“Yeah,” he answered, looking up from his camera so that he could start pulling it and it’s gear apart, storing it in the case for later should he need to take it somewhere else. He sounded tired. The emotional burden of the interviews hadn’t fallen squarely on just her shoulders.
Her broadcasts on the war had gotten her the most viewers ever. Yet it felt like a hollow victory, as if she was trading on people’s pain and lives.
She knew it wasn’t true, people needed to know what was going on and she was letting them know. But damn if it didn’t feel that way sometimes.
“Let’s go home,” she said as Tuvio pulled the case’s carry handle over his shoulder.
“Yeah,” he sighed.
She laughed, it didn’t have much actual humor to it.
“What?” Tuvio asked as they walked through Hachiro, heading for the docks where a Chaleel trader was waiting, set to head down the corridor ending up at Parnmal.
“Wondering when I started thinking of Parnmal as home instead of Earth,” she said.
“Yeah, I dunno, just feels right,” Tuvio said, sounding as if he too was realizing that Parnmal had become his home now.
“That it does,” Evelyn said, the two of them walking in companionable silence, their eyes drifting to the laser burn marks and debris still being cleared up. Fresh patches and unpainted halls showed where Hachiro’s fighting had been the fiercest.
Just like the people of the Free Fleet, a number of the scars were visible, but even more were hidden away from prying eyes.
It was going to be a long recovery, but Evelyn had come to know the people of the Union and the Free Fleet, they could weather it.
***
Elisati looked at the latest messages from Chaleel, Ershue, Ouquishar, Hada and Urshval.
She could already see the outcome of the given messages.
Politics demanded that she play the game, either she stood with her new allies or she fell without them. Though her heart and soul, they begged for her to fight it.
They don’t deserve this, not after all they’ve done, Elisati thought, standing and heading to the bar in her quarters, making herself something strong as she looked at her desk.
The writing was on the wall and it wasn’t pretty. She drank the concoction she’d made, it burned on the way down.
She returned to the desk and glanced at the messages, she didn’t need to read them again she knew what they each said.
With a wave she cleared them from her view.
They damned well recreated and protected the Union and this is their reward? She thought taking another large gulp, the burning sensation did nothing to sway her feelings.
Her fingers moved across her table a blank message now hovering over her desk with a simple address.
She let out a snort.
Just like him to have such an inconspicuous address, with that she started to type a message, it was short, only two sentences long. She paused for a few seconds and sent the message. It disappeared from her view. She grabbed her drink from where she’d put it down and drained it.
She looked to the window that displayed the shuttles that worked to bring Quarst’s stations back to life and moved between the trading ships that had returned to their trading routes with the war coming to a close.
It was an invigorating sight, seeing all of that action, that vitality that she could feel filling her people and the people of the Union. They had a chance at living, they weren’t going to let it slip by. Innovations were coming out every day, goods were being traded at an alarming rate and people were excited for the future, not fearful of it.
Her inbox alerted her to a new message, it’s noise brought her out of her thoughts. She opened it. The message was shorter than her own.
We know, do what you must, we aren’t going anywhere.
-M
That sent a cascade of emotions through her. It looked like the Free Fleet weren’t without their teeth. She honestly didn’t know how to feel about that.
She read the message again and again memorizing it before deleting it.
Her mind swarmed with more questions than she had before.
Though your conscience is at ease and you can’t lie your heart is calmer.
She smiled, she couldn’t deny how those few words had calmed her.
I doubt much politicking is going to be able to stop them when they put their mind to something. Look at what happened to the Syndicate and Kalu.
***
Monk sat back in his chair, looking at the hologram which showed the shuttles gathering up the people of the Free Fleet and carrying them up to the HCD’s that had arrived in orbit, and at the other warships that were preparing to leave Earth’s orbitals.
He was sitting in what was Major Wakovich’s office. It was located in the mountains around Salt Lake City, and was what had become the command center for the American Western Line.
Closing his eyes, he could feel the shudder of the artillery that rained down on Kalu attempting another run at the line.
Bunkers, barracks and firing points ran up and down the Western coast of the United States though Canada and down through a few hundred kilometers of Mexico before looping around and coming up along the Eastern American line.
Monk had not been here commanding troops for the last few weeks, as the points had grown his responsibilities had gone from working with the various militaries interested in keeping the Kalu away from their people. To helping Cheerleader deal with the influx of contracts for the Free Merchant fleet and the various contracts that the Free Fleet was tied to.
He had sold the very first generation universal powered armor to planets across the Union, including Earth. Rail guns, cannons and rounds had similarly been agreed on and sold. Many of the shuttles that were coming down to Earth were dropping off that weaponry and taking back up the Free Fleet’s stores they’d ‘loaned’ to the forces on Earth.
“This is an odd universe, wanted to become a Monk, ended up a gamer. Started as a slave for a criminal organization, turned into a commander and now a trader,” he said, an amused smile appearing on his face.
He had manned the line, standing with his people as they had built up the strong positions. Too many people had died, but their sacrifice had gone into creating the line.
