For a long moment he felt surrounded by her. A warm vanilla-orange scent was in the strands of hair that tickled his stubbly head, his cheeks. Her body was starting to melt atop his, and the needful kisses he returned were enough to wipe away all thought, the taste of peppermint on her breath a hint that this might have been her goal when she sat down on the edge of his bed.
Automatically, Noah's arms started to wrap around her, and just as his hands were feeling their way down her back a thought that couldn't have been louder in his mind if it came with its own chorus of horns blared. Her grandmother just died! Do you want your first time together to be on that day, brought on by whatever cocktail of grief and other crap she has going on? You know this is a rare moment of vulnerability for her! Then the mental images of Jacob and Ayan scowling down at him made him laugh a little against her mouth. He didn't need that reinforcement. The fact that she was mourning, or waiting to mourn was enough of a reason for him to roll over then gently draw up and away.
But, damn, if this isn't the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Alice smiled up at him, probably reacting to his snicker against her lips. "What?" she asked, looking much more relaxed than she's been moments before.
He stroked her face, let his hand travel down, then pulled the part in her suit closed like an old zipper, fastening it with the stroke of a finger. "Not tonight," he said as gently as he could.
The only warning he had was a look of shocked fury, then she planted a foot on his hip and pushed hard enough to send him off the bed, where he collapsed in a heap. Before he could recover she shrieked, then leaned over the edge of the bed. "I'm sorry!"
"It's okay," Noah said, already turning from irritation of being kicked from his own bed to amusement. "Nothing's broken."
Alice helped him back to the bed, where he dropped beside her. They were both catching their breath, not touching, but centimetres away. He nearly leapt from the bed on his own some time later when she let a frustrated cry, then sighed. "I can't believe you said no to me. If I didn't feel how hard it was, I would have stormed out of here."
"You kicked me out of bed instead," Noah laughed softly. More seriously he added. "Technically, I said 'not now.'" Silence was her reply, so he asked; "Tell that doesn't wreck our day?"
"I wouldn't say that," Alice sighed. "But were you trying to make a point?" she accused, the subtlety apparently lost on her.
"What? No."
"Then… why? Why pick that moment to say no? I mean, I know you felt good about your decision, that it wasn't easy, but why didn't you just go with it?"
"I don't want our first time to be today," Noah started, thinking before he explained the rest.
He was relieved when Alice finished for him. "The day she died."
"Right on target," he said.
"You know how few guys would have stopped that?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Between here and Haven, maybe five. Okay, seven, but that's a stretch," Noah chuckled, hoping to draw her into the levity. Nothing. She wasn't ready to laugh yet.
"It would have been my first time," Alice said. "In this body. With the way I am now."
He had no idea what to say to that, so he closed his mouth and said nothing. They lay there quietly for so long that he actually started dozing off, then his eyes popped open as she took one command and control band off, then activated an interface on the other. It was an outfit selection system. "Is lingerie the answer?" he asked, still trying to bring some humour back.
With a smirk and a snicker Alice shook her head, watching outfits scroll by. "Don't get excited. I'm staying." She selected a halter and bottoms and her vacsuit changed shape to match. They slipped under the covers and cuddled close, he loved the feeling of her in his arms. "That word, the B word," she sighed.
"Brat," he guessed.
"That one," she said, punctuating her response with a pointy-fingered poke in the ribs. "It got to me. Don't call me that unless we're alone."
"So you like it?" Noah asked, turning his head so they were nose to nose, sharing his smile with her.
"I don't know if 'like' is the word, but you're right. I've been getting everything I want except for galactic peace. Guess I should start paying that debt off."
"Mind if I help? I feel I've benefitted from your brat status."
"Sure," Alice said, a little smile playing on her lips. She was calming down; her eyes were focused on him: blue pools that he could stare into for years. "I'm going to need your help since it's official now. We're the first recruiters the fleet has, and every ship they've got is being called back to the Haven System to defend it. We'll be lucky if we get any support for months."
