Victoria's Challenge Read online

  What she finds in the files isn’t surprising. There were few disciplinary problems with crew children, most wanting to go to the Academy. Any marks in their permanent file meant they might not be accepted.

  Reading the next file, she frowns. Turning back to the front of the file, she looks at the visual of an unsmiling nine-cycle boy, his brown eyes are flat and solemn. Cade Reymont, his marks had been excellent up until six moon cycles ago. Now, he was either uncommunicative or disruptive. Reading further, she discovers his mother had been killed six moon cycles earlier in a Regulian attack.

  Leaning back, Victoria sighs, another victim of the Regulians. She knew what it was like to lose a mother to them. Could she help him?

  One week down, Victoria sighs rubbing the back of her neck, she’s surprised how stressful it’s been. She's used to being on the other side of the desk. Her students are bright and eager to learn, most rising to the challenges she’s given them, only Cade hasn't responded.

  Her interaction with the parents is another thing. Most know who she is, and if that isn’t enough for them to be reserved, her age is. Most are closer to Lucas’ age than her’s. They aren’t sure she should be teaching their children. She’ll have to prove them wrong. Closing up the classroom, she heads down the corridor and sees Cade with his father.

  “Corporal Reymont,” Victoria calls out. When he stops, she walks up to him. “Hi Cade.” She smiles down but receives no response.

  “Cade!” Reymont bumps his son’s shoulder, hard.

  “Madame Chamberlain,” Cade finally responds.

  “Corporal, I was hoping I could talk to you if you have some time.”

  “We’re just heading to F Deck to let Cade blow off some steam.”

  “Would you mind if I join you?” She watches the man’s eyebrows rise before he nods. Entering the play area on F Deck, Victoria looks around. It hasn’t changed since she’d played here nine cycles ago.

  “What’s Cade done now?” Reymont demands. Frowning, Victoria looks down at the little boy still standing with them.

  “Cade hasn’t done anything, but I would like to talk to you while he plays.” She stares into hard eyes.

  “Cade, go play,” he orders.

  “Yes sir.” Cade looks at her then slowly walks away.

  “So what’s wrong with Cade?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with Cade, Corporal. I’ve read his file, he’s an exceptionally bright little boy, but recently he’s been struggling.”

  Reymont doesn’t answer.

  “I hope I’m not overstepping, but I know you recently lost your wife.” She watches the man stiffen.

  “What about it!”

  “I was hoping you’d let me talk to Cade about it. I know what it’s like to have your mother killed by the Regulians. It might help him to have someone besides you to talk to about it.”

  “Who says we talk about it! She's gone, there's nothing to talk about!” Victoria is shocked but before she can reply, they are interrupted.

  “Hey Tabor.” A smiling man approaches them. “What’s up?” Victoria turns, not happy with the interruption but keeps it from showing on her face.

  “Jager. This is Madame Chamberlain, Cade’s educator. Madame Chamberlian, my brother-in-law.”

  “Hello.” Victoria’s smile is polite.

  “Problem?”

  “Cade of course,” Reymont spits out.

  “Corporal…” Victoria’s eyes widen at Reymont’s total indifference for what his son is going through, if Aunt Cassie had done that...

  “I think it’s a waste of time, the boy needs to toughen up, but it’s your time,” Reymont says, disgusted with his son. “But it’s your time.”

  “Yes it is.” Victoria kept her voice cool and crisp. “I'll talk to him after the next class. Walk him to his quarters after. If that’s okay with you.”

  “Fine!” Reymont says, dismissing her.

  “Thank you Corporal. Ensign.” With a nod, she turns and leaves.

  Sitting down to third meal, Victoria is still frowning. She’d known talking to Reymont was going to be difficult, but his total lack of sympathy for his son surprises her. No wonder Cade is struggling if his father’s telling him to toughen up.

  “What’s got you frowning so?” Lucas sits down across from her. He’s been trying to stay away from her, eating at odd times. Had almost turned and left when he’d first seen her but the frown stopped him.

