I knew she was referring to the love of a friend. I’d seen enough in the past year to be more than certain that they were just friends, but that didn’t make it any less difficult for me to see. It was never easy to see a beautiful girl always joking and laughing with your husband, even if you trusted your husband completely. But she was right – she didn’t leave him and she probably wouldn’t have left if the doctor would have been able to treat him there.
“So how are you planning to approach this, Captain?” I asked the man seated next to her, “Are you resigning?”
“That’s the plan, ma’am. I’d like to use the time that you and your husband are back on Earth to get my things in order and say my good-byes. Then before we leave, I’d like to make it official if Renata would have me,” he said, turning to her and taking her hand.
“Are you asking me to marry you?” she turned to him, “Like officially asking and not just day-dreaming about us?”
“Officially,” he nodded, “I don’t care that it’s been only a few days. There’s nothing I don’t know about you. Heck, you’ve even told me all the bad stuff as though you’re trying to chase me away! But in spite of all the darkness you claim to have inside, others see you through the same lens that was used on the black hole. That image of the black hole was so bright that it looked like a sun rising from the bottom of a dark pit. You can’t see how bright and vibrant you are or how your radiance can not only cancel out the darkness you think you have, but it cancels out the darkness in me. I’m alive and energetic when you radiate all around. I’m a beautiful person inside only because of you. Renata, you are that priceless treasure that was buried, but you were the one who buried it. You even still sometimes try to cover it with some dirt, like when you try to convince others that you aren’t priceless. But in spite of your best efforts, that treasure is still very noticeably there and I want it for myself. I’ll take you for the rest of my life if you’ll allow me.”
I was in awe. This man wasn’t making a rash or uninformed decision. He knew Renata and Renata knew him and apparently there was some true love there.
“Of course I’ll allow you if you promise to not only love me in spite of myself, but to hold me every single night,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
He reached out and embraced her so tight that I thought he might crush her. But again, this wasn’t new to either of them and he knew how tight he could hold her. I saw them both in a different light now. Now I had to think about what they originally came to ask me.
“Congratulations,” I said, feeling the tears welling up in my own eyes.
I went to grab myself a cup of coffee and offered them one as well. They both declined. When I returned to the chair, they were sitting closer together and holding hands.
“We do have a problem that we need to get past if you’re to be guaranteed a spot in the colony,” I said, “A ColSup cannot have a ColSup. I’m speaking purely as defined by the USN-SD and not by the way that I would view it. Renata is a member of the KMA colony and not a ColSup. We did away with all the Navy talk, ranks, and etcetera once we drew up our Declaration of Independence. But the USN-SD here in this solar system will not be viewing things that way and I highly doubt they will even acknowledge us as a different and independent entity.”
“So, what do you suggest?” he asked.
“Zane and I talked for a long time tonight. We are going to return to KMA as soon as possible. We’re talking about the very day after his hip and kidney surgery, even while he is still bedridden,” I said, “So, maybe a week or two from now? I’m obviously not sure that the Navy will support that decision or provide a means for us to get to the wormhole. I’m still at their mercy which isn’t a very prime place to be.”
“You need a ride,” he observed, “So, I can’t resign.”
“You told me that they are going to consider you to be a liaison between Earth and KMA, so you will most likely have regular access to the wormhole,” I said, “If you can keep the job just long enough to take us back, you and Renata are more than welcome to join us as true members of the original colony.”
“Wait, the Navy will probably already have a base of operations there before we return,” Renata said, “Won’t he be charged with something like desertion or something crazy like that? Won’t they send him back or put him in jail.”
“I think I have a plan that will benefit us all, but you two will need to trust me and not ask for any details. The less you know, the better,” I said.
Rigel Knight
Chapter Sixteen
As expected, there was a significant welcoming committee waiting for us at the dock. They brought enough cameras this time to make sure that they wouldn’t be shut down mid-sentence. The colonists were ushered off ahead of me, so I didn’t even get a chance to see where they went or what was said. Renata was left in the capable hands of Sarai Stark and I didn’t know when I’d get a chance to meet up with them again.
“Commander Knight,” the admiral met me at the end of the dock.
A lackey enlisted man in full dress uniform immediately took my bags from me and headed off in the direction of the shuttle docks. Admiral Torres started walking directly behind the man, clearly expecting me to follow at his pace.
“I scheduled Doctor Nguyen and his submarine to leave tomorrow on another freighter. We’re going to decommission the South Carolina after this anyway. Who knows, maybe she will be a museum someday,” he laughed as we continued through the crowded corridor, “I’m giving you the Fontenot, Commander.”
“I’m not familiar with that craft, sir,” I said, giving him a questioning glance.
“That’s because she doesn’t stop up here at the shipyards,” he said, turning down another corridor, “She’s a liner.”
“A liner, sir?” I asked, “Oh, of course.”
