Reaper's Crossroad

by Timothy Ellis

  "Wait, what?"

  "Jon," said Annabelle in her general's voice. "We have a situation, and it needs to be resolved before it turns into a disaster."

  "What situation?"

  "You know what it is as well as we do. The two of you broke The Rule. We were lucky enough it didn’t affect things for as long as it has, but now it's become a major problem. We need to fix it, and do it now."

  "Fix what how?"

  "Aline needs to leave team one," said Amanda. "Sooner or later she's going to be thinking about you at a time which ends up killing her."

  "I seriously doubt that. She's a professional soldier like you all are."

  "Can I be blunt Jon?" asked Annabelle.

  "Always."

  "If you were still on the team, we'd be looking at transferring you as well."

  Which stopped me cold. I looked at them one by one, and the twins nodded their agreement.

  "The rule is there for very good reasons," said Amanda. "We walked the line when we met you, and Alison crossed it, but she managed to reset herself before Aline started up with you. Aline is so far over the line now, we don’t see any hope of bringing her back."

  "And we don’t want to," added Aleesha. "You're good for each other, and we don’t want to break you up. But if we don’t do something, you're both going to be a handicap in combat, and it might kill all of us when one of you screws up."

  I wasn’t buying it, but in my heart, I knew they were right.

  "You have a solution?"

  "You transfer Aline to crew with you," said Annabelle. "Give her a position where she's always by your side. What happens to one, happens to both of you. It's not perfect, but at least she won't be fighting on the ground, while you're fighting in space, and both of you with half your attention on the other instead of concentrating on the fight in front of you."

  "I have that problem with all of you."

  "True," said Amanda. "But you've always been able to send us in, and still keep your mind on what you're doing elsewhere. Until lately."

  "Nothing's changed as far as I'm concerned."

  "And that's the problem," said Aleesha. "You can't see it now."

  And I couldn’t. I knew I’d been thinking about her and our future a lot more lately, but I hadn't known it was visible to other people.

  "What do you suggest?"

  "Admiral," started Annabelle, "you need an aide again. Alison is back with the team full time now, with the exception of tutoring Grace, and your temporary civilian aide is now a council member, and needs his own aide now. So you need a new one. You should also have a security team. You don’t need one now, but somewhere down the track, someone is going to want to take a pop at you again, and when they do, you need a team at your back. A lot of the time it will be us, as we do like being your crew, but when you send us into the shit end of something, there will be times when you need someone watching your back. And that includes when you sulk in your office."

  "I do not sulk!"

  "Have it your own way, but even Jane isn’t with you all the time. If Aline becomes your official girlfriend, it also makes her a target, not to mention Angel also being a target. Both need protection as well."

  I'd had both girlfriend and cat kidnapped before, so I knew she was right. I sighed.

  "So what?"

  "So you appoint Aline as you're combination aide and security chief. She goes where you go. You both take the exact same risks."

  "Will she agree to that?"

  "We don’t give her a choice," said Amanda. "It's our decision to remove her from the team. It's your decision to transfer her to navy, and give her a new job."

  "Technically Jon should have at least a Major for an aide," said Jane.

  "We know," said Aleesha, "and she'll need a lot of training, but it solves the problems."

  "She can be fast tracked as well," said Annabelle. "Walter will have an officer's training course up and running soon, and both Grace and Aline can be sent to it."

  "So you think Aline is up for being a Major?"

  "Yes," they all said together.

  "Aline was always so quiet before we met you," said Amanda. "I don’t think she ever thought about being more than just a specialist gunner. Like BA, she never even considered being an officer, and was content to just be part of the team. BA of course turned you down. And until you did promote her to an officer, I don’t think Aline had ever thought about it even once."

  "But she has been showing increasing competence as an officer," added Aleesha. "She was always competent, but never had any drive for higher rank. She came out of her shell after the Midgard War, and ever since has been demonstrating she can be so much more than what any of us thought."

  "She needs a lot of training," said Annabelle, "and time as a full Lieutenant before she can be made a Major, but in time she'll get there. So what do you think?"

  "Who tells her?"

  Thirty

  We moved to my conference table.

  The twins rearranged the chairs so I was on one end, the three of them on one side, and the empty chair was on the other. We all sat.

  "Jane," said Annabelle. "Can you send Aline in please?"

  "Confirmed."

  The door opened, and Aline came in. Annabelle waved her to the last remaining chair.

  "What's going on?" she asked as she sat.

  "You're being transferred out of the teams," said Amanda bluntly.

  I flinched. I'm not sure I could have been any more blunt if I’d tried to be.

  "What?" yelled Aline. "Why?"

  "You know why," said Aleesha.

  "No, I don’t."

  "Don’t come the raw prawn Aline. You broke The Rule. You had to know it couldn’t go on indefinitely."

  She sighed.

  "It's not fair though."

  "You're damned right it's not fair," snapped Amanda. "It's not fair to you because you have to go. It's not fair to us if you stay with us, and get us all killed. It's not fair to Jon to be mooning about how safe you are, instead of doing his job."

