Hawk genesis peace hawk.., p.10
Hawk Genesis: Peace (Hawk Flight), page 10
She got sidetracked, “You think I am beautiful?” John had to grin, and she blushed and looked down at her lap. He quickly said, “I apologize if I have offended you. I meant no disrespect.”
She continued to look down at the table, effectively hiding her face in two waves of brilliant blue-black hair. She asked, “What of your education?” John told her of his career as a professor, surprising her, “You are a professor? I was told that you are a famous warrior, the conqueror of planets. I saw you in the hotel, and you were very brave, you took many lives.” John flushed, “The taking of a life is nothing to be proud of; the education of a human mind, that is a worthy undertaking.” She asked the obvious question, “Then, why are you not teaching?” He took a breath, “After the war, after the Navy terminated my enlistment, I was offered an opportunity to perform what I think is a greater service. The world is in flames, the people are full of anger, but without food to eat. I want to replace that anger with jobs and food and education.”
She asked, “Is this something that I could help with?” John nodded, “Yes, which is why I have asked you about education. You are under no obligation, but if you wish to return to school, we will make it happen.”
She raised her head to look directly at him, “Will you take me to your bed?” John realized that he had to be very careful with this young woman, and possibly with himself, “I hope that we can become friends, but we will not be intimate in that way. May I ask, is that what you want?” She blushed and once again looked down at her lap, “Is it my choice?” John said, “It is your choice; but of course, it is also the choice of the man you choose to spend your life with. That said, if a man wishes to marry you, you may choose to say yes, and you may choose to say no. I have a wife, two brothers, a sister-in-law, three in fact; I have a mother who is divorced from my father. My brother and his wife live in the same home with m my wife and I and our mother. I believe they will all love you, care for you. If you consent, you will be a resident in our home. It is not large, but it is full of love. Until such a time as you decide otherwise, our home will be your home.”
She asked a practical question, “What would you expect of me?” It struck him that she had learned how to use her beauty, rather than her mind, which was basically quite good. Her questions were frequently oblique, full of smoky intimations, hard to pin down, but usually full of sensual hints. It was the toolset of a woman with few other resources. It was also compelling, which of course she knew, and had probably known since she was two.
John told her, “Promise to tell me what is truly in your heart, promise to try to trust that I will do the same with you, and give us one year. If you can do that, at the end of that year, if you have not already made up your mind, we will talk of you and your future. Acceptable?” she looked up at him and her eyes blazed, “I have already promised myself to you.”
He almost flinched at the passions that burned inside her. She must have assumed that he would demand sex of her. He was suddenly filled with anger at Nasser, at any society that would fail its duties to its women so badly.
He asked, “In your society, if you had not met us, would you have married? And if so, how would it happen?” She looked intently at him, causing him to see that she was also struggling to understand him, “You do not understand my society, do you?” He shook his head, “No. I am a history professor, and thought that the age of the repression of women had long ago passed. Is that the case, or are you still unable to choose your own mate, or where you live, or your work?”
She blushed, “These are very strange questions.” John nodded, “Yes, and they are questions that you may answer, or not. I have told you that you belong to you.” She took a deep breath, causing him to realize that below that beautiful face was a slender and beautiful body. She said, “This is very difficult for me. I expected that you would…you know.” John decided to be difficult, “No. Tell me what you expected.” She looked up at him, her eyes full of emotion, “I expected that you would take me for your own.”
He asked, “Imagine that our contract was suddenly cancelled, that as we sat here at this table, you were totally free, that you had money, what would you do, where would you go?”
She began crying. He immediately apologized, “Arsinoe, I apologize to you, once again. I am trying to understand, but I am doing a bad job of it. Will you please forgive me?”
She looked back up, revealing in her eyes what felt like two thousand years of pain. He asked, “Will you forgive me?” She took another breath, “Few men ever ask a woman for forgiveness. Yes. I have much to learn about you.”
He asked, “If at any time, you decide that you are not happy with your home, or your life, I ask that you talk to me.” She asked, “My home?” He sighed, “If you belong to me, then I belong to you, and we are family.”
She asked, “May I ask you a personal question?” he nodded, “That is the agreement we have.” She asked, “When we first met, what did you think?” He smiled, “I am not accustomed to being with women, or at least I wasn’t until I married. I thought you were beautiful, striking, graceful. Your voice is absolutely captivating, the way you speak, form words and sentences, the way you think, it is very powerful. I think that I was not the first man to ever think this about you, and I think you are aware of your effect on men. However, you and I come from very different societies; in mine, a woman is still a woman, but she is not less than a man, nor does she have fewer rights or opportunities. Her physical beauty is not her only wealth, and it is not even her most important wealth. My wife is very attractive, but she has great inner beauty, she challenges me, sometimes laughs at me, although with much love. She supports me, is loyal to me, but this is her choice, she is not my property, not a possession to be proud of or brag about. She has the right to expect that I support her as she does me. What I do now, my job, it was a family decision, and she knew that she had the right to tell me no.”