That was good and bad news. Something about the retaking of the Haven System was encouraging, even uplifting. Being on their own, officially, absolutely and tasked with recruitment when there were no others working on the task was almost overwhelming. It must have been written on his face, or maybe she caught what he was feeling, but one of her eyebrows raised as if she was silently asking him to explain, so he did, but not before taking the opportunity to make her laugh again. "I'd better tell the fleet they're leaving me with a crazed nymphomaniac who can get into my cabin whenever she wants."
"Hey!" Alice laughed and poked him in the ribs again; the same exact spot. He winced.
"Kidding!" he said, wincing. "I couldn't be happier." He kissed her briefly and squeezed her close. "Really. Feels like we're right where we should be."
"Finally," Alice sighed.
Thirty-Eight
Epilogue
The War Forge was immense and busier than ever. Nafalli, Mergillians and humans passed each other in the halls, many of them were fresh trainees in the outer corridors. At least two thirds of them had seen combat already, serving on ships that weren't fully crewed for only a few hours during the action that took the Haven System back. So many of them seemed so focused, some even looked eager as they made their way to different training areas.
Salutes were offered by most of the people in each causeway as Jake made his way to the nearest Transit car. He returned them, even asking a few of the wide eyed trainees where they were headed. "Combat Navigation Qualifier Three testing. They monitor you in a medical by while you do that now," one awe struck trainee replied.
"Fitness level two," another who was in a modest workout suit replied, three portly trainees behind her nodding. "I guess we spent too much time in full-dive with brain buds before the fall. They said we've got to train muscle memory, not just shed it all with fitness meds."
"The Admiral doesn't want to hear you complain," one of her fellow trainees said.
Jake shook his head and smiled at the group. "I run every morning I can with my suit resistance turned up and I'm due to start staff training with a couple Nafalli next week. Do what I do: compete with each other. Don't hurt yourself, but push hard and try to be faster, more agile, and stronger than the next trainee."
"Thank you, Admiral," she replied, her smile returning to her round cheeks.
"Dismissed," Jake said, smiling back. "And go kick ass."
It took him half an hour to get to the Transit car to the more secure upper section of the base, there were off duty crew people who were lucky enough to get time off before everyone else. The traffic in the halls was much thinner there, most qualified personnel were still working, but it was good to see foot traffic in the public leisure section of the station. Most of the space was still closed, waiting for people to move in and open restaurants, pubs, clubs, stores and real amusement spots.
"He's a King and off duty but he still marches like he's on a mission," Frost said with a grin as he approached from Jake's left.
Stephanie stepped into his path and got a brief but affectionate hug from him. "Seriously, it looks like you're on your way to arrest someone."
"I'm a co-owner now, no one's a king or queen," he said to Frost. In truth, Jake had no idea he looked so serious. He was on a mission, but not the official kind. Then, to Stephanie he said; "
I'm a little nervous. Too many things still up in the air."
"I'm having a little trouble winding down too," Stephanie said. "Don't put me in for therapy or anything though, I'll be fine. This one won't leave me alone unless I'm asleep, not that I'm complaining, yet." She gestured to Frost.
He winked at her. "Just getting as much time as I can before the Fleet takes you away again," he told her.
"Oh, that's right, you wanted to talk to us once we got settled in," Stephanie said. "Was it an official thing, or?"
"It was an official thing," Jake said. He wasn't fully ready to make them an offer, but he didn't see the point in putting it off any longer. Besides, he was in his dress uniform, so he was dressed for presentations and proposals already. "I'm starting a new Armoured Division under the SOCU banner. Haven Fleet is still working on the details of new three and five metre tall mech suits, but I want you two to be in charge."
Their eyes went wide. Stephanie was less surprised than Frost, though, whose jaw had dropped. "Why SOCU? Why not train all infantry on the suits?" Stephanie asked.
