« The True Name of the Schemer!
I was just finishing the walk up from Spacers Point when I guess mortality hit me on the head. I sat down on the bench outside the entrance to the Stuart Compound or “Ft. Stuart” as people were starting to call it.
I leaned back and thought to myself, “Andy, when was the last time you spent a whole day not trying to get ready to win a war?” I realized I could not remember a single day. Gods, what had I promised that faceless voice so long ago?
For all my sins and stupidity, I said yes. Glen Travis was every bit as advertised and fate had thrown me some luck, or had it? I never had asked Ash who signed the orders that put him on that Cruiser or how Gabe had wound up in the Belt at just the right time.
Hamilton may have had friends in high places. Crap, stranger things had happened, just look around. Here you are barely over two hundred days on a frontier planet and you are worrying about super capacitors and DIP logic packages.
Hell, I was turning people away from the Strike Force. We were going to go up there with only the 5 percent who really won wars. We were pretty well locked in on that front and the Rear Command was steady. The major construction programs were in place and Mariana was smiling on the Medical front.
Maybe it really was time to lean back for a while and be Human. Hell, I could run a Training Program in my sleep. Time to spend some time with my wife and get ready to start raising some kids; but, first I had to give Bart a run for his money. I drug my sorry rear end up off the bench and went into the compound.
The first thing I saw was Ash dragging out of his place still toweling his hair, drink in the other hand.
“Your problem Cuz,” I grinned, “not mine!
“Does that mean I’m out of the skull session this afternoon?” Ash asked.
“Hell, I would! Let me grab a shower, come on in and help yourself to a refill. Being as you put half of that one on the ground.
Ash promptly snorted yet more out of his nose.
I stared at the roof, “I can dress ‘em up but I still can’t take ‘em anywhere.
“Thank You, for that succinct summation our resident genius.
The room lost all control at that point. After the raucous laughter died down I resumed.
“Right. All right everyone, this is not life or death. It ain’t about survival of the planet.
This entry was posted	on Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 4:25 pm	and is filed under 9. Crowded House. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.