“Hello,everyone,” one of the men said. “My name is Gleb. I’msure many of you will notice that, though the republic considers meto be the lord of Irth, you’ve all had no choice in the matter.”
He grinned. “Ifit helps at all, I hadno choice either.”
A low rumble oflaughter ran through the crowd.
“As far as ourfellow Earthers are concerned, for now,” the woman next to himsaid, “wedon’t exist. If you leave the planet to join a colony, thenyou need to know what’s going on out here.”
“My name is LunaMorales, from California,” she added. “One of my duties willapparently be explaining manners to my future husband, starting withhow to introduce your wife.”
“She’s thefuture lady?” Trisha saidloudly but still barely audible over the laughter.“I wasn’t expecting her to look like that!”
“Like what?” Frankasked, taking the opportunity to glance at Trisha’s profile.
“She couldalmost pass unnoticed in India! Well,not quite unnoticed,” she amended. “She would definitely getnoticed but… Oh, you know what I mean!”
“Yeah,” Franklooked back at the armored woman. “I see what you mean – aboutthe similarities, I mean.” He added the last part hastily.
“And she’sgot spirit!” Trisha said approvingly. “Scoldinga man who owns the whole planet!”
“Yeah, well, she’sa fighter pilot.”
“No! Really?”
“US Navy,” Franktold her, suddenly realizing that he was feeling a little pride inthe future lady of his people. “She’s a combat veteran.”
“She’s a goodmatch for him,” Trisha decided.
“You think?” Frankasked, though he felt she was right.
“Of course.”She nodded emphatically. “Power corrupts. A powerful man, such asthe ruler of an entire species, needs a strong woman to keep him fromgetting out of line.”
A few women near themwere nodding in agreement, and a few looked a little surprised whenthey turned to see who they’d agreed with.
“There’s noknowing what you might encounter on that planet,” Gleb told them.“There could be vampire monkeys for all we know, so these warriorswill be traveling with you.”
“Our chief dutyis keeping you safe,” Luna added. She gestured at the troops in theroom. “Every member of this platoon was genetically optimized bythe Meleke Corporationfor combat.
“They possessenhanced cognition, reflexes and healing abilities. TheseHuman troops are feared throughout the empire, so they should makeany hostiles think twice about attacking.”
“You’llhave a permanent garrison,”Gleb said. “We’ll set upa six month rotation though any of these men and women can opt toremain with you if they’re... so inclined.”
He’d left just enoughpause there to make his meaning clear and a few of the youngercolonists were whispering among themselves. Frank couldn’t blamethem.
With roughlythree hundred people, the pool of eligible singles would be quitesmall. Did he say the enhancements were genetic?
Gleb held up his hands.“Whoa! I don’t need to actively use my abilities to pick up onthe current here. I’ll save you all the speculation. If a garrisonmember and a colonist want to marry, then that’s fine.”
He looked at Luna’shand on his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at her.
“But make sureyou show respect for local customs,” she insisted, looking at thetroops around her. “I don’t want to hear of you guys trying toelope with somebody’sson or daughter!”
“That’s a goodpoint,” Gleb agreed. “I was just in Mr. Morales’ garage, askingfor his blessing, so I expect no less of my troops.” He looked backout at the crowd.
“I’m not‘reading’ you but the mental background noise is pointing to onemore… elephant in the room. Humansfrom the republic areall enhanced genetically. Theycan pass that on to their children. Mostof those improvements are designed as dominant genes so they’lllive on through the generations.
“We’re alsostationing a couple of combat vessels in orbit. As your ability tosupport fleet operations grows, so will the defensive presence but,for now, we don’t want to saddle you with too many mouths to feed.”
He paused. “We reallydo need to get going but we wanted you to know we weren’t going tojust drop you out there and then abandon you.”
“We’ve got awedding to get to,” Luna said, “and I’m sure you’re all eagerto get going, so travel safely and we should be able to get there thesame time as you if we push our engines a little.”
Justlike that, they were gone.
“Not sure I’llever get used to that,” Frank said.
The crowd starteddispersing. Terry and Vikram wandered off, still talking about crops.
Trisha watched them gowith a smile. “He’s a nice young man, your Terry. It’s hard forVikram to make friends, so it does my heart good to see them soexcited over their ideas.”
Frank felt a mild surgeof jealousy.
“Excuse me,”the young woman who haddistracted Terry was approaching Trisha. “That young man with yourson...”
“Kiara!” Hermother caught up with her. “Go and help your sisters unpack.” Shetutted as the young woman flounced off. “She takes watching, thatone.”
“Every youngman on the ship will need watching with such a prettygirl on board,” Trisha said.
Shemanaged to get a smile from that comment. No mother can resist acompliment about her child, even when it was so obviously true.
The mother looked atFrank. “Your son,” she said, sounding like she was searching forthe right words. “He seems like a nice young man…”
Frank smiled. Ofcourse she wants to get an idea of who she might find herself dealingwith. “He’s not my son,ma’am.He was working for me inCalifornia.
“He’s a goodkid. With me leaving, there were no ties left to keep him there, sohe decided to join the colony.” There you go, he’ssingle. The rest is up to you.
“Well, I’d bettergo and make sure she’s gone to our quarters to help her sisters.”She bustled off.
He leaned closerto Trisha. “Howmuch danger is Terry in?” he asked her in a conspiratorial voice.
She chuckled.“Mrs. Naidu’son a mission and he’s in her sights.”
“Really? They’d bewilling to consider a foreigner?”
“You’reasking the wrong question,” she told him. “The real issue iswhether they would let their daughter marry a Christian.”
“Ah,” Frank said,reminded of Sushil’s off-limits comment.
“He needsto show a willingness to coexist,”she told him. “He can’tdemand that she convert or raise the children in a way that shows norespect for their roots.”
“Oh boy,”Frank took a deep breath. Terrywas kind of a Human windsock. “Thekid’s probably gonna be hitched by the time we reach the colony.”
“Is that such abad thing?”
Hethought about that.
