enough to make her own decisions, I thought, making it my mantra.

  Haywire and Shot-put wore attire similar to mine: The black bracers, with silver styling; and the Castigar version of a uniform. Our uniforms had no sleeves, high collars, and half-kilts over one knee. Like all Guardian uniforms, ours were fitted with ceramic plates to deflect or stop the fire from the small arms still in use around Earth. The uniforms are made of a variation of the material used in ballistic suits that look a bit like heavy canvas, though it feels much smoother. Silver piping throughout matches the uniforms to the bracers. Castigars are both stylish and imposing, or so we like to think.

  After receiving a wicked grin from Haywire, I looked around the living room. “Where’s this Katie of yours, Sis?”

  “Oh, she just wants to look perfect for you… um, John. I kind of… um… really built up your reputation for her… So act like a gentleman!” She commanded.

  “Right. Will do. No drinking for me then.” He replied. Shot-put still looked like he wanted to argue about being here.

  “Not that you could ever hold your liquor, John.” I pointedly looked at my sister’s face, “How are things going out by Mars?”

>   “Oh, about as good as ever… We took out some pirates that were trying to extort a few of the colonies around there, but it really… wasn’t… a big… deal…”

  “Uh, Sis? You okay?” I was only a little confused by her behavior, though less so after I followed my friends motions to turn around.

  Katie had made her entrance. She was slim without being skinny, almost voluptuous, actually. Pitch-black, shoulder length hair partly covered her face and its delicate features, from where equally black eyes stared back at me. Her own gown was a great deal more conservative than that of my sister, and yet somehow it felt like it was more revealing, in my humble opinion. John stopped all attempts at complaint immediately.

  “So, what do you think?” Katie asked.

  John and Haywire made the appropriate compliments, and I thanked the heavens that I had Rachel. Speaking of which…

  “Well I should be off to pick up my date. See you at the restaurant.”

  *****

  When we arrived, the others were already seated. I just kept stealing glances at Rachel.

  Every time I saw her she seemed more beautiful, and she certainly fit the image of a goddess in her crème colored gown. For something called a café, the restaurant was surprisingly upscale. The sad thing was that my uniform was the nicest clothing I owned. As we sat down, Sarah continued a story, seemed to be about the pirates she’d mentioned earlier.

  “So, there we were, our ship surrounded by at least… what? Five pirate frigates-” Sarah was saying.

  “Seven, there were seven. And each had a full fighter squadron,” Katie cut in.

  “Right, and as I said before, we were just barely switched over to Phoenix fighters, which are bigger and have more weapons but they’re slower and less maneuverable... So the Captain had us and the other squadron launch,” Sarah exulted. “It was crazy. There were like a hundred enemy ships flying all around us. I’m surprised none of us got hit launching… I must have taken out at least ten pirates all by myself!”

  Leaning in uncomfortably close, Katie asked, “Has she always been this bad with her math?”

  “Oh yeah, that’s one of the reasons she almost didn’t make it through… well, pretty much all of school was fighting tooth and nail whenever it concerned her,” I chuckled.

  “Well… I’m not exactly sure, but I think she only got five, which keeps her on the Ace lists anyway, but still…”

  “I understand perfectly,” I replied very sagely. “Though I thought it was in the job description for pilots to be braggarts.”

  “Don’t try to be cute, it doesn’t suit you,” Katie sallied.

  “Oh, my aching heart,” I returned, dripping sarcasm. “You’ve pierced it to the very quick. I just don’t know how I’ll go on living. It’s a good thing Rachel doesn’t share your opinion.” She gave me a pouting look, a wink, and shoved a scoop of food into her mouth. Rachel just gave a short laughing snort at my expense.

  Pretty soon, all three girls were drawn into a fairly technical conversation about the respective merits of the Cerberus and Phoenix fighters versus the cobbled together boats the pirates used. I have no idea how Rachel kept all that information in her head. Between armor specs and weapon arrays, you would think she would have to try harder to keep everything straight.

  Finally the food arrived. The aroma made my mouth water. It was all so… rich. The meat was delicious, seasoned with copious amounts of garlic and who knew what else. I doused the yellow rice with whatever dressing was left after my salad, and a creamy tangy white sauce covered everything. While gyros weren’t necessarily Greek, they were still delicious, and the owners of the restaurant shipped real meat from Earth to make it.

  The proprietors were retired Spartans, true visionaries. One of them even came out to check on us. Judging by his appearance, the man had to have been over a hundred years old.

  “Stop Complaining, You Piece of Swine!” The yell came from the other side of the room, near the bar. A rather large clamor, including more shouting, erupted from that corner. The old Greek made his way over to the disturbance with a spryness that belied his age.

  “Tell me that I don’t recognize any of those voices… please.”

  “Sorry Boss, sounds like Hektor and a few of our boys are starting to get at it.” Haywire sounded just as annoyed as I felt. Another crash sounded. “I guess a few other guys are taking advantage of the excuse to fight as well.”

