by Lance Berry
Commencement day arrived, and before Mara knew it, she left her fellows seated in an ocean of blue uniforms to take the stage and receive her commendations and diploma. After everyone tossed their hats into the air once the ceremony was over, she searched the crowd for her father. To her surprise and consternation, Kim Tan was present with her children, Courtney and Tommy, and had Sara and Peter in tow.
“Mara!” the freckle-faced, brown-haired boy shouted triumphantly as he raced to his eldest sister, knocking the wind out of her as he collided into a loving bear hug. Mara couldn’t help but laugh; no matter what disagreements she had had with her father over the years, no matter what stresses had befallen the family, Peter’s love remained eternally unconditional.
She reached down, returning the hug, and they shared a brief peck on the lips. “It’s so good to see you, kiddo,” Mara said to Peter, who was quite tall for his six years. She then raised her eyes to look at Sara, who stood a few feet off. “It’s good to see you both,” she offered, and gestured for her younger sister to come over.
The tall, thin twelve year-old girl with honey-blonde hair and light brown eyes nibbled on her lip a moment, as if actually considering whether to greet her elder sibling. Finally she did move forward, and wrapped her arms around Mara briefly before pulling away. “Congratulations, sis… you made it.”
Mara nodded, wondering what in the world was wrong with her. “Thank you. Thank you, Sara.”
Sara nodded and went back to stand beside Courtney. In spite of the two-year age difference between them, the girls had remained the best of friends all this time. Mara and Peter held hands as they walked over to face the others. Courtney and her brother immediately gave Mara hugs and congratulated her, and Kim kissed Mara on the cheek. “Congratulations, honey.
I’m so proud of you,” Kim said as she gently ran her fingers down Mara’s dark hair. “Thank you,” Mara said evenly. “My father too busy to come, I suppose?”
“Dad’s got duties,” Sara said brusquely.
Kim moved forward a little closer to Mara, ignoring Sara’s jibe as she replied, “Your father is very busy. He asked if I could bring the kids.”
“Where’s your husband?” Mara asked, emphasizing the last word a bit more severely than she intended. If Kim took notice of her tone, she didn’t say anything as she answered, “At work.
He’s got two surgeries to perform today.”
“Looks like you’ve taken on a big load; mother of two and full-time babysitter. Must take up a lot of time.”
Kim shrugged. “I enjoy it. Your father’s a great guy, I don’t mind helping out.” Mara nodded slowly but said nothing.
Instead, she looked at Courtney and Tommy, each one the spitting images of Kim and her husband John, respectively.
“How are you guys enjoying Earth? I know you don’t get down here much.”
“It’s push so far,” Tommy answered excitedly. “I forgot how green the leaves are on the trees here. On Luna, it’s all recycled oxygen…leaves look a little paler, just a bit, if you stop and think about it.”
“Yeah, you don’t notice as much when you’re actually on Alpha, ‘til you come here,” Courtney agreed. “I might move here when I get older.” Kim wrapped an arm around her daughter and pulled her face forward with the other hand, bestowing a quick kiss to the cheek. “She’s always talking about moving to Earth,” Kim told Mara. “I think it’s ‘cause she doesn’t love me anymore.” “Mommm…” Courtney said with an embarrassed smile.
“I’m hungry,” Sara said abruptly. “Kim, can we get something to eat?”
“Sure, honey,” Kim said affably. “If I remember, there’s a restaurant not too far from here…”
“There’s a full banquet in the commissary,” Mara remarked.
“Go knock yourselves out. Sara, why don’t you take the others ahead and get a table? I want to talk to Kim for a second.”
Sara exhaled lightly in annoyance. “Sure.” She took Peter’s hand from Mara and led her friends around the back of Delphi Hall, where the main commencement had taken place, to the commissary. As the kids receded into the distance, the other families of graduates had begun to thin about a bit, as some also went to the commissary for food, abandoned the campus for nearby restaurants or simply headed back home to celebrate their childrens’ accomplishment. Mara and Kim sat down in one of the deserted back rows of chairs, an empty seat between them as the sun shone brightly and warmly down upon them.
“Are you and my father sleeping together?”
Kim’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. “I can’t—I can’t believe you would ask me that!”
“That’s not the answer I’m looking for,” Mara replied evenly, unflinching.
“Of course not!” Kim said indignantly. “What in the world ever made you think such a thing?”
“That kiss you and my father shared the last time I was home. The fact you spend every other day at his house looking after kids that aren’t yours. No one looks after someone else’s kids all the time without being paid, or getting something satisfying in return.”
“Maybe I’m just satisfied helping your father because he’s a nice person who’s been through a lot! Did you ever stop to think of that?”
