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
X. Barracks Life
Zora went over to Meico's bunk and rudely shook him awake. "Please tell me that he's been taking the shots!" she hissed agitatedly.
"What?" Meico blinked a few times before sensing the source of her distress. "Oh. Oh!" His pink complexion deepened. "Not to worry, Zora Ree. Sarigar's contraception shots up-to-date they are."
"Thrrrice-blesséd Bast!" Zora sat down on Zeerod's neighboring bunk. "We just got in frrrom night maneuverrrs and you could cut the pherrromones in our barrrracks with a knife."
"What's this?" Zeerod raised himself up on one elbow, not entirely displeased to find her on his bed. "You mean he slept over?" He began to grin lasciviously as he sat up besides her.
"I serrriously doubt sleeping was involved," Zora commented wryly. "The prrrivacy seal was on but I have medical access. I went in to check on herrr and therrre they werrre." She covered her face with her hands and shook her head. "Tangled up in one big twitching blue love knot."
Zeerod patted her shoulder awkwardly. "Well, they are both adults, dear. Personally, I'm rather pleased. It's about damned time Sarigar made time for something other than duty."
"If it werrre underrr any otherrr cirrrcumstances, so would I." She looked between Zeerod and Meico. "Jaikirrra's field agent status is tenuous. Frrremmick had many high family ties and even demoted, he still has influence. I had to take Jaikirrra off herrr shots while she was rrrecoverrring. She's only been back on them forrr a couple of weeks."
Meico nodded. "Worrisome that is, I agree, but minimal the risk is. Once the decision was made, dedicated Sarigar was."
"That's very true," Zeerod said consolingly. "I should know -- I've seen where he's got it marked on his schedule. Regular like clockwork, our major. You've just had a bit of a shock this morning, dear heart, that's all."
"Perrrhaps." Zora sighed and slumped against Zeerod's shoulder, much to his delight. "I'm getting too old forrr all this."
"There, there." With surprising agility for a being with two bulky cybernetic legs, Zeerod slipped out of his bunk and pulled on a regulation jacket. "What you need is a cup of herbal tea and a good long rest today. That'll put everything right."
"You'rrre trrrying to take carrre of me again," Zora said, twitching her whiskers reproachfully. "I thought we discussed this."
"You woke me up in my bed, dear, not the other way around."
Zora started to respond but Meico reached over and touched her arm, shaking his head at the futility of it all. She reconsidered. "Very well," she sighed. "I accept the offerrr of yourrr company forrr the tea but I'm verrry much afrrraid you would not be verrry rrrestful for the second."
"I should bloody well think not," Zeerod said as he held out his hand to help her up. "I'm old, my dear, not dead."
Despite her initial protests, Zora Ree seemed genuinely pleased to have his company over breakfast and Zeerod couldn't be more delighted. The felenoid medic's reserved nature was something she had carefully cultivated as a professional courtesy to her patients and it had taken weeks of subtle coaxing to get her to drop her guard around him. As much as he respected his teammates, there was nothing quite like having someone closer to his own age to be with.
"My dear," he said gently as Zora hid another yawn behind her hand, "I think I should see you on your way now. I hear your bunk calling your name."
"So it is," she agreed. "It's telling me that I'm too old to be out all night."
"That would depend on how one spends one's night." He laughed and carried their trays from the table. "We all can't be as lucky as our commanders."
Zora snorted through her whiskers but he could tell she was amused. It was evident by the gracious way she took his arm without having to be persuaded. They walked without speaking for a time before she broke the silence. "This has been verrry pleasant, Zeerrrod" she commented. "I thank you forrr suggesting it."
"Think nothing of it, dear lady. A moment spent with you is time to be treasured."
"My late husband often said much the same thing, but he did not have yourrr gift with worrrds." She sighed, but with a smile. "Sometimes you make me want to purrrr like a kitling again, with the things that you say."
Her words appeared to embarrass her as she cast her eyes away from him but Zeerod felt like dancing a jig. He started to reply but a motion down the hall caught his attention and his mouth dropped open. Sarigar was drifting along the corridor, slowly undulating back to the barracks in what appeared to be a somnolent trance. He'd showered and dressed, but lacking his usual attention to detail. An errant lock of hair fell across his forehead and his jacket hung open, half off one shoulder.
"Oh, my," Zora murmured. "You'd betterrr tend to him, Zee. Therrre's no telling what shape I'll find the otherrr one in."
