I spent most of my life trying to stay out of any entangling commitments. I was footloose and fancy free and I liked it. I volunteered for the military so I could kill Shang. I didn’t see it as signing up for the military. Or any kind of oath or anything else like that. The Shang had ended my world and I wanted to end all of theirs. It turns out that not everybody has goals that simple. And some people want a greater level of commitment of the people they work with. Betty is one example. There are others like her.

 

 

Commitment

 

Jack flexed his fingers, breathed in deeply, and scanned the displays again. Most of the fleet’s ships drifted in space, venting atmosphere from deep gashes through their armor. Nearly half their fighters were just gone, and one of Holly’s pilots hadn’t survived. A quick check showed all his Cowboys still lived though. That was one good thing.

But the Shang had been real sneaky today. Again. They just never stopped looking for new ways to kill him.

“How are we?” Jack asked as he continued to scan the displays.

“We can fly,” Betty answered and then waved one hand at another display.

The Shang fleet came back into view on the display as new sensor platforms spread out beyond the field of debris surrounding them and Jack grunted in approval. Less than half the Shang fleet still moved under power, and atmosphere poured from almost all their smashed hulls. Gravity flowed around the ones who still had power, accelerating them out and away from the remains of his little fleet while leaving their wounded fellows behind. That was good. Los Angeles and company would never survive another fight like that in their present state.

Then Betty waved up at the canopy where Thunderer and her escorts accelerated past their position. It was a zoomed in view of course. They were too far away to see with the mark one eyeball, but the canopy made them look real good as they sailed by on plumes of blue fusion flame. The slingshot maneuver swung them through New Earth’s gravity well in a move designed to catch any damaged Shang lagging behind the main formation. And that explained why the Shang weren’t sticking around. Los Angeles might not be able to fight them now, but the remains of the Shang force were no match for an honest-to-God battleship. Thank God for small favors. Not that he could let anybody think he’d needed that much help.

“Open frequencies,” he ordered.

Betty gave him a sly smile and nodded. She knew what was coming.

“This is Captain Jack of Hart Squadron, Marine Fighter Attack Wing 112, the Cowboys,” Jack said in his cockiest tone of voice. “And we just kicked your ass.”

“Oorah!” Ken and Katy shouted over the radiowaves and Jack chuckled. They couldn’t miss a chance to push their reputation as boorish American Cowboys after all.

“Feel free to come back any time you want another beating,” Jack added with a totally disrespectful salute and a wink. “We’ll be waiting for yah.”

Then he leaned back and watched Thunderer and her fleet continue to chase the Shang away with a stream of missiles and gravitic cannons. The Shang kept running. And for a moment, all was right in the universe.

“So, the good news is that the Shang are running,” Jack said with an approving smile. “Who’s got more good news for me?”

The cybers looked back and forth at each other on the console for a second before Holly answered. “The fleet has enough power and maneuvering capability if we work together to achieve a stable orbit over New Earth before we bounce off the atmosphere.”

Jack nodded and gave her a thumbs up. “That is very good news. Any more good news?”

The Gabrielle in white piped up next. “The Pennsylvania embassy has charged us with piracy and destruction of national assets. They want everybody involved arrested and held for trial.”

Jack frowned and considered that for several seconds. Then he cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes at her. “I fail to see how that is good news.”

Gabrielle smiled. “The good news is that the Pennsylvania fleet that accompanied us from Serenity left for Earth yesterday. They aren’t here to execute the arrest order themselves.”

That was a sobering thought. Jack winced and then nodded. “Okay. On further reflection, I accept your definition of good news.”

Then Jack frowned and looked around. He narrowed his eyes at the sight of Hollywood’s wounded flank. An idea began to form and he smiled. “Holly?”

“Yeah?” the Japanese surfer girl asked with a suspicious look. She could tell he was thinking about something.

“Me and you belong to Aneerin’s fleet. That makes us the closest things to neutral parties there are in this little disagreement, yes?”

Holly cocked her head back and forth and the doubt showed clearly. “We are in no way neutral in this.”

Jack scowled at her. Then he brought up one hand and motioned for her to come closer. She looked at her fellow cybers for a moment before floating across the empty space between them and stepping onto his shoulder. He leaned in close to her twenty-centimeter form and whispered in a conspiratorial tone. “Aneerin asked me to protect Olivia. Are you willing to help me?”

Holly frowned at him for what seemed like an eternity. Then she grunted. “Fine. What do you want of me?”

Jack’s eyebrows rose as a few ideas came to mind. Holly’s gaze turned very sharp as she recognized his wondering mind and she cleared her throat in a vaguely threatening way. At which time he decided he probably shouldn’t put voice to them right now and nodded towards Gabrielle. “Get them over to Hollywood. We can keep them safe from arrest or whatever until cooler heads prevail.”

Holly just raised one eyebrow. “Cooler heads? You really think that will happen?”

Jack smiled and shrugged. “Hope springs eternal.”

Holly pursed her lips and then looked around towards the other cybers. They performed all the nonverbal clues that showed they were talking to each other much faster than mere words allowed. One cocked her head to the side. Another placed a hand on her hip. Another shrugged. They each did something a little different, but appeared for all the worlds as just a normal group of young ladies talking to each other. And then Holly turned back to him with a nod.

“We concur with your idea. It has a reasonable chance of success.”

Jack frowned as a thought came to mind. “And Olivia?”

Gabrielle sighed. “She is…not convinced.”

“Need some help?” Jack asked with a wide smile. “I’m always happy to help.”

“No,” Gabrielle said with a vigorous shake of her head. “I’ve got this covered.”

Jack frowned. “What’s she saying?”

“Not repeatable in polite company,” Gabrielle said with a wince.

“Oh.” Then Jack smiled as a new thought came to mind. “That is so sweet.”

Gabrielle gave him a confused look. “What?”

“You think I’m polite company now,” Jack said with his best innocent look.

Gabrielle sighed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Jack waggled his eyebrows at Betty. She rolled her eyes back at him.

“I’ll get her out. You cover us?” Gabrielle requested.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Jack said and turned back to business. “Cat. Crane. Form up on Los Angeles. We have friends to protect.”

“All over it, Boss,” Katy acknowledge with a sly look.

“Got it, Boss,” Ken said with just a slight hint of beach lazy in his tone.

Jack grasped the stick and swung the Avenger around to accelerate towards Los Angeles. The Cowboys accelerated with him and he smiled as they navigated through the wreckage. He let out a long breath as Los Angeles came into view and he saw her with his own eyes for the first time since before the battle. Half her armored wedge was just gone. It looked like one of her gravitic cannons had overloaded and ripped that entire part of the wedge off. Two of her engines pods were reduced to sparking struts and the other two were so damaged he didn’t know if they would work at all. Torn and shattered armor plating hung off her flanks like weary battle flags. He’d never seen the poor girl looking so bad.

He pulled the Avenger to a stop and saw New Earth through the massive, airless hangar bay. The hatches had been blown free of the ship by a powerful explosion that had also disabled her atmospheric energy screens. The ruins of Olivia’s shuttle lay scattered against the bulkheads. Scars and scorch marks marred the Marines but diagnostic indicators said they were all alive and fully operational. Then their craft rose off the deck and shot out of the hangar as he watched.

“Olivia is under Marine protection,” Gabrielle reported on his console and Jack nodded.

“Stay on the Marines, Cowboys,” Jack ordered and brought his Avenger around to follow. The other Cowboys acknowledged and slipped into formation as they accelerated towards Hollywood.

Jack scanned the displays and looked up through the canopy as they passed by smashed frigates and crippled destroyers. Not one ship had escaped the battle unmauled and it was all his fault. He’d underestimated the Shang and everyone who listened to him had paid the price.

“Hey, Boss,” Ken said from a display and Jack turned.

“Yes?”

“We’re going to need to keep a patrol up and running out here until the Shang are gone.”

“Agreed.”

“I suggest we leave Cat in charge.”

Jack pursed his lips in thought. It was a good idea. Then he looked out as they slowed to match course and speed with Hollywood. The Marine craft continued in to the open hangar and Jack scanned the ship for a moment. She’d taken far less damage than Los Angeles, but large wounds still showed in her flanks and armored wedge. At least they hadn’t blown clean through. And her hangar’s atmospheric screens still worked.

“Cat?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, Boss?” Katy returned.

