Edward (2 page)

The human medic smiled and nodded, “You are most certainly
welcome.  You know her?”

Edward nodded, “She's my niece.  We've a large family;
I've not seen her in years.  Heck, I'm not even five years older than
she.”

“Who is she going to stay with?  Has that been
determined?”

“Probably my eldest brother Llewellyn.  He already has a family, so she'd fit right in, but
none of that is set yet, and I'm not sure this is what
she
wants to be
hearing right now,” Edward nodded toward the sleeping Dawn.

“Point taken,” nodded the medic.  “We'll have about
five minutes of no gravity before we dock.  Do you think she'll have any
problem with that?  Makes a lot of people sick.”

“I don't know.  If you could stay here with her, I
would appreciate it.”

The medic nodded as he settled back into his chair. 
Edward did likewise.  All in all, the day had been fairly mellow, for
him.  He had no idea how long the ghosts of the last few days would haunt
little Dawn.  Edward just sat there staring at nothing in
particular.   Maybe Llewellyn and Penn were right: leave all this
insanity behind, settle down and raise a family.  Llewellyn seemed happier
than he had in fourteen years.   Of course he could!  He was a
High Silver, he had nothing left to prove.  
He could
afford
to settle down and raise a family.   Edward
had a lot of work left to do.  But he knew he could do it, he too could
rise to the level of his two brothers.  It was just a matter of time and
hard work.  There was no doubt in his mind.   His
sleepy mind.  Very sleepy.  Soon
Edward joined Dawn and drifted off to sleep.

Edward sat at the table with Penn and Llewellyn.  He
was the youngest by far and he felt it.  It wasn't anything that the two
older brothers did,
per se
.  He was sitting with two legends and he
knew it.   It just so happened that he was
related to them.  Little Dawn had been given a mild sedative to help her
with the nightmares, but those were only a stop gap.   Edward was
furious.  It was bad enough that his sister and her family were killed,
but now the little girl was going to have to live it down.  The doctors
had already warned them about 'survivor's guilt' and Dawn was a perfect
candidate.  He did not envy her in the slightest, but anger was the only
thing he could bring to the table, and that wasn't going to serve anyone. 
He knew that.

“Relax, Edward,” admonished Penn in a very brotherly
fashion.  “Everything that can be done, has been
done.  There isn't anything left that you need to do or can do.”

 “Sorry, Penn.  Does it
show that bad?”

“Yes, but it's okay.  We all
understand.   The best thing you can do is go about your business and
try not to dwell on it.”

“How can you be so glib?  It was our sister.  Her and most of her family.”

“I can be so calm, because I know nothing I can do will
change the past.  We can only work for the present and future. 
Besides, if Llewellyn can be calm, I can be calm.  He lost Beatrice too.”

Edward's mind raced, Beatrice?  Oh yeah, Llewellyn's
childhood sweetheart.   “Wait a minute, was
that the same Beatrice as Dawn's Fourth Mother?”

“You didn't know that?” asked Llewellyn a bit bemused.

Edward cleared his throat, suddenly apologetic, “Sorry,
Llewellyn.   I never really made the connection.”

Llewellyn just smiled, “No apologies needed.  You were
what, five, when that all went down?”

“Now you rub in how young I am,” grinned Edward back.

They all had a good laugh at that.

“Seriously though,” began Penn, “have you considered taking
a break from all of this?   Isn't it time you settled down? 
You've spent almost a year with the Shukurae.  You've done the Highlands
proud.  There isn't a one among them that doesn't appreciate all that
you've done.”

So that was it; they were going to try to talk him home
again.  Edward sniffed, “And how long did you serve, Llewellyn?”

“Way too long.  Ask Toch the Red.  He agrees with
me on that.  I came out here running from my own demons.  I never
found a solution to those demons on the battlefield and I wasted a chunk of my
youth in the process.”

Edward just sniffed and tried to maintain his
composure.   He wasn't sure what to say.  He wasn't sure if
there was anything to say.

“Please tell me this isn't about Llewellyn and me being
High Silvers again is it?” moaned Penn.  “We've been through all of that
before!  Pushing yourself to the edge of breaking isn't going to push you
over the edge.  You either are or you aren't a High Silver.  There
are far more sane ways of determining that.”

“You make that sound so simple,” said Edward tiredly, “but
you two are High Silvers; you have nothing left to prove.”

