Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War (33 page)

42

When the time came for
Strike Fleet Six to back off the line, Naero was more than ready for shore leave this time.

And so were many of her people.
Everyone knew this could be it, coming up.

The last few w
eeks had been extremely rugged, but the next few promised to be the worst they had ever seen.

For Naero, she chose to get away to an isolated mountain re
treat on some backwater world–all by herself this time.

She gave others–even
her closest friends–plenty of warning, not to bother her.

This time, s
he wanted to be completely alone with her thoughts and feelings.

Naero
lived like a hermit, for two glorious weeks. She turned off all com devices and channels, except the ones to Baeven and Spacer Intel, and the one for her callback link. The latter, duty required that she leave it open.

Then she slept, cried, took long walks and hikes, and stayed up at night slugging down Jett and Spacer poteen.
She gorged herself on sweet blue, mystery-meat Spum and junk food. She went a few days without washing, until she couldn’t handle her own stink any longer.

Then she bathed naked in a
beautiful, freezing mountain waterfall.

There, where no one could see her, she
broke down and cried again within that cleansing, icy-cold water. She wept for all of the senseless loss she had witnessed thus far.

And all that was yet to come
.

That was the real truth and paradox about
even a just war.

It was al
l both necessary and senseless—all at the same time.

Naero stayed up at night
sometimes, thinking and musing, scribbling poetry. She thought about her life thus far.

She stayed out on the roof one night and watched the stars
wheel overhead, of course caused by the planet’s own rotation. She always found that phenomena so weird. No wonder landers were so messed up and thought everything revolved around them.

And f
or the first time in her life, she got so drunk one night that she actually threw up. First time for everything.

She put on her battle gear and unleashed her fury on a dense, dark-green bamboo forest that blotted out the sky and sun.
Swords. Knives. Guns. Bombs.

She cut down, kicked, and blasted bamboo to bits until she lay spent and breathless among
a wide swath of wreckage.

On the fourteenth night
—her last—Naero went up to a high mountain top in the keen, thin wind under the stars, and meditated in one of the deep modes she had learned from her parents.

She did so
in order to cleanse her thoughts and emotions–to prepare herself. She practiced with her twin katanas in ritual, meditation sword forms her father had taught her.

When the recall summons sounded on her comunit,
Naero felt more than willing to return to duty.

Now
, she was ready.

I
n for the final push.

38

Naero took one more run at going among her crew
.

Telline–Telli Barrett worked
on the battleship
The
Athena
as a galley server, dishwasher, swab, and whatever else was needed. She had grey eyes and a long, pink French braid of hair.

Spacer galley food was always top notch, so nobody ever dared call it slop
, unless they wanted to start a fight. But Telli-Naero served meals regularly on the line for a handful of days.

Telli
-Naero was an outright, unabashed flirt, and winked at and grinned and pouted, breaking hearts every chance she got. When guys or gals got fresh, or wanted to bunk up, she got a dreamy look in her eyes, sighed, and let them know they didn’t stand a chance. Telli was saving herself for her guy–a handsome fighter jock with the 77
th
Starfighter Wave.

Naero learned a lot from working in a galley. Everyone had to eat, so she met almost everyone on the ship, three times a day or more. Three hundred and eighty-five Spacers from every walk of life
.

From stunning Captain Vanna Fae
and her perfect mane of white gold hair and mirific azure eyes, down to the other dishwashers and swabs.

Everyone ate and gabbed. Everyone
fretted and worried about the final phases of the war, trying to survive, and muster out to get back to their lives, families, and friends.

That seemed to be the general consensus
.

All
of Naero’s people–and most likely everyone in the Alliance–were utterly tired of the war by now, and every cursed thing that went with it.

But they had
also come this far together, and every one of them was completely determined to see things through.

Triax must be destroyed
.

If chatter did pass over or touch upon
the Alliance leadership, or Fleet Captain Maeris, it was usually positive.

Except for the whispered gags and laughter about those whacko digital porn vids
, still making the rounds out there. They were a rude joke.

And t
hey still riled and embarrassed Naero completely, but she didn’t let it show, whenever mention of them was made.

Then one day, s
omeone commented that it must have been nice to grow up rich and pampered, like Captain Maeris must have been. What with her wealthy celebrity parents and their fame and all.

Another crew
got upset and set them right.

“You got that all wrong, mate. I know it for a fact
. I know Naero Maeris. I worked with, N–”

“Who the hell is, ‘
N?” another crew cut in.

“Her mates call her that. It’s
a nickname; short for Naero. Now if you please let me finish what I was trying to say originally, without so many interruptions…I worked on board one of the Maeris merchant fleet ships under her Aunt for nearly three years. I can tell you whatever you want to know about them both.”

“Oof!” someone exclaimed. “I wouldn’t want that duty. Working for the steel dragon herself? Everyone’s heard what it’s like to serve under Admiral Sleak Maeris, the captain’s lady aunt. She looks like a vid
model, but she breaks backs, balls, and necks as easy as breathing! Little wonder that her niece is a hard driver as well.”

“Why
, you’ve got bugs in your skull. Yes, they’re both hard drivers, a plain fact to be sure. Everyone knows that. But I’ll tell you what. I never made better pay and profit shares than under the Admiral. And they’re both fine officers, as well as being easy on the eyes. I worked for the Captain and her aunt when Naero was a two and three striper, right after she did her two years of tactical training with the Spacer Marines–right around up to the time her folks got themselves killed out there, exploring the Unknown.