“You’re in command out here.”

“Ah, and here I wanted to see Hollywood,” Katy said with a pointed look.

“I’m sure there’ll be time for that,” Jack said with a chuckle. Then he sobered. “We’re not pulling out of this soon, that’s for certain.”

“Roger that one, Boss,” Katy acknowledged and pulled her Avengers out of formation to surround the warship. “I’ll cover her for now. You do the diplomatic work first.”

“Right,” Jack muttered with a scowl. She just had to remind him of how tricky this was going to be. Then he nodded towards Betty and the other Avengers followed Katy, leaving Jack and Ken’s fighters alone as they drifted towards Hollywood.

“Let’s go in,” Jack ordered and the two Avengers slipped into the hangar. Their noses hit the atmospheric screen first, piercing the force field and causing a brief blast of crystallizing air to escape around them. But the force field reformed in contact with the fighters’ hulls as they moved further in. More crystals glinted in the twin sunslight of Alpha Centauri as engines and wings pierced the screen, and then the screen shimmered behind them as the fighters fully entered the hangar. They spun, found empty places on the deck, and came down for a landing.

Ken jumped out of his Avenger first and Jack followed. Jack hit the deck and took a good look at the heavy cruiser’s interior. That was when he froze. The ship had cartoons printed on her bulkheads. Everything from Hello Bunny to something that looked like a cuddly version of Godzilla. Jack looked closer and saw the fluffy white little bunny happily warning people to stay away from the “big badda boom” that was a bunker full of missiles.

Jack shook his head in disbelief and saw Ken smiling at him.

“How do you like her?” Ken asked.

“This is…weird,” Jack answered with a shudder.

Ken laughed and waved a hand at a Japanese schoolgirl with a magic wand giving zero-gravity safety tips. “I’ll take this over navy grey corridors any day.”

“Well…yeah…” Jack muttered and then shook his head. “Colorful and such I can see. But this is…cute…on a warship.”

Ken sobered and gave Jack a long look. “My people used to glorify war, Jack. America taught us the error of our ways. We fight because we have to now. But it is a nasty business.”

Ken turned and pointed towards a rainbow-colored kitten with fairy wings giving vacuum-safety instructions. “We glorify cute now. Fun. Joy. That’s true honor.”

Ken paused for a moment, envy in his eyes.

Jack reached over to grasp Ken’s shoulder and smiled. “You’re honorable too. Trust me. Your people will see that in time.”

Ken’s jaw set and his eyes darkened in a flash of anger. “Do you think I want that?”

“Everyone wants to be seen as honorable,” Jack answered in confusion as he withdrew his hand.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Ken whispered, let out a long calming breath, and returned to looking around at all the cute art on the bulkheads. “Honoring warfare nearly destroyed our country. It was a cancer that ate at our souls and drove us to take the most monstrous of actions. MacArthur made us better. I do not ever want to see that cancer take over my people again.”

“I’m sorry,” Jack whispered as he tried to make sense of that. Were the Japanese really still hung up over that? It had been over three centuries ago. Then he shook his head and just decided to go with it. He’d try to make sense of it later. “I didn’t know.”

“We don’t advertise,” Ken returned and looked around at the beautiful ship’s interior. Then he smiled and relaxed again.

“Jack!” a voice called out and Jack turned to see someone streaking towards him. He barely had time to brace himself before the girl wrapped him up in a tight hug that two years in the Republic of Texas Marine Corps had absolutely not prepared him for. Older lessons held him in good stead though.

She gazed up at him with an earnestly innocent expression from a robotic avatar that wasn’t wearing the standard uniform he’d always seen on her holoform. An abbreviated kimono heralded her Japanese ancestry while an even more abbreviated pair of jeans and blonde hair proudly proclaimed her American present.

“Welcome aboard,” Holly said with a wry smile. “Finally. How do you like me?”

Jack smiled at the girl in his arms. “You are always amazing.”

Holly laughed and spread her arms out wide. “My ship, Jack! How do you like my ship?”

Jack blinked and looked towards Ken. The man just smiled at him and Jack scanned the inside of Hollywood again. The colors and cartoons had him on cute overload. But then he looked down at the ship’s schoolgirl-like avatar and her wide-open eyes stopped him from saying it. He sighed. “A lot.”

She melted into him and sighed. “I don’t care what they say, you’re a sweetie.”

Jack frowned. “What who says?”

“Spoilers!” Holly announced in a teasing tone as she extricated herself from his arms. She gave him a wink and turned to jump into Ken’s arms. “Kenichi! Welcome back!”

“A pleasure as always,” Ken answered with a sly look aimed towards Jack.

Jack rolled his eyes and whispered, “you old smoothie.”

“Absolutely,” Ken whispered back.

“Come, come! My captain’s coming!” Holly announced as she stepped away from Ken and grabbed each of their hands. Then she dragged them away from their fighters with a sing-song “He’s gonna want to see you.”

Ken gave Jack a knowing smile and Jack just shook his head. This was not what he’d expected at all.

“Welcome to my culture,” Ken said in an amused tone.

“This explains so much,” Jack returned with a snort.

Ken laughed. It was a full-throated cackle that echoed off the bulkheads and forced everyone in the hangar bay to turn and look at him. It felt at odds with the damage and destruction all around them, but Jack couldn’t help but start laughing with his friend as well.

“See what I mean?” Ken asked and placed a free hand over his heart. “Laughter and joy are good for the soul.”

Jack just nodded, unable to come up with any argument against that.

“Come on, boys,” Holly said as she pulled them around a damaged Avenger in time to see Olivia step out of her shuttle.

A pre-space twenty something-looking Japanese man in a traditional Japanese military uniform stood at the bottom of the ramp as she arrived on the deck. Jack focused on the man and the name Hayata Sato appeared on his contacts as the man spoke.

“Captain Olivia Wyatt,” Sato began and Jack frowned at the manner of the address. Why hadn’t the captain given her the courtesy promotion to commodore?

“The Free Japanese don’t give courtesy promotions. They don’t find it difficult to distinguish between some random captain and The Captain,” Betty whispered in his ear and he let his eyes stray to where her holoform stood off to the side. They exchanged smiles and Jack returned to watching Sato and Olivia, replaying the part of the conversation he’d heard while Betty had his attention.

“I owe the honor of commanding a warship of this caliber to your efforts. I will never forget,” the man had said, and then gave her a deep bow of honor.

Jack thought he saw Olivia blush, but he might have been mistaken. Her brown skin was good at masking those, and the lights weren’t the best for detecting them. But he was pretty sure the Japanese captain’s welcome had embarrassed her.

“The honor is all mine,” Olivia answered after a moment with a deep bow of her own. “You have done greater things than I with what you have been given.”

“Nonsense,” Sato corrected as Holly dragged her charges up to the two ship captains and released their hands. “My deeds have merely been recognized more than yours. Your time will come.”

“I doubt that,” Olivia returned with a shake of her head.

“Have faith,” Sato said and turned to bow his head towards Jack. “Captain Jack Hart. Your legends precede you.”

“Thank you,” Jack answered with an echoing head bow.

Sato aimed a penetrating gaze at him. “That is not always a good thing.”

Jack gave him a thin smile. “You sound like Aneerin.”

“Thank you,” Sato said with a smile. Then he turned and held his hand out towards Ken. “Kenichi. You are always welcome aboard my ship.”

“Domo arigato, Hayato” Ken answered and they shook hands like old friends.

Then Sato breathed deeply and turned back to Olivia. She cocked her head to the side in response to his gaze. “May I speak freely with them?”

Olivia smiled and nodded. “They are with me.”

Sato nodded in approval. “The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is unhappy with you.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Olivia returned.

“They have filed official charges of piracy and theft of starship assets against you.”

Olivia nodded “So I have heard.”

Sato sighed. “Unfortunately there is no paper trail saying that you were informed yesterday. Admiral Lashley asked me to give you his apologies for his lax paperwork and promises to run the orders through as soon as the current situation stabilizes.”

“I see,” Olivia said with raised eyebrow. “So he is buying me time.”

“He is,” Sato noted with a nod. “But I do believe that your time with the American military is at an end. Pennsylvania will not back down on this.”

“I know,” Olivia said with a sad shake of her head as she scanned the interior of the hanger bay.

Sato followed her gaze. “Command of a ship is something no one ever gives up easily.”

