Chapter 21
“Damn, it missed again!” Lieutenant Montagne said with exasperation as the bomber’s two missiles streaked away from their target. It was the fourth time this had happened, and Garret stood with his senior officers, staring with disbelief at the images above their command table.
“There’s no way the guidance systems on eight nuclear warheads are malfunctioning.” Captain Melmaker said with disbelief. He was just forty-one, but many years in the service had grayed his hair prematurely.
“The Admiral is ordering the removal of the guidance systems on their remaining nukes.” Montagne reported. He was monitoring the command sub-frequencies being transmitted from the battle area. Lexington and Essex were conducting their raids on the accelerators controlled by Leonev, and a scout in each of the two systems was transmitting their tactical data over an encrypted Republic frequency. Garret was listening in, and watching the transmissions on his holo-table.
“It’s about time.” Melmaker growled. “He should have done that after the second run went astray, especially when the same thing has been happening to their torpedoes. Damn Leonev! He must have found someway to jam our guidance systems on missiles and torpedoes.”
“It is better we found out now rather than during a bigger battle, like his forces invading Peladon.” Garret remarked and the older man nodded briefly. They were all dressed in the standard shipboard black overalls, but Garret had a single silver star on his shoulder boards, reminding everyone that he was the highest ranking officer in the Adamant’s combat information center. It may not be the three stars of the Lefhaus Admiral in command of Lexington, but it was more than enough for the Adamant, now moving at fifty-four percent the speed of light, as well as the thirty-two ships moving through space in formation with her.
His fleet consisted of the Adamant, the Tarawa, two escort carriers (Yaroslav and Clemenceau), two battle cruisers, four heavy cruisers, five light cruisers, ten destroyers, and eight frigates. Certainly it wasn’t nearly as big as the three fleets that would be blockading the traitor worlds, but it was a sizable enough task force to give pause to any but the largest of assault forces the Sol Empire might put together. Any force they did put together that could threaten Calos would be detected by the long-range patrols and monitoring stations along the border, and if it was big enough to overcome Garret’s fleet, reinforcements would be sent from Peladon or Shinawa.
Garret did his best to ignore the fact that as soon as they arrived in Calos, which would be as soon as they jumped, which was after the Lexington and the Essex were able to destroy the accelerators and begin their escape before Leonev’s retaliatory strikes, Adamant, one of the heavy cruisers, two of the light cruisers, and four of the destroyers would be going into space dock for extended repairs. Those ships going into repairs were either still nursing wounds from the battle a month ago during the first day of Leonev’s attempted coup, or they were fresh out of being re-commissioned. Adamant was the newest ship in his fleet, with all the others having seen at least ten years of service, while Tarawa and Yaroslav were tied as the oldest, both with over thirty years of service. It wasn’t the finest, newest, or most powerful fleet to ever cruise out of Peladon, but it was all his, and Garret was constantly finding himself amazed that he really was in command.
No, he wasn’t the youngest Commodore in the Republic’s history. That record was still held by Speaker/Commodore Richard Haffley, who had been commissioned as a Commodore in the fourth year of the war at the age of nineteen. He’d been aboard the flagship of one of the earliest warships, roughly equivalent to a modern light cruiser. The ‘Admiral’ in charge gave an order to deploy the fleet against a more powerful Imperial fleet, all but guaranteeing the loss of every Republic ship. Speaker Haffley had been sent along as an observer on behalf of the Deliberatorium and when he heard the order, he’d questioned the Admiral’s orders. The older man, who had been a merchant ship captain until the start of the war (then again, the Republic Navy before the war had been little more than a police force with small ships), had told Haffley to ‘be quiet’.
Haffley’s response had been to order the arrest of the Admiral and he had taken direct control of the fleet. Unlike the freighter-captain-turned-admiral, Haffley had actually studied old text books about early space battles, and about old Earth naval battles. When he took command with a scared crew not certain about what they were doing, Haffley had taken a sure-to-lose engagement and pulled through with a decisive victory. When he returned to Peladon, he’d received his commission as a Commodore while at age eighteen. His first act as a Commodore was to enroll in the Colonial Elite Forces Academy.
