Solfleet: The Call of Duty (62 page)

“All right,”
he finally said, adding as he stood up, “I’ll go put on my trunks and meet you
at the pool.”

“Wait a
second,” Beth said, grabbing hold of his jersey to keep him from walking off as
she stood with him. “We can’t go to the pool. We have to go to the lake.”

He turned
back to her. “Something wrong with the pool?”

“No, not
exactly,” she answered, grinning mischievously and easing her way into his
welcoming arms.

“Then why do
we have to go all the way to the lake?”

She looked
up at him through seductive eyes. “We have to go all the way to the lake
because there are a lot of apartments full of curious people overlooking the
pool, and when I go swimming at night I don’t actually wear a swimsuit.”

“Oh.” He
smiled, too. “Well. In that case what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

She gave him
a quick peck on the lips and said, “I thought you’d see things my way,” and
then slipped her hand into his and led him out of the garden.

As they
headed into the forest, Dylan wondered just exactly what her lack of a swimsuit
would mean when they got to the lake. Would she swim in her underclothes or in
nothing at all? Of course, it didn’t make any difference for him either way? He
had
no underwear on, so unless he decided to swim in his jeans...

* * *

“This is my
favorite spot,” Beth told him, stopping just as they emerged from the tree
line. They’d walked for nearly an hour, much longer than it should have taken
them to reach the lake’s nearest bank, so Dylan suspected they’d gone at least
partway around to the other side. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Dylan let go
of her hand and walked a few steps farther ahead to look around. As he’d
suspected, Beth had led him partway around the lake, to a large but secluded
clearing at the base of a fifty- or sixty-foot waterfall that sparkled like a
shower of diamonds in the moonlight as it thundered into the natural pool before
of him. The roughly oval-shaped pool itself measured anywhere from nine to
twelve meters in width and at least thirty across the center of its length.
Glints of moonlight glistened off perpetual ripples as they raced across the
water’s black surface, under-lighting the leaves of the trees near the banks
and adding an almost ghost-like quality to the area’s soft illumination. It
reminded Dylan of another forest clearing he’d visited not so long ago, but
where that one had seemed haunted by death, this one seemed somehow magical,
like something out of a young adult’s fantasy novel, so pushing thoughts of the
former from his mind proved less than difficult.

“You’re
right. It is beautiful,” he agreed.

Except for
the rocky cliffs to his right, from which the waterfall flowed, the pool’s
banks were low and rounded, covered with thick moss. Whether that moss was blue
or green, or black, or purple, or even dull orange for that matter, Dylan
couldn’t tell in the absence of daylight. There was a large V-shaped cut
through the soil near the center of the far left bank, which Beth explained
allowed the overflow to escape from the pool and trickle down the hill to the
lake below. Several odd formations of rocks and boulders—some of them didn’t look
quite natural—were scattered here and there throughout the clearing, the
largest ones nearest the cliffs. Various species of plants and wildflowers that
Dylan didn’t recognize grew in abundance among them, their bouquet of
fragrances pleasingly sweet like roses and honeysuckle, mild citrus and clover,
sprinkled with a dash of peppermint.

“What are
all those plants and flowers growing between the rocks?” he asked.

“I don’t
know what they’re called,” she replied, “but I do know this clearing is the
only place on the entire planet where those particular species are known to
grow.”

“Why’s that?
What’s so special about this place?”

“From a
scientific point of view, we don’t know because we’ve never studied it. I know.
I checked. But culturally... The Cirrans call this the Pool of Satah’ra.”

He looked at
her. “This is where that story you told me is supposed to have taken place?”

“That’s
right. This is a sacred religious site—not a place the natives like to talk about
with off-worlders.”

“How did you
find it?”

“By accident
one night on one of my walks.”

He returned
to her side. While this particular forest was known to be free of dangerous
wild animals, there were several areas within it where the terrain could get
pretty tricky. “You walk this forest at night?” he asked. “Alone?”

“Sometimes,”
she answered. “I’m careful enough.”

