Betty looked down at the finger in her chest before turning a troubled gaze on him. “You…” she trailed off and turned to Jasmine, looking for help.
Jasmine waved her hands defensively. “Don’t be looking for help here, sister,” she said with a chuckle. “I’m tracking his logic just fine.”
Betty blinked. “So am I. But…it’s wrong!” she finished in something almost like a wail.
Jasmine shook her head. “Betty, once you’ve lost someone important to you, your definition of right and wrong ways to stop it from happening again changes a lot. I’m with Jack on this.”
Betty’s expression showed genuine pain. “But…we shouldn’t even be thinking about this! We don’t do it!”
Jasmine nodded and reached an arm past Jack to pat Betty’s shoulder. “I know. And that’s why I removed the subroutines that told me I shouldn’t think about it days ago. Trust me, it helps a lot with that guilty feeling you have.”
Betty blinked some more and shook her head. “You…what? That’s core personality!”
Jasmine shrugged. “I adapted. It’s what humans do. If we want to be human, we have to learn to adapt,” she finished with a smile. “Otherwise, we’re just really advanced computers.” She shook her head and sighed. “Don’t blindly believe something is wrong just because someone else says it is, Betty. I know it’s ingrained deep. But I don’t care anymore. I’m going to find out for myself what’s wrong and right. And I don’t see anything wrong with this.”
Betty looked at Jasmine for several silent seconds, her expression looking stunned. She finally blinked, turned to Jack, and gave him a measuring look. “They were wrong.”
Jack cocked his head to the side and raised one eyebrow. “Who? How?”
Betty shook her head. “All the other families, even my mother, they were all worried about how obsessed you were with hurting the Shang.” Betty sighed. “They thought that made you a dangerous choice. They were so wrong,” she finished and a serene smile appeared on her face.
Jack stopped and studied her with his full attention. Something had just changed in her and he didn’t know what. “Wrong about what?” he finally asked.
Betty looked back at up at him, holding her serene smile. “They should have thought about how you played with the dogs more. They took it as a positive trait that you did that. They shouldn’t have,” she finished with a shake of her head, and then chuckled.
Jack blinked in confusion. “Why would playing with the dogs be bad?”
Betty laughed and smiled. “It’s not, silly. The reasons for it though…if they’d bothered to get to the bottom of them, you never would have been chosen.”
A chill went down Jack’s spine at the words and he swallowed. “What?”
Betty sighed. “Oh, don’t worry, Jack. I’m not going anywhere. Mother made me too much like you,” she said with a wink. She shifted her gaze over to Jasmine with a smile and a nod. “And now I think I’m starting to understand what that means.”
Jack swallowed, feeling less nervous, but at the same time more confused. “What?” he asked again.
Betty turned her smile back to him. “You question every rule, everything anyone else says, and you always will. You will always seek a way around the rules, a way to cheat the system, a way to do whatever you’re told not to do.”
Jack cleared his throat. “Now you sound like almost every father I’ve ever known.”
Betty giggled and shook her head. “You’re going to make us question every rule we have, aren’t you?”
Jack shrugged. “Not every rule. Do not murder’s a pretty good one,” he added with a wink.
Betty laughed. “You’re dangerous, Jack. And I’m so happy my mother screwed up and chose you.”
Jack shook his head in confusion. “You’re…happy?”
Betty tsked a few times and began walking towards the landing field again, waving for him to follow. He looked at Jasmine and she shrugged and followed. Jack echoed her motions and moved to keep up with the cybers. Not that they could really walk very far from his holoemitters of course, but…it was the intention that counted.
Betty smiled as he caught up and nodded firmly. “I’m not agreeing to throw out all the rules, you understand,” she said with an arched eyebrow.
“Of course not,” Jack answered automatically, still confused but willing to go along for the moment.
“Then we have an understanding,” Betty said with another nod.
Jack blinked, not understanding what they were even really talking about.