“There we go.” Melmaker said as the Lexington launched another wave of bombers for the attack. Everyone was noticing the approaching ships from Obduros. If this wave of bombers didn’t destroy the accelerator, Lexington would be forced to retreat before those ships got within range. Even now, there was a risk that the carrier’s battle force wouldn’t be able to accelerate fast enough to escape unscathed. Already two frigates had been destroyed and a destroyer was taking heavy fire from the accelerator’s main defense batteries.
“Come on, hit!” Montagne breathed heavily as the bombers fired their missiles. Most were conventional warheads, with only two being nukes. This time they didn’t veer away, but shot straight along their fired path. Twelve of the twenty-four were shot down by the accelerators defense turrets, but both of the nukes hit the target, and the holo-images blanked out from the force of the explosion. Cheers filled his CIC, and Garret imagined they were cheering in similar rooms all across the Republic. The cheering increased as the bombers of the Essex repeated the Lexington’s victories.
“It’s not a win yet.” Melmaker’s voice was like a wet blanket over a party, but people calmed down and accepted the truth of his words. Losing either battle carrier before they could escape would make this a defeat. Leonev had two of the powerful warships at Obduros, another two at Arcturos, currently chasing down the Essex, and he had three escort carriers at Galundon. So far the Republic had only sent two battle carriers and six escort carriers to lead the blockade. In another two months, three more battle carriers, six more escort carriers, and their supporting fleets would arrive to assist in managing the blockade. That was over half the available fleet left to the Republic. Two more battle carriers were being rushed through intensive overhauls in fleet docks, so they could act as reserve, replace ships on patrol too long, and to assist ships patrolling Republic space. The Republic needed six more battle carriers to fulfill all their commitments. Fortunately most of their crews were clones and didn’t need as much down time as their officers who had families and loved ones they would miss.
“They’re beginning their escape run.” Montagne reported as the data feeds cleared and they could once again see the battle situation clearly. The Republic’s ships were pulling away from their destroyed targets, and beginning combat acceleration to escape the incoming ships.
“Those traitor ships are going to catch up to them.” Melmaker groused and Garret grinned.
“Watch.” Garret said just as the carriers launched more ships. These were bigger than bombers and they drifted to the back of the formation before releasing dozens of small contacts.
“What are those?” Melmaker asked.
“Mines.” Montagne said with a grin. Unlike Garret and Montagne, and the commanders of the two Republic fleets, Melmaker had not attended the Academy.
“Mines?” Melmaker asked.
“Self-propelled, guided mines that will lock onto the nearest contact and engage it.” Garret explained.
“I know what they are, but using them to cover an escape?” Melmaker questioned the strategy.
“Just watch, Captain.” Garret said. Melmaker was a good staff officer. He had no problem going over all the material condition reports for every capitol ship, all the couriers, shuttles, fighters, bombers, and other ancillary craft in the fleet. Garret knew he could ask the man how many spare parts they had for each of the ninety-six fighters in their fleet, and the man could answer without having to call the data up on a computer. Still, when it came to tactics, it was Montagne who would take over if Garret was injured.
“Oh.” Melmaker said fifteen minutes later as the traitor ships hit the minefield. Thirty fighters, four frigates, two destroyers, and a light cruiser were destroyed outright. The rest of the pursuing ships conducted emergency decelerations, and it became readily apparent the Republic fleets would escape unharmed.
“By the numbers, it’s a clear victory.” Montagne said five minutes later when the escape of their ships was guaranteed by the mathematics. “Both accelerators are destroyed; we lost twenty-six fighters, thirteen bombers, four frigates, and two destroyers. They lost the accelerators, a total of forty-eight fighters, six bombers, nine frigates, four destroyers, and two light cruisers.”
“Now if all our battles with them will go just as well.” Garret sighed. “Inform Captain Harrington that we can jump in ten minutes.”
“Aye aye sir.” Montagne replied.
Admiral Lumbardon would be busy calling the two fleet commanders right now and congratulating them. Garret knew that Calos had a fully operational communications ship that would transfer his call to the Fleet Admiral once he jumped into the Calosian system. He had a busy day ahead of him, and he’d need plenty of sleep to be ready for everything that would be going on as soon as they reached their destination. Their jump would take them to the outer edges of the system where they’d accelerate gently for a long approach towards Calos.