“And I don’t want to,” Olivia said and looked around again. Then she set her jaw. “I don’t want them to win.”

“That is your pride talking,” Sato said with a single upraised eyebrow.

Olivia didn’t answer that, and in that moment Jack felt an opportunity. His subconscious knew it was there and he looked around in search of whatever had gotten his attention. He saw Gabrielle standing with the other cybers. The other Gabrielle was gone, leaving just her in a long white dress almost as angelic as her name. None of the cybers felt particularly uniform-bound in this hangar bay. And that was it.

He had it. He cleared his throat and asked, “How’d you like that little carrier?”

Gabrielle smiled back at him. “She’s a good ship.”

“Do you want to keep her?”

Gabrielle aimed a sidelong look at her captain and then nodded. “I would.”

That got Olivia’s attention, and Jack saw her opening her mouth to say something. Jack spoke first. “You’ll need to change your name.”

“Excuse me?” Gabrielle asked in confusion.

Which gave Jack a very short time to follow that up. “And you’ll need to get rid of that fancy dress. And the name. And get a new look.”

Gabrielle crossed her arms and gave him a very doubtful look. “Why?”

“Do you want everyone to know you’re playing for the visiting team now?”

Gabrielle cocked her head to the side. “Am I? Playing for the visiting team?”

“You can’t play for the home team anymore,” Jack said as if it was obvious. “And if I was in your position I would never want to stop playing. Which leaves the other team as default. Right?

Gabrielle crossed her arms and nodded very slow. “I suppose. So why the new look?”

Jack licked his lips and hoped his next words would come out right. “Do you want everybody to know that a cybernetic intelligence went rogue in the middle of a war?”

Gabrielle frowned. “But I’m not going rogue. They’re kicking me out!”

Jack just gave her a shrug. “And do you really think that Pennsylvania will let that be the official story?”

“Oh,” Gabrielle whispered. Then she shook her head. “I’m really starting to not like them.”

“Join the line, sister,” Jack agreed.

Gabrielle blinked and then looked at Olivia. They exchanged a long gaze and then Olivia spoke up. “I see what you’re doing.”

“Work with Malcolm. With Charles. It’s an opportunity for you to stick it to Pennsylvania,” Jack said and turned towards Olivia. “And it’s a good mission. You’ll be free to build good stuff.”

“And Pennsylvania will think they’ve beaten me.”

Jack smiled. “Sometimes the best way to win in the end is to allow your enemy to believe they are victorious.”

Olivia frowned as she looked at him.

“Isn’t victory all the more sweet when your enemy never sees it coming?”

Olivia nodded. “It can be.”

“And besides, we’ll need you when this is done.” Jack sighed at her confused look. “The military is unhappy with how The President forced our promotions through,” Jack explained. “I’m never getting another one in my life. And I’ll be first on the axe the moment the fighting is over. The military bureaucracy will see to that. For all of us. We’ll need a place to go.”

Olivia blinked and then lowered her head. “Fine. Let’s say I do this. What happens after The War? What do we do then?”

Jack snorted. “I’ve got no clue. I haven’t thought that far ahead. All I know is we have enemies. The Shang. The Chinese. The Roderan. The Russians. Pennsylvania now. We have to deal with them. And we will. But I don’t know how long that is going to take.”

“I know that,” Olivia said with a sigh of her own. “But once all of that is over, what then?”

Jack let out another long breath and glanced to where Betty stood with the other cybers. She smiled and nodded. And then he nodded towards Olivia. “I promised Betty a long time ago that when this is done, we would go places. New places. We would travel. Enjoy life.” Jack laughed. “I’m not sure exactly how to do that, but she made me promise. So I will give it my best effort.”

Olivia nodded slowly and then looked towards Gabrielle. They shared a long look and Gabrielle nodded. And then Olivia turned back to Jack with a hard look on her face. “I once had my life planned out. If I do this, I will be abandoning that future. Do you understand me?”

“I do,” Jack said in complete understanding. He’d had plans before the Shang ruined them all.

Olivia nodded. “Good. And do you recognize that you are at fault for this?”

“Hey there,” Jack said with upraised hands in protest. He was not going to take responsibility for this. “I’m just the messenger boy here. This plan is all Charles.”

Olivia pursed her lips at him. “But I didn’t agree to work for Charles. So he asked you to convince me, didn’t he?”

Jack frowned, not liking where this was going. “I’m not sure I’d put it exactly like that.”

Olivia gave him the look that said she didn’t believe a word he said.

“Okay. Fine,” Jack said with a shake of his head. “You might put it that way.”

“So I might say that I’d do this because you convinced me?” she asked with a smile that told him he wasn’t going to get away with backing out on this.

“I suppose,” Jack admitted reluctantly.

“So it’s your fault.” Olivia looked straight into his eyes. “I won’t do this alone. I need you to promise that you will remain involved in this. And not just as a messenger boy.”

And now he understood what she wanted. Jack shook his head sadly and spoke in a very calm voice. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

Olivia pursed her lips at him. “So you want me to volunteer for a project that you want to stay away from because you are afraid it will fail?”

“That’s not it at all,” Jack said with a shake of his head and turned to Betty. “Drop the holo.”

Betty cocked her head to the side, wordlessly asking if he was sure.

Jack nodded to say that he was.

Betty shrugged and he heard the holoprojectors on his suit drop in power. He turned in time to see Captain Sato and Holly react to seeing Jack’s normally strong and healthy face fading away. The slack skin and sunken eyes of a man on a starvation diet replaced the holographic projection and Holly suppressed a gasp. Sato’s eyes widened but he said nothing. Jack remembered that he was hungry. Again. He hated getting injured like this. But first to business.

“I don’t think the project will fail,” Jack said and turned back to Olivia. “I will. This body will. One day my reactions won’t be fast enough and even this body won’t be able to survive. You should not depend on it.”

“I’m not,” Olivia said with a smile and brought a hand up to tap Jack’s forehead. “I just want your mind.”

Jack’s eyes rolled up to look at her hand and he sighed. Then he said in a low rumble, “There are plenty of people who would say that’s a fool’s bargain.”

Olivia just smiled. “And there are plenty of people who don’t know you very well. Now do you want to volunteer for this project?”

Jack bit his lip. He’d never really been good at volunteering. He looked up towards Betty again. She smiled and nodded once more. Jack let out a long breath. This was not going the way he had planned. And that was the rub, wasn’t it? He’d backed out when Julie and Alex pushed him into a corner he hadn’t planned. And that had worked out just stellar for him. Super novas were technically stars. So were black holes. Nobody wanted to be anywhere near either of them when they went wild. Jack sucked in a long breath and shook his head. Then he looked up again to meet Olivia’s eyes.

“Fine. I’ll stick with the project.”

Olivia’s eyes flashed. “Promise me.”

Jack gave her an exasperated look and nearly shouted, “I promise!”

“Okay,” Olivia said with finality. “You got me.”

Jack let out his breath, wondering what exactly he’d gotten himself into in the process. Today had not gone according to plan in so many ways it wasn’t even funny. Then Olivia turned and walked away through the damaged Avengers.

“Captain Hart,” Sato said in a voice that betrayed a hint of admiration.

“Yes?” Jack asked with a measure of trepidation as he turned towards the man.

Sato smiled. “The legends that precede you are not entirely accurate.”

“Thank you,” Jack answered with a wry smile.

“Fight well, Captain Jack,” Sato said and bowed his head to Jack.

“And you, Captain Sato,” Jack said and returned the gesture before turning to follow Olivia. He may not know exactly what he’d signed up for, but he knew who he’d signed up with. He threaded through the damaged Avengers already undergoing repairs and stopped next to Olivia. The energy screen holding the air in crackled not a meter in front of them, barely distorting the outside view. But he could see everything he needed to. The torn up ships around them. The beautiful blue oceans of New Earth below them. The stars burning steadily in the firmament beyond.

“It is beautiful,” he said, allowing his voice to betray just a hint of the awe he always felt when looking out on the universe.

Olivia turned to give him a long look. “Yes. It is.”

“So.” Jack clapped his hands together in a nervous motion. “What are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know.” Olivia turned back towards the stars and smiled. “I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“Touché,” Jack whispered and looked out to the stars again. They filled his eyes and he remembered something. A phrase. “We are coming.”

“What?” Olivia asked.

