Both Wilson and Sue stopped in at least twice a day and often sat with Brian as well. Dot had talked to them, but no one else.
Sue was getting worried that Brian wasn’t getting better. He hadn’t really even woken up in the last two days other than to moan and shift slightly. He seemed to be stuck and sometimes his breathing got so raspy, Dot wasn’t sure if he was going to make it for another ten minutes.
If Sue, who was a full nurse, was worried, that just terrified Dot.
She hoped that in some way the League was watching. But she wasn’t sure how they could be. No one talked to her at all.
Dot was starting to become convinced they were just going to let Brian die.
By the morning of the third day, she was emotionally drained, and getting more tired by the hour.
At one point, she fell asleep sitting in her chair with her head on Brian’s bed beside him, and she dreamed once again of dancing.
Since she had learned of the League and Brian had danced with her, the dreams of dancing, of being free, hadn’t come back.
She wasn’t sure what that meant.
But now they were back.
Finally, on the morning of the third day, Brian woke up.
She had just returned from breakfast and sitting next to Brian’s bed in her wheelchair. Wilson was reading a magazine in another chair he had pulled in from somewhere.
Other than to nod hello, they hadn’t talked.
Brian moaned and opened his eyes.
Then he looked at Dot and smiled.
But it wasn’t the vibrant smile of the man she loved, but instead the smile of a man saying goodbye.
She jumped to her feet and leaned forward in case he wanted to try to talk.
He tried to whisper, but clearly his throat was dry.
She quickly got him an ice chip from the cup of ice she kept near his head and gave it to him to wet his lips.
Wilson was standing behind her, watching.
Brian smiled and nodded, then said, “I see you two have finally met.”
“She’s as wonderful as you said, Dad,” Wilson said.
Brian smiled weakly. “I know.”
Then Brian tried to say something more, but it came out only a whisper.
She leaned down to hear him better.
“Marry me,” he said. “Please. I want to go dancing.”
“Of course,” she said.
He sighed and said, “Good.”
Then he closed his eyes and for a moment Dot thought he was gone.
Finally, his rough breathing resumed, but barely.
Dot stood upright, holding for balance onto the thin arm of the man she loved, listening to him struggle for breath. She couldn’t believe what he had just asked.
They had talked about spending their lives together, but never about marriage. Why now?
There was something she was missing.
“What did he say?” Wilson asked.
Dot looked up at Wilson and shook her head. “He asked me to marry him.”
Wilson nodded and said nothing. He pulled out his phone and called Sue and asked her to come over as soon as she could.
Dot sat down in her wheelchair and stared at Brian lying there in that bed, almost dead.
He was the smartest man she had ever known. Why had he waited until this moment to ask her to marry him?
What in the world was he up to?
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
April 24th, 2022
Actual Earth Time
Location: Chicago
SHE SAT WITH Brian for another half hour, then decided she couldn’t take it anymore. She had to do something and do it now.
Time really was running out.
Sue had gotten there a few minutes before and looking very worried. At one point Wilson had tucked the blankets around his father and told him to hang on.
Sue had taken out a stethoscope and listened to Brian’s heart, then shook her head. “Not much longer.”
There didn’t seem to be anything they could do, or any doctor here on Earth could do. Brian’s old body was just taking his final breaths.
Dot just couldn’t let Brian die.
Not like this.
Not after all the times he had saved Earth.
This wasn’t right or fair.
“I’ll be right back,” she said to Wilson and Sue.
Then taking her wheelchair, she walked behind it, pushing it ahead of her out of Brian’s room and down the hall toward the nurse’s station. Brian’s meaning was clear as far as she was concerned. He wanted her to marry him and live in space. If she had anything to say about it, that was what she planned on doing.
She was going to get him out of here and back to his young body somehow.
She didn’t know how, but she wasn’t going to let him die without trying something.
It was the least the EPL could do. She just needed to point that out to a few generals, maybe at the top of her lungs.
The clock above the wall behind the nurse’s station said it was only a few minutes after eleven in the morning.
The nurse on duty was a woman by the name of Joyce. She sometimes worked days, other times she worked nights. Joyce was often the one on duty when they went on missions. That was enough.
Joyce had a large smile, graying dark hair that was pulled back and tied, and bright green eyes. She looked middle-aged and wore a bright gold wedding ring. Joyce had always been nice and kind to Dot, something Dot appreciated.
Dot waited a moment until there was no one else within listening range, then leaned on the counter and said clearly to Joyce.
“Brian isn’t going to make it through the day. I want to talk to one of the generals with the EPL and I won’t take no for an answer.”
Joyce looked stunned for a moment. Actually, more than stunned. Shocked.
Dot expected her to ask what exactly Dot was talking about, but instead Joyce looked in both directions to make sure no one was listening.
“General Brooks is aware of the situation with Captain Saber.”
