The Waiver 6 ((((AKA: The Fluff Strikes Back . . .))))
I turned around. She was staring at me with pure anger. I've seen that look before and backed down.
Not this time.
It was a matter of life and death.
"Cassie, I don't know how much you understand of what's going on here, but you have to get off of this shuttle right now." I warned.
She placed her hands on hers hips. "Do I? Do I really?"
"Captain, we must hurry, before the authorities arrive." Mendernash interjected.
It took me a moment to realize he was talking about me. "Yeah, just wait for Cassie to get off first." I said glaring at her.
"I'm not going anywhere, Jake." She said firmly.
"You don't know what you're getting into!"
"I know enough. Enough to know that you don't either!" she stuck her finger in my face, accusingly.
It was a total standoff in the cramped little room. Menderash was patiently waiting to move our hijacked ship into Earth orbit before the cops showed up. Our little team was packed into the stolen shuttle, with Menderash at the control and Santorelli at
the weapons console (not that we'd use them) with Jeanne at his side. Marco, Tobias, Cassie and I were standing in a cramped little square. Marco and Tobias facing each other . . . and Cassie and I squaring off.
"Cassie, Ax is-"
"I know, his ship is missing and was last seen with the Blade ship."
I nodded. How long had she been tagging me?
"What I don't know is why you lied to me, Jake." She said shaking her head.
"Cassie, I- Ihad to."
She just stared at me.
"Cassie, you don't belong here, on this mission," I continued. "You should be home. I- war it's a life for me, a part of who I am. Not who you are. You should be home."
"Excuse me?"
"I couldn't let you come along on this one. The alien craft completely wrecked Ax's ship. Menderash here was the only survivor. I- you're doing what you need to do back home. I'm . . . replacable. You're not."
"Not to me. I couldn't replace you."
"That's not impor-"
"Jake." She interrupted quickly, "Don't you say 'that's not important' because if you do I don't think I could deal with you anymore. Could you replace ME? Is that not important to you! I can't believe you were going to let me find out where you really went on the news tomarrow!" she yelled.
I went on the offense now, "Yes, it IS important to me! That's why I lied, to protect you!" The others were trying not to watch the drama unfold, but when you're in a shuttle the size of a large bathroom, there's no such thing as privacy. "Damn it, Cassie! Can't you see I did it because . . . because I love you." I finished, practically pleading with her to understand.
Cassie stopped then. Tears were streaming down her face.
And I guess I was crying a little too.
I reached up a hand to touch her face, but she pulled away.
"Jake, if you really love me, then realize that me living alone on Earth without you, is worse than a million deaths out in spacewith you."
I didn't say anything.
She took a deep breath. "Now take us up to the ship, Jake." her lip quivered a bit, and I could tell she was unsure whether I would listen to her or not . . .
Forgive me.
Someone, please.
But I can't do it . . .
I can't do this without her.
"Menderash, let's go." I whispered.
Cassie dove into my arms, and I lifted her up to eye-level. She kissed me then, pure and sweet and loving. I pulled my face from hers and rested it on her shoulder, holding her tightly as I felt her legs wrap around my waist. She was quietly sobbing on my shoulder and I had my face buried in her neck.
Jeanne and Santorelli stared, amazed that the great Professor X had been knocked down a peg. Finally understanding . . . I was only human.
"I can't believe I almost lost you," Cassie said, muffled. "After we've come so far."
I rocked us from side to side. Oh, god, what have I-
"Ahem." Marco interjected.
Cassie and I ignored him, until I saw put his hand up to his mouth. "Marco, if you cough or give us anymore 'subtle' hints, you're going to be wearing your lower intestine as a necklace, got me?"
Jeanne and Santorelli grinned at each other and stopped staring.
Marco slowly lowered his hand and nodded quickly.
After a moment, and a quick kiss, I set Cassie down and turned to the view screen to watch our assent. We were making our way out of the atmosphere, when Marco deemed it time to continue being an idiot.
"I was just going to tell you that your bouncing around happily in this tiny room got me a kick in the ear from Cassie . . ."
"'Bouncing around happily?'" I asked. "I don't bounce."
"-which is why you got no game on the court."
Cassie smiled at Marco. "It was on purpose."
Marco raised a finger and opened his mouth to retort, but I interrupted. "Come on, you guys, settle down."
Marco just looked at me, then shrugged and searched for someone else to bug.
He smiled sinisterly, finding a new victim.
"You know, I could be a sort of mentor to you," he said, hovering around Jeanne. "If we
work together, I'm sure I could teach you a lot of things."
