Duty Deferred
Rated SAFE
Part Three
Jim woke back in his hiding place. He had vague memories of walking back long after the moon had vanished below the horizon. He remembered Blair praying to it last night, and had an insane moment where he felt like he could get Blair back if he could just find the moon and offer his own prayers.
Crawling out into the light, Jim knew he had to head back to Patria. "If you have any pull over him, I wouldn't mind a little help," Jim jokingly said to the sky and the bright sun that shone through the trees. He didn't expect an answer, and the universe didn't disappoint him.
Feeling more tired than he had in his whole life, Jim headed down the trail away from Blair. His senses surged out of control, first magnifying the mottled light filtering through the trees so that it blinded Jim and then fading until the trees and air and sky turned almost gray.
Jim wanted to get home. He wanted a bath and a new set of clothes. Hell, he wanted his uniform. If he was going out on a zone, he didn't want to die still dressed in clothes from his desperate and crazy search. He didn't want to die dirty.
His scent had spiked, making him choke on the smell of rotting vegetation so strongly that Jim didn't even notice another sentinel or guide. He leaned against a tree, his fingers unable to even feel the texture of the bark as he leaned over and vomited again and again. The acidic sour made his nausea even worse until he dry heaved.
"Jim?" a voice almost whispered.
Jim jerked and twisted so hard that he lost his balance and sat heavily on a rock, barely missing his own pile of vomit.
"Rafe," Jim breathed, the guide scent only partially settling his rebelling senses.
"Oh fuck. What happened?" Simon asked as he stepped close. He held out his hand to help Jim up, and Jim took it, desperate to get away from the smell of his own vomit.
"I just need to get back to Patria, Simon."
"We're going straight to the enclave, and you're picking one of those guides. Period."
"Can't do it, Simon," Jim hoarsely confessed. His stomach ached from the painful heaves.
"What?"
Simon's words were angry, but his hands gently checked Jim for injures before he slipped an arm around Jim's waist. Rafe slipped in at the other side, and now the scent of sentinel and guide buffered the worst of the sensory overload.
"I can't bond with them," Jim repeated. "All five senses on another guide."
"Christ," Simon snapped. "And where is this guide?"
"He had a prior obligation," Jim joked. He could feel Rafe stiffen, the guide's anger leaking into the air before he quickly controlled the emotion.
"He didn't know I'd gotten taste," Jim defended Blair. "And I wouldn't have gotten touch, only I tackled him and held him on the ground."
"What the hell have you been doing?" Simon kept walking, and Jim let his feet mechanically move with his captain as he considered the answer.
"Fucking up," he finally admitted.
"In an impressive way," Simon joked. "Okay, forty-eight hours of isolation, and we can clear the imprint. Do you remember the names of any of the guides who didn't completely offend your precious nose?"
Jim shook his head. "Never going to make it, Simon. I'd rather go out with a little more dignity than naked and floating in a Zedgrav.
"Damn it, you are not giving up."
"Little late. Just help me get cleaned up and comfortable, okay? I'm serious; I don't want to die like this." Jim looked down at the ragged cloak. After sleeping in his clothes for so long, he smelled as bad as the outlanders.
"If you don't make it, I will pull you out of the Zedgrav and dress you myself, but you are not going to give up, is that clear Sentinel Guard Ellison?" Simon commanded.
Jim shook his head as a sound nagged at the edge of his awareness.
"Don't you dare zone now, Ellison. I will leave your stinking ass right here on the path if you let yourself slide away. You fight this."
Jim ignored that voice as his hearing stretched across the jungle.
"One foot in front of the other. Rafe, distract him with something other than hearing."
Footfalls. Angry. Shouts. Women screamed. Jim stopped.
"It's not working." Even though Rafe's voice rang so loud that it made Jim's skull vibrate, his hearing inched open even farther.
"Where's hero-boy?"
"He was from the city. He didn't understand."
"I hear he stopped and stayed with you for a while. If you're going to rent out rooms, we should get a part of that." A woman shrieked; the sound cut off as flesh hit flesh.
The Marks. Jim shook off the hands supporting him as he stumbled backwards on the path.
"Grab him," Simon called.
"You don't have to do this. Come on, he was an outsider. This isn't…" more flesh hitting flesh.
"Blair," Jim growled the word, the sound of Blair's fearful voice translating to fury in Jim's guts.
"Who?"
"My guide," Jim growled before he turned and charged down the path towards the compound, towards Blair.
His senses focused in a tight tunnel ahead of him, Jim pulled his blaster and thumbed it over to maximum with breaking stride. They'd hit his guide. Jim turned the last bend in the path, and now he could see an armed man between the trees. Not recognizing him, Jim took aim and fired. With a scream, the first man fell.
