3.20.
Opala watched as the latest group of Europeans signed up to relocate to the Acklatic empire rather than remaining in their homelands to help rebuild. She was disappointed in them, but she couldn’t really blame them either.
She had established the computer systems that they were using for the process. They were, perhaps ironically, Rocktala systems. The Rocktala computers were robust and easy to use, which is the primary reason why they were often given to Yonohoan children. They were only ‘primitive’ in the fact that that they were built based on binary rather than the more complex hexadecimal system of holographic thinking machines.
And they didn’t develop personalities or make leaps of logic. They were machines, clear and simple. They made poor companions but excellent tools.
A lot like the computer systems of Earth, for that matter.
The Rocktala library she had provided this city had built itself with nanites like everything else she had provided during her weeks of serving these people. They drew their power from a small strange-matter reactor which was powering the entire complex that she intended to leave behind for them. Her own ship was working hard to generate strange-matter at a ridiculous rate in order to keep up with the energy demands of these refugees.
Not because they were greedy, but because it was the primary limitation on the rate at which she could provide them with aid.
As she watched the families apply for immigration to the luxurious worlds of the Acklatic, she smiled sadly. She had enjoyed helping these people, and while she took pride in that, she also regretted the necessity. She would rather continue her service to mankind in this fashion than to fight in combat. But her service was only necessary because this world had been fired upon in the opening of a war which would cost millions, perhaps billions of lives.
She was returning to her relief-dropship when she felt predatory eyes upon her. She spun about and saw the form of a teenage girl looking at her. The expression on the girl’s face was not one of awe or gratitude. It was a calculated expression of evaluation.
“May I help you?” Opala asked.
“You have been lax in your duty to these people,” the girl said. “You have been providing them shelter, but not the ability to defend themselves. Explain.”
Opala’s blood went cold as the woman spoke to her in High-Yonohoan. She answered in the same language. “You are one of the scouts who arrived from Taskforce Ragnarok?”
“I am,” the girl agreed. “Why are you not arming these people? You have the capacity. Why--”
“I was ordered to provide shelter and support to their local governments. Not weapons,” Opala explained.
“Your commanding officers are idiots, then. I will demonstrate why,” the scout said.
A flash of light and a whirr of matter, and the girl was abruptly embraced in a suit of scout class power armor. Opala answered the threat by activating her own armor.
The people around them ran screaming as the clash between the scout and the aid worker began. Twenty minutes later, half of Opala’s hard work in creating shelters and aid stations were destroyed.
And her ship had a line burned into its hull where a low power plasma lance had swiped it. If the scout hadn’t deliberately reduced the power of the weapon, then the ship would have been utterly destroyed.
Opala lay in the dirt where the final blow of the battle had sent her, waiting for her suit to unlock and her systems to recover. She stood to see that the scout was gone.
She looked around at the devastation. The ‘lesson’ at the vulnerability of these people, as though Opala wasn’t already aware of exactly how precarious their situation was. Metaphorically rolling up her sleeves, Opala got back to work, repairing the damage that had just been caused.
~~~~~~
The girls finished helping Sarah into the white dress, chattering and laughing at the joy of the occasion. Mirella, Vanya and Alaria, the three girls who Sarah had grown closest to on the Toormonda, had been excited and honored to be her bridesmaids when she had asked them and had eagerly researched everything that there was to know about the position once they gained access to Earth’s internet.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The results were … interesting.
They had dragged her onto the mars-space station and they had gone from canteen to canteen announcing that they were celebrating a ‘bachelorette party’ and trying to get the service men that they came across to strip for them by bribing them with alcoholic drinks that were generated by the Toormonda’s food forge.
The results had been surprising, as the party had quickly built up on the station. Sarah had expected the officers to put a stop to it, but she had seen one of the admirals doing body-shots off of one of the Triumverants’ subordinates, so … yeah, that was a thing.
