Dance With Me
A tale about Stephen Sandor and Nova
Forrester
Star
Blazers Fan Fiction
Written and Illustrated By Angie Dargo
This tale begins in the Winter of
2198. The earth is starting to be
heavily bombed by the Gamilons and people have moved to underground cities. The
Star Force has not yet been asked to go to Iscandar. As a matter of fact, there is no Star Force
yet. Nova Forrester (17) is a nurse and
lieutenant for the Earth Defense Forces and she holds a few other jobs. Stephen Sandor (27) has just received new
bionic arms and legs in a surgery. He is
also a lieutenant in the Earth Defense Forces and runs a lab for experimental
weaponry and does mechanical maintenance on battleships. He also teaches at the Academy. This story begins with their friendship. It will take them through to Iscandar. Everyone needs someone to take the lead
through the tough spots.
Hope you enjoy!
STAR BLAZERS, SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, and all related names and elements are copyright © 2006 by Voyager Entertainment, Inc and Leiji Matsumoto. Star Blazers is a registered trademark of Jupiter Films, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter One
Stephen Sandor was lost in the quiet of his anesthesia induced dream. He was in a wheelchair; a rusty remnant from when he was a child and he had just had the horrible accident that had cost him his arms and legs. He was surprised to see that he was his current age…27, not a child. His sister sat with him; the sister whose life had been lost in that same accident. They were in a dark operating room and their voices echoed with each word that passed between them.
“I am so sorry that you aren’t with me anymore, sis. I ‘m the one that should have died; it was my fault”, sobbed Sandor with his head down.
“Oh honey, I’m in a much better place than this Earth
now. You were a child, you didn’t know
better! Mom, Dad, and I shouldn’t have
let you drive that car at that amusement park. We should have said no. But
Sandor looked up in the dark empty chamber and his beautiful sister was gone.
“What do you mean, I will save lives? Where are you? Don’t leave me! I can’t do this alone anymore! I can’t make one person on Earth happy! I couldn’t even stay married for four months! I couldn’t even see that my lovely young wife was miserable! I’m doomed to be alone! I made this life for myself! No one needs me…no one wants me…”
“Wake up Sandor! You must be having one terrible dream buddy!”
Sandor woke up in a brightly lit hospital room with his best friend, Alex Wildstar standing over him.
Sandor didn’t say a word as he tried to sit up in the hospital bed. His arms collapsed beneath him. Alex reached to help him, but Sandor just waved him off.
“No! I’m going to have to get used to these new limbs. I’ve got to do this myself,” said Sandor as he tried to pull himself up again.
Dr. Sane, a little man who barely was tall enough to hold his head up over the bedside came up to Alex and said, “I see our patient is up and causing his heart rate to go into orbit!”
“Well, I tried to help, but Spartacus there thinks he can do it all by himself,” said Alex with a smirk.
“Last I checked, you weren’t my mommy,” commented Sandor.
A pretty young nurse walked in the door and came up to Sandor to take his blood pressure. She didn’t interrupt the conversation but went about her business as the others talked casually. This nurse however, put Sandor immediately on edge. Women almost always had some kind of freakish reaction at his arms or legs whenever they saw him. They did not like the obvious lines of attachment where the bionic limbs met his real shoulders and upper thighs. He was just thinking about saying something to the nurse about being more comfortable with a male nurse but she pulled up his sleeve on his hospital gown and didn’t flinch at all. In fact, she commented to Dr. Sane on what excellent attachment he had done after she put the sleeve back into place.
The men stopped talking and they looked at her.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have to go to my other job now, Dr. Sane. Mr. Sandor, your arms and legs look great. You’ll be up and around probably by tomorrow, right Doctor?”
“Er..yes, yes he will!” smiled Dr. Sane as he saw the expression on Sandor’s face. Why was he looking at Nova that way?
“Good night gentlemen!” she said as she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.
“Hey, Sandor buddy…I think you’ve just found your first date!” chuckled Alex as he flopped down in the chair next to the bed. Alex knew of Sandor’s trouble with women. Although Alex wanted to tell his friend that it was Sandor’s lack of confidence and demeanor with the opposite sex and not just his bionic attributes.
“That’s enough Lieutenant Wildstar! That nurse is my best and much too hard working for a hooligan like yourself. Besides, she’s much too young for either of you,” snapped Doctor Sane. “She’s got her hands full right now anyway.”
“I could give her a hand full,” grinned Alex.
“Oh shut up you moron!” laughed Sandor.
Dr. Sane was laughing a little too as he turned to go. “Everything did go well Sandor. Your arms and legs will be able to do some miraculous things, just don’t blow them up in the lab!”
