Reformation: Chapter Twenty-Four

Notes: Another new perspective--I'm jumping all over the dang place, huh? Keeps you on your toes! Not the most cheerful thing ever, but it moves the plot along ;)

Title: Reformation: Chapter Twenty Four

***

Chapter Twenty-Four

Once upon a time, Claudia had been a botanist. She had gone to school for it, graduated with honors, and gotten a job with one of the premier vintners of the Central System, on her home planet. She had planned to dedicate her life to the finer things in life—rare vintages, new breeds of grape for pressing, and testing flowers, herbs, and additives to see what would make the most fragrant, harmonious combination on the palate. She had had it all worked out.

That was before she met Miles Caractacus, at the time an active-duty general in the Federation fleet. She hadn’t met him on duty, though; Claudia had been hired as the sommelier for a party his mother was hosting, and had been required to attend it as well. Required, in those very terms—not invited. That wasn’t something the Lady of the house did. But despite the rudeness of her interactions with her hostess, Claudia had agreed. It was an important event, full of important people—the networking opportunities would be tremendous.

And then she met Miles.

He was older than she usually looked for in the people she was interested in, but he had a way of moving, of speaking—a brilliant vitality that drew her and every other person in the room into his orbit. But he’d been drinking a Hoffman red while eating an octopus skewer, which was just an offense to Claudia’s sensibilities. Before she could stop herself, she’d walked up, held out a new glass of wine—a delicate pale pink Winnemaker from the mountains of Delgado—and said, “I recommend you try this instead.”

Miles had looked at it doubtfully. “I generally prefer reds.”

“I understand, but a red like that is for drinking on its own. It destroys the flavor of food, particularly seafood. This wine will enhance it.”

Miles had smiled a little half-smile. “I’ll let you in on a secret.” He’d leaned in close to her ear. “I despise seafood, but my mother has it at every party. This wine is the only thing I’ve found that lets me get through a plate of it without gagging.”

Claudia had blushed, but managed to keep from laughing out loud. “I see. Well.” She’d drawn back and put the Winnemaker down on the nearest table. “In that case, let me get you a refill.”

“How about I come with you instead, and you can tell me more about what I could be drinking tonight?”

“Oh, please don’t let me take you away from your friends.”

“Nonsense.” He’d smiled politely at the people surrounding him. “They’re all perfectly capable of amusing themselves for a while.” He’d held out an arm to her. “Shall we?”

She’d gone with him to the bar, spent the rest of the evening at his side in easy conversation, and ended up spending the night with him. He’d left the next day and Claudia had figured that was it, a delightful interlude in her very normal life, but then he’d commed her. Kept in touch, despite the distance and the challenges, and after two years of mostly long-distance courtship, when he’d asked her to marry him, she hadn’t had to think twice.

It was wonderful. It was terrifying. It was more responsibility than she’d thought she could handle at first—wife of the governor? Wife of a senator? She came from a planet with fewer than a million settlers, for crying out loud! What did she know about organizing events or schmoozing with politicians or living a life in the public eye? And it wasn’t easy, even beyond that. Miles was still gone much of the time, and there were moments when Claudia missed him so badly she wept, but she never let on. Thank god Garrett had been around for most of her adjustment period, or she wasn’t sure how she would have come out of it sane. Who would have guessed that Miles’s son by his first marriage would end up as one of her best friends?

Then Claudia had Renee, and life became more beautiful. Through Garrett moving away and starting his own family, through Miles almost dying during an assassination attempt, through the birth of her second daughter Yvaine, Claudia had found her center. She had settled into her abilities, come to a reckoning with her life. She could do this. She could live and thrive and be happy, no matter what happened.

Circumstances were testing her resolve right now, though.

“Nooooo!” How could a six-year-old girl howl so loudly? “I don’t want to!”

“Well, you have to,” Claudia told her firmly. “You did it yesterday, Yvaine, why won’t you do it tonight?”

“Because look!” She pouted and pointed at her knee. “I have a scrape today. I can’t have a shower when I have a scrape.”

“I told you I would fix it. Five times. You’re the one who said explorers don’t use Regen.”

