WoWS3 Chpt 59

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==Weapons of War Saga: The Final March- Chapter 59 - ==
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===Officer Graduation===
SLDF Officer School
New Lazarus, Star League in Exile
11th April, 3145
"Wewewala, how does a belta get so dirty?" Anh fussed as she helped Cadet Lt. Wewewala straighten their uniform up on the parade ground. "I swear, your sisters don’t do this!!"
“Ugh. I swear living in the well for so long is doing weird things to my body…” said Keon Wewewala 
'Your body didn't spill frozen sherbet on your collar, Keon." she argued, applying clean-wipes in flurried succession. "You're going to be leading marines, you don't need to be eating like them!"
“Stupid gravity. I never would have stumbled like that on a station.” Keon grumbled.
"Just one question, Keon…" Anh asked, "tell me, what the hell is a tangerine?"
“I’m pretty sure it is a dirtyfoot invention. Hell, if I can tell the difference between one and an orange.” Keon complained.
"Reason I ask, is that the crayon tastes like citric acid, sugar, and wax. I just don't know what it's SUPPOSED to taste like!"
He laughed.
“My sister has the gift, not me. But thank you. I know you tried.” Keon told Anh.
"You'll be a fine leader of men, Keon." she told him. "Alright, our line's next. Let's get formed up now!"
Fowler snuck up to his fiancee` and gave her hand a quick squeeze. “I’d do something more, but we don’t have the time.” He smiled.
"We'll make it up later." she promised.
The band started playing and they marched out in formation. The recitals of the last week worked out-the cadet corps had no visible, obvious mistakes as they marched in review past the VIP stands.
Anh, as her section's leader, kept her eyes hard forward while the rest did the eyes-right. (one two, one two…) her mind paced off distance and speed under gravity to her mark. She broke forward and snapped to attention at the designated spot they'd had to drill, while the section did a wheel about and assembled in geometrically straight line and column.
"Formation, Pah-Rade, REST!!"
They popped.
"The Commandant of Cadets will now address the Class!!"
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===Pride and Regrets of Parents===
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Bettina Brightman could see her oldest son, Nigel, in his sparkling fine uniform down on the parade field, next to a stretched-like-taffy looking boy and a strawberry blonde girl in his section.
She felt pride. She'd been a Mathers, and her Father had sailed with the Lucy Heerman in the War.
She'd made the mistake of falling for Tam Brightman, who did NOT enlist, and thought the military was a huge waste of time and taxes. They'd had furious love for ten years, mixed with cats-in-a-bag fights over their oldest son for ten more years, until she'd finally had enough. 
Well, that and the police having to come out to the farm three times a week for the last five years…and the emergency room visits…and the courts.
She'd finally given up on Tam, when she found Sally Denigs in his bed. That made the decision to stop trying so much easier...it also made the Magistrate sympathetic enough that her drunken, now ex, husband would have to find steady work in a factory. Bettina won the farm, and custody of her two other sons.
All in all it was proof no system was perfect, that there was no such thing as ‘utopia’. People will always have their problems, differences, and pitfalls. What made New Lazarus different was she had options that were difficult to imagine any other realm offering.
But Nigel? He was everything she'd imagined as a seventeen year old that Tam could've been, only without the 'shine or the wilding. Her SON was turning out to be the good man she dreamed of, and he would make Lea Sears a fine husband.
Much finer than his father was.
"Tulkas, you pay 'tenchin naw. Yo' brother's raht theah."
As Nigel’s name was announced with his commendations and new posting he saluted the Commandant then returned to parade rest.
She dabbed a few tears of pride.
The process repeated a few more times, names of common everyday families, a couple famous families, and a few inbetween before finally it came to Treyvon Fowler.
Bettina knew Trayvon was her son's best friend, and even from here, she could see how he resembled the kind man who stepped in when the contractor tried to get her to pay more than the price for a damn soda the city man thought she was a hick.
An easy mark for cheating.
