After the War for Forbidden Space ended, Red Line Army members Krystal and Kit left the Red Line Army to start a new life together. Now seven years later they have settled down on Emiko one of the larger colony worlds of the Ryūjin Empire, with twenty one large cities scattered around the world that are all works of art in their own right. Each city was designed from the ground up to be a finished piece that would never need redesigning as well as being something special and unique. The people in charge of the planet take great pride in keeping it one of the nicest places in Known Space to live. The population is mostly Ryūjin with a smattering of other races including some of the nearly extinct Seventh Race. Each of the cities have large walls around their perimeter to protect the world from the impact of the inhabitants, beyond the walls the planet is full of natural beauty, great lakes, oceans, water falls and forests that rival that of the Ryūjin home world in both size and beauty, all largely untouched except for paths made so people can explore the natural wonders.

Krystal and Kit live in the city of Setsumi which was modelled after the fractal pattern of a snowflake found at what is now the centre of the city by one of the early colonists. Setsumi is situated very close to the north pole of the planet where it is always cold, frequently snowing, full of unique plants and animals that thrive in the cold climate. They have a large five bedroom apartment near the edge of the city with breath taking views of the winter wonderland that is just outside the city limits. The apartment has a large entry way that has a collection of mementos from their past hanging in it, a large table for guests to put their stuff down on and 2 coat racks, next is a large flowing room that has a living area, dining area and kitchen in it. The sizable master bedroom is to the left of the main room and the other four bedrooms are to the right. On the walls of the living area are three large painting made by Krystal, a large TV and three large soft couches.

Krystal and Kit are one of those couples that even their friends hated because they seem so perfect together without a problem in the world. After surviving the war nothing seemed to stress them anymore and thanks to the fame that Krystal had gotten as a novelist, money was not an issue for them. They often like to take their four year old son Jace and their five miniature fur-dragon pets out to the snow fields to play. Occasionally one of them would take a short term job off world but other than that the two had not been separated since the War’s end. Kit works as a military consultant, mostly from home, analysing and improving policies and procedures for the Ryūjin Imperial Army. This gives him a lot of free time to take care of the apartment. Krystal spends a large amount of her time at her office writing novels and out in the frozen wilderness training. Eight days a week Jace goes to the best school in the city.

Krystal treks out to a large frozen lake in the middle of nowhere with a large shier cliff face on the other side. She stands on the edge of the lake and carefully studies the side of the cliff face which is completely covered in a sheet of ice. She stays in her base form, building up aura in her body she starts to glow slightly, the snow at her feet stirs into a flurry as the aura builds, waves of aura start heading to her mouth. Once she has built up enough aura, she holds her hands up to her mouth and breaths a dense ball of aura in-between her palms where she holds the turbulent storm of aura, twisting her body she brings her hands down by her right hip as she widens her stance, left foot forward right foot back, bracing for the attack. With a deep breath she yells “Doragon no ibuki” as she throws her hands forward, opening her palms, sending a powerful energy beam hurtling across the lake headed for the cliff face. As the beam passes over the surface of the lake the ice melts then turning to steam, creating this perfectly smooth shinny edge of the sheet of ice that covers the lake. The blast smashes into the cliff face with a deafening smash as the giant ice sheet shatters from the sudden temperature change. Krystal stops her attack and looks towards the cliff face which is completely engulfed in a cloud of steam. She patiently waits for the cloud to lift. When it does it reviles several consecutive holes punched into the side of the cliff face, all in a line and each one deeper then the last.

Later that night, Krystal and Jace are playing in the living area while Kit is in the kitchen cooking the family dinner. Kit finishes dicing the onion and looks up adoringly at Krystal, her long blond hair framing her beautiful soft tan face then flowing over her shoulders, with her long pointed ears and six small horns poking through. She is wearing a plane white shirt with long sleeves that cover the line of dragon scales that run down her arms and pyjama pants, ready for a relaxing night at home. Kit can’t help but get lost in her beautiful blue eyes for a moment before going back to preparing their dinner. Krystal jumps to attention when she hears a thud followed by a loud clang as Kit and the frypan in his hand hit the tiled floor. She freaks out rushing to his side wondering what is wrong. When she gets to him, he is still breathing but barely and his heart rate is erratic. She calls an ambulance immediately that takes Kit, Krystal and their son to the best hospital in the city where he is taken into an ER surgery room right away and the others are forced to wait outside. Three agonising hours latter a Doctor comes out of the room and asks to talk to his wife.