“They don’t.” Yvaine folded her arms stubbornly across her chest. “And they don’t take showers either.”

“Little explorers in this family do, if they want a story before bed.”

Yvaine’s mouth dropped open. “I have to have a story. I have to!”

“Then you better get in the shower, my dear.” Claudia waited while her daughter mulled that over in her mind, then finally—reluctantly—acquiesced.

“Fine. But when daddy gets back, no more showers. I’m having baths forever.” She flounced off in the direction of the bathroom, and Claudia straightened up with a sigh and looked over at her friend and bodyguard, Thérèse Tousaint.

“I’m sure you’re happy you got babysitting duty with me instead of following Miles now, aren’t you?”

“Considering where he’s going? Yes, I rather am,” Thérèse replied with a smile. “Besides, if you think your husband isn’t on babysitting duty with hundreds of cadets under his direct command, then you’re dreaming. I’ll go make sure she’s actually getting in the shower if you want to check on Renee?”

“Thank you.” Claudia found her older daughter in the living room of the bungalow they were currently living in, on the outskirts of a low-G tubular colony that projected from the surface of Kyres, a Central System planet—barely. It was a place billed as selling gentle, rehabilitative space to those suffering from transition illness or gravity sickness, both conditions that were more mental than physical, and untreatable by Regen. It was comparatively rural, but also moderately defensible, and bustling enough that Thérèse expected they’d be largely ignored.

Renee didn’t really seem to miss the crowds of Olympus, that much was clear. She was self-directed enough that leaving school had been as easy as anything, for her. Right now she was staring out the window and making notes on the glass screen.

“What are you looking at?” Claudia asked as she joined her daughter.

“See that ship right there?” Renee pointed at a decent-sized shuttle on the other side of the Ring Twelve. “It’s violating the timing clause.”

“How long has it been there?”

“Ten minutes! And the rules say that you can only leave your ship attached for personal loading and unloading not to exceed five minutes, because cargo is supposed to go through the ground docks.” Renee frowned. “It’s going to mess up the incoming traffic.”

“Hmm. What makes you so interested in it?”

“I’m doing a traffic census for my statistics class. I loaded my program into the visual computer system for our windows and set coded it to count all the makes and models and times, but when it throws up an outlier it alerts me. That ship—” she pointed again, “—is an outlier.”

Claudia was prepared to tell her daughter that sometimes allowances were necessary in life, but when she glanced at the ship again, she noticed that none of the dock’s light were flashing. Everything surrounding the shuttle was inert, standard green, like the ship itself wasn’t even there. Like it hadn’t even docked. Only there it was, and—

Claudia was moving before her thoughts could catch up with her, pulling Renee away from the window and turning off all the lights inside with a breathless command. The whole house went dark except for the emergency lights.

“Mom, what—”

“It’s just a precaution,” Claudia said before calling out, “Thérèse!”

She came out of the bathroom a moment later, holding Yvaine all wrapped in a robe on her hip. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a ghost ship out there.”

Thérèse’s expression went stony. “Where?”

“Straight across from us.”

“The Vacarra’s place. They’re away right now, but anything docked there should still have to follow protocol.”

“No acknowledgement by the docking mechanism itself, even though the lights are working. It’s been there over twice the usual allotted time, too.”

Thérèse nodded once. “Get to the pod.”

Claudia’s blood chilled. “Are you sure?”

“We’re not taking any chances. Get to the pod now. Two minutes, go, go.” She handed Yvaine, who was thankfully quiet, to Claudia before darting for the front door. Claudia took a deep breath, then turned toward her room, leading both her daughters along with her. She pushed the bed back into the wall, then pressed her hand to the center of the floor.

“Emergency protocol 99, initiate.”

When Claudia lifted her hand up again, the print remained, glowing green. A moment later the floor retracted, opening up to the door of the stealth pod beneath it. The escape pod was covered in a substance that made it invisible to light, radar, and emitted no radiation of any kind to follow. After launch, it would continue on the original course essentially dead in the water, but Claudia had a protocol to follow for that too.