That was to allow their ship’s time to adjust to the local time of the planetary capitol, New Edinburgh. Along the way, they’d pass the moon of Braxix, where Garret had commanded a platoon of soldiers after the death of the platoon’s officer. That officer had been the older brother of Garret’s new cook, Aaron Lewis. As they passed the moon, the fleet was scheduled to conduct a ceremonial salute by firing their primary laser cannons in an impressive display. They wouldn’t be strong enough to damage anything they hit, and they were being attenuated to actually be fully visible to the naked eye. A hovering civilian ship would record the display and transmit it to the planet as part of the celebratory events going on.
The arrival of House Atrix and House Tremere to establish their Houses on Calos was being deemed a planetary holiday with most businesses closed. Garret hadn’t liked many of the plans, from the ‘salute’ at Braxix to the parade down the main streets of New Edinburgh, to the formal state dinner planned with all the hundred and twenty-three members of the Calosian Congress. For that matter, Davin and Devin had been having fits for the past week as they tried to review everything for security purposes. They were half-convinced that most of the events were being done just to present prime opportunities for someone to assassinate Garret.
Then again, Garret was thinking much the same thing.
Fortunately Mika Melstein and Lelaine Anova had managed to eliminate all the planned speeches Garret was supposed to give. Instead he only had to give two speeches. The first would be after the parade from a stage and podium that was being set up in front of the Calosian Congress building. The second would be at the dinner. Tremere had been miffed that he hadn’t been invited to speak at the parade, but he’d be in the open-top car behind Garret’s. Anova had shown Garret how good she was at anticipating his desires when she gave up half of the time allotted for Garret’s speech so Tremere could make a speech there.
Garret was happy because he only had to speak for half the time, and Tremere was happy to get part of the spotlight.
“All hands, prepare for jump in five minutes.” Harrington’s voice came over the ship’s intercom and Garret let loose with another smile. Now that they were a warship, there were a lot fewer announcements related to things like jumps. Military crews knew what to do at the five minute warning point.
“I’ll be heading up to my cabin now.” Garret said with a nod of his head to his officers. “Captain, we’ll review fleet materiel status before the pass-by of Braxix.”
“Sounds good, Commodore.” Melmaker said with a grunt. Lord, how the man enjoyed all those minutiae, but someone needed to worry about that stuff. At least he kept the briefings limited to what Garret really needed to know, not just a dry regurgitation of the facts that Garret could get by plugging in a data disk to his implants or by just asking Ada.
“Lieutenant, make sure the fleet has the final position markers for our flyby.” Garret ordered to Montagne who nodded. He was hand-picked by Garret for this job after the outstanding performance in what was now being called the Atrix Defense of Peladon. Anova had been in negotiations with two holo-broadcasters the last he heard, trying to get a good price for the rights to Garret’s point of view of that battle.
Damn it was odd, he reflected as he left the CIC and headed back to his cabin several decks up. Around half a year ago, he was working as a pleasure clone in New Prejat. Then he’d been the owner of a shipping company, captain of one of its ships. Now he was a Speaker in the Deliberatorium, had commanded ships in two battles, was promoted to the rank of Commodore in the Republic Space Forces, and commanded Task Force 28.9, a fleet of thirty-three warships.
“What’s next?” Garret asked rhetorically as he entered his cabin. “Fucking emperor of the universe?”
“Are we making plans for your rise to power, oh wonderful Emperor of the Universe?” Masako asked and he bit back a curse.
“Sorry, just thinking about how fast everything’s changing.” Garret said with a blush of his cheeks. “And I was wondering what was coming next.”
“I do not think the Empress of Shinawa would particularly like sharing her title with me, and besides, I do not like the idea of being a figurehead.” Masako replied with a soft smile that Garret knew was an indication that she was joking.
“Then we’ll settle for what we have.” Garret said and was relieved at her gentle chuckle.
“How did the fight go?” She asked him as he sat down in one of the armchairs and she sat down on the sofa.
“We won, but there were a few disturbing things.” Garret said and continued to explain what looked like jamming of the missiles and torpedoes, as well as a few of the early tactics of the defense crews. “I’d say based on what I saw that the information the R’Kellan mahdi gave us was accurate.”
“So they are replacing clones with barely trained True Borns.” Masako said with a shake of her head.
“At least they’re doing that right now with some of their more sensitive units.” Garret stated with a frown. “The fighters defending the accelerators weren’t flown by clones; I know that for a fact just by their tactics. They were too sloppy. Nor were the point defense gunners on the accelerators clones either. Our forces used standard strafing tactics and they didn’t counter them the way trained clones would.”
