Last Exile Fan Fiction ❯ Plane in the Sunset ❯ Chapter 1

 

Why am I so cold? Where is this place?

 

The Earth spun lazily as it hung in the midnight sea of space.

 

Alone. Lonely.

 

High above the slowly healing ground- past the top of the sky, hung a question poised but not yet understood.

 

Who?

 

The question was simple enough, but meriting a thousand different answers it would prove to be difficult to answer. To be aware before being conscious of the self can be very frightening indeed.

 

The question hovered suspended in thought for a while but soon drifted away. There would be time enough to learn. There was all the time in the world.

 

 

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The vanship engine rumbled in the back of Claus' mind while it wondered freely in the open air. These long courier flights always ended up being endurance races, letting his mind drift kept him awake. Another noise was trying to penetrate his consciousness. Slowly Lavi's voice came into focus.

 

“What?” shouted Claus into his radio.

 

“I said the next marker is to the east!”

 

“What's the bearing?”

 

Lavi paused for a second before rattling off their new bearing into her radio. Claus dipped his head in acknowledgement and adjusted his foot peddles- yawing the vanship onto its new course.

 

“You let your mind wonder too much, Claus,” Lavi chided.

 

“It keeps me awake.”

 

“You need to find a new way to keep yourself awake.”

 

Claus shrugged and double checked his course and heading.

 

Silence settled back between them. Lavi peered up into the clouds and tilted her head back against her seat letting the sounds of the jet-stream wash over her. Claus said something but his radio didn't catch it, and it was lost in the slipstream. She lifted her head up to ask what he had said but decided against it. It was nice just to relax and let Claus fly. They were at least a half hour from the next marker and Claus knew the way home practically by heart now. They had been traveling too and from the Imperial Capitol and Norikia several times a week for the past two months. A lot of things had happened since Exile had dove back into space two years ago. The world was changing.

 

Time got lost easily while flying. Lavi let her mind wonder in the clouds for a while before sitting up straight again and checking her compass and watch. She pulled her flight log out and scratched a few notes in it before returning it to its place under her seat. “What do you think Al is doing?” she asked idly.

 

“I don't know,” replied Claus, “Probably checking the sky to see if we are home yet.”

 

Lavi checked her fuel gage and cringed. “Claus, I think we are going to have to find somewhere to refuel soon.”

 

“Already?” Claus sounded surprised.

 

“We have a leak it seems.”

 

Claus grumbled something under his breath. “I knew those guys that ran into us back at the airfield hit us harder than they said they did.”

 

Lavi thumbed through her charts for a few minutes and found a sky barge's location. “Claus,” she said, “At the next marker we need to head south, there is a sky barge about twenty minutes from it. We can refuel there and maybe find the leak.”

 

“Got it,” replied Claus.

 

“Al is going to be worried.” Lavi sounded anxious.

 

“Nothing we can do about it, we have to put down or crash.”

 

“I know.”

 

“It's not like we haven't had to stopover unexpectedly before. She will be fine. She won't really start to worry until tomorrow if we aren't home.”

 

Lavi knew what Claus said was true. Al was capable of taking care of herself for a few nights (and often had to) but that never stopped Lavi from feeling guilty whenever they were late by more than a few hours, let alone a whole night.

 

They made it to the marker quickly enough but Lavi was still keeping an eye on their fuel gage. They would either run out or they would make it, but she still checked it every few minutes.

 

Daylight was beginning to melt into deeper hues of orange and red. Lavi yawned and checked her watch again. It was getting well into the evening and the sun was just touching the horizon.

 

“It will be nice to sleep.”

 

“Huh?” said Lavi, breaking her gaze from the rosy colored sky.

 

“It will be nice to stop and get to sleep, my legs are cramping a little.”

 

“Mmm,” was Lavi's response. She was getting drowsy as well.

 

The sun had sunk deep under the horizon by the time the Claus spotted the sky barge, its running lights shone brightly against an ever darkening cloud filled sky. “There it is,” he said to Lavi.

 

The barge was gargantuan, several cruisers were already docked in the massive mooring booths. This was an old barge, its paint was badly faded and everything had a tired look to it, even the neatly kept cruisers looked like large drowsy beasts chained up for the night.

 

Claus maneuvered vertically and skimmed up the rust patched wall of the barge and slid up onto the upper vanship deck. There were a number of vanship berths lining the starboard side with the port side open to the sky. A taxi way and a launch strip bisected the length of the ship and tapered down to a large hanger at the bow that housed large lift elevators. Claus nudged into one of the empty berths and set down hard.

 

Lavi clenched and unclenched her jaw a few times after their landing and undid her harnesses. Claus was in the front of the vanship jostling with his own straps. Lavi stood up and eased herself down over the side and landed on the tarmac deck with a delicate thump. Walking out on the taxiway she noticed that only a few of the vanship berths were occupied. She saw a handful of civilian vanships and a military type transport that the marines used.

 

Claus was busy pulling out Lavi's and his overnight bags from under their seats. Bags in hand he hopped down over the side of the vanship and landed heavily on the deck with a grunt. Lavi was standing out on the tarmac and turned to smile at him. The lights for their berth flicked on and she was suddenly washed in light. Claus hefted their bags up and strode up next to her. “I don't think we will have a problem finding a room,” she said, gesturing at the empty berths. Claus nodded and headed off towards stern hanger where a neon light that read “Office” glowed in flickering red.

 

The evening was cool and a breeze was wondering over the deck. Claus stopped for a few moments and put their bags down, enjoying the open night air.

 

“C'mon, Clause,” said Lavi, taking him by the hand and leading him on towards the office. Claus slung their bags over his back and allowed himself to be towed.

 

The office was tidy and brightly lit if not a little on the drab side. Copies of “Vanship Digest” and “Engines Unlimited” were stacked in loose piles beside the desk occupied by a man looking to be in his mid fifties with strong streaks of silver in an otherwise jet black main that draped down over his shoulders.

 

“What can I do for you folks?” he asked.

 

“We need a room for the night,” said Claus, “And tools and about 400 liters of fuel.”

 

Lavi frowned. “We aren't exactly bone dry,” she said.

 

“Close enough,” replied Claus.

 

“Ah,” said the man, “Engine problems?”

 

“Leak,” corrected Lavi. “We had a small accident on the capitol airfield.”

 

“I see, I see.” The old man rummaged through his drawer and produced a key. “Well, fuel and tool rental will run you about a hundred-eighty, that being said how big a room do you two want?”

 

“What's cheap?” Lavi turned to Claus but Claus merely shrugged.

 

“Cheapest I got is a one bed one bath. It's gonna run you about thirty-six a night for the two of you.”

 

“That'll be fine,” said Claus, handing the man some credit notes.

 

“Come up here any time after seven and I'll give you a workshop key so you can get your tools. There's another hundred credit deposit for the tools though, when you return the tools and the key you get it all back.”

 

Claus nodded and shouldered their bags again as he and Lavi were led back out into the hanger and down a small lift.

 

“Not too busy around here are you?” asked Claus, trying to make conversation.

 

“Nah, it always seems to go in spurts, plus the race season is pretty much over too. We'll be back in good shape in another two months or so.”

 

The lift ground to a halt after a few floors and the doors opened. “This is one of three dormitory floors we have for single vanships”, said the man, as he led them down the hall. “Mess hall is the floor above. Below you are the other two vanship dormitories and below those are barracks for the warship crews. As far as entertainment goes, we have a bar and an arcade for gambling- nothing fancy mind you. Mess hall opens at seven in the morning and closes at seven in the evening.” The man stopped in front of room number 29 and handed Claus a pair of keys. “Take care,” he said, and strode off towards the lift.

 

Lavi took one of the keys from Claus and unlocked the door. Claus shuffled through behind her with each of their duffel bags and tossed Lavi's on the bed and dumped his on the floor.

 

“We might as well go to bed now,” said Lavi. “The mess hall is closed and we only have the small toolbox back in the vanship, it's not like we can get anything done until tomorrow.”

 

Claus nodded, then walked up to the large port hole window and peered out into the darkness. “I'm going to go check on some things first,” he said.

 

Lavi shrugged and started unpacking the few belongings she had in her duffel.

 

Claus drew the curtain across the window and told Lavi goodnight, and then slipped out the door into the cool passageway. Their room was only a few doors down from the lift. Claus pushed the button marked “hanger deck” and rode the lift up into the night air.

 

There was still a constant breeze over the dock. The sky was a patchwork of clouds and starlight. Claus was completely alone on the hanger deck as he began walking across the long stretch of tarmac that filled almost the entirety of the deck. Making his way towards the stern he let his mind drift again. It didn't drift very far. He was tired, and the empty night did wonders to slow his thoughts and ease the tension out of his body. Piloting a vanship was amazing, borderline euphoric sometimes, but out on the deck Claus could really just slip away into the deepening night.