Mister Fowler sorted that shit right out, and she owed the man a kindness or three for it. Him, and his family.
It was a fight she didn't want, after all.
She watched his salute and was glad that her son had a friend like him.
The ceremony concluded with a celebrity note, and the families could rejoin their loved ones, now officers in Her Majesty's Black Ocean Service.
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===Bride Meets the Family===
Treyvon Fowler walked hand in hand with Anh to his parents. "Mom, Dad…this is Anh." he said. "We're getting married."
“Wait a minute son, why not tell us before now?”
“I was going to wait to propose until after the ceremony but last night, something happened…”
“You did not get this woman pregnant out of wedlock did you Treyvon?” Melora scowled.
"De Kontraplants is Veled." Anh spoke, a little bit of german and belta leaking into her words, then she hesitated, "He did not get me pregnant, Sov Madame Fowler."
"Anh…"
"Oh, right, nobody down here uses 'sov'." she blushed a bit, highlighting her complexion, "We've been seeing each other for a year, Ma'am, but I didn't say 'yes' until last night. Your son is quite persuasive and persistent."
“So he is. Still I would have liked to meet my future daughter in law before he proposed. Call me an old traditionalist if you must.” Fowler's mother commented.
"Which province are you from, Anh?" his father asked curiously.
"I'm not from Lazarus, sir." she said.
"I gather not. Trayvon, we don't know anything about your lady-love, have you at least met HER family?" Mother asked.
"My family…is no more, after the battle over Sudeten.“ Anh said slightly sad voice.
Father immediately seemed to know what that meant, but Mother looked confused. 
“She risked all against the Falcons, gave of her blood and all she had to save as many as she could.” Leroy explained simply.
"But the news said that the battle went easy!" 
"That's not the battle we're talking about dear." Leroy said, "is it?"
"Nah Sirrah." Anh confirmed hesitantly. "It was th' rescue mission, where we went in to stop a genocide."
“Then we welcome you. If our son brings you happiness and you bring him happiness that is all we can ask.” Leroy’s tone left no room for debate.
Melora's eyes went wide with understanding, "You're the girl the Golden Hind couple mentioned, you're the Pathfinder!!"
"'S a guild rating, ma'am." Anh said, "Here, I'm just…Lieutenant Commander Cu'ong…soon to be Fowler." she smiled, "Sorry I don't have a Dowry gift, we lost everything in that fight and what came after."
"My god, your people still use dowry??"
“So does Golden Hind.”
"But…she's not..I mean, she doesn't look-"
"Not all Spacers are Rokkahjakkah, not all Beltas live in de Float neither, some burrows are on moons or planetoids. I spent time on Hattah and Spider Moon, both high-gee, but airless." she explained. "But yes, I do have the pathfinder rating."
“Then as I understand the tradition, we are the ones who owe you a dowry. Not you, us.”
"That's Golden Hind, among Free Stars, both contribute on a breeding contract and stake..ah a 'Marriage'." she replied, "you're giving me something more than I can pay just with Trayvon."
“There is one thing that we should give you without doubt. I’ll take the Cu’ong name. You don’t have to take Fowler.” Treyvon said. “Names mean something. We’re surrounded by examples of that.”
"But what if I want to?" she asked, "We can hyphenate like Sithers and Deen did when they ended their feud…"
“Then that is what you shall do. You will both share names.” Leroy declared.
The two lovers clutched hands.
"When is the ceremony?" Melora Fowler asked.
"We both join ship next week, so it's going to have to be before then." Anh said.
“Then we shall simply have to extend our stay in the city a bit longer so we can help you two with the ceremony.” Leroy Fowler smiled.
“Oh my… I just realized this does mean the odds of me being a grandmother have gone up quite considerably after all…” Melora said as a wave of realization washed over her face.
"Dad, I need to round up my best man…and Anh's maid of honor." Trayvon said.
"Oh?" asked Leroy
"Yeah. I'll be right back." Treyvon told them.
"You talk funny." Douglass Fowler announced in his ten-year-old voice.
