effect as she faced him defiantly. “Well, now, I was making a double field bed. If you don’t trust me, I can easily make a pair of singles.”
Scotty dropped his load of wood, walked over to Sam, and gently took the ground cloth from her, tossing it on top of the improvised bed. Closing the remaining distance between them, he gave her a hug, and Sam seemed to melt into him as he held her. He looked down into her eyes as she tilted her head up toward him. She reached up and guided his face to hers as she tried to raise herself higher into him. His kiss was gentle at first, and she returned it. Through his clothing and field gear Scotty felt Sam against him as he wrapped his arms around her waist and tried to pull her closer yet.
“Screw the fire, sweetie. I think we can keep each other warm tonight.” Sam broke the embrace, lowered herself to the bed and started removing her boots. Scotty quickly dropped to the bed and did likewise.
Gray Panther Space Port, Arizona
28 October 2128
Captain Woods examined his ship. Every damaged area made him wince in sympathetic pain. He hadn’t expected the destroyer to be able to enter Earth’s atmosphere with the existing damage. He’d finally allowed himself to be convinced when the chief engineer from the space dock offered to stand next to him on the bridge during re-entry to Earth. The repairs would be completed in less than two days, since there would be no restrictions like there would have been from an orbital space dock.
“Captain Woods, I’ve figured out how to take the troops home with us. The best part is we don’t have to do any modifications to the Georgia. Once repairs are done, we rendezvous with the shuttles and have them attach themselves to our hull in three layers, two hundred on portside and two hundred on starboard. Maneuvering won’t be affected, nor will the FTL,” Lieutenant Hester Hannah Jones, engineering officer, reported.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Jones. I wouldn’t like to be locked up in any of those shuttles for five days. Are there any compatibility issues for their shuttles docking with Georgia, if necessary?”
“No, sir, they use the same standard from the Flem ship designers that we do. I’ve gone over the specs for the beamers they would like to use to replace our lasers. No major rework will be needed for the beamers to integrate into our ship’s systems. They’ll require less power than our lasers, while at the same time they have the ability to fire twice as fast as our current rate. The power output is close to double what the Georgia does now. Our girl will be the envy of the fleet.”
“Very good, Lieutenant Jones. Just remember what your granddaddy always said about trusting Yankees. It’s our ship, so I want anything they touch double-checked by our crew.”
“Yes, sir. I don’t trust anyone’s work that isn’t part of this crew, regardless of if they’re a Yankee or from Dixie.”
As Woods continued his tour, he couldn’t help but hear a civilian worker complain to his boss. “I say let the fuckers burn in hell. What do we do next, find the planet KKK? I can’t believe we have anything to do with those racists from Dixie.”
“Excuse me, sir,” Woods interjected. “You need a history lesson about Dixie. In 1867, by your calendar, all Dixians had the right to vote, own land, or hold political office—black, white, man, or woman. Our society is almost crime-free since we don’t allow anyone to believe that society owes them anything other than the opportunity to be an equal member of society. When did your society have equal rights for all? When did your race-relations problems end? When our society saw how close we all came to being slaves just because some aliens were more powerful than us, it affected everyone’s views. We saw then that the argument for slavery was wrong. We didn’t discriminate for another three hundred years like you did here on Earth.”
The worker gawked at Woods, embarrassed
Scotty dropped his load of wood, walked over to Sam, and gently took the ground cloth from her, tossing it on top of the improvised bed. Closing the remaining distance between them, he gave her a hug, and Sam seemed to melt into him as he held her. He looked down into her eyes as she tilted her head up toward him. She reached up and guided his face to hers as she tried to raise herself higher into him. His kiss was gentle at first, and she returned it. Through his clothing and field gear Scotty felt Sam against him as he wrapped his arms around her waist and tried to pull her closer yet.
“Screw the fire, sweetie. I think we can keep each other warm tonight.” Sam broke the embrace, lowered herself to the bed and started removing her boots. Scotty quickly dropped to the bed and did likewise.
Gray Panther Space Port, Arizona
28 October 2128
Captain Woods examined his ship. Every damaged area made him wince in sympathetic pain. He hadn’t expected the destroyer to be able to enter Earth’s atmosphere with the existing damage. He’d finally allowed himself to be convinced when the chief engineer from the space dock offered to stand next to him on the bridge during re-entry to Earth. The repairs would be completed in less than two days, since there would be no restrictions like there would have been from an orbital space dock.
“Captain Woods, I’ve figured out how to take the troops home with us. The best part is we don’t have to do any modifications to the Georgia. Once repairs are done, we rendezvous with the shuttles and have them attach themselves to our hull in three layers, two hundred on portside and two hundred on starboard. Maneuvering won’t be affected, nor will the FTL,” Lieutenant Hester Hannah Jones, engineering officer, reported.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Jones. I wouldn’t like to be locked up in any of those shuttles for five days. Are there any compatibility issues for their shuttles docking with Georgia, if necessary?”
“No, sir, they use the same standard from the Flem ship designers that we do. I’ve gone over the specs for the beamers they would like to use to replace our lasers. No major rework will be needed for the beamers to integrate into our ship’s systems. They’ll require less power than our lasers, while at the same time they have the ability to fire twice as fast as our current rate. The power output is close to double what the Georgia does now. Our girl will be the envy of the fleet.”
“Very good, Lieutenant Jones. Just remember what your granddaddy always said about trusting Yankees. It’s our ship, so I want anything they touch double-checked by our crew.”
“Yes, sir. I don’t trust anyone’s work that isn’t part of this crew, regardless of if they’re a Yankee or from Dixie.”
As Woods continued his tour, he couldn’t help but hear a civilian worker complain to his boss. “I say let the fuckers burn in hell. What do we do next, find the planet KKK? I can’t believe we have anything to do with those racists from Dixie.”
“Excuse me, sir,” Woods interjected. “You need a history lesson about Dixie. In 1867, by your calendar, all Dixians had the right to vote, own land, or hold political office—black, white, man, or woman. Our society is almost crime-free since we don’t allow anyone to believe that society owes them anything other than the opportunity to be an equal member of society. When did your society have equal rights for all? When did your race-relations problems end? When our society saw how close we all came to being slaves just because some aliens were more powerful than us, it affected everyone’s views. We saw then that the argument for slavery was wrong. We didn’t discriminate for another three hundred years like you did here on Earth.”
The worker gawked at Woods, embarrassed
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