THE PROMISE
ABOARD THE HUMAN MOTHER SHIP PLANET
EARTH
STANDARD HMS TIME: 23:05
DATE: 01/06/2020
LOCATION: MATERNITY WARD
MAJOR GENERAL ASI
A cold breeze ruffled my hair as the door slid back automatically, I walked past
a couple of closed doors and stopped myself in front of one of them. I opened
the door manually and entered. The door slid shut behind me.
It was quite, so dreadfully quite. The room was white, the
bed was white, I watched the blank monitors.
Looked at the human that was laid on the bed, her face was
expressionless but peaceful. Her once swollen abdomen was no longer swollen.
I looked at Mai's silent form. She had always been so
weak and emotional it had cost her, her life.
Mai was nothing like me; she resented fighting, repulsed
by the very image of blood and fears the smell of death. Mai was no coward but
was weak in a feminine way I supposed.
After Mai's marriage I stopped seeing her, it wasn't
anything personal, I just got busy, she was busy too. I remembered the last
conversation I had with her. We were arguing, we always were.
But even when she was arguing she managed to do it without
snapping or expressing anger. I, on the other hand found it easy to yell shout
and accuse.
Loud mouthed Asi and soft sweet Mai. I was the younger, my
mother is dead now, so is my father. I may have been a loud-mouthed rude girl,
boisterous at times but I was never a fool. Mai was a fool.
She could be easily tricked, easy to deceive, my elder
sister, she thinks that there couldn't be any possible evil coming from
another human, Mai had always hung onto an imaginary image of us humans, an
image that was far from the truth.
I walked round the bed, thinking about what Mai had told
me on our last argument.
'You'll never change Asi, you'll stay the way you are, you'll never
settle down.' I could see her motionless
face light up with life in my memory. The relaxed look changing into concern, I
could hear her neutral tone.
'And who told you I had plans for settling down?!'
In my mind's eye I pictured myself, hands on hips, glaring.
'You never
did, but you know what? When you retire and look back at what you've
accomplished throughout your life, you're going to find something missing. You
haven't got any friends; your entire life is fight, fight, fight. One day
you're going to wake up and wonder.'
'You'll
wonder what happened in the years between, you'll wonder if it was all worth
it, you'll wonder if you could have ended it differently.'
She was shaking her head at me, her eyes full of remorse.
'Mai wake
up! We're in war! We need people to win this war, and sacrifices have to be
made!' I had leapt forward and shook her hard by the shoulders.
'Let them do it, let the men sacrifice. You
don't have to do anything.' Her eyes were desperate she looked at me
pityingly. I remembered the wave of intense anger that had flared inside me.
'That's exactly what they want us to do!
If we lay down on our backsides you know what will happen? We'll lose.
We need people to feed this war.'
'Feed this war Asi? Is this what you want to
do?' More
pity.
Until now I still didn't know if this was what I had
wanted to do but I never told her that, I stood silent. Stared.
'You live
your life to please other people, you're always doing things to please others,
it's the same for what you used to do when father was around, the same with
Ben and the same thing with the military, don't Asi, live your life for
yourself not for others, they're not worth it, not worth the trouble.'
She's wrong.
What did she know about it?
"Rest in peace
Mai." I whispered.
There was no
answer of course, but the silence was no longer so heavy, it was light, I was
glad I had come to see her for the last time.
"I'll take care of Lynn and your Annabelle,
sister. I will look after Jordan too." I said softly, "I may have never had
plans for settling down Mai, but your daughter may be the step towards it, and
who knows, when this war is over, when they no longer need me, I will devote my
time for Annabelle."
I knelt down, one knee to the ground and placed my hand in
hers, I closed my eyes. "Good bye Mai. I will never forget you, even though
our relationship seemed vain," I paused, opened my eyes, "but I have learnt
much from you elder sister. I may have been stubborn, but you were patient with
me, patient with Lynn, patient with mother. You will not be forgotten."
I closed my eyes.
I didn't hear the doors slide open. "You believe she
could hear you?"
I opened my eyes and glanced behind me, it was Mac,
"Yes, I do, it was what my mother and what Mai taught me."
"I'm sorry." He said.
I stood up, "It is in my people's belief that once you
die, it is only your body that does, your soul is intact until burial, then you
rise to the heavens. Don't be sorry. Mai had not left me completely.
She is still alive."
"In your head?"
"My heart," I said, looking down at her for the last time. I walked
out of the room slowly. Once I was outside with Mac I said, "what happened? I
didn't think you Sasi had enough energy to crawl out of the holes you
dig yourselves into."
He laughed, "We come out once ever while."
"So, had something happened?" I inquired.
"No," He paused then said, "I came here for you."
"That's a change." I muttered.
He put his arm round my shoulders and started to walk with me to another
part of the maternity wing.
"I have a few things to discus with you." He said looking straight
ahead, "One is concerning Lynn. But that will wait, did you see your niece
yet?"
"No." I said, "I believe you are taking me there?"
He sighed, "Have you given her a name?"
