Matt lifted a flask from inside his shirt and offered it to Norah. “Greetings.” She took it from him and sniffed the contents. And to his surprise she downed it in one go, her throat worked with each gulp. “Woah, slow down girl, that shit was Gunner’s. You’re gonna feel every drop of it.” Stryker watched the exchange with a little mirth.
Norah shook her head back and forth with a cringed expression over her face, brow furrowed and forehead wrinkled. She lowered her face and gave the empty flask back to Matt. “Gah, I’m Norah,” she smacked her lips and introduced herself. “And I hate everything.”
“I’m Matt, Stryker’s only friend.” Matt peered into the bottle with a frown and recapped it. “Damn.”
“Do you have any more?”
Stryker pulled her further into his side. “Trust me, youwon’tneed anymore.”
The thick black curls tumbled back as she looked up to meet his eyes, hers wide and already glazed, he assumed from residual tears and the strong alcohol.
“Trust me, I need a lot more.”
“I think we’re going to get along.” Matt laughed and popped out another magical bottle and handed it over. The number of flasks the man could hide never ceased to amaze him. It was on par with how many weapons a Cyborg carried under his armor.
Stryker took the flask before Norah was able to grab it. “We need to get you to the medlab, babe; then you can have the rest.”
She broke away from him and sighed, “if you actually loved me you’d give it back.”
Matt hollered, “Woah! Hahaha, Woah, you guys have problems. I take it back, Norah, I don’t think I can be friends with you if you actually love him back.” He walked past them and toward the passageway. “I’ll be in the lab while you two cuddle,” his voice trailed him as he left the room. “Weirdo's move fast.”
Stryker watched Norah’s face sober up and her arms wrap around herself.Do you love me?
What are you thinking?
The crunch of Matt’s fading footsteps was the only sound between them before a series of curses broke the near silence. They listened to Matt’s long string of expletives amicably.
“We should go help him,” Norah said finally.
“We will.” Stryker looked down at himself. “But I think I should get dressed first.”
She smiled and the remaining tension eased out of his frame. Norah swayed on her feet and he led her to his captain’s chair where she sat down with a withering sigh. “I like you naked. I can see all of your muscles.”
His lip twitched up but he pulled out a fresh suit from a nearby wall unit. “I like you naked too, especially when you’re naked and under me.” Stryker teased. “But, I should tell you,” he set the spare flask aside. “You may regret what you say later.” He strode to her side as she shrugged.
“I like your face too.”
“Thanks, you can have it when I get a new one.”
Her eyes widened in horror as he detached his ship from the EonMed’s vessel and maneuvered his a fair distance away.
“I don’t want you to get a new one, that’s so horrible, what a horrible souvenir. You can’t be serious!”
Stryker unlocked the blasters from under his ship as a screen filled his vision. He locked his weapons into place, the research vessel, his target.Time to kill the memories.The systems flared to life around him and networked with his tech. It was his reward each time he came back alive: an electronic hug from his ship.
Even with his reintegration, his entire being only had a mind for something else, someone else. He sucked in a delicious breath of Norah.
“I meant my mask,” he muttered through a hidden smile and blasted the other ship into oblivion. An explosion of gasoline, exhaust, radiation, and a myriad of other substances and chemicals spread out before their ship. It was there and gone in a second, muted by the vacuum of space, until only the jagged remains were left behind. A bright star, white with a subtle overtone of color, beautiful, deadly, and devastating, gone in a second.
He remembered his time in the war fondly in that moment, and the glorious last spark of life before only death remained.
Stryker turned away to see Norah at his side, cold and quiet.Like the debris that remains.
“Everything’s gone, billions of dollars of research, gone.”
“Yeah. Everything but what you and the crew uploaded to EonMed’s servers.”
“My samples. My friends…”