Jack smiled as he remembered the whole conversation. “It was something Charles said. ‘We are going to tell them that we are no longer children squabbling over the sandbox of our tiny little planet. We are coming. We are still coming. No matter what they do to us we will always be coming.'”

“‘They will not bottle us up in our little corner of the galaxy forever,'” Olivia whispered, taking up the words Charles had spoken over Serenity with a smile of her own. “‘Because we will never give up on our future.'”

“It was a good speech,” Jack noted with an approving nod.

“It still is,” Olivia said into the night before them.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life it’s this. The enemy never waits for a convenient time to show up. If you’re not ready for him, expect him to arrive early. If you are ready for him, expect him to arrive whenever he gets around to it. And if he’s a she you can just throw the schedule right out because you’ll never guess it. The point is they get to try to win too. It’s how life works. Never count on having time to prepare for them. They will show up when it is least convenient for you if they are even halfway competent. The Shang were always at least halfway competent.

 

 

Incursion

 

The beach stretched as far as the eye could see and waves washed up the sand in a steady rhythm. A bonfire crackled and girls danced. Jack sat in sand still warm from the day’s sun and enjoyed everything about the perfect day.

“Jack.”

The voice didn’t belong on the beach and he ignored it.

“Jack.”

He was at peace and the voice belonged to a world at war. He ignored it.

“You need to wake up.”

“No I don’t,” he answered and focused on the pretty girls dancing around the fire.

“The Shang are attacking.”

Jack shut his eyes, lowered his head, and let out a long breath. Then he opened them again onto the room with the bed.

Betty stood next to it and looked down at him. “How are you?”

Jack sucked in a long breath and felt his body protest the action. He still hurt everywhere “How long?”

“Two hours.”

Jack groaned. Two hours since the last meal. And he didn’t know how long since the Chinese takeout. A few hours maybe? And how long had he slept before that? He was pretty foggy on time at the moment, but he knew one thing for certain. He had not had enough sleep or food to heal yesterday’s gunfight up. Then what she’d said when he was dreaming hit his forebrain and Jack sat up straight despite the screaming of his body.

“The Shang?”

Betty nodded. “They’re here. All military personnel are being recalled immediately.”

“Frak,” Jack intoned and came to his feet. Then he felt lightheaded and had to slam a hand into the wall to keep from falling over as his stomach growled. The empty pit demanded more energy to continue the healing process. “I need sugar.”

“Check the table,” Betty said as she waved her hand towards the end table. A bowl of inviting candy and a happily bubbling coffee maker covered it.

“That works,” Jack said and stepped over to grab a handful of the candy. The sugar rush hit him like a train and he gasped as he chewed them down. Then he grabbed the coffee pot and drank it straight. The caffeine hit and he felt more instant energy flowing through his veins. It wasn’t going to last long considering how fast his metabolism ran but it was enough to jumpstart him and get him moving. He put the coffee pot back in its cradle, grabbed another handful of candy, and walked over to snatch his uniform from the floor. He slipped into it and began putting his mind on the problem. “Show me.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Betty returned and the holoemitters on Jack’s uniform hummed. A representation of space around New Earth appeared and he examined the Shang battle line out just beyond The Red Line that denoted the closest point a ship could safely transit into or out of hyperspace. The defenders held inside the line and weapons fire crackled back and forth between the two forces. It only took a quick look to verify that the Shang had brought enough firepower to overwhelm the defenders in a matter of minutes. And that wasn’t right.

“Where’s Second Fleet?” Jack asked in confusion.

“That is Second Fleet,” Betty answered with a wince.

Jack turned to look at her in disbelief. “That’s a battleship and some heavy cruisers. That’s a vanguard …where’s the rest of it?”

Betty winced. “In the new Third Fleet.”

“Frak,” Jack whispered and started seeing where this was going. “And where’s the new Third Fleet?”

“Classified,” Betty said in a tone of voice that showed even she didn’t know.

Jack let out a long breath and shook his head. “Which means, ‘not at Alpha Centauri’ if I’m hearing you right?”

“You’re reading between the lines very well,” Betty answered.

“Well, this just got a lot more fun,” Jack said and took another look at the defenses. They would not hold much longer. And then an idea began to tickle the back of his mind. “Get me Captain Thompson, Admiral Lashley, and Holly.”

Betty crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side. “Thompson’s a little busy at the moment.”

“Tell him Captain Wyatt needs him,” Jack explained and walked out of his room to make his way back towards where he remembered the eating room and the kitchen beyond it resided.

“I don’t know what you have planned,” Betty whispered as her holoform walked alongside him, “but Admiral Lashley’s more busy.”

“I don’t either,” Jack said with a conspiratorial shrug. “Tell him it’s an emergency.”

Betty gave him one of her looks that said she was questioning his sanity. “He already has an emergency to deal with.”

“Tell him I need a warship.” Jack gave her the smile reserved for those of just cause and pure hearts. “And I know he’s got a spare one hanging around.”

“Right.” Betty sighed as they stormed through the room he and Katy had devoured the eggs and meat in and Jack’s nose told him more meat was cooking ahead of him. “And Holly?”

“Ask her if I can borrow her squadron,” Jack said as he pushed through into the kitchen to the welcome sound of sizzling meat. His stomach did a flip at the thought of real food and he had to grab a counter to steady himself. Three sets of eyes stared at him but he only had eyes for the sausage links on the frying pan.

“They’re about to leave orbit to deal with the bad guys,” Betty said in exasperation as he crossed the distance between the door and the frying pan in less than a second.

“Just get her for me,” Jack demanded and grabbed a link out of the pan. It sizzled and sparked and he yelped as the hot grease tried to burn his skin. He blew on the link and his hand as he juggled it into the other hand. And then that one complained. He spent the next several seconds juggling the link back and forth and blowing on it until it stopped trying to get revenge on the man who was about to devour it. Once it had finally given up the fight he tossed it into his mouth and chomped down. Hot grease squirted out and burned the inside of his mouth, but he managed to keep from yelping again. Then he swallowed it without chewing in direct contravention of his mother’s teaching, and felt his stomach explode at the fresh infusion of energy to be burned. Oh, that hurt so good.

“Fine,” Betty whispered in a tone of voice that said it was everything but fine and shook her head. “I’ll see what she says.”

Jack reached for another sausage link but a fast metal spatula intercepted his hand with a stinging whack. He yelped and cradled the wounded hand as the spatula whipped around and stopped so close to his nose he had to cross his eyes to look at it. Then he focused on the bright blue eyes glaring at him over it.

“You mind your manners and sit down,” Julie ordered.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Jack answered without hesitation and moved to sit down at the small kitchen table. He met Malcolm’s eyes with a rueful look before his stomach growled again. One sausage link had just made it aware there was food out there, waiting to be eaten.

Malcolm turned and opened his mouth to say something, but Katy walked in next and made a beeline for the frying pan. She yelped as she snapped up a sausage link, juggled it, and finally gulped it down with another suppressed yelp. Then froze as the quivering spatula froze in front of her face.

“Sit,” Julie growled.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Katy squeaked and did as she was told, taking the seat next Jack.

Finally Ken strode in with lustful eyes aimed at the frying pan but the quivering spatula bopped him on the nose before he could snag a link.

“Did you grow up in a barn?” Julie snapped   “God! Are all of the Cowboys this bad?”

“Naw,” Jack said with a smile and waved Ken over to the table. “Some of us are from Dixie. You should see them tear into a bucket of fried chicken.”

“Hush, you,” Julie ordered as she aimed the spatula at him like a battleship clearing her main guns.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Then Jack turned to Malcolm to change the subject from the spitting and oh-so-eatable sausage links on the stove. “So, you said you had a warship?”

Malcolm smiled and shook his head. “I have a carrier.”

“Okay. What kind?”

“An old Republic,” Malcolm said. “With some fighters. All refitted with Peloran tech.”

Jack nodded slowly. The Republics had been good old ships, but the long march of gravtech had ground them down into retirement decades ago. “How many fighters and what kind?”

“Forty-eight Blackhawks.”

“Blackhawks?” Jack asked with a doubtful look. They had been retired decades ago too.

“Fully upgraded with Peloran tech,” Malcolm emphasized. “They can take down warships in squadron strength.”

“Really?” Jack asked in surprise. Even when they’d been in their prime Blackhawks had never had the firepower to take down warships. “You’ve tested it?”

