Reaper's Crossroad

by Timothy Ellis

  The team disappeared to the beach the next morning with the rest of the marines. A plague of repair droids crawled over all the ships and stations again, this time doing updates on the guns, and where possible, adding in the multi-shoot capability. As I saw later in a demonstration, most of the point defense guns almost doubled in rate of fire, and still never needed a recharge time.

  Both Orion titans finished trials, were quickly crewed, and sent through to Redoubt for Susan to command, giving me a chance to practice making huge rifts. For a while early in the day, her bridge looked decidedly empty, but by midafternoon, was looking very busy instead.

  Late in the afternoon, Jane walked in and sat in front of me.

  "You better have a look at this."

  "Which this?"

  "This this."

  A vid open and froze, showing the girls of my team sitting around a circle on the beach.

  "I've seen them naked, thanks Jane. I really don’t need the distraction right now. Besides it being highly inappropriate."

  "I can't help what they choose to wear or not wear. It's what they said which matters now."

  "So this is a recording?"

  "Yes. Ended about five minutes ago."

  I gave her a good long look. Jane's version of 'about' was about five nanoseconds long, but she persisted in using human perceptions.

  "Did they know you were recording them?"

  "No. But they know I watch them most of the time. Same as you."

  I face palmed. When I looked back up at her, she looked confused.

  "You do know what the word 'stalker' means I assume?"

  "Of course. This isn’t that."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Of course."

  "Have you ever discussed it with anyone?"

  "Like who?"

  "Any of the girls, one to one."

  "Well, no."

  "Maybe you should. Not only for you, but as AI's being a new species, it's probably best not to start off with public scandal over people's privacy being violated. There's a difference between being a security feature, and being the big brother entertainment cams. Especially if you record it, and it's personal."

  "Okay, I'll talk to some of the girls. But all the same, you need to listen to this."

  "How private is it?"

  "It's about you and Aline, but it's also about the twins."

  I debated not watching it, and gave in. I nodded to Jane, and she started it.

  "What's wrong with Jon?" asked Aline. "Anyone know?"

  "Stop!"

  She froze it again.

  "If this is a gripe session about me, I don’t want to know about it."

  "It's not. Trust me."

  I frowned at her, but nodded.

  "He's carrying the safety of millions on just his own shoulders," said BA. "It would stress anyone out."

  "He should be used to that," said Alana. "It's gone down a great deal now. Used to be more than a hundred billion."

  "That doesn’t necessarily follow," countered Agatha. "Numbers probably don’t matter. Things like most of his family are safe this time, but he'll never see them again, might matter more to him. He has his parents close, but most of his family went to Gaia."

  "As did ours," said Alison. "We all made the same choice. We all left hand written goodbyes for our families. We all miss them as much as Jon does his. Probably more so since he only saw them once in two years before the door closed for good."

  "So what's wrong with him?" asked Aline again.

  The twins looked at each other, and appeared to be doing their mind communication thing again. I hadn't seen it for a while.

  "What?" repeated Aline, but this time looking at the pair of them.

  Amanda sighed. Which seemed to freak Aline out. BA wrapped an arm around her.

  "I hate to say this Aline," said Amanda, "but the problem is you."

  "But not how you think," added Aleesha quickly.

  "Me?"

  All eyes were now on Amanda.

  "Since we arrived here, there have been a number of times where something highlighted marriage, and you've said or done something which indicated you've been thinking along that direction with your relationship with Jon."

  "True?" asked Aleesha.

  This time Aline sighed.

  "I guess so. When we agreed to cease to exist, I thought all was done. And when we didn’t, I was suddenly hit with wishing we'd formalized our relationship a long time ago, even before the Darkness War. And especially now when we could all die without any warning in this current war. Jon's always going to put himself and us in the worst situations he can find because we always go in at the shit end, and if we're going to go out suddenly, I'd prefer we were married and living life to the full."

  "Nothing wrong with that," said Abigail.

  "But that’s not all you want Aline, is it?"

  All eyes went back to Amanda. Then to Aline.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Raw prawn," muttered Aleesha.

  "What?"

  "Tell us what you've really been thinking about?" asked Amanda.

  Aline sighed.

  "I want a baby."

  I nearly said stop, but stopped myself.

  The twins looked really sad, but everyone else was really happy. BA looked at the twins, and I saw her smile vanish.

  "What?" BA asked Amanda.

  The others quietened, and looked at Amanda, who now looked really terrible.

  "Aline, would you leave the team while pregnant, or after the baby was born?"

  "I haven't thought about it, but I don’t see why I'd need to."

  Aleesha sighed, and all eyes turned to her.

  "And therein lies the problem," she said.

  "How?" asked Alison.

  "Jon knows this, even if he's never really thought about it. He's picked up every hint Aline's made, and deep down its compounding his stress levels."

  "Why?" asked Alana.

  "Put yourself in his shoes," said Aleesha, "and your wife is carrying a baby, and you go into battle with her sitting right there on the bridge with him. How the hell does that not mess with his ability to fight properly? Or he knows his son or daughter is on board and if he screws up for even a second, all his new family die with him?"