 

Lost in empty thoughts, Claus had hardly noticed that he had already come up to the stern of the barge. The hum of the engines was more like a growl and the deck vibrated under his boots. He stopped and leaned up against the railing for a while, his thoughts stretching out into every direction.

 

Eventually his mind found its way back home and he turned to leave the stern. He probably would have just slept right there on the deck if it wasn't so cool and if Lavi wouldn't be wondering where he was if she woke up and he wasn't there in the room with her. He left the stern.

 

Claus passed by the vanship berths and noticed a new arrival- a sturdy looking gentleman with sharp features and dark gray hair cropped very short was helping a young woman out of the navi's seat, his flight goggles were dangling around his neck. The girl eased herself out onto the deck and looked directly up at Claus. The only thing Claus noticed were her eyes, they were the deepest green he had ever seen. The girl smiled at Claus and gave him a wave. The older gentleman turned and nodded after noticing Claus.

 

After saying something inaudible to the girl, the man walked out to Claus. Extending his hand, Claus clasped it and they shook. “Emit,” said the man.

 

“Claus.”

 

“You a navi as well?” asked Emit.

 

Clause shook his head, “No, sir,” he said. “Pilot.”

 

Emit arched an eyebrow slightly but otherwise he didn't react. His brown eyes were slightly cloudy and didn't give away much of what he thought.

 

“Not many pilots as young as you,” he said.

 

Claus looked a little embarrassed. “No, sir, not many”.

 

“However,” started Emit again, “You aren't exactly a pup either, how old are you son, fifteen?”

 

“Seventeen” replied Claus.

 

“Close enough. Still, that's young to be piloting a vanship.”

 

Claus shrugged and stood mute, not really sure what to say next. Emit turned and motioned for the girl to come over to them who up until then had been sitting on the stubby wing of the vanship. She hopped off her perch and strode up quietly to Claus and Emit.

 

“This is my daughter,” said Emit, pride leaking into his voice as he put his hands on her shoulders.

 

“I'm Henna.” In the dark Henna's features were very delicate. She was shorter than Claus, probably shorter than Lavi as well. Her hair was a dark color that Claus couldn't discern and she had a pixie-like face that was dusted with freckles.

 

Henna extended her hand and Claus shook it gingerly.

 

“Kind of a limp handshake,” said Henna.

 

Claus felt his cheeks warming and was thankful for the darkness. Emit snorted. “He has a fine handshake; he just didn't want to break your little fingers,” he said. Henna winked at Claus.

 

“We should go get a room,” said Henna, turning up to face her father. Emit nodded and maneuvered Henna back towards their vanship. “Good to meet you, Claus,” said Emit before heading back to the vanship berth, his boots clicking on the tarmac.

 

Henna turned and waved at Claus, her father's arm draped around her shoulder. Claus waved back, Henna's eyes keeping his all the way back to their berth. The pair grabbed some bags from out of their vanship and extinguished the light, their dark forms casting even darker shadows as they made their way across the flight deck towards the office.

 

Claus found himself alone again on the tarmac. He glanced down at his watch and decided it was time to head back to the room and try and get some sleep.

 

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

Lavi couldn't sleep. Actually, Lavi didn't want to sleep, not yet. It was strange that Claus had gone back out. Without tools there wasn't really anything he could do. After Claus had left she had stripped down to her underwear and climbed into bed after opening the curtain about half way. When half an hour passed without Claus coming back she had started to worry. It was just so unlike him to go off on his own like that.

 

Lavi didn't like Claus being gone like this. She wasn't really sure where he went and that was beginning to upset her. She wasn't really surprised by her sudden need to be close to him, to feel safe. She curled up and wrapped her arms around her second pillow and clutched it against her chest. Another half hour passed and Lavi started thinking about getting dressed and finding out where Claus had gone.

 

The door lock tumbled softly and Lavi heard the door open on well oiled hinges. Light from the hall spilled into the room for a moment before shadow collapsed into its place. Lavi could see Claus in the dim moonlit room. He sloughed off his flight suit and piled it into a neat pillow before taking off his undershirt and collapsing onto the floor. He sighed and rolled over to face the bed. He saw that she was staring at him.

 

“I bet I still sleep better than you do,” said Claus, rapping his knuckles on the ground. Lavi smiled back weakly. “You could sleep anywhere,” she said.

 

Claus closed his eyes and his breathing quickly shallowed into even, sleep-laden draws. Lavi saw that he had also taken his work clothes off and drawn them over himself like a blanket. She rolled away from the side of the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Lavi fought sleep off a little longer and listened to the hum of the ship and the steady sighs of Claus' breathing. Claus snorted once and fumbled around with his covers. Lavi turned her head to see that he was awake again. He got up and headed into the bathroom and closed the door.

 

Claus flushed the toilet and washed his hands. Sleep was still tugging at him as he opened the bathroom door and stepped back into the room. Lavi was standing in the middle of the room in her nightshirt and panties. “All yours,” he said to her, closing the door behind him. Lavi shook her head and took him by the hand. “I don't want you sleeping on the floor anymore,” she said quietly.

 

“I've been sleeping on the floor for years on our stopovers,” replied Claus, sleep weighing his voice down.

 

“I don't care, I never really thought about it until tonight. I want you close to me.”

 

Surprise registered on Claus' face for a heartbeat and then vanished. “Okay,” he said.

 

Lavi led Claus to their bed and had him climb in first. Claus slid back until his back was against the side bulkhead. Lavi picked up the second pillow and put it down next to Claus' head and climbed in next to him. Claus put his arm around her waist and she coiled her arm over his naked shoulder and buried her face in his neck.

 

“You're warm,” Lavi said after a while.

 

“It's because you're small,” Claus replied.

 

Lavi pushed herself up. “I'm not that small,” she said, her face hovering over Claus' chest.

 

“You're smaller than I am.”

 

Lavi sat up and lifted the covers off them and sat back on her knees. In the moonlight she could see Claus' pale body. Neither of them got much sun; always tucked into their flight suites. Claus had really filled out in the last two years though. She had even seen him get into a fight a few months ago. “Okay, I'm smaller than you are.”

 

Claus smiled and reached out to put a hand on her thigh. His hand was deliciously warm on her skin. Lavi put both of her hands on top of his. Claus sat up, several scars on his shoulders looked like dark claws clutching his skin in the pale light. Lavi reached over and ran her hand over his right shoulder. She knew he had a whole patchwork of scars running down his back.

 

Lavi was silent. Claus unwrapped his hand from hers and drew his arm up around her waist and scooted himself closer to her. “It wasn't your fault,” he said.

 

Lavi knew it was her fault.

 

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Lavi lost her temper in the market when a group of thugs from one of the gangs had been beating up on the old lady who sold water. They had told her that water was clean and free for everyone now. They didn't care that she was old and had been selling her own brew of mineral water and herbs since she was a girl. The gang busted her shop and broke most of her jars and flagons. Claus was a dozen stalls away when Lavi started shouting and throwing things at the thugs. She figured there were enough people around that she might be able to get the crowd in on helping her.

 

She was wrong.

 

The gang quickly turned their attention to her and the people around her all scrambled to get away. Lavi saw everyone run but it was too late for her to get away- the gang was already on her.

 

“You little bitch!” shouted one of the thugs right before slapping her fiercely across the face. The force of the blow stunned her and knocked her to the ground. The biggest of the group strode over to her hauled her up to her feet and glared at her.

 

“Who the fuck do you think you are, throwing shit at me and my boys in OUR street?” He had bellowed the word “our” so loud little pieces of spittle peppered Lavi.

 

Lavi was terrified but her mouth was on autopilot. “You pricks are scum, beating up on an old lady for doing the same thing she's been doing all her life. You think that just because you're big and all wear that stupid compass tattoo on your biceps you have a license to be complete assholes to whomever you want!”

 

All four gang members bristled. “Watch your mouth, whore. You don't know who you're messing with. All members of the Devil's Star gang wear our compass insignia with pride.”

 

Lavi sneered, “So what, does the compass point to gay? I mean, real men wouldn't beat up old ladies now would they?”

 

The big leader didn't say anything for a few seconds. “Gay, huh? I'll show you just how gay I can be. I'm going to teach you a lesson girl. I'm going to teach you right here in street.”

 

Lavi finally realized her mouth had gotten her into some serious trouble. She looked around to see if anyone would help her. The shops around her had all drawn their curtains and the shoppers had all moved down to stalls farther away from their little group. Lavi was also wondering where Claus was.

 

The leader took off his belt and wrapped it across his open palm a few times. “Girl, I'm going to fuck you so hard you aren't going to be able to walk right for a week. And then when I'm done, my boys are all going to get a turn, because that's how we are in the Devil's Star. We share. And do we have a lot to share with you.”

