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Mateja Derejin

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Mateja Dejern was as normal as anyone else who lived in Fort Shanz. He had been conditioned to like it, as he was born and lived his entire life there. He had seen Parun and the marvels there, traveling with his father, the Commander of Fort Shanz. Dejern-born Falastons were considered to be the upper class, as the markings on their faces tended to be read by the shamanic priests as ‘kingly’ or ‘royal.’ It was because of this fact that Majeta was seen as something like a prince among the people at Fort Shanz. He was a humble person, having eaten food grown in a Hydroponic Dome and worked to keep everything in line. When the Federation troops came to inspect or give orders to the townsfolk, Mateja and his father were the first to report to them. He hated the troopers as much as any other in town, but as his destiny was determined by the purple swirls that branched off of his eyelids and the triangle which sat in the center of his forehead, he did what was assigned to him. Perhaps this was why he found Roya Xaviera so damned attractive. He saw her exist outside the laws he worked to enforce, and he was envious. He wanted to take part in whatever schemes Roya was starting, just to be free of everything he’d been around all his life. Seeing his people bow their needs to survive, while Roya would dance to the beat of her own drum, much against the rest of the townspeople’s chagrin. Roya was born there, but she had the blood of a Nuerian in her veins. It showed in everything she did how much she really didn’t fit in with Falaston culture. And what confused him the absolute most about it was that she didn’t seem to notice this fact.

Majeta wore boots made of sandworm skin that his mother had sewn with thread made of the intestines of the same sandworm, and his clothes were of the same, almost translucent material. The Falastons never wore anything heavier, as the heat would have surely killed their bodies otherwise. His beautiful blonde hair fell to his knees, decorated with all sorts of Falaston charms and beads, as the old tribes did for those considered ‘royal’ by their birthmarks.

Roya wore clothes that she found in the scrapyard that she spent a while cleaning. The skirt was made of a cloth no one could identify, and dyed a deep blue that never washed out somehow. It was durable, and felt rough to the touch outside, but on the inside, it was comfortable and very cool against the skin. Oh, and for sure no one knew what the hell those flashy things were that she had on her head until she explained it to them. Goggles, she said they were, were invented to protect one’s eyes from the environment. The Falastons had never heard of anything like that, but they recognized the usefulness of it easily. Eventually, when Roya and Sernon Xaviera were making all the sandsuits that were still used in the gateway room facility until that very day, they had the approval of everyone in Fort Shanz to include the goggles with them. Falaston hunters had brought them the sturdy skin of a sand beast to make it much more durable. Falastons never allowed any part of whatever they killed go to waste, as it was rare to have any new supplies at all. Everything had a use. It was hard to believe there was even a scrap yard to begin with!

Mateja spent a while in the Hydroponic room that grew all of the organic food that the people in Fort Shanz ate. A lot of it was preserved, dry meat from the hunts done over the past few weeks, and some of it was imported through Parun’s universal market, but most of it was vegetation that was grown in a dome of humidty impossible to occur naturally on Falasto. He knew the technology wasn’t supposed to exist here, but after one of the merchants went to great lengths to bring it here to save Fort Shanz’s population from certain death, the Dejern family let it slide. He looked at all the buttons and knobs, then gazed into the dome itself. All of the plants inside were perfect. After checking the humidity level, he just stood there and let his thoughts pass him by.