“We can’t blame them for not trusting clones, not after what you did over Peladon.” Masako pointed out.
“Yes, I know that, but it’s what is happening to the clones that bothers me.” Garret muttered. “The mahdi told us they were executing the clones, blaster shots to the back of the head and all that, then dumping the bodies in space to burn up in reentry over the planets.”
“It’s nothing you can control, or stop.” Masako murmured softly, easing Garret’s pain just a little. “Unless of course you just led a fleet in there and nuked the planets.”
“No, I’m not going to kill a few million true borns to save a few thousand clones.” Garret said miserably. He was lying to himself, he knew, because there were hundreds of thousands of clones in the hands of Leonev’s forces. They couldn’t get rid of them all because their ‘draft’ of young people from the three planets wasn’t enough yet to replace all the clones. It would take another six months or more to get trained true borns out to their ships to replace all the clones. Unfortunately, the three traitor worlds had a population of over three billion and could provide adequate numbers of young people to crew the ships and act as troops.
In the end, it was good news for the Republic, because these true born crews and troops would not be as good as the Republic’s clone forces. On the other hand, it was pretty bad for any clone in Leonev’s forces. Some may know it, but regardless of their personal knowledge, any clone on those three worlds had mere months to live before they’d be executed and dumped out of low orbit to end their existence as brief shooting stars.
“Thirty seconds to jump.” The voice of one of the bridge crew sounded over the intercom and Garret braced himself. He was already sitting as was Masako, so when the jump happened both of them were just fine. There was a clatter from one of the rooms off the main room though when the jump ended and Garret let out a muttered curse. He got up and stomped to the room, already guessing what he’d see when the door opened.
“Are you okay?” He asked Aaron who was splayed out on the deck amidst knickknacks that had been on a shelf. Nothing appeared broken, and Aaron was apparently uninjured as he got back to his feet, his cheeks blushing.
“I’m okay.” He muttered, bending over to pick some things up, but he wavered like he was about to fall down again. Garret rushed over and grabbed his arm to steady him.
“Damn it, Aaron, I thought you’d have learned your lesson after the first jump.” Garret growled, ignoring Masako’s giggle from behind him. Fortunately for Aaron that was all she did before backing out of the room and closing the door.
“I’m sorry, sir.” Aaron muttered amidst his blush. “I thought I’d grab something before the jump happened and I didn’t get back on the bed in time. Why does it have to be so disorienting?”
“You’re crossing twelve light years in the blink of an eye.” Garret growled. “It being disorienting should be expected.”
“I’m sorry.” Aaron muttered again and Garret winced at the repetitive apology. Masako had been proven more than right when it came to this kid. Sure, Aaron was only a few years younger than Garret, but emotionally it was like he was still thirteen or fourteen. That was one of the reasons why he hadn’t taken the boy to bed yet.
“Stop apologizing all the time.” Garret growled as he bent over and picked up a small brown teddy bear. It looked old, and he didn’t miss the way Aaron sucked in his breath as Garret held the stuffed animal in his hands.
“That’s what I was trying to grab when the jump happened and I lost my balance.” Aaron’s voice was weak and Garret looked up to find there were tears in Aaron’s eyes. “It belonged to my brother. When he went off to the War College, he gave it to me. He told me it would keep me safe while he was gone.”
“That was nice of him.” Garret said softly, and felt a twinge in his chest. He carefully stepped around the cluttered knickknacks, apparently all items he’d brought from his family home before putting the rest of his family’s possessions into storage. The tears were now falling down Aaron’s face, and Garret took the younger man into a gentle hug. At the contact, Aaron broke down into sobs that shook his entire body. Garret just stood there, holding him tightly with the bear still in his right hand while he ran his left hand through Aaron’s short and curly brown hair.
“I miss him.” Aaron choked out between sobs. “I think he was the only one who cared about me.”
“You sent him recorded holo-messages a lot, didn’t you?” Garret asked and Aaron’s head jerked off of Garret’s shoulder. He found himself staring into those deep brown eyes that were currently as wide as they could be.
“How do you know about those?” Aaron’s voice trembled, but the tears were drying up.
