An Angel With Scales

Chapter 8 - Exodus 14:21-22

Finale

He was cold and dark.

The world was cold and dark.

He recoiled from the cold to the warmth of the light.

She was the light. He felt nothing but fear without her. But when he was with her, he felt the happiest he had ever been.

Gone was the war for his people.

Gone was the stress of his capture.

Gone was his fear for the future.

His worries, his sorrows, his guilts, all of them were washed away in her presence and everything felt new. She must be a Goddess, he thought. Only divinity could make him feel so whole.

He looked to the cold world around him, and clung closer to the light.

If she went, he would follow. If she spoke, he would listen. If she asked, he would answer.

Tears of joy flowed freely as his heart was enraptured by her embrace. She pulled at him, beckoning him to move. He did so happily, a grin plastered on his face. They passed through the dark world together, but it was ok. She was the light, she would protect him.

“Major Kessex to the helm! We have a situation that needs your attention.” An annoyed voice urged over the intercom. The Major’s pager hadn’t stopped buzzing.

“Put her back in the brig!” She ordered the two guards who were struggling to keep Kess down. Her bandages were dripping fresh blood at this point.

The major made for the command deck with Allen glued to her side, holding on for dear life like a stumbling babe. She held him close as she pulled him along. Her pheromones had blown away his resistance with ease, just like the men she had seen fall a hundred times before. She felt vindicated and gratified knowing all those nights of planning her future with him had finally paid off.

The doors to the command center slid open and she entered with him in tow. She was greeted with chaos. Half of the terminals were powered down and the captain was scrambling between the few remaining, barking orders left and right.

“Captain! What’s your status?”

“Major! I’ve been trying to reach you. We’ve just lost half of our control systems!”

“What?”

“A few minutes ago we noticed that our communication array had gone silent. We’re not getting anything from the station or from the base. Then the engine monitors started going dark one by one,”

“Why didn’t you call for me on the intercom sooner!?”

“I paged you when we noticed the comms issue, but you were busy in that holdout. We started noticing that the engine readings were frozen just a few moments ago. Trying to reinitialize them got us to this point.”

“We’ve been sabotaged! Run diagnostics, we need to find out what they’ve done,”

“Already running them, ma’am. Weapons and external sensors are down.”

The major’s hold on Allen tightened. She had almost lost him once already today, she wasn’t going to let it happen again.

“We just lost navigation!” A technician called from a dark monitor.

“Damn it!” The captain cursed “Get it started back up in safety mode. I need to know where we are, ASAP!”

“We’re getting a transmission signal, but not one of ours. Should I decode?”

“On screen,” the Major shouted, pulling Allen to the commander’s chair.

The face of an elderly human man greeted them. His hair was grey with a bit more black towards the top. He was clean shaven and in a suit, waving cheerfully.

“Hello there, can you hear me alright?” The man coyly craned his head towards the screen.

“I’m assuming you’re from Zion?” Kess spat angrily. The man smiled with a twinkle in his eye.

“I sure am! I’m Elder Clements, and, if she was home right now, I’d introduce you to my lovely wife.”

“I don’t care about your wife, I want to know how you hacked my ship!” Major Kessex hissed. She knew there had been hacking attempts on Daxy hardware in the past, but it was notoriously difficult and few had ever succeeded. Was it some sort of secret tech? A traitor on the ship?

“Taking a piece of Alma thirty seven verse six: by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.”

“I have no time for riddles, old man!” She shouted and then turned to command her subordinates, “I want a sweep of this ship, from top to bottom. There may be an enemy agent on board.”

“No, I don’t suppose you do,” he smiled brightly, “I also don’t have much time either as a matter of fact. I just thought that I’d pop in and see how Brother Jensen is doing.”

Major Kessex growled and held Allen close.

“I know that man,” Allen whispered to her. “Make him leave us alone.”

“Of course,” she cooed back to him before turning to the screen. “As you can see he is well taken care of. We’re just about to go talk about you to my superiors. The station is minutes away.”

“Oh, dear sister, I don’t know about that,” the smile never left his face, his eyes still projecting warmth towards her. “You’re actually just barely out of orbit at this point. But let’s not split hairs, I wanted to let you know that we’re deeply concerned about Brother Jensen here, and we’d like you to return him to us.”

“You think I’m just going to give him back, after all the effort it took to catch him?”

“Oh, no, not all. I invite you to repent of the evil that’s taken root in your heart, and join us in Zion as a sister.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve been asked before.”

“Oh . . . I wish you would reconsider. The Lord has a great deal of love for you, Major Kessex,” the old man's smile took a sad twist. “I would be sorry to send you to him so unprepared.”

“I won’t be killed so easily. And besides, Allen doesn’t want to go with you. He’s picked me.”

