by M. D. Cooper
“He’s joking,” Erin said to Isa. “You are joking, Martin, aren’t you?”
The noise from the hotel suddenly increased in volume, indicating that someone had opened an exterior door. Erin glanced toward the structure and saw a large figure block the light, and recognized Usef. She was glad to see him.
“I’ve been looking for you all for a while,” said the major as he walked toward the loungers. He stopped in front of Martin and held out his massive paw. “Congratulations. That was some competition. I’ve never seen anyone do that last trick you did.”
“Thanks.” They shook. “That was a first for me, too. To be honest, I kinda cheated. Leaning on Marine augmentations a bit, there.”
“That wasn’t cheating, that was smart battle tactics.” Usef lifted an eyebrow at Erin. “Did you give him the idea?”
“Not me. But, uh, I wanted to talk to you about something, if you have a minute.”
Usef opened his mouth to reply, but all of a sudden, the ground began to shake, the water in the pool sloshing over the sides. Erin’s lounger jerked from side to side, and Martin’s shifted so hard he grabbed the armrests. Usef had dropped into a crouch.
After a few moments, the shaking stopped.
“That’s the first earthquake I’ve ever felt in Attica,” said Isa.
“Me too,” said Usef, “and I’ve been coming here for years.”
Erin frowned. “This is getting ridiculous. I’m glad I’m going up to the PETER first thing tomorrow.”
Usef said, “I’m going inside. A game of bar roulette is about to start. Enjoy the rest of the night.”
“Wait a minute,” Erin said. “I wanted to speak to you, remember?”
“We don’t have anything to talk about.” His expression was friendly.
Erin guessed he wanted to save them both a slightly embarrassing conversation. “So…we’re good?”
“We’re good,” Usef agreed, then he bade them goodnight and returned to the hotel.
“I’m glad you and the major sorted it out, whatever it was,” said Isa.
“What?” said Martin.
“Something happened during Erin’s training,” said Isa. She swiveled around to face Erin. “Didn’t it?”
“How did you know?”
Erin hadn’t told Isa or Martin anything that had gone on during the recent military training she’d undergone. She hadn’t thought either of them would be interested, and, more importantly, she’d needed time to process what had happened.
“Because you’ve hardly mentioned it,” said Isa.
“Yeah, come to think of it, that’s true,” Martin said.
Erin sighed. “Usef was…rough on me during the training.”
“Is that all?” said Martin. “You know what he’s like, Erin. I’m surprised that’s been bothering you.”
“No, this wasn’t his usual thing. I won’t go into the boring details, but he was very harsh at one point. I was upset at first, but now that I’ve thought about it, I understand.”
“Come on,” said Isa. “Spill the beans.”
“I thought he was trying to teach me a lesson about getting too cocky. Only I wasn’t being cocky, I just wanted to be the best, you know?”
“I do,” said Isa, giving her wife a knowing look. “So Usef got it wrong?”
“No. It was me who got it wrong. He wasn’t trying to teach me not to be cocky, he was trying to save my life—all our lives.”
She paused, deciding the story was too intense for the occasion.
“I’ll tell you about it another time. Let’s order another cocktail,” she suggested. “I’m going to have a Bob’s Fury.”
“Really?” asked Martin. “Did you read what’s in it? You’d better ask for Walter’s help with that, or I’ll be carrying you upstairs tonight.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Erin teased, smirking mischievously at him.
* * * * *
The rest of the evening and night passed in the best possible way. They enjoyed several more cocktails by the pool before joining the rest of the crowd inside the hotel. After watching the show, they went to their room and said a long, pleasurable goodbye until the next time they would be together again.
Erin woke early the next morning. The reality of parting from her spouses and beginning her latest assignment seemed almost cruel in the bleak, pre-dawn light that filtered in through the window. The memory of the training course returned stronger than ever, bringing with it the most important understanding she had taken from it.
New Canaan was currently enjoying a period of peace, but how long would it last? Had she, Martin, and Isa done the right thing in having Jude and the triplets, knowing that at some point, the star system could come under attack? Was it right to create new lives when the possible annihilation of the system lay on the horizon? What would happen to her family when the time came to defend their home?
Though Erin hadn’t said anything to Martin or Isa, such thoughts had been preying on her mind ever since the training. Like most of the population, her spouses seemed to find it easy to forget about the ever-present danger. Martin was absorbed in his work shaping Carthage’s marine ecosystems, and Isa was frequently engrossed in creating stunning, evocative installations for her gallery. And until recently, Erin felt that even she’d become complacent and forgetful that their enemy stood at their door.
Erin buried her face in Isa’s soft hair, and her mind drifted back in time. She was at the Landfall military training facility, taking part in the special combat course for selected civilian personnel.
When New Canaan eventually came under attack, Erin would be responsible for organizing the citizens’ defensive response in her local area. The idea was that the Marines would be left free to concentrate on defending critical sites, rather than people.