“Then tell him to get his ass on the phone to me in ten minutes,” Dot said, her old voice taking on her captain traits and power. “I’ll be in my room.”
“Yes, Captain,” Joyce said, nodding, a look of worry crossing her face.
That was the first time in four years anyone at Shady Valley Nursing Home had referred to her by her League rank.
“Tell the general to make it snappy,” Dot said and turned, pushing her wheelchair ahead of her back down the hall toward her room, doing her best to keep her back straight and her walk steady.
The greatest captain in the long history of the Earth Protection League wasn’t going to die today if she had anything to say about it.
And she planned on having a lot to say.
CHAPTER THIRTY
April 24th, 2022
Actual Earth Time
Location: Chicago
BY THE TIME she got to her room, she had something figured out. Brian had asked her to marry him because he knew that was important in getting them off the planet.
It was the only reason for his timing like that. He knew something she didn’t.
It wasn’t a dying wish or a hope of a man wanting to not die.
Brian knew he was dying, and he knew that if they weren’t getting married, the regulations wouldn’t allow him to leave. Or some such stupid organizational rule like that.
That had to be the reason.
Dot made it to her room, pushed the door closed, and had just sat in her chair when her desk phone rang. It sounded odd to her ears, it seldom rang since her son wasn’t much of a caller.
She took a deep breath and picked up the phone. Then, without so much as a hello, she said, “You have many bases out near the borders where humans from here are living and working and raising families. Correct?”
“That is correct,” General Brooks said, his voice clearly hesitant.
“Including Steven’s Base,” she said, rememberi
ng where she and Brian had danced and spent two wonderful days just last week after saving Earth from a large moon.
“Yes,” General Brooks said.
“Captain Saber’s conditioned has worsened this morning,” Dot said.
“We are aware of the captain’s condition,” General Brooks said.
“Are you aware,” Dot said, making her voice very firm, “that Captain Saber asked me to marry him and I said yes.”
There was a silence on the other end of the line. It was as if they had been disconnected, but it was clear they had not.
Dot waited for a moment, then went on, deciding to push the point.
“We want to start a family and keep working for the League,” she said firmly. “I am assuming that is a condition to immigrating to that area of space.”
She was taking a chance at that, because she didn’t know for sure, but it again would make sense considering Brian’s proposal of marriage. It hadn’t been romantic, but it had given her some great ammunition to use to save his life.
“It is,” General Brooks said after a moment. “Intent to start a family is required to settle in that area of space permanently.”
Dot shook her head. Why hadn’t she and Brian talked about this more, got this done long before now? Both of them were just so damned old-fashioned for their own good at times.
“We’re planning on have a brood,” she said, even though they had never really talked about having children. “A whole mess of little Sabers running around messing things up. Now get us the hell out of here before my future husband dies.”
Again there was silence on the other end for a moment.
Then General Brooks said, “It’s not that simple.”
Dot barely kept herself from yelling. “Neither was saving this stupid planet a dozen times, including from that moon last week and all those Dog Warships three days ago. But Captain Saber and I have done just that for you. So with respect, General, I don’t give a damn about simple. Get my future husband out of her. Alive. And do it quickly.”
“Think this through,” Captain,” General Brooks said. “You will lose your family.”
“You know my son lives on the West Coast and you know we are not close? Correct?” she asked.
“I know of your family,” General Brooks said.
“I have said goodbye to my family a number of times over the years,” Dot said. “Captain Saber is my family now. And I sure as hell don’t want to lose him.”
“I understand,” General Brooks said.
“So get Captain Saber out of here now, give me a couple days to wrap up things here before I join him.”
There was silence on the other end, so Dot kept pushing.
“Captain Saber and I are good breeding stock for your colony, wouldn’t you say?”
“You’re sure about this?” General Brooks asked one more time.
“I’m sure,” she said. “But if you don’t hurry, the option will be gone. He may go at any moment.”
“That bad?” the General asked, clearly finally starting to understand what Dot had been saying all along. There was actual worry in that question.
“That bad,” Dot said. “Why do you think I demanded this call now?”
Again there was silence for a moment.
“Thirty minutes,” General Brooks said. “Work with the nurse to keep people away from his room. Get his sliding glass door open.”
“How long will it take?” she asked.
“Five minutes to switch him out,” General Brooks said.
“Done,” Dot said.
And the line went dead.
Dot hung up the phone and took a deep breath before standing and heading for the door to her room and the nurse’s station, pushing her wheelchair as quickly as she could in front of her.
Now if Brian could just hang on long enough to be rescued from old age.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
April 24th, 2022
Actual Earth Time
Location: Chicago
AS DOT APPROACHED the nurse’s station, Joyce hung up the phone and nodded at her.
Dot suddenly felt like she was a spy in a cold war movie.
“I’ll go in and get his door unlocked,” Dot said. “His son and granddaughter are in there as well, so I’ll ask to talk with them in the hall.”
