by Neal Jones
"So..." Marc said, scowling, "you're here to blame me for the affair we had twelve years ago, and that's why I'm an asshole?"
"No." Mariah returned to the easy chair. "I share as much blame for that as you. You're an asshole because you think that that night on Kelatia meant something more than what it was. You admitted to me that night that you'd always been attracted to me, but you knew that nothing could ever happen between us. And I agreed with that. But then after a few more drinks you kissed me."
"And you kissed me back!"
"Yes, I did. Like I said, we were both to blame for what happened that night."
"So if I'm the asshole, does that make you a bitch?"
"Marc!" Laura exclaimed.
"What do you want from me, Mariah? We both got drunk, and we had sex. And, yes, it was wrong, and we never talked about it since."
"Until six months ago." Mariah cleared her throat and then continued, "You said that you loved me. The way you said it implied that you had always loved me, and that that night on Kelatia had meant more to you than just a one night affair. But you said her name" – Mariah pointed at Laura again – "when it was all over, so I don't get it. You were obviously still in love with her back then, and you're obviously still in love with her now, so where does that leave me? Especially when you were still dating Karri six months ago? Where does that leave our friendship? Do we still have a friendship?"
"Mariah, this is crazy! Of course we're still friends. Is it an apology that you want? Fine. I'm sorry. I truly am. You're right, I was an asshole. I regretted that night as soon as it was over, and I wanted to talk to you, to apologize to you, but then Paul died, and I was the one in command when that happened, and after the memorial service..." He stopped, swallowing, and looked away.
Laura kept silent, looking back and forth between Marc and Mariah.
After a few moments, he turned back to Mariah. "After the service, I wanted to say all of this to you, but you didn't give me a chance. You weren't the only one who was feeling guilty. I felt I was responsible for Paul's death because I was the one in command of the ship during that battle. I carried that for many years before finally coming to terms with it, and then you and I came back together after eleven years, and suddenly all that guilt came right back to me." He glanced at Laura and then Mariah. "I've been coming to terms with a lot of things lately, and that night six months ago...I don't know. I was angry about being assigned to this starbase, I was angry about our treaty with the Chrisarii, and seeing you again brought back all those memories of Paul – and my father as well. I lost him in that war too." Marc paused again, looking down, opening and closing his hands as if he was trying to physically grasp something intangible. After a minute or two he looked up at Mariah. "I don't want to lose our friendship, and it is just that, nothing more. I thought at one time that I was in love with you, but you were right when you said I was still in love with Laura."
Marc reached out and grasped the doctor's hand, and she smiled at him. Mariah smiled too, blinking back tears, and she had to clear her throat once more.
Laura stood. "I really have to be going. I'm glad that we worked this all out."
Mariah rose also. "Me too."
Laura leaned down to kiss Marc. "I'll see you in a couple weeks."
"Have a safe trip."
"I'm sorry for calling you an asshole," Mariah said after Laura left.
Marc smiled. "I deserved it. I have been an asshole. Ever since Ben put me on this forced medical leave I've had a lot of time to think." He stood and paced to the viewport. "I've thought about you and me and Paul, about the war, about my father, about my career..."
"And?"
He shrugged, turning back to her. "I'm an asshole. I've made a lot of lousy choices, especially in my personal life, and yeah, I probably drink more than I should. I always told myself that as long as I was a good officer and I succeeded in my career, it wouldn't matter what I did with my personal life. I also convinced myself that I didn't want a wife and a family. That kind of life wasn't for me, that's not who I am. But then Laura showed up here with Jeanette, and I found out that I was a father after all, and everything just collapsed from that point on. Everything I thought I knew about myself was wrong, and I couldn't stop thinking about the 'what-if' scenarios. What if Laura and I had been married twenty-three years ago? What if I had dropped out of the academy? What if I had never met you or Paul? What if I had never lost my father in the war? What if I had never faced death four months ago?"
