“Daddy, my feet hurt.” Alyssa said for the twentieth time-. She dug in her heels and would have stopped in the middle of the crowd if their clasped hands hadn’t yanked her along like a bungee cord.
Adrian rolled his eyes so hard his whole head swayed. “You’re completely fine.”
“No, I’m not, my feet hurt,” she said. She wore brand new leather ankle boots, with a tiny red ribbon tied above each.
“You picked those boots out yourself,” he said. They made a little scene as he tugged her through the crowds on Archer-1 anchorage. The space station’s main viewing gallery was a long, straight deck going its length, bright with light from the grey planet of Vulk below. A banner hung low overhead, flapping in the breeze from life support; ‘Welcome, Armada Soldiers and Veterans All.’
“But I didn’t know they’d pinch my feet,” Aly whined. She tried to dig her heels in again with a defiant bend of her little knees. Their morning had been a 6AM wakeup, a 7AM shuttle, a breakfast on the shuttle, then two hours of wading through crowds on the space station. Adrian was fine with crowds, but the child was getting impatient.
“You even tried them on in the store,” Adrian said and forged along.
Then the resistance stopped. “Ohmygod, daddy, space! Look its space!” Aly bolted for the windows. Adrian was spun around by this unexpected thrust vector and grunted in pain from the torsion on his knees. Two years, and he’d never recovered from Tarly’s duel, or the blows that had cracked both kneecaps from the judge.
“Why are you like this?” hemuttered through gritted teeth. “Aly, we’ve been in space for three weeks. We took a whole space liner from Tollyon to Vulk already.”
“But that’s more space right there. It has planets in it now,” she said.
The statement was so blunt Adrian almost laughed, but stopped to not make fun of her. Then he saw the completely wide-eyed, innocent look on Aly’s face and did burst into laughter. “Okay, fine. Let’s go look at space. Lead on.” He relaxed his knees and let her pull him along like he was on a leash. They cut straight through the foot traffic, drawing a few angry stares from soldiers in dress uniform and families alike.
Aly went bounded up to the glass and put her nose to it. “Isn’t that Vulk?” she said and pointed at the grey-blue world filling a third of the view.
“Yes it is, my little gremlin,” he said.
“That’s the capitol of the Systems, right?” she said.
“Yes, it is, very good,” he said and twirled her around once, straight into a hug from behind. Her head got above his waist. My how tall she was getting.
“Daddy my feet hurt,” she remembered the great conflict of their lifetimes.
“Aly.” He stared down at her pointedly. She looked up. One hand came up and she chewed her pinky nail.
“What?”
“You tried those boots out in the store and said they were the best.”
“I thought they were. Now they’re pinching my feet,” she said. She hopped up on her toes and winced, then dropped back down.
“And what do you expect me to do about it?” he said and tapped his fingers on her shoulders.
She chewed her pinky for a bit, while staring back at him. “I don’t know,” she said and shrugged. “My feet hurt though, and we’ve got to walk like another kilometer, right?”
“We can stop here for a bit,” he compromised. “Let’s find some spaceships.”
“I can’t concentrate, my feet hurt,” she said.
Adrian’s patience ran out. “Fine.” He dropped to his knees with a burst of pain and plucked both boots off. He tied them together by their laces and threw them into his backpack.
“Dad what are you doing?” she said.
“No boots, no problem.” Adrian scooped her up with a little squeal of delight. She was just small enough that he could hold her in his left arm, and she could wrap her arms around his shoulders and hang on.
They turned back to the window. There were many spaceships. Some were silhouetted against the brightness of Vulk’s water and cities planetscape. The others were specks of bright running lights among the stars.
Adrian’s dress silvers were just as bright, and he caught a couple flashes as the engine lights of passing shuttles shined off his two Stars of Hallard. Aly contrasted with on a crimson cloak, and golden dress He’d taken her shopping before leaving from Tollyon, and she’d picked out the outfit herself with complete confidence.