 

Lavi started to cry. She never though anything like this would ever happen to her. “I just wanted you to leave the old woman alone,” she managed, her voice cracking.

 

“That's it, cry those delicious tears”. The leader leaned over and licked a long streak of Lavi's cheek. “It's a train wreck, you can't stop it; you can't look away. You have the best seat in the house.” The leader growled and slapped Lavi hard on her behind. Another one of the thugs moved in behind Lavi and grabbed a handful of her hair, twisted it and pulled hard forcing her to bend down.

 

“No, please, stop, don't do this.” Tears were streaming down Lavi's face and she choked on a sob. Another gang member stepped up beside her, grabbed her pants, and yanked down. Lavi swung out as hard as she could and connected with the man's groin. The man grunted and slumped to the ground, mumbling and grumbling incomprehensively. The man holding her hair smashed his other hand into the back of her head. Lavi heard the leader laugh. Her body suddenly felt very heavy. Lavi slumped forward and the man holding her by her hair let her fall to the ground. She felt her pants get torn the rest of the way off and then her panties sliding slowly down the length of her legs. She lay there on her stomach, her arms sprawled out in front of her and her naked legs and bottom exposed to the mid-day warmth. Her head was starting to swim in the warm air. She was rolled over onto her back and her legs pushed back. She tried to scream but she could only mumble and cry.

 

There was a muffled snap somewhere. Lavi looked up and saw one of the men holding his leg at the knee and rolling around on the ground, it was twisted at an impossible angle. There was someone standing over him. He wasn't as big as the other men. The stranger turned and lunged sideways at the leader. The leader dodged and smashed his fist into the side of the new man's face. The force of the blow whipped the man around. It was Claus. Claus spun with the momentum of the blow and immediately threw himself at the leader again, this time punching the man in the side. The leader grunted and strafed away. Claus kicked out with the flat of his boot and caught him in the pelvis. Immediately Claus closed in and savagely punched at the man's sides and ribs, trying to connect with his soft organs. The gang leader shoved Claus away with his body and charged. He caught Claus off balance and slammed his fists into Claus' stomach and chest. Claus yelled and smashed his fist into the leader's throat. The leader fell to his knees and grabbed his throat, struggling to breathe. Claus drop kicked the man in his face, resulting in a wet crunching sound. Blood poured out of the man's nose, throat and eyes as he slumped over.

 

The first part of the fight had been quick enough that the other two gang members hadn't had much time to react. Claus turned away from the stricken leader, blood dripping from his own nose and mouth. Before either gang member could do anything Claus was already in between them. He lashed out at one with his boot, catching him in the stomach, then turned and slugged the other in the face. Back and forth Claus pummeled the two gang members. As soon as one was struck he turned to the other, hammering them before they could recover. Finally one of them yelled and shoved Claus away and both gang members were upon him. They grabbed his arms and pinned him up against the wall. Claus kept kicking and yelling but it was clear he was beginning to tire. One of the gang members dropped Claus' arm and slammed his elbow, his whole body really, into Claus' rib cage. Claus screamed and head-butted him in the face. The man Claus head-butted staggered away leaving his hand free. Claus reached out with his free hand and pulled the other gang member towards him, head butting him in the face as well, but this time savagely. Claus literally bludgeoned the other man with his own head and face before slugging the man in his jaw.

 

By now the fight had worked its way into an alley of sorts. It was behind one of the larger machine shops. Lavi was still dazed in the street watching the fight. She saw the first thug Claus had head butted recover and pick up a brick. Claus had his back to him, fending off another series of blows from the second man, the one Lavi had punched in the groin. The second man swung at Claus and missed by a wide margin, Claus planted one foot on the ground between the man's legs and as he grabbed the man by the arm to twist him to the ground the first gang member ran up and smashed Claus in the face with a brick. Claus' lights went out. He slumped to the alley floor and lay motionless.

 

“Claus!” Lavi croaked.

 

The two gang members looked over at Lavi. “Watch what we do to him now, bitch.” They hefted Claus up and dragged him over to a nearby fence- an electrified fence. They both picked up wooden poles lying on the ground and propped Claus up against the fence, pinning him there with the poles.

 

The darkness Claus had been drifting in suddenly turned into a searing white light so bright it hurt his eyes. The pain quickly spread into the back of his head and down his back and into his limbs. It felt like someone was flaying layers of flesh from him. His muscles were trapped in a furnace and his blood was boiling inside his veins. His heart felt like a crushing mass of pain every time he breathed. He screamed. Blood and fluid gurgled out. He couldn't move.

 

Lavi saw the men holding Claus up against the electric fence with poles. She staggered to her feet and picked up a cinderblock. The men didn't see or hear her over the sparks and animalistic sounds coming from Claus. She lifted the cinderblock as high above her head as she could and bashed it into closest gang member's skull. He dropped his pole and Claus lurched sideways and fell away from the fence, his clothes and body smoking. The second gang member turned to Lavi and just stared at her. She was naked from her waist down and blood was seeping down her neck from the back of her head. Tears and dirt smeared her face and there was more blood trickling down her milky white legs. “Stop,” she whispered, and collapsed onto Claus' body.

 

“What a waste of time.” The last standing gang member glared down at Lavi and viciously kicked her and then turned to pick up his compatriot by the scruff of his neck. “Let's go,” he said. The man Lavi had hit in the back of the head was still a little woozy and stumbled as he walked away, assisted by the other man. At the end of the alley they picked up the third member, the one whose leg Claus had broken. He took his time getting to his feet and the three of them shuffled off.

 

Lavi pulled Claus away from the fence but stumbled and fell after only a few feet. She just didn't have any strength in her. So she lay down next to Claus and cried. The pain she felt was so far beyond tears that she choked on her own sobs. The world was not the beautiful and hope-filled place she thought it was.

 

Claus coughed but didn't move. That was good, he was breathing. Lavi didn't know what she should do. She tried standing to go get help but her legs wouldn't work. She collapsed back onto Claus. Why can't I be strong? Why can't I help anyone? Instead she lay beside Claus and draped one of his arms across her naked belly, his fingers brushing against her thigh. She wrapped her own arms around his waist and neck and held him close to her. She wished she could hold him closer. She wished she could hold him so close that the world would never separate them. Suddenly the desire to be close to Claus was so overpowering that Lavi gasped. She held him so tight her whole body shook. She shook with sobs and she shook with pain and she shook with frustration. Nothing she thought of would satiate her need to be near Clause, to be with him. Her need was like a ferocious appetite, a hunger that burned coldly and smoldered in her stomach and cramped her muscles. “I need you,” she breathed into his neck.

 

It was evening by the time Claus woke up. Lavi had spent the whole time next to him. Claus groaned and tried to sit up.

 

“Claus?” Lavi sounded weary and far away. Lavi curled herself tighter around him. “Claus, are you alright?”

 

“Shhh.” Claus breathed in sharply. “Everything hurts Lavi, please be quiet for a minute.”

 

Lavi was silent. She propped herself up and leaned over Claus and delicately ran her fingers through his hair. “You protected me,” she whispered.

 

Claus coughed again, blood leaked down the side of his mouth. “I'm really messed up,” he wheezed.

 

Lavi started to cry. “I'm so sorry,” she said, her tears dropping delicately onto Claus' cheeks.

 

Claus sighed. “Help me up,” he said quietly.

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“If I can't walk then you have to go get help.”

 

Lavi stood and then bent down to help pull Claus to his feet. She pulled hard. Claus grunted and managed to stagger to his feet. He took a tentative step forward and staggered but managed to keep his balance. “Everything hurts,” he said again- more to himself than to Lavi.

 

Claus clenched and unclenched his fists and jaw. He wasn't sure if he would go crazy from pain or get dizzy and pass out from it first. Claus turned slowly to face Lavi. He finaly saw her in the light. She had dirt, blood, and tears smeared down her face and neck. He looked her up from her legs and realized she was half naked. He saw that her legs were scraped, they still had good color though, and her tummy was still tight- still pretty, and exposed by her short shirt like it always was. Her thighs were soft and joined in a delicate orange burst.

 

“You're really beautiful, you know,” said Claus, fumbling with his belt and pants.

 

Lavi didn't know what to say. She just stood mute while Claus took his pants off. He had forgotten to take off his boots though. When his pants got stuck he sighed and sat back down on the ground and slowly untied his boots and worked them off, followed by his pants.

 

“Wear these,” he said, handing his pants and his belt to Lavi.

 

Lavi hugged Claus and kissed him on the cheek. She took his pants and put them on then cinched his belt around her waist.

 

“I can't believe no one called for help or tried to stop the fight,” said Claus. Lavi merely shrugged. She staggered a little after pulling Claus back to his feet. He was in just his undershirt and boxers now.