Malcolm shrugged. “In simulations.”

“Right,” Jack said with a dubious tone. Simulations were never as good are real life. But the Peloran had done a number on his Avengers. Why not the Blackhawks too?

Movement to the side caught Jack’s attention and he turned to see Julie walking over with a serving plate overflowing with hot sausage links. Jack’s mouth instantly began to water and then he saw Alex with another serving plate piled high with scrambled eggs. They barely had time to back away before the three Cowboys began shoveling the eggs and meat into their faces as fast as they could chew. Faster actually as Jack realized when he had to stop to beat himself on the chest a couple times to get a too-big piece of sausage to start following the laws of physics again. Malcolm just slid his chair back and watched as the Cowboys devoured the energy rich food.

Jack slowed down after a minute when his stomach stopped screaming at him. He had enough food down there to start thinking again.

“Betty. Show us the battle,” he ordered and shoveled some eggs onto his plate.

“Okay,” Betty said in his ear and a holofield appeared over the table. New Earth hovered near the top of the table while friendly green blips fought angry red blips at eye level near a solid red sphere that marked the end of any safety in hyperspace. Jack did not like what he was seeing. He recognized those maneuvers and that meant they were running out of time. But he needed fuel to run on and he needed time to get everybody else on board with the idea pulsing in the back of his mind.

“We don’t have time to get to the base,” Jack said and munched down on a link. “Can you bring the Avengers over here? Hover them over the street so we can walk and go?”

“We’re on it,” Betty said and then nodded towards an empty space next to the table.

Holly flickered into existence right there with a “You wanted me?”

“Every waking minute,” Jack answered without missing a step and gave her very best smile.

Holly sighed. She looked like the perfect stereotypical New Japanese schoolgirl, long blonde California hair and bright blue eyes set in an Asian face. And she looked as cute as a button while wearing a perfectly standard white United States Navy uniform. Jack was certain that the Navy had specifically designed its uniforms to be as non-cute as possible, but somehow Holly turned that idea on its head. Through all of that she still managed to give him a look that was all business. “We’re a little too busy right now for your Captain Jack act.”

“I’ve got a plan,” Jack said and stabbed another sausage link. “I’ve got one warship already.”

“Carrier,” Malcolm corrected.

“Whatever. I need more. Your squadron to be specific,” Jack finished with a quick bite of the sausage and the taste nearly sent him to heaven.

Holly shook her head. “Jack, we’re about to go kill every last one of those Shang warships.”

“Actually,” Jack began, speared another link with his fork, and aimed it at Holly, “they’re going to kill you.”

Holly raised her eyebrows at him. “Excuse me?”

“They’re going to kill you,” Jack said and waved a hand towards the ships even now lifting from the surface to join the defense. “And every other ship that goes up there to fight them.”

Holly looked at the display with a doubtful expression. “How do you know?”

Jack pointed at the red dots. “Because those are the same Shang that we faced at Epsilon Reticuli and they have a very smart commander.”

“How do you know?” Holly asked with narrowed eyes.

Jack swallowed a mouthful of eggs and sighed. “Because the feel of their maneuvers matches what I saw at Epsilon Reticuli.”

Holly shook her head again. “They feel the same?”

“That’s what I said,” Jack said as Olivia walked into the kitchen with a careful pace.

Holly actually blinked at him in disbelief. “You want me to tell my captain to disregard the carefully laid plans of the second most important system defense network in the entire Western Alliance because you have a feeling about the guys we’re fighting?”

Jack stabbed another sausage and pointed it at her as Malcolm sprang to his feet. “A bad feeling.”

“God, Jack!” Holly shouted and shook her head. “You are so full of yourself.”

“They’re pulling you into a trap, Holly!” Jack shouted back and slammed one hand on the table hard enough it cracked in protest. “Trust me! I saw this at Epsilon Reticuli!”

Holly sighed and raised her hands in surrender as Olivia sat down with a grateful look towards Malcolm. “Okay. I’ll talk to him. But no promises.”

“That’s all I can ask,” Jack said in a more calm tone. “Just please compare what you see to the records we brought back. You’ll see it too.”

“I’ll look,” Holly said with a nod of her head and her holoform went out of focus to show that her attention was elsewhere.

Then Admiral Lashley flickered into existence next to her. “Captain? You know I’m busy defending a star system right now?”

“Yes, Sir,” Jack said with a sigh as he mentally switched gears to work with someone who was more bureaucrat than warrior. “I’m sorry, but I need a ship.”

Lashley shook his head. “I can’t help you, Captain. It’s impounded. They’d have my career.”

“That’s fine. I don’t need your help.” Then Jack smiled and hoped that Betty had managed to get the last person on the line. “Thompson. Want to take a ship?”

“I’d love to,” Captain Thompson said as his holoform appeared next to Lashley.

Lashley ground his teeth and glared at the new arrival in their conversation. “I can’t approve this, Captain.”

Jack sighed, rubbed his temple, and put the fork down. This was not going to be easy. “The Shang are sucking us into a trap, Sir.”

“What?” Lashley asked in disbelief.

“They aren’t pushing us right now,” Jack said and pointed at the red dots again. “They’re just sitting there, drawing in as many ships as possible. Don’t you see that?”

Lashley frowned for a moment, looking at displays only he could see. Then he looked back to Jack with narrowed eyes. “What do you think it means?”

“That once they think they have enough of us, they’ll spring the trap,” Jack said and sprung his own little trap. “I saw it at Epsilon Reticuli. But we can suck them into our trap instead.”

Lashley leaned back and just stared at Jack for a second. “What trap?”

Jack waited for all the holoforms to focus on him and swallowed. This was going to be the point of no return. If they didn’t agree, things were going to go real bad. “One light carrier, two heavy cruisers, and a squadron of destroyers and frigates supporting them.”

There was dead silence for almost five seconds.

“What part of ‘I can’t help you’ don’t you understand?” Admiral Lashley finally exploded.

Jack pointed at the planet hovering just above the table. Then he pointed at all the red and green dots in the upper part of the display. “They’re sitting on the Red Line, Admiral. They’re trying to trap us. They’re trying to suck us in and kill us. Focus all sensors on that region, compare them to the records we brought back, and see for yourself.”

Lashley just glared at him. “All the sensors?”

Jack shrugged and just happened to wave one hand towards the orbital yard where Los Angeles was docked. “Well we know they aren’t there. We might as well focus our sensors on the threat, right?”

Lashley lowered his head and rubbed his temple. “I see nothing, I know nothing.”

“Exactly. And get the defense ships to fall back,” Jack suggested with his best cajoling tone. “Act like they’re retreating. Like they can’t hold the line. Suck the Shang into the gravity well.”

“I thought they were trying to pull us out of the gravity well,” Lashley said in confusion. “Why would they come in?”

Jack licked his lips and cleared his throat. “They’re Shang, Sir. They know they’re superior to us. They always have. Show them proof they have us on the ropes and they won’t be able to help themselves. They’ll follow us in and complete the kill before we can reinforce.” Then he pointed to a spot in space halfway between the Red Line and the planet. “Get them there, Sir, and we’ll kill every last one of them.”

Lashley studied the display for several seconds before asking the question that Jack knew he had to ask. “What’s there?”

Jack smiled. “In fifteen minutes, Sir, me. And they’ll never see me coming.”

Silence reigned again. And then Holly sighed. “My captain approves of the plan. We’re with you.”

Jack barely refrained from shouting out in triumph as he finally got one of the things he needed to make this whole crazy plan work.

“Fine. I’ll divert the sensors,” Lashley said with a shake of his head. Then he aimed a threatening finger at Jack. “Be there in fifteen minutes, Jack. Fifteen minutes.”

“Yes, Sir,” Jack said as Lashley’ holoform disappeared. Then he turned to Malcolm. “I’m counting on you to get that carrier online.”

Malcolm cleared his throat and looked nervous for the first time since Jack had met the man. “Actually she’s never flown anywhere on her own. I haven’t had time to secure an AI capable of running a ship that large.”

Olivia crossed her arms and just looked at the man. “Why would you want an AI for that?”

“Because it’s a lot easier to create an AI than recruit a cyber,” Malcolm said honestly. “And it’s not like I planned to take her into battle anytime soon.”

