GblaRCS Chpt 17

==Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star - Chapter 17 -==
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Breakin' rocks in the hot sunI fought the law and the law wonI fought the law and the law wonUnofficial anthem of the Crux Germanium Mine & Penal Colony on Alphard (played on loudspeaker every morning to wake the inmates)
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===Spending Time together===
Arecibo City – Niops Association (Niops VII) – 2829
"I still think you should move into town. Get a nicer house, more rooms, bigger yard." Barbara maintained, looking out of the window of the living room in Franklin Hallis's new quarters, a small two-story home. It was one of several dozen identical prefabricated concrete buildings that lined both sides of a road that had only recently been paved with gravel, and the best you could say about it was that at least less depressing than living in one of the massive grey apartment blocks that loomed over the newly incorporated community. "My apartment in capital smaller but nicer, not look like so much like prison" she observed. The metal and plastic furniture was ugly too, cheap mass-produced designs usually seen in government buildings."
"Fundamentally if your favored architectural style was grey, brutalist, centrally-planned dystopia then you would absolutely love Arecibo City, the SLDF township that had still been just rows of tents and grounded dropships a year ago. If that was your opinion however, that just begged the question why you didn't move to the Capellan Confederation instead?"
"There's nothing wrong with this house." Hallis told her. "Everyone else with a place this big has kids. I only accepted it because Romanov told me that a Flag Officer needs to be able to entertain guests at home, although she also said it would look bad for her if she moved into one of these new houses while I still stayed in that apartment building down by the river."
"You have kids." Frederick called out loudly from the kitchen where he was sat at a table doing his homework. If he got it done now he would have the whole weekend to enjoy himself.
"You don't count." Hallis called back.
"Stop telling him that." Barbara responded quietly, giving her boyfriend a disapproving look.
"He doesn't count because he doesn't live here, he lives in the sibling-company dorms with most of the other Iron born kids" Hallis defended himself. "If I never visited their barracks to inspect them, and you didn't insist on him coming here for dinner a couple of times a week, I'd barely even see him."
"A boy needs a father. Not a Khan." Barbara stated flatly. "Anyhow, paper you sign say he your son."
"Legally maybe." Hallis grumbled. "It's one thing going to watch him play baseball but If I'd known it meant having to go see his damn principal every time he got into trouble too I wouldn't have signed so easily."
"I didn't start that fight." Frederick called out.
"You didn't have to finish it like that either. You dislocated that little ******'s shoulder with that move" Hallis retorted.
"At least you're admitting he's an ****** now" Frederick replied, sounding a little too smug about it for Hallis's taste.
"Watch your language." Barbara snapped.
"He said it first!" Frederick protested.
"Privilege of age and rank," Hallis told him, smirking. "And get on with your homework."
"I'm stuck. Do you know how much bigger an M1V class Red Dwarf is than a M5V?" Frederick asked. "We got an assignment to compare Niops with Buffalo Meadows."
"No idea." Hallis told him.
Barbara rolled her eyes. "Can tell you don't go school here, Franklin." she remarked. "An M5V has mass of around 0.16 that of Sol, M1V has mass of 0.5." she told Frederick. "If Buffalo Meadows much bigger would be K class star, Orange Dwarf not Red."
"Thanks." Frederick responded. "It's hotter too right? That's why the goldilocks zone for Buffalo Meadows was so much further out?"
"Right." Barbara confirmed.
"Buffalo Meadows is four days from its standard jump-points, Niops VII only two." Hallis felt the need to interject, being the only person in the room who had actually undertaken both journeys. Frederick had been aboard Yukon, and so had never visited Buffalo Meadows, while Barbara had never even left Niops. "Why are you comparing those stars anyway?" he asked out of curiosity.
"The kids from Buffalo Meadows started school last week." Frederick explained. "The school thought it might be a way to get them to fit in."
"I thought Romanov's people not have any children?" Barbara queried, confused.
"They had some kids, they just didn't have enough children to sustain their population in the long term." Hallis told her. "Most of them with families chose to stay on Buffalo Meadows until we found somewhere worth settling down on and could come fetch them."
