Wilson filled the glass and finished his own drink. "An inquiry is being made. They'll either bust you down to Private and out of the hover tanks, or they'll pin a medal on you."
Jack drank another glassful of the Scotch, and Wilson didn't seem shy in doling it out, so Jack pushed his glass forward again, and Wilson filled it up. Wilson spoke again, "You should call the missus up, Jack. You can call from my desk if you want." He turned the terminal around. Jack dialed the number for Orion and his house.
Lexi answered the phone. Dear god, Jack thought. She'd gotten even bigger. She smiled. "Jack!"
"Hi, Lexi. I'm facing an inquiry now. I may have cost the lives of some soldiers."
"Don't worry about it, Jack. I'm sure you did fine. I can't talk right now--I'm late for a doctor's appointment. The car is out front waiting. I'm very glad you called."
"Bye."
"I love you," then she disconnected.
* * *
The next morning Jack didn't feel well at all, and his terminal beeped twice at him over and over. Wilson sent him a note about a hangover remedy to make him feel better after the Scotch, simple enough, take two aspirin and more Scotch. He took two aspirin. Colonel Henderson sent him a note saying to phone in. He phoned the Colonel; at least she wouldn't be able to drug him from Orion.
Colonel Henderson answered her video phone. "Hello, Jack. How are you today?"
"A bit tired, ma'am. Was in combat all day yesterday."
"I'm very aware of that. I'm on the inquiry board."
"How is that coming along?" Jack asked.
"It'll be a few weeks before we make a decision--we're only meeting on it three times a week for an hour."
"Ok, Colonel, what can I do for you?"
"I wanted to know how the battle went for you," Henderson said. "Were you consumed by your rage?"
"No, ma'am, I didn't feel any rage. I simply fought…"
"Are you lying to me?"
"Why would I lie?" Jack asked.
"Some personnel might be worried about their place in Fleet, and they might lie."
"You can give me those drugs again, if you like. I'm not lying."
"Ok, Corporal, we may just do that when you get back to Orion. For now, I've looked over your University schedule and feel that you're missing a few classes that will help you in the long run, and I added them to your curriculum."
Jack didn't want to say thank you, but when a superior officer gives you something, you say thank you even if it's crap. "Thank you, ma'am."
"Goodbye, Corporal."
* * *
Once they finished sorting through the wreckage that remained of Korwin, they found three dry-docked Lithorian ships: one with a cloaking device in it. The first cloaking device that Fleet captured, and engineers went over the ship from head to toe. They found her rigged to explode on takeoff or if she cloaked. They decided it needed to be fixed and worked day and night on it.
Korwin's original population numbered just under six million, and roughly one and a half million survived the Lithor occupation. Fleet filled their ships with refugees to relocate them to the better defended Orion. Fleet spent a solid month on Korwin before launching the armada back to Orion.
Fleet command made their decision. They promoted Jack to Sergeant and planned to pin a medal on him when he made it home. They packed the refugees in like sardines on board all the Fleet vessels. Jack had quarters of his own again, with two bunks. He saw a guy about his age sitting in a corridor. Jack stopped and asked him, "I've got an extra bunk in my quarters, if you want it…"
The kid, he looked about eighteen. Jack thought of him as a kid though, as Jack had been through quite a lot. The kid asked, "You're not a fag are you?"
"No, I'm not a fag. I just thought you might like a bunk to sleep on. Heck, I have a wife and twins on the way."
The kid stood up and kind of brushed himself off, not that the dirt he was carrying would come off in less than one trip to the washers. His hands and face were clean though, which is more than can be said for some of the refugees. "My name's Kevin." He extended his hand.
Jack shook his hand. "My name's Jack."
He led the way to the cabin and coded Kevin's palm print into the palm printer, so he could come and go as he pleased. Kevin asked, "Hey, they tell me I can get into Fleet before I turn 21, if I get a recommendation from a Fleet officer. Could you help me?"
"I'm only a Sergeant. Can you pass the graduation test?"
