Forge of War (Jack of Harts)

by Pryde, Medron

  Jack scratched his jaw with a thumb and glanced at Betty again. This time she smiled and inclined her head, recognizing where he was going. He turned back to Aneerin. “Would you do anything in your power to stay with them?”

  Aneerin sighed and shook his head. “Would you? Do anything to stay with all the girls you’ve loved?” he asked with a pointed look at the rank insignia on Jack’s uniform.

  Jack’s cheek twitched at the hard question. He brought a hand up to touch the rank insignia. He shook his head, very slowly. “I made an oath,” he whispered. “I won’t break it.” He turned a hard gaze back on Aneerin. “But I’d do anything else.”

  Aneerin’s expression turned thoughtful, and he and Hal exchanged a conversation of looks. “Some of those you love are dead. Some are alive. Who would you rather be with?”

  Jack smiled. “Why choose?” he asked with a wink.

  Aneerin sighed and just looked at him with the thousand-meter stare of a true veteran of war.

  Jack lowered his eyes, unable to meet the gaze. He turned back to Betty and she returned his look with an understanding one. He cleared and sighed. There were real important reasons he didn’t tell people about the dreams. They wouldn’t understand. “It’s like a piece of me died when Yosemite fell,” Jack whispered instead. “That a part of me is with them.”

  “There is more to it than that,” Aneerin said in a tone of voice that suggested he had no doubt at all he was right.

  Jack pursed his lips and looked at Betty.

  Betty crossed her arms over her duty uniform and gave him that reassuring smile she did so well. And then she tilted her head towards Aneerin, inviting him to continue.

  Jack frowned, not really wanting to do what she seemed to be suggesting. He turned to Jasmine for support with a look that was probably a lot more pleading than he’d meant it to be.

  Jasmine just shook her head and waved a hand towards the Peloran, indicting that he really had no choice if he wanted to go through with it.

  Jack sighed in defeat and looked back to the older man. “I have dreams.”

  Aneerin nodded and brought a hand up to rub his chin in interest. “Dreams can be rewarding. Assuming you can navigate them of course.”

  “That’s the trick isn’t it?” Jack said with a wince.

  “Indeed.” Aneerin turned to look out on the red waves of hyperspace. “What do you dream?”

  Jack took a long breath, pushed away his last reason not to answer, and let it back out. “I dream of a beach, on a lake, with a bonfire, and a party with everybody I love.”

  Aneerin raised an eyebrow in interest. “Everybody? Alive and dead?”

  Jack nodded.

  Aneerin pursed his lips as he considered Jack’s words. “So that is your heaven?”

  Jack almost said yes, but then his last conversation with Samantha came back to mind. He brought a hand up to touch the necklace she’d hung around his neck. “One of them,” he finally whispered.

  Aneerin’s smile turned knowing and the Peloran nodded slowly. “Have you ever felt the wish to stay?”

  Jack’s eyes flicked up to meet the older man’s gaze. “Every night,” he said with complete honesty.

  Aneerin nodded again. “What brings you back?”

  Jack glanced at Betty.

  Aneerin followed his eyes and smiled. “Ah. Of course. Women,” he finished, as if that explained everything. “And the other heaven?” he asked with a shrewd smile. “Or is that plural?”

  Jack cleared his throat, and looked out on hyperspace to give himself time to think. “I’ve left people behind. People I could have stayed with if I hadn’t done this,” he noted with a tug on his uniform. “But then,” he whispered with a look towards Betty and Jasmine, and shrugged. “I didn’t make it for the right reasons, but I made the right the choice. I can make a difference out here, in a way I’ve never done before,” he whispered with more sincerity than he’d expected.

  Aneerin nodded in approval. “And yet?”

  Jack let out a long breath and shook his heat. “And yet I wish I didn’t have to leave. But I have to.” Then he turned to Aneerin with a steady gaze. “But I don’t. There is another option. And you have the ability to make it happen.”

  “Yes,” Aneerin whispered and turned his back on Jack. “I do. And I understand. Do you?”

  Jack blinked at the odd question. He thought he had, but Aneerin’s tone suggested something different. And he had the sudden feeling that he really didn’t. “What should I understand?” he asked.