She asked, “With me - you did not…sex?” John blushed, “Sex is part of me, as it is with you, and it is important, but it is not important all by itself. It is a gift to be shared between my wife and I, and even then, as a means of expressing our love for each other.”
She asked, “Do you have children?” He replied, “Not yet. We married during the war, had almost no time together until the war ended.”
She asked question after question. His confusion was hers, but by the time they left the restaurant, they understood each other better, if not well.
They took delivery of twenty sets of armored suits, plus dozens of packages and crates of equipment, and the beginnings of a wardrobe for Arsinoe.
Chapter 12
It took four long days to reach Maya, and a rented hauler to transport the equipment to their offices. John found a two-day old message from James, telling him to contact him as soon as he returned.
John commed James, who hadn’t heard about the trip, and as a consequence asked. John said, “We never met one single veteran. Well, that may not be correct: we may have, but they were shooting at us, so we didn’t have the opportunity to exchange contact info.” James asked, “Shooting?” John said, “Yes, but not now. Where are you and what is your news?” James had gone through the entire war at his brother’s side, and he’d never argued; he didn’t now.
James simply replied, “We’ve got something to show you that I think you are going to love. I want to show it to you rather than tell you about it, but I assume your first priority is kissing your wife, although of course, she’ll ask for your ID first. I’ll be home at seven or so. Good?”
John waved to his team and departed the building with an extremely nervous Arsinoe plus a fairly large number of packages, seemingly all of them female clothes, plus his one duffle bag.
They caught a people mover, and as it hummed into and past the city center she asked question after question. The one that led to the answer that Chavez was one of the largest population centers on the sparsely populated planet brought her up short. She’d known the number, but knowing and seeing were two different things. She asked about the weather. It was cool, with scudding clouds, and she didn’t seem terribly upset at the news that this was fairly typical. What John didn’t add was that his people had an entire planet from which to choose to build its’ cities – he assumed that Nasser had had the same choice.
He stopped the people mover so that they could unload her packages. They were met at the door by seemingly everyone, even some of the Padilla family. John may have called ahead.
Arsinoe was hugged first by his mother, then Jessica, Castidad, Jennifer and Jordan. James beamed down at her and formally shook her hand. They entered the home and she looked curiously at the modest furnishings. She glanced at John who smiled back and suggested a quick tour of the home, a service his mother provided.
When Milla returned with the young woman, everyone was settled around a wood-burning fireplace.
Arsinoe settled gracefully into a chair and nervously clasped her hands. Interestingly, it was Jennifer who started, “Arsinoe, John has told us very little about you, and he failed totally to tell us how beautiful you are. What do you use on your hair?”
John stood and with a smile said, “I can see that I am not needed. Um, Jessica, may I see you for a moment?” She rose gracefully to her feet and followed him out of the living room and down the hall. Inside their bedroom he embraced her and held her to his chest, “You smell so good. You feel so good.” She kissed him soundly on the lips, preventing any further comments. She finally said, “I heard that the trip did not go well. What happened?”
John was a little evasive, “We never even held the meeting. Our first evening in the hotel we were forced to evacuate, and thanks to Arsinoe, it was a relatively painless experience for us, but we felt she had compromised herself, so we invited her to return with us. Her father was a member of the Nasser intelligence community, and it is probable that she would have been persecuted just for talking to us.”
She said, “She is striking looking.” John grinned, “Oddly enough, your observation match the one by Michel.” She smiled, “Goodness, just minutes on the planet and already she’s popular. How long will she be with us?”
John grinned, “Well, as to that, I don’t know, but if you just think of her as the sister you’ve just met for the first time, you’ll get the general idea. For better or worse, she is now our responsibility. I’ve talked at length to her, and it has been an eye-opener. I now understand Nasser a little better, or at least a little, and have a better appreciation for the difficulties our organization faces.” She asked, “Is she educated? What does she want to do?” John nodded, “Just the sort of questions I asked. She is not well educated, although she’s intelligent. The thing is, in her society, those were the sort of questions that were not asked, at least by a traditional young woman. She faces a very big cultural shock, the biggest of which is simply realizing that she is now in charge. I would like her to go to school, and eventually a job.”
Jessica giggled, “I can just imagine her at the front desk of Padilla.” John grinned, “They’d never sell another contract – everyone would be up at the front desk.”
She sighed in contentment, “I hate it when you are gone. I know you’re a big fat liar, but you seem to be in one piece, so I’ll just continue to be a mushroom, at least until bedtime.” John added, “…at which time you’ll become my delicate flower.” She kissed him, “Let’s return to our new family member. You can pollinate me later.”
Arsinoe was talking about her family when John and Jessica returned. Castidad beamed, “He’s back, and he doesn’t even look winded.” Jessica laughed, “Castidad, behave. For once.” Castidad smiled happily, “On my list.”
In a break in the conversation, John made an announcement, “I understand that James and Castidad are planning to remodel parts of the house: I would suggest that you put that project off for a bit.” James asked, “For the reason that…?”