Marc had turned back to the viewport, and he absently touched his chest where the knife wound throbbed beneath his shirt with a dull heat. But it was fading. It didn't hurt as much now as it had a few weeks earlier. He took a deep breath and shook his head as he faced Mariah.
"All of that is over now. Ever since I made the decision that this assignment will be my last, I feel as if the gravity on this entire station has been lessened by twenty gees." He smiled wistfully. "By the time my contract is up, I'll have put in thirty-one years of service. I could have left a long time ago, but I was scared because I had no idea what the hell I was going to do with my life if I didn't have to put on that uniform every morning. Now I have a whole new life to look forward to with Laura after this assignment is over."
"I'm so happy for you – for both of you!"
"You're grinning like an idiot."
Mariah laughed. "I know. I can't help it. I feel..."
"A hundred pounds lighter?"
"Yeah. You and I should have had this talk a long time ago."
Marc nodded. "Have you had lunch? I'm starving."
"Yeah, I've already eaten. And I have some errands I need to run before Josh gets home."
"We should have dinner sometime."
"How about tomorrow night?"
"Sounds good."
She turned to go, but then paused just as the door opened. Mariah glanced back.
"What?" Marc asked. "Something else?"
Mariah shook her head. "No. Never mind. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay."
( 6 )
"So...how was lunch?"
"Your shift ended two hours ago. Why are you still here?" Lieutenant Navarr sat behind her desk and activated her computer.
Lieutenant Scarvo smiled as she plopped into one of the vacant chairs in front of the desk. "I wanted to hear how the fourth date went?"
"This wasn't a date, this was lunch. And it would have been the third, not the fourth."
"You were gone an hour and a half. That's thirty minutes more than regulations allow."
Navarr sighed. "We just had lunch, Dana. Nothing happened. If I promise to tell you how dinner goes next Friday night will you get out of here?"
"There's going to be a fourth date?? Oh, congratulations! Things must be going really well for you two!"
Dana's gushing cajoled a smile from the security chief, and she shook her head. "Third date, I said. And you really need to get your own life."
"I'm working on it. Until then, you're all the excitement that I have right now. And it's a fourth date. Lunch today was the third. You two were at a restaurant, you shared a meal, it's a date." She bounced to her feet. "I'll see you tomorrow. And yes, I expect to hear every detail about Friday night. You haven't slept with him yet, have you?"
"No. But even if I do, you're not going to hear that part of it. This isn't high school."
"Whatever. By the way, when does Jeff get back?"
"Probably next week. Why?"
"I want to see his reaction when I tell him how well things are going between you and Sam."
"Why would he care?"
"I don't think he's completely over you. There's still some unresolved feelings there."
"He's gay."
"No, he's bi. There's a difference."
"Goodbye, Dana."
( 7 )
Jennifer glanced up in surprise as her husband entered their quarters with two pizza boxes balanced in one hand and a sack in the other.
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p; "Hi," she said, rising to help him.
"Hey," he replied, giving her a quick peck on the cheek as they headed for the kitchen.
Jennifer opened the sack and found a bottle of wine inside. "You're home early."
Ben set the pizzas on the table. "I got a medium half cheese and half pepperoni for you and Emalie. The large supreme is for me. And the wine is for you and I...later." He grinned.
"All right, that's it. Who are you and what have you done with my husband?"
Ben laughed as he reached into the cupboard for plates and cups. "I relinquished control of the Iverson's project to Doctor McMullen. From now on I will be home by seventeen hundred every night, and I will only work in the lab myself every other Saturday; or maybe just one Saturday a month, I haven't decided. Where's Emalie?"
"She had a play date with Jenica. They're five doors down. She should be back any minute."
"Good. Is there any Coke in the fridge?"
"A six pack. So does this mean you're only working on this project one or two days a month?"
"Yep." Ben finished setting the table and he faced Jennifer, his expression turning serious. "I've been thinking a lot about this project lately, and about Chloe, and I finally realized that I don't think I've ever let her go. She was the whole reason I wanted to be a doctor, and throughout my career my one goal was to find a cure for this disease."
