Alien Legion: Arrows of Artemis

By C.S. Hayden

Alien Legion is the trademarked and copyrighted creative property of Carl Potts as published by Epic Comics/Marvel Entertainment 1984-1993. This is a work of fiction loosely based on the characters of Alien Legion and is unauthorized by its creator Carl Potts.

Plot and additional original characters copyrighted 2002 to Christi Smith Hayden

Arrows of Artemis

VIII. Poet/Soldier

"You're taking her to the civilian zone for dinner?" Torie asked as he sat in the office working on a project of his own. "Where to?"

"The Blue Star," came Sarigar's muffled reply from inside his room. "Kira picked it. I've never been there."

"I think you'll like it," Torie commented. "They serve cuisine from your home system of Belgar II. Some of us decided to go on a pub crawl and that was one of the stops."

"Pub crawl?"

"Yeah, The Blue Star also is a music club." He laughed and looked back. "But then Jaikira and music naturally go together, don't they?"

"Tell me about it," Sarigar muttered as he came out, adjusting his green officer's jacket over black shirt and pants. "Still, I'm looking forward to getting her away from Artemis for the evening. Between Zora and Jez, we're never alone."

Torie shook his head. "You could always pull rank on them, I suppose, but I imagine that would only get you in trouble."

"Unfortunately, you're probably right." Sarigar came over and changed his duty status on the computer. "All right, I'm logged off. You have the con, Torie."

"Thanks, major. Have a good evening."

All the way down the corridor to Artemis' barracks, Sarigar was anticipating their evening as he had been most of the week. He'd been able to make time to see Jaikira almost every day but what he hadn't told Torie was how just when things between them would begin to get more intimate, one of Jaikira's teammates would appear to ruin things. He was beginning to think that he was going to have to pull a hel-gun on the next one just to get a little privacy.

Jaikira was just slipping from her room as he turned in that direction. He stopped and waited for her, enjoying the view. She had opted for a civilian dress in dark blue, topped with a short jacket that had lacy see-through sleeves.

"Escaping from your jailers?" Sarigar quipped.

She snatched up his hand and tugged him in the direction of the lift. "Yes!" she said with some exasperation. The minute the doors shut, Jaikira rose on her tail and kissed him hard with her hand behind his neck.

"Not that I'm objecting," Sarigar said when she let go of him, "but what was that for?"

"It's been one of those afternoons," Jaikira groaned. She sighed and leaned back against the wall. "If I have to sit in on another Harkilon interrogation listening for nuances and inflections, I'm going to scream."

"After tomorrow, you probably won't have to," Sarigar said reassuringly. "I know you'll pass your physical tests easily and then you'll be back on active status again."

"Gods, I hope so." She looked him over and smiled. "Still, being grounded hasn't been all that bad. I'm getting to spend time with you."

"There is that." He slid his arm around her waist as the lift doors opened and kept it there while they found transportation to the civilian zone. It was something Sarigar didn't do when he was in uniform, and while Jaikira didn't directly comment on it, she took full advantage of it by snuggling up to him whenever possible.

The Blue Star was everything Torie said it was - a pleasant establishment serving food from their home system of Belgar II that doubled as a music venue in the after hours. They had an enjoyable time sampling a variety of Jentekian wines and trying each other's favorite foods. When the emcee announced the arrival of the band, Sarigar assumed that Jaikira would want to move closer to the stage and started to stand.

Jaikira reached over and put her hand on his sleeve. "Not tonight, Gar. Let's stay here where it's quieter."

"You?" he mused. "Turning down music?"

She shrugged. "I know the guy that heads up this band. If he saw me anywhere near the stage, he'd pester me to sing and I don't want to do that." Her smile was slow and sultry. "You're the one I'm with tonight."

He had to swallow hard. There was something about that knowing yet innocent look of hers that stirred desires that he'd forgotten he had. The server saved him by coming to the table and refilling their glasses with a sparkling white wine. He saluted her with his glass and asked, "What would you like to talk about now?"

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "So, tell me -- how long have you been writing poetry?"

Sarigar was startled -- he was fairly sure that he hadn't ever mentioned that he wrote Jentekian verse in his free time. It was hardly the thing a battle-hardened Legion veteran wanted to be known for. "Excuse me?"

Jaikira smiled sweetly and took a familiar-looking compupad out of her jacket pocket. "You left this in the isoward that day, remember? Right after you admitted that you were in love with me. Zora showed it to me and I recognized the language and composition form as Jentekian verse so she said that perhaps you'd meant to leave it for me to read." She pretended not to notice the pained expression on his face. "So I started at the beginning, and you know, they're really quite good."

He blinked. "Really?"

"Oh, yes -- there's quite a few poems in here that would make excellent song lyrics. I'd be reading some of the more military ones and I could just hear stirring anthems in my head." She grinned. "You have a rare talent for this, Gar, I mean it."