The small cherub like doctor walked towards the door and turned back.
“And please you two, behave!”
Chapter Two
Sandor stood outside of the apartment that he and Alex shared and looked out at the students hurrying to their dorms before curfew. He usually liked walking around in the dark, it helped him to think. But tonight his mind was a clutter of jumbled up emotions and he hated it. For one, he was having a really rough time getting used to the new arms and legs. The Earth Defense Forces had him working on warp technology for some of the battleships and he couldn’t keep his hands from shaking. His arms kept twitching, his knees were buckling, and damn it, he couldn’t have that! Dr. Sane told him he needed physical therapy to get used to the new limbs when he had been dismissed from the hospital two weeks prior, but he had to get back to work!
He knew he would have to call the doctor in the morning.
Second, the earth had taken another heavy bombing and several more people were killed in the African region. When was this going to end? When? He knew that the EDF would just keep him in the lab like a mole working on weaponry and the possibility of warp travel in space, but he wanted to be doing something…physical to these bastards! Alas, he was the thinker…not the fighter like Alex. Alex was being trained in all kinds of fighting right now, being prepared for battles. Sandor was in his lab left to defend by thinking and planning.
And also he kept thinking about his ex-wife. Lera had left him over a year ago. She left him a note…a note for God’s sake!
Stephen,
I can’t
take being alone anymore. I accepted you
with all your faults. But all I find
myself doing is waiting for you to come home.
When you come home you eat, shower, and sleep. A woman needs to be touched Stephen! I can’t live like this. I thought we could have a future together,
just me and you. Now I know, you only
need you. I’ll file all the necessary
paperwork. You can get a lawyer if you
want one, but I don’t want anything from you.
All I wanted was your time anyway.
Lera
Why didn’t he see that coming? He had met and dated Lera for just six months. She said she was lonely. So was he. “Note to self,” he thought, “Lonely does not a mate make.”
He had heard though that she was seeing someone else already. He wished her well, he really did.
He heard Alex coming up the sidewalk. Alex sat down on the front veranda beside him.
“Hard day honey?” said Sandor.
“Damn straight. Hey, what are you doing home? You’re usually in your hole, lab rat!”
Alex always knows when to hammer that nail in a little deeper Sandor grinned to himself.
“Let’s go get a beer!” said Alex as he patted Sandor on the back. The two friends walked away into the darkness.
Chapter 3
“Well, your arms and legs need to be worked properly with the rest of your body and that’s why I prescribed physical therapy in the first place!” yelled Dr. Sane on the other end of Sandor’s cell phone. Sandor held it away from his ear. His lab assistant, Michael drew his eyebrows up in a “what the hell?” expression.
“Okay…okay. I agree. I’m coming to see you today to talk about this. Sorry!”
Sandor put the phone back into his pocket and told Michael that he would have to leave early, he had to see the doctor again.
“Well, sir, if I could make a suggestion,” said the tall thin African-American cadet. “If you do have to take physical therapy, make sure the doc has you come to the Academy gym. The therapists there are really good at what they do.”
“Thank you Michael, I’ll ask Dr. Sane about it,” said Sandor, genuinely heartened at his assistant’s concern for him.
“Yeah, those babes are hot! Unless you get one of the male nurses and then the other cadets kind of snicker behind your back, but don’t let the assholes get you down sir!”said Michael as he went back to some equations Sandor had him working on.
Sandor’s shoulders sunk. He rolled his eyes to the heavens and sighed. “This is gonna be a long day,” he thought.
“Thanks again Michael.”
“Just looking out for you, sir!”
Chapter 4
Dr. Sane leaned on his desk in his office and looked over his spectacles at Sandor. “So, let me get this straight,” he said. “You are agreeing to physical therapy, you just don’t want to do it in front of anyone else, is that right?”
“Right, I’ve gone through a lot of grief in my life because of this…this…handicap and I think now I have the right to call my own shots. If I have to go through 6 to 8 months of physical therapy interrupting my lab time, plus my teaching time when I start teaching classes at the Academy in the spring, then I should be comfortable. I shouldn’t have to worry about others staring at me and the scuttlebutt going through the campus.” Sandor crossed his arms and looked directly at Dr. Sane.
“I hope you do not consider yourself handicapped, Sandor” said Dr. Sane.
“Well, most of the time I do. Now this is not a counseling session Doctor, just tell me where to go and when.”
Dr. Sane smiled at Sandor and leaned back in his chair. “Well I have just the thing for you young man! Now you listen to me young man! I will agree to your demands. I know what you need and just the person to give it to you. You will go to this address tomorrow at 1700 hours and enter in the back hallway. There will be a lady waiting to assist you. Good luck Lieutenant. And as long as you are breathing air in this horrid situation that we earthlings are in at the moment, don’t ever consider yourself handicapped. Have a good night.”
