Edward needed the suit off. Now.

It itched against him as he walked back up with David.

It itched as he got it off.

Hell, it itched while it was off, and he was walking far, far away from the bloody place.

He just needed to wipe it all away. All of the dirt that clung to him. All of that fucking blood that he had indirectly spilt of innocents.

It was like Lady Macbeth’s bloody hands. But he hadn’t done this out of a lust for power. He’d just tried to make the operation work as best as he could. But in turn the operation had led to all of those deaths… Almost an entire culture’s blood was on his hands even, as he witnessed itself.

This had all just been a mistake. A massive mistake. He could have tried to refuse this mission, or he could have taken David’s advice and go in guns blazing, taking the palace and the city in a lightning strike. And from there it would be easy to roll over the rest…

But there is nothing you can do to change the past. Well- Nothing controllable at the least so it was effectively impossible. Hence, he’d have to deal with it just how it was. With all of its terrible consequences that were making his body itch and his mind scream.

It was just all far too torturous to bare.

So, he just needed a distraction from it all. A big, effective one that would take all of his focus.

But out of all of the places he could go, he went to his office and sat down, turning his computer on and opening his documents back up. There was his list of things to do which included all sorts of various duties and tasks from a personal note to clear some folders up, to planning new contingencies. New contingencies for if his other diplomatic plan failed to bring everyone back to the table…

But this was different. The king was under his thumb and the head priest of this country. A letter sent by them would calm most of them down and bring them under his control.

But that required most of the nobles to be honourable, while they could all be like the Duke.

He needed to get his mind off of that too now. He did not need to think of shit like that which further clogged his mind and risked making him even dirtier. Just not more dead. No more dead…

So, what else was on there!? There were a lot of things on there. So, what was not connected to that at all then?

Ah! That’s it! Just some good old logistics management for the fleet. There were some bits that he could do for it, as while they were staying still, a lot of resources were needed. Especially with large chunks of the city destroyed and new people coming in to repair the extensive damage to it.

But it would take time for them to come over with some of the new transports with all of their beautiful new equipment… It’d be nice to look at it and to manage all of the new buildings they may put up.

Though that reminded him, wasn’t he now the military governor of this planet until someone else came along? He was given that power in the original set of orders so he could also enact local edicts.

He could start reforms already! Get them written down and ready to be sent off to the places already under their control!

But what to write first?

Surely it would be seizing all of the property of all of the nobles who had fought against them that they had captured. But would that be the court’s responsibility?

He needed to check, and sure enough, he had the power to seize land from the enemy, as the kingdom was under martial law. Though the nobles could make a claim if they were not imprisoned under any crimes they had committed to get it back. So, he could just start giving it back out to the people who actually lived on it!

But then came the issue that land used for roads and government buildings would need to be sorted out, along with any land for needed infrastructure projects to minimize cost…

And that in turn would need a full census on land ownership and their uses and a whole lot of time to run through it all. A lot of time.

So that could be something to do, but there were more pressing things to get done probably.

Like maybe scrapping all of the highly oppressive laws by officially proclaiming IFC federal law was in effect. That’d be a quick thing to do, just have that little statement written down and then dispatched to be spread around with some copies of it handed out to any units acting as law enforcement. At least before the proper military police came along to deal with all of that.

Which reminded him that he really needed to put in a request for at least a company of them to police the city. And he could get on that right now since it had been so easy to write out the other thing!

There we are, things to do. Things to do… Plenty of political things to write while having no experience in proper law-making.

Oh, shit! What was he doing!

No. no, its fine. The basic stuff like applying IFC law and tossing out feudalism officially was not anything he could fuck up in the sense of writing the proclamations. And drafting other laws and edicts didn’t hurt and he could always have everyone else run over it with him to check for the flaws. David would be especially quick to point out anything that could be exploited, he was an expert at it after all.

So how about setting out some ideas for some rail lines and city development to keep himself doing something then?

A line going along the river to transport people and cargo faster along it would be good for the economy and quality of life for one thing. And tarmacking the main roads while bringing them up to standards would also help with things.

