I gave myself another moment of privacy to adjust to that before turning to face him again. “Please tell Gemelle she’s been more than generous, and I promise she won’t need to use her Military Security combat skills to teach me a second lesson.”
“I hope you mean that,” said Jaxon. “I couldn’t cope with a repeat of what we’ve been through in the last week.”
I sighed. “You were right when you said I took after my father, Jaxon. It’s taken me a long time to learn to put myself in someone else’s position, see things from their viewpoint and appreciate their feelings, but I think I’m finally getting there. I understand what Gemelle is saying. There’s a level of betrayal where you can never really trust that person again.”
“I’ve got a confession to make about that.”
I frowned. “About what?”
Jaxon rubbed his nose. “About the accusation that you took after your father. When I found out what had happened between you and Gemelle, I started ranting at you, but the truth is I was ranting at myself as well. It’s not just your father who has problems when it comes to emotions. It’s the weak point in our whole branch of the clan and I inherited it the same way that you did. When you told me your story, it reminded me of the time I did something very different but even more selfish.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
“Believe it, Drago. People have been keeping my secret the same way Gemelle kept yours. I never dared to tell you about it before, but now I think there’s a chance you’ll understand. Once we escape from the doctors, we can have a few drinks and I’ll tell you the whole story, but right now I need to warn you about a few things before your father arrives.”
I groaned and flopped back on my pillow. “Father’s coming to visit me?”
“Both your parents are coming,” said Jaxon. “They would have been here when you woke up, but our doctor lied about the timing.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Why would our doctor lie?”
“Because she didn’t want your father bullying a semi-conscious patient. You mustn’t get her into trouble by giving away the fact she lied.”
“I won’t.” I’d be glad to see my mother, and I could cope with seeing my father as well. I had a lot to be happy about at the moment. Gemelle didn’t actively hate me any longer, and Jaxon was my friend again. The weight that I’d been carrying on my shoulders all through my Military Academy graduation and fighter pilot training had gone.
“You don’t have to worry about your father coming,” said Jaxon. “He’s delighted with you.”
I grimaced. “My father has never been delighted with me in my entire life. He was moderately pleased with my high scores on the fighter pilot training course, but he said I could have done even better if I’d worked harder.”
“He’s thoroughly delighted now,” said Jaxon. “Hera Command got rather excited about what happened with the comet core. From the outside view, it must have looked perfectly planned. You launched your missiles, set your ship to self destruct on impact with the comet core, ejected, and I was instantly there picking you up. Hera Command assumed the two of us had discussed the situation on a private comms channel and come up with a last minute improvement to the suicide run plan. We’ve both been promoted, and they’re hinting we’ll be awarded the Thetis medal as well.”
I frowned. “If you and Gemelle have accepted that what I did made up for my past behaviour, then I can’t be rewarded for it with promotions and medals as well.”
“I’m not sure I understand your logic.”
“Chaos, Jaxon, I can’t benefit from the same action twice. If the Military promote me or give me the Thetis medal for this, then I’ll have all my past guilt back round my neck again.”
“Gemelle and I don’t feel that way about it.”
“You may not, but I do. I refuse to be rewarded.”
Jaxon waved his left hand in the horizontal, slicing movement that was the Betan gesture of rejection. “I’m afraid it’s too late to block this, Drago. I’ve requested my promotion to Commander be held pending, but your promotion went through yesterday. Your father is already boasting to the clan about it.”
“Well, I can deal with the promotion later, do something to get myself unpromoted, but I can’t be awarded an important medal like the Thetis. Once you’ve got one of those pinned to your shoulder, there’s no getting rid of it.”
Jaxon gave a shake of his head. “I’m about to get drawn into one of your wild plans, aren’t I? Just like when we were kids.”
“Some of those plans were yours. The abseiling was your idea.”
“The face pulling was yours. Can I make a request here, Drago?”
“Of course.”
“You may not want to see the Thetis medal on your shoulder, but I’d rather like to see it on mine. I’d also like to keep my promotion. I’ve asked for that to be held pending because I feel I need more experience before I move to take on a higher position, but it’s rather nice being flagged for promotion.”
He paused for a moment. “My parents don’t pile on the pressure the way that your father does, but everyone expects a member of a Military clan like ours to have a highly successful career. It’s a relief to know I only need to make one call on my lookup when I’m ready to be a full Commander. You understand that?”
“There’s no problem with you getting your medal and your promotion, Jaxon. You’re entitled to them. I’m not. I’ll tell Hera Command that I fired my missiles, then froze in terror and accidentally crashed into the comet core. You realized your suicide run was no longer needed, and saved the fool who’d nearly wrecked everything.”
Jaxon started laughing, covered his face with his hand for a minute while he fought for breath, and eventually managed to speak. “You’re going to claim you accidentally collided with the comet core at the exact point and angle that would save Hera from destruction?”
