BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

BY: DANAE CONRAD

Gone! Her thoughts began to race. He couldn't be gone. She stared into the depths of the ring hoping it would release his secrets. She slipped it on to her finger. Slowly she fingered the box that had held it; violently, she pitched it into the clock that held the soldier. The glass on the clock shattered and sprayed over the floor. She fell to the sofa, her breathing coming in gasps. The soft silver of his jacket fell under her fingers. She proceeded to cry all her fury and hurt to it.

"I never knew! How could I!? I was young - I couldn't love you for you raised me! That doesn't mean I can't love you!" She tried to quiet her sobs. "Did I ever betray you? You weren't mine to love. Until now, then you leave." She finished up on a note of fury. Stalking out of the room that was crowded with memories, she ran down the stairs to organizer her Fleet. Suddenly her foot caught on an invisible wire and she hurtled down the case. Her head was bruised and she ached all over.

"You said you didn't want him!!"

"So I forgot to ask him what he though. Dion how was I to know that he had fallen in love with me?"

"Fallen, hah. You're the only one how has fallen around here recently. He has loved you ever since he knew how to care. You have been his only care."

"Now you're lying! Because he's left me - you – all of us! He didn't say where he was going and he may never be back in my lifetime. This world has become mine and I am going to defend it as mine. I don't need you attempting to kill me with wires and tricks."

"Gone??? He left you?"

"Yes, he left all of us." Adena now pushed herself off the floor. Speaking into the nearest wall communicator she summoned the Enchantress. "Meric, power her up. We may need her at a moment's notice. Is the Scimitar missing?"

"Yes, Enchantress, how did you know?"

"It's my business to know! Execute your orders!"

"Aye, sir!"

Dion was still in a state of shock. Adena walked over to her. "Snap out of it! I need everyone working to make this work!" When Dion didn't respond, Adena whirled her around and shook her. "Dion!! Please, don't live in the past! Get angry if you must. Sometimes you have to." Adena was beginning to cry now. Dion came around and saluted. She went off to her station.

"Will I never learn to stop loving?!!!" Adena screamed to the empty mansion. "I loved my parents - through my errors they died. Blue, I gave you my love and in doing signed your death warrant and the warrants of our children. Iffley, I...I take all my love away! Throw me to the winds of space. My love will only bring you agony and pain - and death!" She stood there with tears streaming down her face and her eyes red with the salt.

As her emotions reached the utmost pain, the air around her began to charge with magic and became visibly contorted. She was unaccustomed to two Keys and the power added to her was amazing. She had no eyes for that though. Her mind began to strike out without control. The chandelier hanging above the main loft crashed to the floor and shattered. The lamps began to explode, spreading glass further. She ran up the stairs, falling over the wire again. Sobbing, she got up and ran to her room. She lashed out in anger at anything within reach. Finally she turned, eyes blazing toward his room. The wall separating their rooms began to collapse into rubble.

The noise brought her aware. She stood dazed, heaving in the panic she felt. She walk into the room that had belonged to him. She looked over everything and walked over the whole apartment. Pushing open a door, she walked into his bedroom -hoping he would be there to scream at her for wrecking the place, for losing her temper, to throw her out to save his own life. But it stood empty and silent - like a tomb. She saw a hologram on the table. It was herself as a child as she walked around it she saw herself aging, but still smiling. Anger filled her once again and she shoved her hand into the current of rays. She hardly felt the pain as she ripped the circuits out with her unshielded hand.

Then exhausted, she fell onto his bed and cried herself to sleep.

*********************************************************

Waking during the Dark phase, she turned on the light. It revealed the scars of her rage. She went to her room and absently dressed into her Captain's uniform. She turned her power to remedy the damage over the entire mansion. That completed, she locked and sealed his room - everything left the way he had left it.

Then she approached a speaker and hit the emergency button. Sirens raged through the entire defense system. Her voice calmly came over the speakers.

ALL DEPARTMENT HEADS MEET IN THE MAIN LOFT. MAN YOUR STATIONS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. ALL DEPARTMENT...

"Gentlemen, Iffley has seen it fit to leave us. He is running from something. Though hiding does no good, he has a right to do as he pleases. He has left you Jonathon in charge of colonies...."

"I don't want that!!! The last thing I want is more responsibility!!! I want to settle down and get out of this rat race. You may think that I am running as well but think as you wish."

"Ass you had to do was say so, Jon. I will take care of your duties. Is there anything I can do? Yes, there is. You choose your bride and settle down here in the Mansion. I am to busy to run it properly anyway."

Jonathon was shocked. "Thank you, Enchantress." Dion was equally shocked. "Iffley wouldn't like it."

"Is he here?" Turning back to Jonathon, "Choose who you will, Jon and be happy."

"Now?"

"If you want," Adena hoped his choice would not be refused.

"Dion," he began and knelt before her. "Would you please?"

"I..I..I would be happy to marry you."

Relieved, Adena allowed the couple to leave. She gave orders to her remaining officers. She hoped that Dion and Jonathon would be happy. Happiness was now something foreign to her. Everything became locked inside of her. She spoke only in need of business and her emotions weren't visible to anyone.

T'Mir was quickly whipped into shipshape order. Adena frequently went days on end without rest - much to Dr. Sharpe's chagrin. Two new ships were added to the Fleet, newer and more powerful, they were Adena's own design and worked wonderfully. The Divad and the Emerald hung silently in space alongside of the Fleet.

T'Mir was proud of its rank and power. The Enchantress had brought them prosperity and joy by sacrificing her own. Jonathon and Dion were to be married shortly and happiness pervaded the mansion as they prepared for the wedding and Christmas.

One didn't prepare however. She lived in a suite by the main power nexus of T'Mir alone. She was always on duty and never stopping to smell life's roses again...