Starmen Page 6

It wasn't long before Miroc came waltzing in, a big smile lighting up his face. But Vincent didn't appreciate his cheerful attitude.

  "What the hell do you have to look so happy about?” he growled irritably.

  "Nothing. Not a thing. It's just a wonderful day, that's all. I was just thinking, now that we've got the ship in working order again, we should probably head home,” Miroc answered pleasantly, undeterred by Vincent's fearsome scowl.

  Expecting Vincent to veto the suggestion with an excuse to linger in orbit around Earth a while longer, Miroc felt his good humor desert him at Vincent's response.

  "Yes,” Vincent responded slowly, glumly, but before he could say any more, or Miroc come up with the excuse he'd expected Vincent to supply them with, they were interrupted by a transmission. Both men glanced sharply at the screen above the control panel, feeling an overwhelming sense of dread as they stared at the visage of the High Councilor.

  Chapter Five

  "Where are you, Science Ship A2214?” the leader of the High Council, Malick, spoke, his calm voice belying the anger on his face.

  Vincent leaned forward and pressed the communication feature. “Still at station,” he responded as calmly as he could, deciding abruptly that now was not the time for any kind of confession. There was no sense in letting the man stew over their transgressions while he waited for them to return, after all.

  A surprise attack would probably work better in their favor.

  No sooner had the thought occurred to him, however, than a look of horror transformed the features of their leader. “What is that ?” he demanded, staring accusingly at a point behind Vincent.

  A wave of cold washed over Vincent. He knew without turning that one, or both, of the women had come into the control room ... not that it mattered, he reflected. The old bastard had probably been informed by the twice damned computer even before he'd contacted them. The wonder was that it had taken the flipping thing as long as it had to give them up.

  He'd known he should have disabled the damned thing! Gritting his teeth, he struggled to put the best face on the situation. “Actually, I was going to communicate that, my lord. While we were observing the species on the water planet, Earth, we honed in on a particular pair of beings. During our investigative studies, it came to our attention that the two beings were in need of assistance for they were facing what we deemed to be fatal odds. We took it upon ourselves to do the honorable thing and rescue them. We believed in all the High Council's graciousness that you could afford them sympathy in their special circumstances.” Vincent bowed his head respectfully as he spoke, hoping his carefully worded statement and all outward appearances of respect would somehow afford them some leniency.

  He saw as he peered up at the screen again, though, that it was a wasted effort.

  Malick's wrinkled face was awash in red as he spoke his next words, “You have violated the laws of our world! You will subdue the subjects—at once!—erase their memories, and transport them immediately back to the water planet, Earth. After you have successfully done this, you are to report back here and receive your punishment. I will discuss what sentence shall be carried out with the rest of the High Council."

  The communicator went black. Vincent and Miroc looked at each other, their faces mirror images of anguish. They each understood the depths of punishment they could receive at the hands of the High Council, and none of it was good, but more than that was the realization that the women they had grown so attached to would have to go back to their home planet. They would have to sever all ties with them. They would have to erase all of the wonderful memories they had created together. They would never get to talk to each other again, never get to laugh together again, and never get to touch one another. It was almost too much to bear.

  Vincent stood up, a knot of emotion threatening to close his throat at the knowledge of what he would have to do. He walked over to the panel in the wall where he had received the Slephurr on the first day that they had had their lives changed so drastically by the beautiful Earth women. He held out an unsteady hand and waited for the Slephurr. Moments later, he held it. He pressed a separate panel not far away and held his other hand out. The wand to wash away their memories settled in his other palm like a firebrand. Feeling sick to his stomach, he curled his fingers tightly around it.

  The look Jody bent on him when he approached her made him feel even more ill. She might not have understood what he'd been ordered to do, because she didn't understand his language, but he could see she'd grasped the general idea.

  "What are you doing?” she asked, her voice breathless with her emotions as she backed toward Berny. They clutched at each other for comfort.