  Aneerin turned back to him with an approving smile. “That is a very good question to ask, Jack. You will never age.”

  Jack spread his arms out wide and cocked his head to the side. “Hello. Ageless. I kinda don’t do that already.”

  Aneerin pursed his lips and just stared at Jack until Jack cleared his throat. “As I was saying,” Aneerin finally began again. “You will never age. You will never die. Even if you do die, your cyber will live on. He will see your loved ones grow old and die, your children and your grand children will age before him. Even if you die in battle, he will go on, for as long as there is a Cybernetic race, unless he chooses to shut down. Him. Not you. He will be new life, not simply a way for you to be in two places at once. Do you understand this, Jack?” Aneerin finished in a hard tone.

  Jack swallowed and pulled in a long breath as the question rebounded through him. “I…” he started, but had to shake his head. “I thought I did,” he finally whispered.

  Aneerin raised a single eyebrow at him, inviting Jack to continue.

  Jack sighed. “Yosemite. Mother. Father. A lot of girls I…well…I knew I’d never grow old with them, but I thought I would have centuries with them.” He cleared his throat. “I…didn’t.”

  Aneerin pursed his lips. “I am sorry for your losses.”

  Jack let out a long breath and aimed a long look at Betty. She cocked her head to the side and smiled. He looked back to Aneerin. “I…I don’t want to keep leaving people.” He shied away from saying names, and swallowed hard. “Look, I don’t know if I can make any of it right. But I can’t walk away from this.” He tugged his uniform again. “And I don’t think…well…I don’t think I’d be worth much if I did.” He shook his head and looked at Betty and Jasmine with a slow smile.

  “But cybers can be anywhere they want.” Jack turned back to Aneerin with a determined look. “I know you have good reasons for not doing this. I actually did some research on it.” He shrugged with a wry grin, and felt something click into place in his mind. He pulled in a breath, and plunged in. “But you’ve had two millennia to perfect your technology since then. Now my reasons to want this are way different than those who…failed back then. And I think you have good reasons to want to test it, or you wouldn’t be talking to me right now about it.”

  Aneerin glanced at Betty and gave a slow nod. “Yes. You are right.” He turned to Hal and Jack caught the edge of the conversation of glances and movements.

  Jack felt the lift open behind him and Aneerin turned back with a smile.

  “We shall speak of this later,” Aneerin announced. “Your lift has arrived.”

  Jack swallowed, pulled in a deep breath, and stood up straight. “Well, I’d hate to miss my ride to battle,” he returned with a wry smile, tipped his hat to Aneerin, and ambled onto the lift. The cybers followed him onto the lift, the doors closed, and Jack felt it begin accelerating away from the observation deck.

  Jack leaned back against the wall of the lift, watching Betty and Hal standing side-by-side. Hal wrapped an arm around Betty and Jack smiled as she leaned into the other man. Then he blinked as his mind caught up with what Aneerin had said. About losing loved ones to age.

  “Hal?”

  Hal’s gaze jumped over to him. “Yes, Jack?”

  “Do any Peloran die of old age?”

  “They do not,” Hal answered with a knowing smile.

  Jack nodded slowly, glanced at Betty, and sucked in a breath.
“So…who has Aneerin lost to old age?”

  Hal gave Jack a sad smile. “That would be a question he would have to answer.”

  Jack let out a long breath. “He spoke as if he’s outlived many loved ones.”

  “I can not answer that,” Hal said with a shake of his head.

  Jack nodded slowly. “I understand. But…if he had non-Peloran children, where are they? Where were they born? Where did they die?”

  Hal shrugged with the arm not wrapped around Betty. “I’m sorry, but I really can not answer.”

  “I know,” Jack whispered and gave Betty a long look. She smiled and nodded. “I guess…I’m just wondering.” Jack shrugged. “Aneerin was here before Contact. He had to have been to be as good at English as he was when he showed up. The question is, how long before?”

  Hal shook his head. “I am sorry, Jack, but we cannot give you the answers you seek. You have to find them yourselves,” he finished in an earnest tone.

  Jack frowned at the cyber and shook his head. “So what happens when we do?”