Roya never knew that Falastons choose their mates when they are very young, as per the tradition established by generations past. Mateja was no different. Many times in the past, the facial markings a Falaston was born with would determine who they should marry, and romance was expected to develop between the two engaged as they grew up around each other. Mateja tried on every chance he got, and after hearing Analy’s idea, he couldn’t think of anything else to try to open Roya’s heart. He would buy her a ship, or he would help her build her own with what he had on hand. He wasn’t going to go against what he was raised to uphold. ‘Tradition is important in the life of a Falaston,’ his father had said time and time again. ‘You will court the one you are arranged to marry, or you will grow old alone. That is our way.’ The only one who was different, was the lonely Royatina, whose mate died almost right after they were joined together in the eyes of the Desert Goddess. This left her able to care for the wounded Sernon after he crashed onto Falasto twenty-five years ago. Mateja smiled as he thought about it. If Royatina, his beloved Roya’s mother, had not lost her original love, Mateja himself would be arranged to marry another one like him, striving to continue the way his father and grandfather had. Was it wrong to rejoice in the fact that Royatina’s mate died at the hands of the sandworms while on a hunt?

Then there was the rebellious spirit in Roya, the girl with the bright red hair, named after her mother. The child who grew up constantly under her father’s wing after her mother died giving birth to her. Any other man in the universe would have completely abandoned her by now. Roya never noticed a single advance, never acknowledged a single favor, and never seemed to notice him aside from when he was scolding her for going against the established rules of the town.
He got up once he realized he’d spent about an hour in there thinking everything over. Mateja had to report back to his father that everything was working and try to figure out where the hell he could get plasma ore without anyone noticing.

“Ah, there you are!” Analy said from a floor above Mateja. “How’s it lookin’ in there?”

Mateja looked up. “Everything checks out to be normal. How is our little mechanic?”
Analy shrugged. “Hungry. We’re out of credits. Your dad got any new jobs she could do to earn a few?”

He nodded. “I’ll ask, and if he doesn’t, you both are more than welcome over for supper tonight.” He smiled. This was going to be a perfect opportunity to finally talk some sense into her. His father would be able to persuade her to buy a starship instead of risking her life smuggling illegal fuel to power her handcrafted ship that may or may not survive its maiden voyage. “In fact, come by anyway. I’ll cook for you both.”

“Let’s see if she agrees,” Analy said laughing, heading back on up.

“If she’s broke,” Mateja said under his breath, “She’ll come looking for a way to earn a few credits. I’ll show my father I’m courting her to the best of my ability… and he says I’m not trying hard enough.” He then walked over to the other elevator across the way and pressed the button to be lifted up to the twenty-fifth floor.

Fort Shanz was exactly twenty-five floors tall, each floor having a special purpose. The tallest floor was for the use of the family in charge, the Derejins. On one side was a section for the Derejins to live and for the Commander’s office. Across the way were the sections that were given for whatever use the family needed it for. Two of the sections were given walls and doors to be used for the Xaviera family, as at one point, no one in Fort Shanz wanted to share a floor with an outsider. While Roya was accepted for the most part even if she was a half-breed, her father was looked down upon by many, no matter how much he tried to help them in their daily lives. There were floors below for residential purposes, some for cleaning and prepping resources for daily use, and one floor to serve as a place of punishment for those guilty of committing crimes. For the few hundred residents of Fort Shanz, it was enough to serve as a home. Mateja marched up to his father’s office and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a stern male voice called from inside.

Mateja opened the door and bowed his head slightly. “Commander,” he said, even though the title was not fitting for a man who looked more tribal than militant.
“All of the routine checks are normal.”

“My son,” the Commander said, extending a hand. He was about a full foot taller than that of Mateja, and that was not including his large, expansive horns, which at the end were turning to the same color as the facial birthmarks both of them bore proudly. His hair was a darker blonde, running through with streaks of brown, showing his old age. “Please sit down. I have something I wish to discuss with you, now that you’re here.”

“Sir?” Mateja asked, confused by this. “I thought you didn’t want to be bothered while you were in your office. I was going to wait until you were home before-”
The Commander shook his head as he pointed to the nearby cushion-like seat on the floor. “This is between you and me, my son. You don’t need to be so formal.” He waited until Mateja sat down, then his smile grew. “It’s almost time for you to take the vows, my son. Have you checked on Roya lately?”

