And All The Stars A Grave.

by Greg Curtis

  Joining the Force had meant a number of changes for him. The most important being that he and Karen would normally be assigned to serve on the same ships, and share married quarters. It also meant that she would know absolutely that he had no real freedom any more. He couldn’t just wander off on joyrides whenever he chose, to explore new worlds or buried cities. And that was what he wanted too. By joining the Force he’d hoped that she would understand that he was making a serious commitment to her and their baby to come.

  “Ohh sweet Lord. Love how could I possibly say no to such a proposal? How fast can this tub fly?”

  “Terrig thirteen five, maybe fourteen if we really push her, but it’s pre-programmed for eight five on this run. We’ve got five days.”

  “You got this ship flying at thirteen and a half! But that’s not possible. It’s not much bigger than a shuttle and there’s no way it could handle the power drains. The engineers must have had a fit when they found out.”

  “A giggling fit. Actually, they nearly split their pants or whatever laughing. Not to mention the hysterics when they tried to find their way around her. I had to extend the engine bay and then shoe horn the engine in as well, not to mention the full cruiser shields, new heavy maser banks and cloaking field. I’ll show you the engine bay later if you promise not to laugh. It’s all tunnels and ladders now. There’s not much spare room anywhere else either. The main hold’s now the size of a large cabin, there’s only one lab, one and a half cabins, one office and the galley’s too horribly cramped to imagine.”

  “I was hoping they might have been able to find some more room by rearranging the cabling, and maybe replacing the extensive monitoring system with something smaller. A second bedroom and some more galley space would be really good. And if I could get back inside engineering without crawling on my hands and knees it’d be a blessed relief. But so far they haven’t bothered, I don’t think they want to, and anyway we’ll survive for five days and after that she’s no longer our concern.”

  “Cruiser shields? Cloak? Heavy maser banks?” Trust Karen to pick up on the unimportant things. Worse still she was starting to look very business like.

  “Yes of course.” He was surprised she, a Force Security officer no less, didn’t know the details of what he’d done to the old girl.

  “I thought you knew. The Sparrow now has full cruiser specs. A three thousand terrawatt maser with ultra tight focus, class thirteen shield, Calderonian based cloak, new astrogation sensor lab and K73 heavy cruiser drive, two dozen tubes for the modified hellfires though I think the missiles themselves have probably been removed, and a computer lab second to none, all taken from cruiser cast offs and reconditioned. And a lot of them I upgraded as well. My love, much as I hate to blow my own horn, technically you’re standing in the smallest light cruiser – although compared to any light cruiser it’s actually incredibly powerful - in the Force. Actually it may qualify as a heavy cruiser.” And he was quite proud of it. Not least because the ship had purred like a kitten for over six hundred light years at terrig thirteen five all on second hand parts, even if the Calderonians had helped a little.

  “Dear Lord. You mean while you were supposedly just fitting a new drive into the Sparrow, you actually turned it into a pocket battleship? And no one stopped you! There’s going to have to be some questions asked about that!”

  “They’ve already been asked and answered. I got heavily wrapped over the knuckles by several admirals for being overly paranoid and playing with military weaponry, and even more so by the engineers who were staggered the ship hadn’t disintegrated during take off. But now they’re happy with the rebuild, satisfied that if anything I over-engineered and that she’s a sturdy little number. In fact they’re looking at using some of the design features in their newer light cruiser model.”

  “No, you idiot!” She swatted the back of his head again for good measure, catching him by surprise.

  “I didn’t mean about the changes you made to the ship. I meant that you could do them without anybody noticing. That’s top level weapons tech which shouldn’t be available to citizens. In fact there are major penalties for undertaking such work. You should have been stopped on day one.” Which was something he’d wondered about every second he’d worked on the Sparrow. But despite his doubts it had never happened, and somehow he’d carried on unnoticed by the authorities. Until now.

  He sighed. “I’m sure it can wait for a few weeks love. Once we get back you can arrest me.”

  “Not you, you idiot.” She swatted the back of his head again catching him by surprise once more.

  “You were technically still an Earther and as such not a member of the Community. Even if you weren’t an interstellar hero I’d have a hard time making anything stick. But the people who helped you, now they’re in deep trouble.”