“Mom…”

“Mama, what—”

“We can’t—”

“We’re not taking any chances,” Claudia said. “If it’s a false alarm, then we’ll—” The security system suddenly started to blare. Claudia turned wide eyes toward the door, where Thérèse appeared a moment later.

“They’re using acid-laced micro-explosives, trying to melt through the wall around the door rather than blow it up,” she said grimly. “They want you alive. Get in the pod, now!” Renee clambered down into the little black pod, then reached up for Yvaine. Claudia handed her youngest over, then looked back to her friend.

“Come on, we can all leave together.”

Thérèse shook her head. “Someone has to cover the energy signature of your escape.”

“They’re not looking for that right now, they’re trying to break in! We have time, it’ll fit four!”

“If they’re good enough to get this far without being noticed, then they’ve already seen more than we know.” She looked grim, but determined. “Get in there and leave immediately. Remember, don’t send out the signal until you’re at least twenty-four hours out.”

“No.” It didn’t make sense. Or rather, it did, but it didn’t seem like it could be real. Even with the scent of the acid at the door, the low thud of the micro-explosives digging deeper and deeper, Claudia couldn’t quite believe it. She couldn’t lose Thérèse. They had been friends almost as long as she and Miles had been married. “No, please—”

“Claudia, go!” Thérèse turned and vanished into the hall, and a moment later the security alarm said, Warning: Structural Damage Detected. Structural Damage Detected. Evacuation Required.

They had to go. There was no choice. Claudia lowered herself into the pod, then shut the hatch. Vaguely, she was thankful her girls both seemed too shocked to speak—she didn’t think she was capable of comforting them right now. She repeated her instruction—emergency protocol 99—and the pod obeyed. A moment later, they fell through the bottom of the bungalow and out into space, heading away from the planet.

A moment after that, the bungalow exploded.

Vignette: The Academy: Family Time

Notes: Okay, this wasn't the vignette I was planning on writing. I was planning on giving you smut and then plot happened. Introspective, character-building plot with someone who isn't one of the biggest characters, but I was thinking about his situation and decided it needed some exploration. You can see where Garrett gets a lot of his predilections, honestly. So I give you Miles, and the promise of another vignette soon. With smut! 99% sure!


Title: Vignette: The Academy: Family Time

***

 

It was the sort of evening that Miles had given up on lately, the kind where he had almost his entire family with him. The Federation senate was on a surprise recess, ostensibly to give senators a chance to go home and speak with their constituents about the massing independence legislation, but Miles knew that was just a front. The truth was that the latest political spin was going against President Alexander, and he needed the time to regroup and figure out what the hell he was going to do about his little brother.

“Driven crazy by his desire for approval,” pundits said on their holo-shows, hosting psychiatrists and nodding their heads sympathetically.

“A sign of the president’s failure to lead within his own household, never mind the entirety of Federation space,” Alexander’s opponents said, although that was a tactic that Miles himself had avoided. He knew better than anyone that sometimes family was more complicated than you might want, and he wasn’t going to cast any stones that might lead people to scrutinizing his own son in even more miniscule detail.

“All a ploy to distract us from the fact that the person Kyle Alexander was supposed to have murdered was actually an interstellar psychic assassin under the president’s thumb!” the conspiracy theorists shrieked, and it was amusing and more than a little troubling that they were the ones who were closest to right this time around. Regardless, despite how President Alexander and his powerful political allies had tried to keep the situation quiet, Kyle Alexander was still news. Big news.

If one of the side-effects of that was that Miles got a much-needed reprieve from wrangling in the senate and the courts so he could come, quietly and secretly, to see his family, well. He wasn’t going to say no. It had been months since he’d seen his girls, and Claudia had looked tired and stressed when he first saw her. Miles shut his eyes for a moment, trying to purge the image from his mind.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, baby?” he said, turning and looking at his youngest daughter, tucked in close to his side. Yvaine was still small enough that she fit perfectly under his arm—Renee was starting to get tall, her head nearly reaching his shoulder now. His girls were growing up, and he was missing it. Again. Just like he had with Garrett.