Mara stopped short, caught off-guard by the question. She actually had not thought of that possibility, not once. Kim was a very beautiful woman, slight of build with dark eyes that lit up when she smiled. When Mara was little and she would go out for walks with her mother and Kim—the latter woman still married at the time, but well before she had children—she was aware of men approaching the lovely Vietnamese woman. At the time, Mara didn’t fully understand their intent, or why Kim slapped and yelled at one man in her native language, but she knew men were interested in her. As the years passed and
Mara came to better understand what men wanted through her own rebuke of their advances, she figured someone like Kim had just gotten used to being the center of attention. And now, she figured her father had just been one more man to come under her sway. She had truly never considered the possibility that even if Mark had made some sort of play, that Kim would have simply had the strong moral fiber to just say no, in spite of their close friendship and the long hours her husband worked at the base hospital.
And now she had no answer to give, as Kim simply stared at her, a look of indignation and hurt mixed in her dark eyes. Her chest heaved slightly and her fingers entwined tightly. It seemed she was trying very hard to keep herself from reaching up to slap Mara, and the younger woman couldn’t blame her if she did.
“I’m sorry. Thanks for bringing the kids,” was all Mara could manage to say. She stood quickly, turned on her heel and walked away, not daring to look back for seeing the hurt in Kim’s eyes once more.
Chapter 18
“Have you suddenly gone stupid?” Mark Elliot yelled over the vid-com at his eldest daughter, who was ensconced within a private room at a hotel near the Deveraux campus. Some friends had invited her to a late-night after party, and she eagerly agreed. It had been too long since she’d gone out and socialized, and Mara figured she needed to let off some steam.
The suite was full of young privates ready to ship out to their new assignments the next morning, and there was alcohol aplenty. This would be their last chance to touch the stuff legally anyway, since only synthetic beer and wine was allowed aboard Heavy Cruisers and on military bases. As the party got started, Mara had a sudden urge to check her e-mail, and when she did, found a vid-message from her father demanding that she contact him at once. She knew what it was for, of course, but all the self-bracing in the world couldn’t prepare her for the anger in his voice.
“I cannot believe you accused Kim of sleeping with me, after the talk you and I had!”
Mara sighed helplessly. No matter how much she could apologize for her mistake, she knew her father wouldn’t be appeased. Yet she tried anyway. “Dad, I am so sorry. It’s just that you didn’t come to my graduation, and when I saw Kim
there with all the kids, acting like she was Sara and Peter’s mother…”
“I don’t care if she went running across the quad with Peter and Sara chasing after her screaming ‘mommy’ at the top of their lungs! She is my friend, and until today, she considered you one as well! How could you betray her like that, Mara?
How could you be so cold, hurt her so?”
Mara’s teeth gritted together, and something inside her…the censure part of the brain which keeps one from saying all the things one shouldn’t…immediately clicked to the off position.
“Cold…? Cold! How dare you, Dad! How dare you accuse me of being cold, with the practically Antarctic reception you’ve given me the last few times I’ve been home! You treat me like a stranger, you don’t come to my commencement—my commencement! It’s the proudest moment of my life, and you’re not there to share it with me?” She felt tears welling, but refused to let them fall. She was twenty-four now, her mental reserves stronger. She didn’t need to cry anymore at her father’s callousness, no matter how much it hurt.
Mark was surprised to suddenly find himself on the defensive. “I…I had…I have duties, Mara. As security commander for the base—“
“As security commander for the base, you can damn well put someone else in charge for one day, so you can be with your daughter as she graduates from the Academy,” she said darkly, anger building up like bile in her throat. Her features abruptly softened, and she huffed once as she shook her head sadly.
“And now I can see your resentment, or whatever it is you want to call it, in Sara’s eyes too. What are you telling her, Dad?
What are you poisoning her mind with against me?”
“I’m not doing anything to ‘poison’ her mind, thank you.”
“She takes after you, Dad! You’re the only parent figure she’s got…oh, I’m sorry! You and Kim are the only parents she’s got! How could you turn my own sister against me? How long before you turn Peter against me?”
“You’re paranoid, Mara! You’re being nonsensical! You need to put a lid on that—it’s conduct unbecoming a soldier.”
Mara huffed once more, drawing her lower lip in a bit. “I remember the day I told you I wanted to go into the military.
You were so proud, you even defended my decision against Mom’s wishes. We were so tight then, it was so good…what happened? Aren’t you proud of me anymore?”
“Not at the moment, no.”
Mara sat up straight, her mouth agape in shock. Mark’s face remained neutral, impassive and implacable. She nodded soberly and simply switched the vid-com off. She rolled the chair away from the dresser on which the com rested, and her chest heaved uncontrollably. She slapped her palms up to her eyes, trying to keep the tears pushed in.