He looked
around once more and then gazed at the small body of water again. “A sacred
religious sight, huh. Why isn’t it guarded? Should we even be here?”

“Not really,
but no one will ever find out as long as we’re gone by morning. The Cirrans
come here to pray sometimes during the day or on overcast nights after dinner,
but on clear nights like this they stay away.”

“Why?”

“They
believe that on clear nights Satah’ra comes down from Caldanra-Shelar—basically
their equivalent of Heaven combined with a sort of Mount Olympus-type place. They
say she descends on a giant bird of prey and comes here to bathe. She’s
supposed to be the most beautiful goddess of all with a womb so fertile that it
glows. She never wears any clothing and to look upon her, even accidentally,
means to be rendered barren. If you’re a woman, that is.”

“What if you’re
a man?”

“Then you
become so enchanted by her beauty that it enslaves your soul. You can never
love or even
make
love to a mortal woman again.”

“Ouch,”
Dylan commented as his eyebrows rose.

“Exactly. That’s
why the natives stay away and don’t guard it, and why I come down here almost
every clear night for a swim.”

She laid her
jacket down on the largest of the rocks beside her, then sat on a smaller one
and pulled off her boots and socks. “A famous writer once said that all the
world’s a stage. If that’s true I guess you could say I’ve been playing the
role of the goddess Satah’ra on every warm, clear night for about two years
now.”

Dylan sat
down beside her and pulled his shoes off as well. The moss felt spongy soft and
surprisingly warm beneath his feet, unlike anything else he could remember ever
having walked on. Satah’ra never wore any clothing, Beth had just explained.
Had her comment about playing the role of the goddess been a clue as to what
she had in mind for their swim? Not surprisingly, he found himself hoping that
it had been.

Beth stood
up, turned and faced him, and started to unfasten her blouse. Following her
lead, and being careful not to get too far ahead of her since he still wasn’t
sure just how much of her clothing she intended to shed, Dylan grabbed hold of
his jersey, lifted it up over his head, and pulled it off. She opened her
blouse—she was wearing a bra, but no undershirt—slipped it off, and tossed it
on top of her jacket. Then she unfastened her trousers and pulled them down
from her hips. Dylan set his jersey aside, stood up, and very slowly unfastened
his jeans, still unsure as to whether or not he should take them off.

Beth stepped
out of her trousers, folded them neatly and laid them on the pile, then reached
up behind her back and unfastened her bra. She crossed her arms in front of her
and smiled, made a show of slowly slipping the straps from her shoulders, then
lowered her arms and let it fall to the ground. Finally, after only a moment’s
hesitation, she grasped her panties and pulled them off as well.

She stood
before him like a nude model waiting to pose for an art class, inviting his
silent stare. She wasn’t as tall or as voluptuously endowed as the blonde from
across the courtyard, but she was certainly no less beautiful. Long, lustrous
black hair, as he had already seen. Firm, full breasts, a slender waistline and
flat stomach, sensuous curves, and a great pair of legs with a small triangle
of fine black hair crowning the cleft between them. She smiled invitingly, then
stepped up to him and rested her hands on his shoulders.

Dylan took
her by the waist and pulled her close, then slid his hands down over her smooth
hips and gently squeezed her bottom as he softly kissed her.

“Are you
going to be my Eul’tiran?” she whispered. She pressed her lips to his, and as
the passion between them grew she dragged her fingernails lightly down his
back, then freed him from his jeans. She pressed her body to his and moaned
with desire as he responded to her touch.

Then,
suddenly, she drew back and said, “Come and get it,” and then ran off and dove
into the pool and started swimming toward the opposite bank.

Dylan pulled
off his jeans but then held onto them as he was suddenly able to look on the
situation with a clearer mind. “You really are out of your mind,” he muttered.
The ink on his divorce was barely dry, and as he’d reminded himself earlier
when he was spying on the blond, he didn’t need to fall into another
relationship this soon.

Then again,
maybe she wasn’t looking for a relationship? Maybe she just wanted to have some
fun. Maybe she just wanted to go swimming and have sex with no strings
attached. God knew that after thinking about Marissa, after thinking about
making love to Carolyn, and after watching the girl across the courtyard, he
needed a release. What harm could there be in that?