  He shook his head. “I'm not going to hurt you. You know I would never hurt you."

  Jody licked her lips, stared at the objects in his hands for several moments, as if they were serpents, and then met his gaze again. “You've been ordered to send us back."

  Vincent swallowed thickly. “We broke universal law when we took you. We must return you to your own world."

  "But we won't be allowed to remember ... any of this, will we?” Jody asked, her voice shaking now.

  "No. That is forbidden."

  Tears filled her eyes. “But ... Why?” she asked forlornly. “Can't you do something else? Don't you want to stay with me?"

  That hurt! “You must know I do!” he growled angrily.

  Several emotions flickered across her face. Hurt and anger were dominate. “Just not that much, right? We were good enough for a good old marathon fuck, but now the fun's over, right?"

  Vincent's own hurt deepened into anger. What difference did it matter what he told her now? “I adore you!” he growled. “You know that!"

  "No I don't!” Jody snapped, her chin wobbling. “You never said it!"

  Vincent stared at her in helpless anger. “It doesn't matter now."

  "It does matter, damn it! You don't have to do what that old asshole told you to do! He's ... a long, long way from here! If you really care about me, you'll stay here with me!"

  She didn't understand, but he couldn't stand it anymore, couldn't bear to keep trying to explain why it just wasn't possible. If it had to be done, he wanted to get it over with. Lifting the Slephurr, Vincent blew on it to activate the sleeping agents, his heart was heavy as he studied the look of betrayal on Jody's face as she realized what was happening.

  He and Miroc moved quickly to catch the women as they began to sway on their feet, lowering them carefully to the floor.

  Vincent felt like he could almost hear his heart breaking as he set the control on the wand for the exact number of days that had to be erased from their memory. Had it really been so short a time, he wondered, bemused at the thought that it had not even been a full month cycle on Earth?

  It was strange to think it could have been no more than that. In some ways, he felt as if he'd been with her forever—but then maybe that was because he wanted to be with her forever, and because the life he'd had before seemed so flat and lifeless to him now.

  He hesitated when he'd input the data, realizing what a horrible finality it would be. She wasn't going to remember him.

  He hadn't asked her if she loved him and she'd never told him she did.

  Now he was never going to know.

  He looked longingly at Jody's beautiful face, feeling his gut clench at the sweetness of her face in her sleep and the frown of unhappiness he'd put there. She had shown him so much. She had opened up his eyes to the way life should be lived. She had done so much for him and now she would never know it. Now she would live out her life and never remember how she had made his heart soar.

  Slowly, he waved the wand over Jody's head and then over Berny's head. They both slept on soundly. Neither of them stirred as the memories were taken away. It just didn't seem right.

  Vincent looked up at Miroc, who looked as miserable as he suspected he did. “They'll sleep awhile. I'm not ready to take her back, yet. A few hours one way or the ot
her isn't going to make that much difference."

  Instead of arguing, Miroc merely nodded and they picked up the women and carried them to their separate cabins. Settling Jody comfortably, he hesitated and finally climbed onto the sertese beside her, staring down at her as she slept. He didn't want to forget anything about her. He didn't want to lose anything. As much as it hurt to know that everything they had shared was now gone from her mind, even though he'd wanted to take the coward's way out and erase his own memories, he was glad he'd dismissed the craven thoughts. He wanted the memories, no matter how miserable they made him. And maybe, just maybe, somehow a little piece of him had not totally been erased. If there was truly any justice, love, any kind of god out there, then she would not be wholly without him. She would have just a little of him. He prayed that it was so.

  * * * *

  When Vincent had tracked the coordinates for Jody's home, he locked onto it with the transporter beam and he and Miroc gathered up Jody and Berny's belongings. Jody had said that Berny lived across town from her but that they were best friends and often Berny would stay with her when they went out ‘clubbing’ together since it was just too dangerous for Berny to drive all the way across town alone at night. It seemed the best solution, to leave them together at Jody's place. They'd been gone from the island far too long to send them back there.