Fuck you! Fuck you, she screamed at herself in her head.
Don’t you dare cry! She slowly lowered her hands and managed to get her breathing under control. She looked in the mirror hung on the wall behind the dresser and was pleased that she was successful. Her makeup wasn’t smudged, she looked fine.
She got to her feet, straightened her dress and went out to the main suite to rejoin the party.
Interim One
Mara took a window seat as soon as she boarded the shuttle bound for Mars. She knew that some pilots took their sweet time going from Earth to the colonies, depending on their scheduled arrival…sometimes because they just enjoyed a lazy jaunt, more often than not to give the new soldiers opportunity to get to know one another on the way as a means of reliving the glory days of their own youth. Mara didn’t really care for conversation on this flight; there was time enough to get to know her compatriots once they reached the Omega Base. Her concern was enjoying the view once the shuttle would be on final approach to the red planet. Having never been there before, she was anxious to enjoy every moment of her first arrival.
“Sit back and enjoy the ride, folks,” the pilot announced as she lifted off from the Trenton, New Jersey Starport. “We’ll be at Mars in just a couple of hours.”
Good. No wasting time, Mara thought happily. Once the small vessel cleared the exosphere, she felt like a little kid and had to contain herself from asking “are we there yet?” over and over. The shuttle utilized a null field to jump to light speed, and Mara’s heart pounded more excitedly than the first time her parents had taken her to the moon. After the first hour though, she began to feel a little groggy, and worried that she might doze off. Reluctantly, she turned to the person next to her— a thin, brown-haired girl with her hair done in pigtails, who was reading a solid book as opposed to a dsp.
“Excuse me,” Mara said as she leaned close so no one else could hear. “I don’t mean to bug you, but I really don’t want to be asleep when we reach Mars. Do you think you could wake me if I doze?”
The pigtailed girl flashed a quick, friendly smile. “Sure thing.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
The girl went back to reading her book as Mara turned away to look back out the window. She noticed the book her seat mate was reading was a biography of music star Jemmn., one of the most popular performers to ever come out of the PanAsian Provinces…indeed, one of the most popular in recent history, period. Mara had always liked her combination of haiku-inspired lyrics, soulful ballads and dance music. If she had to have a conversation with the young woman beside her later, at least there was a mutual topic to start from.
Mara hadn’t even realized she had dozed off, when someone started nudging her arm gently. “Hey…hey,” the female voice said. For an instant, Mara thought it was Katie’s…but no; she sat up and looked to her side to find the young pigtailed girl looking at her, that same friendly smile from earlier planted once again on her face. It was infectious somehow, and Mara couldn’t help but return it.
“Are we there yet?” Mara asked.
The girl with the Jemmn. book pointed to the window.
Mara turned around and with a light gasp of delight saw Mars directly outside the window, as the shuttle made a turning arc toward it. As the pilot worked her controls and the shuttle began to slowly level out however, the planet began to move out of Mara’s immediate field of vision. She craned her neck over the chair in front of her, trying desperately to keep what was to be her new home—albeit temporary, until whatever her next assignment might be—in view.
“Do you wanna switch seats?” the pretty pigtailed girl asked pleasantly.
Mara smiled shyly, somewhat embarrassed at her own display of exuberance. “Sure, thanks,” she answered, and the two climbed over each other to swap. Mara ignored the curious looks of a couple of her cabin mates and leaned her head into the aisle, straining from her seat in the rear to see the red planet through the central viewport up front.
“Shuttle Ismat, you are cleared for landing at bay four,” a male voice said crisply over the pilot’s com-line.
“Roger that, base command. Ismat on final approach,” the pilot answered in a casual tone as the large geodesic domes and the city lights within gradually became more distinct. There were two bases on Mars—Omega and Gamma, each located in the Silpher and Lowell craters, respectively. Between the two of them, about twenty thousand people lived and worked within.
High above the planet’s surface sat the recently completed Hephaestus Shipyards, the most advanced ship construction/repair facility UEF had ever created. There was not much declassified information available, but Mara’s father had once remarked that the construction crews worked in overlapping shifts, ceaselessly building and repairing Heavy Cruisers on an ongoing basis. It was unknown exactly how many battlecruisers the Calvorian Alliance possessed, but United Earth Force intended to meet them ship-for-ship at every battle point, and Hephaestus was their best chance for doing it. At least a dozen Heavy Cruisers were on constant patrol, and as she glanced out one of the starboard side windows, three more were coming out of their warp exits and assuming protective orbits above the planet.
