Revolutionary (The Athena Lee Chronicles Book 4) (3 page)

I could hear footsteps and the knob on the door began to turn. The door opened and a dark haired woman opened the the door. The womans eyes widened as she looked at me.

“Athena? Are you Davids sister Athena?”

I nodded my head and answered her. She immediately hugged me and yelled for David. Not a meek and quiet girl. Good. David needed a strong presence in his life. My brother David came down the steps in the house saying “did you just call me, I thought I heard the door.” He glanced in my direction and froze.

“Athena?” He came over and gave me a big hug. Smiling at me he said “it is you! Great to see you! I see you found the place.”

I looked at the both of them. “Do I look that different? A little older but I’m still the same person.”

My brother laughed and said “after 15 years of just looking at pictures the real thing looks a bit strange.”

“So I’m strange now am I?” punching him in the arm. He looked at me surprised and busted out laughing.

“Athena, this is my wife Bethany.” I smiled at him and gave her a hug.

“Lets go inside and catch up.” My brother linked his arm with mine and led me into his home. Inside was a nice living room with comfy looking furniture and lots and lots of family pictures on the walls. A family shrine to the ancestors was set up in the corner. A series of my pictures were there, along with our grandparents and several ancestors from Earth. I felt honored.

David, seeing the direction I was looking in, got embarrassed. “I’m sorry Athena we should have moved those the the ‘living’ wall but you know the custom. Once the priests check and make sure you are not a ‘hungry ghost’ they will re-bless the altar and remove the pictures. As a matter of fact I believe that Father Glick is supposed to be at the compound to check you out tomorrow.”

I groaned and shook my head. Wonderful, Father Ignatius Glick. You would think that that old guy would be long past dead by now. Religion on the planet Hong Kong was very interesting to say the least. The founding families were religious refugees. Our first settlers were a mixture of Taoist and Shinto followers. When the Canadian colonists reached us they had their own beliefs. Christianity did not last long here. Many followed other beliefs, hence the reason for their exile. Neo-paganism and followers of FSM were the predominate religion. When the Greeks arrived they added aspects of Greek Orthodox mixed with Greco-Roman paganism. A giant melting pot of guilt and ritual. After 200 years what we have is unique, but for us it works.

My brother gave me a short tour of the house. In the basement was a full audio and video set up like a small theater. It was there that we found his two children.

“Min, Herc come say hello to your Aunt Athena.” Both of the children barely looked up from the games they were playing. “I need to you to at least say hello. Can we have your attention please?” The kids finally looked up and scrutinized me with sharp eyes.

“Which aunt is she?” asked the young girl.

“The dead one” replied my brother.

“Cool,” said my nephew. They both looked back at their tablets and ignored us.

David looked at me raising his hands in a ‘what the hell’ motion. We went back upstairs. He got me settled in the guest room and left me alone for a while. I took the time to change out of my navy uniform into something more civilian. When we visited the rest of the family I would need to put my uniform back on. Military decorum or something.

David was out on the porch when I came downstairs. I made myself a glass of tea and sat down next to him.

“It’s pretty out here. You found a nice place.” Our planet was very picturesque. We sat her watching the boats go by on the nearby river. Asian junks surrounded by hovercraft and speedboats. Many were private yachts or fisherman. As a people we mix the old with the new. David and I chatted about his farm and the things that he grew on it. After a while we left the porch and wandered the farm poking into storage sheds and just hanging out. We came to one of his freshly turned fields. David squatted down and scooped up a handful of the rich black earth.

Allowing the dirt to trickle through his fingers he told me of the new laws and the problems that they brought with them. Being Empire citizens was much harder than the old PPL. Too many of the new laws hurt our farmers. The sector government has allowed so much disgraceful things to our world.

“Yes, I saw that ‘red light’ district that is at the spaceport. How could our people allow that to be built?”

“The land it is on was deeded to the Empire Government for space facilities and support functions. Apparently their idea of support is much different than ours. We ignore it, for the most part, consider it a cost of doing business with the Empire.”

“Tell me more about those farming laws. How do they affect you personally?” I looked at my brother, now interested in his life.

“The new law is in two parts. The first part is in the form of a tithe to the government of 40% of the gross product grown. In other words if I raise 100 cattle I have to give 40 of them to the government. They aren’t paying for them either. It’s a tithe or gift to them. The second part are the crop Levies. The Government pays us their rate for 50% of our product to be used for troop rations. That 50% comes off the top of our portion after the tithe. The rate they pay us is lower than the market, much lower. So that only leaves us 10% to sell at the higher rate. Some of my friends are having to sell off property or equipment just to pay their workers. Whenever they sell off property, offworlders buy it up and build more casino’s or strip clubs on it. We researched these laws on other worlds and they don’t exist. Everything is coming from the Sector Governor. He has all the power here.”

I told David about my run ins with the two Sector Governor’s. We both shook our heads at the corruption that surrounded us. Checking the time we had to hurry. We were expected at the “Compound” in an hour for the big family dinner. Oh, boy this should be fun.

___

I took a quick shower and put my dress uniform on. I used to really hate these kinds of family dinners. It was like a parade growing up. My father would have ‘work’ dinners and we children would line up to be inspected. I always felt like a piece of meat being auctioned off. Hopefully this experience would be better. I love my family but sometimes they really piss me off!

