Chapter 42: A New Ally

Perseverance City Mars, December 25, 2141
A New Ally

The apartment that Alan shared with Uncle Ray became the gathering point for the sixteen spacemen that Alan and Hilde had deployed to Mars. Alan and Anna informed them of all the events that happened on the McDivitt and were shocked that so many werewolves ignored the call for help for their commander’s injuries. “They said it’s because she was lunar,” said Anna.

“I hope they get hung with Saturn’s gravity,” snapped one of the homeless werewolves. “Spacing is too good for them.”

“The forty fourth squadron is gone,” said Alan. “I can only offer you the opportunity to join the Berserkers or maybe we’ll make a new squadron. I don’t know what Captain Schirra has in mind.

“Whatever happens I hope we get a cool NFL helmet too,” said a former werewolf.

“A what?” asked Alan and Janet.

“A helmet like yours,” said LT Mark Polanski. “With the NFL logo.”

“I don’t get it,” said Alan.

“It’s an earth thing. Don’t worry about it,” said Rob Overmyer.

“I want a red slash on our pressure suits,” said Anna. “To remind us of Tasha and Hilde.”

“I might be able to get that for a Martian squadron,” said Alan.

“It is the Scarlett Planet,” said Susan Still Kilrain, flight lead for F Flight.

The McDivitt soon arrived to fanfare and cheers from Mars, and before Alan could find a ride up to the McDivitt to see Hilde, Captain Baker arrived in Perseverance and had an envelope for Alan. “I’m sorry soldier,” said Captain Baker, but Alan just walked away. He found himself alone in an enormous crowd, holding the envelope in his trembling hands, and all he could say was “Please don’t do this...”

That evening, Ray Clark entered his apartment and found it strangely quiet. He was used to the laughter and stories that the fighter crews brought to his apartment. He stepped into the living room and found Alan and Anna Vasquez passed out on the couch. Alan was leaning back on the couch and Anna was leaning on him. Before them on the coffee table was a fine old bottle of Glenlivet. Pre-distillery fire Glenlivet too. There was a quarter of the bottle remaining and next to it was a hand-written letter.

“Fuck,” groaned Ray. He covered Anna and Alan with a blanket, put the whiskey away, and left a bottle of water and a bottle of aspirin on the coffee table, then went to bed.

The next day, a funeral service was held for Lieutenant Tasha Kikina. The men and women of the 43rd Interplanetary Fighter Squadron were granted shore leave in Perseverance City for the ceremony and a little look-see around the Capitol of Mars. Alan walked around like a zombie, his arm in a sling, Anna, who was now wearing a Martian sash, Janet, and his wingman Walter Concia escorting him around, but he rarely traveled far from Ray’s apartment. One time, he slipped his escorts and they couldn’t find him. “Try the playground,” said Ray.

That’s where they found him, sitting motionless on a bench on the side of the playground, watching the children playing. A tiny girl sat next to him, telling him about her little one-year-old brother who couldn’t even walk. “How can you play with someone that can’t walk?” she demanded to know.

Anna and Walter immediately panicked, fearing what the hungover, abandoned Alan will say. Alan looked at the little girl with his sad, bloodshot eyes and said, “You love them and ask them not to leave.”

Walt Concia stood in front of Alan, who looked up and said, “I can’t go.”

“Come on commander, we have to say thank you to Tasha,” Alan sadly took the arm that Walt offered and rose and took the slow walkway to city center, his good right arm around Anna’s shoulders.

The crowd at the city center was huge and Alan got a rousing round of applause when he stepped up on the podium, but he didn’t look happy. The crowd was expecting a fire and brimstone speech like Alan has delivered in the past, but they were going to be disappointed. When they finally calmed down, Alan spoke. “Months ago, I was talking to my friends at Bradbury Canal about representation and how important it is, and they joined the parliament and became the most active colony in the union. I asked you to take my friends in and treat them right, and you did, and they stopped one-hundred and three Eastern Bloc incursions into the Los Platas Iron Fields.”