"Will do, milady," Zeerod answered back. He winked at her. "You and I will have to compare notes later, eh?"
She rolled her china blue eyes and tsked at him through her whiskers.
Quickly the old warrior made his way to Sarigar's side. "Good morning, major," Zeerod said brightly. "I was just seeing Medic Ree back to her quarters. Perhaps you'd like to join me in an early breakfast?"
It took a few seconds for Sarigar to realize that he was being spoken to. "Hmmm?" He swayed as he stared down at his aide. "Oh, Zeerod. Yes, coffee would be good."
"Really strong coffee, I'd say," Zeerod commented as he gently took Sarigar's elbow. "I'll have it brought directly to your office." He kept a pleasant smile on his face but all the while, he was dying of curiosity. In all the years that he had served with Major Sarigar, Zeerod had never seen him like this.
Meico was up and dressed by the time Zeerod had managed to steer Sarigar into his office. The Jentekian collapsed bonelessly into his chair for a few nervous minutes, but the smell of fresh brewed coffee brought him around.
"What's wrong with him?" Zeerod murmured as Meico ran a brief scan.
"Post-coital languor this is," Meico said simply. "Common among Jentekians it is."
"You've got to be kidding. What on earth could Jaikira have possibly done to him to turn him into a vegetable like this?"
Sarigar began to laugh in mid-sip and choked on his coffee.
"Not that it's any of my business, major," Zeerod said contritely, "just curious."
"Very little information in the medical database there is," Meico said as he consulted his compupad, "but high doses of stimulants like caffeine are prescribed for this condition."
"Just keep the coffee coming, Zeerod," Sarigar managed to get out. "This isn't life-threatening and I'll shake off the worst of it in an hour or two."
"Most curious your symptoms are," Meico commented. He prepared a hypospray and injected Sarigar in the neck. "Not typical of most post-coital side effects they are."
Zeerod couldn't have put it better himself. His fur was a-bristle with anticipation.
"Not you too, Meico?" Shaking his head, Sarigar merely glanced at them. "There's a betting pool riding on this, isn't there?"
"Well, perhaps... Zeerod admitted, scratching his chin. "The usual variables -- date, elapsed time, number of positions -- you know." Meico had the grace to look embarrassed.
"This had better be the ONLY time I hear about people betting on my sex life." Sarigar narrowed his eyes balefully and sipped his coffee. "Last night, six and half hours, and I lost track."
Zeerod blinked and exchanged a startled look with Meico. "You're kidding. Over six HOURS?"
Sarigar yawned. "More or less. I wasn't wearing my wristo." He blinked. "What? That's all we had time for."
Gaping, Zeerod could only stare at his commanding officer.
Meico feigned clinical interest. "Really?" He tapped a query on his medical datapad and his eyes widened. "Perhaps a vitamin supplement you should be taking. Lucky for you not yet fully healed Captain Jaikira is." He handed the pad to Zeerod.
He glanced at the text, blinked, and scrolled down with a horrified look of fascination. "Four weeks?" Zeerod exclaimed. "Do you mean to tell me you people can ram away at each other for four WEEKS?" Meico closed his eyes and shook his head at Zeerod's tactlessness.
"Hmm?" Sarigar scowled as he tried to figure out what Zeerod was on about. "Oh, that. That's the traditional amount of time that Jentekians were allowed for mating privileges, back when we were a slave race. We were designed to subsist on little sleep, little food and constant work in a heavy gravity environment so when they were allowed to mate, early Jenteks went at it non-stop when they were allowed to." He held out his cup for more coffee which Meico promptly filled. "No one mates that long these days. It would put me into a coma."
"But what a way to go, eh?" Zeerod murmured.
Sarigar merely raised his brow ridges and smiled.
Zora fully expected to find Jaikira in a similar state, but much to her surprise, her commander was up, showered, and fully dressed. She was sitting in the office with F'marrl discussing the night's exercises while she combed out her wet hair. Jez Shivblade was crashed on a nearby sofa in her off-duty sweats, snoring softly with one leg hung over the arm.
"--that's good, F'marrl," Jaikira was saying. "K'thok was asking when medical could clear me so I can go back on active field status. That always means he's got a job for us."
"Captain?" Zora purred. "Arrre you feeling quite well?"
