Firestar
Copyright© 2009 by Prince von Vlox
Chapter 29
HOME, RED RIDGES FAMILY HOME
Corey was trying to find a way to get her wheelchair past a crowd of kids in the Fifth Floor Common Room when Aunt Glydra Nicols intercepted her. “Haven’t seen you for a while,” she said as she steered Corey to a quiet part of the room. “How are you feeling?” She was a chubby, middle-aged woman with the distinctive light brown hair of Sept Nicols, and she had a clipboard in her hand.
“Not bad, all things considered,” Corey said, moving her stump.
“Well, if nobody else says it, welcome home, Corey. What’s left of you that is. I’ve got some jobs on the Task Register that are just right for you: they can be done sitting down.”
Corey gave her a faint smile. “Good. Until my leg finishes healing, I wouldn’t be any good if I had to do them standing up.”
“If it’s anything like the time I broke my leg, you have my sympathies. Mine itched so much under the cast that it about drove me nuts. I was so happy when they took it off that I wanted to dance across the room.” She laughed. “Your grandmother dances better than I do, which should tell you something.”
Corey had to laugh with her. “I didn’t know anybody danced worse than Gran Marie. All right, what do you have for me?”
“How much do you remember about teaching kids how to fly?”
“I haven’t done it in years. Is that what you want me to do?”
Aunt Glydra shook her head. “My daughter Neela is doing just fine with Primary Flight. I want you to teach Ground School.” She smiled sympathetically when she saw Corey’s expression. “First, the doctors haven’t cleared you to fly. And second, if Sheridan Burton and the person she reports to found out that I actually let you in an aircar, she’d have my ears, and frankly, I’m pretty attached to them.”
Aunt Glydra flipped through a few pages. “I talked it over with Eldest Cris, and when you’ve been cleared to fly, we both want you to teach a combat flying class to the Constabulary.”
“The Constabulary ... but why?”
“You were a combat pilot for six years. You’ve probably forgotten more about staying alive in the air than you remember.” She smiled at Corey’s look. “I want you to pass some of that knowledge along.”
Confused, Corey could only nod. “All right, although I’m sure somebody higher up will object.”
“Let them,” Aunt Glydra said with a dismissive tone. “I’ll do it anyway. Now, when can you be ready to teach Ground School? Tomorrow? Or do you need a day or so to prepare?”
“Uh, tomorrow should be fine.” Corey tried to think of what she would have to do before class. It had been nearly 10 years since she’d taken Ground School, but not that much should have changed.
“It won’t be for more than a couple of hours a day,” Aunt Glydra said. “I’m afraid you’ll get some more disagreeable tasks, too.”
“It’s better than I expected. Why are you giving me this much? I was expecting...”
“Drudgery?” Aunt Glydra looked around before lowering her voice. “I’m afraid you’re going to get plenty of that. I was told by ... well, you can guess who, but all of us in the Task Register Office were told that you were to be made an example of for defying your Elders. Sheridan Burton, my boss, is particularly adamant about that.”
Corey grimaced. “About what I expected.”
“But as for this other ... one of my daughters is in the Navy. She’s a scan tech on the Sugita, and she told me what you did during The Raid. And my sib-sister Jacine, she’s an astrogator on the cruiser Kozhedub. You saved her life at K-303, and this is the only way I can think to repay you.”
“But... “ Corey closed her mouth. “I won’t tell anyone that you’re trying to use my talents.”
“Some of our Elders would just as soon forget those talents, Corey,” Aunt Glydra said in a low voice. “They’re wrong, especially Great Aunt Joanne, but they don’t want to hear it. I’ll send someone to your room with the manuals you’ll need for Ground School.” She patted Corey’s right shoulder. “And we just won’t tell anyone what you’re doing. Look me up after lunch, I’ll have a few other things for you to do. They won’t be as much fun, though.”
Feeling better than she had since waking up on the Walter Reed, Corey returned to her room. Ground School wasn’t actually flying, but it was close. She was afraid the other tasks were going to be pretty bad, so she might as well enjoy what she could.
Sandra Burton flew her in to First Landing for her check-up on the next Firstday. Dr. Standish was the doctor assigned to her case, thankfully, not the perpetually happy Dr. Bingham, and after testing the nerves on Corey’s stump, she shook her head.
