Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

  Chapter 5: A New Beginning

  General Langtree had virtually moved into Mylea’s home. Most nights he slept in the quest room. Often he and Mylea shared a late night dinner. They didn’t get much time together, but the time they spent seemed to bring them closer together. Langtree was finding that he couldn’t conceive of future without Mylea. She seemed to understand him. Mylea for her part had been very lonely. Lonely as only a surviving lifemate could be. David had been filling a gap she needed. She found herself day dreaming about David in staff meetings, and at different times. So much so that Michael who had been a witness at her lifemating to Garth had teased her in private. He also commented that every function that required an escort, David was her escort.

  One morning as Mylea packed up some more of her stuff, (She knew she should have been packed by now. But it was just too hard to pack and run the evacuation. Lady Hawthorne had offered some cadets to help; but Mylea thought it was inappropriate.) Lamile was working alongside her as they packed the kitchen. She turned to her mother and asked, “Mom do you want me to approach David and ask him to lifemate you?”

  When a Thonian who survived the death of their lifemate and their time of morning was over, if the Thonian was seeing another man or woman, it was their adult children who acted as a go between for the couple. Telling the prospective lifemate it was okay for them to lifemate their parent. It was a rare occurrence, as many Thonians did not survive the trauma of a spouse’s death. It was just too traumatic for the survivor. Mylea turned to her daughter and said “I know it has been obvious that me and David are an item.”

  “You could say that,” Lamile said, smiling, “I would say inseparable.”

  “Do you have a problem with me lifemating with David?” Mylea asked. “I mean he isn’t Thonian.”

  “Mom,” Lamile said, “I don’t know. I am not really a Thonian. I have spent so much of my growing up years on Earth, on Thonia, on every outpost you have been assigned to that hasn’t been a hardship I am not a Thonian anymore. But for the last three years I have lived with you on Trena, I have been to school with Earth boys, and Thonian boys. If you can be happy with David, who I am to say no! He’s good to you. But can you be lifemated to a human? Can you have sex with someone who won’t bind with you the way the aqaut bound you with dad? That’s what I have worried about.”

  “I am too,” Mylea admitted. There hadn’t been very many Thonians who had survived the death of life mate. Even fewer still who had lifemated again after their spouse had died. She knew of no one who lifemated a human after their spouse had died. She had heard of Thonian’s lifemating humans for the first time, and had heard that in about half the time the bounding didn’t take. Sometimes it did. Often regardless if it did or didn’t the union produced children. Children didn’t enter into the picture. Thonian woman rarely had more than two children. The aqaut also had changed their chemistry so that after the second child a woman’s body didn’t conceive a child. A lot of research had gone into the problem and Thonian Medical Science was making inroads on the issue; but for Mylea she had no desire to raise more children. She would be content to retire and live with David for the rest of their lives. “I don’t know if it’s that big a deal if I don’t share the aqaut with David. I mean those feelings I shared with your dad, and the love making. You’ll just have to take my word for it, making love with a man who is in your brain and you are in his brain as you have intercourse is something that is indescribable. I would miss that.”

  “If you lifemated with David and that didn’t happen would it harm your and David’s lifemating.” Lamile asked.

  “I think we could work it out.” Mylea said, “I certainly didn’t expect to be alive today, and if I don’t bind with David like I did with your father I am sure that David will still love me and wants to be with me. I know I want to be with him. I will take him anyway I can keep him.”

  “So I guess the answer is yes you want me to make a lifemating offer to him?” Lamile asked.

  “No,” Mylea made up her mind, “I will make an offer of marriage. That is if you agree to it.”

  “I asked if I should approach David didn’t I,” Lamile responded.

  “I see,” Mylea said, closing the last box that had her kitchen stuff in it. She was surprised how much stuff she had accumulated since coming to Trena. She had always stayed in base housing with the Lamile and Garth. That usually meant a furnished house or apartment. But when she came to Trena with Lamile in tow they didn’t have much more than the clothes on their backs and some trophies, books, and personal things. No furniture, no kitchen stuff, just a couple of crates of things they had picked up around the galaxy from her various duty stations. Lisa and she had spent months outfitting her place. She was surprised at how much stuff she had accumulated.

