Lunar Affair (LGBT - Sci-Fi - Romance)

Chapter 2

Chapter Two 

THREE MONTHS EARLIER - Almaaz system 

The six men from the Lunar's Beta team moved forward under cover of darkness. Duran signalled to the man on his left to stay and keep watch while the rest of the team split in half, two following him and the other three circling the building. He activated the heat sensor of his goggles again to confirm the position of the four men inside then broke in the door, tossing a nerve gas canister ahead of him as he went. His team had their masks on already and were hard on his heels, stunners primed. Two of the men inside were already on the floor gasping for breath, their bodies twitching. A third threw himself out the window, clutching a package to his chest and the fourth man grabbed a laser gun from the box behind him and fanned it round the room in one swift motion.  

Duran flung himself to the ground, firing as he fell. Behind him, Kerr fired his own weapon and took out the assailant a second later but the damage was done. The beam had missed the middle of Duran's body where it had been aimed but hit him on the side of his face as he went down. He screamed, he couldn't help it. Corporal Kerr moved quickly to secure the rest of the building as Edwards bent down to help Duran, spraying a light layer of plasfoam over his face to stop the bleeding and shot him up with a strong anaesthetic to knock him out quickly.  

"He needs a medic, now!" Edwards couldn't quite keep his voice steady, looking down at the bloody ruin of what had been his commander's face. Kerr put a hand on his shoulder, "It's on the way. You stay with him, we'll take care of the rest."  

One of the other men came up to report to Kerr. "We've got the four men secured sir. Sir, there must be several hundred weapons here! Looks like four boxes of laser guns, but we'll have to dismantle them to make sure." 

"Just leave everything where it is for the moment. The local police will be here shortly to take over." He smiled wryly at Lee's look of disbelief. "I know, I'd rather we took everything up to the Lunar but we've had orders to leave it to the locals. Politics!" He snorted, "At least it will be their responsibility to ensure these weapons are identified before they're melted down. That could take some time if they've all been stolen." 

Duran spent the next couple of weeks in sick bay having his face reconstructed. It was a long and painful process, overlain by dismay over his lost looks. He'd never thought of himself as a particularly vain man, but he hadn't realised how much he had taken his ability to attract people, of both sexes, for granted. Traded on it, to be truthful. Now, instead of smiling and moving closer, people flinched, and stepped back. Not Jack of course, he had visited him every day and treated him just as he normally did, saying thankfully the first time he saw him, "Thank god! It's not as bad as it might have been. At least he missed your eyes, that would have been a real problem." Eventually he was back on duty and as the crew soon got used to his scars, he was persuaded they might not be as bad as he feared. 

But the first time he and Jack had gone to a bar, he had been unable to pick up a date for the first time in his life. He had been shattered. He had tried to get over it, telling himself he was lucky he was still alive at all, that it was shallow to put so much value on his looks, but it didn't help, it had struck a deep blow at his confidence. 

As had happened so often in the past, Jack was the one who helped. "Perhaps if you pretend the scars are not there," he suggested matter-of-factly, ignoring the furious glare Marc gave him.  

"If you go around hunched over and cringing away from people, of course they are going to think it's something to be frightened of. But if you act as if it doesn't matter, you'll find most people will ignore them too." 

Finally, after another awkward attempt, he had taken Jack's advice and found to his surprise that it did seem to make a difference. He still got a lot of stares but he found people were more relaxed around him, and he got a date. Admittedly not someone he might have considered before but still... 

Jack watched his progress with mixed feelings. He loved him, vanity and all, but he'd allowed a faint hope to creep in that perhaps the scars would teach him that looks weren't everything in a relationship. It didn't seem to be working so far. In fact, since his injury, Marc seemed almost driven in his desire to seduce as many men as possible, the younger the better. It was as if he was trying to rebuild his confidence, but in Jack's opinion a series of one night stands was not the way to build up your self-respect. 

Uncertain how to halt the spiral of what he saw as destructive behaviour, Jack had finally taken his courage in both hands and ventured a tentative pass. They had been out of the academy for years and successfully established themselves on the Lunar, surely it would be safe to have a relationship now? He had waited so long. They'd been in, yet another, bar sharing a few drinks before Marc went on the prowl. Jack had put an arm around his shoulders and kissed him lightly on the mouth, saying hopefully, "You know, you don't have to keep searching for someone to love you." He'd held his breath, waiting for his answer.  

Marc had thought he'd been joking.  

He had laughed at him, a hint of horrified disbelief just starting to cross his face until Jack was able to gather himself together and join in the laughter, saying "Sucked in!" and punching his arm. He'd buried the devastating hurt and put a smiling face on, resolving never to make the attempt again, if friendship was all Mark could give him, that would just have to be enough. 

The pass had terrified Marc for a minute, until he realised Jack was kidding. Jack's friendship was the only constant relationship in his life, if he fucked that up with sex, he'd have no-one. He felt shaky just thinking about it.