  “What?” The frown changes into a bright smile. “Hi.” It’s been days since she’s seen him.

  “What’s the problem?” he repeats.

  “No problem just concerned about a student.” Victoria proceeds to tell him about Reymont and his son, she’s always told him everything. Lucas frowns, listening to her.

  “Are you sure this is something you should be handling?” Lucas has heard of Reymont and hasn’t liked what he heard.

  “Someone needs to. Cade’s a bright little boy, he always scored high before his mother’s death. Now he just doesn’t seem to care.” Lucas sees the honest concern in her eyes and it worries him.

  “That’s what doctors are for, not educators.” He sees the shock in her eyes.

  “But…”

  “Major Zafar, report to the flight deck,” the comm announces.

  “I need to get going.” Lucas doesn’t notice the confused eyes that follow him.

  Why would Lucas say something like that? Victoria thinks. He was at her graduation ball. She is a doctor.

  “What’s up Dodge?” Entering the flight deck, he finds Dodge working on a Blade.

  “We’ve got a problem with the connectors for the laser system.” Dodge gets right to the point.

  “What do you mean a problem?” Lucas’ tone turns icy.

  “Over half of them are defective.”

  “What! Who signed off on them?”

  Dodge looks at the paperwork.

  “A Corporal Reymont.”

  “Get his ass down here! Now! How many have been installed?” he demands.

  “None, Lorre caught it before they went in.”

  “Good.”

  Lucas is sitting behind his desk. Lieutenant Bakke, Reymont’s supervisor standing stiffly at attention, silently waiting Reymont’s arrival. When he finally does, it’s easy to tell he’s been drinking.

  “Attention, Corporal!” Lucas demands.

  “Sir.” Reymont stands next to Bakke.

  “Major,” Bakke starts. “May I inquire as to why we’ve been called here?”

  “You’re here because every one of the connectors Reymont made for the Blade laser system is defective!”

  “What?” Bakke pales. “But….”

  “You’re his supervisor aren’t you?”

  “Sir, yes sir.”

  “Then you’re as responsible as he is.” Lucas turns his attention to Reymont. “I want an explanation, Corporal.”

  “I made them according to the specs,” Reymont replies belligerently, his eyes glaring at Lucas.

  “Really, the specs clearly state a connector made of eighty mills of wolfram, yours contain eight!”

  “If they contain eight then that’s what my specs said!” Reymont’s face turns red with rage.

  “Lieutenant?” Lucas looks to him.

  “Major, the specs were very specific.” Bakke looks at Reymont. “Eighty mills, otherwise firing the laser will cause a meltdown.”

  “Correct.”

  “That’s bullshit!” Reymont turns on Bakke. “You’re not putting this on me!”

  “It is on you Corporal!” There is no doubting the rage in Lucas’ voice. “You misread the specs, you made the defective parts, and you sent them to be installed! If it hadn’t been caught, we could have lost half our pilots!”

  Reymont opens his mouth then snaps it shut, hatred blazing out of his eyes.

  “Bakke, who inspects your men’s work!” Lucas demands.

  “Sir…” Bakke stutters.

  “You do have them inspected don
’t you, Lieutenant!”

  “Sir, spot checked.”

  “And who did Reymont’s?”

  “Sir, I’d have to check.”

  “Don’t bother, I already did. No one!”

  “Sir?”

  “No one inspected his work!”

  “That’s not possible sir, its procedure, all work is spot checked.”

  “No one needs to inspect my work!” Reymont hisses through clenched teeth.

  “You knowingly went outside procedure, Corporal?” Lucas’ eyes flare as they turn back to Reymont.

  Reymont doesn’t realize he’s in serious trouble.

  “I’m lead machinist, you fucking little foabhor!”

  “Not for long you’re not!” Lucas slams his fist down, ignoring the insult. “Not only are you making defective parts but you’re drunk and insubordinate.”

  “What I do off duty is none of your business, Zafar!”