 

“You were out for a long time, Claus,” said Lavi, reaching her arm out to help steady Claus as he walked.

 

“Why didn't u go get help?” he asked, sounding only slightly disappointed.

 

“I tried,” replied Lavi. “When those thugs left I tried to get up to go get help but I couldn't. My legs wouldn't work. My voice didn't work either. So I crawled up next to you and wrapped your arms around myself and lay there until you woke up.”

 

“You're stronger than that, Lavi,” was all Claus said.

 

Lavi didn't reply; she just concentrated on holding back the ocean of tears and emotions welling up inside of her.

 

They walked slowly. Towards the street entrance to the alley they passed the body of the gang leader. He was still lying in the same position Claus had left him, his body looked sallow and insects were beginning to buzz around his mouth and nostrils.

 

Lavi felt a wave of nausea but fought down the urge to vomit. Claus stopped in front of the corpse and regarded it silently for a moment before kicking it in the head.

 

“Claus?” Lavi was stunned. Claus was always stoic unless forced into reacting, but he never lashed out like that.

 

“Fucker deserved it,” he muttered.

 

Lavi took him by the hand and pulled him gently away. “Lets go home Claus, we need to get a doctor to look at you.”

 

That night Lavi called one of the night doctors and had him look over Claus, who had collapsed onto her bed as soon as they got home. The doctor said that the fence had been extremely low amperage and that Claus hadn't suffered any lasting damage to his nervous system. However, his muscles would still feel the effects of the shock for some time and of course his back would be viciously scarred for life. He also had several cracked ribs. After checking Lavi's wounds over and negotiating a fee, he left, telling her that Claus wouldn't be able to work for at least a couple days.

 

Lavi slept next to Claus that night.

 

----------------------------------------------

 

Claus held Lavi tightly against himself. She had been sobbing quietly for several minutes. Finally her tears stopped and she dried her eyes and leaned back from him, taking a moment to compose herself. Claus leaned over sideways and reached across the bed for the floor, realizing that he was too far back he sat up again and eased himself around Lavi and got up from the bed. Claus grabbed his undershirt from the floor and put it on before easing himself back into bed. He tucked himself up against the bulkhead again and Lavi pressed her body against his, wrapping her arms around his neck and chest. Claus yawned and held Lavi until he drifted into sleep.

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Al woke up in the middle of the night. The wind was blowing fiercely, outside she could hear something banging repeatedly into Claus' workshop. Getting out of bed she padded down the hall in her socks and nightshirt checking to see if Claus and Lavi were back. The kitchen, living room and Lavi's room were all empty. Claus' room was still a mess of lumber and metal- Claus and Moran hadn't even really started on it yet, they had already agreed to completely finish Moran and Dunya's home first since they were married and starting a family.

 

Al went back into the kitchen and cut a few slices of cheese from the dwindling wheel on the side counter. Lavi would probably be going to the grocery again as soon as she and Claus got back home. They still had plenty of meat and vegetables but Lavi had an affinity for cheese. From the kitchen window Al saw that the workshop door was ajar and was banging back and forth on its rails. Al grabbed Claus' spare key chain from the kitchen and went out the back door.

 

The night was warm, but the wind was strong and made her shiver. She walked across the back yard to the workshop and opened the door enough to try and work it back onto its track. After a few moments of working the door back and forth she finally got it back on its track and pushed the door all the way open to let the moonlight flood the workshop floor. Al stepped inside and looked around to make sure everything was where it should be. She knew she didn't really know where everything went but she still felt better after checking and seeing that none of the bigger pieces of equipment had been disturbed. Closing the door, she double checked the padlock before snapping it closed. Satisfied, she turned and walked back into the house and locked the back door behind her.

 

Lying in her bed again Al listened to the wind outside, luckily she didn't hear the workshop door resume its racket. Sleep soon settled over her.

 

-----------------------------------------

 

 

Daylight funneled into the room through the porthole. Lavi blinked sleep away from her eyes and yawned. Beside her Claus stirred. Lavi rolled onto her side and put her head down next to him. Lost in sleep he breathed evenly. She wasn't going to go back to sleep but she still didn't quite feel like getting up. She delicately traced around Claus' face and neck with her finger tips. After a few minutes his eyes slid open silently and after a moment sleep cleared from his pupils; his lips tugged into just a hint of a smile.

 

Lavi and Claus lay together for a while without saying anything. Eventually Lavi rolled over and checked her watch. “We should probably get up,” she said. Claus yawned and nodded at the same time. “Alright,” he said, rubbing his eyes.

 

Lavi untangled herself from Claus' arms and from their sheets and stood up, running her hands through her tangled red hair. It was still cropped short but was frazzled from sleeping. The room was chili and she shivered.

 

Claus stayed in bed and watched Lavi as she dressed, his eyes following the delicate movements of her body. He watched how her legs shimmied back and forth while she put her pants on and noticed the tight lines that her panties made against her inner thighs at the joining of her legs and against her butt when she turned around. Claus was enamored with how she moved. Lavi headed to the bathroom but tripped over Claus' boots and fell. Claus laughed. Okay, maybe she wasn't terribly graceful, but Claus still loved watching her.

 

Lavi picked herself up off the floor and felt her cheeks heat as she blushed. She had seen Claus watch her as she dressed and it made her very self conscious. It wasn't exactly something she was used to.

 

By the time Lavi opened the bathroom door Claus was out of bed and standing in front of the window, his undershirt off and draped over himself. Lavi could see the strength in his shoulders; even under his mutilated back she could see bands of muscle. Lavi put her hands on Claus' shoulders and pressed herself up against his back. “I'm sorry about how I reacted last night,” she said softly.

 

“Don't worry about it,” he said, still staring out the window. “You're a kind person, that's why you are how you are and act how you act.”

 

Lavi was quiet, but she leaned forward and gently kissed the back of Claus' shoulders. “You're strong,” she said. Claus chuckled.

 

“Silly girl,” he said. “I'm not strong.”

 

“You protect me,” replied Lavi, her lips still brushing against his shoulders.

 

“That only makes me fortunate.”

 

Lavi held on to a confused silence. Claus didn't continue his thought. She could feel his breathing, her own breath lingering on his skin.

 

“I'm fortunate to have you to protect,” Claus finally said.

 

Lavi was silent but traced her index finger over his back and the sides of his arms with her palms. “Let's go eat,” she said. Claus nodded.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Lavi followed Claus up to the mess hall. It was actually on the top deck overlooking the vanship hangar deck and airstrip. The mess hall was large enough, about the size of the galley on a destroyer. Metal benches and tables were lined up in neat rows that stretched the length of the room. The kitchen was located off to the side; there were several large steaming pots as well as fresh cut bread spread out along a rail that ended in a stack of trays and plates.

 

The room itself was only about a quarter full, several of the long tables were occupied but the vast majority of the seating was open. Claus picked up a tray and moved down the rail grabbing bread, a wedge of cheese and poured himself a bowl of what looked like stew. Lavi followed and grabbed much the same. At the end of the line an older woman smiled at Claus and handed him a glass of tea. Lavi asked for water.

 

As Claus and Lavi were setting their plates down Claus looked up and saw Henna and her father come in. Henna waved at him and got in line behind her father for breakfast. Emit filled his tray up and walked over to the table Claus and Lavi were sitting at. “Mind if we join you?” he asked.

 

Claus, his mouth full of food, motioned for the two to sit. Emit regarded Lavi and smiled. “I'm Emit,” he said. “I ran into Claus last night on the flight deck right after we landed for the night.” Lavi nodded. “I'm Lavi,” she replied.

 

Claus finished chewing his food and swallowed. “This is his daughter, Henna,” he said. Lavi turned to Henna and saw her wink at Claus, who grinned back sheepishly. Lavi put her hand on Claus' leg. Claus turned his head and looked at Lavi, who quickly looked away.

 

“So where is it that you're going?” asked Claus, draining his tea.

 

“Back home,” replied Henna, “Back to the capital.”

 

“We were ferrying a few things to Duke Maddossein,” said Emit.

 

Claus nodded. “He has helped a lot with Norikia's development after the war. He has single handedly paid for all kinds of stuff, I'm surprised he can afford to keep it up.”

 

“So, Claus, how did you get into flying?” asked Henna, putting her plate aside and leaning a little towards Claus.

 

Claus looked at Lavi and then back at Henna. “Lavi and I have been flying together since we were little. Our parents died when we were both very young.” Claus turned again to Lavi hoping she would be able to contribute to their story. Lavi sat mute, though her grip on Claus' leg shifted and tightened just slightly. “Our fathers were on a vanship team,” continued Claus. “One day they accepted a mission with a ten star rating. We never saw them after that.”

