Chapter 42: Waiting
There was an air of excitement on the Vulpen Keo, a direct result of having their much-admired supreme leader back from the dead. Rumors were rampant, but word had it the ship's doctors had confirmed the teal Ventrexian stalking the corridors was indeed their General Avocato. Nikos kept his ear out, but none of the rumors, fantastical as they were, came close to the truth and so he made no effort to suppress them. Not wanting to interfere with Captain Ichitrix's' authority and tired of being regarded with gaping awe, Avocato had retreated to the quarters assigned him and got to work catching up on reports and the endless bureaucracy inherent in running a military department. Nikos was kept busy acting as a buffer between Avocato and the eager – and jealous – captains of the fleet, most of whom couldn't understand why Ichitrix's should get to escort the general when they were so much more worthy. It never occurred to the fleet commanders that the choice of flagships had nothing to do with Avocato and everything to do with Nikos and the attitude towards him.
The general gave a small noise of thanks as Nikos set a cup of steaming tea on the table for him. It was a welcome distraction. When Nikos didn't walk away, Avocato looked up.
"The ship's science teams have completed their analysis of the information from the Scoti. Essentially, they estimate it will be about two decades before technology and research catch up enough to even start experimenting with controlling temporal worms."
"Astonishing," was Avocato's completely sarcastic rely. "But," he added in a milder tone, "good to hear."
"Indeed. Captain Ichitrix's is requesting a few minutes of your time, General. I believe she has some logistical questions and an invitation to join the officers for dinner."
Nikos smiled in sympathy at Avocato's sigh, knowing his friend and commander was too nobly bred to decline the invitation and thereby deny the ship's young officers a chance to say they had dined with the supreme leader, or rob the cooks of a chance to outshine themselves and boast of it for years to come.
"How long before I'm to call the Lord Commander?"
"An hour. The captain has orders to position the ship for the clearest transmission within the next half-hour. I have the comm system set and ready for activation."
Avocato nodded, rising. "I'll see Ichitrix's."
The captain of the Vulpen Keo was a Zintibo from Zintib's tropic region, and therefore possessed of spectacular coloring. Elegant and fierce and smart in her best uniform, she barely reached Avocato's shoulder. What she lacked in height, however, she made up for in efficiency. With a quick salute, she got straight to business.
"General Avocato, we're presently in synchronous orbit with Geegua Spaceport, but will move beyond Zee Secundus' inner moons to allow an uninterrupted transmission with Tera Con Prime. In the meantime, we've had over thirty requests from the captains of various merchant and privately owned ships asking for permission to depart the planet and system."
"Was the Crimson Light one of them?"
"No, sir. All commands know they are to allowed to depart at will."
"Is the blockade intact?" asked Avocato.
"Yes, sir. Initially three ships tried to depart, but were turned back before they broke atmosphere."
He nodded, considering. "For now, leave the blockade in place. We'll lift it after we join the main fleet. I do want to have the manifests and crew and passenger complement for each ship checked. If there's someone named Clarence Polkawitz on any of the ships, allow them to depart. Make sure the captain of the ship knows why I'm letting them leave, and drop some serious hints that Clarence is an extremely important and influential individual who should be treated with the utmost respect." He may as well give Clarence a bit of assistance. It cost him nothing and it was amusing to imagine what the old Foog would do. Based on what Gary and the others had told him about Clarence, Avocato wouldn't be surprised if he owned whatever ship he was on by the time he arrived wherever he was going.
"Yes, sir," Ichitrix's said crisply, unruffled by the unusual order. "And if I may, sir, I'd like to extend an invitation for you and Colonel-in-Command Nikos to join me and my senior officers for dinner tonight."
"Thank you, Captain, the pleasure will be ours," he responded, pleased by her no-nonsense approach and that she had the sense to include Nikos in the invitation. He would have refused otherwise, not about to suffer a slight to his staff. "Let the colonel know the time and details. Dismissed."
"Sir."
