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—-
I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AND utterly refuse to believe this. I raged silently in my quarters for hours as our fleet lingers in the choke between Gilbaglia and Vandor, within sensor range of both planets, alert for Phelb infiltrators sneaking, with intent of suicide, through the nebula that ensconced our world.
My father had positioned us deep enough in the choke to meet the Phelbs in a position that we would retreat into the choke and surround them. This was assuming they followed traditional human fleet tactics, which did not seem to be the case at any given time.
I couldn’t believe the idea that the Phelb were unstoppable. We were stronger, our science was more advanced, and our resolve was stronger. But then at the same time, it made sense. They’d been fighting against unknown enemies since we had left our system, whereas we’d been isolated, building a military, but otherwise not doing much of anything. I even had to confess that Peter had more active combat experience than I did.
The door chimed, and I almost told the person on the other side to go to hell, then decided against it. My poor mood did not extend to anyone else on the ship.
I stepped over and opened the door, then turned my back on it. I was still wearing my fatigues and even my combat vest and sidearm. “What is it?” I asked absently.
“Well first of all, I don’t know why you’re moping around in your quarters when you should be up in the planning forum with your father.” Mallory stated. “And second of all, you need to take a shower and change into a fresh uniform.”
I turned and looked at her. “I refuse to accept that the Phelb Empire cannot be defeated.”
“I can’t believe that anyone would believe themselves invincible, and yet there you were running around like you were in a full mechanical suit of armor and yet here you stand.” She shot back, a scowl on her pretty face. “Nothing is forever but time, Valentine, and you should know that.”
“What hope,” I said, bitterness giving my voice and edge. “Do we have against a superior enemy? Vandor is everything to me. If we lose it, what then?”
“We will not,” She said darkly. “Lose Vandor.”
I shook my head. “The last war, my father won on an insane mission that should have killed him, and barely escaped with a victory. We have a stronger military now than then, but we don’t have the resources to fight that they do, including apparently a slave army.”
She looked at me and sighed. “You’re not wrong,” She smirked. “You’re just an asshole.”
Despite myself, I grinned. “When you’re right, you’re right, Flight Officer.”
“It’s Lieutenant Ruiz now, Colonel!” She snapped a fake salute. “Not, I’m afraid, at your service.”
I laughed. She had a way of making me laugh and smile when I shouldn’t. “Alright,” I admitted. “What do you think?”
She looked at me innocently. “Do you remember when we were in training, and you and I went against Ivata and his fake “Legion of Evil”?”
I cocked my head. “Yes, I recall but I don’t see the relevance...” I froze, looked at her. The exercise she spoke of had taken place in our third year of training. Ivata had been given command of the entire battalion except for Mallory and I. He put himself as a despot dictator in the war game, and we had slipped in “while he slept” and assassinated him and three of his “generals”. The effect was that the rest of them somewhat became fractured and disorganized and had fallen apart. “Are you suggesting...?”
“You can’t fly ships,” She said. “So, before you say that you and Ivata are going alone...”
“Do you have any idea how insane you are?”
She smirked. “Yes, and so do you.”
“Then why do I find it so intensely attractive?” She smiled and moved closer to me and I kissed her.
—-
