Jethro: First to Fight (84 page)

“I don't know what the future holds
ladies and gentlemen, none of us do. But I do know, right here,” he pointed to
his feet. “Right here, we have reached a turning point. It is time to step up,
to stop being selfish and take our place in history. It is time we looked
beyond ourselves and to the future. It is time we protect our children and help
those who helped us!” His voice was drowned out by a wave of cheers.

“Now, let's get the hell out of this
rain before my wife kicks my ass for letting everyone catch a cold and back to
work!” the governor said, waving them inside. That got a laugh as people moved
to obey.

...*...*...*...*...

The population of Antigua was grateful.
They also demanded to join the Federation and receive naval coverage. They did
not ever want the events to repeat themselves, which the Captain Mayweather
thought, was smart of them. John Q Public was a bit more of an unguided mob
when it wanted to see past its own short sighted nose. Governor Randall was
clear on that, he supported Antigua signing the reborn constitution as well
when the poll numbers came in.

Mayweather was amused by this news, but
she didn't have a right to negotiate and wasn't sure how to handle the
situation.

“So, what the hell do we do now?” she
asked, looking from Commander Logan, to Firefly, to the Warners.

“Go with the flow.”

“Strike while the iron's hot you mean.
They want this? Fine. Well, we can work with this,” Shelby said firmly. “But,
they've got to do their fair share. This crap about us doing the fighting for
them, we're not mercenaries.”

“It's funny,” Taylor Warner said,
shaking his head. All eyes turned to him. “When the admiral was here, he fought
tooth and nail for this. For them to do this. They wouldn't budge. Now they're
falling all over themselves to get in, they are demanding it!” Both Warners
were amused and disgusted by the complete reversal. Earthquakes were still
shaking the station council apart as well. Many of the pacifists had resigned
from the council. D'red had fallen back as the station attorney. From now on he
would give an analyst of liability for the station and represent it in legal
battles but would no longer take a hand in the day to day running of the station
or in forming any strategic plans for the future. The Stewards had taken the
same attitude, resigning in favor of working in the life support department.

“Nothing like a threat of a hanging to
concentrate one's attention on what's important,” the Captain murmured. The
Warners grimly nodded.

“Sometimes it takes this, something to
wake them up. Little else could, the threat certainly didn't. Now they know
what can happen, what's at stake here.”

“I don't know what to do,” the Captain
said. “Politics... we're not supposed to dabble in it, we're supposed to be
neutral. Stay out of it. At least that's what we've been taught. Look what
happened to the admiral! I don't want that to happen to me!”

“Shoot from the hip,” Firefly responded.
“You're the lady on the spot. Or I will. I'm senior officer in the system after
all.”

“True. Do you want to negotiate?” the
Captain asked.

“I think we'll both do it. Together. But
you lead. Deal?”

“Of course Commander,” Mayweather
replied, smiling slightly.

They pleaded for help, even offering to
pay part of GDP. She countered by laying out the Federal constitution. They
would have to vote on it, accept it, and then pay in to the system like
everyone else. They would have to help protect themselves in other words.

“We're not going to do it for you, not
forever. You're not going to sit on your ass and watch us sweat and die, have
us spend our credits to do it when we could be defending other more deserving
people. You want us, fine, then you've got to step up. Just like Admiral Irons
tried to get you to do.”

“We intend to,” Governor Randall said
quietly before the mayors could say anything further. He looked at his
countrymen. Slowly they nodded.

“Fine then. I'm not sure about the
details, that can be worked out later. But I can give you a copy of what was
used in Pyrax and then we can use it as a framework...”

...*...*...*...*...

Jethro finally made it to Firefly.
Sergei, Harley, and Clive remained behind, still on station. At least they'd
finally gotten some rack time out of their suits.

Jethro was tempted to go to Marine
country but he had something more important to do first. He made his way to the
infirmary. He nodded to a Veraxin SBA near the entrance. “Something I can help
you with Sergeant?”

“I'm checking in on two of my people,”
Jethro said softly. He uploaded Kovu and Asazi's identity cards to the SBA.

“Oh, um, let me check...” the Veraxin
chittered. She froze for a moment then nodded. “Private Kovu was stable but his
injuries too severe to remain stable and we needed the bed space. He's been put
in stasis for the time being.”

“Oh.”

“Lance Corporal Asazi is also stable.
She's in bed four. You can visit her, but you have five minutes, visiting hours
are almost over.”

“Thank you,” Jethro said simply, looking
up at the signs. He counted off to the one marked with the four and then
rounded the hanging drape to find a waxy looking Marine there. “Sleeping on the
job?” he asked. His eyes studied her form. For a brief moment they locked on
the missing limb then cut away. She had an IV in her, but from the look of it
it was a saline drip. He could smell antiseptic but no blood, she'd been
cleaned up thoroughly. There weren't any bruises, just the missing left leg
from the knee down to mark her as injured. Maimed really, but not for long.
They could clone her a replacement limb back in Pyrax. He noted her vitals. She
was awake, so he cleared his throat. “I happen to know you're awake.” The tip
of his tail reached out and danced under her nose. She wrinkled her nose and
then batted it away with a weak hand.

Asazi cracked an eyelid. “You know it,”
she murmured weakly, smiling ever so slightly.

“Good to see you alive,” Jethro said,
flicking the tail behind his back once more, and safely out of reach.

“How'd we do?” she asked.

“We won.”

“I knew that. Heard that earlier,” she
said. “Eggs?”

“Fonz. You and Kovu nearly bought the
farm, but it looks like you'll pull through. Harley's got a flesh wound.”