Liners were a newer class of spacecraft somewhere between a shuttle and a short cruiser. They were meant for the transport of VIPs and up until now, there weren’t very many admirals, commodores, or senators going to Europa or Mars. However, KMA was a new destination that would probably be receiving a lot of high-level visitors under the circumstances. And as promised, I was going to be the liaison.
“You’ll also be wearing a silver oak leaf the next time you pilot a ship,” he added.
“You’re promoting me to full commander, sir?” I was startled by this revelation.
I’d just made Lieutenant Commander a little over a year ago and wasn’t even up for a promotion for another year or more. I was pretty sure it had something to do with playing the role of limousine driver for the VIPs. No old salt wanted to see any gold-tone emblems on their pilots’ shoulders. It was nothing less than Commanders for them and preferably higher.
“You’ll be sworn in as captain of the Fontenot in three days,” he said, gesturing me toward the shuttle parked at dock two, “I’ll meet with you then, so until then, enjoy yourself for a while.”
He was being especially cryptic and odd. I ducked through the doorway to the private shuttle he had apparently arranged for me. The door closed immediately behind me and a moment later, the shuttle separated from the pier. It was then that I noticed the blonde woman seated on the large sofa. She was exceptionally well-endowed and overflowing her tight little dress.
“Welcome aboard, bad boy,” she said seductively.
I suddenly wished I had a better control of my tongue the last time I was in Charleston. I immediately recalled the last words I’d spoken to the Admiral when I took on the South Carolina.
“You know it’s a pile of garbage, sir! No one wants it and you’re only giving it to me to try to get me to resign,” I’d stated.
“I’m giving it to you because you told me you were ready for a command. If you handle this one well, I’ll give you your choice of commands.”
“I’ll deserve a little more than that for handling this deadly bucket of bolts. I’ll want my new orders presented to me between the legs of the sweetest piece of…�
�
I looked down and saw a sheet of paper resting just inside the opening of her short dress. She made no effort to hide what she was offering me.
“Listen, ma’am. I know he meant well and I’m sure you mean well, but I just got engaged,” I said, covering my eyes with my hand.
“Oh, really?” she asked, rising suddenly from her seat, “I’m… congratulations.”
While she sounded sincere, it was hard to take her seriously with her enormous breasts trying to burst from the top of her dress. She saw me looking as she approached.
“I’ve been paid already, so if you want to have them…” she opened her arms as though coming to hug me, “After all, you’re not married just yet.”
“Please don’t,” I said, turning away from her.
“That’s okay, sweetie,” she said, kindly grabbing a sweater from the cabin’s closet and putting it on, “Then why don’t you tell me all about her. We’ve got twenty minutes until we land and we’re both feeling a little uncomfortable now. So, tell me about the woman who stole your heart.”
“Renata Richards…”
Sarai Stark
Chapter Seventeen
We were at the naval hospital within an hour and he was prepped for the hip surgery by eight o’clock that evening. Renata and I waited all that time only to be told that the surgery was going to take almost eight hours and that we’d be better off going somewhere and getting some sleep. We resigned ourselves to go get a couple hotel rooms, but Renata requested that we share a room. She had some odd fear of being alone.
Rigel called earlier and let us know about his promotion as well as his new command of a liner. We both agreed that such a position only confirmed how crowded KMA was going to get. He joined us for dinner, but then had to leave after that to pay a private visit to his brother. He then planned to join up with us in the morning and take Renata to meet the rest of his family throughout the whole next day.
“Do you forgive me?” Renata asked as she came out of the shower wrapped in a giant towel.
Our hotel room was quite small, but offered us all we’d need for the evening. It also helped us to avoid the news crews that hung out near the hospital and just outside the base.
“Forgive you for what?” I asked.
She sat down on her bed and started brushing her wet hair.
“For everything. For being such a selfish brat when I left the colony. For hanging out with your husband so much. For getting you wrapped up in a conspiracy to steal Rigel Knight from the US Navy,” she said.
I laughed, “We’re not stealing him. He’s technically resigning. Well, no, I guess we are stealing him. I don’t care though. And when it comes to you and my husband, I didn’t really know you at the time. To me, you were just a beautiful teenage girl with a killer body, so I assumed you were some evil seductress.”
“Well, I was evil, I’ll grant you that, but no seductress,” she said, “But I’m not going to be evil anymore. I’m going to become the woman that Rigel believes me to be.”
“Why do you keep putting yourself down? How could you be evil?” I argued.
“Because I hate everyone, Sarai. I’m not kidding,” she said, turning to me.
I felt a little scared by how serious she looked in that moment. It didn’t help that she had no pores whatsoever, that her skin was perfect white china, and that her long wet hair lay perfectly across her back. She looked like the evil queen from old fairy tales.
“I hate my dad whom I never met. I hate my mom who never expressed any sort of love to me in my life. I hated you for hating me. I hated Leah for talking to me like I was a child. I hated Darius McEwen for ignoring me whole-heartedly any time I was around. I hated Nancy Cartwright for avoiding me like the plague when I was around,” she said, “There’s just so much hate inside me that I have to be evil.”