A family of three girls and slender, greying parents went past. Adrian saw the father’s face and his heart leapt into his throat. He remembered two skin and bones teenagers sitting across from each other in a hole two meters by two, alternating days to run out through the killzone of enemy artillery fire, past the foxholes stinking of rotted corpses and shit, to grab rations from the depot bunker.
He spun around. “Mac?” he said.
The tall, bespectacled man in the old silver uniform stopped short. He cast a worried look over his shoulder and definitely recognized Adrian. Then he saw Alyssa and his eyebrows shot up. He turned around slowly.
Adrian saw the curly brown hair and upturned nose with an air of intellectual superiority. A star of Hallard, purple star on a red and black ribbon was around his neck. Yep, that was Mackenzie. The educated bastard had brought a book with him on their combat deployment. Somehow, every few weeks he’d found another book.
“Adrian, hello,” he said softly and doubled back. He extended a shaking hand. Adrian shook it. “What are you doing here?” The rest of his family was doubling back to dad. Mom had platinum hair. The kids went from brown curly-haired early teenager to a little blonde girl Alyssa’s age and size.
“I’m enjoying fleet week with my favorite person,” Adrian said.
“Amelie’s your favorite person,” Aly said.
“No she’s not, you are. And you’re not supposed to mention Amy either,” Adrian said. She nodded quickly.
“I know, I’ve got three of them,” Mackenzie said and pointed behind him. “It’s been what, fifteen years?”
“About that,” Adrian said. The rest of Private Mackenzie Brown’s family crowded around.
“Still a doctor?” Adrian said.
“Yeah I’m the head trauma surgeon at Novus Aeterno hospital complex here on Vulk,” he said. “And you are…” he read the three crimson rank bars on Adrian’s shoulder. “My word…”
“We both got what we wanted,” Adrian said.
“It seems so. Did you ever meet Nya?” he said and pointed at the tall, elegant woman.
“Once,” Adrian said. The last time he’d spoken to Mac had been at a charity ball. Nya had been on Mac’s elbow, proudly sporting her engagement ring.
“I think I recall,” she lied politely.
“And this is Danni, Leda, and Rodericka,” Mac said and patted each girl’s head from oldest to youngest.
“This is Alyssa,” Adrian said and held Aly out. She waved.
“What are we doing up there?” Nya said.
“My feet hurt,” Alyssa said and stuck a leg out.
“I got tired of hearing that her feet hurt,” Adrian grumbled. The four girls burst into laughter. “Yeah. You haven’t had to deal with the complaining for the last four hours.”
“I’ve got three of them,” Mac said and pointed.
“Right,” Adrian said. He kissed Aly’s cheek. She answered by pressing her head into his shoulder. “She is lucky she is so cute.”
“Dad, I thought you didn’t have any old war buddies,” the oldest girl, Danni, right? Yeah, Danni said.
Mackenzie wheeled about to face the question from his flanks. Well, Adrian is…”
“We shared the same foxhole for six months,” Adrian said. We had never been buddies. We just shared the same foxhole. Mackenzie had seen war as a tragedy, so he’d joined to be a medic. He’d refused to carry a line, and among the bureaucracy for handling the 27 recognized religions in the Systems, he’d gotten a conscientious exemption. So Adrian had had to handle all the firepower for them.
“Oh, so you must not have liked each other,” Danni said and smirked. Adrian rolled his eyes at her and she rolled them right back.
“You see that star of Hallard,” Mac said and pointed.
“There’s two,” the youngest, Rodericka said.
“Yeah, we each got one together.”
“No silly, he has two,” she said and pointed with two fingers.
Mackenzie looked back, and his jaw dropped. “Well, we got one of them together. My goodness Adrian, you got a second.”
“Dad, you don’t talk yours much,” Danni said.
“Yeah I don’t,” he said and shook his head. Rodericka reached out and squeezed his hand.
