The Ninth: Invasion (31 page)

“Don’t be stupid,” Miyako stuck her tongue out at Hiroyuki.  “It means she’s in love.”

“Yuck.  That’s girl stuff.”

“It is indeed,” Penny said warmly, “and one day you’ll start to like girls.  When that happens all that yucky girl stuff will suddenly be very important to you.”

“No way!  I’ll never like
them
!”  Hiroyuki stuck his tongue out at his sister.

Penny giggled when all the boys stuck out their tongues at the girls.

“I’m going to be brave like him!”  Hiroyuki stood proudly next to Brent.  “I’m never going to like girls.”

“Should I tell him?” Penny asked Brent with a smile.

“Tell me what?” the boy asked.

“That if you want to be like me, you’ll have to work really hard,” Brent said, kneeling down to Hiroyuki’s level.

“I’m not scared of that.”

“That’s good,” Cassandra said, her blush slightly fading.  “And when you get
really
brave, you’ll protect everyone, won’t you?”

“Everyone? Even my
sister
?”

“Especially your sister,” she said with a smile.

“Do I really have to?” Hiroyuki asked Brent, trying to get out of it.

“I’m afraid so,” he said with a chuckle.  “Brave people protect everyone.  Even if they are yucky girls.”

“Now you go off and play with the others.”  Penny gestured to the other children.  “I need to talk to Brent.”

The three watched as the children started running around in a game that made sense only to them.

“What’s wrong?” Cassandra asked.

“I hate to break you guys up, but it’s time for lunch.  Don’t want to miss the last meal before we get to Eos.”

“Wouldn’t that be a shame?” Cassandra asked, groaning.  “My stomach is already longing for some D rations.”

Penny chuckled as the three headed off to the mess room.  As they left the cargo bay, the citizens were busy packing up their belongings.  The rest of the troopers were already eating by the time they arrived.  Most of the seats were taken, with only a few scattered vacancies around the cramped tables.

“Thanks for waiting,” Penny said, sarcastically.

“What took you guys so long?” Doug asked.

“Had to break up daycare.”

“I thought that was all a joke about them being Cassandra’s kids.”  Hiroko shot a glance at Cassandra.

“It was, it was,” Kindra said reassuringly.

“So Cain, what’s Eos like?” Erin asked.

“Big, well developed . . . big.”  Cain took a drink out of his glass.

“What an amazing description,” Angela said with a snicker.  “I feel as if I’ve already been there.”

“You seem to know quite a bit about Core Industries,” Dante said as he tipped his glass toward Rhea.  “Why don’t you tell us?”

“Sorry, but I’m in the dark like the rest of you,” she said in clear annoyance.  “CI doesn’t let
anyone
see Eos.  All trade is done through other facilities and stations.  All I know is it’s rumored to be completely covered by a single massive city.”

“Is that true?” Hiroko asked excitedly.  “Most of the core worlds aren’t that well developed.”

“I’ll let you all judge for yourselves,” Cain said with a grin.

“That’s no fun,” Marie said.  “Can’t you even give us a hint?”

“Nope, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

“Tell me, Brent,” Kindra said, leaning closer.  “What went through that head of yours when Mrs. Lucchesi implied the children were yours?”

“He was probably wondering if anyone would object to us tossing her out an airlock.”  Doug started laughing.

“Toss who out an airlock?” Tyra asked, taking a seat.

“The missing squad leader returns,” Cain said snidely.  “Where have you been hiding?”

“Good to see that you can hold your head up this time.  Although, you do seem a bit cranky after your nap.”

Angela chuckled at Cain’s embarrassment.

“You could always have Cassandra give him a time out,” Penny said.  “She’s actually pretty good with kids.”

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Liz asked

“Liz has a point,” Sanderson said with a grin.  “After all, she had plenty of experience with crybabies and mumblers back in the FF.”

“Hey! I resemble that remark,” Humphrey mumbled with a smile.

“You’re supposed to say resent.”  Rhea started laughing.  “You
resent
that remark.”

“Quiet down,” Kindra said, locking her eyes on Brent.  “You’re not getting out of this that easily.”

“Getting out of what?” Tyra asked confused.

“Back in the cargo bay, a couple of kids were clinging to Cassandra . . .” Hiroko said.

“And your mother asked if they belonged to Brent and Cassandra,” Cain interrupted with a smile.

“She didn’t!” Tyra shouted.

Cain nodded with a wide grin while the others chuckled.  Cassandra blushed slightly.

“Kindra’s trying to get Brent to fess up to what he was thinking at the time,” Sanderson said after swallowing a bite.

“Well?” Kindra pressed.

“I guess I wondered how Mrs. Lucchesi could have ever believed them to be
our
children,” Brent spoke, with revulsion clearly in his voice.

Cassandra looked at him with a downcast expression on her face.  Kindra leaned back in her seat.  She hadn’t expected that response.  The troopers sat in silence.  Brent calmly buttered his bread roll.

“After all,” he said slowly, “Cassandra’s children will be
much
cuter.”

Cain burst into laughter as Brent winked at her.

“I salute you!” Cain said as he failed at suppressing his amusement.  “I couldn’t have pulled that off better myself.”

As they realized they’d just been tricked, the girls started tossing their bread rolls at him.

“That was horrible!” Marie said, chucking a bread roll.

“Oh come on, you have to admit that was perfect.”  Doug was banging on the table as he laughed.  “He had us all going for a minute.  Serves you all right for all this matchmaking nonsense!”

“Start running, sir,” Dante said, shaking his head slightly.  “We’ll hold back the girls as long as we can.”

