Title: Rescue Run

Author: Lady Rheena

Genres: Alternate Universe, Action/Adventure, Romance

Rating: R

Disclaimer: If you recognise it from a fandom, I probably don't own it. That includes the world of The Matrix, all its characters and the concepts it entails. The idea of the Fleet and the Planetary Coalition are technically my own, but you'll probably recognise bits and pieces from various sci-fi media.

Chapter notes: If you think this is cheesy then bully for you. I like happy endings. Big stirring music time.

Part 30- Changing Fates

Six days later, however, oblivion was the furthest thing from Dena's mind. In fact mostly at the forefront was the fact that her dress uniform, formerly a perfect tailored fit, was now a little too big for her and the slightly overlarge collar was chafing at the nape of her neck. The only way she could account for her sudden weight loss was the sparseness of the Zion diet she'd been on for the past eight months, since her level of physical activity hadn't been substantially different from usual. She was also experiencing a definite craving for chocolate chip cookies, most probably because of long abstinence from her favourite treat, which did not at all suit the formality of the current proceedings. Fleet formal affairs were usually pleasant enough, if they were purely internal, but when the Congress got involved somehow everything turned stuffy and over flamboyant…

At the moment Congressman Gershin was giving a long and eloquent speech, addressed mainly to the former military personnel of Zion and their close families who were gathered on the upper balconies. Commander Pryce, who was sitting behind the speaker's podium on the platform along with Lock, the Zion Council, Fleet Admiral Greys and two other congressmen, was a veteran of Gershin's legendary speeches but nonetheless looked like he almost was starting to nod. Dena, seated with her squadron near the front of the rows of chairs assembled before the platform, was beginning to struggle to keep a straight face.

'…and so it is with glad heart that I present D-441 of Capella to the people of Zion, that they may hold it, prove it and treasure it in the same spirit with which it is given.' There was a smattering of polite applause from the gathered Fleet officers, bolstered considerably by the more enthusiastic clapping from the former Zionites on the balcony levels above. Gershin beamed at his audience. 'And now I believe Admiral Greys wishes to address us.'

He sat as Greys, an extremely tall and serious-looking man with black hair that was just beginning to acquire a tinge of natural grey at the temples, stood. Now Dena perked up a little, banishing the considerations of an itchy neck and a plateful of cookies to the back of her mind to pay attention to the admiral's words.

'Everyone in this room who was a schoolchild on any Coalition world has studied the Machine War in their history classes. It's something our scholars speculate about since we have so little information on the precise events that took place after the blackening of the Terran sky. It's something children write essays about, what young students might produce a dissertation on if they choose to specialise in ancient history at college. But in this room with us, ladies and gentlemen, are people who have not written essays or dissertations, have not studied or speculated about the war. They have lived it. In their minds many are still living it. They have fought, they have seen friends and loved ones die, they have probably come close to death themselves. They have known what none of us really can claim to have experienced- conflict, hardship, fear for their very lives. Yet through all this they have survived, borne children, carved out a niche for themselves in the middle of a battleground on a dead planet. We all know this- this is why planet D-441 is now named Zion, why this haulier supership is even as we speak taking on board supplies and materials to begin a new colony on that planet with these remarkable people as its populace. However I must confess, despite the decision of the Congress and the jubilation this has no doubt caused…' he looked up from the podium for a moment and grinned openly at his audience '…I find this a tad annoying. Soldiers this good, and they're being banished planetside on some new colony world? It's a waste, a damn waste, and as the head of the Coalition's defence Fleet I think I'm fully justified in being as loud and annoyed about this as I intend to be later, after the recorders have gone off.' This prompted some laughter from the Fleet and Dena wanted to smack herself on the forehead. She should've known- Grey had risen through the ranks by cruiser and fighter captaincies. He wasn't any pencil-pushing ass shiner, not by a long stretch.

'However what does give me pleasure,' Greys announced, more sombrely, 'Is to announce that a full and adaptable training crew are being transferred to the Gormenghast with orders to improvise around the existing expertise of Zion's personnel and, with any luck, make Fleet out of some of 'em.' Glancing upwards slightly to address those on the balconies, he went on, 'I sincerely hope some of you choose to join us. Now, on a more celebratory rather than cantankerous note, I am very privileged to exercise one of the best parts of my authority today. The following personnel are to receive commendations for their performances during the evacuation-' he then read out a long list of names and reasons, which Dena was glad to note included 'Ensign Connor Galaway, for flying above and beyond the call of duty under exceptional circumstances.' That kid deserved to go far and fast. And he was fighter qualified…now there was something to consider, especially since Tom Derres in her squad was transferring out to go planetside after acquiring a strange desire to settle down, whatever that meant.

