Chapter Twenty-Six
One day later, Agrippa tiptoed down the corridor and carefully peered around the corner. The ship they stole might be bigger than the one they arrived in, but between the four marines and two cyborgs and a tunrian, it felt overcrowded. She reached her destination and quickly slipped inside.
There was no way to hide from LBS, but he did not seem interested in them. The first morning after they left Tundra, he had woken them with an unearthly sound. Agrippa had jerked on the bed, as if someone had attached electricity wires to her.
When the marines stopped swearing and threatening LBS with a demotion, the marines explained it was the sound of a bugle and that it was traditional to wake them with that every morning. So far, she haven’t found a way to program that habit out of LBS. But she and Anatu were determined to keep trying.
Amelagar waited for her, and there was something different about him. It was almost as if he vibrated with some strong emotion. “Is something wrong, Amelagar?”
His fierce green eyes shone even brighter. “Why now?”
“I don’t understand. Why now what?”
“Why did you gift me a soul now?” He bent down and lifted his uniform pant to expose his calf. And the ryhov swirling there. Ryhov like hers. Brighter than that of any clone born in centuries.
She dropped down to her knees and traced the lines swirling between the folds of his skin. “It’s beautiful.” Agrippa sucked in a breath. “Amelagar look.”
He looked at his calf. “I have seen my ryhov.”
“No, you don’t understand, we are synchronising. Look at the pattern of my blue ryhov and then at yours.”
He stared down at the colourful lines interspersed with blue that moved over his skin in ever widening circles.
Amelagar helped her to sit down and joined her. “Why did you gift me a soul now?”
“I—”
“Did you suddenly realize you feel love for me. Is that why you gifted me a soul.”
Tenderness so deep caused her heart to ache. Agrippa straddled him. She took his face in her hands and stared in the eyes she wanted to see looking at her with this adoration for the rest of her life. “I did not give you a soul. Shhh.” She placed a finger over his lips to close them. “The Goddess saw my love for you and deemed it so wonderful that she gifted you a soul.”
His eyes narrowed and he stared back at her for a long time. Would he believe her when she wasn’t even sure if she was right. But what other explanation could there be?
“The goddess also saw my love for you. Maybe she rewarded me for loving the best female a cyborg could hope to love.”
She opened her mouth and he placed a finger over her lips. “The goddess saw that I love you.”
They stayed like that intertwined, sometimes whispering endearments and sometimes quiet and mostly wondering if they would make it back to earth.
“If the bombing of the temples did not make a difference, we will not live through this war,” Amelagar said quietly.
“I think it might work. But we need to get back to earth.”
“We might be too late Agrippa. We have to face that.”
“I think I can get us back to earth before the clone Armada reaches earth.” She drew in a deep breath. “But it’s risky.”
“We will have a meeting and you will explain this to all of us.
Again, they all assembled on the bridge. She explained the modifications she wanted to make to the engine.
Silence. Then one of the humans said. “Let’s do it.”
“Agreed,” the others said.
“We will proceed with your plan,” Amelagar said.
“You understand I will have to use the fuel we would’ve used for the cyro chambers. You’ll have to stay awake for the thirteen earth months.” She fiddled with the tool in her hand. “The modifications may not work. We may be stuck on the way to earth for a very long time. By the time we reached earth we could be dying of old age.”
“I am cyborg, I will reach earth still young and I will see my human again,” Anatu said.
Agrippa didn’t have the heart to explain to her that her human would be old or dead. The cyborg knew that, but Agrippa could understand why she wouldn’t want to face that reality.
“So it’s agreed, we will use every bit of power we can squeeze out of this ship to get to earth faster.” Amelagar nodded at the marines. “All of us will assist Agrippa and also keep the clone ship running.”
Everyone agreed and Amelagar dragged her back to the observation desk. “I know you have to work on the engines, I will help you, but we can take a few minutes for ourselves.”
They looked down at the vast blackness beneath the ship. She sat down next to him. “Why do you suppose the clones put in these observation decks?”
“They want to look down at the planet they are about to conquer and feel superior,” Amelagar said. But the sneer he normally sported when he talked about the clones was absent. It was as if their mission had wiped away most of his anger.
“It just doesn’t make sense. Who did they fight when their ships disappeared. And why build war ships at a time when they thought there were no other habited planets.” She’d thought about it a lot these last few days. Being cooped up in this ship with nothing to do but wait until one of the marines killed Anatu, left a lot of time for thinking.
He sighed. “Maybe it will never make sense to us.” He kissed her, a long tender kiss that made her moan and struggle to get closer to him. They both sighed when he lifted his head. “We have to work on the engines,” she murmured.
Improving the engines of the clone ship kept all of them busy. LBS proved to be a great help to Agrippa. Each day, they improved the efficiency of the engine and their speed increased. LBS suggested that instead of trying to analyze how the clone ships managed vast distances in such short times, to simply ask the clone ship to get to earth faster. It worked and it frustrated her, because she had no idea why it worked.
Being couped up in a ship, even a large clone ship for fifteen months tested all their willpower. They travelled at incredible speed, but still they have exceeded the thirteen months she’d been working towards.
Agrippa was sure that someone was going to murder Anatu. The female cyborg worked tirelessly, but she never stopped complaining about wanting her human. Agrippa was tempted to hit her with something a few times.
Today she and Amelagar sat on the large observation deck, the glass beneath them showing space cold and dark beneath them. Amelagar was acting strange. She thought maybe he brought her here to make love, but he merely sat next to her, their shoulders touching.
“I believe the goddess chose us to be together. But even if she did not, I would choose you. Even if you didn’t give me a soul, I would choose you,” he said out of the blue.
Her heart started beating overtime. “I feel the same. No matter what happens to us during this war. I believe our souls will find each other again. This is what tunrians believe.”
“We are creating our own beliefs. If the clones had something worthy to copy we would copy some clone habits. But everything they did was worthless.”
She didn’t make the mistake of disagreeing with him on this. Mostly that was her view as well, but the cyborgs were vocal in their hatred for the clones. “Do you plan to take some beliefs from the humans?” She had to be dreaming. He loved her and she loved him and no matter what they would be together. She was almost afraid of being this happy.
“Some of their habits and beliefs are worthy. We will take it and change it to suit us. There is one habit I wish to observe.”
She followed the lines of his ryhov and smiled when he shuddered. “What habit?”
He held out a small box to her. “I bought this before we left on this mission. It is to show my love for you to everyone. Will you marry me in the human manner?”
She cleared her throat, overwhelmed with such emotion she was afraid she was going to burst into tears. “I love you so much Amelagar. Yes, yes, I will marry you.”
They reached earth and all of them crowded into the observation room. “What happened?” Colonel Farnham said barely above a whisper.
“The clones attacked.” Terrible scars marked the earth, craters and burn marks clearly visible even from space.
“Ship approaching. Cyborg ship,” LBS said. Shortly after the buegal incident, LBS had started to speak over the intercom in a metallic voice.
They all went to the hangar and watched as the doors opened. The general and the president left the hanger.
“I told you I would see my human again.”
Everyone groaned.
Anatu ignored them, she ran into the arms of her human and laughing and crying held on for dear life.
Amelagar greeted Balthazar and then looked down at Agrippa. “No matter what we find on earth. No matter how bad it is or how bad this war becomes. We will face it together.”
“Together,” she whispered and lifted onto her tiptoes for his kiss.