Messages from Home
© 2022 by Walter Reimer


Thumbnail art by  rabbi-tom



The crews of Meritorious, Rapacity, and Respectful, minus the dead and wounded, had been transferred to the three cruisers that had survived the battle. It made up the shortage in numbers, and with the ships roughly similar there were no problems in integrating the new crewmembers into each ship’s operations.

Bōank had been repaired sufficiently to make it the dockyard in the This Far system; Courage and Valorous would be headed to Wangguan. The cruiser was limited to only fifty percent of its hyperspace velocity to avoid placing undue stress on the engines and the hyperfield emitter network.

And Varan had another Battle Honor award on her formal uniform. She was more than a bit ambivalent about it, but it was a monument to the memories of those under her command who had not survived.

A small repair ship accompanied the cruiser to the Imperial dockyard at This Far in the case something happened, but the journey had been uneventful, and as the two ships outphased the hyperspace buoy network downloaded mail and other data to them.

Varan was in the command center as the Pilot picked his way around the other insystem traffic. She glanced down at her repeater screen and smiled as she saw the number and origin of a few of the messages. “Duty Officer.”

“Ma’am?”

“I shall be in my office if anything happens.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” The vir took Varan’s seat as she vacated it and stepped into the small room adjoining the command center. Once there, she accessed her messages.

She scrolled past the various reports and news items to read one from her older sister. Their mother had remarried, and Varan resolved to go home and meet her new father as soon as she could get leave confirmed.

The next message was from Meredith, and included the latest game module. The golden palomino mare related that she and Fuji were doing well, and she was quite pleased with her new job on Downtime Station. Her pregnancy was proceeding, although Varan suspected that her lover was being sarcastic when she said that she was doing well.

Not wanting to use the office’s emitter system, the vir settled for reading the module’s summary. She’d look over the whole thing . . .

Her face twisted in a grimace at what had happened to her and Meredith, but it was tempered by the satisfaction of knowing that they had finally retrieved all three parts of the Amulet of Asininity, and with luck they could finally reach the end of the game. She closed the module and sat there for a few fractions, thinking.

Her ears perked as the Command-Second called. “Captain?”

“Yes, Subcaptain?”

“Advise that we have docked, Ma’am. The ship is secure.”

“Very well. Thank you very much, Subcaptain. Has the dock supervisor contacted us yet?”

“He has, Ma’am. Housing has been arranged for the crew.”

She smiled. “Excellent. After everyone’s left, I’ll move my things over to the station. Thank you.”

“Ma’am.” The channel closed.

The vir sat at her desk, tapping her fingerclaws against the desktop for a moment before a memory surfaced: Meredith’s father Javid telling her that she could call on them any time. The stallion had called her ‘little girl’ when he had made the offer.

And she sat back, chuckling as she realized that, like other members of the Combined Services, she had two families. Her actual family, to be sure; and the unit or ship she was assigned to.

But she had a third family, in a sense.

It took a few cycles, but as soon as she was in temporary quarters she accessed the local datanet and placed a call.

It was Thea, Meredith’s birth mother, who appeared on the screen, and the mare smiled. “Hello, Varan! How are you?”

“I’m well, thank you, Thea. How are you, Marie and Javid?”

“They’re fine."

“And the . . . colts?”

“Amir and Berto are both fine.” The mare cocked her ears. “Are you certain you’re all right, Varan? We’ve heard infonet reports of something going on.”

Varan smiled. “My ship is here for repairs. Would it be all right if I came by to talk?”

“Of course it’d be all right! Will you want something to eat?”

It was a kind and generous offer, but Varan held up a hand. “No, that won’t be necessary, but thank you for the kindness. I just want to talk.”

“I’ll tell Javid and Marie.”