Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (36 page)

              Liam looked again at the two as they exited; both Leah and Alyssa looked back one last time before exiting. A knot forming in his stomach as he began to worry that he was headed for trouble he did not want.

January 20
th
, 20m14 11:21p

EDF
Kraken
, En-route to Shenkar space

              Liam left the detention area, having just returned Shizta to his holding cell, and headed off towards his quarters. The evening had gone well and he felt that he had made general headway with Shizta. While at the beginning of the evening Shizta had been quiet, by the end of the evening he seemed to have grown more comfortable and relaxed. Liam made a mental note to himself to speak with Captain Dunklin and Admiral Kelvin inquiring into other accommodations for Shizta; perhaps he would be amiable to having one of Steve’s neural inhibitors implanted within him to allow him more freedom.

              Upon reaching his quarters he entered and removed his uniform jacket. He had just sat down at his desk to review some files when his door chimed, looking at the time he wondered who would be contacting him at this late hour. It couldn’t be important otherwise he would have been hailed over the ship comms. Pressing the door control panel that was also located on his desk he stood to see who it was. The door slid open to reveal Alyssa Birchette standing outside, he also noticed that she had lowered the zipper on her uniform jacket somewhat to reveal a good amount of cleavage. Stunned for a moment he could only stare.

              Alyssa quickly stepped inside, the door slid shut behind her.

              “I wanted to take you up on that offer of further hand to hand combat training,” Alyssa said, with a smile that clearly said she had other things on her mind than training.

              Liam knew the girl was bold but he hadn’t realized she was this bold.

              “Miss Birchette I do not think this is appropriate, I am your commanding officer.”

              “I won’t tell if you don’t,” she said as she slowly pulled the zipper to her jacket down until it was just barely locked together at the bottom. Revealing she was wearing nothing beneath. Her jacket covered up just enough to keep this scenario turning from a PG to an R-rating.

              Knowing he had to curb this right away he came around to the front of the desk. Alyssa smile brightened as he walked towards her but faltered when he walked by her to touch the door panel to his room. The door slid open and Liam turned back.

              “Miss Birchette, I do not think you understand, please return to your quarters. I will forget this incident happened if you do not try this again. I am flattered but I AM your commanding officer and am already involved with someone back home.”

              Disappointment shown clear upon her face as she zipped her jacket back up and headed towards the door. Before leaving she turned back, a bit of a smile back on her face.

              “Just so you know, if that situation ever changes, I will gladly revisit this again.”

              With that said she headed off down the hall towards her quarters.

              Liam watched her go and pondered whether he should tell Leah of what had just transpired. As he stood there the hairs on the back of his neck rose giving that feeling he was being watched. The feeling was quickly confirmed when a voice spoke from behind him, from inside his quarters.

              “Well, I have to say you handled that well, although I don’t believe she will give up.”

              Turning around, he saw Leah standing in the doorway to his bedroom, wearing one of his t-shirts….only one of his t-shirts. Quickly he stepped back inside, his door closing behind him as she walked forward.

              He admired her legs as moved towards him, a smile forming on his lips. He also became aware of how accurate Callen’s assessment was of Alyssa and Leah body types were, although Liam was not dumb enough to tell Leah this.

              Upon reaching Liam, Leah reached up, circling her arms around Liam’s neck. As she pulled his head forward she pushed up on her tip toes to press her soft lips to his, the kiss quickly turning deeply passionate. It marveled Liam how Leah could ignite the fire within him so easily.

              “So you’re not mad that she showed me her rose tattoo?” Liam asked, thinking of the small rose he had spotted very low on her left breast when she had unzipped her jacket.

              Leah’s eyebrows went up at hearing this and Liam feared she might actually be upset but she seemed to calm quickly.

              “Showed you that much, did she? Well yes, I am mad, just not at you and I can’t very well confront her on what she did without divulging that I have a reason to be mad. I will just have to be content with looking forward to the look on her face the day you and I are married…that should burn her ass.”

              Liam laughed as he scooped Leah up and headed towards the bedroom.

January 23
rd
, 2014 10:34am EST

EDF
Kraken
, En-route to Shenkar space

              The men and woman before him dripped with sweat, looks of exhaustion clear upon their faces.

              “AGAIN!” Liam commanded.

              Once again the men and woman before him paired up and proceeded to run through the drills again for the twentieth time this morning. They were in a section of the ship designed to give soldiers an area to train even when on combat missions. An oval shaped room, three hundred feet by one hundred feet at its longest and widest points. It allowed for a weight training area, a targeting range and because the room also rose up seventy five feet in height, allowed a most interesting obstacle course. This obstacle course not only forced the customer to run and jump but also lent a new aspect of climbing while trying to engage combatants at higher levels. The course was enclosed to give a cave-like appearance which was designed to mimic conditions that will be found on
Lykaa
. He had to give the engineers onboard credit; they had designed and constructed this course in less than twenty four hours.