Olivia cocked her head to the side and smiled. “Well, I might be able to help you there. I happen to know a cyber looking for a new ship right now.”

Jack turned to Olivia and Thompson’s holofield. “Do you think you can get Los Angeles and that carrier flying?”

“Absolutely,” Olivia answered.

“Yes, Sir,” Thompson added and a chill went down Jack’s spine. He didn’t get “Sirred” very often, especially from someone like Thompson. Thompson nodded to say he meant it and then his holoform faded out.

“See you there,” Olivia said and pointed at the spot in space on his display before turning to leave the room. When Malcolm didn’t immediately follow she stopped and pointed at him. Then she pointed at herself and Malcolm sprang into action.

They left and Jack turned to look at Ken and Katy, wordlessly asking for their approval. He hadn’t asked them if they agreed before just putting his mouth into gear and railroading everybody. He wondered if they would correct him now. They didn’t.

“You’re injured,” Jack said with a nod and came to his feet in a smooth motion that almost didn’t hurt. “You should stay here and heal up.”

“Like Hell,” Ken growled and came to his feet as well. He nearly managed to suppress a grimace of pain while doing it.

“Sorry, Boss, but you aren’t getting rid of us that easy,” Katy added and pushed herself onto her feet. Then she gave him a wan but determined smile.

Jack shook his head at them. He had to give them a chance to get out of this, even if it meant violating one of the cardinal rules he’d been taught. “Stay here and take time to heal. That’s an order.”

Ken shook his head in a bemused way and glanced at Katy. “And here I thought he was smart enough not to make orders he knew would be ignored.”

“He’s pretty dumb sometimes,” Katy added with a chuckle.

Jack rubbed his temple and groaned. “You don’t need to do this.”

“Yes we do,” Ken said with iron determination.

“You’re stuck with us,” Katy said with a shrug. “Learn to deal with it.”

Jack snorted. “I’ve been trying to for years.”

“Just makes you a slow learner,” Katy joked back.

Jack was trying to think of a comeback for that when Betty’s holoform flickered into the middle of the room with a smile. “The Avengers are here. We’re ready to fly.”

“And that’s our cue to leave,” Jack said with a glance towards Julie and Alex. Words came into his mind, things he’d wanted to say for years, but he pushed them away. He couldn’t just say that and leave after all. And promising to return was no promise at all when it came to fighting the Shang. And besides, they deserved better. He forced that line of thought out of his mind and gave them his best smile. “Don’t worry. The Shang’ll never know what hit them.”

“And here I thought you always told them before you opened fire,” Alex returned with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms.

“Well…not always,” Jack answered with a wince. “Just on days when I’m feeling particularly lippy.”

“And today?” Julie asked with a look of uncertainty.

Jack froze for a second and then shook himself back into action. He had to go. Now. And he didn’t have time to think of the right words to say. He didn’t know if there were any right words for this. “I…I don’t know…but I have to go.”

“Then go,” Alex said with her still crossed arms and a too-calm voice.

That froze Jack again. He didn’t want to go. He wanted to stay forever. He never wanted to leave. But he had to. After years of being angry with them for leaving, now it was his turn to walk away. And if the Shang had anything to say about the matter never come back. And nothing could make that better. No words he could think of. Well, no words he could say right now without sounding trite. So he just nodded and turned to walk away.

He motioned for Ken and Katy to follow and they stepped into line behind. It was a silent march through the halls of the building and Jack barely saw any of it. He just knew which way to go thanks to the contacts that relayed Betty’s directions. Finally they stepped out into a massive entrance area and Jack stopped in his tracks. The wide boulevard outside the doors was filled with people looking up at the three massive fighters floating in the air.

“Make us pretty,” Jack ordered under his breath.

“On it,” Betty said and he felt his suit’s holoemitters power up.

He turned to see Ken and Katy’s sunken eyes and slack skin disappearing under holographic faces of their own that belonged on recruiting posters.

“Shiny,” Katy whispered and spread her beautiful hands out with admiration.

“Yup,” Jack said with a smile. “It’s official. We are way too pretty to die now.”

“Speak for yourself, Sparkles,” Ken grumbled. “I’m handsome.”

“That’s fine too,” Jack said and strode towards the doors. “Now let’s do this.”

The people outside moved away from the doors, giving the three Cowboys room to walk into the street, and the telltale sound of cameras clicking came to his ears. Their photos would be hitting the networks in instants, and soon everybody would know they’d come out of this theater. Well, so much for hiding where they’d spent the night now.

Jack looked up at the Avengers floating above them, making the boulevard appear small with their massive bulks.

“Ready?” he asked with more trepidation than he wanted to admit feeling.

“Always,” Katy answered confidently.

“Ditto,” Ken added.

“Wait,” Betty whispered in his ear and an arrow on his contacts suggested that he turn towards the theater. He did in time to see Julie and Alex step out. No. Not Julie and Alex.

The girls who stepped out of the theater wore clothing he’d seen on a thousand screens. They looked nothing like the girls he’d just left in that kitchen. They were stars who belonged on stage and this was their attire. Taylor and Jennifer crossed the sidewalk as the crowd took pictures, stepped in to hug him, and kissed his cheeks in perfect unison. The crowd went wild and Jack’s heart pounded so hard he nearly collapsed right there. Then they stepped back and did the same thing to Ken. Katy came last to another lusty cheer from the crowd, and then T&J stepped back one last time with smiles that said they knew exactly how shiny they were.

“You come back to us, Cowboys,” they said in perfect harmony.

Jack smiled. They were amazing. They were everything he’d ever hoped they would become. And here they were, owning the worlds on a stage made of asphalt with less than minutes to prepare. They were better than amazing. And Jack had no idea what to say. He wanted to take them up in his arms and kiss them thoroughly enough to make the cameras blush. He wanted to profess neverending love. He wanted to stay. But he couldn’t do any of that.

Then Captain Jack smiled his very best smile and tipped the brim of his cowboy hat towards them. His answer was all stage and propaganda, made for the benefit of those who would hear on the networks. T&J had given him an audience larger than he’d ever had, and Captain Jack could not turn his back on something like that. Not when it could be used to help the War effort. “There’s no power in the universe that would keep us away.”

He saw Julie and Alex smiling at him from behind the masks they wore for the public, and Jack gave them one he hoped they would remember. Their slight nods told him they did, and then they glanced upward. They were right. It was time.

Jack turned to Ken and Katy with firm nods. They nodded back and then all three looked up at the Avengers in the air overhead. They flexed their knees, they jumped, and gravitic generators aboard the fighters grasped them in the air. Jack felt the air on his face as they flew up like the Big Blue Boy Scout and Friends. The generators placed them atop their fighters and they stepped down into the cockpits. One part of Jack’s mind knew that’d just made one hell of a propaganda video that would be all over the networks within minutes.

The rest of him sat down and buckled his five-point harness as the canopy came down and the Avenger began to move away on gravplating. The cockpit latched, wonderful canned air pushed the smell of New Earth out of his nose, and the Avenger pulled straight up to face away from the city. Other fighters and ships lifting up from spaceports all around the city filled the sky, and he nodded in approval as the three Avengers joined them.

Then the main engines came to life, acceleration pushed Jack back into his seat, and the air brightened as they burned up through the lower atmosphere’s interference. The sunslight of the Alpha Centauri trinary star system assaulted his eyes as they gained altitude, and then it darkened as the air began to thin until it went pitch black all around them. That revealed the stars and Jack’s eyes scanned for the familiar constellations. Alpha Centauri was near enough to Earth that most of the constellations still looked right, but some were a bit odd. And of course he’d grown up only seeing the constellations of the northern sky where constellations like the Southern Pleiades were unknown. He smiled as he looked at those stars for a moment, and then his eyes turned to see the light reflecting off New Earth.

It was a beautiful planet from this far up. Too bad it smelled so bad. And that gravity was just too much. And it was too hot. Jack wondered how the people lived there. Well, he wasn’t going to have to worry about that anymore. He was off to War again.

Jack pulled his eyes down to the console where a twenty-centimeter tall Betty sat with a smile and his favorite yellow sundress. She looked good like that. She watched him with an attentive gaze and he let out a long breath. It was time. “Set a beam for Hollywood.”

Betty nodded and the Avenger swung around to aim for the higher orbitals where Hollywood’s squadron awaited them. “Course set and locked in.”