"I know. You told me this once before. You decided to enlist in EarthCorps instead of pursuing a residency in medical research. I've always wondered why you did that, but you've never wanted to talk much about your sister."
Ben nodded. "It's because I found more fulfillment in emergency medicine. If I had pursued a research residency, I would have been cooped up in a lab all day, and the only patients that I would have had any contact with would have been those that were accepted for the clinical trials. When I did my ER rotation, it was more exciting to me than lab work. I was able to make a difference right away. So I stuck with that, and when the war started I decided to enlist as a field medic. But even after all these years, a part of me felt guilty for not continuing my research into Iverson's Disease, no matter how limited my resources were. Now I realize that I was allowing Chloe's death to haunt me all these years, instead of simply letting her go and living my own life."
"She was all you had, Ben," Jennifer said quietly. "Her disease wrecked your parents' marriage, and she was your only sibling. You two had a special bond, and you'll never be able to completely let her go, nor should you."
Ben nodded ruefully. "I suppose you're right. But in the last few years, I've let this project to come between us, and that's what I don't want to happen anymore." He reached for her hand and pulled her to him.
Jennifer closed her eyes as he wrapped his arms around her, and she laid her head against his broad chest. After a few moments, her eyes snapped open and she gasped.
"What's the matter?" Ben asked.
Jennifer pulled away from him and laid one of his hands against her belly. "I just felt the baby kick. There! He did it again!"
Ben nodded excitedly. "I felt it! Wait a minute...'he'? We're having a boy??"
"Oh, that's right! I'm sorry, I completely forgot. At my appointment yesterday with Doctor Nals, he asked if I wanted to know the sex. I said yes."
"How could you forget??" Ben was grinning from ear to ear, and both hands were firmly planted on his wife's stomach.
Jennifer laughed. "I know! I'm sorry, I just got so busy with Mariah. We had lunch today, and she was telling me about the drama between her and Marc and their past, which, by the way, is quite interesting. I could tell you a thing or two about your commanding officer if you're interested."
Ben wasn't listening. "I'm going to have a son," he murmured. "A son!"
"Now we have to pick a name," Jennifer said.
Ben looked up, but his response was interrupted by Emalie's arrival. The five year old came bounding into the kitchen, excited to tell her parents about her play date. Jennifer thanked Mrs. Renteria for bringing her home, and then the three of them sat down to dinner. While Emalie babbled about the new toys her classmate had received for her birthday a few weeks earlier, Ben and Jennifer tossed boy names back and forth. She was partial to Gavin or Hunter, and he preferred Carter or Luke.
Later, after Emalie was in bed, her parents opened the bottle of wine and settled on the couch to watch something on the HT. Halfway through a Murdohn romance, they both decided they liked the name Jeremiah Austin.
Chapter 28
____________________
( 1 )
VICE PRESIDENT EDMOND BROUCHARD stood next to Federation President Skaela Enkaro as they waited for the impending announcement from the chairman of the voting committee. Enkaro and his staff were in the north parlor of the presidential dome, all eyes glued to the holoscreen on the far wall that displayed a live news feed from the committee's headquarters. Skaela's wife, Narra, was on the other side of him, her left hand intertwined with his right. A babble of murmured conversations flowed amongst the two dozen staff members as they – along with the populations of the Federation's fifty-six member worlds – eagerly awaited the election results. The noise quickly died as the announcer began to speak.
"Good evening, Federation citizens. It is just after 10 pm here on Galadreon, and we apologize for the delay in getting these results to you." He cleared his throat, glanced at the compad on his desk, and then looked up at the camera once more. "The winner of this presidential election, by a margin of twenty-two-point-six percent is...Skaela Enkaro!"
The rest of the anchor's dialogue was drowned out by the cheers and applause from Enkaro's staff. Champaign corks popped, confetti dropped from hidden compartments in the ceiling, and one of the staff members pressed a command on his compad. Dance music erupted from the holoscreen's sound system while Skaela, Edmond, and Narra threaded through the crowd to the door.
