An Officer’s Duty (29 page)

She found herself smiling at the praise. His praise. Shaking it off with a blink, Ia held out the voucher. “Here you go, then. One Leave voucher, as promised.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the ironic thing,” Harper told her, mouth twitching up on one side. “When I went digging for the spare comm boards…I found
this
.”

Digging a matching tissue-thin sheet of paper out of his own shirt pocket, he held it up and shrugged. Caught off guard, Ia laughed. She wiggled the one caught between her fingers. “Okay, that
is
ironic. So. Who should
this
one go to?”

“Me, of course. You wouldn’t want to be accused of going back on your word, would you?” Harper asked, giving her a pointed look.

“No, Cadet, I would not,” she agreed, holding out the folded ticket. He accepted it with his left hand, and held out the one in his right. Ia looked between it and him. “What’s that for?”

“We’re only allowed to have one per week,” Harper reminded her, smiling ruefully. “If we find two, then it is our responsibility to find someone we believe worked hard enough to deserve an extra couple of hours of Leave. You pulled our fat out of the fire on that last run. I say that deserves a reward.” He glanced at the other two cadets. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

Both young women nodded. Harper pushed the paper at Ia, poking her hand with it. Since refusing to accept it would risk getting it torn and rendered useless for anyone else, Ia took it from him. “Alright, then. Enjoy your Leave, Cadet.”

Harper wasn’t the only one to give her a bemused look. Nodding politely to the other two, who were eyeing Ia askance, he hooked his arm around her elbow, drawing her toward the section exit. “Actually, it occurred to me that if you’ll be having a three-hour Leave and I’ll be having a three-hour Leave, we should combine said Leave and hit the town together. Between your tactical skills and my technical savvy, I figure we could divide and conquer the whole place in fifteen, twenty minutes, tops, and have plenty of time for dinner and a show. Teatro Timpani will be in town, and I think I can get us tickets to the performance. If I spring for those, will you spring for dinner?”

She had originally planned on spending her time writing contingency prophecies. Ia knew she should pass, so that she could go into town merely to print out said prophesies at the copy shop in town. They were growing used to seeing her every few weeks, requesting archival quality paper and printers for the stacks of prophetic missives that, for whatever reason, couldn’t just be shipped home or to the Afaso headquarters on a data crystal. But Meyun’s offer was undeniably appealing.

He grinned at her, handsome and charming and determined to get her to agree. “Well?”

Under the weight of that grin, Ia found herself caving. She smiled back at him. “Okay.”

JANUARY 31, 2493 T.S.
DOWNTOWN SINES, PORTUGAL, WESTERN EUROPROVINCE EARTH

Meyun Harper raised his wineglass, saluting her with it. “Thank you for coming. And I’m glad you agreed to the early show. This gives us more time for dinner.”

“That kind of time is an illusion,” Ia murmured, sipping at her iced tea. “If we don’t pay attention to it, we’ll still risk being late.”

“Spoilsport,” he muttered back, sipping. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drinking alcohol.”

“Alcoholism in the family,” she half lied. “I don’t want to risk it.”

He raised one of his brows skeptically. “Shouldn’t that be, you’re secretly a self-control freak and you don’t want to lose command of your faculties? I
have
been getting to know you in the last few months.”

Ia stilled, glass still pressed to her lips. She hadn’t expected such perception from him. Feeling uncomfortably vulnerable, she managed a careless shrug and set her drink back down. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be in control of one’s self.”

“Up to a point. But as they say, everything in moderation, even moderation,” he countered. “I think I wouldn’t mind seeing you cut loose.”

She gave him a sardonic look. “When I cut loose, Harper, people tend to die. I’d rather save that for the battlefield—and even then, I’d rather limit how many deaths I make.”

“Maybe you just need to learn how to create a new kind of death.” He smirked a little as he said it. At her confused look, he held up thumb and forefinger a tiny space apart. “As in, a little death? Oh, come on…Sex? Lovemaking? Orgasmic release?”

Ia blushed, but shrugged. “I don’t do that.
Ah
…I mean, with others,” she amended, blushing harder. “With myself, sure; everybody does
that
. It’s healthy. I just…don’t date.”

That made him frown. Their server appeared with their plates of
bacalhau com natas
, however, so he had to hold off asking her any questions until the waiter had gone away again. Picking up his fork, Meyun poked briefly at the layers of cod, onion, potato, and cream sauce, then set it down again. He leaned forward, frowning again in confusion at her.

“What do you mean, you don’t date? Everyone dates. Terrans date, V’Dan date, the Gatsugi date…hell, even the Salik date. They have to switch genders to date, but they
do
date…I think. It’s part of growing up, the whole socialization and selection of a suitable mate process.”

“Well, I don’t.” She ate a mouthful of her own meal, then sighed, swallowed, and set down her fork. “Look, I tried dating a little bit when I was fourteen. After I turned fifteen, I figured out what I wanted to do with my life, which was serve in the military. But military life and family life don’t always mesh so well…so I just gave up on dating. Not to mention, they don’t allow any fraternization in Basic Training. Then, when I got out of Basic and was assigned to Ferrar’s Company on the
Liu Ji
, I was promoted up the ranks. I was a noncom within months, and that was that. Everyone I met after that point was either a superior or a subordinate.”