"Oz had a good point about that; we know there will be a need for highly mobile mechs, but we won't know enough to deploy large numbers of them until we test them ourselves. So, I want to start this as a pilot program in SOCU. These suits will operate at a higher power level than our current heavy two metre armour systems. They'll be better armed and more configurable, so I'm sure we'll need them, but we've never built this kind of hybrid machine. It'll be part starfighter and part heavy armour. We need a squad or two to train up and experiment with them."
"They'll need to prove that they're worth using across the fleet," Stephanie said. "What would I do?"
"Well, I know Frost is an expert at stomping around, blowing things up, winning an artillery fight. I need someone who has your experience running boarding teams, ground operations and the more agile kind of strategies we'll need to make this unit more than a blunt instrument. I'd also like you to handle personnel. Oz suggested that you could both test the suits. Your styles are different."
"Where?" Frost asked.
"The Merciless. It's getting an extension so we'll have space. We'll be on patrol in the Haven System for a while, so we can take our time setting the first squad up, then we'll be one of the first ships to leave the system when the perimeter is more secure."
Frost was just about to answer when Stephanie interrupted; "Thank you, Jake. We'll talk about it and get back to you."
"Take your time," Jake replied, seeing that Frost would have taken the job on the spot. Stephanie was more rational, but he could see a little excitement. "It'll take a week for the big armour designs to come together. You can jump in at any stage, I'm sure the designers would love to hear from either one of you."
"Thank you," Frost said.
"Oh, how's your nephew?" Jake asked.
"Nigel's good. He's signed up for the academy, starting official placement testing tomorrow," Frost said. "He's hot to get into the fight. There's a whole batch of people with him from Tamber."
"So, what's with the dress uniform?" Stephanie asked. "I didn't think this was a formal thing."
"You'll see," Jake said, spotting Minh-Chu who had just come in through a side hatch. He hugged his sister, who flashed a knowing grin at Jake before walking off towards the lounge where everyone was getting together.
Minh-Chu was in his dress uniform as well, his jacket and emblems straight, boots polished. "The heart of the resistance," he said to Frost and Stephanie, who sobered a little. "We owe a lot to you two, thank you."
After a moment's hesitation, Stephanie embraced Minh-Chu, and Frost did the same, squeezing the smaller man. He held him at arm's length then, straightening his emblems and jacket. "I hear you ran half the battle from your cockpit," Frost told him. "I couldn't imagine flying one of those death traps while commanding three wings."
"This from our new Heavy Artillery Captain," Minh-Chu replied with a scoff. "You want to talk about death machines…"
"He hasn't accepted yet," Jake said, shaking his head at Minh-Chu.
"Oh," he said. Then, with more levity he added; "You will. No two people are more qualified to make it all work than you."
"Flattery won't distract me enough to stop me from asking about the dress uniforms," Frost said, looking Minh-Chu up and down. "What are you two all dressed up for?"
"I think I know," Stephanie said, her mood lightening by the second as she looked at Jake and Minh-Chu. "Don't worry, I won't warn them."
"What? What's goin' on?" Frost asked.
"Let's go," Stephanie said, pulling on his cuff. "We'll see you in there."
"Fine, keep it to yourself," Frost chided at her with no small measure of humour. "You should take Lamonthe's offer, you're so good at keepin' secrets."
When they were out of earshot, Minh-Chu looked to Jake and smiled at him uneasily. "So, you ready?"
"I've never been this nervous," he replied, accepting the small box and carefully cracking it open so no one around could see. It was beautiful, a gold band with green and blue diamonds mounted flush with the metal. He closed it and pushed it into his pocket. "You'd think nothing could rattle me."
"Funny, I feel fine," Minh-Chu said casually.
"Really?" Jake asked.
"Of course not!" his old friend burst, laughing nervously. "I keep hoping for an alert, so I can jump into a fighter and put this off again."