Joyce started to say something, but her phone rang.
Dot watched as Joyce listened for a moment, then hung up.
“They will be coming through Captain Saber’s door in exactly ten minutes.”
Dot glanced at the big clock on the wall. It was exactly twenty-one minutes after eleven. She turned back for Brian’s room.
Joyce took a moment before she could get out from behind the nurse’s station, so Dot almost beat her to Brian’s room. Joyce held Brian’s door open for her.
Inside the room, it took a moment for Dot’s eyes to adjust to the dimness as the hallway door swung closed. Under the sheet and light blanket, she could see Brian was still breathing.
Oh, thank heavens. He still had a chance.
Joyce went right to him and checked his heartbeat quickly, then looked under one eyelid.
She shook her head. Dot wasn’t sure what that meant, but it clearly wasn’t good.
Sue stepped up beside Joyce. “Not long?”
“Very close,” Joyce said. “They are coming.”
“Goodbye, Grandpa,” Sue said, leaning over and kissing her grandfather on the cheek.
Dot headed for the sliding door into the center court to unlatch it, but Wilson stood and said simply, “I’ll get it, Captain.”
He unlocked the sliding door, but didn’t open it.
Then he turned and saluted Dot.
“I suppose it’s time I introduce myself to my future step-mother. Commander Wilson Saber at your service, Captain. I assume dad never said anything about his entire family being involved in the EPL.”
Dot stood there, her mouth open, not sure what to say.
She looked at Sue, then back at Wilson. Both Brian’s son and granddaughter were part of the League. Why hadn’t Brian said something about that to her.
“Typical of him,” Wilson said, shaking his head.
“Thank heavens you convinced them into doing a daylight extraction,” Sue said to Dot. “I don’t think he would have made it to later tonight as planned.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t have,” Joyce said.
“Yes, thank-you, Captain,” Wilson said. “For saving my father’s life.”
“Joyce and I’ll be outside guarding the door,” Sue said, patting Dot’s shoulder as she went past. “Thank you for saving my grandfather. And keep him alive until I can get out there, would you?”
There wasn’t a thing Dot could say, so all she did was nod. She was too shocked at the moment to say anything.
And relieved that they were coming for Brian.
As the door to the hallway closed, the exterior door slid open and two men carrying a stretcher came in, followed by two others carrying another stretcher with a body on it.
One of the first men saluted Dot and Wilson, then went to the bed and quickly checked Brian.
“We got to move now,” he said after a moment, his voice urgent, but in control.
The two quickly got Brian on the stretcher and as they did, Brian opened his eyes.
“Hang in there, dad,” Wilson said. “I’ll catch up with you in twenty years or so along the way.”
Brian smiled.
“Try not to get yourself killed before I get out there,” Wilson said.
“I don’t think Captain Leeds is going to let that happen,” Brian whispered, just loud enough for her and Wilson to hear.
Dot almost broke into tears right there. Just hearing him talk again was wonderful.
Then Brian closed his eyes and the two men rushed him out the door, vanishing almost as soon as they cleared the edge of the room.
The other two men quickly placed the other body on the bed. It looked exactly l
ike Brian, right down to the old nightshirt stained with food. But this body was very, very dead.
They both nodded to Dot and Wilson and then stepped outside, vanishing almost instantly as they cleared the door.
Wilson went over and pulled the sliding glass door closed and made sure the drapes were in place to keep the room dim.
Dot stared at the dead husk on the bed. It looked like the old Brian, but she knew it wasn’t.
Then she turned to Wilson who was also staring at the body under the sheet on the bed. “You and the League had no intention of letting him die, did you?”
Wilson shook his head. “They were going to make an exception to the marriage policy for him. But it seems they didn’t need to.”
“You planned on taking him out tonight?”
Wilson nodded. “I don’t think he would have made it. Thank you again for pushing the general and saving Dad’s life.”
“Let’s hope he survived,” Dot said. “From my understanding, it sometimes takes time to get those transport ships going.”
“They’ll save him,” Wilson said. “They’ll just put him on a warship and jump him a few years if it’s coming down to that, before putting him on a transport.”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Just wish I could make the wedding,” Wilson said. “But someone would have to change my diapers if I tried it.”
“We’ll send you pictures,” Dot said, laughing for the first time in days and days. And that felt wonderful.
More wonderful than she wanted to admit right now.
Wilson smiled back, then looked at the body on the bed. “Guess I have some phone calls to make and a funeral to attend. Makes it a lot easier knowing he’s going to be out there alive, and with you.”
Dot touched Wilson’s arm and then pushed her chair out of the room as Wilson held the door for her.
Joyce and Sue were standing in the hallway watching them come out.
“They got him away,” Wilson said.
Both Joyce and Sue nodded.
At that moment, Sue’s cell phone rang.
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