by Brown, Ryk
“Zip me up?” she asked playfully.
Nathan turned around and stepped up to her as she turned her back to him. “I’d rather un-zip you again, ma’am,” he admitted as zipped up the back of her dress.
“Now, Ensign,” she teased as she turned to face him. “I think we’ve settled the score with that schmuck enough for one night. Besides, don’t you think we should get back before the senator finishes his speech.”
Nathan was admiring her from behind as she headed for the door, when it suddenly dawned on him. “Wait, I don’t think I ever got your name?” He didn’t really care, it just felt like the polite thing to say.
“Oh, that’s sweet, really,” she giggled. “But I don’t think names are necessary.” She began to walk away, turning back slightly to look at him as she took hold of the door knob. “Let’s just say that I’m doing my part for our boys in uniform, and leave it at that.” She flashed him a sly smile, opened the door and left the room, leaving the door standing open behind her.
From outside, Nathan could hear his father ending his speech.
“And that is why I have decided, that it is time for me to run for the office of President of the North American Union!”
The crowd outside exploded in excitement at the senator’s startling announcement. Nathan just rolled his eyes.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
* * *
“Nathan, honey,” his mother called as she approached him at the bar. He had already finished half the bottle, and was bound and determined to finish the rest in short order.
“Hello Mother,” he greeted, trying to sound sincere.
“I knew you’d show up,” she declared, kissing his cheek. “I hope you didn’t miss your father’s speech?”
“No such luck,” he mumbled, picking up the bottle.
“Oh put that bottle away, Nathan,” she scolded. “You know how your father feels about that stuff.” She grabbed a candy from the bar and handed it to him. “Here, sweetie. Have a mint.”
She stepped back and looked at him in his dress uniform. “Oh Nathan, I have to admit you do look handsome in that uniform. But did you have to wear it tonight of all nights? You know how your father feels about the fleet.”
“Founders Day is a patriotic holiday, mother. And as you can see,” he defended as he gestured toward the crowd, “I’m not the only one in uniform.”
“I know, dear. But you are the only member of the Scott family in uniform. Now come on, honey,” she added as she straightened his tie, “let’s go make nice for the cameras.”
Why are the women in this family always straightening my tie?
The journey through the mingling crowd was as painful as Nathan had remembered it to be from his father’s last campaign. A never ending stream of “yes ma’ams” and “yes sirs”, along with stories about sons they all seemed to have that were his age, or daughters they thought he should meet. Only this time, there was a new twist. It seemed that every old fart he greeted felt obligated to tell him a story about their days in the service. Of course, Nathan played it all off masterfully, just as his father had taught him. But it was all so pretentious and pointless. He really wished that he had gotten the chance to finish that bottle before his mother had found him. Instead, he would just have to distract himself as best he could with the image of that sexy little brunette as she slipped her dress back on.
But then, he saw his father up ahead, talking to the other politicians in his party. And he saw the look in his father’s eyes when he spotted Nathan, in his uniform, dutifully following his mother through the crowd. That same look of disappointment that he always seemed to get from his father.
“Nathan! So glad you could make it, son!” the senator exclaimed as Nathan and his mother approached. Nathan knew his father was just putting on a show for the crowd. The man could’ve been a professional actor.
“How are you doing, sir?” he asked in perfect military fashion.
“What’s with the sir crap?” his father exclaimed, holding out his arms. “Give your old man a hug!” He wrapped his arms around Nathan and gave him a warm embrace. As expected, without missing a beat his father turned them both to face the nearest camera for a shot that would surely reach every link on the Earth-Net within seconds. It should have been no surprise to Nathan that his father would take an irritant and turn it into a photo-op. Nathan flashed a toothy smile for the cameras, unnaturally freezing for the customary few seconds to allow all the photographers and video cameras to collect their content. Nathan hated this part of his father’s life. But even more so, he hated how he had become so accustomed to it that he played the part automatically without any forethought. It was something he definitely was not going to miss.
“Senator Scott!” one of the reporters hollered over the barrage of questions already being shouted at them. “How do you feel about your son’s enlistment, considering your position against the EDF?!” Nathan stole a glance at his father, knowing he would be quick to disarm the potentially embarrassing issue.
“Why, I’m as proud as any father could be!” he said. His statement had been made with such conviction that Nathan almost believed it himself. “What father wouldn’t be proud of a son that has the courage and fortitude to take a stand for what he believes in?” The senator turned directly to the man asking the question, and more importantly to the reporter’s camera man. “And just for the record, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not against the Earth Defense Fleet. I simply want to restrict their capabilities to sub-light operations only, so as not to provoke the Jung Dynasty into any undue actions. We still have a long way to go in the rebuilding our own civilization, before we start dreaming of colonizing other worlds again.”
“Perfectly played, as usual,” Nathan thought.
“Ensign Scott,” another reporter shouted, surprising Nathan. “How do you feel about your father’s position on the military?!”
