All That We Are (The Commander Book 7) by Randall Farmer Read Free Book Online

Commander?”
    “Made, by yourself and others.”
    I was appalled, and half-interested in tossing everything I had accomplished in Houston.  Vanishing, going underground.  Going Crow.
    “I’m my own person,” I said.  Defiant.
    “Be your own person,” Lori said, her comment backed up with her charisma.  She lowered her voice and became richly intense.  “Leap off the diving board and leap high .  If you leap high enough, by the time you’re done nobody will remember ‘the Commander’ was once a Dream.”
    “Are you responsible for this?”
    “No way,” Lori said.  “I’m not one of the top Focuses in personal or political power.  All I’ve got are a few extra brains and some scientific training to help me make sense of things.”  She was dissembling, at least the part about ‘personal power’.  I had known she was denying her personal power from the time we first met, but this wasn’t the time to get into her issues.  “Besides, you know ‘who’.  You invited her into your mind, if you remember.”
    My resistance crumbled at her words.  I had invited the Madonna of Montreal into my mind, into my Dreams, to chase Focus Shirley Patterson and her nightmares away.  I wasn’t surprised that someone with the ability to chase Patterson out of my mind might be the one behind this ‘Commander’ nonsense.  The Madonna wanted me to be the boss military Transform?  Well, fine.  Boss military Arm was a hell of a better gig than ‘number two Arm’, and sounded like a lot of fun, besides.
    Despite Lori’s logic and evidence, being someone’s pawn still bothered the hell out of me.
    “Besides, I’ve learned the hard way what all you old folks already knew from experience, not to get involved in relationships involving a fixer-upper,” Lori said, changing the subject and pointedly looking at Sky, who had slipped away from the Crow extravaganza to cadge a backrub from two Inferno single Transform women I knew he wasn’t sleeping with yet.  I had heard from Gilgamesh that Lori liked him just the way he was.
    Wait just a goddamned second, though…
    I grabbed Lori’s hands away from my head.  “ I’m a fixer upper?  Me?  You’re comparing me to Sky ?”
    Lori blushed a fake blush.  “I didn’t exactly say that, nope, not at all.  I love you just the…”
    …way you are.  I refused to let her finish, so I embarrassed the hell out of her by kissing her right in front of her household.
    I enjoyed both the kiss and her household’s catcalls.  Immensely.
     

Chapter 2
    “Do what you have to do
    Resolutely, with all your heart.
    The traveler who hesitates
    Only raises dust on the road.”
    – The Buddha
     
    Gilgamesh: December 25, 1968
    “At some point Tiamat might lose her patience over the two of us,” Gilgamesh said.
    “You think so?  Just because I grabbed you and left Inferno on Christmas night?” Lori said.
    He was so stuffed he suspected he waddled.  The Inferno cooks had outdone themselves, serving up a world tour worth of Christmas recipes.  Sky had practically melted in pleasure over the Tourtiere meat pies, some sort of French Canadian Christmas food tradition, and Gilgamesh had overindulged on the desserts, especially the marzipan.
    “Actually, I’m more worried about the juxtaposition of your new status as a mother, and the fact you appear to be…”  Gilgamesh cleared his throat, and gazed up into a night sky of snowflakes.
    “I appear to be chasing you again,” Lori said, finishing his thought.
    “Are you?”
    Lori laughed, a low evil chuckle.  “Yes, I am.”
    Gilgamesh reddened.  Lori walked beside him, dressed in a shapeless L. L. Bean parka, with a dowdy red knit scarf draped over her head and around her neck.  Their steps made the new fallen dry snow crunch.  “Tiamat has little patience with romantic games,” Gilgamesh said.  Lori was beautiful, even dressed as she was.  Her glow was incomparable, and this close, Gilgamesh had to fight a