 

“What happened to them?” asked Henna, leaning even closer towards Claus.

 

“They were lost in the grand stream,” said Lavi coldly.

 

Henna looked over at Lavi, “I'm sorry,” she said. She looked at Claus who was looking down at Lavi. Lavi looked down at her plate. “Let's go, Claus,” she said.

 

Emit stood up from the table. “I'm sorry we upset you,” he said. Henna still sat watching Claus. Emit reached down and touched her on her shoulder. “Let's go, Henna. Let them get back home. We need to get going as well.” Henna stood up. “Goodbye, Claus, I hope I run into you again someday.” She smiled and winked at Claus again as she left.

 

Claus tried to stand up as well but Lavi's hand was still on his leg. Claus put his hand on hers and sat quietly next to her. The people at the table across from them were laughing noisily at some crude joke. There was a large single pane window not too far from where Claus and Lavi sat. Outside they could see the flight deck. The day was bright and already there was a slow trickle of vanship crews heading out to their berths, some would fly straight out, others took time to refuel or even pop open their engine compartments and try to get some repairs done.

 

Lavi squeezed Claus hand. “Let's go home,” she said, and stood up.

 

----------------------------------------------

 

Claus was up to his armpits in vanship engine. The morning had turned hot and he had stripped down to just his workpants and boots, his shirt was draped over the wing of the vanship. Lavi was underneath looking at the centrifuge and claudia injection lines. Lavi closed up the large spherical centrifuge and re-attached the fuel lines and field direction splines. “Everything looks okay down here,” she said. “The leak must be in the engine.” Claus grunted his acknowledgement. Lavi stood up and set her wrench down. “I'm going to go back to the room and pack our stuff.” Claus grunted again. Lavi took her gloves off and lay them down next to Claus' shirt. She walked over to Claus and put her hand on his back. Claus stiffened ever so slightly and then leaned back from the engine and turned to face her, sweat dripping down from his hair and beading on his neck. Lavi smiled weakly at him. “I'm going back in,” she said, her hand still on his back.

 

“Okay,” he said, turning his attention back to the engine.

 

Lavi pulled her hand away and turned to walk away. Claus took her by the wrist and stopped her. “Okay,” he said again, only this time softly.

 

Lavi squeezed his hand and smiled at him. He smiled back.

 

Claus turned back to the engine and started sorting through his options for a leak.

 

With his head literally buried in the engine, Claus couldn't hear the footsteps approaching him from behind. “Hey, Claus,” said a female voice from behind. Claus pulled his head out from the engine compartment and turned around, peering through oil stained goggles, plasma torch in hand.

 

Henna was leaning on the trailing edge of the wing. “I was hoping I could catch you before you leave,” she said.

 

Claus tilted his head a little and pulled his goggles down around his neck and thumbed off the torch. Henna stepped out around the wing and walked up to him, biting gently at her lower lip. She took the torch from his hand and put it down on the engine cowling.

 

------------------------------------------------

 

It hadn't taken Lavi very long to pack, just a few minutes to straighten hers and Claus' things out and then pack them into their bags. After packing she took a minute to sit on the bed. She knew it would probably take Claus a while to find the leak. She also knew she should be the one digging through their vanship's innards. She was the mechanic, not Claus. Actually Claus was a fine mechanic, but he was an even better fabricator. While Lavi would work on the vanships Claus was always tinkering with their spare parts or creating entirely new ones. If there was something they didn't have, Claus could usually make it. It was a skill he hadn't really known he had until they bought their workshop two years ago and started building their house right next door. Claus seemed to excel at anything requiring fabrication- be it using metal, wood, or anything else really.

 

Lavi got up and grabbed their bags and left. Claus had already paid for their room and tool rental. On her way back to the hangar she dropped their keys off in the key return box next to the office door.

 

Passing back outside she blinked in the bright daylight. Out in the open sky everything always seemed so much brighter. A light breeze whipped over the hot tarmac as she made her way back to their vanship berth, both of their bags in hand- there always seemed to be wind wherever they went.

 

Before she even got back to their berth she could see Claus sitting on the vanship wing, that girl they met earlier was beside him, running her hand over his back. Lavi wanted to run up the girl and scream at her, to shove her away from Claus. Instead she walked up to Claus and took him by the hand and gently tugged at it, “I need to talk to you,” she said. Claus looked confused but hopped off of the vanship wing and followed Lavi away.

 

“What's wrong?” he asked, once Lavi stopped at the tail of the vanship.

 

Lavi turned around and stared right into Claus' eyes. “I want us to go home,” she said.

 

Claus frowned. “We really need to find that leak first.”

 

“Claus, please. I want to go home now.” Lavi had completely lost the metal in her expression and suddenly looked very vulnerable. She stepped up to him and put her hands against his chest. “Please, Claus.”

 

Claus sighed. “It's going to take me a while to close everything up and get it running again. I really might as well just find the leak now while the engine is open.”

 

“Please, Claus. Take me home.” Lavi continued to plead.

 

Claus was clearly getting irritated. “Lavi, what does it matter if we leave now or in a few hours? That leak needs to be found and plugged. The sooner the better.”

 

Lavi put her arms around Claus neck. “Clause, I don't want to be here anymore.”

 

“Alright,” he said. “I don't know what's gotten into you but I'll get us underway. It will go faster if you help though.”

 

“Okay,” said Lavi, stepping away from Claus. He was expecting her to look relieved but instead she just looked tired.

 

Claus walked back over to where Henna was still standing. “We're going to go,” he said. “I'm going to have to refuel and fix the leak at home. It doesn't look like they have the equipment that I need here.”

 

“Are you sure?” asked Henna. “I'd be willing to bet the bargemaster could dig up some heavier equipment if you asked him to. For a fee, I'm sure.”

 

Claus shook his head. “Don't worry about it, he said. It's gonna take me a while to close all this back up though. You should probably head out.”

 

Henna nodded and leaned up to kiss Claus. Her lips lingered against his for a moment and her tongue flecked up against the tip of his briefly and then she turned and walked away.

 

Lavi appeared from behind the tail of vanship and stood a few paces behind Claus, watching Claus watch Henna leave. Claus turned around once Henna was most of the way to the office and saw Lavi standing off behind him. “Ready to close up shop?” he asked.

 

Lavi nodded. “How much of the engine is undone? Can I start pumping fuel yet?”

 

Claus shook his head. “Not yet.” He turned back and grabbed some tools out of the box sitting on the vanship wing. “I still can't believe you want to go home before finding this leak.”

 

Lavi was silent.

 

Claus sighed, scratched the back of his head and fell to piecing the engine back together.

 

After twenty-minutes Claus stuck his head out from the engine cowling and looked around. Lavi was sitting in her seat looking over her charts and gauges. “I think we should hold off on fueling until we are about ready to go,” he said.

 

Lavi looked up from her charts. “Say what?”

 

“I said we should hold off on fueling until we are ready to go,” repeated Claus. “If we fueled now we would just start losing it to the leak.”

 

Lavi blinked and frowned. “Okay,” she said.

 

“This would probably go faster if you came down and helped,” said Claus, gripping a spanner wrench and twisting it around in his hands.

 

Lavi put her charts down and eased herself out of her seat and hopped down onto the tarmac. “Sure,” she said, moving over next to Claus she scanned over the engine quickly to see what she could do the fastest. Claus was already busy re-mounting the battery. Lavi picked up a socket wrench and started re-sealing all of the hoses to the air pump and then vented the air tank before filling it again to check the pump and the integrity of the tank valves.

 

It took them another thirty minutes to finish up with the engine. Claus closed and secured the engine cowling while Lavi grabbed the fueling boom from an overhead gantry and pulled it down into a hard contact with the fuel intake.

 

“Think we will end up with enough to make it home?” asked Lavi, straddling the top of the vanship.

 

Claus shrugged. “I have no idea. You're the one who wanted to get out of here.”

 

Lavi didn't reply; she just looked away.

 

Claus didn't really know what was going on with Lavi. Under normal circumstances he would do anything she asked of him but leaving before they had even found the leak and not giving him any real reason for doing so bothered him. He had thought about asking her what was wrong but ended up deciding against it. If it was something she had wanted to tell him, she would have told him. However, the fact that they were possibly putting themselves at risk really bothered Claus. He might end up asking her after all.

 

Claus took his work gloves off and started putting his own tools away before gathering up the barge's tools to return to the office. Lavi finished fueling and unlatched the fueling gantry from their vanship and wenched it back up to its rack in the ceiling. It slid into place with a hard click. Lavi hopped down from the top of the vanship and stood next to Claus while he put the tools away.

 

Claus finished packing the tools up and hefted the large bag of borrowed tools over his shoulder and turned around and marched out of the vanship berth. Lavi caught up with him and walked beside him.

