December

by Karen Lofgren

  *

  Ted slept for a long while after that before waking to fuzzy voices. The doctor was talking to someone, a woman.

  “I’m sorry, he’s sleeping...” Doctor Tramm was saying.

  “No, no, I’m awake,” Ted said groggily. He tried to sit up and realized it was much easier than it had been the last time he tried. Doctor Tramm knew what he was doing—the wound was almost closed up. With a small moan he sat up and saw that his visitor was Rosa.

  “Thank God you’re okay, Ted,” she said, striding over to his bed. Doctor Tramm sighed and stepped into the other room to give his patient some privacy.

  “More or less,” Ted said, trying to force a halfhearted smile. “What happened? Did we win the battle?”

  Rosa’s smile was bright and happy—she looked as if she were about to burst with joy at any second. If he hadn’t been lying there injured, Ted was almost certain she would have given him a hug that would have been closer to a tackle. “We did. The Drevi aren’t completely gone, but they’re entrenched, struggling to hold their position. There’s no way they’re going to come back from that. The Koleans and the resistance members took out over seventy-five percent of their fleet. We got ‘em.”

  Tears came to Ted’s eyes. After everything he’d been through, all the pain, stress, and fear, this was the outcome he’d hoped beyond hope for. He almost started crying with relief.

  “Kenneth is going for the November, but I have no idea how long it’ll take him,” Rosa continued. “But we’re still in for a long haul. Even after we clear out the remaining Drevi, putting a government together is going to be a mess.” She sighed. “For once, I’m glad I’m all the way out here.”

  Ted stared at his hands, still absorbing this new information and trying to come to terms with it. He knew she was right, this was only step one. Step two was going to be building a working government. Step three was going to be all three planets, Earth, Kolea, and Dreve, coming to some sort of understanding. If they couldn’t, he knew they would remain on shaky terms with each other for God knew how long. What happened next was crucial.

  “I hear you’re officially the captain of the December,” Rosa said, changing the subject.

  “Yeah, I suppose I am,” Ted said softly.

  “Good. We can use some strong people in the captains’ chairs. We’re trying to contact Alice Phantomwise, but aren’t having much luck yet.” A pause. “What’s the matter, Ted?” she asked. He’d been unusually quiet.

  Taking a deep breath, Ted explained. “I’m playing such a crucial role in all this, and yet... at the beginning... I collaborated with the Drevi. I betrayed our race to the enemy.” He’d been carrying that burden the entire time, nearly unaware that those feelings were even there. Seeing Dr. Hio again, he realized those feelings were indeed there, weighing him down. How could he even go to Earth again? Did his good deeds outweigh his bad ones? He realized with a jolt that he wasn’t sure.

  “You didn’t collaborate with the Drevi,” Rosa said, her shock painted across her face. “You were held prisoner by them, for Chrissake.”

  “I never gave them crucial information or anything. But I sat by protected by Dr. Hio as the rest of my people were experimented on. The people of Earth are never going to accept me as a leader, even if I were to take down the entire Drevi army with my bare hands. Ken is going to be remembered as the hero in this. He fought the Drevi army every step of the way. And as many personal differences as we have, he is a good leader. I’m just a glorified file clerk given command of a starship.”

  Rosa reached out with less hesitation than Ted would have liked and draped an arm around his shoulders. He glanced at her and saw something in her eyes he hadn’t expected to see, and it frightened him.

  “Everyone has their part to play in all this, Ted,” she said softly. “I get to keep Neptune Station running as a first line of defense. Ken gets to be the badass revolutionary. And you get to go out there and do what you need to do. Everything is going to come together just right. You’ll see.”

  Ted let out something between a short laugh and a cough. “Everything coming together perfectly. If only we could be so lucky.”

  “I sure as hell hope so,” Rosa said.

  Ted glanced down at the hard drive in his hand. Even when he’d been unconscious, it had remained with his clothes in the safe in the hospital ward. This wasn’t over yet. They may have won the war, but they hadn’t yet won the most important victory. They somehow had to convince the Drevi army to turn against their Queen, and make peace with Earth and Kolea. Ted knew in his heart beating them with force alone wasn’t going to solve anything.

  “You don’t seem too happy, Ted,” said Rosa.

  “As you said, we haven’t won yet,” he said softly, before telling Rosa his plan.

  “It’s going to be hard to convince them. Even if someone had gotten video of the moment Dr. Hio was killed, video footage is easy enough to doctor these days.”

  “I can show them Dr. Hio’s corpse, if I have to.”

  “I’m sure the Queen will just say he was killed trying to resist arrest. It’s not like the soldiers who were there can say otherwise.”

  It would have been nice to have the soldiers as prisoners and witnesses, but that wasn’t an option either. Alana and Vandoraa had killed them in self-defense so the December could make an escape from Earth’s surface.

  Ted looked at the hard drive again. “Then we’d better open this up and see what’s inside. It may be our only hope.”

  Rosa nodded solemnly. “I’m going to see if there’s been any new word from Kenneth. We’re all waiting to see what he’s going to do next. Feel better soon.” She leaned down and, after a moment’s hesitation, kissed him on the forehead before hurrying out the door.

  Ted blushed like a schoolgirl. What was that about?

  He didn’t have time to think too hard about it, because his new crew came barreling into the medical ward, eager to see him. Alana practically flew into the room, an impressive feat for a flightless bird-person. “Ted, you’re all right!” she exclaimed, hugging him tightly. Trell and Vandoraa were right behind her, all smiles and open-arms. Ted hugged them all back, feeling happy in spite of the ache in his chest and the burdens he still carried on his shoulders. Bea stood back, watching, wearing a contented smile.

  “We did it, we won!” Trell cried. “The resistance cells and the Kolean army together were more than a match for them!” Vandoraa was still smiling, though it had morphed into more of a bittersweet one. Ted made eye contact with him for a moment, thanking him wordlessly for his sacrifice.

  “Rosa told me,” said Ted. “And I’m overjoyed we’ve all made it this far.” He looked at his crew, his gaze determined. “But it’s not over yet.”

  “Let me guess,” Vandoraa said. “Bringing down the Queen.” He had long since abandoned any notions he’d once had that his elected monarch was in the right. He now wanted her gone just as much as the humans did, for the sake of his own people as well as theirs.

  “Let me have that hard drive,” Trell said, holding out a hand. “No matter what kind of encryption’s on it, I’ll crack it open like a duku nut.”

  Ted had no idea what a duku nut was, but figured he knew what Trell meant. He pulled the drive out of his pocket and handed it over to his General Operations officer, and the second Trell was in possession of it he took off like a shot.

  “Dr. Tramm said you should be okay to leave if you’re up to it,” Alana said. “We ran into him in the hall. But he wants you to come back once a day for the next few days so he can check up on you and make sure nothing’s wrong. Replacing a lung is kind of major,” she said with a wry smile.

  “That’s fine,” Ted said. He was feeling all right, but there was still a bit of an ache where his new tooth and new lung were. Something else to keep an eye on. He got up with a grunt.