Forge of War (Jack of Harts) (34 page)

Jack tapped his chin in deep thought and stepped around a light pole.  “And I suppose sometimes someone would
say
they are willing because they don’t want to see you die, but then really not be willing to let you get close.  They’re happy with what they have and don’t really want anything to upset the applecart so to speak.”

“Yes,” Betty said in a sad tone.  “That happened as well.  As I said, we had some issues, and we chose to stop doing it.”

“Did I do that with Jasmine?” Jack asked in a truly concerned voice.  He looked around and didn’t see her.  He blinked as he actually realized for the first time that he hadn’t seen much of her at all lately.  “Where
is
she?”

Betty shook her head with a smile and brushed the shoulder of his uniform.  “Right here, like always.  And you’ve
never
made her feel like a tagalong.”

Jack frowned.  “But I didn’t
realize
she wasn’t here,” he said with a wave of his hand.  He shook his head.  “I
should
have.”

Betty shook her head again and opened her mouth to speak.  She shut it as Jack heard another holoemitter hum to life.  Jasmine appeared in the air next to him and shook her head.

“What?  I
should
have,” Jack repeated in a more insistent tone.

Jasmine shook her head again.  “You would notice if Betty wasn’t here.  Just like
Drew
would have noticed if I wasn’t…
there
.”  Jasmine shivered a bit but got her composer back quickly.  “The point is, me and you aren’t like that.  I don’t know what you’re thinking before you think it.  And you can’t tell what I’m thinking from the way I twitch a finger.  You don’t notice my absence because my absence doesn’t make you feel
alone
.”

Jack glanced at Betty and she smiled back at him.  He sighed as he realized Jasmine was right.  “I’m sorry.”

Jasmine laughed.  “Don’t be.  You’ve always welcomed me when I’m here.”

Jack pulled in a deep breath, smiled, and decided to make it worth her time to show up.  He spread both his arms out and wrapped them around the cybers’ waists, barely touching the outer edge of their holoforms so he wouldn’t break them.

“What can I say?  I just love walking down the street with two beautiful young ladies.”  If they both rolled their eyes at him, he bravely marined on and walked towards Charles’ office with them.  His eyes scanning to either side, he soon realized they weren’t the only ones on the way.  “Hey Tomcat, Juliet” he said as the other man and cyber turned off a side street to match their course, the cybers exchanging nods.

“Jester, Betty, Jasmine,” Tom answered with a smile.  “Just out for a walk or on your way somewhere?”

“Yes,” all three said in unison.  Jack waggled his eyebrows at Tom who just shook his head in return.

“Charles?” he asked and nodded towards the small building ahead of them.

Jack shrugged as they walked up to the door.

Tom waved for Jack to move in first.

Tom probably wanted Jack to catch whatever flak came their way first.  Lucky for both of them, Jack prided himself on being a non-stick surface when it came to trouble.

“I’ll bow out now,” Jasmine said with a look at the street around them.  “It’s going to be crowded in there.”

Jack smiled at her as she faded out.  “Just as long as you promise to walk me back home,” he said into the air and winked at Tom.  The other man rolled his eyes and waved at the door again.  Jack opened the door and walked into a room filled with the low hum of holoemitters, Betty right with him.  He saw Jay, Charles, and their cybers already inside and started to call them out when he realized someone else was in the room.  He stopped fast enough that Tom bounced off him, but still came to attention despite that.

“Admiral,” he said in a far more respectful tone than he usually used.

“Jack, Betty,” Aneerin answered with a bow of his head.  “Tom, Juliet,” he said with another.  “It is good to see you again.”

Jack scanned Aneerin’s form carefully, noting where it didn’t quite seem to fit with reality on the edges, and knew he was looking at a holoform.

“It will always be a pleasure,” Tom returned as he squeezed around Jack.  “Do you have news about Oweoc?”

Aneerin’s mouth twitched in…something that wasn’t happy.  “That is actually why we are here.  The courier I sent to Independence finally returned today.”

“It is late,” Charles noted, annoyance at the untimely nature easily showing through.

Aneerin nodded.  “And now we know why.  Fifth Battle Fleet was not at Independence when the courier arrived.”

“What?” Tom asked, his voice suddenly concerned.  “Where
are
they?”

Aneerin shrugged.  “That is the million dollar question.  Six months ago they received information that a transport fleet was hijacked by Chinese pirates and taken to the Hyades Cluster.  They left to investigate in force.”

Charles frowned.  “Why did they not send a courier telling us of that?”

Aneerin’s expression turned grim.  “They did.”

“Oh frak,” Jack whispered as realization of just how bad this was hit him.  Their reinforcements weren’t coming.  “The Chinese sucked them in.  Do you think they even know we’re at
war
?”

