Kat agrees, “That may be true, but if the Empire gets any pressure from any of the others, they may hand us over. I think we should still stay…”

  Knox interjects, “Yes Kat that may be true but for now you can rest, and it’s nice being able to.”

  “Rest is good, you’re right Knox. I will try to take it easy.”

  “Not too easy now, Ryker’s company has another bounty on your head. Nothing in the official channels, but it’s just as real and dangerous.”

  “I just looked earlier today and I didn’t see any. How much is it this time?”

  “One million credits dead, two if you’re alive.”

  Gravan says, “I guess they’re still pissed about what happened a year and a half ago.”

  Kat says, “I know I would be, and I still hold a grudge for what he did to me, so his company can go suck on bog root for all I care.”

  Gale opens the door to the hanger and waves. “Kat, Gravan, how nice it is to see you two. Are you staying long this time?”

  Gravan says, “Long enough for some of your cooking that’s for sure.”

  Kat gives Gravan a sharp look, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing at all honey, I love your cooking, but I love Gale’s too.”

  “Uhh huh, I’ll let you slide for now mister, but you better watch it.”

  …

  Kat was really looking forward to how they were finally going to setup shop next to Gravan’s friends. He had found them, and sent a few coded messages their way to know that we were coming. They replied how happy they would be to have the two of us out there. Their last year had been spent under the radar. Mars had teamed up with the Guild to find this rogue ship that was using their technology. Kat and crew had to take a few smuggling jobs here and there just to make ends meat. They always asked what the cargo was up front, and never took anything dangerous anywhere. It was mostly stolen medical supplies out to Frontier space. The Earth Empire and Conglomerate were starting to back out of some of the further reaches of the Frontier. A new kind of intelligent being had been found, and they were able to take technology far beyond theirs and know how to use it. They keep taking more and more space as they grow an army of salvaged ships. Some people have started to call them Gluttons, because they never seem to have enough.

  It gave them work, and it was steady. More than they needed, and they were even able to put some aside to finally save up for the trip. Since the Guild was putting more resources than ever to locate them, they had to just realize they were going to head to Raspiel and squat. Hanna had given them their GPS location on the planet, and told them it was a safe zone. No sensors could find it in a quick sweep, it wasn’t reachable by foot unless you knew the secret passages, and there was no other Guild cities for almost a continent away. There were a few people there that Hanna and Jack trusted, and that was it. They were living in secret, with all the convenances of any other big city.

  Kat asks, “Whisper, how are the supplies looking? We have a long run out to Raspiel.”

  “Everything seems like it’s here. We should be ready for departure in about an hour.”

  “An hour, that’s good. It will give me time to say goodbye to Knox and Gale. Do you know where Gravan is at?”

  “The male monkey is on the bridge with my brother. They seem to be talking about weapons.”

  “Alright, thanks Whisper.”

  “Yes you’re welcome female monkey. Have the AI do all of the heavy lifting.” She says sarcasm rolling off each word.

  Kat rolls her eyes, and heads toward the bridge. Opening the door, she catches part of the conversation, pausing to listen.

  Fury says, “You want to do what now?”

  “It’s been almost a year now, and I think it’s time.”

  “I guess I could help, haven’t done anything like it before.”

  “Anything you come up with is better than what I had, so just tell me when it’s finished.”

  Kat swings open the door, “When what’s finished Gravan?”

  “A new type of ammunition shell, like the one you used awhile back with Wrath.”

  She lets out a little huff, hoping he was planing something for her. Their one year anniversary was today, but it doesn’t seem that he has anything planed.

  She says, “Oh.”

  “Why what’s up?”

  “Nothing, I was just going to tell you that Whisper told me that we should be ready to go here in a hour or so.”

  “Anything else?”

  “I don’t unless you do?”

  “I got nothing right now… Wait that’s right, Knox asked me to tell you to go see him at Bexar Park. Him and Gale have something special to send us off with. I’ll head that way in a few myself.”

  “That Gale, always planning something.”

  “Yea, she’s a good woman. Raised one too.”

  Kat smiles, “Your nothing but a charmer, you know that.”

  “I try. Hey Fury, finish that project of mine and I’ll go get it in a minute.”

  Fury says, “Alright.”

  Kat turns to leave the bridge, and feels Gravan’s strong hands on her shoulders and gets spun around. Gravan kisses her passionately. He says, “Don’t think that I’ve forgotten now. I got something planned for later.”

  “Well, I was thinking for a second there you forgot.”

  He smiles, “Never. Now go on, I’ll meet up with you in a few.”

