Rust Bucket (34 page)

      Admiral Reason met me at the door and shook my hand warmly. I almost expected him to not want to see me, but I guessed then that he knew what was on my mind when Annie told him I wanted to ask him something. He offered me a drink, but I suggested that we hold off on the drinks for a few minutes.

      I said, "Sir, you may have guessed already. I've come to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage. I've finally come to the conclusion that I do love Annie and wish to marry her. I'm kind of doing this the old-fashioned way even though it's not a requirement. Regardless, I would feel better knowing that we have your approval of my plans, provided that Annie accepts my proposal."

      He replied, "Dave, you have made me very happy. I gladly give you my approval and wishes for the best in life and marriage."

      I answered, "Thank you, sir. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to talk with Annie and find out if she'll accept my proposal. If she does, then I think that a toast would be an excellent idea."

      "Certainly, son. Go get her! Don't take no!" he exclaimed.

***

I finally found Annie in her room and walked over to her. "Annie, I've just asked your father for his approval of what I'm going to ask you now. Will you marry me?"

      Annie almost fell to the floor when she heard my words. I was able to catch her and keep her from falling. Before I could get her fully upright, she had her arms around me and was kissing me tenderly on the lips while saying, "Yes, yes, yes."

      We walked back downstairs together to the living room where her father was waiting, wondering whether he should pour the brandy he held in his hand or put the bottle away. When he could see our faces and our smiles, he poured drinks for the three of us. Then he carried them to us. We toasted the union to be, our great Union of Planets, the Navy, and just about everything else we thought of as good and righteous.

***

Later, Annie and I were alone in her room talking.

"When did you decide?" she asked.

      I answered, "The second night on board the Rust Bucket. That was when I realized finally that I was in love with you, too."

      She exclaimed, "Oh, god, what a wonderful ship that old Rust Bucket is! That was the most perfect voyage! I don't think I'll ever experience anything like that again in my life."

      I said, "I wasn't sure about taking you along at first, but I enjoyed having you along during the entire voyage. However, I'm not going to be taking you along as a habit. It's still dangerous out there, even if we didn't run into any pirates that time."

      She replied, "I know. But at least I'll have that one time to remember."

      I said, "Yes, you will and you'll have me coming home to you from now on. We also need to decide where we want to live. For now, I'm keeping my job with Pennyweight Shipping. They've treated me right and fairly. They made it possible for me to get this far. I feel I still owe them some service. If something better comes along at a later time, then I'll look at it with an open mind."

      She said, "I figured that already. I don't mind. Whatever you say is good enough."

      I said, "That's another thing. I want you to be the same cheery, wild, and untamed woman that I first met. I want our love and marriage to be full of pleasant surprises."

      "I'll try. Honest. You really liked me like that?" she asked.

      I answered, "Most of the time, especially after I got to know you. Anyway, you were partly that way on the Rust Bucket, again. That's how I was able to realize that I do love you. I had something to prod me then into clearing up my mind and reaching a decision."

***

We had a simple ceremony a few weeks later with her father and our friends in attendance. Then Marsha took over the Rust Bucket while Annie and I went on a honeymoon where no one could find us. While our home was being constructed on the island in the middle of the lake, Annie and I hid out in her cavern behind the waterfall where we made love to our heart's content when we weren't supervising the construction of our home. The honeymoon ended and I reported back for duty as Captain of the
Thurman
while Annie went about furnishing our home and getting part of it ready for a new arrival to our family.

***

Four months later, Annie gave birth to a healthy son whom we named after her father and myself as William David Oden. It was right after his birth when I discovered Annie and our son were invisible. There wasn't any mention of her or our son in the directory under their names nor mine. Once again, my curiosity was straining at the leash to know what was happening. That time, I got a partial answer that would have to suffice for the time being. As soon as I realized that Annie and William were invisible, I went back to see Sarge. That time I wasn't going to be put off from some kind of answer. I guess he saw it in my face and eyes when he saw me approach.

      I said, "Sarge, we need to talk."

      "I can see that we do. You have a hover?" he asked.

      I answered, "Yes."

      Sarge replied, "Fine. We'll go for a ride. Then I'll give you something but not much. You'll have to be satisfied with what I can tell you."

      "Okay."

      We left the Academy after he checked out. Once we were in the hover and on a highway far away from everyone else, he explained, "It's this way. You and I are both public heroes. We can't be hidden. Your wife and child are invisible as well as your home address to protect them. They're being protected because of what you and I do. You may not know everything you're doing, but that, too, is for your safety, just as it is for mine. Mind you, neither of us is doing anything illegal or immoral, but we are involved with things important to our interplanetary nation. For that reason, certain protections are in effect for us. If you weren't a publicly known hero, you'd be as invisible as Annie and Bill, or do you call him William?"

      I answered, "William, for now, to distinguish him from his grandfather."

      He said, "Yes, of course. You made that man very happy."

      I replied, "I thought so, too, on the day I asked for his approval, before I proposed to Annie."

      He said, "Good move on your part. Anyway, I'll bet you a credit to a fraction that you'll feel better knowing that no pirate can ever get access to where your family is by looking in a directory."

      I answered, "I hadn't thought of it like that. You're right. I do feel better knowing that they're a little less accessible to that element."

      He said, "Exactly. You and I have both fought pirates. You've also fought the Apeoids directly, while I fought them in a different way. We're both well-known so there's no way to hide us, but our families are important. This is for their protection. Now that's all I can really say about the whole affair. Yes, I do know more, but I can't tell you anything further. I hope you never get into my position where you know something and can't tell. Now, unless there's something else on your mind, you can take me to supper and we'll swap war stories."