“And when you say Captain Naero grew up pampered and rich, then those bugs
in your noggin’ must have gobbled up all your brains. She’s our gal. She’s a Spacer–through and through–just like the rest of us, by the Powers! Born and bred. She’s one of us, I tell you! Her parents were gone most of the time, and spent all their money on their exploration fleet that got wiped out. Naero and her younger brother–Jan, that tail chaser. Why they practically grew up working for their hard-nosed aunt. And she was tougher on them than anyone else the whole time.

“Captain Naero worked hard through the ranks, and earned her stripes well. She did everything, and never blinked or complained. And she never had credits to throw around. I never saw her do so
anyway.”

The man sighed
deep suddenly. “My friends, I wish you could have been at that wake they held for her parents. Look it up in the Clan Maeris archives, if you want a real eye-opener. The good Captain loved her parents dearly; that much was very clear. We all loved them, for the people they were. But when Naero spoke at their wake–I tell you true–it was like poetry. She stood there in the light, all beautiful like her mother, and when she wept–why, we all fell to our knees and wept with her. And when the time came to cheer, we damn near blasted a hole through the hull.

The man rose up proudly.
“That’s the kind of person our Fleet Captain is. And I’ll strike down anyone who says otherwise. She’s one of us. She’s our blood–through and through–and she always will be. By the Powers! The other officers tell us that she calls every one of us—her lions, her swords of light. That tells you what she thinks of us. And that’s why every one of us would follow her, straight into perdition, whenever the need arises.”

Telli-Naero sniffed and wiped her red eyes
.

“Why Telli, I didn’t mean to upset you, dear girl
.”

“No, it’s all right. I
have seen that vid–the vid of that wake they held for her parents–just like you said. I remembered watching it. It does make you want to both cry and cheer.”

He patted her on the back.
“You just bet it does. Now enough of such foolish talk about the captain being spoiled and pampered and all that. Has anyone heard how soon we’re going back into the mix?”

Telli-Naero took her dustvac back into the kitchen
.

She saw a young cook sitting alone, Eugene Blooding. Dark curly hair
and moustache, fit, stocky medium build.

He had a loaf of
warm shuma bread, sitting in front of a tub of butter with a knife. He’d tear off a hunk of bread, butter it, and then dip it into a bowl of what looked to be a strange black gravy.

Then he’d pop it in his mouth and chew in what looked like
ecstasy.

Yet h
e still manage to look rather melancholy.

“Hey, Eugene. Whatcha go
t there?”

“Aww, nothing much. I was feeling
a little homesick and sorry for myself, so I made a mess of my family’s secret black gravy. If we was to get ourselves killed in one of the final battles, I wouldn’t want to go on the next journey without tasting some of it again. It is mighty fine indeed.”

“Can I try some
?”

“Sure. Pull up a chair and join me
, Tell.”

He looked at her again, with sudden concern as she did so
.

“You all right, Tell
?”

“I’m just fine
.”

“You’re eyes are red. You look like you’ve been–”

“I’m fine, I tell you. Someone just told me a sad story, that’s all. It got to me.”

Eugene sighed sadly
himself. “Plenty of those to go around.”

Telli-Naero knew
very well, as everyone in the kitchens did, that Eugene was still mourning the loss of his own gal, a pretty medtek on a cruiser that got destroyed, not three months before. Only a few others on that lost ship got away.

She stared at
his fixins. “How do I do this?” she asked.

“Easy.
Do like me. Butter a hunk of bread, and just dip in it. Good stuff.”

Naero followed suit
.

So good!

Haisha. The taste was…incredible…fabulous even.

She
had never made love to anyone yet, but from descriptions from her friends–especially Saemar–eating this yummy black gravy had to be the next closest thing. Akin to experiencing a taste bud-numbing orgy of flavors in her mouth.

The gravy
was that good.

She couldn’t
even speak for a long while.

All she could do was stuff her face
.

Finally the bowl was
empty, and her face and hands a complete mess–like she was an infant, finger-painting with gravy.

Eugene laughed.
“Dang, girl. I know it’s good, but you went plum wild. You got it all over you.”

She wiped the residue off on more bread and devoured that as well
.

“Eugene…I don’t know
how to thank you. This was so fantastically delicious! As you would say, thank you kindly.”

“You’re most kindly welcome, Tell
.”

“Eugene, t
hat black gravy of yours is some of the best stuff I have ever tasted. I might even like it better than Spum, and I love Spum more than life itself. Thank you again, so much. You’ve really brightened my day. Why…I could kiss you!”

Eugene’s eyes went wide and
then they sparkled a little.

“I’d be
right pleased as punch if you would, Tell. A pretty little thing like you? Haisha, I don’t mind telling you. Shoot, I could use a kiss or two, before we go into these final battles. It’d be nice to get some kind of love before we–.”

Telli-Naero tackled Eugene, right in front of everyone, bore him to the floor, and wrapped herself around him like a python
.

She gave him a long, deep kiss, and left him
gasping and blinking on the ground.

She stood up and smiled over him, hands on
her hips while he caught his breath.

“You and I are going to stay in touch, mister.
One day, I’m going to have my own ship. And you, are going to come and cook for me, and make that stuff every day.”

Eugene struggled to
rise up.

“I’d sure be
right proud and h-happy to d-d-do that,” he stammered.

The entire kitchen burst out laughing
.

Everyone thought she was joking, but
Naero meant every word she said.