Solarian Down

Late that night when it was almost time for bed he kissed her. “Do you w wanna come downstairs to my r room or do I h h have to grab you and throw you in the f furs again?”

“I think the room will be fine.” She smiled.

The next day Ben showed her how to saddle and harness Frank.

“Now this part’s important, Lenny. If...”

Her eyebrows rose instantly. “Lenny?” She interrupted. He looked at her and nodded. “No one calls me “Lenny.”

“Then you’ll a a always know it’s me.” He smiled. She frowned. “Don’t f feel bad. In the Solarian Nations “Lenny” is a boys name.”

“What!?”

“SO, if Frank’s not in a good mood, do NOT t t try to r ride him.”

“UNDER - STOOD.” She replied while looking daggers at him.

Ben waited a few weeks before he asked, “So, t t tell me about these men.”

“My team?”

“Uh, n no. Mr. “You’re the the only w w one for me” and…”

She held up her hand to stop him. “Thoooose men.” She shook her head in thought. “What did you want to know?”

He shrugged. “Not sure.”

“Umm, Mamor was what you would call my boyfriend from childhood. I thought we would marry. He thought everything with a vagina needed his special touch.”

“Teenage lust?”

She shrugged. “Perhaps. I met Kala a few years later during my advanced education. We were serious, or so I thought.,, Mostly because he insisted. Then I saw him go into a bedroom with another woman at a party. I barged in. She was naked…”

“And s scared.”

“Yeah.” She gave a sinister smile. “He went out the window before I could grab him. I could not find him that night, even though we went there together. And the next day he tried to act like he got separated from me at the party and could not find me.” She leaned in close. “He swore he searched all night.” She stated with mock sincerity.

“Y Young lust?”

“PERHAPS… THEN - a few years ago I start dating a fellow Warden. Things are great. He is smart and funny. We keep our romance secret because he does not want to deal with the gossip…”

“...But.”

She looked at Ben and sighed. “Thankfully, my Left is very good at his job. And I am grateful they are both a little overprotective… Low Warden Quenav was married.” Ben nodded. “Which brings me back to my question.”

“Her question?” He thought.

“Why do men lie, Ben?!”

He laughed and shook his head. “Because they lack the moral fiber to deny themselves what they want. And don’t want to be the bad guys when they are caught.”

She shook her head at his honesty. “But not you, Ben.” She condescended. “You are different.”

“True.” He nodded. “I l l l love being caught.” He smiled.

“Yes! Because -that- is the foundation for a long lasting relationship.” She joked.

That night. After they had made love. Ben pulled her close and kissed her behind the jaw where it meets the ear. “I love you. Lenny.”

She smiled. It did make her feel good.

“You would say that to any woman who crashed on this planet.”

“Hey, I don’t question w what the Lord drops in my p path. I just thank him and p p pick it up.”

She craned her neck at him. “That makes me sound like discarded trash.” She smiled. “Like something he threw away.”

“Well, you did come fallin ow ow outta the sky.”

Lenaga’s days had fallen into a routine of sorts. Checking on her men. Showering with Ben. Eating breakfast. Cleaning up. Then sex. Taking Frank for a ride. Taking Ben for ride. Some reading or something. Dinner and then sex before bed. And before she knew it, she’d been marooned for over a month.

For the first time in a long time she felt, comfortable? Happy? Still? But she did have a nagging feeling, Actually, she had a several.

“One rifle? Where are his weapons?”

“Maybe he wasn’t joking about being a pacifist.”

”You believe that? Because I think he’s killed more people than religion.”

“You are assuming. Nothing more.”

”I am assuming there is not enough room in that shuttle for all of those tools in his machine…”

“STOP!.. My men are safe and healing. I do not get the chance to be selfish often. I am taking this opportunity.

Lenaga woke up to the happy smell of Ben cooking breakfast upstairs. She almost purred as she stretched out on the bed. “The man could create heaven from a collection of plastic crates and fur.” She thought. She realized she should stop lazing around and get upstairs to help him. So she sat up, spun herself around, slapped her heal against the bed’s base and bounced out of bed.