"The Meadows kids keep complaining about how cold it is here, and that it's always dark and not green enough." Frederick told them.
Hallis laughed. "It's not like where they came from was exactly a sunlit tropical paradise," he noted. "They're right about it being greener though. They had forests, and the grasslands stretched on forever."
"My science teacher said they're going to see if they can get plants from there to grow here." Frederick added from where he was still sat in the kitchen.
"Yep," Hallis confirmed. "Because our engineers managed to get Ulithi to work they had more spacelift than they needed so they tried fill the ships up with other things, like samples of fauna and flora" he said. "Did you know Buccaneer arrived with ninety thousand tons of lumber and a sawmill in her hold?" he asked rhetorically, "And that two of the Dropships the Maverick was hauling were carrying nothing but farm equipment? The people Romanov left behind had masses of stuff packed up ready to load onto ships as soon as their transportation arrived. Guess they were eager to leave."
"It doesn't sound like it was a great planet to live on." Frederick said, entering the room so he didn't have to keep speaking up. "I don't know why the Meadow's kids seem homesick. I never missed being in Clan Space."
"Did you consider that they didn't have people actively trying to kill them on Buffalo Meadows, like you did in the Clan Homeworlds?" Hallis asked him drily. "That sort of thing is going to colour your memories."
"I guess." Frederick conceded. "Can you requisition a VTOL so we can go into the capital and get Capellan food tonight?" he asked hopefully. "It is Friday night, we usually eat out."
"We are eating Capellan food tonight. Barbara made it specially at home and brought it here to heat up for us later."
"Those venison dumplings aren't Capellan food" Frederick grumbled.
"Yes they are" Barbara told him flatly. "My families Pelmeni recipe not Chinese food, but it is Capellan food" she said. "I don't know why everyone think we all originally from China. My family on mother's side mostly Russian from Tikonov."
"You don't look Russian." Frederick told her.
"Because of eyes and skin color or because I not always carrying bottle of vodka and wearing ushanka fur hat?" Barbara asked, clearly amused. "Your people not Caucasian-American because you not always eating a hamburger?"
"Bad example. He is always eating a hamburger." Hallis interjected. "But otherwise you're making your point."
"Alright, alright!" Frederick conceded. "The venison dumplings are Capellan food. Can you requisition a VTOL so we can go get Chinese food in town?" he persisted.
"No, we damn well can't, and you should thank Barbara for making you something nice to eat and not ask for something else instead." Hallis told him sternly.
"Thank you, Barbara, for the food I mean" Frederick said eventually, correctly reading the Khan's expression that he would really be in trouble if he didn't. "I apologise if I offended you in any way by stereotyping Capellans too." he added.
"It okay. Terran Hegemony people not only ones that stereotype others" Barbara replied. "Capellan's tell jokes about Federated Suns. Say that because they are half French and half English they hate themselves and eat food like Frog's Legs in the Hole" she said, smiling.
Frederick grinned. "Heard the one about how they root out foreign spies in the Lyran Commonwealth? They gather everyone into a big room and tell a joke. Anyone that gets it and laughs is taken out and shot."
"That one was old when Ian Cameron was your age" Hallis told him. "I heard one the other day about the Free Worlds League. That's it's not really a state it's just a load of different systems spinning around the galaxy in loose formation" he added his own joke. "Have you finished your homework?" he suddenly remembered to check.
"Almost." Frederick replied.
"Meaning you haven't. Go finish it." Hallis ordered.
"It's to read a chapter in my history book about how the Age of War allowed the Terra Hegemony to regain a dominant position in the Inner Sphere after the old Terran Alliance threw it away." Frederick replied. "I know all that stuff. I was taught it years ago."
"Bet you five bucks that the version of the story you were taught back on Circe concentrated on different factors than the one in books here." Hallis wagered. "Less about the invention of the BattleMech and the consequences of the Ares Conventions, more about economics."
"Now I really don't want to read it." Frederick muttered.
"Economics is logistics." Hallis told the boy. "Amateurs talk tactics and what do professionals talk?"
"Logistics" Frederick replied immediately.