“Not quite yet, but next time,” she said. “I’ll order a prosthetic for you, and next Firstday we’ll get you taken care of. You’ll have to start therapy with it, of course, but we’ll set up a schedule for that after it’s been fitted.” She began wrapping the stump again. “In the meantime, sit back and relax. It’ll be the best thing you could do for your arm.”
“Relax.” Corey laughed. “That’s not too likely.” At Dr. Standish’s puzzled smile, she explained. “We’re a small family. Everybody works, even me. Fortunately, what I’m doing involves a lot of sitting down.”
“I’ll send a note back with you,” Dr. Standish said. “By rest and relaxation, I mean just that. By the way, we got you a scooter to replace your wheelchair. I want you to use that from now on. It has some braces that will hold your leg without straining your back or shoulders.”
“Aye, Ma’am, thanks. It was pretty hard to roll straight with only one arm for power.”
Heather met her in the aircar garage when she got home. “What did the doctors say?” She lifted the scooter out of the trunk of the aircar and held it for Corey.
“Everything’s progressing as it’s supposed to,” Corey said as she settled on the scooter. “Dr. Standish changed the cast on my leg to a load-bearing one. I’m supposed to start some walking, but she said to take it easy and use this scooter whenever I can.”
“What about your arm? When will you get your prosthetic?”
“On my next visit to First Landing. The muscles are all right, but the nerves are still a problem.”
“Nerves always heal slower than the rest of the body,” Heather said, “especially when they’ve been as abused as yours.”
“At least I won’t have Sandra Burton riding herd on me after today,” Corey said when they got back to their room. “She told me she has a new job in Mountain Home and she won’t be available to fly me around. It’s like she’s been guarding me.”
“They’re afraid you’ll fly away the first chance you get. For some reason, they don’t think they could stop you if you got behind the controls of an aircar.”
“I’ve thought about it.” Corey sighed and opened the manual for a sludge pump; she was supposed to supervise the maintenance on all 16 of them in the sewage system. “I’ve thought about it more than a few times.”
“Why don’t you just stay at the base in First Landing?”
“Because the Navy’s clerks, in their infinite wisdom, would send me back here. We’re supposed to heal faster in the loving embrace of our Family.”
“Next time, try to say that with a straight face, Corey.” Heather picked up a package that had been sitting on her bed and dropped it on their desk. “This came for you today. I had to sign for it and provide ID to prove who I was.” She handed Corey a letter from the top of the package. “You’re supposed to read this first.”
It was a Navy envelope, which meant this was Official Business. Corey slit it open and read through it. “I was wondering when this was going to happen,” she said. She tore open the package. “This is the accumulation of paperwork from my last command. It’s been building up since we left for K-303.” She gave her sib a sick look. “Guess what I’ll be doing in the evening?”
Heather thumbed through the stack of documents. “This reminds me of the Release Permits I had to file for my flower. We measured the stack of paper before turning them in; it was nearly 25 centimeters high.”
“That sounds like what I faced every tenday.” Corey began sorting through the stack, looking for anything Janet daCruz had marked as critical. “What worries me is that this is just the beginning. I’ll probably see another stack like this every day. This is when I need an assistant. She’d weed through this stack before I ever saw it and deal with the routine things.”
“Do you think you can get one?”
“Hah! I doubt if there’s anybody in the Family with the required security clearance.” Corey made a separate stack of the documents her experience told her were critical. “And I bet Great Aunt Joanne and the others around her would never let me bring Janet daCruz out here.” She dropped a stack of repair orders back on the table. “I don’t think they want me to have any contact with the Navy.”
“That’s stupid of them. You’re a First Officer.”
“I’m not arguing with you.” Corey picked up a report with a yellow tag--this one was important but not critical. After reading it, she initialed in a space at the bottom and tossed it on her bed. “I’m afraid I’ll miss dinner tonight.”
“I’ll bring you something,” Heather replied. “It’s Bluefin, and I know you don’t like it, though I don’t know why.”