  “What people? No one helped me love. I am quite a capable engineer. I borrowed a couple of defunct androids to help with the lifting and fitting, obtained all the parts from the discard piles, except for the cloak which I had to build from scratch and then put together in secret, and the hellfires which I redeveloped from standard torpedoes. With help I could have rebuilt the Sparrow in half the time, and it’d probably be a damn site better finished. And why do you think it looks so rough? No Force engineer would have ever allowed a ship like this to leave the dock. Safe or otherwise, it simply looks like it is; unfinished. They’d be too ashamed.”

  “Creator have mercy!” She stared at him with a look of profound shock all over her face.

  “You mean you designed and then rebuilt an entire ship to heavy cruiser specs by yourself in a month? By yourself? There’s not an engineer or scientist in the Force who could do that. Nor in the entire Community. I’m sorry love but obviously I underestimated you again. I should arrest myself for incompetence!” She was serious too he realised. And no doubt wondering why she hadn’t paid more attention to his project. But then she, like everyone else had not had the time or interest to worry about what the crazy human was doing, rushed off their feet as they had been with everything else. It had been a frantic time for them all. That truly was what had enabled him to get away with it.

  “Please don’t. It was utter chaos back then. No one had the time to wonder about what one slightly balmy human was doing then. Not even you. Besides, I don’t want our daughter born in a brig. It could become a family tradition!” Karen snorted with laughter, and he knew with joy that he was making headway again.

  “Okay jailer, so what’s our schedule till I get to make you my slave for life?” Despite her laughter, he knew she was testing him. Looking for any sign that he might run. He just kissed her.

  “I can live with that, love. We’ve got five days until we reach Cygni Three. Then we get hitched wherever, whenever, however you choose. We’ve got a whole week to do it in and I wanted to make sure you got to plan the wedding so I haven’t booked the time or place. Besides, I’m sure your mum’s already making her own plans. We’ll arrive at much the same time, all three ships. We have a full week lying around in the sun, which I’m told is absolutely perfect for humans. By the way, I bought you a couple of bathing suits as well and a sun shawl. They’re in the bedroom. I hope you like them.” Though in truth he’d bought them for himself. He ached to see her wearing them. Even six or seven months along she had a devastating figure and pregnancy was agreeing with her as she bloomed.

  He started showing her the holo sheets he’d thoughtfully clipped to the wall.

  “I was thinking maybe we could go on an ocean cruise for a day. I understand they have some of the most beautiful sea life in the galaxy. And maybe take a shuttle ride around the moons. It’s supposed to be an awesome flight. Then there are apparently some of the best entertainment facilities in the Community to enjoy, not to mention extensive personal health services, and I’m really looking forward to the mud baths. They’re supposed to be extremely soothing for pregnant women too. Plenty of shopping and luxury goods, including a shop just for bri
dal goods. And of course it has the best medical care as well. Baby needs a holiday as much as we do.”

  “A week of unashamed luxury there, during which we can get married, and then sadly we have to come back. But the good news is we get to travel back with the Targ to Unity, where hopefully our new quarters will be ready, while the Sparrow I assume meets its new crew and has another date with the engineers.”

  “New quarters?”

  “Absolutely. I love your quarters, but quite frankly they are too small for us. And they’re quickly going to become even smaller when our daughter’s born. I asked the admiral if he could assist and he seemed most pleased to help.”

  “Ohh goody!” By which he realised from her tone meant that she wasn’t so pleased, something that he could understand. She wanted to pick her own quarters. Something else he should have thought about. He hurried on.

  “Once we’re home again I’m going to be posted to the Prime Foundation. I’m still not quite sure what that is, but in any case, I know I’m mainly going to be doing diplomatic stuff for at least a year and be based on Unity. With my wife and daughter. Meet and greet, that sort of thing. No space trips at all. And I’m told they have an excellent hospital at the Foundation where our baby can be born, and you’ll be most welcome to work there later, if that’s what you want, and some of the best crèche facilities as well.”

  “They do. The Prime Foundation is one of the Force’s universities for want of a better term. It’s the largest one on Unity, and one I’m sure you’ll like. I do. I did a lot of my medical training there and every so often I like to go back for a visit. See old friends and so on.”

  “I didn’t know that.” Which was the truth. But he realised, someone else probably had, when they assigned him to it. “You’ll be happy living there for a while?”