  "Oh," said Agatha.

  "Good point," said Abigail.

  Aline looked around them all.

  "I know we all made a decision to keep family out of the team when we joined, but didn’t anyone else feel a change when we didn’t cease to exist?"

  They all looked non-committal to me. But then they all shook their heads.

  "Fat lot of help you lot are," she went on, with a bitter tone to her voice.

  "Aline," responded Amanda, "you asked the question, but you're missing most of the point about it."

  "And that is?"

  "Jon," said Aleesha quietly.

  "How so?" asked BA.

  "Jon is a product of a very unusual upbringing," said Amanda. "He spent a huge amount of time watching old flat screens. And he picked up on a lot of things which became lessons for him, without knowing he did."

  "So?" asked Aline.

  "Why did we watch those stupid anti-hero flat screens the other night?" asked Aleesha.

  "I don’t know, why?"

  The twins looked around the circle.

  "Anyone?"

  "Oh fuck," said BA quietly. "The girlfriend."

  "The pregnant girlfriend," corrected Alison.

  Aline looked back and forth between them, and settled on looking daggers at Amanda.

  "What?" she demanded.

  "You remember we used to share Jon's nightmares?"

  "Yes. It stopped, didn’t it?"

  "For a while they were very infrequent, but they never stopped. Kali told us we were connected for a reason, and even though that reason vanished with the timeline shift, we are still connected."

  "What happened?" asked BA.

  "While he was here at the beach the other
night," said Aleesha, "he had another nightmare."

  "You were in it," continued Amanda. "You told him you wanted a baby, and when he reacted badly, you beat him up."

  There was total silence.

  "No," said Aline, shaking her head. "Jon would love to have a baby, I know it."

  "Maybe so, in a few years when this war is over," said Alison. "But now? At the beginning of one? I couldn't do that to him."

  "And I would never beat him up, no matter how he reacted."

  "It wasn’t you beating him up in the nightmare," said Amanda. "It was part of him beating himself up, because after he did say the wrong thing, he would beat himself up about it."

  "I still don’t see the problem. In the old days people had no control over when they got pregnant. We do. I'd never just get pregnant without him wanting the baby."

  "It's all that entertainment drama he watched growing up," said Amanda. "Deep down he's terrified if you get married or pregnant, he'll lose you. And I mean dead lost, not left the team to make a home lost."

  "How daft is that?"

  "It's the way he is," said Aleesha. "You remember why he grew his beard in the first place?"

  "He thought we were all dead," said Alison. "I remember Amy telling me how he fell apart at the time, and how terrifying he became after as he hunted down pirates. You all saw how different he was when he finally found us. I can't imagine how he'd react now. If he lost any of us, let alone his girlfriend."

  "And remember what he did when Grace and Angel were kidnapped," added BA.

  There were silent nods.

  "I think I know what he'd do if it happened now," said Amanda.

  "What?" asked Aline.

  "If you died, he'd take the first suicide mission he could find, so he could join you. He'd make sure everyone else was left behind, and he and Jane would just vanish. Like as not, we'd never know what happened to them."

  "And we can't ever let that happen," said Aleesha. "Without him, we won't survive."

  "More nightmares?" asked BA.

  "Not his," said Amanda. "Ours."

  "We get our own nightmares like everyone else does, you know," added Aleesha.

  "What do we do?" asked Alana.

  "We don’t do anything," said Amanda.

  "Aline has to talk to Jon," said Aleesha.

  "But not now, and not without first considering every possible way he can say the wrong thing when the subject is broached. Because he will."

  "Why?" asked Alison. "Because he's Jon?"

  "Hell no," said Aleesha.

  "Because he's a man," said Amanda.

  They all laughed.

  Nineteen

  "I think that's enough Jane."

  "No, you need to see the rest."

  "What do you mean not now?" asked Aline.

  "You broke the rules," said Aleesha. "Military rules say you don’t get involved with anyone in your team. Hell, anyone in your chain of command. And you broke it. We know why you broke it, and with anyone else, it maybe wouldn’t have mattered. But this is Jon."

  "What does that mean?"

  Amanda looked at her, with sorry all over her face.

  "He's both everyone's leader, and our team leader. At the same time. If he was never on the ground with us, or we were never on a ship with him, your relationship wouldn’t matter so much. But we are his crew, as well as he's part of our team. It’s a really strange thing to have happened, but it emphasizes why the rule exists. If he freezes in battle, we all die. If he goes after someone attacking you on the ground, we may also all die. Why? Because his focus has to be strategic. And with us on board, he gets bogged down in the tactical, or dragged down to the shit fight. He does this automatically, but every time he takes his eye off the strategic ball, disaster could strike. Every time he tries to protect any one of us individually, he'll lose sight of where he actually should be, and we all die. We have to protect his arse so he can protect us all."

  "And he knows this," added Aleesha. "That’s why he's terrified of losing you. Because a day will come when he can't let go of the overall strategy, and he won't be able to come to our help, or your help. And you might die. We all might. And he'd have to let us die in order to not lose everything."