“I’m his wife! How is he?” Krystal asks frantically, fearing the worst.

“He is stable now. We have had to do major repair work to his artificial heart. Your husband is incredibly strong, I have seen far less damaged hearts just give up and never start again.” The Doctor answers.

“He is one of the strongest men I know. So what now, is he going to be ok?” Krystal asks calming slightly.

“Short term he will be back to normal in a day or two but the problem is systemic. The heart has had too much stress put on it from all the fighting and from what I know of the procedures done to him, they made a few small mistakes. To be frank he needs a new heart if he is going to live more than a year.” The Doctor answers.

“Then get him a new heart, we have the money!” Krystal says forcefully not understanding the look on the doctor’s face.

“The problem is your husband’s heart is no ordinary heart. It is something unique that the Red Line Army made using Titan tech to make your husband stronger and they made significant genetic alterations to his body to accommodate it. Simply put a normal heart is not strong enough for your husband’s needs and we can’t make an appropriate heart. We can do the surgery here but we need a new heart from the Red Line Army. Is that some thing you can get?” The Doctor asks politely.

“One way or another I will get him that heart, even if I need to go to war with the entire Line to get it!” Krystal says with a fiery look in her eyes.

“Hopefully it does not come to that. You can go in and see him now but he will not regain consciousness for some hours.” The Doctor informs with a small smile.

Krystal walks into the room where Kit is being monitored with Jace in hand. She can barely contain the tears as she looks at Kit laying in bed, unconscious, wired up to a bunch of monitoring systems. She can’t help but have flash backs of all the times she had seen him in hospital bandaged up, covered in blood and battle injuries during the war.

The next day Krystal goes into Kit’s recovery room alone to talk about what is going on.

“I am going to go to the Red Line Army and demand they make you a new heart.” Krystal tells Kit firmly.

“And what if they say no?” Kit, questions concerned for her safety.

“They owe us they can’t say no.” Krystal replies.

“You know as well as I do the people in charge now are not the ones who owe us and they don’t like us very much.” Kit replies.

“Then I will force them to make it. I don’t care what I have to do. I’m getting you a new heart and you are going to stay here to look after our son. No arguments!” Krystal demands.

“I would not dare, I have a weak heart after all. You be careful.” Kit says giving her a kiss.

Krystal returns to their house, once inside she heads straight for the large steamer trunk in the middle of the main living room. It is big enough to hold three bodies inside, made of aged wood with black steal bands reinforcing it and a large padlock on the front with no key hole. She grabs the lock in her right hand running aura down her arm she concentrates it on the lock that starts to glow bright red, then she yanks on it breaking the lock and freeing the contents. Krystal slowly opens the trunk, she stands still for a moment looking down at her old Red Line Army uniform, black ops gear and weapons, feeling silly that she once thought she could just leave all this behind. She removes two curved daggers on a belt with holsters on the back, a small forearm shield, two handed broad sword with a bright blue blade that looks like crystal, her black ops gear cloths that have a viribus metal weave armour and packs it all in a large duffle bag.

Leaving the apartment she pauses to look above the fire place at their display shelf that has all manner of mementos including Kit’s original heart encased in crystal. She flashes back to the war when she fought a Titan elder with Kit and Admiral Kerr. They were hopelessly out matched taking one hell of a beating. Krystal only just managed to get Kit and Kerr away from the Titan before he could kill them all. It was the worst day of the war because even tho she got them away Kit was so badly injured that he died on the operating table right in front of her eyes, just before she passed out herself. When she regained consciousness she was told that they were able to bring Kit back and even make him stronger with a replacement heart and other modifications. Kit had his original heart encased in crystal to preserve it and gave it to Krystal as a gift, telling her that it was proof that not even death itself could keep him from her. She wipes two tears from her cheek before heading out the door, determined to prove Kit right. She heads to her small shuttle leaving for Red Space.

Next Chapter: Chapter Two: Scratch My Back