"Like what exactly? How to repel all things female?" She said, raising an eyebrow.
Marco continued as if she had said nothing. "Now, you do realize that there will be a
small fee for my services. But, saying as I'm a millionaire," he bragged. "-you'll just
have to think of something besides money to repay me with."
Jeanne smiled. "I have the perfect thing."
Marco leered. "And what's that?" he asked, setting her up for the joke. Knowing she would attack him.
"My friend Michelle! She loves short men, perhaps not as short as yourself. But as a personal favor to me, I'm sure she will consider you."
His eyes widened and he gestured to her. "Do you see this, Jake. My god! She's perfect! Thank you, again. Oh, by the way, when you're not busy, could you pull this spear from my chest?"
Marco and Jeanne carried on like that for a while and I pretty much ignored everyone until we got into orbit.
Santorelli was staring out the viewscreen, like a kid in Disney world. Hardened veterans, Marco, Tobias, Menderash and I barely even paid attention, while Cassie spoke to him quietly.
"Objective locked in, Captain." Menderash soon reported stiffly.
"Alright, get us there. I wanna see what she looks like." I said quickly.
She was about the size of five or six school buses cubed, which was really only about 1/4th the blade ship's size. She had tapered edges and a deadly, aggressive appeal to her. Like a black widow spider. She was silver and dynamic and terrible. God help me, I loved that ship. I felt sick knowing the Yeerks had created something that beautiful.
Sick for those I killed.
I shook the dark thoughts out of my head.
No, I'm over that now.
"Latch on, Menderash, I want to get inside before someone wonders what we're doing."
Menderash hesitated. Being an Andalite, I figured there would be problems with him following my orders. "Is there something wrong?" I asked in a low, smooth voice.
"No, Captain, however . . ." he seemed embarrassed. "An Andalite custom dictates that a ship must be named before it is boarded. The idea being that the ship must know who IT is before it knows it's crew."
I nodded. "She. On Earth a ship is always a "she" not an "it". Even when she's named after a guy."
We all stared at our new home, sillouetted against the sun peeking over Earth's horizon.
"So, what are we going to call it?" Marco asked.
"She's beautiful . . . She's beautiful and dangerous and exciting." I looked over at Tobias. He had morphed to human, and seemed mesmyrized by the ship. He looked over at me and smiled gently. "Jake?"
Marco looked at the both of us, confused for a moment, then suddenly laughed. "She would love it. A scary, deadly, cool-looking Yeerk ship on a doomed, suisidal, crazy mission that no one can ever know about? She would love it."
It was Cassie who had the guts to christen her aloud.
"The Rachel . . . " she whispered softly.
End of Part Six
Review Response:
J-Rae: I'm a-typing, I'm a-typin'! I can only go so fast, you taskmaster!
Fallan: I wonder if "Nice" is slang for: "Oh my god! Write more soon before I kill myself
waiting!" . . . Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what that means.
mickEmousina: I'm a J/C fan, definately. But I can't stand R/T. They never should have happened
EVERYONE knows Marco and Rachel were supposed to be together! I was reading book #2 and saying
to myself "It'll go away, Marco WILL have her!" Then I read #7 and I swear to god I screamed
"She HUGGED him! Damn it!" right in the middle of Waldenbooks.
LunaticClownGirl: Watches Lunatic for a moment, learning the steps . . . then jumps into
the "happy dance" with her "Hmmmm . . . Kinda like the Macarana, but with more rear grabbing."
RaspberryGirl: Looks around for ani-fanatics and whispers "KA screwed up in the end, she
just really wanted to get it over with. She said to herself, "I know! I'll make the Yeerk
captain a follower of a new religeon, and then have his god show up . . and then make him
incrredibly invincable . . . and then give him a ass-kicking ship! Let's see how the fan-fic
authors deal with this! Bw-hahahahaha!" Early looks over her shoulder to see a horde
of KA cult members with cudgels racing towards her "Blasphemy!"
WUJustice: Thank you, it's nice to find people who review the story objectively. Thankfully,
all of my readers take thier reviewing very seriously and I have yet to hear, "That sucks,
write porn!"
Gorrable: Well, yes actually. It was one of the "Foreshadowing lines" I mentioned in
my last reviewers corner. I didn't want to explain that she was the fly, because I figured
you guys (and Jake) would figure it out on your own (which you DID!)
Gorrable(AGAIN!): Yeah, I know, that chick is just messed up. (How did you review the same
chapter twice!)