  Amanda was looking at Alison.

  "And some of us are still in love with him. And that’s why we can't let go. It's why we're still on his bridge when we should be in a barracks on a different ship."

  Alison looked scared for a moment, and nodded.

  "But Jon wants us on the bridge with him," said Alana.

  "We're his team," said BA. "Of course he does. But we're also a distraction."

  "So what do we do?" asked Aline. "What do I do?"

  "We keep on as we have been," said Amanda. "We are there when he needs a team, and we go when he needs something done without him."

  "But," added Aleesha, "we don’t rock his boat. He's building a formal army now, and a navy. He's going to have to formalize the rules. And one of those rules is no fraternization."

  "You broke it," said Amanda, "and there are consequences. You can have a baby, but you'll be out. Jon will lock you in his tower with every gun in the Haven system dedicated to you and the baby's protection. Because those will be the rules, and he will want to make sure both of you survived if he does not. Jack and Sam have the same consequences to deal with, as they broke the same rule. Although being older, it might not be an issue for them. It sux being a woman sometimes, but we make that choice deliberately these days. And marriage and children choices carry consequences. They always have. You broke the rule, but the consequences are still there."

  "So what you do," said Aleesha, "is keep your mouth shut, and a lid on what you want. We make Jon's choices as easy as possible, and make sure there is never a conflict of interest for him."

  BA was nodding.

  "When this war is either over," she said, "or being waged without Jon leading everything dangerous, then you can bring up having a family. But on that day, you have to quit the team, and be happy about it."

  "It goes for any of us," said Alison. "If our current squeezes come back, and we all decide to live happily ever after with them, we also leave the team. Or the team disbands. But in the meantime, there's a war to fight. Everything takes a back seat to surviving it."

  "Everything," repeated Amanda. "Are we agreed?"

  She held out her right hand, and one by one they laid their own hand on top of hers.

  The vid ended.

  "So I need to enforce the no fraternization rule?" I asked Jane.

  "Yes. No. Get Walter to make up the rules, and how they get applied. And let him administer it. He'll need to find out how many other current infractions are happening, and have a way of distinguishing existing ones with new ones."

  "As if you don’t know how many there are already. What happens to Aline and Sam?"

  "Nothing. Until they do something to change things. Crew getting a stress release bonk with a crewmate isn’t a big deal, as long as it stays under the radar. When it becomes formal, they can no longer serve on the same ship, or in the same command. Obviously, Aline and Sam are special cases. Sam never expected they'd leave orbit of that awful planet, and certainly never expected to be in a war again. Aline is good for you, and no-one begrudges you the support. But it has to be kept as low key as possible. But being pregnant in a military? It can't happen Jon. It’s a wild card no military in a war situation can afford."

  "I know. And as you just showed me, they know too. What do I do now?"

  "Pretend you never saw this, get Walter on formalizing the rules again, and just keep going as you are. If you want me to talk to Walter, I will."

  "You better. Why are you taking such an interest in this?"

  "Jon, we AI's are also mortal. If a ship dies, the AI is dead as well. We're taking precautions so if one of us does die, we only lose partial seconds before another version of us goes primary, or the primary goes on when an avatar ceases to exist. We lose a bit of memo
ry, but we go on. But humans can't do this. You go on through your children, and once a child begins, it has to be protected. And where no other family exist, so does the mother need to be protected. Or if not the mother, then one of the parents must be protected. It’s the way your species goes on, and remember, there are barely a viable number of you for creating a new society as it is now. You can't afford to lose either mothers or babies."

  I looked at her. For the first time I saw someone passionate about building the future. Jane was growing up. And I knew this was a Pandora's box she was opening without even realizing it. Fortunately, I could leave that to the new government to sort out.

  "Maybe I should vote for you to be queen," I muttered.

  She didn’t get the chance to reply.

  "Message coming in from Arthur. We need to saddle up, now."

  Twenty

  The message was two days old.

  Round Table had finally arrived back at the system they'd taken the refugees from, and found the station was gone, most of what else had been in orbit gone with it, and fighting was happening on the ground. Walls were keeping the plants out, but only just. He'd asked for troops as fast as we could get there.

  Jane recalled everyone, and called up every ex-soldier willing to fight. Bonko undocked his ship from Orion's Star, and docked at Redoubt to load them. The problem was not troops, but a lack of belts and guns. Jane began collecting belts from every droid which had one, and sending them to Bonko. The Solidarians collected up every weapon and flame thrower they had, and sent them. Every fabricator in the Wayward fleet began making meson streamers and suit belts.

  We had to leave Bonko behind. Firstly because loading was going to take too long, and secondly because the ship didn’t have enough protection for a battle. And there was going to be a battle.

  While waiting for the crews, I opened a rift to the planet, and found a battle was in progress there. Two round ships and four others, were fighting four Trixone cruisers, and five destroyers. With the fighters from both ships, Arthur was holding his own, but only just. On the planet below, the transports the fleet in orbit had obviously escorted, were on the ground. The plants were in some sort of armour this time, and flame throwers were only being partially effective.