IMP58

==Chapter 58 - Important People==
Cementary
Pretoria
New Capetown Star System
Lyran Commonwealth
Early 3098
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Amanda and Irena arrived in full surface-duty dress class Alpha uniforms.  In Irena's case, this was topped with an LCAF officer's flat-cap with rank flash and the crest of the LCS Frederick Steiner.  Amanda didn't have the same uniform draw, since hers was technically a Militia Reserve commission.
The Kowloon Coast Guard's Marine full dress drew from a couple of inspirations in humanity's past.  A white peaked cap with black Leather Brim, tight black wool tunic with brass buttons and red piping, buttoned to the neck, rank tabs on shoulder-boards, ribbons instead of medals, light blue trousers with a black branch-stripe bordered in darker blue, and polished, low-quarter leather boots.
All topped with a long pseudo-leather coat to cope with the rainy weather.
Irena assisted the funeral detail in carrying the coffin from the hearse to the grave, and took her place with Amanda at the grave-side.  High school cadets, looking sharp (but uncomfortable) in their dress uniforms fired seven shots in time to their instructor's cadence as the casket was lowered.
Baron Van Oosten himself was squeezed into an LCAF dress uniform from an earlier era. His Jihad Era medals reflecting the pale light of a rainy morning. With a slouch hat set firm on a head that had grown to comically fat proportions, jowls freshly shaven.
The pastor recited something in Afrikaans but, Amanda wasn't paying full attention.  'Every funeral is the same, every funeral is different,' she noted to herself.
Mrs. Van Oosten, the matriarch of the family, had a harsh anger etched on every line of her face as the casket descended.  Duke Hearsch's man looked grim but, seemed as unimpressed in Amanda's eyes as any bored functionary... except for the guilt in his eyes when he looked at the Baron, which wasn't often.
A young man in LCAF dress blues with the rank of Lieutenant (Junior Grade) and an RNCMA school rag looked stricken at the whole proceedings. While another man, this one older and definitely an adult, looked devastated every time he glanced at the casket.  Amanda identified the unit patch on the older one's shoulder as being from the Coventry Province Militia, one of the various 'numbered' units.
The two weren't Van Oosten family members unless there was a branch with olive skin and curly hair she hadn't heard of.
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"...cool as ye please." Amanda says "'most fatal accidents happen in the home'!"  The Wake was mostly booze in an outdoor gazebo.  The rain had passed and everything was hot, steam-laced sweating.  Irena was telling tales to some of the younger relatives. To Amanda's ears, for a moment, she sounded like Koren.
Amanda didn't interrupt, but it was uncomfortable being here.
She turned away from where Irena was to find herself nose-to-chest with Baron Van Oosten himself.
"Lieutenant, if you would have a drink with me?" he rumbled.
"Yeah."
She followed him out into the yard, away from the crowd.
"You're not sleeping with her, are you?" he asked.
Amanda made a face, "Ew...no.  That would be like sleeping with my brother yuck."
"Gut." he said.  "I wanted to get that out of the way.  You seem to have a wrong impression about things here, I wanted to correct that."
"Sir?"
He stopped at a folding table topped with a keg, and took out two glasses from a cooler, filling each in turn as he spoke. "You seem to think there is something to... 'fix' here." he said, offering Amanda one of the glasses.
"I admit knowing there's some stress I've seen." Amanda said, accepting the glass.  "Irena and Koren had a disagreement at the Archon's ball, it got pretty aggressive. She was devastated when she found out about Koren."
"How devastated?" he asked casually.
Amanda hesitated, "Sir, that edges on indiscreet. Sir." she said, though his rank insignia was that of a Sergeant-Major instead of an officer.
"Indulge me." he said quietly.
"Somewhere between 'suicide by drinking' and 'gun check at the door of the lavatory', Sir." Amanda stated.  "I had to come up with things to keep her distracted on the way out here. I had to kept two enlisted watching her when I was sleeping."
He nodded.  "They were very close, once." he told her.  "Irena adored her big sister and Koren adored her little sister-as children."
Amanda listened and sipped her beer.
"I was not always the... best father to them." he concluded.  "I'm afraid some of this is my fault."
"My mom would say raising kids is the hardest job." Amanda confided.
He chuckled mournfully.  "It is, and harder still when you have to cope with... We're very traditional here, Lieutenant.  Irena..." he couldn't say it.
"So, what happened?" slipped out of Amanda's mouth. Dammit! don't ask those things!!
"You're aware of Irena's...leanings, romantically." he said.
"Yeah, it doesn't impact her duties and she knows better than to hit on me, so it's never been a problem."
"It was here. In her teen years. Her mother still refuses to forgive her.  I was... weak." he said.  "I should have stood up to her.  She sent Irena to a 'religious retreat' that promised they could cure her and I did nothing to stop it."<br>
"Oh shit." Amanda breathed.
"Koren tried to warn us about those... Irena secured her own release and-" he sighed.  "I did not hear from her again until you brought Koren home."
"I guess-gah!"  Amanda said in outright disgust.  "You mean you let your wife send your kid to a Conversion camp?"
"I was weak.  I only realized what those things were after," he insisted.  "She won't speak to me, Lieutenant. You needed to know why she may be right not to."
"Wow, so I really did step in it this time." Amanda said.  "Crap... if anything happens to my officer..."
"That won't be necessary, Lieutenant." he said, "I learned my lesson, the con-men running that... operation have been properly arrested and dealt with. She still has every right not to forgive me for letting that happen to her."
Amanda looked at the beer, "I think I need something stronger than this." she said.
He sighed, "I need it every day, but my doctors tell me I've permanently damaged my liver in the last ten years since the... incident."
Amanda suppressed a shudder of revulsion.
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