by Neal Jones
Kralin nodded, and then cleared his throat. He glanced down at his half-empty mug. Farak looked at his empty plate. Neither was sure what to say next, and both were saved from further silence by the sound of the chime from the front door. Farak went to answer it, and Kralin cleared away the dishes. By the time his father returned with Matok, Kralin had poured three fresh mugs of tea.
"Kralin has told me of your discussion," Farak began. "His proposal is acceptable."
"I'm sorry, Farak," Matok said somberly. "If I could, I would have bought the company myself."
"I appreciate the sentiment," Farak replied. He stared wearily into his tea.
"The Stromm Vineyards is a good winery, they've been around for many years," Matok continued.
"Yes, I suppose."
"What will you do with your extra time?" Kralin asked, attempting a light hearted tone.
Farak looked up and attempted a smile. "Work in the garden. Fix a few odds and ends around the house, things that I never got to before your mother..." He trailed off as he realized what he'd been about to say.
Matok's chair scraped loudly as he stood and he walked out of the kitchen. Kralin and Farak glanced at one another, but before either could say anything Matok returned with a bottle of wine.
"That's from my private stock," Farak said. "I've been saving that bottle for fifty-two years."
"And I can think of no better occasion than to drink this in honor of Jharis," Matok replied. He poured three glasses, handed out two, and raised his own. "Jharis was a wonderful woman, Farak. She was patient, she was understanding, and she raised a good family." He looked at Farak. "She will never be forgotten."
"Delrane nalril," Farak intoned.
"Delrane nalril," Kralin echoed.
The three men drank. When Kralin looked up, he was surprised to see his father smiling.
"Something funny?"
"This was one of the first bottles that I made myself. It tastes better than I was expecting."
"Yes, it does," Matok agreed. "Very hearty."
Kralin took another long swig, and then held out his empty glass. "I'll have another."
Matok poured another round. This time Kralin made the toast.
"To Jran, to Tarish, to Mikel, and to Larha."
"Delrane nalril," Farak replied, nodding.
"Delrane nalril," Matok repeated.
They drank in silence. Matok had just poured a third round when Bratin stepped into the kitchen.
"You three thought you could drink without me?"
"You said you had other plans," Matok replied.
"You didn't tell me you were coming here." Bratin seized a glass and held it out to her husband. "I knew Jharis better than any of you, even you Farak."
Farak smiled. "I hope you didn't know her as intimately as I did."
Bratin laughed as she raised her glass. "To the girl who taught me how to scare wild nasis from their nests."
Matok chuckled. "I never heard that story."
"Delrane nalril," Farak and Kralin said at the same time.
They all drank.
Bratin wiped her lips with her sleeve. "This is a good vintage, Farak."
"It should be. It's fifty-two years old."
"The first year you took over the vineyards from your father."
"That's right." Farak took another sip, savoring the herbal flavor. "On second thought, I think I should have used less bolel spice."
Kralin took a second gulp, emptying his glass, and then coughed. "I like it." He cleared his throat as he held the glass out to Matok.
"Be careful," Farak warned. "I'm sure that you haven't tasted anything this strong on your warships during victory celebrations."
"No," Kralin agreed. "But I'm definitely going to petition War Command to start serving your wine aboard all warships from now on - and starbases too."
They all laughed at that, and Matok turned to his wife. "I want to hear about Jharis scaring wild nasis from their nests. I didn't even know there was nasis in this province."
"There isn't now. But there was when we were little girls. I used to chase Jharis into those forests" – she jerked a thumb over her shoulder to indicate the fields of trees and thick odela vines that lay beyond the house and the vineyards – "and she could run like one of the boys."
"Yes, she could," Farak said, grinning. He glanced at his son. "What?"
"Nothing. I'm just glad to see you smiling again."
"It feels...bittersweet."
"I'll help you with the garden," Bratin said to Farak. "It's going to need a lot of work."