“Do you want to go out like David?  He figured out he
was a High Silver and was dead in ten days!  Remember, Llewellyn was known
to be a High Silver for years before I found out I was.  I fought for the
Shukurae because I was trying to help them, not because of my own ego. 
Are you here to help them, seriously?  Or is this all
about 'you?'  You have an awesome partner there in Kadu.  If
you get her killed just because you are pushing yourself, how are you going to
feel?”

“She's such a nanny you have nothing to worry about,”
muttered Edward.  “Okay, I have a deal for you two.  If you two will
get off my back and stop combing my fur backwards about all of this, I'll agree
not to argue with Kadu.  I'll let her set the pace and select or withdraw
from the missions.  Is that fair?”

“That,” began Penn, “is an excellent start.”

“Fine, with one additional condition,” interjected
Llewellyn.  “You come back and visit the Highlands twice a year.  Starting with Midwinters.”

“I can live with that.   But I know what you are
going to do.  You are going to sic all your little kittens at me and try
to make me go all mushy.”

Llewellyn shrugged and grinned, “Am I that obvious?”

Edward kept his word, but that didn't mean he didn't still
push himself as hard as he could.  Kadu was relieved at his change of mood
and style, and soon, much to his surprise, she was raising the bar for
him.  They were doing orbital insertions rated at six times
normal gravity, up from five and a half, and she was letting him practice
swifting without giving him grief.  Swifting, what an odd choice of words,
but it was the common description.  All Taik, Highlanders or Lowlanders
could 'swift'.  The human doctors described it as an adrenaline dump on
steroids.  It was mostly a last ditch maneuver, one when everything was on
the line. When it was over, the party in question was unconscious, for a day or
two.   A typical Taik soldier could swift for about two minutes, run
full throttle with no breaks and not even getting a breath of air.  All
action was from anaerobic reserves.   Edward had worked up to over
five minutes, a number he was quite proud of.  Kadu was practical about
when he could or couldn't practice, since it meant he was out of action for at
least a day; he would only try it on redeploys where there was plenty of time to
kill, not when they were on station, waiting to go at a moments
notice.  

Weeks became months and soon he hit his nineteenth
birthday.   Fresh off of a meat grinder, the chance to unwind at a
star cruiser's bar should have been perfect for Edward, but he was in a
funk.   All around him, Shukurae, humans, and the other Taiks were
having a great time.  They had at least a two week gap in operations and
no one had any place to be in the morning.   Yet Edward just sat at a
table and poked at his drink as he reread the newest letter from his brother
Llewellyn again.

Jake sat down beside him with a half emptied mug in his
hand, “Hey Edward.  Come on, let it go man.  You are the only sour
puss in the room.  What's wrong?”

“Nineteen,” he responded with disgust.

Jake looked confused, “Yeah, you turned nineteen.  Is
this something like turning forty with human ladies?  Some cultural thing
I'm missing?”

Edward sniffed, “No, my age is beside the point.  I
got a letter from Llewellyn; there are now nineteen known High Silvers.”

“Well bully for whoever
then!  Why's that eating you?”

“Well for one, it isn't me.  Two, it is some snot
nosed little kid that he has been training.  Some little fifteen year old
brat named Gavin.  He's never even been in a real fight and they have already
determined he's a High Silver.”

“Well that does reinforce Lord Llewellyn's previous
hypothesis that your continued actions here are superfluous,” interjected
Kadu.  Where did she come from?   Edward hadn't heard her
approach at all.  Oh, was he losing it!  “If being a High Silver is
your primary concern, maybe you should consider discontinuing your present
service and train directly with your older brother.”

Edward's fur stood on end and slowly churned in color.

“I do seem to have upset you further, Edward.  My mistake.”

Edward tried to calm down, it wasn't her fault.  She
was being practical.  As always.  Horribly practical.  “You meant no offense, Kadu. 
I know that.   It is just… awkward.”

“Everyone else is having a good time here,” piped up
Jake.  “Why don't you just try and turn off your brain for a while and and
relax.  Goof off!  This is the perfect time.  Two weeks from now
you can pick up your quest again.  But you'll be much better for it if you
let yourself enjoy a little down time.”

“Considering the relatively high number of co-worlders,
even if they aren't Highlanders, maybe you should consider enjoying their
company and socially explore the sexual dimorphism that
separate your kind,” suggested Kadu.

Jake launched part of his drink out his nose.  As he
reeled from the pain and gasped for air he laughed back, “Yeah, what she said!”

Edward sat next to Kadu in the briefing room.  Around
him sat the other members of his strike unit, the 517th.  The assignment
under question: contract work as a guard detail on a Taik planet.  The
fact that their small unit had several Taik, both Lowlanders and Highlanders,  bode well for them.   The giant physical
presence of the Shukurae was a quite effective deterrent, but the ability to
work in and around the crowd was also highly important.  And crowds were
definitely the name of the game.