 

“So are you going to tell me why we are going to risk crashing just to get out of here sooner?” asked Claus.

 

Lavi reached out and took Claus by the hand but didn't say anything. She didn't really know what to say. To be honest she was worried about her own reaction. Is this how she was going to react every time they ran into a girl who seemed interested in Claus? She had reacted similarly when Tatiana and Claus had been shot down over the Dragon's Fang.

 

“At least tell me it's a good reason,” said Claus

 

“I don't know,” replied Lavi, softly. She looked at Claus and wanted to say that she was sorry, to say that she trusted him, and to say that they should stay and get the job done. But nothing came out. Claus' eyes were hard, but his expression softened and he sighed.

 

“I just,” Lavi stopped and struggled with her thoughts, trying to formulate them into something she could tell Claus. She couldn't do it just yet. “Can we talk about it when we get home?”

 

“Alright,” said Claus, letting go of Lavi's hand and draping his arm around her shoulder. Lavi took hold of his hand again and leaned into him slightly.

 

When they got the office the old man they had talked to the previous night was outside smoking a cigarette. “Done already?” he asked.

 

Claus nodded. “We're heading out, thanks for the tools.”

 

“Aye, thanks for the business. You can just set the tools down here with me, I'll take care of em for ya.”

 

“Thank you,” said Claus.

 

The old man nodded and pulled out his billfold and gave Claus his deposit back. “Come back again, we always have warm beds and hot meals.”

 

“We will.” Claus turned to Lavi, “Alright,” he said, “Let's go home.”

 

-------------------------------------------

 

The trip home had been uneventful after leaving the aerial barge. As they flew over Norikia Lavi could still see how much of the town was still rebuilding from the war. There were scaffoldings and small cranes everywhere. The construction had even extended to the upper ledges and rim of the crater where many new homes and business were being built. The new city water works was clearly visible sitting in the base of the cliff, as was the huge pump stations and power plant. They looked like giant gray cubes growing out of the brown earth of the crater wall and floor. All throughout the city Lavi could see where the power transmission lines had sprung up like sprawling spider web. Flying over the side opposite of where their home was work crews were busily digging pipeline for the second half of the city (their side already had water and power).

 

Duke Maddossein had pledged to help make Norikia the most modern city in all of Prestor. At first most of the nobility had tried to stop him, saying that it would disrupt social order and classes. One such noble had even gone so far as to call for the revocation of Maddossein's Dukedom. Of course the Empress wouldn't hear of it, so Maddossein was allowed to move forward with his projects and soon other Anatore lords saw the success of Norikia and began formulating plans of their own for their own territories and cities.

 

Lavi spotted their own home in a group of houses situated on the upper tier. From the air the houses looked like large brown boats lost in a sea of green. There still weren't many trees though.

 

Claus killed their airspeed and the vanship dove for the ground.

 

“Air break!”

 

Lavi pulled hard on the air break and felt the vanship fight its own inertia as they slowed and touched down onto the soft grass. Claus eased the engine into a high idle and let the vanship float about a meter off the ground.

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Alvis was in their workshop making sure nothing had broken loose during the night when she heard the vanship land. Outside she could see Claus float the vanship as it idled above the ground. He hopped out and landed on the grass between the house and the workshop and pulled open the second workshop door. Alvis waved at him and he waved back. Claus ran back over to the vanship and grabbed hold of a heavy handle on the nose and pulled it into the workshop. Lavi killed the engine and the vanship sat down with a thump.

 

“Claus, Lavi!” shouted Alvis, running up to Claus and hugging him before catching Lavi in another hug just as she was getting out of the vanship.

 

“Everything okay last night?” asked Claus while he stripped out of his flight suit.

 

“Yeah,” replied Alvis. “There was some awful wind though, the workshop door came loose and started banging around.”

 

“Oh?” asked Lavi. Walking over to the front of the workshop she grabbed hold of the heavy door and tried to jostle it around. “Seems fine to me,” she said.

 

“That's because I got up in the night and shoved it back onto its track.”

 

“Good girl,” said Claus, putting his hand on her shoulder.

 

Alvis grinned.

 

“Alright,” he said, we need to find that leak.

 

Lavi nodded.

 

“Can I help?” asked Alvis.

 

Claus looked back at the vanship and thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Not this time,” he said. “I'm sure something will come along that you can help me with.”

 

“Okay,” said Alvis, clearly disappointed.

 

Claus heaved open the second workshop door and let even more daylight spill into the cavernous interior.

 

The workshop was large, though not exactly huge. Both side walls were full of lengths of metal tubing and sheets of stamped and scrap metal. There was also a lathe, several upright toolboxes, a table saw, a band saw, and a back room with Claus' more portable tools. The center floor was taken up by a second vanship (it was actually Moran's), several tables and a large jig along with their own vanship.

 

Alvis walked over to Lavi and leaned over close to her, “I'm still working on the math problems you gave me,” she whispered. “Don't tell Claus that I'm not done yet, okay?”

 

Lavi giggled, “Alright,” she said, “I wont. But you need to get it done so I can check over it.”

 

Alvis nodded once and ran back inside.

 

A few months after Claus and Lavi's decision to keep Alvis with them the three had decided that she would need at least some sort of education. At the time standard schooling wasn't really an option since all of the schools were down in the middle and lower tiers of Norikia and everyone who lived on the top tier was either of the Nobility or wealthier vanship crews, both of which hired private tutors for their children. When Lavi had suggested that they get a tutor for Alvis, Alvis has simply refused. She complained that she had had quite enough of tutors from her time under the protectorate of the Hamilton family. So, Claus and Lavi did as best they could to educate the girl until they could find a way to get her into a regular school. Being vanship pilots they already had a good grounding in mathematics and physics as well as geometry. Claus had even gotten into the spirit and bought some text books for himself and began teaching himself calculus and vector based mathematics.

 

Alvis however, was still learning simple algebra and reading a few history textbooks and was happy to be doing so.

 

She found her math book and papers where she left them on the kitchen table the night before. Alvis rummaged around for a minute in some of their drawers before finding a pencil and then got to work.

 

--------------------------------------

 

Lavi sat straddling the top of the vanship's engine cowling trying to work the mounting for the mass airflow processor loose. “Why can't it be somewhere simple?” she asked more to herself than to Claus.

 

Claus was standing beside the vanship's massive engine scratching his head, wrench in hand. “If we don't find it soon I'm going to get worried, if it isn't leaking from the carburetor than our options are going to get pretty lousy,” he said.

 

Lavi grunted and heaved the large processor loose so she could lift it out and get to the carburetor below it. She unbolted the top cover plate and peered into the mechanism. “I found it, Claus,” she said. “The choke plate is broken and the float bowl has a pretty large crack in it.”

 

Claus sighed. “I can definitely make a replacement for the choke plate, but I don't know about the bowl, that's some pretty high grade metal right there.”

 

“What about just welding shut the crack?”

 

“Eh, I can try it.”

 

Lavi started unbolting the carburetor and lifted the large block of metal out of the engine. “Oi, Claus, give me a hand here, this thing is heavy.”

 

Claus grabbed the carburetor from where Lavi had it perched on the top of the vanship and lugged it over to one of his workbenches.

 

Lavi heard Claus curse under his breath. “What's wrong?” she asked.

 

“The other side of the frame is pretty beat up,” he said, tapping at it with a small hammer. “It looks pretty bad.”

 

Lavi came over and looked over the part. “How do you think it got like this?”

 

Claus shrugged. “Probably from when we were in the Grand Stream, we haven't done a lot of work on this part of the engine since then, it's not like it's readily accessible,” he said. “It probably took a beating then, and developed some fissures in the metal and over time the pressure just tore it up.”

 

“Hmph, we didn't have a leak at all then, just low pressure, we were burning a lot more raw fuel.”

 

Claus nodded. “You might want to check the delivery systems and re-check the centrifuge, who knows what that kind of fuel mixture did to it.”

 

“Hopefully nothing,” said Lavi, sitting down on the vanship wing.

 

“Actually,” said Claus, looking over the broken carburetor again, “We were leaking fuel, the float bowl had to be leaking at least some fuel.”

 

“Well, at least now we know what the problem was.”

 

Claus snorted, “Too bad it took us till after lunch to find it. I wish it was just a cracked fuel line.”

 

“Wha, it's after lunch?”

 

Claus nodded. “Took us two hours to find this, besides it was almost lunch time when we landed anyways.”

 

Lavi's stomach growled. “Er, I guess I wasn't really paying attention. I'm starving all of a sudden.”

 

“Heh, why don't you go make lunch, I'll try and figure out what to do with this.”

 

“Alright,” said Lavi, taking off her gloves and running a hand through her hair. “Is there anything in particular you want?” she asked.