"Ayeh, I do." Anh said easily, "You…must be Douglass! Trayvon tells stories about you, you know."
“Perspective son. I’m sure to her our accents sound plenty strange too.” Leroy said to Douglas.
She looked at the boy, then, over his head, "and you must be Stephanie."
"You're not a lot older than my brother." Stephanie Fowler said, "I know from school that Belters from the Lyrans rescued a bunch of people on Sudeten, if you were there…"
"I was sixteen." Anh said, "We had to have everyone on-ship for it, every ship we had for it, it meant a lot of families went in with everyone to get them out…not all of them made it out, I had to be ship's master for years. Racked up an unbelievable debt in lost lives and ships, because I was the ranker, and responsible among the survivors."
“There are a lot of those families here on New Lazarus now. Working, living, loving.” Stephanie said.
"Yah, Trinh did good for the Sithers-Deen, saved their legacy, even if they're all gone now." Anh agreed. "Legendary even."
“The way I see it we failed you. You should have had our help.”
"You can't fail what you didn't have the chance to try-we moved without telling anyone, because it was the only way we knew after so long, my ancestors were hiding from Amaris before they betrayed the Camerons. It took a lot of change to make any of us trust anyone outside the community…and that, is what cost us." she said, "You helped by taking them in, by making it not a complete failure."
“And now thanks to people like you and our son, we now have a real chance to make sure it will never happen again.” Leroy said.
"Words to the ears of god." she nodded agreement, then "for god gives nothing if you don't do the work."
Treyvon returned with Brighton and Sears.
“Sorry, took a minute to break up the argument between Sears and her mother.” Fowler panted slightly out of breath.
"Lea, is that an engagement ring??" Anh squealed like a little girl.
"It is!!!"
"Oh, we have to celebrate now!" 
“Hehe. Oh my god, double bachelorette party?”
"Here we come! I've got all the pubs and clubs mapped out on Lazarus Station!"
"I know all the best places here in the CITY!!"
Trayvon and Brighton exchanged looks, "We're gonna die, you know that right?"
“Yeah. But we’ll have fun first. And if we’re really lucky, we’ll be old and gray when we do.” Brighton smiled.
"NIGEL!!" Bettina Glomphed her son like a sandy-haired comet. "AHMSOPROUDOFYOU!!!"
Nigel hugged his mother back while saying "mom…my fiancee…"
She released him and turned to Lea Sears with an appraising eye. "Nigel, she looks kinda…underfed, are they feeding you dear?"
“Plenty, Ma’am. I just work it off with all the PT they put us through.”
She swept an appraising eye, "Alright, I guess you're good enough f'r, my boy…Nigel, did you cheap out onna ring?"
"Uh, no Ma'am." Brighton hesitated.
"Well good. You know that harridan mother-in-law you're gonn'a have would give you endless grief if you did."
“Aw, she’s gonna do that anyway, Ma.”
"Yah, well mebbe I'll give your fahter her number if she gives you too much grief, seems to me they're likely fit for one another." her eyes twinkled with malice.
“Om my god. My mom, on a farm? Doing manual labor? She wouldn’t last five minutes!” Sears laughed.
"No dear, I got the farm, my ex gets to go find factory work." Bettina said, "once he's out of prison, that is. The Courts reviewed the evidence, he's doing five up Sandy Crick."
“Dating a convict? Oh my god! That’d be even better! I’d buy every tabloid ever just so I could relish that!”
"Too perfec' innit?" Bettina said with a cackle. 
An actual cackle.
“I’m scared dad…” Douglas admitted.
"Madame Bettina, Are you…" Melora began, "...a good witch, or a bad witch?"
"Ahm' the worst good witch you ever seen."
"Fair enough, at least I know my son associates with people of good quality."
"I do what I can."
“Seems we now have a double wedding to plan.”
"It would so appear that way." Bettina agreed. "I think we can safely say Lady Sears is not going to contribute, either."