  She kisses him quickly, and walks out of the ship with a smile on her face. Whisper made a comment as she passed about apes and locking lips, all of which she ignored, and kept walking. Today was her and Gravan’s anniversary, and he did remember. It had been a year and half since their first date, and what happened with Ryker. As she walks through the space station hovering above Planet Bexar, flashes of that first date float to the forefront of her mind. The spaghetti he cooked for them, by paying off the restaurant manager to let him use their kitchen, then to clear it out. His valiant attempts at setting the mood, with lighting and flowers. Then Ryker steps through the door, and ruins everything.

  Reaching the park, she starts looking around for Gale or Knox. Catching a glimpse of them under a covered seating area, and walks over to them. Trying to find out the surprise, she eyes the table for clues, finding a picnic basket and an ice chest.

  She waves, “Hey Knox, Gale, how are you two doing?”

  Gale says, “Kat, I’m glad you could make it. I didn’t know if Gravan got the message or not.”

  “He did, said you wanted to see us off with something.”

  “I can’t have my daughter run off into space without a good meal under her belt first. Who knows when you’re going to have another good home cooked meal.”

  “You know Gravan does the cooking.”

  “Yes that might be the case, but he isn’t as good as I am yet. He has a few more years before that happens.”

  “Ha ha, you’re right about that. There is nothing better than your cooking.”

  Knox agrees, “You’re right about that, that’s why I married her.”

  Gale shoots a look at him, “Is that all.”

  “Not at all, It was one of many qualities.”

  Gale nods with a huff, and Kat lets out a laugh.

  She sees Gravan walking up to the entrance of the park, Whisper and Fury in hand. There is a smirk planted firmly across his lips, and Kat wonders what that is about. He kisses her gently, handing over the bracelet and pistol.

  “They wanted to come along.” He says.

  “We should be getting ready to leave is what we should be doing, and they need to be readying the ship.”

  Whisper says, “Silly ape, just be quiet for once.”

  “Don’t start with me Whisper.”

  Gravan places a hand on her shoulder, “Katrice, don’t be too hard on them.”

  She lets out a sigh. “Fine.”

  He smiles, “Now for the reason I got everyone here.”

  “You did all this Gravan, I thought it was Knox and Gale.”

  Kat looks back to her father and mother. They both have smiles on their faces.

  “Kat, we’ve been through a lot in the last couple of years. We didn’t get to have a wedding, get ourselves rings, or really have any downtime to have a honeymoon. So before we leave, I want to have a ceremony of our own. Here in the park.”

  Her eyes fill with tears. She had wanted, at one time in her life, to get married and settle down. Have a few children, and then retire with her husband on some settled world. A home. She had her man, and they were getting ready to settle down. Everything was turning out, not the way she wanted, but she wouldn’t change a thing with where she’s at.

  “Gravan, I… Why didn’t you tell me, I could have got you something.”

  “Don’t worry, I took care of that too.”

  Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a long rectangular box, and hands it over to Kat. She looks up to him, mouth open wide.

  “You didn’t have to do this.”

  “It’s something for the both of us in there. Open it.”

  Opening the case reveals two tear shaped stones. One red, one blue. Each has a chain attacked at the top. The stones have a mirror like polish, with the finishings invisible to the eye.

  “Where did you get these, they’re beautiful?”

  “Called in a favor from someone who owed my family a favor. They’re tracking pendants. Took me weeks to get everything I needed to send to the guy. Hair, blood, fingernail.”

  “That’s why you were so weird a few months ago.”

  Gravan laughs. “Yes it was, but now we can always find each other. As long as we’re wearing these. One will lead to the other, magically connected. They don’t work unless they’re touching your skin.”

  Kat grabs him, pulling him in close, and gives him a deep kiss. Making sure to put some extra tongue into it. They stay that way for a moment, Gravan pulling away first.

  “There’s one more thing.”

  Kat’s eyebrow raises at that. “Oh yea. Is there something I should know. You didn’t do something that’s going to get you in trouble later.”

  Gravan smiles. “No, I just want to make things right. They way they should be. Open Fury’s shell chamber.”

  Kat cocks her head to the side, and then shrugs. Inside the chamber are two silver rings.

  “This is what I was asking Fury about when you walked in on me earlier.”

  “Aww.” Tears start to well up in her eyes again. “You really didn’t have to, we talked about this. The ship has to come first.”

  “It didn’t cost anything. I just took some scraps, and had Fury makes these. They didn’t hit the account at all, promise.”

  Kat lightly punches his arm. “Why didn’t you think of this sooner then.”

  He rolls his eyes. “I’ll remember that for later, but for now, lets dig into Gale’s cooking before it gets cold.”

  This has been a reading of Whisper and Fury, by Angel Clark.

  Written by Mark Brandon Powell.

  You can find more books narrated by Angel Clark at Audible.com

  For more books by Mark Brandon Powell you can visit his website at www.markbrandonpowell.com

  Thanks for Reading!

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  Contents

  Mailing list

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  From the Author

  Mailing list

  Sneak Peak 1

  Sneak Peak 2

  About the Author

  Other Stories

  Sneak Peak 1

  “What is it now Whisper?"