"Thank you." He raised his glass. "For all those we have lost through the Gates of El'Sha'Lor."
"Delrane nalril," the others responded in unison.
The glasses were tipped, the wine consumed until the bottle was empty, and then a second was opened. The wake lasted for the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening. It was still going strong when Kralin begged leave so that he could join Inedra for dinner.
( 6 )
"Do you really have to leave tomorrow?"
They were intertwined, naked, on her bed, sharing an irrila joint, and relishing the afterglow of their third round of lovemaking.
"Hhhmmm?" Kralin murmured, opening his eyes.
Inedra passed the joint over her shoulder, exhaling three perfect smoke rings. "Are you asleep?"
He took the joint. "No."
"Liar." She pried herself apart from him and turned onto her side, propping her head up on one elbow. She used her other hand to trace lazy circles on the bare skin of his chest.
Kralin exhaled a cloud of smoke, and then laid the stub in the ashtray on the nightstand. "It's been a long day."
"I asked if you really had to leave tomorrow?"
"Yes. Don't you?"
"I could take a couple more."
"I need to get back to Exxar-One. If I use up all my leave time now, I'll have to wait another year, and I want to visit father again before that."
"So this means you two have reconciled."
"Somewhat."
Inedra reached across Kralin for the irrila and took one last hit. "There's something I don't understand. If your parents are as traditional as you say they are, weren't you and Jran betrothed when you were born? You're not bonded, and you haven't said anything about a wedding ceremony, so I assume that means the engagement never took place or someone called the whole thing off when you came of age."
Kralin chuckled, more because of the effects of the wine and the irrila than what Inedra had said. "Her name was Tinett. And yes, we were betrothed when we were seven years old. Her parents were moderately wealthy, but not as well off as mine. Jran, too was betrothed, but fell in love with Tarish, and when it was discovered that she was pregnant...well –"
"It shamed your parents deeply," Inedra interrupted. "So they terminated Jran's engagement, and Jran and Tarish were married instead." She snuggled closer to Kralin, resting her head on his shoulder. "That was a terrible blow to your father's pride."
"Yes," Kralin murmured, remembering now even more hushed arguments and slammed doors. "When I refused to go through with the Pak'Ti'Faar, it was more than my father could take. We never spoke of it directly, but mother told me later that I wasn't going to marry Tinett. Her father terminated the engagement after hearing about my refusal of Pak'Ti'Faar." Kralin thought for a minute, and then added, "I haven't talked to her in years."
They stared into the dark for several moments, and Kralin was glad that Inedra couldn't see his face clearly. He suddenly felt like weeping again, and he turned over, rolling on top of Inedra and surprising her with renewed passion. She responded in kind, and this round lasted longer than any of the others. When it was over, Kralin laid his head upon Inedra's chest and closed his eyes. The warmth of her skin and the high of the irrila lulled Kralin into a sleep that was blessedly dreamless.
Part Four
"Homeward"
Chapter 21
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&nb
sp; ( 1 )
LIEUTENANT NEVA "FOXFIRE" CORWIN slid her right hand over the control pad of her hornet's console, smoothly banking the small craft to the left and sailing beneath the giant asteroid that loomed outside her cockpit glass. She leveled the ship as she came up behind the asteroid and then spun a hundred and eighty degrees, firing her forward guns as she came about.
"Quack quack, Drake!" Corwin laughed.
Lieutenant Colton "Drake" Mallard cursed as he glared at the flashing red light on his tactical screen that signaled a fatal "hit". "Fuck you, Foxy! You still got two more of 'em out there!"