"Very well, thank you." There was a vivacious sparkle in her eyes. "Did you go to the mess hall with the others?"
"No, actually I was therrre having tea with Zeerrrod."
"Ooooo!" Jaikira and F'marrl tittered like schoolgirls while Zora waited patiently for their childish mood to pass.
"He was walking me back when we came acrrross Majorrr Sarrrigarrr," she said wryly. "Whateverrr did you do to that poorrr man? He looked like the living dead."
Jez came awake with a snort. "What?" she signed. "What'd I miss?"
"Nothing, Jez, go back to sleep." Jaikira combed her hair vigorously for a few seconds and parted it for braiding. She looked up only to find all three females looking at her with varying degrees of curiosity, even F'marrl who only had scientific interest in the subject.
"Kitling," Zora said as she walked around and began to neatly braid up Jaikira's hair. "You know very well that I can still smell him in herrre, in spite of the arrroma of cleaning prrroducts coverrring it up."
"Come on!" Jez signed. She grinned as she perched on the sofa arm. "How was it? Bets have been placed!"
Jaikira narrowed her eyes. "Which squad?"
"Both!"
"Oh, gods."
Zora twitched her whiskers impatiently at Jez. "Never mind herrr," she said as gently as she would have to one of her own daughters, "you do not have to tell us a thing. As long as you two enjoyed each otherrr, that is all that matterrrs." She reached a hand over Jaikira's shoulder for the elastic to tie off her hair. "Of courrrse, given the sad state of yourrr suitorrr, I must ask as yourrr physician if you rrrequirrre any medical attention."
"Oh, I'm fine - I haven't felt this good in ages." Jaikira smiled sheepishly. "As for Gar, he's just sleepy."
"Sleepy? The man almost walked into a wall!"
"He had a busy night!"
Jez whistled lewdly and clapped her hands with an expression of malicious glee. "So? How was major hardass?" She waggled her dark eyebrows suggestively. "Was he?"
Patting Jaikira on the shoulder, Zora commented, "That's a perrrsonal question, Jez, don't you think?"
"He was-" Jaikira smiled dreamily, "-very, very major." The end of her tail transcribed curly figures in the air. "First time I've ever had a formal mating."
F'marrl cocked her head. "Formal?"
"I'm not sure it's called in the database," Jaikira said, knowing her second-in-command's love of research, "but we refer to mating as either formal or casual."
"Weird." Jez made a face.
"I know -- Jentekian etiquette is very complicated. Casual mating is just like humanoid-style sex, short and sweet. Formal mating involves," her eyes became distant, "a lot of foreplay to change my scent followed by several hours of pure bliss."
"Odd." F'marrl seemed unimpressed. "What do you mean, 'change your scent?'"
Zora sniffed delicately. "So it has," she commented. "Yourrr pherrromones change scent with stimulation? To what effect?"
"I can NOT believe you people are analyzing this," Jez signed disgustedly and flopped back onto the couch with a pillow over her head.
Jaikira shook her head. "It enhances the experience - it makes the females more receptive and gives the males better endurance." She blushed. "Not that Gar needed it."
Jez popped back up. "Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!" She pumped the air with her fist.
"Rrreally, Jez!" Zora sniffed. "How vulgarrr!"
F'marrl merely rolled her round eyes. "Interesting," she said mildly. "I may have to look into this pheromones business later. Meanwhile, captain, let me remind you that you're scheduled for your physical assessment at oh-nine hundred, and a meeting with General K'thok at oh-eleven hundred. I'll meet you at his office." The avian alien rose gracefully. "With your permission, I believe I'll get a few hours sleep until then."
"Thanks, F'marrl," Jaikira replied. "That goes for you too, Zora. Get some rest." She checked her wristo and snatched up her gym bag. "I've just enough time to warm up. Later, ladies!" She and F'marrl went out the door together, with Jez not far behind.
Pausing for a moment to straighten the few things that were out of place, Zora sampled the scents in the air and frowned. Her feline senses were sharper than most humanoids and the aromas wafting through the air were making her fur crawl. "Prrrobably nothing morrre than hot flashes," she muttered to herself. "I need a good bath and bed, that's all." She smoothed down her fur and went in to the barracks.
An ungodly caterwauling rose from the barracks, and Sarigar looked up from his files to peer around the door. Torie Montroc was coming in, shaking his head. He grinned at Sarigar.
"You have no idea how much your night out has cost Jugger," he commented. "None of his wagers were even close."