They sent the limo to pick us up. Another thing my family is good at is showing off. We got David’s family loaded up into the limo. I will have to admit, my family does have style, the transport was the latest model with all the bells and whistles. David’s place was fairly close to the family compound, right on the edge. Being colonial founders had its perks. By pooling their settlement credits our family had secured a huge section of land that was over 300 square miles. We don’t have that much these days, it has been over 100 years. The limo was now on a long 2 lane road. We passed a few quiet farmsteads and a small neighborhood. I looked at David “those are new.”

He looked back at the small row houses and replied. “Yes, father though it might help to have our workers closer to their jobs. They had a few issues with employees going to the casino or other red light areas.”

I shook my head. “I still can’t believe all that is here. So much for my sleepy little farm planet.”

The limo was now approaching a massive gate done in a gothic style. The driver pulled up to a small control box and inserted a key card. The gates slowly rolled back as the car pulled forward. Ahead was a winding road with trees on either side of the road. The very tip or what could be a building peaked up over a line of trees. Soon the main house came into view. My eyes delighted in the sight of home after so long. My mind however just shook its imaginary head and sighed. One of our ancestors about 60 years ago thought it would be fun to rebuild the family manor in a historical style. If he had picked a more classic style that would have been grand. But no. We grew up in a classic Lucas style. I was born in Jabba’s Palace. My father did a little creative remodeling but the house still looked like a giant mushroom. Seeing the valet and other cars I groaned. Not an intimate family gathering. Instead this will be public and filled with pain. Oh joy.

As a group we exited the limo and walked up to the door. The doorman recognizing David, allowed us to enter. Not much had changed it seemed. The entranceway led into the main salon (fathers name for it) which was filled with people drinking and socializing. Many of the guests raised their glasses to David and his wife in recognition. Then their beady little eyes turned to me. The only Empire officer in a room filled with Militia. Wonderful.

My father was in the center of the room. He came over to me and stood in front of me. Looking me up and down he scrutinized every detail of my uniform. I felt like a new recruit, not the officer that really am. Once again I had that feeling of being readied for market. This was one of the reasons I left so very long ago. I looked him in the eye. “Is there a problem with my uniform?”

He looked a bit shocked that I had questioned him. “I’m not in your military so stop looking at me like I am a bug to be dissected.”

“I’m just looking at my long lost daughter. I’m happy to see you Athena!” Now he had a smile on his face.

“Uh huh. Nice to see you too ‘Dad’. I thought this was going to be a family get together. Why all the brass?”

“We just wanted to welcome you home. You are a first for our family, an off world military officer.” He had a lilt in his voice like he did not approve.

“Well I wanted to stay in space to work in space. Coming back here? Not so much. Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else? Somewhere more private.” I gave him a speculative look.

“Nonsense these are our friends and family. Come now tell us your story so we all can hear.”

It was as if I was a misbehaving child. The other people watching our family tableau was a little creepy. I really was getting tired of this. “No. No exhibition for your friends to watch. We talk alone, just family, or I leave. No more center ring circus freak for me. Not anymore.”

“Athena how dare you speak to me like that! I am your Father. You will obey me!” Now he showed those true colors I remembered.

“Deal with it. I’m out of here.” I turned and tried to leave. David and his wife stopped me.

Whispering in my ear David told me, “you are right he is putting on a show. I am not sure what his game is, but please, stay. For me?”

I exhaled loudly. Taking a deep breath I nodded OK. I spun around and looked my father in the eyes. “You get ONE more chance. Pull any of your crap and I am out of here. Understand?” He thought for a minute and nodded.

My father turned to the crowd of hangers-on and said, “I need minute to speak with my children alone. Please enjoy the party. I will return soon.” He motioned at David and I. We, as a family, followed him upstairs to a conference room there. On the way I whispered to Wilson. “Run a few checks for me will ya? Check out those bozos in the other room and see if you can tap into the family security system. I don’t want to get trapped here. I have trust issues.”

“Ya think? I’ll get right on it.” He answered.

___

The door had no sooner closed when my father turned on me. “How dare you embarrass me in front of my friends!”

‘Really you want this now? I can leave, do you want me too? I might not come back for another 16 years this time.” Now he was pissing me off.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Settle down. Now have a seat. I really do want to hear about your experiences.”

We sat at the conference table and I related what had happened to me since leaving home 18 years ago. The academy, the war, Firefly Station, pirates , and everything else. I kept it somewhat short glossing over some things. I left out a lot of details like Wilson and my friend Sam. No need to mention those details. They, of course, asked questions. I answered as truthfully as I was able. Then my father asked about relationships and the real fun began.

“I have a girlfriend, here name is Dar she is a Lieutenant in the Empire marines.” I said as I replied to his question.

I could see a physical reaction from that fact. Our planet was pretty liberal when it came to who is with who. Date the person not the gender was popular when I was young. Our religion tells us to be happy with who you are. Looking at my father I sensed trouble.

“You need to break up with her.”

Say what? “Look old man, you don’t get to tell me what to do. Not anymore.”

“You have an obligation to your family. We went to a lot of trouble to set up an arrangement for you before you went and got yourself ‘killed’. We knew once you got the whole space thing out of your system you would come home. Better late than never, but here you are.”