And then it was time to sit back and relax as they boosted away from New Earth and towards the battle to come. They had some Shang to kill.

No one can fight forever. Everyone has to take a break, a time to rest and heal. Sometimes it is merely physical. But many wounds are mental and emotional, and those can hurt longer and harder than any physical pain. We need to give ourselves time to heal. Sometimes old friends can help with that. Sometimes they open wounds we thought were long closed. Real friends are worth it.

 

 

Reprieve

 

Jack opened his eyes and didn’t recognize the room around him. It was early morning. The oh dark thirty kind of early morning where the only people awake were those with ill intent or those guarding against that ill intent. He was in a bedroom. Or maybe a dressing room. Nobody would ever buy a bed this hard and uncomfortable for their home on purpose. A screen on one wall showed news coverage of a suspected gang war in the streets. The talking heads had no idea what was going on. Jack wished them luck figuring it out.

Then the smell of Chinese food hit his nose and Jack’s stomach growled like a volcano ready to blow. He rolled off the bed in a swift, smooth motion and stepped over to the table where ten steaming paper boxes full of aromatic food waited. He tore them open and his stomach nearly did a flip as it recognized the food in front of it. The chicken wings went first as Jack grabbed them in shaky hands and tore the meat off the bones with his teeth. Stars exploded behind his eyes as the food hit his stomach like a bomb.

He sat down hard on the chair he belatedly realized was there and closed his eyes against the pain that was oh so good. He needed food so much it hurt. The wave of pain faded away and he opened his eyes to examine the other boxes for a few seconds. Then he grabbed a fork and tore into the general’s chicken, the sweet and sour chicken, and the spicy chicken one after the other. They went down quick and he felt his starving body converting the food to fuel it could use. He paused as the last of the spicy chicken went down and looked around again. Egg rolls. He smiled and wolfed them down next. There was no meat in them, but they were good filler and tasted good. Then he demolished three boxes of beef, ignoring the cooked and limp vegetables in them.

“Whoa,” a voice said from behind him and Jack turned to see Julie sitting on the bed. Jack’s mouth fell open as the lingering hunger in his belly just melted away at that sight.

Julie leaned forward on her knees, feet splayed out behind her. Long blonde hair lat flat and tangled on one side, and drool ran down her chin. She blinked sleep out of her eyes and a knee-length nightshirt hung off one shoulder while the other shoulder bunched up against her neck. He hadn’t seen her looking so unglamorously messy in over ten years. She was beautiful. All he could do was stare.

“What?” she asked and looked around.

He just kept on staring.

She looked down at the long shirt riding halfway up her legs and blushed. One hand flashed down to pull the shirt down while the other pulled the shoulder up, and the shirt stretched under her twin assault to reveal pretty much every one of her very nice curves. “Don’t look at me like that!” she shouted.

He just kept on staring.

She squirmed under his gaze, and then threw herself into a roll that revealed almost every last centimeter of her long legs before she disappeared behind the bed. She remained still for several seconds. He didn’t move. Her head finally rose over the bedside, hair sticking out in every direction. “Would you stop looking at me like that?” she asked plaintively.

“Why?” Jack asked and just kept staring.

The shoulder of the rebellious shirt fell down again as she finally met his gaze. “Because…I just woke up,” she whispered. “I’m…I’m…”

“You’re beautiful,” Jack whispered and every square centimeter of skin the shirt revealed turned bright red. She ducked back behind the bed and the sound of fingers running through hair filled the room.

Then she looked back up over the bed, her hair was only slightly less messy than before. But her eyes froze on his chest. “Whoa.” Her voice was soft and full of everything that had ever made him love her. Tenderness, amazement, and just a hint of the strength he remembered in there.

He looked down and realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt. He wasn’t wearing pants either. All he wore in fact were some exercise shorts and a mass of bandages covering far more of his body than he was entirely happy with. He’d taken a serious beating the day before. Had it really been that long ago? He followed her gaze to the angry red welts peeking out from under one of the bandages that had fallen off. He touched it and felt the heat. It was still the night after the battle. His body was still busy regenerating the damaged tissues.

“Is it…is that normal?” Julie asked and came to her feet. The nightshirt fell off her shoulder again as she walked around the bed.

Jack tore his eyes away from her and let out a long breath. “Every time I get shot it is.”

Julie stepped up to him, looked him in the eyes, and placed one hand on his chest. It burned hotter against his skin than the angry welts and he closed his eyes. She traced the edges of the bandages with an electric finger and blood pounded through Jack’s mind. “They had guns. Why?”

Jack licked his lips. “They didn’t have guns,” he said in an attempt to take his mind off everything she made him want to do right then. “Just really bad Chinese knockoffs.”

Julie’s eyes narrowed, her mouth pursed, and she pulled her hand away from his chest. Then she set her jaw and punched him, hard, in the shoulder that was miraculously free of bandages.

Jack gasped at the strength in her farm girl muscles and tears filled his eyes.

“They shot you!” Julie shouted and punched him again. Then she glared into his eyes. “I treated every wound! So don’t give me that bull about puny weapons! You almost died!”

She hit him again and Jack realized that she wasn’t going to stop. Seeing him half dead had obviously been more traumatizing to her than being half dead had been for him. She was apoplectic that he could be minimizing the threat. She was going to keep hitting him, and that hurt, so he tried to think of some way to calm her down. But he knew from long experience that it was easier said than done.

Jack reached out to enfold her in his arms and pulled her in close. She resisted him, fists balling hard into his chest. Her hot breath tickled his chest and she pushed against him. It was like a mouse trying to push a cat away. She squirmed and pushed, but he held on tight. She demanded that he let her go. She questioned his parentage. She strained with all her might, but he held her tight against his body.

Julie finally stopped struggling and rested her face against his chest. He felt her eyelashes brush him and knew she had closed her eyes. She remained still for several seconds, sucking deep breaths in and letting them back out again. He felt the cool air pulling on his skin, followed by the hot air from her lungs pushing him back. Her hands relaxed and then balled up again, fingers moving back and forth across his chest.

The smell of strawberries drifted up to his nose. Something warm and wet ran down his chest. Julie sniffed and pulled her hands in tight. Her breathing grew ragged, and she pulled in a long desperate breath. Then she let it out in something that was almost a sob. “Don’t you ever…do that…to me…again,” she half-sobbed into his chest.

That got him. She was a real firecracker. She could make sailors blush in more languages than Jack could count. But hearing her cry was more than he could take. It had been when he didn’t know why she cried. It had been worse once she trusted him enough to tell him. He’d felt as helpless as her at first. He hated that feeling. He hated anyone that made her feel that way. And now he was the one doing it.

Jack closed his eyes, brought one hand up to her neck, dropped the other to her waist, and cradled her. “I’m here, Jewls,” he whispered into her ear, tears running down his face to mix with hers. “I’m here.”

They stayed there for an eternity, crying softly into each other’s arms until they regained their composure. Julie finally pushed against his chest and leaned back to give him a long and hard look. Then her hand reached up, snaked around his neck, and pulled him towards her. He tasted strawberries on her lips for a split second. A second. Two seconds. The kiss ran into eternity and a small part of his brain screamed that he needed to breathe. It was a very small part and he ignored it completely.

The door opened “Well, that’s finally…” a voice began, and those three words were more than enough for Jack to recognize the owner. “Julie!” Alex shouted in an outraged tone.

Julie’s eyes went wide and she pulled away from Jack in a flash. “Nothing happened!” she said to her cousin in a rushed tone. “We didn’t do anything!”

Jack turned to see Alex standing in the doorway. She was everything Julie wasn’t in that moment. Tall and elegant, long brown hair perfectly styled. The blue jeans could have been painted on, while the western shirt hung loose. She was amazing, and she gave Julie a very pointed look.

“I don’t know,” Alex said in a doubtful tone. “That looked an awful lot like something right there.”

Julie’s skin blushed bright red again. “We…just woke up,” She whispered.

Alex played her gaze across the debris that was left of his meal.

“I…just woke up,” Julie corrected.

“I see,” Alex said and aimed her raised eyebrow at Jack.

Jack shrugged. “I was…hungry. When I smelled the Chinese…well…” He waved at the destroyed containers and shook his head with a rueful look. “I never thought I’d be so hungry I’d miss a beautiful girl in my bed,” he said with a self-deprecating chuckle. Julie blushed again and moved back to the other side of the bed, looking for something to hide behind.