'It also gives me great pleasure,' Greys was now saying, 'To award the Celeste medal for courage under fire to Gunnery Lieutenant Louise Davis, currently attached to the Desperadoes fighter squadron.'

'All right, go Lu!' Dena hissed, giving her friend a shove. Lu, grinning fit to split her face in two, strode up to the podium and threw a crisp salute as Greys attached the thumbprint-sized silver medallion to the breast pocket of her dress uniform while everyone clapped. She stuck her tongue out at Dena as she sauntered back to her seat. But Greys' face had taken a quite serious cast when he spoke again.

'Courage under hostile fire is never an easy situation. We have the better part of a quarter of a million people on this ship who can testify to that, and I respect and admire every one of them. But even more so I admire faith. Faith to carry on against all odds, to never lose sight of a goal despite having little real hope of achieving that goal- conviction, to not only get oneself out of a situation but to change that entire situation for a whole and in this case very large number of others.' He stepped back from the podium slightly and looked up with a smile in his eyes. 'I am therefore honoured to award the Utopia Planitia medal, for outstanding and exceptional performance under circumstances for which the label trying is more than merely inadequate, to Captain Dena Reese, currently in command of the Desperadoes fighter squadron.'

'All right go you,' Lu said in an undertone as her captain stood up.

'Shut your damned mouth,' Dena hissed in reply as, blushing, she made her way up to the platform and threw her salute, keeping her eyes fixed on an indeterminate point in the middle distance as Greys fixed the medal to her uniform. Then, to her lasting mortification, he stepped back and saluted her, then insisted on shaking her hand before he let her return to her seat. By this time the clapping from her squad had risen to cheers and cat-calls that made her grin despite her embarrassment as she sat.

Greys gave out two more medals- one to Estalla, for the defensive work he'd headed up on the Voltaire, and one to Pryce for exceptional command of a more than difficult evacuation procedure, which made Dena feel a little better since the present officers of the two ships cheered and hooted at their respective commanding officers with traditional gay abandon. Then, surprising everyone, Greys relinquished the stand to Councillor Hamaan, of all people.

'Well I confess I'm a sucker for this kind of speech-making so I'm rather enamoured of this place already,' was Hamaan's opening line, which got an immediate laugh from the Fleet even if Gershin looked vaguely shocked- a politician with a sense of humour? Unheard of! 'However much as I would love to stand here on behalf of all Zion and rant on about our sheer gratefulness to the Fleet, the Congress, the entire Coalition, I do actually have something I wish to do instead.' Once the chuckling had died down he became serious. 'There is- was- only ever one medal in Zion. When a battle's still in progress you don't normally take time out for award ceremonies, but there have been two awarded in my lifetime. Given how old I obviously am, that should get across how rare it is.' More laughter, which died quickly. 'But there is occasionally some happening, some feat by an individual that deserves to be held up on high for everyone to see.' He withdrew something from his robes and held it up- a narrow strip of thin blue-dyed Zion cloth with a single hammered piece of mostly circular metal attached to the end by means of a bored hole through which the cloth knotted. 'Made sure I brought this up with me. It's the Zion Star. Doesn't look like much, I know. But this one in particular means a lot, and not just because it's the last one that will ever be awarded.' He paused for impact. 'It means a lot because the person who I am going to give this to managed to change the world for quarter of a million people. I'd like to think that along the way, perhaps we managed to change the world a little for her too.'

He means me, Dena thought, feeling her eyes start to well up. Oh, SHIT.

'Of course when I say I am going to give this to, technically I'd be lying,' Hamaan added, looking at the battered medallion speculatively. 'Traditionally, Councillor Dillard handles this kind of thing.' He sighed with exaggerated wistfulness. 'I tried to arm-wrestle her out of it-' this again prompted some laughs '-as did quite a few other people, but I'm sorry to say I wasn't the man who won. Commander, as you insist?'