An hour later, his coat carefully brushed and his hair smoothed, Avocato waited for the Lord Commander to respond to his communication request. He recognized the delayed response for what it was: the Lord Commander was asserting his authority. It was a tactic Avocato had used himself and had used on him in the past, and it was annoying only when issues were pressing. Long ago he had learned to take advantage of the time given to review whatever he intended to say, and so he didn't mind waiting. He had noticed early on that with himself excepted, the taller the general, the longer they were made to wait. The Lord Commander was extremely conscious of his stature or lack thereof, and shockingly petty. Still, Avocato was one of his rare and treasured prizes, and probably the most useful in his collection, so it wasn't long at all before a larger-than-life hologram of the Lord Commander appeared and everyone present bowed.
"Ahh, General Avocato," crooned the Lord Commander. Avocato straightened respectfully, and he was surprised to see the Lord Commander actually wore a smile of sorts. "It's good to see you. You have no idea how relieved I was to hear you hadn't been lost with the Kalibar."
"Thank you, Lord Commander," Avocato replied, knowing that relief had nothing to do with him personally, just his military prowess. "I apologize for any concern my absence might have generated. I'll have a full report for you before the close of the day. I understand the Sitronu have complied with all aspects of the treaty."
"Mmm, yes, the Sitronu have proven a valuable addition to the empire," was the oily reply. The Lord Commander tried to hide the sly, calculating gleam in his eyes, but Avocato knew him, knew his kind too well to be deceived at the feigned innocence. "But what do you intend to do about the Scoti, General Avocato?"
Bracing himself, Avocato drew a deep breath and said, "Our orders are clear, my lord, as they've been set out in section 9, sub-section beta, paragraphs 6 through 8 of the Tera Con Convention of 6853.4. To paraphrase, any attempt on the life of one of the high command of the Tera Con Empire, whether successful or not, by any individual, group, or faction independent or affiliated with a recognized organization, without an acknowledged declaration of hostilities, will result in the annihilation of the assassin's home planet or other, and all associated colonies and settlements." Avocato clasped his hands behind his back as the Lord Commander smirked to hear his own regulations recited back at him. "The Scoti who attempted to assassinate me tried no less than four times from the initial assault on the Kalibar to attacking me while I was in a recovery pod here on Zee Secundus. The one taken prisoner admitted to me that they had not declared war against the empire or myself. They were responsible for the transport and detonation of a Death Knell that wiped out almost the entire crew of the Kalibar. Further, sir, I have good reason to believe that the Scoti are the originators and manufacturers of the Death Knells. If this is true, my lord, they are responsible for untold deaths and the fall of the Inci Empire."
The Lord Commander's expression darkened at this list. He did not appreciate that one of his generals had been targeted, let alone the flagship of his deep space fleet. The ship and crew he could replace, but Avocato was priceless. Even greater was the threat of Death Knells not being as extinct as had been rumored. If one could take down the Inci . . . "And what do you intend to do?"
Avocato looked at him squarely, knowing what he had to, and maybe even wanted to say. "I will follow orders, Lord Commander."
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
They left Zee Secundus the day after the Tera Con fleet picked up and left. With the blockade lifted, there was a lot of hustle and bustle about the spaceport as the populace tried to catch up with a few days of commerce and traffic all at once. In a fit of responsible adulting, Gary agreed with Nightfall's decision to wait until things calmed down a bit before leaving the planet. He suspected she and Ash wanted one last round in the marketplace, but who was Gary to deny them a chance to spend more of Clarence's money?
AVA estimated they had three days before the arrival of the temporal worm and that it would take them a little over a day of easy sub-light travel to reach the rendezvous. HUE disagreed on principle and tried to argue, but they ignored him. Gary tried his best to offload KVN before they sealed the hatches, but somehow he got back onboard, rendering Gary bummed in the extreme.
When they were in the sector Sammy had indicated, AVA simply kept them circling at a leisurely pace. They all relaxed a bit now that it was just a question of waiting and making sure they got eaten whole by a worm ten kilometers long. Piece of cake.
"Hey, Thunder Bandit, you busy?"
Gary looked up from reading one of the cheesy novels Fox had picked up in the market. "Never too busy for my Spider Cat. S'up, kiddo supreme?"
"We got some time." Little Cato shifted, and his statement of the obvious spoke of the anxiety he was experiencing. "Want to see what's on that data chip my dad left me?"
"You're damn skippy I do! Tell you what, let's grab some super unhealthy snacks and take over the virtularium."
"Meet you there!"