Aneerin looked like he’d bitten down on something sour.  “If they have not left the Hyades Cluster to tell us what they have found, I believe I can say with certainty that they
do
know we are at war now.  The more pertinent question is whether or not they are still
alive
to
consider
the fact.”

“What could
kill
a
Battle
Fleet
?” Jack asked in disbelief.

Aneerin looked away for a long moment and sighed.  “We have lost them before.  But that was a long time ago.”  He aimed a sad smile at Tom.  “I do not know what the Chinese could have that could do that, but I intend to find out.  The courier tried but their patrols were too tight to get through.  We will break
through
those patrols.”

Jack shook his head and looked to Tom.  “You know somebody in that fleet?”

Tom nodded.  “Oweoc.  You remember Aneerin as the Peloran who made Contact.”  Tom shook his head.  “Not me.  We’d only landed on Independence a few hours before…then this massive kilometer-long spaceship floated down through the clouds.”  Tom sighed.  “You have no idea what it was like.  You grew up with gravtech.  I’d just flown a rocket across the known universe, and here’s this ship larger than anything we’d ever imagined, just floating there, without any rocket flare at all.  It was an amazing sight.”  He turned to look at Juliet standing next to him with a smile.  “That was a pretty amazing day all around.”

Juliet stood there as if there was no place she’d rather be and smiled back.

Aneerin let out a long breath.  “Oweoc still commands that ship, as well as the squadron attached to it.  Just as I have been on Terra since Contact, he has remained at Independence.”  He nodded towards Tom again.  “Wherever he is, wherever the rest of the fleet is, we will do our utmost to find out what happened and where they are.”

Charles cleared his throat to get their attention.  “The question is how long will it take you to finish refitting?”

Aneerin pursed his lips.  “A month,” he bit out.  “Assuming we want all of the ships and all of the drones ready.”

“Which we do,” Charles whispered.

Aneerin nodded his head, but didn’t look happy about it.  “Indeed, we do.”

Charles shook his head in agreement at how not good the situation was.  “Then we wait.”

“Yes.”  Aneerin pulled in a deep breath, lifted his chin, and gave Charles a long look.  “Get me more fighters, Charles.  We need the screen, we need the scouting.  I can provide the heavy weapons, but I
need
those fighters to keep the warships safe.”

Charles gave the admiral a half bow.  “I will do everything I can, Admiral.”

Aneerin smiled.  “I know you will.”  He gave everyone in the room a quick half bow.  “I know you
all
will.  Good day, Cowboys.”  With one more half bow, his holoform faded away, leaving the Cowboys alone to consider matters.

“Well, that is that,” Charles finally said in a calm tone.  “Let us keep this between us for now.  If word gets out that the Peloran fleet is
not
coming to reinforce us, people could panic.”

Jack leaned back in his seat and exchanged worried glances with the other Cowboys.  He could see in their eyes that they knew just how bad this could be.  He sighed, nodded, and said the one word that really fit.  “Frak.”

Jack leaned against the side of the sports car, one hand in his pocket, the other thumb tucked in his belt, under the bright light of twin suns.  His Marine Dress Whites gleamed, a pair of sunglasses protected his eyes, and he made certain his body looked as relaxed as possible.  It would never do to let her think he was nervous after all.

The front door of McEntyre House opened and Samantha walked out, her red hair so bright under the suns that it looked afire.  A loose black skirt and a white blouse fluttered in the breeze, an alternating blue scarf that matched the one she’d given him adding color to the ensemble.  A white cowboy hat topped her head and he breathed in and out several times before even considering an attempt to say a word.

She stepped down the stairs with a flirtatious gait and he commanded his heart to stop racing.  As usual, it ignored him.  She stopped in front of him and held her hands behind her back, promoting some of her more impressive features.  “So what’s the verdict?” she asked with an impish smile that set off her freckles.

Jack made a show of flopping his mouth open and close, giving her the best compliment he could think of.  Amazed silence.

She accepted the compliment with a wry smile and brought a hand forward to pat his arm.  “Mission accomplished,” she whispered.

“Yes, Ma’am,” he answered with a waggle of his eyebrows and held an arm out for her.

She took it and he pushed himself away from the car with the other.  He opened the passenger door and helped her into the car with the most helpful hands he could arrange.  Then he scanned up and down her body, making a show of verifying all of her clothing was in the car before shutting the door.  She waved a finger back and forth at him as he walked around the car, almost as if she didn’t believe he’d just been helping.  He answered with an innocent look, opened the driver’s door, and slid in next to her.

He spread his arms out wide and smiled.  “Your
carriage
, my lady, awaits your command,” he said with a sigh as the car lifted up and drove down the driveway.  It
was
her turn to plan the evening after all.