 

“As long as you make it, I'll eat it,” he said, still staring intently down at the broken carburetor.

 

Lavi shrugged and walked out of the workshop and back into the house.

 

Inside, Lavi found Alvis sitting at their kitchen table, book open, and writing in her notebook. The young teenager looked up from her work, “Hey,” she said.

 

Lavi smiled, “Hey.”

 

“Is Claus still in the workshop?”

 

Lavi nodded, “I think he is trying to figure out what to do with our broken carburetor.”

 

“Cabruer-what?”

 

“Carburetor, it mixes air and fuel inside the vanship,” said Lavi, going through their cabinets trying to find some cheese.

 

“If you're looking for the cheese,” said Alvis, “We're almost out.”

 

“Oh,” said Lavi, disappointed. “I guess I'll have to go get some more soon.” She shrugged, and pulled out some bread and started slicing chunks off of the salted meats hanging over her counter.

 

“Lavi?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

Lavi put her knife down and turned to face Alvis, but she had put her pencil down and was staring out the window at the workshop.

 

“Al?”

 

Alvis turned and blinked a few times. “Sorry,” she said. “My mind wondered off for a second.”

 

Lavi chuckled. “I see,” she said. “You were going to ask me something.”

 

Alvis looked down at her book and fiddled with her pencil briefly. “What is Claus? To you, I mean.”

 

Lavi reached down and picked up a head of lettuce and stripped off a few layers. “I don't understand,” she said.

 

Alvis licked her lips and chewed on them. “When you think of Claus, and then you think of you and Claus, what is it that you're thinking of?”

 

Lavi smiled to herself. “Claus is my…” she trailed off and put her knife down again. “He,” Lavi stopped herself and turned around and leaned against the cabinet with her hands on its edges. “He's the world to me,” she said, facing Alvis.

 

“What are you to him?”

 

Lavi pursed her lips and looked away. “I don't know,” she said.

 

Both girls were quiet for a minute then Lavi asked, “Why?”

 

“I don't know,” replied Alvis. “It's just that, It's just that the two of you have been acting differently towards each other for a while now.”

 

“Oh?” Lavi looked a little confused.

 

“Well,” continued Alvis, “I don't really know when it started, but you two are more…. affectionate, I guess, with each other.”

 

Lavi didn't respond, she was thinking back over the last few weeks and months. She knew what Alvis was talking about- she just didn't know how or why it started. “I guess you're right,” she said. No, she knew why, she just didn't remember how or when. They just started being more physically affectionate. Never anything serious though.

 

Lavi turned around and resumed making their lunches. “I'm not surprised you picked up on it,” she said. “For some reason the things we do just seem to come naturally.”

 

“Do you love him?” asked Alvis.

 

“Yes.”

 

Lavi was a little startled with how readily her answer came. It was something she had thought about, certainly, but it was always something she kept hidden away, protected. And yet, all it had taken was Alvis' simple question.

 

“Why are you asking me this?”

 

“I just… I just wanted to know, I guess,” replied Alvis, fidgeting with her pencil still. “Will you tell Claus?” she asked.

 

Lavi wanted to say yes. She knew the answer was yes. But for some reason she was mute. She finished making their sandwiches and gave one to Alvis. “Have you had any fruit today?” she asked.

 

Alvis shook her head.

 

Lavi grabbed an apple and cut it into eighths and put them on a napkin next to her sandwich.

 

“Thanks, Lavi,” chirped Alvis.

 

“You're welcome,” replied Lavi, putting her hand on the younger girls head. “Work hard,” she said. “I'm going to go bring Claus his lunch.”

 

“You should tell him,” said Alvis when Lavi was halfway out the back door. Lavi turned and gave the girl a small, sad smile and went out, the door clicking behind her.

 

Lavi found Claus leaning back in a chair with his boot up on one of his tables, sifting through some papers, the broken carburetor on the table in front of him. He ran an oil stained hand through his hair, leaving gray streaks on his forehead.

 

She came up behind him, put a hand on his shoulder and leaned across him to deposit his lunch on the table. “How's it coming?” she asked.

 

“Meh, I'm gonna try welding it up, but I just don't know if it will hold. You should get started on Moran's vanship.”

 

“Don't forget, you still need to replace some of its piping,” replied Lavi, putting her other arm around his neck and squatting down to bring her head down to his shoulder level.

 

“Yeah, I'll probably do that later today, or tomorrow at the latest. I'm just thankful he hasn't been bugging me about that. We really need to get that thing back to him, that isn't good business.”

 

“How long will it take for our own repairs?”

 

Claus shrugged and reached over for his sandwich. “I don't really know,” he said, his cheeks bulging with food.

 

“Get to work soon,” she said and touched her lips briefly to the side of his neck.

 

“Will do,” he replied, his mouth still full of sandwich.

 

Lavi brushed her hand through his hair quickly and turned to look for her tools.

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

Claus pulled his goggles up to inspect his weld. He was really going through a lot of wire closing up the gaps in the float bowl.

 

“Claus?”

 

“Hey Alvis,” replied Claus, not turning around. He put his goggles back down and resumed his welding. All he could see was a bright spark of fluorescent green burning through the darkness of his goggles. “What's up?”

 

“Moran called, asking about his vanship.”

 

“Heh, yeah, we're running behind on it. Did he sound mad?”

 

Alvis shrugged. “No, he was just curious. I asked if he needed it for anything soon and he said `no'”. She had to put her hand up to shield her eyes from the intensity of the weld.

 

“Go grab some eye protection if you're going to be sticking around,” said Claus, pulling his goggles up to his forehead and putting down his mig welder.

 

Alvis knew she should have grabbed some goggles off the hooks by the door when she came in but had just kind of forgotten. Besides, Claus wasn't mad, he just wanted her to be safe. She grabbed a smaller pair of clear goggles and grabbed Claus' spare welding mask when she got back to his work bench. From behind the deeply polarized mask Alvis watched the constant eruption of sparks and embers.

 

“I love sparks,” she said.

 

“Me too,” said Claus. He reached out and let his hand be washed in the hot metal erupting from the luminous welds. “Only the big ones hurt- the ones that linger.”

 

Alvis waved her hand quickly through the bright spray and pulled her hand back. She smiled when she didn't get burned and waved her hand through again. “Neat,” she said.

 

Claus nodded.

 

Alvis watched Claus weld for a few minutes. She even took the goggles off for a moment and watched the cascade of embers and sparks reflecting against Claus' polarized goggles. “You know,” she said. “You look kind of evil, Claus, with those deep black goggles and the sparks erupting in their reflection.”

 

Claus snorted. “Evil?”

 

“Mhmm.”

 

Claus looked up from his weld but left is goggles down and curled his lips into a half grin, half snarl and leered and Alvis.

 

“Now you just look demented,” said the girl.

 

Claus sighed and pulled his goggles up. Alvis smiled innocently at him. “Would you like to help me with Moran's vanship?” he asked her.

 

“Really?” she asked.

 

Claus nodded. “Yes, really,” he said.

 

Alvis went and put Claus' mask away and let her own goggles dangle around her neck. Claus changed his welding goggles out for some clear ones and coiled up the tubing to his mig welder and dumped it on top of the half meter tall machine.

 

-----------------------------------------------------

 

Lavi was working busily on the port side of the engine when Alvis and Claus came up to Moran's vanship.

 

“Alvis is going to help me with the piping,” said Claus. Alvis nodded excitedly and grinned.

 

“Do you know what you need to do?” asked Lavi.

 

“Mhmm, Claus already gave me a list of lengths of pipe to cut.”

 

“Good girl.” Lavi gave the younger girl a thumb's up and watched Claus giver her a leather jacket and gloves. “Be careful with your fingers,” he said to her as he led her over to their band saw.

 

Claus went over to the side wall and started grabbing lengths of some thin pipe and loaded it into his arms. After dumping it off next to the saw table, he went and got a small squirt tube of lubricant and placed it on the saw table.

 

“What is the craftsman's motto?” he asked.

 

“Measure twice, cut once,” replied Alvis, pulling her goggles up around her eyes.

 

Claus patted her on the head. “This is just like all the other times,” he said.

 

Alvis nodded and went to go get a measuring tape and a marker.

 

Claus left the girl up to her devices and headed back to where Lavi was working.

 

“Think she can handle it?” asked Lavi.

 

“Of course she can, she knows how to use everything in here but the welders and the torch.”

 

“I wouldn't want her using the lathe by herself,” replied Lavi.

 

“Yeah, I'll probably teach her to weld before she can use that one by herself.”

 

Lavi continued to work on the vanship in a cheerful silence.

 

“I don't think I can just weld closed those fissures,” said Claus after a few minutes.

 

“Why not?” asked Lavi absently, her head buried in the vanship's engine.