The press secretary was waiting outside to escort them to the Hexagon. This was the six-sided central office at the heart of the presidential dome where all official government business was conducted. Skaela and Narra seated themselves in a pair of armchairs beneath the large portrait of the first Federation president. To Skaela's left was the flag of the Interstellar Federation, and to Narra's right was the flag of the Enkaros' homeworld, Indravia-426.
A small group of reporters was gathered a few feet away, and a pair of holocams hovered above their heads. Brouchard had taken up position a discreet distance from the president, off camera, and, while Enkaro fielded questions from the press, Edmond took the opportunity to review several news feeds via his own compad. He smiled to himself, relieved that this part of his plan had gone as expected. He and Enkaro would remain in the presidential dome for another ten years, and Edmond hoped that that would be long enough for the rest of his and Caine's plans to bear their intended fruit.
Much later, after the president and his wife had retired to their quarters, and after the rest of the staff had left the dome to continue their varied celebrations elsewhere, Brouchard sat alone in his office, sipping a tumbler of bourbon, and allowed himself to do something that he rarely indulged in.
He relaxed.
He turned to face the holoscreen behind his desk, and he watched the night as he quietly celebrated the victory of the election.
Phase One was nearly complete.
( 2 )
Vatra smoothed the front of her gown, and then squared her shoulders and forced herself to smile. She stood behind the Lord Emperor and Lady Empress, waiting for them to make their entrance to the Celebration Hall. Beside Vatra, Jharek fidgeted with his dress coat, tugging on his sleeves once more.
"Jharek, stop," his mother murmured. "Stand up straight, and don't forget to smile."
"It itches," he complained, but the lady princess shushed him again, as the music beyond the double doors swelled, signaling the entrance cue for the royal family.
Vatra and Jharek followed Erengaar and Larewyn into the massive hall, which was packe
d with the Lords and Ladies of the royal court. Vatra kept her gaze focused on the back of Larewyn's head, noting to herself once more how ridiculous the hairdo made her appearance. The lady empress had decided to let her hair grow since arriving at the palace four months ago, and for tonight's special occasion it was separated into several thin braids which were then pulled up and laced about her head in a manner that looked as if her face was surrounded with black vipers.
Behind Vatra and Jharek were Larewyn's parents, and Lord Gyan had appeared as uncomfortable as Jharek while waiting to enter the hall. Lady Marija had scolded her husband, but Vatra couldn't blame him. She shifted the heavy skirt of her gown as she sat in her customary place to Erengaar's left on the gilded stage at the front of the hall and forced herself to sit up straight and still. She glanced from the corner of her eye to her son, and was grateful to see him sitting up tall and still as well. The Lord and Lady Tannit took their places in the high backed chairs to Larewyn's left, and everyone – the honored guests and the royal family – waited for the fanfare to end.
Erengaar stood and smiled as he addressed his court. "Lords and ladies, welcome to this grand occasion. We have much to celebrate tonight, and I'm pleased that all of you are here to share this special occasion with me and my wife." Erengaar turned to Vatra and motioned for her to stand. "The first piece of news that I'm pleased to announce is the engagement of my sister to the commandant of the twenty-sixth legion, Third Lovar Prokal R'Daak!" The lord emperor paused to allow the guests time to applause. Vatra smiled and bowed her head towards her half-brother, while keeping her hands folded tightly in front of her. After a few moments, Erengaar raised his hands to silence the crowd, and Vatra gratefully returned to her seat.
The lord emperor turned to his wife and held out his hand. She stood to accept it. "I'm very pleased to announce that my wife, your lady empress, is pregnant." This brought another round of thunderous applause. Vatra glanced towards Lady Tannit, who was beaming with motherly pride, and Vatra felt yet again a twinge of relief that she would soon be away from the court and out of reach of the machinations of Marija and her daughter. There was no doubt in Vatra's mind that those two had somehow arranged the spectacle of Rimshar's death, and she regretted once more how badly she had underestimated them both.