In a few hours he would be taking a shuttle up to the HCD’s which would whisk him off to Parnmal. There he and Cheerleader would start organizing the goings on of the Free Merchant fleet, and look over the various contracts offered to the Free Fleet itself. They needed to figure out what the whole operation was going to look like in a time of peace.
They had lived in various degrees of war and intimidation. With those now gone the Free Fleet would be entering into a time of hopeful peace. They would always be ready, but to survive they also needed to be ready for peace.
He looked over various accounts and wondered if many of the Commandos understood just how much money they had earned. The Free Fleet’s people were paid well for their services, many had taken ships, the destroyer yards had been accredited to the entire Free Fleet and they were not cheap.
His interest dulled as sorrow filled him when he looked over the death benefit category. As someone in the Free Fleet died while in service, their family would be looked after, given opportunities to train at Free Fleet schools, or have first picks at jobs and have all assets of the deceased transferred to them.
It was a grim business, but the Free Fleet looked after their own, no matter the conditions.
He closed it down with a swipe of his hand. An alert pinged on his HUD.
“Time to go,” he said, standing.
It was a short walk out of the office and to the walkway that was cut into the side of the mountain. He looked out over the pockmarked landscape. Dirt exploded as rounds found their target, machine guns rattled adding their light to the scene, firing on any Kalu caught in the open.
Then he was inside another set of bunkers and working his way through the maze which he had co
me to understand as well as Parnmal’s own halls.
Stairs took him up onto a landing pad where Commandos were piling into an awaiting shuttle.
Monk saw Major Wakovich near the shuttle, Sergeant Banks was there with him.
Both wore fatigue instead of their armor and weapons.
Monk went to them.
Wakovich held out his hand, and Monk took it.
“Thank you Monk, you and your boys helped me and mine when we needed it. I know that we did some damned bastard things in the past, but you were there for us. That’s something I’m not going to forget any time soon. I hope we can grab a beer some time in the future,” Wakovich said, their hands coming apart.
“I would enjoy that greatly,” Monk said smiling. He and Wakovich had worked a lot together over the past months. They’d gone from coworkers to close knit friends.
“Been a good time Commander, hope to see you at Parnmal one day,” Banks said, holding out his hand, Monk took it.
“Thinking of joining the Free Fleet Machine First Sergeant?” Monk said with a smile, they too had become close friends while Monk was attached to them.
“Ahh, those HAPA’s do look mighty fun,” Banks grinned.
“Well if you ever want to pilot one, let me know. The Free Fleet is always looking for good people,” Monk said, holding his eyes to show both his respect for Banks and the very real offer he was extending to him.
“Got another year in this man’s army at least. I’ll keep that contact info, it’s a mighty big universe and I wouldn’t mind checking it out sometime,” Banks said.
“I’m just a message away,” Monk answered.
“Thank you Monk,” Banks said, respect and thanks coloring his voice. They’d had some close calls together. Nothing quite bonds people together like putting their lives in the hands of one another.
“See you two trouble makers later,” Monk said, grabbing his helmet, putting it on and heading for the shuttle.
He walked aboard, the cargo master closing the ramp behind him as he grabbed a seat, a harness locking around him as the shuttle pilot arched up and away, powering the engines to break free from Earth’s atmosphere.
***
Felix and Silly sat in the mess that had been added to the destroyer yard a number of months ago.
“Did you get the new orders?” Felix asked as they sipped drinks. Everyone had been given cut days and days off as the war was drawing to a close.
“Yeah,” Silly said, his manipulators moving in a variety of emotions.
“What’s up?” Felix asked, seeing Silly’s distress.
“It’s just, we’ve been fighting this war for a year now and now it’s done. It feels like my mind has to catch up with reality. I can’t help but think that somethings going to attack us. Even when we had the Syndicate on the ropes and the future started to look clear, the Kalu showed up,” Silly said trying to put his feelings into words.
“It feels like the other shoe has to drop and changing from making war-going hulls to civilian ones is a bit soon?” Felix asked, sitting back in his makeshift chair.
“Yeah,” Silly replied, Felix summarizing his feelings nicely.
“Well we’re not going to stop making military hulls completely,” Felix said smiling into his drink.
Silly’s manipulators twitch to indicate interest and that his friend should continue on.
“The Union is creating their new Planetary Defense Force as quickly as possible and while the Free Fleet will be dissolving into the Free Merchant fleet for the most part. We aren’t just going to be sitting back and going completely civilian. We’ve seen what a combination of technologies can do, while the war was ongoing we looked to put tried and tested tech together. Now we can start messing around with different systems for the sake of experiment,” Felix said.
“So you’re going to keep testing and trying out new tech for military applications?” Silly asked, he wasn’t that surprised, keeping Felix away from things that went boom. He couldn’t imagine in what universe that might happen.
“Military, civilian, medical, wormhole drives, all of it. We’re going to take our lessons and keep going. The PDF might be becoming a thing and the Free Fleet a protection force of merchants. Though we’re not going to be without our teeth,” Felix promised, his eyes dark.