  I looked at her sharply, but managed not to say anything. Amanda didn’t stop.

  "You and him broke THE Rule. We allowed it to continue as long as we have because you're actually good for each other, and it wasn’t interfering. Now it is."

  "How?" she asked, and I was wanting to know too.

  "Look at him," said Aleesha. Aline did, and looked back at the twins. "He's lost his focus because you started making noises about marriage and kids. Not because he doesn’t want them, but because he does."

  "And you know just how terrified he is of losing you," added Amanda. "And if you admit it to yourself, you’re just as scared of losing him."

  "What do you mean I've lost my focus?" I interjected.

  "Normally Jon," answered Annabelle, "you're ten steps ahead in the plan. Now? You've been designing a new uniform for fucks sake. You know what has to be done now. You've known it for a week. And you're dithering around with clothing designs?"

  "If it wasn’t for the fact we know why this is happening," said Aleesha, "we'd all be asking 'who are you? And what have you done with the real Jon?'"

  I was having a hard time believing they were talking about me this way. Sure, I'd been a bit distracted lately, but there was no actual threat at the moment to focus me.

  "He's not been that bad," said Aline, in my defense.

  "Really look at him," said Amanda. "And look where we are. This is his private office in his private suite, and he's been hiding away in here every chance he gets. Especially over the last few days."

  I wasn’t hiding. Wasn’t I? Maybe I was.

  "We need him sharp and focused," said Annabelle. "And you being in a team which always goes in at the shit end first, is dulling him. And you're own focus on family is nothing but a distraction for you as well. It has to end. Now."

  "You're booting me out?"

  She sounded deeply hurt.

  "Aleesha and I are discharging you from team one.
We hate the idea, but we have no choice."

  "I'm discharging you from the teams," said Annabelle, "because moving you won't solve anything."

  "So I'm out?"

  She sounded gutted now. And she looked it.

  "Aline, you need to be honest with us. We have two options." Annabelle was doing really well at not showing any emotion. "If you really want a family, you can be discharged completely. You can marry Jon, get pregnant, and he'll lock you up in this tower with every gun in the system protecting you."

  She looked at me, and must have seen it in my face. I'd never thought about it, but now it was out there, I knew that really deep down, I was coded that way. And if the truth be told, it was probably why I was having nightmares about losing her.

  Aline looked at Amanda next, and it was a mistake.

  "If Jon didn’t, we would."

  "What?"

  Aline was shocked now.

  "Jon is essential to our future," said Aleesha. "We all know it. And if there was to be a little Jon or Jonette one day, we'd make damn sure nothing could possibly happen to him or her, so Jon would feel able to go and do what has to be done, and only he can do."

  "We made sure our families would all be safe," said Annabelle, "before we came back from Gaia. We made sure Jon's son was safe. And if he has more children, we'll make damn sure they're safe as well."

  I was feeling a little uncomfortable now, being the focus of all this attention. They'd just reminded me I had two kids already. One to an ex-girlfriend, and one to the Queen of the British sector, both now in Gaia. The latter I knew had been adopted by a new father. The other had my whole extended family to look after him and his mother, minus my own parents.

  And maybe there was the root cause of my fear. I'd fathered two kids already without knowing I had at the time, found out about them, and lost them both forever. Along with their mothers as well.

  It'd been necessary. Only I could end the Darkness War, and I had to leave everything behind to do it. It hadn't been a difficult decision. I'd expected a quick death. When it hadn't happened, I’d expected to cease to exist. Which hadn't happened either.

  And it left me where? Shit scared of having another child in case I lost both the mother and the child again?

  I sighed.

  Light bulb moment.

  "I think he finally gets it," said Jane.

  I looked around, and found her standing inside the closed door. She walked over to the table, and stood between Aline and I.

  "Do you?" demanded Amanda, looking at Aline.

  "Oh," she said. "If you put it that way, yeah I get it. Where does that leave me?"

  "We detach you from the teams," said Annabelle. "You retire to raise a family, or you get pushed up the chain of command for reassignment. Your choice."

  "Reassignment," she said without any hesitation. "But I don’t see how it makes any difference."

  "All yours Admiral."

  Aline looked from Annabelle to me, confusion on her face.

  "Attention to orders," barked Jane, and we all stood, the others bracing to attention.

  I looked at Aline with my Admiral's face on.

  "You, Second Lieutenant Takai. You are detached from the Marines, promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, transferred to Navy, and appointed my aide. You'll be given training to become a naval officer, attend the first officer's course when it begins, and also be given security training by Colonel Burnside. When sufficient training has occurred, you will be assigned the position of Security Chief, responsible for my safety wherever I am, be it on board ship, on station, or elsewhere. You will hand pick a small group of security personnel for the protection of both of us and Angel. You're duty station on the bridge will be the XO's station, and from now on, you'll remain by my side at all times. If something happens to one of us, it will happen to both."

  "What am I supposed to do in the XO's chair? Sit there and look pretty?"

  Annabelle looked scandalized. The twins were holding in their grins.

  "Pretty much. At least until you know enough to use the station effectively."

  "That’s all we all do now," muttered Aleesha.