Applause went up from their left then, there were a few cheers as well. It drew their attention away from their nerves for a moment as they saw where a section of the hull overhead had been made transparent. Through it they could see down the length of the War Forge, where a long sliver of the Ascent One was slowly descending into a processing port on the starboard side of the base. If his mind wasn't elsewhere, Jake would have enjoyed the sight much more. He was thinking about Ayan, who was waiting in the lounge that had been reserved for their private party.
Some might see his impending proposal of marriage a political move for them both. The Nafalli loved the human tradition. Many of them mated for life and the ceremony of marriage was fascinating to them. They saw the whole process of proposal, arrangement, preparation and the ceremony as a chain of events that gave opportunities for several celebrations leading to the biggest right after the wedding. To Jake, it felt more like arriving. If Ayan said yes, they would be agreeing that she, Laura and he were a family, and that when they were together they were home, no matter where they were. He feared any hint of hesitation on her part, though. Then, in a rare, cowardly moment, he asked; "Are you sure I'm not stepping on your toes? I mean, I kind of insinuated myself into this when you said you'd be using this party to propose to Ash."
Minh-Chu's eyes narrowed, his lips pursed, "You're not getting cold feet, are you? The great Admiral, getting all jittery at the last moment."
"No, no, I'm just thinking about you and Ash," Jake said. "As long as you don't think I'll be taking away from her special moment."
"No. No one wants you and Ayan to get together officially more than Ashley. I won't be surprised if she tries to turn this into a double wedding," Minh-Chu said. "We're in for a whole different kind of adventure."
"All right, then let's get to it," Jake said, nervous and excited at the same time.
"Wait, we have to see where they are. This won't work if they're at different ends of the place," Minh-Chu said, pulling a video feed up on his command and control unit. He found Ashley in seconds. She was right in front of Ayan, who had Laura comfortably seated in a pocket made for her in her vacsuit.
"…really vocal lately," Ayan was saying as Laura cooed at Ashley, who was staring at her, absolutely enchanted.
"Are you trying to talk?" Ashley asked in a candied voice.
"Uaaaaaaa-moooooo-oooooo," came Laura's response as Ayan gently bounced her.
"Okay, they're together," Minh-Chu said.
They started for the doors of the lounge, falling into a march. It was surprising how much Minh-Chu
could extend his stride to keep up with Jake. "Ashley's going to go crazy when you drop to one knee."
"You think? I mean, I think she'll say 'yes,' but you can never be sure until, you know."
"You have nothing to worry about," Jake told him, absolutely certain.
"Ayan might say; 'it's about time!'" Minh-Chu said with a chuckle.
"I'd take that with a grin," Jake told him. "I just hope Laura will be on board. She can be finicky."
Minh-Chu snickered, then laughed heartily as he put his hand on the heavy door handle. He shook his head, taking a calming breath. "Oh, this might not go well if I can't keep a straight face. I just pictured little Laura shaking her head at you."
"Okay, that's coming up in a future nightmare," Jake laughed. "Okay, okay, this is serious. It's romantic stuff."
Minh-Chu straightened then checked Jake's jacket, tugging it straight. "Yup, serious."
They calmed down and each took a door handle in hand. "I'm glad we're doing this together," Minh-Chu said.
"Me too. Never thought I'd see the day, but I'm glad it's finally here," Jake said.
"Hey, I thought that was my job," Minh-Chu said. "Coming up with the quotes."
"Well, do you have anything in mind?"
Minh-Chu didn't have to take a moment to ponder before saying; "Nope, too nervous." They started opening the doors then Minh-Chu stopped. "Wait."
"Go on," Jake said, the double doors open a crack.
Minh-Chu smiled, and without looking at Jake, he said; "Good luck."
There were weightier, more significant things to be said about the future, about potential, about love and family, but in that moment Minh-Chu had kept things simple. He'd said all either of them needed to hear, so he echoed it back to him; "Good luck."
Thank you
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 14 Page 32