Having
sufficiently rationalized his actions, at least to his own satisfaction, he
tossed his jeans onto the pile of clothes and ran in after her, once again brushing
aside that brief small spark of morality that tried to stop him. He caught up
to her near the center of the pool where a narrow column of stone rose up out
of the unknown depths to fall barely an inch short of breaking the surface.

Beth boosted
herself up and stood atop the small platform, faced Dylan, and struck an
enchanting pose much like that of one of the garden statues. “The goddess Satah’ra
has appeared once again,” she proclaimed to the night. Then she looked down at
Dylan and added, “And you, mortal man, have looked upon her.”

The model in
the art class again, Dylan mused, looking up at her. He almost responded with ‘My
heart is enslaved forever,’ but thought better of it. A statement like that
might give her the wrong idea. Instead, he said only, “And she’s even more
beautiful than the legend says.”

Beth smiled
but held her pose. “This stone pedestal is exactly where she is said to appear
when she comes down from Caldanra-Shelar,” she told him.

“She couldn’t
possibly be as beautiful as you are,” he declared, turning on the infamous ‘Graves
charm’ so heavily that Beth could have cut it with a knife if she’d had one.
She looked up into the trees, still smiling, then suddenly whirled away and
dove back into the water.

Dylan swam
after her and just caught her by the ankle as she reached the far bank. He
closed the space between them, then reached around her on both sides and
grabbed hold of the moss, trapping her between his arms and pressing himself
against her as he kissed the nape of her neck. She turned to him and rested her
hands on his shoulders, then wrapped her legs around his waist and invited him
with a passionate kiss to consummate their newfound relationship.

She moaned
with pleasure as he penetrated her, rose upward as he pushed deeper inside her
until her breasts emerged from the water and her nipples stiffened in the cool
breeze. Then, suddenly, pushing off against the slight underwater slope of the
bank for leverage, she lifted herself halfway out of the water and dunked him.

He broke the
surface quickly, intending to return the favor, but Beth had already climbed
out of the tepid water and taken a seat on the bank near its edge. He climbed
out onto his hands and knees, and as he crawled over her she lay back on the
warm, soft moss and wrapped her legs around him once again. He lay down gently
on top of her, and as they kissed, all those weeks’ worth of tension and desire
quickly resurfaced within him.

Their
passion burned, and without any further playful prelude, they made love.

A shadow
drifted silently across the moonlit curtains and was gone in an instant. Dylan
awoke but didn’t move except to open his eyes and look over at the window. He
stared at the curtains and listened intently for several seconds, but all he
heard was Beth breathing quietly at his side.

So what had awakened
him?

His skin
felt sticky with dried sweat, but that was only from their lovemaking. He hadn’t
been having the nightmares again. He knew that because if he had been having
them he would have remembered it. He always did. So the question remained, what
had awakened him?

Maybe it was
nothing. Maybe sleeping with someone for the first time in so many weeks had
just... No. It wasn’t nothing. Something definitely was not right. Something
had tripped his mind’s alarm and awakened him, and after so many years of
military conditioning he knew that to not heed that alarm’s warning could well
be a fatal mistake—both for him and for Beth.

He lifted
Beth’s arm from across his chest and gently rolled her onto her back. Then, being
careful not to disturb her any further, he slid his arm out from under her
shoulders and climbed out of bed. He crept over to the window and peeked out past
the edge of the curtain. He had reverted to Ranger mode again. He felt no ache
in his head, no soreness in his shoulder or ribs, no stiffness in his leg.

Across the
courtyard a dark, indistinct object sat unmoving on the blond girl’s deck. But
the larger moon hung high and full above its rooftop, reflecting the long
departed sun’s nuclear brilliance off its enormous face and casting deep
shadows over most of the deck, so he couldn’t make out what the object was. One
thing he did know, though. Whatever that object was, it was something that hadn’t
been there earlier in the evening.