"Hmmph." Sarigar resumed his scanning. "Serves him right -- gambling is prohibited in the barracks." He scowled at the figures on the screen. "They'd better find something else to bet on -- I've already read the riot act to Zeerod."
"I thought that's how you'd react," Torie agreed amiably, "which is why I didn't join in. I understand the bets in the Artemis barracks were even more interesting." He managed to keep a straight face when Sarigar looked up with a pained expression. "Something to do with volume and size, I believe."
Sarigar merely winced. A second wave of raucous noise rose up in the outer room, this time accompanied by hoots and appreciative whistles. "What is going on out there?" he demanded.
Sliding through the barracks with a face like a stormcloud, Jaikira tossed down her gym bag in the middle of the floor, went over to Sarigar sitting at the desk, and promptly put her hand down his shirt. Startled, he began to protest until she pulled out a set of dog tags.
"Oh, good grief!" she exclaimed. "No wonder none of my access codes would work today! You've got my tags!" She smirked at the human standing nearby. "Torie, you've outranked him all morning and never knew it!!" The crowd of curious onlookers at the door broke out into a fresh roar of laughter.
Stoically, Sarigar endured the resultant teasing and merely sat in his chair with his arms crossed. When the noise died down, he raised a brow ridge and asked mildly, "So, where do you suppose MY dogtags are?" He looked pointedly at her chest.
Jaikira's eyes went wide. "You wouldn't--?
She leaped back just as he lunged out of his chair. There was a fast and furious chase around the room that knocked over a chair, went under a table and ended up tipping the couch over, concealing them from view. The legionnaires crowding the doorway watched in amusement as Sarigar's tail twined around Jaikira's as they wrestled for the dogtags. Bets were exchanged amidst colorful commentary.
Finally, Sarigar came up with the chain dangling from his teeth and his hair in disarray. He gave a hard stare at their audience even as he went into his room and retrieved a shirt to hand Jaikira who was still hiding behind the couch. It was clear that her own shirt hadn't survived.
"My word," Zeerod murmured and turned around to glare at the rest of the squad. "What's the matter with you?"
"Just enjoying the free show," Jugger leered. "Woo hoo!"
"You wish!" Jaikira retorted as she dressed behind Sarigar's back. He was glancing back at her with a smug grin on his face. She thumped him on the arm as she came around him, knotting a grey fatigue shirt around her waist. "I can NOT believe you did that!"
"You started it," Sarigar replied mildly. He checked his tags before putting them on and tucking them back in his shirt. "I just finished it."
Jaikira scowled at him and snapped off a rapid phrase in vulgar Jentekian. She started to head out through the corridor door when Sarigar whistled and dangled her dogtags from his hand. Her eyes flashed as she snatched them away.
"See you later?" he asked pleasantly.
She made an inarticulate noise in the back of her throat and bared her teeth, but her eyes were dancing as she left the room.
Sarigar sat back down at his desk and resumed filing reports. "Okay, show's over. If I look up and there's anyone there, you're getting recruited to help me sort through this mess." He glanced up to see Zeerod frowning at him. "What is it?"
"Well...," the old warrior glanced at the door, "shouldn't you go after her? She's mad at you!"
"No, she's not." Sarigar typed in a few more lines.
"But she sounded angry."
Sarigar laughed without looking up from his work. "What she said in Jentekian doesn't translate well, but basically means 'that was fun, let's do it again.'" He glanced up. "It's okay, Zeerod, really."
"You realize that you'll never get that shirt back now, don't you?"
He shrugged but a smug smile tugged at his lips. "I don't mind -- she can wear anything of mine she wants."
"Well, well," Zeerod muttered as he turned away. "Can china patterns and his-and-her armaments be far behind? I must tell Zora..." He chuckled and instinctively dodged the datapad that was hurled his way.
Sliding in next to Zora with his meal, Zeerod glanced around at his tablemates and said lightly, "Well, some interesting morning this has turned out to be, eh?"
Jez snorted and shoved her utensil in her mouth while she began to sign a comment. Zeerod's eyebrows rose at some of the more expressive gestures. "Zora, be a dear and paraphrase that," he asked politely. "I'm sure I know the more colorful adjectives."
Dabbing her chin with a napkin, Zora nodded. "Basically, she said that last night's activities did Jaikirrra a worrrld of good."