"Not for long." Corwin gunned her engines and banked right, zooming beneath another large rock as she cast a quick glance at her tactical screen. One blip was twenty klicks away, thirty degrees port. The name flashing above it said Hardin. The second "enemy target" was further away, almost sixty klicks, and forty degrees starboard. Corwin decided to take out Lieutenant Hardin first and adjusted her course accordingly, zipping deftly in and out among the smaller chucks of rock, and then banking sharply to avoid the largest asteroid that lay between her and her target. She cast one more quick glance at her tac screen to see how far Hexul had moved. It looked like the DrayH'M was headed towards the edge of the field and then back around to come at her from behind. Fair enough. By the time he was within firing range she would have destroyed Hardin and could use the asteroid he was hiding behind as cover to ambush Hexul.
But then Corwin frowned, realizing that Hardin's position hadn't changed in almost five minutes. Had he spent the entire training exercise holding one position? Either that or he was a decoy? The reason that Commander Scoletti had chosen this asteroid field was because of the mineral composites that interfered with close range sensor scans. It was possible that Hardin was up to something, that the blip on Corwin's tac screen was something else entirely and that Hardin was hiding close by - or on the other side of the field.
Neva glanced up as she came around the giant asteroid and Hardin's stinger came into view. He was there all right, parked only a few meters from the massive planetoid, the largest rock in the entire field. At this distance it was hard to get a good view of the cockpit, but it looked like Hardin was inside and he was okay. Neva hesitated for a moment, and then locked her targeting scanner on Hardin's hornet. She pressed the trigger, launching a barrage of "disruptor fire", nailing him head on. The computer scored the hit, but there was no response from Hardin.
"Hey, Weasel, you're dead!" Corwin taunted.
Still no response.
"Danny, did you hear me?" Corwin switched to an open channel. "Hey, Drake, can you hear me, over?"
"Loud and clear, over."
"Commander, I think something's wrong. Hardin's not –"
"I'm here, Neva."
It was the tone of his voice more than the interruption itself that got Corwin's attention. "Dan, are you all right?"
He didn't answer right away. "I can't...I just can't do this anymore. I'm sorry."
"Do what?" Neva swallowed, suddenly feeling too warm in her flight suit.
"Goodbye."
"Danny, no!"
His engines flared, their luminescence swallowed moments later by the fireball that burst from the point of impact. The hornet had moved faster than Neva's eye had been able to follow, and there was just enough distance between him and the asteroid to ensure that the impact would be fatal, yet not so much distance that Corwin could have intervened and knocked him off his flight path.
Corwin stared at the small debris field, too dazed to even register Scoletti's voice in her ear.
"Lieutenant Corwin, I repeat, what is your situation? Please respond, over!"
"Uh..." Neva blinked. "Lieutenant Hardin..."
"Yes, what about him?"
"He's dead, sir."
"Dead?? How? What happened?"
( 2 )
"I...I don't know, sir. I'm heading back to the hive. I'll have a full report for you then. Corwin out."
Commander Scoletti reached out and tapped the key to stop the playback of the audio recording. Commodore Gabriel didn't immediately look up, and an awkward silence filled the ready room. Lieutenant Corwin was standing next to Scoletti, and Commander Decev was to her left. On other side of Scoletti was Doctor Arrington.
Gabriel looked at the CAG. "When was Lieutenant Hardin's flight status reinstated?"
"Last week, sir. This was his first training exercise since being reinstated."
The commodore stood, turning his gaze upon Arrington. "I remember Hardin's name. He lost his wife and two sons in the attack on Exxar-One four months ago, correct?"
"Yes, sir, that's correct. He was given bereavement leave and underwent three weeks of grief counseling with me. I cleared him to return to duty a month ago, but Commander Scoletti and I agreed that his flight status should be held for awhile longer. Hardin also agreed to that."
Gabriel nodded. "And then last week you two decided he was okay to fly again?"
"Yes, sir. Hardin had requested his flight status be reinstated. The CAG and I discussed it, and neither of us saw a reason to deny his request."
Gabriel turned to Scoletti. "You saw no abnormal behavior? Nothing at all to indicate that he was fully prepared to fly his stinger into the side of an asteroid?"
"No, sir." He glanced at Corwin. "None of the other pilots in his squadron did either."