"Right. Old Nick didn't really get that while Khan McEvedy did, which was why our Touman was becoming so much stronger than that of most of the other clans. We sorted out our economy first so we could afford to outspend the others." Hallis explained why it was so important. "Like Admiral Bremman always says, 'No bucks, no Buck Rogers'."
"I love that holovid show." Frederick said, grinning. "But those evil bird aliens that they're always fighting look and sound really stupid."
"They're from the kitschy re-make. I always preferred the original hard-sci-fi version of the show made back in the 25th Century, not the one some soulless corporate execs churned out later to try and cash in on the nostalgia." Hallis told him. "I used to watch it with my dad when we were traveling with the Exodus Fleet." he recalled fondly. "Really great intro sequence at the start, always got me excited to watch it. How did it go? Oh yeah, 'The year is 2487 and the Explorer Corps launches the last of the Terran Hegemony's Deep Periphery probes. In a freak misjump Ranger 3 and its pilot, Captain William 'Buck' Rogers, are frozen in hyperspace, not to arrive at their intended destination until five hundred years later'."
"You remember that from a holovid show you watch years before I was born?" Barbara asked incredulously. "Last week you forget we were supposed to go visit my parents and you go off playing with Battlemechs instead."
"Yeah, but I probably watched every episode at least a dozen times, mostly because there wasn't much else to do." Hallis told her. "And I wasn't 'playing with Battlemechs' we were conducting a combined-arms training exercise to see if we could coordinate better with airpower and artillery than we did on Algenib" he said. One of the more interesting suggestions that came out of the whole thing was that it would be useful if they could quickly swap-out the nose armament on the Stuka aerospace fighter. The four eERPPC's in the wings were always useful, but the Improved AC/20 was too situational, so if you could quickly change it out before a mission for say an Improved Gauss Rifle instead, that would be ideal. A few technicians even thought they might be able to make that happen using salvage from the Blood Rain's Dragoon heavies, their modular design being something they thought they could work with.
"That kind of thing fun for you." Barbara stuck to her position.
"More fun than having dinner with your parents probably." Frederick suggested, smirking.
Hallis glared at him. "Go to your room, Frederick." he ordered.
"I don't live here." the boy pointed out.
"Then go back to the kitchen and read that book you're supposed to." Hallis told him.
"Yes, My Khan. Right away, My Khan" Frederick responded, bowing as he shuffled away deferentially.
"And less tween sass badly disguised as obsequiousness." Hallis told him sternly as the boy disappeared from view.
"Why don't you like my parents?" Barbara wanted to know.
"I've got nothing against your parents whatsoever. They don't like me." Hallis replied. "For a start your father thinks I'm too old for you…"
"You are too old for me. You just not look it." she retorted
"… and your mother thinks that because I didn't ask you to marry me after like our third date that I'm just looking for some pretty and docile, Capellan girl to be my concubine or something" Hallis continued, ignoring her interruption. "I mean docile? Has your mother inexplicably somehow never met you?" he asked rhetorically. "I can think of many words to describe you but 'docile' is not one of them."
"What words?" Barbara responded suspiciously, narrowing her eyes.
Hallis blinked. "Complementary ones." he said after an awkwardly lengthy pause.
"Nice save, Dad." Frederick called out from the kitchen.
"Thanks," Hallis replied. "And stop eavesdropping!" he added.
"I was being sarcastic." Frederick told him.
"I always assume you are." Hallis replied evenly.
Barbara decided to let the 'many words' thing rest for now, although she made a mental note to bring it up again later when it would serve her purposes best. "Mother not say that to me as often now." she said instead. "Now more likely to say that you just looking for wife to help raise science-devil son for you."
"Science devil?!" Hallis exclaimed.
"Sound better in Mandarin." Barbara told him. "Still not very nice though. I tell her so."
"It's obnoxious. Bordering on hateful." Hallis stated firmly. "I mean, it's not necessarily inaccurate but…"
"Hey!" Frederick voiced his objection.
"He just testing to see if you still listening in." Barbara told him. "You are? Aren't you?" she asked Hallis quietly to check.