"I don't know what to say," he replied self-consciously. "I've never actually let anyone read them. I've always wrote them for myself, just to unwind."

Jaikira smiled and ran her fingers along the edge of the compupad. "For a while, I didn't know you were the one writing them but then I got up the ones that started to mention me." She started to laugh. "I would have never regarded the bit where I was swimming in the sewers as poem material but what you did with it was just so hysterically funny! Zora thought I was having a strange reaction to my pain meds."

Chuckling along with her, he agreed. "That whole incident on Orestra VII was surreal."

"Now I found the encrypted poems particularly interesting."

Sarigar stopped laughing and swallowed hard. There was a very personal reason why those particular poems were hidden away. "You got into my, ah, private files?"

"Well, it was a little tricky," she admitted, "but then, there I was, confined in the isoward with time on my hands." She sat there and gazed at him in barely concealed glee at his discomfort. "You know, I had no idea there were so many ways to describe my, ah," she looked down at herself, "attributes. You have a rather extensive vocabulary."

"Oh, Ayal...."

She tilted her head coyly, looking at him from under her lashes. "You write erotica rather well, you know. I was flattered, and frankly," her breath hissed in through her teeth, "aroused by those secret poems."

"You were never meant to--" He sighed and tried again. "I just wrote them because -" He ran both hands through his hair and stared at the table uncomfortably. "I am so rammed."

"Oh, I'd certainly like to..."

"Kira!" Sarigar stared at her, outraged at her boldness.

"Well, isn't that what you want?" she asked simply. "You can learn a lot about a person by reading what they put down when they think no one else is looking. It's a type of free association, letting your subconscious say all those things that you're afraid to say."

Sarigar gave a rueful glance at his compupad. "And what do my poems say about me?"

"I think that you're conflicted -- you're both a soldier and a poet," Jaikira said as she swirled the wine in her glass. "You've let the soldier take over to survive in the Legion; you can't allow your discipline to lax or you'll be overwhelmed with sentimentality. But deep inside, there's that poet who remembers that life is more than just surviving -- it's about risking everything to be loved."

Sarigar didn't say anything. She was hitting a little too close to the truth and he felt uneasy.

"That doesn't mean the poet is weak," she continued. "It's actually stronger than the soldier because it was just biding its time, waiting for some outside spark to make it bloom again." She reached out and turned his face towards her. "Well? How close did I guess?"

He took a few moments to compose his thoughts. "You were right about the gloves too."

"Gloves?"

"The night of the ambassador's reception -- you said that wearing my gloves all the time was my way of putting a barrier between me and the rest of the world. I hadn't really thought of it that way but I started doing that after the disaster on Hellscape. Only five of the original Nomad squad survived and I never really got over it. There were too many things that needed to be done and I had to keep my distance."

"But now you feel that's changed?"

"You know that it has." There was a tight pain in his chest.

She came in closer and rested her forehead against his. "I know the soldier doesn't want to get personal but what does the poet think?"

Sarigar swallowed hard. "The poet isn't happy unless I'm thinking of you or watching you or being with you." He closed his eyes. "Sometimes my blood burns with wanting you."

"Are you afraid of that?"

"Sometimes." He turned his head away. "I'm afraid of losing control. My whole career is based on discipline, and you, well, you make me think dangerous thoughts."

Jaikira deftly turned his face back to hers. "Like what?"

For once, Sarigar found himself at a loss for words. Their faces were so close that he could see the gold-within-gold pupils of her eyes and he couldn't help closing the distance between them. Oblivious to the crowd around them, he began to kiss her as if they were the only two people in the world. Their tails coiled together under the table long before their arms slipped around each other. Jaikira pulled away first, pressing a hand to her cheek and looking startled. Sarigar sighed and sank back against the seat.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I never do things like that."

"Maybe you should." There was a certain predatory look in her eyes. "Sometimes you need to act on your dangerous thoughts." She reached over and deliberately removed his insignia from his jacket, tucking it away in his inside pocket. "I say that for the remainder of the evening, we get rid of our ranks and all that's left is Gar and Kira out on a date."

There was a certain appeal to her suggestion; he so seldom ventured into the civilian zone that no one would know him if he behaved with less than military decorum. Kissing her like he just did made him realize how highly wound he had become and he felt like he was going to fly apart if he didn't do something about it soon. His eyes passed over her and he noted her captain's bars.

"Well, that's got to go then," he said and carefully plucked her insignia from her lapel. She blushed and leaned forward so he could put it in her pocket as she had done. There was a little keyhole opening on the bodice of her dress, however, that had such an interesting view that he chose to drop it in there instead.

Jaikira yelped and put a hand to her chest where the captain's bars had lodged between her breasts. "Uh oh --- now I'm in for it."

He smiled over his wine glass. "You most certainly are."

To be continued in "Part IX: Night Maneuvers"
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