Peace Army (21 page)

“Treel, we need to talk.”

* * *

Grant found Avery in the Fourth Square.

She was talking to two civilian workers who were helping with the construction of walls and ramps. They wore the light-brown coveralls that carpenters wore and had very impressive tool belts.
At least some things haven’t changed,
he thought as he made his way over.

Since taking on the orphan project, Avery was spending most of her time here.

He was surprised at the amount of progress that had been made in just a few weeks. Most of the vacant rooms and hallways that made up this leg of the Fourth Square had been torn down. The resulting open space was wide and long. A few scattered walls remained, but it was a blank canvas on which Avery could create her take on Grant’s vision.

He wondered briefly if he would ever get to see the space in its final stages.

“Wow, hon,” he said as he reached the trio. “It’s really coming along, huh?”

Avery held up a finger as a signal to wait. Grant bit his tongue and nodded. What else could he do? When the boss asked you to wait, you waited.

She ended her conversation with the two carpenters, who readily set out to do her bidding. She then turned her smile toward Grant.

“What are you doing here, handsome?”

She looked happy. Happier than he remembered her being in a long while. He suddenly realized that she had needed this.

She loved being a mother and taking care of Eli, and she was great at it, but her talents beyond those needed to be a mother were wasted. She had so much more to give to their community and the efforts against the Minith, and she was finally being asked to contribute.

Grant kicked himself for not understanding this until now. He wondered if his leaving was the reason for his sudden insight. Decided it had to be. The adage that you never miss someone until they are gone came to mind. How had he become so numb to her needs? How had that happened, when she was always such an expert at filling his?

The urge to sweep her up and kiss her was too overpowering to fight.

So he did just that.

She put her hand to his face and returned the kiss. She pulled away quicker than he would have preferred, but the grin she gave him made up for it.

“Put me down, you oaf,” she chastised, patting him lightly on the chest. It was the modern version of an angry swat, but he knew she didn’t mean it. The upturned corners of her mouth gave her away.

He returned her gently to the ground, but did not release her. He pulled her to him instead and wrapped his arms around her.

“Miss me already, eh?” she asked, snuggling fully into his embrace.

He kissed the top of her head and breathed deeply. He would miss the smell of her and he fought to etch the warm, familiar scent even more firmly into his memory.

“Like you would not believe,” Grant replied.

“Have you spoken with Eli yet?”

“Yes, a bit,” Grant acknowledged. “He knows I’m leaving, but I don’t think he understands that I might be gone for a long, long time. Or that I might not come back.”

Grant felt Avery’s body tense.

“You will come back to us, Grant Justice,” she stated with certainty. “You have to.”

Grant did not argue, nor did he try to explain, but he knew the truth.

He was headed for war.

It would do no good to describe the fear or the uncertainty one felt when the bullets started flying. Or how the Gods of War selected who to injure, who to spare, who returned, and who did not. The effects of war were not something you could describe fully, especially to someone who lived his or her life sheltered by a society that denied the need for it. It would be like describing the Mona Lisa to a blind six-year-old.

Instead, he just nodded. He was content to let her think he agreed.

Avery pulled away from the embrace and looked into Grant’s eyes.

“You need to talk to Eli. He needs to know you will be gone for awhile,” she said.

“I will, Avery. In fact, that is the next thing on my ‘to do’ list,” he agreed as he pulled her back into his arms. “Where is the little man?”

“You know Eli. He’s out on those roller blades again.”

Grant was amused at how quickly her voice reverted to that of an annoyed mother. Some things never changed, no matter how many centuries passed.

“I am convinced that he would do nothing but roll around this prison for the rest of his days if we would allow it.”

“Well, there are worse things he could be doing,” Grant replied. “But I have a feeling he might climb off them now and then.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just removed the restrictions on Treel. He’s free to move about again.” Grant looked to Avery for a reaction. “As long as you don’t mind, he can even have guests.”