The boys had gotten into the action, throwing Dornodo a party of his own which was by all accounts just as rowdy as hers had been.
When the word had gotten out that she intended to have the wedding as soon as possible, the admiral – he of the body-shots – had offered her the primary mess hall of the station as a venue. It wasn’t quite what she had dreamed of as a little girl. But while she wasn’t the first person to get married in space (that honor had gone to a billionaire and his wife thirty years ago), hers would be the first wedding at the Mars-station.
So she’d accepted.
The ability to include the Yonohoan teenagers from the Toormonda was a significant part of the decision. They had all agreed to delay their return to planet Totola in order to attend her wedding, so having the wedding at the space-station simplified thing for them significantly.
She placed a small film in her mouth which dissolved immediately. It helped with her nerves, butterflies, and settled a bit of her remaining morning sickness. Yonohoan medicine truly was the best.
“Are you happy?” Vanya asked. “It would be most disappointing if you suddenly changed your mind and ‘jilted’ Dornodo.”
“I’m not going to jilt him, Vanya,” Sarah said, swiping at the girl who was wearing an emerald dress. Like Sarah, they had gotten creative with the material printer in creating their clothes for the day. It was a mixture of classical wedding dress and practicality considering that they were, after all, aboard an advanced space station.
“No? Perhaps we should delay an extra ten minutes to make him sweat,” Mirella suggested.
“We’re going to follow the program exactly. This is a military station, and a lot of the guests are here on their time off to celebrate with us. Some of them had to file official requests to attend” Sarah said. “It would be rude.”
Mirella seemed chastised at the reminder. “I was only joking.”
“I know,” Sarah said. “Come, it’s almost time. Let’s go.”
Her bridesmaids proceeded ahead of her through the mess hall, which had been hastily reconfigured with a table to serve as an altar. The other tables had been cleared away. In the front of the room, benches served as pews, but there wasn’t enough for everyone and the rear of the room was standing-room-only.
The Wedding March began to play over the stations speakers, and with a smile that was nearly a rictus, Sarah made her procession with her bridesmaids to stand next to Dornodo and take his hand.
The music came to an end, and the admiral who was officiating the ceremony cleared his throat.
“Right. We’re all either military or have been military or understand what it is to be military, so while this is a wonderful and beautiful occasion I’m not going to give a thirty minute sermon. We are gathered her today to witness the Joining of Sarah Renfield and Dornodo of the Yonohoah. And, symbolically, we are also witnessing a joining between the peoples of Earth and the peoples of the Yonohoah. As the first wedding to take place between our two peoples, this is a historic occasion, and one which I believe will be looked back upon with happiness and joy.”
“That said, let’s proceed straight to the vows. Sarah, do you take Dornodo to be your husband? To have and to hold …”
He repeated the traditional vows, and Sarah repeated them joyfully. When it was Dornodo’s turn, however, the Admiral said “I understand that the groom has written his own vows. I will allow him to make them now.”
Dornodo smiled and swallowed nervously. He took Sarah’s hand, and he slowly placed a golden band upon. “Sarah, when you came into my life, I was not expect to find a lover. I was not expecting to find the mother of my child. Of my children, perhaps, if the future is kind to us. I was happy in my life before I met you as the guide and chaperone of a Toormonda. I was respected among my people, my profession of guiding young minds an honorable one.”
He paused.
“I would trade it all for a life with you. I wish to be not only the father of your children, but their parana. And I wish to be your husband with all of my heart. I foresake all other women, accepting only you in my heart from this day forth. I love you, Sarah, and am honored to be your man.”
She blinked away her tears. The admiral pronounced them wed, and they kissed deeply as the room cheered them on.
The teens joyfully escorted them back to the Toormonda, where they celebrated their wedding night in private. In the morning, they said farewell to their teenage companions, who boarded a shuttle to return them to planet Totola, and their families, who were very happy to have the fates of their missing children revealed and were preparing for their joyous return.