Tales From The Triple Suns (Chapter Fourteen)

Every so often, my uncle likes to send me ‘suggestions’ for what he thinks would be the perfect article.  I look them over, usually disregarding the notion before I’m even through the first paragraph, then I politely remind him that I pick my own topics to write about.  On a few rare occasions, he actually sends something that peaks my interest, and I look into the possibility of following up with a story.  This morning, he sent two such ‘ideas’ to me...one would be an interesting prospect, while the other, although intriguing, would be something I would never write about.1

I transferred the letter and ‘questionnaire’ he had so thoughtfully made out to a notepad, and walked out of my office.  I stopped, startled when I banged into something, and looked up into Craig’s smiling face.2

“That must be interesting reading,” he said as he leaned down to kiss my forehead.3

I shrugged.  “Not really…just my uncle and his ‘it would be interesting if you did a story on this’.”  I took his hand, and walked into the living area.4

“Another assignment?”  Craig frowned.  “I thought you got to pick your own things to write about.”5

“I do.”  I turned away from him.  “Sometimes my uncle gets ideas, orders me to do something…I refuse, and he drops it.”  I turned back with a shrug.  “Sometimes the ideas are good, and I do them…but not this time.”6

Craig looked at me curiously.  “What’s this one?”7

“He wants me to,” I sighed and looked at the ceiling, “he wants me to do an in-depth story on…” I sighed and handed him the notepad with the ‘assignments’.8

Craig took it, read the first line, and blinked a few times.  He sat on the arm of the couch as he read, annoyance evident in his blue eyes.  To my surprise, he took the stylus and wrote a few things on the notepad before handing it back to me.  Classified was all it said at the top, and  Don’t ever put Calinda in this situation again was at the bottom.9

I glanced through the list of questions my uncle had wanted me to ask Craig about his service in the Army and as a member of T.A.C. and smiled. 10

“If you want to know, I’ll tell you,” Craig said slowly.  “But…..”11

I raised my head to look at him.  “I would never pass on anything you ever told me,” I said.  “And I don’t want to know any…” I paused.  “Okay…I do want to know one thing…maybe two.”12

“Go ahead.”13

“Rank and position.”14

Craig smiled slightly. “Those are not classified, hon…anyone can find out through General Inquiry.”15

“So…”16

“Major, Demolitions, Provisional discharge.”17

“Provisional…?”18

“Means I still have my rank and influence, but I’m not on active and never will be.”19

“A Major, huh?”20

He smiled and took me in his arms.  “Yeah…but you still outrank me.”21

“So you blew things up?”22

“Demolitions would point towards that.”  He let go of me, leaned back and fell onto the couch.  “I told you before that all you have to do is ask, and I’ll tell you.”23

“Some things I don’t want to know.”24

He raised his head and looked at me.  “Just don’t ask things that are still classified…like if I was ever at a certain place,” he said softly, “or if I’ve ever killed anyone.”25

Well, that took care of this thing I didn’t want to know.  I sat above his head on the couch and looked down at him.  “Got another assignment suggestion, too,” I said.26

The corner of his mouth briefly twitched into a smile.  “Nice subject change…I give it an eight out of ten.”27

“Oh, shut up.”28

He laughed and raised himself into a sitting position.  “What’s the other one?”29

“It’s actually kinda interesting,” I began. “To interview the Courtesans and get a story on how they are…”30

“Whoa,” Craig interrupted.  “You mean go to the house and interview them?”  He frowned when I nodded.  “When?”31

“Well, tonight, I was going to…”32

“No.”33

I stared at him, not sure if I had heard right. “No?”34

“I forbid it.”35

“You…forbid…it?”  I leaned back.  “Wanna rephrase that?”36

“How about no fuckin’ way.”37

I crossed my arms and glared at him.  “Thirty seconds to explain or I’m gonna get real upset.”38

“Fine…” He inhaled, then began.  “You are not going to spend time at the Courtesan house tonight while the Triport ships are in.  They wouldn’t care that you were married, or there on assignment, or anything.  I don’t want anything to happen to you.”39

I lost my anger at him, but was still annoyed at the forbid notion.  I nodded briefly.  “K…have it your way.”  I stood and went to walk away, but turned back.  “And, F.Y.I., you don’t forbid me to do anything.”  I walked to my office, taking time to make sure I slammed the door…hard.40

I sat calmly in the chair, and stared at my reflection in the black computer screen.  I knew he meant well, and that he was concerned, but he had to lose the attitude that I was a helpless female.  I sighed as I put on my music headphones, and called up some song from the mid-twentieth century from Old Earth.  “Rock me gently, rock me slowly…” I mouthed to the words as I turned on the monitor and started to write a letter to Sindra.  I was half way through the first paragraph when I leaned back in my chair.  Hell, I didn’t even feel like writing.41

I leaned forward placed my elbows on the desk and put my head in my hands.  I took of the headphones, tossing them on the desk, and stared at the keyboard as I tried to figure out why he was upset.  Craig was obviously still mad at my uncle’s questions about him…that much I could tell by his use of the word fuckin’, but that gave him no right to forbidme anything before hearing the full idea.  I could hear Craig moving around in the rest of our home, and briefly wondered what he was doing.  I heard him say “shit” once, then something fell to the floor, but I decided to let it be.42

I turned as he lightly knocked on my door.  “Yeah?”43

“Safe to come in?”44

“Yeah.”45

The door opened, and Craig walked in.  He stood behind me, and sighed.  “Two conditions.”46

I smiled as the memory of me saying that to him before agreeing to move here surfaced in my mind.  “And they would be?”47

“One…I go with you…two…if I don’t like it, we’re outta there.”48

I turned to look at him.  “Those are acceptable conditions.  When?”49

He smiled slightly.  “Well…I made us reservations at the restaurant for tonight.”50

