[FT] The Long Journey Home (AAR) Part 6/6

>>> CONTINUED FROM PART 5 >>>>

 Now Marie knew victory was close, but she had to make this final salvo
count.
She gave the order to fire every remaining missile, the fighters were
told to
break off from the heavy cruiser and concentrate on the opposing carrier
and
she instructed the fleet to drive full ahead and do a 30 degree turn to
starboard. The missiles went in, but she had misjudged the turn, not
badly,
but
enough to make sure not all her beams would have easy targets. Luckily
the
missiles removed the frigate and heavy cruiser before they had an
opportunity
to fire and the fighters crippled the carrier, dancing about it like
insects
about a carcass. The fight was over. Expressions of relief and notes of
triumph
swept across the bridge, the crescendo of exultation swelling around
Marie
just
as her inner tempest of emotion and visceral reactions, spawned by the
confrontation, began to ebb away. As peace slowly returned to those
around
her,
as they bent to the new tasks that came with a battle's end, Marie
became
aware
of a body by her shoulder. She looked up and around into the wide, open
face of
her second in command, Antonie Bruix. 
"It's Zidane, he insists on speaking with you", Bruix surrendered
apologetically.
"That's OK Antonie, I'll speak to him." Marie responded, smiling lightly
and
reaching up to pat Bruix on the shoulder as she slipped past him and
headed
for
her rooms. Zidane was waiting for her, staring out her view port at the
desolation that drifted there. Out of habit Marie glanced out the port
over
Zidane's shoulder, but quickly diverted her eyes and moved past Zidane
to sit
with her back to the scene. For all the cruelness of the interstellar
landscape, for all the ferocity of the acts of creation and extinction
it
witnessed, for all its ineffable emptiness, only sentient life forms had
ever
brought such pitiful desolation to reside there. It was a panorama Marie
did
not wish to partake of.
"How may I help you Intendant?" Marie inquired, adopting the same calm
tone
that descended upon her during battle.
"I think you know why I'm here Admiral." Zidane responded, his tone
equally
calm. Marie was impressed, most politicians she'd encountered would have
been
bellowing.
"We should still reach Sol within 3 days, may be as little as 7 hours
behind
our intended ETA." Marie commented neutrally, her eyes never leaving
Zidane's
face.
"Admiral..." Zidane insisted, his tone a blend of amusement, frustration
and
warning.
"They were NARC, no official NAC sanction I'd say, but I doubt they
discouraged
it either," Marie offered critically.
"Why didn't you tell them this was a UNSC mission?" Zidane pressed.
"We did," Marie paused, "they didn't seem to care".
A shadow fell across Zidane's face, the substantial weight of the
spectre
creasing his brow. He straightened and in a tone low and quiet continued
his
questioning "What were you losses?"
"We lost the Gravina with all hands, the Ribas and De La Vega are hulks,
the
status of the crews are at present unknown, and the Veneto has light
damage,
minimal loss of life." Marie intoned, her dispassionate choice of words
at
odds
with the sigh that accompanied her shifting in the chair.
"A high price. It won't be forgotten." Zidane directed as he stood,
preparing
to leave. Marie nodded in solemn confirmation as she rose and quietly
accompanied him to the door. She watched him move off down the corridor,
sliding unruffled past busy work details, before returning to her desk.
Any
guilt at not remaining with him, to ease the burden of his thoughts, was
banished by the knowledge that he was man enough to reject such
platitudes for
what they were, compassionate, but pointless.
 At the sacrifice of half the ships in her taskforce Marie had gotten
Zidane
through the last of the potentially hostile systems. The Core was only a
stone's throw away now, in galactic terms. As the engineers spent the
next few
hours cycling the engines and preparing to jump, salvage crews would
collect
survivors, evaluate the hulks and activate location beacons so they
could send
a tender to come back and pick up the pieces. Marie would spend those
hours
finding the words to tell the siblings, the spouses, the children and
parents
of yet more effectives who had given up their ebullience, and joined the
ever
growing train of cadaverous hajji, so others wouldn't have to. 

>>>>>>>> END >>>>>>>>>>

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART 
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax (03) 6232 5199 International +61 3 6232 5199

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au