  “David,” Mylea said into the communicator. When he answered she asked, “my kitchen’s packed up, want to meet me for dinner at the Base O Club?’

  “Okay,” he said, “I’ll meet you there at 1800!”

  “See you then.” Mylea terminated the call then called her office. She had been out of it all day.

  “Evac 2,” the duty officer in her office replied.

  “Jack, it’s me,” Mylea returned, “I haven’t heard from you all day, I take it things are okay?’

  “Oh hi skipper,” Jack returned, “Everything’s running smooth. We have lifted thirty thousand people today. That includes 2500 for the Con express. The Valiant is putting out today, and the Thonian Fleet is preparing to get underway. Also we are starting to get some solid estimates where the first rocks will land.”

  “Oh where is that?” Mylea asked, she thought someone had said on the other side of the planet during darkness. It didn’t matter as they would be gone by then.

  “Nineteen days from today the first rocks will hit a small outpost on the western continent at 0800. Because we’ll be just entering the evening it will be quite a light show.” Jack said.

  “Well we’ll be gone by then,” Mylea said. “How are we doing about getting our troops and people ready to go?”

  “The Companions are breaking camp. The Imperial Marines are at their debarkation point, the evacuation hospital has packed up they’ll be loaded tomorrow. The last of the AI’s will be up lifted the day after tomorrow.”

  “Good enough,” Mylea said, “Have my driver pick me up in half an hour.”

  “Yes Ma’am” Jack said.

  Mylea terminated the connection went to get out of her work clothes into something respectable. As she dressed, she poked her head into her daughter room. “Lamile, tomorrow I want to get the container packed, after that we’ll move into VOQ at Fletcher, unless you want to stay at the academy.”

  “I’ll stay at the academy,” Lamile asked. “Will you be home tonight?

  “Yes,” Mylea said, “But don’t wait up.”

  “I’ll get my room packed and the living room,” Lamile said, “Jill may come over later.”

  “Okay,” Mylea said, as if she could say no to her sovereign. “I bet she’s getting tired of all the notoriety.”

  “She is getting a little full of it,” Lamile said, “She’s almost a prisoner on the academy grounds, or in the palace. She’s about to abdicate so she can have some peace.”

  “One of the reasons the Queen insisted that Mike move into the palace was to give him some peace from the newsies.” Mylea said. She pulled on her blouse, and uniform jacket. She checked herself in the mirror deciding that everything was in order then went to the computer for a second. When she was done she had David’s ring size and the address of the only remaining jeweler in Trena. He was due to be evaced in three days. All he had to do was to pack his jewels. The Evacuation command had forbidden many small business people from taking their inventory with them. But jewelers were an exception. Mostly because the inventory could be easily packed in the container that packed their house hold belongings in. When her car arrived she gave Tony the address
.

  The store was about to close; but the owner, a Thonian, let her come in and let her pick out a ring. Mylea knew what she wanted. She had seen Terran wedding rings. Simple gold bands, but she wanted something a little bit flashier! She found it. It was a gold band with a blue green stone wrapped around the gold band, with two silver dots on the very top. He had a matching set that would fit them both.

  “How much,” she asked.

  “Miss Atomi,” the woman said, “for you nothing. I am going to have to leave so much of this behind. I can’t fit it into my container. Tomorrow when I finish packing I will have to abandon this.”

  “I can’t just take it from you!” Mylea replied, “It got to be worth a hundred crowns.”

  “Oh quite a bit more,” The woman said, “but it is only money.”

  “But won’t you need it to live?” Mylea asked.

  “I am going to open a small shop in Outpost 1. A friend of mine has picked out a spot and he says there isn’t a jeweler in all of Outpost. Besides it is the least I can do for you. Without you we may not have been rescued. Please take it. You are the only customer I have had in weeks.”