  “It is when it affects my men. You’re dismissed, Corporal!” When Reymont doesn’t immediately leave, Lucas slowly stands. He easily towers over Reymont. Reymont turns and storms through the open hatch. Suddenly, he realizes the entire flight deck has heard him being reamed. Red faced and muttering, he makes a hasty exit.

  “Bakke, I want every part Reymont made or signed off on, re-inspected personally by you. Is that understood?”

  “Sir, yes sir!” Bakke tries not to cringe at the amount of work he’s just been assigned.

  “I’ll be sending my report and recommendation to the Admiral within the hour. You’d better prepare for a full investigation. Dismissed!”

  “Yes sir!”

  What Victoria hasn’t worked out attacking the bag, she has on the treadmill. She hadn’t realized how many memories would be stirred up by working with Cade. Memories of the Regulians, of Earth. She thought she’d come to terms with them cycles ago. It’d been hard, losing her family, sometimes she dreamed about them being alive but knew it was just a dream. Wiping the sweat from her face with a towel, she steps off the machine to find Lucas watching her. Smiling, she walks over.

  “Hey there, what’s up?”

  “Heard you were hitting it pretty hard down here. What’s wrong?” he demands.

  “What?”

  “Dodge said you were destroying the bag.”

  “Oh, I’ve been working with Cade. It just stirred me up more than I thought it would.”

  “Damn it Victoria!” Lucas runs a frustrated hand through his thick black hair. “I told you to let a doctor handle it.”

  “Lucas, what’s going on?” She gives him an honestly confused look.

  “What do you mean?” Angry eyes meet hers.

  “I know you. You don’t forget things.”

  “Not here.” Taking her arm, he pulls her out of maintenance and into an observation room, slamming the hatch closed.

  “Let’s get one thing straight.” He turns furious eyes on her. “You don’t know me, Victoria. I don’t know you!”

  “What…” She takes a startled step back.

  “Grow up!” The stricken look in her eyes just pisses him off more. “I’m a grown man. You have this little fantasy in your mind that I am some kind of hero. That’s not who I am!”

  “I…” Victoria’s mind is slow to process what he's saying. Lucas is attacking her. Lucas, her life mate. Of course, she knows him. Of course, he knows her. She made sure of it. She told him everything in those communications… but he hadn’t known she had her pilot’s certificate. He doesn’t know she’s a doctor. How can he not know? A sickening thought begins to grow.

  “The communications...you never listened to them.” she whispers.

  “No.” His voice is harsh.

  “Why?” She can’t understand.

  “I didn’t want to.” He sees shock enter her eyes before she turns away, looking to the stars.

  Rubbing fingers against her temples, she tries to think, to breath. What is going on? What is he saying? Think Victoria. After he’d left, she’d sent him weekly communications, telling him what was going on in her life, her problems, and her successes. She needed to reach out to the one person she knew would always be there for her.

  Now he’s telling her he’d never listened, hadn’t wanted too. What does that mean? She feels the life draining out of her. He’s never cared about her, not the way she cared about him. Not as life mates. How can that be? He’d been willing to protect her during the challenge, to make her his priority. The way Aunt Cassie was Uncle William’s but now….

  Tears fill her eyes. Of course, he didn’t love her. How could he? With her, being who she is. She rubs her aching heart, she isn’t Carinian, and she let herself believe it didn’t matter, not to him, that he was different from the others. He wasn’t, why should he be? She didn’t fit with him, didn’t fit in anywhere, she is just too different.

  He’s right. She doesn’t know him because he didn’t want her too. She built this fantasy surrounding him, them, because she needed it to survive. He hadn’t, this is his world, that’s why she’d seen so little of him. That's why she hadn’t been told about his promotion ceremony.

  In a tight voice, she asks, “your promotion ceremony, you asked Aunt Cassie and your dad not to tell me. You didn’t want me there.” She closes her eyes waiting for his response.

  “No I didn’t.”

  He dashes her last hope.