“She is coming over to dine with us this evening,” Mateja answered with a smile. “I was hoping she might fall for one of my best recipes.”

“Ah ha! Splendid idea, my boy. I always told you that you had to think outside the box to be able to court a rebel like that one. A woman can easily be swayed by a man’s dish from the heart.” The commander laughed at that, patting Mateja’s shoulder. “You can use all our finest meats and fruits to fill her belly as full as it can get, and then you will invite her to sleep with you!”

“Wha… Father!” Mateja gasped. “Y-you cannot be serious.”

“I didn’t say you would go through with the baby making ritual, you idiot!” The commander said. “I said you would offer her company and warmth. Desert nights are not at all comfortable alone. It is one of the best perks of having a mate, my son, keeping you and your mate gently safe from the outside world. This is how the romance works. You hold each other, you comfort each other, you are each other’s ultimate love and ambition, all you do is for your mate and your community.”
Mateja knew in the depths of his heart that would not go well on Roya. Trying to tell her something so archaic and poetic would go right over her head, and she would just ask when she could get back to work on her blasted project in that damned shed out in the middle of the scrap yard when he was done. “Fa… father,” he started like he wanted to say something important, but he stopped himself from continuing. Mateja knew that Roya would never forgive him if he revealed that she was doing something more than illegal outside the city’s boundary. He was aware of the fact that she and her father spent time outside, probably because he wanted to fix his own ship to return home somehow, but Mateja’s father never knew that the erratic behaviors continued in Sernan Xaviera’s daughter.

“I’ll go get started on it, then,” Mateja said quietly, picking himself up from his seated position. “Father, I… I’m not sure if you know this, but Analy will be coming along as well.”

“That one still lives around here? I’m amazed she hasn’t left yet.”

“She makes it her personal duty to keep watch over Roya.”

The commander grunted. “That will be over the moment Roya is married into the Derejin family.” He stood up, too. “I will have a word with her. You just take care of Roya.”

Mateja also knew in the depths of his heart that Analy would not be the one to take that so lightly. Analy took her duties to heart, whatever they were exactly, and Roya never had a problem with her following her around all the time anyway. He turned to bow his head just a little bit towards his father, then walked out of the main office to find that Roya was standing right there in front of the door looking intently at her set of screwdrivers. “Oh, how long have you been there, Roya?” he asked.

“I came looking for work,” Roya answered, not looking up from the blue one with the end shaped like a tooth. “I’m out of credits and can’t buy anything else to eat right now, so I wanted to come see if the Commander needed anything fixed around the fort.” She smiled before putting her screwdriver back into her pocket.

“You don’t have to work to eat,” the Commander’s voice came from behind Mateja. He soon stepped through the door, coming out to where he was visible to Roya. “Come now, you’re family. You can eat with us as much as you like. You share the same floor we do. It’s amazing that you don’t tell us more of your problems.”

Roya put her hands on her hips. “I hate working on other people’s stuff. I’d rather build on my own than fix anyone else’s mistakes. But when I have no money, I have no choice.”

It wasn’t usual for anyone in Fort Shanz to speak to the Commander in such an indignant tone, but the Commander let it slide. He wanted to give her the impression that he was just as her father was. He smiled. “Now, where is your little friend, Analy?”

“Analy isn’t here? That’s weird. I thought she was right behind me,” Roya said, turning to look around. “Except for when I do work, she’s always close by…” She then shrugged dismissively. “Well, I do walk faster than she does.”

“Mateja, take the girl in for supper, she said she was hungry,” the Commander said, nudging his son in the side. “I’ll go find your friend and invite her to join you both.”

“Of… of course,” Mateja said with a sudden nod, offering his arm to Roya. “Please, be my guest. I’ll be making some sandbeast and sweet fruit. How does that sound?”