"No." Lea said, "That hash is settled. Mother has disowned me."
"Well, that does simplify whether or not I hate her." Bettina said, "So…Mrs. Fowler, we should get to work making sure this affair comes off perfectly." her accent slightly faded into a tone of authority, "Ahey?"
"Yes. we should. Would you mind terribly arranging the wedding hall?"
"I can do that very thing…if y'all handle the bachelorette party and your Husband is up to keeping the boys busy the night afore the weddin, for luck?"
"I can handle that." Leroy said.
"Good, I'll get with Lady Helena and we'll use the Drillson Tower, say, wednesday at noon?"
"Wait, how much are you worth?"
"Oh, between the Ranches, Farms, two town sites that're fillin' up, mineral rights on the south continent…It's a comfortable amount, really. It's all 'land wealth' and such, but Her Majesty typically takes my calls." Bettina said, "after all, my family business feeds half the continent."
Leroy was in stunned silence. Even as one of the largest marine and fishing industry conglomerates on world he could never dream of calling up Her Majesty.
"Waitaminit, you're RICH?" Lea was stunned.
"Yeah." Nigel said, "I just never felt the need to make a big deal about it, especially considering my old man. As long as he was in the picture I had no desire to 'make contacts' for the man."
"Marrying a manager was the worst mistake I ever made…" Bettina shook her head.
“Rule eleven, never date a coworker.” Leroy agreed.
"Well, I was young and dumb, daddy was gone." she sighed, "But things are better now."
===Happy Dispatch===
M5.1 Class Casper Destroyer, SLS Juanita Pujol Garcia
Enroute to New Lazarus
14th April, 3145
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Director-General & Star Lord Helena Cameron looked over the dispatches, and smiled. "HAH!!!" she barked out a laugh, "FINALLY!!"
“Ladyship?” Reimu asked.
“Cu’ong’s getting married, Betty Brighton finally got rid of Henri, it's like Christmas."
“So I should clear your calendar?” Reimu asked
"We're still far enough out, that it'll be done by the time we get there, but have Steve Myers reserve the main ballroom at Drillson Tower for a wedding. A double wedding, at that. Fowler and Brighton, expedite for Wednesday."
“Yes ma’am.”
“And I have an idea for a wedding gift for Cu’ong.” Helena smiled. “It’ll take some doing. I want the bride’s side filled with refugees from Sudeten we’ve taken in. Try and make sure there’s enough room for their invites first, but I want as many as possible packed in there.”
“That’ll be expensive…” Reimu commented
“Worth it.” Helena said.
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===Deep thoughts while admiring beauty of Space===
Amanda Roberts lounged on the outer hull, stargazing through the visor of her helmet.
<<"You're outside again.">> Juanita's voice intruded on her helmet speakers.
"Yep." Amanda said, "I am, we're still. What, seventy two hours from the drive being charged?"
<<"About that, yes. Why are you on my hull? I've got a perfectly nice observation lounge, and I know my sensors and telescope can give better resolution than a human eye is capable of.">>
"It's normally quieter out here." Amanda replied. "Not many Crew are keen to do a spacewalk if there isn't a life-or-death emergency going on that requires it, so things are less…cramped. I spent a long time alone, Juanita…well, long for a human being."
She patted the safety rail, <<"Probably not so long for an AI Warship.">>
<<"Her Ladyship has a series of protocols written just about you, Admiral. 'Risky behaviors' is on that list.">> Juanita stated.
"This isn't risky." Amanda said, "unless you're about to pull a two-gee turn-in-place and ram an asteroid or something, anyway. Do you know how I started this?"
<<"No.">>
"Johnson, the fight that captured that Essex class, we did a two day dive into the gravity well of a gas giant. During that dive, Larry Nichols talked me into going out the lock and onto the nose, to see what an approaching gas-giant looks like with the naked eye.. The orange, yellow, and red sky was incredible-even that far out, it was the whole sky. We were plunging at something that big, an enemy destroyer hot on our tail, and I spent hours out there, because it was just…sensors and cameras don't capture that feeling, Juanita. It helped me remember who I am."
