At My General’s Command

by Romeo Alexander

  Christian

  Humming to himself, Christian stepped from the elevator once it reached the second floor, and the doors slid open. The room, which served as both his workplace and waiting room for appointments, lit up as the sensors caught his movement. It wasn’t an ornate or expensively decorated room, angled more toward comfort than anything else.

  Christian supposed the plush couches against one wall, and the soft chairs against the other were probably just right for those who had to cool their heels. He didn’t imagine the natural wood colored floors or the soft blue walls, decorated with pictures from all over the world, did much to calm the nerves of those left to wait. It was a fact of life at Fort Dale, however, that those without an appointment had to wait, and sometimes even those that did still had to cool their heels for a while.

  The only piece of furniture in the room that could be called fancy was the huge desk at the back. Christian wasn’t sure if General Winter had ordered a desk made out of real marble or if it just had a convincing veneer over a wooden one, but the effect was immediate. In the first few weeks working as what was essentially General Winter’s personal assistant, the monstrous desk had seemed like some foreboding obelisk placed at the entrance to a cursed cave. It took up most of the back wall. Nearly all the people who came to the office found the desk came up to about chest height. Christian himself had to use a tall chair to look over it, which was saying something since he wasn’t exactly short.

  He rounded the desk and set his travel mug of coffee down. Being just past six am, the office was still quiet. General Winter wouldn’t be in for another hour, which gave him plenty of time to do his prep work. The general had made several changes over the past few years to the computer system the fort used. While the systems certainly worked wonders to make almost everyone’s job easier, Christian still preferred the personal touch with some tasks.

  “Good morning, ladies,” Christian said to the array of simple, cloth dolls sitting on his desk.

  Unsurprisingly, the dolls said nothing, staring back at him with their huge, black felt eyes as he hit the power button to his computer. They were crude things, and a few people who spotted them as they passed by his desk into General Winter’s office had commented they found them a little creepy. Truth be told, Christian wasn’t that fond of the dolls either, but the hastily made caricatures of the two women in his life that he called sisters would never bring him anything but warmth.

  As if on cue, his phone buzzed quietly in his pocket. While Christian waited for the computer to boot up and allow him to log in, he pulled the device out and checked it. There was only one person he could think of that would not only be awake at such an early hour but would be messaging him as well.

  P sure Dan is avoiding me rn

  Christian shook his head at Lily’s message. The woman never quite knew when to leave well enough alone, especially when a guy she was dating happened to be involved. Her passion and romantic ideals had already been locked into her personality when Christian had met her. They’d both been thirteen. The twelve years which followed had done nothing to blunt the woman’s determination to find herself a man and hold him down.

  Shaking his head, Christian typed back.

  Have you tried letting him have a little bit of room? Can’t smother the guy.

  It took only a minute before her response was fired back.

  It’s been 2 days thats not smothering

  Christian shook his head, typing back a message to remind her that the man worked two different jobs, one full-time and one part-time. He turned his attention back to his computer and logged in. The system took a moment, checking its records before a confirmation screen popped up. It was always his least favorite part of the entire process, as the confirmation screen always involved a picture of himself along with his ID number.

  The picture had been taken after a particularly harrowing couple of days where Christian had been run ragged as he’d tried to settle in at Fort Dale. The circles under his eyes had been so dark they’d nearly obscured the brightness of his blue eyes. Even his blond hair, usually so bright it looked almost gold, had seemed to lose its luster and had grown just a shade too far past regulation. His narrow jaw and high cheekbones were lost in the general pale look of his skin from both exhaustion and an overly bright camera flash.

  Rather than continue to look at the screen with the god awful picture on it, he turned his gaze back to his phone.

  Just cuz he’s busy doesn’t mean he can’t message me once

  Sighing, Christian opened the message and tapped back.

  It does if the poor guy is exhausted. Give him a break. And don’t blow his phone up either.

  With the computer officially logged in, he set his phone aside and began going through what new messages waited for him. There were the standard emails sent directly to him, and then the messages which were sent down the chain from Command. There was nothing of any real note, so he moved over to the inbox reserved for General Winter. His access to General Winter’s messages was limited to the same general messages and personal emails as his own inbox. General Winter had granted access to Christian months ago in an attempt to try and create some sort of order out of the chaos that liked to flood his personal inbox.

  Christian scrolled past an email from General Winter’s sister, Sara, and moved to a message from the general’s bank. He wouldn’t read anything deeply personal, but considering he was generally the first one to realize when General Winter was missing a due date on a bill, or an update from a business he might need to know, Christian generally read anything that looked somewhat important.

  As he expected, his phone began to buzz constantly once the clock hit half-past six. Without looking at the device, Christian tapped the Bluetooth in his ear to answer the call.

  “Good morning, Lily,” he said.

  “I can’t believe you’re taking his side on this,” she said in greeting.

  Christian laughed, deleting the bank email. “You’ve been blowing up his phone, haven’t you?”

  “Oh come on, you and I both know he’s not taking the time to talk to me.”