It’s different this time, Miles told himself. The girls still had their mother, and Claudia understood the demands on Miles’ life. He called every day, he made sure they were someplace safe and beautiful, made sure they had access to other families with kids their own age, and he made their security staff as unobtrusive as possible. Basically everything he hadn’t remembered to do for Garrett as a child until his son was in a hospital. It’s different.

“When can I go to Perelan?”

Ah, right. His girls were Perel-mad right now thanks to a recent documentary done on their planet, and the fact that their cousin—the best analogue for Cody that any of them had found was cousin, since the girls didn’t think of themselves as his aunts—was going there right now had lifted their admiration to obsessive heights. Garrett was just finishing a call with Cody, actually, and each of the girls had had their chance to speak and ask questions. Talking to Grennson was a special treat for them, and the giggles had echoed through the house as they tried to learn how to say “hello” in Perel. Their voices weren’t anywhere near deep enough, and they ended up sounding more like purring catterpets than Perel, but they’d had fun.

He brushed her dark hair out of her face, eyes like his own staring sleepily up at him. Both his girls looked far more like their mother, but there were touches of his face here and there. “When you’re a little older, baby.”

“Like Cody’s age?”

“Maybe then.”

Yvaine thought about that. “But he’s already old! It’ll be forever before I’m that old.”

Oh lord, if Cody was old now then that officially made Miles ancient. “Well, baby—”

“Renee! Wash that out of your hair right now and get to bed!”

“Mom!” Renee protested, walking backward into Miles’ study even as she kept arguing. “I’m just figuring out how to make it look like quills, it’s not like it’s dangerous!”

Miles hoped not. His daughter’s long hair was separated into thousands of waving strands, held aloft with what looked like a mild electric charge coming from her jury-rigged headband. She hadn’t stopped there, though. The strands looked…oh, what was the old Earth word…shellacked.

“You’re supposed to be sleeping, not experimenting with new hairstyles,” Claudia said as she followed her daughter into the room. Yvaine was already on her feet, poking curiously at her sister’s low-hanging locks. Renee batted her hand away, which naturally made Yvaine even more determined to bury her fingers in the slender spikes. “Both of you,” Claudia added as she caught sight of their youngest.

“Mom, quills are an important part of Perel physiology and interpersonal communication, this is for science,” Renee insisted, still swatting at Yvaine.

Claudia crossed her arms. “You’ve been listening entirely too much to Tiennan. Miles,” she turned to him expectantly and he knew he had to step in. Renee also stared at him, looking prepared to argue.

“Quills are an important means of expressing emotion to Perels,” Miles said, standing up and looking Renee’s efforts over. “But they have to be mobile in order to be effective. Right now a Perel would probably think you were offended or shocked, and you wouldn’t want to leave them with that impression.” He squeezed Renee’s shoulder. “You can experiment more with it after classes tomorrow, honey. Right now you need to get clean and get to bed.”

“And you can do it to me tomorrow!” Yvaine cried. “I want quills too! Mommy, make Renee do it for me too!” Her sister didn’t look too enthusiastic at the thought.

“Additional test subject,” Miles whispered to her, and then Renee smiled.

“Good point. Okay,” she said. “I’ll cleanse and go to bed. Dad, you have to come say goodnight, okay?”

“I will, honey.”

Claudia sighed but accepted her daughter’s partial acquiescence. “Go on, then.” The girls ran down the hallway toward their rooms and Miles reached for his wife’s hand, stepped close and kissed her gently. “Quills are pretty mild in the grand scheme of things,” he offered.

“I suppose,” she replied, winding her arms around his waist. “As long as she doesn’t use toxic chemicals on her little sister, I’m happy. I’m just…I don’t know, a bit tired.”

He hugged her tight. “I know.”

“And I feel terrible complaining to you about anything when you’ve got so many more things to worry about than I do, Miles, and I’m so happy that you’re back with us. I just wish you could stay a little longer.”

“I feel the same way.” A week here and there, a standard month this time around—it still wasn’t enough, but Miles couldn’t relinquish his responsibilities. He had millions of people to think about, to fight for, and he couldn’t give that fight up. Not yet. “I’d be with you if I could. I’d bring you back with me if it was safe.”