Corey leaned back in her chair, playing with her pen. “When I was on Auldearn, we went 16 months without a major resupply. By the time we put in to Fernwel, the only thing growing in the culture vats was Bluefin.” Corey grimaced. “We ate Bluefin for two months. It was my first lesson in supply, and one I’ll never forget. Ever since then, I’ve had no taste for Bluefin, no matter what the cooks do to it.” She sighed and pulled over another document.
The next day brought another stack of documents, though this one was mercifully smaller. There was also another Official Business envelope. This one was brief and to the point.
“You are hereby requested and required to report to Presentation Hall 3 at the First Landing Naval Base for a debrief and after-action analysis of your part in the fighting at K-303. The debriefing will be held on Fifthday-Second, Seventhmonth at 1100 Fleet Time.”
Corey glanced at the chrono over Sonia’s bed. “Tomorrow morning at 1100 Fleet Time, that’s 7 o’clock our time. I’ll have to be up early.”
Heather glanced at the door. “Do you think they’ll let you go?”
“There’s one way to find out.” Corey took her orders and headed downstairs to the aircar garage.
“I’d like to reserve an aircar for tomorrow morning,” Corey told the girl behind the desk. She waved the orders she’d received. “I have official business in First Landing.”
The girl passed the request to her boss. Fifteen minutes later, Gasail Burton, a short, slender, white-haired woman in dirty overalls and with grease under her fingernails, invited them into her office, a cubbyhole tucked into a corner of the aircar repair shop. She read Corey’s orders and put them down with a shake of her head.
“Absolutely out of the question. I can’t let you have an aircar; you’re not medically fit to fly.”
“I could fly her in,” Heather said.
Aunt Gasail shook her head. “Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear, dear: your sib-sister is not medically fit to fly, even as a passenger.”
“I flew to First Landing on Firstday for an exam,” Corey said.
“And there were competent medical professionals monitoring your flight. And the pilot was a specially trained medtech.”
“I wasn’t aware that Sandra Burton was a medtech,” Corey said. “She gave no indication of that to me. Obviously, the best thing to do is to have one of the Family’s medical staff fly me in.”
“There aren’t any available at that hour.”
“How about Navy medical staff? We could get someone from the Mountain Home Naval Base and... “ Her voice trailed off as Aunt Gasail shook her head.
“We’re acting for your own good, dear. I’m sorry; I know you may think this is important, but your health must come first. There are rules governing who can fly, and you young people must learn that rules are meant to be followed; it’s the first step in becoming a responsible adult.”
“I ... see.” Corey felt something congeal inside her, and her eyes narrowed. “Thank you, Aunt Gasail; I will keep what you have said in mind.”
Aunt Gasail looked puzzled, as if she’d caught something in Corey’s bland tone. Heather had picked up on it. “You were warning her,” she said as they rolled down the hall to the elevators. “But I’m not sure of what.”
“Me?” Corey nodded. “Of course I was warning her, not that she seemed to catch it. This situation can’t last forever. These people will get older, other people will move in, and who knows what people outside the Family will do. But none of these people seem to understand that.”
Heather digested this in silence. “What next?” she finally asked.
Corey thought of it as a tactical problem like Captain Alexander had presented on the Tactics Table. “One of my roommates on de Ruyter was a Marine, Robbie Sinclair. She always said that if you can’t solve the problem, change the parameters of the problem to one you can solve.” She paused as the elevator opened and a group of school-age girls trooped past talking excitedly. From the smell, they’d been down in the stables with the horses.
“What happens if you don’t show up in First Landing?”
“It’s called Dereliction of Duty.” Corey grimaced as she touched a control and rolled forward into the elevator. “The only excuse is if things are beyond your control, which they appear to be.”
“So what are you going to do?”
Corey smiled as the idea blossomed in her mind. “Not me, Heather, you. You’re going to call Sonia. I’d suggest you don’t do it from our room. Try calling from the ponics sheds instead. Nobody would think anything of you calling First Landing from there. Call Sonia and leave a message to have her call you back. When she does, tell her what just happened.”
“But what can she do?”
Corey grinned, knowing she couldn’t say a thing to Heather about what Sonia was doing these days. “I don’t know, but I’m sure it’ll be creative. I’ll be interested in seeing what it is.”
“You know something about her that I don’t.”
Corey nodded. “I do, but I can’t tell you.”
Heather digested this in silence as the elevator lifted them to their floor. “Where will you be?” she finally asked as they passed a window with a view down the valley.