“Yes.”
“And you accidentally triggered the self destruct sequence as well?”
I grinned. “I didn’t trigger the self destruct sequence at all. That must have started as a freak result of collision damage. I’ll work out the details later.”
“Nobody is going to believe that story, Drago.”
“Probably not, but Hera Command can’t give me the Thetis medal for this if I keep telling them it was an accident. You just have to stick to the truth. Say we hadn’t planned what happened, so it came as a complete surprise to you.”
Jaxon’s amused expression abruptly changed to one of alarm. “In about twenty minutes, your father is going to walk into this room. I hope you aren’t planning to tell him that story.”
“I have to.”
“But after all the years of criticism, you’ve finally made him proud of you.”
“Father wouldn’t stay proud of me for long,” I said. “I’ve been through this before, Jaxon, so I know exactly how it works. Every time I succeed in something, I get rewarded with a couple of days of grudging praise and then punished by him raising his expectations higher for the future. The better I do, the harder he pushes. If I get awarded the Thetis medal, he’ll want me to get the Artemis. If I admit to saving Hera, he’ll expect me to save the whole of Alpha sector next.”
Jaxon shook his head. “If you tell your father you accidentally collided with that comet core, he’s going to try to murder you. I can’t defend you when I’ve got a regrowth unit on my arm, and you’re in no state to defend yourself. You can’t even stand up, let alone run away.”
“Father is going to be extremely angry, but he won’t kill me.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Drago.”
“I’ll be perfectly safe,” I said. “You told me both my parents were coming to visit me. Mother won’t let Father kill me.”
“You’re planning to hide behind the awe-inspiring Madrigal?” asked Jaxon. “Isn’t that a bit cowardly?”
I grinned at him. “I think Gemelle would say that it’s good tactics.”
“In
which case, I shall use tactics too. Once your parents arrive, I’ll say hello to them and then go down the corridor and hide in Ramon’s room. By the way, I feel Ramon still doesn’t believe in himself as a fighter pilot, and we need to work on building his confidence. Would you agree?”
I shrugged. “Probably.”
“Akinyi’s fighter literally fell apart around her on the way back to the Hera orbital portal,” said Jaxon. “Lotta was lightning fast picking her up, grabbing her out of the wreckage just seconds before the remains of the thrusters exploded. Akinyi was a bit shaken up by the incident, but I think she’ll be fine.”
This conversation was starting to puzzle me. “I hope so.”
“Brandon is having a bad reaction after playing dodge with a planetary power beam. I don’t want to interfere unnecessarily, but we need to keep an eye on that situation.”
I frowned at Jaxon. “Why are we discussing your management of the team?”
“Because we aren’t the only ones who’ve been promoted. Mari’s a Major now, she’s been given her own team, and you’ve been assigned as my new deputy.”
“Oh no,” I said. “I’m not ready to be your deputy. We have to work out how to get me demoted right away.”
“You can’t ask me to help you get demoted,” said Jaxon. “I’m your commanding officer.”
“Which makes you the ideal person to advise me on what would make you demote me. Presumably we’ll get to Freya eventually. How about if I paint lots of insulting comments about you on the Freya solar array?”
Jaxon shook his head. “I refuse to listen to this.”
“Or a giant cartoon of you.”
“I told you I’m not listening, Drago.”
“I could show the rest of our team that vid clip of us abseiling down from the clan hall roof.”
Jaxon slumped back on his bed and raised his eyes to the ceiling in despair. “I was a fool to tell you we’re good, Drago. We’re not. We’re very, very bad.”
I grinned at him. “It’s too late to change your mind now, Jaxon.”
“No, it isn’t.” He pulled the covers over his head. “I’m blanking you out of my life forever. Drago Tell Dramis, you no longer exist for me.”
I laughed.
Message from Janet Edwards
Thank you for reading Hera 2781. An older Drago Tell Dramis appears in both Earth Star and Earth Flight, and I have plans for further stories featuring him. You can make sure you don’t miss future books by signing up to get new release updates.
Best wishes from Janet Edwards
Books by Janet Edwards
The prequel novellas:-
EARTH AND FIRE: An Earth Girl Novella
FRONTIER: An Epsilon Sector Novella
The Earth Girl trilogy:-
EARTH GIRL
EARTH STAR
EARTH FLIGHT
The Earth Girl prequel short story collection:-
EARTH 2788: The Earth Girl Short Stories
Other short stories:-
HERA 2781: A Military Short Story
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Current full book list and reading order suggestions.
About the Author
Janet Edwards lives in England. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, including a huge amount of science fiction and fantasy. She studied Maths at Oxford, and went on to suffer years of writing unbearably complicated technical documents before deciding to write something that was fun for a change. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.
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Janet Edwards, Hera 2781: A Military Short Story
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