Chapter 67

A while later after he had set up his hooch he was drawn back to the campfire by the beautiful sounds coming from a twelve string guitar. He stayed back from the fire initially and listened to the music from the shadows – the music was similar to sea shanty's and bawdy bar songs, even if the words were different.

Then the guitar was in Stacy Meach's hands, who then played a selection of country songs; she sang beautifully and the Rokatan women definitely enjoyed her songs. Then the Sergeant Major spoke up, "Why don't you join us Sergeant Grey? Especially if you happen to know any songs..." she trailed off leaving the decision in his hands.

Felix stepped forward hesitantly into a small gap in the circle next to the CSM, unzipped his ghillie suit to the waist and lowered it so his arms were free, then listened as Meach sang another good song with her excellent singing voice ... The guitar was handed around the circle into his hands, where he quickly adjusted the strings to the way he wished them to sound.

He didn't mean to start with the song he did – it just happened; what they women heard was a sad and slow multiple finger-plucking tune from an old western movie that he enjoyed. When he noticed how sad the faces were when he finished he commented, "Okay then – something a bit more upbeat then."

So the Rokatans were introduced to Money For Nothing, a couple of faster country songs, then one he had learned a long time ago that was hard on the fingers but pleasing to the ears. When he started playing Stairway To Heaven he unconsciously started singing the words softly – Meach picked up the words as well and she definitely sang better than Felix.

One of the better Rokatan singers had tears in her eyes after the song was finished, which embarrassed Felix, so he handed the guitar around the circle and stood up. He bade the women, "Thanks for the music ladies – and have a good night," which had a few of the women off guard, as they hadn't figured him out at all.

He went back to his hooch where he sat down and removed his boots for a change, placed the socks inside, took off his ghillie suit and laid it next to him. Felix pulled the double poncho liner over his body as he laid down and drifted off to sleep listening to the last of the guitar playing.

A few hours later Felix woke up from a bad nightmare, silenced pistol in hand, blinking away the sleep and slowing his breathing back to normal. He just about leapt to his feet when a strong feminine hand pulled his hand down and holstered the weapon. He looked down to see long blonde hair spread on a mattress right next to bed space – then the hand grabbed his t-shirt and pulled him down into a kiss.

Once he was able to get his breath back he managed to say, "I'd like to know who I am with before I ... go any further."

He figured out she was Rokatan by the build – the answer he got was the woman climbing on and straddling his hips and as she kissed him she mumbled, "Corlah," which was followed by more kissing and then some...

Early morning saw Felix waking at just after dawn with Corlah still tangled with his body and her obviously not wanting to move from under the poncho liner as it was warm. But he finally managed to extricate himself without too many grumbles, grabbed a towel and went down to the lake where he stripped naked and went for a cool wake-up swim out a distance on the crystal clear water.

By the time he turned around and headed back to the shore the sun was definitely up and revealing what would be a much better day than the day before when Meach and him had arrived. While heading back to the shore Felix spotted the blonde Sergeant Major waiting for him at his clothes – her hair loose and looking good.

He decided to swim into shore underwater as far as he could – he managed to make it most of the way before surfacing quietly to replenish his lungs. He pulled himself along the bottom until he was at the edge of the shore, then stood up as casually as he could – as he was still self conscious about being almost naked and his scars now mixed with bruises galore.

Corlah watched with interest as the smaller man walked towards her, and what she saw helped her to overcome her natural bias against men. He walked with confidence but not arrogance, his wiry body wasn't too thin or pronounced muscle, yet there was some power in that body – she remembered that from last night.

As he stopped at his clothes to dry off, Corlah got to see what she felt during the night, and then she noticed and was shocked to see what physical abuse a body could take and still survive.

Felix was aware of her stares and felt another person watching from a distance and had an idea who it was, but shrugged it off as he dried off quickly, donned a fresh t-shirt, removed the wet underwear for dry ones – all with his back to the watchers. The khaki cargo shorts went on and he sat down to dry his feet and put on fresh desert socks while telling Corlah, "I love beautiful mornings like this – makes it all worthwhile, don't you think?"