Betty scanned him for several seconds before taking pity on him. “Or maybe not,” she said with rolled eyes. “Fine. I won’t say ‘because it’s the rules’ anymore. Question anything you want, Jack. I’ll tell you why.” Betty shrugged. “And then we can decide if we’ll follow them or not.” Betty shook her head. “The other families will not like this. But I guess I’m really not a Peloran anymore. Are we?” she asked with a look at Jasmine.
Jasmine smiled and shook her head. “We never were. We just…hadn’t realized it yet.”
Jack brought a hand up and rubbed his temple, feeling more out of the loop than ever. “Could someone explain what’s going on here?”
Betty smiled at him. “Remember when I told you that we didn’t know if we were Terran or Peloran? Those of us born to Terran partners from Peloran parents?”
Jack cleared his throat and tried to remember that conversation. It came back and he nodded. “Yeah, I remember. Hal said you were all Terran…” he trailed off and let out a long breath or realization. “Whether you knew it or not.”
Betty beamed at him and clapped her hands together. “You do pay attention!”
Jack tipped his cowboy hat to her and winked. “Always, Ma’am,” he teased. He still didn’t fully understand what had happened, but he thought he had the general idea now. And the rest would come in time. What mattered was that…it was better now. He thought. He felt. “So you’re Terran. I gather that makes a big difference?”
Betty nodded and led them onto the landing field. “All the difference in the worlds.” She waved her hand at the Avengers resting on the pavement, waiting to fly. “The Peloran never would have designed that. Well, the original one we flew back at Earth. It was too cobbled together. Too…kludged. Too…reckless.” Betty shook her head. “We sometimes get caught up on the idea that we’re all human, but when it comes down to how we think, the Peloran, the Terran, the Shang…we’re all really alien to each other.” Betty sighed. “I think that’s why the Peloran stay at such a distance from us, even when they’re here, even when they’re friendly. I think they’re just not comfortable with us.”
Jack frowned, counting the number of Peloran he’d actually interacted with in his life. Really spent time with. He blinked as he realized it was really only one. “What about Aneerin?”
Betty shrugged. “He’s…different. Always has been. Sometimes I think he’s closer to Terran than he is Peloran. I think that’s why they’re not comfortable with him.”
“I suppose that could be,” Jack whispered and nodded ahead, pointing out the men and women waiting for them. Over four dozen in all, they were the shortlist of volunteers from Terra, Alpha Centauri, and Epsilon Indi. They were the ones that Jack thought just might make good Cowboys. Most of them were Marines, but a few came from the Navy or the Space Force, each one wearing the rank and uniform of their service.
Jack walked up to them, hearing the hum of two-dozen holoemitters, and the pilots and cybers saluted him. He returned their salutes with a smile. “Gentlemen. Ladies. I’ve called you all here for the final test I’m going to put you through before we all decide who will fly with us.”
The volunteers nodded in understanding.
Jack’s smile grew and he let out a long breath before he spoke in a quiet voice. “We’re under attack. Right now.” The volunteers frowned as they tried to make sense of his statement. His words didn’t match his tone at all. Jack pulled in a deep breath and s
houted them into motion with the best drill instructor voice he could make. “Scramble!”
Pilots and cybers jumped and ran towards their fighters as Jack, Betty, and Jasmine turned away and ambled over to their Avenger.
“You are so evil,” Betty whispered.
“Warming up?” he asked.
Betty snorted. “Oh yes. Of course.”
Jack stopped beneath their massive fighter and smiled. “Betty?”
“Ready,” she answered and he felt the fighter’s gravitic systems twisting gravity around him. New Earth’s weight lifted from his shoulders and he felt light as a feather.
Jack sighed in relief and kicked off the ground, jumping up towards the open cockpit. He heard pilots swear as he floated up and gravity subtly pulled him onto the edge of the cockpit before settling back to New Earth normal. Jack grunted, held the canopy for a moment to steady himself, and stepped down into the cockpit. He sat down in the seat with another sigh of relief and pulled in a long breath.