  “Alright, let’s hop to. You know, I really hate being responsible for guys like you.” Excusing ourselves from dinner, the three of us pushed our way through the growing crowd, to the somewhat less upscale bar area. The girls followed, eager to watch us work I thought. “I suppose that we should feel lucky that there aren’t more Spartans in here.”

  When we finally got through all the spectators, we found Spicy and Dumper struggling to hold Hektor. Gripe was already down for the count. Before we could act, Hektor tossed Dumper over his shoulder, and slammed Spicy into the bar.

  As our teammates were getting up, we rushed in. Haywire and Shot-put started pushing their subordinates back and shouting reprimands to be heard over the tumult. I took a somewhat more direct route and just slugged Hektor in the jaw. Not my smartest move.

  The Spartan finally focused on me, grinned that stupid Spartan grin, and punched me right back. The force of the blow staggered me. Two weeks of training and dating had done a lot to make me forget just how hard the Spartan hit. But this wasn’t the boxing ring, and those rules no longer applied.

  I tried to sweep the Spartans legs out from under him. Hektor just jumped and laughed, slamming another blow into my side. Annoyed now, I spun a knee into Hektor’s ribs, knocking the man to the side.

  “Can we talk now?” I asked impatiently.

  Hektor laughed, “We could have been talking from the beginning!”

  “Except that I know you well enough to know that I had to get your attention first.” I looked pointedly at Gripe. “Now tell me why you were beating up on my men.”

  “They kept complaining about the food here. Quite loudly. Insulting Greece even! I personally think that it is very good and very authentic. Practically reminds me of home. I asked them politely to keep their opinions to their own table. They didn’t comply, and then… you know…”

  “I thought your squad would be back in Greece by now.”

  “Would, should, but not.” Hektor popped some knuckles. “Official story is we’re waiting to go back with the High Sentinel’s bodyguard. There’s some big meeting in a few days where the Big Man is going to meet with other world leaders. Then we get to keep a wary eye on the border. You know the one in the northeast that hasn’t seen any military action since World War III? Good fun…”

  “You sound almost disappointed. What, the life of a Guardian not good enough for you?”

  “It’s good… but I’ve been training to fight since I was ten. It just seems like a waste to sit around watching for an army that will never appear.”

  “Well, get over it. At the rate things are going its only getting more peaceful.” Now that the fight had been broken up, I was starting to get anxious to get back to finish my dinner, but my curiosity drove me to ask one more question. “What do you mean the official reason for still being here?”

  Hektor grimaced, “My father heard that I was still on the Forge and pulled some strings with the bigwigs to keep my whole squad here until he left.”

  “Who’s your father?”

  “The Captain of the Sentinel’s guard, Telamon Alkaios.”

  I had to cock an eyebrow at that, “You mean your dad is one of the most powerful men in the Corps, and you’re getting into bar fights?”

  The question seemed to puzzle Hector. “I’m a Spartan; we’re expected to get into fights. And as far as my father goes… I have to live off my own accomplishments, he won’t be embarrassed. Proud more likely.”

  Spicy and Dumper dragged Gripe out of the café after a harsh dressing down from Haywire and Shot-put.
Spicy, at least, should know better. He was on my team, after all and I certainly don’t stand for that sort of behavior. After that, I gave a few warnings to Hektor about fighting on the Forge since the Justicars (basically the Guardian military police) really don’t like it, and went back to the table along with my guys and the girls. The rest of dinner was rather uneventful, thankfully, and before long, we all went our separate ways. At some point, John had gotten Katie to seriously flirt with him. That made me glad; the man didn’t socialize often enough.

  *****

  Outside of her apartment door, Rachel and I held each other for a long time, just enjoying it. However, we could only do that for so long before someone, in particular an on-duty Venator told us to “Get a room.” Rachel laughed at that, but I gave the man a rude gesture.

  “Was it really all that bad?” She asked me, once we were inside her apartment.

  “No, I guess not… but I still don’t want to go back to my apartment. Besides how crowded it gets with three people living there, that Katie makes me uneasy.”

  “She’s just jealous that you already have someone. But you’re welcome to sleep here, my couch is pretty comfortable.”

  “You’re roommate won’t mind? You’re too good to me.”

  “I know.”

  I kissed her then, and let her go get ready for bed. In the intervening moments, I removed my boots and my bracers, took off my belt and the attached half-kilt. I settled down on the couch. A blanket bounced off my head and landed in my lap.

  “You can use that, if you want.”

  “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.” I replied. Rachel walked over to me in her pajamas, and wrapped in a robe. Her hair was pulled back, revealing her long neck and her beautiful face. “Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?”

  “Only every time you see me. If it weren’t so true I might get tired of it.” She snuggled up next to me. “It’s too early to sleep. Do you want to watch a movie? I cobbled a DVD player together, and I have some fun old movies…”