“It was a bad time,” Adrian said. Two scrawny teenagers running days on end. The entire frontline was soldiers running, walking, riding on what armored vehicles and trucks had escaped the firestorm when orbital bombardment had hit the division depot. Every now and then railgun rounds would land from orbit and a fountain of mud and body parts would rise up.
Mac had been the company medic. He’d stopped and tried to tend to the first couple wounded. That’s how they ended up at the back of the retreat and had to sprint the last few kilometers to avoid capture to the safety of the river and the limits of the nearest city’s massive barrier fields. Adrian had yelled at him for doing that when they had no medical supplies and no transport.
Adrian looked Mac in the eyes. Mac stared back with a weariness and Adrian knew he hadn’t forgotten any of that.
“Daddy’s always grouchy,” Alyssa said.
“Okay, walk.” Adrian put her down. The entire family burst into laughter.
“Daddy, daddy I don’t have shoes,” Alyssa squealed and kicked the air furiously. She was giggling even as she did so.
“But your feet won’t hurt anymore,” Adrian said. He scooped her back up, cackling madly as she clung to his neck.
“You’re mean,” she said.
“Dad’s mean. He makes me do homework,” Rodericka said.
“Oh how awful,” Adrian said.
“It is,” she said.
“She’ll understand one day,” Nya said and shook her head.
“Yes please,” Adrian said. He looked at Alyssa. She nodded furiously.
Mac and Nya had a clever way of corralling their kids. Nya got Danni by her shoulder and led her along. Mac took Rodericka. The middle one came between, holding mom and dad’s hands like the coupling joint between two monorail cars. Adrian wondered where he should go. He decided to settle in at Mac’s side, so Aly would be held towards the family and shielded from the masses of the crowd. They made a mob heading up the middle of the viewing gallery. It was rather unusual, because Adrian had only been apart of mobs while on liberty. They’d been drunk whirlwinds. He’d never been part of an adorable family mob.
“When did you get to medical school?” Adrian said.
“As soon as I got out, I applied, and I lucked into a good medical assistant internship with a full job right after, so I could afford my PHD,” Mac said. Adrian remembered something; a thought he’d had years after leaving the planet behind. The fact that they’d stopped for the wounded and lagged them behind had probably been why they’d survived the retreat; they’d been in the rear where they’d been close enough to the rebel advance the ships in orbit wouldn’t fire on them, but far enough to be out of visual targeting range. As it was, they’d barely made it over the river to friendly defenses and magnetic barrier fields before the rebels reached the shore.
“So, you’re doing the same thing, in a way,” Adrian said and smirked.
“Except with a lot better equipment and training to help them with. And I wrote the book on surgery for the entire hospital so I help everyone,” he said. He got very somber. “You…we have an invite to the priority one viewing gallery. We’ll be sitting in the wings where the cameras won’t see us. Want to come?”
“I remember when you got promoted to Staff-Sergeant. How’d you make officer from there?” Mac said.
“Remember that Major we rescued?” Adrian said.
“No, I remember their faces, I don’t remember ranks,” Mac said.
“Well, one of the guys we carried out was a Lord Major. He wrote my recommendation to Officer College. I got in, the rest was history,” he said. “Until I met my favorite person ever,” he said and looked at Aly.
“Met?”
“I didn’t know I had her until two years ago. Best surprise ever,” Adrian said.
“You always told me you hate surprises,” Mac said.
“Well this was a really, really good one,” Adrian said.
“Dad. I want to go up too,” Rodericka said. She stopped and looked up, and the entire mob stopped.
“You can walk just fine.”
“I wish to be up there with my fellow eight year old,” she said.
“How’d you know I’m eight?” Aly said.
“You’re a bad influence,” Mac said and scooped her up with a groan. She reached out, and Aly slapped her a high five.
“Anyways, why officer? You used to hate the officers though,” Mac said.