"Right." Hallis confirmed. "As far as know." he added deadpan. "Seriously though, I'm not going to win over your parents and I'm less convinced now than ever before that I even want to. At least beyond the bare minimum of them just about tolerating our relationship."
Barbara frowned. "They just need get to know you better" she suggested. 'Maybe meet Frederick, see he no different than other boy… except look just like you."
"He's actually a little taller than I was at the same age, they spliced that in from someone, along with a lot of genes from a fighter pilot they found with exceptional eyesight and weirdly good hand-eye-coordination." Hallis told her.
"Ah, so that why he has different color eyes than you do." Barbara realized. "Fighter pilot here on Niops?" she asked.
"No, she got left behind as part of the rearguard during Operation Switchback" Hallis replied. "I suppose she was the closest thing he had to a mother, in that other than mine she contributed the most genetic material to the goop they grew him from."
Barbara looked thoughtful. "Frederick know about her?"
"Of course, not that I think they ever met." Hallis replied. "You've got to remember that we only really re-introduced anything that remotely resembled a normal family structure into what used to be the Warrior Caste after we told Nicky K to go ****** himself and then left" he said. "I didn't really think of him as my son and strongly I doubt she did either."
"Does he have a picture of her? He should have a picture." Barbara decided. "You have records in computer somewhere, get him a picture."
"You know if you keep treating him like a real boy he's going to start thinking he is one." Hallis remarked, giving her another wink to let her know he was kidding.
"Hey!" Frederick again voiced his objection from the kitchen.
"I think they also spliced in the hearing of a Tellman Bat" Hallis joked. "But they clearly left out some of my brains because he just keeps on falling for it" he said. "For the last time stop eavesdropping and read your book."
"I'm multitasking," Frederick defended himself. "Genetically-engineered science-devils are good at that."
"Not according to some of his grades they're not" Hallis told Barbara. "Look, if you want to plan another dinner with your parents, with or without dragging junior along, go ahead and I'll try my best to make it this time" he offered. "I promise to be at my best behavior, even if your parents aren't."
"I tell them to be nice too, especially if Frederick there." Barbara replied. "Maybe uncle be there too. He like you."
Hallis looked slightly dubious. "I'm never sure if he likes me or if he's just hoping to get the contract to make new uniforms for the SLDF."
"It both." Barbara told him. "Always ask me how you are, also ask a couple of times when we going to get married. Tell sister, my mother, you good catch. Take over from General Romanova one day, good for whole family."
"I knew it!" Hallis exclaimed. "Mom warned me about girls like you that were only pretending to like me so they could get hold of my BattleMech regiments."
"No. I just want fancy title." Barbara deadpanned back. "wifeKhan."
Hallis laughed. "You know we used to call Jennifer Winson, Nicky Kerensky's wife, 'Wifflekhan' as in 'Wife of the ilKhan, but only behind their backs because only Old Nick got to invent new words."
"She the one that pretended to be missing Cameron girl?"
"Yeah, but she was smart enough not to say it out loud publicly, just hinted at it sometimes. The other rumor was she was really an Amaris that Kerensky Senior didn't have the heart to have killed because she was such a cute kid." Hallis recalled. "You know, propaganda from the Pentagon rebels used to say that Nicky was just a puppet, and that she was the one pulling the strings." he said before lowering his voice. "Sarah thought that she was probably just really good at handling something else of his." he whispered so Frederick couldn't hear.
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===Talk about the Big Dance===
They were interrupted by a knock on the front door. "Expecting anyone?" Barbara asked.
"No and that had better not be some messenger from Romanov." Hallis muttered in annoyance as he headed for the front door. "She knows I'm off duty this weekend."
Hallis unbolted the door and opened it. "Trish?" he responded in surprise seeing her standing there along with her ward Jennifer McEvedy. "Do you want something?" he asked.
"Not from you, Boss." trish replied. "Is Barb here? You said she was staying over tonight."
"Yeah," Hallis confirmed, "come in." he told them, stepping aside. "We were just talking about your namesake actually, Jennifer." he told the girl.
"Khan McEvedy?" the girl replied quizzically.