Erin had joined the course at Usef’s ‘invitation’, along with other New Canaanites who had demonstrated a high aptitude for combat skills.
The first days of training had gone well. The early schedule consisted mostly of shooting practice. That skill had always been one of Erin’s strengths, and she’d enjoyed the satisfaction of achieving exceptionally high scores.
Usef was on hand for the training, though he wasn’t acting as an instructor. He only hung around, quietly observing the sessions. When she’d returned her weapon to the store at the end of the day, he was there.
Upon seeing her, he said, “Ninety-eight-point-seven. Pretty good.”
Erin glowed at the rare praise from this man she greatly admired.
But then Usef added, “That’s it for target practice, though. Let’s see how you do without a gun in your hand.”
Erin felt her face fall. “I’m not looking forward to that.”
“I didn’t think you were, but all the trainees need to understand there’s more to fighting than wielding a weapon.”
“There is?”
Usef raised a sardonic eyebrow.
“I mean, I know there is,” said Erin, “but is there really more to it for someone like me? I’m not exactly built like a Marine.”
“True. Remember to tell that to your enemy. That’ll make him leave you alone.”
Erin exhaled heavily. “You know what I’m talking about, U—Major. If I’m faced with someone like you in a hand-to-hand fight, I won’t stand a chance. I might be able to slow them down, but eventually I’ll be overpowered.”
“In that case, you would have to do whatever you could, to escape, right?”
Erin recalled the sims Usef had devised to prepare the New Canaanites for invasion: no-win scenarios, fighting against all the odds, inevitable defeat and death. She guessed the hand-to-hand to combat training was going to be the same—for her, at least.
“Alright,” she replied. “I get it.”
However, the next day, training wasn’t as hard as she’d feared; not at first. The trainees were not fighting entirely unarmed…they had a blade.
The instructors taught them moves to avoi
d being stabbed and to disarm their opponent, and showed them where to stab their enemies to cause the most damage in the least amount of time.
The sessions only went over the basics, and Erin knew that it would take hundreds of hours of practice to perfect the techniques. Yet by the end of the session, she felt more confident about taking on an opponent while armed with only a knife.
It was during the final third of the course that things had gotten harder. That was when the trainees were entirely weaponless, and had to practice fighting with their bare hands.
Initially, the instructors paired up partners roughly equal in height, weight, and strength, but later on, they began to mix it up a little. They explained how a height differential could be a disadvantage, and not to the shorter person.
“A tall opponent has a longer reach, but he has a higher center of gravity,” the instructor explained. “He might also be slower. You can work that in your favor. Get him down on the ground, with you on top, and you’ll turn the tables pretty fast.”
As she’d predicted, Erin didn’t enjoy the hand-to-hand fighting as much as she liked shooting—mostly because she wasn’t as good at it. Yet she wasn’t so bad either…far from the worst in the class. She quickly learned the weakest spots to go for, like the neck, jaw, behind the ear, the solar plexus, groin, and knees. Knowing that brute strength was not at her disposal, she made it her goal to strike fast and hard to disable the other person as quickly as possible.
Though the training had been intense and exhausting, she approached the final day of the course fairly satisfied with her achievements.
Then the final session arrived. The trainees were to complete a program that covered everything they’d learned on the course, beginning with shooting, then moving on to knife fighting, and finishing with unarmed combat.
It was not a competition as such, but that was how everyone was treating it, Erin included. When she’d walked into the arena, she was not slow to notice Usef’s massive bulk spilling over the edges of a seat in the front row. Their gazes met, and he beckoned her over.
“How do you think you’re gonna do?” he’d asked.
“I don’t know,” Erin replied. Then she added, “Okay, I expect.”
Usef nodded, his expression enigmatic.
Doing well in the competition suddenly became even more important to Erin. Usef had put her forward for the course, and she wanted to show him that he’d made the right choice.
Little had she known the error she had fallen into at that moment.
The first half of the day went well, though the trainees were put through the wringer, given targets that were far harder to hit than anything they’d seen at the practice range. However, Erin’s skills didn’t fail her. She rose to the challenge, and by the time they broke for lunch, she’d led the field by several points.
She wondered if she could maintain her lead for the rest of the day. It was not certain by any means. Other trainees were better than her at knife fighting and hand-to-hand combat, but she remained determined to do her best.
When the knife fighting was over, Erin had lost ground in the scores, but she was still ahead. If she was partnered with someone who was physically her equal in the unarmed combat section, she would probably win the day.
On the other hand, if the instructors decided to randomly mix pairs, as they had during some of the training sessions, her prospects were far less certain. Only a few trainees were her size; unless she was lucky, she would end up matched with someone larger and stronger than her. Then she would lose so many points, she couldn’t possibly finish at the top of the board.
Erin had sent several glances Usef’s way over the course of the day, while he’d sat patiently watching all the competitions, his features betraying no opinion on what he saw.
For the first match, Erin’s partner was who she’d hoped it would be: Iris. The woman was a body modder from Ushu on Tyre, and not much larger than Erin. The two had frequently fought each other in sparring bouts, and Iris had only beaten Erin once in all the times they had been partnered.