<<"Oh…you feel lost.">>
"Yes." Amanda said, "I think it's why I kept trying with the calving experiments or part of it. I wanted to peel off the excess and find me., not the image of 'Captain Roberts' or the person others were expecting, but the core of me, so I could understand how much of me was…me, and not Desmond. Not the personality everyone was pressing at me, how much of me is me, and how much is someone else's expectation and demand of who I should be? Only the experiments didn't show me that. What I did instead, was make a bunch of other people, Juanita. While I was 'primary' I made some decisions. One of those people is dead because of that."
<<"You still have Petra.">>
"I'm not sure she wouldn't be better if I was gone, Juanita." Amanda said, "Helena's a great influence on her, and she's definitely diverged from…well, from me, and that's a good thing."
<<"I don't think that's right.">> Juanita said. <<"You really just want to sit there?">>
"Sure." Amanda said, "Like I said, normally it's quiet, and private. No matter how good the compartmentalization is on a ship, conversations have a tendency to be overheard, if the speed of a rumor could be harnessed, we wouldn't need jump drives."
<<"Should I send my remote out?">>
"Why? Remember, I spent most of my growing up years talking to an imaginary friend. We merged during the scan, so I don't have Desmond anymore to talk to, you're not a bad substitute."
<<"Helena's was 'Simon', he's been…inactive for several years now for the most part. Only coming out when Helena pushes herself too hard.">>
"Do you miss him?" Amanda asked.
<<"Not really.">>
"Yeah, I guess every relationship is going to be slightly different." Amanda agreed. "Hypothetical, Juanita. Bolan is a fair run from Port Lazarus, right? Months of travel from there."
<<"Yes. With the increased jump distances Kolossus has helped make possible we can hit it much more practically now.">>
"You're telling the girl who ran a year long raid behind the lines against the Sons of Plunder, hit their shipping to the point it paralyzed their front line forces and nearly collapsed their economy…of course, we can't do all of that, because I negotiated away my best tricks."
<<"You're working on how to work the fringes, edges, and cracks in the agreement, that's why you're out here!">> Juanita observed.
"Yes, yes I am." Amanda agreed. "Did the work-tablet give it away?"
<<"You're outside where I can't directly look over your shoulder, with a work tablet, on my bow servicing platform so that nobody can just 'accidentally' see what you're working on. It follows that whatever it is, you're of the opinion that someone aboard might want to stop you from finishing. That means breaking some rules, but you're willing to discuss it, which means you're not looking to break the agreements, you're working on some way to bend them.">>
"An exploit." Amanda agreed, "Helena is a straight shooter, she doesn't like it when people bend the rules, she likes the rules to be understood by everyone…but I'm looking at this situation as one that demands bending, spindling, and mutilation of the rules…and I think Alaric's working the same. If he isn't, then Garner Kerensky or one of his senior leades, maybe Anastasia, is."
<<"What makes you think so? She’s been very creative about observing the spirit of the agreement in some circumstances but letter in others. I believe she even called one such situation ‘malicious compliance’.">>
"I don't have the best read on her, Juanita, she's always been straight with me, I forget sometimes that there are special conditions regarding family…"
<<“It is true one of her weaknesses is she does have an undue bias towards family, which does create a blindspot for her at times and yes create a double standard after a fashion. But one of her strengths is, she has learned. She knows war isn’t always going to be clean or pretty. That there will be horrors. Her great difference from all the other leaders is really that she wants to make sure those horrors don’t swallow any more souls than they have to. That people need time away from them and even victors need to be held accountable.”>>
"Half my campaigns, especially the Long Raid were based on exploiting people's assumptions and turning them sideways. Then we ramming them into their sensitive bits on the end of a cutlass."
<<"You think you've found a gap in Alaric's assumptions?">>
Amanda laughed harshly, "Not yet, but it's there. Ping me if I don't come in in six hours, okay?"
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