A Matter of Family

by MetusR

A return to the world of A Matter of Honor, picking up a while later, dealing with the challenges life can throw at us sometimes.

21. Chapter 21

Part Twenty-one – The more they stay the same

Iowa ran a hand through her long black hair, pushing it behind her right ear as she stood at the bow of her hull, looking at the half-sunken sea door that had been blasted away from the massive walls. Her red eyes drifted over to the bits of broken watch towers half-submerged in the water, looking away from those she saw the oil slicks on the surface of the water, signs that boats had been used here. With a degree of grace, one wouldn't expect from such a long hull she carefully navigated through the gap between the doors to reach the harbor, once inside she sensed someone coming up beside her just as he asked, "Is that him?"

Looking to her starboard side she saw the darkly colored hull, the superstructure so similar to a King George the Fifth hull, the pain on this hull had been scarred since she last saw it, but the massive cannons in the four turrets confirmed it to her without seeing the name on the stern as she said, "That's him."

"I've seen reports on the Conqueror class and the Thunderer subclass, and I know we made the guns on that beast, but seeing it in person, is something else." He responds, bringing a hand up to his forehead to shield his eyes from the rising sunlight.

"His guns are good, he's a little slower than me and my sisters and his armor is soft too, but he's stealthy letting him get dangerously close before you know he's there." Iowa says as she brings her hull alongside the darkly colored monster.

"Should we cross over it to get to shore?" He asked her turning to start moving to the amidships ramp.

Spinning on her heels quickly, Iowa grabbed hold of his tall slender frame as she said, "I wouldn't do that Mr. President. Just because his hull is here, doesn't mean he can't control the weapons systems onboard."

The President of the Eagle Union ran a hand through his short dark hair and adjusted his overcoat as he said, "Of course, how do you suggest we get ashore then?"

Iowa sighed and looked back at Thunderer's hull as she said, "I carry you ashore."

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Once they were on the docks, he looked around and whistled out, "He sure did a lot of damage to this place."

Iowa looked off to the side as she said, "I can't really blame him, I'd have done the same, I mean it's NJ, any of us would do the same."

He nodded and asked, "Where do you think they're keeping her?"

Iowa looked around and pointed out towards the north as she says, "Follow the devastation."

As the two of them walked through the ruined docks the President of the Eagle Union asked, "What can you tell me about him?"

"He's a good man, especially to NJ, but he's got little faith in humans." She says with a shrug as she steps over ruins with rust-colored smears on the walls and ground. She paused and bit her lower lip before adding, "But he's a bit like a dog that's been abused its entire life."

"Thanks, maybe we should wait here for the rest of the fleet to arrive then." He says as he looks down at the remains of a human that had been turned into a fine paste after something had smashed into them.

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Thunderer POV

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I watched NJ sleep in that bed, the rhythmic beeping letting me know the machines were working, but I wondered how long they would work. More importantly, I wanted to know how she got like this, looking over to the expired carcass with the needle I had shoved through an eye into his braincase, I knew that answer wouldn't come, doubly so when I could see it was lying in a pool of the fluid from inside its head. With a frown on my face, I get up and grab the body, taking it over to the window, and toss it out and down to the ground. That thing was the last thing I wanted NJ to see when she woke up if she woke up. With that done I go back and sit on the floor, with my back in a corner and just watch her, the slow rising and falling of her chest, letting me know she's breathing at least. But really, it's her belly that has my attention, I worry that I'm going to be a monster like my father was, then I worry I'm ready to be a father.

As I rest my chin on my knees and just watch NJ, my ears pick up movement in the hall and I call out, "Iowa?" When no answer comes back, I summon my rigging to me, once the familiar weight is around me, I switch to my small caliber AA guns, even if they are only twenty-millimeter guns, they still have enough punch to shoot through the walls here. I aim in the general direction of the movement and call out, "Not one more step or it will be your last."

The movement doesn't stop and I sight in on the part of the wall the noise is coming from just before some hands come around the doors, I know those hands and then the voice I know really well calls out, "Don't shoot!"

"Vestal?" I ask in a guarded tone.

"It's me, can I come in with some doctors?" she asks.

Banishing my rigging back to the harbor I answer, "Yes."

I watch as she comes around the corner and adjusts her black dress when looking past me to NJ, right behind her I see humans in combat webbing rushing in and my fists ball up as I glare at Vestal and say, "You said, doctors."

"They are." She answers as she comes up to me and starts to look me over before opening up a pack she had with her. Vestal takes out a bandage and starts to apply it to my left cheek as she adds, "Why is it every time I see you, you need medical help?"

Pushing her hand back I give her a sideways look as I say, "I've only met with you a couple of times, when I was getting used to this body."

She shakes her head and applies the bandage as she says to me, "I was the one that pulled you from your mother, I pulled you from her a second time when they brought you ashore after they pulled you from your hull."