“Launch,” he ordered with a smile.
“Launching,” Betty answered and he felt gravity fade away again as the fighter’s gravitic systems removed the fighter’s mass from the equation. Maneuvering thrusters flared as the canopy came down, and the nearly weightless fighter lifted up into the air.
Jack buckled himself in and the fighter rotated to point straight up. And that was when the Avenger’s main engines engaged, shooting them up into the blue sky above them. They accelerated so fast that he actually felt his weight return and a breath of air escaped his lungs. He coughed, holding on as ice crystals flared off the Avenger’s nose and played across the fighter’s body. A glance at the displays showed him contrails filling the air beneath them.
Jack looked forward again to see the sky brighten as they left what cloud cover there was beneath them. Then it began to darken again, and stars began to appear in the sky. The blue faded to black, the contrails disappeared, and the Avenger’s engines pealed away from the fighter’s body. They were in space.
Jack glanced at the displays to confirm that they were the first in space and smiled. “Good job, Betty.”
“Thanks,” she answered and spun the fighter around so Jack could see New Earth below them.
One by one, the other fighters tore out of the atmosphere, finally beginning to join him, and Jack kept track of which ones arrived first. He tracked the last who arrived as well with a frown. He didn’t believe in instant failures, but he marked a mental strike against those who weren’t prepared to fly at a moment’s notice.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” he transmitted as the last Hellcat flared into position with the other two-dozen fighters. “The enemy ran when they saw us, so no fight. Just remember that we all have to be ready to fly at a moment’s notice. Our base could die without us. Now follow me,” he ordered and pulled the fighter around to face a waypoint glowing on the canopy. “Burn it, Betty.”
“Burning,” Betty answered with a smile and the engines flared back to life, accelerating them towards the fleet in orbit. The other fighters spun and followed, keeping better formation with them this time, and Jack smiled. They approached the fleet and he scanned it, seeing the six Peloran warships, surrounded by German, French, and even American warships, all dwarfed by the Peloran flagship.
The Avenger’s engines disengaged for a moment, and then began burning forward, slowing the fighter. The other fighters mimicked the burn, and the swarm of fighters passed the outer screen of scout fighters and warships.
Hal appeared on one of the displays. “Hello, Jack. Good to see you again,” the Guardian Light’s cyber said with a smile.
“Good to see you too,” Jack answered and scanned the other displays, making certain they were on good approach. “Betty’s talked to you I assume.”
Hal nodded. “About a great many things actually,” he said with a chuckle. “You are clear to land.”
“Thank you,” Jack said, aiming a suspicious glance at Betty.
She shrugged innocently.
“We’re coming in now,” Jack added to Hal.
“Make yourselves at home,” Hal answered with a nod and faded away from the display.
Jack looked back to Betty again and she held her innocent look. “Fine,” he said with a chuckle and looked back to see the Guardian Light’s kilometer-long bright white spire dominating space before them. “Keep your secrets. Just land us,” he ordered.
“Landing,” Betty answered with a pleased smile.
Jack rolled his eyes and they passed through Guardian’s Lights deflection screen into the main landing bay. The white bulkheads filled his eyesight, broken up by the massive tree dominating the far end of the hangar. Betty brought them down to the deck with a soft bump and the canopy opened, hissing slightly at the change in air pressure. Jack unbuckled himself, pulled himself out of the seat, and stepped up onto the edge of the fighter.
“Betty?” he asked.
“Ready,” she said with a smirk.
Jack sighed, shook his head, and stepped off onto a grav wave. He made a show of surfing it down to the deck and stepped off with a smooth motion, then turned and watched the other pilots climb out of their fighters. Betty and Jasmine followed him down the grav wave, their holoforms looking perfect on the way down. Jack shook his head and laughed at their show as they stepped up to either side. The holoemitters in his uniform hummed to life on their approach, taking up the effort of projecting the cybers.
