Chapter 15: The Collectable
". . . so we left Clarence on Darga Space Port and kinda forgot to return Chuckie. He doesn't do anything, so he's a lot more useful than Clarence. We were tracking down my mom when we flew smack into a temporal worm and landed in the Ziga Turi system five minutes before the Kalibar self-destructed."
He had been talking for hours, occasionally backtracking or going on tangents, but Avocato managed to keep him fairly well on track throughout the whole convoluted mess of their adventures, misadventures, and occasional forays into the unbelievable. The general seemed bemused but accepting that he and Gary were friends, and agreed with Gary's assessment that the pool of candidates was pretty small when he'd asked Gary to take care of Little Cato. He wasn't even upset or put out when Gary nervously told him about adopting Little Cato, clearly filing that under 'taking care.' Little Cato being isolated for sixty years, losing his memory, and the threat of Invictus seemed to affect him far more anything else he heard, even being killed, and then mostly because of the effect those events had on his son and supposed friend. Avocato's whispered, 'I'm sorry I shot you, but I'm glad he stopped me,' spoke volumes. It took a lot and a long time for Gary to reassure Avocato that his son, though not completely over his traumas, was doing well and could separate his younger warlord dad from the cranky bounty hunter or the crazed, Invictus-occupied one.
"Just keep being confused," advised Gary, sitting back. He was rather amazed that he'd actually reached the end of their history. Hearing it out loud made it seem as odd as having lived through it all. "I think the uniform helps, too."
"That would be a first. That's quite a fantastic story," Avocato stated, not even questioning the need to maintain his bewilderment since at the moment it was pretty effortless. "How tall was I?"
"About yo," said Gary, holding his hand about five inches over the table. "You were your own action figure. It would have been funny as hell except we were getting beaten up by murder moths."
"And my clothes and guns shrank, too?"
Gary blinked, realizing for the first time that was exactly what had happened, and said, "For which we were all grateful."
"Mmm. And in the Lazarus Trap we were attacked by cookies that had lasers shooting out of their eyes." He pronounced the word 'cookies' with care, trying to get it right the first time.
"And tridents."
"And tridents. And cookies are . . . food, yes?"
"Tragically. Those delicious-looking little killer confections scarred me for like, a whole day."
"They have eyes? Are they usually alive?"
"No and only in my worst nightmares."
"But you married one."
"Only in my dreams. I know it sounds too crazy to believe."
"No. I've seen too much to question a story like that. I've met members of the Order of the Twelve. They're as weird as you say. I know that's my boy. I know the Infinity Guard is completely corrupt even though they put on a nice façade. And I've always known the Lord Commander would kill me some day."
Gary grimaced at the blunt statement, delivered so calmly. "Little Cato told me you were the price Ventrexia paid to keep from being destroyed."
With a sigh, he nodded. "Just as you paid a price to break time and get me back. The Lord Commander likes to collect things. He likes things that are rare or powerful or useful as leverage. He's got warehouses filled to the brim and you saw the zoo he keeps."
"That's where Mooncake was being held. I let him go so he could go find me."
"Well, I'm one of those things the Lord Commander collected, only I can't be kept in a zoo. I'm too valuable not to use. Instead he keeps me trapped by surrounding me with things I care about and the constant threat that they can be taken from me: my home, my people, my friends, my son, every ship I command. He'll never let me leave his service alive. He's too petty. Yes, I serve the Lord Commander. Yes, I follow orders. I gave my word I would. I don't want to, but if I don't, believe me when I say someone a lot worse will step into my place. Someone who doesn't care and doesn't need to be controlled and just wants to destroy."
He asked the question that was gnawing at him. "Why you, Avocato?"
Avocato sighed again, closing his eyes before saying in a sharp voice, "Because I'm the best and most capable military commander in this sector of the universe, that's why."