"I haven't tried to pass the graduation test…" Kevin said.
"If I were you, I'd work on that. I might know an officer who would recommend you, but only if you can pass the test though…"
They went and had dinner together. They'd have real food for a few weeks before they'd be subsisting on food-bars.
* * *
Colonel Henderson added Psychology 213 to Jack's classes. He played the first lecture on his terminal. Kevin started talking to him, started telling this story…
"The Lithor, once they had the bars up to keep us in cages, they pulled an eight year old girl out of our cage. They tied her hands up over her head and tied her feet together at the ankles. Then one of them took out a knife and sliced open her stomach, spilling out her intestines. She screamed, but she didn't die right away from it. They scrapped out her insides with the knife. Finally she died. They wheeled in some kind of portable rotisserie and put the child on a giant spit and proceeded to cook her in front of us. Then they ate her, piece by piece…"
Needless to say it distracted Jack from his studying. Jack changed the subject, "Let's go to the gym and see how far you can run…"
Kevin could only run four kilometers. This didn't impress Jack, but he reminded himself he used to run on Artemis in the high gravity.
The next day came and went. Jack studied after dinner when Kevin started in on another story…
"Sometimes a group of Lithor would come, take one of the women and have their fun with her in front of us. There was this one girl, Amy, that I knew from school. She would fight them tooth and nail, and she was very pretty. They came for her a lot. Then one time she stopped fighting. She just quit. She was just like dead flesh. That's when they really beat her badly, broke both her arms and legs. We figured they musta cracked her skull 'cause she was unconscious for about three days. They left her alone after that…"
Jack looked up from his terminal. "Blast it all, Kevin. I don't mind letting you use the extra bunk, but I don't need to hear your damn stories. Find a priest, or a shrink. I bet there's a shrink on board, or you could call one on the terminal, but don't tell me, man. I already hate the Lithor enough, and I already have my share of nightmares about them."
Kevin jumped off the bunk. "The Kilken saved us. You, in your air conditioned hover tank, didn't. The armored suits didn't. It was the Kilken who saved us!"
Jack growled a certain growl that would frighten most sane men. "You've got your facts wrong. Computer, Battle report review, Korwin, Authorization Grean."
"What's that gonna prove? The Kilken cut a Lithor in half right before the Lithor started blasting us with a laser rifle."
Jack growled again, this time so low it had more of a grumbling kind of itch. "Look at the review, the whole thing," and he stood up and left the cabin.
Kevin sighed and then started going over the review.
* * *
Jack went up to the gym to the martial arts bot, and he found it in use, but the guy only had 15 minutes left. Jack queued himself up for it and started running. Kevin pissed him off. He wondered whether he would be recommending him to Wilson after all. The martial arts bot freed up, and Jack selected level thirty endurance training and pushed the bot to its limit. After about thirty minutes Kevin joined him in the gym, looking all sheepish. Kevin walked up to the martial arts bot and tried to say something. Jack cut him short. "I've got thirty minutes left on the bot. Run or something."
Kevin's eyes never left the floor as he went to one of the treadmills and started running.
>
Jack finished up and walked over to Kevin. "What's on your mind?"
"The Kilken didn't save us. They wouldn't have even made it into the pens, if it wasn't for you and the other hovers. You gave the order…"
"I know."
* * *
A month passed as Kevin studied and exercised. Jack received an incoming message from Orion. As he answered it, he thought it would be Lexi. Jack pushed the receive button and the video showed Lexi holding a baby and Meghan holding a second. Jack shouted, "Woohoo!"
"They came out alright," Lexi said. "Ten fingers and ten toes."
Jack looked them over. "They're beautiful." He clapped his hands together violently. "What are their names?"
Meghan said, "They get their looks from Lexi."
"We named the boy Jack, Jr.," Lexi said. "The girl we named Ruth after my mom…"
Jack pushed the video capture button to have a snapshot of the kids. He'd have it printed later. Jack just stared at them and smiled. Kevin said, "Can I see?"