John said, “We need to move. Before I left for my trip, I contacted an agent, and he has found us a new home that will actually have enough space for our family, plus the odd guest. Tomorrow, if any of you are interested, we can go look at it.”
His mother pursed her lips, “Explain.” John smiled, “Should we all agree to the move, James and the irrepressible Castidad will have their own little suite, mother will have hers, Jessica and her extremely fortunate husband will have a nice area, Jennifer and Jordan a closet, and Arsinoe will have her own area. It’s got a large common room, and a nice view, or four.”
His mother remarked, “I know of only one or two homes that match your description. Is this the Cortez home?” John nodded. She looked thoughtful, and nodded without further comment. The Cortez house was built of native stone, and, due to infrequent earthquakes had reinforcing rods running through the blocks. It was in one of the oldest parts of town, and was highly secure. Jessica looked at him, “Security?” John shrugged, “We need more room, and yes, it is certainly well constructed. It has a basement, and I thought we might build an office in part of it.”
Her mother announced, “Supper will be delayed just a bit, so perhaps Jessica and Castidad can show Arsinoe to her room while Jennifer and Jordan help me in the kitchen.”
It wasn’t a request.
Supper was terrific. Arsinoe was almost reeling from the exuberant laughter that swirled around the table. She had already been lovingly encouraged to help prepare the very next supper, and was obviously happy about the prospect.
Jessica asked her about clothes – she’d seen that all the packages were new – and Arsinoe simply said, “I had but the one set of clothing I was wearing when the hotel was attacked.” Big oops.
Jennifer immediately pounced on her statement. Arsinoe looked at John, who took a breath and nodded. She quickly and succinctly described the battle. She didn’t know the actual number of dead, but she knew it was large. She ended by saying, “I would have liked to have taken some of my things, but my…they would have known that I had not been killed. As it is, my home world thinks that I am dead.”
Jessica’s face was white, but she took Arsinoe hand and quietly said, “Nasser is your birth world; this is your home.”
She turned to John, her eyes filled with multiple emotions, as well as tears, “You were right to bring her to us.” She turned back to Arsinoe, “I know that it will be very difficult for you, but everyone in this home has suffered because of the war. My parents were on a passenger ship that was attacked. They were killed, leaving my sisters and I without family or support. Now, we have a large family, a wonderful home and people who love and care for us, although one of them failed to mention certain elements of his trip. You will be loved here, and perhaps one day, there will be a way to return.”
Arsinoe apologized for her ‘mistake’, but Jessica just hugged her, “You have nothing to apologize for, nothing.”
Eventually, John got off alone with Jessica, and into bed, if not to sleep.
Chapter 13
Early next morning John and James flew to the hidden facility on the far side of the mountain range. Inside, they went through the same security and to a brand new room, even deeper in the mountain. It was a very large chamber, one hundred meters below the others, and had it’s own outlet. John noted that the room was not merely bare stone, it was lined in reinforced concrete, and the floor was raised and seismically isolated from the rest of the mountain. James noted the direction of his eyes and shrugged, “Nuclear weapons. We have a blast door that can withstand a near hit, and we can get air piped in from that old tunnel that used to transport our fighters.”
It was a Super Shuttle, as James called it. It was twenty meters longer than the shuttle, had a dead black anti-energy coating and a much larger drive. Other than the coating, it would be difficult to tell it was different, especially in space, but James said, “It’s got decent acceleration, an excellent defensive suite of countermeasures, two missile launchers and one energy weapon. It will only hold ten light missiles, but it can outrun missile boats and all first generation military craft. It’s cargo area can hold twenty drive systems, so it will be able to deliver to Grenoble, but this first one is not Padilla’s, it’s ours.”
John walked up to it, “I thought we were months away from taking delivery.” James said, “We lied a bit.” He opened a personnel hatch and they ascended a ladder into a nicely furnished compartment. They went up another ladder to the command deck. It gleamed. James opened a hatch at the rear of the bridge and they entered a missile room. It didn’t yet have the missiles, but the tubes and related handling equipment were in place. Another hatch opened into the cargo hold. They descended to the deck and walked the length to a rear hatch, leading to the drive room. It held two fusion plants. James said, “It can operate on one, giving it yet more redundancy.”
John asked, “Have you flight tested it yet?” James grinned, “Want to go for a ride?” John laughed, “I have to be a passenger?” James asked, “ Do you have a certification to pilot shuttles? I didn’t think so.”
John grinned at his brother and they walked back to the command deck.
It appeared that James had anticipated and prepared for his brother’s visit. They already had approval for a ‘test flight’, and within minutes he was powering up Chamberlin01, his unofficial name for it. As soon as the drives came on line, he requested a tow. John felt the ship shudder and it began to slide into a huge passageway. Two hundred meters of rock separated the immense chamber from an outer lock. As they neared it, it began to open. The shuttle continued through the lock and onto a large ledge. It came to a halt and John felt the ship shudder as the enormous platform released its mechanical latches.