“Back in our room, I’m supposed to be counting the supply of shoes, but I have another stack of Navy paperwork to get through first. Whether the people here like it or not, that paperwork has priority.”
“I don’t like what they’re doing to you, Corey.”
“I don’t either, Heather, but I can’t fight this head-on. I’ve never run into anything like this before, and I don’t know quite what to do. I’m working on it, though.”
“In some ways, it reminds me of university politics,” Heather said, “only tamer.” She looked out the window, pursing her lips. “Let me see what I can do.”
“They’ll just make life difficult for you.” Corey waved in the general direction of the elevators. “Now go! You have a call to make, and I’ve got a lot of other things to do.”
Heather started toward the door and stopped. “I’ll make a few calls, Corey. Since I won my certificate, I’m a public personality, and it would be impossible for them to treat me like they’ve been treating you.”
“I’m a public personality, too,” Corey replied, “but that’s not stopping them. I don’t think Great Aunt Joanne and the ones around her care about such things. Now get out of here before they prove you wrong.”
The comm woke her three days later. Corey flailed around for the unit, knocking it to the floor before she could finally grab it. She’d be glad when she had both hands again; it would make answering these calls so much easier.
“Yes?” She realized Heather’s bed was empty and turned on the light. She couldn’t remember Heather coming in, either. She’d spent most of her time in the ponics shed, a rough name for a two-story complex one valley over. She hadn’t even hinted at going to First Landing. Obviously, she had, and done so in a way that nobody minded. Corey smiled. Her sib was showing more guile than she’d suspected.
“You’ve got some people excited,” Sonia said. “Oh, by the way, your debriefing has been postponed.”
“That’s one worry out of my hair. What do you mean excited? Who did you call?”
“A friend. Anyway, nothing’s going to happen for a few days, but I thought I’d tell you to bear up. Things are in the works.”
“Good. Where’s Heather? Is she staying with you?”
“She had an emergency at the lab,” Sonia said. “At least that’s what she told everyone. She had one of the Burton gals fly her in to the University. From what I gather, the girl who flew her in tried to follow her into the lab, and University Security got involved. You’d think Heather planned it that way.” Sonia chuckled. “Tell me, when did our sib start being so paranoid?”
“Or so smart. All right, that’s good. Both of you are beyond Great Aunt Joanne’s reach. Stay there.”
“I talked to Heather last night when she got to the University. She’s not comfortable with this sort of thing. It doesn’t suit her.”
“And she shouldn’t be.” Corey sighed. Heather was the smartest of the three of them, but the most naïve, too. “It’s up to us to protect Heather from the rest of the world.”
“She surprises me from time to time, Corey, but I’ve thought that ever since she won her Certificate. You haven’t seen her these last two years. There are days she’s off in a world that only occasionally intersects ours, but other days she’s more hard-headed than a Family auditor.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re both out. Last night they told me I wouldn’t be teaching Ground School any more. They said they had found someone ‘more qualified’.”
Sonia gave a short, sharp bark of derision. “More qualified? Right. What do they have you doing instead?”
“This morning I’m supposed to inventory how much feed and grain we have stockpiled for the horses. They’re reaching, Sonia. That will take me all of 15 minutes to do.”
“If that long. We both know the stables keep daily records.”
“There’s more. Last night, after I talked to Heather, Merilee Burton told me I shouldn’t be wasting my time doing Navy paperwork, as it really wasn’t that important. She implied that they’re going to start losing the paperwork.”
“I bet you laughed in her face.”
“In so many words. If they’re going to start messing with the Navy’s clerks, I’m going to stay around just to watch.” Corey eyed the stack of papers on her desk. She’d stayed up late writing a report explaining why a top-secret research project had ships with battle damage that needed repairs.
“Yeah, I’d bet on the Navy’s clerks every time.”
“I expect I’ll get hauled up in front of one of our Elders and told I’m being difficult.” Corey sighed. “I’ve been fantasizing about being as difficult as I can.”
“That would be fun to watch. Anyway, I thought I’d tell you to be patient and the Navy will get you out of there. I’ve been told that Admiral Carter is taking a personal interest in your case.”
