“Come on, you’ll be great.You can be very charming – when you want to be. Did you come upwith your three most essential lessons for the cadets, like Lieusuggested?”
“I did.” Doubt crept intoher mind. “I think so, anyway.”
Arranging his pillow behindhim, Jacoway settled comfortably against it. “Great. Let’s hear‘em.”
She sat erect and recited,“Number one: show up to allyour classes – even when the weather stinks, evenwhen you think it’s a waste of time, even when you’rehungover.”
“I think you can skip thatlast codicil,” Tal murmured.
“Number two: don’t beafraid to ask questions. A question asked in imperfect Standish isbetter than staying quiet in ignorance.”
“Wonderful – love thatone.”
“Number three: don’t sleepwith an instructor until at least twomonths after you’re through with theirclass.”
Tal stared at Naiche for asecond. “Umm, what? Are you seriouswith that last one?”
“Yeah…why? You don’t thinkthat’s good advice?”
“It’s great advice,” heexplained, relaxing back against his pillow. “It kind of goeswithout saying though – since it’s against the regs.”
“It’s against the regs foran instructor to sleep with a current student, but you couldtechnically have sex with them the day after you get your finalgrade. That’s where the two months comes in – that’s the crucial bit of wisdom I’mimparting.”
Cocking his head in agesture of obvious skepticism, Tal advised, “Let’s keep that one asback-up material. What else ya’ got?”
Naiche tossed her hands upin defeat. “See. I suck at this kind of thing.” She flopped downnext to him. “I’m just not good with people.”
“That’s not true.” Pullingher up into a warm embrace, Tal assured her, “I think you’regreat withpeople.”
While she snuggled closerto him, Deck protested, “That’s only because you’re worse than me.”He simply snorted in response so she closed her eyes and yawned,adding softly, “Our kids are going to be the most socially awkwardpeople ever born.”
Naiche could feel thesudden tension in Tal’s body. She looked up at him, asking, “What’swrong?”
“We’re gonna havekids?”
“Well, not right away butyeah, some day. I mean, I’d likeus to have children.” Suddenly concerned she’dmisjudged the nature of their fourteen-month relationship, shesearched his face for the truths hidden there. “Don’tyou?”
“Ofcourse, I would – it’s just…we’ve neveractually discussed it.”
Reassured by his responseshe offered up a cheeky smile. “Yeah, I guess I was skipping astep, there – but I’ve given it a lot of thought. I’d like tomuster out by the time I’m forty and have a couple of kids. Withyou.”
“That sounds perfect.” Hisvoice grew animated as he continued, “We could get married….” Hepaused, seeking confirmation from her. Naiche nodded since she wasamenable to marriage if that’s what Tal wanted. He smiled brightlyand continued with increased enthusiasm, “…and retire together.We’ll take our pensions, immigrate to the Centauri settlementsand—”
Horrorstruck at the idea,Naiche pulled back and blurted out, “You want to live in thesettlements?!”
“Yeah, I do.” Sitting upstraight, Tal explained, “It’s a great place to raise kids. There’sso much growth, so many opportunities—”
“So many horrifyingmemories.”
After expelling a resignedsigh, Tal leaned towards her. “Naiche, I think if you gave it achance….” He paused, obviously choosing his words carefully. “…youcould make some new memories. Good ones. The settlements are morethan just the place where we fought the war.”
“Not to me. They’llnever be anything butthat to me.”
He was silent but even inthe dim light she could read the exasperation in his eyes. After amoment, he asked, “Where would youwant to live?”
“Chiricahua territory. Iwant to rear my children as Chiricahua.”
“Just Chiricahua – not Choctaw?”
“Yes, Choctaw, too. I’dwant them to know both parts of their heritage. But we could dothat there.” Tal was shaking his head as if he couldn’t agree.Naiche’s heart sank as she felt the bright and certain future shehad envisioned, slipping away from her. “You don’t like myhome?”
“I do. I love visiting there – and Ireally respect what your people are doing, how they live lightlyupon the land and are actually reversing some of the damage to theplanet.”
“But?”
“But…that way of life –it’s just not for me.”
Betraying her risingfrustration, Naiche challenged, “What do you propose we dothen?”
“Right now, I don’t know.But we have years to figure it out. The important thing is we love each otherand we have time.” She remained silent rather than pointing out that timewasn’t going to make the settlements more acceptable to her – norit seemed, make Chiricahua territory more palatable to him. He laida gentle hand on her arm, explaining, “We don’t have to solve thisproblem at 0200 hours or even—”
Whatever Tal was about tosay was interrupted by VICI urgently summoning them both to thebridge – while informing them that Lovelace was atDEFCON-beta.
Chapter 2
Echo from aVanished Past
“And we danced, on the brink of an unknownfuture, to an echo from a vanished past.” John Wyndham, The Day ofthe Triffids
As they hurried to thebridge, Decker, Jacoway, and Kayatennae met up with Kennedy whosaid with a rueful laugh, “Looks like we pulled the trigger on thatemergency drill a little prematurely.”
“Just our luck,” answeredDecker. “Where’s Aqila? She wasn’t called to duty?”
“She was – twenty minutes ago. Right after the ship droppedout of L-speed.”
“Yeah, I just noticedthat,” Jacoway said. “What’s going on?”
Con increased his jog to arun, calling back, “Only one way to find out.”
They got to the bridge andrelieved their gamma-shift counterparts of duty, taking up theirusual stations. The newly arrived officers composed themselves towait for more information since Ricci, Lindstrom, and Ramsey wereconferring with Lateef at the science console.
Only when the entire seniorstaff was assembled, did Ricci address his crew. “Twenty-sevenminutes ago, some unknown form of energy transmission interferedwith our Nav-sat and Com-sat functioning. Ramsey and Lateef havetheir combined staffs analyzing the transmission but so far we’vebeen unable to determine its source or nature.”
“Was Nav-sat disabled?”questioned Kennedy.
Ramsey said, “It’s notdisabled – but I want to run a complete diagnostic before we jumpback to L-speed.”
Before Decker could askabout other systems, alarms sounded from several stations,including both Tactical consoles. While analyzing the dataread-outs, Naiche glanced over at Con to find him looking equallypuzzled.
Without looking up from thescience station data screen, Lateef announced, “That was a neutrinobeam – the same energy transmission that we