Lock rose, taking both the medal and the place at the podium as Hamaan sat down.

'I'm afraid I don't have much of a head for speeches, so I'll cut to the chase,' he said simply. 'Captain Reese, I'm sorry to get you up again but as everyone knows, this is for you.'

Torn between blushing and openly weeping, Dena stood once more and managed to make it to the dais again, throwing another salute without thinking. Lock returned it and then fixed the makeshift medal next to the shining Utopia Planitia and her previous Celeste that she'd earned in the evacuation of the Solaris colony. Then he held out a hand and she dropped the salute to shake it, feeling more emotion through that contact than a whole conversation could ever hope to impart. She threw a final salute and then hastened back down, glancing up only to briefly notice that this time there were no cheers or cat-calls, even from her squad. Lu was applauding so hard her entire torso was moving, and the smile on her face was pure warmth. As she sat, Dena felt hands brush briefly against her shoulders- Ozzy, Blazzo, Red, Arron- and had to swallow convulsively against the unexpected knot in her throat as Greys once more took the stand. She felt a sudden, unexpected pang of regret that Niobe, Ghost and most especially Sparks weren't sitting near enough to her to share the moment with.

'We're almost done, for those whose buttocks can't stand much more,' he said, which she was grateful for as it immediately lightened the suddenly solemn mood. 'Now as we all know it's a little…unorthodox, to say the least, for non-Fleet personnel to receive Fleet commendations. But given the circumstances and the undoubtedly similar nature of their past duties, I and the rest of Fleet Command deem it suitable in these cases. Therefore the Radolphi Medal for services to humanity goes to the following former Zion officers- Desano, Zanzari, Gilligan, Mifune-' that made Dena add her voice to the cheering '- Ulysses, Horajon, and Commander Jason Lock.' Now the noise, especially from the balconies, was at ear-splitting level as one by one the blushing former Terrans came up to receive their medals. The first six were the heads of the major Zion defence corps- infantry, engineering, perimeter guard, APU and so forth. Dena privately thought that nobody deserved that medal more than Jason Lock and hoped that from now on any references to 'ol' Deadbolt' would be made with more affection than malice. The officers seemed to be sitting up near the back on the ground level so they must have been caught earlier and herded down there on the basis of being department heads, since from the bewildered looks on their faces they hadn't been given any prewarning. In fact Dena doubted that anyone except Greys, the Congress and very possibly Commander Pryce had known exactly what was going to happen at this particular awards ceremony.

'Lastly, to bring this to a close before we all lose our throats and get raw palms,' Greys said, 'I wish to award the Celeste Medal for courage under fire, water, vacuum, hull sealant, sentinel attacks and much else besides to the crew of the Logos, the gallant vessel to whom so many now owe so much.' Beaming, he read out the names without so much as a blink at their unusualness. 'Captain Niobe, first mate Ghost, and operator Sparks.'

'How in the hell-' Dena found herself muttering, but there was no mistaking the three figures that made their way somewhat sheepishly down the central aisle onto the platform. They were wearing the closest Zion equivalent to dress uniform, which amounted to a thicker knitted wraparound sweater; Niobe's the rich cranberry of ship captaincy, Ghost and Sparks' a deep navy blue. All three managed something of a salute but kept their heads down, trying to hide their faces in sheer embarrassment. Dena heard herself laugh, all melancholy dispersed as she felt like her heart would burst from her chest in delight and pride for her three friends, and she clapped and cheered just as loudly as the rest.

'Hey, Diz,' Lu leaned over to say in her ear. 'Tall one, spiky hair, nice shoulders?'

'What about him?'

'Your piece of ass, right?'

Dena nearly gave an outright guffaw as she contemplated Sparks' reaction to being called a piece of anybody's ass, but composed herself enough to reply.

'If that's how you want to put it, yeah.'

'Not bad,' Lu said. 'Can I borrow him?'

'Piss off, Lieutenant.'

'As you say, Captain.' Then she gave an impish grin and a wink. 'Can't blame a girl for trying.'

'Indeed,' Dena replied, then returned her concentration to applauding and laughing. The volume from the balconies rose higher and higher until it drowned out everything else, as the people of Zion paid tribute to the trio who had done the very nearly impossible and changed their people's fate forever.