Avery smiled and hugged Grant tightly.

“Our little man will like that, Grant. He has missed that big, green bully terribly.”

* * *

Grant rolled out of bed and pulled on his clothes quietly. He looked around the room and memorized everything he could.

When he was dressed, he knelt beside the bed and lightly stroked Avery’s hair.

Her eyes opened slightly and she reached out to touch his arm.

“Is it time?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said, and leaned over to kiss her forehead. He was pulled into a real kiss and wondered how he would survive without her. He remembered his drill sergeant telling his assembled recruits on the first morning of basic training that “grown-assed men don’t cry.” He had taken that to heart and had not cried since.

But his eyes watered as he pulled away and left her lying there.

He walked to Eli’s purple room. He drew back the covering and looked down at the small figure. One leg had kicked loose from the blanket. Grant leaned down and covered the tender limb. He could not help holding the tiny foot for a moment before gently tucking it away.

He and Eli had a good talk the day before. The five-year-old—almost six—knew his dad was going away for a while. He had taken the news better than Grant had expected. The fact that he was going to fight the enemy and protect their world helped. Eli’s simple announcement of “I understand, Dad” had made Grant proud.

“Goodbye, son,” Grant whispered.

He held his hand up. The pads of his thumb and forefinger were mashed painfully together.

“Remember how much I love you.”

Chapter 31

It was midmorning, and Mouse was scheduled to meet Grant outside the mothership.

His pilots had just finished loading the two dozen fighters that would accompany them and the rest of the human forces to Telgora. He hated losing his best-trained squadrons, but knew it was for the best.

What he hated most was not being among those aboard the alien vessel when it lifted off.

Mouse understood the reasoning and, if he had been in Grant’s position, would have made the same decision. But that did not numb the sting of remaining behind. He had spent the last six years training for battle against the Minith.

The only salve was the knowledge that he would be around when his child was born. Sue was just starting to show, and he could not wait to be a daddy. That counted for a lot and, always the optimist, he chose to focus on that thought.

Mouse watched as a team of
earthies—
the
name his pilots had given to the ground forces in Earth’s Army—loaded the first of the troop carriers, artillery carriers, and tank carriers that would be making the journey. Strange names for strange devices.

The ship was not designed for ferrying large numbers of equipment and vehicles. The space in the bay was limited. Following Grant’s instructions on what was most important, the engineer, Gee, had worked out a very detailed load plan. Mouse had to admit the man knew his stuff. The ship was packed as full as it could be with the tools of war.

Mouse marveled that all of this killing equipment had once been commonplace on Earth. Before Grant’s arrival, these items would have been relegated to history books—well-hidden history books.

“How goes it?” Mouse was jarred from his thoughts by Grant’s sudden arrival.

“That man, Gee,” Mouse said, nodding to the small man directing traffic into the ship. “He sure knows his stuff, huh?”

“I hope so,” Grant replied. “We’re going to need as much of that gear as we can load. And it probably won’t be enough when we get to where we’re going.”

“Not enough?” Mouse asked. “You’ve got four fighter teams on board, plus all of that
earthie
equipment. You could take out a mothership easy.”

“Trust me, Mouse.” Grant smiled and shook his head. “No matter how much you have,
rarely
is it ever enough.”

“If you say so. ” Mouse conceded the point, but was unconvinced. He would have to see it to believe it.

“Is everything under control here?” Grant asked. “You know what needs to be done, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it all under control.” Mouse sighed. He reached into his front pocket and pulled out a folded slip of paper. “I made a list and everything.”

Mouse unfolded the paper and reviewed the items he and Grant had covered the past few days. It was not insubstantial, and Mouse wondered how he would get everything completed in six months.

He made the mistake of saying so.

“Mouse, it might take three months to get to Telgora and three months to get back,” Grant explained, “but I doubt our time on the planet will be limited to an overnight stay. The Minith aren’t gonna just roll over and die when they see us coming.”