"Mai calls her Annabelle, it isn't a bad name."
"No. It isn't."
"We will have her under military care, we can organize a place for both
of Lynn and Annabelle, Jordan wouldn't be a problem, but I was concerned with
the little one."
"Annabelle would be staying here until she is strong enough to leave,
you know that the hospital doesn't release premature babies."
"So she'll be staying a few months then we'll convert her to MC."
MC, military care, a military run foster home. Mostly this is where the
children of a deceased soldier go, if they had no relatives.
I was silent for a while, "I was thinking about taking her in."
"You know the law Asi. I really don't want to quote anything."
I knew I was pushing my luck, I couldn't take care of Annabelle because
of military regulations against soldiers who are parents, they couldn't foster
or take custody of a child because they are always on call for, and the child
will not have all the attention that is needed. "I could go to court and try
out my luck."
He sighed, "I'll see if I could pull a few strings, but I'm not
promising anything."
"Anything but MC, that's all I'm saying. I'd rather place her
under care of a friend."
"You know someone?"
I bit my lip, "No."
"There we are." He said, he pushed his way in and we entered.
Quite suddenly I found her.
No that wasn't true, she found me, she had her eyes on me first, that
was how I found her. I stepped away from Mac and walked towards her.
Alien, that how you could describe a newborn, they barely resemble a
human adult. They are so small and frail. The five fingered hands with miniature
fingers, the oddly huge eyes and the swollen abdomen.
I have seen a lot of animals, and those that pay attention to you and
make eye contact either have a frightened distracted look or calm hungry eyes.
This was different; the eyes looked at you and they saw you. There
was no fear, no hunger, just…intelligence?
I watched her dark eyes and thought, have your mother ever held you in
her arms?
Probably not.
I stood near the incubator, leaned down and reached for her tiny hand; it
took her whole fist to cover the tip of my thumb.
But her grip is strong, there was life. I gently touched her head, the
hair was soft, it wouldn't last long, new hair would grow. I pried off her
hand with another finger. I
straightened my pose.
"Small, isn't she?" He asked.
"Yes." My eyes were almost mesmerized by the little body. Her
movements were jerky, her head jerked to the other side as I walked round the
incubator she followed me with her eyes. "Quite alive."
"Does she look like her mother or her father?"
"Too early to tell."
"Okay, what about her eyes? Aren't they you're sister's brown?"
I glanced at him, "They could also be my mother's dark eyes, don't
romanticize this."
He shrugged, "But she may have her father's eyes."
"She's nothing like Lynn," I said, "Lynn's much like his
father, light brown hair, green eyes, he even got his father's nose and lips,
his frame even."
"She's nothing like Lynn."
"No, for one, she's going to be much like her mother. Her hair is
dark, that is not a characteristic of her husband's family."
"I think she's got Mia's eyes." He said leaning down to have a
better look. "Hey there little kid, you'll be seeing a lot of me when you
grow up."
"Uhuh." I said, "Why couldn't they be her father's? Her gaze
would probably haunt Lynn for the
rest of his life. I'll be glade for that. Even if she didn't have her
fathers eyes, her mothers eyes would be just as haunting." I shook my head.
"Ah, yes. You reminded me." He said.
"You said you had something about Lynn."
"Yes I did. This may come to you as a surprise but Lynn wasn't lucid
when he killed his father."
"You bought his story?"
"I have scientific evidence for it." He said slowly, "It isn't
that he's autistic, I'm afraid its much more serious than that."
"Yes, it is? How so?"
He hesitated, "The doctor I assigned ordered a CT scan."
"And?"
"I'm afraid there's something wrong with Lynn, the doctors who were
previously observing him took it as something else."
I looked up at him he was serious? "What did the CT scan show?"
"He has a brain tumor."
"What?" I turned to face him.
"I know it's a surprise." He paused again.
"Is it still operable?"
"No, it may have been some time ago."
"How much does he have left?" I asked, I looked down again at
Annabelle.
"A year. Maybe two."
"Oh, god." I said, looking at Mac, "So it wasn't his fault
entirely."
"He doesn't know yet."
"And you want me to break the news?" I laughed, "You know he
doesn't like me, and besides, I've never been good with kids."
"Actually I had something else in mind."
That made me stare.
"The Sasi still need him for…for what we disused."
I sighed, "He doesn't know. He will not know and he will do it,
that's what you want to hear. Do I really have a choice in this?"
"I'll see that you have Annabelle were you please major general, but
for now, good luck."
"Good luck?" I echoed.
"Come on major general. I'm afraid all this family business is
diverting your attention. We have business to take care of, I need you to talk
to Prince Noroa, they still are wondering why their communications are
jammed."
"You're using me?"
"It's all part of the plot, Asi, it'll be an irony I'll tell you
this much."
"What? You're going to make a living fool of me?"
"You'll do for the job and well, you would be no fool, brutal yes,
cold? Yes, besides you already have a reputation for hating Andalites, what's
the harm in taking it a step further. Do not worry major general."
"But I do." I muttered, "I do."