Ten minutes later, having acquired Chuckie and Mooncake along the way, they were settled in theater seats, waiting as Little Cato inserted the chip in the control panel.
"Looks like . . . a lot of short video clips and still images and holograms," reported Little Cato. "Dunno if they're in any order. Well, here goes."
Their impromptu theater darkened and the first hologram appeared a step in front of their seats. Little Cato sat down, picked up his drink, and almost dropped it as he let out a gasp.
"That's my mom!"
Gary had never seen Purrsis before, but he would have recognized her anywhere. Avocato had said on multiple occasions that Little Cato was the image of her, and he could see it. She wasn't beautiful per se, but she was cute and pert and animated, with the same ginger coloring and a crest of creamy white hair and small build. In the hologram she was smiling widely and looking down - at her son, no doubt - but her eyes and her smile were identical to Little Cato's.
"Wow," breathed Gary, realizing how much he needed this moment. Not for himself, but for his son. Mooncake gave a happy trill.
"There's Dad!" yelled Little Cato at the next image, pointing with a handful of snack chips. "That's his second ship, the Silverwing!"
An impossibly young and proud Captain Avocato stood before a sleek Ventrexian cruiser. Gary smiled to see his friend, searching that face for the Avocato he knew, but he didn't exist yet. This Avocato had yet to lose everything. Tears stung at his eyes, and he knew it wouldn't be long before the floodgates opened.
The next image was of a husky, solid gray Ventrexian with curled-down ears holding the hand of a plump and pretty female. She was the first long-haired Ventrexian Gary had ever seen. Both were very formally dressed and they looked deliriously happy.
"Look! That's Kedi, Dad's friend. He married my cousin, Lady Clawdia. She's like, super wealthy and her family has a lot of power, so her dad, Grand Lord Clawdius, signed Kedi up for the royal guardsmen, so he would stay on Ventrexia. They have a whole lot of daughters. This is their wedding, I think."
A video followed, probably taken by Purrsis. Avocato was on his knees, holding his hands out eagerly in that universal stance of trying to get a child to take a few steps. Little Cato, barely a year old, held onto a table with one hand and eyed his father and the distance skeptically. Round and fuzzy and overwhelmingly cute, Gary was instantly swept up in the excitement of the moment.
"Come on," Avocato urged, his delight evident. "You can do it!"
"C'mon, kiddo!" Gary added.
"Dad . . . "
"Sorry, Spider Cat, but look at you! You couldn't be cuter if you tried! That fluff! Look at that tail! You're adorable!"
In the video, Avocato laughed aloud as Little Cato opted to plop down and crawl over instead of trying to walk. He scooped his kitten up and laughed again, saying, "You'll get it! Soon!"
Little Cato grimaced, looking stricken. "I haven't heard him laugh like that since . . . since we went to Tera Con Prime." He sniffed.
"Hey." Gary turned to face him, making no effort to hide his own reactions. His kept his voice gentle and soft. "These are the people he loves most. He kept them with him all the time. He didn't leave this for you to upset you. He wants you to have memories of your mom and family." He reached out to smooth that stiff crest of blue hair. "You're allowed to get emotional. It's okay."
Biting his lip, Little Cato nodded. "When he gave me this, he told me why he was always so frigid. He was afraid, and with good reason. I get it now, but I didn't get it then. Just like I never figured out he was telling me he loves me all along. It's just . . . hard to see this. It makes me wonder how things might have been."
"I know. I feel ya. I mean, you all saw what was going through my head when we were on the Tour de Bolo. How I saw my dad that -" he swallowed, "- that last time. It is hard to see. And it hurts almost as much as it feels good. We don't have to do this now. We can wait and do it another time."
Little Cato considered the offer, then shook his head. "No. No. I want to see it all. All this stuff is really important to my dad, and he's important to us. Besides, who knows what'll happen once we get back to our time? But . . . can I - I mean, would you mind if I . . . satinthatseatwithyou?" He finished in a nervous rush.
Gary slowly smiled, pulling his son in to plant a kiss atop his head. "Heck yeah. Get that skinny butt over here." He shoved over, making space, and they crowded together in one seat with Mooncake on their laps. Then laughter and tears flowed as moment by moment, image by image, Avocato lead his son and husband through his most precious memories.