Yeah. Two teenagers huddling in a foxhole on the far side of the river. A Lieutenant in the next foxhole peered through the fog wafting off the barriers with his infrared scopes. He went pale. He folded them up and ran. Not to the radio man but leapt out of his hole and ran straight back.
Adrian remembered him as Lieutenant Nyhale. He’d searched through records for the man a decade later. He’d been drummed out of the service and spent five years in prison. There was some justice in the Armada.
“It paid better and had more privileges,” Adrian he said. Ahead, the viewing gallery ended at a security barrier and a pair of gates manned by silk-clad and rapier armed guards. They stood at rigid, ceremonial attention, only moving to check new guests in. A staircase rose beyond, vanishing into the curve of the anchorage. They joined the end of the queue
“You couldn’t have gotten a civilian job?”
“I didn’t know how. I didn’t exist outside the Armada until this.” He hugged Aly close.
Rodericka stared at Mac with a sweet smile, then threw her arms around his neck.
Mac had moved on. Adrian had moved on. Mac had ended his enlistment at seven years and civilian life had taken him many light years away. Such was life. He imagined best friends lasted forever through vid messages across light years. So, no. Mac was the ideal soldier though.
He didn’t answer. Nya pulled the whole mob along. “Reliving old memories?” she said.
They both nodded together.
“Didn’t you want to be a schoolteacher?” Mac said. The noble-born family ahead was let right through. They had sashes of gold and silver.
“Oh I am. At Tollyon Green Military Academy.”
“So you teach the officers?” Mac said. The guards saw them and place fingertips on their rapiers. “Here.” Mac pulled out a pass of crimson leather. Theatrical by whoever had sent the invite, Adrian thought with amusement as it was studied by the guards.
“Stand by for bag search, all of you,” the sentry said.
Adrian felt the condescension, compared to the way he’d practically bowed for the nobility before. He felt it as the guards eyed over all of them. He pulled out his ID card and made sure to flash it so the House Venko seal caught the light. “You lay hand on the esteemed guests of Milords I will ensure their outrage finds you.
The guard went pale. He was well disciplined, and didn’t move as his gaze went from Adrian’s card to his rank, to the two most prominent medals on his chest. “Yes sir, you may all proceed.”
“We would have been searched just fine. It’s just security protocol,” Mac said. His daughters all gave Adrian awed looks.
“They didn’t search the noble families,” Adrian said.
“Well, that’s nobles,” Mac said.
“I’ve sacrificed a lot to get a taste of that power, and share it when I can.”
Mac stopped on the stairs and squinted at him. “You’ve changed actually, a lot.”
“Yeah, I’m glad I have. And I’m glad you seem to have not,” Adrian said. He kept going to the top of the stairs. Maybe they’d split off at the top and he’d sit and watch the parade to take Alyssa’s weight off his knees, occasionally rubbing shoulders with a noble. Nobles were easy to impress. Except a certain redheaded one back on Tollyon, he thought warmly. She was more intriguing.
He hit the top stair, and something slipped in his left knee. He grimaced and dropped to one knee.
“Dad?” Alyssa said and leapt down. “Dad, are you okay?” She orbited around him frantically.
Mac grabbed Adrian’s elbow. “Did you catch your ankle?”
“No, knees,” he said. “I’m getting up.”
“No, we’ll get you a-“
“I’m getting up,” Adrian said.
“Fine.” Mac hauled and they stood him up. Aly held his free hand. “What was that?”
“A wound I got while climbing the ladder,” Adrian said. “Power has its costs.”
“How bad?”
“Not that bad,” he said, with a look at Alyssa. “Dad’s fine, see? He’s just getting old.”
Mac nodded. “It’s okay. Let’s find a nice bench.”
Two teenagers heard the wounded moaning across the river. One wanted to stay. The other climbed out anyways and headed across.