She nodded in agreement and answered softly, "Yes it does," even though her thoughts were elsewhere at that time. Corlah had concluded that he was a man who was not afraid to speak his mind – and did so tactfully most of the time – ye he was respectful towards their society.

While she ruminated Felix checked his pistols Pain and Panic to ensure they hadn't been tampered with, then holstered them. A minute later Corlah asked softly, "Felix? If you could settle down off world somewhere ... would this be to your liking?"

He had been expecting something like that but it still caught him off guard; he replied, "This could be to my liking one day but I'm not ready to retire just yet."

Corlah pressed on undaunted, "Do you have a mate back in Atlantis waiting for you?"

He thought of Laura Cadman who had gone back to Earth, and of his ex who had long since moved on to a better relationship, then answered softly, "No ... she went back because I'm always gone on missions."

Corlah continued, "You could stay here – become a citizen soldier or maybe take over my job. You would be invaluable to us and ... to me as well."

Alarm bells went off in Felix's head – now to extricate without offending the Rokatans; he stood up, stretched and turned towards the faint sound he had heard. Sure enough it was Meach kneeling and watching him over top of her sniper rifle; he gave a subtle signal that he was okay.

Then he turned back to Corlah and finally answered her, "I'm flattered by your honesty Corlah but at the same time that isn't fair to the folks in Atlantis. I still have duties in Atlantis and in all fairness ... I would feel guilty about leaving unfinished business there. I just couldn't do it – not right now – sorry."

She stood and faced the smaller man, studied his face while giving a small smile as she replied, "I had heard you never broke your word or promise to your friends. I wanted to know your integrity and if you could be swayed, which is obviously not an issue here." She looked down for a moment and then added softly, "But as a woman I'd like you to stay here with me."

Felix looked her in the eyes as he said, "Again I'm flattered – believe me I am. But you don't know me and I don't know you, and besides we both have responsibilities to our respective worlds. I couldn't do that to another woman – her always worrying if I am coming back alive or not." He paused and then added, "But I'd like to visit if I ever get some time off."

Corlah gave him bedroom eyes as she replied, "That would be nice – then I could show you around the countryside," then her watch beeped and she added, "Time to wake up the young ones for breakfast – you can join us if you'd like."

Felix replied, "What's on the menu? I'm having either beans and wieners or snorkers and spuds – haven't really decided yet."

Corlah replied, "Hard tinned rations are what we will be eating, and they aren't very appetizing. Filling yes but that's about all they are." They headed back to the joint hooch where they took down the shelter, packed away their gear – Felix donned his ghillie suit and left it down to his waist.

When they got to the fire pit, Meach was already there having stoked the coals from the previous night; she greeted the pair cheerfully, "Morning – sleep good?"

She received nods in reply – the Sergeant Major went over to her troop area to wake her people in her loud commanding voice.

Felix placed his Bergen down behind a log where he sat next to Meach and told her softly, "You didn't need to – but thanks for the cover anyways."

Meach gave her boss a side look that spoke volumes, then said, "I was awake anyways – couldn't sleep anymore." She gave a deliberate pause and then added, "Nice body for an old man, boss – and she was a bit noisy last night, by the way."

Felix flushed red with embarrassment, which Meach chuckled at softly, then she said, "You must have been doing something right for her to offer to stay here."

Felix barely kept his embarrassment in check but leaned towards Meach and replied softly, "It had been a while for her would be how I would describe her actions – because I don't feel I'm that good."

Meach looked at him with a raised eyebrow as if to say 'give me a break' or 'really now', then shook her head in amazement as she remembered Dr. Weir's comment in her head. 'He'll take on any enemy anywhere but you put him with a woman attracted to him and he is lost.'