The troopers continued laughing throughout the rest of the meal.  Having already been half finished when he sat down, the troopers started to leave before he’d made much progress, although he did have a plethora of buns to work through.  Cain patted him on the shoulder as he left, still laughing to himself.

“That was really mean.”  Marie slapped Brent’s back after she stood.  “I can’t believe you faked us all out.”

“You seem to be interested in tricking people today,” Tyra said eyeing him.  “Isn’t that right?”

He was suddenly painfully aware he was alone with Tyra, Ronald, and Cassandra.

“I’m guessing it was quite a surprise,” he said diplomatically.

“A surprise would be tripping in the middle of the night.”  Tyra leaned toward him menacingly.  “A surprise would be getting a bonus in your pay. 
That
was a heart attack!”

“Well, obviously the 3P didn’t kill you two.  How did it go?”

She retreated back into her seat, a light blush on her face.

“It was . . . interesting,” Ronald said calmly.

“Did it help you find the answer to your problem?” Brent asked.

“In a fashion.”

Tyra raised an eyebrow and stared at Ronald.

“You put him up to this?” she asked.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” Brent added quickly.  “He had no idea what I had planned.  He was no doubt as surprised as you were.”

“How’d you even know about such a thing in the first place?”

“Do you even need to ask?”

“Cain.”  Tyra’s eyes narrowed.

“You got it.”  Brent shrugged.  “But if you’re going to seek revenge, I’m the one to target.”

“Is that why Cain was asking where we were?” Ronald asked.

“He didn’t have a clue.  He gave me a list of 3Ps back in the academy.  As far as the others know, you two just disappeared for a couple of hours.”

“So our secret is safe, then.” Tyra said with a sigh of relief.

“A secret?” Brent asked with a smile.  “So something
did
happen.”

Tyra
and
Ronald both blushed slightly.  Brent pulled out his pad and started tapping away.

“What are you up to now?” she asked.

“Sending you two a copy of Cain’s list.  Free of charge, of course,” he said with a grin.

Tyra quickly got up and left.  Ronald lagged behind for just a moment.

“Thank you,” he silently mouthed to Brent as he followed after Tyra.

Cassandra was sitting quietly; she was playing with her food rather than eating it.  He lifted his plate and sat next to her.

“You
were
joking, right?” she asked, not lifting her gaze from her plate.

“Not at all.”

Her head quickly shot up as she locked her gaze on him.

“I wouldn’t joke about something like that,” he said with a warm smile.  “I know your children will be as beautiful as you are.”

“You’re terrible,” she said with a sniffle.  “You shouldn’t tease me so badly.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No you’re not.  If you were, you wouldn’t do it in the first place.”

Without any warning from the captain or the P.A., the Wall started eating through the edge of the room.  Instinctively, Brent held Cassandra close. The nebula seemed to be in the room with them.  He knew it couldn’t penetrate the Wall, but it looked too close for comfort.  As the Wall grew closer, he shifted so they were face to face.  He kissed her as the wall started to pass over them.  She held onto him tightly.  After the Wall passed, she started shaking.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I saw some of it, just out of the corner of my eye.  It was . . .”

Abruptly, Cassandra pressed herself against him.  He could tell it was all she could do not to hurt him.  Brent wrapped his arms around her and held her.

“Attention, this is the captain speaking.”  The P.A. crackled to life.  “I want to apologize if we scared anyone.  The area of safe space started to dissipate faster than anticipated.  Although we had to jump a bit earlier than we expected, I’m happy to inform you all that we made it safe and sound.  We are on approach to the Core Industries docking hub and should be ready for disembarkation shortly.”

Brent kissed the top of her head.

“Looks like we made it,” he said gently.

“I’m sorry . . .”

“For what?”

“I doubted you.  I thought you were being serious.  It just hurt so badly.  But you still protected me without hesitation.”

“Don’t apologize.  I mean it.  It doesn’t matter if it was a joke.  I still said something horrible.  I’m sorry.”

She looked up at him with teary eyes.

“I thought I said no crying,” he said with a smile as he wiped her eyes.

“No regrets, right?”

“That’s right.”

Carefully he helped her to her feet, and they left the mess room.  They slowly walked down the corridors of the ship.  Cassandra walked closely at his side, holding his arm tightly.  She didn’t increase her distance when they entered the cargo bay.  She was completely oblivious to the stares of the packing citizens.  When they got to their little makeshift room, she let go of him and started packing her things.  As she was just about done, she paused.

“Do you really mean that?” she asked hesitantly. “ That our kids would be cute?”

“With a beautiful mother, they’ve got a shot at it, at least,” Brent said with a smile.  “Let’s just hope they don’t get my genes.”

“I don’t know about that,” Cassandra blushed as she spoke.  “I think you are handsome.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about.”

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.  With her belongings packed, she started toward the curtain.  He quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her close.  Her surprise quickly faded as he kissed her passionately.  He could feel her warmth flowing through him.

“What was that for?” she asked in deep blush.

“This might be the last time we have a private room for a while.  I wanted to make sure we said goodbye to it properly.”

“Good idea.”

She embraced him tightly and kissed him again.  A tone from the P.A. accompanied by a light vibration let them know the ship had docked.  The two left the room hand in hand.  Cain winked at the two of them as they joined the other troopers.

“This is it; let’s make a good impression,” Ronald said.

The troopers snapped to attention as they waited for the outer hatch to open.  As the hatch hissed, the smells of a new world washed over them.  They had finally made it to Eos.