It was an over-simplification of an extremely complicated question. But that didn’t seem to matter to Nathan, as he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “My father serves the people in his way, and I serve them in mine.” Nathan turned away from the cameras to retreat to safer ground, his father following behind him as he placated the press with a few more sound bites on his way out.
“Jesus, Nathan,” his father exclaimed as he followed him into the study, his protection detail closing the doors behind them. “I see you’re still just blurting out whatever is on your mind.”
“They don’t care what’s on my mind.”
“Oh yes they do. They care about every word, every syllable, every action. Hell, they’re even analyzing your body language these days. Anything they can take and twist into something that will swing votes their way.”
“It never seemed to matter much before.” Nathan loosened his tie and took a seat on the sofa.
“You were fifteen during the last campaign. Nobody cared what you thought at that age,” he pointed out as he paced around the room. “Besides, I was only running for the senate back then, not the presidency of the most influential nation on the planet. Hell, the last three North American presidents have been selected to serve as the leader of the United Earth Republic. Someone has to lead this world safely into the next century. If I can win this election, then I’m almost certain to be sitting in Geneva within a year. Then I can really do something to help keep us safe.”
Suddenly, the memory of his anonymous sexual encounter in a room down the hall no longer seemed a pleasant distraction. I really should’ve gotten her name.
Nathan immediately felt the need to defend himself. “Since when did you have aspirations to the presidency? I thought you always said that the real governing was done at the congressional level?”
“I’ve said a lot of things over my lifetime, son. Not all of them have been entirely accurate.”
This came as a surprise to Nathan, not ever remembering his father to admit a mistake so easily.
“But t
hings have changed drastically since we learned about the state of the core systems. The Jung are a real threat, and the population in general doesn’t take it seriously because the enemy is over twenty light years away!” The senator stopped pacing and sat against his desk, facing his son. “We’ve advanced so quickly over the last hundred years, that people aren’t ready to think in terms of light years. It’s still an impossibly distant place to them.”
“But if you do see the Jung as a threat, then why are you so against expanding the Fleet? I would’ve thought that you of all people would support us? Hell, you were all for getting us into space when you were my age.”
“As I said, things have changed,” his father repeated. As usual, Nathan was being short-sighted. It was a failing that his father had recognized in his son at an early age. It wasn’t that he couldn’t see the big picture, he just never bothered.
“What’s changed?” Nathan begged. “What has changed so much that it would cause you to do a complete turnaround in such a short time?”
His father took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he rose from his perch and strolled over to stare out the window again. His son was right, the change in his position on the buildup of the Earth Defense Fleet had completely changed over the last four years. And it had caused a tremendous rift to develop between them. The irony of it was that deep down inside, he knew that his true position had never changed. It was only his public position that he had been forced to change. He only wished that he could find a way to make his son understand without exposing the truth. “It’s complicated,” he finally resigned.
Nathan wanted to press, but he knew that ‘it’s complicated’ meant that his father either didn’t want, or couldn’t talk about it further.
“I have no delusions that you and I are ever going to agree on this,” his father admitted. “Just do me a favor, will you son? No more public shots across my bow until after the election?”
As if on cue, his mother entered the room to end the dispute. “There you are,” she said to her husband as she entered. She suddenly noticed Nathan sitting on the sofa. “Oh, Nathan honey, I didn’t see you.” She kissed her husband on the cheek, noticing the tension in the room. “Am I interrupting?” she asked, knowing full well that she was. Over the last few years, she had developed an uncanny knack of entering the room at just the right moment to break the two of them apart. It seemed impossible, but somehow Nathan was sure that she did it on purpose, and for just that reason.
“Don’t worry, sir,” Nathan assured his father as he rose to leave. “I’ll behave.”
“Nathan,” his mother scolded at his attitude.
“It doesn’t matter anyway. I report for duty on the Reliant tomorrow morning. And she’s scheduled to be underway in a few days for border patrol out in the Oort Cloud.” Nathan kissed his mother’s cheek and gave her a polite hug so as not to mess up her outfit, in case there were more pictures to be taken. “After today the press won’t have access to me for at least a few years. That should get you safely through the election,” he promised his father as he reached out to shake his hand. “Good Luck, sir,” Nathan announced in a show of good faith. The strange thing was, he actually meant it this time.
“Thank you, son.” His father took Nathan’s hand, placing his other hand on Nathan’s shoulder. Despite their differences, the senator dearly loved his youngest child, and was prouder of him than Nathan would ever know. And though he hid it well, the news of his son’s impending departure on a relatively dangerous patrol both shocked and worried him deeply. “Smooth sailing, Ensign.”
Now Nathan too was shocked. For it was the first time his father had called him by his rank. It felt as if he had finally accepted Nathan’s decision to enlist, despite his father’s repeated objections. “I’ll try to keep in touch,” he promised as he turned to leave.
