The Peninsula

The Fiction and Poetry Archive of Liana Mir and scribblemyname

Blade

Apr
15

You will be my blade.

The words echo in his mind sometimes, a soft-voiced memory, the imprint of a small hand against his hull.

Mihzat doesn’t remember it, but Veset does. Veset, blade, and he looks through log files that predate his integration, digs through memories that are his for all they aren’t.

That quiet voice, You will be my blade.

Is that what you want to call it, my queen? More familiar. Kasuru, the designer of the spaceship, who’d been at Mihzat’s integration when he became Veset.

Queen. Yes.

Daily Drabble 2018, Drabble, Original Fiction, Riftspace , , , , , 0 Comment

The Future

Apr
10

Rhezere didn’t like to think of memories, instead he made endless plans. But sometimes he dreamed them, waking with screams strangled between his teeth.

Sometimes he woke and muffled the memories until they faded. Sometimes he called Kasuru, who had seen his scars and never heard the stories behind them.

“You did a terrible job of healing them,” Rhezere complained. “When the weather’s bad, they hurt.”

“Ah.” Kasuru could hear everything Rhezere wasn’t saying.

They didn’t talk about the past or about the aches and pains Rhezere claimed to have. They talked about their plans, their work, and the future.

Daily Drabble 2018, Drabble, Original Fiction, Riftspace , , , , 0 Comment

Watching and Waiting

Mar
06

Rhezere’s been staring after Cor from the moment he first saw him.

Kasuru never interfered beyond the reminder that future pilots shouldn’t interact with future integrates. It kept Rhezere from speaking and safeguarded him for the moment they might meet mind to mind.

But he never stopped staring at the way Cor threw himself over the wings and under the bellies of the spaceships he repaired, the way he streamed to practice flights, the way he honed his body in anticipation of his affinity for war.

Cor would be a warship one day, no doubt. Rhezere would be his pilot.

Daily Drabble 2018, Drabble, Original Fiction, Riftspace , , , , , , 0 Comment

Stray Child

Feb
20

“Kasuru?”

Kasuru looked up from the ship plans he’d been poring over with Nanere for half the night. He was the designer; she was the builder ripping apart his every bad idea.

It was well past when Rhezere went to bed. The boy was getting longer, and he looked at Nanere like he was deciding how much vulnerability to show with someone else present.

He sighed and trailed over to the couch behind Kasuru’s worktable and flopped down with his blanket. In moments, his breath evened in sleep.

“You have a kid,” Nanere said.

Kasuru shook his head. “He’s not mine.”

She looked pointedly over at the boy curled into his blanket, choosing to sleep near Kasuru rather than in his own dark room and bed.

“He is.”

Ficlet, Original Fiction, Riftspace , , , , , , 0 Comment

Healing Moment

Feb
20

He knew it was a bad decision the moment he did it. It had been months since the last time Rhezere contemplated the knives in the drawer with more than clinical disinterest in slicing food. Now, the blood welled up over his fingers as he cradled his arm and stared down at it.

He felt nothing, then sudden overwhelming panic flooded into the spaces where his heart was numb.

He went without thinking, moving quickly into Kasuru’s office where he was meeting with the ship builder Nanere.

She stared.

Kasuru said nothing, just pulled Rhezere to the space beside him and took down the healing scanner, a steadying hand firm on Rhezere’s shoulder.

Nanere dropped her gaze back to the plans they’d been discussing. Kasuru patiently ran over the arm until the wound no longer gaped. The flesh still looked raw and blotchy, less severe but not fully healed.

Kasuru wrapped it in bandages, then tucked his fingers under Rhezere’s chin to draw his gaze up. “We’ll let it rest overnight then look at it again.”

Nothing could be healed in a moment.

Rhezere knew that. Something inside him eased at realizing he’d been willing to be healed at all.

Daily Drabble 2018, Double Drabble, Original Fiction, Riftspace , , , , , , 0 Comment

Do It Again

Feb
19

Nanere isn’t interested in most men. They’re too high maintenance, interested in keeping her around, being there for her, and insinuating themselves into her life.

She doesn’t want that. She takes what she wants, builds the ships her queen asks of her, then moves on to the next port to bury herself anew in metal flesh.

Then there’s Kasuru.

She traces his scars at night, and he kisses her fingers without answering unspoken questions. They drink coffee, argue over designs and engineering, then separate to their work without a word or call.

It’s nice enough to do again. And again.

Daily Drabble 2018, Drabble, Original Fiction, Riftspace , , , , 0 Comment