“Yeah, but surely you found
someone
you could date?” he challenged her. “What about the Navy crew?”

“Fatality Forty-Nine, Fraternization, prohibits any conduct that would weaken the chain of command
or
impose undue influence upon a fellow soldier serving within the same command structure in the areas of personal or business life. You don’t date anyone in your own Company, and you don’t date
anyone on your own ship. Unless your CO permits it, and mine didn’t,” she told him. “Just as you don’t make or take loans with anyone below or above you in rank, you don’t enter into business partnerships while you’re still enrolled in the Service, and you
definitely
don’t copulate with anyone above or below you…and I honestly didn’t have that many who were my equal in rank. Not to mention, Ferrar believed in promotions based on merit, and those could come at any time, after any engagement.”

“But you
could
have dated someone you saw regularly whenever your patrol wound up on a Battle Platform or a space station,” he said. “Didn’t
anyone
make a pass at you?”

He had her there. She smiled wryly. “If you don’t count the ones made over a drink…Yeah, there was one civilian. A merchanter captain and businessmeioa.”

“And?” Harper prompted her.

“It didn’t go anywhere. I only ever had a couple of free hours here and there, and he wasn’t always in the same vicinity when I did. When we did meet up…it was usually just for drinks or a meal, and a bit of conversation. ‘Dating-Lite’ as it were. I didn’t have time for anything more,” she dismissed.

“Why not?” Meyun asked her. “We’ve been learning in our classes on scheduling that most patrol ships dock for a full twenty-four hours Standard, and most people get a full eight hours of Leave.”

“Not if you take the accumulated Leave option—Meyun, my family is on the backside of Terran space,” Ia reminded him, addressing his skeptical look. “By cutting my weekend Leaves down to the absolute minimum, I was able to build up enough accumulated hours and days to go visit them. It’s just a matter of being willing to go without in the short term in order to benefit in the long term.”

He pointed at her with his fork. “You are
too
self-controlled, meioa-e. We’ll have to do something about that.”

That made her laugh. Grinning, she dug into her meal. “Good luck. I’m very stubborn, and very goal-oriented. Nothing is going to stand in the way of me passing through this Academy with flying colors. Literally, since my next stop will be piloting school—and I would’ve gone to piloting school first, but the classes I wanted were booked.”

They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes, then Meyun looked up at her again. “So…in all two years you served on the
Liu Ji
…only
one
meioa, male or female, ever made a pass at you?”

She quickly cleared her mouth with a sip of tea. “Well, I didn’t count the ones made by fellow Service personnel,” Ia told him. “But then most of those were made in a bar, where anyone could make a pass at anyone else, and most were made casually, just for the fun of it. I didn’t take them seriously.”

“Except for this one fellow, the civilian,” Meyun reminded her. “Apparently he was the only one you did. Why him, and what happened to him? Or…is he still lurking out there among the stars as a potential date?”

“He’s not lurking anymore, trust me. His crew kidnapped, drugged, and sold me to the same crime organization that had stolen away the rest of my Company’s cadre. We’re not on speaking terms anymore.” Ia smirked when he gaped at her. She lifted another forkful of cream-covered cod. “There’s a lot more to it than that, but most of it’s Classified. So how about you? How many men or women have you dated?”

He shook his head, answering as she ate. “I don’t know, eighteen or so? If you count the casual dates, that is. The serious ones, only three girls stand out, but none of them were ultraserious. None of them were the love of my life.”

Ia found herself feeling relieved at that confession, and annoyed at her relief.
I have no say in who he dates, so long as the act of dating doesn’t disrupt the Future,
she reminded herself. She shrugged, picking up her iced tea again. “Well, good luck mixing your military career with a personal one—seriously, I hope you do have good luck. And I do hope you get to find and keep the woman of your dreams. Just about everyone deserves happiness. We don’t always get it, but we should.”

“Speaking of which, what are you doing after graduation?” he asked her as she sipped.

She choked on her drink. Coughing, Ia quickly wiped her mouth and hand with her napkin. She aimed a dirty look at the grinning man seated across from her. Voice harsh, she rasped, “That was
not
funny, Harper.”

“Oh, yes it was!” he countered, chuckling. Picking up his own napkin, he dabbed some of the spluttered tea from the
tablecloth. “It was completely worth it, just to see your face. You are normally so unflappable…I am going to enjoy this mental image of you for
years
to come.” Lifting his free hand to his head, he tapped his temple. “Photographic memory, remember?”

“Well, the actual situation you implied won’t ever happen, Harper, so enjoy your one precious memory while it lasts,” she warned him, tidying the rim of her glass. That thought disappointed and depressed her. Breathing deep, Ia forced herself to let it go, as she had let go of so many other things in her life. “I don’t have time to date. That’s all there is to it.”

The happiness of a single individual is nothing, compared to the survival and prosperity of so many others. Even if that individual is me.
A depressing thought, but there it was.