March To The Stars

'Normally,' the Marine whispered back, 'it's when you give gifts that can help with an expected baby. In this case, though, Roger is twitting Cord.'

'And here comes Dogzard,' Roger said, looking under the table.

The beast raised her head as she heard her name, then she leapt to her feet when she saw her master's body posture.

'Dat's a good Dogzard,' Roger told her, and pulled a huge leg of damnbeast off the table. 'Who's a good beastie, then?'

The semi-lizard snatched the bone out of Roger's hand and retreated back under the table. Her meter- and-a-half-long tail stuck well out from under it, lashing happily from side to side, and Roger waved his hand.

'Ow, ow!' He counted his fingers ostentatiously, then sighed in relief while everyone laughed. But then the prince lowered his hands, and turned to the last person on his list.

'And so we come to Armand Pahner,' he said seriously, and the laughter stilled. 'What do you present to the officer who held you together for eight horrible months? Who never wavered? Who never faltered? Who never for one instant let us think that we might fail? What do you give to the man who took a sniveling brat and made a man of him?'

'Nothing, for preference,' Pahner said. 'It really was my job.'

'Still,' Roger said, and reached into the now all but empty bag to pull out a small badge. 'I present you the Order of the Bronze Shield. If I can, I'm going to have Mother turn it into an order of knighthood; we need at least one more. For service above and beyond the call of duty to the Crown. Thank you, Armand. You've been more than you've needed to be at every turn. I know we still have a long way to go, but I'm confident that we can get there, together.'

'Thanks, Roger.' The captain stood to accept the gift. 'And I have a little present for you, as well.'

'Oh?'

'Yes.' The Marine cleared his throat formally. 'Long before the ISU, before the Empire of Man, in the dawn of the space age, there was a mighty nation called the United States. As Rome before it, it rose in a pillar of flame and eventually fell. But during its heyday, it had a few medals to reckon with.

'There were many awards and ribbons, but one, while common, perhaps surpassed them all. It was a simple rifle on a field of blue, surrounded by a wreath. What it meant was that the wearer had been where the bullets flew, and probably shot at people himself, and had returned from the fire. It meant, simply, that the wearer had seen infantry combat, and survived. All the other medals, really, were simply icing on that cake, and like the ISU before it, the Empire has maintained that same award ... and for the same reasons.

'Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock,' the captain said, as he took the newly minted badge from Sergeant Major Kosutic and pinned it onto the prince's uniform, 'I award you the Combat Infantryman's Badge. You have walked into the fire again and again, and come out not unscathed, but at least, thank God, alive. If your mother gives you all the medals you deserve, you're going to look like a neobarb world dictator. But I hope that you think of this one, sometimes, because, really, it says it all.'

'Thank you, Armand,' Roger said quietly.

'No, thank you,' Pahner replied, putting his hand on the prince's shoulder. 'For making the transition. For surviving. Hell, for saving all of our asses. Thank you from all of us.'

* * *

The party had descended to the point at which Erkum Pol had to be dragged down before he hit someone with a plank, and Roger had gotten Despreaux off to one side. She'd been quiet all night, and he thought he knew why.

'You're still insisting that you can't marry me, aren't you?' he asked.

'Yes, and I wish you'd quit asking,' she replied, looking down the hills to the Krath city in the valley. 'I'm short, Roger. I'll stick along to Earth, and I'll do what I can to get your mother out of danger. But I won't marry you. When we're settled, and things are safe, I'm putting in my discharge papers. And then I'll take my severance bonus and go find me a nice, safe, placid farmer to marry.'

'Court is just another environment,' Roger protested. 'You've been through a hundred on this planet, alone. You can adjust!'

'I probably could,' she said, shaking her head. 'But not well enough. What you need is someone like Eleanora, someone who knows the rocks and shoals. Part of the problem is that we're too alike. We both have a very direct approach, and you need someone who can complement you, not enhance your negative qualities.'

'You'll stay until Earth, right?' he asked. 'Promise you'll stay until then.'

'I promise,' she said. 'And now, I'm turning in, Roger.' She stopped and looked at him with a cocked head. 'I'll make an offer one last time. Come with me?'

'Not if you won't marry me,' he said.

'Okay,' she sighed. 'God, we're both stubborn.'

'Yeah,' Roger said, as she walked away. 'Stubborn's one word.'

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

'We've never had a 'health and welfare' inspection before,' the voice said suspiciously.

'Yeah, tell me something I don't know.' Jin controlled his voice carefully, sliding just the right hint of exasperation into it. 'We've got a task force with an IBI inspection team coming out, and we need to make a big show. Personally, I think they're operating on the theory that everyone needs a good shaking up after the coup attempt, but what do I know? According to The Book, we're supposed to do these things on every ship, not that anybody ever did it! But now we're under the gun, so we're trying to get a paper trail going.'

There was a long pause, and Jin wished that he could see the other's face, but the freighter had supplied only a voice channel.

Emerald Dawn was a known ship. She'd passed through the system at least twice before, once since Jin had been inserted. She generally traded minor technological trinkets like fire-starters for local gems and artwork. In addition, she got a small fee for dropping electronic transfers in the system, which was the real reason for her visits. As a matter of fact, he'd talked with the ship on her previous run, and he hoped the familiarity of his voice would lull them to some extent.

'Okay,' a new voice said finally. 'This is Captain Dennis. One person can come aboard for your 'health and welfare' check. But this is the last time I'm coming to this port. I don't need this aggravation for a handful of cheap-ass gems, a mail chit that barely covers our air loss, and a cargo of scummy art-shit.'

'Whatever.' Jin let a bit of the peevish bureaucrat into his tone. 'I'm just doing my job.'

The shuttle was on autopilot, so he slid out of the pilot's chair with a nod at Poertena, and pulled his way aft. This was made somewhat difficult by the fact that the small craft was crammed with Marines in battle armor. Most of them had clamped onto the walls and floors, but a few were drifting, more or less at random.

He stopped opposite Captain Pahner, whose feet were stuck to the ceiling as he stood 'head-down,' perusing the schematics for the target.

'They're not real happy,' the IBI agent said.

'I don't care if they're happy,' Pahner said. 'Just as long as they open their doors.'

'One shot, and we're all vapor,' Jin noted.

'And as far as they know, they're suddenly the most wanted ship in the Empire,' Pahner pointed out. 'It would be very bad form for a tramp freighter to shoot up an official Imperial inspection craft. They'll let us dock. After that, you just hit the deck.'

* * *

'Why does this make my butt pucker?' Fiorello Giovannuci—known to the dirt-side com station as 'Captain Dennis'—asked as he gazed at the viewscreen image of the approaching small craft.