  "The registration fees just came out of the account. We're broke."

  Kat had just paid those, and it didn't make any since. The Felicity was just paid in full three months ago with the Earth Empire. Governments, never work they way you want and always take your money upfront.

  Kat says, "I paid those three months ago."

  "This was for the Guild and Conglomerate space."

  She forgot about those. There are three powers that be and each controls a few solar systems of civilized space. Each also want there cut, and don't care for working together, unless there is an outcry for it. Even then it's hard to get them to budge on an issue together.

  Kat had been careful with her money recently because her and Gravan were going to be settling down on a new planet soon. Raspiel was a planet on the border of Guild and Frontier space. With it still under development, it was easy enough to sneak onto the planet and setup a little town you can call your own. Gravan's friends Jack and Hanna are waiting for them there. They had sent a message through a secure channel Gravan and Jack set up, telling Kat and Gravan everything was set and ready for them to get there. They were still about a week out and in need of supplies for the stay. Supplies which they weren't getting now without the credits to do it.

  Kat grumbles, "Great. We need to make some quick money, which usually means illegal. Whisper is Gravan in the armory?"

  "He is. How did you know that?"

  "He's my husband, and I'm getting to know him better each day. He's probably tinkering with his knives."

  Fury says, "He is, and I'm helping him."

  Kat had figured. Fury had someone to talk to about weapons and ammunition that actually cared to talk about it.

  Artificial intelligences are just like any other intelligence, they want to communicate with something or someone about their interests. Fury was into weapons, and Whisper is into romance stories. Kat had heard more than her fair share of them since Whisper reads through them so quickly. It wouldn’t be so bad, but Whisper likes to go into detail.

  Kat grabs the sides of the cockpit style seating she has on the bridge and heads to the Armory to talk to Gravan. It reminds her of her days in the Earth Empire Military. She had always just wanted to be in communications and intelligence, but one decoded message later she was getting trained in everything. Piloting was one of the things she was best at, and spent a lot of time in a cockpit.

  The talk with Gravan she was about to have wasn’t something she was looking forward to. They both didn’t want to do anything illegal anymore, because it drew too much attention to them. They had a stolen ship, stolen AI’s, and had bounties on their heads. Most of the legal freight they took was just pick this up here, drop it there. Sign this. The illegal stuff was always more work. Hide this, can I trust you not to screw me, oh wait you have a bounty worth more than I’m getting on this deal. Then guns and blasters.

  Kat reaches the armory and opens the door. It is a thirty foot by thirty foot room filled with shelves and storage. Over the last year and a half that Gravan and her had been together they added a little at a time to it. He was mostly into knives, blades, or anything sharp, but carried around a sawed off shotgun blaster. It was like a security blanket for him. Kat on the other hand didn’t really need much. Whisper is housed in a great short ranged weapon that she can change at will, her favorite being a row miniature rail-guns. Then Fury is in an oversized pistol with a nanite chamber. Both make their own ammunition too. So there were a lot of sharp objects inside on the walls. A couple of automatic blasters were in drawers toward the back, with a few spare energy clips.

  Gravan is at the workbench fastening a new grip to his favorite seven inch blade. That man has more accessories for that blade than a girl has shoes in her closet.

  Kat says with sad tone, “Hey babe, we’re broke.”

  He doesn’t turn around but answers, “How did that happen?”

  “The registration fees for the Guild and Conglomerate came out. I thought we turned that off?”

  “I did, but you know how governments can be. I must have contacted the wrong department or caught the person answering the call in a bad mood. Who knows.”

  “So about that, I don’t want to wait for a regular job. I want to get all this over with so we can live the quite life with your friends.”

  “I know all about your dream, us on the porch watching the sunset. I really don’t want to call Bob. The last couple of jobs from him were way more work than what he paid.”

  Kat says sweetly, “Please.”

  Gravan turns around knife and screwdriver in hand, still turning the screw. She can see the look on his face, and she doesn’t like it but bats her eyelashes at him anyways. Bob isn’t that bad of a guy, he just works outside of the law. She wasn’t even sure if Bob was his real name, but that is what he has gone by since she’s known him. He always gave them jobs that were not legal, but no one would fault them for doing it. Like delivering water to a frontier planet that the Conglomerate is controlling the water pricing or delivering medicine to a quarantined planet because the Earth Government called it a loss cause.

  She smiles and keeps fluttering her eyelashes. Stretching out the word, “Please.”

  He lets out a huff and shakes his head. “Fine, I’ll call him. I would like to say out loud that I am against us doing this. We need to look for work through someone else other than Bob to get us a legal job.”

  Kat does a little happy dance before she says, “I know, but this is the last time we have to call him. Then we are on a tropical planet looking out over some body of water we’ve built a house in front of.”