Alex just shook her head.

Jack’s stomach growled.

Alex nodded and strode over to pull another chair up to his. She sat down next to him and began to study his chest. Then she raised one hand and electric fingers began to remove bandages to uncover more angry welts that had been open wounds mere hours ago.

“So this is what it’s like for you?” Alex asked.

“Yes.”

Alex shook her head. “You were half dead when you stumbled in…now…”

“Now I’m just half starved,” Jack completed with a chuckle.

Alex nodded and ran the hand up to his shoulder. It left a path of electric fire in its wake. “Do they leave scars?”

“No, I’ll never get another scar.” Jack ran his finger over a long white scar on his lower abdomen. He’d gotten it as a teenager when they’d snuck into an after hours pool party and he’d snagged the fence. “But that will never go away. I’ll never age another day until the day I die.”

“Are you really still that boy?” Julie asked as she scrambled back onto the bed to look at them.

“No,” Jack answered with a smile aimed at her. “I’m better now.”

Julie snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Still full of yourself, I see,” Alex said with a shake of her head.

“I prefer to think of it as confidence.”

“Of course you do,” Julie whispered.

“Is that why you keep bringing other women to see us?” Alex asked.

Jack blinked at the shift in conversation. And then he remembered the reason he was there. He came to his feet in a smooth move and looked around for his uniform. “Where’s Olivia?”

Alex smiled. “She’s resting. It’ll take her a while to heal though, so I tucked her in for a long nap.”

“We need to go.”

“We thought you might say that,” Julie said with a smile of her own. “So we hid your uniform.”

“This isn’t a game.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Alex said.

“You don’t know who we’re dealing with.”

“You mean the Hurst family and their friends?” Julie asked.

Jack frowned in confusion. “How…do you know?”

“Please,” Alex said with a shake of her head. “You think some random stranger directed you to our back door by…what…chance?”

Jack’s mouth hung open as she suggested the impossible.

“Jack, Jack, Jack,” Julie said with a good-natured sigh. “You really are slow today, aren’t you?”

“He just got shot. A lot of times,” Alex said with a shrug. “And then you seduced him.”

“I did not!” Julie protested.

“Please.” Alex rolled her eyes. “Next you’ll tell me you weren’t about to jump him.”

“I wasn’t! We were just…talking…and…um…” Julie trailed off as she looked for something to say.

Alex raised her eyebrow at Julie again.

Julie blushed again, but then sucked in a deep breath and struck a determined pose that made her look even more amazing. “I didn’t start anything! He did!”

“Wait,” Jack finally said as his brain caught up to their argument, and the two girls turned from arguing with each other to look at him. “You…You’re involved?”

“Of course,” Alex said with another roll of her eyes.

“Charles contacted us a year ago,” Julie added with a smile.

“There was a friend he said needed some help,” Alex clarified.

Jack blinked. “The man…in the suit?”

Julie smiled and held her hand out, palm up. Alex frowned but pulled a bill out of a pocket and laid it on Julie’s hand. “She bet that you’d need one more question,” Julie explained with a pleased smile and slipped the bill inside her nightshirt.

Jack scowled at her. “I’m so happy to fund your gambling habits, but we need to go.”

Julie shook her head. “Nope. Not gonna happen.”

Jack smiled at her. “You healed me. I’m better now. So you can’t stop me from leaving.”

Alex smiled and proved him wrong. Her lips tasted like peppermint, and that was just not fair. But two people could play that game if they wanted to. Jack wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her in close, and gave her a serious kissing right back. Her body melted into him for a second that went on for eternity before she began to push him. He didn’t let go. Then she dug a nail into one of the welts and he released her with a gasp of pain.

“Stop that,” she ordered in a voice of iron.

“What?” Jack returned in protest. “You started it!”

Alex crossed her arms and stepped back to give him a solid look at her stubborn expression. “Are you here to stay?”

“What?” Jack asked as he brain tried to catch up with whatever she was talking about.

“You still don’t understand,” Alex said and turned away with a disappointed shake of her head.

“What are you talking about?” Jack asked again.

“We’re not a one-night stand.”

“What?” Jack shook his head to clear it. Alex wasn’t making any sense. “You…never…”

Alex shook her head again and let out a long breath. “Look. We’ll always be here for you. But not that way…you left us.”

“What?” Jack almost shouted. He just looked at Alex in disbelief as the adrenalin of yesterday began to pump through his limbs and brain again. He’d been shot he didn’t know how many times, and now this. Now she was accusing him of leaving. A distant part of his mind told him to shut up but it was oh so distant, Alex was right there in front of him and he could finally say what he’d wanted to for so long. “You boarded that bus! I stayed! I never stopped waiting for you! ”

“And yet here we are. On Alpha Centauri.” Alex shrugged. “I guess you finally left.”

“After the Shang burned it all! What was I supposed to do? Wait in the ruins?”

“You were supposed to come with!” Julie shouted and Jack turned to see tears in her eyes. “But you didn’t. Why?”

Jack had to lower his eyes. He just couldn’t meet them. But he couldn’t admit he’d been wrong either. “Because Nashville was your dream.”

Alex snorted and crossed her arms at him. “We haven’t been in Nashville for years. Try again.”

Jack sighed. “Minnesota was home. My dream. I wanted to grow old with you. There.”

“You can’t grow old,” Alex said with a shake of her head.

“I didn’t know that back then!” Jack shouted back. “This!” He shook his hand like he was trying to tear it off. “This stinking immortality was never my plan! Fighting this fraking war was never my plan! Getting ambushed on Alpha Centauri was never part of any of my plans!” He stepped up to Alex and placed a finger in the hollow of her chest. “You were the only worthwhile plan I ever made in my life. And look how well that turned out.”

“Why didn’t you call us?” Julie asked in a quiet voice. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because you never called me.” Jack let out a long breath.

Julie looked at him in disbelief. “Haven’t you ever listened to our songs?”

“Of course I have!” Jack returned in shock. “I own all your albums. Everything you’ve released!” Then he laughed. “And a lot of stuff you haven’t.” He ran his fingers through his hair and laughed again. “I’m your biggest fan.” His voice broke on the last word and he looked down. He didn’t want to be their biggest fan. He never had.

“And you’ve never really listened to them?” Alex asked with a shake of her head.

Jack rubbed his temple and sighed. He just couldn’t fool them. He only had two choices now. Remain silent or say the truth. As a boy he’d been taught that the truth would set him free, but that didn’t mean it was easy. Or painless. He finally cleared his throat and looked back and forth between them. “If I’d asked you to come back home?” he tried to finish the question but it locked up in his throat.

“Yes,” Julie answered the half finished question without pausing to think.

Alex remained silent, considering the question far more carefully. “We would have found a way,” she said after a few seconds.

He was right. It was the one thing he’d feared. They would have given up everything to be with him. And he would have given up almost anything to be with them. Jack let out a long breath and smiled. He stepped away from them with the best casual motion he could manage at the moment. “And that’s why I never called.”

“What?” Julie asked in confusion.

“I never could have lived with myself if you’d done that.”

Julie frowned. “You’re not making any sense.”

Jack smiled. Of course he wasn’t making any sense. Not to her. She thought with her heart first. It was one of the things he loved about her.

Alex pursed her lips and Jack saw the gears turning in her mind. She was getting it. She could see the logic. It was one of the things he loved about her.

“You were born to sing. You’re the best thing I’ve ever seen.” Jack paused, ran his fingers through his hair again, and tried to aim a wry smile at them. “I saw that from day one. And then so did everybody else. I couldn’t ask you to come back after that. This is what you were born to do!”

He met their gazes and saw understanding in them. Understanding and disagreement. And then they stepped forward, wrapped their arms around him, and buried their heads into his shoulders. “You really are an idiot,” Alex whispered.

Jack usually would have protested that. But he was hungry again. And he was tired. He lowered his head and the smell of their hair filled his nostrils as memories filled his mind. The smells of forests at night. The sounds of water lapping against a beach. The sight of full moons reflecting off still lakes. The warmth of bonfires on cool autumn nights. The feel of ample hips under wandering hands.

He stood in the middle of a room with his arms wrapped around the two girls that had meant more to him than anyone else in all the worlds and found himself lost in memories he wished could have gone on forever.