Erin could see from the look on Iris’s face that she thought this match was going to go the usual way. A few minutes later, Erin proved her right. When the instructor told Erin to break her hold, she released Iris and straightened up, feeling somewhat pleased with herself.
She checked the scoreboard as the other results came in…. She was close to winning. Only one match remained.
She looked toward Usef’s seat, and was surprised to see it empty. Apparently, he had left the final training session before it was even finished. Erin sucked her teeth in disappointment.
Isn’t he interested in the final scores?
The instructors called out the pairs for the last match of the day, and the trainees began to line up. As Erin waited to hear who was to be her partner, she heard the arena doors open behind her.
“Erin,” said the instructor, “and Major Usef.”
She gaped and turned toward the doors. Usef was striding toward her, clad in training gear. His expression was serious.
Erin ran up to the instructor, avoiding Usef’s stare.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she laughed without humor. “How in hell can I fight him?”
The instructor looked out over her head. “Everyone, take your positions.”
“Oh, come on,” said Erin. “This has to be some kind of a joke.”
“Take your positions, everyone,” the instructor said, glaring down at her.
Resigned that there was no escaping the fight, Erin trudged to the edge of the mat. Usef stood opposite her, hands loose at his sides. Erin had long been used to Usef’s bulky and impressive physical form, but she had never been more aware of his figure than at that moment.
I’m about to get my ass handed to me on a plate.
The klaxon announced the start of the competition. Usef strode onto the mat, and annoyance rose in Erin.
She’d been so close to winning the day. Even if she’d been matched against a bigger, stronger trainee, there had been a chance she might still have done it. But for some inexplicable reason, Usef, who she’d thought of as a friend, had decided to snatch away her opportunity.
he replied.
Ugh, Erin thought. Thanks for that.
For all they could do, sometimes AIs were totally useless.
Spurred on by irritation and ire, Erin ran at Usef. Not breaking her pace, she raised a fist to punch him in the throat, but before she was anywhere near her target, Usef idly brushed her arm aside as if flicking away an ant.
Without pause, Erin lifted her left hand, its fingers stiffened, and jabbed at his eyes. Usef slammed one of his great hands against her shoulder, knocking her down.
Erin hit the mat, but immediately tried to bounce up and away. Usef was too fast for her. He was already straddling her and reaching for her arms. Erin fought, bringing up a knee, aiming for Usef’s solar plexus, though she knew her chances of knocking the wind out of him were slim to none.
She couldn’t make contact, he was pressing down on her too closely. She kicked at his knee and struck true, but had no effect on the solid muscle and bone.
Usef turned her over like he was flipping a pancake, and in another few seconds, it was over. He had one of her arms twisted behind her back and pinned. She couldn’t move. She was thoroughly defeated and had only made one offensive contact.
To add to her humiliation, she had a strong feeling Usef had allowed that single contact to happen.
The instructor called it, and Erin stopped struggling.
“Dammit, Usef,” she panted. “This isn’t fair.”
The major leaned down so that his mouth was next to her ear. “It’s never fair,” he hissed.
Erin craned her neck around to see Usef’s face, and was confronte
d with his intense stare.
“Even when death is certain,” he said, “fight anyway. This isn’t about winning a tournament, Erin. It’s about survival.”
He released his hold on her arm, and the pressure on her shoulder mercifully disappeared. Erin turned her face to the mat and heard Usef stand up and walk away. Then the arena doors had opened and closed.
“Can’t sleep?” asked Isa softly.
Erin’s mind returned to the hotel room, where she was lying in bed with her wife and husband. Isa’s hair was soft against her skin, and Martin was snoring gently in the quiet, pink-grey light of a new day.
“Just thinking about things,” Erin replied.
“You’re worrying, right?” Isa asked. “Try not to. You know, that uncomfortable feeling I’ve had since we arrived is gone. I’m sure everything’s going to be okay. With the Transcend engineers’ help, you’ll fix the PETER soon, and then you can come home, and we can birth the triplets.”
Yes, Erin thought, but what then? How much longer will we have before the peace in New Canaan is shattered?
CHAPTER FIVE
STELLAR DATE: 04.15.8942 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Attica
REGION: Athens, New Canaan System
Attica Spaceport was busy with the usual stream of arrivals and departures. Erin walked with her spouses through the crowds to the exit that led to a private spacecraft. Erin had been assigned a skiff for her use during the PETER assignment, and Isa and Martin had come with her to see her off before heading back to the hotel, as their shuttle to the Odyssey didn’t leave until the evening.
When they arrived at the skiff in its hangar, Erin put down her bag and turned to give Isa a hug. She held onto her wife, not wanting to let go. Things had changed since the days when she would spend months away from Carthage, hollowing out moons in the outer system. Over the past couple of years, she’d hardly been away from home, so in that time, parting from the people she loved had grown that much harder.