"No. The other one." Hallis told her.
"Urgh, Jennifer Amaris." the girl said with distaste as she and Trish walked inside.
"Keep in mind that when Sarah decided to name you that we were on much better terms with Jennifer Whatever and her husband." Hallis noted. "And her being an Amaris really is just a nasty rumor that's about as likely as her being the last Cameron" he told her.
"My parents name me after Barbara Liao. She not very nice either" Barbara commiserated with Jennifer. "One of better Capellan Chancellors, but bar not set very high" she said sadly.
Trish smiled. "Hi Barb, glad you're here. Jennifer wanted to ask a favour" she told her.
"From me?" Barbara asked in surprise.
"Yes, I mean if you don't mind" Jennifer said awkwardly. "I've been asked to go to the school Christmas dance by a boy and you're supposed to wear a dress, a fancy one, and I don't have one of those. Or know much about them really" she admitted. "I know you make clothes, I mean you work for a company that makes clothes, and you always dress really nice, so I was hoping you might help me out."
Barbara smiled. "Trish not much help?"
"Other than sneakers I own one pair of shoes that aren't army boots and precisely zero fancy dresses" Trish told her. "Not my field of expertise" she admitted.
"Who is this boy?" Hallis wanted to know. "One of the other kits?"
"No. Just a boy from my class. He's nice." Jennifer told him.
"Don't tell me Ralph finally got the guts up to ask you." Frederick interrupted, emerging from the kitchen again. "I was sure he'd chicken out" he said. "Nice to see you saKhan Ebon" he greeted Trish, bowing slightly.
"Nice to see you too, Frederick." Trish replied.
"Other than his name what do you know about this 'Ralph' kid?" Hallis asked Frederick suspiciously.
"He's just a kid and before you ask to meet him no you can't, no matter how much you feel like enjoying yourself terrifying the poor child." Trish interjected before Frederick could reply.
Hallis frowned then sighed. "You know me so well it's aggravating." he complained.
"Your fault for having woman as best friend. Keep you in check, not encourage you to do stupid stuff like man would." Barbara told him.
"And it's aggravating." Hallis repeated himself for emphasis.
"So can you help me?" Jennifer asked Barbara pleadingly. "I've got some money to pay for one, I just wouldn't know where to go to get one, or which one to get that would suit me."
"No need to buy one. I probably have old dress that fit you and if not can have it altered." Barbara told her, smiling. "You tall, slim girl, easy to make dress look good on tall, slim girl. Hang on you like manikin" she said professionally, looking her up and down. "Shoes might be more difficult if you same height as boy though" she considered. "Boy not usually like girl tower over them, might mean wearing flats" she added sadly.
"That would be really nice of you Barb" Trish told her. "Is Ralph taller than you?" she asked Jennifer.
"A little taller" Jennifer replied, "maybe twenty-five mills" she guessed.
"Can probably get away with short heels then, look better than flats at least" Barbara told her. "Those you have to buy for yourself. All my nice shoes high heels so no good for you even if we did have same size feet, and probably don't" she said. "First pair of high-heels I ever buy was for first school dance about your age. Big mistake not practising dancing in them as well as walking, fell over on dance-floor and looked like idiot" she recalled, wincing at the memory. "Date laughed, I slapped him. It totally humiliating for both of us."
Jennifer looked mortified. "I don't know how to dance!" she suddenly realised.
"Don't worry, boys on Niops not know how to dance either. Just watch some old holovids on how to do it and move in time to the music" Barbara advised. "My second school dance went much better" she said. "Third not so much, boy grabbed my ass, he get slapped too."
"Docile my ass." Franklin Hallis muttered to himself. "Jennifer, as your Khan I will only say one thing about that." he addressed the girl seriously, speaking up. "If a boy ever gropes you like that, don't slap him. Do it properly, go for a palm strike to the nose. Smush the cartilage all over his face." he instructed. "Don't worry about getting his blood all over your clothes, it'll wash out."
"Yes, My Khan." Jennifer replied reverently, bowing slightly as she did so.
"He joking." Barbara told the girl.