"Oh." I say as I look down.

Vestal smiles at me and says, "Let's not make a habit of this, alright?"

I rub my left arm and look off to the side as I say, "I'll try."

Vestal pats my right hand as she looks at the doctors, I see her forehead knit together for a moment and she asks, "Do you know how far along she is?"

"If what I was told is true, about nine or ten weeks." I answer as I twist slightly to see the doctors starting to unhook machines from NJ and I add, "We need to get someone down to her hull and pull the charges out of it."

"E.O.D. is already there, as soon as we figured out that you were guarding the entrance to the bunker her hull was stashed in." Vestal says as she reaches up and turns my face to look at her as she says, "We'll take NJ from here, and I'll stay with her the entire way."

Looking down and away I nod and say, "Alright."

Vestal places her hands on my arms and starts to move me to the side and I watch as they wheel NJ on the bed out of the room, I go to take a step forward, but Vestal doesn't let me as she says, "We've got this, you need to trust us, trust me and Iowa. Once we're happy with her status, we'll find you, okay?"

"Okay." I answer as I look back to where the bed was.

Vestal was about to say something when I heard a man clear his throat, looking in the direction I saw someone I recognized immediately, the Eagle Union President, and my fists balled tightly as I glared at him, venom filling my voice as I called out, "How could you let this happen!?"

Vestal did her best to stop me from moving towards him, he seemed so very relaxed as I started to move towards him. When I was almost in arms reach, out of the corner of my eye a large man in a suit got between me and the President, without thinking about it, my left hand went up and gripped the man by the face and I forced him to his knees as I snarled out, "Answer me or I will kill this human."

He fixed me with his blue eyes before ever so calmly stating, "Let him go, and I'll talk to you."

Making an irritated nose I released my grip on the man's face as I said, "Fine."

The President looked to Vestal and said to her, "Can you make sure he's okay? And close the door on your way out."

Vestal looked at me then to her President and said, "Sir!"

He raised a hand and said, "He won't hurt me, Thunderer is smarter than that."

I give him a sideways look and go back to sitting in my corner, watching him. He leans over to Vestal and whispers something to her and she nods before leaving the room and closing the door. He turns over a chair and sits across from me, looking me over as he says, "I don't know how this happened."

"She was missing for two months and only Iowa noticed!

I noticed I hadn't heard from her in weeks, but how could you not know?" I growl out.

He rests his hands on his knees and leans forward a little as he said so very calmly, "I don't know, all I know is that it never came across my desk that New Jersey was missing." He pauses before admitting, "That means at least one of four people were actively keeping it off of my desk; My Chief of Staff, SecState, SecDev, or SecNav."

"Sounds like you have some house cleaning to do." I respond as I keep looking at the space NJ's bed had been.

"I do, and I will." He says.

With a snort and a shake of my head I snipe back, "I'll believe that when I see it, humans are all talk."

He sighs and leans forward a little as he says to me, "You have a very dim view of humans, why?"

Lifting my right hand as a fist I slowly extend fingers as I say, "There are three good humans in this world, His Majesty of the United Kingdom, my Uncle John, and my little cousin William, that's it."

He nods slowly and asks, "What about your Prime Minister?"

"He can go and sit on his hair product bottles, nothing but words out of him." I growl out before adding, "The damn coward can't even do anything about the service contract that is more or less slavery the kansen of the Monarchy are in."

"I don't follow." He says just as a knock comes to the door and he adds, "Are you hungry? It must've been a while since you last ate."

The door opens slowly and I see Vestal standing there with a container made out of some kind of paper, I watch as the President gets up and takes it from her before he closes the door again and sits down across from me and opens the lid up. Inside it, I see what looks like newsprint paper, but a wonderful smell hits my nose and I say, "Food won't buy me off."

"No, but I know I'm hungry and I have no idea when the last time you ate was." He says as he lifts out a piece of fried fish, breaking off some of it and popping it in his mouth, and adds, "Iowa said that New Jersey said that you like this kind of food, that it reminds you of your childhood."

My belly growls at the smell of beer-battered cod and chips, it takes some willpower on my end not to take a bite as I ask, "Why don't you seem surprised by that?"

He takes another bite before asking me, "This stays in this room, alright?"

Giving him a sideways look I answer, "No promises."

He nods and takes a chip before saying, "That's the best I'm going to get right now I think." He pauses to take another chip and says, "You and I aren't that different."

I roll my eyes and snort, "I beg to differ, you're human."

"Half." He says as he breaks off another hunt of fish and adds, "I hated the campaign to be elected; I had to introduce my mother as my daughter."

Racking my brain I tried to recall any image I had seen of him and his family from the campaign ads that would run on TV, I recall seeing him with a young woman with darker skin and a big hat. That one had always seemed out of place when placed against him and his lighter skin tone family. After a moment I ask, "Who is she?"

