Jack

by on January 15, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The United States military didn’t care much why I volunteered back in the day. They were desperate for recruits to fight off the alien Shang menace. But there was one person who did care. She chose the name Betty when she was born, and she made me promise her something. That I wouldn’t fight just for revenge. That I would fight for a life at the end. That we would go places when it was done. That we would live. She held me to that promise over the years that followed. And if I’m being honest, I held myself to it as well. I was too stubborn to give up on a promise to a pretty lady. Especially one that looked so much like Julie. That wasn’t an accident, by the way. There were times I thought it was, but I’m older and wiser now. And I know that she saved my life when she extracted that promise from me. And when she chose that form.

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Jack

by on January 14, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I wanted to kill all of the Shang when I volunteered to serve. The United States military was willing to go with me on that, but one thing stood in my way. I really wanted to be a starfighter pilot. I knew I could do it. I was Ageless. I could do anything I wanted. But the cybernetic families had made a deal with the military to provide us the very best cybernetic partners to run our starfighters, as long as they got to choose their pilots. That’s why I had to talk a cyber into picking me. They did not want to bring a daughter into the worlds who would only ever know war. I totally understand their position. And I understand why most of them walked away from me. I really wasn’t a good candidate for a lifetime commitment back then.

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Jack

by on January 13, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I loved my home. I loved my family. I loved those girls. But the Shang had killed the world I’d given up everything to hold to, and I was angry. I was so very angry. Way too angry to pack it all up and follow the girls that saved my life. The Shang wanted to kill us. Well guess what? I wanted to kill them right back. I wanted to kill them all. So I left those amazing girls that put me back together again and I volunteered to kick those alien asses to the other side of the galaxy. To make sure they never did to someone else what they did to me. There was nothing patriotic about it. Not then. I just wanted revenge, and the United States military was perfectly happy to accept my service on those terms.

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Jack

by on January 12, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I was thirty going on a hundred when my world came to an end. The world I loved. Yosemite fell and killed my parents. I sat down in a chair in my mom’s hospital room and didn’t stand up again. I was done. Everything I cared about was gone, I had nothing to live for, and I just stopped. Then they came back for me. You gave them different names, but they will always be Julie and Alex to me. The best girls in all the worlds. The ones that got away. They did what no doctor or psychiatrist could ever do. They came back for me in my darkest hour, they put me back together, and then they sent me out to do what I had to do.

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Jack

by on January 11, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I was eighteen going on thirty and my world had come apart. The great loves of my life were gone, and I was too proud to go after them. They would come back. I knew it in my bones. No place was as good as Northern Minnesota to live. They would come back tomorrow. Next week. Next month. Next year. I graduated and went to college where I majored in music and beer and girls that weren’t them. Because they hadn’t come back. I never did move on. Yes, there were girls, but none held a candle to them. And I never did leave to follow them, because that would have required me admitting I was wrong. So I never moved on. I just convinced myself I was happy. That I loved my life. That it was Heaven on Earth. And it was. God help me, it was. I never wanted to leave that place. I loved it all.

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