With that, Dr. Sane handed Sandor a piece of paper that he had scribbled a name and address on. The doctor stood up and opened the door to his office for Sandor. Sandor shook Dr. Sane’s hand and said “thank you” and slipped out into the busy hospital corridor.
Only when he walked out into the parking lot did Sandor finally look at the address.
“Madame Celeste’s Dance Studios….What the hell?!”
Chapter 5
Sandor fretted all day about his upcoming physical therapy appointment. What had he gotten himself into? Okay, privacy was the key here. If this woman, this Madame Celeste, could make sure no one knew he was there, then what was the harm, right?
The harm was he couldn’t dance. He had no interest in it. He had no want for it. He just wanted to be able to walk without his knees going out from under him and work on this warp energy experiment without blowing the whole damn place apart.
He looked up at the clock with sudden alarm and noticed it was 1630 already. He turned to Michael and said, “Hey, do you mind cleaning up tonight? I have an appointment.”
“Nah man, that’s what they pay me for. Are you going to the gym for your P.T.?” asked Michael.
“No, that idea fell through. I just have an…appointment. Leave it at that. Thanks for cleaning up,” said Sandor as he hurriedly put away the latest probability theory for a warp engine. It was getting close.
“Well, it’s gotta be some girl sir, ‘cause you been actin’
all weird and shit today. It’ll be
alright. She’ll like you. Just don’t start babblin’ like Einstein on
her and maybe you’ll get her to go home with you,” said Michael as he started
filing papers away. “Hey sir? Maybe you
and she ought to check out that nightclub over on
“Thanks for your concern, Michael, but there is no she. It is just an appointment,” said a tight-lipped Sandor as he stepped from the lab.
Sandor walked hurriedly to the corner of
“Yes ma’am.”
“Well, step in young man! I have much to tell you before you get started!”
The woman was short but very thin and looked to be about 70 years old. She also looked very sturdy and as though she could take down the biggest soldier with one solid kick. Her legs were clad in black tights and she had a dark thick skirt on over a black leotard. A lavender shawl was thrown over her shoulders. Her white hair was cascading down her back. She looked like a gypsy in the old books that Sandor’s Russian grandmother had in her bookshelves.
She led him into a small room with a big dark glass window. In the room was a small oak desk, two chairs- one behind the desk, one in front of the desk, and an old coat tree with a couple of wire hangers abandoned on it.
Madame Celeste sat behind the desk and gestured for Sandor to sit in the chair in front. As he was walking to the chair he noticed that the big, glass window was actually a two-way mirror. He saw a young woman waltzing with a not much older man in a marine uniform. The marine had a brace on his leg.
Sandor sat down. Madame Celeste began.
“Dr. Sane is a very good friend of mine. I employ some of his nurses here so they can get their physical therapy credits. You will be working with one of his nurses for the next several months. She is very good. I will print up her credentials for you to look at if you wish. She is a well trained dance instructor as well as a well trained physical therapist. Also, Mr. Sandor we know about your need for privacy and we will accommodate you my dear. You will take this key,” at this she handed Sandor a key card “and you can come in the back entrance to my establishment and into this room when you are ready for your appointment. You may wait in this room until Miss Forrester is finished with her other patients or clients. She is always punctual and I suggest you be punctual as well. She is professional and you will behave in a professional manner as well. Do we understand each other dear?” Madame Celeste looked at Sandor as though she could bore a hole through his forehead.
“Ma’am, I assure you, professional is all that I am,” Sandor replied dryly.
“Tsk…such a shame for such a handsome man,” smiled the old lady demurely.
Great, this old crone
is hitting on me now? What else can I
take? I’m nervous as hell already!
“Well, Mr. Sandor. Let us go so you can meet your new dance partner!” said Madame Celeste as she stood up and shook Sandor’s hand.
“You mean…my new therapist,” said Sandor.
“Yes, dear. Whatever,” said the old woman.
Sandor and Madame Celeste waited at the two-way mirror as the young instructor said her goodbyes to the marine.
“Mr. Payton, your leg is doing wonderfully. You’ll be dancing with your young bride at your wedding in the spring!”
“Thanks so much,” said the marine. “I’ll see you on Thursday!”
At that, Madame Celeste and Sandor entered the studio room through the small office area. The studio room had wooden floors and a long room length mirror and quite the sound system. There were no windows and the door that led to the rest of the studio was solid. There were costumes on a clothing rack in the corner, a piano, and several fans set up that were all on. The room was warm but not stiflingly so. The young lady was in the corner of the room getting a drink of water from a fountain. She pulled her hair into a ponytail.