  "True," agreed Aline.

  "You have your orders Lieutenant," I barked. "Carry on. The lot of you."

  I turned and went back to my desk. The others left, and through the again closed door, I could hear the girls congratulating Aline.

  I guess I’d find out what she really thought at bed time tonight.

  Thirty One

  Guinevere jumped back in during the afternoon, docked with Redoubt, and her crew walked through to Haven.

  Jane came in and told me she was back, and updated the situation with the Lufaflufs. Most of the population had now moved, while everything which moved and could carry a load was going back and forth still, taking as much as they could with them.

  She suddenly went still, began to laugh, and waved up a wall screen.

  Arthur and Guinevere were yelling at each other so loud, I'm surprised the whole station couldn’t hear it. It took me a bit to figure out what the problem was, and then I started laughing as well.

  Arthur was pissed off she'd bartered her ship for one of ours. She was adamant she hadn't, but hers was so badly damaged she hadn't seen any point in trying to repair it. And besides, her new one was a better ship, if a little technologically behind in some ways which didn’t matter too much.

  She totally horrified him by suggesting he scrap all their ships, and get new ones from me.

  Had I been there, I’d have told them to get a room. But of course, I wasn’t there, and they already had one. Not that anything other than yelling appeared to be ever going to happen there. I was however coming to see why they were not only not a couple, but why they were on separate ships.

  I motioned to Jane to turn it off, feeling more than a little embarrassed to have seen it.

  We'd barely stopped laughing when Jane brought up another screen showing the Keerah moving on Jen's jump point. There was no real warning at all. Jane had only seconds to give Jen a heads up, before the first of three fleets jumped in.

  The second battlestation was only partly built, but it managed to add firepower to the first, and with the Scimitars firing immediately as well, the fleet was destroyed before it could get a shot off.

  The second fleet came through firing missiles before jumping, but the station's mosquitos intercepted them all before they could hit any of the defenders. This fleet also was destroyed before their guns could be fired, mainly because Jen had kept changing the fleet deployment every time a trader jumped out, and so targets were never in the same place as the Keerah might expect them to be.

  The third fleet did the same with missiles, but they failed to clear the down jump lane, and so they down jumped into the debris of the first two.

  There appeared to be two more fleets on the other side, but they made no move to jump. Further out, several freighters turned away, and started back the way they'd come, presumably thinking the jump point would be blocked for too long, and not wanting to risk it.

  In the other system, the defenders waited for the hammer to fall on them, but it never came. But now I had a worry there, as a full five fleets waited there now, which could jump with a few seconds warning again, at any time. And more were in the system.

  It had obviously been a test of the new battlestation. But the thing which got me the most, was the callousness of the Keerah higher ranks, in feeding ships into the meat grinders, without any concern for casualties.

  Crossroad was still an ongoing battle zone, with no sign of stopping. I discussed some ideas with Jane for most of the rest of the afternoon, until interrupted by Syrinx, who wanted some help to open a new set of rifts, so the Solidarios could relocate again. It didn’t take long, but I called it a day. Especially with what was planned for the evening.

  Once again I was the host, even though having been told nothing about it, except to be in attendance in my own living room in dress uniform. Jane did
everything else.

  For the first time in apparently several years, all three of Arthur's crews were in the same place at the same time, and Jane had made it quite clear they were not having a party all to themselves. Between Arthur's people, my teams, a lot of my ship captains, and quite a few pilots, it was a big crowd. My parents turned up early on as well, along with Dick Burnside and Detective Jane, and Hobbs and several of the SAS teams.

  Jane put on a buffet, and the drinks flowed, resulting in the night lasting well into the small hours.

  Guinevere introduced me to Mordred and his crew, plus the few of hers I’d not met before. More names from legends and myths, but some I’d never heard of as well. I was surprised to find Mordred's crew had more women than the other two combined.

  The interesting thing was, at least for me, a Scimitar could, with some more accommodation added, carry all three crews, and their fighters. When I suggested this to Mordred, he started laughing so hard, he fell over a chair and went down heavily. Someone helped him up, still laughing, and he took himself off into the crowd. I had no idea what it was all about, but I was starting to think while the three ships were part of the same fleet, their crews were not exactly on good terms with each other. There were no incidents though, but some suspicious outbreaks of raucous laughter suggested the joke was doing the rounds.

  Aline stayed by my side until the party wound up, also in a red uniform, and proudly showing off her double bars. She received a lot of congratulations and hugs.

  I took some time out with Dick to talk about her security training, and found he'd already been consulted, and was working out a schedule. He was also looking for suitable candidates for her team.

  Uniform wise, all of my people were in the new uniform, being a mix of blues and greens. I thought it was a good improvement on the old dress uniform, and everyone seemed comfortable in it. While it wasn’t as showy as some of the dress uniforms in the past, it did the job.

  Well into the small hours of the morning, Aline and I finally went to bed. Angel was already there, asleep with her head on my pillow, all tuckered out from being patted and tickled for hours on end. Max had retreated to a hidey hole he had in one of the wardrobes, where he normally went when parties were happening.