*“The love he has for you is chemical, God’s plan is to love each other more purely than that. Allen is strong, he’ll push through it. He’s done it before. And then I’m afraid you’ll be back where you started.” *

“We just got navigation back! We’re still planetside!” The technician from before reported.

“What about long range comms?” The captain asked.

“Nothing is getting through, we’re just showing this signal!”

“Diagnostics?”

“Whatever they’re doing has dumped all our privileges, I can’t get back in!”

“Do a hardware reset then!”

The Daxy in the background were scrambling to wrest control of their technology back. They had worked without it at times during the war, but for those on this ship this was the first time their own tech had actually betrayed them.

“We’re losing altitude,” the tech called out. “Bearing 207.3 degrees with an 80 degree down angle. They’re landing us inside the mountain range!”

“Do something, send out a signal via radio, PDA, ANYTHING!”

”I don’t glory in bloodshed, Sister Kessex. Please, surrender when you land,” the Apostle pleaded.

The Major grit her teeth.

“End transmission,” she commanded. As soon as the screen went dark she opened an intercom line. “All hands to battle stations! The ship has been compromised and will be landing soon! Hostiles expected. I repeat, all hands to battle stations!”

The whole ship was in commotion at this point. Crew members shuffled from their cabins to the armory, equipping themselves with practiced discipline. Plasma rifles were checked and loaded. Armor was donned, squads were organized.

“I want a squad at the port and starboard access points. Set up mounted guns at key choke points. The rest should dig in at the cargo bay,” the Major directed. Allen felt her discomfort and put his arms around her as best he could.

“We’re landing blind, Major, defenses aren’t going to hold long if we can’t get the ship back in the air,” the Captain broke off from the group at the terminals to speak.

“Then tell the techs to work faster. They’re our only hope for survival here,” the Major replied, tensely. “We can assume that as long as they’re in our systems, none of the ship’s defenses will be of use.”

“We’re closing in on LZ!” the navigation tech reported.

“Squads are in position, heavy weapons are being set up,” another relayed from local comms.

The ship shook only slightly as the inertial dampeners kicked in. The ship had landed.

Everything went quiet. Even the techs working on the equipment spoke in hushed tones. The seconds ticked, tensely.

There was an audible zapping sound, and the ever present whine of the ship’s reactor started to decrease in pitch. The lighting flickered, and then went out, leaving them in darkness.

“They just took the main reactor down,” a tech called out. “Backup power is coming online.” Some lights flickered on again, but only the bare minimum to see.

It was quiet for only a few seconds more before the comms channel exploded with chatter.

“Contact! Heavy armor! They’ve breached the sides of the hull! We’re flanked!”

“Hostiles sighted portside, engaging!”

“This is Starboard! They’re laying down suppressive fire! Pulling back to the next choke point.”

The shriek of plasma fire and the staccato bangs of railgun slugs could be heard both over the channel and in the distance. Allen was weeping softly into the side of her chest.

“Cargo bay squad, pull back to the inside bay access!” Major Kessex ordered.

”They’re advancing with some sort of mobile cover, we can’t hold!”

A younger male voice sounded over the radio.

”This is the Zion Retrieval Unit. You have one of our own in custody here. Lay down your arms and surrender and you will not be harmed, I promise before God.” Allen knew the voice, but was too busy burrowing into the warmth of his mate to say it.

“Don’t surrender! Fight to the last, the ship's systems are almost back up!” the Major bolstered. She wanted to charge out there and take control from the front, but she looked at Allen and relented.

“You are currently in range of the most sophisticated land air missile systems produced by humanity, this ship is not leaving the ground.”

“It’s just a scare tactic! Hold your positions!” She rebutted.

”I will ask again soon. It will be the last time I ask.”

And so the carnage resumed. The shots were getting louder, and the cries on the radio were more desperate. Entire squads were now silent, either dead or defeated.

The Major screamed at the techs to get the ship back up and running, but for the most part they sat there, despondent. There wasn’t enough time, and they didn’t have the countermeasures to fight the hacking. Some cried, others just looked forward, contemplating their end.

”This is the last chance. I repeat: Surrender, throw down your weapons, and we will be merciful. We don’t want to kill you, we are fair to our prisoners.”

The Major moved to reject his offer, but was stopped by a plasma pistol pointed at her head. The Captain was at the other end of the weapon.

“All crew, stand down,” the Captain said into the receiver. The Major Glowered.

“Coward!” She spat.

“I have a mate up at the station. I have every intention of living to see him again,” she replied with clenched teeth. “We’ve lost.”

“Damn you! If you’d caught this sooner this wouldn’t have happened,” she raged.

“You are the commanding officer. I did everything protocol demands and deferred to you. Where were you when I called? Getting some dick?” the Captain reprimanded. “If we get out of here, I’ll witness against you at tribunal. It’s prison here or prison there.”