"I really wasn't." Hallis told her flatly. "Are you going to this dance too?" he asked Frederick.
"Yeah, I asked Clarissa Anderson from my history class." Frederick confirmed. "I've already found a suit to wear." he added, sounding pleased with himself, mostly because she was really cute.
"It's easier for boys," Jennifer complained, "but you're not going with Clarissa Anderson." she told him, smirking. "She's going with Dave. He asked her too after you did."
"Dave? David Jones? The goofy kid with the squint?" Frederick responded, nonplussed.
"No. Not David Jones. I mean our Dave, Dave Robertson." Jennifer explained.
Frederick's jaw dropped for a moment before his expression changed from bewilderment to anger. "He knew I asked her." he said through gritted teeth. "That backstabbing son of a…"
"Language" Barbara interrupted him sharply before he could finish.
"… canister." Frederick corrected himself. "Why is she going with him not me anyway?" he wanted to know.
"Because he's better looking than you maybe?" Jennifer suggested with a shrug.
"Hey!" both Frederick and amusingly Franklin Hallis objected simultaneously, the timing making both Trish and Barbara laugh.
"David Robertson looks just like Dwight. Dwight wasn't better looking than me, was he?" the Khan of Clan Wolverine asked his saKhan.
"Yes" she told him flatly. "I mean, you're not bad looking, but Dwight was a real dish."
"You're joking." Hallis concluded.
"I really wasn't." Trish told him, mimicking his response to Barbara not long before.
"I see old photo of Sarah McEvedy and Dwight Robinson together once." Barbara spoke up. "You right, he very handsome man." she agreed with Trish.
Hallis looked puzzled. "I'm just not seeing it." he said.
"That's because you're a guy, and not one that's into other guys." Trish explained. "You know you really should have come with me to watch the last day of the Marcus trial" she told him, changing the subject before he became fixated on it. "I know that the death penalty was taken off the table early but it was still worth being there to watch her reaction when she was found guilty and sentenced."
"Plenty of people think she got off light." Hallis observed, still not sure if Trish and Barbara were messing with him about Dwight.
"Anyone that thinks that hard labour in a germanium mine on Alphard while not being eligible for parole for thirty years is getting off light has no idea how hot it gets there, and hasn't spent much time swinging a pickaxe" Trish replied before grinning. "Did you hear what she said when the judge told her she was getting thirty years minimum? It was on the holovid news."
"No." Hallis replied.
"She said that she wasn't Terran born and she wasn't going to live another thirty years." Trish told him. "The judge looked at her, thought about it and said 'Good point. Well just do as many as you can' before ordering the guards to take her away. I almost choked trying not to laugh at her expression" she said, grinning at the memory.
"I suppose pirate labour is cheaper than robots, and it's poetic justice considering they enslaved people to do that kind of work for them." Hallis replied. "It's just a shame Critchly isn't fit enough to join the rest of them."
"Give him a few months in solitary and I'll bet he'll be begging to go breaking rocks, even if his heart gives out after a couple of days" Trish replied. "They've already told him that when he dies we're going to freeze his corpse until we can pass it on to the Vatican. No dignified end for that scumbag."
"He'd just better hope they're not right about the afterlife because no heaven or even a spell in purgatory for him, it'll be straight down to the lake of fire getting chased by demons riding infernal Ignis tanks" Hallis suggested wryly.
Trish shrugged. "Maybe, but I'd be more concerned that Satan might tell him he's a big fan and give him a job instead." she replied. "You know he'd want an autograph and a selfie with the man at least before he starts with the eternal torment."
Jennifer wasn't listening to the banter, instead she looked thoughtful. "You should ask the new girl to the dance, Alice McArthur." she advised Frederick.
"The ginger one with glasses that keeps complaining about the weather?" Frederick replied dismissively. At least the glasses helped hide the fact that she kept staring wide-eyed at everything like her peers. To the Meadow's kids even Arecibo was a huge town, while the capital thirty kilometers away where they now went to school was an exciting bustling metropolis.