  Christian shrugged, reaching out to open the new message in his own inbox. “He might be, he might not be. But if he is, pestering him isn’t going to do you any good, he’s going to keep ignoring you. If he’s just busy and tired, then all you’re doing is driving him away.”

  “I still say it’s not hard to send one single text in forty-eight hours to let me know he’s alive.”

  He’d known Lily for a dozen years, and he knew damn well there was no point in trying to change her mind when she was determined and already set on a course. He also knew it was better to distract her before she picked up steam. Once Lily got going, there was no bringing her back until she ran out of energy, which could take the better part of an hour if she was really riled.

  “How’s Mary?” Christian asked.

  “Don’t think you can distract me.”

  “I’m asking about our sister because the last I heard from her, she wasn’t feeling too good.”

  Lily sighed. “She had to stay home yesterday, but don’t worry. When I saw her last night before I headed out for my shift, she was up and didn’t look so bad.”

  Christian frowned. “Not looking bad isn’t quite the same as being okay.”

  “She was making dinner and reading, so I’d take that as a good sign.”

  Christian snorted. “And since you don’t actually know how she was feeling, I’m guessing she wasn’t feeling very talkative about it.”

  “Nope, and you know what that means.”

  “It means that she was feeling less like death.”

  “Exactly.”

  It had been a little while since Mary’s last episode, and Christian was relieved to hear it was a brief one. Christian had met Mary when he’d been fourteen, and it had been a few months before he’d seen her go through the agony that she had, at the time, called ‘headaches.’ At first, the doctors thought she
was simply having migraines, odd for a girl of fifteen, but not unheard of. It wasn’t until a few years ago that someone had finally diagnosed her with cluster headaches.

  There were treatments and medicine, but they didn’t make the headaches stay away for good. All they did was decrease the frequency of them and make them not last as long. It still didn’t stop her from feeling as if her entire head was being torn apart from the inside by rusty nails. She swore up and down that it was better to spend a day or two like that every few months, rather than spend days upon days in agony every few weeks. Christian had to agree, but it still hurt him to see her in so much pain that she couldn’t function, save to throw up whatever she managed to eat that day.

  “I’ll give her a call later when I’m off my shift. Maybe she’ll be a little less stubborn if I’m talking to her.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m pushy, and people don’t want to talk to me like they do you.”

  Christian chuckled. “I think it’s because you guys are just...both stubborn. You won’t stop, and she won’t give in.”

  “I don’t think that’s totally true,” Lily said slowly.

  “Right, because I haven’t watched the two of you go at it over the years or anything, you’re right.”

  “Sarcasm isn’t cute, Christian.”

  Christian grinned, motioning at himself even though he was alone. “Good thing I’m adorable enough to make it cute, huh?”

  “I see someone’s coffee has started kicking in.”

  “As if I need it.”

  “Yeah, a regular bundle of sunshine and energy you are.”

  “Says the woman who wakes up ready to sing half the time.”

  “I just...get songs stuck in my head is all.”

  Christian’s laugh almost muffled the sound of the elevator. His eyes swept to the display on the computer screen and sighed. It was a little early for General Winter, but Christian was used to that.

  “Ah, the general is here,” Christian warned his sister.

  “Ooh, General Daddy?” Lily cooed.

  “Oh, god, shut up.”

  He carefully arranged his face, so it didn’t look like he was on the phone as the doors slid open to reveal the general. In all the months he’d been working directly under the man, Christian didn’t think he’d ever seen the general come into the office looking anything less than perfectly put together. His uniform was always carefully pressed and neat, his hair had never been longer than it should have been, and Christian was pretty sure he’d never seen the man look groggy, either.

  “Good morning, General,” Christian said, keeping his voice warm but not too perky.

  General Winter looked at him, the corner of his mouth turning up. “Good morning, Christian. Everything alright?”

  Christian nodded, bringing up the day’s schedule on his screen. “Everything’s going smoothly so far. You’ll be happy to know that you don’t have that busy a day.”

  General Winter snorted as he reached the desk. “Meaning, I’ll be able to eat lunch without being interrupted.”

  “That about sums it up.”

  “Well, send the schedule to my screen, and I’ll take a look over it.”

  Christian tapped a button. “Done.”

  “Not that it’ll matter, you’ll keep the ship afloat no matter whether I see the schedule or not.”

  Christian tried his best not to look too pleased or smug at the compliment. For all the assholes with superiority complexes and a love of abusing power that Christian had dealt with in the service, he was pleased to find there were still men like General Winter in charge. The general was a good man, a bit too serious for his own good in Christian’s opinion, but a man who believed in doing right by the men and women serving under him, and was not shy with either a compliment or a criticism when either was called for.

  “I’d rather be out here keeping things neat and trim than be dealing with everyone like you do, General,” Christian said.

  “Good, because I’m sure it would look like a disaster if I had your job.”