“I shared his quarters with him, and when we were in the trenches we shared a bunker room together.” Garret told Aaron. “It was only a week or two from the time I got there until the attack where he died, but I did get to know him a bit. Every night he’d listen to one of your recordings, picking out his favorites if there weren’t any new ones.”
“He never replied.” Aaron’s voice trembled again, and the tears were threatening to return. The kid cried at the drop of a hat!
“I asked him about that one time.” Garret said while trying not to chuckle. “He nearly bit my head off for having the nerve to ask him about something personal, but he did mumble something about not wanting you to ever see or hear how crappy things were on the front lines.”
“Oh.” Aaron said.
“He was trying to protect you, not have you exposed to all the crap he went through in combat.” Garret said. “It’s something we talked about during a course at the Academy. A lot of soldiers in combat don’t want the memories their family have of them to be polluted by all the things that go on in combat, and they don’t want to be reminded of what they went through in combat when they get back home, so they don’t correspond. That course also taught that while they may not respond to the messages they get from family, those messages are important to keeping their wits about them, and reminding them that they had a family at home.”
“Why would they teach that when most of the military is made up of clones?” Aaron said softly as he broke away from Garret’s embrace. Funny enough, Garret felt a little cold without Aaron’s warmth. He was starting to think the guy was so skinny because his body was unnaturally warm, but according to the Doc, there was nothing wrong with Aaron’s temperature.
“It’s true most enlisted personnel are clones, but True Borns have never been banned from serving as enlisted.” Garret said with a shrug. “It’s just that most of them think it’s beneath them, so they didn’t bother enlisting. They taught that course because officers have the same problems when it comes to family as anyone else, and they were teaching us signs to look for that things might be going wrong back home for one of our fellow officers, and what to do about that.”
“Oh, so what did you do with my brother?” Aaron asked and then blushed. “Um, I meant about…”
“I know what you meant.” Garret said with a touch of humor in his voice and a smile on his face from Aaron’s words. “I didn’t do anything because it was perfectly normal.”
“Oh.” Aaron said as he bent down and started picking up the rest of the knickknacks. Garret bent over and started to help him, and while he helped Aaron set them back on the shelves they’d occupied before the jump, Garret was treated to a short story by Aaron about where each piece came from and why he’d brought them.
“I know you think about them as traitors, but they were my family.” Aaron said softly and Garret instinctively put an arm around Aaron. He knew Aaron’s brother had been protective of him, and now he was feeling very similar about the guy, almost like Aaron was his younger brother.
“There’s nothing wrong with you still caring about them, and remembering the happy things, the good things they did with you.” Garret said softly. “Just remember to keep things in perspective too.”
“How can you be so balanced about everything?” Aaron murmured as he leaned into Garret and rested his head on Garret’s shoulder.
“I’ve always been taught to look at the big picture, to not lose sight of the forest because of the trees.” Garret answered.
“Huh?” Aaron asked.
“If you’re in a forest and all you look at are the trees around you, it’s easy to forget the hundreds of kilometers that make up the rest of the forest.” Garret tried to explain.
“Okay.” Aaron said and from his tone Garret knew he didn’t quite understand what Garret was trying to say. “I always got told to shut up and do what I was told.”
“I’m sorry.” Garret said softly and Aaron chuckled.
“Aren’t you the one telling me not to apologize all the time?” He shot back and Garret laughed at that. Aaron was doing better in the last couple of weeks, standing more on his own and not just being an automaton the way he had been before and right after his suicide attempt. They stood like that, looking at the shelves and the windows off to the right where they’d eventually see Braxix and the gas giant it orbited. “You know, I’ve always wanted to see where he died.”
“You’ll be able to see the moon as we pass by.” Garret said softly. “If you’d like, you can join me in the CIC and watch it from there.”
“That’d be nice.” Aaron said with a soft smile as he lifted his head off of Garret’s shoulder. “Do you think it’d be possible to actually go to the moon and look at the spot where he died?”
“I guess it could be arranged, although we’d have to wear environmental suits.” Garret said softly. “By the time the fighting was done, the entire moon was contaminated by radiation and chemical weapons residue.”
“I’d like that, if we can do it.” Aaron asked and Garret made a mental note with Ada for her to have someone look into a little trip. He’d want it to be as private as possible as well.
“I’ll see what we can arrange.” Garret told him and was surprised when Aaron turned around to plant a kiss on his cheek.