Closing the distance, Jim fired at the ragged men and older boys who stood in the clearing facing off against Blair and the huddled population of his compound. Something bit him, and Jim noticed with a strange detachment that a shaft of wood now stuck out from his arm. Smiling cruelly, he turned his blaster toward the attacker and fired, watching as the archer's chest exploded.
Men scattered, and Jim fired at them as they scrambled away. He didn't even realize that Simon had followed until he stopped firing, and blaster fire covered him. His eyes found Blair still sprawled on the ground with a reddened cheek.
"Blair," Jim said carefully. The women backed up, and Blair looked at him suspiciously.
"What did you call me?" he asked. "What did you say?
"Blair? Isn't that your name?" Jim stopped, confused.
"Before. What did you say before?"
"Before what?" Jim looked at the gathered women, who watched him with a cautious awe.
"When you came charging into the field blasting anyone you could, what did you call me?"
Jim turned at looked at Simon in confusion. The outlanders might all be insane, but he could trust Simon to have kept his cool. Instead, Simon stared at him with raised eyebrows.
"I think it was, 'My guide, My territory'," Rafe offered.
"I said…" Jim stopped and looked back at Blair who was getting up from the ground, his long hair flopping in his face. "I said 'My territory'?"
"Oh man, I hope you meant it because you just totally declared war."
Jim blinked as he looked at the fallen attackers. Two groaned, and one crawled toward the shadow of a tree. Six more lay awkwardly sprawled on the ground, only one had a heartbeat, and it was fading.
"Are you here to claim your territory, sentinel?" Blair walked forward, resting his hand on Jim's arm. Jim reached up with his left hand and scrubbed his face as he tried to sort his emotions.
"We could get special dispensation at Patria. Explain that I went on a sentinel rage and put your village at risk. We could force the government to relocate you, maybe even give citizenship."
Jim stopped when Blair shook his head. "You didn't just claim a guide, Jim, you claimed a territory. This is my home. This is the birthplace of sentinels. This is where we're trying to get back something that we lost a long time ago."
"Jim," Simon interrupted. "This is a dead planet. You have work to do."
"Dead?" Blair demanded incredulously. "Look at this place. This planet has more life than ever. The old pictures show miles of stone, but now the world is full of life. Life squeezed into every cranny."
"That's not what he means," Jim said as he let the hand that had scrubbed his face rest on Blair's shoulder. "This planet is mined out. You couldn't get enough rare minerals to scrape together one rocket."
"And you can't find a guide with all the rockets in the universe. The clinic… they want our children tested so they can look for sensory ganglia and guide glands and temporal math clusters in the brain. They want us to bring our best to them. Why? If you don't need us, why do you offer mothers food if they'll give away their children?"
"They're trying to help those they can," Rafe said quietly. Blair turned and looked at the other guide.
"If they were trying to help, why not just give us food? Why not do something about the Marks so that we can farm without being afraid? They don't want to help; they want us. They don't have enough guides or pilots, so they steal ours."
"Blair," a voice called. Jim glanced over his shoulder to see Anna with her white hair, her hand resting heavily on her young man's shoulder.
"We have work to do at the compound. Is your sentinel coming?" The other women accepted the tacit command and started leaving the scene, pulling frightened children along with them as they headed to the compound. Anna simply stood staring at Jim.
"I…" Jim paused, not sure what to say. He looked back toward Simon.
"Sentinel, you must choose," Anna said as she stepped forward. She reached out a trembling hand toward Blair. "Grandson," she called.
"Jim?" Blair asked as he turned blue eyes up toward Jim.
"Blair, I don't know how—"
"Take a leap of faith, man. We live here. Hell, most days we enjoy living here, although you haven't exactly seen our best side."
Jim could feel the pull of Blair's hope, guide gland leaking his emotions into the air until even Simon snorted as he caught the strong smell of pure guide emotion.
"Jim, you're a lot stronger now. You'd come through the Zedgrav just fine. Let's go find you a guide who doesn't put unreasonable demands on you." Simon emphasized the word unreasonable so strongly that Jim flinched. His life or his guide.
"Jim?" Blair asked again, but his grandmother had her hand on his arm, pulling him back. Jim's fingers tightened without his permission, holding onto his guide, but then Blair stepped back. Jim let go rather than physically overpower his guide again.
"Ellison, let's go," Simon ordered as he stepped between Jim and Blair, who walked backwards with his eyes still focused on Jim.
Jim stood frozen in time, the sunlight shining down until the grass glowed with the reflected glare.
"Ellison," Simon ordered again, this time his hand on Jim's shoulder, pushing him away from Blair and the compound.
Jim shook his head. "No," he whispered. "I can't, Simon."
Blair stopped, and right now Jim focused on that instead of on Simon's incredulous expression.