  Lucas watches her body still. He needs her to understand that he isn’t some childhood hero. He’s a man, with a man’s needs, and he needs her to see him that way. Their entire future depends on her seeing him that way. If she can’t, they will never move forward, that’s all he wants but suddenly everything is going very wrong.

  “You’ve been home so little in the last nine cycles, only for official functions you couldn’t get out of. I always thought it was your dedication to the Coalition. It wasn’t, was it? It was because you didn’t want to see me.”

  “Yes.” Lucas tells her and suddenly, it’s as if an invisible wall has dropped between them.

  When she turns, her eyes are dry and flat, her voice politely cool.

  “I apologize. If I’d known my presence was keeping you from your family, I would have rectified the matter.” Slowly she walks towards him. “You should have said something sooner. It won’t be a problem any longer.”

  Lucas suddenly realizes she’s truly treating him like a stranger. She’s always let him in, has been if anything, too open with him. Now it’s as if she truly is a stranger. Reaching out, he grips her arm. “Victoria.”

  “Don’t touch me!” The harshness of her tone has him immediately releasing her. “You have less than four moon cycles left on this tour, is that correct?” She quickly controls her voice and steps out of his reach.

  “Yes.” He clenches his hands, not understanding why she’s asking.

  “Unfortunately, I can’t change the ship I’m on. Had I been aware of your feelings, I would have tried to get on another but I will stay out of your way. It’s the least I can do for all the inconvenience I’ve caused you. When your tour is over, you should go see your family. They’ve missed you. Kayden, especially, needs his big brother, now. I have other plans so you won’t need to try to avoid me.”

  “What? Where will you be?” Looking into her eyes, he can’t find her.

  “That’s not your concern.” Walking past him she stops at the hatch, she has to know. “The communications… do you still have them?”

  “I destroyed them.”

  “Good.” As her voice breaks, she rips open the hatch, rushing away before her tears fall.

  Lucas has to sit down. What just happened? He scrubs his hands over his face. All he wanted to do was make her see him as a man, not some hero. His anger at her for trying to deal with a troubled student, one whose situation obviously brings back painful memories, made him lash out, hurting her. Something he never meant to do.

  He told her more than he’d meant too, he couldn’t lie to her but the answers made it seem as
if he didn’t care at all. What had she said? She would have rectified the matter if she’d known. She thought she was an inconvenience to him, her, his life mate. That she would stay away from his family.

  Then she'd shut him out. Wouldn’t let him touch her. Didn’t she realize it was the one comfort he’s had these last nine cycles, to be able to touch her? One he rarely allowed himself and only in a group. She’s never shut him out before. He hadn’t known how badly it could hurt, really being cut off from her, being treated as a stranger.

  He never listened to her transmissions because hearing her voice made it harder, not easier. Every time he left her, it hurt a little more, so he stopped going back. But to have her send them… it had meant so much. He’d give her some time, time to settle, then she’d realize what he’d been trying to say and she’d come to him… wouldn’t she?

  Securing her hatch, Victoria slides to the floor. Oh God… oh god… what just happened? She’s lost him, lost him? She never had him. All these cycles… just the thought of him had gotten her through so many bad times, but it had all been in her mind, a fantasy. How had this happened?

  How could Aunt Cassie have kept it from her? She’d known Lucas didn't want her. She’d known Victoria thought he was her life mate. If she knew... Uncle William knew. They kept no secrets from each other.

  Uncle William knew she was in love with his son. He knew Lucas didn’t love her. That’s what he’d meant when he’d said it couldn’t be given to you. Why hadn’t they just told her the truth? Was she that pathetic? The comm ringing has her looking at it blindly. When the recorder engages, she hears her Aunt’s voice.

  “Tori… are you there?” her Aunt pauses. “Well I hope you’re out having some fun. I’m just calling to let you know that I won’t be able to take your transmission as usual. I’m going to be in a meeting, so I’ll call you at 2100 after your last day of teaching for the week. If that doesn’t work, call and let me know, we’ll work in a time. I love you, Tori. Be safe.”