Once back in the Xenica II Jorja reported to a fink as ordered. Zeft winked at her. The mind reader stared at her and then at the three generals debriefing her. ‘I can’t read her.’

‘Well, Jorja. Be assured that General Scevish will be punished accordingly. We’ll talk to you further when you’ve recovered fully.’

‘Don’t bother. I’m resigning from the Battle Group.’

At their protests she walked out. It was one benefit of not enlisting. They had no real hold over her and she hadn’t been the one to break the law this time.

 

She went back to her room for a shower.

At his tentative knock, she opened the door. Zeft entered. She handed him a drink.

She smiled at him and he felt himself drawn to her. He put his drink down. ‘Come here, Babe.’

Jorja went to him and as his muscular arms went around her he ran his face along her neck making a pleasure noise that she responded to. She pressed her body into his. He nuzzled her neck and breasts.

Jorja was swept along, his hunger and roughness matching with her needs. Later, they lay on her bunk side by side. He was running a thick finger along her side. He looked around.

‘I’ve been distracted in here before and just noticed something. You’ve got a small cabin.’

She smiled. ‘Yeh. But it serves its purpose.’

Jorja felt the moisture between her legs. ‘I’m going to have a quick shower…’

‘I’ll have one after. Drink?’

She nodded and after her shower she sipped her drink while he showered. He came out with just the towel around his waist. They looked over the maps and she outlined her plan. ‘I’ll need some orux to help with the next excavation. Do you think any will be interested?’

‘What did Scalice say?’

‘He told me to speak to you.’

Zeft grunted and wondered how long it would be till she was in season again. They talked for a while and came to an arrangement. She began to lean into him and smile suggestively, he frowned at her.

When Jorja saw the frown she wondered if she’d done something wrong and leaned back. For all her new ‘knowledge’ she hadn’t really studied how orux went about their affairs. Mary wasn’t revealing in any matter. He grabbed her waist and the towel fell down.

It was obvious he was interested again and as he nuzzled her neck he said, ‘I don’t want to take you until you’re back in season.’

‘Season?’ And suddenly she burst out laughing. Unlike Scalice who grew grumpy at her laughter Zeft continued holding her guessing why she laughed.

‘Babe? You don’t have seasons?’

‘Not exactly…unless that changed too?’

‘No, thank orux. It’s made you stronger. That’s all, Babe.’ As he fondled and kissed her, an unusual thing for orux but one he found quite pleasurable and he needed to distract her from asking too many questions about just how much she had changed. All in good time. She began to smell again and was nibbling on his ears. He groaned. This was so much better than what he had expected. He made a mental note of her body language so that even if she released no scent, he could act accordingly.

Hours later he was woken up by her rolling over to her side. The blanket went with her and left him naked. He grinned and dragged the blanket back with a grumbling Jorja still clinging to it. This time he fell asleep with Jorja resting on him.

When they woke they were both grumpy. The blanket had wrapped itself around Zeft’s left leg and Jorja found the pillow on the ground. Once they had some coffee they were both smiling.

He looked at the single bunk. ‘Next time we sleep in my bed, Babe.’

‘Ok.’

After that there wasn’t much to be said. They showered, had more coffee, breakfast and went to work.

 

Pretty Max cracked up. ‘Do you know what you’ve got yourself in for?’

‘How many relationships do I jump into?’

He blustered for a while. ‘That’s not the problem, you know what I mean. You know we’re all a part of Scalice’s squad now.’

‘Your point?’

‘It’s not allowed.’

‘Really? What exactly did you think you were signing up for? You’re one of Scalice’s closest friends and that could be considered a problem too. Relax, because you’re not in the League Military anymore. You are in the Orux Battalion, the Praeda unit, to be specific. Which, I might add, is an independent group.’ She finished smugly.

He laughed suddenly, ‘By your arrangement I’m guessing.’

‘I had a little help from some friends.’

 

It was late when Scalice wrote in his diary with ink and pen. If Mary saw him she would nag about leaving ink blotches around the room. He heard her turn in her sleep. He dipped his pen in and wrote, ‘You cannot say to your nag, more nag. You cannot say to your orux, more orux.’

He thought of Jorja then, ‘To learn of friendship after so much unfriendship…’ he frowned, was that a word? ‘While there is still a lot of shit to sort out I am happy at last. For these are not the memoirs of a king or scumbag, these are the memoirs of another kind.’

Scalice closed his diary.

He’d finally filled one whole page.