  “Of course. I love it there. You’ve really thought this out, haven’t you?” But finally she didn’t seem unhappy about it. In fact she almost seemed to be looking forward to it.

  “Naturally I have. I had five horrible, cold, miserable months on this tin bucket to dream of nothing else than being with you. And believe me it was no pleasure cruise. In fact I much preferred my time in the Targ’s brig. I really like being an archaeologist and going on new expeditions and also being an engineer tinkering with the Sparrow, but I love you. And you and our daughter must always come first.” He kissed her again. “That much you have to know.”

  “I do.” Finally an admission, after a month of trying to wheedle one out of her. His heart soared.

  “The only thing that drove me out there was the overpowering fear of you and our baby dying at the hands of the Kaiwhare. That fear haunted me. Destroyed my sleep, and ruined my waking moments as well. Every day the only thing I wanted was to come home and be with you but I was terrified that you and the planet itself wouldn’t be there when I got back. The only thing that kept me going was the hope that if I got through, I could find something. Some super technology that would knock the Kaiwhare back into the dark ages. And then I could return to you and our baby. And we could be a family forever. It was the only way I could protect you. Now that I know you’re safe, that no horrible nasty alien’s going to come along and take you away from me, there is nothing else in my mind. I promise you.”

  “I know you’re scared that I’m going to leave again, or get myself killed in some stupid dig on an alien world. But you don’t have to be. Ever.” He went down on one knee before her.

  “I know I’ve been selfish and cruel to you. But you have to believe me when I tell you I did it all for you. I only ever wanted to protect you. And now that it’s done, I only ever want to be with you. To be your husband, and to help you raise our daughter, and maybe some other children after. If you’d like.”

  “Would you please do me the great honour of becoming my wife and make me the happiest man in the universe.” He reached into his front pocket and pulled out the package he’d carefully wrapped that morning. A trio of rings. He heard her gasp, and knew why.

  “Is that -”

  “Spun heart stone diamond from Erithani Seven. The stone itself cost me a whole working drive unit. And you wouldn’t believe how long I had to play with the grav coils to get it to spin just right. But I think it’ll fit perfectly.” It should after he’d measured her fingers so carefully while she slept.

  “You’re evil. You know that.” By which she meant he was tempting her unfairly, which was true. The engagement ring was not only beautiful, it was damn near priceless. Only a few hundred of them were in existence, not just because the stones were so rare, but because only a master engineer could spin one, shaping the stone into a perfect ring, and most of them didn’t have the time to spare.

  “I’m in love.” Beside it of course were the two platinum gold wedding rings he’d forged. Maybe not so rare, but perhaps even more precious because of what they signified. And she couldn’t accept one without the other. But then he knew it was what she wanted. She was just terrified he was going to run off and leave her again, and was covering it with anger. But with everything he’d done, everything he’d shown her, he hoped Karen could understand that that was the last thing in the universe he wanted to do.

  “And so am I, you bastard. Of course I’ll marry you. I’ll make you the happiest husband the universe has ever seen, or kill you trying. But if you ever dare leave me again, I’ll take this ship and feed it to you, piece by piece.”

  “Deal.” He rose and kissed her as they both wanted. There were tears in Karen’s eyes, finally ones of joy, and tears in his own as well.

  “So five days on a ship, and I’d guess no recreational facilities other than a holovision screen?”

  “Two of them actually, one in the bedroom. And especially for you, a queen size bed to watch it from. The bridge has a lovely computer generated star-scape to watch, I installed a full suite of computer games in the computer astrogation lab, there’s enough room in the galley for you to do your exercises – just - and if you really get bored we can always play hide and seek in engineering. It takes up half the ship and there are a lot of tunnels there now but it could be fun. Though you might find it a bit of a squeeze in your present delicate condition.”

  “Ouch!” She swatted the back of his head once more as he’d expected. “I figured we could probably make our own entertainment.”

  “Then Lieutenant, I suggest you show me to my quarters. I feel the need to lie down for a while.” Though the way she kissed him again suggested strongly that they wouldn’t be doing much resting. Obediently he picked her up and carried her back to the bedroom, as they both wanted. Life was suddenly looking very good just about then. It would have been perfect except for her words as he opened the door.

  “Remind me please on Cygni Three, to lay in a good supply of toothbrushes!”

  “Bugger!”