Roya ignored the fact that he offered to take her so formally and just walked over to the door that led to the Derejin residential section of the floor and kicked the door open. “Ha, like you know how to cook! I’ll do it!” she said proudly. “I’ll make you a recipe Dad taught me while we were out in the scrap yard, out in his shop!”
Going into the two-roomed area that was marked as the Derejin’s apartment, the place was not decorated in the least. Plain gray steel walls surrounded the steel floor, leaving it feeling cold and empty save the furniture. On the table in the center sat one decorative centerpiece that looked like it was from some sort of tribal ritual, but other than that, it felt like a very lonely place.

Roya tilted her head to the side. “How… desolate,” she said in almost a whisper, hoping Mateja didn’t hear that. “Dad made a point to keep the place welcoming in case we had guests. This just feels sad.”

Mateja nodded in agreement. “There is a saying in Falaston legend,” he said as he walked inside and shut the door. “That one displays their heart in their home.”

Roya turned to look at him. “So you’re saying that your heart is gray and empty?” she asked. “You can’t be gray and empty and… cold like this, Mateja. You have a job to do, your father is still here with you, you have a home in the highest floor of this squeaky, oily, horribly constructed mess we call a fort. You’re loved and needed, so your heart cannot be gray and empty!”

“This isn’t my doing. I cannot control how the rooms appear, as they are not yet mine,” Mateja answered her. He was concerned about the fact that it bothered her so much to be surrounded by a place that lacked any heart. “My father is still the leader, so as per tradition-“

Her face started to turn red. “No! No!” she shouted. “Tradition? If you come home to live inside a metal box like this every day, you’re gonna feel like you’re in a cage! It’s a prison, not a home! I don’t wanna eat here, it makes me feel nervous.” Roya shook like she really was afraid. “There’s no windows, there’s nothing… it’s soulless and lifeless and… it makes me miss my dad. I have to go home, this place makes my heart ache.” As she started to leave, Mateja put his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t stop me, I don’t like it in here.”

“No,” Mateja said softly. “I don’t want to let you go.”

“This place is scary. Let me go! I need to be somewhere that feels welcoming. If you really wanna make me supper, Mateja, let’s go to my place instead. Please? Can we do that?” Roya asked. “I’d feel a lot more comfortable that way.”

Mateja agreed to that proposal. “Sure. I don’t see why not.”

Roya was downright excited to leave the Derejin apartment. She ran over to the door and walked out, discovering the Commander of Fort Shanz right there blocking her way out. “He-hello, Commander,” she said, her fear instantly returning. “Can I… can I go home now?” she asked. “Mateja said he wanted to make me din…”

The Commander walked in, and she stepped back to make room for him. He must have been almost two feet taller than her, minus the horns which adorned his head. They weren’t graceful like Mateja’s horns. They twisted around in the center, pointing the horns to the front instead of to the sides. “Mateja, why is supper not started yet? The girl is hungry, isn’t she?” he asked, forcing the issue.

“Father, Roya is not comfortable here,” Mateja answered honestly. “I was going to take her home to prepare the food there, so at least she’d be able to enjoy the meal. Let her pass. Can’t you see that she’s shaking?”

“You’ve no need to fear me,” the Commander said, trying to extend a hugging gesture to Roya. “I was friends with your father. Sernon Xaviera was a bright man, and you, you’re a bright girl. Brought to us by accident, you brighten up our lives every day. Please, listen to me. Stay here with Mateja tonight. I have work to attend to, so stay here in these rooms. Do not leave, all right? This is an order from the Commander. You will be incarcerated as punishment if you disobey my orders.”

Mateja couldn’t believe what he just heard. “Father, you couldn’t!”

“Things are happening in the Fortress that you cannot see, little Roya,” the Commander said sternly. “My heart would ache to see you frightened.”

“I… I am frightened,” Roya shook her head. “I wanna go home.”

“You can tomorrow. I promise. Bright and early in the morning, I will escort you there myself,” the Commander said quietly, turning to walk out into the open area of the twenty-fifth floor. “If that is what you’d prefer.”

