The sky was light grey. The field was well manicured, the grass wet from the rain. The skies above continued to rain, Smith stared at the black slab in front of him. He looked at the list of names, so many friends, all of them gone forever. His dark brown hair seemed almost black from the raindrops that had fallen onto it. His tan coat was becoming darker as it absorbed more and more water. He was trying not to cry. But he wasn't sure he could keep the tears back much longer.
Beside him Nyamo stared at the wall too. The wall had an unusual quality to it. It was almost like looking at a yearbook, except you didn't want to know any of the names. Nyamo still had trouble with her memories of the Hercules. That was why she had left the Navy. The Hercules was why Smith had left too.
Smith reached out gently grabbing her left hand. She gave his a slight squeeze. At this point neither of them could hold back their tears. Smith turned his face towards Nyamo's.
"Hey," he said, "you cryin'?"
"N-no I not," Nyamo lied with a slight sob, "The rain is just dripping down my face. That's all."
"Like I told you before, you need to work on your lies…and your grammar."
Smith and Nyamo turned to see Kagura standing next to them. She was dressed in a black uniform with a white hat on, four gold stripes and a star covered both her shoulders. Kagura had been promoted to Captain USN.
Kagura looked at the two of them standing together. Their hands still clasped together. The American and the Japanese made a strange couple. Kagura didn't really care. She noticed a glint of light on Nyamo's right hand.
"Is that a ring Nyamo?" Kagura asked.
"Yep," she replied, "Smith proposed to me two days ago."
Kagura thought about how her own life. So many things, so many of them things she wanted to forget. It sometimes seemed like God hated her for something. She looked at Nyamo again. Back in high school Nyamo had always been the youngest of her group of friends. That was even more apparent now.
Kagura felt old, her lifetime of being a commando coming back to haunt her. Most of the friends she had made were dead now. She'd never had too many of them to begin with, now she only had one. Better make that two, Kagura thought.
"What brings you here Captain?" Smith asked.
"That doesn't matter," Kagura said, "What matters is when I need to attend the wedding."
"Um," said Smith, "Minamo and I haven't quite decided that…."
"You've got time," replied Kagura. "But there's something else, the real reason I'm here is because I'm going to watch the executions of the OMNI members involved in our time aboard the Hercules. Thought I'd stop by, just to make sure my daughter doesn't have her father buried next to her." That wasn't the only reason Kagura was here though. She turned towards the wall. Looking at all the names she finally found it, Ayumu Kasuga, Kagura's oldest friend. Staring at the wall Kagura removed her white Captain's hat. Letting out a soft sigh she put it back on.
"It's hard to look at isn't it?" Smith asked Kagura.
"It's not as hard as it was to make sure this never happens again. It's been over six months now and I've only managed to press criminal charges on OMNI members two weeks ago. If I've done my job well enough that 'intelligence agency' won't be able to survive the politics of the situation."
"Wait a minute…. You took down OMNI?" Smith asked. "How did you manage to do that?"
"That's one of the first things they teach you in SEAL training, speed and stamina. Those six months earned me another gold stripe. I just hope that they're really gone for good."
"Me too," said Smith. Smith looked at the woman; it was clear to him that size wasn't everything. "Say, what did you mean when you said you didn't want your daughter to have her father buried next to her?"
"Captain Franklin P. Howard wasn't really a captain, he was a colonel. In order to get approval from OMNI Central Command he needed the support of another high ranking officer. Only one was willing to help. That man's name is Colonel Thomas V. Keith. I dated him for awhile. After five years he left me pregnant and with what was once thought to be an incurable strain of syphilis. I'd always thought that he'd died from the disease, but before being assigned to the Hercules I learned he was still alive. His execution is scheduled for two o'clock."
"How did your daughter die?" Smith asked.
"Miscarriage," Kagura answered. "I don't want her tarnished by her father's stinking corpse." Kagura moved over to a small cross. Reaching inside her coat she pulled out a white rose which she propped up against the grave marker.
"We'd better get out of this rain," said Nyamo, "before we join them." Minamo pointed her hand towards the wall with the list of those who had died onboard the Hercules from its last voyage.
"You two go ahead," said Kagura. She watched the two of them head towards their car. Smith got into the driver's seat, he looked at Kagura. Nyamo waved to her as the two of them drove away. Kagura reached into her coat pulling out a HK 45SV. Turning it over in her hands Kagura looked at the small cross signifying where her daughter was on Earth. I don't really know what I want, Kagura thought to herself. As she turned the pistol over she thought about her friends. She could see herself standing next to Osaka, Yukari, and Nyamo. She saw herself standing next to her friends from the SEALs. Jeffery, Maddie, Ron, Lincoln. Then she saw how Jeffery had fallen off of the bridge in Ghana. She saw how Maddie had been sent to her death by the careless actions of a garbage barge. She saw Ron run over by a friendly APC. The image of Lincoln being struck by a sniper round filled her head. Finally she saw Alvarez's bloody corpse lying on the floor next to the android that had killed him.
Kagura stopped playing with the weapon. She placed her favorite handgun back into her coat. Looking up from the grave marker Kagura headed towards her Toyota. She couldn't die. At least not before Tom.