They turned around to watch the women wake up and grab their hard rations for their breakfast; when Felix saw they were going to eat cold rations he quickly grabbed a bunch of heat tabs from his Bergen and went over to the women. "Ladies – could I interest any of you making your breakfast warm instead of cold? It's a better way to start your day – a belly full of warm food."

With that he grabbed a bayonet from the nearest soldier, dug a small hole in the ground quickly, sparked up the heat cube and placed it in the hole. Then he took a can from the same woman soldier, punched two small holes in the top and placed the can over the hole. He wiped off the bayonet and handed it to the soldier hilt first, then told her, "In about five minutes your breakfast will be ready to eat."

She looked at him strangely as he asked, "Five minutes – that's all?" Hands were suddenly stretched for heat cubes for their meal; the Sergeant Major chuckled as she came over and said, "You'll either corrupt my troops or they'll be under your command if you aren't careful."

Felix rebutted, "Can't see it happening Sergeant-Major; I'm male if you'll remember," and went about getting his own breakfast going with his Brit stove and the meal in the canteen cup filled with water. Meach was using a boil in a bag for her meal, which Felix wasn't partial to as it was too reliant on water.

After getting the meal going, he dug out the rest of his meal accoutrements and had them ready for use. He looked over at the Night Seer troops to see how they were faring – the women were chatting happily about their food. A few minutes later Corlah sat next to Felix with her can of now warm rations and watched as Felix opened his beans and wieners, as she had never seen the bagged foil style of hard rations. He put in some Tabasco sauce, mixed it in and started eating his breakfast.

Corlah hadn't touched her can of food but was sniffing at his meal, so he finally held it out and said, "Try some," then watched her delayed reaction as the hot sauce hit her taste buds.

"Whoa! That's got a bite to it! What did you add to it?"

Felix showed her the bottle of Tabasco – she leaned her can of food towards him to look at, which looked very similar to corned beef hash – she added a bit of Tabasco and then enjoyed her meal better.

Ten minutes later everybody had finished their meal, cleaned up their garbage and straightened away their gear and were talking about the day's training. The Rokatan women were quite eager to atone for the previous night where they didn't find Felix; he just shrugged off the comments and ignored the bad jokes.

As the facial camouflage was being applied, Captain Sengale and Major Terhazi showed up – with Midnight, who saw Felix and promptly strained against her leash to go and see him. The Major unclasped the leash and the big cat bounded over to rub against Felix and started purring when she was petted; the Major laughed and said, "I think she missed you last night Sergeant."

Midnight was bashing and nuzzling his hand – he obliged her wishes for more attention and his talking softly to the big cat drew strange looks from the women around him. A couple of minutes later the Major led her cat away while the Sergeant-Major explained the stalking exercise – Felix and Meach would be spotters first using Rokatan optics.

Finally everybody was geared up and the Night Seer women walked to the edge of the woods; CSM Markenz pointed out the start line, finish line, boundaries, and who the walkers would be.

Meach took one side of the spotting line while Felix took the other end – the clock started and the Rokatan women crept along as quietly as they could. It took about 20 minutes for Meach and Felix to spot all the recce women – with Meach spotting the vast majority of them. CSM Markenz was very impressed with Meach's eyesight; she called all her troops in to the spotting line to have explained how they were seen.

20 minutes later Meach, Felix, and Corlah were at the start line in the prone, moving towards the finish line slowly and stealthily. Meach and Felix were using their own weapon sight to advantage, seeing when they could move safely. At about 200 metres out Corlah was spotted by her troops and was met by a barrage of catcalls and jeers as she walked in.

Meach was finally spotted at just fewer than 50 metres from the finish, and the women were all over her with more catcalls and good nature jeers. Felix was muffling his breathing as he was very close to the spotters and just past the finish line as he was sneaking around to come in from behind. He could see and hear most everything going on – then suddenly Major Terhazi spoke up; "Ladies – how about I lend a hand here and we let Midnight find the prey?"