A Web Serial by M.C.A. Hogarth
| 77. Start with Violence. | 79. New Territory. |
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78. Guilt
"And now, Mother? Will you go to Sickbay and see the fallen?"
Spots shakes her head. "No, it's too soon. I'd be in the way of people doing their jobs."
Samuel-Colt, rising minor arpeggio. "Then will you follow your errant escort?"
Spots, looking down the hall. "No. Now is not the time for that either."
Samuel-Colt, long sawed note. "And what is it the time for, Mother?"
"Sleep."
"You feel no guilt?"
She smiles up at him, sad. "Of course I do. But guilt can be a... very personal indulgence, Samuel-Colt. It often takes the focus off the people who truly need you, while you are busy involved in yourself and your own sins. So I will sleep. Because it's the middle of my sleep-shift and my squad will need me to be alert on patrol."
Samuel-Colt. "Spoken like a Mother."
"It's what I've been for most of my life so far." She looks up at him. "Do you need anything before I retire?"
"Tell me something, if you would."
"If I can."
Samuel-Colt, rising melody. "You allow your escort to indulge himself, but you do not extend this courtesy to yourself, to... act out. Do Mothers not have the same needs as their children?"
Spots, sad. "Of course they do, Samuel-Colt. We've just been in too many situations where the cost of acting out is higher than the cost of being responsible." She smiles a little. "When Claws is a father—God grant him that privilege—then it will be his turn to make those choices. Until then he needs what freedom I can give him so he can find his limits."
Samuel-Colt. "And yet he is not your child."
Spots. "Every mother's son—and daughter—is my child, Samuel-Colt."
"That seems ambitious, Mother-soldier. Spiritually speaking."
"Maybe. But it's the charge that was given to me by the Mother of God, so I follow in wiser footsteps than mine." She looks up at him. "What will you do?"
"What I have ever done in the face of the Enemy, Mother. My work." Samuel-Colt bows. Spots returns it. The Fiddler departs.
Spots stares down the hall a few moments more. Then she goes back to the Barracks.
Shots of the base. Claws in the hall. Claws passing the Real Window. From different angles, light on a face held in a tense mask, eyes hard. He walks... walks. Walks.
Gym. One of Alpha Company's squads is working out. Claws's entrance draws significant attention. He ignores the stares to head for the weight bench, which he loads up and starts using.
Eventually someone leans on the wall next to the bench and watches.
Claws. "Yeah?"
"You compensating?"
Claws. "****, what?"
"You know, compensating. Not using a spotter cuz you're putting out for the alien."
Claws shoves the bar back up. Sits up. "You wanna ****in' repeat that, ****er?"
"You're the one, right?" Wiggles fingers and makes a face. "The aaaalien whisperer."
Claws, incredulous. "You have got to be ****in' kiddin' me."
Another man joins the first. "He's the one. I've seen him with the girl."
Claws. "You ********s gotta problem with that?"
Second man. "You got a problem with humans? That why you spend so much time ****ing with aliens?"
Claws rolls his eyes and starts to lie back down. "****, if that's the best you can do, you gotta lot of practicin' to do. Look me up when you can dish out some serious ****, not this high school crap."
Third man. "****, it's not the alien he's ****ing, everyone knows that."
Claws is off the bench and shoving him against the wall before can finish the sentence. "You ****in' accusin' me of ****in' a SQUADMATE? Is that what you're doin'? I want to hear it ****in' louder this time, so God Al-****in'-mighty can HEAR YOU LIE."
Silence.
Claws steps back. "Didn't think so." Throws his towel at the nearest man, who catches it by reflex. As he passes someone mutters, "****, man, it bothers you more to be accused of ****ing a woman than a bug?"
Claws stops. "You don't **** your squad. I'd **** an alien before I **** over my kinfolk. If you ****ers don't get that yet, **** all if I want to fight next to you."
And then he's out the door and walking. Walking.
Walking through the Door.
...to the Lab. Slams the door-chime with the meat of his fist. When it slides open, he steps in.
"What the ****? You lecturin' me on COURTESY when there's blood ankle-deep on the floor? You givin' me ****? You think I need more ****? I already GOT ****. ****, I just had a roomfull of ****in' fatheads try to tell me you and me were ****in' lovers, or me and SPOTS were and that's just ****in' sick and I don't need it harder from you and what the **** are you starin' at me at for, don't you have a single thing to say to me?"
Samuel-Colt, sitting at his desk, tosses him something. Claws catches it, bewildered.
"What the **** is this?"
"Your tranquilizer round."
| 77. Start with Violence. | 79. New Territory. |
|---|
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