  A smile transformed Hal’s face. “Then you will recognize the worlds around you for what they are.”

  Jack frowned at Hal and was about to ask what he meant when the lift slowed to a stop and the doors opened into Cowboy Country. He looked back from the doors to see Betty and Hal standing apart, and an expression on Hal’s face that said the time for those questions was over. It was time for battle. Jack nodded but gave Hal a wordless promise that they would speak on the matter again. Hal smiled as if he looked forward to it.

  Jack grunted and stepped out of the lift.

  Hello, my name is Jack. I’ve come to realize that there is one thing that has affected me all of my life. That has been my cornerstone. I will break every rule out there, I will run a gauntlet of death, and I will never regret a moment of it. I will risk life and limb for a simple gesture. It’s all very selfish, I assure you. I’m a simple person, and I always have been. I do what I do so I can impress all the pretty girls. What else in all the worlds is worth risking everything for?

  Girls

  Jack stepped out of the lift and into Cowboy Country with a swift stride that took him through the main room in seconds. Unlike the majority of the Guardian Light, the walls of Cowboy Country weren’t a clean white. Symbols and flags and other decorations festooned the walls, reminding the Cowboys that they were all American. The United States Marine Corps symbol, an eagle standing atop a globe with an anchor driven through it, dominated one wall in all its silver and gold glory. Another wall hosted the American, Texan, and Marine Corps flags, and the other two walls sported honors that the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112 had received from her creation in World War II all through the centuries until the Battles of Alpha Centauri.

  The first two battles at least. Jack had a feeling they were going to be adding a new one soon. The thought that they might lose never occurred to him. They were Marines after all. And he had Betty and Jasmine on his side. He glanced back and forth at them with smiles that they answered. Not to mention Hal and his guns of course. With all of that arrayed against them, the Chinese didn’t have a chance.

  Jack left the main room behind and walked into a long corridor leading to the launch bay. Hatches on either side opened into the sleeping quarters belonging to each pilot. Sixteen private rooms in all, he idly wondered how Hal had built them. There had only been ten the last time he was here, one for each Cowboy on the Guardian Light. Of course, he’d learned never to underestimate the old battleship when it came to being able to rebuild himself, from the inside out if necessary.

  The hatch at the end of the corridor opened into the launch bay and they stepped through into it. Jack scanned around the cramped chamber, taking in the stacked ranks of Avenger and Hellcat fighters in their cradles, ready to launch at a moment’s notice.

  “Good of you to finally show up,” Charles said, his voice coming from the small speaker in Jack’s ear.

  “Well, you know what they say,” Jack answered with a big smile, looking towards Charles’ Avenger. “Fashionably late and all that. And my fashion sense is amazing.” Jack bypassed the ladders and walked to where his Avenger rested, not really wanting to abuse his aching muscles.

  “Only if the judges are cows and corn,” Charles noted with a shake of his head. “Real civilization on the other hand….”

  “Can lick me,” Jack responded with a smile. “Farm girls totally own beach or college girls.” He glanced at Betty, she smiled, and he felt the gravity melt away. He kicked against the deck, sending him floating up through the gantries to where their Avenger waited. He grabbed a bar to arrest his motion, spun around it, and landed next to his cockpit.

  “You haven’t met the college girls in Philadelphia,” Charles riposted as Jack came to a stop.

  Jack chuckled and stepped down into the cockpit. “True. But can we at least agree that there ain’t nothin’ worth fightin’ for in all the worlds that ain’t a girl?”

  Charles’ face appeared on one of the displays, one eyebrow raised. “What about Truth, Justice, and the American Way?”

  Jack chuckled, sat down, and began locking his restraints. “That sounds great in a comic book, but this is real life.”

  “Yes it is,” Charles noted, his face twisted in a look of deep thought. “If being honest, those were not the reasons I joined either.” He gave Jack a shrug and a smile. “I would also note that the reasons I am still here have…morphed as time has gone by. Have your reasons changed?”

  Jack grimaced at the pointed question, and he glanced at Betty where her twenty-centimeter hologram sat on their fighter’s console. She just smiled, but Jack shook his head. She knew precisely why he’d gone. Revenge. But that wasn’t really the reason he still wanted to stay. “Yes,” was all he said.

