Primary Inversion (Saga of the Skolian Empire) Paperback by Catherine Asaro Read Free Book Online

him up. Something else was bothering him. I nudged his
mind but he blocked me out, keeping his mental doors closed.
    “Rex.” I laid my hand on the grip, stopping his movements. “What’s
wrong?”
    He looked up at me. For a moment he just watched my face.
Then he said, “I’m going to retire.”
    “What?”
    He exhaled. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. I’ll
be forty-seven soon. All of the other officers who were cadets in my class
at DMA have retired by now.” Neither of us said what he left out: or else
died.
    “You can’t retire.” I tried not to remember he had been a
year behind me at the Dieshan Military Academy. “I need you.”
    He pushed his hand through his graying hair. “I’m not like
you, Soz. I can’t put off getting old.” He exhaled. “I’ve had enough. I want to
go home, have a family, dig in the garden.”
    “You can have a family now.” I was talking too fast. “You don’t
have to retire to do that. And you can dig holes in the ground wherever you
want. I’ll get you a special hole-digging commission.” He wasn’t old. He
wasn’t any older than me. All right, yes, my genetics gave me a potential
lifespan twice the human average. But nowadays most humans lived well into
their second century. Rex had plenty of time.
    Rex smiled, but it was like this strange mood he had
tonight, gentle instead of wild. Then he really went over the cliff. He slid
his hand around my neck, drew my head closer to his—and kissed me.
    “Hey.” My protest came out muffled around his lips. “What
are you doing?”
    He pulled back and smiled. “Kissing you.”
    “What for?”
    “Well, let me see. Maybe it’s a new way of checking the
weather.”
    “Very funny. Why are you acting so strange?”
    He spoke quietly. “Soz, I want you to marry me.”
    Flaming rockets. “You drank too much at the bar.”
    “I didn’t drink anything. We never got our ale.”
    He had gone crazy. I didn’t know how to respond. “I can’t
marry you. It’s against regulations.” Good reasons existed for the ban on
fraternization. It compromised the ability of the people involved to carry out
their duties. It happened anyway, despite regulations, but it often ended in
disaster. If I married Rex, there was no way I could send him into battle. I
would spend the whole time obsessing on the fact that he might get hurt. Or
worse.
    Except he wanted to retire.
    “I don’t want to retire,” I said. I wasn’t actually sure if
that were true, but for the moment it would do.
    “I’m not asking you to,” Rex said.
    So. He wasn’t giving me an out. Did I want an out? I tried
to untangle my thoughts. Could I see Rex as a husband? He had been my closest
friend for fifteen years, my confidant, someone I could always rely on. He was
like a brother. In fact, I was closer to him than to most of my many brothers.
    “I don’t get it,” I said. “What happened to all these women
you have pining for you all over the galaxy?”
    “You’re evading my question.”
    “What do you want to marry me for?”
    He made an exasperated noise. “Because I have a fetish for
women with the romantic instincts of a cork.”
    I couldn’t help but smile. “Then I guess we’re compatible.”
    “Sauscony, I’m serious about this.”
    If he was calling me Sauscony, he had to be serious. No one
called me Sauscony but my parents. “I would hate it if you left me.”
    “Why would I do that?”
    Could I say it? Sixteen years had passed, time enough to
dull the pain. “My first husband did.”
    His voice quieted. “I didn’t know you had been married more
than once.”
    “Twice.” My second husband had died a few years ago, not
long after we had married. But I couldn’t think about that now. Maybe not ever.
    “Why did he leave?” Rex asked.
    “It’s a boring story. You don’t want to hear it.”
    Rex stroked a curl away from my face. “Tell me.”
    It was a moment before I spoke. “He hated what I did for a
living.