“I… I’d much rather… Mateja… take me,” Roya replied, hardly able to speak.

“Certainly! It shall be done, my dear, it shall be done as you will,” the Commander beamed, walking out and slamming the heavy steel door behind him. When he was outside the door, his voice was heard again. “All right. She’s secured. Now I want that little blonde bitch with the pointed ears found! She can’t have gone too far! Bring her to me alive!”

Roya gasped. “Analy,” she whispered. “Oh, no… he just talked about Analy! What’s going on? Whe… where is Dad’s old spaceship?! Why couldn’t he have fixed it before those stupid Federation bullies had to find it and take it away?!” She almost fell to the floor, but Mateja caught her and helped her land more securely. “Mateja, why would your father do this? Why? Why can’t I fly away?!” She had held her tears back as long as she could. Soon they fell everywhere.

Mateja gripped around her tightly. This was the first time Roya even let him that close. Even worse, this was the first time he ever heard his father speak in the way that he did. That tone, his gestures, his reasoning seemed to be completely different from what he knew of his father. The Commander was well aware of the fact that Roya was a free spirit and did things in her own way. He knew that messing with what Roya was familiar with would throw her into a fit. Mateja couldn’t believe any of this was real. Hunting for Analy so randomly like this? Trying to keep Roya from going home?! No, this wasn’t right. Mateja was going to confront his father about this the next time he saw him. This couldn’t be just a plot to get Roya to accept the engagement. Not even the strict traditionalist mindset that the Commander held so tightly to would drive him into such actions.

Roya eventually found herself gripping onto Mateja. She found comfort in his presence, and she knew for a fact that if he hadn’t been with her like this, she would be in a much worse state than she was. She had no clue how much time passed, but they didn’t exchange a single word before Roya fell asleep with her head in his lap except for when she whispered a faint “thank you…”

A while after Roya had fallen asleep, the Commander came back in to find the display right there in the center of the room. Mateja was starting to nod off when he noticed that his father stood right there, looking down upon them with a dirty smile.

“And you didn’t take her to your bed?” the Commander asked. “Never the less, everything is settled now. She can go directly home tomorrow, if she so chooses.”

“What was all of this for?” Mateja asked. “You scared her, you trapped her in an unfamiliar place which made her even more fearful, and on top of that, she overheard your voice saying that you were hunting for her best friend!?”

“Mateja,” the Commander said. “This is all for you, my son. You have her right here with you, finally letting you hold her and comfort her like you wished. Now, she will stay with you. I have assured that.”

Mateja was confused. “Where is Analy?” he asked. “Roya will go into another panic if she doesn’t have her companion!”

“No, she won’t, my son. I will be giving you a new job here in Fort Shanz.” The Commander sat down next to them and looked at Roya with an expression that downright terrified Mateja to his core. “You will supervise Roya Xaviera constantly. You will move in with her into her quarters, you will attend to her needs, and you will accompany her on every job she gets; and you’ll document everything she does.”

“What wrongs could Roya have committed that makes it a requirement that she be constantly supervised like this?” Mateja wondered aloud. “Analy was not her attendant, and I don’t need to be, either. Father, this is madness! Is it because she has the blood of an outsider that you don’t find her to be safe? She was born and raised here, even if she does have some of the weird tendencies of her father’s race, she is still a person who is a part of the community and… the person I have loved since my childhood.” He looked down to see her breathing peacefully and put his hand on her forehead gently. “I will keep her on my own, I don’t want it to be an order from you.”

“Boy, that blonde bitch with the pointed ears? She was Elruian. The troopers caught wind of her bio-signature from a hair inside one of the sandsuits,” the Commander explained, trying to be as calm as possible. “Elruia is at war with the Federation and with Neuria. The girl? A spy. And, maybe, if things went wrong, an assassin.”
“Nonsense!” Mateja shouted. “What would Analy be doing with someone like Roya?! There would be no reason to spy on a helpless girl in the middle of this Goddess forsaken pit of hell!”

