Chapter 675

The Retreat

Diana frowned prettily. “That reminds me. We need to go back to 2214 to see if Jasmine and her sister-wives have caught up with their canning yet. We should do that tomorrow.”

“Yep. And they need to get back into training as soon as possible too, but we can’t leave to visit them until the Sergeant and his crew have completed their investigation.”

“So, how long will that take?”

“As long as it takes,” Jeff responded to her frustration. “Look, Sergeant Higgins is in charge of the investigation, but I would not suggest bugging him just now. I saddled him with a job to investigate someone or a couple of someones who he knows and likes. It would be easy for Worthington’s friends — if he had any — and family to claim that we covered up the reason for his death, so the Sergeant has to chase down every detail. There is a good chance that his investigation will be looked at through the proverbial magnifying glass, and it would not look good for any of us to hurry the process. That said, we all know that the killing was recorded by multiple cameras, and there is little real investigating possible other than gathering the recordings and witnesses’ statements.

Later, Jeff was sitting in his office when the door opened. As Arlene and Ann walked through, he looked up from his computer to ask. “Have you two given your statements yet?”

“Yeah,” they both said with a sigh as they plopped down on the couch side by side.

The two young women glanced at each other before Arlene continued for them. “Ann and I have given our statements, and according to Sergeant Higgins, so have Adrienné, Islea and Nyala. (Islea and Nyala are the First Officer’s women.) He told us not to discuss what happened with anyone outside the family until he could complete his investigation. Before we could even ask, he said that he could discuss none of his findings until he and his people had finished. He also mentioned that since we are your wives and you are the unit’s Colonel, the investigation would have to be even more thorough, so no one could come back later and claim there was a cover-up.”

Ann smoothly continued for them. “Even though we reminded the Sergeant that everything was recorded on the outside camera system, he just smiled and said that recordings could be altered, but they would be used as corroborative evidence to back up our written statements. He treated us as if we were total strangers, but at the same time, with utmost courtesy. He had several troopers with him, and I’m told that they did the same thing with all of us. He wouldn’t joke with us and even ask if he could refer to us by our first names as if we had never met. Oh, and he and his people recorded everything.”

Arlene inserted, “Once he and the troopers had interviewed all of us — separately, of course — he cautioned us not to discuss what happened with anyone outside the family until the Review Board had made its decision. Heck, when he was done, I wondered if we would be prosecuted or something. Did this happen to you when you came back from missions where you had to fight?”

Jeff smiled at his frustrated young wives. “Sounds as if Sergeant Higgins is doing his job, and to answer your question: no, but killing the enemy on a mission doesn’t fall into the same category as killing one of our own, no matter the abundance of justification. The Sergeant is just doing his job, exactly the way I expected him to do. When he finishes, no one can say there was a cover-up or that the killing wasn’t justified.”

“You can say that again,” Arlene sighed out.

Jeff got up and came around the desk, his wives automatically sliding apart to allow him to sit between them. “So, how are you two doing?”

Jeff halfway expected his two young wives to lean forward, so they could see each other, but both answered without hesitation. “We’re fine.”

Before Jeff could comment, Ann went on. “Look, some of the women seem to think that what happened is supposed to tear us up emotionally. But I think we each feel approximately the same way. We were expecting him to do something. Oh, certainly not shooting us in the back but maybe filing a complaint about Arlene being in charge or even calling her out like he told Camp he was going to do. Still, the expectation of trouble was there with both of us. Right, Arlene?”

“Absolutely, but I never expected him to try to kill us.”

“Me, either,” Ann responded emphatically, but went on, “So, when he yelled out his die bitches rant, we didn’t have to stop and think it over. We just reacted. Right, Arlene?”

“Well said,” Arlene agreed as she reached in front of her husband to grasp her sister-wife’s hand temporarily. “Oh, I suspect that we’ll relive those few seconds over and over and ‘what if’ them to death, but we know we did the only thing we could do under the circumstances. We just both thank God that you and Mom insisted that we practice.”

“Don’t forget Sergeant Higgins,” Ann offered. “We had to do whatever he was training us to do perfectly before he would let us quit — no matter how frustrated we became.”

“And aren’t the two of you glad that he did?” Jeff asked.

“Absolutely,” Arlene and Ann said as one before Arlene went on. “Let’s not forget about Ship and her academy, either. I never thought I could do some of the things she required — day in and day out — but I somehow stumbled through, as did Ann. Ship seemed to always pick the ‘best’ days for firearms training: blistering heat on some planet that I had never heard of, or cold so bad I couldn’t feel the trigger of my weapon.”

“And a miss meant countless more pushups,” Ann added as she tried to hold back a shudder while seeming to feel again that icy wind roaring down the canyon they had been in while at Ship’s academy.

“But,” Arlene stressed, “you, my husband, taught us as much or more than anyone else. Mom hammered the basics, though. She was the one who badgered us to keep practicing so we could be as good as any man ... Well, almost any man,” she finished as she smiled at her husband.

Jeff hugged them tight for a few moments before he said, “I think that Di’s ego is suffering a bit. She says her students’ abilities have exceeded their teacher’s.”

“Oh, bull,” Arlene quickly inserted. “I suppose we can draw and fire a bit faster than her — maybe — but I still can’t shoot groups as tight as hers. The major difference — if there is any — is that she doesn’t have time to practice drawing and firing as much as we do.”