Jack replied, "Check them out. I'm a papa."
Kevin leaned over Jack's shoulder and got a look at them. "Very nice!"
Meghan said, "I want my own now…"
"As the oldest male in the family, I think I have to remind you that you're far too young," Jack said. "You're only 17."
"I turned 18 two months ago, big brother. I'm legal."
"Have you made any progress with the shy boy?"
"Not really, he's far too interested in his studies. They're putting him in the Fleet scientists program at university."
One of the babies, the boy, started to cry. Lexi said. "I need to feed them, Jack. I just wanted to show them to you."
"Thanks, Lexi, I saved a picture of them," Jack said. "Go feed them. I'll be home in five months."
Meghan said, "Goodbye, big brother."
* * *
Jack went and printed the picture. Then he printed hundreds of extra copies and passed them out to everybody he encountered on ship. He decided he needed to bring them presents, and he'd seen some of the Kilken women from the suicide squad knitting. Jack went to Kai and asked him, "Do you think some of your Kilken women might be able to sew me a stuffed animal for my kids?"
Kai replied, "Stuffed animals?"
"Yeah, like teddy bears, toys for infants." Jack showed him the pictures of his babies.
"You're very lucky to have two wives and two children."
"One is my sister."
"Oh," Kai said. "You'd have to ask the women about making a 'stuffed animal' as I don't know what you mean."
Jack went and found some of the female Kilken. They busied themselves knitting already, what looked like clothes. Jack asked them, "Could you make me toys, stuffed animals, for my children?" And he showed them the picture.
They smiled and giggled. "You're very lucky to have two children," one of them pulled a miniature bear with long claws and teeth out of a bag and said, "Like this?"
"Yes, one like that with the claws, but maybe one for the girl without such scary claws and teeth."
"Kilken are lucky to have one baby every five Earth years," she said. "And you have two."
Jack didn't know what to say.
"It's fine," she said. "We'll make you toys."
Chapter 17
A.D. 2131
Disease and Famine…
Disease and Famine operated in low power mode, and their crews subsisted off what organics they could grow. They started running out of things, nice things to have, like toilet paper. Orion promised them it wouldn't be more than a few months, and they'd have fuel ships big enough to send to Disease and Famine. The crew kept a constant vigil for any inbound Dreadnaughts. The cloaking devices caused a black space around the ship, so if one watched the stars one could see the Dreadnaught approach. Still, energy weapons in space reached an almost infinite range; they targeted Disease first. Disease didn't even have her energy shields powered, and the Dreadnaught's cannons cut through her hull in a score of places.
Famine's crew powered shields and ordered "Battle stations!" To fully utilize her acceleration all the crew needed to make it to their gel-cushioned seats.
Famine broadcast on FTL, "We're under attack." Famine's Captain ordered the use of the spray-paint bombs in all directions. Streaks of paint shined through the cloaks of Dreadnaughts, and they counted at least twenty Dreadnaughts.
The Lithor radioed, "Surrender, Humans, and you'll live!"
Famine's Captain wanted to buy time. He knew his crew hadn't made it to their acceleration chairs yet. He radioed back to them, "What are your terms?"
"No special terms. You become slaves…"
An underling of the Captain's whispered to him, "They want this ship, Captain..."
The Captain nodded. "Target Disease, all weapons, cut her into pieces. Arm self-destruct mechanism, toggle the control to my lifeline. Prepare for evasive maneuvers, damn the gel-cushions."
The Dreadnaughts targeted Famine, and her shields held for the first few blasts, then for a few more, and then the shields caved. The blasts punched holes in the armor of Famine, finally one punched through to the command deck and vacuum sucked out the atmosphere. When the Captain died it triggered the self-destruct mechanism in the Horsemen. Four one-hundred megaton atomic weapons detonated inside the bowels of Famine, and they tore her to pieces of molten slag.