"She's getting laser-eye surgery, they didn't have that on Buffalo Meadows, she'll look a lot prettier with a nicer hairstyle and without the ugly spectacles" Jennifer told him, they weren't exactly stylish eyewear having likely been made for her in an old machine shop. "Think tactically and get ahead of the game, ask her before other boys see her without them" she suggested. "You know, her great-grandmother, Leigh McArthur, commanded the 295th before General Romanov did, Khan Hallis." she told the man.
"I didn't know that." Frederick said, frowning. "She didn't mention that to the class when the new kids introduced themselves."
"Did you think it was a coincidence her name was McArthur?" Jennifer asked him in disbelief.
"I didn't really think about it." Frederick admitted.
"I mean no offence to you, Khan Hallis, but he's really not the sharpest bayonet in the armoury sometimes." Jennifer observed sadly.
Frederick glared at her. "I'm offended." he complained.
"Yeah, but I meant to do that." Jennifer told him.
"Is this the new annual beat-up-on-Fred day." Frederick Hallis grumbled. "If so can I get more warning next year so I can put it in my calendar."
"I thought we agreed it was going to be held monthly?" Franklin Hallis queried deadpan, looking to the others.
Barbara gave him a disparaging look. "It good thing he know you think you funny." she told the older Hallis. "If other people hear you being so mean to child they think you being serious. Think you horrible father."
"I hate you and you're not my real Dad." Frederick told him, amused.
"Don't encourage him by playing along." Barbara told the boy sternly. "It bad enough you tell woman from social services I like wicked stepmother. She no have sense of humour, not get joke about treating you like servant, making you clean fireplace. Had to show her electric heater because she no get Cinderella references."
"Be fair, she really should have realized I was yanking her chain when I talked about getting to ride shotgun in the new PMK-1N Pumpkin battlemech" Frederick defended himself.
It wasn't necessarily a bad argument, Barbara considered, but he still shouldn't have done it. "Not saying she not dumb as rocks, but need to consider that not everyone on Niops is some kind Rocket-Surgeon" she told him. "She was going to write in report that it bad home environment for you if I ever move in with father before I explain you just messing with her."
"Sorry" Frederick sheepishly apologized, looking down at his boots.
"Just think next time okay?" Barbara told him. "When dance?" she asked Jennifer.
"It's in two weeks" Jennifer told her.
"Good, got plenty time to make adjustments to dress if have to." Barbara said, nodding. "I busy tomorrow. You free Sunday?" she asked.
"Yes." Jennifer told her, smiling.
"You come to my place, try on couple of dresses. All good" Barbara told her. "I tell you which store to go to for shoes. Very cheap now we importing them from Comstock. I already buy several pairs."
"Alice might need a dress too. You'll have to ask her" Jennifer told Frederick.
"I never even said I was going to ask her to the dance, that was your idea" Frederick protested.
"I suppose your plan is to mope and maybe punch Dave in the face?" Jennifer replied sardonically.
"He'd better not." Hallis said darkly, fixing the boy with a look that said he wasn't joking around.
"Can we talk privately in the kitchen over there?" Jennifer asked Frederick, tone of voice indicating that 'no' would not be an acceptable response and he knew it as he followed her out of the living room, the adults finding her bossing him about pretty funny, though they tried not to show it.
"What?" Frederick asked when they got there, closing the door behind them but still keeping his voice low.
"You'll get through this with more dignity if you don't take revenge but do turn up for the dance with a date, Fred" Jennifer told him, putting her hands on her hips. "It's easy. All you need to do is go knock on Alice's door tomorrow, her family only live a couple of streets over, and ask her to go to the dance with you" she continued. "And it has to be tomorrow, not just because you want to ask her before another boy does, but because you need to tell her what happened with Dave and Clarissa Anderson."
"Eh?" Frederick responded in confusion.
"She's going to find out eventually that you asked Clarissa first, so you need for her to hear that from you not someone else" Jennifer told him "That way you can tell her that you're not just asking her out because the girl you wanted to go with the dance with is going with someone else."
"But that's the truth" Frederick responded, confused.