Claudia smiled and kissed him again. “I know.” She sighed and stepped back. “I’m going to go check on the girls, they’ve already said goodnight to Garrett. Meet you in bed?”

“I’ll be there soon.” Miles watched her go and flexed his hands, feeling the extra warmth from her body dissipate into nothingness. He ached to go after her, but he did have a few things to talk to Garrett about first. Miles sat back down and began parsing through the news feeds flashing across his tab, sending his personal assistant notes about the ones that could be relevant to their cause.

A few minutes later Garrett came into the study and flopped down onto the couch next to Miles. “I take every bad thing I ever said about myself back. I was a saint as a child. An absolute saint.”

“And what is it that makes you saintly now?” Miles asked. “Because I seem to recall some distinctly wicked moments.”

“Maybe, but I’ve never hijacked an ambassador’s ship controls for the sake of performing dangerous experiments in my bedroom. Acid, Dad. Ten was experimenting with acid. Ze also completely rewrote the power supply conduits in order to facilitate localized zero-gravity conditions. No, you’re right, I’m not a saint, my kid is. And so is Jason for not throwing Ten in the brig when he found out.”

“Diplomatic vessels don’t have brigs.”

“I’d jury-rig one just for hir.”

“Ten adores you.”

Garrett exhaled loudly. “Ten adores my husband, ze only respects me.”

“I think in the long run, respect is going to get you further.”

“I think in the long run, the only person capable of exerting any influence on Ten is Cody. Thank fuck for that, too, because otherwise ze’d probably invent something that would blow up the universe just to see if ze could.”

“Don’t underestimate your own influence,” Miles advised him. “Being there for hir as a family is important, especially since ze’s never really had that before. You matter, kiddo.” Before Garrett could prevaricate, Miles changed the subject. “When’s Jonah getting in?”

“Sometime tonight, late.”

“It’ll be good to see him.”

Garrett scoffed. “You’re telling me. I’m glad he feels useful now but I really hate that it took sending him out across the universe to manage that.”

“He’s a Drifter in his bones, Gare. He’s got a wanderlust that has nothing to do with not being happy with you,” Miles assured his son. “I didn’t get a chance to bring this up earlier, but any word from Tamara?”

“She’s been in touch with Admiral Liang, but nothing new. Kyle’s still destined for prison, it’s just a question of which one. Either way, though, I’ve got someone on the inside.”

“Good,” Miles said. “Because as much as I like fighting the good fight, I’d like to retire again one of these days. We’re going to need Kyle Alexander if there’s ever going to be anything approximating peace again.”

“I know. I’m on it.”

“You put me to shame, kiddo.”

“Well, I am brilliant,” Garrett said with a mocking grin.

“I know you are.” Miles leaned in and kissed his son’s forehead, politely ignoring the surprise on Garrett’s face, then stood up. “See you tomorrow.”

“Right…”

The girls were already in bed when Miles got to their rooms, Renee’s hair freshly cleaned and Yvaine barely able to keep her eyes open. He kissed each of them on the cheek, turned the lights down and watched a dim hologram of the forests of Perelan spring into existence around them. Fluorescent beetles crawled along the floor, and a bright blue one slowly made its way up a tree that sprouted from the middle of Yvaine’s bed. She hummed happily as she watched it.

“Was this your idea?” Miles whispered to his older daughter.

“Yeah. Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful, honey.”

“I want to go there someday,” she said. “Cody gets to do everything cool.”

Oh baby… If only she knew. “Someday,” he promised. “You’ll see it for yourself.”

“Thanks, Dad.” He left them to be lulled to sleep by the gentle movements of beetles and headed for his own bedroom, where Claudia was waiting for him in bed, reading an antique paperback. She was just as beautiful as when he first met her, almost twenty years ago now. Regen kept her youthful, but Claudia still had the same spirit, the gentleness and the strength that had attracted him then, the first time he fell for a woman since his first wife.

Claudia looked up at him and smiled. “Come to bed.”

“I still have to clean up.”

“Clean up after,” she suggested, setting her book aside and stretched suggestively.

After…oh.

He could do that.