“Shucks. Guess better luck next time huh?”
Asazi said.

“Glad you're okay.”

“I'm not okay.”

“You will be. They'll clone you a leg
soon enough.”

She grunted, looking away. “Not the
same.”

“You're right, this one probably will be
a little shorter than the other. You'll walk all funny,” Jethro said.

She snorted. “You're starting to sound
like Harley.”

“Perish the thought,” Jethro replied
with a sniff of disdain. “You really are all drugged up if you're thinking
that.”

“Funny.”

“Firefly's a bit banged up, but not
much. I wonder, are they going to ship you back home or are they going to ship
you to the station? The station hospitals are first rate, right up there with
Commander Thornby. This Doctor Trask is some piece of work.”

“Pass,” Asazi said.

“You know they'll most likely stick you
in stasis right? For the return? It could be a year before they defrost you.
And then months of rehab.”

“I think I like that idea,” Asazi said,
stretching and then tucking her hands behind her head. “A year of sleep? I
think I really, really like that idea after what we went through.”

Jethro snorted softly.

“Thinking about getting shot too?” she
teased, smiling wickedly.

“Tempting but no. I've got to get back
to work. Someone's got to carry the load while you and Kovu are off loafing.”

“It's a hard job, but someone's got to
do it,” Asazi quipped with a grin. “Good to see you here. Tell the others I
said hey. And tell Sergei I'll give him a noogy later.”

“Right,” Jethro drawled, stepping back
from her bed. The SBA was looking at him pointedly. He nodded in her direction.
“I've got to go. Behave.”

“No thanks. If you could send over some
handsome looking nurses or SBA's...” Asazi said wickedly.

“Ah, now I know, you're match
making.  Women,” Jethro said, shaking his head.

“Don't you just know it. A nice,
handsome doctor mom said...” she grinned as Doctor Standish paused in passing
them by. He turned to her in confusion. She smiled again. “Yum.”

Jethro caught the flush on the doctor's
face. Even his ears turned red. The panther chuffed in laughter as he headed
out.

...*...*...*...*...

Firefly quickly made good on its repairs
with the station's help over the next week. The station provided medical
support for Firefly's Marine and naval wounded as needed. It would take weeks
to repair the damage to the station, some damage couldn't be repaired without
admiral Irons and his keys.

Two of the industrial replicators had
been damaged in the fighting, they had been scrammed by their safety systems.
Two others had been tampered with by the Horathian's. Apparently someone had
gotten cute and had tried to make weapons with them, both were locked down and
had purged themselves.

The crew was surprised at how fast the
station could make things, including repairs to itself and the ship despite the
damage and downed replicators.

The AI Firefly did a survey of the
system, he discovered the bots and equipment the admiral had left behind. The
small refinery the admiral had placed in orbit of the nearest gas giant had
been stripped by the pirates and destroyed for some reason. Taylor sighed when
he got that news. “The admiral entrusted us with its care. I guess we botched
it.”

“You did what you could with what you
had. No sense crying over spilled milk,” Hishina said, shaking her head. “I
should have helped. I knew the risks, but I was stupid.” She had really come
out of her shell, now openly moving among the military personnel. Her secret
wasn't quite public, but everyone in the station's command structure knew it
now.

“Yard Dog inc is still sorting out the
damage. The damn Horathians did a number on equipment. And people...” Rasha
looked away, biting her virtual lip. Thousands had died, thousands more were
wounded physically and emotionally. Some like Regina hadn't survived their
capture. Sparks hadn't taken her death well.

“Prime station will rebuild the
refinery, we don't have a choice, we need the fuel,” Hishina said quietly. The
Warners turned to her. “We're going to double it, then triple it in the next
several months.”

“I missed that.”

“You two have been busy,” Hishina
replied, smiling politely. “We are also planning to build additional automated
ion tugs to haul the fuel to the station since most of them had been destroyed
or taken by the pirates. That took a bit to get through the debate, it seems
D'red had it in his head that Mairi would lend her tug and services for the
job,” she said wryly.

“Not hardly. Not that distance. And not
for a cut of the profits,” Rasha sniffed.

“True. Which I pointed out to the
council. I also pointed out that we'll need the tugs eventually. I think
repairing things like the water park and other facilities can wait until our
fuel supply is assured.”

“Ah. True,” Taylor said nodding.

“I'll send you the transcript...” Hishina
said, then cocked her head, tucking her hands in her sleeves. “In fact, done.”

“Thank you,” Rasha said, bowing to the
other woman.

“We have the two docking slips, the one
the admiral built as well as the Yard Dog shipyard. Both are a bit banged up,
and I understand we've lost over half our working force, but once we get things
straightened out on both, we need to put them back to work. Fast,” Taylor said.

“I know. And you have my support for
both. I think we can count on most of the council right now to back it, if we
word the proposals right and keep the price reasonable.”

“As our governor said, the price of
liberty...”

Hishina held a delicate hand up. “I
know. I remember. I remember the origin of that quote, I'm from Terra. The
pirates used the bots as target practice. See if we can get teams to
cannibalize the most damaged and use the parts to repair others as we get
through the tugs and other repairs.”

“Good call,” Rasha replied, nodding.

“I'm not just a pretty face,” Hishina
said, smiling ever so slightly. Rasha smiled back. “I'm also a Yard Dog, even
though only Clio knew.”

“I see,” Taylor said, now off balance.

Hishina turned her smile his way
briefly. “It's a long story. Yan may have been... troublesome before, but I
supported you the best I could from behind the scenes. No longer. Yan will no
longer be a hindrance, or at least not as much of one. He now has graphic proof
of the pirates and the need to have a defense.”