The Palisades, Ashakiran Planet
Michael hated to admit it, but he was bored shitless.
He sat, feet up on the railing, looking out across the upper Clearwater Valley as it faded away into the haze of another long, hot day. The family retreat in the mountains was one of the best places in humanspace, but for Michael it rapidly was becoming a prison, one he had been confined to ever since he had been discharged from the hospital almost three months earlier.
Visitors were strictly forbidden, even Anna, much to his frustration. He was not even allowed to tell her that not only had he survived the loss of the Ishaq, he was back home. He effectively was being held incommunicado under house arrest, and that was no fun.
His emphatic refusal to resign from the Fleet was now a major source of friction within his family, to the point where he barely talked to his parents anymore. With little else to do, he was watching so many trashy holovids that he was beginning to go slowly nuts, and, he reminded himself as he tossed an empty beer bottle into the bin before comming the housebot to bring him another, he was definitely drinking too much. Hell with it, he thought as he put another bottle of ice-cold Lethbridge pilsener to his lips, what did it matter?
“Michael. In here, now!” The note of urgent alarm in his dad’s voice got him out of his chair and running into the house in no time.
“What’s up, Dad?”
His father waved an arm at the holovid, his eyes filling with tears. He tried but could not speak as he and Michael watched the grave face of President Diouf as she laid out in chilling detail how the Hammer had been waging a covert campaign against the Federated Worlds. Michael stopped listening. All he could think about was the fact that survivors from the Ishaq must have been found. Thank God for that. He hoped the people he cared for-Fellsworth, Stone, Murphy, and all the rest-had survived.
“. . and so, my fellow citizens, it is with the deepest regret that I have to tell you that as a consequence of what is little more than a sustained campaign of piracy intended to cripple our economy, the Federated Worlds Chamber of Deputies today approved the issue of a notice to the government of the Worlds of the Hammer of Kraa. That notice informs them that a state of unrestricted war is now in force. I signed that notice one hour ago.”
She paused, looking directly at the holocam.
“Let me say this in closing. It will take time. It will take treasure. It will take lives. But we will utterly destroy the current government of the Hammer of Kraa. Until that happy day, the Federated Worlds cannot and will not rest. From now on, one simple phrase will show us the way forward, and it is this: Whatever it takes.”
She paused again. With eyes filled with a sudden, terrible sadness, she continued.
“May God watch over us this day. Thank you for listening.”
Michael’s father sat there unmoving as Michael turned off the holovid. Eventually, a long time later, he spoke, his voice filled with the dying embers of hope destroyed.
“Michael?”
“Yes, Dad?”
“I can’t stop you from doing what you think is right. Promise me that when it’s all over, you’ll come home. Please, promise me!” he said, his voice breaking.
Michael pulled him close and hugged him tight. They stayed that way for a long time.