She was smiling as she pulled on her skinsuit when she realized. “Something fell over when I kicked the bed and it sounded like it was ‘inside’ the bed.” But there was gorilla fur hanging over it so that probably muffled the sound. She smiled again as she pulled up the top of her suit. “But muffled or not, ‘what’ would be inside the bed?…” What does it matter? Her smile resumed as she zipped herself up.

“Why make a bed at all?” She said to herself. “He could be sleeping on a pile of gorilla bear fur.”

She walked to the bed and began to lift the edge of the fur to have a look at the bed frame. It was an off green metal with a latch. She flipped the latch. The top of the bed hinged up to reveal it was a large storage locker. She took a startled breath when she found herself facing a green camouflaged suit of Marine armor… No. Not Marine. Solarian Marines didn’t have unit insignia on their left shoulders. Ben had told her that. This one had the image of a yellow stickman with “1-509” in white above it and “Geronimo” in white bellow it. She didn’t know what any of that meant but she knew it was Solarian Army.

“He said he had been in the army.” She thought.

“You’re making excuses. That helmet has better communications than his system upstairs.”

“I don’t even know if it works.” She picked up the headgear and inspected it.

“It works,” She thought as she dropped it back in the box.

“So he kept it when he left the Army.”

“They don’t…”

“SO HE DESERTED WITH IT!” she thought as she shook her head. “I’m not so proud that I won’t fuck a deserter.”

“The army would still be looking for him if he took that suit.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know there’s a good reason you’re ignoring that big fuckin gun to the right of the suit.”

She sighed and took a deep breath before looking to her right. She knew when she opened the box that she didn’t want to look at it. The Patane AT-6 fired a 50mm STABO explosive round. Designed to pierce heavy armor before detonating inside the target vehicle. Due to its six shot revolver magazine, it had a distinct profile. It was first issued to the Solarian military less than a year ago.

“Exactly the kind of thing a man in that armor would take with him. As he rode his polar bear dog to kill a shuttle load of pirates.”

“You suck.”

“He is a Soldier. You don’t know what his orders are or what he has planned. The vacation is over. It’s time to go upstairs and be a Warden again.”

Lenaga closed the lid, shook herself, before putting on a smile and slowly climbing the ladder up.

“Good morning, b b beautiful.” Ben smiled at her as he cooked a steak.

“Good morning.” She smiled back as she walked up to him and gave him a kiss. “Smells good.”

“Y Y Yeah. Almost ready.”

She patted his arm. “I am going to check on my boys.”

“S S Sounds good. I’ll m meet you at the t table.”

Ben was just setting the plates down when he looked up and saw Lenaga pointing a small rod at him. He was about to ask her what was wrong when,

VRRZZZZTT!

She watched as the jolt of electricity coursed through his body and dropped him to the floor. She put the pacifier on the table and drug his unconscious body inside the shuttle to a support strut. Then secured his arms behind his back to the strut.

Once she was sure he was secured she walked to the Doc and input her quarry. “What are the ramifications of disconnecting patient 2?”

“The patient would feel numbness in his left ocular cavity until the medical gel could be removed.”

“Recommendations?” She input.

“Anesthesia, feeding tubes and catheters to facilitate the healing of the patient.”

“Ben, you lying, manipulative, selfish…. PERVERT!”

She took a breath and let it go slowly to calm herself. When she was ready, just to be safe, she had the Doc scan her. When it told her nothing was wrong with her but recommended (Anesthesia, feeding tubes and so on) She lost it.

She threw everything she could find on the shelves at the shuttle. She kicked the sides of the building and punched everything within reach. Thankfully she didn’t hurt herself before she collapsed on the floor and cried.

Once she got herself together she disconnected Daroon. Double checked that the only issue Cailhem would have is a sore back. But that he should try not to over exert himself until the spine had completely healed. Which should be in another four weeks. She disconnected him and put the Doc away.

It would be another hour before her men burned through the anesthesia. So she went and sat at the table to finish her breakfast. She made sure that she could see Ben to her left as well as her men down the hall to her right. And then her mind was lost in a turmoil of anger, fear and shame.

“Why did you taze me?”

VRRZZZZTT! His body slumped again.

“BECAUSE - IT - FELT - GOOD!!!”

She sat down and took another sip of coffee as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“You OK, Low Warden?”

Lenaga jerked to her right. Daroon stood there looking sleepy and confused.