"Ellison, you're judgment is seriously impaired, so I won't press charges, but you are committing insubordination."
"Our job, Simon. What's our job?" Jim asked. Blair smiled widely as he took a step closer to Jim.
"What?"
"We protect the people, right?" Jim asked, his eyes still focused on Blair's open joy and not on the confused silence from Simon. "If we protect the people, shouldn't one of us stay here and protect these people?"
"Ellison," Simon warned with a growl.
"They're inhabitants of a planet in the confederacy, and therefore entitled to sentinel protection. And as a sentinel with no defined territory, I have the right to claim a territory not otherwise covered by the Sentinel Guard."
"Jim." Simon sounded wary now.
"He's my guide, Simon. And I claim this territory."
"Ellison," Simon growled.
Jim ignored his former boss as he stepped around and met Blair. Immediately, Blair tilted his head, and Jim took the offering, sucking on the base of the neck where the guide gland lay. Feeling the bond settle over them, Jim stood and smiled down. He tucked Blair under one of his arms and turned to face Simon.
"There are a few things I need to buy and some accounts to set up. How about I meet you at the clinic in a week?" he suggested.
Simon shook his head tiredly.
"You've lost your mind, and if you think I'm filling out the paperwork for you to claim a territory, you've really lost your mind," he complained. "Rafe, let's go."
Jim watched Simon and Rafe holster their weapons and head back across the field.
"Great moon. I can't believe it," Blair breathed. Jim tightened his arm around Blair.
"Someone didn't leave me much choice. And now I'm going to stink forever, aren't I?" Jim asked, but he didn't hide the humor.
"Tell me honestly, can you smell yourself, or us, in a ‘distracting you from your sentinel senses’ kind of way?" Blair asked. Jim thought about the answer, unwilling to give a quick or incomplete answer since it was his guide asking him.
"Nope," he finally admitted.
"Thought so." Blair poked Jim's stomach, and Jim caught the invading fingers in his free hand and gave them a pull.
"Bully," Blair complained as he struggled to reclaim his fingers.
"Oh yeah, I can see you're going to be a real joy to live with, Chief," Jim joked as he finally let the fingers go only to have Blair poke attack again.
"Everyone says I'm a joy, don't they, grandmother?" Blair asked the old woman who walked slowly ahead of them.
"When you're listening they do," she agreed.
"Hey!" Blair protested, and she gave a soft laugh as they walked toward the compound, toward Jim's claimed territory. He was the sentinel of Cascade.
And in the days of great confusion, the Mother of All Sentinels looked out over the people and saw they were lost. She cried out to the Sun in despair.
"Great Sun, my children can guide the people to safety, but who will guide them when they grow lost?"
The Sun had no answer, so the Sun called to the Moon.
"Moon, Mother of All Sentinels wishes to give her children to the world, but she fears they will lose their way. I have no power left to give to the world. Without me, the plants will wither and die."
The Moon looked down and saw that the people were indeed lost. The Mother of All Sentinels gazed up at the moon, her hand over a belly that had grown as large as twenty deer with all the children she would give the world.
Unable to ignore the pain of the people, the Moon reached down and touched the belly of a pregnant woman so she grew as large as Mother of All Sentinels. He called her Mother of All Guides.
The Sun and Moon knew that now the people would have Sentinel and Guide to lead them out of confusion. However, the stars gathered and whispered in jealousy. Sun and Moon kept all the perfection to themselves.
The stars went to Great North Star and complained.
"Mother of All Sentinels and Mother of All Guides shall give birth to their children, and we shall have none. It is not fair."
Great North Star agreed. And so, the day before the births, the Sun and the Moon joined, the eye of each filled with the other. In that moment, Great North Star stole Mother of All Sentinels and delivered her to the stars.
Mother of All Sentinels wept and cried for her children, but she could no longer hold back their birth. In a flood of birthwaters across the sky, her children were born among the stars.
Mother of All Guides wept and cried for her children, but she could no longer hold back their birth. In a flood of birthwaters that filled the rivers, her children were born on earth.
Sun and Moon called to Great North Star.
"Why have you done this? Why have you caused separation and pain?"
"We decided that it is not fair that you should have all perfection while we have none," Great North Star declared.
Moon wished to go to war, but Sun counselled patience. Not even Great North Star could stop the destiny of Sentinel and Guide to return home and lead the people out of confusion.
"Their duty is here, and the children of Mother of All Sentinels must one day return. On that day, Sentinel and Guide will lead the people into knowledge." Sun carved the destiny into the earth in letters that raised mountains and dug lakes.
And so, every day since Great North Star stole Mother of All Sentinels, we wait for her children to come home for then Sentinel and Guide will lead the people at last.