Samantha shook her head in amusement.  “Betty, could you drive us to the Pav, please?”

“Of course, Samantha.  The Pav,” Betty answered from the speakers and pulled out of McEntyre House’s gate.  Once on the street, the car pulled up and accelerated into the air.

Jack furrowed his brow in thought and chewed his lower lip at the unfamiliar term.  “What’s the Pav?”

Samantha laid a hand on his arm.  “It’s the kind of place you’d like.  It’s a bar at the college where people play music.  Music and pretty girls, whenever and whoever wants to play.”  She patted his arm.  “You should know what’s that like.

A beach and a bonfire came to Jack’s mind.  His fingers strummed invisible guitar strings for a moment and he chuckled.  “Yeah, I think I do.”

Samantha gave him a knowing nod.  “Lots of students play there.  Big bands too, on special occasions.  Sometimes on
no
occasion without warning.”

Jack smiled in understanding.  “It’s one of those hole in the walls where they like to test new songs sometimes huh?”

Samantha patted his arm again and looked up at him with a sly smile.  “You should play.”

Jack chuckled and shook his head.  “I’ll pass.”

Her eyes took on a concerned look.  “Why?  You’re good.”

Jack shrugged.  “I play for friends.  Not strangers.”

Samantha leaned against him and lifted her hat to look up at him through her bangs.  “You could play for me.”

Jack chuckled and patted her arm.  “I already do.  There’s an advantage to dating a girl who has musical instruments strewn throughout the house.”

Samantha gasped in exaggerated horror.  “
Strewn
you say? 
Strewn
!  Every instrument is placed in the perfect spot!  How
dare
you suggest it is haphazard in
any
way!”

Jack smiled.  “I’ve met your father.”

Samantha blinked.  “Oh.  Right.”  She patted his arm in approval.  “Good save.”

“I do try,” he said as the car nosed down towards the street in front of a parking lot.  Jack scanned their surroundings as they slowed to hover, pulled into the parking lot, and found a spot between two luxury cars that looked like they were at least a hundred years old.  “Wow,” Jack whispered as he opened the door carefully.  He needn’t have bothered.  The door stopped on its own well short of scratching the other car.

“Yeah.  Many of the rich families send people to Churchill,” Samantha explained.

Jack nodded and slid out of the car.  He moved around the car quickly and opened the door for Samantha.  Even though she really didn’t need it, she accepted his help in getting out with a pat on the arm and slipped her arm through his when he crooked it out for her.

They made their way out of the parking lot and onto the college grounds arm in arm, and Jack felt an undeniable amount of pride as she guided him through the crowd of students.  He scanned them all, wondering why all the men wore black suits of varying cuts and styles.  He focused carefully and saw that while many looked store bought, some were tailored to match their owners to the stitch.  He scanned the ladies as well who wore different black skirts or dresses and white blouses where necessary, depending on the vagaries of whatever style it was they liked to wear.  Almost all of them were tailored expertly.

Jack nodded in approval of the care somebody took to clothe their kids.  Only the alternating blue school scarves, like the one hanging over his Dress White uniform, broke the black and white dress.  He would stand out like an albino penguin on parade in there.

“We don’t have school uniforms here,” Sam said with a mischievous smile.  “But we
do
have a dress code. 
Very
relaxed, I assure you,” she finished with a wink.

“
This
is relaxed?”

“Mmmhmm,” she answered with a nod.  “Compared to primary and secondary school, this is
really
relaxed.  We had uniforms.”

One of Jack’ eyebrows raised in interest.  “Oooh, I have
got
to see
that
.”

Samantha slapped his arm and chided him with a waving finger.

Jack laughed.  “So why the uniforms and the…spook suits?” he asked with a wave of his free arm towards the other students.

Samantha hugged his arm.  “Jack, if you want to be taken seriously, dress well.  Don’t people treat you differently in your uniform than they did before?”

Jack shrugged.  “Well, people respect the military.  I wasn’t military before.”

Samantha smiled.  “And people respect a man in a suit.  It’s a uniform in every way that
this
is,” she said and patted his Dress Whites.  “Dress well and people will think well of you.”  She waved her free arm towards the other students.  “Every single one of these people are doing something with their lives, Jack.  They’re studying to be scientists and business owners and so many other things.  They’re planning to make things that will make the worlds
better
!” she finished with an upraised arm.

“Why?” he asked.  “We’ve got
beautiful
worlds.  Why can’t we just
enjoy
our lives?”

Samantha shook her head.  “And wait for someone like the Shang to come take them away?  Jack, without people like
these
, studying and figuring out how to build the new technologies, we already would have
fallen
.”  She sighed and he saw she didn’t like what she was about to say.  “If everybody who went to college majored in parties and girls, we’d be
slaves
right now.  It’s because of people who take life
seriously
that we can
defend
ourselves.  Jack, I’m
proud
that you volunteered to fight them.  But what would you be doing right now if they hadn’t come?”

