When does the winter end? When does spring begin?

     After several weeks of exploring the city they eventually returned to the Ambu temple to clear the foliage in preparation for their Pairing Day. The day of the ceremony was a one of New Cerri’s brilliant sunny days with big white clouds drifting in the sky. Many of the cities scattered residents and officially dressed dignitaries from around the planet came out to witness their Pairing. The Ambu War Hero Kine Ycer had returned to New Cerri and paired with the young Ambu minister, a fitting pairing for the legendary Ycer.

     As Lisi and Kine walked below the flowing waterfalls in their blue and white Pairing robes young children, dressed in colorful red, blue, yellow and white costumes danced the customary "Pairing Dance" to the music of chimes. The Pairing brought back a sense or peace to the city and the planet that had not been experienced since before the war.

    Kine ordered the New Cerri Authority to restore the power to the temple, and begin upgrading the city defenses. With Kine's returning strength, they often worked in his mother's garden. Lisi's love was transforming; the long dark nights of torturous dreams were slowly being washed away with every day they spent together. The nights when Kine awoke screaming, Lisi was there to bring him into the present and help him deal with his pain, a deep pain she couldn't comprehend, a pain he could not speak of.

     The familiar sound of searing energy beams jolted Kine from his sleep, and for several moments he thought he was back on the Planet Nian during the Ycerri Offensive. With alarm, he suddenly realized that he was in his home with Lisi standing frightened beside him. "What is happening, Kine?" Kine's instincts took over as he grabbed a communo-disk from is pack and stood on it, suddenly a hologram of outside images and faces came and went as quickly as the movement of his eyes. Kine's communo-implants put the entire planetary defense system under his command. A General quickly briefed him "Commander, a Nian robotics force has surfaced on the planet. Their target seems to be you. . They attempted to destroy your house, but apparently the house’s defense mechanisms had been triggered". "Yes, my father installed them after my brother died. However, he hadn't anticipated having to use it so quickly. When the Nian first invaded they weren't online. I modified them and put them online when I returned. They won't last long, not to worry." Lisi stood there frozen as the holographic displays whirled around Kine's head.

    After the many years he spent commanding the entire Ycerri Fleet, his actions came to him second nature. Outside his house he could see the energy signatures of the camouflaged robots attacking the house from above and beside. Kine ordered an unmanned fleet of Attack Drones to deploy from their low orbit. The drones arrived in minutes. The airborne drones attacked, covering them with energy plasma weapons, making the robots retreat from the house into the air to engage the attack drones.

    The Nian robots were no matches for the agile and powerful attack drones. However, one robot managed to penetrate the house defenses by burrowing beneath it. The robot erupted from the floor, causing Kine to fall off the Communo-disk. Kine whirled in a circle to catch Lisi in his grasp "Hold on to me!" he yelled as he picked her up and ran on top of a compartment in the floor. The compartment opened and they fell into a waste chute before the robot was able to fix them in its deadly plasma barrage. Together, they slipped down the chute to the bottom of the hill the house was perched on. The robot was not far behind them as they rolled out of the chute to an open field. As the robot emerged from the chute behind them, the attack drones descended on it immediately, destroying it. Muddy and wet from the damp grass, Kine stood up and picked Lisi up off her feet. She was shaking as tears streamed from her eyes; Kine cradled her in his arms, and for the first time in his life he felt shaken, from the knowledge that he could not continue to live if any harm came to her.

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Stick with me through this story its my first crack at Sci-Fi. Constructive Criticism is always good.
For those who see it ; forgive the "was" and
the word sleep, the second sleep should read "rest". Didn't catch that in my last edit.

updated Jul 18 by Becktemba