“Thank you.” Aaron said softly and they stood like that, with Garret’s arm around the younger man for several minutes of silence. Aaron shifted a little after the silence and cleared his throat before speaking again. “Why did he die there on that moon?”
“What?” Garret asked, not sure exactly what he was asking.
“What was so important about Braxix that he had to die there?” Aaron asked softly, not meeting Garret’s gaze.
“Calos is the largest populated world nearest the border with the Empire.” Garret explained quietly, staring out the window instead of at Aaron. “The Imperials have better wave-fold guides than we do, and can jump further with less energy. That put Calos within two jumps of their nearest colony world at the time. They fortified that world early in the war, and occupied Calos for nearly thirty years because it was the closest world to their space. When we took Calos back, we cut off their forces that were holding Galundon and several other planets.”
“What about Braxix?” Aaron persisted.
“The interior system of Calos has an unusually high number of asteroids and other space debris that make jumping into the system very dangerous.” Garret explained. “They have an accelerator, but it’s placed further out than any other system to give ships a decent chance at reaching half-light speed without hitting a large rock. Even now, we’ve jumped further out into the system than we would for any other planet in the Republic. For the past eight years, and for the next four, the gas giant Braxix is orbiting lies within the regular path for ships approaching Calos. Braxix is the only moon that had an oxygen atmosphere and temperature ranges survivable for humans. It made a natural forward fire-base for both sides.
“When the Republic took back Calos, we landed fifty-thousand troops on that moon.” Garret continued. “We took nearly fifty-percent casualties subduing their garrison there. When we had taken Calos, we left thirty-thousand troops and an impressive array of planetary-based anti-ship weapons. The Imperials tried to take Calos back three times before I was sent there at the end of my first year in the Academy. I was almost fifteen when I arrived. The Imperials tried to take Calos for the fourth time while I was there, and this time they used nukes and chemical weapons over and over.
“While that attack was underway, their forces were surging out of Galundon and the other bases they had established in Republic space, preventing the fleet from reinforcing Calos. If they’d bypassed us, we’d have sent anti-ship missiles up their asses, if their capitol ships got too close, our planetary laser batteries blasted them out of the sky. They had to use assault shuttles from long ranges to land troops and they still lost a lot of those to our ground-attack fighters. In the end, they used nukes to hammer our bunkers and then chemical weapons to kill the troops when the nukes failed to completely wipe out our planetary defenses.”
“It sounds like hell.” Aaron muttered in a voice that sounded like his thoughts were far away. He shuddered a bit before Garret continued.
“Your brother’s squad was stationed at one of the key choke-points their ground forces would have to take in order to get into the underground bunkers. We had a massive trench network filled with anti-tank and anti-personnel weaponry that allowed two squads to hold off ten times their number. Towards the end, we were getting hit with chemical barrages three or four times a day. It got so bad we couldn’t even eat our rations or drink water without touching something contaminated by the chemicals. Those officers who hadn’t been genetically engineered to withstand some chemicals died pretty quickly.”
“My parents thought it was a sin to have a child genetically engineered.” Aaron said softly and Garret squeezed him a bit in consolation.
“Your brother passed on before it got to that point” Garret told him. “In some ways, that was a blessing because the smaller amounts of contamination meant longer, lingering deaths for those officers without genetic engineering protecting them.”
“What a waste.” Aaron said softly and Garret agreed with him. “Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, sir.”
“It’s my pleasure.” Garret said with a smile that Aaron saw out of the corner of his eye. Garret knew that because he could see Aaron blushing.
“I still don’t understand why you offered me a position with your household.” Aaron said with a sigh.
“Aaron, you’ve heard me explain this already.” Garret said with a little bit of sternness in his voice. “The first time we met, I tricked you into giving me information I needed, information that really hurt your own family. In return, I let you keep your freedom. It was a fair deal, I still believe. Then, when you were faced with a hard choice to either commit sabotage against my property, or to betray your uncle and your father, the only family you really had left at that point, you chose to come to me and to help not only me, but the Republic as well. When you chose to not commit treason, but rather to warn me, you earned at the very least a position in my household. I’m only glad that instead of doing something you don’t want, it’s something you enjoy.”
“I do enjoy cooking for you and your people.” Aaron said with a half-smile. “It’s almost as good as having my own restaurant.”
“Are you happy?” Garret asked with real concern.
