by Jessie Wolf
I searched my memories for a Stevens and come up with nothing. I even have Dee De pull a search of Death dealer records for any Death Dealer named Stevens and nothing comes up. I decide to find out if he was from here. “Were you originally from here, General?”
“Yes ma’am. My father was a Death Dealer in your grandfather’s unit. But I doubt you’ll find any records of it though. You see I’m a bastard child of Sergeant Robert York and Lisa Stevens a maid here in the Nakatoma household.” When he told me his mother was Lisa Stevens Dee De is able to track down everything about this young man I needed to know.
“Welcome home, Davidson.” I bow to him which startles the young man. “I see that you have brought great honor to not only your mother, but also House Nakatoma by following in your father’s footsteps. I know he would be very proud of you. Now that I know this you and I need to have a little talk in private before you show up at the wedding. Is there somewhere we can go?”
He takes a few moments then nods his head yes. Before we leave he turns to the rest. “Gentlemen I need you to make sure that everything is taken care of.” He gets a round of ‘yes sir’s and leads me outside and over to his tent. Once there he clears off his field chair for me to sit on. “Ok, Lady Nakatoma, why did we need privacy?”
“Straight to the point, I like that General. Very well, I’ll get straight to the point as well. Where is your father’s saber?” I can see that my question has caught him off guard. “I know for a fact that Sergeant York was awarded a knighthood by the Emperor. Why do you not have his sword and title?”
He hangs his head in what can only be describe as shame. “My father was one of the lost regiment on Telis Three, my Lady. Because he never married my mother we never got any of his death benefits.” When I hear Telis Three my heart stops. The blackest day in all of Death Dealer history happened on that planet. A whole regiment of Death Dealers was destroyed to the last man by the Valkanas. One of the most vicious races in the known universe. I remember that place all too well. It was one of my last commands before I retired. I never thought I would run into one of their children, least of all here on Hades.
“I’m sorry for your loss, General. I know that my grandfather regretted that campaign more than any other.” I know that what I’m telling him is the truth, in its own way. I mean I do regret that campaign. However I would do it all over again as it allowed us to force the Valkanas to sue for peace. We may have lost a full regiment to the man, but they lost six for everyone we lost that day. Sometimes a loss is as good as a win. Its cold hard logic, but it is the plain truth of the matter.
He looks up at me with a strange look on his face. One that I have seen in the past on the faces of men who have seen the harshness of war. We sat there for a few moments just looking at each other. Finally he reaches under his bunk and pulls out a bottle of scotch. He pours us both a shot of the alcohol then hands me a glass. He raises his glass “To the fallen.” Is all he says. I return his toast.
“Thanks for the drink, General. I really needed that. Now I’ll let you get ready for the wedding. Oh, and by the way I want you to meet me in two hours over at the House supply room.”
“Um…yes ma’am I’ll be there. Can I ask why?”
I look back at him. “I plan to correct an injustice.” That is all I tell him and head back to the house. I take my time. As I walk around I see the four trouble makers being hauled back to the POW area under armed guard. It seems that House Lights little ploy to discredit me failed in a very big way. Those four look as if they fell down a few times.
One of the things I find in my wandering is a large piece of APS armor plate. It’s an easy six feet wide and ten high. From the looks of it; it was part of an APS’ chest armor on a Warhammer II. Now there is a scary APS. Ninety-five tons of walking siege engine. Of all the assault class APS’ out there it is one of the most feared. With two, two hundred and twenty millimeter auto-cannons, four one hundred and eighty heavy pulse lasers, two one hundred and eighty PPC’s, and two eighty-five millimeter Gatling cannons, it is truly a fearsome weapon. I noticed a recovery crew cleaning up the area. As I watch them work I had an idea to come to me like a bolt of lightning out of the blue. Quickly going over to them I wave down a young tech sergeant. “Excuse me sergeant, but can I see you for a moment?”
“Yes, of course, Lady Nakatoma. What can I do for you today?”
“I need you to do me a favor. Do you see that piece of armor plate over there?” I point out the Warhammer II plate to him. When he nods his head yes I continue. “I need for you to take that over to the House fabricators for me. Can you arrange that?”
“Yes ma’am, but can I ask why?”
“That hunk of armor is going to become something special, sergeant. Something that will stand for a long time to remind people of what happened here today.” And with that I turned and headed for the House engineer planning office. I need to make sure everything happens the way I want it. I now have a mission and a plan. I know how and where I’ll put the new cemetery. I just have to make sure I can put it there.
Ten minutes later I enter the estate engineers planning office. It’s a whirlwind of activity. Master engineers pouring over blue prints, journeyman redrafting mistakes to correct them, apprentices running off to deliver work orders, and in the middle of all this acting as conductor the estate master engineer. The man who has the final say in anything being built, repaired, or changed on the estate grounds. Oh I may be the Head of House and the one to commission his projects, but he is the one who has the final say on how it gets done. Walking over to him I smile up at the big man.
“Master Forest, may I have a moment of your time, please?”
