Page 11 of Wrath

I nodded, and we both walked out of the training room together before heading to our respective quarters. I did a quick job of showering before donning my black dress uniform. It surprised me how both nervous and excited I was at the prospect of having breakfast with him. Since our honest conversation three days ago, he had been exactly what he had promised, a friend and a colleague: no more. It was great being able to get to know him without feeling any pressure. And yet, I was more intrigued than ever about him. I’d also caught myself stealing glances at him far too often.

As I entered the cafeteria, Linette’s soft chuckle drew my attention. Standing by the large window looking out into space at the far-left corner of the room, she had her arm around Wrath’s waist and his around her shoulders. The instant flare of jealousy that struck me left me reeling. I’d never been the jealous or insecure type. And the last people that should trigger such a response from me should be Linette and her Warrior. Those two had quite literally adopted each other as siblings. She had been his Soulcatcher for the past nine years, long before she met her husband. If they were going to do anything funky, that would have gone down a long time ago. And yet, a stupid possessiveness made me grind my teeth.

With that uncanny sixth sense my friend seemed to have developed since bonding with Varnog, Linette’s head suddenly turned in my direction as if she had sensed me staring at them. Her smile broadened when she recognized me, and her eyes filled with delight as she gestured with her head for me to come over. It only enhanced my shame at the irrational jealousy that had swept through me. Returning her smile, I headed in their direction.

The total absence of guilt on their faces and the casual way in which they continued to hold each other for a few more seconds before they released their embrace to turn and face me further confirmed what, deep down, I already knew. I then noticed the steaming cup held in Linette’s hand.

“I hear you saved Wrath from slaughter earlier?” Linette said in a teasing tone.

“Absolutely,” I said with an exaggerated expression of dismay. “Your husband and Dread were literally mopping the floor with him until I came to the rescue. It was quite sad, really.”

“Hey!” Wrath said with false outrage. “I was holding them off quite successfully. You were the edge that gave us the upper hand.”

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m pretty sure I saved the day.”

Linette snorted. “You two will get to prove who saves who the next time my scoundrel runs one of his dream walks. You should make a bet before then. Something that will give the winner some major bragging rights.”

“I’ll think of something,” Wrath said, a dare in his eyes.

“So will I,” I said defiantly.

“Good. I always love a good competition,” Linette said. “With that said, my tea has been acquired,” she added, raising her cup. “Now, I need to get my tush back to the bridge. See you guys later.”

We waved her off and watched her saunter out of the cafeteria. Turning back towards Wrath, I was slightly surprised to find him staring at me with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Well then, we should go grab some food so that your saving me from getting demolished by our crewmates will not have been in vain,” he said mockingly.

“Agreed,” I said shamelessly. “Such valiant effort on my part should not go to waste.”

He chuckled and shook his head at me as we headed for the buffet. Although I had a healthy appetite, the mountain of food the Warriors and the Dragons managed to put away while still maintaining a perfect figure would never cease to amaze me. Then again, since our first contact with the Xian Warriors, obesity had become a thing of the past. It was one of the very few medical advances that the Coalition had agreed to share with Earth, including the cure for cancer.

We returned to the same place Wrath and Linette had been standing by the window and settled in one of the booths. We rarely had breakfast together as a crew as we rose at different hours and had different morning routines. In this instance, we were alone in the huge cafeteria. Lunch and dinner were more frequently shared.

“All teasing aside,” I said after we took our seats, “that was fun this morning. I really enjoyed sparring with you guys. The team is great, and I love that nobody coddles women here. On Earth, even after we’ve proven ourselves to be just as tough, men still tend to think we’re too fragile to take on the same kind of challenges that they do.”

Wrath smiled and chuckled. “You will find that as protective as we all are with each other, the women of the Vanguard are no delicate little flowers. You already know Linette. But you may not know all the ways she and the others have literally saved the day on many occasions. I’m sitting here in front of you today because my reckless little Half-Pint flew right through a laser maze with the beams too narrow to allow her to flap her wings, just so that she could save her mate, Dread’s brother Bane, and yours truly. No one else but she could have done this. So many such tales abound in the Vanguard. We may have the muscles and the cool abilities in our battle forms, but at the end of the day, the Vanguard is only this strong because of its women. You are our equals in all the ways that matter.”

“We need you guys to come give more speeches about how badass we are to our men,” I said teasingly.

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Wrath replied in a surprisingly serious tone. “So, tell me more about yourself.”

“There isn’t a whole lot to say really,” I replied with a shrug. “I was a Chinese orphan who got adopted by a Caucasian couple from America. I had a great childhood, with amazing parents. When I was growing up, they wanted me to know about my birth culture. So, I attended Saturday school to learn Chinese and was enrolled in quite a few of the activities at the local Chinese Community Center. Honestly, the cooking lessons were my favorite.”

Wrath brows shot up. “You love cooking?”

“Surprisingly enough, I do,” I said with a nod. “In truth, had I not become a pilot, I probably would have become a chef.” I couldn’t help but laugh at his gaping expression. “I know, quite the extremes. However, my father was an engineer. He was a project manager for a big firm that built flight simulators for piloting schools and the army. I was still a kid when I got to try one of his simulators. I became so badly hooked, I harassed him until he bought me some flight simulator games. Eventually, when he realized just how addicted I was to this, he built me my own personal flight simulator at home.”

“That explains why you were such a superstar,” Wrath said.

It was my turn to be surprised. “A superstar?”

“Linette said she had been blown away by just how talented you were the first time she saw you,” Wrath explained. “To this day, she claims you were the most naturally gifted pilot she’d ever trained or ever came across in any of the cadet cohorts she worked with.”

“Linette is badass,” I said wistfully. “It was always mind-boggling to me to see such a petite woman piloting these massive ships like it was child’s play. Funny enough, we used to make jokes about the fact that we loved ship sizes inversely proportional to our heights. I loved the small ones while being tall, and she liked humongous ones while being tiny.”

“Why is that? What makes you prefer the small ones?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I guess I like the speed, the impression of almost being one with the vessel. I love the adrenaline rush of zipping by at neck-breaking speed through narrow spaces or around deadly obstacles that just come at me. With large vessels, like this frigate or worse still a battlecruiser, everything is a lot slower. But at the same time, everything is challenging in a different way. You could say that you must become bigger than life to be able to project yourself through that humongous mass and navigate around the obstacles that stand in your way. Sure, I can pilot one. But my brain feels like mush a lot faster in a combat situation than when I do so in a smaller vessel.”

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