The Major cursed, her whole form tensed with rage. Allen cooed sweet nothings into her side.

There was a heavy thudding sound as a set of power armor stomped towards the door to the command deck. The doors were pried open slowly by a set of armored claws.

“I have a visual on the hostage,” a voice rumbled from behind the helmet of the mech. Other men and Daxy followed into the command room.

One by one, the Daxy present dropped to the floor with their hands behind their heads. Except the Major.

Damian White stepped from the ranks, pulled his respirator off, and showed his face.

“Surrender.” He said, his voice matching the call out on the radio.

“I can’t. I have no future with your people,” the Major dropped to a knee, holding Allen close. He hugged her so needily. She forced down tears. “I have no future in the Empire either. I’m fucked. Just . . . let me hold him . . . for a while.”

“You talk like you’re going to die. I have no interest in killing you, I’m just here to save my brother.” he spoke evenly.

“You’ll just imprison me, it’s the same as dying just slower.”

“I think God has better plans for you.”

“God . . . it’s always God this, and God that with you people! I thought your God wanted us to be happy!? Look at us! I could be happy at home with him, no God required! And then when I’m dead, that’ll be it, I won’t have to worry about it anymore!”

“You would be happy for a while, maybe even decades, but it won’t last. The peaks will level and the troughs will deepen, and you’ll find yourself wanting more but never be able to find it. Wickedness never was happiness,” he gave her a lecture. It reminded him of their meetings in New York.

“Then I am a sinner, through and through,” she shot back. Allen looked at her, his eyes wide. His hands cradled her face as he brought his lips to her neck. “Of course your God is going to damn me, by your doctrine he already knows who I am and what I’ll become! I can’t change that!”

“Don’t say that, Kess,” Allen whispered to her lovingly. “God loves you, just the way you are. And he sent me to tell you that. You just need to try to be a little better at a time, let God take care of the rest.”

Those were just like the words she had heard in New York, spoken by a dying boy with a crushed leg. He had tried to ease her conscience as she cursed herself for not being able to save him. He had lost so much blood that the medics were sure he’d expire within the hour.

She knew he was delirious, and that he had mistaken her for her sister, but the words cut into her resolve all the same. This was the most bizarre capture she had ever witnessed. Everything was out of control, the cards were down and she had no hand to play.

And so she let go.

“Take him . . . “ she choked, loosening her grip on the man she wanted more than anything.

The Archangel gently pried the man away. He immediately started kicking and wailing for her as he was gripped in the armored claws.

“His real mate is in the cell block below. You should take him to her,” she whispered, numb, and defeated.

Damian nodded to the armored warrior and began to leave.

“When you see her, will you tell her something for me?” Xellis asked, pausing every other word to contain herself.

“Yes.” He said.

“Tell her that I understand now--why she did it. And that I’m sorry.”

It was cold, and dark. The big metal monster came and took him from the light. He cursed the big betal monster as its hands formed a cage around him.

”It’s going to be OK, Jensen” A voice echoed from the dark and a man entered his vision. “We’ve got you, it’s almost over, just stay strong for us.”

He felt small, like a bird in a cage. He felt so vulnerable and scared. He called for his mate, but she didn’t come. The light was so far away now.

He cried and twisted and turned to escape the cage, but he couldn’t.

Then the cage opened. Before him was his light! He would never leave the light again. It was warm, and he was happy. But the light didn’t hold him in return. The light was fainter than the first time, and it was still.

“Her blood pressure is dropping fast, hook up another transfusion. I need to cauterize the blood vessels or we’ll lose her,” the medic spoke quickly, pulling a device with a thin metal needle attached.

“Another quart, applying. We only have one more left,” his assistant switched the bags they had hooked up to Kess.

Allen was brought in and he immediately lunged to be at her side, babbling about how he’d never let her go again.

“Get him out of the way! We need space!” the Medic barked.

“He’s been dosed with pheromones, let him stay for pity’s sake,” the Archangel stated.

“Then move him to where he’s not polluting my operating table,” he replied, checking the fiber optic camera that had been inserted into the tear in Kess’ side.

Allen was placed at the foot of the impromptu table, where he seized on Kess’ legs.

“That’s one,” the field surgeon stated as he withdrew his needle, the blood sizzling on its heated surface.

“The drop is slowing, but hasn’t stopped,” the assistant reported from the monitor strapped to Kess’ arm.

“We’re losing her, I’ve found another tear.”

“Would it not be prudent to offer a blessing?” The Archangel asked.

“Someone else will have to, I’ve got to keep working or no amount of faith will save her,” the medic spoke frankly.

“I’ll do it,” Damian volunteered as he rounded the corner into the brig, removing his helmet and gloves. Tim looked on from outside the cell in wonder, Mavis at his side with their kids around them.

“You’re on your own for this one, brother. Both of us have our hands full,” The medic informed him.