“Of course, my Lady. Why don’t we head over to my study?” he waved towards a small office off to one side. Once inside I found that his office was neat and orderly instead of the cluttered mess I was expecting. Moving over to one of the chairs he had I sat down and waited for him to take his seat behind his desk before asking him about why I came here. I would let him start first showing him the respect he had earned. “So, what brings you here, my Lady?”
“Master Forest, I shall come straight to the point as you have your hands full with repairing the estate and it buildings. I would like to know if there are any plans for the south eastern track along the coast line.”
He turns to the wall behind him and the map of the entire estate hanging there. “Do you mean the old mill area, my Lady?”
“I guess so; I’m not too sure. Is there something out there?”
“No not at this time. Back during your great, great, grandfather’s time they were going to put a saw mill there, but they found that the ground would not support the type of foundation that would be needed. To be honest that area is not really good for anything other than a park. Why?”
“Could it may be used for a cemetery?”
The big man leaned back in his chair in thought. After a few minutes he starts to nod his yes. “Yes, as a matter fact it would be just about perfect for that. Most of the area is already cleared there are maybe twenty odd trees there, but other than that it is just open land.”
“Good, this is what I want to do. I want you to get with the carpenters and start turning that area into a military cemetery.” Over the next half hour I laid out how I wanted everything to be done. He would occasionally correct me about something or put in some fundamentally necessary detail, but all in all he found my idea of a cemetery for our military dead intriguing. “So it can be done the way I want?”
“Very easily, my Lady. I’ll get right on it. I know that we paid a high price today and I want to do my best for you and those men and women. I do have one question though about the entrance. I see that you have blocked out an area for what looks like a monument. I take it that you have someone else working on that?”
“Very, good Master Forest. Yes that is exactly what will be there. I plan to place a six by ten piece of APS plate armor with all of the names of the units that fought
here today along with a dedication to all of the fallen. It will be set in on a twenty foot round volcanic glass base. I want it to be a reminder to future generations of the price of freedom.”
“May I make a suggestion then?” at my nod he told me his idea. “Do not put the unit names on the armor plate but in the base of the monument itself. Instead of using volcanic glass over on the far side of the practice range is a large deposit of black granite. I can have a thirty foot slab by four foot thick quarried in two days.”
“My Goddess! How on earth can you do that? Are you even sure you have the tools to do it?” I was flabbergasted by the man’s statement.
“I am quite certain it can be done, my Lady. As for the equipment to do the work, we have everything we need right here inside the compound. We have everything needed to dig it out, transport it, shape it to need, and to put it in place. Long before it became the practice range that area was a granite quarry, we used to be one of the largest suppliers on Hades. That is until the advent of freeform blast crates.”
“Thank you Master Forest, I shall never doubt you again when it comes to your field.”
“No need, my Lady, you had no idea of what we have for building material. That is my job to know.” He had a small smile that showed he did not find my lack of knowledge a draw back. “There is one more change I would like to suggest if I may?” at my nod he smiled. “If we can I would like to move the far eastern wall out to the far edge of the estate proper and increase the size of the cemetery area.”
Now this was news to me. I had thought that the estate walls had already enclosed the total estate area. “Um… doesn’t the estate wall already enclose the total area?”
“Oh no, my Lady, why it only encloses a quarter of the estate grounds.” He tells me. He gets up and goes over to a file cabinet to pull out a survey map. Laying it out on his desk he shows me just how big the estate really is. “As you can see the actual size of the estate is close to two hundred and fifty hectares; most of it is undeveloped land. Now the area you wish to convert into a cemetery is on the far edge of the enclosed area, what we can do is move the estate wall outward by forty hectares to the far southeastern edge and give it room to expand.” As I looked down at what he was telling me I realized that it would be perfect for what I wanted to do.
“Do it. Now I do have question for you. Do you have enough men and material for repairing the compound buildings and the homes of our families?”
“To tell you the truth, my Lady, I have too much help and not enough work.”
“How is that? I mean one out every four of the family homes were damaged or destroyed.”
The big man starts to chuckle. “It seems that the Death Dealers combat engineers are bored and wanted to help us rebuild. With everything they can do we’ll have ninety percent of the damage repaired by the week end. At this rate everything will be back to normal around here inside of two weeks. If I pull them off to handle the cemetery and moving the estate wall it’ll actually allow my people to handle the repairs on the rest of the compound and still be ahead of schedule.”
“Very well then, Master Forest. I’ll leave you to your duties. Oh will you be able to attend my mama’s wedding at sixteen hundred?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. As a matter of fact my entire staff will be there. It has been a long time coming. All of us here at House Nakatoma have prayed for the day she would marry, but had lost hope that she ever would. Now that she has a second chance at life we hope she wouldn’t let it go.” When he sees the look on my face he stops dead. Realizing what he just said the big man starts to back track. “I meant no disrespect my Lady. It is just that, well when your grandmother married your grandfather.” I interrupted to save him from having to explain what he meant.