“I think you don’t really understand the word ‘hate’ and I also noticed that you used ‘hate’ in the present tense when you talked about your parents, but you used past tense when you talked about the rest of us,” I said, “Let me ask you this – do you wish that any of us would fall violently ill or even die?”
She turned to me and set her brush down on the bed, “Well, no… yes… no… well, I wish my dad would suffer a painful death. But I would just like my mom to leave me, but to maybe have a happy life. And you, well, I don’t hate you Sarai. You and Zane are a lot alike. You’re both very caring. And I secretly hope that you care about me. That’s what I loved about Zane. He sincerely cared about me and wanted to make sure I was alright. No one ever cares about me.”
“I care about you a lot, Renata, and I’m so glad to see you found someone to love and someone who loves you,” I said, “Can I tell you a secret?"
“Sure,” she replied.
“Now don’t let this go to your head, but I think you should know. Commander Darius McEwen struggled when he was around you. He ignored you because it was his only way to cope. After all, he’s a happily married man,” I said, “Don’t ever let on that I told you.”
“But what do you mean? I’m confused.”
“Not every man is like Zane. He can be your friend and gladly hang out with you even though you are very beautiful. Commander McEwen also finds you to be very beautiful. However, he is someone that can only cope with someone like that by avoiding them. He admits that he has problems with temptation and as a religious man who loves his wife, he prefers simply to avoid it.”
“Wow, so I was hating him not because he hated me, but because he was attracted to me,” she said, “That’s rotten of me.”
“I’m just pointing out that first of all, I don’t think you are as much of a hater as you believe you are. I don’t believe you hate any of the colonists including your mother. And even your feelings of dislike might be misplaced. You can’t dislike Darius for struggling with temptation,” I said, “And it would be nice if you helped him in this regard by becoming as ugly as you possibly can.”
We both laughed at this.
“You know what, though? His wife Kennedy is very beautiful,” she said.
“She is and I’m sure he tells her that all the time. He loves her very much,” I said.
“And look at you even. We have a very attractive colony,” she said, “Keyandra is beautiful as well.”
I’d almost forgotten how we got sidetracked on all this talk about being beautiful. I got up and sat down next to her on the bed.
“Now please tell me you don’t think you’re evil and hateful,” I said, “You’re not going to have to pretend to be the girl Rigel sees. Just be yourself.”
“No, maybe not,” she said, “I just wish he didn’t put me so high on a pedestal. I don’t know how far it is to fall from there, but I’m sure it will hurt.”
Rigel Knight
Chapter Eighteen
She never suspected it for a moment. When I pretended to need to pay a private visit to my brother, I was picking up a ring. The next day when I brought her to meet my family, it was inside a church. There, a pastor waited to marry the two of us before six members of my family, Doctor Jennifer Lord, and Sarai Stark. Zane was still recovering and significantly drugged up, so we couldn’t even wheel him in if we wanted.
We were married by noon and after a short reception at the local buffet, we took off for my place where we spent the rest of that day in each other’s arms. I could honestly say that it was the best day of my entire life.
We would spend the entire next day together as well, either in each other’s arms at home, or visiting again with my family. It was hard, but I had to explain to them that I’d be leaving forever. No one was completely surprised, but they caught on to the potential implications of my departure when I explained that we might not be in contact anymore despite the existence of a wormhole.
I felt it wouldn’t be prudent to go into the details of Sarai’s plans.
Sarai Stark
Chapter Nineteen
The next week was taken up with two interv
iews, one of them being a private one before a panel of government officials and military advisors. It was there that I was forced to explain the colony’s Declaration of Independence as well as our choices to separate ourselves from the US Navy. This was not taken very well, but by the end of the meeting, they were referring to me as the President of the KMA colony and not as Commander.
Renata was back to living with me again as Rigel was already piloting some high ranking officials to the wormhole. It only took him two days to get there in that new liner of his, so I had to believe it had some newer form of engine. He messaged us once he got there, informing us that there indeed was a small docking station there already and the wormhole entrance was located inside what looked like a large gymnasium. There would be no further need for EVA suits when going through the wormhole.
He also stated that the small space station was very modular and had connection links all around, so it would obviously be expanded to a full-service space station eventually. I simply texted back that we’d be ready when he returned. Even as I was texting that to him, Zane was in surgery receiving his cloned kidney. His hip was healing nicely, but that would still take some extended recovery time. He’d be alright to use a wheelchair however by the time we decided to escape, but even sitting like that would have to be temporary. For the most part, Zane would truly be bedridden and have to lie down.
“Why did Rigel say that he could no longer contact his family ever again?” Renata asked me as we sat in the hospital waiting room, “Is there a chance that he will be in jail on KMA? Does he think he will die?”
“No, don’t worry about it, Renata,” I said, “You and he will be living together in a nice house on KMA. There will be no problems at all with the military or the police.”
“But he seemed a little sad when he told his father. It made me feel like he knew he was dying or something,” she stated.
Colonization Page 20