“How dare you call our home Goddess forsaken?!” the Commander yelled in return. “The Goddess gave you the breath you draw, she can take it from you through the hands of those around you! Listen! That girl’s father was important on her homeland, and he was running from the Federation with some sort of secret. They shot him down and when they noticed this is where he was crashing, they thought him dead. No one expected any of the Falasto to mate with one outside of their race, but Royatina did! That Elruian bitch came through Parun and infiltrated our community when she was a child to watch over the possible heir of Neuria to see that she stayed here. Got on the good side of the unsuspecting Sernon, who was an outsider himself here in Fort Shanz, and the rest is history.” He stood back up and glared down at his son.
“Take her to bed, for Heaven’s sake. She looks cold on that floor. Desert nights are terrible when it comes to that.”

Mateja had to use almost all of his arm strength to lift Roya off the floor and carry her to the other room where a single bed stood in the darkness. When he laid her on the bed, she jolted awake and he could no longer hold her. “Roya, please, settle down,” he said. “You just fell asleep. I wanted to make sure you slept somewhat comfortably.”

“I’m still not allowed to go home, am I?” she asked, shivering.

“No, not until morning,” Mateja said gently. “Come now. Time to return to dreamland.”

“But… what about Analy?”

Mateja knew that Roya would not want to sleep without knowing at least something about Analy, and he didn’t want to upset her, so he wasn’t sure exactly what to say. He had to pull something out of his ass and make it sound believable. “Well,” he started, “She… she has something she has to do now. She’ll be gone for a while. Don’t worry though, you’ll be safe. I will be there with you, no matter what.” When he noticed that she was starting to fall back asleep, he took the opportunity to kiss her cheek. “We’ll talk about all the details when you wake up, over a nice big morning meal.” He looked back, knowing that his father was expecting him to crawl into the bed with Roya. He hated having to do it like this under a watchful eye. Mateja always wanted his relationship with Roya to be organic and genuine. He loved her dearly, but this was not done out of love. When he wrapped his arms around Roya, he could feel her heartbead right up against his. Together, they were warm.
When everything had fallen silent, the door right next to the bed shut just enough to catch Mateja’s attention. He tried to slip back into that mindset to let himself go to sleep, but another sound kept him awake.

“Hello?” It was muffled, but Mateja knew his father’s voice. “Ahh, good to speak with you. Yes, yes. Things have been arranged. There will be no more fouls in the future.” Every sentence had enough silence to sound like there was only one half of the conversation audible. Mateja was surprised that his father had that kind of communication device. “My own son will keep watch over the princess from now until they are joined through the ritual. Yes, she will join in this family, of course. When that happens, then it’s all up to you. It states in the vows that she will give up all property in her own name in exchange for the right to mate, you realize that, right? Yes, so even her birthright will fall out of her own hands without her even knowing it. Ha… right, just remember your part of the bargain, will you? Dealing with this girl is more bothersome than you can imagine. My son does say and act like he truly is in love with her, but I’d have thrown her to you, if I had my choice. Hmm, perhaps you are right. Maybe I shouldn’t have let one of my people breed with someone from Neuria like that. I can’t kill her now, though, that would break my son’s heart and throw the universe into turmoil.”

Mateja’s mind began to rush like crazy. Tomorrow, a lot had to be done. He was going to call someone at the black market for that Plasma after all.
The next part in the story that goes with "Roya Xaviera", which follows Mateja and his feelings more closely than anyone else's.

Oh, I changed Malaze's name at Jake's suggestion after thinking it over. I like Mateja better as a name. It's Slavic and means "Gift from God", even if the Falastons believe in a six-winged horned goddess... ^^;

And the plot picked up~ Whee~ Second chapter and shit starts HAPPENING, like holy shit.
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