He nudges the container a little closer to me as he says, "Not till you take a bite of food." With a shrug I take a bite of fish and relax in my shoulders a little as he continues, "She's the Texas. My father fell in love with her during the start of the war." He pauses and takes out contact lenses letting me see yellow eyes before he continues, "Growing up was hard, I couldn't keep friends for more than a few years at a time, and as time went on, my mother became my big sister, then my little sister, and now my daughter."

Putting another bite in my mother I ask, "Why lie during your campaign?"

He sighs and puts some chips in his mouth before telling me, "I didn't want to, but the Union wasn't ready for it. I don't think they still are, but these events have made it clear to me the status quo can't stand anymore. Not with the first true-born kansen a few months away."

Taking a couple of chips I look at them and ask, "How would you do it? How would you change the Union's view of us?"

He's silent for a moment before saying, "Getting some media outlets to do pieces on the various kansen in the Eagle Union, even out myself as half kansen, introduce my mother for who she really is. But the real problem right now is you."

I roll my red eyes as I say, "I'm not your problem."

"Yes and no. I'm thankful for what you did here, but the idea of a kansen ignoring orders and sailing through our waters will upset some people." He says, pausing before asking, "Do you have any idea how they're going to punish you when you return home?"

That actually gets a laugh out of me as I say, "Nothing. By their own service contract with me, there is nothing they can do. There is no way for it to end before the fifty years they have decided I must serve, there is no prison that can hold me, the worst they can do is remove my status as the Flagship. But honestly, I don't care." I grow quiet for a minute and look back to the empty space NJ's bed had been in as I sigh out, "I just want NJ to be okay."

To my surprise, he reaches over and pats my knee as he says, "I'm sure she will be. Now as for that other thing, did you ever sign the contract?"

I shake my head and look at his hand as I say, "No. It was signed between the former MoD and her counterpart in the RN, just as the ones for the destroyers and the light carrier that the Monarchy got from you were signed by her and your SecDev."

His lips compress and he snorts out, "That bitch, I never signed off on that!"

I raise an eyebrow as I say, "I think you know who you need to look into now."

He leans back, propping himself up by his arms as he says, "Seems like it." I see his eyes go wide and he asks, "I think I've got a way out of your contract issue."

"How so?" I ask as I take more fish.

"You said it yourself, there is nothing they can do about you doing whatever you want right?" he asks.

Swallowing my bite I nod ad frown as I say, "Just as they can do what they want and there is nothing I can do about it."

"What if I offered a trade, some of my girls for you?" he asks.

"Why would you do that?" I ask with a sideways look.

"Because you're clearly not happy and I don't think the Monarchy is happy with their 'purchase.'" He almost spits that last part out.

I shrug and say, "Go for it, see what happens, but I won't hold my breath."

He was about to say something else as a knock came to the door just before it opened, I see that he doesn't look back as it opens. Looking over his shoulder I see Iowa standing there, she smiles at me and says, "Hey there Big Guy, are you all done in here? We've got NJ secured for transport and she's stable. I've got her hull rigged up for towing if you want to hang out in my sick bay for her to wake up."

Looking to the President I see that he is putting his contacts back in and he nods to me before saying, "I'll start looking into what I can do for you."

I get off the ground and go to the doorway, stopping to say over my shoulder, "Thank you."

He smiles back at me as he says, "You're welcome."

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I was startled awake as I hear NJ screaming, looking around and feeling for a light switch, and turning on the light I see NJ sitting up in bed, she's covered in sweat, a hand between her bust pressing against her chest and she's looking around panicked. When her blue eyes land on me, I see the relief in them and she says to me, "You're okay!"

I tilt my head to the side before getting out of the chair and sitting on the end of the bed beside her and ask, "Why wouldn't I be?"

She leans forward locking her arms around my neck as she started to sob, "He told me you would be ended if I didn't let him inject me with that sedative."

I wrap my arms around her and stroke her back as I ask, "How long ago was that?"

"Long ago? It wasn't long after we got back on my hull after Plymouth." She says with a questioning tone, adding, "Has it been a long time?"

I lean her back a little and look her in the eyes as I say, "NJ, it's been almost two and a half months since then."

She blinks her blue eyes at me and makes a surprised noise before asking, "Wha… what have I missed?"

I look off to the side and clear my throat before gesturing down to her belly, she looks at it and says, "I don't remember eating a lot."

I rub the back of my head and sigh out, "It's not food."

"No…" she says slowly as the color in her face drains away.

"Yeah." I say to her as I take her hands in mine and ask, "Are you okay with this?"

She looks up from her belly into my red eyes and says, "Yeah, are you?"

"I will be." I say as I offer a reassuring smile and pull her in for another tight embrace.

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A/N: Our boy just can't catch a break! Maybe things will start to break his way soon… As for the Texas design, again, special shout out to Dishwasher1910 for his outstanding art work!