* * *
Steve Creech waited at Korwin during the entire time it took Fleet to organize the assault on it. Six long months. Luckily he found himself a nice tropical island with plenty of native fruits and plants that he could eat. Finally they invaded Korwin. He received new Fleet orders that day: return to Orion for new assignment. He cranked the scoutship up to two gravities and steered it for Orion. While he had the FTL channel open, he talked to a certain lieutenant, and she awaited his return…
Chapter 18
A.D. 2113
Enter the Lithor…
Fleet continued its exploration of the stars, reaching systems over a hundred light years from Earth. The sheer diversity of life forms amazed Human scientists. Still, they had found only one intelligent species, the Kilken. Humans and Kilken shared many things in common, respect for tradition, honor, fairness, the inalienable rights of intelligent creatures, and a love for artwork and music. Trade between Kilken and Human flourished, and they respected each other's laws and learned each other's customs.
A Fleet ship named Aurora flew to a system on the edge of explored space. They would be the first to survey it.
They started picking up radio broadcasts at ninety light years from their target. It sounded like religious zealots going on and on.
Their long range radar detected satellites in orbit over the third planet. The Aurora flew in closer and started broadcasting a numeric sequence for ten digits of pi across radio frequencies. They heard no radio response. Keeping their FTL channel to Fleet open, they approached the satellite system in orbit. There didn't appear to be a central space station or ship docks of any kind, just various kinds of satellites, but it meant intelligent life existed on the planet. Then, from one of the satellites, a streak of smoke came from it. The captain of the Aurora ordered, "Missile defense, now!"
"Aye-aye, captain," the gunner said. The Human crew sweated as this would be the first real test of their missile defense. It fired on the missile, but the rocket zigged and zagged. The defense couldn't get a lock on it until it reached about five kilometers out, and then the atomic warhead detonated. The blast rocked the Aurora, part of the hull melted away, exposing all but the command deck to vacuum.
The captain said, "Get us away from those things!"
The pilot spun the ship away from the third planet and punched the throttle down. Another missile launched at them, and this time the missile defense blasted it at ten kilometers out. The blast pummeled the ship.
The captain flipped the switch on his board for Fleet central. "Emergency, we're under attack. They launched TWO atomic missiles at us. I repeat. They l
aunched TWO atomic missiles at us."
Fleet FTL'd back, "Damage sustained?"
"Drives are still functional, but we lost hull integrity on the lower decks. There are casualties. We likely have a fuel leak. Waiting for computer and engineering damage reports."
"Stay away from the third planet. We will assess and get back to you."
One crewmember from Engineering survived. He started working on patching the hull where it melted through. They lost one of their fuel tanks, but they still had enough fuel for a jump, so they started back for a Fleet base. Within a week's time five of Fleet's Light Cruisers set a course for the system codenamed Aurora.
Chapter 19
A.D. 2131
Meghan goes on the offense…
Meghan couldn't seem to get anywhere with Johnathon Parks, the boy at school she liked. The boy who would be joining Fleet university in another three months. Meghan tried to get him to have lunch with her, and she tried to get him to study with her after school. She even bluntly asked him one day to give her a kiss, just to be ignored. Finally, she came up with a plan, a rather bold plan, but she would give it a try.
John went out the east entrance when he left for home, and Meghan followed at a good distance. Two blocks down, he turned the corner to the right. Meghan stayed about fifty meters behind him. Luckily, John mostly traveled in a straight line. He did turn a few more times, but never sharply enough that she lost him. Finally, he went into a two-story brick house. A car sat in the driveway. 'Good,' Meghan thought, somebody besides John is home.
Meghan walked up to the house and pushed the doorbell button. Nobody answered for a few moments, but then a woman opened the door and greeted her, "Hello." She had short, cropped, black hair and a blue, cotton dress on. Her eyes danced around Meghan's form, expecting a clipboard or badge of some sort.
"Hi, I'm here to study with Johnathon."
"Come in." Then she shouted, "Johnathon, you have a visitor."
Meghan heard a door slam from upstairs. The woman sighed. "What's your name, dear? You can study in the den…"
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