Cain sat and listened. He agreed totally. He was unquestionably the most paranoid person in the room, though since his abduction, Admiral Garret was sounding an awful lot like Erik Cain when he spoke. Cain knew this was only a brief respite in a struggle that would never end. But it was a step forward, and if he…and those in this room…pushed boldly forward into the future, maybe that future would be a fit place to live. As long as they never let their guard down.
“You are right, Terrance.” Garret spoke up. “We must be vigilant, now and always. Let us never forget. Let us never let each other forget.” Garret paused for a moment and then let a smile creep onto his face. “But for now, my friends, drink with me to our new Colonial Confederation.” He held his glass over the table and watched as his friends and comrades did the same. “We shall make it something we can be proud of.”
They spoke as they had fought and struggled…as one. “To the Confederation.”
It was deep into the Armstrong night, and two lovers were out for a stroll. The riverwalk through the center of Astria wasn’t finished yet, but the parts that were open were very picturesque, perfect for romantic interludes.
Erik looked up at the night sky, the darkness mitigated by the glowing light of Armstrong’s moons. “Three moons…what more could you want for a seduction scene. And they are all almost full. They must have some local name for that…when the moons are all full.”
Sarah Linden stood next to Erik, her hands lightly grasping his arm. “You don’t need any moons at all, you silly Marine. And you know that.” She glanced up and gave him a smile before her eyes panned over the river, watching the ghostly white moonlight dancing slowly on the calm water.
Sarah had been distraught when Erik went to Earth, certain she’d never see him again. She’d almost burst into tears when General Holm arrived on Columbia and told her he was just fine. She was disappointed he was on Arcadia, but thrilled he had made it off of Earth.
She’d almost had a stroke when she saw the state of his shoulder, which had never been properly treated between his rapid series of battles and adventures. She barely allowed time for a hug and a few kisses before she dragged him to the hospital and had him in surgery. Courtship rituals vary considerably, especially when you’re dating the best trauma surgeon in the Marine Corps.
This was another of their brief moments, their time together between the wars and disasters that separated them, sometimes for years. They had a relationship few people could have endured, but they had only grown closer with the passing years.
“You know this isn’t going to last forever.” Erik put his hand to Sarah’s head, stroking her long, blond hair as he spoke. “I was ready to leave the Corps before all of this happened.” He hesitated, clearly having trouble with what he wanted to say. “Maybe we should resign now. We deserve some peace, some real time together.”
She smiled, but she was silent for a moment, fighting the urge to agree with him. Nothing would make her happier than the two of them spending the rest of their lives walking the beaches and forests of Atlantia or some other pleasant world. But that wasn’t their destiny, and they both knew it.
“You know we can’t do that.” There was sadness in her voice, but also contentment. She might have lived her life truly alone if a CAC nuke hadn’t send a shattered Erik Cain to her hospital. She and Cain both carried deep scars, and they complimented each other perfectly. They healed each other’s wounds when everyone else tore them open. Everything she hid from others she shared with him. “Could you be happy knowing we abandoned our friends when they needed us? That we stepped aside when we finally had the chance to build a better future?”
He looked at her and smiled. “No, you know I couldn’t. No more than you could.” He pulled her closer, hugging her tightly. “But let’s make sure we build a place for ourselves in that new future.”
She tightened her arms, feeling his warmth against her. “That, my love, is a promise.”
Chapter 33
Kara sat on the cool grass holding little William as she gazed at the statue. It was a beautiful day under Arcadia’s red sun, and there was a calm and a joyfulness in the air that had been absent for far too long.
She felt the calm, but while she loved her son and was grateful to have him, she couldn’t feel the joy. The loss was still too fresh, too raw, and she felt an emptiness she wasn’t sure would ever go away.
The Assembly had declared it a day of Thanksgiving. Henceforth, this date would be the most solemn one on the Arcadian calendar. Not a rousing, celebratory event with fireworks and bands…the Arcadians had paid heavily for their freedom, and this day would henceforth be dedicated to remembering those whose sacrifices had made it possible.
She looked up at the statue. It was a remarkable likeness, even she had to admit. She wiped a tear from her cheek and wondered if she would ever be able to come here without crying. The dedication ceremony had been the hardest; she still didn’t know how she’d gotten through it. Kyle Warren and the rest of the Marine vets gave a moving tribute to their fallen leader, one that tore away her veneer of strength and left her quietly sobbing as she sat and listened.
She watched William crawling around, laughing. My God, she thought, he is already starting to look just like Will. “Your father was a great man, little one. You never got to meet him; he never got to hold you in his arms. When he was your age he lived in a terrible place, and he gave all he had so you could grow up somewhere better.” She sniffled, unsuccessfully fighting to hold back her tears. “He never even knew he was going to have a son.” She could feel the wetness on her cheeks, the tears streaming down her face. “His name will be remembered, and people will come here for generations and sit by this statue and point up and say, ‘there is the hero of the revolution.’ But he was more than that, more than the Arcadians who come here and pay their respects will ever know.”
She pulled William close to her, feeling the warmth of her son against her body. He was the only thing that eased her pain. It helped her to speak to him of his father, though he was too young to understand what she was saying. “Glory is a veneer that reflects the light only from a distance. Up close you can see through it, to bitter price paid in pain and death.” She looked up, past the tufts of William’s blond hair, to the statue. “You will have glory forever, my love, and thousands – millions – of people will have a future of hope because of what you did.” Her throat was raw and her red eyes ached from crying. “You died alone, in the mud of the battlefield, without even my hand on your face for comfort. Forgive me…for not being there, for the years I wasted when we might have been together…for living and going on without you.”
She stood up, scooping William into her arms. “I will come back here on this day…every day until I die. And I will make sure your son never forgets his father. Not just the hero all Arcadians will know, but the grape farmer, the man who wanted nothing more than to settle down and live his life in peace.”
The Assembly had unanimously asked her to assume Will’s seat, but she had said no. She just couldn’t do it. She would come to the constitutional convention; she would be there to insure that all that Will had fought for was codified and enacted…that no new generation of politicians would ever be allowed to usurp the freedoms Will Thompson had fought to preserve. But then she swore she was done with government and politics and war. All she wanted to do was take her son back home to Concordia, to see that he grew up happy and healthy in the world his father had died to create.