“I’ll have him help,” he pointed at Allen.

With some encouragement they were able to have Allen lay his hands on her head along with Damian’s.

“Sister Kessex, by the authority of Savior’s Priesthood which we hold, I lay my hands on your head and say unto you, be healed . . . ”

Kess awoke in a sterile room, with bandages wrapped much more carefully around her waist. She was hooked up to several monitors, which beeped periodically. The architecture was human. She was home.

Allen sat next to the bed, his head resting on her thigh. He was breathing softly, asleep.

She remembered the anguish she had felt when she had lost him, and the fear that God was ready to call her home without him. Her heart felt light and she offered thanks. She brought a hand to Allen’s head, enjoying the feeling of his short hair brushing against her scales. He awoke, and looked up at her and smiled.

Damian entered the room.

“You gave us quite the scare there, scales,” he said.

“How long?” she asked hoarsely.

“Three days. They were scared to move you because you were still losing blood, but you pulled through. Your side is going to need some major work though, from what the doctors have said.”

“I’m just happy to be alive,” She breathed. “How did you find us?”

“Well, it wasn’t easy,” Damian pulled up a chair and started grinding his knuckle into Allen’s hair. “This knothead didn’t make it easy.”

“I was worried that they would pick up the signal,” Allen groused, pulling away from the noogie.

“Can you believe this guy, Kess? We get an alert that the listening post that we sent you guys to fix had been destroyed; logged into and self destructed. What would you do in that situation?”

“I’d send someone to check on the team that was sent.”

“Bingo!” Damian cheered. He turned to Allen, “See? She gets it. So why didn’t you think to send a call out for help so we could find you sooner?”

“I’ve told you over and over again, White! I was worried that they would track us if I put out a signal.”

“Even when you were being chased? The thought never crossed your mind to drop your friends a line?” brother White jabbed, clearly having fun.

“I didn’t think you would have responded so fast.”

“Y’know that’s just like you, Jensen. Always the savior, never the saved,” Damian gave him a sidelong glance before turning to Kess. “But it’s alright now, once we saw the plume of smoke and knew that you’d been captured, Elder Clements worked with President Shephard to pull out all the stops. We got the retrieval unit, we got the militia, we got the Archangels, pretty much everyone who could be there, was there. Hell, my wife would have gone if she wasn’t recovering from delivery.”

“I was barely conscious at the end, how did you bring the ship down?” Kess asked, puzzled.

“Well, that’s a bit hush hush. The rumor mill says we have someone on the inside of the Fort who planted a hacking device, but I don’t know about that. I guess Elder Clements knows, but I don’t think he’ll spill,” he speculated.

“At any rate,” he continued, “I wouldn’t expect something to go that smoothly again. It was a one in a million type deal. The stars aligned. The Lord showed his hand. I never thought I’d witness a deus ex machina in real life, let alone be part of it, but I guess that’s what you needed.”

Allen gave him a good natured glare.

“Anyway, I should probably get back to my wife, she could probably use a break from the kids,” Damian grunted comically as he stood up, patted his pants off, and went to leave.

“Thank you, Damian. I never thought I’d be so happy to see you again,” Allen revealed as the man got to the doorway. Damian White smiled back at the two of them.

“What are brother’s for?”

They were quiet together for a few minutes once he was gone.

“I’m glad you’re ok, Kess. I was worried you wouldn’t wake up,” Allen started, slowly.

“And I’m glad you’re with me. How did they get you away from Xellis?” She asked.

“She gave me up,” he said. “I don’t know what inspired her to do it, but she did. She wanted to tell you that ‘she understands why you did what you did’ and that she’s sorry.”

“Then a sister I may still have,” Kess smiled hopefully.

“What a love triangle that would make.”

“If you think I would share you, then you’re wrong,” Kess grinned at him.

“I was joking, but I am proud of her in a way,” he looked away wistfully. “She made the right decision at the end.”

“So, what happens now?” Kess asked.

“Well, I’ve been talking to my bishop about what I’ve done. And about us.”

“And?”

“He says there’s some work that I need to do before a temple marriage.”

“Oh . . . “

“So, I was thinking, for now . . . ” he pulled something from his pocket: a ring, sized extra large for a Daxy hand. “What if we just eloped?”

Author's note: You made it! Congratulations! I'll be honest there was a lot more that I wanted to write. There were subplots that I originally planned to do, including expanding on the Major's character as well as some extra back story, but I realized that I don't have the self discipline to keep to long projects and I had to push myself to finish this before the muse left me. My lizard brain was running out of steam pretty badly near the end. I may revisit this, and edit things here and there, but I'm turning my attention to other projects for now.

So, like the lurker I am, I will do as I intended.

Shows up
Posts a fanfic with extreme Christian overtones on a furry forum
Refuses to elaborate
Leaves

--YolkedWithChrist