“Miss Forrester! I would like you to meet Mr. Sandor, your new patient. I gave you his folder this morning. I trust that you have read it and know what he needs my dear?” said Madame Celeste as she swept across the room almost theatrically.
“Yes Madame. Mr. Sandor, I am once again thrilled to be working with you,” said Nova as she turned around to look at Sandor for the first time since he had walked into the room.
“You! You’re the nurse that was in the hospital that night. You took my blood pressure; you…” Sandor felt himself turn red in the face. This was the nurse. The pretty young nurse that did not flinch from him. He didn’t know whether to feel comforted or more nervous than ever.
“Well, I see Miss Forrester has already made quite an impression on you dear,” said Madame Celeste as she walked out the heavy wooden door that led into the rest of the big studio.
Nova went over to the door and locked it. She turned back to Sandor and said “I know you want your privacy Lieutenant. We never usually have any interruptions but the lock is for just in case.”
“Uh, thank you.” Sandor eyes followed Nova as she walked over to a file laying on top of the piano. She picked it up and walked over to him. Sandor took in her appearance and tried to keep his jaw from falling open. This woman, this girl, hell, this kid he thought, would be the one to be his physical therapist? She was dressed very conservatively in a tight pink top with three quarter length sleeves and dance pants. She had on high-heeled ballroom dance shoes. She was tall, lithe, and still curvy. Her eyes were a coppery brown and her eyelashes went on forever it seemed. But Sandor could also see something else in her eyes. Intelligence.
Wow.
“Let’s start with what should I call you?” said Nova as she wrote something quickly on a sheet of paper in the file. She laid it on top of a chair beside her.
“Well, what do you want to call me?” asked Sandor shuffling from foot to foot.
“What do you feel comfortable with? And maybe I should go ahead and tell you that I’m taking your course on Astrophysics in the spring…so maybe I shouldn’t call you by a first name, sir.” Nova looked at him with a soft smile on her lips. An intoxicating smile.
Am I going to be able to do this? Sandor thought to himself.
“Well then how about Mr. Sandor?”
“Aren’t you a lieutenant, sir?”
“Well, here I’m not.”
“Okay, Mr. Sandor. I am Miss Nova Forrester. You may call me whatever you wish.”
Nova turned from him and brought over a small white cane that had been propped up in a corner. She approached him with it.
“Wait a minute. I am not going to walk with a cane! I might as well announce that I have a problem, “said Sandor as he held his hands up.
“Hush Mr. Sandor!” said Nova as she gently whacked him on the shoulder with the cane.
“Now, put your hands behind your back, chest out, elbows bent…there! That’s it! We are going to work on your stance.”
Sandor did as she said and she slid the cane directly under his shoulder blades where his arms would have to hold the cane steady.
“Now Mr. Sandor, you have to keep your elbows tucked in, your shoulders back, and your head up. The cane must not slip down. I’ll start some music and we’ll take a little walk,” said Nova as she sauntered off towards the sound system.
Okaaay, this hurts a little, thought Sandor to himself. Am I supposed to do this the whole time?
As Nova approached him again the music began to play. “This piece of music is called Rodino by Antonio Diabelli. I’ve started with that because of the simple melody line. Now, just walk with me.”
She put her hands behind her back and Sandor noticed the slow deliberate steps she began to take. He followed her. Her posture was board straight. His back and shoulders however, were beginning to sing a song all their own.
“How’s your back, sir?” asked Nova as she tilted her head to look at him.
“Just fine,” he lied. “But I feel really stupid walking around with my chest out like a rooster.”
“Oh, no, Mr. Sandor--not a rooster! A tiger! You are of Russian descent, yes? You do not walk like one of haughty, powerful Russian lineage! You walk with your head down. No wonder your shoulders can not yet support your new limbs. But they will. Now walk with me, Mr. Sandor!”
Sandor realized he had stopped walking as she talked. He was enchanted.
Nova still walked with her hands behind her back, but now she walked backwards facing Sandor as he continued to walk the room forwards. The music went on to another concerto. Nova explained about how they would strengthen his muscles by stretching this way before beginning to dance in the coming sessions. She also talked about working his limbs and Line of Dance movements. She talked in a slow casual manner that was really helping him relax.
“Well, that’s the hour,” said Nova when she finally stopped. The music stopped also as if on cue.
“I’ve been here an hour already?” asked Sandor. “Can I drop my arms now?”
“Sure,” said Nova. “I took that cane from behind your back about 45 minutes ago,” she grinned.