“I agree,” Ann added.

Jeff chuckled as he commented, “I suspect there will be many people practicing after seeing the video of the shootout — me included.”

They all sat quietly for a few seconds before Arlene went on, “Daddy, several of the people here at the Retreat and even a couple of our sister-wives seem to expect us to be extremely upset about what happened. We’re both concerned about having to kill him, but I don’t think I’ll lose any sleep over it. How about you, Ann?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Same here,” Ann inserted. “I hate that it happened, but I’m glad we lived through it, of course. He chose to kill us, and we didn’t allow him to do that. I don’t know how else we could have prevented him from killing us. As far as I’m concerned, it was combat, and we had to intervene to keep him from accomplishing his objective, which was to murder us.”

There was quiet for a moment until Arlene asked, “Husband, do people really expect Ann and me to be upset about killing that ... that person? I don’t know how many Miadax we killed with our interceptor, and nobody said a thing about that, well, other than making a big deal about our skills. I’m a little uptight right now, but most of it is probably because of the adrenaline dump and the detailed investigation. I think Ann is much the same way.” After Ann’s quick agreement, Arlene went on, “Our society would probably expect us to be traumatized because we killed someone, and even worse, we did it with a gun. I call bullshit. He was trying to kill us, and we interrupted his plans — permanently. I refuse to go around all weepy-eyed because we defended ourselves.”

Jeff thought for a few seconds before, “Your sister-wives love you, but some of them simply don’t have the experience the two of you have. I suspect that you’re referring to only two or three at most.”

“Yeah,” Arlene agreed, “but don’t misunderstand; it’s not as if they’re condemning us, for they certainly aren’t. It’s just that a couple seem shocked that we aren’t more upset about the gunfight. They appear to think that we should be traumatized to the point of almost being unable to function. When they found that we obviously weren’t, they seemed shocked.”

Jeff let out a sigh. “Here’s my take, for what it’s worth. Some people are cut out to be warriors, while others, although they will try their best, will still hesitate. Under normal circumstances, no sane person will ever truly want to take another person’s life, particularly someone you know, but sometimes, even in everyday life, there is no choice. However, things have changed from the early days in this country where there was no real law, and people had to fight for what they had. Now, we have laws and police to enforce them — theoretically. Things broke down today, and a person who should never have been where he was, tried for maximum revenge and paid for it with his life.

“Now, you have sisters who can’t understand why you aren’t all upset and curled up somewhere crying your eyes out. I’ll talk to them. When Arlene and Ann both started to say something, he just shook his head. “I know who they are, and I worry that they’ll hesitate should they ever be attacked. At least you aren’t being condemned by them. They’re just worried, thinking that you’re probably putting on an act to cover how upset you actually are.

“I suggest that you give your sister-wives some time to think it over, then sit and have a talk with them. People like Worthington sometimes fall through the cracks, to employ an overused phrase. That’s when the average person finds that they still need a warrior or two. Some of my wives have spent very little time with Ship and her academy, but there will come a time in our long lives when they too will have the full experience of Ship’s training, just as you two have. Until then, both of you will have to remember that your sister-wives love you and are worried about you. This certainly doesn’t apply to all of them, but some who have led sheltered lives will probably expect you to be traumatized by having to kill someone.”

“We just don’t understand why those few seem to expect us to be so upset about what happened, despite us telling them that we have been trained to fight when need be.”

Jeff wanted to tell them that the major difference was that they were warriors — beautiful warriors but warriors, nonetheless — and some of the others weren’t and never would be. Oh, he and his trainers could teach any of them to shoot and to defend themselves physically, but some would never be in Arlene or Ann’s class. They were worried about what Diana thought as well, but Jeff knew that even though she would mother hen them if she could, he also knew the capabilities of his Clan Queen. She would fight and had fought without hesitation when it came to protecting her family. He knew that not all his women would ever be true warriors, but by damn, he would do his best to train them to take care of themselves. Even if they didn’t have a full warrior’s attitude and capabilities, he, the trainers and Helen were already well on their way to teaching all of them to defend themselves and their sisters, if need be.

They all came to their feet, and Jeff took his time kissing each while telling them how proud he was of them. “This might well be a great stimulus for the others to work on their firearms training. Oh, yes, we’re going to need to check on Morales and his group first thing in the morning — if the Sergeant releases us. Are you two going with us?”

“We can’t, Husband,” Arlene said. “We have firearms training with the Wing.”

Jeff chuckled despite trying to hold it back as he imagined that the aviators would have a new appreciation for their commanders as far as firearms were concerned. “You know that both of you will be asked to demonstrate your shooting abilities tomorrow.”

“We won’t,” both girls said as one.

“Good. I had hoped you wouldn’t. It would be a form of bragging, but you can bet your students will pay more attention to what either of you has to say, and that’s good. They’ll learn a lot more if they really want to, especially with the demonstration you two gave them earlier today. Just never let down your guard. I don’t know whether he had any close friends are not. Expect retaliation and keep training. If it doesn’t happen, you have lost nothing. Oh, yeah. I’m going to have Security post a couple of guards while you and your Wing are training. And before I forget, many times an instructor will have an empty weapon holstered on the range and in the training facility because of using it to demonstrate stances, grips, etc. Work around that, but keep your weapons ready to go until we determine if there is any possibility of retaliation. Stay alert and stay armed. Capiche?”