  When they'd transported the two women's belongings, Vincent and Miroc went into their cabins to collect Jody and Berny and returned to the transporter pad with them, beaming down.

  At any other time, Vincent and Miroc both would have been curious enough to thoroughly explore the Earth domicile, but they didn't linger, returning to the ship as soon as they'd settled Jody and Berny in their beds and kissed them goodbye.

  When they'd materialized on the transporter pad in the ship once more, Vincent and Miroc exchanged a speaking glance. “I'm tried,” Vincent growled, expecting Miroc to challenge him. “I'm going to rest before I set course for home."

  Miroc merely nodded glumly and headed for his own cabin.

  Vincent's shoulders slumped. He hadn't realized he'd hoped to get a rise out of Miroc until he hadn't.

  A rousing fight might have helped his feelings, but he didn't have the energy to try again. Instead, he went into his own cabin and threw himself down on the sertese he'd shared with Jody. Her sent wafted delicately past his nostrils as he burrowed his face against the sheets. He groaned. He could almost feel her warm body if he closed his eyes.

  He hadn't actually expected that he would rest, but to his surprise, he found that the comforting scent of his woman, the illusion of being curled next to her, soothed his spirits in a wholly unexpected way and he did sleep.

  Miroc was settled at the eating booth when he came out some time later. A container of untouched speuleni sat before him, growing cold while he simply stared at it morosely.

  Vincent stopped, studying the food. He frowned. “I thought you didn't like speuleni,” he said curiously.

  Miroc dragged in a deep breath and let out a long suffering sigh. “I hate it. Berny loved it, though. Do you think they'll serve speuleni in prison?"

  Vincent hesitated and finally sprawled in the seat across from his long time friend. “You look cheerful,” he muttered.

  Miroc glared at him. “You've a lot of room to talk. You look like someone ran over your pet verted. Why don't you explain to me why I should look cheerful? I've lost my woman. Lord Councilor Malick is probably working up the other council members right now to double the usual fine and triple the jail time. I will be old before they let me out again and then I will have had no life at all!"

  Vincent glared at him. “Thanks for cheering me up, buddy!” he snarled. “It isn't bed enough I almost feel as if I've lost any reason to live already? Do you have to harp on what will happen when we get back? Damned if I can even seen a reason to go back!"

  The words had no sooner left his mouth than Vincent was struck with the truth of them. Why go back? Just to be punished when neither he nor Miroc had really done anything wrong?

  Alright, so they had broken the law, but they hadn't broken the spirit of it. They hadn't interfered in any way with the social structure or technology of the water planet, Earth.

  The more he thought about it, the more certain he was that it was completely unjust that he and Miroc be punished when they'd only been trying to help to start with. Sure, they'd been wrong, but there'd been no intent to cause harm, and they hadn't. “You know,” he said thoughtfully, “if I had to chose a punishment that fit our crime, I think I'd much prefer to be exiled than locked up. What about you?"

  Miroc stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. “They're not going to let us chose the punishment! Besides, the only people that ever get exiled are political prisoners. This has got nothing to do with politics!"

  Vincent laughed suddenly, leaning across the table to pound Miroc on the shoulder in friendly camaraderie. “That's it!"

  Miroc glared at him, rubbing his abused shoulder. “What's it? What in the name of Methusala has gotten into you?"

  "I've got it. I have the answer to all our problems!” Vincent shouted, too elated to keep his voice at a normal level. Jumping to his feet, he hauled Miroc up and pounded his shoulders and then hugged him, pounding his back. “We will stay!"

  "You're not making any sense. Calm down and talk slowly,” Miroc said, getting more and more frustrated with Vincent's ravings.

  "Look. We already know what awaits us back home—nothing either of us want. Why don't we just stay here on Earth? We can find Jody and Berny, and we can be together again."

