Wil bowed toward her bridge camera. “Of course, Kaleen. I would like that. Provided the Viceroy approves, of course.” Wil was catching on quick, regaining his equilibrium much quicker than I would have.
“Thank you, Wil. And you, Captain, my first friend? Will you call me once in awhile?”
I grinned. “I’ll try, Kaleen. However, much has happened since our mission to Thaeron. I now command the new Rim Worlds Navy, when I get it built. I’ve also grown more accustomed to my rank. You no longer have to call me ‘Captain’.
“I noted your shoulder boards when you boarded, Fleet Admiral. My congratulations! Should I now refer to you as ‘Fleet Admiral’?”
I nodded with a smile. “When discussing business, call me ‘Admiral’. But for chat, I’m still just ‘Val’. However, to answer your question, I’m now stationed on Thaeron base. I doubt I’ll get to Haven often.”
I could almost hear a grin in her voice. “You forget my capabilities, Val. I contain a subspace initiator, remember? I could call you if you were on Prime.”
I controlled a wince. All I’d need would be Kaleen calling me at odd hours, just to talk. “No, Kaleen, I hadn’t forgotten. But I expected that you would use the capability only at the Viceroy’s order.”
The answer was quick. “He didn’t tell me not to!” Kaleen sounded like a guilty child.
I sighed. I did like her. “All right, Kaleen. If the Viceroy approves, we’ll set up a schedule for you to call me on Thaeron. However, remember, I have a lot to do. I’ll set up a schedule that lets us keep in touch, but you can’t be calling me too often.”
We talked for a while longer, and then I stepped outside, to let Wil and Kaleen talk in private. I was beginning to get impatient when Wil came down the ramp, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“I’m sorry, Wil,” I began, “but I knew you wouldn’t believe me if I just told you. And I didn’t want you pining away over someone who’s not even real.”
He whirled on me, fists clenched. “She’s real! She more real than a lot of flesh and blood women I know!”
I nodded carefully. “She’s real, but she’s not human. The only relationship possible between you and her is an intellectual one. I’m sorry, Wil. I really am.”
He relaxed a bit, but then he whirled and stomped off. I had a feeling it was going to get pretty drunk out that night. I warned the Viceroy’s security guards that Wil might be back.
He was, but after a few monumental drunks and some marathon talks with Kaleen, Wil began seeing less of Kaleen and more of the woman that rumor had pursuing him for several months. A few weeks later, he accepted my offer to take over the Rim World Marines; and a couple of months after that Suli and I were invited to the wedding. Kaleen attended by remote.
Surprisingly, the crews of four of our privateers had voted to enlist and let the Fleet buy their ships.
We were negotiating with the yards on Outback for the design rights to the privateers. Once they were obtained, the Navy planned an initial order of fifty hulls. Since they weren’t privately owned, we could no longer call them privateers. We needed a new class name, and we decided on ‘Frigate’. I heard that the Empire Fleet was taking bids on several hundred hulls.
I was busier than I’d ever been in my life. We were simultaneously trying to design and man a completely new military service and at the same time run an existing space Fleet. But first, I had an obligation. Valkyrie toured every inhabited world on the Rim, and I presented posthumous medals to the families of every boat pilot who'd died.
Suli… uh, Commander Ursulas Fjolking-Kedron, Commandant of the new Rim Navy Astrogator’s School and my life-mate(!) and I had to move off my old Valkyrie. We took up accommodations on Thaeron base: Quarters, Flag Officer, For the use of. Suli was not impressed, but she wasted no time turning the sterile house into a lovely home.
Then she took her accumulated salary as Valkyrie ’s Astrogator and bought herself a mining boat. She somehow got Toms teach her to fly it, and still spends every spare minute terrorizing orbital traffic.
And that’s how it happened, from my point of view. I’ve tried to be scrupulously and even brutally fair and objective in this manuscript, revealing my own weaknesses as well as those of others. Of course, that won’t prevent revisionist so-called ‘researchers’ from picking it apart and reducing it to bones. I can only hope that the real heroes of this story, the men and women who served during this time, are remembered with the honor they deserve.