Then connecting that improvised space port they had established as well to the capital with a rail line would be good. Hell, it should probably be the first thing to do! Though, maybe after upgrading the road between the two as well as the bridges. They needed to start a bit simpler than even a unelectrified rail line, even if that rail line would have a much higher capacity and speed than the road. And god knows how they were fitting a train into a SSTO. So maybe he needed some civil engineers here too along with the lawmakers and MPs…

Shit.

This was a medieval world! How was the fucking food stock and would the civilians make it to the first harvest!? Did that first harvest already happen with some winter crops!?

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Shit, they might need to distribute some humanitarian supplies around soon!

He should probably get some people on getting a census on that as well! He might need to implement rationing if it was bad.

But. But a lot of people who would need feeding had died. So, the food stocks would go further than they would have previously. And that had been caused-

No. His mind didn’t need to go back there again. That was the worst place possible for it to go right now so he should try to make sure it didn’t. So, it was back to work and back to looking at the more optimistic things.

Like maybe what sort of industries could be established here as a nice, hypothetical thought exercise. He had some experience in that even if it was only a small amount.

It did seem like this kingdom had some decent mineral wealth and some excellent farming along the main river and all of its tributaries. So, a lot of food could be grown and all sort of other crops like maybe sugar beet or some form of natural dyes. Though would they be able to compete with synthetic dyes? It would have to be transported across space for it to get there so for local demand it could work… And there was also a lot of good land for things like sheep farming too.

So maybe later on this planet could attract some people to build some steel foundries and food processing plants. That’d be a step up from being a subsistence farmer at least. And there would always be space for offices, shops, tourism and various media centres for jobs not based around manual labour. Providing some sort of basis for a middle class and allowing the regular worker to not have a life all about breaking their back every day.

Hell, this place, if he had any say over it, should get some education funding ASAP and qualify for the federal tuition fee program. As only a few states had free university tuition, but the interim government had put a federal tuition fee grant system for underdeveloped areas.

Though the process to develop this kingdom would be long and hard in the end and require a lot of work and resources to do and get right. With basic public education being just one of the many things that needed to be set up.

And he was the first part of this development program.

Aaand the pressure was starting to build back up on him as he realised how important his decisions may be in the grand scheme. It would make sure history really remembered him, but it could make in view rather badly. If he didn’t already for being the leader of an invasion force.

But again, he shouldn’t be thinking about it, he shouldn’t be thinking about it. His skin was still itching, and he needed to keep his mind off of it-

Just what else, what else, what else was there to think about. Just have there be something to think about that won’t end up with it circling back into thinking about how badly this has and still could go. Something that doesn’t have a lot of stress to deal with, something that has not a lot to do.

But is thinking about this more stress that it is worth? Is it really? Because thinking about avoiding things also brought the stress he was seeking to avoid and always made his mind wander. And his wandering mind was his greatest enemy in this state.

It seemed like it was completely and utterly useless to try and avoid thinking about it then. He’d just have to try and face it. But he wasn’t sure if he could do it. There was just so much that he had done this last month and so much which those actions had caused on so many people. All while he couldn’t counteract those parts of his mind with all the good, he had done in the same time period.

But while he wallowed in his own misery, a knock came from the door.

He sighed, “Come in.”

A soft faced private opened the door, carrying a small box filled with bottles in his hand, “I-I’m sorry sir, but you asked for these to be brought down and I’m sorry it took till this afternoon for them to come down.”

Edward waved his hand, “It’s alright lad, just put it down on my desk and thank you for carrying them here.”

They nodded, “Yes sir! T-Thank you.”

The set of bottles where set on his desk as the private hurried out, closing the door behind them and leaving Edward alone again, with the bottles right there in front of them.

He picked one of them out, a bottle of dark rum and got up. He then started to search the room for a clean glass or goblet in all of the many cabinets and maybe something new to try at the same time…

----------------------------------------

Elliot couldn’t keep his mind still after the morning’s events. The image of that person, that alien, still burned into his mind despite how much he tried to rid himself of it as he needed to do.

So, he had just decided to wander the corridors a little, despite how many marks of fighting were left.