  Miroc simply stared at him while that slowly sank in. “Accept exile, you mean? Never go home again?"

  Vincent frowned, his elation dying. “You mean to say you'd go back, knowing what we'd be facing?"

  Miroc shrugged. “It's not that I can't bear the thought of never going home again. I've got no one back there, and nothing, really to go back to but a prison cell—no huge draw there,” he added dryly. “And I don't think they'd come after us. I mean, they would have to interfere with Earth culture themselves to land and hunt us down and extract us. The thing is, the only thing that would make me want to stay here is Berny, but you erased her memory—Jody's too. They don't have the first clue of who we are."

  Vincent grinned at his long time friend wryly. “I know that, but don't you think if we were given the chance that we could make them fall in love with us again? Don't you think it's worth it to try?"

  Miroc chuckled. “Of course it's worth it. My life has been a living hell without that wonderful woman. Let's do it!"

  * * * *

  Jody and Berny were sitting at the bar, The Rockin’ Rodeo, that they usually frequented on Friday nights. Since their strange experience at the diet resort, they had found it a little easier to get out in the public's eye. They were each wearing a nice dancing dress, just in case. Before they would have never felt the courage to go to a club, let alone wear a revealing dress.

  Oddly enough, it wasn't that there had been so much weight loss. It was more a feeling of self-confidence that they had gained—somehow. Jody didn't really know how they had come to get that confidence, but she really wasn't worried about it right now. All she knew was that they were more than ready to move on with their lives, to get out and meet someone. But every time a man had asked one of them to dance, they had made their excuses. Jody would put it down to one thing or another, but inside she felt like it wasn't so much certain qualities that she was looking for but someone. Which was just weird because she had no idea what the perfect man for her would be like, but in her heart she felt like that was what she was searching for.

  This particular night had started off like so many of the others. Several men had approached them, but still Jody and Berny had made their excuses.

  Vincent and Miroc leaned against the bar at The Rockin’ Rodeo. Vincent waved the bartender over and ordered a drink for him and his friend. “Say bartender. What do you know ab
out those two lovely ladies over there?” he asked casually.

  "Well, to be honest mister, I wouldn't waste my time on those two,” the bartender said.

  "And why is that?” Vincent asked.

  "Well, they're a might bit pretty, but they don't seem very social. They are always telling some guy or another that they're not interested. I don't know why they even come to a bar when they won't dance with anyone,” the bartender said, his confusion about the women obvious on his face.

  Vincent turned to Miroc and said, “How bout we go change that?"

  Miroc smiled. “I would love to."

  "You were forewarned,” the bartender said, shaking his head.

  Vincent and Miroc grabbed their drinks and made there way over to where Jody and Berny were sitting.

  "Excuse me, little lady,” Vincent said casually to Jody, tipping his cowboy hat, “May I have a seat?"

  Jody's heart jumped into her throat. It was him! The man she had been waiting for. An overwhelming sense of deja vu swept over her. So immersed in taking him in was she that it was a moment before she realized that she hadn't responded to his question. “Oh, uh.... Sure, have a seat.” She scooted closer to Berny to make room for him and his friend sat on the other side by Berny.

  "My name is Jody and this is my best friend Berny."

  Vincent smiled at her, fighting the urge to grab her up and kiss her silly. Even using all of the technology they had at their disposal, it had taken him and Miroc weeks and weeks to set up identities for themselves and begin the process of merging with the population. Impatience had dogged both them all the way, but they'd preserved. They had to be sure they would blend in seamlessly and that meant up close and person interaction to learn the ways and customs. That meant finding jobs, a place to live, money to take care of their ladies—one thing both of them learned right away was that a male with none of those things was a looser and no self-respecting Earth female took on a looser. Besides, Jody deserved the best! “My name is Vincent and this is my best friend Miroc,” Vincent said, introducing them.