I nodded.  The restaurant at the Courtesan building was one of the best in the area. Until a week ago, it was the only restaurant in the area.  “How’d you get a table?  That place is always packed.”51

“Being in charge gives me certain powers that I can abuse once in while.” He smiled wickedly.  “And this will …make me feel…well, I won’t worry about you this way.”52

I leaned back in my chair and regarded him coolly. “You can be positively dictatorial at times, you know.”53

He frowned slightly, then shrugged.  “Whatever.”  He leaned down to my eye level.  “Worrying about you doesn’t make me controlling.”  He turned and walked out of the office.54

I stared at the door for a few minutes before getting up to get changed for the restaurant.  A small part of me wanting to enter into a power struggle, but I shook that notion away.  Craig had his reasons for wanting to be there, and I had to admit that it made me feel a little better.  I wasn’t looking forward to bring there when a group of rowdy space cowboys were in and, up until Craig had forbidden it, I was going call that night and go the next morning after they had gone.55

I changed into the skimpy dress I had bought when we went looking for a wedding dress six months ago, and deftly pulled my hair back, letting a few strands artfully frame my face.  I rarely wore makeup, but decided to put some on tonight.   Twenty minutes later, I walked out of the bedroom and stood in front of Craig.  He glanced up from the book he was reading, then quickly looked again.56

Craig stared at me, open-mouthed.  “I get to leave with the sexiest woman there,” he whispered in awe.57

~~~~~~~~~~58

We decided to walk the less than two kilometers to the restaurant, and I enjoyed the warm late summer weather (or at least I think it was late summer…all the seasons were the same here).  Craig had his arm around me and at times I could see his tattoo peeking out from beneath his blue shirt.  59

Although he never bothered to hide the design, he never actually bothered to show it off, either.  But, I knew there were times that he went to great efforts to make it noticeable…usually when he had to get ‘tough’ with planetary representatives who demanded certain treatment.   He never acted any different…he just let the person ‘notice’ the tattoo, and most times that was all that was needed, since it was a rather well know symbol.  On our trip here, he had basically lived in tank tops on the transport while working in the lower levels, since most the crew had ‘issues’ with taking orders from a ‘desk jockey’.60

I glanced at his arm again and could only see the three golden starbursts that were on the bottom of the marking.  The rest was decidedly macho looking, with what could best be described as two Roman Gladiators fighting.61

I blinked when I realized Craig had said something and looked up at him.  “Pardon?” 62

His blue eyes twinkled in amusement.  “I said…whatcha thinking about?”63

“Thinking about you, sexy,” I said and moved my hand to pat his behind, causing him to jump slightly.64

“Hey, watch it,” he teased.  I knew he wasn’t shy about displays of public affection, and never worried about what others thought.  He stopped walking and faced me.  “See, if ya do things like that…then, well…I can’t help myself.”  He moved his arm up on my back, leaned forward and kissed me.65

We were about five minutes from the restaurant, and there were more than enough people around, but I didn’t care, as I stood in the middle of the walkway in a magnificent liplock with my husband.66

~~~~~~~~~~67

The restaurant was indeed crowded with people from the community, various transports, and those who were waiting for their ‘date’ in the other part of the building.  I had talked with Kathryn, who carried the time honored title of Madame, and gotten a bit of information out of her.  She was more than willing to talk, but was extremely busy, so I made an appointment to have coffee and a chat in two days time.68

Contrary to Craig’s belief, nothing major happened while we were in the restaurant.  It was a pleasant evening as he spent most of the night flirting with me over the table after I innocently gave some woman the ‘evil eye’ for staring at him.  He had laughed at my possessiveness, and I blamed it on the shirt he was wearing; the same color blue as his eyes, and he looked absolutely amazing in it.  I have no idea why I was suddenly glaring at some woman, but think it has something to do with where we were.  Being around so many gorgeous and buxom women made me aware that I was sort of plain looking…even if I was wearing my ‘slut’ dress.  Craig didn’t seem to mind, care or notice how I compared to the other women, so I tried to relax.69

The meal was exquisite, with planet grown cuisine, along with imports from around the system…and I don’t think I’ve ever tasted cheesecake as sinful as the ones we had for dessert.  I’m sure the wine was equally good, but I opted for a rather exclusive and expensive imported beer instead.  Craig had started to mention something about it, when I stopped him by batting my eyelashes, pouting, and pointing out ‘you forbid, you pay.’  He laughed, said “lesson learned”, and then ordered one for himself.70

When we were leaving, a man bumped into Craig.  Craig steadied the obviously inebriated man, and turned to leave.  The man noticed the tattoo, said something about the army and glared at Craig.71

“Just a sec,” Craig whispered to me, and turned back to the man.  “I’m sorry…I didn’t quite catch that.”72

The man pulled himself to his full height, a few inches shorter than Craig, and stared at him.  “Said…damn army and their hooker dates.”73

Craig smiled slightly. “And you would be…”74

“Representative Caolsin,” he slurred.75

Craig’s smile grew and he gave the man a small nod before turning back to me.  He led me out of the building and inhaled deeply as the fresh night air surrounded us.76

“Thanks,” I said.77

“For?”78

“For not starting anything…for not kicking the hell out of that guy…”79

Craig smiled.  “Yeah…but you know…I shoulda kicked his ass for referring to you as a hooker…but one thing makes this so…sweet.”80

“Really…”81

Craig looked at me as we walked.  “Yeah…my first appointment tomorrow morning is with a Representative Caolsin.”82

I laughed, and wished I could be there when the man, who would probably be nursing a large hangover, walked into Craig’s office and realized that he was the ‘damn army’ guy from the previous evening.83