“I'm game,” replied Edward with a bit of a smile.

“Seriously?” inquired Kadu.  “I had expected you to
find this assignment to be too dull.”

“No, seriously, I'm fine with it.  While superficially
it is a guard detail, there is a history here and if things do go down, it will
probably all be up close and personal.”

“Five days of boredom for five minutes of terror, eh?”
joked Jake.

“Pretty much.  And it means I'll be in the middle of it rather than
you gun slingers.”

“Meanwhile I get to lay around on rooftops staring down a
sniper scope and work on my tan.  I'm cool with it either way.”

“Is part of your motivation,” began Kadu, “the fact that
the assailants current
modus operandi
is to engage in bombing,
much like what happened to your late sister?”

“Not really,” shrugged Edward.  “In fact, if you
notice from the reports, the bombings appear to be more about distraction and
property damage, than about killing people.”

“The big question I have is, 'Are the assailants
politically motivated, financially motivated or just whack jobs?'” asked Jake.

“Tatiana is the daughter of the governor, but her career as
a 'pop star' has made her independently wealthy.  Extortion is not
unlikely.  We must also consider her as a political medium against her
father.  Lastly, like Jake implied, we cannot rule out that it is a
non-rational response of someone in the community,” observed Kadu.

“Crazy fans, that's what worries me,” interjected
Kestrel.   Edward hadn't seen Kestrel poke his head up in a
while.  He was a Taik like Edward, but a Lowlander from the Altshea
Confederation.  His primary work was in explosives: setting them up, or
rendering other people’s work safe.  Man, did he have steel nerves.

“You nervous?” asked Edward.

“For myself, no.   Most of these devices have been rank
amateur.   I'm far more concerned for the population.  The more
effective we become, the more aggressively they may lash out.   This
needs to be a counter insurgency operation as much as a guard detail or we will
always be two steps behind.”

“Excellent point.  We should treat it like a normal CI operation,”
concurred Jake.   “The question here is, can
we make our deployment contingent on them giving us investigative power as
well?”

“What?  You two being more conservative than me?” joked Edward.  “That's new.”

Kestrel shook his head, “This is a different beast. 
Normally there are darn few neutrals and it is all about pointing us at the bad
guys.  In this case, 99.99% of the population is neutral and we have to
make sure they don't get dragged along into the mix.”

Edward nodded his agreement, he was being cavalier and
Kestrel was being practical.  “Okay, I'm with Kestrel on this then; not
unless they broaden our authority.”

“Given the exceptionally delicate nature of the situation,
that seems perfectly reasonable,” began Kadu.  “I'll forward our concerns
and conditional acceptance.” 

“Good, so we done here?” asked Jake.

“Yes indeed,” replied Kadu.

“Eh, you never had to worry about Edward accepting this one
Kadu,” said Jake with a grin.

“And how is that?”

“Have you seen how little Tatiana wears on stage?” joked Jake.

Edward, more than ever, wished he was a High Silver.  Just
so he could fade from view.

Kadu quickly caught up with Edward in the hall.  Being nearly twice as tall made that easy enough.  “So
is it true,” began Kadu, “that your acceptance was tempered by the exceptional
physical attributes of the lady in question?”

“Ah, jealous already are you?  Don't
worry Kadu, I only have eyes for you,” joked Edward.

 “Advancing that agenda would be socially and
physically awkward, but you don't seem to be constrained by social norms. 
That only leaves concerns of physicality.”

Edward stopped dead in his tracks as his ears twitched and
his fur rippled in color uncontrollably.   It took him a few moments
to calm down, “Kadu, that was a
joke
.  I mean... really...”

Kadu flashed a broad toothy grin, “I was well aware it was
a joke.  It was, in fact, the desire to elicit a strong emotional response
from you that encouraged me to offer my response as I did.”

Edward laughed.  He hadn't expected her to crack a
joke back, and he fell right into it.  “Yes, ma'am, you got me. 
Probably couldn't have gotten a stronger reaction unless you had closed a door
on my tail.  But to answer you first question more honestly.  Maybe.  Maybe I did.  She is quite a looker.”

 “That would go far to address several outstanding
bets amongst those in the unit as to your orientation,” replied Kadu.  She
stood there staring at him for a long moment, “That too, was a joke.”

“Promise me, Kadu.  Promise me only one joke at my
expense a day.”

“That seems a perfectly acceptable arrangement.”