Protector of Men Ch 74

"There was another one earlier today,"

"Geez,"

"I know."

"That's, what, three in a week?"

"Four, but yeah."

"It's been a crazy week."

Zandra moved the phone into the crook of her shoulder and picked up a pencil that she had previously dropped on the floor.

"I know! That FBI thing was ridiculous."

Stephen paused then to turn down his television.

"You think they'd learn," he replied, "But it's always a power struggle."

"Yeah."

"Hey," he started, turning up his television again, "You hear that they're starting to question the witnesses?"

"No,"

"That's what it says here, something about the Constitution."

"Due process?"

Stephen laughed.

"Something to that effect."

"Well hey – I gotta run,"

"Right," he replied, "Lots of work,"

Now Zandra laughed; "Just astronomical charts."

"Sure, sure."

"Ok, I have to go…"

"Alright, see you tomorrow."

"Bye,"

"Bye."

Zandra hung up the phone and went back to her charts. There was a pattern in the fluctuations; there had to be. It was just the reason that eluded her… something was causing the fabric to tear – ever so little – but again it was the reason that she couldn't discern.

Her fire alarm went off, screaming so loud that Zandra was startled into alertness. She looked around once, couldn't see any danger, but nonetheless left her dorm prematurely. It was hours later that her room - strangely, only her room - burnt down.

She drifted into consciousness slowly. It took her a few seconds to remember where she was; in the meantime, Stephen's book fell onto the floor with a flop. Zandra sighed wearily and sat up on the couch, stared at the book for a few moments as the world righted itself. Then, equally as wearily, she picked it up and put it on a nearby table.

Zandra rumpled her hair before going out of the room. There were no mirrors, but she was sure that it was pointing in all directions. Her clothes too, were dirty and wrinkled from her sleep. No room to care now. She locked the door with care, and rubbed the key one last time before dropping it in her back pocket.

Off to find something to eat.

Shade wasn't about to accost Zandra; he heard why she was sent to assigns, and knew that she would be tender for a while. So he sat in the mess area on her floor, knowing that eventually, she might bump into him. For a while he had been accompanied by the senior operator Myrrh from his old ship. They caught up on old times, on new times, and generally had a painless conversation which was now hard to find in their worlds. But, as usual, Myrrh was off to wake up his harem and revitalize his party that never ended. It was then that Shade remembered why he had left Hardware for Purgatory.

He could see Zandra approaching the bar not too far away, but didn't call out her name. Instead, he warily sauntered over to where she stood, waited until the right moment to cut in.

"What's free?" she asked the waiter who wore a look of intense concentration, almost fear.

"It's free," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "Don't worry about it."

"Wow," she mused, "Good deal."

"Just a repayment for your hard work," he replied as he handed her a drink and some bread. He smiled quickly, and Zandra turned around.

"Hey," Shade said. Zandra was only a little startled; her drink threatened to spill out of its container.

"Oh, hey."

"Sleep well?"

He grimaced a little; obviously not a good question to ask when she had just spent the last night sleeping in her dead friend's room.

Zandra scoffed minutely, then shook her head as she began winding her way through tables. She sat where Shade's book lay – Ulysses.

"So what have you done?" she asked with a sigh, breaking her bread in half. Shade smiled inwardly.

"Not much, I met with an old friend."

"Old friend," she replied, half to herself. Shade coughed.

"Yeah, from my old ship."

"That's right…"

She paused,

"You came from another ship."

Shade laughed quietly.

"A mysterious past."

"Yeah."

Shade wanted to move away from the past: it held too many painful memories, for the both of them.

"Hear about this gathering tonight?"

"Briefly."

"It's supposed to be really big,"

"What are they doing?"

"I'm not sure. Last year it was basically a party."

Zandra scoffed again: a party was the last thing she needed, or wanted.

"The council wants me to go," she explained darkly, and Shade was quiet.

"It starts in a few hours."

Zandra was silent now; a change was going on underneath her stony visage.

"How long is it?"

Shade sighed.

"I don't know. Last year it was only… an hour long. The party was all night."

Zandra frowned and nodded. She took a gulp of her drink and sputtered; it tasted much different than she had expected.

"What is this?" she asked, examining her glass warily. Around anyone else she would have remembered that she had said the same thing to Stephen a lifetime ago.

"Oh, he must have given you the good stuff,"

Zandra breathed deeply; it certainly was potent.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she sighed, and took another drink.

A/N – Authors notes (unfortunately,) will have to be shorter. Time constraints have forced me to write less, and A/N even more infrequently. :( I've been revising Reprise, and it's a long process. Everything's been working against me! Ah.

But you'll be excited to read the next chapter, it's something I've been working hard on.