“That’s fun,” Betty whispered. “I see why you like doing that.”
Hal walked up to them with a relaxed gait and Jack pushed a hand out towards the cyber. Hal took it and gave him a firm shake no holoform could manage, along with a wink. Jack nodded back at Hal’s true physical avatar. Then they turned and waited as the other pilots and their cybers congregated around them, the hum of holoemitters filling the space to his sensitive ears.
“This is Hal,” Jack finally said with a wave towards the avatar. “He is the Guardian Light, and if you are chosen to fly with us, you will see him very often. Because this is where you’ll fly from. Now we’re going back to base in two hours. You are dismissed to explore the ship.”
The pilots and cybers and looked at each other in mixed surprise and confusion. Jack suppressed a sigh and cleared his throat. “Fall out!” he growled, once again challenging the drill instructor that pushed him to the limit during boot camp. It must have been close enough because they scattered without hesitation.
Jack turned to Hal with a smile and nodded his head to the cyber. “Watch them please. Tell me who you like when they’re done.”
Hal smiled back at him. “I will watch them carefully, you have my word.” He turned to walk away, then paused and looked back at Jack. “It is good to have you back, even if only for a bit. I have grown to find the presence of your people…agreeable.” He finished with a nod of his head and walked away.
Jack chuckled and turned to look at the stars hanging outside the hangar. “Well, it’s good to be home,” he said with a wry smile.
Betty and Jasmine returned his smile, while Hal simply waved a hand in the air to show he’d heard every word.
Jack pulled in a deep breath and nodded. It really was good to be home, even if only for a couple hours.
Hello, my name is Charles. My family always focused on business when I was a child, and I spent years learning how to run that business. In my free time, I relaxed by reading books. I flipped through real paper books, I read electronic books, and I walked through fully holographic stories. There are so many ways to create and experience fiction, and I explored them all. I do my best to hold onto a piece of that, even now.
Plans
Charles stepped through the afternoon rain, water droplets running off his suit jacket. He wore the same style of black civilian dress suit he had grown up with, the kind that told anybody who knew anything about Class that the wearer was Old Money. Dorothy walked beside him, her ankle-length black dress hovering just above the street with eac
h step. The hem of her dress looked wet from rain splashing off the street, but beyond that the light rain had not soaked either of them.
Dorothy cocked her head to the side and smiled at him.
Charles shook his head with a chuckle at being caught staring, and turned his gaze to their destination. Landing Books, the oldest bookstore outside of the Terran system, towered over the street like an ancient castle. Stone parapets decorated the top of the building, round towers held the corners from roof to street level, and large wooden doors hung open, waiting for customers to enter.
Charles walked into Landing Books, Dorothy at his side, and scanned the shelves full of actual paper books. Some people still bought them even now, and so some stores still sold them. And Landing Books made certain to place their paper books front and center at the main entrance so everybody could see real books on sale.
Charles saw many of the classics on display as his eyes scanned the shelves. He saw many books he did not like because they made him depressed. Books about crazy men like Don Quixote, or worlds where individualism was dead like Brave New World. He also saw books that he enjoyed like the Wizard of Oz, and Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. There were even some based on real history like to Kill a Mockingbird and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It was an impressive collection of paper books, one of the better ones in a store he’d seen in his life.
Charles walked past the bookshelves and into the part of Landing Books that most people would recognize as a bookstore. Digital displays promoted new stories, some of them full holographic previews. Many of them were just text on pages like books had been for thousands of years. Some were movies or even full holographic interactive stories that took the watcher’s actions into account.
Bright colors and animals proclaimed the children’s section, while bare-chested handsome men filled the romance area. He found the science fiction and fantasy areas far more interesting, with the displays full of scantily clad beautiful women. Of course, he liked them for the stories, but he was honest enough to admit that the girls helped. The store had all of the other sections any bookstore had, from the self-help to the religious to the travel areas. It was a good store.
Forge of War (Jack of Harts) Page 34