"No evidence of drug abuse? No possibility that he was under the influence of something?"
Scoletti and Arrington exchanged glances, and both shook their head. "None that I am aware of," the doctor said. "We did conduct brief interviews with the other pilots in his squadron when we were considering his request to have his flight status reinstated. None of them saw any evidence of drug abuse or otherwise abnormal behavior."
"He seemed fully recovered, sir," Corwin added. "I would never –" She coughed, cleared her throat, and then continued, "I never believed he was capable of this."
The commodore nodded and sighed. "Commander, doctor, please have your official reports on this incident to me by tomorrow at oh-seven-hundred. I would also like a copy of the audio recording. Dismissed." He turned to the viewport, leaning against the back of his desk and folding his arms across his chest. He watched the reflections of Scoletti, Arrington, and Corwin leave his ready room. "Something else you'd like to discuss, Commander?"
Decev pulled up a chair and sat, her eyes locking with those of Gabriel's reflection. "I thought maybe there's something you'd like to talk about."
The commodore scrubbed a hand over his face as he sat behind his desk. "No, Mariah, there isn't."
"Are you sure?"
He gave her an irritable look and then switched on his computer screen. "I have work to do, and so do you."
Decev crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap, waiting.
Gabriel sighed. "I'm exhausted. I haven't gotten more than three hours' sleep a night in the last few weeks, and nothing seems to help."
"Talking about it might."
"I don't feel like talking about it."
"I know. That's the problem." Mariah leaned forward. "Marc, do you think that the other senior officers and I haven't noticed?"
"Noticed what?"
"Irritability? Mood swings? Insomnia? All of it is indicative of your inability to cope with the trauma that you suffered five months ago, and it's starting to affect your job performance."
"So now you're a counselor?"
"I can be if that's what you want. If you don't want to talk to a counselor, that's fine. I understand. But you have to talk to somebody."
"I don't want to talk about it!" Gabriel snapped.
"Why the hell not??" Mariah fired back. "You suffered extreme physical and emotional trauma, and ignoring the aftereffects of that is only going to make things worse, not better."
"You think that I'm ignoring what happened to me?? Every time I close my eyes I see Serehl's face, that damn eye patch he wore, even the way he smelled when he leaned over me
to stab his dagger into my chest! It still hurts, did you know that? Ben says the wound has fully healed, that there's no physical pain, but he's wrong. I can feel it all the time, throbbing right here, as if I was just stabbed a minute ago." He sighed again and leaned back. "Talking about all this just makes it worse. I just need more time, that's all. And something to help me sleep."
"Ben says he's not prescribing anything more until you see a counselor."
"That's what the alcohol's for."
"And that's another thing –"
"It was a joke."
"It wasn't funny."
Gabriel stood, smoothing the front of his uniform. "This conversation is over, commander. None of this has affected my job performance, otherwise Ben would have pulled rank and declared me unfit for duty long ago. You're all just going to have to bear with me as I work through this."
"And how long do you think that's going to take?"
"I don't know."
Decev nodded as she rose. "Well, when you get tired of the nightmares and waking up with a hangover, come find me."
Gabriel didn't respond, but after Decev left he sat behind his desk for a long while, staring at his terminal screen, absently rubbing his chest where the knife wound continued to throb like a second heartbeat.
( 3 )
Laura played absently with her engagement ring, turning it around and around on her finger, as she stood in the waiting area and watched the passengers disembark. Keith was among the last few, and Laura gave him what she hoped was a warm smile as she started towards him. They shared a brief kiss as they embraced, and then Laura pulled back.
"How was your trip?"
"Not too bad. I paid extra for a first class accommodation this time."
"Oh really? You always complain about how much extra they charge for those suites."
Keith wrapped an arm around Laura's shoulders as they followed the crowd to the nearest PTL. "I know, but it was a long trip, and I wanted to be fully rested by the time I arrived. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."