  Charles’ smile grew and he shook his head. “Would you care to share?”

  Jack blinked and looked at Betty. She just smiled and crossed her arms, waiting for his answer. Jack winked. She didn’t need him to say anything. She knew. “Well, maybe I just don’t like backing out once I’ve given my word?” Betty cocked her head, seeming to weigh his answer, and raised one hand to give him a so-so gesture.

  Charles grunted in a way that suggested he didn’t believe that was the real reason. Or at least not the only one. “Well, perhaps you will tell me some day?”

  Jack raised a questioning eyebrow at Betty and she returned an approving nod. Which pretty much summed everything up. “Sure thing, Chief,” Jack said with a smile and a nod.

  “Good.” Charles nodded as if accepting an oath, and Jack shifted his head to the side in recognition. “Now shall we get down to the business of being ready to launch?”

  Jack shrugged and scanned his displays, making certain that all systems reported online. “Well, yeah, whenever we get shallow enough to do our business. Maybe just speaking for me, but I don’t want to surf the rapids.”

  Charles chuckled. “Yes, but we should be ready.” His pointed look said he really needed an answer quickly.

  Jack looked at Betty and she nodded. “Well, I’m ready,” Jack said in a jaunty tone. “How ’bout you?”

  Charles remained silent for several seconds before saying anything. “You do not know how lucky you are.”

  Jack smiled at Betty. “What can I say, Chief? She’s way better than I deserve.”

  She sat up tall on the console, crossed her legs, and smiled that smile that said he had a century or two to stop talking like that.

  “That is so true,” Charles said in an approving tone before switching the communication signal to an all-Cowboy frequency. “All Cowboys, prepare to launch,” he ordered.

  Jack looked at Betty and she nodded.

  “Mischief, here,” Katy reported from just off his wing. “We’re ready.” She’d been shot out of her fighter defending Fort Wichita, making this her first chance to fight again since that day.

  “Buckaroo Flight is ready,” Ken’s voice said next, reporting f
or himself and the new recruit he was charged with acclimating to the squadron.

  “Dutchman Flight is go,” Jessie added.

  That made all six fighters of his division ready to fly. “Chief, Jester Division is ready to fly,” Jack reported.

  “Excellent,” Charles transmitted after a few more seconds, presumably after getting Jay’s report. “Launch as soon as Hal gives us a green light.”

  “Roger that,” Jack answered, leaned back in his seat, and let out a long breath. He glanced over to Betty and she cocked her head the side. “Division,” he said and she nodded, bringing the entire division into a single conference line. “Looks like it’s time to do what we do best,” Jack announced. “Hurry up and wait until we get the green light.”

  “So you have experience with that too?” Katy asked.

  Jack shrugged. “Not as much as you’d think actually. Aneerin ain’t one to have everyone stand at attention because he has the rank to demand it. Hell, I think his men would laugh at him if he tried that one,” he finished with a snort.

  “How do they maintain discipline?” Ken’s recruit asked. Jack glanced at a display to confirm her identity. Dawn.

  “They don’t,” Jack said with another shrug. “I don’t know exactly how it all works, but they really are genetically engineered super soldiers. They go from calm and collected tree hugger to total killer in the flick of an instant.”

  “Well, that’s fine if you want a mass of killers,” Katy interjected. “But without discipline, how do they train them to fight together?”

  Jack smiled at Betty and she shrugged back. “Well, you remember all those regulations we had to memorize that tell us how to stand or act when we’re interacting with anyone from a civilian to the commanding general’s wife’s foo foo dog?”

  He thought he heard something that sounded like a snort from the other end. “I remember,” Katy finally said, sounding suspiciously like she was trying to keep from laughing.

  Jack raised an eyebrow at Betty. She smiled back. “Well, the Peloran are born knowing all that. Some kind of genetic memory. And outside of a very few individuals, they are all very…team oriented. Put five Peloran together, and they’ll move as one like it’s instinct. They don’t have to be trained to fight together. They do it without thought. It’s kinda scary, actually. I think that’s why their ambassadors are always alone. They don’t want to freak us out.”