“Beautiful,” said Karen.
“Yes,” said Galen. “Ready to go back?”
“Yes.”
They walked hand-in-hand, slowly, in no hurry.
Karen said, “So what are your plans?”
“I have no plans. Only dreams.”
Karen thought for a moment. “What are your dreams?”
Galen stopped and said, “My dream is to own a forty hectare farm on Ostreich, to live as a gentleman farmer and raise my own food for fun. And keep horses, maybe.”
Karen faced him. “A farm with horses. Sounds lovely. Maybe someday your dream can come true. But horses?”
“They have horses on Ostreich, they’re popular. And farms, many retired men own farms.” Galen looked into Karen’s eyes.
She folded her arms. “And a family, a wife?”
“Half a dozen kids and a beautiful wife.”
“Do you think I’m beautiful?”
“You, the real you, you are beautiful.”
“But Galen, do you like my face, my body?”
“Yes, you would be beautiful if you were a statue. But you’re more beautiful because of the spirit, your spirit, shining through your face. Your body, more beautiful because you live within it. I like your breasts, your fanny, your legs, for no other reason than because they are yours.”
“And my hair?”
Galen smiled. “I have a thing for pony tails. And brown hair. That old corporate platinum blond Cleopatra cut wasn’t doing it for me.”
“I noticed.” Karen reached for her patrol cap. Galen stuck it on her head and she reached up and adjusted it.
“I’m glad you came,” said Galen as he reached for her hand. They resumed their walk.
“What kind of family name is Raper?”
“It’s from way back, a thousand years maybe,” said Galen. “On Ostreich, children take the father’s family name. If a child was born out of wedlock, and the pregnancy was the result of rape, the child was given the family name of Raper. But that was a very long time ago; they don’t do that any more.”
Karen said, “Very interesting.”
“A woman would have to really be in love to take the name Mrs. Raper. A testament to the truth, that my mother loved my father. So now the meaning of the name is the opposite of what it used to be.”
“Mrs. Raper. I’ve thought about that.”
Galen took a deep breath. “About that. I don’t want to ruin the surprise and I don’t want to make you feel strung along, but—”
“But what?” Karen flung away his hand and stopped walking.
“It’s tradition, I have to let my mother know, I have to introduce you to my mother, in person, before I can ask you to marry me.”
“Okay. I can live with that. Can we get pre-engaged?”
Galen reached for her hand and they resumed walking together.
“Karen, you’re disrupting the whole process. All I can say right now, is prepare to be surprised some time during the next two weeks.”
“Okay,” said Karen. “All that fuss, just to become Mrs. Raper.”
“Well just be glad my name’s not Hoar.”
“What?”
“There was an instructor at the Academy, a retired Colonel, and his family name was Hoar. His wife was Mrs. Hoar. And his two daughters, they were Hoars. Such Hoars, they wed very young just to get a new family name. And his mother, she was a Hoar too.”
Karen finished laughing. “Did he have any sons?”
“Yes, two sons. They became confirmed bachelors. Neither of them could woo a woman willing to become a Hoar for them.”
Karen laughed again. They were near the barracks so Galen spoke less loudly.
“Karen, tell me about you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well I already know your grandfather is the chairman, and I know your father served in a Langston legion. And I’ve read your personnel file, as required by my position as commandant. Tell me about your mother.”
“After my father died she left and went to live on Terra at her grandfather’s home, which stood empty for two years after her grandfather passed away. It was either occupy the house or concede ownership of it back to the government. I was in the Mandarin academy when she left and I stayed on Mandarin after I graduated.”
“I mean, what was she like?”
Karen smiled. “She’s still alive. We’ll see her when she comes to visit her father, my grandfather, on Mandarin. She visits every couple of years.”
“And where does she live on Terra?”
Karen looked at Galen as he held open the front door of the command hooch. “She lives in the Philippine Islands.”
Galen followed her into the building. “So, she’s Polynesian.”
Karen stopped and said, “I know what you’re getting at, so here’s the deaclass="underline" My father was half Dutch dirt farmer and part Negro and part Native American, my mother is half Mandarin and half Pacific Islander, which makes me just about everything you can think of. I’m Red, Yellow, Black and White.”
“And what are your plans, your dreams.”
Karen stopped, turned toward him and held both his hands in hers. “I’ll meet the perfect man, fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after.”
Galen’s wrist chronometer buzzed; a text from Tad: conference room five minutes.
Karen saw the message, pulled away and said, “I’ll be right there, I’m going to the bathroom.”
Galen went into the conference room and sat at the head of the table. Tad came in and fiddled with his personal communicator for a moment and laid it on the table so that it projected 2D onto the white interior wall across the table from him.
Galen said, “Tad, what’s this about?”
“Can I hold off for the rest of the command team?”
“Sure, why not.”
Karen returned and Tad pulled out the chair next to him, indicating she should sit there. Galen ignored a bit of jealousy when he realized she’d have to sit on that side of the table to see the display made by Tad’s personal communicator.
Koa and Spike arrived together.
“Sit on this side, gentlemen, so you can see,” said Galen.
They sat.
Tad cleared his throat and said, “We’ve made contact with Seventh City rebel forces.”
Spike said, “That’s what we’re calling it now?”
“No,” said Tad, “that’s what they’re calling themselves. One key to a successful rebellion is to give your group a new name. Anyway, I’ve got Sevin on standby with his report. Whenever you’re ready, Commandant.”
“Show it,” said Galen.
Tad tapped his personal communicator. “Master Sergeant Sevin, we’ve got you on conference. Mitchell, Spike, Koa and the Commandant are here, and it’s 2D video projection.”
Sevin’s face showed on the wall. “Roger. We made contact with a lightly armored force of six wheeled vehicles, civilian trucks outfitted with ceramic plates. They had quad ten millimeter rapid fire, chemically propelled projectile guns mounted on the beds.”
The screen showed a sketch of a truck with the guns mounted on a swivel turret on the bed and the plates bolted around it.
Sevin continued his brief. The screen showed pitch dark, and then transitioned to a pale green with ghostly images of vehicle movement in the distance. “They detected our unoccupied dummy outpost and poured fire into it at standoff range.”
The screen showed streams of automatic fire coming from six vehicles, and after a few seconds, a secondary explosion. Then a dozen bursts near the trucks became a solid sheet of green light, and then winked out. A faint afterglow of green flickered as a flat puddle, flames at a distance from the wrecked trucks.