The Twice and Future Caesar (43 page)

“Nox,” Captain Farragut started over.

John Junior blinked at the sound of his own chosen name. He may have expected his older brother to ignore his demand for a separate identity.

Captain Farragut got the idea that his brother was trying very hard to hate him and not quite getting the job done. “Nox, come home. We can work this out.”

“
Work this out?
Are you stark raving? I am wanted for treason. They will fry me.”

“Nox? Our sister is the President of the United States.”

Nox gave a graveyard laugh.

So what if Nox didn't get the death penalty? So what if he got a full Presidential pardon? He'd backed the wrong horse. He was a man without a country. There was no life for him back home.

“Let me go. You're making it hard for me to disappear. Just stop. John? Can you do that for me?”

Captain Farragut's throat felt thick. Nox had made himself one of the most despised men in the galaxy.

Captain Farragut wanted to be a big brother to him. It was the dead last thing Nox wanted.

Captain Farragut bowed his head. “I will.”

The resonator went dark and silent.

Farragut turned his gaze upward, the direction heaven was imagined to be. Maybe in another life things turned out differently for his brother.

But, even after everything he'd seen, John Alexander Farragut still didn't believe in that stuff.

Eventually the 'cuss jam silenced. Everyone went back to work or back to sleep.

Captain Farragut caught up with the Hamster before the change of the watch. “A moment of your time?”

“Of course.” Lieutenant Glenn Hamilton pushed back a lock of hair that wasn't loose, a nervous gesture. She looked down at the deck. “I'm sorry about your brother, John.”

Captain John Alexander Farragut gave a small nod.

Glenn asked, “Have you heard anything about Donner?”

The Archon of Arra. Another dictator. Not a terrible one. A fair one, in fact. Donner had been Glenn Hamilton's benefactor when
Merrimack
had been at the planet Arra in the Myriad.

Farragut nodded. “Arra came out of this in better shape than Earth. Your buddy, Donner, is now giving orders to the LEN relief missionaries. I think they enjoy it. I've approved your leave.”

“Oh,” Glenn said, a descending note. Not enthusiastic. She hadn't requested leave. Her husband Patrick had requested it for her.

Captain Farragut stopped walking. Glenn stopped with him.

He turned to her. Cradled her face in his hands. “Hamster,” he started. Shook his head. Started over. “Glenn. I want you—”

He got lost in her eyes.

She held her breath, expectant.

He found himself again.

“—off my boat.”

All the muscles in her face let go.

She recovered quickly. She always did.

Lieutenant Glenn Hamilton inhaled. Exhaled as if she'd been running. “Okay. Yeah. Right. Okay.”

Patrick was taking her to a planet the farthest point from anywhere.
It was an unflaggable world. The scientific expedition there needed a xenolinguist. Patrick was excited about it.

The planet was called Zoe.

“I guess I'll either remember why I married him or—”

Or
. She let that hang.

“You're not coming back here,” Farragut said. “With or without Patrick.”

That hit her deep. “It's not fair,” she said. Immediately winced; she couldn't believe she just said that.

It didn't need to be fair.

“I'm recommending you for an independent command,” Farragut told her. “You figure out what you want. There's no road that has you and me on it.”

“I think I always knew that,” Glenn said. “You were always a fantasy of mine, John.” She could swear his face looked pink.

“Fifth amendment,” he said back.

It was the change of the watch. TR Steele heard quick light footsteps behind him in the corridor. He picked up his pace. He knew the sound of her footsteps.

She sped up. Caught up with him.

She had recovered completely from her ordeal in the lower sail. He had been able to avoid her since then.

He didn't want to acknowledge anything that happened in the lower sail.

Here she was, asking, “Did you mean what you said?”

TR Steele hadn't thought he would be alive to face down those words. He'd thought they were both going to die down there when he said them.

You are all I think about
.

“I didn't say anything,” he growled.

He was taking big strides. She skipped to keep up with him. Swung her arms. Did she have to skip? Marines don't skip.

Kerry Blue was not what anyone outside the service would call beautiful. Steele thought she was beautiful. She filled his dreams. Her big heart, her toughness. She could get scared, but she never let it make her give up her ground. She was shameless. She lived in the moment.

There was no one so alive as Kerry Blue. She was a life force. She owned him.

She was smiling at him. “You gonna go back to being mean to me?”

He pressed his lips into a straight line, chin pushed out. Didn't intend to answer her. Heard himself talking. “Meaner.”

“Yes, sir.” She got herself in front of him. He either had to stop or else walk into her. She stood up on tiptoe, kissed him on the mouth, then twirled—Marines should not twirl!—and she skipped away, ponytail swinging.

He watched her go. He wasn't watching the ponytail.

And he imagined things that were never gonna happen in this or any
universe.

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