“I’ll try. It’s getting harder and harder, though. The other day, when I was in the stables counting horseshoes, they had someone there to make sure I didn’t take a horse and try to leave.”
“One-handed? And with a broken leg?” Sonia laughed again. “That’s just plain silly.”
“I bet I could make it. And I’ve got two hands now. The clinic here gave me a prosthetic yesterday afternoon.”
“Probably so your missing hand doesn’t remind people about what happened. Anyway, about leaving, I think you’d be better off taking another aircar. Anyway, just be ready, things are about to happen.”
With that cheerful thought, Corey tried to go back to sleep. She was just starting to doze off when the comm rang again. It looked like she wasn’t going to get back to sleep, so she turned on the light and answered it.
“I’m pregnant,” Heather said happily. “I just found out.”
Any thought of sleep vanished. “What? You’re sure?” Corey sat up. She tried to think of how this changed things. The only thing that came to mind was that it was more important than ever to keep Heather in First Landing.
Heather laughed. “Of course, silly. The clinic here at the University confirmed it just a few minutes ago.”
“Does Sonia know?”
“I tried calling her, but her line was busy.”
“That’s great! When did you see the doctor? When are they due?”
“I went in two tendays ago, and my due date is just after the first of the year.” Heather giggled. “I did what Sonia suggested, I made an appointment with Gran Marie, and she approved my application personally. I was right there when she signed it. I didn’t know ... I’m not sure ... Corey, I feel like I should be dancing or something, but...”
“Talk to Sonia. Better yet, go see her in person. That reminds me, where are you staying?”
“I have a room here at the University. I really can’t leave right now, I solved the problem with my carrots, and we’re force-growing a batch for lab trials.” The giggle in her voice turned to a laugh. “I can’t believe it, pregnant! I’m going to be a mother!”
“I wish I could be there,” Corey said. “Look, don’t come back here, I’ll figure out a way to get into town.”
“Just a moment.” Heather said something to someone else. “Look, I’m going to try Sonia again. I just had to tell you you’re going to be an aunt! I’m so excited!”
Happy, Corey got dressed and headed down for breakfast. Sonia and Heather were safe; now she just had to find a way to get herself out of here.
She awoke the next morning to the sound of something being slid under the door. There were four envelopes on the floor, with two addressed to her and one each for Heather and Sonia. After weighing the options, she decided to open Sonia’s and Heather’s first.
Sonia’s letter was a peremptory order for her to return home. The Family’s Acting Eldest had decided that, ‘for the good of the Family,’ Sonia should be employed around the Family Home, not in First Landing. Corey laughed. She knew how this order would be received. There was no way Fleet Intelligence was going to lose this battle.
When Corey read Heather’s letter, she started to crumple it up. Instead, she smoothed it out and reread it.
Dear Heather Jolene,
I have been informed of your pregnancy. Though the genomes came from my office, I have developed reservations about them, and I will request terminating this pregnancy. We will consider a pregnancy for you at a more propitious time.
You will report as soon as possible to the Family Clinic here at Red Ridges to terminate this pregnancy.
_Sophie Burton
Family Eugenicist
Family Red Ridges_
Corey sealed up Heather’s letter and left it on her bed, right where people would expect to find it. They wouldn’t know Heather was not going to be back, and Corey had no intention of delivering it. What Heather didn’t know, she wouldn’t have to fret about.
One of her two letters was from the Navy: she was being awarded a fourth birthright for her actions with Morosini’s Children at K-303. There would be a presentation ceremony in the Central Dining Hall of Family Red Ridges in two days’ time. Full-dress uniform was required.
“Four birthrights?” Corey tried to think of anyone who had won four birthrights, and came up blank. Could it be that action that had saved Kozhedub? She had just been doing her duty, and she couldn’t see why that whole mess was worth a birthright. Somebody must have thought she’d done something right, though.
The other letter was from Great Aunt Joanne’s office. It informed her that ‘for the good of the Family’ she was to resign from the Navy. She laughed humorlessly and ignored it.
She laid her dress uniform out on the bed. She should have it cleaned and pressed. After a moment’s thought, she shook her head. With the way things were going, she wouldn’t get it back for a tenday, if at all. Somehow it would be ‘lost’ in the laundry, even if she stood guard over it.
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