"It's the partial truth, a version that she isn't going to like one bit" Jennifer replied. "If you tell her that you were going with Clarissa, but she went back on her word and is going with your backstabbing ****** of supposed friend instead, that's a better summary of events from your perspective" she explained. "Tell her you're upset about it, and she'll be doing you a really big favour if she goes to the dance with you because if you still turn up there with a pretty girl you won't feel like such a chump. Play on her empathy, she seems like a sweet girl when she's not moaning about the weather."
"Isn't that like tricking her or something?"
"Are you saying you're not upset and don't feel like a chump?" Jennifer asked rhetorically. "If it's the truth then it's not a trick, it's just being honest creatively, and to your benefit" she argued. "As long as you make sure she has fun at the dance it's to her benefit too remember."
"I guess" Frederick conceded.
"Think about it. If she thinks she's being nice by going with you, and also that you think she's pretty enough to make you look good by going to the dance with you, then that's a lot better than thinking she's just your second-choice back-up plan which would hurt her feelings" Jennifer told him. "Also, if she says something in response like, 'I'm not that pretty' or 'there's prettier girls you could ask' then say, 'I like girls with red hair' and she'll probably accept that."
"So lie?"
"Do you dislike girls with red hair?"
"No. I just don't care one way or the other."
"Not technically a lie then is it? I mean if you like girls with any colour hair then you do like girls with red hair" Jennifer argued.
Frederick thought about it. "I guess so." he conceded. "Always the one doing the strategizing and rules-lawyering" he praised her.
"Another masterplan from the genes that brought you Operation Switchback" Jennifer replied sounding pleased with herself. She might have been less confident that it would all work out if she hadn't already known that Alice had wanted someone to ask her to the dance. It was of course important not to let him know that information, mostly because he might not approach the girl in the right manner if he came across as being sure of himself, which for Frederick always came across as cocky. He needed to seem like she was doing him a favour when he asked her, not the reverse, to achieve the desired outcome.
Frederick grinned. "And if it doesn't work and she says no I can always still slug Dave" he said brightly.
Jennifer sighed. "Violence isn't the answer. Please don't slug, Dave, it'll make you the jerk and I might need him as my saKhan one day. Preferably without brain damage from being punched in the head."
"Gottcha. Bodyshots to the gut only." Frederick agreed, missing the overall point more than a little.
Jennifer decided not to bother explaining. "Oh yeah, and like I said, Alice is a sweetie so if you're mean to her I will kick seven shades of shit out of you." she vowed. "Just so you know."
"I thought violence wasn't the answer?" Frederick responded, confused.
"Depends on the question" Jennifer told him.
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==Chapter Notes==
*;Notes from the Author : Two years after the SLDF dropships first landed on the Arecibo Plains on Niops VII the place is now a small city (it's a city by Niops standards, other places would call it a town). The original inhabitants have now been joined by the rest of the people who stayed behind on Buffalo Meadows having arrived with Ulithi, Buccaneer and Maverick.It's noted in Requiem for a Blue Star that the star that the 'Blue Star Division' (the 295th) ended up stuck at when their Potemkin broke down in 2785 was red, but the planet seems a lot more verdant than Niops VII (and it's further out from the star's zenith point) so I'm going with it being an type M1V Red Dwarf and therefore quite a lot larger than an M5V like Niops. The 295th's colony was not successful in that they never had enough children to sustain themselves in the long term (once all the long-lived Terran Hegemony people eventually died out the population would have severely crashed. There were a few children of course, like our new character Alice McArthur, descendant of Leigh McArthur, but the Meadow's children are going to be blown away by the number of kids at their new school, not to mention finding themselves living somewhere where there are hundreds of thousands of people in one place.As the timeline progresses, we'll be seeing a lot more of these kids. If you'll forgive the pun, ironborn Jennifer McEvedy (named for both her genetic donor Sarah and Jennifer Winson wife of ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky) is clannish and looks after her fellow kits. Jennifer wishes she wasn't named after a possible Amaris and Barbara sympathises being herself named after Barbara Liao.If you're short on robots and volunteers to labour in the baking hot sun of Alphard, well captured pirates represent a very useful (if unenthusiastic) labour force.
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Chapter 17