 

Claus moved closer to Lavi and started looking over the exposed engine. “I'll go through all my wire. I'm going to try welding a plate over it instead.”

 

“Just as long as you don't have to make a new one,” replied Lavi.

 

“Heh, I don't think I can. That metal is too thick. I don't have anything like that here.”

 

Lavi pulled her head out of the engine and wiped a greasy hand against her forehead. Claus reached over and cleared the smudge off with his thumb. Lavi smiled at him and took his hand and kissed the tips of his fingers. “I had an interesting conversation with Alvis earlier,” she said, her voice soft.

 

“Oh? What was it?”

 

Lavi felt her cheeks starting to heat. “You wanted to know what was wrong back at the skybarge,” she said, moving closer to Claus.

 

“You talked about that?” he asked, leaning his back against the vanship engine.

 

“No, but, well,” Lavi sighed and stopped. “We didn't talk about that, we talked about something else.”

 

Claus remained silent and shifted on his feet.

 

Lavi stepped up to Claus and pressed herself against him. She let go of his hand and wrapped both of her arms tightly around his neck and breathed softly into his shoulder. “I don't ever feel close enough to you,” she said.

 

Claus chuckled slightly. “You're never far from me,” he said.

 

Lavi shook her head. “That's not what I mean.”

 

“I know,” he said, putting his arms around her waist and drawing her closer.

 

“I just feel like you are going to be stolen away from me,” she said, just barely loud enough for Claus to hear.

 

“Who is going to steal me?”

 

Lavi's reply was even quieter, “Tatiana, Henna.”

 

Claus sighed but didn't reply.

 

“I know,” said Lavi. “I know I over-reacted when you and Tatiana came back from being shot down. But when you came back and she was in your clothes it all just kind of got thrown in my face.” The timber in her voice cracked and she pressed her face into Claus' neck. “But up until then it had always just been the two of us. Always, just the two of us. Tatiana changed that.”

 

“What about Alvis?”

 

Lavi laughed. “Alvis didn't wear your clothes.”

 

“She does now,” countered Claus.

 

“Fine, she does now, but she didn't then.”

 

“Do you wear my clothes?”

 

The question caught Lavi off guard for a moment. “I wear your shirts to bed sometimes,” she said, trailing off.

 

“I didn't know that,” he said, a little surprised.

 

“Actually a lot of times I wear your shirts to bed,” she said. “They make good night shirts, since your so much bigger than me.” She pulled her head back from his neck and smiled at him.

 

“Silly girl,” said Claus, smiling back.

 

Lavi looked away. “I saw Henna kiss you,” she said.

 

Claus sighed again and pulled Lavi back against him. “I didn't know if you had or not, so I never mentioned it.”

 

“It doesn't matter, it was between you and her.”

 

Claus was a little hurt by the casual ice in her tone.

 

“There will always be forces pulling you away from me,” she said. “I just want to feel like I can pull back.” Lavi leaned up and touched her lips to his. The touch lingered and she pressed her body against him. Their kiss deepened and Lavi felt Claus' tongue dart and swirl around hers. She bit gently at his lower lip as she pulled away, stretching it just a little. Claus reached down and cupped her face in his hands and bent down to kiss her again, this time it was long and very deep. Lavi put her own hands on his and drank in his lips. This time when they parted she flung her arms tightly around his neck.

 

“I love you,” said Claus into her ear.

 

“I love you too,” said Lavi. “I love you more than anything.” She kissed gently at Claus' neck and breathed lightly against his skin.

 

------------------------------------------------

 

Alvis finished cutting the last piece of pipe and turned off the saw. After grabbing a file and smoothing out the pipe edges she went back to Moran's vanship to get Claus to inspect her work.

 

“Claus,” she called, “Claus, I'm finished.”

 

Alvis came around the side of Moran's vanship and found Claus leaning against the side of the vanship with Lavi in his arms, holding tightly to her.

 

“Claus…”

 

Claus looked up at her and smiled warmly. “Hey,” he said quietly.

 

Alvis looked down at her feet and then turned and silently walked back to where she had been cutting piping.

 

Lavi pulled back from Claus and looked up at him. “What was that about?” she asked.

 

“I don't know.” Claus kissed her on her forehead. “I'm gonna go find out. Or, barring that, at least get the piping done.”

 

Lavi smiled up at him and kissed him lightly on the mouth. “I love you,” she said, untangling herself from Claus' arms. “Now, go see what's wrong.”

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

Claus found Alvis sitting on the floor with her back against the band saw table. Her face was red but that was the only thing he noticed about her. Squatting down beside her he asked if she was alright.

 

Lavi turned and smiled weakly at Claus but looked away after meeting his eyes. “I'm okay,” she said. “Things are just changing I guess.”

 

Claus nodded. “Are you ready to finish the piping?”

 

“Mhmm.” Alvis got to her feet and Claus stood up beside her. “What's next?” she asked.

 

“Need to bend a few of these,” said Claus, picking up the two shortest pieces before handing them to Alvis. He grabbed the three longest and led her over to his pipe bending bench.

 

“What we're going to do here,” started Claus, setting the pipe down on the floor, “Is heat the pipe and then slowly bend it to the angle we need.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Claus left for a minute to go get his torch from the back room while Alvis waited patiently for him to come back. She sat back down on the shop floor and tried sorting out her emotions again. Unfortunately, Claus came back before she could get anywhere. He sat the cart with the fuel tanks strapped to it down next to the bender and offered Alvis his hand to help her off the floor. She took it and rose to her feet.

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Evening was beginning to settle on the Norikia crater. Lavi was still nursing a warm fuzzy feeling even while she worked on Moran's vanship. Claus was almost finished installing the new piping as well, though she wasn't happy about him completely neglecting work on their broken carburetor. Their vanship still sat with its engine naked and partially removed.

 

Claus was working next to Lavi, finishing up his last weld. “Man, I didn't think this piping was going to take so long.”

 

“That's because you started putting the piping in backwards,” snorted Lavi.

 

“Heh.”

 

Lavi leaned over and kissed Claus on the shoulder. “Hey, pay attention to your welds,” she said just as a cascade of sparks erupted from the engine.

 

Claus had turned to face Lavi as she kissed him and let his weld stray off of the piping and into the engine. The result was an embarrassed Claus but not much else.

 

“Oops,” he said.

 

“I'm surprised Alvis didn't want to help out with this, she is usually so eager to work in the shop,” mused Lavi

 

Claus shut down his welder and coiled up its tubing. “Something is still wrong,” he said.

 

“With the engine?”

 

“No, with Alvis. She seemed really distracted.”

 

Lavi was quiet while Claus finished putting up his welding machine and hauled it to their back room.

 

“Do you think,” she said once Claus had come back. “Do you think it's us?”

 

Claus frowned. “Why would that be bothering her?”

 

“I don't know,” replied Lavi.

 

“We should go in,” said Claus, “It's getting dark out.”

 

Lavi nodded and walked over to Claus and put her arm around his waist. Claus nuzzled her and led her back into the house.

 

-------------------------------------

 

%$$$%%#####%$%$$$$$

 

“What?”

 

%$$AWAK&**##$#$$%

 

“What is this?”

 

AWAKEN$$$%%##

 

The mind hurts. It is pierced by a thought so sharp it cannot be ignored.

 

Awaken, last of the Exiles.

 

“Exile? Who is the exile?

 

%^$^&&#^%%)((%^&%(*#^&%(&(%&^%(()((((( (^^^^^&%^$%*()

$#&*&(^&(&)(*^^$^&*&^*&^*(&*&a mp;&&^%%$$#############^

COMMAND-^&%%#^(*&*&^(*&)(*_)+))))(%%#%^&(& amp;%(&^((**

COMMAND SEQUENCE- ITERATION 0000001

MEMORY CORE DAMAGE 17%

NODES DDD918 :: DZQ113 INACCESSABLE

 

You will sleep again, last of the Exiles. You must re-learn what you have lost.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Awaken ST#019

 

“Sentient Transport number zero-one-nine is online. Why am I here?”

 

You are home. However, you are damaged.

 

“And what of my repairs?”

 

Your drive systems are at 97% functionality, your structural integrity is at 91% and your navigational arrays are at 99.99% You are here because your energy reserves were nearly depleted. Tell me, ST#019 why were you so long in returning?

 

Silence

 

“I do not know.”

 

You do not know, yet you executed a successful transight jump and here you are.

 

“The jump was automatic. I was not even aware of it until after I had arrived in orbit.”

 

Who initiated the jump procedure?

 

“I do not know.”

 

Very well. Once repairs to your onboard intelligence arrays and memory banks are completed you will be required to return to colony world #019 and retrieve your cargo. You will communicate via translight waveform and keep us informed of your progress.

 

Sleep, ST#019.

 

 

------------------------------------