“Yes, please do,” the senator mumbled, more to himself than anyone else in the room.
For a good minute after Nathan had left, the senator and his wife said nothing.
“You have to do something, Dayton,” his wife finally insisted. “You can’t let him go out there. We might never see him again.” There was genuine fear in her voice.
“I’ll try, honey,” the senator promised as he put his arms around her. “I’ll try.”
* * *
Nathan stood at the edge of the driveway, waiting for the car that would take him to the airport to catch the next shuttle back to the academy. The party was still in full swing, with the orchestra playing even more lively than before. He could’ve stayed longer, maybe even got lucky again. But after his father’s big announcement, he preferred to lay low until he could get back to safe ground.
He had grown up in a politically active family, and he had tired of it years ago. And that had been one of the reasons he joined the fleet. For it would get him about as far away from all of this as humanly possible.
There had been few options that had appealed to him. His degree in pre-plague history could have landed him a decent career as professor, if he had continued on for his doctorate. But then he still would’ve been subject to the constant scrutiny that resulted from his father’s public service. And he simply couldn’t imagine dealing with that for the rest of his life.
His sisters all had their own careers, and later had all married and started popping out kids in an effort to build the Earth’s population back up to true industrial levels. But he had grown tired of school, tired of family, and certainly tired of politics. And if he had hung around much longer, that’s probably where he too would have ended up.
The fact was, he had needed a change, and a drastic one at that. Military service had never even been a consideration in the past. But the idea of joining the fleet and living out in space, only making it back to Earth every few years? Well that was enticing enough that one slightly drunk night with his buddies was all it had taken to get him to sign ten years of his life away. Even if it had meant another four years of school before getting off the planet.
But the Academy had gone by quickly, and it had been far more interesting than college had ever been. The physical and combat training had been fun as well. Nathan had never considered himself to be athletic, but had discovered he was far more adept at such activities than he would have thought possible. He never considered himself a ‘super-soldier’, but he could hold his own with most of his class.
It had been the simulations that had given him the most trouble. At first, they had been more about hands-on training than anything else. And in that he had excelled. But when they started testing his ability to make command decisions, he felt awkward and unsure of himself. In more than one simulation he had failed to act quick enough to avoid abrupt and catastrophic conclusions.
Nevertheless, he had passed his practical exams in the command simulations. His roommate at the Academy often joked that Nathan’s unusually consistent good luck had gotten him through the sims. And Nathan knew that his friend had been at least partially correct.
So he had graduated the Academy and had been rated as both a navigator and a pilot. He was looking forward to his upcoming duty on the Reliant. She was the fleet’s oldest cruiser, and although she had never fired a shot in anger, she had seen several patrols, having been in service for more than a decade. And with a crew of over 300, Nathan would be just another name on the ship’s roster, probably serving on a backup flight crew on the least favored rotation. And that was fine with him.
“Well, well, well,” his brother’s voice came from behind. “If it isn’t Ensign Scott, the prodigal son, returned home to stir up family dissent one more time.” Eli was a good twelve years older, and he and Nathan had never gotten along.
“Hello, Eli.” Nathan was biting his tongue, trying to remember if there was ever a time the two of them had talked that didn’t end poorly. “What have you been up to?” He was trying to make meaningless small talk, hoping to avoid an argument long enough for his ride to arrive and make his escape.
&nb
sp; “Funny you should ask that, Nathan. I should be spending time with my wife and kids, enjoying this wonderful Founders Day celebration. But instead, I spent the better part of an hour bribing a photographer to give up his rather suggestive photos of you and that slut you screwed in the anteroom tonight.”
“Still running image patrol for Dad, huh Eli?” Nathan knew it was the wrong thing to say even as it passed his lips. Eli had always wanted to follow in their father’s footsteps and enter politics himself. But Eli had not been the son blessed with the natural charm required for public life. So the senator’s oldest son had been forced to spend his career chasing their father and putting out his fires. It was a sour pill for Eli to swallow, and Nathan was sure that it had always been the primary cause of their ongoing feud.
“At least I’m not trying to ruin it,” Eli accused. “So, who was she?”
“None of your damned business.”
Eli was obviously exasperated at Nathan’s attitude. “Why did you even show up, Nate?”
“I was invited.” Hmm, sarcasm, another bad choice.
“Still the troublemaker, I see.”
“Better than being a kiss-ass,” Nathan responded in a matter-of-fact tone. He was already on a roll, so he figured there was little use in stopping now.
“I would’ve thought the Academy would break you of that habit.”
“Funny how that habit only seems to surface when I’m around family.”
“Then why don’t you do us all a big favor and just stay away. Or at least keep your attitude under control until after the election. Do you think you can do that much for your family?”
Nathan wanted to say something more, a lot more. In fact, what he really wanted to do was to punch Eli right in his smug mouth. But there were cameras everywhere, and the car that would take him away from this circus once and for all was pulling into the long circular driveway.