“I don’t know if I’d say happy, yet.” Aaron admitted with a slight blush to his cheeks. He was looking down at the carpeted deck now. “I am much more content though. It feels like I have a good purpose in my life, doing something I enjoy for people that I might actually like, if I ever get a chance to get to know them.”
“Are people treating you badly?” Garret was concerned now.
“No, they’re not treating me badly.” Aaron admitted. “Except for Deci, they are all a little standoffish, like they don’t know where I really fit in or if they trust me. Deci though, he’s really sweet.”
“He is that.” Garret agreed with a smile. “You know, if you’re experiencing any problems, or just need to talk, you can come see me when I’m not busy.”
“That’s the trick, finding out when you’re not busy.” Aaron snorted.
“Well, there’s always right before bedtime like now.” Garret said.
“Oh please.” Aaron snorted, and Garret was happy to see the smile on his face. “Between the regular parade of bed partners you have nearly every night, that’s probably one of your busiest times of the day.”
“Why Aaron Lewis, are you calling your boss a slut?” Garret asked with a teasing tone that set both of them to laughing.
“You said it, not me!” Aaron protested amidst laughter, and Garret felt a little thrill through his body at the sound of that laugh. It really was a beautiful sound, and something that Aaron did only rarely. With a shiver, Garret twisted slightly so that he was now face to face with Aaron and leaned in to kiss the younger man.
It was the first time they’d kissed since that night in the pleasure house where Garret had deceived Aaron into thinking he was Aaron’s regular pleasure servant. Unlike that time, Garret felt a real tingle as he kissed the younger man, and he pulled him in closer as he deepened the kiss. Aaron responded to the kiss with a moan, and all but melted against Garret, pulling his arms in tight and around Garret’s torso so that there was no room between them for even a molecule of air to pass through. His mouth was opened slightly, waiting for Garret’s tongue to come inside and take possession of him, which Garret did without thought.
This wasn’t like the passionate tongue-wrestling Garret got into with Davin or Devin, nor was it the welcoming embrace of Lukas, or the passionate sharing of Deci. Rather it was more of a desperate invitation, an invitation to take control of Aaron. Normally it would have turned Garret off almost immediately, but there was something so needy about that kiss, so begging of his attention that Garret felt a surge of strength welling through him. His right hand reached up, grabbing the back of Aaron’s brown curly hair and he gripped it tightly before using that grip to force Aaron’s head back, breaking the kiss.
With his mouth Garret began kissing down Aaron’s jawline, and biting his way down the young man’s neck. “Oh GOD, YES!” Aaron was nearly wailing as Garret latched onto his long, thin neck with his mouth and teeth. He was rock hard against Aaron’s lean body, and already thrusting against him while his mouth dominated that neck.
It was like a pail of cold water rushed over him in the next instant as Garret realized exactly what he was doing. He broke apart from Aaron, panting heavily, trying to regain his control over the pure animalistic lust he had been feeling a moment before. Aaron stood there, swaying slightly, a glazed look in his eyes and a frown on his lips.
“What’s wrong?” Aaron panted after Garret stared at him in silence. This close, Garret could see the faded acne scars along Aaron’s cheeks, and the muscles that Aaron had gained while working in the shipyards were already starting to fade. He was skinnier than he had been a few weeks ago, more like the boy Garret had first met in that pleasure house. He was wearing a loose white tunic over loose gray cotton pants, the attire he normally wore in the kitchen.
“Strip.” Garret ordered in a guttural voice and Aaron shuddered before pulling the tunic off over his head, followed quickly by him pulling down his pants and taking them off, as well as his black shoes. His white briefs were tented by what looked like a slightly larger than normal bugle in the front. “The underwear too.”
“Okay.” Aaron’s voice was soft, but he moved quickly to take off the last bit of his clothing, revealing an erection bigger than Garret had expected, both in length and girth.
“You want this?” Garret asked him and Aaron nodded while Garret began unbuttoning his military coveralls. He pushed them down so they bunched up below his knees and he stood there in his blue-green t-shirt and lomex long-briefs. “Get on your knees.” Garret ordered and as Aaron complied, shuffling up to Garret’s crotch, he closed his eyes before putting his hands on Aaron’s head and guiding him the rest of the way to his own waiting erection.
He no longer paid any attention to the little voice warning him this likely wasn’t the best possible thing to happen.
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