The Reclamation and the Lioness by Robert D Armstrong

Author:Robert D Armstrong [Armstrong, Robert D]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robert Armstrong
Published: 2018-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

THE NEXT DAY...

“Victoria,” Luther said softly.

I rubbed my eyes and sat up in bed. I slept in my recruit barracks, where I initially started my knight training. My first thought was the Architect’s death was a dream, but as I gazed at Luther, I realized it wasn’t.

He was sitting at the foot of my bunk. I noticed he had taken the time to clean himself up. There were no black stains from the blood of the Mave on his clothing, but his armor was still quite scoffed up. I observed several more claw and burn marks on his armor, mask, and helmet. There were more holes in his uniform. His white cape had been replaced by a new one.

For a moment, I thought about how important it was for someone of his stature to keep up his appearance as best as he could, especially considering the circumstances. If the Legion’s Engineer walked around looking like death warmed-over, it could negatively affect morale. I hadn’t even considered something like that before, but it was apparent now.

“What’s wrong? What time is it?” I asked.

Luther shook his head. “It’s almost two in the afternoon,” he replied.

I couldn’t believe I slept in this late. I was exhausted, but my plan was to get an early start. “And Neona?” I asked.

“The Legion doctors are still running tests on her and many others. We won’t know until later.” He put his arms around me and held me tightly. I sighed in relief.

“What were our losses?” I asked.

“Four hundred and seven—so far,” he replied, slumping his head.

“My god,” I mumbled. The number seemed incomprehensible considering the already small population. This was a devastation blow.

“Are you okay?” he asked, staring deeply into my eyes.

“So long as I don’t let my thoughts wander.”

He nodded slowly. “The notion of the Mave still seems unfathomable to me at times, like a bad dream. I cannot imagine the way you feel. I wish I could have destroyed them before you came back to Earth, but I couldn’t have done it without the androids and your actions to get them here,” he whispered.

I looked at him. “You ever think that stopping the Architect was what we were both born to do?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Fate? No, I’ve never entertained that. I just thought of it as my responsibility.”

I thought of Colonel Drake. “I had a friend from Titan that gave me a different insight. It makes me dizzy trying to imagine all this as a coincidence, that we found each other again and things fell into place for us to be able to stop the Architect. I obviously couldn’t have done it without you, but my relationship with Titan gave us the opportunity to use the androids and their aircraft against the Mave,” I explained.

“The Architect never saw that coming,” Luther said.

He began to massage my temples with his fingertips. It immediately felt familiar. He used to do that for me after long hours of flight training or when I came back from a deployment.

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