Priestess and I had uncovered the secret of Andrion 2. Snow Leopard and the others had captured the Scaler-a boy savage armed with a spear and a slingshot, covered with filth, all wild eyes and animal screams. They had to zap him with blues to calm him down. He had evidently taken out the probes with his slingshot. They didn’t get any info from him at first.
We knew something was very wrong.
The giant exoseg we’d run into was one of the more aggressive species from Andrion 3: Exoseg Gigantic Soldier, the techs had labeled them. The dominant species on Andrion 3 used them as enforcers. It did not belong on Andrion 2. Their presence must have something to do with the Systies.
Command rearranged our defenses immediately, covering Zero Alpha with geodetic sensors and preparing for a planetary attack. We clearly needed more information. We launched our CATs into the wilderness while the lifies went to work on the Scaler.
Priestess briefed me regularly on the captured boy. He was just a kid, but his fine features brought me back immediately to those two defiant stone figures carved into the cold heart of the underworld.
Then, without warning, Valkyrie came. She appeared suddenly in the doorway to the recovery room. My heart raced when I saw her. She always had that effect on me. She was a green-eyed blonde, a princess carved from ice, a true child of the Legion-a baby, a genius, a killer. All the wisdom of the ages, behind those lovely eyes. It’s easy to fill a Legionnaire with info. Atom gave us more every night in our sleep, but all that knowledge was dangerous. It took a while to get it all under control. Valkyrie was still working on it.
She posed in the doorway dramatically, her face cold and distant, her golden hair carelessly tangled. A chill shot through my body. She wore her camfax litesuit, all covered with red dust. Her perfume was the scent of Andrion 2. Gamma patrolled the far West, a cold desert of dust.
I floated on a warm cushion of air in the tank while Priestess stood beside me. She had been cleaning my face with a medpad, checking the wounds. She paled when she saw Valkyrie, and drew away from me, almost guiltily.
“Hello, Thinker.” Valkyrie acted casual, as if she had just dropped by on her way to class.
“Hello, Valkyrie. I’ve missed you.” Damn, she looks good!
“You look a little tired, Thinker. You really should be more careful.” Her voice was quiet. Almost a whisper. She approached the tank slowly and ran her slender fingers along the rail-so erotic! How does she do that?
Priestess stood rigid, silent, the medpad still in one hand.
Valkyrie looked into my eyes. That faint, confident smile was there now. God, she could eat me alive whenever she wanted, just like before.
She turned to Priestess. “You must be Priestess. My, so much trouble for such a little girl. You really should thank me, you know, for saving your life. You see, I taught Thinker everything he knows.”
Valkyrie could be very nasty with competition. And she had just declared war on Priestess.
“Yes, Sister.” Priestess bowed her head and said the right words. She knew Valkyrie by reputation as a third level Sister of the dark arts, deadlier than many of her male colleagues, and very dangerous when she grew angry. I had seen her in ice-cold fury on Planet Hell, killing without remorse, splattered with blood as we’d fought side-by-side for our lives. I did not want to see that again.
Valkyrie turned away from Priestess in contempt and ran a fingernail along my upper arm, smiling faintly. It sent a surge right through my body. She was pure bitch, but I wasn’t about to complain.
“I can only stay a few fracs, Thinker. Can you ask your friend to leave?” She had a cruel streak that I did not like.
“I am leaving, Sister. Goodbye, Thinker.” Priestess looked ready to cry. I really felt for her.
“Goodbye, Priestess. Thank you.” I knew Valkyrie would not like my thanking Priestess, but there were limits to my cowardice.
“Try to hold on to your E next time,” Valkyrie hurled after her as she left.
“Valkyrie, did you have to do that?”
“Close your mouth, Thinker.” She gently touched a finger to my lips. “I just want to look at you.” A quiet, dreamy voice. “I’ve missed you. Missed you for ages. We’re in the desert now. It’s incredible. I love it, Thinker. I only wish you could come with me.”
“We’ll get together. I’ll be out in no time.”
“And back in Beta. Nice, personalized service you get here. What’s she doing here?”
“She was injured. She just got out of the tank.”
“Then she should be back with Beta downside, not playing wet-nurse to my man. You stay away from her, Thinker.”
“Oh, come on…”
“Don’t you ‘Oh, come on’ me. I know you perfectly well. And I know her type too. ‘Yes, Sister.’ Such a sweet little girl. Sugary little drip! She does whatever you say, doesn’t she?”
“Valkyrie…stop it, will you? Just stop it. Forget about her.”
“You stay away from her! She almost got you killed, just because of her stupidity. She didn’t get a single shot in, did she? What was she doing, anyway?”
“It happened very quickly, Valkyrie.” She was right. But it wasn’t just Priestess. We’d both been stupid and slow.
“People like that shouldn’t be in the Legion. How’d she get through Hell? Was she everybody’s hot little dolly? I’ll bet Beta carried her all the way! You just stay away from her, you hear?”
“Yeah. Yeah, sure. Stay away from her. Tenners.”
“You remember that! You belong to me, and if she comes after you, there’s going to be trouble!”
“Right.” I looked into her cool green eyes. She smiled. I laughed. She knew me so well, it was scary. But it was good to see her again. Damn, she looks good!
###
Valkyrie knew me better than I knew myself. She also had a habit of showing up periodically to reinforce her claim on me. The visits were always intense and memorable. It occurred to me that there were other occasions when I’d been hurt worse and I’d never heard from her. It was as though she had some kind of radar that detected…
After she left, I thought about what she had said about Priestess. It wasn’t fair. I picked up my tacmod and called Priestess on private.
She answered, “Priestess.”
“Priestess, Thinker. Can you come by?”
“I’m sorry…I can’t. I have to stay here.”
“She’s gone. I want to see you. It’s important.”
“All right.”
She agreed! My heart leaped.
When she came, she hung her head. I reached out of the tank and took her hand. A warm rush shot up my arm. It was a bit scary.
“I’m sorry, Priestess. That’s the way she is.”
“It’s not your fault. I’m such an earther.” She sounded very depressed.
“No, you did right. I’m sorry she’s such a pain. I’m grateful for your help, Priestess. I’m sorry she gave you such a bad time. It was wrong. She’s just jealous.”
“Jealous? She’s jealous of me? Ha!” Priestess still hung her head, but she had not let go of my hand. Have I ever really looked closely at her before?
Priestess was dangerously attractive. Although a few years younger than Valkyrie, she was a Legion immortal like all of us, and nobody could call her a baby.
We were all immortals, of course. It was easy, with ConFree’s science, to keep people alive and young indefinitely-aging was a horror from the past. But getting shot through the head was just as fatal to an immortal as to a mortal-and our job description ensured we’d have plenty of opportunity to discover that.
We all held the knowledge of the Legion. She hid it well. She had delicate, very fine features. Warm smouldering brown eyes, a small mouth with ripe lips, and thick, gleaming black hair, almost covering her eyes. She called up the demons from the dark side of my soul, without even looking at me. It was hard to believe she had fought through Planet Hell with the rest of us.