Silly nodded, understanding his friend’s feelings. They did their job to give their friends the best tech possible to complete their missions.
“So what’s the plan?” Silly asked.
“We’re going to change the HCD’s into freighters, hopefully our people will be interested in being merchants. The Free Fleet will seem to shrink but we’ll be retaining our people, keeping them trained and ready for anything. With our new Kalu allies we will be setting up a research and development area in one of the uninhabited systems, just like Rocko. We’ll develop tech of all kinds and make sure the Free Fleet is prepared for anything,” Felix said.
“What about the actual Free Fleet?” Silly asked.
“The Free Merchant Fleet is our primary corporation. That’s what Salchar has been telling anyone that’s willing to listen,” Felix said.
Silly waved his hands in frustration.
“Yeah it makes sense,” he said. “The Free Fleet was created to fight war. We’re going into peace, having such a large military presence that the people don’t have full control over. It’s easy to see why they’re not happy with the idea,” Silly laughed.
“Yeah, though leaving it all to them, well we know how the PDF went,” Felix said.
“Yeah.” Silly took another large drink.
“So how about it, want to come work for me?” Felix asked.
“Wait, what?” Silly looked to Felix.
“Do you want to come over to the Research development and testing side of things instead of the ship yard side of things. I know you love building ships, but I thought I might as well give you the offer. I’d love to have you working on making new classes of ships. You know them in and out, your input’s would be useful,” Felix said.
Silly thought about it, he thought about it hard.
“Don’t break a manipulator over it!” Felix said, laughing at his friend’s expression.
“Well it’s a hard question! Takes some thought!” Silly fired back.
“I would hope so,” Felix said, smiling.
“LaRe?” Silly asked.
“Silly?” LaRe said, appearing in his mix of Dovarkian Kuruvian and human physiologies. He had a drink in hand which he was using to take sips.
“Felix been asking you the same questions?” Silly asked.
“Yes, I said that I would wait until you decided before making my decision. Felix was nervous to ask you,” LaRe said, smiling.
“Thanks for not telling him,” Felix said finishing off the drink.
“So what will it be?” Felix asked.
“I want to finish the conversions, then I’ll join your team, have you asked Eddie yet?” Silly asked, looking to Felix.
“I was hoping that you could,” Felix said with a grin.
“Coward,” Silly laughed.
“I swear that if he even heard I was slacking off half a galaxy away one of his boots would find me,” Felix said, shaking his head as if traumatized.
“I’ll ask him, I’m not sure which way he’ll jump,” Silly confessed.
“Well that is a problem for another time, for now let’s celebrate you coming over to the dark side of research and development,” Felix and LaRe held their glasses up, tapping them against one another.
“Make that two,” LaRe said with a smile.
“Bartender, I’m going to need another round!” Felix said.
***
I was the last to leave Earth, I walked into the shuttle and looked over the battlefield that had claimed all too many lives.
The shuttle took off. I held onto the hand-holds making my way to my seat, dropping into it and slapping my harness closed.
The shuttles dipped and ske
wed with turbulence but power and physics had learned to respect the shuttles engines.
Turbulence gave way to nothing, leaving Earth behind. I looked over the screens, seeing the massive fleet which dominated Earth’s orbitals.
Over six hundred and fifty craft waited there, the might of the Free Fleet. Within those armored hulks, the heart and people of the Free Fleet lived and breathed.
The shuttle approached Hic Stamus, it’s guns were pulled back, it’s weapons waiting for targets but not needed for now.
Shuttles moved for the open hangars which lit up the dark night with the promise of safety.
The shuttle headed into the hangar, tilting as it did.
Electrostatic shielding split around the shuttle. It came down onto a landing pad, turned so that it was no facing out of the hangar. Harnesses released and the shuttle’s ramps opened.
I walked off, people were working on shuttles, moving them to storage bays or pulling the apart on the deck. People were disembarking, heading for armories or wherever they were needed.
I headed into the ship, looking behind me. The armored doors of the shuttle bay were closing as I passed through the first blast doors.
It wasn’t a long trip into the ship, finding and elevator and riding it up to the bridge.
I felt a tension I hadn’t known fade away as I talked to the people that made the Hic Stamus live.
It’s good to be home, I thought.
“Was wondering when you’d show up,” Rick said from his position as my second on the bridge.
“Had to do some sightseeing,” I said, smiling as I saw the familiar faces of the bridge crew. Despite the losses that were all too raw I smiled at them. They were my friends, people that I would die for and knew that they would do the same for me.
“Ben, does the fleet have a navigation plan?” I asked, walking up onto my command dais and dropping into my seat. Familiar screens came to life around me.
“We’re good and ready, all ships, shuttles, people and gear is taken care of,” Ben said.
“Very well, send the message. Let’s move out in five minutes. Ship commanders are to form up as we move. I want to keep to normal speeds so we don’t tax the systems more than they need. Our yards are going to have enough repairs to take care of without our adding to their troubles,” I said.
War's Reward (Free Fleet Book 6) Page 30