Sandor put his arms down. Sure enough, the cane was no longer there. It lay on top of the piano.
“How did you…when did you…oh never mind!” he grinned.
“Well, Mr. Sandor, it was a pleasure spending an hour with you sir,” said Nova as she held out her hand for him to shake.
“Miss Forrester, the pleasure was all mine,” said Sandor as he brought her delicate hand up to his lips, and kissed it. And he was immediately appalled at what he had just done.
Nova blushed and stuttered, “Okay then, well I’ll see you again on Thursday afternoon. 1700 hours. Good night sir!” She turned and walked out the heavy front wooden door.
Chapter 6
Nova got back to her small apartment that night and wondered what she did wrong. How did she do it this time? She didn’t even touch this man, Mr. Sandor. Maybe he was just being a gentleman, she thought. He looked as surprised as she did after he kissed her hand. But she didn’t want that to happen.
She didn’t want any romance now or anybody in the EDF thinking she would do anything “special” to further her career. She had graduated high school early and college early. She got commissioned through the ROTC to the Earth Defense Forces quickly and had her nursing degree at the tender age of 17. She still wanted to sit in on some courses at the Academy next spring like Lt. Sandor’s. She didn’t need any more rumors flying around about how she had gotten so far, so young. Maybe she had better turn Sandor over to one of the other nurses? But this would get her hours in for her physical therapy and she really needed this job! Her half of the rent would be due in a month and she barely had enough right now to make it. She was working three jobs as it was for the little money she was paid. She and her roommate Elaine shared a one bedroom apartment close to the base. Nova and Elaine struggled to make ends meet each month with their rent and what little expenses they had. They were always trying to help out others and in turn they usually left themselves out in the cold. There were currently no spaces available for them at the base to live. They were on a waiting list with no hope of ever being called it seemed.
But she was determined NOT to ask her father for the money, especially with what he would have to go through if her mother found out. (Her mother Terri was not fond of Nova being in the military…at all!) Hard times were all over and she would not go crying to daddy!
No, she thought to herself. I need this job and I need those credit hours. I will not make this into something that it isn’t. I’ll just make a go of it and let him know that that kind of behavior is unacceptable. But really all he did was kiss her hand. She’d never had a man kiss her hand before. He really was a gentleman, she could tell it. She felt safe with him. He surely meant no harm by it.
“Hey there! I didn’t hear you come in,” said Elaine, coming from the little bathroom. She was toweling off her hair and had her big white terry cloth robe on. She fell on the couch and crossed her legs next to Nova. “Why aren’t you at work tonight?”
“I wasn’t scheduled anywhere tonight believe it or not,” said Nova as she lay her head on her friend’s shoulder. “I’m tired and hungry and confused and sleepy.”
“Yikes!” said Elaine as she put her tortoise shell glasses on. “Well, I can fix hungry! We’ve got a frozen pizza and root beer…whaddya say? Well talk about the confused and you can take a shower and go to bed for the tired and sleepy.”
“That sounds great,” said Nova as she walked over to their little bedroom. She got into her dresser for a nightgown. “I’ll be right back”. With that she slipped into the bathroom for a hot shower.
When she got back Elaine had a pizza on their little table with two glasses of root beer beside it. They sat on their couch and talked and laughed and ate pizza and belched like space marines.
After they had cleaned up and brushed their teeth they got into their little twin beds in their one bedroom and turned out the light.
“So what are you confused about?” asked Elaine in the darkness.
“Oh really it’s nothing. It’ll work itself out,” said Nova. She was thinking of Sandor’s eyes. How hauntingly lonely they looked. Dr. Sane had told Nova that his wife had left him over a year ago. She found herself worrying about him.
“Well,” yawned Elaine, “if you need to talk I’m here for you. G’night!”
“Say, I forgot to ask how your day was, Elaine,” said Nova.
“Oh you know, same old same old. The boys don’t like us girls playing with their guns. It makes them nervous!”
“Yeah. Good night Elaine,” said Nova as she rolled over to face the little window and let dreams take her.
Sandor was in the lab again trying to push himself deeper into work and trying hard to stop thinking about the dance/therapy session. Miss Forrester clearly was alarmed at how he had kissed her hand. What if she told that Madame Celeste that she didn’t feel safe around him? Oh Lord! What was he going to do?
He got the warp drive plans from the safe and looked them over. He would have to get back to the business at hand. If this woman could wind him up like this, then he would have to cancel the rest of his sessions and suck it up and go to see someone at the hospital or at the Academy gym.
But he knew he wouldn’t. There was something about her. Something that needed…protecting? He would see her again. Something told him that his life or hers depended on it.
To Be Continued…
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