Mouse squinted at Grant. Surely the man was giving the Minith more credit than they were due. Grant had defeated the alien forces on Earth easily enough. He decided that Grant knew more about the business of war than he did, so did not press the issue.

He pointed to the list instead.

“Keep recruiting and training. No problem there. The additional fighters Tane and Randalyn are bringing into the fold should give a solid boost to the ranks.”

“Make sure we distribute them equally to all forces as needed, and to all the respective cultures,” Grant reminded him. “We want them integrated into our teams, not forming their own.”

Mouse nodded, but bit his cheek. It would be difficult to incorporate the men and women the scientist knew into existing teams. Grant did not understand the aversion that most people had to homosexuality. Until just weeks ago, it had been banned from society altogether—an offense punishable by heavy retraining. It might not be against the law now, but that did not mean that it would be openly accepted. He would have to rely on the tenets of Peace to ensure the maximum tolerance.

Even with Peace on his side, it would be a difficult task. He put the paper back in his pocket and changed the topic.

“You sure you don’t want to stay here and let me go instead?”

“Mouse,” Grant answered, “you and I both know that you’re better with the Council than I am. Now that I’m out of here, you’re gonna be spending half your time keeping them off your back.”

“I have a strong back, Grant. A few Culture Leaders hopping on it won’t bother me.” Mouse flashed his large gold chompers.

“Besides that, you don’t want to be away from Sue. Not now.”

“Well, there is that,” Mouse agreed. “If I left now, she would probably want to do violence against me.”

“Honestly, Mouse,” Grant teased. “I don’t know how she holds back now.”

* * *

With Mouse straightened away, Grant set off in search of Tane. The scientist had been spending much of his time in the Minith mothership, so that’s the first place Grant looked.

He found his friend in the command center, poring over the data in the alien databanks.

“I thought I’d find you here, Tane.”

The scientist looked up and nodded at Grant’s entrance into the command center.

“It is not every day that I get to sift through the knowledge database of the enemy, Grant. I have to—how do you say it—‘get while the getting is acceptable?’”

“‘Good,’ Tane. ‘Get while the getting is good.’”

“Ah, yes. Well, time is short, so I am making the best use of it that I can.”

“Finding anything good in there?”

“Oh, yes, Grant. You would be amazed at the information contained here,” Tane replied and pointed at the screen in front of him. “Did you know that there are at least a dozen elements in the universe that we never knew existed? Or that this ship can travel much, much faster than light? Or that—”

“Enough!” Grant held up a hand. He didn’t have time for the scientist to get started. “I get it, I get it.”

“Fine,” Tane huffed. It was apparent the scientist felt Grant did not appreciate the gold mine of information the ship held.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Tane. I plan to spend a lot of time over the next three months sitting exactly where you are.”

Grant doubted his searches would include how many new elements existed in the universe, or how fast a mothership could travel. But there had to be something in the ship’s databanks that would help him when the ship landed on Telgora. He planned to find it, extract it, and use it.

“Panties in a twist? Seriously, Grant, I don’t understand a third of what you say.” The scientist turned his attention back to the screen. Grant knew he could leave now and Tane would not notice. But he had an agenda—and very little time to waste.

“It doesn’t matter, Tane, but we need to talk.”

The scientist sighed and gave the screen a final, longing look before facing Grant.

When Grant felt he had the scientist’s attention, he began.

“I’ve already talked to Mouse, but I wanted to ask you to watch out for Eli and Avery while I’m gone.”

Tane started to object, but Grant held up a hand and gave him a tilt of the head.

“Before you say it, I already know that I don’t have to say this. But it will make me feel better, okay?”

Grant waited for Tane to acknowledge his question, then continued.

“I know Avery. Except for Eli, she’s going to be completely absorbed by her work with the orphans. It’s just how she is,” Grant explained. “She’s going to ask you about the roller blades and other equipment we’ve already discussed, so be prepared.”