“Don’t worry Master Forest, I know what you mean. I wish the Grand Lady had married when she was younger. However I understand her reasons. It is now my turn to make sure the Family Nakatoma is prosperous.” Turning to leave his office I stop at the door. Looking over at the master engineer I smile. “I expect you to be on time and in a clean set of clothes Master Forest.” With that I give him a small bow and leave.
As I am walking out of his workshop I have no idea of what the man was thinking and if I did I would have blushed clear down to my toes. Back in Master Forest’s office he stood there looking at the young woman who moved with tattle tale walk of all Nakatoma women. ‘If I was thirty years younger I would do my best to court that girl. She is everything that a man could want in a woman. Brains, beauty, breeding, all combine with an outgoing friendly attitude. My Goddess! What a woman.’
As I move across the compound to the main house I am once again reminded of how strong people really are. Everywhere I looked the people who made their homes here were already cleaning up and rebuilding. I change my course and head for the House Military Supply room. I need to make sure that a certain General is in the correct uniform from now on. I also have to pick up a few things for Alice and my sisters. They have earned the right to carry their ‘badges of office’.
As I enter the Supply room I’m met by a very unusual sight. Row upon row of swords, each one a work of art. I walk along the rows looking for the just the right ones. I know that this is not your normal Supply room. Then again the Nakatoma’s have been known for the swords they produce for more than seven centuries. So it’s no wonder that this room is filled with swords. “Excuse me, young lady, but just what do you think you’re doing in here?” I turn to face the voice and find a man bent with age and gray from years of life at a forge. When the old man sees the family swords at my waist he bows to me. “How may I help you Mistress Maiha?”
Returning his bow “I hope that you can, Master Yoshi. I need to find four sets of blades for my sisters and the Lady Allison. Plus I need to find a saber for one of the Death Dealer Generals. Can you help, please?”
“It would be my pleasure. As a matter of fact I have just the swords for your sisters and the lovely Lady Allison. If you’ll follow me?” The old man turned and walked over to the far wall then headed towards the back of the building.
As we walked along the rows I could almost feel the energy of the swords. Some are in sets of two and others in sets of three. However I can tell that all of them are works of art and love. I stop as I come to one such set it is a set of only two blades but I can tell that this set was made for a warrior.
The katana in a black saya, or scabbard as the English call them. I carefully drew the sword, which looked to be of good craftsmanship, and examined it. The blade was three feet long and of a steel alloy and almost white in color as was the tsuba (guard), a work of art in itself, which was in the shape of a starburst. The foot long tsuka, or handle, was in that same deep black as the saya, the ito (braid) in a deep purple was soft to the touch and fit comfortably in my hands. On the end of the tsuba was a tassel of the same deep purple color and material as the ito.
“Her name is Airi and she would be a good fit for one of the Death Dealers. Her sister is next to her, her name is Anju.” I look down at the matching wakizashi. I pick them both up before I go any further. The old man seeing this, waves for one of his assistances to come and take the blades from me. “Take those the front desk for the Lady Maiha, please. Now if you’ll please follow me into the back room, my Lady.”
Inside the back room I am shocked by what I see. There must be over a hundred sets of full Dragons. Everywhere I look I see beautiful works of deadly art. “I see that you now see why I brought you back here, my Lady. All of these blades were fashioned by the grand master himself, Eiichi Nakatoma. Your five times great grandfather was more than just a warrior; he was also a sword smith without equal. The blades at your waist were forged by him. As were all of these in this room. I believe you’ll find what you’re looking for in here.” He turned around and left me alone in the room.
I take my time running my hands over each set trying to get a feel for them. I quickly find the sets that I will give to my sist
ers. For Fuyuko I find a set that is as pale as the wind driven snows. For Nanami I find a set in a light purple that looks as if they came from the very core of a volcano. For Nanase I find a set that match her sunny disposition in a bright yellow. Before I can even begin to look for Alice’s blades I find two sets that area identical in every way. I can tell that they were crafted for a married couple, perfect for mama and Top.
As I continue to look for Alice I just can’t seem to find the perfect set, oh I can find ones that are close. As I began to think I’ll have to settle for second best I find them. Hidden all the way in back behind all the others I see them. If I didn’t know any better I would swear they were the mates of the ones at my waist. They are almost identical in every way. For some reason I know that they are meant for her to wear. I call up front for some help.
Once I have all the blades out front I ask for them to be wrapped up so that no one will see them. Master Yoshi notices the one set I chose for Alice “I see you found the matched set to your own, my Lady. Your ancestor made the two pairs to be worn by man and wife, like the other pair you found.”
“Thank you, Master Yoshi, I wasn’t sure if they were the mates to mine or not, but I felt that I must give them to the Lady Allison. She is after all soon to be my wife.” When the old man hears me say this he smiles from ear to ear.
“Then allow me to be the first to congratulate you, my Lady. The Lady Allison is highly respected by a great many of us here in the compound. She will make a fitting mate for a warrior of your standing.”
“Thank you sir. Now has a General David Stevens showed up yet?”
“Yes, my Lady, he has. I remember him as a little boy playing in the courtyard. He has brought great honor to our House and to his family.”
“That he has, good sir that he has. Now if you’ll hand me those two blades I had first picked out?”