Adrian went across after him, because you never left your buddy behind. They waded across and found the first wounded. Each took one and hauled them back. The river was the only reason they made it back. The wounded soldiers, a man and a woman, floated up on the water and were easier to carry across. They laid them at the casualty collection station, and then ran back, together. Twenty times that night, until their bodies gave out and they nearly drowned in the river.
A couple nobility saw Adrian hobbling and cleared out a long, curved couch. Adrian sat down. Alyssa hopped in next to him and hugged him.
“You need to get that checked out. If your knee is giving out like that it’s something long term. I can name you a lot of service-related long term conditions,” Mac said. He sat down and all the kids piled in around him.
“You got a doc you can recommend?”
“Yeah. Come to my hospital when you can. You’ll get an appointment. How good is your insurance?”
“Noble level stuff, for free. Something I’ve earned,” Adrian said.
Mac nodded. “Alright. Stay a while after, we’ll get you checked out.”
“Dad just slipped, right?” Alyssa said.
“Yeah, dad’s just tired from working his butt off all day,” Mac said. Adrian ruffled her hair.
“He’s mean,” Aly said.
“He’s clearly evil,” Rodericka said.
“Rawr,” Adrian answered, and the entire couch burst into giggles.
“Attention please,” a deep voice announced on the speakers. Silence rushed through the massive gallery. “Presenting the flagship of the Armada, commanded in ceremonial role by Grand Admiral Oran himself, the relic dreadnought Orion.”
The sky darkened as the planet was eclipsed. A revenant came before them. A revived spirit from the forgotten eras of humanity’s peak, long before the dark age. She’d been dug up by the Founder Jacob Hallard himself during the rebellion, and brought to win the war against the Empire.
She was a slab of black metal several kilometers long. Her hull was clearly segmented by kilometer-wide angular plates. Between them shined the lights of sensors and the lenses of her laser point defense guns. Her hangar bays were glowing projections in her flanks, holding the air in with magnetic barrier fields. Across her back were six laser turrets. The way she moved was what threw Adrian off and sent chills down his spine. She was moving in a straight line. The gallery was curved. That meant she was turning perfectly on axis with the anchorage’s curvature.
He saw now maneuvering jets firing. She was just a black slab, inexplicably sliding with perfect smoothness. Like a rainbow curving through the air. Like the event horizon of a black hole.
She was gone and dreadnoughts followed. These were comforting familiar slabs of tungstanium with railgun turrets and point defense guns. They moved in curved, staggered lines as their maneuvering thrusters fired out jets hundreds of meters long and adjusted their course. Each had red stripes painted over their flanks.
Destroyers followed in a vast swarm of red bricks mounting torpedo launchers.
“Dad, dad, dad! Look, that’s the ship you commanded!” Aly leapt up on the couch and pointed. “They’re all yours!”
“You commanded a ship?” Mac said and stared at him.
“Yeah, I got myself a destroyer,” Adrian said and hugged Aly close. She leaned on his shoulders and stayed there, being surely the cutest little girl in the entire systems. “One of the bright spots of having a taste of noble power is that I get to change things. Make the universe a little less awful for a few hundred people,” he said.
“What, less flogging?” Mac said.
“Flogging was banned on my ship. When I took over the destroyer, there were problems with the crew I couldn’t deal with alone. So I burned all my favors to deal with it. That made things better for the crew. With the crew better, we went to the battle of Teghetoff and that’s where I got this.” He tapped the second Star of Hallard on his neck. “That’s the beauty of power. You get to use it.”
“You have changed for the better,” Mac said with a nod.
“Just a little bit,” Adrian said.
Hey everyone. Thank you for reading. Today I released a quick story about Adrian Huxton. In two weeks, I’ve got another mini-serial coming, starring him as he takes command of his first destroyer. If you liked this story and are excited for next week, please remember to like and subscribe. Every subscriber helps.
Reminds me of myself with all of my medical issues from too many wars. Good story.