Grimrod laughed with a bite of sandwich in his mouth. "I'll just bet! From the looks of him, the major gave her the ramming of her life." Jez elbowed him hard in the side but she had a knowing smirk on her face too.
Zeerod glared at him. "Jugger, please!"
"Crrrude obserrrvations aside, I must agree that therrre werrre benefits -- Jaikirrra has been a bundle of enerrrgy all day. She took herrr physical assessment and passed it with no difficulties."
"They'll be reinstating her field agent status then?" Zeerod asked, neatly cutting his food.
"Yes - they've prrrobably alrrready done so." Zora lifted her tea cup to her mouth and sipped delicately, grimacing to keep her whiskers out of the way. "Has the majorrr rrrecoverrred?"
Zeerod chuckled. "Meico shot him full of vitamins and after first gallon of coffee, he stopped dozing off. Otherwise, he's been sticking to the office and resting while he finishes up all those administrative tasks that had piled up while we were on assignment."
F'marrl came up and sat down on the other side of Zora. "Captain Jaikira and I just came from meeting with General K'thok. They've got a posting for us. Artemis leaves in a week."
"Well, well," Zeerod said thoughtfully, pausing to chew a mouthful of food. "This will be interesting set of rotations then, won't it?"
Zora sighed. "At the verrry least, it will be a good test how well soundprrroofed the rrrooms are," she commented. "Meico and I shall have to put ourrr heads togetherrr on how to combat the pherrromones. They have a strrrange effect on otherrr species."
"Perhaps an air scrubber?" Zeerod suggested. "We have compact ones for taking on away missions."
"Wait a minute," Jugger interrupted. "What strange effects?"
F'marrl raised and lowered her crest. "Jentekian females have glands in their neck that emit pheromones. Normally, these glands are dormant but when they're attracted to a particular male," she tilted her head away to avoid looking at Jugger and Zeerod, "they give off an alluring scent."
"Huh." Jugger thought about it. "I never noticed anything like that."
"It affects other species differently," F'marrl said with a discreet cough. "Humanoids seldom notice but other types have interesting reactions to pheromones. It can be a little embarrassing."
Zeerod caught Jez grinning at Zora from across the table and cocked his head. "What?" All three members of Artemis became deliberately silent, although F'marrl and Jez seemed to be sharing a private joke as they left the table. Zora became very interested in her tea.
"Well, I've got to be on duty," Jugger announced with unexpected enthusiasm as he swung his leg over the benches. As he carried his tray past Zora, he winked at Zeerod and tapped his nose.
Thracians were known for their keen sense of smell, Zeerod reasoned, so what was Jugger trying to tell him? He mulled it over for a few minutes as he finished his meal. Dimly, he became aware of something lightly stroking his tail. That area had become a bit desensitized due to the new biomechanical links to his cybernetic legs but his tail was still capable of some sensation. He could just see Zora out of the corner of his eye, staring into her tea cup with a dreamy expression.
A quick discreet glance behind him confirmed his suspicions. Her tail was brushing his as it proscribed lazy curves in the air.
He waited until F'marrl and Jez had left the room to ask quietly," Zora? You're the one reacting to the pheromones, aren't you?" When she didn't say anything, he continued. "It's just that you're the one that's brought it up twice now."
Zora wouldn't look at him. "It's annoying. I thought because I can no longerrr have childrrren, I would not be affected." She shrugged. "I shall endurrre."
"Ah." Zeerod sighed deeply. "I'd give anything to be able to share your problem, dear heart."
"What do you mean?"
"When I was in hospital being fitted with my new legs, the doctors informed me that the odds of my having intimate relations ever again would be rather limited. Nerve damage, I believe, but let's face it - what female in her right mind would want me? I'm half grizzled old soldier and half left over shuttle parts."
"What werrre the odds?"
"I'm afraid I was too in shock to remember clearly. I suppose you could always look up my medical records, if you're curious." Zeerod put on a cheerful face and patted her arm. "Anyway, if you'd like to get away from the young lovers, I would be a safe enough companion. There's no reason why you have to stick around the barracks, now is there?"
"I suppose not." She pursed her lips, splaying out her whiskers in an interesting pattern. "I'll be doing research in the medlabs this afternoon. Perhaps you could drop by later? I wouldn't mind some company for dinner."
"My dear, I should be delighted."
To be continued in "Part XI: Jentunku"