He wasn't bragging. He was stating a simple fact – or understating it, really, because capable didn't begin to describe what it took to run an empire. But even Gary, who barely knew this Avocato, could read between the lines and see the sheer courage and genius sitting opposite him. Avocato fell back in his chair, gazing at Gary a long moment before coming to a decision.
It was only later that Gary realized that was the moment Avocato had decided to trust him.
"Ventrexia and Tryvuul have been at war for a thousand years," spat Avocato, and Gary knew that this was the first time he had ever given vent to his emotion. "I had a chance to end it, so I did. I did my job as a soldier. I lightfolded my ships into Tryvuul's atmosphere, past their battle lines so we had their fleet surrounded and their capitol city in our sites. We never fired a shot. We didn't have to. Tryvuul sued for peace and I gave it to them. Pretty heroic stuff, right? How sick is it that I regret ending a war? If I hadn't, if I'd been selfish and average and obeyed orders, I'd just be another colonel in the Ventrexian military and the Lord Commander never would have heard the name Avocato and I might have been home when she-"
He stopped, shutting his mouth and looking away. Gary could feel the weight of his grief – grief which Avocato had locked away and never dealt with, never looked at until now. He'd never allowed himself. There had never been time or a safe place to give in and feel the loss he had endured.
"Your wife?"
He nodded, devastated afresh, but having opened the subject, he was disinclined to shut it down even if he could. "Purrsis. It was an arranged marriage, but we were making it work. She had so many problems carrying Little Cato that we never expected to have any more children after him. I had no idea she was pregnant when I left for Tryvuul. She wanted to surprise me. I lost her and our daughter. I had no idea until I got home. Communication blackouts are standard operations in combat zones, but something like that should have gotten through. My high command wouldn't let me or Nikos find out. They saw I had a chance to end things and didn't want to risk distracting me."
Gary let out a long breath, closing his eyes.
"I reached Ventrexia after the Lord Commander and his battle fleet did. I was recovering from radiation poisoning from lightfolding in an atmosphere and just wanted to rest and be home. Instead my brother told me my wife was dead, along with the daughter I didn't know I was going to have. That same day my king told me the Lord Commander 'requested' my service as his new fleet commander. He was poised to wipe out my planet if I refused. What choice did I have? I didn't even have a chance to visit her tomb."
Spent, Avocato folded his arms and sighed, not looking at Gary. The gnawing pain of this betrayal was evident in his body language and expression. That the Lord Commander reduced him to a collectable was not nearly as distressing as his own command turning him into a commodity to buy peace. But they had been frightened, and Gary knew that if he couldn't blame the Ventrexian government for their fear, Avocato really didn't as well. He blamed his superiors in the military. It was when people you should have been able to trust, who you wanted to trust, let you down that the worst betrayal happened.
He knew the feeling.
Big time.
"That's the gist of what I'm doing here, Captain Goodspeed." He abruptly stood up, pushing away from the table and taking a few steps away. "If people want to call me bitter or cruel, I can't argue with them. I am. I am enslaved to a monster who will never let me leave alive."
Gary stared at his back in stricken realization, his thoughts going not to the Lord Commander, but Invictus, and felt a stab of genuine fear for what that meant.
"We got you back," he swore quietly, trying to offer some semblance of comfort. "We never gave up. We never will give up. We're not just friends. We're family. Listen, Cato." He hesitated a moment, then reached out to him. "We shook on it, back when you did the surgery to give me this arm. I swore that I'd stick close to you through thick and thin and thinner and nothing. I've got your back. I always will."
Avocato stiffened, and Gary would have sworn the temperature in the room dropped a good twenty degrees. He turned sharply and in a deep, growling voice demanded, "What?"
Taken aback by a reaction so extreme and severe, Gary hastily drew his hand out of range and explained. "We made a pact. I promised to help you get Little Cato back. You promised me to help me protect Mooncake."
"What?" Avocato stared at him with something akin to horror on his face. Finally, he managed to blink and almost shouted, "Are you telling me we're married?"