  “I can’t do that,” Mylea replied, Mike would have her skin. He had disciplined at least two others on his staff for taking gifts. She wasn’t going to put him in a position to do that to her. “Here is two hundred crowns.” She laid ten notes on the class case. Trena had always been a paper and not electronic currency world. There was a lot of electronic currency, but money was still used by a great many people. Mylea also had some gold coinage on her; but not nearly enough cover the cost of the rings. The currency was from earth.

  “I’ll take half.” The woman said, “They’re wedding bands. A couple shouldn’t have to pay out the nose to be lifemated!”

  Not wishing to argue with the woman anymore she nodded and the woman placed the rings in a ring box. She escorted the commander to the door and locked it behind her.

  “Okay,” Mylea said getting into the car, “take me to the O club at Fletcher.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Tony said and drove Mylea to the officers club at Fletcher.

  She found David already waiting for her at a small secluded table.

  “Hello,” she said sitting down.

  “Did you get packed?” David asked.

  “Just about. We got to put things in the container, but it’s mostly ready to go.” Mylea replied, “I didn’t ask about your stuff.”

  “Oh I don’t have much,” David said, “Most of my stuff is already packed and aboard my landing craft.”

  “I didn’t know you had a landing craft.” Mylea said. “Is it star flight capable?”

  “No,” David said, “it’s a good inter system ship, and a better ground to orbit vessel. Trena Spaceways owed me so much money when I took the job with the militia from all the OT and flight time they gave it to me as a severance. Hell I was living on it most of the time anyways. It was my bird to go out to various sites and fix their birds. It’s not a bachelor pad, but it’s not a bad place to live out of.”

  “How about a nice place to honeymoon in,” Mylea asked put the rings on the table, and opening them up.

  “It could be a great place to honeymoon in,” David responded. “Why? Do you have some idea who might like to honeymoon on it?”

  “I was thinking that after we got to Home, we would get married,” Mylea said.

  “I would be honored to share the rest of my life with you,” David said in Thonian. “Do we have to wait until we get to Home?’

  “David you know about the aqaut, and you know it debilitates the couple for about a week, we can’t be lifemated until then.” Mylea said, “If you want the Thonian ceremony, and all that it entails I would do it. I would be happy to just announce our marriage and celebrate our lifemating in private. I won’t put you through that. It’s tough enough when you are a horny young couple and want to lifemate your spouse.”

  “Well that’s good,” David said picking up the ring for Mylea; he slipped it on Mylea’s finger. He knew that Thonians didn’t use such symbols when they wedded. The public sex act of the couple and the aqaut was all they needed. Mylea had gotten the rings to tell him they would be lifemates, in the Earth tradition, he took up the smaller ring knowing it was for her, he said in flawless nearly accent less Thonian “Mylea with this ring I be wed you. I will have and hold you, and will be at your side in the good times and the bad times. If you will have me I will be your lifemate until death.” He slipped the ring onto her finger.

  Mylea took his ring out of the box and took his hand and said, “David with this ring I declare us lifemates. To have and to hold, to share the good times, and to help you though the bad times. I make my vow of marriage to you.”

  He leaned across the table and kissed her. She wondered if she could hold off until they got to Home to bed him.

  “Waiter,” David said softly, “would bring us a bottle of Thonian brandy.”

  “Yes sir,” the waiter had witness what had just transpired and heard the woman profess her love for the man across from her. He brought the brandy back poured them two sniffers, and left. Then it dawned on him that was Chief Atomi and General Langtree. He has heard from the other waiters that they often shared a meal at the O club, but this was the first time he had seen them here.

  Mylea began to giggle something David had never seen her do.

  “What so funny,” he asked.

  “Well the last time I lifemated it was at the officer’s club on Teniabu. I asked Mike to stand in as my Virgin’s Honor Guard since my father and mother were no longer alive, and Mike was as close a brother as anyone could be” Mylea replied, “When I took off my clothes to let Garth make love with me for the first time, Mike turned beat red. But he did an about face drew his sword and made the challenge!”

