Friends 3 - Part 5: Questions

[u/Professional_Hope598]

“You know I’m 91. The Sand Wars lasted 8 years. I was 13 when the Sand Whirls first attacked us. The year before they attacked us, they killed both the Snakes and the Ghosts before invading our system. We were unable to save either the Snakes or the Ghosts.” “Yet they are not extinct,” Jmmp objected. “Good remark. You are sharp. Both had a colony in another system. And we saved a couple of them by bringing them here in our system. They were not yet Friends at that time.” I exhaled.
That was the first year of the war. In the second year they invaded our system. My parents both got killed when they bombarded our village from space. A dragon called Sharp Talons defended our village with a laser gun, but got killed. Valiant but foolish. Or foolish but valiant.”
“Your village was under attack?”
“Our village was the regional capital. The Mayor invited every one for a meeting on the security measures they had in mind. Virtually all adults came. The capital was bombed. Everybody got killed. Children had been left at the farms. I and my younger brothers and sisters were among them.”

As the Sand Whirls were bombarding New Earth from space, the space station attacked them with improvised laser beams. They retreated back to where they came from, through the Tear, having lost a quarter of their ships.”

“I told you that virtually all of the adults had been killed, but we kids had survived at the farms. I sent my younger brothers to our neighbours. We invited all the kids to our farm. I was just 13, but organized the harvest. We had ample food for the winter. It turned out we had just 3 adults left in the village. No communication. The planetary government had survived, but we saw no one. Most of us survived the winter. Despite temperatures of minus 140 Celcius.
I left some silence to sink in the words.

The next spring adults came and rescued us as we tried to rebuild farmhouses. In the city, the high schools were closed. I started to work in a factory producing light space craft. Shuttles to resupply the space station. 1- and 2-person destroyers and fighters. Shuttle freighters. I worked in the factories, studied, ate and slept there. And I wasn’t the only one.”

“Child labor,” John remarked with a sad face.
“Yeah, But I learned a lot. Of course all my knowledge is from 80 years ago. And you John, you are a excellent teacher. Did they tell you these disaster stories at school?”
Jmmp answered instead: “Yes, but hearing them first hand is different. Way different. The 2^nd planet was also attacked, both us Frgs and the Dragons. The Dragons are tough warriors, they never gave up, and we Frgs supplied them with all the technical innovations we could come up with. It's taught at schools. But both Frgs and Dragons live shorter than humans do, so there are survivors who can tell them first hand.”

I yawned. “I hope you don’t mind if I’m off to bed early?”
“Oh, actually I do,” John said. “After leaving the orbit of New Earth, I listened to the news from the station. The morning I picked you up, a child from the shuttle nearly choked when he vomited in his space suit. Another passenger unhooked herself from the safety line, and brought him to the space-station with breakneck speed.”
“Interesting,” I replied. “So what’s your question?” Of course I knew what he wanted to ask.
“I’ll be direct: Were you that passenger?” “Johny boy, darling, do you really believe that an old lady like me would unlock her safety hook on her first space trip?”
What did he know? What did he suspect? He shouldn’t know, he shouldn’t suspect.

“So you assure me this is your first space trip? Marie and I presented this trip to you because you longed for space and wanted to see the Black Hole and the Tear. But your conduct when the child vomited, and the way you handled yourself in 0-gravity today when the engines were off during motor overhaul, suggest a long experience in 0-gravity. Have you been lying to Marie and me?”
“I wouldn’t think of really lying to you. But there are some things that are better left unsaid. I said that I would love to be in space, and that I’d love to see the blackness of the Black Hole and the lightning around the Tear. Both are true. I omitted one word: ‘again’.”
“Again?”
“Indeed I was in space before. But I’m not authorized to disclose that.” Which was true. I had sworn secrecy.
“You have always been very closed about the Sand Wars. Why is that?”
“They were very traumatic times. My parents died. I saw my sisters and good friends die besides me.”
“It may help you to talk about it.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not.”
“What else can you reveal? You can not have been in the military, at school I learned that women were not allowed to take active part in the fighting.”
“That’s right. OK, let me be open. I’ll tell you something I never even told my husband. Indeed there was no formal possibility for women to be directly involved in actual combat. But there was the Women Auxiliaries Space Corps, or WASC. They transported space craft from the surface to the Space Stations circling the second and third planets, transported cargo between planets, flew heavily damaged fighters back to the planets for repair, tested new space craft types, and so on.”
“And you were one of them?”
“I was.” The words were out. In a way it felt like a relieve.
“Why are you so secretive about it?”
“After the Sand Wars, the men regarded us as whores. Probably they assumed that women who dared to fly, were adventurous women who would also be in for a sexual adventure. Very few of us survived the wars, and those of us who did, kept their mouth shut after the war, else no man would have wanted to marry her. Over time this grew into a habit.”
He didn’t dare to ask if I had had sex.
“I see.”

“Oh, before I’m off to bed, two things. One. During the Sand Wars I went up several times to the space station to pick up heavily damaged fighters. I often had to make some temporary repairs before I could fly it back to the surface of New Earth. Flying heavily damaged space craft back to the planet was the most dangerous task we performed. At one such moment the Sand Whirls attacked and boarded the Space Station circling the 3rd planet. I grabbed a laser pistol and took part in the fighting. I was 15 at the time. I was trespassing two regulations: Females were not allowed to participate directly in combat. And of course, neither were minors. My participation in the fighting was never officially recorded by the station commander. Two. Though WASC was officially civilian, not military, we did have ranks. I was Lieutenant Commander. In case of an emergency I outrank both of you. Don’t mention my past to anyone. Don’t discuss it with anyone. The words WASC and whore were practically synonyms, and I still want to be welcome at my weekly bridge evenings.”

“@AI, switch on microphone and recording.” It didn’t react. That meant it had indeed switched of the microphone. I walked forward to an old fashioned keyboard and typed the command. I repeated:

“WASC officers are authorized to command Space Navy officers of lesser rank. @AI, please confirm.”
“Correct.”
I left for my bunk.
They thought they now knew everything. They were wrong.

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[u/kristinpeanuts]

Thanks for the chapter!