Jack smiled back at her and pulled in a deep breath.  People had talked like that to him all his life, and he’d long since stopped letting it bother him.  “I’d be living a life I
love
, Sam.  What more can any of us ask than that?”

Samantha shook her head.  “You always talk about that life as if it is the best you’ve ever had.”  She bit her lip for a bit and shook her head again.  “But what about
me
?  What about Betty and Jasmine?  Charles and Jay and all the other guys and girls you talk about?  Would you
really
rather give all of us up and go back to
that
?” she asked, her voice breaking at the end.

Jack froze in place, nearly pulling her off her feet.  He pulled in a deep breath, let it out, and just stared at her for several seconds as the emotions raged through him.  He took his sunglasses off and slipped them into a pocket of his uniform so she could see his eyes clearly and finally nodded.  “I honestly don’t know,” he answered and saw pain in her eyes.  “But every morning I wake up I’m giving all of this another try.”

Samantha blinked in confusion.  “What?”

Jack shook his head to clear it and ran his free hand through the hair on the side of his head.  “Sam, every night I’m back there when I sleep.  I dream of the party and everybody I’ve ever loved back in that place every night.  And I know that if I chose to I could stay with them forever.”  Her eyes went wide in shock and he nodded.  “Every morning I choose to wake up and leave it behind.”  Jack cleared his throat.  “Sometimes…Sometimes I
really
wish I could stay.”

Samantha’s lips trembled and he saw fear in her eyes.  “Then why don’t you?”

Jack sighed.  “Because the people I knew back then aren’t the only people I dream about.”  He patted her arm.  “I dream about
everybody
I love.”  He smiled and let out a long breath.  “And the days I most want to stay, those are the days the people I love
now
talk me into giving this life another try.”  He shrugged one more time.  “I hope that’s a good enough answer.”

Samantha pulled her arm out of his and brought both hands up to cradle either side of face.  She stared him in the eyes and he saw that it was.  “Jack,” she began and trailed off.  She shook her head and he smiled.  She cleared her throat.  “Jack, you’re going to take me home tonight.”

Jack’s smile broadened.  “Yes, Ma’am.”

Samantha continued to hold his face in her hands and held his gaze.  “And tomorrow morning, you
will
have a reason to wake up.”

Jack’s smile relaxed and he nodded in her hands.  “Yes,
Ma’am
,” he whispered with a sigh.

She gave him one swift nod, ran her hands down his scarf, and turned to slip her arm back in his with a firm motion.  “Now we should go in before they fill up,” she said in a firm voice and waved her free hand at the building in front of them.

Jack looked up to see the name “The Pav” written in large letters above the twin doors that were held wide open enough that two individuals arm in arm could walk through with ease.  He cleared his throat, breathed in, breathed out, and reminded himself to enjoy the moment.  Today had been a good day to wake up.

They walked into the bar to the music of a band on the stage and Jack scanned to find all of the exits as usual when entering an unfamiliar building.  One never knew when an exit might come in handy after all.  A few people sat at the bar, nursing drinks held in their hands, and several more danced on the cleared dance floor.  A few of the dancers were couples, though most were just groups of ladies having fun.

Jack and Samantha walked up to the bar and ordered their drinks.  Jack chose something local, willing to try anything once.

“Hold your drink at all times,” Samantha warned as the bartender slipped it to him.

“Why?” Jack asked as he did exactly as told and picked it up.

“We penny here,” Samantha said with a wink.

Jack looked around in confusion.  “What’s that?”

Samantha sighed.  “If you set your drink down, someone might drop a penny in and then you’ll have to save the queen from drowning by drinking the whole glass.”

Jack blinked and looked around for any coins on the bar.  He found one and focused on it, seeing the Queen’s face on it.  “Oh.  Right.  Remind me to get water after this.”

Samantha laughed.  “That’s cheating.”

Jack chuckled.  “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t winning.”

Samantha patted his chest.  “You really don’t believe in following the rules, do you?”

Jack shook his head firmly.  “Nothing good’s ever come out of following them for me.  But I’ve always profited from breaking them.  Assuming no one’s hurt of course.”

“Of course,” she said and reached for the drink the bartender slid her way.

Jack looked away to scan the interior of the bar, this time really studying the dance floor and stage.  Both were made of real wood if he was seeing it right.  An unused piano and drum set filled much of the stage, while a man with a guitar sang about how some poor man’s wife cheated on him with his dog and stole his best friend.  Or maybe it was the other way around.  The singer wasn’t the best Jack had ever heard and mumbled some of his words.  The guitar playing was good though so he was willing to cut the guy some slack.