  David laughed also. The Thonian life mating ritual required the couple to have sex in front of their family so that there was no mistaking that the couple were both virgins. David had been to his share of Thonian lifematings, something few earth people had been given the privilege to witness. The Virgin’s Honor Guard, is either the woman’s father, or brother, rarely a lifemated sister, often a trusted friend who escorts the couple to a pile of cushions that have been laid on the floor for them, the guard observes them take their clothes off making a challenge while they are getting arranged on the cushion “is there any person present who claims that the couple has a living lifemate, or any reason why their life mating should not be consummated; say so now!”

  David had never been asked to be the Virgin Honor Guard; but he knew from both his presence at lifemating and his study of Thonia what was expected. If either the bride or groom were not a virgin he was expected to kill the one who wasn’t a virgin. As the aqaut would drive both of soon to be lifemate insane if either had a living lifemate. The virus ensured monogamy as once it exploded in both lifemates body it tuned their brain to each other’s so that they began to think and act like one person. He wondered if he and Mylea would bond the same way. He was looking forward to the experience of lifemating of Mylea.

  “When you tell Mike,” David said, “Tell him you want him to be your Honor Guard again. But be sure to tell him with Lisa present!”

  “I can’t do that,” Mylea said, “Besides he knows on a second life mating there is no Virgin’s Guard. David once we get to Home I want to hold a celebration. We don’t have time for it now.”

  “Agreed,” David said.

  They spent a frustrating night at the VOQ wanting to make love; but settling to fall asleep in each other’s arms.

  “When did you get that?” Lady Hawthorne asked seeing Mylea’s wedding band the next morning when they began assembling for the staff meeting.

  “Last night,” Mylea replied. It was then that Wilson realized his old friend seem to be acting like the cat who ate the canary. He glanced at the ring when he took his seat. It wasn’t loss on him that the ring was wedding band.


  “So when will you consummate your union,” Wilson asked suspecting that David had proposed to her. “I only ask in case you want me to be your honor guard again?”

  “What?” Lady Hawthorne asked. She didn’t understand the significant of the ring.

  “Me and David were married last night,” Mylea said. Mike didn’t miss a thing his longtime friend didn’t say lifemated, the thonian term for marriage. “We will be having the consummation on Home. We’re too busy now to do more than exchange vows right now.”

  “Have you told anyone yet?” Mike asked.

  “You are the first!” Mylea said.

  “First what,” The Queen came in with Jill in tow. Jill was now sitting in on the daily staff meetings. She was being brought up to speed as to what was happing with the evacuation and what was going on, on Home. Jill saw the ring and turned to Mylea and asked. “Well did you propose or did he?”

  “Lamile’s got a big mouth,” Mylea said chuckling, “I proposed to David last night.”

  “Congratulations Mylea,” the Queen hugged the older woman.

  David came into the conference room and general Qoum a longtime friend of Langtree’s said, “It’s about time you were made an honest man General Langtree!” He lapsed into thonian and said, “Mylea, David, may your union be long and fruitful, and be blessed only by the best of life!”

  “Thank you general,” David responded and turned to his boss, “Uh marshal does this mean I have to be transferred?”

  “Don’t you even think of it,” Wilson quipped. The Trena Militia had a strict policy that unless a thonian couple was life mated they couldn’t be in the same chain of command.

  “I am issuing a crown decree that the policy of not allowing married officers and enlisted personnel to not be in the same chain of command if they are married to another militiaman is rescinded.” The monarch said, “In other words my two good friends it’ll be a cold day in hell before I lose you to bureaucratic bullshit.”

  “Uh second the motion,” Wilson said. “Mrs. Langtree what is on the agenda for today’s meeting?”

  “Not much,” Mylea said, “The only big thing is that Jonesy has been moved to The Rebuilder ship yard. It is nearly ready to leave for Home. She’s got one more job to do and that is to launch the weapons barge. The rest is the same old stuff. We now have less than 150,000 souls to be evacuated. We expect the last person to be on the transport sometime late this week. Now the next item is…”