      I replied, "Fine. I'll gladly take you to dinner. I also hope you and your family come to visit us someday for dinner and relaxation on our lake."

      "Wouldn't the food get soggy?" he asked slyly.

      It took me a moment to catch his joke and realize what I'd said. Then we both laughed about it together before we found a restaurant and had dinner. As the Sarge promised, we swapped war stories where we told the truth about some of them we had each heard exaggerated versions about.

It was nice to know that I had resolved either wholly or partly, two of my concerns. I had a partial solution to the mystery I uncovered and I had resolved completely my relationship with Annie. That left only one other pre-occupation for me to solve that I devoted a little time to each day with casual reading of historical battles. Even though it was a naval type conflict, I also read about air and ground battles to see if one of them held the solution to the predicament I felt the Navy would soon be facing inside the next five years.

      As it turned out, there were countless instances throughout the history of combat where one force had a significant advantage over another. There were also several ways to blunt the advantage. Some of them were too costly in lives and material. Others were inappropriate. A few, however, were adaptable. Those were the ones that I concentrated on as I wrote a treatise on how to defeat an enemy holding a significant advantage over our current naval forces. The treatise took me almost nine months to write. For once, I had an idea of what a pregnancy felt like as I struggled to make the evidence give birth to the solution I saw. I could make that comparison easily because Annie became pregnant with our first daughter, Angelica. After I wrote it, I realized that I needed to get it published and seen by the military as well as the people who might control their funds, if they could understand it.

      I went to see the Sarge, since he was my closest friend and my mentor. He looked at a disk copy of the treatise after I presented it to him and promised to read it. Then he said that he would get back to me with his advice. He did far more.

***

The call came over the lightbeam radio. "Dave, Sergeant Clark. I finished reading your treatise. Very interesting. I found it well-balanced and founded. I passed the copy on to someone who will start circulating copies around the military to the right people. You made a lot of friends when you were in the Navy fighting the Ape-oids. A number of them remember you fondly if only because you saved their lives or careers. They're going to bat for you. Now, as far as getting it published, what you need to do next is . . ."

      I listened intently as the Sarge outlined what I had to do with another copy of the treatise. Finally, he got off the lightbeam and hung up. I went to work immediately to fix up another copy into proper publishing format and send it in. Hopefully, it would see the light of day and someone would use it.

      Already, the war clouds Sarge warned of were starting to roll in again. Already, the Ape-oids were making incursions into sectors of space that were off-limits to them. They were making threatening moves at ships moving through those sectors. So far, they hadn't made an outright attack, but the more I heard about the situation, the more I realized that Sarge was right about another war and it wasn't far away.

      Meanwhile, I continued to escort Pennyweight freighters on their runs to Adriena, Gabriel, and sometimes to the Blues on Leuion. The
Edmund
and
Theodore
were also kept busy, but, more and more, they were carrying special, small cargoes on solo runs because they were faster than the freighters and armed.

***

During my spare time, I kept current on military tactics and strategy, partly because of the war I expected and partly for the enjoyment as a hobby. When I was at home I spent time with my wife and son, enjoying their company, and laughter filled our house. Our son was nearing his first birthday when one of the first incidents occurred. Annie was almost frantic at the thought of war as the politicians rattled sabers. Still, it worried me because she was about to give birth. The incident wasn't all that large, but it was something which had riled governments and people before throughout mankind's history. Ours didn't take kindly, either, to having its citizens harassed while in its territory.

      The Ape-oids deliberately sent a ship into one of the Union's sectors of space and bumped a commercial space ship carrying passengers. The damage to the ship was minor, but there was no immediate damage to the truce. Despite the saber rattling, the politicians did nothing after a few well-placed bribes from rich families convinced them that it was merely an accident when the alien vessel came into our space and bumped into one of our vessels.

      Had the military retaliated then, there might not have been a war for several more years or longer. Instead, the Ape-oids were emboldened to try larger indiscretions to see how far they could go. At the same time, the Ape-oids complained diplomatically that the terms of the truce were unfair and limited them to too little territory. Almost immediately, groups sprang up demanding that the government give up space territory as an appeasement. Other more radical groups claimed that the Ape-oids were right in their demands. At the same time, some of the traditional hard line organizations warned of impending disaster should we give in.

      I kept on looking through old history texts for similar behavior and was again rewarded with several examples that coincided with the actions of the Ape-oids. It was like seeing history repeat itself, only in space rather than on Earth. The more I read, the more I worried when not in Annie and our children's presence. While with my family, I always tried to make the threat of war seem less severe which was probably wrong on my part. I should have been preparing Annie for what I was seeing as a likely occurrence.

***

As the holidays came along, I watched each one carefully to see how the Ape-oids were behaving. If they followed historical examples, then their behavior would soon fall into one of several patterns, all easily distinguishable and identifiable. If nothing else, I was glad that our home was distant from the military base on Beulah. It wasn't a large base, but it was on the outer fringes of Union territory. That made it important. Even more important was Echo. It was a veritable nest of military bases, each one important.

      I wrote a second treatise, much shorter than the first and not as well documented. Still, it was complete enough for an experienced military mind to comprehend. I finished it in one month's time and sent several copies to the Sarge. When he received it, he called me immediately and asked for more. The title caught his attention and he read it immediately. He agreed with my reasoning and knew that it was hot material that needed to get out into the field immediately.