              Again, Liam surveyed his group before him, many were clearly dead on their feet yet still continued to push themselves. The only person that looked to be barely breaking a sweat, his breathing showing very little labor, was Sergeant Robinson. He very rarely ever reached exhaustion levels, which sometimes made Liam wonder if he had some alien technology within him as well. He had been drilling them for six straight hours a day for the past five days. With help from Cryta and Shizta the men and woman were well versed in combat tactics of the Shenkar military.

              Overall their performance was definitely above and beyond the rest of the Praetorian guard and he had to admit to himself they would probably hold their own against any Shenkar clone warriors. Liam was about to call for a halt when he noticed Steve approaching with Cryta and Tim in tow. As they approached Liam could see Steve held a silver canister in his hand, roughly eight inches in length and three inches in diameter. The top section held a handle and what looked to be a very thin nozzle. All three looked to be excited about something, perhaps what Steve was carrying.

              “We need a volunteer,” Steve said as he stopped before Liam.

              “For what?” Liam asked cautiously, clearly suspicious of what Steve was up too.

              “We have developed a new medical foam we wish to try out,” Steve explained.

              “Okay, so why not just try it out on yourself?” Liam inquired.

              “We need to test it on someone who is not nanite-infused to test how well it works and also it has to be voluntary…according to the higher ups. Basically this foam is a nanite infused medical gel that with seal wounds and expedite healing. It is our newest creation and we are anxious to test it out,” Tim explained, clearly just as excited as Steve.

              Liam studied the two before turning to Cryta.

              “And your involvement in this is what?”

              “I volunteered but they would prefer to test it first on a human as it was primarily designed for. If they cannot get any volunteers then they agreed I could be their….what did you call it?” Cryta explained, the latter part addressed to Steve.

              “Guinea pig,” Steve said without looking over to Cryta.

              “Okay, so why come to me?” Liam asked.

              “Well no one seems to want to volunteer but then we thought of this group and figured one of them might….they are all crazy,” Steve explained.

              Liam looked at the canister then up to Steve.

              “How safe is this stuff? Your honest opinion?”

              Steve seemed to think this over for a few moments before speaking.

              “If I could try it on myself, I would. That’s how safe I think it is.”

              Liam sighed as he turned back to the group.

              “Very well, but even though this group is a bit out there, I cannot guarantee they will volunteer,” Liam stated before calling for the group to halt and form up.

              The men and woman quickly, but tiredly, formed in front of Liam and his group.

              “It seems we are in need of a volunteer to test one of Lieutenants Barrows and Wellmo’s new inventions, I will let them explain it.”

              Liam stepped aside while at the same time waving Steve and Tim forward.

              Steve stepped forward clearly not accustomed to being the center of attention. Looking at the group for a few moments, he cleared his throat and spoke loud and clear.

              “What we have here is a new nanite-infused medical gel designed to seal wounds and repair damage to organic tissue. What would normally take weeks to fully heal would fully heal within days. Unfortunately we cannot test it on ourselves as we are already nanite infused so they already begin healing whenever we suffer bodily harm. To fully test it we would need someone who does not have this benefit.”

              The group seemed to think this over before one of the bomb experts, Eddie Graniar, spoke up.

              “Will it hurt?”

              “At first, but the foam has a numbing gel as well as the nanites are designed to numb any nerve endings in the immediate area,” Tim explained.

              “So what kind of injury do you need to test?”

              At this point Steve and Tim looked at each other before turning back to Eddie.

              “Well, ideally we would want to test something more than a cut, say a gunshot wound or a severe deep laceration, but it is up to the volunteer,” Steve explained.

              Eddie once again considered this before turning to Liam.

              “Would I get time off from training to fully heal?”

              Liam hadn’t considered this before but couldn’t very well require an injured guard member from the grueling pace he set for them every day.

              “Yes, I think we can accommodate that request,” Liam said.

              Smiling Eddie nodded once and in one fluid motion withdrew his combat knife and stabbed it into his thigh. The blade pierced the tissue to pierce, slicing cleaned through to the back of his thigh. Blood immediately began to flow from the wound, around the blade….too much blood.

              Eddie began to sway and before he could fall over, Liam jumped forward to catch him and lower him to the floor.

              “Guess I nicked my femoral artery,” Eddie said weakly as he studied the wound, “Looks like you get to put this foam of yours to the test.”

              Tim and Steve quickly moved to Eddie’s side, kneeling down in front of him. Tim leaned forward and studied the wound before turning to Steve.

              “We will need to be quick once I pull this knife free. He did hit the femoral artery which means he will bleed out in the next five minutes. Let me know when you want me to pull the knife.”

              Steve quickly readied his canister, making sure the nozzle was clear and ready to go before silently nodding to Tim to remove the knife. Tim pulled the knife free and the flow of blood increased dramatically. Eddie grunted slightly in pain but otherwise made no other sounds.