  Christian restrained the urge to contradict the man. General Winter was a man dedicated to his job, and Christian suspected that would have translated to whatever the older man was doing. Christian considered it an honor to do his part in helping the general get through his day as smoothly as possible. If that meant doing everything from structuring his schedule as carefully as possible, all the way to something as mundane as ordering his food and cleaning out his inbox, then he was happy to do it.

  Lily’s voice came through the Bluetooth again. “Oh, General Winter, please tell me how good a boy I am.”

  Christian held his smile as he unlocked the door to Winter’s office with a press of a button. “I’ll be sure to let you know if anything changes.”

  General Winter nodded, his eyes searching Christian’s face. “I’m sure you will, thank you.”

  Despite his resistance to Lily’s words, and his desperation not to be too obvious, Christian still found his eyes drifting after the man as he went into his office. For all the good things that Christian could say about the man’s personality, there was plenty more to be said about him physically. The general was not a man to rest on his laurels, and despite being in his upper forties, was in as good shape, if not probably better than many of Christian’s peers.

  “You’re looking at his ass, aren’t you?” Lily asked.

  Christian almost growled a response until General Winter popped his head back out. “And good morning to your sister as well.”

  Christian waited until the door was shut before speaking. “You are absolutely impossible.”

  Lily laughed. “God, he said good morning to me, my day is complete.”

  “Lily, please,” Christian moaned.

  He hadn’t known it at the time, but having both of his foster sisters come to the base had been a terrible mistake. It had been four months since their visit, but all it had taken was one glimpse of General Winter for Lily to remember and never let go. It hadn’t helped in the slightest that she was the only one to see the lingering look Christian gave the older man, greeting Christian as he’d passed.

  “Damn, I wish I got to see that every day. My boss is greasy from head to toe, and I don’t think he knows what a toothbrush is.”

  Christian drew up the day’s schedule he’d created the night before. “And on that oh so delicious note, I’m afraid I have to bid you good night, dear sister.”

  “It’s seven am.”

  “Good night for you and the rest of the third shifters of the world.”

  “AKA, shut the hell up, Lily, and let me get to work?”

  “Something like that.”

  “That’s fine, I’ve made it home anyway. I’ll tell Mary to expect a call from you later as I pass her in the living room.”

  “Like two ships in the night,” Christian said.

  “Well, at least we have you as a lighthouse.”

  Christian smiled. “Love you too.”

  He hung up the call, turning his attention back to the rest of his morning routine. Keeping busy returning messages and fiddling with the schedules for the rest of the week kept him occupied from the dull ache of loneliness and homesickness which had settled deep in his chest.

  David

  It was one of the few days David had where he didn’t need to immediately rush back to the office after a meeting. He decided to take a brief walk. His stomach was contentedly full from the lunch he’d had an hour before, and the day was beautiful. He often tried to make sure to take a walk through different parts of the base each week when he could, just to see how everything was going without interfering.

  He’d come to Fort Dale almost a decade before, a freshly promoted general and ready to take on the world. It amused him to think that even a man in his late thirties could still have the same naive confidence and optimistic enthusiasm of a man ten years his junior. It seemed like every few years when he looked back on his life, he wondered how his past self could h
ave been so blind.

  Yet as he walked under the warm sun, feeling the breeze coming off the nearby ocean, he didn’t regret his choices. David had been given a chance to exist outside the usual politics and overall crap of dealing with others and given command of his own base. It had been a risky move by the higher-ups, entrusting an entire base to the command of a young general who had yet to prove themselves in the role. David had relished the chance to get his hands dirty, so to speak, and to prove to himself, as well as others, that he was more than fit for the job.

  Sure, there were still plenty of things on his list to fix. Operations was still a bit of a mess, and more often than not, David had to take direct control and make sure that training was running smoothly and that any soldiers coming from outside the base were taken care of properly. He still had to contend with the occasional complaint from the nearby town, when they had to deal with a soldier getting a little too drunk and far too aggressive while they were having a night off. Yet, all in all, he considered himself as having fulfilled his wish to be a success.

  His phone trilled softly, pulling him out of his thoughts. It was the tone reserved solely for messages and calls from Christian. He wasn’t sure how the man had set it up, but when it came to the ins and outs of the system David had made sure had been installed at Fort Dale, Christian knew most of it.

  Philip is supposed to be showing up in an hour.

  David grimaced, knowing he had to cut his little tour short if he was going to be prepared for that meeting. Any sit down with Philip was usually twice as long as it needed to be, and half as efficient as it should have been. Resigned to his fate, he tapped a message back to Christian.

  Understood. And you are aware he has a title, correct?

  Christian’s response came back so quickly, David would have thought the younger man was using an actual keyboard.

  Yeah. Why, what are you going to do, report me?

  That brought a soft laugh from David, who pocketed his phone rather than responding to the message and encouraging Christian. It was probably, at least professionally speaking, not a good idea to let his receptionist show him what could easily be called disrespect. Especially since it had begun with Christian referring to someone, who was also a superior, by his first name, and without his proper rank and title.