It was a relief that Edward wasn’t a front-line soldier or else he thought he’d have a heart attack just walking through here. Just, war wasn’t something he didn’t like to be involved in. There was just far too much death and stress for him to be signing up to fight.

Though there was a little contradiction, some may say, in him then having a crush on an admiral. But he didn’t exactly hold anything against people who fought. It was over the people who drove people to fight over petty reasons. And this fight wasn’t something he considered Edward being petty for pushing given what the people were subjected to by the rulers here and their barbaric treatment of many types of people. Including gays like him.

But he did wish that his negotiations actually worked… But that blow was softened a bit now by knowing why they failed…

And still something else nagged in his mind as he walked.

That being the question of where Edward had been.

He could have been busy filing some reports or dealing with the person they found. Maybe he had taken a tour around the city?

The thought continued to wander around his head as he walked along.

He heard crying.

His head whipped around to try and find where it was coming from as he slowly figured out it was coming from the are ahead of him.

Right where Edward’s quarters were.

His pace started to quicken as he moved forwards towards the sound as it grew louder. The origin becoming clearer and clearer.

And as he stopped in front of Edward’s door. The origin of the crying.

A delicate hand reached out to knock the door, then stopped.

Elliot swallowed, trying to decide what would be the best way forwards. He settled on a path, and while it may be a slight invasion of privacy, he needed to figure out what was making his crush get into this state without it being hidden.

So, he pushed the door open, quickly slipping inside to see Edward bolting upright in his chair, tears streaming down his face and a half empty bottle of alcohol by his side.

Edward’s mouth started to stammer voiceless words, panic spreading across his face as he tried to gain his voice, “N-No… I-I… I- I’m sorry! You-“

Elliot’s hand clasped onto Edward’s as he rushed over, his own eyes quivering as he felt himself grow close to tears at the sight of Edward’s state, “Don’t worry. Its alright, look, I’m here now.”

“And-“

“And I’m not judging you on this, look” He sniffed, letting out a pained chuckle as a tear dripped down his face, “You’re getting me with it as well.”

“I- I’m sorry!”

“Don’t be! Please! Just tell me what’s wrong? What happened to you today?”

“I-I- I think I nearly died. And I-“

“W-what!” Elliot’s eyes widened, his body pressing up close as he gripped his hands onto Edward’s shoulders, “What did you do!?”

“I-I decided to go down to explore the cave… A-and I nearly got shot in an ambush… A-And when we went down there, we panicked the people who lived there... And they- And they… Some of them killed themselves in the panic…”

“Y-You- you nearly died!? A-And how-“

“I don’t know why!” Edward shouted, even more tears streaming down his face, “Every decision I take seems to lead to people who should die, dying! And I make stupid decisions like deciding to go down tunnels filled with poison gas to finally fucking earn the god damned medals on my chest that I don’t deserve!”

Elliot fell back a little, staring at Edward as he continued to cry, his self-hatred slowly turning into more sadness before Elliot’s eyes.

He gripped his arms around Edward and pulled him into a hug, tears rolling down his own cheeks now and onto Edward’s chest.

“W-What are you…”

“I’m hugging you, you dumbass!”

“Wh-h-“

“I love you!”

They both froze. The two locked together, staring into each other’s eyes as fear filled them.

Elliot swallowed, his grip loosening a little, “I-I’m sorry-“

Only to be cut off by Edward drawing him close and kissing him.

They stayed locked together for what seemed to be a few minutes, tears rolling down each other’s faces and mixing together as both of them couldn’t believe that this moment had finally come.

But, in the end they pulled back, smiles across their faces as they laughed, their arms wrapped around each other.

“I’m sorry I’ve drank so much. My breath probably smells really bad right now…” Edward chuckled, the tears still flowing but the reason for them changed.

“Its alright… I just didn’t think you actually…”

“I was struck by you when you first walked through the door and fell in love with you by the time the day was up. But I didn’t think I could ever work up the courage to tell you it. You’re just so beautiful and-“

It was Edward’s turn to be cut off as Elliot pulled him in for another kiss.