At Lynnar’s words, Tyaromon sagged. Forgotten, the blaster dropped from his hand. I let out a deep breath, feeling the ache in every muscle of my body. Then Lynnar turned to me.
“Your boat sent your message, but your pilot added the comment that you had returned here to confront Tyaromon, a good thought on his part for your sake. I have a son, Ferens, who you may remember. It occurred to me that if I could land a force right here, I might be able to save you and pay his debt. It’s fortunate that your new rank gave me the necessary flexibility to do so.”
At that, I felt a broad grin break on my face. At my side, Jaenna shifted to aim directly at her brother, who had sat, petrified, while the fighting had raged.
“Go ahead and finish it, brother,” she said. “It doesn’t mean anything anymore, but I always said I would be here for your ceremony and I always keep my promises.”
Epilogue
There you have it, the story of my life, at least up to the time that Lynnar showed up like the Good Witch of the North and saved my bacon. I’ve set this story out, not for the sake of my ego and certainly not for an advance I will never see, but because I figured that you ought to know what it’s like out here. Earth may lie outside Imperial space, but it has been visited by the empire and not just as a freebooter hidey-hole. I’ve found maps and reports in various archives on the Roman and Chinese civilizations. My guess is it’s just chance that the high tide of the Sri’Andor didn’t sweep Earth into the empire. Those reports seem to date from when the expansion stopped about two thousand years ago. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing I’ll leave as an exercise for the interested reader, but the point is that the war that is reaching a rolling boil here could easily spill over in your direction. Of course, that may not happen. Maybe Earth will be left to its own folly, with no need to worry about emperors and fleets and Carrillacki. Maybe. And maybe someday some kvenningar is going to show up in orbit with what sounds like a real sweetheart deal. You have been warned.
My story ends where it does mostly because that’s a convenient point. I’ve told enough for you to know what is happening, and, frankly, I don’t have the time to keep at it. We’re in the middle of a galactic civil war and I have a devastated planet to keep me busy. I realize that ending it at this point will leave some of your questions unanswered. Did Jaenna and I live happily ever after? Did we have kids? Did I ever tell her about hiding behind the curtain? With all due respect, you’ll just have to wonder.
Even if the lack of answers to those questions disappoints you, and even if you don’t care about what may be lurking around in space, there is something this story can do for you. The next time you play one of those trivia games, and someone asks you, “Whatever happened to Danny Troy, the Dallas quarterback who sparked their great Super Bowl comeback?” well, now you know.
Danny a Troy
Fleet Captain and
Imperial Governor of Lussern
New Baynriche, Lussern
Yr. 10684
My Life: An Ex-Quarterback's Adventures in the Galactic Empire Page 38