Former Sergeant Troy Wooten was greedily sucking on Captain Ember Riley's nipple in his quarters when the tigress suddenly pulled away.
"I'm sorry, I can't..." she said.
"What?" Troy complained breathlessly.
"I'm sorry...this is wrong," she said, and began to button up her shirt. Troy placed his broad human hand over the tigress's, stopping her from progressing.
"I don't understand you. You lure me on your ship, you punch me in the face when I save all our asses, you come in my room and undress me, get me going and then you stop. What is with you, Captain?"
"I know Troy, I'm sorry, it's just I..." she looked away.
"Who was he?" the human began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
"His name was Rick. He was my...my husband," she said softly.
"How did he...?" he let his voice trail off, not wanting to finish the question.
"Cysteria. That fucking disease," she replied. Her eyes welled with tears and she started buttoning her shirt again.
"So that's why you're doing this."
"It's why we're all looking for the stone. All of us have lost someone from the disease. I don't know how much longer our species can survive before every Furvoid is infected and dying."
"I'm sorry," Troy said in an equally quiet voice.
"You're helping us battle a fight that isn't even yours," she said with a bitter smile.
"Story of my life," he replied. She continued buttoning when Troy took a deep breath and said "Mytar 6." Ember stopped fidgeting with the buttons and froze in place. "We were looking for insurgents on Mytar Six. My company, Sigma Tango Nine was in the town of Bella Rio when I got intel from then Captain Vince Catelli that the local leader of the insurgency, Walter McDonough, was living in an apartment complex. I radioed back there were over two dozen civilians living in the complex and that we would need to enter the building and remove McDonough in person," he said. Ember sat down on the bunk next to the man. Her eyes were transfixed on him.
"Go on," she said softly and placed her hand on his shoulder.
Troy sucked in air through his teeth and sighed. "He radioed back 'negative, hold position, tactical strike from orbiter to commence in ten minutes.' Ten minutes. I just needed ten minutes to find the bastard, bring him out and call off the strike. So, I led my team of twenty-five soldiers and we went in. Well, Catelli neglected to tell me he overrode the safety protocols and set the strike for only five minutes. We searched room to room for McDonough, but he had escaped long before we ever arrived. Hell, he probably never even lived there. Well, I ordered my men to evacuate the civvies, but just as I was carrying a kid out with Private Martinez and Corporal Rowell, they hit us. The apartment was incinerated."
A tear rolled down Ember's cheek but she said nothing. Her furry hand was warm and comforting as it now squeezed the bare shoulder of the warrior.
"But, that wasn't your fault..." she said, her voice trailing off.
"Martinez and Rowell were going to testify on my behalf at the court-martial. Their transport ship lost a descent stabilizer and the boat incinerated in Earth's atmosphere," he said with an extremely bitter laugh.
"Are you saying Catelli had them killed?"
"It was ruled an accident by the Safety Council. I was sentenced to ten years at Fort McConnell...for neglect. They let me out after five. The rest is, as they say, history."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why didn't you tell me any of this earlier?"
"What difference would it have made?"
The tigress inched her face closer to his until their lips locked. "You carry this burden around like it was your fault," she said, with her lips touching his. "You did everything you could."
"If I had obeyed my orders, my men would be alive."
"And all those civilians would have been murdered. You disobeyed bad orders."
"Tell that to my men."
"I can't. But I'm telling you, you did the right thing, even if the results were terrible."
"The majority of the civvies died anyway," he said.
"The kid you were carrying?"
"I don't know what happened to her. When the building blew up, the rest of the day was kind of a blur. You know, I can tell you exactly what I ate for breakfast that day, I can tell you what seat I was sitting in on the cargo transport on the way down. I can tell you the color of the paint in the kitchen of the apartment I rescued the girl from. But after the explosion, I couldn't tell you what happened for the following three weeks after it."
"Sometimes...sometimes things happen for a reason."
"Oh yeah; what reason would there be for my men dying, for those civilians dying?"
"You're with us now. Maybe...maybe your purpose is grander than what you think. Maybe helping us find the stone and saving our people is the reason your path has been such a dark one...until now."
"My path will always be dark, no matter what I do for others."
"I don't believe that."
"Since I was court-martialed, I've done a lot of...crime," he said.
"There isn't a single crew member on this boat that isn't wanted for some crime or another."
"Tell me about Rick," Troy said, changing the subject. She moved her hand to grip his and she smiled.
"You have his eyes. He was a snow leopard with eyes as deep blue as an ocean seen from space. His muscular arms would lift me to the bed and even though he was so strong...he was so gentle with me."